difficulty happened to him, his first act would have been to knock theman down, and to call out for the police; and next, if he was worsted inthe conflict, he would not have given the ruffian the information heasked, at whatever risk to himself. I think he would have let himself bekilled first. I do not think that he would have told a lie.'[936] See _ante_, iii. 376.[937] Book ii. 1. 142.[938] The annotator calls them 'amiable verses.' BOSWELL. The annotatorsof the _Dunciad_ were Pope himself and Dr. Arbuthnot. Johnson's _Works_,viii. 280.[939] Boswell was at this time corresponding with Miss Seward. See_post_, June 25.[940] By John Dyer. _Ante_, ii. 453.[941] Lewis's Verses addressed to Pope were first published in aCollection of Pieces on occasion of _The Dunciad_, 8vo., 1732. They donot appear in Lewis's own _Miscellany_, printed in 1726.--_Grongar Hill_was first printed in Savage's _Miscellanies_ as an Ode, and was_reprinted_ in the same year in Lewis's _Miscellany_, in the form itnow bears.In his _Miscellanies_, 1726, the beautiful poem,--'Away, let nought tolove displeasing,'--reprinted in Percy's _Reliques_, vol. i. book iii.No. 13, first appeared. MALONE.[942] See _ante_, p. 58.[943] See _ante_, i. 71, and ii. 226.[944] Captain Cook's third voyage. The first two volumes by CaptainCook; the last by Captain King.[945] See _ante_, ii. 73, 228, 248; iii. 49.[946]'--quae mollissima fandi Tempora.''--time wherein the word May softliest be said.'MORRIS. Virgil, _Aeneids_, iv. 293.[947] See _ante_, i. 71.[948] See _ante_, i. 203, note 6.[949] Boswell began to eat dinners in the Inner Temple so early as 1775._Ante_, ii. 377, note 1. He was not called till Hilary Term, 1786.Rogers's _Boswelliana_, p. 143.[950] Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Jones wrote two years earlier(_Life_, p. 268):--'Whether it be a wise part to live uncomfortably inorder to die wealthy, is another question; but this I know byexperience, and have heard old practitioners make the same observation,that a lawyer who is in earnest must be chained to his chambers and thebar for ten or twelve years together.'[951] Johnson's _Prologue at the opening of Drury Lane Theatre. Works,_ i. 23.[952] According to Mr. Seward, who published this account in his_Anecdotes,_ ii. 83, it was Mr. Langton's great-grandfather who drewit up.[953] 'My Lord said that his rule for his, health was to be temperateand keep himself warm. He never made breakfasts, but used in the morningto drink a glass of some sort of ale. That he went to bed at nine, androse between six and seven, allowing himself a good refreshment for hissleep. That the law will admit of no rival, nothing to go even with it;but that sometimes one may for diversion read in the Latin historians ofEngland, Hoveden and Matthew Paris, &c. But after it is conquered, itwill admit of other studies. He said, a little law, a good tongue, and agood memory, would fit a man for the Chancery.' Seward's_Anecdotes_, ii. 92.[954] Wednesday was the 16th[955] See _ante_, i. 41.[956] _Letters to Mrs. Thrale_, vol. ii. p. 372. BOSWELL.[957] See _ante/_, i. 155.[958] The recommendation in this list of so many histories little agrees'with the fierce and boisterous contempt of ignorance' with which,according to Lord Macaulay, Johnson spoke of history. Macaulay's_Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 403.[959] See _ante_, iii. 12.[960] Northcote's account of Reynolds's table suits the description ofthis 'gentleman's mode of living.' 'A table prepared for seven or eightwas often compelled to contain fifteen or sixteen.' There was a'deficiency of knives and forks, plates and glasses. The attendance wasin the same style.' There were 'two or three undisciplined domestics.The host left every one at perfect liberty to scramble for himself.''Rags' is certainly a strong word to apply to any of the company; butthen strong words were what Johnson used. Northcote mentions 'themixture of company.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 94-6. See _ante_, iii.375, note 2.[961] The Mayor of Windsor. Rogers's _Boswelliana_, p. 211.[962] The passage occurs in Brooke's _Earl of Essex_(1761) at the closeof the first act, where Queen Elizabeth says:'I shall henceforth seekFor other lights to truth; for righteous monarchs,Justly to judge, with their own eyes should see;_To rule o'er freemen should themselves be free_.'_Notes and Queries_, 5th S. viii. 456.The play was acted at Drury Lane Theatre, old Mr. Sheridan taking thechief part. He it was who, in admiration, repeated the passage toJohnson which provoked the parody. Murphy's _Garrick_, p. 234.