约翰逊4-6-37

the house, L100 for the moderator of the meeting, and L50 for each ofthe servants at the door. _Parl. Hist._ xxii. 262, 279.[302] _St. Matthew_, xxvii. 52.[303] I _Corinthians_, xv. 37.[304] As this subject frequently recurs in these volumes, the reader maybe led erroneously to suppose that Dr. Johnson was so fond of suchdiscussions, as frequently to introduce them. But the truth is, that theauthour himself delighted in talking concerning ghosts, and what he hasfrequently denominated _the mysterious_; and therefore took everyopportunity of _leading_ Johnson to converse on such subjects. MALONE.See _ante_, i. 406.[305] Macbean (Johnson's old amanuensis, _ante_, i. 187) is not inBoswell's list of guests; but in the Pemb. Coll. MSS., there is thefollowing entry on Monday, April 16:--'Yesterday at dinner were Mrs.Hall, Mr. Levet, Macbean, Boswel (sic), Allen. Time passed in talk afterdinner. At seven, I went with Mrs. Hall to Church, and came backto tea.'[306] Mrs. Piozzi records (_Anec_. p. 192) that he said 'a long timeafter my poor mother's death, I heard her voice call _Sam_.' She is soinaccurate that most likely this is merely her version of the story thatBoswell has recorded above. See also _ante_, i. 405. Lord Macaulay mademore of this story of the voice than it could well bear--'Under theinfluence of his disease, his senses became morbidly torpid, and hisimagination morbidly active. At one time he would stand poring on thetown clock without being able to tell the hour. At another, he woulddistinctly hear his mother, who was many miles off, calling him by hisname. But this was not the worst.' Macaulay's _Writings and Speeches_,ed. 1871, p. 374.[307]'One wife is too much for mosthusbands to bear,But two at a time there's nomortal can bear.'Act iii. sc. 4.[308] 'I think a person who is terrified with the imagination of ghostsand spectres much more reasonable than one who, contrary to the reportsof all historians, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to thetraditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous andgroundless.' _The Spectator_, No. 110.[309] _St. Matthew_, chap. xxvii. vv. 52, 53. BOSWELL.[310] Garrick died on Jan. 20, 1779.[311] Garrick called her _Nine_, (the Nine Muses). 'Nine,' he said, 'youare a _Sunday Woman_.' H. More's _Memoirs_, i. 113.[312] See vol. iii. p. 331. BOSWELL.[313] See _ante_, ii. 325, note 3.[314] Boswell is quoting from Johnson's eulogium on Garrick in his _Lifeof Edmund Smith. Works_, vii. 380. See _ante_, i. 81.[315] How fond she and her husband had been is shewn in a letter, inwhich, in answer to an invitation, he says:--'As I have not left Mrs.Garrick one day since we were married, near twenty-eight years, I cannotnow leave her.' _Garrick Corres._ ii. 150. 'Garrick's widow is buriedwith him. She survived him forty-three years--"a little bowed-down oldwoman, who went about leaning on a gold-headed cane, dressed in deepwidow's mourning, and always talking of her dear Davy." (_Pen and InkSketches_, 1864).' Stanley's _Westminster Abbey_, ed. 1868, p. 305.[316] _Love's Labour's Lost_, act ii. sc. i.[317] See _ante_, ii. 461.[318] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 346) describes Hollis as 'a mostexcellent man, a most immaculate Whig, but as simple a poor soul as everexisted, except his editor, who has given extracts from the goodcreature's diary that are very near as anile as Ashmole's. There arethanks to God for reaching every birthday, ... and thanks to Heaven forher Majesty's being delivered of a third or fourth prince, and _God sendhe may prove a good man_.' See also Walpole's _Journal of the Reign ofGeorge III_, i. 287. Dr. Franklin wrote much more highly of him.Speaking of what he had done, he said:--'It is prodigious the quantityof good that may be done by one man, _if he will make a business ofit_.' Franklin's Memoirs, ed. 1818, iii. 135.[319] See p. 77 of this volume. BOSWELL.[320] See _ante_, iii. 97.[321] On April 6 of the next year this gentleman, when Secretary of theTreasury, destroyed himself, overwhelmed, just as Cowper had been, bythe sense of the responsibility of an office which had been thrust uponhim. See Hannah More's _Memoirs_, i. 245, and Walpole's _Letters_,viii. 206.