corresponding to what is called _subject_ in the lecture-room of an
anatomist, or _shot_ in the slang of the Westport murderers' [Burke and
Hare]. Sir Walter adds that 'it was said of M'Neil of Barra, that when
he dined, his bagpipes blew a particular strain, intimating that all the
world might go to dinner.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 341.
[629] I doubt the justice of my fellow-traveller's remark concerning the
French literati, many of whom, I am told, have considerable merit in
conversation, as well as in their writings. That of Monsieur de Buffon,
in particular, I am well assured, is highly instructive and
entertaining. BOSWELL. See _ante_, iii. 253.
[630] Horace Walpole, writing of 1758, says:--'Prize-fighting, in which
we 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 they
wrestled 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 who
had 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 the
commercial treaty with France, said (_Misc. Works_, ii. 399):--'I hope
both nations are gainers; since otherwise it cannot be lasting; and such
double mutual gain is surely possible in fair trade, though it could not
easily 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 the
greatest difficulty is often in their own mind. For it is common with
princes, saith Tacitus, to will contradictories. _Sunt plerumque regum
voluntates vehementes, et inter se contrariae_. For it is the solecism
of 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 longer
pleased with the delay; you can hear from me but seldom, and I cannot at
all 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:--'Having
for many weeks had no letter, my longings are very great to be informed
how 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 my
mistress.' _Ib_. p. 166. See _ante_, iii. 4.
[640] Sir Walter Scott thus describes Dunvegan in 1814:--'The whole
castle occupies a precipitous mass of rock overhanging the lake, divided
by two or three islands in that place, which form a snug little harbour
under the walls. There is a court-yard looking out upon the sea,
protected by a battery, at least a succession of embrasures, for only
two guns are pointed, and these unfit for service. The ancient entrance
rose up a flight of steps cut in the rock, and passed into this
court-yard through a portal, but this is now demolished. You land under
the castle, and walking round find yourself in front of it. This was
originally inaccessible, for a brook coming down on the one side, a
chasm of the rocks on the other, and a ditch in front, made it
impervious. But the late Macleod built a bridge over the stream, and the
present laird is executing an entrance suitable to the character of this
remarkable fortalice, by making a portal between two advanced towers,
and an outer court, from which he proposes to throw a draw-bridge over
to 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 it
might have easily been made habitable, were there not an ominous
tradition in the family, that the owner shall not long outlive the
reparation. The grandfather of the present laird, in defiance of
prediction, began the work, but desisted in a little time, and applied
his money to worse uses.' _Works_, ix. 64.
[643] Macaulay (_Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 365) ends a lively piece of
criticism on Mr. Croker by saying:--'It requires no Bentley or Casaubon
to 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 nearly
ruinous, and the inscription has fallen down.' Lockhart's _Scott_,
iv. 308.
[646] 'Wheel carriages they have none, but make a frame of timber, which
is drawn by one horse, with the two points behind pressing on the
ground. On this they sometimes drag home their sheaves, but often convey
them home in a kind of open pannier, or frame of sticks, upon the
horse's back.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 76. 'The young Laird of Col has
attempted what no islander perhaps ever thought on. He has begun a road
capable 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 the
neighbourhood 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 to
see a cave on the shore, famous for its echo. When we went into the
boat, one of our companions was asked in Erse by the boatmen, who they
were that came with him. He gave us characters, I suppose to our
advantage, and was asked, in the spirit of the Highlands, whether I
could recite a long series of ancestors. The boatmen said, as I
perceived afterwards, that they heard the cry of an English ghost. This,
Boswell says, disturbed him.... There was no echo; such is the fidelity
of 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 of
one of the later ones--_Tryphon_--he writes:--'The play, though
admirable, yet no pleasure almost in it, because just the very same
design, 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 same
design 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 the
fourth earl who, as Charles Boyle, had been Bentley's antagonist. Of
this controversy a full account is given in Lord Macaulay's _Life of
Atterbury_.
[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 the
father's will is dated the 6th of Nov. following. 'Having,' says the
testator, 'never observed that my son hath showed much taste or
inclination, either for the entertainment or knowledge which study and
learning afford, I give and bequeath all my books and mathematical
instruments [with certain exceptions] to Christchurch College, in
Oxford.' 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 his
criticism 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 from
Yahoos to one of the dearest pledges I have upon earth, yourself, to
whom I am a most
Affectionate Father,
'ORRERY.'
