soN. "Yes; but that was his trade; l'esprit du corps; he had been all his life among players and play-writers. I wondered that he had so little to say in conversation, for he had kept the best company, and learnt all that can be got by the ear. He abused Pindar to me, and then showed me an ode of his own, with an absurd couplet, making a linnet soar on an eagle's wing.5 I told him that when the ancients made a simile, they always made it like something real." all his life." I knew that Johnson would let nobody attack Garrick but himself, as Garrick said to me, and I had heard him praise his liberality; so to bring out his commendation of his celebrated pupil, I said, loudly, "I have heard Garrick is liberal." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, I know that Garrick has given away more money than any man in England that I am acquainted with, and that not from ostentatious views. Garrick was very poor when he began life; so when he came to have money, he probably was very unskilful in giving away, and Mr. Wilkes remarked, that "among all saved when he should not. But Garrick began the bold flights of Shakspeare's imagination, to be liberal as soon as he could; and I am of the boldest was making Birnam-wood march opinion, the reputation of avarice which he to Dunsinane; creating a wood where there has had has been very lucky for him, and pre-never was a shrub; a wood in Scotland! ha! vented his having made enemies. You despise a man for avarice, but do not hate him. Garrick might have been much better attacked for living with more splendour than is suitable to a player; if they had had the wit to have assaulted him in that quarter, they might have galled him more. But they have kept clamouring about his avarice, which has rescued him from much obloquy and envy." Talking of the great difficulty of obtaining authentic information for biography, Johnson told us, "When I was a young fellow, I wanted to write the Life of Dryden, and, in order to get materials, I applied to the only two persons then alive who had seen him; these were old Swinney 3, and old Cibber. Swinney's information was no more than this, 'That at Will's coffee-house Dryden had a particular chair for himself, which was set by the fire in winter, and was then called his winter chair; and that it was carried out for him to the balcony in summer, and was then called his summer chair. Cibber could tell no more but 'That he remembered him a decent old man, arbiter of critical disputes at Will's.' You are to consider that Cibber was then at a great distance from Dryden, had perhaps one leg only in the room, and durst not draw in the other."4 BOSWELL. "Yet Cibber was a man of observation?" JOHNSON. "I think not." BOSWELL. "You will allow his Apology' to be well done." JOHNSON. 66 Very well done, to be sure, Sir. That book is a striking proof of the justice of Pope's remark: Each might his several province well command, Would all but stoop to what they understand.'" BOSWELL. "And his plays are good." JOHN 1 This observation accredits, I must own, the idea that the character of Prospero, in the Rambler, was meant for Garrick see ante, p. 68. n. 3. CROKER. 2 This was probably for "Cibber's Lives," as well as the "Life of Shakespeare," mentioned ante, p. 171. n. 2.CROKER. 3 Owen McSwinney, who died in 1754, and bequeathed his fortune to Mrs. Woffington, the actress. He had been a manager of Drury Lane theatre, and afterwards of the Queen's theatre in the Haymarket. He was also a dramatic writer, having produced a comedy entitled "The Quacks, or Love's the Physician," 1705, and two operas. - MALONE. 4 Cibber was twenty-nine when Dryden died, and bad produced his first comedy of Love's Last Shift five years before. -CROKER, 1847. เ ha! ha!" And he also observed, that “the clannish slavery of the Highlands of Scotland was the single exception to Milton's remark of the mountain nymph, sweet Liberty,' being worshipped in all hilly countries." "When I was at Inverary," said he, " on a visit to my! old friend Archibald, Duke of Argyle, his dependents congratulated me on being such a favourite of his Grace. I said, 'It is, then, gentlemen, truly lucky for me; for if I had displeased the duke, and he had wished it, there is not a Campbell among you but would have been ready to bring John Wilkes's head to him in a charger. It would have been only Off with his head! so much for Aylesbury." I was then member for Aylesbury." Mr. Dr. Johnson and Mr. Wilkes talked of the contested passage in Horace's "Art of Poetry," Difficile est propriè communia dicere. Wilkes, according to my note, gave the interpretation thus: "It is difficult to speak with propriety of common things; as if a poet had to speak of Queen Caroline drinking tea, he must endeavour to avoid the vulgarity of cups and saucers." But, upon reading my note, he tells me that he meant to say, that "the word communia, being a Roman law term, signifies here things communis juris, that is to say, what have never yet been treated by any body; and this appears clearly from what followed, Tuque Rectiùs Iliacum carmen deducis in actus, 5 See ante, p. 137.