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"I have put Mr. Johnson's play into Mr. Gray's hands, in order to sell it to him, if he is inclined to buy it; but I doubt whether he will or not. He would dispose of the copy, and whatever advantage may be made by acting it. Would your society, or any gentleman, or body of men that you know, take such a bargain? He and I are very unfit to deal with theatrical persons. Fleetwood was to have acted it last season, but Johnson's diffidence or 3 pre

out delay; for there is the following letter | denham (p. 633)*," afterwards prefixed to from Mr. Cave to Dr. Birch in the same Dr. Swan's edition of his works; "Propovolume of manuscripts in the British Mu- sals for printing Bibliotheca Harleiana, or seum, from which I copied those above a Catalogue of the Library of the Earl of quoted. They were most obligingly point- Oxford (p. 636)*." His account of that ed out to me by Sir William Musgrave, celebrated collection of books, in which he one of the curators of that noble repository. displays the importance to literature, of what the French call a catalogue raisonné, 'Sept. 9, 1741. when the subjects of it are extensive and not fail to impress all his readers with advarious, and it is executed with ability, canmonition of his philological attainments. It was afterwards prefixed to the first volume of the Catalogue, in which the Latin accounts of books were written by him. He was employed in this business by Mr. Thomas Osborne, the bookseller, who purchased the library for 13,000l., a sum which Mr. Oldys says, in one of his manuscripts, was not more than the binding of the books had cost; yet, as Dr. Johnson assured me, the slowness of the sale was such, that there was not much gained by it. It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. "Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber."

vented it."

I have already mentioned that "Irene" was not brought into public notice till Garrick was manager of Drury-lane theatre.

In 17424 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine_the "Prefacet," the "Parliamentary Debates," "Essay on the Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough (p. 128)*," then the popular topick of conversation. This Essay is a short but masterly performance. We find him, in No. 13 of his Rambler, censuring a profligate sentiment in that "Account;" and again insisting upon it strenuously in conversation. "An AcSept. 10, count of the Life of Peter Bur1773. man (p. 206)*,” I believe chiefly taken from a foreign publication; as, indeed, he could not himself know much about Burman; "Additions to his Life of Barretier 5 (p. 242)*;" "The Life of Sy

1 A bookseller of London.

A very diligent observer may trace him where we should not easily suppose him to be found. I have no doubt that he wrote the little abridgement entitled "Foreign History," in the Magazine for December (p. 660). To prove it, I shall quote the introduction.

"As this is that season of the year in which Nature may be said to command a suspension of hostilities, and which seems intended, by putting a short stop to violence and slaughter, to afford time for mal2 Not the Royal Society: [as Boswell in his ice to relent, and animosity to subside; we first and second editions had strangely supposed. can scarce expect any other account than ED.] but a society for the encouragement of of plans, negotiations, and treaties, of prolearning, of which Dr. Birch was a leading mem-posals for peace, and preparations for war." ber. Their object was, to assist authours in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when, having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved.-Boswell.

As also this passage:

"Let those who despise the capacity of the Swiss tell us by what wonderful policy, or by what happy conciliation of interests, There is no erasure here, but a mere blank: it is brought to pass, that in a body made to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious up of different communities and different conjecture.-BOSWELL. [Probably pride. religions, there should be no civil commoSuch, at least, is the common-place antithesis.tions, though the people are so warlike, that to nominate and raise an army is the same. I would also ascribe to him an 66 the Description of China, from the French Essay on of Du Halde (p. 320)†."

ED.]

From one of his letters to a friend, written in June, 1742, it should seem that he then purposed

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to write a play on the subject of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, and to have it ready for the ensuing winter. The passage alluded to, however, I am obliged to Mr. Astle for his ready is somewhat ambiguous; and the work which he permission to copy the two following letthen had in contemplation may have been a histers, of which the originals are in his pos tory of that monarch.-MALONE.

[See ante, p. 57. Miss Carter received of this year, and from it no doubt Johnson made Barretier's life from his family in March or April these additions.-ED.

session. Their contents show that they were written about this time, and that Johnson was now engaged in preparing an historical account of the British Parlia

ment.

