Boswell's Life of Johnson
to have them introduced. Johnson when he carried Mr. Langton to see him,
professed that he could bring him out into conversation, and used this
allusive expression, "Sir, I can make him REAR." But he failed; for in
that interview Richardson said little else than that there lay in the
room a translation of his Clarissa into German.'
'Once when somebody produced a newspaper in which there was a letter of
stupid abuse of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of which Johnson himself came in
for a share,--"Pray," said he, "let us have it read aloud from beginning
to end;" which being done, he with a ludicrous earnestness, and not
directing his look to any particular person, called out, "Are we alive
after all this satire!"'
'Of Dr. Goldsmith he said, "No man was more foolish when he had not a
pen in his hand, or more wise when he had."'
'An observation of Bathurst's may be mentioned, which Johnson repeated,
appearing to acknowledge it to be well founded, namely, it was somewhat
remarkable how seldom, on occasion of coming into the company of any new
person, one felt any wish or inclination to see him again.'
1781: AETAT. 72.]--In 1781 Johnson at last completed his Lives of the
Poets, of which he gives this account: 'Some time in March I finished
the Lives of the Poets, which I wrote in my usual way, dilatorily and
hastily, unwilling to work, and working with vigour and haste.' In a
memorandum previous to this, he says of them: 'Written, I hope, in such
a manner as may tend to the promotion of piety.'
The booksellers, justly sensible of the great additional value of the
copy-right, presented him with another hundred pounds, over and above
two hundred, for which his agreement was to furnish such prefaces as he
thought fit.
As he was so good as to make me a present of the greatest part of the
original and indeed only manuscript of this admirable work, I have an
opportunity of observing with wonder, the correctness with which he
rapidly struck off such glowing composition.
The Life of COWLEY he himself considered as the best of the whole, on
account of the dissertation which it contains on the Metaphysical Poets.
While the world in general was filled with admiration of Johnson's
Lives of the Poets, there were narrow circles in which prejudice and
resentment were fostered, and from which attacks of different sorts
issued against him. By some violent Whigs he was arraigned of injustice
to Milton; by some Cambridge men of depreciating Gray; and his
expressing with a dignified freedom what he really thought of George,
Lord Lyttelton, gave offence to some of the friends of that nobleman,
and particularly produced a declaration of war against him from Mrs.
Montagu, the ingenious Essayist on Shakspeare, between whom and his
Lordship a commerce of reciprocal compliments had long been carried on.
In this war the smaller powers in alliance with him were of course led
to engage, at least on the defensive, and thus I for one was excluded
from the enjoyment of 'A Feast of Reason,' such as Mr. Cumberland has
described, with a keen, yet just and delicate pen, in his Observer.
These minute inconveniences gave not the least disturbance to Johnson.
He nobly said, when I talked to him of the feeble, though shrill outcry
which had been raised, 'Sir, I considered myself as entrusted with a
certain portion of truth. I have given my opinion sincerely; let them
shew where they think me wrong.'
I wrote to him in February, complaining of having been troubled by a
recurrence of the perplexing question of Liberty and Necessity;--and
mentioning that I hoped soon to meet him again in London.
'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
'DEAR SIR,--I hoped you had got rid of all this hypocrisy of misery.
What have you to do with Liberty and Necessity? Or what more than to
hold your tongue about it? Do not doubt but I shall be most heartily
glad to see you here again, for I love every part about you but your
affectation of distress.
'I have at last finished my Lives, and have laid up for you a load of
copy, all out of order, so that it will amuse you a long time to set it
right. Come to me, my dear Bozzy, and let us be as happy as we can. We
will go again to the Mitre, and talk old times over. I am, dear Sir,
yours affectionately,
'March 14, 1781.'
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
On Monday, March 19, I arrived in London, and on Tuesday, the 20th, met
him in Fleet-street, walking, or rather indeed moving along; for his
peculiar march is thus described in a very just and picturesque manner,
in a short Life of him published very soon after his death:--'When he
walked the streets, what with the constant roll of his head, and the
concomitant motion of his body, he appeared to make his way by that
motion, independent of his feet.' That he was often much stared at while
he advanced in this manner, may easily be believed; but it was not safe
to make sport of one so robust as he was. Mr. Langton saw him one day,
in a fit of absence, by a sudden start, drive the load off a porter's
back, and walk forward briskly, without being conscious of what he had
done. The porter was very angry, but stood still, and eyed the huge
figure with much earnestness, till he was satisfied that his wisest
course was to be quiet, and take up his burthen again.
Our accidental meeting in the street after a long separation was
a pleasing surprize to us both. He stepped aside with me into
Falcon-court, and made kind inquiries about my family, and as we were
in a hurry going different ways, I promised to call on him next day;
he said he was engaged to go out in the morning. 'Early, Sir?' said I.
JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, a London morning does not go with the sun.'
I waited on him next evening, and he gave me a great portion of his
original manuscript of his Lives of the Poets, which he had preserved
for me.
I found on visiting his friend, Mr. Thrale, that he was now very ill,
and had removed, I suppose by the solicitation of Mrs. Thrale, to a
house in Grosvenor-square. I was sorry to see him sadly changed in his
appearance.
