Life of Johnson
Chapter 170 : [1101] This song is the twelfth air in act i.[1102] 'In several parts of tragedy,

[1101] This song is the twelfth air in act i.

[1102] 'In several parts of tragedy,' writes Tom Davies, 'Walker's look, deportment, and action gave a _distinguished glare to tyrannic rage_.'

Davies's _Garrick_, i. 24.

[1103] Pope said of himself and Swift:--'Neither of us thought it would succeed. We shewed it to Congreve, who said it would either take greatly or be d.a.m.ned confoundedly. We were all at the first night of it in great uncertainty of the event, till we were very much encouraged by overhearing the Duke of Argyle say, "It will do--it must do! I see it in the eyes of them!" This was a good while before the first act was over, and so gave us ease soon: for that duke has a more particular knack than any one now living in discovering the taste of the publick. He was quite right in this, as usual: the good-nature of the audience appeared stronger and stronger every act, and ended in a clamour of applause.'

Spence's _Anec_. p. 159. See _The Dundad_, iii. 330, and _post_, April 25, 1778.

[1104] R. B. Sheridan married Miss Linley in 1773.

[1105] His wife had 3000, settled on her with delicate generosity by a gentleman to whom she had been engaged. Moore's _Sheridan_, i. 43.

[1106] 'Those who had felt the mischief of discord and the tyranny of usurpation read _Hudibras_ with rapture, for every line brought back to memory something known, and gratified resentment by the just censure of something hated. But the book, which was once quoted by princes, and which supplied conversation to all the a.s.semblies of the gay and witty, is now seldom mentioned, and even by those that affect to mention it, is seldom read.' _The Idler_, No. 59.

[1107] In his _Life of Addison_, Johnson says (_Works_, vii. 431):--'The reason which induced Cervantes to bring his hero to the grave, _para mi solo nacio Don Quixote y yo para el_ [for me alone was Don Quixote born, and I for him], made Addison declare, with undue vehemence of expression, that he would kill Sir Roger; being of opinion that they were born for one another, and that any other hand would do him wrong.'

[1108] 'It may be doubted whether Addison ever filled up his original delineation. He describes his knight as having his imagination somewhat warped; but of this perversion he has made very little use.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 431.

[1109] 'The papers left in the closet of Pieresc supplied his heirs with a whole winter's fuel.' _The Idler_, No. 65. 'A chamber in his house was filled with letters from the most eminent scholars of the age. The learned in Europe had addressed Pieresc in their difficulties, who was hence called "the attorney-general of the republic of letters." The n.i.g.g.ardly niece, though entreated to permit them to be published, preferred to use these learned epistles occasionally to light her fires.' D'Israeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, i. 59.

[1110] Boswell was accompanied by Paoli. To justify his visit to London, he said:--'I think it is also for my interest, as in time I may get something. Lord Pembroke was very obliging to me when he was in Scotland, and has corresponded with me since. I have hopes from him.'

_Letters of Boswell_, pp. 182, 189, and _post_, iii. 122, note 2. Horace Walpole described Lord Pembroke in 1764 as 'a young profligate.'

_Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, i. 415.

[1111] Page 316. BOSWELL.

[1112] Page 291. BOSWELL.

[1113] In justice to Dr. Memis, though I was against him as an Advocate, I must mention, that he objected to the variation very earnestly, before the translation was printed off. BOSWELL.

[1114] Mr. Croker quotes _The World_ of June 7, 1753, where a Londoner, 'to gratify the curiosity of a country friend, accompanied him in Easter week to Bedlam. To my great surprise,' he writes, 'I found a hundred people, at least, who, having paid their twopence apiece, were suffered unattended to run rioting up and down the wards making sport of the miserable inhabitants. I saw them in a loud laugh of triumph at the ravings they had occasioned.' Young (_Universal Pa.s.sion_, Sat. v.) describes Britannia's daughters

'As unreserved and beauteous as the sun, Through every sign of vanity they run; a.s.semblies, parks, coa.r.s.e feasts in city halls, Lectures and trials, plays, committees, b.a.l.l.s; Wells, _Bedlams_, executions, Smithfield scenes, And fortune-tellers' caves, and lions' dens.'

In 1749, William Hutton walked from Nottingham to London, pa.s.sed three days there in looking about, and returned on foot. The whole journey cost him ten s.h.i.+llings and eight-pence. He says:--'I wished to see a number of curiosities, but my shallow pocket forbade. _One penny to see Bedlam was all I could spare_.' Hutton's _Life_, pp. 71, 74. Richardson (_Familiar Letters_, No. 153) makes a young lady describe her visit to Bedlam:--'The distempered fancies of the miserable patients most unaccountably provoked mirth and loud laughter; nay, so shamefully inhuman were some, among whom (I am sorry to say it) were several of my own s.e.x, as to endeavour to provoke the patients into rage to make them sport.'

