Life of Johnson
Chapter 79 : [929]'I have ventured, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, This many su

[929]

'I have ventured, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, This many summers in a sea of glory, But far beyond my depth.'

Henry VIII, Act iii. sc. 2.

[930] _Musical Travels through England_, by Joel Collier [not Collyer], Organist, 1774. This book was written in ridicule of Dr. Burney's _Travels_, who, says his daughter, 'was much hurt on its first appearance.' Dr. Burney's _Memoirs_, i. 259.

[931] See _ante_, p. 223.

[932] Some time after Dr. Johnson's death there appeared in the newspapers and magazines an illiberal and petulant attack upon him, in the form of an Epitaph, under the name of Mr. Soame Jenyns, very unworthy of that gentleman, who had quietly submitted to the critical lash while Johnson lived. It a.s.sumed, as characteristicks of him, all the vulgar circ.u.mstances of abuse which had circulated amongst the ignorant. It was an unbecoming indulgence of puny resentment, at a time when he himself was at a very advanced age, and had a near prospect of descending to the grave. I was truly sorry for it; for he was then become an avowed, and (as my Lord Bishop of London, who had a serious conversation with him on the subject, a.s.sures me) a sincere Christian.

He could not expect that Johnson's numerous friends would patiently bear to have the memory of their master stigmatized by no mean pen, but that, at least, one would be found to retort. Accordingly, this unjust and sarcastick Epitaph was met in the same publick field by an answer, in terms by no means soft, and such as wanton provocation only could justify:

'EPITAPH,

'_Prepared for a creature_ not quite dead _yet_.

'Here lies a little ugly nauseous elf, Who judging only from its wretched self, Feebly attempted, petulant and vain, The "Origin of Evil" to explain.

A mighty Genius at this elf displeas'd, With a strong critick grasp the urchin squeez'd.

For thirty years its coward spleen it kept, Till in the duat the mighty Genius slept; Then stunk and fretted in expiring snuff, And blink'd at JOHNSON with its last poor puff.'

BOSWELL.

The epitaph is very likely Boswell's own. For Jenyns's conversion see _post_, April 12 and 15, 1778.

[933] Mr. John Payne, afterwards chief accountant of the Bank, one of the four surviving members of the Ivy Lane Club who dined together in 1783. See Hawkins's _Johnson_, pp. 220, 563; and _post_, December, 1783.

[934] See _post_, under March 19, 1776.

[935] 'He said, "I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life; it generates kindness and consolidates society."'

Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 21, 1773.

[936] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3d edit. p. 48. [Aug. 19.]

BOSWELL.

[937] Johnson's _Works_, p. 435.

[938] He was paid at the rate of a little over twopence a line. For this Introduction see _Ib_. 206.

[939] See _post_, Oct. 26, 1769.

[940] See _post_, April 5, 1775.

[941] In 1740 he set apart the yearly sum of 100 to be distributed, by way of premium, to the authors of the best inventions, &c., in Ireland.

Chalmers's _Biog. Dict_.

[942] _Boulter's Monument. A Panegyrical Poem, sacred to the memory of that great and excellent prelate and patriot, the Most Reverend Dr. Hugh Boulter; Late Lord-Archbishop of Ardmagh, and Primate of All Ireland_.

Dublin, 1745. Such lines as the following might well have been blotted, but of them the poem is chiefly formed:--

'My peaceful song in lays instructive paints The first of mitred peers and Britain's saints.' p. 2.

'Ha! mark! what gleam is that which paints the air?

The blue serene expands! Is Boulter there?' p. 88.

The poet addresses Boulter's successor Hoadley, who he says,

'Shall equal him; while, like Elisha, you Enjoy his spirit, and his mantle too.' p. 89.

A note to _mantle_ says 'Alluding to the metropolitan pallium.'

Boulter is the bishop in Pope's lines, (_Prologue to the Satires_, 1.

