Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 49

[302] _St. Matthew_, xxvii. 52.

[303] I _Corinthians_, xv. 37.

[304] As this subject frequently recurs in these volumes, the reader may be led erroneously to suppose that Dr. Johnson was so fond of such discussions, as frequently to introduce them. But the truth is, that the authour himself delighted in talking concerning ghosts, and what he has frequently denominated _the mysterious_; and therefore took every opportunity of _leading_ Johnson to converse on such subjects. MALONE.

See _ante_, i. 406.

[305] Macbean (Johnson's old amanuensis, _ante_, i. 187) is not in Boswell's list of guests; but in the Pemb. Coll. MSS., there is the following entry on Monday, April 16:--'Yesterday at dinner were Mrs.

Hall, Mr. Levet, Macbean, Boswel (sic), Allen. Time pa.s.sed in talk after dinner. At seven, I went with Mrs. Hall to Church, and came back to tea.'

[306] Mrs. Piozzi records (_Anec_. p. 192) that he said 'a long time after my poor mother's death, I heard her voice call _Sam_.' She is so inaccurate that most likely this is merely her version of the story that Boswell has recorded above. See also _ante_, i. 405. Lord Macaulay made more of this story of the voice than it could well bear--'Under the influence of his disease, his senses became morbidly torpid, and his imagination morbidly active. At one time he would stand poring on the town clock without being able to tell the hour. At another, he would distinctly hear his mother, who was many miles off, calling him by his name. But this was not the worst.' Macaulay's _Writings and Speeches_, ed. 1871, p. 374.

[307]

'One wife is too much for most husbands to bear, But two at a time there's no mortal can bear.'

Act iii. sc. 4.

[308] 'I think a person who is terrified with the imagination of ghosts and spectres much more reasonable than one who, contrary to the reports of all historians, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous and groundless.' _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, 'you are 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 _Life of Edmund Smith. Works_, vii. 380. See _ante_, i. 81.

[315] How fond she and her husband had been is shewn in a letter, in which, 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 cannot now leave her.' _Garrick Corres._ ii. 150. 'Garrick's widow is buried with him. She survived him forty-three years--"a little bowed-down old woman, who went about leaning on a gold-headed cane, dressed in deep widow's mourning, and always talking of her dear Davy." (_Pen and Ink Sketches_, 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 most excellent man, a most immaculate Whig, but as simple a poor soul as ever existed, except his editor, who has given extracts from the good creature's diary that are very near as anile as Ashmole's. There are thanks to G.o.d for reaching every birthday, ... and thanks to Heaven for her Majesty's being delivered of a third or fourth prince, and _G.o.d send he may prove a good man_.' See also Walpole's _Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 287. Dr. Franklin wrote much more highly of him.

Speaking of what he had done, he said:--'It is prodigious the quant.i.ty of good that may be done by one man, _if he will make a business of it_.' 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 the Treasury, destroyed himself, overwhelmed, just as Cowper had been, by the sense of the responsibility of an office which had been thrust upon him. See Hannah More's _Memoirs_, i. 245, and Walpole's _Letters_, viii. 206.

[322] 'It is commonly supposed that the uniformity of a studious life affords no matter for a narration; but the truth is, that of the most studious life a great part pa.s.ses without study. An author partakes of the common condition of humanity; he is born and married like another man; he has hopes and fears, expectations and disappointments, griefs and joys, and friends and enemies, like a courtier, or a statesman; nor can I conceive why his affairs should not excite curiosity as much as the whisper of a drawing-room or the factions of a camp.' _The Idler_, 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_. He spoke disparagingly of both. I praised _Lycidas_, which he absolutely abused, adding, "if Milton had not written the _Paradise Lost_, he would have only ranked among the minor Poets. He was a Phidias that could cut a Colossus out of a rock, but could not cut heads out of cherry-stones."' See _post_, June 13, 1784. The _Allegro_ and _Penseroso_ Johnson described as 'two n.o.ble efforts of imagination.' Of _Lycidas_ he wrote:--'Surely no man could have fancied that he read it with pleasure, had he not known the author.' _Works_, vii. 121, 2.

