约翰逊4-6-41

[527] I have, in my _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_ [p. 200, Sept.13], fully expressed my sentiments upon this subject. The Revolution was_necessary_, but not a subject for _glory_; because it for a long timeblasted the generous feelings of _Loyalty_. And now, when by thebenignant effect of time the present Royal Family are established in our_affections_, how unwise it is to revive by celebrations the memory of ashock, which it would surely have been better that our constitution hadnot required. BOSWELL. See _ante_, iii. 3, and iv. 40, note 4.[528] Johnson reviewed this book in 1756. _Ante_, i. 309.[529] Johnson, four months later, wrote to one of Mrs. Thrale'sdaughters:--'Never think, my sweet, that you have arithmetick enough;when you have exhausted your master, buy books. ... A thousand storieswhich the ignorant tell and believe die away at once when the computisttakes them in his gripe.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 296. See _post_,April 18, 1783.[530] See _ante_, p. 116; also iii. 310, where he bore the same topicimpatiently when with Dr. Scott.[531] See _ante_, ii. 357.[532]'See nations, slowly wise and meanly just,To buried merit raise the tardy bust.'Johnson's _Vanity of Human Wishes_.[533] He was perhaps, thinking of Markland. _Ante_, p. 161, note 3.[534] 'Dr. Johnson,' writes Mrs. Piozzi, 'was no complainer ofill-usage. I never heard him even lament the disregard shown to_Irene_.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 386. See _ante_, i. 200.[535] Letter to the People of Scotland against the attempt to diminishthe number of the Lords of Session, 1785. BOSWELL. 'By Mr. Burke'sremoval from office the King's administration was deprived of theassistance of that affluent mind, which is so universally rich that, aslong as British literature and British politicks shall endure, it willbe said of Edmund Burke, _Regum equabat [sic] opes animis.'_ p.71.[536] _Georgics_, iv. 132.[537] See _ante_, iii. 56, note 2.[538] Very likely Boswell.[539] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22.[540] Johnson had said:--'Lord Chesterfield is the proudest man this dayexisting.' _Ante_, i. 265.[541] Lord Shelburne. At this time he was merely holding office till anew Ministry was formed. On April 5 he was succeeded by the Duke ofPortland. His 'coarse manners' were due to a neglected childhood. In thefragment of his _Autobiography_ he describes 'the domestic brutality andill-usage he experienced at home,' in the South of Ireland. 'It costme,' he continues, 'more to unlearn the habits, manners, and principleswhich I then imbibed, than would have served to qualify me for any_role_ whatever through life.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, i. 12, 16.[542] Bentham, it is reported, said of of him that 'alone of his owntime, he was a "Minister who did not fear the people."' _Ib._ iii. 572.[543] Malagrida, a Jesuit, was put to death at Lisbon in 1761, nominallyon a charge of heresy, but in reality on a suspicion of his havingsanctioned, as confessor to one of the conspirators, an attempt toassassinate King Joseph of Portugal. Voltaire, _Siecle de Louis XV_, ch.xxxviii. 'His name,' writes Wraxall (_Memoirs_, ed. 1815, i. 67), 'isbecome proverbial among us to express duplicity.' It was first appliedto Lord Shelburne in a squib attributed to Wilkes, which contained avision of a masquerade. The writer, after describing him as masqueradingas 'the heir apparent of Loyola and all the College,' continues:--'Alittle more of the devil, my Lord, if you please, about the eyebrows;that's enough, a perfect Malagrida, I protest.' Fitzmaurice's_Shelburne_, ii. 164. 'George III. habitually spoke of Shelburne as"Malagrida," and the "Jesuit of Berkeley Square."' _Ib._ iii. 8. Thecharge of duplicity was first made against Shelburne on the retirementof Fox (the first Lord Holland) in 1763. 'It was the tradition ofHolland House that Bute justified the conduct of Shelburne, by tellingFox that it was "a pious fraud." "I can see the fraud plainly enough,"is said to have been Fox's retort, "but where is the piety?"' _Ib_. i.226. Any one who has examined Reynolds's picture of Shelburne,especially 'about the eyebrows,' at once sees how the name of Jesuitwas given.[544] Beauclerk wrote to Lord Charlemont on Nov. 20, 1773:-'Goldsmiththe other day put a paragraph into the newspapers in praise of LordMayor Townshend. [Shelburne supported Townshend in opposition to Wilkesin the election of the Lord Mayor. Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, ii. 287.]The same night we happened to sit next to Lord Shelburne at Drury Lane.I mentioned the circumstance of the paragraph to him; he said toGoldsmith that he hoped that he had mentioned nothing about Malagrida init. "Do you know," answered Goldsmith, "that I never could conceive thereason why they call you Malagrida, _for_ Malagrida was a very good sortof man." You see plainly what he meant to say, but that happy turn ofexpression is peculiar to himself. Mr. Walpole says that this story is apicture of Goldsmith's whole life.' _Life of Charlemont_, i. 344.[545] Most likely Reynolds, who introduced Crabbe to Johnson. Crabbe's_Works_, ed. 1834, ii. 11.[546]'I paint the cot,As truth will paint it, and as Bards will not.Nor you, ye Poor, of lettered scorn complain,To you the smoothest song is smooth in vain;O'ercome by labour, and bowed down by time,Feel you the barren flattery of a rhyme?Can poets soothe you, when you pine for bread,By winding myrtles round your ruined shed?Can their light tales your weighty griefs o'erpower,Or glad with airy mirth the toilsome hour?'_The Village_, book i.See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 6.[547] I shall give an instance, marking the original by Roman, andJohnson's substitution in Italick characters:--'In fairer scenes, where peaceful pleasures spring,Tityrus, the pride of Mantuan swains, might sing:But charmed by him, or smitten with his views,Shall modern poets court the Mantuan muse?From Truth and Nature shall we widely stray,Where Fancy leads, or Virgil led the way?''_On Mincio's banks, in Caesar's bounteous reign,If Tityrus found the golden age again,Must sleepy bards the flattering dream prolong,Mechanick echoes of the Mantuan song?_From Truth and Nature shall we widely stray,_Where Virgil, not where Fancy, leads the way?._Here we find Johnson's poetical and critical powers undiminished. Imust, however, observe, that the aids he gave to this poem, as to _TheTraveller_ and _Deserted Village_ of Goldsmith, were so small as by nomeans to impair the distinguished merit of the authour. BOSWELL.[548] In the _Gent. Mag._ 1763, pp. 602, 633, is a review of his_Observations on Diseases of the Army_. He says that the register ofdeaths of military men proves that more than eight times as many menfall by what was called the gaol fever as by battle. His suggestions areeminently wise. Lord Seaford, in 1835, told Leslie 'that he remembereddining in company with Dr. Johnson at Dr. Brocklesby's, when he was aboy of twelve or thirteen. He was impressed with the superiority ofJohnson, and his knocking everybody down in argument.' C.R. Leslie's_Recollections_, i. 146.[549] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 28.[550] See _ante_, i. 433, and ii. 217, 358.[551] "In his _Life of Swift_ (_Works_, viii. 205) he thus speaks ofthis _Journal_:-'In the midst of his power and his politicks, he kept ajournal of his visits, his walks, his interviews with ministers, andquarrels with his servant, and transmitted it to Mrs. Johnson and Mrs.Dingley, to whom he knew that whatever befell him was interesting, andno accounts could be too minute. Whether these diurnal trifles wereproperly exposed to eyes which had never received any pleasure from thepresence of the dean, may be reasonably doubted: they have, however,some odd attraction: the reader, finding frequent mention of names whichhe has been used to consider as important, goes on in hope ofinformation; and, as there is nothing to fatigue attention, if he isdisappointed, he can hardly complain.'"[552] On his fifty-fifth birthday he recorded:--'I resolve to keep ajournal both of employment and of expenses. To keep accounts.' _Pr. andMed_. 59. See _post_, Aug. 25, 1784, where he writes to Langton:--'I ama little angry at you for not keeping minutes of your own _acceptum etexpensum_, and think a little time might be spared from Aristophanes forthe _res familiares_.'[553] This Mr. Chalmers thought was George Steevens. CROKER. D'Israeli(_Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, vi. 76) describes Steevens asguilty of 'an unparalleled series of arch deception and maliciousingenuity.' He gives curious instances of his literary impostures. See_ante_, iii. 281, and _post_, May 15, 1784.[554] If this be Lord Mansfield, Boswell must use _late_ in the sense of_in retirement_; for Mansfield was living when the _Life of Johnson_ waspublished. He retired in 1788. Johnson in 1772, said that he had neverbeen in his company (_ante_, ii. 158). The fact that Mansfield ismentioned in the previous paragraph adds to the probability that heis meant.[555] See _ante_, ii. 318.[556] In Scotland, Johnson spoke of Mansfield's 'splendid talents.'Boswell's _Hebrides_, under Nov. 11.[557] 'I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in othermen.' 2 _ Henry IV_, act i. sc. 2.