See _ante_, i. 275-284, for Johnson's letters to Thomas Warton, many of
which end 'in studied varieties of phrase.'
[658] _The Conquest of Granada_ was dedicated to the Duke of York. The
conclusion is as follows:--'If at any time Almanzor fulfils the parts of
personal valour and of conduct, of a soldier and of a general; or, if I
could yet give him a character more advantageous that what he has, of
the most unshaken friend, the greatest of subjects, and the best of
masters; I should then draw all the world a true resemblance of your
worth and virtues; at least as far as they are capable of being copied
by 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 men
who had broken the law against carrying arms. 'So long as I live,' he
replied, 'every criminal must die.' 'He was inexorable in individual
cases; he adhered to his laws with a rigour that amounted to cruelty,
while in the framing of general rules we find him mild, yielding, and
placable.' Ranke's _Popes_, ed. 1866, i. 307, 311.
[660] See _ante_, iii. 239, where he discusses the question of shooting
a highwayman.
[661] In _The Rambler_, No. 78, he says:--'I believe men may be
generally 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 to
make me believe the genuineness of the book, whether at last he believed
it himself; but he would not answer. He wished me to be deceived for the
honour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive me.
Yet has this man's testimony been publickly produced, as of one that
held _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 is
that about? I question if she conceived that I did not understand it.
For the entertainment of the company, said she. But, Madam, what is the
meaning of it? It is a love song. This was all the intelligence that I
could obtain; nor have I been able to procure the translation of a
single line of Erse.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 146. See _post_, Oct. 16
[667] This droll quotation, I have since found, was from a song in
honour of the Earl of Essex, called _Queen Elisabeth's Champion_, which
is preserved in a collection of Old Ballads, in three volumes, published
in London in different years, between 1720 and 1730. The full verse is
as 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 north
side 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 language
spoken by people less savage, is equally barren; the people who speak
it, where more than three is to be expressed, are obliged to use the
Portuguese.' Pinkerton's _Voyages_, xiv. 225.
[669] 'It was Addison's practice, when he found any man invincibly
wrong, to flatter his opinions by acquiescence, and sink him yet deeper
in absurdity. This artifice of mischief was admired by Stella; and Swift
seems to approve her admiration.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 450. Swift, in
his _Character of Mrs. Johnson _ (Stella), says:--'Whether this
proceeded from her easiness in general, or from her indifference to
persons, or from her despair of mending them, or from the same practice
which she much liked in Mr. Addison, I cannot determine; but when she
saw any of the company very warm in a wrong opinion, she was more
inclined to confirm them in it than oppose them. The excuse she commonly
gave, when her friends asked the reason, was, "That it prevented noise
and saved time." Swift's _Works_, xiv. 254.
[670] In the Appendix to Blair's _Critical Dissertation on the Poems of
Ossian_ Macqueen is mentioned as one of his authorities for his
statements.
[671] See _ante_, iv. 262, note.
[672] I think it but justice to say, that I believe Dr. Johnson meant to
ascribe Mr. M'Queen's conduct to inaccuracy and enthusiasm, and did not
mean any severe imputation against him. BOSWELL.
[673] In Baretti's trial (_ante_, ii. 97, note I) he seems to have given
his 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 Shakspeare
lain dormant for many years before the appearance of Mr. Garrick? Did he
not exhibit the most excellent of them frequently for thirty years
together, and render them extremely popular by his own inimitable
performance?' He undoubtedly did. But Dr. Johnson's assertion has been
misunderstood. Knowing as well as the objectors what has been just
stated, he must necessarily have meant, that 'Mr. Garrick did not as _a
critick_ make Shakspeare better known; he did not _illustrate_ any one
_passage_ in any of his plays by acuteness of disquisition, or sagacity
of conjecture: and what had been done with any degree of excellence in
_that_ way was the proper and immediate subject of his preface. I may
add in support of this explanation the following anecdote, related to me
by one of the ablest commentators on Shakspeare, who knew much of Dr.
Johnson: 'Now I have quitted the theatre, cries Garrick, I will sit down
and read Shakspeare.' ''Tis time you should, exclaimed Johnson, for I
much doubt if you ever examined one of his plays from the first scene to
the last.' BOSWELL. According to Davies (_Life of Garrick_, i. 120)
during the twenty years' management of Drury Lane by Booth, Wilks and
Cibber (about 1712-1732) not more than eight or nine of Shakspeare's
plays were acted, whereas Garrick annually gave the public seventeen or
eighteen. _Romeo and Juliet_ had lain neglected near 80 years, when in
1748-9 Garrick brought it out, or rather a hash of it. 'Otway had made
some alteration in the catastrophe, which Mr. Garrick greatly improved
by the addition of a scene, which was written with a spirit not unworthy
of Shakespeare himself.' _Ib_. p. 125. Murphy (_Life of Garrick_, p.