- BOSWELL.. 6 My very pleasant friend himself, as well as others whe remember old stories, will no doubt be surprised when i observe, that John Wilkes here shows himself to be of the Warburtonian school. It is nevertheless true, as appears from Dr. Hurd the bishop of Worcester's very elegant commentary and notes on the "Epistola ad Pisones."-BOSWELL. The rest of a long note on this point will be found in the Append It seems to result from the whole discussion, that, in the ordinary meaning of the words, the passage is unintelligible. and that, to make sense, we must either alter the words, or assign to them an unusual interpretation. All commentators are agreed by the help of the context what the genend meaning must be, but no one seems able verbum verbe rub dere fidus interpres.— CHOKER. JOHNSON. "He means that it is difficult to appropriate to particular persons qualities which are common to all mankind, as Homer has done." WILKES. "We have no city-poet now: that is an office which has gone into disuse. The last was Elkanah Settle. There is something in names which one cannot help feeling. Now Elkanah Settle sounds so queer, who can expect much from that name? We should have no hesitation to give it for John Dryden, in preference to Elkanah Settle, from the names only, without knowing their different merits." JOHNSON. "I suppose, Sir, Settle did as well for aldermen in his time, as John Home could do now. Where did Beckford and Trecothick learn English?" 66 Mr. Arthur Lee mentioned some Scotch who had taken possession of a barren part of America, and wondered why they should choose it. JOHNSON. " Why, Sir, all barrenness is comparative. The Scotch would not know it to be barren." BOSWELL." Come, come, he is flattering the English. You have now been in Scotland, Sir, and say if you did not see meat and drink enough there." JOHNSON. Why, yes, Sir; meat and drink enough to give the inhabitants sufficient strength to run away from home." All these quick and lively sallies were said sportively, quite in jest, and with a smile, which showed that he meant only wit. Upon this topic he and Mr. Wilkes could perfectly assimilate; here was a bond of union between them, and I was conscious that as both of them had visited Caledonia, both were fully satisfied of the strange narrow ignorance of those who imagine that it is a land of famine. But they amused themselves with persevering in the old jokes. When I claimed a superiority for Scotland over England in one respect, that no man can be arrested there for a debt merely because another swears it against him; but there must first be the judgment of a court of law ascertaining its justice; and that a seizure of the person, before judgment is obtained, can take place only if his creditor should swear that he is about to fly from the country, or, as it is technically expressed, is in meditatione fuga. WILKES. "That, I should think, may be safely sworn of all the Scotch nation." JOHNSON (to Mr. Wilkes). "You must know, Sir, I lately took my friend Boswell, and showed him ge 66 Settle, for his factious audacity, was made the city poet, whose annual office was to describe the glories of the Mayor'sday. Of these bards he was the last. He died, in 1723, a pensioner in the Charterhouse.— Johnson, Life of Dryden.— WRIGHT. 2 Her maiden name was Morris, and she was the widow of a physician: she was remarkable for her imitations of pictures in needle-work, which Johnson called sutile pictures, but which is misprinted in Mrs. Thrale's letters as futile. Boswell talks courteously of " the charms of the fair Quaker, who survived his publication fifteen years, but she was at this period about fifty, and her cotemporaries describe her as having a sharp masculine countenance with somewhat a Puritan expression, and by no means attractive. She died Feb. 1807, aged eighty. — ČROKER, 1847. nuine civilised life in an English provincial town. I turned him loose at Lichfield, my native city, that he might see for once real civility; for you know he lives among savages in Scotland, and among rakes in London." WILKES. "Except when he is with grave, sober, decent people, like you and me." JOHNSON (Smiling). "And we ashamed of him." They were quite frank and easy. Johnson told the story of his asking Mrs. Macaulay to allow her footman to sit down with them, to prove the ridiculousness of the argument for the equality of mankind; and he said to