约翰逊4-6-101

corresponding to what is called _subject_ in the lecture-room of ananatomist, or _shot_ in the slang of the Westport murderers' [Burke andHare]. Sir Walter adds that 'it was said of M'Neil of Barra, that whenhe dined, his bagpipes blew a particular strain, intimating that all theworld might go to dinner.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 341.[629] I doubt the justice of my fellow-traveller's remark concerning theFrench literati, many of whom, I am told, have considerable merit inconversation, as well as in their writings. That of Monsieur de Buffon,in particular, I am well assured, is highly instructive andentertaining. BOSWELL. See _ante_, iii. 253.[630] Horace Walpole, writing of 1758, says:--'Prize-fighting, in whichwe had horribly resembled the most barbarous and most polite nations,was suppressed by the legislature.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George II_,iii. 99. According to Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec._ p. 5), Johnson said that his'father's brother, Andrew, kept the ring in Smithfield (where theywrestled and boxed) for a whole year, and never was thrown or conquered.Mr. Johnson was,' she continues, 'very conversant in the art of boxing.'She had heard him descant upon it 'much to the admiration of those whohad no expectation of his skill in such matters.'[631] See _ante_, ii. 179, 226, and iv. 211.[632] See _ante_, p. 98.[633] See _ante_, i, 110.[634] See _ante_, i. 398, and ii. 15, 35, 441.[635] Gibbon, thirteen years later, writing to Lord Sheffield about thecommercial treaty with France, said (_Misc. Works_, ii. 399):--'I hopeboth nations are gainers; since otherwise it cannot be lasting; and suchdouble mutual gain is surely possible in fair trade, though it could noteasily happen in the mischievous amusements of war and gaming.'[636] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 139), writing of gratitude and resentment,says:--'Though there are few who will practise a laborious virtue,there will never be wanting multitudes that will indulge an easy vice.'[637] _Aul. Gellius_, lib. v. c. xiv. BOSWELL.[638] 'The difficulties in princes' business are many and great; but thegreatest difficulty is often in their own mind. For it is common withprinces, saith Tacitus, to will contradictories. _Sunt plerumque regumvoluntates vehementes, et inter se contrariae_. For it is the solecismof power to think to command the end, and yet not to endure the mean.'Bacon's _Essays_, No. xix.[639] Yet Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Sept. 30:--'I am now no longerpleased with the delay; you can hear from me but seldom, and I cannot atall hear from you. It comes into my mind that some evil may happen.'_Piozzi Letters_, i. 148. On Oct. 15 he wrote to Mr. Thrale:--'Havingfor many weeks had no letter, my longings are very great to be informedhow all things are at home, as you and mistress allow me to call it....I beg to have my thoughts set at rest by a letter from you or mymistress.' _Ib_. p. 166. See _ante_, iii. 4.[640] Sir Walter Scott thus describes Dunvegan in 1814:--'The wholecastle occupies a precipitous mass of rock overhanging the lake, dividedby two or three islands in that place, which form a snug little harbourunder the walls. There is a court-yard looking out upon the sea,protected by a battery, at least a succession of embrasures, for onlytwo guns are pointed, and these unfit for service. The ancient entrancerose up a flight of steps cut in the rock, and passed into thiscourt-yard through a portal, but this is now demolished. You land underthe castle, and walking round find yourself in front of it. This wasoriginally inaccessible, for a brook coming down on the one side, achasm of the rocks on the other, and a ditch in front, made itimpervious. But the late Macleod built a bridge over the stream, and thepresent laird is executing an entrance suitable to the character of thisremarkable fortalice, by making a portal between two advanced towers,and an outer court, from which he proposes to throw a draw-bridge overto the high rock in front of the castle.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed.1839, iv. 303.[641]'Bella gerant alii; tu, felix Austria, nube;Quae dat Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus.'[642] Johnson says of this castle:--'It is so nearly entire, that itmight have easily been made habitable, were there not an ominoustradition in the family, that the owner shall not long outlive thereparation. The grandfather of the present laird, in defiance ofprediction, began the work, but desisted in a little time, and appliedhis money to worse uses.' _Works_, ix. 64.[643] Macaulay (_Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 365) ends a lively piece ofcriticism on Mr. Croker by saying:--'It requires no Bentley or Casaubonto perceive that Philarchus is merely a false spelling for Phylarchus,the chief of a tribe.'[644] See _ante_, i. 180.[645] Sir Walter Scott wrote in 1814:--'The monument is now nearlyruinous, and the inscription has fallen down.' Lockhart's _Scott_,iv. 308.