Boswell's Life of Johnson
thy mind all virtue.' Beauclerk not seeming to relish the compliment,
Johnson said, 'Nay, Sir, Alexander the Great, marching in triumph into
Babylon, could not have desired to have had more said to him.'
Johnson was some time with Beauclerk at his house at Windsor, where he
was entertained with experiments in natural philosophy. One Sunday, when
the weather was very fine, Beauclerk enticed him, insensibly, to saunter
about all the morning. They went into a church-yard, in the time of
divine service, and Johnson laid himself down at his ease upon one of
the tomb-stones. 'Now, Sir, (said Beauclerk) you are like Hogarth's Idle
Apprentice.' When Johnson got his pension, Beauclerk said to him, in the
humorous phrase of Falstaff, 'I hope you'll now purge and live cleanly
like a gentleman.'
One night when Beauclerk and Langton had supped at a tavern in London,
and sat till about three in the morning, it came into their heads to go
and knock up Johnson, and see if they could prevail on him to join them
in a ramble. They rapped violently at the door of his chambers in the
Temple, till at last he appeared in his shirt, with his little black wig
on the top of his head, instead of a nightcap, and a poker in his hand,
imagining, probably, that some ruffians were coming to attack him. When
he discovered who they were, and was told their errand, he smiled, and
with great good humour agreed to their proposal: 'What, is it you, you
dogs! I'll have a frisk with you.' He was soon drest, and they sallied
forth together into Covent-Garden, where the greengrocers and fruiterers
were beginning to arrange their hampers, just come in from the country.
Johnson made some attempts to help them; but the honest gardeners stared
so at his figure and manner, and odd interference, that he soon saw
his services were not relished. They then repaired to one of the
neighbouring taverns, and made a bowl of that liquor called Bishop,
which Johnson had always liked; while in joyous contempt of sleep, from
which he had been roused, he repeated the festive lines,
'Short, O short then be thy reign,
And give us to the world again!'
They did not stay long, but walked down to the Thames, took a boat, and
rowed to Billingsgate. Beauclerk and Johnson were so well pleased with
their amusement, that they resolved to persevere in dissipation for the
rest of the day: but Langton deserted them, being engaged to breakfast
with some young Ladies. Johnson scolded him for 'leaving his social
friends, to go and sit with a set of wretched UN-IDEA'D girls.' Garrick
being told of this ramble, said to him smartly, 'I heard of your
frolick t'other night. You'll be in the Chronicle.' Upon which Johnson
afterwards observed, 'HE durst not do such a thing. His WIFE would not
LET him!'
1753: AETAT. 44.]--He entered upon this year 1753 with his usual piety,
as appears from the following prayer, which I transcribed from that part
of his diary which he burnt a few days before his death:
'Jan. 1, 1753, N.S. which I shall use for the future.
'Almighty God, who hast continued my life to this day, grant that, by
the assistance of thy Holy Spirit, I may improve the time which thou
shalt grant me, to my eternal salvation. Make me to remember, to thy
glory, thy judgements and thy mercies. Make me so to consider the loss
of my wife, whom thou hast taken from me, that it may dispose me, by thy
grace, to lead the residue of my life in thy fear. Grant this, O LORD,
for JESUS CHRIST'S sake. Amen.'
He now relieved the drudgery of his Dictionary, and the melancholy
of his grief, by taking an active part in the composition of The
Adventurer, in which he began to write April 10.
In one of the books of his diary I find the following entry:
'Apr. 3, 1753. I began the second vol. of my Dictionary, room being left
in the first for Preface, Grammar, and History, none of them yet begun.
'O God, who hast hitherto supported me, enable me to proceed in this
labour, and in the whole task of my present state; that when I shall
render up, at the last day, an account of the talent committed to me, I
may receive pardon, for the sake of JESUS CHRIST. Amen.'
1754: AETAT. 45.]--The Dictionary, we may believe, afforded Johnson full
occupation this year. As it approached to its conclusion, he probably
worked with redoubled vigour, as seamen increase their exertion and
alacrity when they have a near prospect of their haven.
