Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 76

p. 68 thus speaks of that learned, ingenious, and accomplished gentleman: 'The want of company is an inconvenience: but Mr. c.u.mberland is a million.' BOSWELL. Northcote, according to Hazlitt (_Conversations of Northcote_, p. 275), said that Johnson and his friends 'never admitted C----[c.u.mberland] as one of the set; Sir Joshua did not invite him to dinner. If he had been in the room, Goldsmith would have flown out of it as if a dragon had been there. I remember Garrick once saying, "D--n his _dish-clout_ face; his plays would never do, if it were not for my patching them up and acting in them."'

[1173] See _ante_, p. 64, note 2.

[1174] Dr. Parr said, "There are three great Grecians in England: Porson is the first; Burney is the third; and who is the second I need not tell"' Field's _Parr_, ii. 215.

[1175] 'Dr. Johnson,' said Parr, 'was an admirable scholar.... The cla.s.sical scholar was forgotten in the great original contributor to the literature of his country.' _Ib._ i. 164. 'Upon his correct and profound knowledge of the Latin language,' he wrote, 'I have always spoken with unusual zeal and unusual confidence.' Johnson's _Parr_, iv. 679. Mrs.

Piozzi (_Anec._ p. 54) recounts a 'triumph' gained by Johnson in a talk on Greek literature.

[1176] _Ante_, iii. 172.

[1177] We must smile at a little inaccuracy of metaphor in the Preface to the _Transactions_, which is written by Mr. Burrowes. The _critick of the style of_ JOHNSON having, with a just zeal for literature, observed, that the whole nation are called on to exert themselves, afterwards says: 'They are _called on_ by every _tye_ which can have a laudable influence on the heart of man.' BOSWELL.

[1178] Johnson's wishing to unite himself with this rich widow, was much talked of, but I believe without foundation. The report, however, gave occasion to a poem, not without characteristical merit, ent.i.tled, 'Ode to Mrs. Thrale, by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. on their supposed approaching Nuptials; printed for Mr. Faulder in Bond-street.' I shall quote as a specimen the first three stanzas:--

'If e'er my fingers touch'd the lyre, In satire fierce, in pleasure gay; Shall not my THRALIA'S smiles inspire?

Shall Sam refuse the sportive lay?

My dearest Lady! view your slave, Behold him as your very _Scrub_; Eager to write, as authour grave, Or govern well, the brewing-tub.

To rich felicity thus raised, My bosom glows with amorous fire; Porter no longer shall be praised, 'Tis I MYSELF am _Thrale's Entire_'

[1179] See _ante_, ii. 44.

[1180] '_Higledy piggledy_,--Conglomeration and confusion.

'_Hodge-podge_,--A culinary mixture of heterogeneous ingredients: applied metaphorically to all discordant combinations.

'_t.i.t for Tat_,--Adequate retaliation.

'_Shilly Shally_,--Hesitation and irresolution.

'_Fee! fau! fum!--Gigantic intonations.

_Rigmarole_,-Discourse, incoherent and rhapsodical.

'_Crinc.u.m-cranc.u.m_,--Lines of irregularity and involution.

'_Dingdong_--Tintinabulary chimes, used metaphorically to signify dispatch and vehemence.' BOSWELL. In all the editions that I have examined the sentence in the text beginning with 'annexed,' and ending with 'concatenation,' is printed as if it were Boswell's. It is a quotation from vol. ii. p. 93 of Colman's book. For _Scrub_, see _ante_, iii. 70, note 2.

[1181] See _ante_, iii. 173.

[1182] _History of America_, vol. i. quarto, p. 332. BOSWELL.

[1183] Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, i. 219) thus writes of his own style:--'The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise. Many experiments were made before I could hit the middle tone between a dull chronicle and a rhetorical declamation; three times did I compose the first chapter, and twice the second and third, before I was tolerably satisfied with their effect.' See _ante_, p. 36, note 1.

[1184] _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, vol. i. chap. iv.

BOSWELL.

[1185] Macaulay (_Essays_, ed. 1874, iv. 157) gives a yet better example of her Johnsonian style, though, as I have shewn (_ante_, p. 223, note 5), he is wrong in saying that Johnson's hand can be seen.

[1186] _Cecilia_, Book. vii. chap. i. [v.] BOSWELL.

[1187] The pa.s.sage which I quote is taken from that gentleman's _Elements of Orthoepy_; containing a distinct View of the whole a.n.a.logy of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE, so far as relates to _p.r.o.nunciation, Accent, and Quant.i.ty_, London, 1784. I beg leave to offer my particular acknowledgements to the authour of a work of uncommon merit and great utility. I know no book which contains, in the same compa.s.s, more learning, polite literature, sound sense, accuracy of arrangement, and perspicuity of expression. BOSWELL.

[1188] That collection was presented to Dr. Johnson, I believe by its authours; and I heard him speak very well of it. BOSWELL. _The Mirror_ was published in 1779-80; by 1793 it reached its ninth edition. For an account of it see Appendix DD. to Forbes's _Beattie_. Henry Mackenzie, the author of _The Man of Feeling_, was the chief contributor as well as the conductor of the paper. He is given as the author of No. 16 in Lynam's edition, p. 1.

