Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 68

'--to thee I call But with no friendly voice, and add thy name O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams.'

Milton's _Paradise Lost_, iv. 35.

[930] Yet there is no doubt that a man may appear very gay in company who is sad at heart. His merriment is like the sound of drums and trumpets in a battle, to drown the groans of the wounded and dying. BOSWELL.

[931] Mme. D'Arblay (_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, ii. 103) tells how Johnson was one day invited to her father's house at the request of Mr.

Greville, 'the finest gentleman about town,' as she earlier described him (_ib_. i. 25), who desired to make his acquaintance. This 'superb'

gentleman was afraid to begin to speak. 'a.s.suming his most supercilious air of distant superiority he planted himself, immovable as a n.o.ble statue, upon the hearth, as if a stranger to the whole set.' Johnson, who 'never spoke till he was spoken to' (_ante_, in. 307)--this habit the Burneys did not as yet know--'became completely absorbed in silent rumination; very unexpectedly, however, he shewed himself alive to what surrounded him, by one of those singular starts of vision, that made him seem at times, though purblind to things in common, gifted with an eye of instinct for espying any action that he thought merited reprehension; for all at once, looking fixedly on Mr. Greville, who without much self-denial, the night being very cold, kept his station before the chimney-piece, he exclaimed:--"If it were not for depriving the ladies of the fire, I should like to stand upon the hearth myself." A smile gleamed upon every face at this pointed speech. Mr. Greville tried to smile himself, though faintly and scoffingly. He tried also to hold his post; and though for two or three minutes he disdained to move, the awkwardness of a general pause impelled him ere long to glide back to his chair; but he rang the bell with force as he pa.s.sed it to order his carriage.'

[932] Page 139. BOSWELL.

[933] On this same day Miss Adams wrote to a friend:--'Dr. Johnson, tho'

not in good health, is in general very talkative and infinitely agreeable and entertaining.' _Pemb. Coll. MSS_.

[934] Johnson said 'Milton was a _Phidias_, &c.' _Ante_, p. 99, note 1.

In his _Life of Milton_ (_Works, vii. 119) he writes:--'Milton never learnt the art of doing little things with grace; he overlooked the milder excellence of suavity and softness; he was a _Lion_ that had no skill _in dandling the kid_.'

['Sporting the lion ramped, and in his paw Dandled the kid.'

_Paradise Lost_, iv. 343.]

[935] Cardinal Newman (_History of my Religious Opinions_, ed. 1865, p.

361) remarks on this:--'As to Johnson's case of a murderer asking you which way a man had gone, I should have antic.i.p.ated that, had such a difficulty happened to him, his first act would have been to knock the man down, and to call out for the police; and next, if he was worsted in the conflict, he would not have given the ruffian the information he asked, at whatever risk to himself. I think he would have let himself be killed first. I do not think that he would have told a lie.'

[936] See _ante_, iii. 376.

[937] Book ii. 1. 142.

[938] The annotator calls them 'amiable verses.' BOSWELL. The annotators of the _Dunciad_ were Pope himself and Dr. Arbuthnot. Johnson's _Works_, viii. 280.

[939] Boswell was at this time corresponding with Miss Seward. See _post_, June 25.

[940] By John Dyer. _Ante_, ii. 453.

[941] Lewis's Verses addressed to Pope were first published in a Collection of Pieces on occasion of _The Dunciad_, 8vo., 1732. They do not appear in Lewis's own _Miscellany_, printed in 1726.--_Grongar Hill_ was first printed in Savage's _Miscellanies_ as an Ode, and was _reprinted_ in the same year in Lewis's _Miscellany_, in the form it now bears.

In his _Miscellanies_, 1726, the beautiful poem,--'Away, let nought to love displeasing,'--reprinted in Percy's _Reliques_, vol. i. book iii.

No. 13, first appeared. MALONE.

[942] See _ante_, p. 58.

[943] See _ante_, i. 71, and ii. 226.

