Life of Johnson
Chapter 166 : _Works_, viii. 487. Goldsmith, in his _Life of Parnell_ (_Misc. Works_, iv. 25), thus

_Works_, viii. 487. Goldsmith, in his _Life of Parnell_ (_Misc. Works_, iv. 25), thus seems to sneer at _The Elegy_:--'The _Night Piece_ on death deserves every praise, and, I should suppose, with very little amendment, might be made to surpa.s.s all those night pieces and _church-yard scenes_ that have since appeared.'

[965] Mr. Croker says, 'no doubt Lady Susan Fox who, in 1773, married Mr. William O'Brien, an actor.' It was in 1764 that she was married, so that it is not likely that she was the subject of this talk. See Horace Valpole's _Letters_, iv. 221.

[966] Mrs. Thrale's marriage with Mr. Piozzi.

[967] See _ante_, i. 408.

[968] Boswell was of the same way of thinking as Squire Western, who 'did indeed consider a parity of fortune and circ.u.mstances to be physically as necessary an ingredient in marriage as difference of s.e.xes, or any other essential; and had no more apprehension of his daughter falling in love with a poor man than with any animal of a different species.' _Tom Jones_, bk. vi. ch. 9.

[969]

'Temptanda via est, qua me quoque possim Tollere humo victorque virum volitare per ora.'

'New ways I must attempt, my grovelling name To raise aloft, and wing my flight to fame.'

DRYDEN, Virgil, _Georg_. iii. 9. 'Chesterfield was at once the most distinguished orator in the Upper House, and the undisputed sovereign of wit and fas.h.i.+on. He held this eminence for about forty years. At last it became the regular custom of the higher circles to laugh whenever he opened his mouth, without waiting for his _bon mot_. He used to sit at White's, with a circle of young men of rank around him, applauding every syllable that he uttered.' Macaulay's _Life_, i. 325.

[970] With the Literary Club, as is shewn by Boswell's letter of April 4, 1775, in which he says:--'I dine on Friday at the Turk's Head, Gerrard Street, with our Club, who now dine once a month, and sup every Friday.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 186. The meeting of Friday, March 24, is described _ante_, p. 318, and that of April 7, _post_, p. 345.

[971] Very likely Boswell (_ante_, ii. 84, note 3).

[972] In the _Garrick Corres_. (ii. 141) is a letter dated March 4, 1776, from (to use Garrick's own words) 'that worst of bad women, Mrs.

Abington, to ask my playing for her benefit.' It is endorsed by Garrick:--'A copy of Mother Abington's Letter about leaving the stage.'

[973] Twenty years earlier he had recommended to Miss Boothby as a remedy for indigestion dried orange-peel finely powdered, taken in a gla.s.s of hot red port. 'I would not,' he adds, 'have you offer it to the Doctor as my medicine. Physicians do not love intruders.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 397. See _post_, April 18, 1783.

[974] The misprint of _Chancellor_ for _Gentlemen_ is found in both the second and third editions. It is not in the first.

[975] Extracted from the Convocation Register, Oxford. BOSWELL.

[976] The original is in my possession. He shewed me the Diploma, and allowed me to read it, but would not consent to my taking a copy of it, fearing perhaps that I should blaze it abroad in his life-time. His objection to this appears from his 99th letter to Mrs. Thrale, whom in that letter he thus scolds for the grossness of her flattery of him:--'The other Oxford news is, that they have sent me a degree of Doctor of Laws, with such praises in the Diploma as perhaps ought to make me ashamed: they are very like your praises. I wonder whether I shall ever shew it [_them_ in the original] to you.'

It is remarkable that he never, so far as I know, a.s.sumed his t.i.tle of _Doctor_, but called himself _Mr_. Johnson, as appears from many of his cards or notes to myself; and I have seen many from him to other persons, in which he uniformly takes that designation. I once observed on his table a letter directed to him with the addition of _Esquire_, and objected to it as being a designation inferiour to that of Doctor; but he checked me, and seemed pleased with it, because, as I conjectured, he liked to be sometimes taken out of the cla.s.s of literary men, and to be merely _genteel,--un gentilhomme comme un autre_.

Boswell. See post, March 30, 1781, where Johnson applies the t.i.tle to himself in speaking, and April 13, 1784, where he does in writing, and Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 15, 1773, note.

[977] 'To make a man pleased with himself, let me tell you, is doing a very great thing.' _Post_, April 28, 1778.

[978] 'The original is in the hands of Dr. Forthergril, then Vice-Chancellor, who made this transcript.' T. WARTON--BOSWELL.

[979] Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, as is shewn by _Piozzi Letters_, i. 213.

