the house, L100 for the moderator of the meeting, and L50 for each of
the 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 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 passed 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 God for reaching every birthday, ... and thanks to Heaven for
her Majesty's being delivered of a third or fourth prince, and _God 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 quantity
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 passes 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 noble 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 ships were
taken. _Gent. Mag_. xxx. 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 scraps of learning doat,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.'
Young's _Love of Fame_, sat. i. Cumberland (_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 scraps of Greek and Latin as would pass him off for an
accomplished classic.'
[330] Cowley was quite out of fashion. 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
glasses 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) 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 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, blushing,
"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 slut 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
passions. 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.'
[337] Wilkes imperfectly recalled to mind the following passage in
Plutarch:--'[Greek: Euphranor ton Thaesea ton heatou to Parrhasiou
parebale, legon tor men ekeinou hroda bebrokenai, tor de eautou krea
boeia.]' 'Euphranor, comparing his own Theseus with Parrhasius's, said
that 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 home
uses, shipped a large quantity to England. It was said, though probably
with exaggeration, that the weekly packet-boat from Lisbon, brought one
week with another, more than L50,000 in gold to England. Smith's _Wealth
of Nations_, book iv. ch. 6. Portugal pieces were current in our
colonies, and no doubt were commonly sent to them from London. It was
natural 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 exceeds
our exportation of commodities, our money must go to pay our debts so
contracted, whether melted or not melted down. If the law makes the
exportation of our coin penal, it will be melted down; if it leaves the
exportation of our coin free, as in Holland, it will be carried out in
specie. One way or other, go it must, as we see in Spain.... Laws made
against exportation of money or bullion will be all in vain. Restraint
or 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 Great
Russellstreet, that reaches half way to Highgate. Everybody goes to see
it; it has put the Museum's nose quite out of joint.' Walpole's
_Letters_, vii. 273. It contained upwards of 30,000 volumes, and the
sale extended over fifty days. Two days' sale were given to the works on
divinity, including, in the words of the catalogue, 'Heterodox! et
Increduli. Angl. Freethinkers and their opponents.' _Dr. Johnson: His
Friends 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 a
five days' sale, as is shewn by the _Auctioneer's Catalogue_, which is
in the Bodleian.
[342] 'Our own language has from the Reformation to the present time
been chiefly dignified and adorned by the works of our divines, who,
considered as commentators, controvertists, or preachers, have
undoubtedly left all other nations far behind them.' _The Idler_,
No. 91.
[343] Mr. Wilkes probably did not know that there is in an English
sermon the most comprehensive and lively account of that entertaining
faculty, for which he himself is so much admired. It is in Dr. Barrow's
first volume, and fourteenth sermon, _'Against foolish Talking and
Jesting.'_ My old acquaintance, the late Corbyn Morris, in his ingenious
_Essay on Wit, Humour, and Ridicule_, calls it 'a profuse description of
Wit;' but I do not see how it could be curtailed, without leaving out
some good circumstance of discrimination. As it is not generally known,
and may perhaps dispose some to read sermons, from which they may
receive real advantage, while looking only for entertainment, I shall
here subjoin it:--'But first (says the learned preacher) it may be
demanded, what the thing we speak of is? Or what this facetiousness (or
_wit_ as he calls it before) doth import? To which questions I might
reply, 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 it
is by acquaintance, than I can inform him by description. It is, indeed,
a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so many
postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and
judgements, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain
notion thereof, than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define the
figure of the fleeting air. Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to a
known story, or in seasonable application of a trivial saying, or in
forging an apposite tale; sometimes it playeth in words and phrases,
taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense, or the affinity of
their sound: sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression:
sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude: sometimes it is lodged in
a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd
intimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection:
sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in
a lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling
of contradictions, or in acute nonsense: sometimes a scenical
representation of persons or things, a counterfeit speech, a mimical
look or gesture, passeth for it: sometimes an affected simplicity,
sometimes a presumptuous bluntness giveth it being: sometimes it riseth
only from a lucky hitting upon what is strange: sometimes from a crafty
wresting obvious matter to the purpose. Often it consisteth in one knows
not what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways are
unaccountable, and inexplicable; being answerable to the numberless
rovings of fancy, and windings of language. It is, in short, a manner of
speaking out of the simple and plain way, (such as reason teacheth and
proveth things by,) which by a pretty surprising uncouthness in conceit
or expression, doth affect and amuse the fancy, stirring in it some
wonder, and breeding some delight thereto. It raiseth admiration, as
signifying a nimble sagacity of apprehension, a special felicity of
invention, a vivacity of spirit, and reach of wit more than vulgar; it
seeming to argue a rare quickness of parts, that one can fetch in remote
conceits applicable; a notable skill, that he can dextrously accommodate
them to the purpose before him; together with a lively briskness of
humour, not apt to damp those sportful flashes of imagination. (Whence
in Aristotle such persons are termed [Greek: _hepidexioi_], dextrous men,
and [Greek: _eustrophoi_], men of facile or versatile manners, who can
easily turn themselves to all things, or turn all things to themselves.)
