约翰逊4-6-11

[1063] Johnson, says Murphy, (_Life_, p. 96) 'felt not only kindness,but zeal and ardour for his friends.' 'Who,' he asks (_ib_. p. 144),'was more sincere and steady in his friendships?' 'Numbers,' he says(_ib_. p. 146), 'still remember with gratitude the friendship which heshewed to them with unaltered affection for a number of years.'[1064] See _ante_, ii. 285, and iii. 440.[1065] Johnson's _Works_, i. 152, 3.[1066] In vol. ii. of the _Piozzi Letters_ some of these letters aregiven.[1067] He gave Miss Thrale lessons in Latin. Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary,_ i.243 and 427.[1068] _Anec._ p. 258. BOSWELL.[1069] George James Cholmondeley, Esq., grandson of George, third Earlof Cholmondeley, and one of the Commissioners of Excise; a gentlemanrespected for his abilities, and elegance of manners. BOSWELL. When Ispoke to him a few years before his death upon this point, I found himvery sore at being made the topic of such a debate, and very unwillingto remember any thing about either the offence or the apology. CROKER.[1070] _Letters to Mrs. Thrale,_ vol. ii. p. 12. BOSWELL.[1071] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec._p. 258) lays the scene of this anecdote 'insome distant province, either Shropshire or Derbyshire, I believe.'Johnson drove through these counties with the Thrales in 1774 (_ante_,ii. 285). If the passage in the letter refers to the same anecdote--andMrs. Piozzi does not, so far as I know, deny it--more than three yearspassed before Johnson was told of his rudeness. Baretti, in a MS. noteon _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 12, says that the story was 'Mr. Cholmondeley'srunning away from his creditors.' In this he is certainly wrong; yet ifMr. Cholmondeley had run away, and others gave the same explanation ofthe passage, his soreness is easily accounted for.[1072] _Anec_. p. 23. BOSWELL.[1073] _Ib_. p. 302. BOSWELL.[1074] _Rasselas_, chap, xvii[1075] _Paradise Lost_, iv. 639.[1076] _Anec_. p. 63. BOSWELL.[1077] 'Johnson one day, on seeing an old terrier lie asleep by thefire-side at Streatham, said, "Presto, you are, if possible, a more lazydog that I am."' Johnson's _Works_, ed. 1787, xi. 203.[1078] Upon mentioning this to my friend Mr. Wilkes, he, with his usualreadiness, pleasantly matched it with the following _sentimentalanecdote_. He was invited by a young man of fashion at Paris, to supwith him and a lady, who had been for some time his mistress, but withwhom he was going to part. He said to Mr. Wilkes that he really feltvery much for her, she was in such distress; and that he meant to makeher a present of two hundred louis-d'ors. Mr. Wilkes observed thebehaviour of Mademoiselle, who sighed indeed very piteously, and assumedevery pathetick air of grief; but eat no less than three French pigeons,which are as large as English partridges, besides other things. Mr.Wilkes whispered the gentleman, 'We often say in England, _Excessivesorrow is exceeding dry_, but I never heard _Excessive sorrow isexceeding hungry_. Perhaps _one_ hundred will do.' The gentleman tookthe hint. BOSWELL.[1079] See _post_, p. 367, for the passage omitted.[1080] Sir Joshua Reynolds, on account of the excellence both of thesentiment and expression of this letter, took a copy of it which heshewed to some of his friends; one of whom, who admired it, beingallowed to peruse it leisurely at home, a copy was made, and found itsway into the newspapers and magazines. It was transcribed with someinaccuracies. I print it from the original draft in Johnson's ownhand-writing. BOSWELL. Hawkins writes (_Life_, p. 574):--'Johnson, uponbeing told that it was in print, exclaimed in my hearing, "I ambetrayed," but soon after forgot, as he was ever ready to do all real orsupposed injuries, the error that made the publication possible.'[1081] Cowper wrote of Thurlow:--'I know well the Chancellor'sbenevolence of heart, and how much he is misunderstood by the world.When he was young he would do the kindest things, and at an expense tohimself which at that time he could ill afford, and he would do them tooin the most secret manner.' Southey's _Cowper_, vii. 128. Yet Thurlowdid not keep his promise made to Cowper when they were fellow-clerks inan attorney's office. 'Thurlow, I am nobody, and shall be always nobody,and you will be chancellor. You shall provide for me when you are.' Hesmiled, and replied, 'I surely will.' _Ib._ i. 41. When Cowper sent himthe first volume of his poems, 'he thought it not worth his while,' thepoet writes, 'to return me any answer, or to take the least notice of mypresent.' _Ib._ xv. 176. Mr. (afterwards Sir) W. Jones, in two lettersto Burke, speaks of Thurlow as the [Greek: thaerion] (beast). 