Life of Johnson
Chapter 408 : [1214] 'Proinde quum dominus Matth. 6 docet discipulos suos ne in orando multiloq

[1214] 'Proinde quum dominus Matth. 6 docet discipulos suos ne in orando multiloqui sint, nihil aliud docet quam ne credant deum inani verborum strepitu flecti rem eandem subinde flagitantium. Nam Graecis est [Greek: battologaesate]. [Greek: Battologein] autem illis dicitur qui voces easdem frequenter iterant sine causa, vel loquacitatis, vel naturae, vel consuetudinis vitio. Alioqui juxta precepta rhetorum nonnunquam laudis est iterare verba, quemadmodum et Christus in cruce clamitat. Deus meus, deus meus: non erat illa [Greek: battologia], sed ardens ac vehemens affectus orantis.' Erasmus's _Works_, ed. 1540, v. 927.

[1215] This alludes to Southwell's stanzas 'Upon the Image of Death,' in his _Maeonia_, [Maeoniae] a collection of spiritual poems:--

'Before my face the picture hangs, That daily should put me in mind Of those cold names and bitter pangs That shortly I am like to find: But, yet, alas! full little I Do thinke hereon that I must die.' &c.

Robert Southwell was an English Jesuit, who was imprisoned, tortured, and finally, in Feb. 1598 [1595] executed for teaching the Roman Catholic tenets in England. CROKER.

[1216] This work, which Johnson was now reading, was, most probably, a little book, ent.i.tled _Baudi Epistolae_. In his _Life of Milton_ [_Works_, vii. 115], he has made a quotation from it. DUPPA.

[1217] Bishop s.h.i.+pley had been an Army Chaplain. _Ante_, iii. 251.

[1218] The t.i.tle of the poem is [Greek: Poiaema nouthetikon]. DUPPA.

[1219] This entry refers to the following pa.s.sage in Leland's _Itinerary_, published by Thomas Hearne, ed. 1744, iv. 112. 'B. _Smith_ in K.H.7. dayes, and last Bishop of _Lincolne_, beganne a new Foundation at this place settinge up a Mr. there with 2. Preistes, and 10. poore Men in an Hospitall. He sett there alsoe a Schoole-Mr. to teach Grammer that hath 10._l_. by the yeare, and an Under-Schoole-Mr. that hath 5._l_. by the yeare. King H.7. was a great Benefactour to this new Foundation, and gave to it an ould Hospitall called Denhall in Wirhall in Ches.h.i.+re.'

[1220] _A Journey to Meqwinez, the Residence of the present Emperor of Fez and Morocco, on the Occasion of Commodore Stewart's Emba.s.sy thither, for the Redemption of the British captives, in the Year 1721_. DUPPA.

[1221] The _Bibliotheca Literaria_ was published in London, 1722-4, in 4to numbers, but only extended to ten numbers. DUPPA.

[1222] By this expression it would seem, that on this day Johnson ate sparingly. DUPPA.

[1223] 'A weakness of the knees, not without some pain in walking, which I feel increased after I have dined.' DUPPA.

[1224] Penmaen Mawr is a huge rock, rising nearly 1550 feet perpendicular above the sea. Along a shelf of this precipice, is formed an excellent road, well guarded, toward the sea, by a strong wall, supported in many parts by arches turned underneath it. Before this wall was built, travellers sometimes fell down the precipices. DUPPA.

[1225] See _post_, p. 453.

[1226] 'Johnson said that one of the castles in Wales would contain all the castles that he had seen in Scotland.' _Ante_, ii. 285.

[1227] This gentleman was a lieutenant in the Navy. DUPPA.

[1228] Lady Catharine Percival, daughter of the second Earl of Egmont: this was, it appears, the lady of whom Mrs. Piozzi relates, that 'For a lady of quality, since dead, who received us at her husband's seat in Wales with less attention than he had long been accustomed to, he had a rougher denunciation:--"That woman," cried Johnson, "is like sour small beer, the beverage of her table, and produce of the wretched country she lives in: like that, she could never have been a good thing, and even that bad thing is spoiled."' [_Anec_. p. 171.] And it is probably of her, too, that another anecdote is told:--'We had been visiting at a lady's house, whom, as we returned, some of the company ridiculed for her ignorance:--"She is not ignorant," said he, "I believe, of any thing she has been taught, or of any thing she is desirous to know; and I suppose if one wanted a little _run tea_, she might be a proper person enough to apply to.'" [_Ib_. p. 219.] Mrs. Piozzi says, in her MS.

letters, 'that Lady Catharine comes off well in the _diary_. He _said_ many severe things of her, which he did not commit to paper.' She died in 1782. CROKER.

[1229] Johnson described in 1762 his disappointment on his return to Lichfield. _Ante_, i. 370.