[646] 'Wheel carriages they have none, but make a frame of timber, whichis drawn by one horse, with the two points behind pressing on theground. On this they sometimes drag home their sheaves, but often conveythem home in a kind of open pannier, or frame of sticks, upon thehorse's back.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 76. 'The young Laird of Col hasattempted what no islander perhaps ever thought on. He has begun a roadcapable of a wheel-carriage. He has carried it about a mile.' _Ib_.p. 128.[647] Captain Phipps had sailed in May of this year, and in theneighbourhood of Spitzbergen had reached the latitude of more than 80 deg..He returned to England in the end of September. _Gent. Mag_. 1774,p. 420.[648] _Aeneid_, vi. II.[649] 'In the afternoon, an interval of calm sunshine courted us out tosee a cave on the shore, famous for its echo. When we went into theboat, one of our companions was asked in Erse by the boatmen, who theywere that came with him. He gave us characters, I suppose to ouradvantage, and was asked, in the spirit of the Highlands, whether Icould recite a long series of ancestors. The boatmen said, as Iperceived afterwards, that they heard the cry of an English ghost. This,Boswell says, disturbed him.... There was no echo; such is the fidelityof report.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 156.[650] '_Law_ or _low_ signifies a hill: _ex. gr._ Wardlaw, guard hill,Houndslow, the dog's hill.' Blackie's _Etymological Geography_, p. 103.[651] Pepys often mentions them. At first he praises them highly, but ofone of the later ones--_Tryphon_--he writes:--'The play, thoughadmirable, yet no pleasure almost in it, because just the very samedesign, and words, and sense, and plot, as every one of his plays have,any one of which would be held admirable, whereas so many of the samedesign and fancy do but dull one another.' Pepys's _Diary_, ed. 1851,v. 63.[652] The second and third earls are passed over by Johnson. It was thefourth earl who, as Charles Boyle, had been Bentley's antagonist. Ofthis controversy a full account is given in Lord Macaulay's _Life ofAtterbury_.[653] The fifth earl, John. See _ante_, i. 185, and iii. 249.[654] See _ante_, i. 9, and iii. 154.[655] See _ante_, ii. 129, and iii. 183.[656] The young lord was married on the 8th of May, 1728, and thefather's will is dated the 6th of Nov. following. 'Having,' says thetestator, 'never observed that my son hath showed much taste orinclination, either for the entertainment or knowledge which study andlearning afford, I give and bequeath all my books and mathematicalinstruments [with certain exceptions] to Christchurch College, inOxford.' CROKER.[657] His _Life of Swift_ is written in the form of _Letters to his Son,the Hon. Hamilton Boyle._ The fifteenth Letter, in which he finishes hiscriticism of _Gulliver's Travels_, affords a good instance of this'studied variety of phrase.' 'I may finish my letter,' he writes,'especially as the conclusion of it naturally turns my thoughts fromYahoos to one of the dearest pledges I have upon earth, yourself, towhom I am a mostAffectionate Father,'ORRERY.'See _ante_, i. 275-284, for Johnson's letters to Thomas Warton, many ofwhich end 'in studied varieties of phrase.'[658] _The Conquest of Granada_ was dedicated to the Duke of York. Theconclusion is as follows:--'If at any time Almanzor fulfils the parts ofpersonal valour and of conduct, of a soldier and of a general; or, if Icould yet give him a character more advantageous that what he has, ofthe most unshaken friend, the greatest of subjects, and the best ofmasters; I should then draw all the world a true resemblance of yourworth and virtues; at least as far as they are capable of being copiedby the mean abilities of,'Sir,'Your Royal Highness's'Most humble, and most'Obedient servant,'J. DRYDEN.'[659] On the day of his coronation he was asked to pardon four young menwho had broken the law against carrying arms. 'So long as I live,' hereplied, 'every criminal must die.' 'He was inexorable in individualcases; he adhered to his laws with a rigour that amounted to cruelty,while in the framing of general rules we find him mild, yielding, andplacable.' Ranke's _Popes_, ed. 1866, i. 307, 311.[660] See _ante_, iii. 239, where he discusses the question of shootinga highwayman.[661] In _The Rambler_, No. 78, he says:--'I believe men may begenerally observed to grow less tender as they advance in age.'[662] He passed over his own _Life of Savage_.[663] 'When I was a young fellow, I wanted to write the _Life of Dryden'Ante_, iii. 71.[664] See _ante_, p. 117.[665] 'I asked a very learned minister in Sky, who had used all arts tomake me believe the genuineness of the book, whether at last he believedit himself; but he would not answer. He wished me to be deceived for thehonour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive me.Yet has this man's testimony been publickly produced, as of one thatheld _Fingal_ to be the work of Ossian.