"TO MR. CAVE.

[Aug. 1743).

"SIR,-I believe I am going to write a long letter, and have therefore taken a whole sheet of paper. The first thing to be written about is our historical design.

"You mentioned the proposal of printing in numbers as an alteration in the scheme, but I believe you mistook, some way or other, my meaning; I had no other view than that you might rather print too many of five sheets than of five and thirty.

"With regard to what I shall say on the manner of proceeding, I would have it understood as wholly indifferent to me, and my opinion only, not my resolution. Emptoris sit eligere.

"I think the insertion of the exact dates of the most important events in the margin, or of so many events as may enable the reader to regulate the order of facts with sufficient exactness, the proper medium between a journal, which has regard only to time, and a history which ranges facts according to their dependence on each other, and postpones or anticipates according to the convenience of narration. I think the work ought to partake of the spirit of history, which is contrary to minute exactness, and of the regularity of a journal, which is inconsistent with spirit. For this reason I neither admit numbers or dates, nor reject them.

"I am of your opinion with regard to placing most of the resolutions, &c. in the margin, and think we shall give the most complete account of parliamentary proceedings that can be contrived. The naked papers, without an historical treatise interwoven, require some other book to make them understood. I will date the succeeding facts with some exactness, but I think in the margin.

"You told me on Saturday that I had received money on this work, and found set down 131. 2s. 6d. reckoning the half guinea of last Saturday. As you hinted to me that you had many calls for money, I would not press you too hard, and therefore shall desire only, as I send it in, two guineas for a sheet of copy; the rest you may pay me when it may be more convenient; and even by this sheet payment I shall, for some time, be very expensive.

"The Life of Savage I am ready to go upon; and in Great Primer, and Pica notes, I reckon on sending in half a sheet a day; but the money for that shall likewise lie by in your hands till it is done. With the de

bates, shall not I have business enough? if I had but good pens.

"Towards Mr. Savage's Life what more have you got? I would willingly have his trial, &c. and know whether his defence be at Bristol, and would have his collection of Poems, on account of the Preface;— The Plain Dealer,'-all the magazines that have any thing of his or relating to him.

"I thought my letter would be long, but it is now ended; and I am, sir, yours, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON.

"The boy found me writing this almost in the dark, when I could not quite easily read yours.

"I have read the Italian:-nothing in it is well.

"I had no notion of having any thing for the inscription 2. I hope you don't think I kept it to extort a price. I could think of nothing till to-day. If you could spare me another guinea for the history, I should take it very kindly, to-night; but if you do not, I shall not think it an injury.—I am almost well again."

"TO MR. CAVE.

"SIR,-You did not tell me your determination about the Soldier's Letter,3 which I am confident was never printed. I think it will not do by itself, or in any other place, so well as the Mag. Extraordinary. If you will have it at all, I believe you do not think I set it high, and I will be glad if what you give you will give quickly.

"You need not be in care about something to print, for I have got the State Trials, and shall extract Layer Atterbury and Macclesfield from them, and shall bring them to you in a fortnight; after which will try to get the South Sea Report."

[No date nor signature.]

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"The Plain Dealer" was published in 1724, and contained some account of Savage.

2 Perhaps the Runic Inscription, Gent. Mag. vol. xii. p. 132.—MALONE.

[Certainly not-that was published in March, 1742, at least seventeen months before this letter

was written; nor does there appear in the Magaseemed at first sight probable that it might allude zine any inscription to which this can refer. It to the translation of Pope's Inscription on his Grotto, which appeared (with an apology for haste) in the next Magazine; but the expression

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'I could think of nothing till to-day," negatives that supposition. The inscription, then, was probably one which Cave requested Johnson to devise, and which, when Johnson after a long delay produced it, Cave surprised him by paying.-ED.] 3 I have not discovered what this was.

burton, on Pope's Essay on Man (p. 151. 587);" in which, while he defends Crousaz, he shows an admirable metaphysical acuteness and temperance in controversy; "Ad Lauram parituram Epigramma1 (p. 378);""A Latin Translation of Pope's Verses on his Grotto (p. 558)*."