[558] Knowing as well as I do what precision and elegance of oratory hisLordship can display, I cannot but suspect that his unfavourableappearance in a social circle, which drew such animadversions upon him,must be owing to a cold affectation of consequence, from being reservedand stiff. If it be so, and he might be an agreeable man if he would, wecannot be sorry that he misses his aim. BOSWELL. Wedderburne, afterwardsLord Loughborough, is mentioned (_ante_, ii. 374), and again in Murphy's_Life of Johnson_, p. 43, as being in company with Johnson and Foote.Boswell also has before (_ante_, i. 387) praised the elegance of hisoratory. Henry Mackenzie (_Life of John Home_, i. 56) says thatWedderburne belonged to a club at the British Coffee-house, of whichGarrick, Smollett, and Dr. Douglas were members.[559] Boswell informed the people of Scotland in the Letter that headdressed to them in 1785 (p. 29), that 'now that Dr. Johnson is gone toa better world, he (Boswell) bowed the intellectual knee to _LordThurlow_.' See _post_, June 22, 1784.[560] Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 27.[561]'Charged with light summer-rings his fingers sweat,Unable to support a gem of weight.'DRYDEN. Juvenal, _Satires_, i. 29.[562] He had published a series of seventy _Essays_ under the title of_The Hypochondriack_ in the _London Magazine_ from 1777 to 1783.[563] Juvenal, _Satires_, x. 365. The common reading, however, is'Nullum numen _habes_,' &c. Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec._ p. 218) records thissaying, but with a variation. '"For," says Mr. Johnson, "though I do notquite agree with the proverb, that _Nullum numen adest si sitprudentia_, yet we may very well say, that _Nullum numen adest, ni sitprudentia."'[564] It has since appeared. BOSWELL.[565] Miss Burney mentions meeting Dr. Harington at Bath in 1780. 'It ishis son,' she writes, 'who published those very curious remains of hisancestor [Sir John Harington] under the title _Nugae Antiquae_ which myfather and all of us were formerly so fond of.' Mme. D'Arblay's_Diary_, i. 341.[566]'For though they are but trifles, thouSome value didst to them allow.'Martin's _Catullus_, p. 1.[567]--Underneath this rude, uncouth disguise,A genius of extensive knowledge lies.'FRANCIS. Horace, _Satires_, i. 3. 33.[568] He would not have been a troublesome patient anywhere, for,according to Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 275),'he required less attendance,sick or well, than ever I saw any human creature.'[569] 'That natural jealousy which makes every man unwilling to allowmuch excellence in another, always produces a disposition to believethat the mind grows old with the body; and that he whom we are nowforced to confess superiour is hastening daily to a level withourselves.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 212.[570] With the following elucidation of the saying-_Quos Deus_ (itshould rather be-_Quem Jupiter) vult perdere, prius dementat_-Mr.Boswell was furnished by Mr. Pitts:--'Perhaps no scrap of Latin whateverhas been more quoted than this. It occasionally falls even from thosewho are scrupulous even to pedantry in their Latinity, and will notadmit a word into their compositions, which has not the sanction of thefirst age. The word _demento_ is of no authority, either as a verbactive or neuter.--After a long search for the purpose of deciding abet, some gentlemen of Cambridge found it among the fragments ofEuripides, in what edition I do not recollect, where it is given as atranslation of a Greek Iambick: [Greek: Ou Theos thelei apolesoi'apophreuai.]'The above scrap was found in the hand-writing of a suicide of fashion,Sir D. O., some years ago, lying on the table of the room where he haddestroyed himself. The suicide was a man of classical acquirements: heleft no other paper behind him.'Another of these proverbial sayings,_Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim,_I, in a note on a passage in _The Merchant of Venice_ [act iii. sc. 5],traced to its source. It occurs (with a slight variation) in the_Alexandreis_ of Philip Gualtier (a poet of the thirteenth century),which was printed at Lyons in 1558. Darius is the person addressed:----Quo tendis inertem,Rex periture, fugam? nescis, heu! perdite, nescisQuern fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem;_Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim._A line not less frequently quoted was suggested for enquiry in a note on_The Rape of Lucrece:--Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris--_:But the author of this verse has not, I believe, been discovered.MALONE. The 'Greek lambick' in the above note is not Greek. To a learnedfriend I owe the following note. 