Life of Johnson Volume I Part 95

[1444] On this Mrs. Piozzi notes:--'No, no! Mr. Thrale's manners presented the character of a gay man of the town; like Millamant, in Congreve's comedy, he abhorred the country and everything in it.'

Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 10. Mrs. Millamant, in _The Way of the World_, act iv. sc. iv., says:--'I loathe the country and everything that relates to it.'

[1445] 'It is but justice to Mr. Thrale to say, that a more ingenuous frame of mind no man possessed. His education at Oxford gave him the habits of a gentleman; his amiable temper recommended his conversation, and the goodness of his heart made him a sincere friend.' Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 99. Johnson wrote of him to Mrs. Thrale:--'He must keep well, for he is the pillar of the house; and you must get well, or the house will hardly be worth propping.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 340. See _post_, April 18, 1778. Mme. D'Arblay (_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, ii. 104) gives one reason for Thrale's fondness for Johnson's society. 'Though entirely a man of peace, and a gentleman in his character, he had a singular amus.e.m.e.nt in hearing, instigating, and provoking a war of words, alternating triumph and overthrow, between clever and ambitious colloquial combatants, where there was nothing that could inflict disgrace upon defeat.'

[1446] In like manner he called Mr. Thrale _Master_ or _My master_. 'I hope Master's walk will be finished when I come back.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 355. 'My master may plant and dig till his pond is an ocean.' _Ib_.

p. 357. See _post_, July 9, 1777.

[1447] Miss Burney thus described her in 1776:--'She is extremely lively and chatty; and showed none of the supercilious or pedantic airs so scoffingly attributed to women of learning or celebrity; on the contrary, she is full of sport, remarkably gay, and excessively agreeable. I liked her in everything except her entrance into the room, which was rather florid and flourishing, as who should say, "It is I!--No less a person than Mrs. Thrale!" However, all that ostentation wore out in the course of the visit, which lasted the whole morning; and you could not have helped liking her, she is so very entertaining-- though not simple enough, I believe, for quite winning your heart.'

_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, ii. 88.

[1448] _Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes_, p. 279. BOSWELL.

[1449] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Oct. 13, 1777:--'I cannot but think on your kindness and my master's. Life has upon the whole fallen short, very short, of my early expectation; but the acquisition of such a friendship, at an age when new friendships are seldom acquired, is something better than the general course of things gives man a right to expect. I think on it with great delight; I am not very apt to be delighted.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 7. Johnson's friends suffered from this connection. See _post_, March 20, 1778, where it is said that 'at Streatham he was in a great measure absorbed from the society of his old friends.'

[1450] Yet one year he recorded:--'March 3, I have never, I thank G.o.d, since new year's day deviated from the practice of rising. In this practice I persisted till I went to Mr. Thrale's sometime before Midsummer; the irregularity of that family broke my habit of rising. I was there till after Michaelmas.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 458, note.

Hawkins places this in 1765; but Johnson states (_Pr. and Med_. p. 71), 'I returned from Streatham, Oct. 1, --66, having lived there more than three months.'

[1451] Boswell wrote to Temple in 1775:--'I am at present in a _tourbillon_ of conversations; but how come you to throw in the Thrales among the Reynoldses and the Beauclerks? Mr. Thrale is a worthy, sensible man, and has the wits much about his house; but he is not one himself. Perhaps you mean Mrs. Thrale.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 192.

Murphy (_Life_, p. 141) says:--'It was late in life before Johnson had the habit of mixing, otherwise than occasionally, with polite company.

At Mr. Thrale's he saw a constant succession of well-accomplished visitors. In that society he began to wear off the rugged points of his own character. The time was then expected when he was to cease being what George Garrick, brother to the celebrated actor, called him the first time he heard him converse. "A TREMENDOUS COMPANION"'

[1452] Johnson wrote to Dr. Warton on Oct. 9:--'Mrs. Warton uses me hardly in supposing that I could forget so much kindness and civility as she showed me at Winchester.' Wooll's _Warton_, p. 309. Malone on this remarks:--'It appears that Johnson spent some time with that gentleman at Winchester in this year.' I believe that Johnson is speaking of the year 1762, when, on his way to Devonshire, he pa.s.sed two nights in that town. See Taylor's _Reynolds_, i. 214.