And as he could employ his pen with equal success upon a small matter as a great, I suppose him to be the authour of an advertisement for Osborne, concerning the great Harleian Catalogue [at the end of the volume].

Gent. Mag. [The following elegant Latin

v. 13, p. 548.

ode, as Mr. Malone states, was many years ago pointed out to James Bindley, Esq. as written by Johnson, and may safely be attributed to him:

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[This epigram seems hardly worth the distinction of being specially quoted. If the first line was proposed as a thesis, we cannot much admire the style in which it was followed up: the designation, surely, of the lady as puella would lead us to expect any thing rather than the turn which the epigram takes. Is not the second line gross and awkward; the third pedantic; and the conceit of the fourth not even classical-for Lucina was never famed for her beauty; and does not the whole seem a very strange subject for poetical compliment?-ED.]

Ergo fluentem tu malè sedula,
Ne sæva inuras semper acu comam;
Nec sparsa odorato nitentes
Pulvere dedecores capillos;

Quales nec olim vel Ptolemæia Jactabat uxor, sidereo in choro Utcunque devotæ refulgent

Verticis exuviæ decori;

Nec diva mater, cum similem tuæ Mentita formam, et pulchrior aspici, Permisit incomptas protervis

Fusa comas agitare ventis "."

But I should think myself much wanting, both to my illustrious friend and my readers, did I not introduce here, with more than ordinary respect, an exquisitely beautiful Ode, which has not been inserted in any of the collections of Johnson's poetry, written by him at a very early period, as Mr. Hector informs me, and inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine of this year (p. 375 )

"FRIENDSHIP, AN ODE* Friendship, peculiar boon of heav'n, The noble mind's delight and pride, To men and angels only giv'n,

To all the lower world denied.

While love, unknown among the blest,
Parent of thousand wild desires,
The savage and the human breast
Torments alike with raging fires;

With bright, but oft destructive, gleam,
Alike o'er all his lightnings fly;
Thy lambent glories only beam
Around the fav'rites of the sky.

Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys
On fools and villains ne'er descend,
In vain for thee the tyrant sighs,
And hugs a flatterer for a friend.

Directress of the brave and just,

O guide us through life's darksome way!

2 In vol. xiv. p. 46, of the Gentleman's Magazine, an elegant epigram was inserted, in answer to the above Ode, which was written by Dr. Inyon of Pulham, in Norfolk, a physician, and an excellent classical scholar:

"Ad Authorem Carminis AD ORNATISSIMAM PUELLAM.

"O cui non potuit, quia culta, placere puella, Qui speras Musam posse placere tuam ?"-MALONE [Out of deference to Mr. Malone and Mr. Bind ley, whose assertion has been so long before the publick uncontradicted, the editor has inserted the foregoing ode; but it appears to him to be in a different and (may he venture to add?) better style than Johnson's; and he finds, in the New Foundling Hospital for Wit, that it is attributed to Bishop Lowth.-ED.]

And let the tortures of mistrust
On selfish bosoms only prey.

Nor shall thine ardour cease to glow,
When souls to blissful climes remove:
What raised our virtue here below,
Shall aid our happiness above."

Johnson had now an opportunity of obliging his schoolfellow Dr. James, of whom he once observed, "no man brings more mind to his profession." James published this year his "Medicinal Dictionary," in three volumes folio. Johnson, as I understood from him, had written, or assisted in writing, the proposals for this work; and being very fond of the study of physick, in which James was his master, he furnished some of the articles. He, however, certainly wrote for it the Dedication to Dr. Meadt, which is conceived with great address, to conciliate the patronage of that very eminent man.

It has been circulated, I know not with what authenticity, that Johnson considered Dr. Birch as a dull writer, and said of him, "Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties." That the literature of this country is much indebted to Birch's activity and diligence must certainly be acknowledged. We have seen that Johnson honoured him with a Greek Epigram; and his correspondence with him, during many years, proves that he had no mean opinion of him.