[322] 'It is commonly supposed that the uniformity of a studious lifeaffords no matter for a narration; but the truth is, that of the moststudious life a great part passes without study. An author partakes ofthe common condition of humanity; he is born and married like anotherman; he has hopes and fears, expectations and disappointments, griefsand joys, and friends and enemies, like a courtier, or a statesman; norcan I conceive why his affairs should not excite curiosity as much asthe whisper of a drawing-room or the factions of a camp.' _TheIdler_, No. 102.[323] Hannah More wrote of this day (_Memoirs_, i. 212):--'I accused Dr.Johnson of not having done justice to the _Allegro_ and _Penseroso_. Hespoke disparagingly of both. I praised _Lycidas_, which he absolutelyabused, adding, "if Milton had not written the _Paradise Lost_, he wouldhave only ranked among the minor Poets. He was a Phidias that could cuta Colossus out of a rock, but could not cut heads out ofcherry-stones."' See _post_, June 13, 1784. The _Allegro_ and_Penseroso_ Johnson described as 'two noble efforts of imagination.' Of_Lycidas_ he wrote:--'Surely no man could have fancied that he read itwith pleasure, had he not known the author.' _Works_, vii. 121, 2.[324] Murphy (_Life of Garrick_, p. 374) says 'Shortly after Garrick'sdeath Johnson was told in a large company, "You are recent from the_Lives of the Poets_; why not add your friend Garrick to the number?"Johnson's answer was, "I do not like to be officious; but if Mrs.Garrick will desire me to do it, I shall be very willing to pay thatlast tribute to the memory of a man I loved." 'Murphy adds that hehimself took care that Mrs. Garrick was informed of what Johnson hadsaid, but that no answer was ever received.[325] Miss Burney wrote in May:--'Dr. Johnson was charming, both inspirits and humour. I really think he grows gayer and gayer daily, andmore _ductile_ and pleasant.' In June she wrote:--'I found him inadmirable good-humour, and our journey [to Streatham] was extremelypleasant. I thanked him for the last batch of his poets, and we talkedthem over almost all the way.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 23, 44.Beattie, a week or two later, wrote:--'Johnson grows in grace as hegrows in years. He not only has better health and a fresher complexionthan ever he had before (at least since I knew him), but he hascontracted a gentleness of manner which pleases everybody.' Beattie's_Life_, ed. 1824, p. 289.[326] See _ante_, iii. 65. Wilkes was by this time City Chamberlain. 'Ithink I see him at this moment,' said Rogers (_Table-Talk_, p. 43),'walking through the crowded streets of the city, as Chamberlain, on hisway to Guildhall, in a scarlet coat, military boots, and a bag-wig--thehackney-coachmen in vain calling out to him, "A coach, your honour."'[327] See _ante_, ii. 201, for Beattie's _Essay on Truth_.[328] Thurot, in the winter of 1759-60, with a small squadron madedescents on some of the Hebrides and on the north-eastern coast ofIreland. In a sea fight off Ireland he was killed and his ships weretaken. _Gent. Mag_. xxx. 107. Horace Walpole says that in the alarmraised by him in Ireland, 'the bankers there stopped payment.' _Memoirsof the Reign of George II_, iii. 224.[329]'Some for renown on scraps of learning doat,And think they grow immortal as they quote.'Young's _Love of Fame_, sat. i. Cumberland (_Memoirs_, ii. 226) saysthat Mr. Dilly, speaking of 'the profusion of quotations which somewriters affectedly make use of, observed that he knew a Presbyterianparson who, for eighteenpence, would furnish any pamphleteer with asmany scraps of Greek and Latin as would pass him off for anaccomplished classic.'[330] Cowley was quite out of fashion. Richardson (_Corres._ ii. 229)wrote more than thirty years earlier:--'I wonder Cowley is so absolutelyneglected.' Pope, a dozen years or so before Richardson, asked,'Who now reads Cowley? if he pleases yet,His moral pleases, not his pointed wit.'_Imitations of Horace_, Epis. ii. i. 75.[331] See _ante_, ii. 58, and iii. 276.