He told me I might now have the pleasure to see Dr. Johnson drink
wine again, for he had lately returned to it. When I mentioned this
to Johnson, he said, 'I drink it now sometimes, but not socially.' The
first evening that I was with him at Thrale's, I observed he poured
a large quantity of it into a glass, and swallowed it greedily. Every
thing about his character and manners was forcible and violent; there
never was any moderation; many a day did he fast, many a year did he
refrain from wine; but when he did eat, it was voraciously; when he
did drink wine, it was copiously. He could practise abstinence, but not
temperance.
Mrs. Thrale and I had a dispute, whether Shakspeare or Milton had drawn
the most admirable picture of a man.* I was for Shakspeare; Mrs. Thrale
for Milton; and after a fair hearing, Johnson decided for my opinion.
* The passages considered, according to Boswell's note, were
the portrait of Hamlet's father (Ham. 3. 4. 55-62), and the
portrait of Adam (P. L. 4. 300-303).--ED.
I told him of one of Mr. Burke's playful sallies upon Dean Marlay:
'I don't like the Deanery of Ferns, it sounds so like a BARREN
title.'--'Dr. HEATH should have it;' said I. Johnson laughed, and
condescending to trifle in the same mode of conceit, suggested Dr. MOSS.
He said, 'Mrs. Montagu has dropt me. Now, Sir, there are people whom one
should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by.' He
certainly was vain of the society of ladies, and could make himself very
agreeable to them, when he chose it; Sir Joshua Reynolds agreed with
me that he could. Mr. Gibbon, with his usual sneer, controverted it,
perhaps in resentment of Johnson's having talked with some disgust of
his ugliness, which one would think a PHILOSOPHER would not mind.
Dean Marlay wittily observed, 'A lady may be vain, when she can turn a
wolf-dog into a lap-dog.'
His notion of the duty of a member of Parliament, sitting upon an
election-committee, was very high; and when he was told of a gentleman
upon one of those committees, who read the newspapers part of the time,
and slept the rest, while the merits of a vote were examined by the
counsel; and as an excuse, when challenged by the chairman for
such behaviour, bluntly answered, 'I had made up my mind upon that
case.'--Johnson, with an indignant contempt, said, 'If he was such a
rogue as to make up his mind upon a case without hearing it, he should
not have been such a fool as to tell it.' 'I think (said Mr. Dudley
Long, now North,) the Doctor has pretty plainly made him out to be both
rogue and fool.'
Johnson's profound reverence for the Hierarchy made him expect from
bishops the highest degree of decorum; he was offended even at
their going to taverns; 'A bishop (said he,) has nothing to do at a
tippling-house. It is not indeed immoral in him to go to a tavern;
neither would it be immoral in him to whip a top in Grosvenor-square.
But, if he did, I hope the boys would fall upon him, and apply the
whip to HIM. There are gradations in conduct; there is
morality,--decency,--propriety. None of these should be violated by
a bishop. A bishop should not go to a house where he may meet a young
fellow leading out a wench.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, every tavern does not
admit women.' JOHNSON. 'Depend upon it, Sir, any tavern will admit a
well-drest man and a well-drest woman; they will not perhaps admit a
woman whom they see every night walking by their door, in the street.
But a well-drest man may lead in a well-drest woman to any tavern in
London. Taverns sell meat and drink, and will sell them to any body who
can eat and can drink. You may as well say that a mercer will not sell
silks to a woman of the town.'
He also disapproved of bishops going to routs, at least of their staying
at them longer than their presence commanded respect. He mentioned a
particular bishop. 'Poh! (said Mrs. Thrale,) the Bishop of ------ is
never minded at a rout.' BOSWELL. 'When a bishop places himself in a
situation where he has no distinct character, and is of no consequence,
he degrades the dignity of his order.' JOHNSON. 'Mr. Boswell, Madam has
said it as correctly as it could be.'
Johnson and his friend, Beauclerk, were once together in company with
several clergymen, who thought that they should appear to advantage,
by assuming the lax jollity of men of the world; which, as it may be
observed in similar cases, they carried to noisy excess. Johnson, who
they expected would be ENTERTAINED, sat grave and silent for some time;
at last, turning to Beauclerk, he said, by no means in a whisper, 'This
merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.'
On Friday, March 30, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, with the
Earl of Charlemont, Sir Annesley Stewart, Mr. Eliot of Port-Eliot, Mr.
Burke, Dean Marlay, Mr. Langton; a most agreeable day, of which I regret
that every circumstance is not preserved; but it is unreasonable to
require such a multiplication of felicity.
Mr. Eliot mentioned a curious liquor peculiar to his country, which the
Cornish fishermen drink. They call it Mahogany; and it is made of two
parts gin, and one part treacle, well beaten together. I begged to
have some of it made, which was done with proper skill by Mr. Eliot. I
thought it very good liquor; and said it was a counterpart of what is
called Athol Porridge in the Highlands of Scotland, which is a mixture
of whisky and honey. Johnson said, 'that must be a better liquor than
the Cornish, for both its component parts are better.' He also observed,
'Mahogany must be a modern name; for it is not long since the wood
called mahogany was known in this country.' I mentioned his scale of
liquors;--claret for boys,--port for men,--brandy for heroes. 'Then