66 TO DR. BIRCH.

"Thursday, Sept. 29, 1743.

"SIR,-I hope you will excuse me for troubling you on an occasion on which I know not whom else I can apply to; I am at a loss for the lives and characters of Earl Stanhope, the two Craggs, and the minister Sunderland 3; and beg that you will in

[It is stated by Hawkins: we shall see all through this work, the very peculiar value which Johnson set on conversational powers; and there seems no reason to doubt that Dr. Birch's conversation exceeded his writings in vivacity. The editor has seen a MS. letter of Bishop Warburton's, in which he insists, in his usual decisive tone, on the poor use which Birch made in his writings of the materials which he possessed. ED.]

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"TO MR. LEVETT, IN LICHFIELD.
"December 1, 1743.

"SIR,-I am extremely sorry that we
have encroached so much upon your for-
bearance with respect to the interest, which
a great perplexity of affairs hindered me
from thinking of with that attention that I
ought, and which I am not immediately
able to remit to you, but will pay it (I think
twelve pounds), in two months. I look
upon this, and on the future interest of that
mortgage, as my own debt; and beg that
you will be pleased to give me directions
how to pay it, and not to mention it to my
dear mother. If it be necessary to pay this in
less time, I believe I can do it; but I take
two months for certainty, and beg an an-
swer whether you can allow me so much
time. I think myself very much obliged to
your forbearance, and shall esteem it a great
happiness to be able to serve you. I have
great opportunities of dispersing any thing
that you may think it proper to make pub-
lick. I will give a note for the money,
payable at the time mentioned, to any one
here that you shall appoint.-I am, sir,
your most obedient and most humble ser-
vant,
"SAM JOHNSON.

"At Mr. Osborne's, bookseller, in Gray's Inn."

5 It does not appear that he wrote any History mentioned in the preceding letter of August.-ED.]

4 [Dr. Johnson was a good son, and even to indifferent persons the most charitable of men; but the praises which Boswell lavishes on this particular affair are uncalled for, as the debt was hardly so much Johnson's mother's as his own. It has already appeared that he had something of his father's property to expect after his mother's death (p. 27); this was the house in Lichfield, 2 [No doubt, as the case has turned out, Birch which was, it seems, mortgaged to Mr. Levett: is honoured by Johnson's compliment; but at by the nonpayment of the interest Levett would the time when it was written, Birch was of emi- have been entitled to get possession of the propnence in the literary world, and (what affected erty; and in that case Johnson would have lost Johnson more nearly), high in the estimation of his reversion, so that he very justly says, that Cave; and Johnson's learned flatteries of him," he looks upon this and the future interest on Miss Carter, and Mr. Urban, were all probably the mortgage as his own debt.”—ED.] prompted by the same motive, a desire to propitiate Cave.-ED.]

3

[Wanted, probably, for the Parliamentary

[In this and the two next years, Mr. Boswell has not assigned to Johnson any contributions to the Gentleman's Magazine, yet there seems

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It is melancholy to reflect, that Johnson and Savage were sometimes in such extreme indigence, that they could not pay for a lodging; so that they have wandered together whole nights in the streets1. Yet weapon, may be inferred from the use made of it in that rash encounter which is related in his Life." The dexterity here alluded to was, that Savage, in a nocturnal fit of drunkenness, stabbed a man at a coffee-house, and killed him: for which he was tried at the Old Bailey, and found guilty of murder.

thing in 1744 for the Gentleman's Magazine but the Prefacet. His life of Barretier was now re-published in a pamphlet by itself. But he produced one work this year, fully sufficient to maintain the high reputation which he had acquired. This was "THE LIFE OF RICHARD SAVAGE*;" a man of whom it is difficult to speak impartially, without wondering that he was for some time the intimate companion of Johnson; for his character was marked by profligacy, insolence, and ingratitude: yet, as he undoubtedly had a warm and vigorous, Johnson, indeed, describes him as having "a though unregulated mind, had seen life in grave and manly deportment, a solemn dignity all its varieties, had been much in the com- of mien; but which, upon a nearer acquaintance, pany of the statesmen and wits of his time, softened into an engaging easiness of manners." he could communicate to Johnson an abun- How highly Johnson admired him for that knowdant supply of such materials as his philo-ledge which he himself so much cultivated, and sophical curiosity most eagerly desired; and what kindness he entertained for him, appears as Savage's misfortunes and misconduct had from the following lines in the Gentleman's reduced him to the lowest state of wretch-Magazine for April, 1738, which I am assured edness as a writer for bread, his visits to St. were written by Johnson: John's Gate naturally brought Johnson and him together 2.