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 115.[666] A young lady had sung to him an Erse song. He asked her, 'What isthat about? I question if she conceived that I did not understand it.For the entertainment of the company, said she. But, Madam, what is themeaning of it? It is a love song. This was all the intelligence that Icould obtain; nor have I been able to procure the translation of asingle line of Erse.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 146. See _post_, Oct. 16[667] This droll quotation, I have since found, was from a song inhonour of the Earl of Essex, called _Queen Elisabeth's Champion_, whichis preserved in a collection of Old Ballads, in three volumes, publishedin London in different years, between 1720 and 1730. The full verse isas follows:--'Oh! then bespoke the prentices all,Living in London, both proper and tall,In a kind letter sent straight to the Queen,For Essex's sake they would fight all.Raderer too, tandaro te,Raderer, tandorer, tan do re.'BOSWELL.[668] La Condamine describes a tribe called the Tameos, on the northside of the river Tiger in South America, who have a word for _three_.He continues:--'Happily for those who have transactions with them,their arithmetic goes no farther. The Brazilian tongue, a languagespoken by people less savage, is equally barren; the people who speakit, where more than three is to be expressed, are obliged to use thePortuguese.' Pinkerton's _Voyages_, xiv. 225.[669] 'It was Addison's practice, when he found any man invinciblywrong, to flatter his opinions by acquiescence, and sink him yet deeperin absurdity. This artifice of mischief was admired by Stella; and Swiftseems to approve her admiration.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 450. Swift, inhis _Character of Mrs. Johnson _ (Stella), says:--'Whether thisproceeded from her easiness in general, or from her indifference topersons, or from her despair of mending them, or from the same practicewhich she much liked in Mr. Addison, I cannot determine; but when shesaw any of the company very warm in a wrong opinion, she was moreinclined to confirm them in it than oppose them. The excuse she commonlygave, when her friends asked the reason, was, "That it prevented noiseand saved time." Swift's _Works_, xiv. 254.[670] In the Appendix to Blair's _Critical Dissertation on the Poems ofOssian_ Macqueen is mentioned as one of his authorities for hisstatements.[671] See _ante_, iv. 262, note.[672] I think it but justice to say, that I believe Dr. Johnson meant toascribe Mr. M'Queen's conduct to inaccuracy and enthusiasm, and did notmean any severe imputation against him. BOSWELL.[673] In Baretti's trial (_ante_, ii. 97, note I) he seems to have givenhis evidence clearly. What he had to say, however, was not much.[674] Boswell had spoken before to Johnson about this omission. _Ante_,ii. 92.[675] It has been triumphantly asked, 'Had not the plays of Shakspearelain dormant for many years before the appearance of Mr. Garrick? Did henot exhibit the most excellent of them frequently for thirty yearstogether, and render them extremely popular by his own inimitableperformance?' He undoubtedly did. But Dr. Johnson's assertion has beenmisunderstood. Knowing as well as the objectors what has been juststated, he must necessarily have meant, that 'Mr. Garrick did not as _acritick_ make Shakspeare better known; he did not _illustrate_ any one_passage_ in any of his plays by acuteness of disquisition, or sagacityof conjecture: and what had been done with any degree of excellence in_that_ way was the proper and immediate subject of his preface. I mayadd in support of this explanation the following anecdote, related to meby one of the ablest commentators on Shakspeare, who knew much of Dr.Johnson: 'Now I have quitted the theatre, cries Garrick, I will sit downand read Shakspeare.' ''Tis time you should, exclaimed Johnson, for Imuch doubt if you ever examined one of his plays from the first scene tothe last.' BOSWELL. According to Davies (_Life of Garrick_, i. 120)during the twenty years' management of Drury Lane by Booth, Wilks andCibber (about 1712-1732) not more than eight or nine of Shakspeare'splays were acted, whereas Garrick annually gave the public seventeen oreighteen. _Romeo and Juliet_ had lain neglected near 80 years, when in1748-9 Garrick brought it out, or rather a hash of it. 'Otway had madesome alteration in the catastrophe, which Mr. Garrick greatly improvedby the addition of a scene, which was written with a spirit not unworthyof Shakespeare himself.' _Ib_. p. 125. Murphy (_Life of Garrick_, p.100), writing of this alteration, says:--'The catastrophe, as it nowstands, is the most affecting in the whole compass of the drama.' Daviessays (p. 20) that shortly before Garrick's time 'a taste for Shakespearehad been revived. The ladies had formed themselves into a society underthe title of The Shakespeare Club. They bespoke every week somefavourite play of his.' This revival was shown in the increasing numberof readers of Shakespeare. It was in 1741 that Garrick began to act. Inthe previous sixteen years there had been published four editions ofPope's _Shakespeare_ and two of Theobald's. In the next ten years werepublished five editions of Hanmer's _Shakespeare_, and two ofWarburton's, besides Johnson's _Observations on Macbeth. _Lowndes's_Bibl. Man._ ed. 1871, p. 2270.