Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 62

Horace Walpole wrote of Garrick in 1765 (_Letters_, iv. 335):--'Several actors have pleased me more, though I allow not in so many parts. Quin in Falstaff was as excellent as Garrick in _Lear_. Old Johnson far more natural in everything he attempted; Mrs. Porter surpa.s.sed him in pa.s.sionate tragedy. Cibber and O'Brien were what Garrick could never reach, c.o.xcombs and men of fashion. Mrs. Clive is at least as perfect in low comedy.'

[757] See _ante_, ii. 465.

[758] Mr. Kemble told Mr. Croker that 'Mrs. Siddons's pathos in the last scene of _The Stranger_ quite overcame him, but he always endeavoured to restrain any impulses which might interfere with his previous study of his part.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 742. Diderot, writing of the qualifications of a great actor, says:--'Je lui veux beaucoup de jugement; je le veux spectateur froid et tranquille de la nature humaine; qu'il ait par consequent beaucoup de finesse, mais nulle sensibilite, ou, ce qui est la meme chose, l'art de tout imiter, et une egale apt.i.tude a toutes sortes de caracteres et de roles; s'il etait sensible, il lui serait impossible de jouer dix fois de suite le meme role avec la meme chaleur et le meme succes; tres chaud a la premiere representation, il serait epuise et froid comme le marble a la troisieme,' &c. Diderot's _Works_ (ed. 1821), iii. 274. See Boswell's _Hebrides, post_, v. 46.

[759] My worthy friend, Mr. John Nichols, was present when Mr.

Henderson, the actor, paid a visit to Dr. Johnson; and was received in a very courteous manner. See _Gent. Mag_. June, 1791.

I found among Dr. Johnson's papers, the following letter to him, from the celebrated Mrs. Bellamy [_ante_, i. 326]:--

'To DR. JOHNSON.

'SIR,

'The flattering remembrance of the partiality you honoured me with, some years ago, as well as the humanity you are known to possess, has encouraged me to solicit your patronage at my Benefit.

'By a long Chancery suit, and a complicated train of unfortunate events, I am reduced to the greatest distress; which obliges me, once more, to request the indulgence of the publick.

'Give me leave to solicit the honour of your company, and to a.s.sure you, if you grant my request, the gratification I shall feel, from being patronized by Dr. Johnson, will be infinitely superiour to any advantage that may arise from the Benefit; as I am, with the profoundest respect, Sir,

'Your most obedient, humble servant, G. A. BELLAMY. No. 10 Duke-street, St. James's, May 11, 1783.'

I am happy in recording these particulars, which prove that my ill.u.s.trious friend lived to think much more favourably of Players than he appears to have done in the early part of his life. BOSWELL. Mr.

Nichols, describing Henderson's visit to Johnson, says:--'The conversation turning on the merits of a certain dramatic writer, Johnson said: "I never did the man an injury; but he would persist in reading his tragedy to me."' _Gent. Mag_: 1791, p. 500.

[760] _Piozzi Letters_, vol. ii. p. 328. BOSWELL.

[761] _Piozzi Letters_, vol. ii. p. 342. BOSWELL. The letter to Miss Thrale was dated Nov. 18. Johnson wrote on Dec. l3:--'You must all guess again at my friend. It was not till Dec. 31 that he told the name.

[762] Miss Burney, who visited him on this day, records:--'He was, if possible, more instructive, entertaining, good-humoured, and exquisitely fertile than ever.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 284. The day before he wrote to one of Mrs. Thrale's little daughters:--'I live here by my own self, and have had of late very bad nights; but then I have had a pig to dinner which Mr. Perkins gave me. Thus life is chequered.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 327.

[763] See _ante_, i. 242.

[764] See _ante_, i. 242.

[765] Nos. 26 and 29.

[766] _Piozzi Letters_, i. 334. See _ante_, p. 75.

[767] He strongly opposed the war with America, and was one of Dr.

Franklin's friends. Franklin's _Memoirs_, ed. 1818, iii. 108.

[768] It was of this tragedy that the following story is told in Rogers's _Table-Talk_, p. 177:--'Lord Shelburne could say the most provoking things, and yet appear quite unconscious of their being so. In one of his speeches, alluding to Lord Carlisle, he said:--"The n.o.ble Lord has written a comedy." "No, a tragedy." "Oh, I beg pardon; I thought it was a comedy."' See _ante_, p. 113. Pope, writing to Mr.

Cromwell on Aug. 19, 1709, says:--'One might ask the same question of a modern life, that Rich did of a modern play: "Pray do me the favour, Sir, to inform me is this your tragedy or your comedy?"' Pope's _Works_, ed. 1812, vi. 81.

[769] Mrs. Chapone, when she was Miss Mulso, had written 'four billets in _The Rambler_, No. 10.' _Ante_, i. 203. She was one of the literary ladies who sat at Richardson's feet. Wraxall (_Memoirs_, ed. 1815, i.

155) says that 'under one of the most repulsive exteriors that any woman ever possessed she concealed very superior attainments and extensive knowledge.' Just as Mrs. Carter was often called 'the learned Mrs.

Carter,' so Mrs. Chapone was known as 'the admirable Mrs. Chapone.'

[770] See _ante_, iii. 373.

[771] A few copies only of this tragedy have been printed, and given to the authour's friends. BOSWELL.

