Life of Johnson
Chapter 66 : [513] Boswell proceeds to mention six.[514] In Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in wh

[513] Boswell proceeds to mention six.

[514] In Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in which this paraphrase is inserted, it is stated that the Latin epitaph was written by Dr. Freind.

I do not think that the English version is by Johnson. I should be sorry to ascribe to him such lines as:--

'Ill.u.s.trious age! how bright thy glories shone, When Hanmer filled the chair--and Anne the throne.'

[515] In the _Observations_, Johnson, writing of Hanmer, says:--'Surely the weapons of criticism ought not to be blunted against an editor who can imagine that he is restoring poetry while he is amusing himself with alterations like these:--

For,--This is the sergeant Who like a good and hardy soldier fought; --This is the sergeant who Like a _right_ good and hardy soldier fought.

Such harmless industry may surely be forgiven, if it cannot be praised; may he therefore never want a monosyllable who can use it with such wonderful dexterity.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 93. In his Preface to _Shakespeare_ published eighteen years later, he describes Hanmer as 'A man, in my opinion, eminently qualified by nature for such studies.'

_Ib_. p. 139. The editors of the _Cambridge Shakespeare_ (i. x.x.xii) thus write of Hanmer:--

'A country gentleman of great ingenuity and lively fancy, but with no knowledge of older literature, no taste for research, and no ear for the rhythm of earlier English verse, amused his leisure hours by scribbling down his own and his friend's guesses in Pope's _Shakespeare_.'

[516] In the _Universal Visiter_, to which Johnson contributed, the mark which is affixed to some pieces unquestionably his, is also found subjoined to others, of which he certainly was not the author. The mark therefore will not ascertain the poems in question to have been written by him. They were probably the productions of Hawkesworth, who, it is believed, was afflicted with the gout. MALONE.

It is most unlikely that Johnson wrote such poor poems as these. I shall not easily be persuaded that the following lines are his:--

'Love warbles in the vocal groves, And vegetation paints the plain.'

'And love and hate alike implore The skies--"That Stella mourn no more."'

'The Winter's Walk' has two good lines, but these may have been supplied by Johnson. The lines to 'Lyce, an elderly Lady,' would, if written by him, have been taken as a satire on his wife.

[517] See _post_ under Sept. 18, 1783.

[518] See Johnson's _Works_, vii. 4, 34.

[519] Boswell italicises _conceits_ to shew that he is using it in the sense in which Johnson uses it in his criticism of Cowley:--'These conceits Addison calls mixed wit; that is, wit which consists of thoughts true in one sense of the expression and false in the other.'

_Ib_. vii 35.

[520] _Namby Pamby_ was the name given to Ambrose Philips by Pope _Ib_.

viii. 395

[521] Malone most likely is meant. Mr. Croker says:--'Johnson has "_indifferently_" in the sense of "_without concern_" in his _Dictionary_, with this example from _Shakespeare_, "And I will look on death indifferently."' Johnson however here defines indifferently as _in a neutral state; without wish or aversion_; which is not the same as _without concern_. The pa.s.sage, which is from _Julius Caesar_, i. 2, is not correctly given. It is--

'Set honour in one eye and death i' the other And I will look on both indifferently.'

We may compare Johnson's use of _indifferent_ in his Letter to Chesterfield, _post_, Feb. 7, 1755:--'The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours ... has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it.'

[522] 'Radcliffe, when quite a boy, had been engaged in the rebellion of 1715, and being attainted had escaped from Newgate.... During the insurrection [of 1745], having been captured on board a French vessel bound for Scotland, he was arraigned on his original sentence which had slumbered so long. The only trial now conceded to him was confined to his ident.i.ty. For such a course there was no precedent, except in the case of Sir Walter Raleigh, which had brought shame upon the reign of James I.' Campbell's _Chancellors_ (edit. 1846), v. 108. Campbell adds, 'his execution, I think, reflects great disgrace upon Lord Hardwicke [the Lord Chancellor].'

[523] In the original _end_.

[524] "These verses are somewhat too severe on the extraordinary person who is the chief figure in them, for he was undoubtedly brave. His pleasantry during his solemn trial (in which, by the way, I have heard Mr. David Hume observe, that we have one of the very few speeches of Mr.

Murray, now Earl of Mansfield, authentically given) was very remarkable.

When asked if he had any questions to put to Sir Everard Fawkener, who was one of the strongest witnesses against him, he answered, 'I only wish him joy of his young wife.' And after sentence of death, in the horrible terms in cases of treason, was p.r.o.nounced upon him, and he was retiring from the bar, he said, 'Fare you well, my Lords, we shall not all meet again in one place.' He behaved with perfect composure at his execution, and called out '_Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori_?'