[1453] It was in 1745 that he published his _Observations on Macbeth_, as a specimen of his projected edition (_ante_, p. 175). In 1756 he issued _Proposals_ undertaking that his work should be published before Christmas, 1757 (p. 318). On June 21, 1757, he writes:--'I am printing my new edition of _Shakspeare_' (p. 322). On Dec. 24 of the same year he says, 'I shall publish about March' (p. 323). On March 8, 1758, he writes:--'It will be published before summer.... I have printed many of the plays' (p. 327). In June of the same year Langton took some of the plays to Oxford (p. 336). Churchill's _Ghost_ (Parts 1 and 2) was published in the spring of 1762 (p. 319). On July 20, 1762, Johnson wrote to Baretti, 'I intend that you shall soon receive Shakspeare' (p.

369). In October 1765 it was published.

[1454] According to Mr. Seward (_Anec_. ii. 464), 'Adam Smith styled it the most manly piece of criticism that was ever published in any country.'

[1455] George III, at all events, did not share in this blind admiration. 'Was there ever,' cried he, 'such stuff as great part of Shakespeare? only one must not say so. But what think you? What? Is there not sad stuff? What? What?' 'Yes, indeed, I think so, Sir, though mixed with such excellencies that--' 'O!' cried he, laughing good-humouredly, 'I know it is not to be said! but it's true. Only it's Shakespeare, and n.o.body dare abuse him.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii, 398.

[1456] That Johnson did not slur his work, as has been often said, we have the best of all evidence--his own word. 'I have, indeed,' he writes (_Works_, v. 152), 'disappointed no opinion more than my own; yet I have endeavoured to perform my task with no slight solicitude. Not a single pa.s.sage in the whole work has appeared to me corrupt which I have not attempted to restore; or obscure which I have not attempted to ill.u.s.trate.'

[1457] Steevens wrote to Garrick:--'To say the truth, the errors of Warburton and Johnson are often more meritorious than such corrections of them as the obscure industry of Mr. Farmer and myself can furnish.

Disdaining crutches, they have sometimes had a fall; but it is my duty to remember, that I, for my part, could not have kept on my legs at all without them.' _Garrick Corres_. ii, 130. 'Johnson's preface and notes are distinguished by clearness of thought and diction, and by masterly common sense.' _Cambridge Shakespeare_, i. x.x.xvi.

[1458] Kenrick later on was the gross libeller of Goldsmith, and the far grosser libeller of Garrick. 'When proceedings were commenced against him in the Court of King's Bench [for the libel on Garrick], he made at once the most abject submission and retractation.' Prior's _Goldsmith_, i. 294. In the _Garrick Carres_, (ii. 341) is a letter addressed to Kenrick, in which Garrick says:--'I could have honoured you by giving the satisfaction of a gentleman, _if you could_ (as Shakespeare says) _have screwed your courage to the sticking place_, to have taken it.' It is endorsed:--'This was not sent to the scoundrel Dr. Kenrick.... It was judged best not to answer any more of Dr. Kenrick's notes, he had behaved so unworthily.'

[1459] Ephraim Chambers, in the epitaph that he made for himself (_ante_, p. 219), had described himself as _multis pervulgatus paucis notus_.' _Gent. Mag_. x. 262.

[1460] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 1, 1773.

[1461] Johnson had joined Voltaire with Dennis and Rymer. 'Dennis and Rymer think Shakespeare's Romans not sufficiently Roman; and Voltaire censures his kings as not completely royal. Dennis is offended that Menenius, a senator of Rome, should play the buffoon; and Voltaire, perhaps, thinks decency violated when the Danish usurper is represented as a drunkard. But Shakespeare always makes nature predominate over accident.... His story requires Romans or kings, but he thinks only on men. He knew that Rome, like every other city, had men of all dispositions; and wanting a buffoon, he went into the senate-house for that which the senate-house would certainly have afforded him. He was inclined to show an usurper and a murderer, not only odious, but despicable; he therefore added drunkenness to his other qualities, knowing that kings love wine like other men, and that wine exerts its natural power upon kings. These are the petty cavils of petty _minds_; a poet overlooks the casual distinction of country and condition, as a painter, satisfied with the figure, neglects the drapery.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 109. Johnson had previously attacked Voltaire, in his _Memoirs of Frederick the Great_. (_Ante_, i. 435, note 2.) In these _Memoirs_ he writes:--'Voltaire has a.s.serted that a large sum was raised for her [the Queen of Hungary's] succour by voluntary subscriptions of the English ladies. It is the great failing of a strong imagination to catch greedily at wonders. He was misinformed, and was perhaps unwilling to learn, by a second enquiry, a truth less splendid and amusing.' _Ib_.

vi. 455. See _post_, Oct. 27, 1779.