'I heardlast night, with surprise and affliction,' he wrote on Feb. 15,1783,'that the [Greek: thaerion] was to continue in office. Now I canassure you from my own positive knowledge (and I know him well), thatalthough he hates _our_ species in general, yet his particular hatred isdirected against none more virulently than against Lord North, and thefriends of the late excellent Marquis.' Burke's _Corres._ ii. 488,and iii. 10.[1082] 'Scarcely had Pitt obtained possession of unbounded power when anaged writer of the highest eminence, who had made very little by hiswritings, and who was sinking into the grave under a load of infirmitiesand sorrows, wanted five or six hundred pounds to enable him, during thewinter or two which might still remain to him, to draw his breath moreeasily in the soft climate of Italy. Not a farthing was to be obtained;and before Christmas the author of the _English Dictionary_ and of the_Lives of the Poets_ had gasped his last in the river fog and coal smokeof Fleet-street.' _Macaulay's Writings and Speeches,_ ed. 1871, p. 413.Just before Macaulay, with monstrous exaggeration, says that Gibbon,'forced by poverty to leave his country, completed his immortal work onthe shores of Lake Leman.' This poverty of Gibbon would have been'splendour' to Johnson. Debrett's Royal Kalendar, for 1795 (p. 88),shews that there were twelve Lords of the King's Bedchamber receivingeach L1000 a year, and fourteen Grooms of the Bedchamber receiving each,L500 a year. As Burns was made a gauger, so Johnson might have been madea Lord, or at least a Groom of the Bedchamber. It is not certain thatPitt heard of the application for an increased pension. Mr. Crokerquotes from Thurlow's letter to Reynolds of Nov. 18, 1784:--'It wasimpossible for me to take the King's pleasure on the suggestion Ipresumed to move. I am an untoward solicitor.' Whether he consulted Pittcannot be known. Mr. Croker notices a curious obliteration in thisletter. The Chancellor had written:--'It would have suited the purposebetter, if nobody had heard of it, except Dr. Johnson, you and J.Boswell.' _Boswell_ has been erased--'artfully' too, says--Mr. Croker-sothat 'the sentence appears to run, "except Dr. Johnson, you, and I."'Mr. Croker, with his usual suspiciousness, suspects 'an uncandid trick.'But it is very likely that Thurlow himself made the obliteration,regardless of grammar. He might easily have thought that it would havebeen better still had Boswell not been in the secret.[1083] See _ante_, iii. 176.[1084] On June 11 Boswell and Johnson were together (_ante_, p. 293).The date perhaps should be July 11. The letter that follows next isdated July 12.[1085] 'Even in our flight from vice some virtue lies.' FRANCIS. Horace,i. _Epistles_, I. 41.[1086] See vol. ii. p. 258. BOSWELL.[1087] Mrs. Johnson died in 1752. See _ante_, i. 241, note 2.[1088] See Appendix.[1089] Printed in his _Works_ [i. 150]. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 241,note 2.[1090] He wrote to Mr. Ryland on the same day:--'Be pleased to let thewhole be done with privacy that I may elude the vigilance of thepapers.' _Notes and Queries_, 5th S. vii. 381.[1091] Boileau, _Art Poetique_, chant iv.[1092] This is probably an errour either of the transcript or the press._Removes_ seems to be the word intended. MALONE.[1093] See _ante_, i. 332, and _post_ p. 360.[1094] See _ante_, p. 267.[1095] I have heard Dr. Johnson protest that he never had quite as muchas he wished of wall-fruit, except once in his life.' Piozzi's_Anec_. p. 103.[1096] At the Essex Head, Essex-street. BOSWELL.[1097] Juvenal, _Satires_, x. 8:--'Fate wings with every wish the afflictive dart.'_Vanity of Human Wishes_, l. 15.[1098] Mr. Allen, the printer. BOSWELL. See _ante_, iii. 141, 269.[1099] It was on this day that he wrote the prayer given below (p. 370)in which is found that striking line--'this world where much is to bedone and little to be known.'[1100] His letter to Dr. Heberden (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 789) shewsthat he had gone with Dr. Brocklesby to the last Academy dinner, when,as he boasted, 'he went up all the stairs to the pictures withoutstopping to rest or to breathe.' _Ante_, p. 270, note 2.[1101]Quid te exempta _levat_ spinis de pluribus una?'Pluck out one thorn to mitigate thy pain,What boots it while so many more remain?'FRANCIS. Horace, 2 _Epistles_, ii. 212.[1102] See _ante_, iii. 4, note 2.[1103] Sir Joshua's physician. He is mentioned by Goldsmith in hisverses to the Miss Hornecks. Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 149.[1104] How much balloons filled people's minds at this time is shewn bysuch entries as the following in Windham's _Diary_:-'Feb 7, 1784. Didnot rise till past nine; from that time till eleven, did little morethan indulge in idle reveries about balloons.' p. 3. 'July 20. Thegreater part of the time, till now, one o'clock, spent in foolishreveries about balloons.' p. 12. Horace Walpole wrote on Sept. 30(_Letters_, viii. 505):--'I cannot fill my paper, as the newspapers do,with air-balloons; which though ranked with the invention of navigation,appear to me as childish as the flying kites of school-boys.' 'Do notwrite about the balloon,' wrote Johnson to Reynolds (_post_, p. 368),'whatever else you may think proper to say.' In the beginning of theyear he had written:--'It is very seriously true that a subscription ofL800 has been raised for the wire and workmanship of iron wings.'_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 345.[1105] It is remarkable that so good a Latin scholar as Johnson, shouldhave been so inattentive to the metre, as by mistake to have written_stellas_ instead of _ignes_. BOSWELL.[1106]'Micat inter omnesJulium sidus, velut inter ignes Luna minores.''And like the Moon, the feebler fires among,Conspicuous shines the Julian star.'FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, i. 12. 46.[1107] See _ante_, iii. 209.[1108]'The little blood that creeps within his veinsIs but just warmed in a hot fever's pains.'DRYDEN. Juvenal, _Satires_, x. 217.[1109] Lunardi had made, on Sept. 15, the first balloon ascent inEngland. _Gent. Mag_. 1784, p. 711. Johnson wrote to Mr. Ryland on Sept.18:--'I had this day in three letters three histories of the Flying Manin the great Balloon.' He adds:--'I live in dismal solitude.' _Notes andQueries_, 5th S. vii. 381.[1110] 'Sept. 27, 1784. Went to see Blanchard's balloon. Met Burke andD. Burke; walked with them to Pantheon to see Lunardi's. Sept. 29. Aboutnine came to Brookes's, where I heard that the balloon had been burntabout four o'clock.' Windham's _Diary_, p. 24.[1111] His love of London continually appears. In a letter from him toMrs. Smart, wife of his friend the Poet, which is published in awell-written life of him, prefixed to an edition of his Poems, in 1791,there is the following sentence:-'To one that has passed so many yearsin the pleasures and opulence of London, there are few places that cangive much delight.'Once, upon reading that line in the curious epitaph quoted in _TheSpectator;_'Born in New-England, did in London die;'he laughed and said, 'I do not wonder at this. It would have beenstrange, if born in London, he had died in New-England.' BOSWELL. Mrs.Smart was in Dublin when Johnson wrote to her. After the passage quotedby Boswell he continued:--'I think, Madam, you may look upon yourexpedition as a proper preparative to the voyage which we have oftentalked of. Dublin, though a place much worse than London, is not so badas Iceland.' Smart's _Poems_, i. xxi. For Iceland see _ante_, i. 242.The epitaph, quoted in _The Spectator_, No. 518, begins--Here Thomas Sapper lies interred. Ah why!Born in New-England, did in London die.'[1112] _St. Mark_, v. 34.[1113] There is no record of this in the _Gent. Mag_. Among the 149persons who that summer had been sentenced to death (_ante_, p. 328) whowould notice these two?[1114] See _ante_, p. 356, note 1[1115] Johnson wrote for him a Dedication of his _Tasso_ in 1763._Ante_, i. 383.[1116] There was no information for which Dr. Johnson was less gratefulthat than for that which concerned the weather. It was in allusion tohis impatience with those who were reduced to keep conversation alive byobservations on the weather, that he applied the old proverb to himself.If any one of his intimate acquaintance told him it was hot or cold, wetor dry, windy or calm, he would stop them, by saying, 'Poh! poh! you aretelling us that of which none but men in a mine or a dungeon can beignorant. Let us bear with patience, or enjoy in quiet, elementarychanges, whether for the better or the worse, as they are neversecrets.' BURNEY. In _The Idler_, No. II, Johnson shews that 'anEnglishman's notice of the weather is the natural consequence ofchangeable skies and uncertain seasons... In our island every man goesto sleep unable to guess whether he shall behold in the morning a brightor cloudy atmosphere, whether his rest shall be lulled by a shower, orbroken by a tempest. We therefore rejoice mutually at good weather, asat an escape from something that we feared; and mutually complain ofbad, as of the loss of something that we hoped.' See _ante_, i.332, and iv. 353.