[324] Murphy (_Life of Garrick_, p. 374) says 'Shortly after Garrick's death 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 that last tribute to the memory of a man I loved." 'Murphy adds that he himself took care that Mrs. Garrick was informed of what Johnson had said, but that no answer was ever received.

[325] Miss Burney wrote in May:--'Dr. Johnson was charming, both in spirits and humour. I really think he grows gayer and gayer daily, and more _ductile_ and pleasant.' In June she wrote:--'I found him in admirable good-humour, and our journey [to Streatham] was extremely pleasant. I thanked him for the last batch of his poets, and we talked them 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 he grows in years. He not only has better health and a fresher complexion than ever he had before (at least since I knew him), but he has contracted 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. 'I think I see him at this moment,' said Rogers (_Table-Talk_, p. 43), 'walking through the crowded streets of the city, as Chamberlain, on his way to Guildhall, in a scarlet coat, military boots, and a bag-wig--the hackney-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 made descents on some of the Hebrides and on the north-eastern coast of Ireland. In a sea fight off Ireland he was killed and his s.h.i.+ps were taken. _Gent. Mag_. x.x.x. 107. Horace Walpole says that in the alarm raised by him in Ireland, 'the bankers there stopped payment.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George II_, iii. 224.

[329]

'Some for renown on sc.r.a.ps of learning doat, And think they grow immortal as they quote.'

Young's _Love of Fame_, sat. i. c.u.mberland (_Memoirs_, ii. 226) says that Mr. Dilly, speaking of 'the profusion of quotations which some writers affectedly make use of, observed that he knew a Presbyterian parson who, for eighteenpence, would furnish any pamphleteer with as many sc.r.a.ps of Greek and Latin as would pa.s.s him off for an accomplished cla.s.sic.'

[330] Cowley was quite out of fas.h.i.+on. Richardson (_Corres._ ii. 229) wrote more than thirty years earlier:--'I wonder Cowley is so absolutely neglected.' 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 that arrogantly called itself The World. Lord Stanhope (now Lord Chesterfield) was a member. Epigrams were proposed to be written on the gla.s.ses by each member after dinner. Once when Dr. Young was invited thither, the doctor would have declined writing because he had no diamond, 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) a.s.signs 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 my nonsense." "No, madam, you never talk nonsense; you have as much sense and more wit than any woman I know." "Oh," cried Mrs. Thrale, blus.h.i.+ng, "it is my turn to go under the table this morning, Miss Burney." "And yet," continued the doctor, with the most comical look, "I have known all the wits from Mrs. Montagu down to Bet Flint." "Bet Flint!" cried Mrs. Thrale. "Pray, who is she?" "Oh, a fine character, madam. She was habitually a s.l.u.t and a drunkard, and occasionally a thief and a harlot.... Mrs. Williams," he added, "did not love Bet Flint, but Bet Flint 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, which have been communicated to me by a young lady of his acquaintance:--

'When first I drew my vital breath, A little minikin I came upon earth; And then I came from a dark abode, 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 the Commission, but, according to the _Report_, it was before the Recorder that Bet Flint was tried. It may easily be, however, that either the reporter or the printer has blundered. It is only by the characters *

and ? that the trials before the Chief Justice and the Recorder are distinguished. Bet had stolen not only the counterpane, but five other articles. The prosecutrix could not prove that the articles were hers, and not a captain's, whose servant she said she had been, and who was now abroad. On this ground the prisoner was acquitted. Of Chief Justice Willes, Horace Walpole writes:--'He was not wont to disguise any of his pa.s.sions. That for gaming was notorious; for women unbounded.' He relates an anecdote of his wit and licentiousness. Walpole's _Reign of George II_, i. 89. He had been Johnson's schoolfellow (_ante_, i. 45).

[336] Burke is meant. See _ante_, ii. 131, where Johnson said that Burke spoke too familiarly; and _post_, May 15, 1784, where he said that 'when Burke lets himself down to jocularity he is in the kennel.'