little doubt that from his connexion with that work he derived for some years the chief and almost the only means of subsistence for himself and his wife: perhaps he may have acted as general editor with an annual allowance, and he no doubt employed himself on more literary works than have been acknowledged. In this point the public loss is perhaps not great. What he was unwilling to avow we need not be very solicitous to discover. Indeed his personal history is about this period a blank, hidden, it is to be feared, in the obscurity of indigence; and we cannot but think with a tender commiseration of the "distress" of such a man, rendered more poignant by being shared with a woman whom he so tenderly loved.-Ed.]

1 As a specimen of Savage's temper, I insert the following letter from him to a noble lord [Tyrconnel], to whom he was under great obligations, but who, on account of his bad conduct, was obliged to discard him. The original was in the hands of the late Francis Cockayne Cust, Esq. one of his majesty's counsel learned in the

law:

"Right Honourable BRUTE and BOOBY.
"I find you want (as Mr. is pleased to
hint) to swear away my life, that is, the life of
your creditor, because he asks you for a debt.
The publick shall soon be acquainted with this,
to judge whether you are not fitter to be an Irish
evidence, than to be an Irish peer.-I defy and
despise you. I am, your determined adversary,
R. S."-BosWELL.

2 Sir John Hawkins gives the world to understand, that Johnson, " being an admirer of genteel manners, was captivated by the address and demeanour of Savage, who, as to his exterior, was to a remarkable degree accomplished."-Hawkins's Life, p. 52. But Sir John's notions of gentility must appear somewhat ludicrous, from his stating the following circumstance as presumptive evidence that Savage was a good swordsman: "That he understood the exercise of a gentleman's 9

VOL. I

"Ad RICARDUM SAVAGE. "Humani studium generis cui pectore fervet O colat humanum te foveatque genus."-BOSWELL. [Boswell should have stated his authority for attributing this poor, obscure, and harsh couplet to Johnson. The absurd title prefixed to it in the Magazine (which Boswell, more prudently than candidly, sinks) is still less in Johnson's manner, and reminds us of Marat and Anacharsis Clootz...

"Ad Ricardum Savage,

Humani generis Amatorem !!!"

If Johnson wrote this sad stuff, it was probably before he knew much of Savage. They were: not, as he himself said, acquainted till after London was written. Now London was written in. 1738, and finished, probably in March, certainly in April; and Johnson was in negotiation with Cave and Dodsley for the sale of it when this epigram was published. Perhaps, at this time, Johnson supposed Savage to stand high in the opinion of Cave, and may have hoped to propitiate the latter by praise of the former, as there is reason to suspect he did, about the same time, in the cases of Miss Carter and Dr Birch. (See ante, p. 64. note.)—ED.]

3 The following striking proof of Johnson's extreme indigence, when he published the Life of Savage, was communicated to Mr. Boswell, by Mr. Richard Stowe of Apsley, in Bedfordshire, from the information of Mr. Walter Harte, author of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus:

"Soon after Savage's Life was published, Mr. Harte dined with Edward Cave, and occasionally praised it. Soon after meeting him, Cave said, 'you made a man very happy t'other day.'-' How could that be?' says Harte; nobody was there but ourselves.' Cave answered, by reminding him that a plate of victuals was sent behind a screen, which was to Johnson, dressed so shabbily, that he did not choose to appear; but on hearing the conversation, he was highly delighted with the encomiums on his book."—MALONE.

4 As Johnson was married before he settled in London, and must have always had a habitation for his wife, some readers have wondered how he

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