It also procureth delight, by gratifying curiosity with its rareness, as
semblance of difficulty: (as monsters, not for their beauty, but their
rarity; as juggling tricks, not for their use, but their abstruseness,
are beheld with pleasure:) by diverting the mind from its road of
serious thoughts; by instilling gaiety and airiness of spirit; by
provoking to such dispositions of spirit in way of emulation or
complaisance; and by seasoning matters, otherwise distasteful or
insipid, with an unusual and thence grateful tang.' BOSWELL. Morris's
_Essay_ was published in 1744. Hume wrote:--'Pray do you not think
that a proper dedication may atone for what is objectionable in my
Dialogues'! I am become much of my friend Corbyn Morrice's mind, who
says 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 George
I.'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 the
Queen of Prussia [Frederick's mother]. Of that bequest demands were
afterwards said to have been frequently and roughly made by her son, the
great King of Prussia, between whom and his uncle subsisted much
inveteracy.' 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 and
pleasantry 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, they
were 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 natural
history, &c. BOSWELL.
[347] Mrs. Montagu, so early as 1757, wrote of Mr. Stillingfleet:--'I
assure you our philosopher is so much a man of pleasure, he has left off
his old friends and his blue stockings, and is at operas and other gay
assemblies every night.' Montagu's _Letters_, iv. 117.
[348] See _ante_, in. 293, note 5.
[349] Miss Burney thus describes her:--'She is between thirty and
forty, very short, very fat, but handsome; splendidly and fantastically
dressed, rouged not unbecomingly yet evidently, and palpably desirous of
gaining notice and admiration. She has an easy levity in her air,
manner, voice, and discourse, that speak (sic) all within to be
comfortable.... She is one of those who stand foremost in collecting all
extraordinary or curious people to her London conversaziones, which,
like those of Mrs. Vesey, mix the rank and the literature, and exclude
all beside.... Her parties are the most brilliant in town.' Miss Burney
then describes one of these parties, at which were present Johnson,
Burke, and Reynolds. 'The company in general were dressed with more
brilliancy than at any rout I ever was at, as most of them were going to
the Duchess of Cumberland's.' Miss Burney herself was 'surrounded by
strangers, all dressed superbly, and all looking saucily.... Dr. Johnson
was standing near the fire, and environed with listeners.' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 179, 186, 190. Leslie wrote of Lady Corke in
1834 (_Autobiographical Recollections_, i. 137, 243):--'Notwithstanding
her great age, she is very animated. The old lady, who was a lion-hunter
in her youth, is as much one now as ever.' She ran after a Boston negro
named Prince Saunders, who 'as he put his Christian name "Prince" on his
cards without the addition of Mr., was believed to be a native African
prince, and soon became a lion of the first magnitude in fashionable
circles.' 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 never
read them." "No, Madam, I did read them, but it was in a stage-coach; I
should not have even deigned to look at them had I been at large."