me afterwards, with a nod of satisfaction, "You saw Mr. Wilkes acquiesced." Wilkes talked with all imaginable freedom of the ludicrous title given to the attorney-general, Diabolus regis; adding, "I have reason to know something about that officer; for I was prosecuted for a libel." Johnson, who many people would have supposed must have been furiously angry at hearing this talked of so lightly, said not a word. He was now, indeed, "a good-humoured fellow." After dinner we had an accession of Mrs. Knowles 2, the Quaker lady, well known for her various talents, and of Mr. Alderman Lee.3 Amidst some patriotic groans, somebody (I think the Alderman) said, "Poor old England is lost." JOHNSON. "Sir, it is not so much to be lamented that old England is lost, as that the Scotch have found it."4 WILKES. "Had Lord Bute governed Scotland only, I should not have taken the trouble to write his eulogy, and dedicate 'MORTIMER' to him." Mr. Wilkes held a candle to show a fine print of a beautiful female figure which hung in the room, and pointed out the elegant contour of the bosom with the finger of an arch connoisseur. He afterwards in a conversation with me waggishly insisted, that all the time Johnson showed visible signs of a fervent admiration of the corresponding charms of the fair Quaker. This record, though by no means so perfect as I could wish, will serve to give a notion of a very curious interview, which was not only pleasing at the time, but had the agreeable and benignant effect of reconciling any animosity, and sweetening any acidity, which, in the various bustle of political contest, had been produced in the minds of two men, who, though widely different, had so many things in com It is to this gentleman that allusion is supposed to be made in the following anecdote:-"Some one mentioned a gentleman of that party for having behaved oddly on an occasion where faction was not concerned: Is he not a citizen of London, a native of North America, and a Whig?' said Johnson. Let him be absurd, I beg of you: when a monkey is too like a man, it shocks one.'"- Piozzi, p. 64. — CROKER. 4 It would not become me to expatiate on this strong and pointed remark, in which a very great deal of meaning is con densed. BoSWELL. Mr. Boswell seems to take as serious what was evidently a mere pleasantry, and could have no serious meaning that I can discover.-CROKER. mon - classical learning, modern literature, wit and humour, and ready repartee that it would have been much to be regretted if they had been for ever at a distance from each other. Mr. Burke gave me much credit for this successful negotiation; and pleasantly said, "that there was nothing equal to it in the whole history of the corps diplomatique." I attended Dr. Johnson home, and had the satisfaction to hear him tell Mrs. Williams how much he had been pleased with Mr. Wilkes's company, and what an agreeable day he had passed. I talked a good deal to him of the celebrated Margaret Caroline Rudd, whom I had visited, induced by the fame of her talents, address, and irresistible power of fascination. To a lady who disapproved of my visiting her, he said on a former occasion, Nay, Madam, Boswell is in the right; I should have visited her myself, were it not that they have now a trick of putting every thing into the newspapers." This evening he exclaimed, “I envy him his acquaintance with Mrs. Rudd." I mentioned a scheme which I had of making a tour to the Isle of Man, and giving a full account of it; and that Mr. Burke had playfully suggested as a motto, The following is Dr. Johnson's own good-humoured account to Mrs. Thrale of this meeting: -“For my part 1 begin to settle, and keep company with grave aldermen, I dined yesterday in the Poultry with Mr. Alderman Wilkes, and Mr. Alderman Lee, and Councillor Lee, his brother. There sat you the while thinking, What is Johnson doing?' What should he be doing? He is breaking jokes with Jack Wilkes upon the Scotch. Such, Madam, are the vicissitudes of things! And there was Mrs. Knowles, the Quaker, that works the sutile pictures, who is a great admirer of your conversation." Letters.--- CROKER. 