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Aetat. 31.]

Epigram on Cibber.

'Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power or hapless love;
Rest here, distress'd by poverty no more,
Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before ;
Sleep, undisturb'd, within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine 2!'

149

At the same time that Mr. Garrick favoured me with this anecdote, he repeated a very pointed Epigram by Johnson, on George the Second and Colley Cibber, which has never yet appeared, and of which I know not the exact date3. Dr. Johnson afterwards gave it to me himself*:

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Augustus still survives in Maro's strain,

And Spenser's verse prolongs Eliza's reign;
Great George's acts let tuneful Cibber sing;
For Nature form'd the Poet for the King.'

In 1415 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine' the Preface,'*

In the original and. Gent. Mag. x. 464. The title of this poem as there given is:-'An epitaph upon the celebrated Claudy Philips, Musician, who died very poor.'

The epitaph of Phillips is in the porch of Wolverhampton Church. The prose part of it is curious :'Near this place lies Charles Claudius Phillips, Whose absolute contempt of riches and inimitable performances upon the violin

made him the admiration of all that knew him.

He was born in Wales, made the tour of Europe, and, after the experience of both kinds of fortune,

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To beauteous order and harmo

nious love;

Rest here in peace, till Angels bid thee rise,

And meet thy Saviour's consort in the skies.' BLAKEWAY. Consort is defined in Johnson's Dictionary as a number of instruments playing together.

3

I have no doubt that it was written in 1741; for the second line is clearly a parody of a line in the chorus of Cibber's Birthday Ode for that year. The chorus is as follows: 'While thou our Master of the Main Revives Eliza's glorious reign, The great Plantagenets look down, And see your race adorn your crown.' Gent. Mag. xi. 549.

In the Life of Barretier Johnson had also this fling at George II :--'Princes are commonly the last by whom merit is distinguished.' Johnson's Works, vi. 381.

+ See Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 23 and Nov. 21, 1773.

5 Hester Lynch Salusbury, afterwards Mrs. Thrale, and later on Mrs. Piozzi, was born on Jan. 27, 1741.

'Conclusion

150

One of Cromwell's speeches.

[A.D. 1741.

'Conclusion of his lives of Drake and Baretier,'† 'A free translation of the Jests of Hierocles', with an Introduction;'t and, I think, the following pieces: 'Debate on the Proposal of Parliament to Cromwell, to assume the Title of King, abridged, modified, and digested';'† 'Translation of Abbé Guyon's Dissertation on the Amazons ;'t Translation of Fontenelle's Panegyrick on Dr. Morin.'† Two notes upon this appear to me undoubtedly his. He this year, and the two following, wrote the Parliamentary Debates. He told me himself, that he was the sole composer of them for those three years only. He was not, however, precisely exact in his statement, which he mentioned from hasty recollection; for it is sufficiently evident, that his composition of them began November 19, 1740, and ended February 23, 1742-33.

It appears from some of Cave's letters to Dr. Birch, that Cave had better assistance for that branch of his Magazine, than has been generally supposed; and that he was indefatigable in getting it made as perfect as he could.

This piece is certainly not by Johnson. It contains more than one ungrammatical passage. It is impossible to believe that he wrote such a sentence as the following:'Another having a cask of wine scaled up at the top, but his servant boring a hole at the bottom stole the greatest part of it away; sometime after, having called a friend to taste his wine, he found the vessel almost empty,' &c.

2 Mr. Carlyle, by the use of the term 'Imaginary Editors'(Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, iii. 229), seems to imply that he does not hold with Boswell in assigning this piece to Johnson. I am inclined to think, nevertheless, that Boswell is right. If it is Johnson's it is doubly interesting as showing the method which he often followed in writing the Parliamentary Debates. When notes were given him, while for the most part he kept to the speaker's train of thoughts, he dealt with the lan

guage much as it pleased him. In
the Gent. Mag. Cromwell speaks as
if he were wearing a flowing wig
and were addressing a Parliament
of the days of George II. He is
thus made to conclude Speech xi :-
For my part, could I multiply my
person or dilate my power, I should
dedicate myself wholly to this great
end, in the prosecution of which
I shall implore the blessing of God
upon your counsels and endeavours.'
Gent. Mag. xi. 100. The following
are the words which correspond to
this in the original :-‘If I could
help you to many, and multiply my-
self into many, that would be to
serve you in regard to settlement...
But I shall pray to God Almighty
that He would direct you to do
what is according to His will. And
this is that poor account I am able
to give of myself in this thing.' Car-
lyle's Cromwell, iii. 255.
3 See Appendix A.

Thus

Aetat. 32.]

Cave's Parliamentary Debates.