[1117] His _Account of the Musical Performances in Commemoration ofHandel_. See _ante_, p. 283.[1118] The celebrated Miss Fanny Burney. BOSWELL.[1119] Dr. Burney's letter must have been franked; otherwise there wouldhave been no frugality, for each enclosure was charged as aseparate letter.[1120] He does not know, that is to say, what people of his acquaintancewere in town, privileged to receive letters post free; such as membersof either House of Parliament.[1121] _Consolation_ is clearly a blunder, Malone's conjecture_mortification_ seems absurd.[1122] See _ante_, iii. 48, and iv. 177.[1123] Windham visited him at Ashbourne in the end of August, after theformer of these letters was written. See _ante_, p. 356.[1124] This may refer, as Mr. Croker says, to Hamilton's generous offer,mentioned _ante_, p. 244. Yet Johnson, with his accurate mind, was notlikely to assign to the spring an event of the previous November.[1125] Johnson refers to Pope's lines on Walpole:--'Seen him I have but in his _happier hour_Of social pleasure, ill-exchanged for power.'_Satires. Epilogue_, i. 29.[1126] Son of the late Peter Paradise, Esq. his Britannick Majesty'sConsul at Salonica, in Macedonia, by his lady, a native of that country.He studied at Oxford, and has been honoured by that University with thedegree of LL.D. He is distinguished not only by his learning andtalents, but by an amiable disposition, gentleness of manners, and avery general acquaintance with well-informed and accomplished persons ofalmost all nations. BOSWELL.[1127] Bookseller to his Majesty. BOSWELL.[1128] Mr. Cruikshank attended him as a surgeon the year before. _Ante_,p. 239.[1129]Allan Ramsay, Esq. painter to his Majesty, who died Aug. 10, 1784,in the 71st year of his age, much regretted by his friends. BOSWELL. See_ante_, p. 260.[1130] Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, ii. 187) says that Johnson 'mostprobably refers to Sir Joshua's becoming painter to the King. 'I know,'he continues, 'that Sir Joshua expected the appointment would be offeredto him on the death of Ramsay, and expressed his disapprobation withregard to soliciting for it; but he was informed that it was a necessarypoint of etiquette, with which at last he complied.' His 'furiouspurposes' should seem to have been his intention to resign thePresidency of the Academy, on finding that the place was not at oncegiven him, and in the knowledge that in the Academy there was a partyagainst him. Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 448.[1131] See _ante_, p. 348.[1132] The Chancellor had not, it should seem, asked the King. See_ante_, p. 350, note.[1133] The Duke of Devonshire has kindly given me the followingexplanation of this term:--'It was formerly the custom at some (Ibelieve several) of the large country-houses to have dinners at whichany of the neighbouring gentry and clergy might present themselves asguests without invitation. The custom had been discontinued atChatsworth before my recollection, and so far as I am aware is now onlykept-up at Wentworth, Lord Fitzwilliam's house in Yorkshire, where a fewpublic dinners are still given annually. I believe, however, that allpersons intending to be present on such occasions are now expected togive notice some days previously. Public dinners were also givenformerly by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and if I am not mistaken alsoby the Archbishop of York. I have myself been present at a public dinnerat Lambeth Palace within the last fifty years or thereabouts, and I havebeen at one or more such dinners at Wentworth.' Since receiving thisexplanation I have read the following in the second part of the_Greville Memoirs_, i. 99:--'June 1, 1838. I dined yesterday atLambeth, at the Archbishop's public dinner, the handsomest entertainmentI ever saw. There were nearly a hundred people present, all full-dressedor in uniform. Nothing can be more dignified and splendid than the wholearrangement.'[1134] Six weeks later he was willing to hear even of balloons, so longas he got a letter. 'You,' he wrote to Mr. Sastres, 'may always havesomething to tell: you live among the various orders of mankind, and maymake a letter from the exploits, sometimes of the philosopher, andsometimes of the pickpocket. You see some balloons succeed and somemiscarry, and a thousand strange and a thousand foolish things.' _PiozziLetters_, ii. 412.[1135] See _ante_, p. 349, note.[1136] 'He alludes probably to the place of King's Painter; which, sinceBurke's reforming the King's household expenses, had been reduced from