[1115] In the _Life of Dryden_ (_Works_, vii. 304), Johnson writes:--'Virgil would have been too hasty if he had condemned him [Statius] _to straw_ for one sounding line.' In _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of June 10), Mr. Bramble says to Clinker:--'The sooner you lose your senses entirely the better for yourself and the community. In that case, some charitable person might provide you with a dark room and clean straw in Bedlam.' Churchill, in _Independence_ (Poems, ii.

307), writes:--

'To Bethlem with him--give him whips and straw, I'm very sensible he's mad in law.'

[1116] My very honourable friend General Sir George Howard, who served in the Duke of c.u.mberland's army, has a.s.sured me that the cruelties were not imputable to his Royal Highness. BOSWELL. Horace Walpole shews the Duke's cruelty to his own soldiers. 'In the late rebellion some recruits had been raised under a positive engagement of dismission at the end of three years. When the term was expired they thought themselves at liberty, and some of them quitted the corps. The Duke ordered them to be tried as deserters, and not having received a legal discharge, they were condemned. Nothing could mollify him; two were executed.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George II_, ii. 203.

[1117] It has been suggested that this is Dr. Percy (see _post_, April 23, 1778), but Percy was more than 'an acquaintance of ours,' he was a friend.

[1118] Very likely Mr. Steevens. See _post_, April 13, 1778, and May 15, 1784.

[1119] On this day Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'Boswell has made me promise not to go to Oxford till he leaves London; I had no great reason for haste, and therefore might as well gratify a friend. I am always proud and pleased to have my company desired. Boswell would have thought my absence a loss, and I know not who else would have considered my presence as profit. He has entered himself at the Temple, and I joined in his bond. He is to plead before the Lords, and hopes very nearly to gain the cost of his journey. He lives much with his friend Paoli.'

_Piozzi Letters_, i. 216. Boswell wrote to Temple on June 6:--'For the last fortnight that I was in London I lay at Paoli's house, and had the command of his coach.... I felt more dignity when I had several servants at my devotion, a large apartment, and the convenience and state of a coach. I recollected that _this dignity in London_ was honourably acquired by my travels abroad, and my pen after I came home, so I could enjoy it with my own approbation.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 200. A year later he records, that henceforth, while in London, he was Paoli's constant guest till he had a house of his own there (_post_, iii. 34).

[1120] Lord Stowell told Mr. Croker that, among the Scottish _literati_, Mr. Crosbie was the only man who was disposed to _stand up_ (as the phrase is) to Johnson. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 270. It is said that he was the original of Mr. Counsellor Pleydell in Scott's novel of _Guy Mannering_. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Autobiography_, p. 420) says of 'the famous club called the Poker,' which was founded in Edinburgh in 1762:--'In a laughing humour, Andrew Crosbie was chosen a.s.sa.s.sin, in case any officer of that sort should be needed; but David Hume was added as his a.s.sessor, without whose a.s.sent nothing should be done, so that between _plus_ and _minus_ there was likely to be no bloodshed.' See Boswell's _Herbrides_, Aug. 16, 1773.

[1121] He left on the 22nd. 'Boswell,' wrote Johnson to Mrs. Thrale on May 22, 'went away at two this morning. He got two and forty guineas in fees while he was here. He has, by his wife's persuasion and mine, taken down a present for his mother-in-law.' [? Step-mother, with whom he was always on bad terms; _post_, iii. 95, note 1.] _Piozzi Letters_, i. 219.

Boswell, the evening of the same day, wrote to Temple from Grantham:--'I have now eat (sic) a Term's Commons in the Inner Temple. You cannot imagine what satisfaction I had in the form and ceremony of the _Hall_.... After breakfasting with Paoli, and wors.h.i.+pping at St. Paul's, I dined tete-a-tete with my charming Mrs. Stuart. We talked with unreserved freedom, as we had nothing to fear; we were _philosophical_, upon honour--not deep, but feeling; we were pious; we drank tea, and bid each other adieu as finely as romance paints. She is my wife's dearest friend; so you see how beautiful our intimacy is. I then went to Mr.

Johnson's, and he accompanied me to Dilly's, where we supped; and then he went with me to the inn in Holborn, where the Newcastle Fly sets out; we were warmly affectionate. He is to buy for me a chest of books, of his choosing, off stalls, and I am to read more and drink less; that was his counsel.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 196.

[1122] Yet Gilbert Walmsley had called him in his youth 'a good scholar.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 1; and Boswell wrote to him:--'Mr.