2 See antè, p. 485. n. 8. Her power of fascination was celebrated, because it was the fashion to suppose that she had fascinated her lover to the gallows, when, in fact, she had only betrayed him. We cannot but wonder how Johnson 66 Scotland. I thanked him, with great warmth, for all his kindness. "Sir," said he, "you are very welcome. Nobody repays it with more." How very false is the notion that has gone round the world, of the rough, and passionate, and harsh manners of this great and good man! That he had occasional sallies of heat of temper, and that he was sometimes, perhaps, too "easily provoked" by absurdity and folly, and sometimes too desirous of triumph in colloquial contest, must be allowed. The quickness both of his perception and sensibility disposed him to sudden explosions of satire; to which his extraordinary readiness of wit was a strong and almost irresistible incitement. To adopt one of the finest images in Mr. Home's Douglas," 66 "On each glance of thought Decision followed, as the thunderbolt Pursues the flash!" I admit that the beadle within him was often so eager to apply the lash, that the judge had not time to consider the case with sufficient deliberation. That he was occasionally remarkable for violence of temper may be granted; but let us ascertain the degree, and not let it be supposed that he was in a perpetual rage, and never without a club in his hand to knock down every one who approached him. On the corpart of his time he was civil, obliging, nay, trary, the truth is, that by much the greatest polite in the true sense of the word; so much so, that many gentlemen who were long acquainted with him never received, or even heard a strong expression from him. should have been so imposed on as not merely to tolerate. but, as Boswell makes him say, enry his acquaintance w this every way infamous woman. — CROKER, 1831–47 3 May 14. 1776. Boswell goes away on Thursday ET well satisfied with his journey. Some great mes here promised to obtain him a place; and then a fig for b father and his new wife." — Letters. This place he never obtained, and the critical reader will observe several pas sages in this work, the tone of which may be attribute) z his disappointment in this point. Lord Auchinleck, tod lately married Elizabeth Boswell, sister of Clande Inge Boswell, afterwards a Lord of Session, by the title of Lend Balmuto. She was the cousin germain of her husband Of this marriage there was no issue. — CROKER. 4 Lear, act iv. sc. 6. — C. Sir Joshua's house on the hill [Richmond], with the Bishop of St. Asaph [Shipley]: the dinner was good', and the bishop is knowing and conversable."] The following letters concerning an Epitaph which he wrote for the monument of Dr. Goldsmith, in Westminster Abbey, afford at once a proof of his unaffected modesty, his carelessness as to his own writings, and of the great respect which he entertained for the taste and judgment of the excellent and eminent person to whom the first and last are addressed : JOHNSON TO REYNOLDS. 'May 16. 1776. I "DEAR SIR, — I have been kept away from you, I know not well how, and of these vexatious hindrances I know not when there will be an end. therefore send you the poor dear Doctor's Epitaph. Read it first yourself; and if you then think it right, show it to the Club. I am, you know, willing to be corrected. If you think any thing much amiss, keep it to yourself till we come together. I have sent two copies, but prefer the card. The dates must be settled by Dr. Percy. I am, Sir, &c., SAM. JOHNSON." [MISS REYNOLDS TO JOHNSON." "Richmond Hill, June 21. 1776. "SIR, — You saw by my last letter that I knew nothing of your illness, and it was unkind of you not to tell me what had been the matter with you; and you should have let me know how Mrs. Thrale and all the family were; but that would have been a sad transgression of the rule you have certainly prescribed to yourself of writing to some sort of people just such a number of lines. Be so good as to favour me with Dr. Goldsmith's Epitaph; and if you have no objection, I should be very glad to send it to Dr. Beattie. I am writing now to Mrs. Beattie, and can scarce hope she will ever excuse my shameful neglect of writing to her, but by sending her something curious for Dr. Beattie. "I don't know whether my brother ever mentioned to you what Dr. Beattie said in a letter he received from him the beginning of last month. As I have his letter here, I will transcribe it. In my third Essay, which treats of the advantages of classical learning, I have said something of Dr. This praise of Sir Joshua's dinner was not a matter of course; for his table, though very agreeable, was not what is usually called a good one, as appears from the following description given of it by Mr. Courtenay (a frequent and favourite guest) to Sir James Mackintosh: "There was something singular in the style and economy of Sir Joshua's table that contributed to pleasantry and good humour; a coarse inelegant pleuty, without any regard to order and arrangement. A table prepared for seven or eight, was often compelled to contain fifteen or sixteen. When this pressing difficulty was got over, a deficiency of knives, forks, plates, and glasses succeeded. The attendance was in the same style; and it was absolutely necessary to call instantly for beer, bread, or wine, that you might be supplied with them before the first course was over. He