Life of Johnson
Chapter 425 : Boswell in his _Remarks on the Profession of a Player_ (Essay ii), first printed in th

Boswell in his _Remarks on the Profession of a Player_ (Essay ii), first printed in the _London Magazine_ for 1770, says:--

'I remember to have heard the most ill.u.s.trious authour of this age say: "If, Sir, Garrick believes himself to be every character that he represents he is a madman, and ought to be confined. Nay, Sir, he is a villain, and ought to be hanged. If, for instance, he believes himself to be Macbeth he has committed murder, he is a vile a.s.sa.s.sin who, in violation of the laws of hospitality as well as of other principles, has imbrued his hands in the blood of his King while he was sleeping under his roof. If, Sir, he has really been that person in his own mind, he has in his own mind been as guilty as Macbeth."

'--Nichols's _Literary History_, ed. 1848, vii. 373.

_Sir John Flayer 'On the Asthma_.'

(Vol. iv, p. 353.)

Johnson, writing from Ashbourne to Dr. Brocklesby on July 20, 1784, says: 'I am now looking into Floyer who lived with his asthma to almost his ninetieth year.' Mr. Samuel Timmins, the author of _Dr. Johnson in Birmingham_, informs me that he and two friends of his lately found in Lichfield a Lending Book of the Cathedral Library. Among the entries for 1784 was: '_Sir John Floyer on the Asthma_, lent to Dr. Johnson.'

Johnson, no doubt, had taken the book with him to Ashbourne.

Mr. Timmins says that the entries in this Lending Book unfortunately do not begin till about 1760 (or later). 'If,' he adds, 'the earlier Lending Book could be found, it would form a valuable clue to books which Johnson may have borrowed in his youth and early manhood.'

_Boswell's expectations from Burke_.

(Vol. iv, p. 223, n. 2; and p. 258, n. 2.)

Boswell, in May 1783, mentioned to Johnson his 'expectations from the interest of an eminent person then in power.' The two following extracts from letters written by him show what some of these expectations had been.

'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. TO JAMES ABERCROMBIE, ESQ., of Philadelphia.

'July 28,1793.

'I have a great wish to see America; and I once flattered myself that I should be sent thither in a station of some importance.'

Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 317.

Boswell had written to Burke on March 3, 1778: 'Most heartily do I rejoice that our present ministers have at last yielded to conciliation (_ante_, iii. 221). For amidst all the sanguinary zeal of my countrymen, I have professed myself a friend to our fellow-subjects in America, so far as they claim an exemption from being taxed by the representatives of the King's British subjects. I do not perfectly agree with you; for I deny the declaratory act, and I am a warm Tory in its true const.i.tutional sense. I wish I were a commissioner, or one of the secretaries of the commission for the grand treaty. I am to be in London this spring, and if his Majesty should ask me what I would choose, my answer will be to a.s.sist at the compact between Britain and America.'

--_Burke's Correspondence_, ii. 209.

_Boswelf's intention to attend on Johnson in his illness, and to publish 'Praises' of him._

(Vol. iv, p. 265.)

'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO BISHOP PERCY.

'Edinburgh, 8 March, 1784.

"...I intend to be in London about the end of this month, chiefly to attend upon Dr. Johnson with respectful affection. He has for some time been very ill...I wish to publish as a regale [_ante_, iii. 308, n. 2; v. 347, n. 1] to him a neat little volume, _The Praises of Dr. Johnson, by contemporary Writers_. ...Will your Lords.h.i.+p take the trouble to send me a note of the writers you recollect having praised our much respected friend?...An edition of my pamphlet [_ante_, iv. 258] has been published in London."'

--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 302.

_The reported Russian version of the 'Rambler'_.

(Vol. iv, p. 277, n. 1.)

I am informed by my friend, Mr. W. R. Morfill, M.A., of Oriel College, Oxford, who has, I suppose, no rival in this country in his knowledge of the Slavonic tongues, that no Russian translation of the Rambler has been published. He has given me the following t.i.tle of the Russian version of _Ra.s.selas_, which he has obtained for me through the kindness of Professor Grote, of the University of Warsaw:--

'Ra.s.selas, printz Abissinskii, Vostochnaya Poviest Sochinenie Doktora Dzhonsona Perevod s'angliiskago. 3 chasti, Moskva. 1795.

'Ra.s.selas, prince of Abyssinia, An Eastern Tale, by Doctor Johnson.

Translated from the English. 2 parts, Moscow, 1795.'

'_It has not wit enough to keep it sweet_.'

(Vol. iv, p. 320.)

'Heylyn, in the Epistle to his _Letter-Combate_, addressing Baxter, and speaking of such "unsavoury pieces of wit and mischief" as "the _Church-historian_" asks, "Would you not have me rub them with a little salt to keep them sweet?" This pa.s.sage was surely present in the mind of Dr. Johnson when he said concerning _The Rehearsal_ that "it had not wit enough to keep it sweet."'

--J. E. Bailey's _Life of Thomas Fuller_, p. 640.

_Pictures of Johnson_.

(Vol. iv, p. 421, n. 2.)

In the Common Room of Trinity College, Oxford, there is an interesting portrait of Johnson, said to be by Romney. I cannot, however, find any mention of it in the _Life_ of that artist. It was presented to the College by Canon Duckworth.

_The Gregory Family_.

(Vol. v, p. 48, n. 3.)

Mr. P. J. Anderson (in _Notes and Queries_, 7th S. iii. 147) casts some doubt on Chalmers' statement. He gives a genealogical table of the Gregory family, which includes thirteen professors; but two of these cannot, from their dates, be reckoned among Chalmers' sixteen.

_The University of St. Andrews in 1778_.

(Vol. v, p. 63, n. 2.)

In the preface to _Poems by George Monck Berkeley_, it is recorded (p. cccxlviii) that when 'Mr. Berkeley entered at the University of St. Andrews [about 1778], one of the college officers called upon him to deposit a crown to pay for the windows he might break. Mr. Berkeley said, that as he should reside in his father's house, it was little likely he should break any windows, having never, that he remembered, broke one in his life. He was a.s.sured that he _would_ do it at St.

Andrews. On the rising of the session several of the students said, "Now for the windows. Come, it is time to set off, let us sally forth!"

Mr. Berkeley, being called upon, enquired what was to be done? They replied, "Why, to break every window in college." "For what reason?"

"Oh! no reason; but that it has always been done from time immemorial."'

The Editor goes on to say that Mr. Berkeley prevailed on them to give up the practice. How poor some of the students were is shown by the following anecdote, told by the College Porter, who had to collect the crowns. 'I am just come,' he said, 'from a poor student indeed. I went for the window _croon_; he cried, begged, and prayed not to pay it, saying, "he brought but a croon to keep him all the session, and he had spent sixpence of it; so I have got only four and sixpence."' His father, a labourer, who owned three cows, 'had sold one to dress his son for the University, and put the lamented croon in his pocket to purchase coals. All the lower students study by fire-light. He had brought with him a large tub of oatmeal and a pot of salted b.u.t.ter, on which he was to subsist from Oct. 20 until May 20.' Berkeley raised 'a very n.o.ble subscription' for the poor fellow.

In another pa.s.sage (p. cxcviii) it is recorded that Berkeley 'boasted to his father, "Well, Sir, idle as you may think me, I never have once bowed at any Professor's Lecture." An explanation being requested of the word _bowing_, it was thus given: "Why, if any poor fellow has been a little idle, and is not prepared to speak when called upon by the Professor, he gets up and makes a respectful-bow, and sits down again."' Berkeley was a grandson of Bishop Berkeley.