Johnson is ready to bruise any one who calls in question your cla.s.sical knowledge, and your happy application of it.' _Ib_ p. 622.

[1123] 'Those whose lot it is to ramble can seldom write, and those who know how to write very seldom ramble.' Johnson to Mrs. Thrale. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 32. See _post_, April 17, 1778.

[1124] A letter from Boswell to Temple on this day helps to fill up the gap in his journal:--'It gives me acute pain that I have not written more to you since we parted last; but I have been like a skiff in the sea, driven about by a multiplicity of waves. I am now at Mr. Thrale's villa, at Streatham, a delightful spot. Dr. Johnson is here too. I came yesterday to dinner, and this morning Dr. Johnson and I return to London, and I go with Mr. Beauclerk to see his elegant villa and library, worth 3000, at Muswell Hill, and return and dine with him. I hope Dr. Johnson will dine with us. I am in that dissipated state of mind that I absolutely cannot write; I at least imagine so. But while I glow with gaiety, I feel friends.h.i.+p for you, nay, admiration of some of your qualities, as strong as you could wish. My excellent friend, let us ever cultivate that mutual regard which, as it has lasted till now, will, I trust, never fail. On Sat.u.r.day last I dined with John Wilkes and his daughter, and n.o.body else, at the Mansion-House; it was a most pleasant scene. I had that day breakfasted with Dr. Johnson. I drank tea with Lord Bute's daughter-in-law, and I supped with Miss Boswell. What variety! Mr. Johnson went with me to Beauclerk's villa, Beauclerk having been ill; it is delightful, just at Highgate. He has one of the most numerous and splendid private libraries that I ever saw; green-houses, hot-houses, observatory, laboratory for chemical experiments, in short, everything princely. We dined with him at his box at the Adelphi. I have promised to Dr. Johnson to read when I get to Scotland, and to keep an account of what I read; I shall let you know how I go on. My mind must be nourished.' _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 193-5.

[1125] Swift did not laugh. 'He had a countenance sour and severe, which he seldom softened by any appearance of gaiety. He stubbornly resisted any tendency to laughter.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 222. Neither did Pope laugh. 'By no merriment, either of others or his own, was he ever seen excited to laughter.' _Ib_ p. 312. Lord Chesterfield wrote (_Letters_ i. 329):--'How low and unbecoming a thing laughter is. I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason n.o.body has ever heard me laugh.' Mrs. Piozzi records (_Anec_. p. 298) that 'Dr. Johnson used to say "that the size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth;" and his own was never contemptible.'

[1126] The day before he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'Peyton and Macbean [_ante_, i 187] are both starving, and I cannot keep them.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 218. On April 1, 1776, he wrote:--'Poor Peyton expired this morning. He probably, during many years for which he sat starving by the bed of a wife, not only useless but almost motionless, condemned by poverty to personal attendance chained down to poverty--he probably thought often how lightly he should tread the path of life without his burthen. Of this thought the admission was unavoidable, and the indulgence might be forgiven to frailty and distress. His wife died at last, and before she was buried he was seized by a fever, and is now going to the grave. Such miscarriages when they happen to those on whom many eyes are fixed, fill histories and tragedies; and tears have been shed for the sufferings, and wonder excited by the fort.i.tude of those who neither did nor suffered more than Peyton.' _Ib_ 312. Baretti, in a marginal note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 219, writes:--'Peyton was a fool and a drunkard. I never saw so nauseous a fellow.' But Baretti was a harsh judge.

[1127] A learned Greek. BOSWELL. 'He was a nephew of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and had fled from some ma.s.sacre of the Greeks.'

Johnstone's _Life of Parr_, i. 84.

[1128] See _ante_, p. 278.

[1129] Wife of the Rev. Mr. Kenneth Macaulay, authour of _The History of St. Kilda_. BOSWELL. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 28, 1773.

[1130] 'The Elzevirs of Glasgow,' as Boswell called them. (_Hebrides_, Oct. 29.)

[1131] See in Boswell's _Hebrides_, Johnson's letter of May 6, 1775.

[1132] A law-suit carried on by Sir Allan Maclean, Chief of his Clan, to recover certain parts of his family estates from the Duke of Argyle. BOSWELL.

[1133] A very learned minister in the Isle of Sky, whom both Dr. Johnson and I have mentioned with regard. BOSWELL. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept.

3, 1773, and Johnson's _Works_, ix. 54. Johnson in another pa.s.sage, (_ib_. p. 115), speaks of him as 'a very learned minister. He wished me to be deceived [as regards Ossian] for the honour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive me.' Johnson told him this to his face. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22. His credulity is shewn by the belief he held, that the name of a place called Ainnit in Sky was the same as the _Anaitidis delubrum_ in Lydia. _Ib_ Sept. 17.