'The _Quem Jupiter vult perdere_, &c.,is said to be a translation of a fragment of _Euripides_ by JoshuaBarnes. There is, I believe, no such fragment at all. In Barnes's_Euripides_, Cantab. 1694, fol. p. 515, is a fragment of Euripides witha note which may explain the muddle of Boswell's correspondent:--"[Greek: otau de daimonn handri porsunae kaka ton noun heblapse proton,]"on which Barnes writes:--"Tale quid in Franciados nostrae [probably hisuncompleted poem on Edward III.] l. 3. _Certe ille deorum Arbiterultricem cum vult extendere dextram Dementat prius._"' See _ante_, ii.445, note 1. Sir D. O. is, perhaps, Sir D'Anvers Osborne, whose death isrecorded in the _Gent. Mag._ 1753, p. 591. 'Sir D'Anvers Osborne, Bart.,Governor of New York, soon after his arrival there; _in his garden.'Solamen miseris, &c._, is imitated by Swift in his _Verses on Stella'sBirthday_, 1726-7:--'The only comfort they propose,To have companions in their woes.'Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, xi. 22. The note on _Lucrece_ was, Iconjecture, on line 1111:--'Grief best is pleased with grief's society.'[571]'FAUSTUS--"Tu quoque, ut hic video, non es ignarus amorum."'FORTUNATUS--"Id commune malum; semel insanivimus omnes."'Baptistae Mantuani Carmelitae _Adolescentia, seu Bucolica_. Ecloga I,published in 1498. 'Scaliger,' says Johnson (_Works_, viii. 391),'complained that Mantuan's Bucolicks were received into schools, andtaught as classical. ... He was read, at least in some of the inferiourschools of this kingdom, to the beginning of the present[eighteenth] century.'[572] See _ante_, i. 368.[573] See _ante_, i. 396.[574] I am happy, however, to mention a pleasing instance of hisenduring with great gentleness to hear one of his most strikingparticularities pointed out:--Miss Hunter, a niece of his friendChristopher Smart, when a very young girl, struck by his extraordinarymotions, said to him, 'Pray, Dr. Johnson, why do you make such strangegestures?' 'From bad habit,' he replied. 'Do you, my dear, take care toguard against bad habits.' This I was told by the young lady's brotherat Margate. BOSWELL. Boswell had himself told Johnson of some of them,at least in writing. Johnson read in manuscript his _Journal of a Tourto the Hebrides_. Boswell says in a note on Oct. 12:--'It is remarkablethat Dr. Johnson should have read this account of some of his ownpeculiar habits, without saying anything on the subject, which I hopedhe would have done.'[575] See _ante_, ii. 42, note 2, and iii. 324.[576] Johnson, after stating that some of Milton's manuscripts provethat 'in the early part of his life he wrote with much care,'continues:--'Such reliques show how excellence is acquired; what we hopeever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.'_Works_, vii. 119. Lord Chesterfield (_Letters_, iii. 146) had made thesame rule as Johnson:--'I was,' he writes, 'early convinced of theimportance and powers of eloquence; and from that moment I appliedmyself to it. I resolved not to utter one word even in commonconversation that should not be the most expressive and the most elegantthat the language could supply me with for that purpose; by which meansI have acquired such a certain degree of habitual eloquence, that I mustnow really take some pains if I would express myself very inelegantly.'[577] 'Dr. Johnson,' wrote Malone in 1783, 'is as correct and elegant inhis common conversation as in his writings. He never seems to studyeither for thoughts or words. When first introduced I was very young;yet he was as accurate in his conversation as if he had been talking tothe first scholar in England.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 92. See _post_,under Aug. 29, 1783.[578] See _ante_, iii. 216.[579] See _ante_, ii. 323.[580] The justness of this remark is confirmed by the following story,for which I am indebted to Lord Eliot:--A country parson, who wasremarkable for quoting scraps of Latin in his sermons, having died, oneof his parishioners was asked how he liked his successor. 'He is a verygood preacher,' was his answer, 'but no _latiner_.' BOSWELL. For theoriginal of Lord Eliot's story see Twells's _Life of Dr. E. Pocock_, ed.1816, p. 94. Reynolds said that 'Johnson always practised on everyoccasion the rule of speaking his best, whether the person to whom headdressed himself was or was not capable of comprehending him. "If,"says he, "I am understood, my labour is not lost. If it is above theircomprehension, there is some gratification, though it is the admirationof ignorance;" and he said those were the most sincere admirers; andquoted Baxter, who made a rule never to preach a sermon without saying