Life of Johnson
Chapter 73 : [729] 'My friend Maltby and I,' said Samuel Rogers, 'when we were very y

[729] 'My friend Maltby and I,' said Samuel Rogers, 'when we were very young men, had a strong desire to see Dr. Johnson; and we determined to call upon him, and introduce ourselves. We accordingly proceeded to his house in Bolt Court; and I had my hand on the knocker when our courage failed us, and we retreated. Many years afterwards I mentioned this circ.u.mstance to Boswell, who said, "What a pity that you did not go boldly in! He would have received you with all kindness."' Rogers's _Table Talk_, p. 9. For Johnson's levee see _post_, 1770, in Dr.

Maxwell's _Collectanea_.

[730] 'George Langton,' writes Mr. Best in his _Memorials_ (p. 66), 'shewed me his pedigree with the names and arms of the families with which his own had intermarried. It was engrossed on a piece of parchment about ten inches broad, and twelve to fifteen feet long. "It leaves off at the reign of Queen Elizabeth," said he.'

[731] Topham Beauclerk was the only son of Lord Sidney Beauclerk, fifth son of the first Duke of St. Alban's. He was therefore the great-grandson of Charles II. and Nell Gwynne. He was born in Dec. 1739.

In my _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and his Critics_ I have put together such facts as I could find about Langton and Beauclerk.

[732] Mr. Best describes Langton as 'a very tall, meagre, long-visaged man, much resembling a stork standing on one leg near the sh.o.r.e in Raphael's cartoon of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes. His manners were, in the highest degree, polished; his conversation mild, equable and always pleasing.' Best's _Memorials_, p. 62. Miss Hawkins writes:--'If I were called on to name the person with whom Johnson might have been seen to the fairest advantage, I should certainly name Mr. Langton.' Miss Hawkins's _Memoirs_, i. 144. Mrs. Piozzi wrote in 1817:--'I remember when to have Langton at a man's house stamped him at once a literary character.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 203.

[733] In the summer of 1759. See _post_, under April 15, 1758, and 1759.

[734] Lord Charlemont said that 'Beauclerk possessed an exquisite taste, various accomplishments, and the most perfect good breeding. He was eccentric, often querulous, entertaining a contempt for the generality of the world, which the politeness of his manners could not always conceal; but to those whom he liked most generous and friendly. Devoted at one time to pleasure, at another to literature, sometimes absorbed in play, sometimes in books, he was altogether one of the most accomplished, and when in good humour and surrounded by those who suited his fancy, one of the most agreeable men that could possibly exist.'

Lord Charlemont's _Life_, i. 210. Hawkins writes (_Life_, p. 422) that 'over all his behaviour there beamed such a suns.h.i.+ne of cheerfulness and good-humour as communicated itself to all around him.' Mrs. Piozzi said of him:--'Topham Beauclerk (wicked and profligate as he wished to be accounted) was yet a man of very strict veracity. Oh Lord! how I did hate that horrid Beauclerk.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 348. Rogers (_Table-Talk_, p. 40) said that 'Beauclerk was a strangely absent person.' He once went to dress for a dinner-party in his own house. 'He forgot all about his guests; thought that it was bed-time, and got into bed. His servant, coming to tell him that his guests were waiting for him, found him fast asleep.'

[735] It was to the Round-house that Captain Booth was first taken in Fielding's _Amelia_, Book i, chap. 2.

[736]

'Blends, in exception to all general rules, Your taste of follies with our scorn of fools.'

Pope, _Moral Essays_, ii. 275.

[737] In the college which _The Club_ was to set up at St. Andrew's, Beauclerk was to have the chair of natural philosophy. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 25, 1773. Goldsmith, writing to Langton in 1771, says: 'Mr. Beauclerk is now going directly forward to become a second Boyle; deep in chymistry and physics.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 283. Boswell described to Temple, in 1775, Beauclerk's villa at Muswell Hill, with its 'observatory, laboratory for chymical experiments.' Boswell's _Letters_, p. 194.

[738] 'I'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a n.o.bleman should do.' 1 Henry IV. Act v. sc. 4.

[739] 'Bishop. A cant word for a mixture of wine, oranges, and sugar.'

Johnson's _Dictionary_.

[740] Mr. Langton has recollected, or Dr. Johnson repeated, the pa.s.sage wrong. The lines are in Lord Lansdowne's Drinking Song to Sleep, and run thus:--

'Short, very short be then thy reign, For I'm in haste to laugh and drink again.' BOSWELL.

Lord Lansdowne was the Granville of Pope's couplet--

'But why then publish? Granville the polite, And knowing Walsh, would tell me I could write.'

_Prologue to the Satires,_ 1.135.