[1462] 'Voltaire replied in the _Dictionnaire Philosophique_. (_Works_, x.x.xiii. 566.) 'J'ai jete les yeux sur une edition de Shakespeare, donnee par le sieur Samuel Johnson. J'y ai vu qu'on y traite de _pet.i.ts esprits_ les etrangers qui sont etonnes que dans les pieces de ce grand Shakespeare _un senateur romain fa.s.se le bouffon; et gu'un roi paraisse sur le theatre en ivrogne_. Je ne veux point soupconner le sieur Johnson d'etre un mauvais plaisant, et d'aimer trop le vin; mais je trouve un peu extraordinaire qu'il compte la bouffonnerie et l'ivrognerie parmi les beautes du theatre tragique; la raison qu'il en donne n'est pas moins singuliere. _Le poete_, dit-il, _dedaigne ces distinctions accidentelles de conditions et de pays, comme un peintre qui, content d'avoir peint la figure, neglige la draperie_. La comparaison serait plus juste, s'il parlait d'un peintre qui, dans un sujet n.o.ble, introduirait des grotesques ridicules, peindrait dans la bataille d'Arbelles Alexandre-le Grand monte sur un ane, et la femme de Darius buvant avec des goujats dans un cabaret.' Johnson, perhaps, had this attack in mind when, in his _Life of Pope_ (_Works_, viii. 275), he thus wrote of Voltaire:--'He had been entertained by Pope at his table, when he talked with so much grossness, that Mrs. Pope was driven from the room. Pope discovered by a trick that he was a spy for the court, and never considered him as a man worthy of confidence.'

[1463] See _post_, under May 8, 1781.

[1464] See _post_, ii. 74.

[1465] He was probably proposing to himself the model of this excellent person, who for his piety was named _the Seraphic Doctor_. BOSWELL.

[1466]

'E'en in a bishop I can spy desert, Secker is decent, Rundel has a heart.'

Pope. _Epil, Sat_. II. 70.

[1467] So Smollett calls him in his _History of England_, iii. 16.

[1468] Six of these twelve guineas Johnson appears to have borrowed from Mr. Allen, the printer. See Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_, p. 366 n. MALONE.

[1469] Written by mistake for 1759. On the _outside_ of the letter of the 13th was written by another hand--'Pray acknowledge the receipt of this by return of post, without fail.' MALONE.

[1470] Catherine Chambers, Mrs. Johnson's maid-servant. She died in October, 1767. MALONE. See _post_, ii. 43.

[1471] This letter was written on the second leaf of the preceding, addressed to Miss Porter. MALONE.

[1472] Mrs. Johnson probably died on the 20th or 21st January, and was buried on the day this letter was written. MALONE. On the day on which his mother was buried Johnson composed a prayer, as being 'now about to return to the common comforts and business of the world.' _Pr. and Med_.

p. 38. After his wife''s death he had allowed forty days to pa.s.s before his 'return to life.' See _ante_, p. 234, note 2.

[1473] See _ante_, p. 80.

[1474] Barnaby Greene had just published _The Laureat, a Poem_, in which Johnson is abused. It is in the February list of books in the _Gent.

Mag_. for 1765.

[1475] Sir Cloudesly Shovel's monument is thus mentioned by Addison in _The Spectator_, No. 26:--'It has very often given me great offence; instead of the brave rough English Admiral, which was the distinguishing character of that plain gallant man, he is represented on his tomb by the figure of a beau, dressed in a long periwig, and reposing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopy of state.'

[1476]

'That live-long wig, which Gorgon's self might own, Eternal buckle takes in Parian stone.'

Pope's _Moral Essays_, iii. 295.

[1477] Milton's Epigram is in his _Sylvarum Liber_, and is ent.i.tled _In Effigiei ejus Sculptorem_.

[1478] Johnson's acquaintance, Bishop Newton (_post_, June 3, 1784), published an edition of _Milton_.

[1479] It was no doubt by the Master of Emanuel College, his friend Dr. Farmer (_ante_, p. 368), that Johnson was promised 'an habitation'

there.

THE END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.