[944] Captain Cook's third voyage. The first two volumes by Captain Cook; the last by Captain King.

[945] See _ante_, ii. 73, 228, 248; iii. 49.

[946]

'--quae mollissima fandi Tempora.'

'--time wherein the word May softliest be said.'

MORRIS. Virgil, _Aeneids_, iv. 293.

[947] See _ante_, i. 71.

[948] See _ante_, i. 203, note 6.

[949] Boswell began to eat dinners in the Inner Temple so early as 1775.

_Ante_, ii. 377, note 1. He was not called till Hilary Term, 1786.

Rogers's _Boswelliana_, p. 143.

[950] Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Jones wrote two years earlier (_Life_, p. 268):--'Whether it be a wise part to live uncomfortably in order to die wealthy, is another question; but this I know by experience, and have heard old pract.i.tioners make the same observation, that a lawyer who is in earnest must be chained to his chambers and the bar for ten or twelve years together.'

[951] Johnson's _Prologue at the opening of Drury Lane Theatre. Works, _ i. 23.

[952] According to Mr. Seward, who published this account in his _Anecdotes,_ ii. 83, it was Mr. Langton's great-grandfather who drew it up.

[953] 'My Lord said that his rule for his, health was to be temperate and keep himself warm. He never made breakfasts, but used in the morning to drink a gla.s.s of some sort of ale. That he went to bed at nine, and rose between six and seven, allowing himself a good refreshment for his sleep. That the law will admit of no rival, nothing to go even with it; but that sometimes one may for diversion read in the Latin historians of England, Hoveden and Matthew Paris, &c. But after it is conquered, it will admit of other studies. He said, a little law, a good tongue, and a good memory, would fit a man for the Chancery.' Seward's _Anecdotes_, ii. 92.

[954] Wednesday was the 16th

[955] See _ante_, i. 41.

[956] _Letters to Mrs. Thrale_, vol. ii. p. 372. BOSWELL.

[957] See _ante/_, i. 155.

[958] The recommendation in this list of so many histories little agrees 'with the fierce and boisterous contempt of ignorance' with which, according to Lord Macaulay, Johnson spoke of history. Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 403.

[959] See _ante_, iii. 12.

[960] Northcote's account of Reynolds's table suits the description of this 'gentleman's mode of living.' 'A table prepared for seven or eight was often compelled to contain fifteen or sixteen.' There was a 'deficiency of knives and forks, plates and gla.s.ses. The attendance was in the same style.' There were 'two or three undisciplined domestics.

The host left every one at perfect liberty to scramble for himself.'

'Rags' is certainly a strong word to apply to any of the company; but then strong words were what Johnson used. Northcote mentions 'the mixture of company.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 94-6. See _ante_, iii.

375, note 2.

[961] The Mayor of Windsor. Rogers's _Boswelliana_, p. 211.

[962] The pa.s.sage occurs in Brooke's _Earl of Ess.e.x_(1761) at the close of the first act, where Queen Elizabeth says:

'I shall henceforth seek For other lights to truth; for righteous monarchs, Justly to judge, with their own eyes should see; _To rule o'er freemen should themselves be free_.'

_Notes and Queries_, 5th S. viii. 456.

The play was acted at Drury Lane Theatre, old Mr. Sheridan taking the chief part. He it was who, in admiration, repeated the pa.s.sage to Johnson which provoked the parody. Murphy's _Garrick_, p. 234.

[963] 'Letters to Mrs. Thrale, vol. ii. p. 284. BOSWELL. In a second letter (_ib_. p. 347) he says:--'Cator has a rough, manly independent understanding, and does not spoil it by complaisance.' Miss Burney accuses him of emptiness, verbosity and pomposity, all of which she describes in an amusing manner. Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 47.

[964] 'All general reflections upon nations and societies are the trite, thread-bare jokes of those who set up for wit without having any, and so have recourse to common-place.' Chesterfield's _Letters_, i. 231.