'What joys, what glories round him wait, Who bravely for his country dies!"

FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, iii.2. 13.

BOSWELL.

'Old Lovat was beheaded yesterday,' wrote Horace Walpole on April 10, 1747, 'and died extremely well: without pa.s.sion, affectation, buffoonery, or timidity; his behaviour was natural and intrepid.'

_Letters_, ii. 77.

[525] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_.

[526] My friend, Mr. Courtenay, whose eulogy on Johnson's Latin Poetry has been inserted in this Work [_ante_, p. 62], is no less happy in praising his English Poetry.

But hark, he sings! the strain ev'n Pope admires; Indignant virtue her own bard inspires.

Sublime as juvenal he pours his lays, And with the Roman shares congenial praise;-- In glowing numbers now he fires the age, And Shakspeare's sun relumes the clouded stage.

BOSWELL.

[527] The play is by Ambrose Philips. 'It was concluded with the most successful Epilogue that was ever yet spoken on the English theatre. The three first nights it was recited twice; and not only continued to be demanded through the run, as it is termed, of the play; but, whenever it is recalled to the stage, where by peculiar fortune, though a copy from the French, it yet keeps its place, the Epilogue is still expected, and is still spoken.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 389. See _post_, April 21, 1773, note on Eustace Budgel. The Epilogue is given in vol. v. p. 228 of Bonn's _Addison_, and the great success that it met with is described in _The Spectator_, No. 341.

[528] Such poor stuff as the following is certainly not by Johnson:--

'Let musick sound the voice of joy!

Or mirth repeat the jocund tale; Let Love his wanton wiles employ, And o'er the season wine prevail.'

[529] 'Dodsley first mentioned to me the scheme of an English Dictionary; but I had long thought of it.' _Post_, Oct. 10, 1779.

[530] It would seem from the pa.s.sage to which Boswell refers that Pope had wished that Johnson should undertake the _Dictionary_. Johnson, in mentioning Pope, says:--'Of whom I may be justified in affirming that were he still alive, solicitous as he was for the success of this work, he would not be displeased that I have undertaken it.' _Works_, v. 20.

As Pope died on May 30, 1744, this renders it likely that the work was begun earlier than Boswell thought.

[531] In the t.i.tle-page of the first edition after the name of Hirch comes that of L. Hawes.

[532] 'During the progress of the work he had received at different times the amount of his contract; and when his receipts were produced to him at a tavern-dinner given by the booksellers, it appeared that he had been paid a hundred pounds and upwards more than his due.' Murphy's _Johnson_. p. 78. See _post_, beginning of 1756.

[533] 'The truth is, that the several situations which I have been in having made me long the _plastron_ [b.u.t.t] of dedications, I am become as callous to flattery as some people are to abuse.' Lord Chesterfield, date of Dec. 15, 1755; Chesterfield's _Misc. Works_, iv. 266.

[534] September 22, 1777, going from Ashbourne in Derbys.h.i.+re, to see Islam. BOSWELL.

[535] Boswell here says too much, as the following pa.s.sages in the _Plan_ prove:--'Who upon this survey can forbear to wish that these fundamental atoms of our speech might obtain the firmness and immutability of the primogenial and const.i.tuent particles of matter?'

'Those translators who, for want of understanding the characteristical difference of tongues, have formed a chaotick dialect of heterogeneous phrases;' 'In one part refinement will be subtilised beyond exactness, and evidence dilated in another beyond perspicuity.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 12, 21, 22.

[536] Ausonius, _Epigram_ i. 12.

[537] Whitehead in 1757 succeeded Colley Cibber as poet-laureate, and dying in 1785 was followed by Thomas Warton. From Warton the line of succession is Pye, Southey, Wordsworth, Tennyson. See _post_, under June 13, 1763.

[538] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 176) likewise says that the ma.n.u.script pa.s.sed through Whitehead and 'other hands' before it reached Chesterfield. Mr.

Croker had seen 'a draft of the prospectus carefully written by an amanuensis, but signed in great form by Johnson's own hand. It was evidently that which was laid before Lord Chesterfield. Some useful remarks are made in his lords.h.i.+p's hand, and some in another. Johnson adopted all these suggestions.'

[539] This poor piece of criticism confirms what Johnson said of Lord Orrery:--'He grasped at more than his abilities could reach; tried to pa.s.s for a better talker, a better writer, and a better thinker that he was.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22, 1773. See _post_, under April 7, 1778.