[1230] 'It was impossible not to laugh at the patience Doctor Johnson shewed, when a Welsh parson of mean abilities, though a good heart, struck with reverence at the sight of Dr. Johnson, whom he had heard of as the greatest man living, could not find any words to answer his inquiries concerning a motto round somebody's arms which adorned a tomb-stone in Ruabon church-yard. If I remember right, the words were,

Heb Dw, Heb Dym, Dw o' diggon.

And though of no very difficult construction, the gentleman seemed wholly confounded, and unable to explain them; till Mr. Johnson, having picked out the meaning by little and little, said to the man, "_Heb_ is a preposition, I believe, Sir, is it not?" My countryman recovering some spirits upon the sudden question, cried out, "So I humbly presume, Sir,"

very comically.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 238. The Welsh words, which are the Myddelton motto, mean, 'Without G.o.d, without all. G.o.d is all-sufficient.' _Piozzi MS_. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 423.

[1231] In 1809 the whole income for Llangwinodyl, including surplice fees, amounted to forty-six pounds two s.h.i.+llings and twopence, and for Tydweilliog, forty-three pounds nineteen s.h.i.+llings and tenpence; so that it does not appear that Mr. Thrale carried into effect his good intention. DUPPA.

[1232] Mr. Thrale was near-sighted, and could not see the goats browsing on Snowdon, and he promised his daughter, who was a child of ten years old, a penny for every goat she would shew him, and Dr. Johnson kept the account; so that it appears her father was in debt to her one hundred and forty-nine pence. Queeny was the epithet, which had its origin in the nursery, by which Miss Thrale was always distinguished by Johnson.

DUPPA. Her name was Esther. The allusion was to Queen Esther. Johnson often pleasantly mentions her in his letters to her mother. Thus on July 27, 1780, he writes:--'As if I might not correspond with my Queeney, and we might not tell one another our minds about politicks or morals, or anything else. Queeney and I are both steady and may be trusted; we are none of the giddy gabblers, we think before we speak.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 169. Four days later he wrote:--'Tell my pretty dear Queeney, that when we meet again, we will have, at least for some time, two lessons in a day. I love her and think on her when I am alone; hope we shall be very happy together and mind our books.' _Ib_. p. 173.

[1233] See _ante_, iv. 421, for the inscription on an urn erected by Mr.

Myddelton 'on the banks of a rivulet where Johnson delighted to stand and repeat verses.' On Sept. 18, 1777, Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale: --'Mr. ----'s erection of an urn looks like an intention to bury me alive; I would as willingly see my friend, however benevolent and hospitable, quietly inurned. Let him think for the present of some more acceptable memorial.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 371.

[1234] Johnson wrote on Oct. 24, 1778:--'My two clerical friends Darby and Worthington have both died this month. I have known Worthington long, and to die is dreadful. I believe he was a very good man.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 26.

[1235] Thomas, the second Lord Lyttelton. DUPPA.

[1236] Mr. Gwynn the architect was a native of Shrewsbury, and was at this time completing a bridge across the Severn, called the English Bridge: besides this bridge, he built one at Acham, over the Severn, near to Shrewsbury; and the bridges at Worcester, Oxford [Magdalen Bridge], and Henley. DUPPA. He was also the architect of the Oxford Market, which was opened in 1774. _Oxford during the Last Century_, ed.

1859, p. 45. Johnson and Boswell travelled to Oxford with him in March, 1776. _Ante_, ii. 438. In 1778 he got into some difficulties, in which Johnson tried to help him, as is shewn by the following autograph letter in the possession of my friend Mr. M. M. Holloway:--

'SIR,

'Poor Mr. Gwyn is in great distress under the weight of the late determination against him, and has still hopes that some mitigation may be obtained. If it be true that whatever has by his negligence been amiss, may be redressed for a sum much less than has been awarded, the remaining part ought in equity to be returned, or, what is more desirable, abated. When the money is once paid, there is little hope of getting it again.

'The load is, I believe, very hard upon him; he indulges some flattering opinions that by the influence of his academical friends it may be lightened, and will not be persuaded but that some testimony of my kindness may be beneficial. I hope he has been guilty of nothing worse than credulity, and he then certainly deserves commiseration. I never heard otherwise than that he was an honest man, and I hope that by your countenance and that of other gentlemen who favour or pity him some relief may be obtained.

'I am, Sir, 'Your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' 'Bolt Court, Fleet-street, 'Jan. 30, 1778.'

[1237] An ancestor of mine, a nursery-gardener, Thomas Wright by name, after whom my grandfather, Thomas Wright Hill, was called, planted this walk. The tradition preserved in my family is that on his wedding-day he took six men with him and planted these trees. When blamed for keeping the wedding-dinner waiting, he answered, that if what he had been doing turned out well, it would be of far more value than a wedding-dinner.

[1238] The Rector of St. Chad's, in Shrewsbury. He was appointed Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, in the following year. See _ante_, ii. 441.

