Life of Johnson
Chapter 87 : 'When her pride, fierce in arms, Would to Europe give law; At her cost let her com

'When her pride, fierce in arms, Would to Europe give law; At her cost let her come, To our cheer of huzza!

Not lightning with thunder more terrible darts, Than the burst of huzza from our bold _British_ hearts.'

_Gent. Mag_. xxv. 515.

WM. WHITEHEAD.

'Ye guardian powers, to whose command, At Nature's birth, th' Almighty mind The delegated task a.s.sign'd To watch o'er Albion's favour'd land, What time your hosts with choral lay, Emerging from its kindred deep, Applausive hail'd each verdant steep, And white rock, glitt'ring to the new-born day!'

_Ib_. xxix. 32.

[1181] See _ante_, p. 167.

[1182] 'Whitehead was for some while Garrick's "reader" of new plays for Drury-lane.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 41. See _post_, April 25, 1778, note. The verses to Garrick are given in Chalmers's _English Poets_, xvii. 222.

[1183] 'In 1757 Gray published _The Progress of Poetry_ and _The Bard_, two compositions at which the readers of poetry were at first content to gaze in mute amazement. Some that tried them confessed their inability to understand them.... Garrick wrote a few lines in their praise. Some hardy champions undertook to rescue them from neglect; and in a short time many were content to be shown beauties which they could not see.'

Johnson's _Works_, viii. 478. See _post_, March 28, and April 2, 1775, and 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. Goldsmith, no doubt, attacked Gray among 'the misguided innovators,' of whom he said in his _Life of Parnell_:--'They have adopted a language of their own, and call upon mankind for admiration. All those who do not understand them are silent, and those who make out their meaning are willing to praise to show they understand.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, iv. 22.

[1184] Johnson, perhaps, refers to the anonymous critic quoted by Mason in his notes on this Ode, who says:--'This abrupt execration plunges the reader into that sudden fearful perplexity which is designed to predominate through the whole.' Mason's _Gray_, ed. 1807, i. 96.

[1185] 'Of the first stanza [of _The Bard_] the abrupt beginning has been celebrated; but technical beauties can give praise only to the inventor. It is in the power of any man to rush abruptly upon his subject that has read the ballad of _Johnny Armstrong_.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 485.

[1186] My friend Mr. Malone, in his valuable comments on Shakspeare, has traced in that great poet the _disjecta membra_ of these lines. BOSWELL.

Gray, in the edition of _The Bard_ of the year 1768, in a note on these lines had quoted from _King John_, act v. sc. 1:--'Mocking the air with colours idly spread.' Gosse's _Gray_, i. 41. But Malone quotes also from _Macbeth_, act i. sc. 2:--

'Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold.'

'Out of these pa.s.sages,' he said, 'Mr. Gray seems to have framed the first stanza of his celebrated _Ode_.' Malone's _Shakespeare_, xv. 344.

[1187] Cradock records (_Memoirs_, 1.230) that Goldsmith said to him:--'You are so attached to Kurd, Gray, and Mason, that you think nothing good can proceed but out of that formal school;--now, I'll mend Gray's _Elegy_ by leaving out an idle word in every line.

"The curfew tolls the knell of day, The lowing herd winds o'er the lea The ploughman homeward plods his way And---"

Enough, enough, I have no ear for more.'

[1188] So, less than two years later, Boswell opened his mind to Paoli.

'My time pa.s.sed here in the most agreeable manner. I enjoyed a sort of luxury of n.o.ble sentiment. Paoli became more affable with me. I made myself known to him.' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 167.

[1189] See _ante_, p. 67.

[1190] See _post_, Sept. 22, 1777.

[1191] See _post_, March 30, 1778, where in speaking of the appearance of spirits after death he says:--'All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.' See also _ante_, p. 343, and _post_, April 15, 1778, under May 4, 1779, April 15, 1781, and June 12, 1784.

[1192] The caricature begins:--

'Pomposo, insolent and loud Vain idol of a _scribbling_ crowd, Whose very name inspires an awe Whose ev'ry word is Sense and Law.'

Churchill's _Poems_, i. 216.

[1193] The chief impostor, a man of the name of Parsons, had, it should seem, set his daughter to play the part of the ghost in order to pay out a grudge against a man who had sued him for a debt. The ghost was made to accuse this man of poisoning his sister-in-law, and to declare that she should only be at ease in her mind if he were hanged. 'When Parsons stood on the Pillory at the end of c.o.c.k Lane, instead of being pelted, he had money given him.' _Gent. Mag_. x.x.xii. 43, 82, and x.x.xiii. 144.

[1194] Horace Walpole, writing on Feb. 2, 1762 (_Letters_, iii. 481), says:--'I could send you volumes on the Ghost, and I believe, if I were to stay a little, I might send its _life_, dedicated to my Lord Dartmouth, by the Ordinary of Newgate, its two great patrons. A drunken parish clerk set it on foot out of revenge, the Methodists have adopted it, and the whole town of London think of nothing else.... I went to hear it, for it is not an _apparition_, but an _audition_, ... the Duke of York, Lady Northumberland, Lady Mary c.o.ke, Lord Hertford, and I, all in one Hackney-coach: it rained torrents; yet the lane was full of mob, and the house so full we could not get in.' See _post_, April 10, 1778.