[963] 'Letters to Mrs. Thrale, vol. ii. p. 284. BOSWELL. In a secondletter (_ib_. p. 347) he says:--'Cator has a rough, manly independentunderstanding, and does not spoil it by complaisance.' Miss Burneyaccuses him of emptiness, verbosity and pomposity, all of which shedescribes in an amusing manner. Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 47.[964] 'All general reflections upon nations and societies are the trite,thread-bare jokes of those who set up for wit without having any, and sohave recourse to common-place.' Chesterfield's _Letters_, i. 231.[965] See vol. ii. p. 126. BOSWELL[966] '"That may be so," replied the lady, "for ought I know, but theyare above my comprehension." "I an't obliged to find you comprehension,Madam, curse me," cried he,' _Roderick Random_, ch. 53. '"I protest,"cried Moses, "I don't rightly comprehend the force of your reasoning.""O, Sir," cried the Squire, "I am your most humble servant, I findyou want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too."' _Vicarof Wakefield_, ch. 7.[967] In the first edition, 'as the Honourable Horace Walpole is oftencalled;' in the second edition, 'as Horace, now Earl of Orford, &c.'Walpole succeeded to the title in Dec. 1791. In answer tocongratulations he wrote (_Letters_, ix. 364):--'What has happeneddestroys my tranquillity.... Surely no man of seventy-four, unlesssuperannuated, can have the smallest pleasure in sitting at home in hisown room, as I almost always do, and being called by a new name.' Hedied March 2, 1797.[968] In _The Rambler_, No. 83, a character of a virtuoso is given whichin many ways suits Walpole:--'It is never without grief that I find aman capable of ratiocination or invention enlisting himself in thissecondary class of learning; for when he has once discovered a method ofgratifying his desire of eminence by expense rather than by labour, andknown the sweets of a life blest at once with the ease of idleness andthe reputation of knowledge, he will not easily be brought to undergoagain the toil of thinking, or leave his toys and trinkets for argumentsand principles.'[969] Walpole says:--'I do not think I ever was in a room with Johnsonsix times in my days.' _Letters_, ix. 319. 'The first time, I think, wasat the Royal Academy. Sir Joshua said, "Let me present Dr. Goldsmith toyou;" he did. "Now I will present Dr. Johnson to you." "No," said I,"Sir Joshua; for Dr. Goldsmith, pass--but you shall not present Dr.Johnson to me."' _Journal &c. of Miss Berry_, i. 305. In his _Journal ofthe Reign of George III_, he speaks of Johnson as 'one of the venalchampions of the Court,' 'a renegade' (i. 430); 'a brute,' 'an olddecrepit hireling' (_ib._ p. 472); and as 'one of the subordinate crewwhom to name is to stigmatize' (_ib._ ii. 5). In his _Memoirs of theReign of George III_, iv. 297, he says:--'With a lumber of learning andsome strong parts Johnson was an odious and mean character. His mannerswere sordid, supercilious, and brutal; his style ridiculously bombasticand vicious, and, in one word, with all the pedantry he had all thegigantic littleness of a country schoolmaster.'[970] See _ante_, i. 367.[971] On May 26, 1791, Walpole wrote of Boswell's _Life of Johnson(Letters_ ix. 3l9):--'I expected amongst the excommunicated to findmyself, but am very gently treated. I never would be in the leastacquainted with Johnson; or, as Boswell calls it, I had not a just valuefor him; which the biographer imputes to my resentment for the Doctor'sputting bad arguments (purposely out of Jacobitism) into the speecheswhich he wrote fifty years ago for my father in the _Gentleman'sMagazine_; which I did not read then, or ever knew Johnson wrote tillJohnson died.' Johnson said of these Debates:--'I saved appearancestolerably well; but I took care that the Whig dogs should not have thebest of it.' _Ante_, i. 504. 'Lord Holland said that whenever Boswellcame into a company where Horace Walpole was, Walpole would throw backhis head, purse up his mouth very significantly, and not speak a wordwhile Boswell remained.' _Autobiographical Recollections of C. R.Leslie_, i. 155. Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 44) says:--'Boswell, thatquintessence of busybodies, called on me last week, and was let in,which he should not have been, could I have foreseen it. After tappingmany topics, to which I made as dry answers as an unbribed oracle, hevented his errand.'[972] Walpole wrote (_Letters_, vi. 44):--'If _The School for Wives_and _The Christmas Tale_ were laid to me, so was _The Heroic Espistle_.I could certainly have written the two former, but not the latter.' See_ante_, iv. 113.