[741] Boswell in _Hebrides_ (Aug. 18, 1773) says that Johnson, on starting from Edinburgh, left behind in an open drawer in Boswell's house 'one volume of a pretty full and curious Diary of his life, of which I have a few fragments.' He also states (_post_, under Dec 9, 1784):--'I owned to him, that having accidentally seen them [two quarto volumes of his _Life_] I had read a great deal in them.' It would seem that he had also transcribed a portion.

[742] This is inconsistent with what immediately follows, for No. 39 on Sleep was published on March 20.

[743] Hawkesworth in the last number of _The Adventurer_ says that he had help at first from A.; 'but this resource soon failing, I was obliged to carry on the publication alone, except some casual supplies, till I obtained from the gentlemen who have distinguished their papers by T and Z, such a.s.sistance as I most wished.' In a note he says that the papers signed Z are by the Rev. Mr. Warton. The papers signed A are written in a light style. In Southey's _Cowper_, i. 47, it is said that Bonnell Thornton wrote them.

[744] Boswell had read the pa.s.sage carelessly. Statius is mentioned, but the writer goes on to quote _Cowley_, whose Latin lines C. B. has translated. Johnson's _Works_, iv. 10.

[745] Malone says that 'Johnson was fond of him, but latterly owned that Hawkesworth--who had set out a modest, humble man--was one of the many whom success in the world had spoiled. He was latterly, as Sir Joshua Reynolds told me, an affected insincere man, and a great cos...o...b..in his dress. He had no literature whatever.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 441. See _post_, April 11 and May 7, 1773, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 3.

[746] 'Johnson's statement to Warton is definite and is borne out by internal evidence, if internal evidence can be needful when he had once made a definite statement. The papers signed _Misargyrus_, the first of which appeared on March 3, are all below his style. They were not, I feel sure, written by him, and are improperly given in the Oxford edition of his works. I do not find in them even any traces of his hand.

The paper on Sleep, No. 39, is I am almost sure, partly his, but I believe it is not wholly. In the frequency of quotations in the first part of it I see another, and probably a younger author. The pa.s.sage on the 'low drudgery of digesting dictionaries' is almost certainly his.

Dr. Bathurst, perhaps, wrote the Essay, and Johnson corrected it.

Whether it was Johnson's or not, it was published after the letter to Dr. Warton was written.

[747] See _post_, April 25, 1778, for an instance where Johnson's silence did not imply a.s.sent.

[748] 'One evening at the Club Johnson proposed to us the celebrating the birth of Mrs. Lennox's first literary child, as he called her book, [_The Life of Harriet Stuart_, a novel, published Dec. 1750] by a whole night spent in festivity. Our supper was elegant, and Johnson had directed that a magnificent hot apple-pie should make a part of it, and this he would have stuck with bay-leaves, because, forsooth, Mrs. Lennox was an auth.o.r.ess, and had written verses; and further, he had prepared for her a crown of laurel, with which, but not till he had invoked the Muses by some ceremonies of his own invention, he encircled her brows.

About five Johnson's face shone with meridian splendour, though his drink had been only lemonade.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 286. See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's 'Collection,' and May 15, 1784.

[749] In a doc.u.ment in the possession of one of Cave's collateral descendants which I have seen dated May 3, 1754, and headed, 'Present state of the late Mr. Edward Cave's effects,' I found entered '_Magazine_, 3,000. _Daily Advertiser_, 900.' The total value of the effects was 8,708.

[750] Johnson records of his friend that 'one of the last acts of reason which he exerted was fondly to press the hand that is now writing this little narrative.' _Works_, vi. 433.

[751] See Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 189.

[752] Lord Chesterfield writing to his son in 1751 (_Letters_, iii. 136) said:--'People in high life are hardened to the wants and distresses of mankind, as surgeons are to their bodily pains; they see and hear of them all day long, and even of so many simulated ones, that they do not know which has are real, and which are not. Other sentiments are therefore to be applied to than those of mere justice and humanity; their favour must be captivated by the _suaviter in modo_; their love of ease disturbed by unwearied importunity; or their fears wrought upon by a decent intimation of implacable, cool resentment: this is the true _fort.i.ter in re_! He was himself to experience an instance of the true _fort.i.ter in re_.

[753] If Lord Chesterfield had read the last number of _The Rambler_ (published in March, 1752) he could scarcely have flattered himself with these expectations. Johnson, after saying that he would not endeavour to overbear the censures of criticism by the influence of a patron, added:--'The supplications of an author never yet reprieved him a moment from oblivion; and, though greatness sometimes sheltered guilt, it can afford no protection to ignorance or dulness. Having hitherto attempted only the propagation of truth, I will not at last violate it by the confession of terrors which I do not feel; having laboured to maintain the dignity of virtue, I will not now degrade it by the meanness of dedication.'

[754] On Nov. 28 and Dec. 5, 1754. _The World_, by Adam Fitz-Adam, Jan.