[1195] Described by Goldsmith in _Retaliation_ as 'The scourge of impostors, the terror of quacks.' See _ante_, p. 229.

[1196] The account was as follows:--'On the night of the 1st of February [1762] many gentlemen eminent for their rank and character were, by the invitation of the Reverend Mr. Aldrich, of Clerkenwell, a.s.sembled at his house, for the examination of the noises supposed to be made by a departed spirit, for the detection of some enormous crime.

'About ten at night the gentlemen met in the chamber in which the girl, supposed to be disturbed by a spirit, had, with proper caution, been put to bed by several ladies. They sat rather more than an hour, and hearing nothing, went down stairs, when they interrogated the father of the girl, who denied, in the strongest terms, any knowledge or belief of fraud.

'The supposed spirit had before publickly promised, by an affirmative knock, that it would attend one of the gentlemen into the vault under the Church of St. John, Clerkenwell, where the body is deposited, and give a token of her presence there, by a knock upon her coffin; it was therefore determined to make this trial of the existence or veracity of the supposed spirit.

'While they were enquiring and deliberating, they were summoned into the girl's chamber by some ladies who were near her bed, and who had heard knocks and scratches. When the gentlemen entered, the girl declared that she felt the spirit like a mouse upon her back, and was required to hold her hands out of bed. From that time, though the spirit was very solemnly required to manifest its existence by appearance, by impression on the hand or body of any present, by scratches, knocks, or any other agency, no evidence of any preter-natural power was exhibited.

'The spirit was then very seriously advertised that the person to whom the promise was made of striking the coffin, was then about to visit the vault, and that the performance of the promise was then claimed. The company at one o'clock went into the church, and the gentleman to whom the promise was made, went with another into the vault. The spirit was solemnly required to perform its promise, but nothing more than silence ensued: the person supposed to be accused by the spirit, then went down with several others, but no effect was perceived. Upon their return they examined the girl, but could draw no confession from her. Between two and three she desired and was permitted to go home with her father.

'It is, therefore, the opinion of the whole a.s.sembly, that the child has some art of making or counterfeiting a particular noise, and that there is no agency of any higher cause.' BOSWELL. _Gent. Mag_. x.x.xii. 81. The following MS. letter is in the British Museum:--

'REVD. SIR,

The appointment for the examination stands as it did when I saw you last, viz., between 8 and 9 this evening. Mr. Johnson was applied to by a friend of mine soon after you left him, and promised to be with us.

Should be glad, if convenient, you'd show him the way hither. Mrs.

Oakes, of Dr. Macauley's recommendation, I should be glad to have here on the occasion; and think it would do honour to the list of examiners to have Dr. Macauley with us.

I am, Dear Sir, your most obedient servant, STE. ALDRICH.

If Dr Macauley can conveniently attend, should be glad you'd acquaint Lord Dartmouth with it, who seemed to be at loss to recommend a gentleman of the faculty at his end of the town.

St. John's Square. Monday noon.

To the Revd. Dr. Douglas.'

Endorsed 'Mr. Aldrich, Feb. 1762, about the c.o.c.k Lane ghost.--Examination at his house.'

[1197] Boswell was with Paoli when news came that a Corsican under sentence of death 'had consented to accept of his life, upon condition of becoming hangman. This made a great noise among the Corsicans, who were enraged at the creature, and said their nation was now disgraced.

Paoli did not think so. He said to me:--"I am glad of this. It will be of service. It will contribute to form us to a just subordination. As we must have Corsican tailours, and Corsican shoemakers, we must also have a Corsican hangman."' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 201. See _post_, July 20 and 21, 1763, April 13, 1773, and March 28, 1775.

[1198] 'Mallet's Dramas had their day, a short day, and are forgotten.'

Johnson's _Works_, viii. 468.

[1199] See _ante_, p. 384, note.

[1200] 'A man had heard that Dempster was very clever, and therefore expected that he could say nothing but good things. Being brought acquainted, Mr. Dempster said to him with much politeness, "I hope, Sir, your lady and family are well." "Ay, ay, man," said he, "pray where is the great wit in that speech?"' _Boswelliana_, p. 307. Mr. Dempster is mentioned by Burns in _The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer to the Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons_:--'Dempster, a true-blue Scot I'se warran.' In 1769 he was elected member for the Forfar Boroughs.

_Parl. Hist_. xvi. 453.

[1201] _The Critical Review_, in which Mallet himself sometimes wrote, characterised this pamphlet as 'the crude efforts of envy, petulance and self conceit.' There being thus three epithets, we, the three authours, had a humourous contention how each should be appropriated. BOSWELL.

[1202] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 86) talks of the chiefs 'gradually degenerating from patriarchal rulers to rapacious landlords.' In Boswell's _Hebrides_, the subject is often examined.