[332] 'There was a club held at the King's Head in Pall Mall thatarrogantly called itself The World. Lord Stanhope (now LordChesterfield) was a member. Epigrams were proposed to be written on theglasses by each member after dinner. Once when Dr. Young was invitedthither, the doctor would have declined writing because he had nodiamond, Lord Stanhope lent him his, and he wrote immediately--"_Accept_ a miracle," &c.'Spence's _Anecdotes_, p. 377. Dr. Maty (_Memoirs of Chesterfield_, i.227) assigns the lines to Pope, and lays the scene at Lord Cobham's.Spence, however, gives Young himself as his authority.[333] 'Aug. 1778. "I wonder," said Mrs. Thrale, "you bear with mynonsense." "No, madam, you never talk nonsense; you have as much senseand more wit than any woman I know." "Oh," cried Mrs. Thrale, blushing,"it is my turn to go under the table this morning, Miss Burney." "Andyet," continued the doctor, with the most comical look, "I have knownall the wits from Mrs. Montagu down to Bet Flint." "Bet Flint!" criedMrs. Thrale. "Pray, who is she?" "Oh, a fine character, madam. She washabitually a slut and a drunkard, and occasionally a thief and aharlot.... Mrs. Williams," he added, "did not love Bet Flint, but BetFlint made herself very easy about that."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_,i. 87, 90.[334] Johnson, whose memory was wonderfully retentive [see _ante_, i.39], remembered the first four lines of this curious production, whichhave been communicated to me by a young lady of his acquaintance:--'When first I drew my vital breath,A little minikin I came uponearth;And then I came from a darkabode,Into this gay and gaudy world.'BOSWELL.[335] The _Sessional Reports of the Old Bailey Trials_ for 1758, p. 278,contain a report of the trial. The Chief Justice Willes was in theCommission, but, according to the _Report_, it was before the Recorderthat Bet Flint was tried. It may easily be, however, that either thereporter or the printer has blundered. It is only by the characters *and that the trials before the Chief Justice and the Recorder aredistinguished. Bet had stolen not only the counterpane, but five otherarticles. The prosecutrix could not prove that the articles were hers,and not a captain's, whose servant she said she had been, and who wasnow abroad. On this ground the prisoner was acquitted. Of Chief JusticeWilles, Horace Walpole writes:--'He was not wont to disguise any of hispassions. That for gaming was notorious; for women unbounded.' Herelates an anecdote of his wit and licentiousness. Walpole's _Reign ofGeorge II_, i. 89. He had been Johnson's schoolfellow (_ante_, i. 45).[336] Burke is meant. See _ante_, ii. 131, where Johnson said that Burkespoke too familiarly; and _post_, May 15, 1784, where he said that 'whenBurke lets himself down to jocularity he is in the kennel.'[337] Wilkes imperfectly recalled to mind the following passage inPlutarch:--'[Greek: Euphranor ton Thaesea ton heatou to Parrhasiouparebale, legon tor men ekeinou hroda bebrokenai, tor de eautou kreaboeia.]' 'Euphranor, comparing his own Theseus with Parrhasius's, saidthat Parrhasius's had fed on roses, but his on beef.' _Plutarch_, ed.1839, iii. 423.[338] Portugal, receiving from Brazil more gold than it needed for homeuses, shipped a large quantity to England. It was said, though probablywith exaggeration, that the weekly packet-boat from Lisbon, brought oneweek with another, more than L50,000 in gold to England. Smith's _Wealthof Nations_, book iv. ch. 6. Portugal pieces were current in ourcolonies, and no doubt were commonly sent to them from London. It wasnatural therefore that they should be selected for this legal fiction.[339] See _ante_, ii. III.[340] 'Whenever the whole of our foreign trade and consumption exceedsour exportation of commodities, our money must go to pay our debts socontracted, whether melted or not melted down. If the law makes theexportation of our coin penal, it will be melted down; if it leaves theexportation of our coin free, as in Holland, it will be carried out inspecie. One way or other, go it must, as we see in Spain.... Laws madeagainst exportation of money or bullion will be all in vain. Restraintor liberty in that matter makes no country rich or poor.' Locke's_Works_, ed. 1824, iv. 160.