1753 to Dec. 1765. The editor was Edward Moore. Among the contributors were the Earls of Chesterfield and Corke, Horace Walpole, R. O.

Cambridge, and Soame Jenyns. See _post_, July 1, 1763.

[755] With these papers as a whole Johnson would have been highly offended. The anonymous writer hopes that his readers will not suspect him 'of being a hired and interested puff of this work.' 'I most solemnly protest,' he goes on to say, 'that neither Mr. Johnson, nor any booksellers have ever offered me the usual compliment of a pair of gloves or a bottle of wine.' It is a pretty piece of irony for a wealthy n.o.bleman solemnly to protest that he has not been bribed by a poor author, whom seven years before he had repulsed from his door. But Chesterfield did worse than this. By way of recommending a work of so much learning and so much labour he tells a foolish story of an a.s.signation that had failed 'between a fine gentleman and a fine lady.'

The letter that had pa.s.sed between them had been badly spelt, and they had gone to different houses. 'Such examples,' he wrote, 'really make one tremble; and will, I am convinced, determine my fair fellow-subjects and their adherents to adopt and scrupulously conform to Mr. Johnson's rules of true orthography.' Johnson, in the last year of his life, at a time of great weakness and depression, defended the roughness of his manner. 'I have done more good as I am. Obscenity and impiety have always been repressed in my company' (_post_, June 11, 1784).

[756] In the original 'Mr. Johnson.'

[757] In the original 'unnecessary foreign ornaments.'

[758] In the original, 'will now, and, I dare say.'

[759] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 191) says that Chesterfield, further to appease Johnson, sent to him Sir Thomas Robinson (see _post_, July 19, 1763), who was 'to apologise for his lords.h.i.+p's treatment of him, and to make him tenders of his future friends.h.i.+p and patronage. Sir Thomas, whose talent was flattery, was profuse in his commendations of Johnson and his writings, and declared that, were his circ.u.mstances other than they were, himself would settle 500 a year on him. 'And who are you,'

asked Johnson, 'that talk thus liberally?' 'I am,' said the other, 'Sir Thomas Robinson, a Yorks.h.i.+re baronet.' 'Sir,' replied Johnson, 'if the first peer of the realm were to make me such an offer, I would shew him the way down stairs.'

[760] _Paradise Lost_, ii. 112.

[761] Johnson, perhaps, was thinking of his interviews with Chesterfield, when in his _Rambler_ on 'The Mischiefs of following a Patron' (No. 163) he wrote:--'If you, Mr. Rambler, have ever ventured your philosophy within the attraction of greatness, you know the force of such language, introduced with a smile of gracious tenderness, and impressed at the conclusion with an air of solemn sincerity.'

[762] Johnson said to Garrick:--'I have sailed a long and painful voyage round the world of the English language; and does he now send out two c.o.c.k-boats to tow me into harbour?' Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 74. This metaphor may perhaps have been suggested to Johnson by Warburton. 'I now begin to see land, after having wandered, according to Mr. Warburton's phrase, in this vast sea of words.' _Post_, Feb. 1, 1755.

[763] See _post_, Nov. 22, 1779, and April 8, 1780. Sir Henry Ellis says that 'address' in Johnson's own copy of his letter to Lord Chesterfield is spelt twice with one _d_. Croker's _Corres_. ii. 44. In the series of Letters by Johnson given in _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v, Johnson writes _persuit_ (p. 325); 'I cannot _b.u.t.t_ (p. 342); 'to retain _council_' (p. 343); _harra.s.sed_ (p. 423); _imbecillity_ (p. 482). In a letter to Nichols quoted by me, _post_, beginning of 1783, he writes _ilness_. He commonly, perhaps always, spelt _Boswell Boswel_, and Nichols's name in one series of letters he spelt Nichols, Nichol, and Nicol. _Post_, beginning of 1781, note.

[764] Dr. Johnson appeared to have had a remarkable delicacy with respect to the circulation of this letter; for Dr. Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury, informs me that, having many years ago pressed him to be allowed to read it to the second Lord Hardwicke, who was very desirous to hear it (promising at the same time, that no copy of it should be taken), Johnson seemed much pleased that it had attracted the attention of a n.o.bleman of such a respectable character; but after pausing some time, declined to comply with the request, saying, with a smile, 'No, Sir; I have hurt the dog too much already;' or words to that purpose. BOSWELL.

[765] See _post_, June 4, 1781.

[766] In 1790, the year before the _Life of Johnson_ came out, Boswell published this letter in a separate sheet of four quarto pages under the following t.i.tle:--_The celebrated Letter from Samuel Johnson, LL.D., to Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield; Now first published with Notes, by James Boswell, Esq., London. Printed by Henry Baldwin: for Charles Dilly in the Poultry, MDCCXC. Price Half-a-Guinea. Entered in the Hall-Book of the Company of Stationers_. It belongs to the same impression as _The Life of Johnson_.