was once prevailed on to furnish the table with decanters and glasses at dinner, to save time, and prevent the tardy manœuvres of two or three occasional undisciplined domestics. As these accelerating utensils were demolished in the course of service, Sir Joshua could never be persuaded to replace them. But these trifling embarrassments only served to enhance the hilarity and singular pleasure of the entertainment. The wine, cookery, and dishes were but little attended to; nor was the fish or venison ever talked of or recommended. Amidst this convivial, animated bustle among his as naughty as "DEAREST MADAM, - You are you can be. I am willing enough to write to you when I have any thing to say. As for my disorder, as Sir Joshua saw me, I fancied he would tell you, and that I needed not tell you myself. Of Dr. Goldsmith's Epitaph, I sent Sir Joshua two copies, and had none myself. If he has lost it, he has not done well. But I suppose I can recollect it, and will send it to you. I am, Madam, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON. "P.S. All the Thrales are well, and Mrs. Thrale has a great regard for Miss Reynolds."] - Reynolds MS. JOHNSON TO REYNOLDS. "June 22. 1776. "SIR, Miss Reynolds has a mind to send the Epitaph to Dr. Beattie; I am very willing, but having no copy, cannot immediately recollect it. She tells me you have lost it. Try to recollect, and put down as much as you retain; you perhaps may have kept what I have dropped. The lines for which am at a loss are something of rerum civilium sive naturalium. It was a sorry trick to lose it; help me if you can. — I am, Sir, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON. "The gout grows better, but slowly." It was, I think, after I had left London in this year, that this Epitaph gave occasion to a remonstrance to the Monarch of Literature, for an account of which I am indebted to Sir William Forbes, of Pitsligo. guests, our host sat perfectly composed; always attentive to what was said, never minding what was eat or drunk, but left every one at perfect liberty to scramble for himself. Temporal and spiritual peers, physicians, lawyers, actors, and musicians, composed the motley group, and played their parts without dissonance or discord. At five o'clock precisely dinner was served, whether all the invited guests were arrived or not. Sir Joshua was never so fashionably ill-bred as to wait an hour perhaps for two or three persons of rank or title, and put the rest of the company out of humour by this invidious distinction. His friends and intimate acquaintance will ever love his memory, and will long regret those social hours, and the cheerfulness of that irregular, convivial table, which no one has attempted to revive or imitate, or was indeed qualified to supply." This homely style, perhaps, may explain an obscure passage in Gibbon's letter to Garrick, 14th Aug. 1777, (Gar. Cor., 2. 256.): "Assure Sir Joshua in particular that I have not lost my relish for manly conversation and the society of the brown table; " or it may allude to the tavern table of the Club. CROKER. 2 The letters from and to Miss Reynolds I have added to the text to explain the others. CROKER. 3 These words must have been in the other copy. They are not in that which was preferred. - CROKER. That my readers may have the subject more fully and clearly before them, I shall insert the Epitaph': "OLIVARII GOLDSMITH, Poetæ, Physici, Historici, Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit": Affectuum potens at lenis dominator : Amicorum fides, Natus in Hiberniâ Fornia Longfordiensis, Sir William Forbes writes to me thus: "I enclose the Round Robin. This jeu d'esprit took its rise one day at dinner at our friend Sir Joshua Reynolds's. All the company present, except myself, were friends and acquaintance of Dr. Goldsmith. The Epitaph written for him by Dr. Johnson became the subject of conversation, and various emendations were suggested, which it was agreed should be submitted to the Doctor's consideration. But the question was, who should have the courage to propose them to him? At last it was hinted, that there could be, no way so good as that of a Round Robin, as the sailors call it, which they make use of when they enter into a conspiracy, so as not to let it be known who puts his name first or last to the paper. This proposi tion was instantly assented to; and Dr. Barnard, Dean of Derry, now Bishop of Killaloe, drew up an address to Dr. Johnson on the occasion, replete with wit and humour, but which it was feared the Doctor might think treated the subject with too much levity. Mr. Burke then proposed the address as it stands in the paper in writing, to which I had the honour to officiate as clerk. "Sir Joshua agreed to carry it to Dr. Johnson, who