[676] In her foolish _Essay on Shakespeare_, p. 15. See _ante_, ii. 88.[677] No man has less inclination to controversy than I have,particularly with a lady. But as I have claimed, and am conscious ofbeing entitled to credit for the strictest fidelity, my respect for thepublick obliges me to take notice of an insinuation which tends toimpeach it.Mrs. Piozzi (late Mrs. Thrale), to her _Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson_, addedthe following postscript:--'_Naples, Feb._ 10, 1786.'Since the foregoing went to the press, having seen a passage from Mr.Boswell's _Tour to the Hebrides,_ in which it is said, that _I could notget through Mrs. Montague's "Essay on Shakspeare,"_ I do not delay amoment to declare, that, on the contrary, I have always commended itmyself, and heard it commended by every one else; and few things wouldgive me more concern than to be thought incapable of tasting, orunwilling to testify my opinion of its excellence.'It is remarkable that this postscript is so expressed, as not to pointout the person who said that Mrs. Thrale could not get through Mrs.Montague's book; and therefore I think it necessary to remind Mrs.Piozzi, that the assertion concerning her was Dr. Johnson's, and notmine. The second observation that I shall make on this postscript is,that it does not deny the fact asserted, though I must acknowledge fromthe praise it bestows on Mrs. Montague's book, it may have been designedto convey that meaning.What Mrs. Thrale's opinion is or was, or what she may or may not havesaid to Dr. Johnson concerning Mrs. Montague's book, it is not necessaryfor me to enquire. It is only incumbent on me to ascertain what Dr.Johnson said to me. I shall therefore confine myself to a very shortstate of the fact. The unfavourable opinion of Mrs. Montague's book,which Dr. Johnson, is here reported to have given, is, known to havebeen that which he uniformly expressed, as many of his friends wellremember. So much, for the authenticity of the paragraph, as far as itrelates to his own sentiments. The words containing the assertion, towhich Mrs. Piozzi objects, are printed from my manuscript Journal, andwere taken down at the time. The Journal was read by Dr. Johnson, whopointed out some inaccuracies, which I corrected, but did not mentionany inaccuracy in the paragraph in question: and what is still morematerial, and very flattering to me, a considerable part of my Journal,containing this paragraph, _was read several years ago by, Mrs. Thraleherself _[see _ante_, ii. 383], who had it for some time in herpossession, and returned it to me, without intimating that Dr. Johnsonhad mistaken her sentiments.When the first edition of my Journal was passing through the press, itoccurred to me that a peculiar delicacy was necessary to be observed inreporting the opinion of one literary lady concerning the performance ofanother; and I had such scruples on that head, that in the proof sheet Istruck out the name of Mrs. Thrale from the above paragraph, and two orthree hundred copies of my book were actually printed and publishedwithout it; of these Sir Joshua Reynolds's copy happened to be one. Butwhile the sheet was working off, a friend, for whose opinion I havegreat respect, suggested that I had no right to deprive Mrs. Thrale ofthe high honour which Dr. Johnson had done her, by stating her opinionalong with that of Mr. Beauclerk, as coinciding with, and, as it were,sanctioning his own. The observation appeared to me so weighty andconclusive, that I hastened to the printing-house, and, as a piece ofjustice, restored Mrs. Thrale to that place from which a too scrupulousdelicacy had excluded her. On this simple state of facts I shall make noobservation whatever. BOSWELL. This note was first published in the formof a letter to the Editor of _The Gazetteer_ on April 17, 1786.[678] See _ante_, p. 215, for his knowledge of coining and brewing, and_post_, p. 263, for his knowledge of threshing and thatching. Now andthen, no doubt, 'he talked ostentatiously,' as he had at Fort Georgeabout Gunpowder (_ante_, p. 124). In the _Gent. Mag._ for 1749, p. 55,there is a paper on the _Construction of Fireworks_, which I have littledoubt is his. The following passage is certainly Johnsonian:--'Theexcellency of a rocket consists in the largeness of the train of fire itemits, the solemnity of its motion (which should be rather slow atfirst, but augmenting as it rises), the straightness of its flight, andthe height to which it ascends.'[679] Perhaps Johnson refers to Stephen Hales's _Statical Essays_(London, 1733), in which is an account of experiments made on the bloodand blood-vessels of animals.[680] Evidence was given at the Tichborne Trial to shew that it takessome years to learn the trade.