[980] 'That the design [of the _Dunciad_] was moral, whatever the author might tell either his readers or himself, I am not convinced. The first motive was the desire of revenging the contempt with which Theobald had treated his _Shakespeare_ and regaining the honour which he had lost, by crus.h.i.+ng his opponent.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 338.

[981]

'Daughter of Chaos and old Night, Cimmerian Muse, all hail!

That wrapt in never-twinkling gloom canst write, And shadowest meaning with thy dusky veil!

What Poet sings and strikes the strings?

It was the mighty Theban spoke.

He from the ever-living lyre With magic hand elicits fire.

Heard ye the din of modern rhymers bray?

It was cool M-n; or warm G-y, Involv'd in tenfold smoke.'

Colman's _Prose on Several Occasions_, ii. 273.

[982] 'These _Odes_,' writes Colman, 'were a piece of boys' play with my schoolfellow Lloyd, with whom they were written in concert.' _Ib_ i. xi.

In the _Connoisseur_ (_ante_, i. 420) they had also written in concert.

'Their humour and their talents were well adapted to what they had undertaken; and Beaumont and Fletcher present what is probably the only parallel instance of literary co-operation so complete, that the portions written by the respective parties are undistinguishable.'

Southey's _Cowper_, i. 47.

[983] _Ante_, i. 402.

[984] Boswell writing to Temple two days later, recalled the time 'when you and I sat up all night at Cambridge and read Gray with a n.o.ble enthusiasm; when we first used to read Mason's _Elfrida_, and when we talked of that elegant knot of worthies, Gray, Mason, Walpole, &c.'

_Letters of Boswell_, p. 185.

[985] 'I have heard Mr. Johnson relate how he used to sit in some coffee-house at Oxford, and turn M----'s _C-r-ct-u-s_ into ridicule for the diversion of himself and of chance comers-in. "The _Elf--da_," says he, "was too exquisitely pretty; I could make no fun out of that."'

Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 37. I doubt whether Johnson used the word _fun_, which he describes in his _Dictionary_ as 'a low cant [slang] word.'

[986] See _post_, March 26, 1779, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 1, and under Nov. 11, 1773. According to Dr. T. Campbell (_Diary_, p. 36), Johnson, on March 16, had said that _Taxation no Tyranny_ did not sell.

[987] Six days later he wrote to Dr. Taylor:--'The patriots pelt me with answers. Four pamphlets, I think, already, besides newspapers and reviews, have been discharged against me. I have tried to read two of them, but did not go through them.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 422.

[988] 'Mrs. Macaulay,' says Mr. Croker, who quotes Johnson's _Works_, vi. 258, where she is described as 'a female patriot bewailing the miseries of her friends and fellow-citizens.' See _ante_, i. 447.

[989] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 24, 1773, and _post_, Sept. 24, 1777, for another landlord's account of Johnson.

[990] From Dryden's lines on Milton.

[991] Horace Walpole wrote, on Jan. 15, 1775 (_Letters_, vi.

171):--'They [the Millers] hold a Parna.s.sus-fair every Thursday, give out rhymes and themes, and all the flux of quality at Bath contend for the prizes. A Roman Vase, dressed with pink ribands and myrtles, receives the poetry, which is drawn out every festival: six judges of these Olympic games retire and select the brightest compositions, which the respective successful acknowledge, kneel to Mrs. Calliope Miller, kiss her fair hand, and are crowned by it with myrtle, with--I don't know what.'

[992] Miss Burney wrote, in 1780:--'Do you know now that, notwithstanding Bath-Easton is so much laughed at in London, nothing here is more tonish than to visit Lady Miller. She is a round, plump, coa.r.s.e-looking dame of about forty, and while all her aim is to appear an elegant woman of fas.h.i.+on, all her success is to seem an ordinary woman in very common life, with fine clothes on.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 364.

[993] 'Yes, on my faith, there are _bouts-rimes_ on a b.u.t.tered m.u.f.fin, made by her Grace the d.u.c.h.ess of Northumberland.' Walpole's _Letters_, vi. 171. 'She was,' Walpole writes, 'a jovial heap of contradictions.

She was familiar with the mob, while stifled with diamonds; and yet was attentive to the most minute privileges of her rank, while almost shaking hands with a cobbler.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, i.

419. Dr. Percy showed her Goldsmith's ballad of _Edwin and Angelina_ in MS., and she had a few copies privately printed. Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 379.

[994] Perhaps Mr. Seward, who was something of a literary man, and who visited Bath (_post_, under March 30, 1783).

[995]

'--rerum Fluctibus in mediis et tempestatibus urbis.'

Horace, _Epistles_, ii. 2. 84. See _ante_, i. 461.

[996]

'Qui semel adspexit quantum dimissa pet.i.tis Praestent, mature redeat repetatque relicta.'

Horace, _Epistles_, i. 7. 96.