received it with much good humour, and desired Sir Joshua to tell the gentlemen, that he would alter the Epitaph in any manner they pleased, as to the sense of it, but he would never consent to disgrace the walls of Westminster Abbey with an English inscription. "I consider this Round Robin as a species of literary curiosity worth preserving, as it marks, in a certain degree, Dr. Johnson's character." My readers are presented with a faithful transcript of a paper, which I doubt not of their being desirous to see. The following nearly literal translation will give a tolerable idea of the matter of this celebrated epitaph, and as much of the manuer as I could preserve in an English version. OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, And touched nothing that he did not adorn; Of all the passions, Whether smiles were to be moved or tears, A powerful yet gentle master; [in the parish] of Forney, [and county] of Longford, On the 29th Nov. 1731, Educated at [the University of] Dublin, 2 This phrase, to which the epitaph chiefly owes, we think, its celebrity, resembles Fenelon's eulogy on Cicero - "He adorns whatever he attempts."- Reflec. on Rhetoric and Poetry.CROKER. 3 This was a mistake, which was not discovered till after Goldsmith's monument was put up in Westminster Abbey. He was born Nov. 29. 1728; and therefore, when he died, he was in his forty-sixth year. - MALONE. 4 This prelate, who was afterwards translated to the see of Limerick, died at Wimbledon, in Surrey, June 7. 1806, in his eightieth year. The original Round Robin remained in his possession; the paper which Sir William Forbes transmitted to Mr. Boswell being only a copy. - MALONE. The engraving published by Mr. Boswell was not an exact facsimile of the whole of this curious paper (which is of the size called foolscap, and too large to be folded into an ordinary volume), but of the signatures only; and, in later editions, even these have, by successive copying, lost some of their original accuracy. By the favour of the Earl of Balcarras (to whom the paper has descended from his aunt, Lady Anne, the widow of the son of Bishop Barnard) I was enabled to give a fresh and more accurate facsimile of the g natures, which is copied in wood for this edition. — CROKER, 1831-47. 5 He, however, upon seeing Dr. Warton's name to the suggestion, that the epitaph should be in English, observed to Sir Joshua, "I wonder that Joe Warton, a scholar profession, should be such a fool." He said too," I should have thought Mund Burke would have had more sense." Mr.Langton, who was one of the company at Sir Joshua's like a sturdy scholar, resolutely refused to sign the Round Robin. The epitaph is engraved upon Dr. Goldsmith's monument without any alteration. At another time, when somebody endeavoured to argue in favour of its being in Engi Johnson said, "The language of the country of which a learned man was a native is not the language fit for his epitaph, which should be in ancient and permanent language. Consider, Sir, how you should feel, were you to find at Rotterdam an epitaph upon Erasmus in Dutch!" For my own part, I think it would be best to have epitaphs written both in a learned language and in the language of the country; so that they might have the advantage of being more universally understood, and at the same time be secured of classical stability. I cannot, however, but be of opinion, that it is not sufficiently discriminative. Applying to Goldsmith equally the epithets of Porta, Histor Physici," is surely not right; for as to his claim to the last of those epithets, I have heard Johnson himself say, " Goldsmith, Sir, will give us a very fine book upon the subject; but if he can distinguish a cow from a horse, that, I believe, may be the extent of his knowledge of natural history." His book is, indeed, an excellent performance, though in some instances he appears to have trusted too much to Buf fon, who, with all his theoretical ingenuity and extraordinary eloquence, I suspect had little actual information in the science on which he wrote so admirably. For instance, he tells us that the cow sheds her horns every two years; a most palpable error, which Goldsmith has faithfully trans ferred into his book. It is wonderful that Buffon, who tired so much in the country, at his noble seat, should have fallen into such a blunder. I suppose he has confounded the cou with the deer. -BOSWELL. See antè, p. 313. 392, on the subject of English inscriptions to English writers: and the case of Erasmus, cited by Johnson, is not a case in point. Eras mus had not written in Dutch; nor Goldsmith-who, in fact, was a very poor scholar in Latin. Johnson's natural good sense was, I think, on this point, overborne by the egotism of his own scholarship. - CROKER. |