[973] The title given by Bishop Pearson to his collection of Hales'sWritings is the _Golden Remains of the Ever Memorable John Hales ofEaton College, &c_. It was published in 1659.[974] I _Henry IV_, act ii. sc. 4. 'Sir James Mackintosh remembers that,while spending the Christmas of 1793 at Beaconsfield, Mr. Burke said tohim, 'Johnson showed more powers of mind in company than in hiswritings; but he argued only for victory; and when he had neither aparadox to defend, nor an antagonist to crush, he would preface hisassent with "Why, no, Sir."' CROKER. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 768.[975]Search then the ruling passion: There aloneThe wild are constant, and the cunning known;The fool consistent, and the false sincere;Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here.'Pope, _Moral Essays_, i. 174.'The publick pleasures of far the greater part of mankind arecounterfeit.' _The Idler_, No. 18.[976] _Ante_, ii. 241, and iii. 325.[977] Boswell refers to Cicero's _Treatise on Famous Orators_.[978] Boswell here falls into a mistake. About harvest-time in 1766,there were corn-riots owing to the dearness of bread. By the Act of the15th of Charles II, corn, when under a certain price, might be legallyexported. On Sept. 26, 1766, before this price had been reached, theCrown issued a proclamation to prohibit the exportation of grain. Whenparliament met in November, a bill of indemnity was brought in for thoseconcerned in the late embargo. 'The necessity of the embargo wasuniversally allowed;' it was the exercise by the Crown of a power ofdispensing with the laws that was attacked. Some of the ministers who,out of office, 'had set up as the patrons of liberty,' were made theobject 'of many sarcasms on the beaten subject of occasionalpatriotism.' _Ann. Reg._ x. 39-48, and Dicey's _Law of theConstitution_, p. 50.[979] _St. Mark_, ii. 9.[980] _Anecdotes_, p. 43. BOSWELL. The passage is from the _Speech onConciliation with the Colonies_, March 22, 1775. Payne's _Burke_, i.173. The image of the angel and Lord Bathurst was thus, according toMrs. Piozzi, parodied by Johnson:--'Suppose, Mr. Speaker, that toWharton, or to Marlborough, or to any of the eminent Whigs of the lastage, the devil had, not with great impropriety, consented to appear.'See _ante_, iii. 326, where Johnson said 'the first Whig was the Devil.'[981] Boswell was stung by what Mrs. Piozzi wrote when recording thisparody. She said that she had begged Johnson's leave to write it downdirectly. 'A trick,' she continues, 'which I have seen played on commonoccasions of sitting steadily [? stealthily] down at the other end ofthe room to write at the moment what should be said in company, eitherby Dr. Johnson or to him, I never practised myself, nor approved of inanother. There is something so ill-bred, and so inclining to treacheryin this conduct, that, were it commonly adopted, all confidence wouldsoon be exiled from society.' See _post_, under June 30, 1784, whereBoswell refers to this passage.[982]'Who'er offends, at some unlucky timeSlides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme.'Pope, _Imitations of Horace_, 2 Satires, i. 78.[983] On March 14, 1770, in a debate on the licentiousness of the press,Townshend joined together Johnson and Shebbeare. Burke, who followedhim, said nothing about Johnson. Fitzherbert, speaking of Johnson as 'myfriend,' defended him as 'a pattern of morality.' _Cavendish Debates_,i.514. On Feb. 16, 1774, when Fox drew attention to a 'vile libel'signed _A South Briton_, Townshend said 'Dr. Shebbeare and Dr. Johnsonhave been pensioned, but this wretched South Briton is to beprosecuted.' It was Fox, and not Burke, who on this occasion defendedJohnson. _Parl. Hist._ xvii.1054. As Goldsmith was writing _Retaliation_at the very time that this second attack was made, it is very likelythat it was the occasion, of the change in the line.[984] In the original _yet_.[985]'Sis pecore et multa dives tellure licebit,Tibique Pactolus fluat.''Though wide thy land extends, and large thy fold,Though rivers roll for thee their purest gold.'FRANCIS. Horace, _Epodes_, xv. 19.[986] See Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 404, for Macaulay'sappropriation and amplification of this passage.[987] See _ante_, ii. 168.[988] Mr. Croker suggests the Rev. Martin Sherlock, an Irish Clergyman,'who published in 1781 his own travels under the title of _Letters of anEnglish Traveller translated from the French._' Croker's _Boswell, p.770. Mason writes of him as 'Mister, or Monsieur, or Signor Sherlock,for I am told he is both [sic] French, English, and Italian in print.'Walpole's _Letters_, viii. 202. I think, however, that Dr. ThomasCampbell is meant. His _Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland_Boswell calls 'a very entertaining book, which has, however, onefault;--that it assumes the fictitious character of an Englishman.'