Boswell's Life of Johnson
expatiated, with his usual force and eloquence, on Mr. Garrick's
extraordinary eminence as an actor, he concluded with this compliment
to his social talents: "And after all, Madam, I thought him less to be
envied on the stage than at the head of a table."'
Johnson, indeed, had thought more upon the subject of acting than might
be generally supposed. Talking of it one day to Mr. Kemble, he said,
'Are you, Sir, one of those enthusiasts who believe yourself transformed
into the very character you represent?' Upon Mr. Kemble's answering that
he had never felt so strong a persuasion himself; 'To be sure not, Sir,
(said Johnson;) the thing is impossible. And if Garrick really believed
himself to be that monster, Richard the Third, he deserved to be hanged
every time he performed it.'
I find in this, as in former years, notices of his kind attention to
Mrs. Gardiner, who, though in the humble station of a tallow-chandler
upon Snow-hill, was a woman of excellent good sense, pious, and
charitable. She told me, she had been introduced to him by Mrs. Masters,
the poetess, whose volumes he revised, and, it is said, illuminated here
and there with a ray of his own genius. Mrs. Gardiner was very zealous
for the support of the Ladies' charity-school, in the parish of St.
Sepulchre. It is confined to females; and, I am told, it afforded a hint
for the story of Betty Broom in The Idler.
The late ingenious Mr. Mickle, some time before his death, wrote me a
letter concerning Dr. Johnson, in which he mentions,--'I was upwards of
twelve years acquainted with him, was frequently in his company, always
talked with ease to him, and can truly say, that I never received from
him one rough word.'
Mr. Mickle reminds me in this letter of a conversation, at dinner
one day at Mr. Hoole's with Dr. Johnson, when Mr. Nicol the King's
bookseller and I attempted to controvert the maxim, 'better that
ten guilty should escape, than one innocent person suffer;' and were
answered by Dr. Johnson with great power of reasoning and eloquence. I
am very sorry that I have no record of that day: but I well recollect my
illustrious friend's having ably shewn, that unless civil institutions
insure protection to the innocent, all the confidence which mankind
should have in them would be lost.
Notwithstanding the complication of disorders under which Johnson now
laboured, he did not resign himself to despondency and discontent, but
with wisdom and spirit endeavoured to console and amuse his mind with
as many innocent enjoyments as he could procure. Sir John Hawkins has
mentioned the cordiality with which he insisted that such of the members
of the old club in Ivy-lane as survived, should meet again and dine
together, which they did, twice at a tavern and once at his house: and
in order to insure himself society in the evening for three days in the
week, he instituted a club at the Essex Head, in Essex-street, then kept
by Samuel Greaves, an old servant of Mr. Thrale's.
'TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
'DEAR SIR,--It is inconvenient to me to come out, I should else have
waited on you with an account of a little evening Club which we are
establishing in Essex-street, in the Strand, and of which you are
desired to be one. It will be held at the Essex Head, now kept by an old
servant of Thrale's. The company is numerous, and, as you will see by
the list, miscellaneous. The terms are lax, and the expences light. Mr.
Barry was adopted by Dr. Brocklesby, who joined with me in forming the
plan. We meet thrice a week, and he who misses forfeits two-pence.
'If you are willing to become a member, draw a line under your name.
Return the list. We meet for the first time on Monday at eight. I am,
&c.
'Dec. 4, 1783.'
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
It did not suit Sir Joshua to be one of this Club. But when I mention
only Mr. Daines Barrington, Dr. Brocklesby, Mr. Murphy, Mr. John
Nichols, Mr. Cooke, Mr. Joddrel, Mr. Paradise, Dr. Horsley, Mr.
Windham,* I shall sufficiently obviate the misrepresentation of it by
Sir John Hawkins, as if it had been a low ale-house association, by
which Johnson was degraded. Johnson himself, like his namesake Old Ben,
composed the Rules of his Club.
* I was in Scotland when this Club was founded, and during
all the winter. Johnson, however, declared I should be a
member, and invented a word upon the occasion: Boswell (said
he,) is a very CLUBABLE man.' When I came to town I was
proposed by Mr. Barrington, and chosen. I believe there are
few societies where there is better conversation or more
decorum, several of us resolved to continue it after our
great founder was removed by death. Other members were
added; and now, above eight years since that loss, we go on
happily.--BOSWELL.
In the end of this year he was seized with a spasmodick asthma of
such violence, that he was confined to the house in great pain, being
sometimes obliged to sit all night in his chair, a recumbent posture
being so hurtful to his respiration, that he could not endure lying in
bed; and there came upon him at the same time that oppressive and
fatal disease, a dropsy. It was a very severe winter, which probably
aggravated his complaints; and the solitude in which Mr. Levett and Mrs.