[1134] This darkness is seen in his letters. He wrote 'June 3, 1775. It required some philosophy to bear the change from England to Scotland.

The unpleasing tone, the rude familiarity, the barren conversation of those whom I found here, in comparison with what I had left, really hurt my feelings ... The General a.s.sembly is sitting, and I practise at its Bar. There is _de facto_ something low and coa.r.s.e in such employment, though on paper it is a Court of _Supreme Judicature_; but guineas must be had ... Do you know it requires more than ordinary spirit to do what I am to do this very morning: I am to go to the General a.s.sembly and arraign a judgement p.r.o.nounced last year by Dr. Robertson, John Home, and a good many more of them, and they are to appear on the other side.

To speak well, when I despise both the cause and the Judges, is difficult: but I believe I shall do wonderfully. I look forward with aversion to the little, dull labours of the Court of Sessions. You see, Temple, I have my troubles as well as you have. My promise under the venerable yew has kept me sober.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 198. On June 19, he is 'vexed to think myself a coa.r.s.e labourer in an obscure corner.... Mr. Hume says there will in all probability be a change of the Ministry soon, which he regrets. Oh, Temple, while they change so often, how does one feel an ambition to have a share in the great department! ... My father is most unhappily dissatisfied with me. He harps on my going over Scotland with a brute (think how shockingly erroneous!) and wandering (or some such phrase) to London!' _Ib_ p. 201.

'Aug. 12. I have had a pretty severe return this summer of that melancholy, or hypochondria, which is inherent in my const.i.tution....

While afflicted with melancholy, all the doubts which have ever disturbed thinking men come upon me. I awake in the night dreading annihilation, or being thrown into some horrible state of being.' He recounts a complimentary letter he had received from Lord Mayor Wilkes, and continues:--'Tell me, my dear Temple, if a man who receives so many marks of more than ordinary consideration can be satisfied to drudge in an obscure corner, where the manners of the people are disagreeable to him.' _Ib_ p. 209.

[1135] He was absent from the end of May till some time in August. He wrote from Oxford on June 1:--'Don't suppose that I live here as we live at Streatham. I went this morning to the chapel at _six_.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 223. He was the guest of Mr. Coulson, a Fellow of University College. On June 6, he wrote:--'Such is the uncertainty of all human things that Mr. Coulson has quarrelled with me. He says I raise the laugh upon him, and he is an independent man, and all he has is his own, and he is not used to such things.' _Ib_ p. 226. An eye-witness told Mr. Croker that 'Coulson was going out on a country living, and talking of it with the same pomp as to Lord Stowell.' [He had expressed to him his doubts whether, after living so long in the _great world_, he might not grow weary of the comparative retirement of a country parish. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 425.] Johnson chose to imagine his becoming an archdeacon, and made himself merry at Coulson's expense.

At last they got to warm words, and Johnson concluded the debate by exclaiming emphatically--'Sir, having meant you no offence, I will make you no apology.' _Ib_ p. 458. The quarrel was made up, for the next day he wrote:--'Coulson and I are pretty well again.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 229.

[1136] Boswell wrote to Temple on Sept. 2:--'It is hardly credible how difficult it is for a man of my sensibility to support existence in the family where I now am. My father, whom I really both respect and affectionate (if that is a word, for it is a different feeling from that which is expressed by _love_, which I can say of you from my soul), is so different from me. We _divaricate_ so much, as Dr. Johnson said, that I am often hurt when, I dare say, he means no harm: and he has a method of treating me which makes me feel myself like a _timid boy_, which to _Boswell_ (comprehending all that my character does in my own imagination and in that of a wonderful number of mankind) is intolerable. His wife too, whom in my conscience I cannot condemn for any capital bad quality, is so narrow-minded, and, I don't know how, so set upon keeping him under her own management, and so suspicious and so sourishly tempered that it requires the utmost exertion of practical philosophy to keep myself quiet. I however have done so all this week to admiration: nay, I have appeared good-humoured; but it has cost me drinking a considerable quant.i.ty of strong beer to dull my faculties.'

_Letters of Boswell_, p. 215.

[1137] Voltaire wrote of Henault's _Abrege de l' Histoire de la France_:--'Il a ete dans l'histoire ce que Fontenelle a ete dans la philosophie. Il l'a rendue familiere.' Voltaire's _Works_, xvii. 99.

With a quotation from Henault, Carlyle begins his _French Revolution_.

[1138] My _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, which that lady read in the original ma.n.u.script. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale, 'May 22, 1775:--I am not sorry that you read Boswell's _Journal_. Is it not a merry piece? There is much in it about poor me.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.