_Ante_, ii. 339.[989] See _ante_, iv. 49.[990] This anecdote is not in the first two editions.[991] See _ante_, in. 369.[992] 'I have heard,' says Hawkins (_Life_, p. 409), 'that in manyinstances, and in some with tears in his eyes, he has apologised tothose whom he had offended by contradiction or roughness of behaviour.'See _ante_, ii. 109, and 256, note 1.[993] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 131) describes Savage's 'superstitiousregard to the correction of his sheets ... The intrusion or omission ofa comma was sufficient to discompose him, and he would lament an errourof a single letter as a heavy calamity.'[994] Compositor in the Printing-house means, the person who adjusts thetypes in the order in which they are to stand for printing; and arrangeswhat is called the _form_, from which an impression is taken. BOSWELL.[995] This circumstance therefore alluded to in Mr. Courtenay's_Poetical Character_ of him is strictly true. My informer was Mrs.Desmoulins, who lived many years in Dr. Johnson's house. BOSWELL. Thefollowing are Mr. Courtenay's lines:--'Soft-eyed compassion with a look benign,His fervent vows he offered at thy shrine;To guilt, to woe, the sacred debt was paid,And helpless females blessed his pious aid;Snatched from disease, and want's abandoned crew,Despair and anguish from their victims flew;Hope's soothing balm into their bosoms stole,And tears of penitence restored the soul.'[996] The _Cross Readings_ were said to be formed 'by reading twocolumns of a newspaper together onwards,' whereby 'the strangestconnections were brought about,' such as:--'This morning the Right Hon. the Speakerwas convicted of keeping a disorderly house.Whereas the said barn was set on fire byan incendiary letter dropped early in the morning.By order of the Commissioners for PavingAn infallible remedy for the stone and gravel.The sword of state was carriedbefore Sir John Fielding and committed to Newgate.'_The New Foundling Hospital for Wit_, i. 129. According to Northcote(_Life of Reynolds_, i. 217), 'Dr. Goldsmith declared, in the heat ofhis admiration of these _Cross Readings_, it would have given him morepleasure to have been the author of them than of all the works he hadever published of his own.' Horace Walpole (Letters, v. 30) writes:--'Have you seen that delightful paper composed out of scraps in thenewspapers? I laughed till I cried. I mean the paper that says:--"This day his Majesty will go in great state to fifteen notorious commonprostitutes."'[997] One of these gentlemen was probably Mr. Musgrave (_ante_, ii. 343,note 2), who, says Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 295), when 'once he wassingularly warm about Johnson's writing the lives of our famous proseauthors, getting up and entreating him to set about the workimmediately, he coldly replied, "Sit down, Sir."' Miss Burney says that'the incense he paid Dr. Johnson by his solemn manner of listening, bythe earnest reverence with which he eyed him, and by a theatric start ofadmiration every time he spoke, joined to the Doctor's utterinsensibility to all these tokens, made me find infinite difficulty inkeeping my countenance.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 85. The othergentleman was perhaps Dr. Wharton. _Ante_, ii. 41, note 1.[998] Probably Dr. Beattie. The number of letters in his name agreeswith the asterisks given a few lines below. _Ante_, iii. 339, note 1,and _post_, p. 330.[999] Johnson, in his _Dictionary_, defines _conge d'elire_ as _theking's permission royal to a dean and chapter in time of vacation, tochoose a bishop._ When Dr. Hampden was made Bishop of Hereford in 1848,the Dean resisted the appointment. H. C. Robinson records, on theauthority of the Bishop's Secretary (_Diary_, iii. 311), that 'at theactual confirmation in Bow Church the scene was quite ludicrous. Afterthe judge had told the opposers that he could not hear them, thecitation for opposers to come forward was repeated, at which the peoplepresent laughed out, as at a play.'[1000] This has been printed in other publications, 'fall _to theground_.' But Johnson himself gave me the true expression which he hadused as above; meaning that the recommendation left as little choice inthe one case as the other. BOSWELL. One of the 'other publications isHawkins's edition of Johnson's _Works_. See in it vol. xi. p. 216.[1001] They are published in vol. xi. of Hawkins's edition of Johnson's