Lord Chesterfield, to whom Johnson had paid the high compliment of
addressing to his Lordship the Plan of his Dictionary, had behaved to
him in such a manner as to excite his contempt and indignation. The
world has been for many years amused with a story confidently told, and
as confidently repeated with additional circumstances, that a sudden
disgust was taken by Johnson upon occasion of his having been one day
kept long in waiting in his Lordship's antechamber, for which the reason
assigned was, that he had company with him; and that at last, when the
door opened, out walked Colley Cibber; and that Johnson was so violently
provoked when he found for whom he had been so long excluded, that
he went away in a passion, and never would return. I remember having
mentioned this story to George Lord Lyttelton, who told me, he was very
intimate with Lord Chesterfield; and holding it as a well-known truth,
defended Lord Chesterfield, by saying, that 'Cibber, who had been
introduced familiarly by the back-stairs, had probably not been there
above ten minutes.' It may seem strange even to entertain a doubt
concerning a story so long and so widely current, and thus implicitly
adopted, if not sanctioned, by the authority which I have mentioned; but
Johnson himself assured me, that there was not the least foundation
for it. He told me, that there never was any particular incident which
produced a quarrel between Lord Chesterfield and him; but that his
Lordship's continued neglect was the reason why he resolved to have
no connection with him. When the Dictionary was upon the eve of
publication, Lord Chesterfield, who, it is said, had flattered
himself with expectations that Johnson would dedicate the work to him,
attempted, in a courtly manner, to sooth, and insinuate himself with the
Sage, conscious, as it should seem, of the cold indifference with which
he had treated its learned authour; and further attempted to conciliate
him, by writing two papers in The World, in recommendation of the work;
and it must be confessed, that they contain some studied compliments,
so finely turned, that if there had been no previous offence, it is
probable that Johnson would have been highly delighted.* Praise, in
general, was pleasing to him; but by praise from a man of rank and
elegant accomplishments, he was peculiarly gratified.
* Boswell could not have read the second paper carefully.
It is silly and indecent and was certain to offend Johnson.
--ED.
This courtly device failed of its effect. Johnson, who thought that
'all was false and hollow,' despised the honeyed words, and was even
indignant that Lord Chesterfield should, for a moment, imagine that he
could be the dupe of such an artifice. His expression to me concerning
Lord Chesterfield, upon this occasion, was, 'Sir, after making great
professions, he had, for many years, taken no notice of me; but when my
Dictionary was coming out, he fell a scribbling in The World about it.
Upon which, I wrote him a letter expressed in civil terms, but such as
might shew him that I did not mind what he said or wrote, and that I had
done with him.'
This is that celebrated letter of which so much has been said, and about
which curiosity has been so long excited, without being gratified. I
for many years solicited Johnson to favour me with a copy of it, that so
excellent a composition might not be lost to posterity. He delayed from
time to time to give it me; till at last in 1781, when we were on a
visit at Mr. Dilly's, at Southill in Bedfordshire, he was pleased to
dictate it to me from memory. He afterwards found among his papers a
copy of it, which he had dictated to Mr. Baretti, with its title and
corrections, in his own handwriting. This he gave to Mr. Langton; adding
that if it were to come into print, he wished it to be from that copy.
By Mr. Langton's kindness, I am enabled to enrich my work with a perfect
transcript of what the world has so eagerly desired to see.
'TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD
'February 7, 1755.
'MY LORD, I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of The World,
that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the publick,
were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honour,
which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know
not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.
'When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship,
I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your
address; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le
vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre;--that I might obtain that regard for
which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little
encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue
it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in publick, I had exhausted
all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can
possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have
his all neglected, be it ever so little.
'Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your outward
rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been
pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to
complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication,
without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile
of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron
before.
'The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him
a native of the rocks.
'Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man
struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground,
encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take
of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed
till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and
cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no
very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has
been received, or to be unwilling that the Publick should consider me
as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for
myself.
'Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any
favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should
conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long
wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with
so much exultation, my Lord, your Lordship's most humble, most obedient
servant,
'SAM JOHNSON.'
'While this was the talk of the town, (says Dr. Adams, in a letter to
me) I happened to visit Dr. Warburton, who finding that I was acquainted
with Johnson, desired me earnestly to carry his compliments to him, and
to tell him that he honoured him for his manly behaviour in rejecting
these condescensions of Lord Chesterfield, and for resenting the
treatment he had received from him, with a proper spirit. Johnson was
visibly pleased with this compliment, for he had always a high opinion
of Warburton. Indeed, the force of mind which appeared in this letter,
was congenial with that which Warburton himself amply possessed.'
There is a curious minute circumstance which struck me, in comparing
the various editions of Johnson's imitations of Juvenal. In the tenth