[772] Dr. Johnson having been very ill when the tragedy was first sent to him, had declined the consideration of it. BOSWELL.

[773] Johnson refers, I suppose, to a pa.s.sage in Dryden which he quotes in his _Dictionary_ under _mechanick_:--'Many a fair precept in poetry is like a seeming demonstration in mathematicks, very specious in the diagram, but failing in the mechanick operation.'

[774]

'I could have borne my woes; that stranger Joy Wounds while it smiles:--The long imprison'd wretch, Emerging from the night of his damp cell, Shrinks from the sun's bright beams; and that which flings Gladness o'er all, to him is agony.' BOSWELL.

[775] Lord c.o.c.kburn (_Life of Lord Jeffrey_, i. 74) describing the representation of Scotland towards the close of last century, and in fact till the Reform Bill of 1832, says:--'There were probably not above 1500 or 2000 county electors in all Scotland; a body not too large to be held, hope included, in Government's hand. The election of either the town or the county member was a matter of such utter indifference to the people, that they often only knew of it by the ringing of a bell, or by seeing it mentioned next day in a newspaper.'

[776] Six years later, when he was _Praeses_ of the Quarter-Sessions, he carried up to London an address to be presented to the Prince of Wales.

'This,' he wrote, 'will add something to my _conspicuousness_. Will that word do?' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 295.

[777] This part of this letter was written, as Johnson goes on to say, a considerable time before the conclusion. The Coalition Ministry, which was suddenly dismissed by the King on Dec. 19, was therefore still in power. Among Boswell's 'friends' was Burke. See _ante_, p. 223.

[778] On Nov. 22 he wrote to Dr. Taylor:-'I feel the weight of solitude very pressing; after a night of broken and uncomfortable slumber I rise to a solitary breakfast, and sit down in the evening with no companion.

Sometimes, however, I try to read more and more.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 482. On Dec. 27 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'You have more than once wondered at my complaint of solitude, when you hear that I am crowded with visits. _Inopem me copia fecit_. Visitors are no proper companions in the chamber of sickness. They come when I could sleep or read, they stay till I am weary.... The amus.e.m.e.nts and consolations of langour and depression are conferred by familiar and domestick companions, which can be visited or called at will.... Such society I had with Levett and Williams; such I had where I am never likely to have it more.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 341.

[779] The confusion arising from the sudden dismissal of a Ministry which commanded a large majority in the House of Commons had been increased by the resignation, on Dec. 22, of Earl Temple, three days after his appointment as Secretary of State. _Parl. Hist_. xxiv. 238.

[780] 'News I know none,' wrote Horace Walpole on Dec. 30, 1783 (_Letters_, viii. 447), 'but that they are crying Peerages about the streets in barrows, and can get none off.' Thirty-three peerages were made in the next three years. (_Whitaker's Almanac_, 1886, p. 463.) Macaulay tells how this December 'a troop of Lords of the Bedchamber, of Bishops who wished to be translated, and of Scotch peers who wished to be reelected made haste to change sides.' Macaulay's _Writings and Speeches_, ed. 1871, p. 407.

[781] See _ante_, ii. 182. He died Oct. 28, 1788.

[782]'Prince Henry was the first encourager of remote navigation. What mankind has lost and gained by the genius and designs of this prince it would be long to compare, and very difficult to estimate. Much knowledge has been acquired, and much cruelty been committed; the belief of religion has been very little propagated, and its laws have been outrageously and enormously violated. The Europeans have scarcely visited any coast but to gratify avarice, and extend corruption; to arrogate dominion without right, and practise cruelty without incentive.

Happy had it then been for the oppressed, if the designs of Henry had slept in his bosom, and surely more happy for the oppressors.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 219. See _ante_, ii. 478.

[783] 'The author himself,' wrote Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, i. 220), 'is the best judge of his own performance; no one has so deeply meditated on the subject; no one is so sincerely interested in the event.'

[784] Mickle, speaking in the third person as the Translator, says:-- 'He is happy to be enabled to add Dr. Johnson to the number of those whose kindness for the man, and good wishes for the Translation, call for his sincerest grat.i.tude.' Mickle's _Lusiad_, p. ccxxv.

[785] A brief record, it should seem, is given, _ante_, iii. 37.

[786] See _ante_, iii. 106, 214.

[787] The author of _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr, Johnson_ says (p. 153) that it was Johnson who determined Shaw to undertake this work. 'Sir,' he said, 'if you give the world a vocabulary of that language, while the island of Great Britain stands in the Atlantic Ocean your name will be mentioned.' On p. 156 is a letter by Johnson introducing Shaw to a friend.

[788] 'Why is not the original deposited in some publick library?' he asked. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 10.

[789] See ante, i. 190.

[790] See Appendix C.

[791] 'Dec. 27, 1873. The wearisome solitude of the long evenings did indeed suggest to me the convenience of a club in my neighbourhood, but I have been hindered from attending it by want of breath.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 340. 'Dec. 31. I have much need of entertainment; spiritless, infirm, sleepless, and solitary, looking back with sorrow and forward with terrour.' _Ib_, p. 343.

[792] '"I think," said Mr. Cambridge, "it sounds more like some club that one reads of in _The Spectator_ than like a real club in these times; for the forfeits of a whole year will not amount to those of a single night in other clubs."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 290. Mr.