Life of Johnson Volume V Part 47

[372] See _ post_, Sept. 13 and 28.

[373] Mr. Trevelyan (_Life of Macaulay_, ed.1877, i. 6) says: 'Johnson p.r.o.nounced that Mr. Macaulay was not competent to have written the book that went by his name; a decision which, to those who happen to have read the work, will give a very poor notion my ancestor's abilities.'

[374]

'The thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman.'

_Macbeth_, act i. sc. 3.

[375] According to Murray's _Handbook,_ ed. 1867, p. 308, no part of the castle is older than the fifteenth century.

[376] See _post_, Nov. 5.

[377] The historian. _Ante_, p. 41.

[378] See _ante_, iii. 336, and _post_, Nov. 7.

[379] See _post_, Oct. 27.

[380] Baretti was the Italian. Boswell disliked him (_ante_, ii. 98 note), and perhaps therefore described him merely as 'a man of _some_ literature.' Baretti complained to Malone that 'the story as told gave an unfair representation of him.' He had, he said, 'observed to Johnson that the pet.i.tion _lead us not into temptation_ ought rather to be addressed to the tempter of mankind than a benevolent Creator. "Pray, Sir," said Johnson, "do you know who was the author of the Lord's Prayer?" Baretti, who did not wish to get into any serious dispute and who appears to be an Infidel, by way of putting an end to the conversation, only replied:--"Oh, Sir, you know by _our_ religion (Roman Catholic) we are not permitted to read the Scriptures. You can't therefore expect an answer."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 399. Sir Joshua Reynolds, on hearing this from Malone, said:--'This turn which Baretti now gives to the matter was an after-thought; for he once said to me myself:--"There are various opinions about the writer of that prayer; some give it to St. Augustine, some to St. Chrysostom, &c. What is your opinion? "' _Ib_. p. 394. Mrs. Piozzi says that she heard 'Baretti tell a clergyman the story of Dives and Lazarus as the subject of a poem he once had composed in the Milanese district, expecting great credit for his powers of invention.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 348.

[381] Goldsmith (_Present Slate of Polite Learning_, chap. 13) thus wrote of servitorships: 'Surely pride itself has dictated to the fellows of our colleges the absurd pa.s.sion of being attended at meals, and on other public occasions, by those poor men who, willing to be scholars, come in upon some charitable foundation. It implies a contradiction for men to be at once learning the _liberal_ arts, and at the same time treated as _slaves_; at once studying freedom and practising servitude.'

Yet a young man like Whitefield was willing enough to be a servitor. He had been a waiter in his mother's inn; he was now a waiter in a college, but a student also. See my _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and his Critics_, p. 27.

[382] Dr. Johnson did not neglect what he had undertaken. By his interest with the Rev. Dr. Adams, master of Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was educated for some time, he obtained a servitorship for young M'Aulay. But it seems he had other views; and I believe went abroad. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 380.

[383] 'I once drank tea,' writes Lamb, 'in company with two Methodist divines of different persuasions. Before the first cup was handed round, one of these reverend gentlemen put it to the other, with all due solemnity, whether he chose to _say anything_. It seems it is the custom with some sectaries to put up a short prayer before this meal also. His reverend brother did not at first quite apprehend him, but upon an explanation, with little less importance he made answer that it was not a custom known in his church.' _Essay on Grace before Meat_.

[384] He could not bear to have it thought that, in any instance whatever, the Scots are more pious than the English. I think grace as proper at breakfast as at any other meal. It is the pleasantest meal we have. Dr. Johnson has allowed the peculiar merit of breakfast in Scotland. BOSWELL. 'If an epicure could remove by a wish in quest of sensual gratification, wherever he had supped he would breakfast in Scotland.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 52.

[385] Bruce, the Abyssinian Traveller, found in the annals of that region a king named _Brus_, which he chooses to consider the genuine orthography of the name. This circ.u.mstance occasioned some mirth at the court of Gondar. WALTER SCOTT.

[386] See _ante_, ii. 169, note 2, and _post_, Sept. 2. Johnson, so far as I have observed, spelt the name _Boswel_.

[387] Sir Eyre Coote was born in 1726. He took part in the battle of Pla.s.sey in 1757, and commanded at the reduction of Pondicherry in 1761.

In 1770-71 he went by land to Europe. In 1780 he took command of the English army against Hyder Ali, whom he repeatedly defeated. He died in 1783. Chalmers's _Biog. Dict_. x. 236. There is a fine description of him in Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, iii. 385.

[388] See _ante_, iii. 361.

[389] Reynolds wrote of Johnson:--'He sometimes, it must be confessed, covered his ignorance by generals rather than appear ignorant' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 457.

[390] 'The barracks are very handsome, and form several regular and good streets.' Pennant's _Tour_, p. 144.

[391] See _ante_, p. 45.

[392] Here Dr. Johnson gave us part of a conversation held between a Great Personage and him, in the library at the Queen's Palace, in the course of which this contest was considered. I have been at great pains to get that conversation as perfectly preserved as possible. It may perhaps at some future time be given to the publick. BOSWELL. For 'a Great Personage' see _ante_, i. 219; and for the conversation, ii. 33.