[1239] 'I have heard Dr. Johnson protest that he never had quite as much as he wished of wall-fruit except once in his life, and that was when we were all together at Ombersley.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 103. Mrs. Thrale wrote to him in 1778:--'Mr. Scrase gives us fine fruit; I wished you my pear yesterday; but then what would one pear have done for you?' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 36. It seems unlikely that Johnson should not at Streatham have had all the wall-fruit that he wished.

[1240] This visit was not to Lord Lyttelton, but to his uncle [afterwards by successive creations, Lord Westcote, and Lord Lyttelton], the father of the present Lord Lyttelton, who lived at a house called Little Hagley. DUPPA. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale in 1771:--'I would have been glad to go to Hagley in compliance with Mr. Lyttelton's kind invitation, for beside the pleasure of his conversation I should have had the opportunity of recollecting past times, and wandering _per montes notos et flumina nota_, of recalling the images of sixteen, and reviewing my conversations with poor Ford.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 42. He had been at school at Stourbridge, close by Hagley. _Ante_, i. 49. See Walpole's _Letters_, ix. 123, for an anecdote of Lord Westcote.

[1241] Horace Walpole, writing of Hagley in Sept. 1753 (_Letters_, ii.

352), says:--'There is extreme taste in the park: the seats are not the best, but there is not one absurdity. There is a ruined castle, built by Miller, that would get him his freedom even of Strawberry [Walpole's own house at Twickenham]: it has the true rust of the Barons' Wars.'

[1242] 'Mrs. Lyttelton forced me to play at whist against my liking, and her husband took away Johnson's candle that he wanted to read by at the other end of the room. Those, I trust, were the offences.' _Piozzi MS._ CROKER.

[1243] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 409) thus writes of Shenstone and the Leasowes:--'He began to point his prospects, to diversify his surface, to entangle his walks, and to wind his waters; which he did with such judgment and such fancy as made his little domain the envy of the great and the admiration of the skilful; a place to be visited by travellers and copied by designers. .... For awhile the inhabitants of Hagley affected to tell their acquaintance of the little fellow that was trying to make himself admired; but when by degrees the Leasowes forced themselves into notice, they took care to defeat the curiosity which they could not suppress by conducting their visitants perversely to inconvenient points of view, and introducing them at the wrong end of a walk to detect a deception; injuries of which Shenstone would heavily complain. Where there is emulation there will be vanity; and where there is vanity there will be folly. The pleasure of Shenstone was all in his eye: he valued what he valued merely for its looks; nothing raised his indignation more than to ask if there were any fishes in his water.' See _ante_, p. 345.

[1244] See _ante_, iii. 187, and v. 429.

[1245] 'He spent his estate in adorning it, and his death was probably hastened by his anxieties. He was a lamp that spent its oil in blazing.

It is said that if he had lived a little longer he would have been a.s.sisted by a pension: such bounty could not have been ever more properly bestowed.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 410. His friend, Mr.

Graves, the author of _The Spiritual Quixote_, in a note on this pa.s.sage says that, if he was sometimes distressed for money, yet he was able to leave legacies and two small annuities.

[1246] Mr. Duppa--without however giving his authority--says that this was Dr. Wheeler, mentioned _ante_, iii. 366. The _Birmingham Directory_ for the year 1770 shews that there were two tradesmen in the town of that name, one having the same Christian name, Benjamin, as Dr. Wheeler.

[1247] Boswell visited these works in 1776. _Ante_, ii. 459.

[1248] Burke in the House of Commons on Jan. 25, 1771, in a debate on Falkland's Island, said of the Spanish Declaration:--'It was made, I admit, on the true principles of trade and manufacture. It puts me in mind of a Birmingham b.u.t.ton which has pa.s.sed through an hundred hands, and after all is not worth three-halfpence a dozen.' _Parl. Hist._ xvi. 1345.

[1249] Johnson and Boswell drove through the Park in 1776. _Ante_, ii.

451.

[1250] 'My friend the late Lord Grosvenor had a house at Salt Hill, where I usually spent a part of the summer, and thus became acquainted with that great and good man, Jacob Bryant. Here the conversation turned one morning on a Greek criticism by Dr. Johnson in some volume lying on the table, which I ventured (_for I was then young_) to deem incorrect, and pointed it out to him. I could not help thinking that he was somewhat of my opinion, but he was cautious and reserved. "But, Sir,"

said I, willing to overcome his scruples, "Dr. Johnson himself admitted that he was not a good Greek scholar." "Sir," he replied, with a serious and impressive air, "it is not easy for us to say what such a man as Johnson would call a good Greek scholar." I hope that I profited by that lesson--certainly I never forgot it.' Gifford's _Works of Ford_, vol. i.

p. lxii. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 794. 'So notorious is Mr. Bryant's great fondness for studying and proving the truths of the creation according to Moses, that he told me himself, and with much quaint humour, a pleasantry of one of his friends in giving a character of him:--"Bryant," said he, "is a very good scholar, and knows all things whatever up to Noah, but not a single thing in the world beyond the Deluge."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, iii. 229.