[341] 'Nov. 14, 1779. Mr. Beauclerk has built a library in GreatRussellstreet, that reaches half way to Highgate. Everybody goes to seeit; it has put the Museum's nose quite out of joint.' Walpole's_Letters_, vii. 273. It contained upwards of 30,000 volumes, and thesale extended over fifty days. Two days' sale were given to the works ondivinity, including, in the words of the catalogue, 'Heterodox! etIncreduli. Angl. Freethinkers and their opponents.' _Dr. Johnson: HisFriends and His Critics_, p. 315. It sold for L5,011 (ante, in. 420,note 4). Wilkes's own library--a large one--had been sold in 1764, in afive days' sale, as is shewn by the _Auctioneer's Catalogue_, which isin the Bodleian.[342] 'Our own language has from the Reformation to the present timebeen chiefly dignified and adorned by the works of our divines, who,considered as commentators, controvertists, or preachers, haveundoubtedly left all other nations far behind them.' _The Idler_,No. 91.[343] Mr. Wilkes probably did not know that there is in an Englishsermon the most comprehensive and lively account of that entertainingfaculty, for which he himself is so much admired. It is in Dr. Barrow'sfirst volume, and fourteenth sermon, _'Against foolish Talking andJesting.'_ My old acquaintance, the late Corbyn Morris, in his ingenious_Essay on Wit, Humour, and Ridicule_, calls it 'a profuse description ofWit;' but I do not see how it could be curtailed, without leaving outsome good circumstance of discrimination. As it is not generally known,and may perhaps dispose some to read sermons, from which they mayreceive real advantage, while looking only for entertainment, I shallhere subjoin it:--'But first (says the learned preacher) it may bedemanded, what the thing we speak of is? Or what this facetiousness (or_wit_ as he calls it before) doth import? To which questions I mightreply, as Democritus did to him that asked the definition of a man,"'Tis that which we all see and know." Any one better apprehends what itis by acquaintance, than I can inform him by description. It is, indeed,a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so manypostures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes andjudgements, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certainnotion thereof, than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define thefigure of the fleeting air. Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to aknown story, or in seasonable application of a trivial saying, or inforging an apposite tale; sometimes it playeth in words and phrases,taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense, or the affinity oftheir sound: sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression:sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude: sometimes it is lodged ina sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewdintimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection:sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, ina lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconcilingof contradictions, or in acute nonsense: sometimes a scenicalrepresentation of persons or things, a counterfeit speech, a mimicallook or gesture, passeth for it: sometimes an affected simplicity,sometimes a presumptuous bluntness giveth it being: sometimes it risethonly from a lucky hitting upon what is strange: sometimes from a craftywresting obvious matter to the purpose. Often it consisteth in one knowsnot what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways areunaccountable, and inexplicable; being answerable to the numberlessrovings of fancy, and windings of language. It is, in short, a manner ofspeaking out of the simple and plain way, (such as reason teacheth andproveth things by,) which by a pretty surprising uncouthness in conceitor expression, doth affect and amuse the fancy, stirring in it somewonder, and breeding some delight thereto. It raiseth admiration, assignifying a nimble sagacity of apprehension, a special felicity ofinvention, a vivacity of spirit, and reach of wit more than vulgar; itseeming to argue a rare quickness of parts, that one can fetch in remoteconceits applicable; a notable skill, that he can dextrously accommodatethem to the purpose before him; together with a lively briskness ofhumour, not apt to damp those sportful flashes of imagination. (Whencein Aristotle such persons are termed [Greek: _hepidexioi_], dextrous