[1189] The name of Vicesimus Knox is now scarcely known. Yet so late as 1824 his collected _Works_ were published in seven octavo volumes. The editor says of his _Essays_ (i. iii):--'In no department of the _Belles Lettres_ has any publication, excepting the _Spectator_, been so extensively circulated. It has been translated into most of the European languages.' See _ante_, i. 222, note 1; iii. 13, note 3; and iv. 330.

[1190] _Lucretius_, iii. 6.

[1191] It were to be wished, that he had imitated that great man in every respect, and had not followed the example of Dr. Adam Smith [_ante_, iii. 13, note 1] in ungraciously attacking his venerable _Alma Mater_ Oxford. It must, however, be observed, that he is much less to blame than Smith: he only objects to certain particulars; Smith to the whole inst.i.tution; though indebted for much of his learning to an exhibition which he enjoyed for many years at Baliol College. Neither of them, however, will do any hurt to the n.o.blest university in the world.

While I animadvert on what appears to me exceptionable in some of the works of Dr. Knox, I cannot refuse due praise to others of his productions; particularly his sermons, and to the spirit with which he maintains, against presumptuous hereticks, the consolatory doctrines peculiar to the Christian Revelation. This he has done in a manner equally strenuous and conciliating. Neither ought I to omit mentioning a remarkable instance of his candour: Notwithstanding the wide difference of our opinions, upon the important subject of University education, in a letter to me concerning this Work, he thus expresses himself: 'I thank you for the very great entertainment your _Life of Johnson_ gives me. It is a most valuable work. Yours is a new species of biography. Happy for Johnson, that he had so able a recorder of his wit and wisdom.' BOSWELL.

[1192] Dr. Knox, in his _Moral and Literary_ abstraction, may be excused for not knowing the political regulations of his country. No senator can be in the hands of a bailiff. BOSWELL.

[1193] It is ent.i.tled _A Continuation of Dr. J--n's Criticism on the Poems of Gray_. The following is perhaps the best pa.s.sage:--'On some fine evening Gray had seen the moon shining on a tower such as is here described. An owl might be peeping out from the ivy with which it was clad. Of the observer the station might be such that the owl, now emerged from the mantling, presented itself to his eye in profile, skirting with the Moon's limb. All this is well. The perspective is striking; and the picture well defined. But the poet was not contented.

He felt a desire to enlarge it; and in executing his purpose gave it acc.u.mulation without improvement. The idea of the Owl's _complaining_ is an artificial one; and the views on which it proceeds absurd. Gray should have seen, that it but ill befitted the _Bird of Wisdom_ to complain to the Moon of an intrusion which the Moon could no more help than herself.' p. 17. Johnson wrote of this book:--'I know little of it, for though it was sent me I never cut the leaves open. I had a letter with it representing it to me as my own work; in such an account to the publick there may be humour, but to myself it was neither serious nor comical. I suspect the writer to be wrong-headed.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 289. 'I was told,' wrote Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 376), 'it would divert me, that it seems to criticise Gray, but really laughs at Johnson. I sent for it and skimmed it over, but am not at all clear what it means--no recommendation of anything. I rather think the author wishes to be taken by Gray's admirers for a ridiculer of Johnson, and by the tatter's for a censurer of Gray.' '"The cleverest parody of the Doctor's style of criticism," wrote Sir Walter Scott, "is by John Young of Glasgow, and is very capital."' _Croker Corres_, ii. 34.

[1194] See _ante_, iv. 59, for Burke's description of Croft's imitation.

[1195] See _ante_, ii. 465.

[1196] H.S.E.

MICHAEL JOHNSON,

Vir impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor, laborum patientissimus; fiducia christiana fortis, fervidusque; paterfamilias apprime strenuus; bibliopola admodum peritus; mente et libris et negotiis exculta; animo ita firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus, nec sibi nec suis defuerit; lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures vel pias, vel castas laesisset, aut dolor, vel voluptas unquam expresserit.

Natus Cubleiae, in agro Derbiensi,

Anno MDCLVI.

Obiit MDCCx.x.xI.

Apposita est SARA, conjux,

Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda; quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam; nulli molestam, mentis ac.u.mine et judicii subtilitate praecellentem; aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem: aeternitati semper attentam, omne fere virtutis nomen commendavit.

Nata Nortoniae Regis, in agro Varvicensi, Anno MDCLXIX;

Obiit MDCCLIX.

c.u.m NATHANAELE, illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII, c.u.m vires et animi et corporis multa pollicerentur, anno MDCCx.x.xVII, vitam brevem pia morte finivit. Johnson's _Works_, i. 150.

[1197] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 590) says that he asked that the stone over his own grave 'might be so placed as to protect his body from injury.'

Harwood (_History of Lichfield_, p. 520) says that the stone in St.

Michael's was removed in 1796, when the church was paved. A fresh one with the old inscriptions was placed in the church on the hundredth anniversary of Johnson's death by Robert Thorp, Esq., of Buxton Road House, Macclesfield. The Rev. James Serjeantson, Rector of St.

Michael's, suggests to me that the first stone was never set up. It is, he says, unlikely that such a memorial within a dozen years was treated so unworthily. Moreover in 1841 and again in 1883, during reparations of the church, a very careful search was made for it, but without result.

There may have been, he thinks, some difficulty in finding the exact place of interment. The matter may have stood over till it was forgotten, and the mason, whose receipted bill shews that he was paid for the stone, may have used it for some other purpose.

[1198] See _ante_, i. 241, and iv. 351.