[393] See _ante_, ii. 73, 228, 248; iii. 4 and June 15, 1784.

[394] See _ante_, i. 167, note 1.

[395] Booth acted _Cato_, and Wilks Juba when Addison's _Cato_ was brought out. Pope told Spence that 'Lord Bolingbroke's carrying his friends to the house, and presenting Booth with a purse of guineas for so well representing the character of a person "who rather chose to die than see a general for life," carried the success of the play much beyond what they ever expected.' Spence's _Anec_. p. 46. Bolingbroke alluded to the Duke of Marlborough. Pope in his _Imitations of Horace_, 2 Epist. i. 123 introduces 'well-mouth'd Booth.'

[396] See _ante_, iii. 35, and under Sept. 30, 1783.

[397] 'Garrick used to tell, that Johnson said of an actor who played Sir Harry Wildair at Lichfield, "There is a courtly vivacity about the fellow;" when, in fact, according to Garrick's account, "he was the most vulgar ruffian that ever went upon _boards_."' _Ante_, ii. 465.

[398] Mrs. Cibber was the sister of Dr. Arne the musical composer, and the wife of Theophilus Cibber, Colley Cibber's son. She died in 1766, and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. Baker's _Biog.

Dram._ i. 123.

[399] See _ante_, under Sept. 30, 1783.

[400] See _ante_, i. 197, and ii. 348.

[401] Johnson had set him to repeat the ninth commandment, and had with great glee put him right in the emphasis. _Ante_, i. 168.

[402] Act iii. sc. 2.

[403] Boswell's suggestion is explained by the following pa.s.sage in Johnson's _Works_, viii. 463:--'Mallet was by his original one of the Macgregors, a clan that became about sixty years ago, under the conduct of Robin Roy, so formidable and so infamous for violence and robbery, that the name was annulled by a legal abolition.'

[404] See _ante_, iii. 410, where he said to an Irish gentleman:--'Do not make an union with us, Sir. We should unite with you, only to rob you. We should have robbed the Scotch, if they had had anything of which we could have robbed them.'

[405] It is remarkable that Dr. Johnson read this gentle remonstrance, and took no notice of it to me. BOSWELL. See _post_, Oct. 12, note.

[406] _St. Matthew_, v. 44.

[407] It is odd that Boswell did not suspect the parson, who, no doubt, had learnt the evening before from Mr. Keith that the two travellers would be present at his sermon. Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, ii. 283) says that one day at Sir Joshua's dinner-table, when his host praised Malone very highly for his laborious edition of _Shakespeare_, he (Northcote) 'rather hastily replied, "What a very despicable creature must that man be who thus devotes himself, and makes another man his G.o.d;" when Boswell, who sat at my elbow, and was not in my thoughts at the time, cried out "Oh! Sir Joshua, then that is me!"'

[408] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 23) more cautiously says:--'Here is a castle, called the castle of Macbeth.'

[409] 'This short dialogue between Duncan and Banquo, whilst they are approaching the gates of Macbeth's castle, has always appeared to me a striking instance of what in painting is termed _repose_. Their conversation very naturally turns upon the beauty of its situation, and the pleasantness of the air; and Banquo, observing the martlet's nests in every recess of the cornice, remarks that where those birds most breed and haunt the air is delicate. The subject of this quiet and easy conversation gives that repose so necessary to the mind after the tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts the scene of horror that immediately succeeds. It seems as if Shakespeare asked himself, what is a prince likely to say to his attendants on such an occasion? whereas the modern writers seem, on the contrary, to be always searching for new thoughts, such as would never occur to men in the situation which is represented. This also is frequently the practice of Homer, who from the midst of battles and horrors relieves and refreshes the mind of the reader by introducing some quiet rural image, or picture of familiar domestick life.' Johnson's _Shakespeare_.

Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, i. 144-151) quotes other notes by Reynolds.

[410] In the original _senses_. Act i, sc. 6.

[411] Act i. sc. 5.

[412] Boswell forgets _scoundrelism_, _ante_, p. 106, which, I suppose, Johnson coined.

[413] See _ante_, ii. 154, note 3. Peter Paragraph is one of the characters in Foote's Comedy of _The Orators_.

[414] When upon the subject of this _peregrinity_, he told me some particulars concerning the compilation of his _Dictionary_, and concerning his throwing off Lord Chesterfield's patronage, of which very erroneous accounts have been circulated. These particulars, with others which he afterwards gave me,--as also his celebrated letter to Lord Chesterfield, which he dictated to me,--I reserve for his _Life._ BOSWELL. See _ante,_ i. 221, 261.

[415] See _ante,_ ii. 326, 371, and v. 18.

[416] It is the third edition, published in 1778, that first bears this t.i.tle. The first edition was published in 1761, and the second in 1762.

[417] 'One of them was a man of great liveliness and activity, of whom his companion said that he would tire any horse in Inverness. Both of them were civil and ready-handed Civility seems part of the national character of Highlanders.' _Works,_ ix. 25.