men,and [Greek: _eustrophoi_], men of facile or versatile manners, who caneasily turn themselves to all things, or turn all things to themselves.)It also procureth delight, by gratifying curiosity with its rareness, assemblance of difficulty: (as monsters, not for their beauty, but theirrarity; as juggling tricks, not for their use, but their abstruseness,are beheld with pleasure:) by diverting the mind from its road ofserious thoughts; by instilling gaiety and airiness of spirit; byprovoking to such dispositions of spirit in way of emulation orcomplaisance; and by seasoning matters, otherwise distasteful orinsipid, with an unusual and thence grateful tang.' BOSWELL. Morris's_Essay_ was published in 1744. Hume wrote:--'Pray do you not thinkthat a proper dedication may atone for what is objectionable in myDialogues'! I am become much of my friend Corbyn Morrice's mind, whosays that he writes all his books for the sake of the dedications.' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 147.[344] The quarrel arose from the destruction by George II. of GeorgeI.'s will (_ante_, ii. 342). The King of Prussia, Frederick the Great,was George I.'s grandson. 'Vague rumours spoke of a large legacy to theQueen of Prussia [Frederick's mother]. Of that bequest demands wereafterwards said to have been frequently and roughly made by her son, thegreat King of Prussia, between whom and his uncle subsisted muchinveteracy.' Walpole's _Letters_, i. cxx.[345] When I mentioned this to the Bishop of Killaloe, 'With the goat,'said his Lordship. Such, however, is the engaging politeness andpleasantry of Mr. Wilkes, and such the social good humour of the Bishop,that when they dined together at Mr. Dilly's, where I also was, theywere mutually agreeable. BOSWELL. It was not the lion, but the leopard,that shall lie down with the kid. _Isaiah_, xi. 6.[346] Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, authour of tracts relating to naturalhistory, &c. BOSWELL.[347] Mrs. Montagu, so early as 1757, wrote of Mr. Stillingfleet:--'Iassure you our philosopher is so much a man of pleasure, he has left offhis old friends and his blue stockings, and is at operas and other gayassemblies every night.' Montagu's _Letters_, iv. 117.[348] See _ante_, in. 293, note 5.[349] Miss Burney thus describes her:--'She is between thirty andforty, very short, very fat, but handsome; splendidly and fantasticallydressed, rouged not unbecomingly yet evidently, and palpably desirous ofgaining notice and admiration. She has an easy levity in her air,manner, voice, and discourse, that speak (sic) all within to becomfortable.... She is one of those who stand foremost in collecting allextraordinary or curious people to her London conversaziones, which,like those of Mrs. Vesey, mix the rank and the literature, and excludeall beside.... Her parties are the most brilliant in town.' Miss Burneythen describes one of these parties, at which were present Johnson,Burke, and Reynolds. 'The company in general were dressed with morebrilliancy than at any rout I ever was at, as most of them were going tothe Duchess of Cumberland's.' Miss Burney herself was 'surrounded bystrangers, all dressed superbly, and all looking saucily.... Dr. Johnsonwas standing near the fire, and environed with listeners.' Mme.D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 179, 186, 190. Leslie wrote of Lady Corke in1834 (_Autobiographical Recollections_, i. 137, 243):--'Notwithstandingher great age, she is very animated. The old lady, who was a lion-hunterin her youth, is as much one now as ever.' She ran after a Boston negronamed Prince Saunders, who 'as he put his Christian name "Prince" on hiscards without the addition of Mr., was believed to be a native Africanprince, and soon became a lion of the first magnitude in fashionablecircles.' She died in 1840.[350] 'A lady once ventured to ask Dr. Johnson how he liked Yorick's[Sterne's] _Sermons_. "I know nothing about them, madam," was his reply.But some time afterwards, forgetting himself, he severely censured them.The lady retorted:--"I understood you to say, Sir, that you had neverread them." "No, Madam, I did read them, but it was in a stage-coach; Ishould not have even deigned to look at them had I been at large."