100), writing of this alteration, says:--'The catastrophe, as it now
stands, is the most affecting in the whole compass of the drama.' Davies
says (p. 20) that shortly before Garrick's time 'a taste for Shakespeare
had been revived. The ladies had formed themselves into a society under
the title of The Shakespeare Club. They bespoke every week some
favourite play of his.' This revival was shown in the increasing number
of readers of Shakespeare. It was in 1741 that Garrick began to act. In
the previous sixteen years there had been published four editions of
Pope's _Shakespeare_ and two of Theobald's. In the next ten years were
published five editions of Hanmer's _Shakespeare_, and two of
Warburton'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 of
being entitled to credit for the strictest fidelity, my respect for the
publick obliges me to take notice of an insinuation which tends to
impeach it.
Mrs. Piozzi (late Mrs. Thrale), to her _Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson_, added
the 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 not
get through Mrs. Montague's "Essay on Shakspeare,"_ I do not delay a
moment to declare, that, on the contrary, I have always commended it
myself, and heard it commended by every one else; and few things would
give me more concern than to be thought incapable of tasting, or
unwilling to testify my opinion of its excellence.'
It is remarkable that this postscript is so expressed, as not to point
out 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 not
mine. The second observation that I shall make on this postscript is,
that it does not deny the fact asserted, though I must acknowledge from
the praise it bestows on Mrs. Montague's book, it may have been designed
to convey that meaning.
What Mrs. Thrale's opinion is or was, or what she may or may not have
said to Dr. Johnson concerning Mrs. Montague's book, it is not necessary
for 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 short
state of the fact. The unfavourable opinion of Mrs. Montague's book,
which Dr. Johnson, is here reported to have given, is, known to have
been that which he uniformly expressed, as many of his friends well
remember. So much, for the authenticity of the paragraph, as far as it
relates to his own sentiments. The words containing the assertion, to
which Mrs. Piozzi objects, are printed from my manuscript Journal, and
were taken down at the time. The Journal was read by Dr. Johnson, who
pointed out some inaccuracies, which I corrected, but did not mention
any inaccuracy in the paragraph in question: and what is still more
material, and very flattering to me, a considerable part of my Journal,
containing this paragraph, _was read several years ago by, Mrs. Thrale
herself _[see _ante_, ii. 383], who had it for some time in her
possession, and returned it to me, without intimating that Dr. Johnson
had mistaken her sentiments.
When the first edition of my Journal was passing through the press, it
occurred to me that a peculiar delicacy was necessary to be observed in
reporting the opinion of one literary lady concerning the performance of
another; and I had such scruples on that head, that in the proof sheet I
struck out the name of Mrs. Thrale from the above paragraph, and two or
three hundred copies of my book were actually printed and published
without it; of these Sir Joshua Reynolds's copy happened to be one. But
while the sheet was working off, a friend, for whose opinion I have
great respect, suggested that I had no right to deprive Mrs. Thrale of
the high honour which Dr. Johnson had done her, by stating her opinion
along with that of Mr. Beauclerk, as coinciding with, and, as it were,
sanctioning his own. The observation appeared to me so weighty and
conclusive, that I hastened to the printing-house, and, as a piece of
justice, restored Mrs. Thrale to that place from which a too scrupulous
delicacy had excluded her. On this simple state of facts I shall make no
observation whatever. BOSWELL. This note was first published in the form
of 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 and
then, no doubt, 'he talked ostentatiously,' as he had at Fort George
about Gunpowder (_ante_, p. 124). In the _Gent. Mag._ for 1749, p. 55,
there is a paper on the _Construction of Fireworks_, which I have little
doubt is his. The following passage is certainly Johnsonian:--'The
excellency of a rocket consists in the largeness of the train of fire it
emits, the solemnity of its motion (which should be rather slow at
first, but augmenting as it rises), the straightness of its flight, and
the 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 blood
and blood-vessels of animals.
[680] Evidence was given at the Tichborne Trial to shew that it takes
some years to learn the trade.