151

Thus, 21st July, 1735. 'I trouble you with the inclosed, because you said you could easily correct what is here given for Lord C-ld's' speech. I beg you will do so as soon as you can for me, because the month is far advanced.'

And 15th July, 1737. As you remember the debates so far as to perceive the speeches already printed are not exact, I beg the favour that you will peruse the inclosed, and, in the best manner your memory will serve, correct the mistaken passages, or add any thing that is omitted. I should be very glad to have something of the Duke of N-le's speech, which would be particularly of service.

'A gentleman has Lord Bathurst's speech to add something to.'

And July 3, 1744. You will see what stupid, low, abominable stuff is put upon your noble and learned friend's character, such as I should quite reject, and endeavour to do something better towards doing justice to the character. But as I cannot expect to attain my desires in that respect, it would be a great satisfaction, as well as an honour to our work to have the favour of the genuine speech. It is a method that several have been pleased to take, as I could show, but I think myself under a restraint. I shall say so far, that I have had some by a third hand, which I understood well enough to come from the first; others by penny-post", and others by the speakers themselves, who have been pleased to visit St. John's Gate, and show particular marks of their being pleased.'

There is no reason, I believe, to doubt the veracity of Cave, It is, however, remarkable, that none of these letters are in the years during which Johnson alone furnished the Debates, and one of them is in the very year after he ceased from that labour.

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152

Johnson's Parliamentary Debates.

[A.D. 1741.

Johnson told me that as soon as he found that the speeches were thought genuine, he determined that he would write no more of them; for 'he would not be accessary to the propagation of falsehood.' And such was the tenderness of his conscience, that a short time before his death he expressed his regret for his having been the authour of fictions, which had passed for realities'.

He nevertheless agreed with me in thinking, that the debates which he had framed were to be valued as orations upon questions of publick importance. They have accordingly been collected in volumes, properly arranged, and recommended to the notice of parliamentary speakers by a preface, written by no inferior hand. I must, however, observe, that although there is in those debates a wonderful store of political information, and very powerful eloquence, I cannot agree that they exhibit the manner of each particular speaker, as Sir John Hawkins seems to think. But, indeed, what opinion can we have of his judgement, and taste in publick speaking, who presumes to give, as the characteristicks of two celebrated orators, 'the deepmouthed rancour of Pulteney3, and the yelping pertinacity of Pitt.'

This year I find that his tragedy of Irene had been for some time ready for the stage, and that his necessities made him desirous of getting as much as he could for it, without delay; for there is the following letter from Mr. Cave to Dr. Birch, in the same volume of manuscripts in the British Museum, from which I copied those above quoted. They were most obligingly pointed out to me by Sir William Musgrave, one of the Curators of that noble repository.

See past, Dec. 1784, in Nichols's Anecdotes. If we may trust Hawkins, it is likely that Johnson's 'tenderness of conscience' cost Cave a good deal; for he writes that, while Johnson composed the Debates, the sale of the Magazine increased from ten to fifteen thousand copies a month.

Cave manifested his good fortune by buying an old coach and a pair of older horses.' Hawkins's Johnson, p. 123.

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Aetat. 32.]

Bibliotheca Harleiana.

I

153

'Sept. 9, 1741.

'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 prevented it.'

3

I have already mentioned that Irene was not brought into publick notice till Garrick was manager of Drury-lane theatre. 1742: ÆTAT. 33.1-IN 1742 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine the 'Preface,'t the 'Parliamentary Debates,'* 'Essay on the Account of the conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough,'* 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 conyersation. 'An account of the Life of Peter Burman,'* I believe chiefly taken from a foreign publication; as, indeed, he could not himself know much about Burman; 'Additions to his Life of Baretier;'* 'The Life of Sydenham, afterwards prefixed to Dr. Swan's edition of his works; 'Proposals for Printing Bibliotheca Harleiana, or a Catalogue of the Library of the Earl of Oxford'.'* His account of that

A bookseller of London. BosWELL.

Not the Royal Society; but the Society for the encouragement of learning, of which Dr. Birch was a leading member. Their object was to assist authors in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved. BOSWELL.

3 There is no erasure here, but a mere blank; to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture. BOSWELL.

Johnson, writing to Dr. Taylor on June 10, 1742, says :-' I propose to get Charles of Sweden ready for this winter, and shall therefore, as I imagine, be much engaged for some months with the dramatic writers

into whom I have scarcely looked for many years. Keep Irene close, you may send it back at your leisure.' Notes and Queries, 6th S., v. 303. Charles of Sweden must have been a play which he projected.

5 The profligate sentiment was, that 'to tell a secret to a friend is no breach of fidelity, because the number of persons trusted is not multiplied, a man and his friend being virtually the same.' Rambler, No. 13.

Journal of a tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 167. [Sept. 10, 1773.] BOSWELL.

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