99):--

'Does not one table Bavius still admit?

'Still to one bishop Philips seem a wit?'

Pattison's _Pope's Satires_, p. 107. In the _Life of Addison_, Johnson mentioning Dr. Madden adds:--'a name which Ireland ought to honour.'

Johnson's _Works_, vii. 455.

[943] See _ante_, p. 175. Hawkins writes (_Life_, p. 363):--'I congratulated him length, on his being now engaged in a work that suited his genius. His answer was:--"I look upon this as I did upon the _Dictionary_; it is all work, and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which is the only motive to writing that I know of."'

[944] They have been reprinted by Mr. Malone, in the Preface to his edition of _Shakspeare_. BOSWELL.

[945] At Christmas, 1757, he said that he should publish about March, 1758 (_post_, Dec. 24, 1757). When March came he said that he should publish before summer (_post_, March 1, 1758).

[946] In what Johnson says of Pope's slow progress in translating the _Iliad_, he had very likely his own case in view. 'Indolence, interruption, business, and pleasure all take their turns of r.e.t.a.r.dation; and every long work is lengthened by a thousand causes that can, and ten thousand that cannot be recounted. Perhaps no extensive and multifarious performance was ever effected within the term originally fixed in the undertaker's mind. He that runs against time has an antagonist not subject to casualties.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 255. In Prior's _Goldsmith_ (i. 238) we have the following extracts from letters written by Grainger (_post_, March 21, 1776) to Dr. Percy:--'June 27, 1758. I have several times called on Johnson to pay him part of your subscription [for his edition of _Shakespeare_]. I say, part, because he never thinks of working if he has a couple of guineas in his pocket; but if you notwithstanding order me, the whole shall be given him at once.'

'July 20, 1758. As to his _Shakespeare, movet sed non promovet_. I shall feed him occasionally with guineas.'

[947] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 440) says that 'Reynolds and some other of his friends, who were more concerned for his reputation than himself seemed to be, contrived to entangle him by a wager, or some other pecuniary engagement, to perform his task by a certain time.' Just as Johnson was oppressed by the engagement that he had made to edit _Shakespeare_, so was Cowper by his engagement to edit _Milton_. 'The consciousness that there is so much to do and nothing done is a burthen I am not able to bear. _Milton_ especially is my grievance, and I might almost as well be haunted by his ghost, as goaded with such continual reproaches for neglecting him.' Southey's _Cowper_, vii. 163.

[948] From _The Ghost_, Bk. iii. 1. 801. Boswell makes two slight errors in quoting: 'You cash' should be 'their cash; and 'you know' should be 'we know.'

[949] See _post_, April 17, 1778.

[950] Mrs. Thrale writing to him in 1777, says:--'You would rather be sick in London than well in the country.' _Piozzi Letters_. i. 394. Yet Johnson, when he could afford to travel, spent far more time in the country than is commonly thought. Moreover a great part of each summer from 1766 to 1782 inclusive he spent at Streatham.

[951] The motto to this number

'Steriles nec legit arenas, Ut caneret paucis, mersitque hoc pulvere verum.'

(Lucan).

Johnson has thus translated:--

'Canst thou believe the vast eternal mind Was e'er to Syrts and Libyan sands confin'd?

That he would choose this waste, this barren ground, To teach the thin inhabitants around, And leave his truth in wilds and deserts drown'd?'

[952] It was added to the January number of 1758, but it was dropped in the following numbers.

[953] According to the note in the _Gent. Mag_. the speech was delivered 'at a certain respectable talking society.' The chairman of the meeting is addressed as Mr. President. The speech is vigorously written and is, I have no doubt, by Johnson. 'It is fit,' the speaker says, 'that those whom for the future we shall employ and pay may know they are the servants of a people that _expect duty for their money_. It is said an address expresses some distrust of the king, or may tend to disturb his quiet. An English king, Mr. President, has no great right to quiet when his people are in misery.'