Williams had left him, rendered his life very gloomy. Mrs. Desmoulins,
who still lived, was herself so very ill, that she could contribute very
little to his relief. He, however, had none of that unsocial shyness
which we commonly see in people afflicted with sickness. He did not
hide his head from the world, in solitary abstraction; he did not deny
himself to the visits of his friends and acquaintances; but at all
times, when he was not overcome by sleep, was ready for conversation as
in his best days.
'TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD.
'DEAR MADAM,--You may perhaps think me negligent that I have not
written to you again upon the loss of your brother; but condolences and
consolations are such common and such useless things, that the omission
of them is no great crime: and my own diseases occupy my mind,
and engage my care. My nights are miserably restless, and my days,
therefore, are heavy. I try, however, to hold up my head as high as I
can.
'I am sorry that your health is impaired; perhaps the spring and the
summer may, in some degree, restore it: but if not, we must submit to
the inconveniences of time, as to the other dispensations of Eternal
Goodness. Pray for me, and write to me, or let Mr. Pearson write for
you. I am, &c.
'London, Nov. 29, 1783.'
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
1784: AETAT. 75.]--And now I am arrived at the last year of the life
of SAMUEL JOHNSON, a year in which, although passed in severe
indisposition, he nevertheless gave many evidences of the continuance
of those wondrous powers of mind, which raised him so high in the
intellectual world. His conversation and his letters of this year were
in no respect inferiour to those of former years.
In consequence of Johnson's request that I should ask our physicians
about his case, and desire Sir Alexander Dick to send his opinion, I
transmitted him a letter from that very amiable Baronet, then in his
eighty-first year, with his faculties as entire as ever; and mentioned
his expressions to me in the note accompanying it: 'With my most
affectionate wishes for Dr. Johnson's recovery, in which his friends,
his country, and all mankind have so deep a stake:' and at the same time
a full opinion upon his case by Dr. Gillespie, who, like Dr. Cullen,
had the advantage of having passed through the gradations of surgery and
pharmacy, and by study and practice had attained to such skill, that
my father settled on him two hundred pounds a year for five years, and
fifty pounds a year during his life, as an honorarium to secure his
particular attendance.
I also applied to three of the eminent physicians who had chairs in our
celebrated school of medicine at Edinburgh, Doctors Cullen, Hope, and
Monro.
All of them paid the most polite attention to my letter, and its
venerable object. Dr. Cullen's words concerning him were, 'It would give
me the greatest pleasure to be of any service to a man whom the publick
properly esteem, and whom I esteem and respect as much as I do Dr.
Johnson.' Dr. Hope's, 'Few people have a better claim on me than your
friend, as hardly a day passes that I do not ask his opinion about this
or that word.' Dr. Monro's, 'I most sincerely join you in sympathizing
with that very worthy and ingenious character, from whom his country has
derived much instruction and entertainment.'
'TO THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR, ASHBOURNE, DERBYSHIRE.
'DEAR SIR,--What can be the reason that I hear nothing from you? I hope
nothing disables you from writing. What I have seen, and what I have
felt, gives me reason to fear every thing. Do not omit giving me the
comfort of knowing, that after all my losses I have yet a friend left.
'I want every comfort. My life is very solitary and very cheerless.
Though it has pleased GOD wonderfully to deliver me from the dropsy,
I am yet very weak, and have not passed the door since the 13th of
December. I hope for some help from warm weather, which will surely come
in time.
'I could not have the consent of the physicians to go to church
yesterday; I therefore received the holy sacrament at home, in the room
where I communicated with dear Mrs. Williams, a little before her death.
O! my friend, the approach of death is very dreadful. I am afraid to
think on that which I know I cannot avoid. It is vain to look round and
round for that help which cannot be had. Yet we hope and hope, and fancy
that he who has lived to-day may live to-morrow. But let us learn to
derive our hope only from GOD.
'In the mean time, let us be kind to one another. I have no friend now
living but you and Mr. Hector, that was the friend of my youth. Do not
neglect, dear Sir, yours affectionately,
'London, Easter-Monday, April 12, 1784.'
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
What follows is a beautiful specimen of his gentleness and complacency
to a young lady his god-child, one of the daughters of his friend Mr.
Langton, then I think in her seventh year. He took the trouble to write
it in a large round hand, nearly resembling printed characters, that
she might have the satisfaction of reading it herself. The original lies
before me, but shall be faithfully restored to her; and I dare say will
be preserved by her as a jewel as long as she lives.
'TO MISS JANE LANGTON, IN ROCHESTER, KENT.
'MY DEAREST MISS JENNY,--I am sorry that your pretty letter has been so
long without being answered; but, when I am not pretty well, I do not
always write plain enough for young ladies. I am glad, my dear, to see
that you write so well, and hope that you mind your pen, your book,
and your needle, for they are all necessary. Your books will give you
knowledge, and make you respected; and your needle will find you useful
employment when you do not care to read. When you are a little older, I
hope you will be very diligent in learning arithmetick, and, above all,
that through your whole life you will carefully say your prayers, and
read your Bible. I am, my dear, your most humble servant,
'May 10, 1784.'
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
On Wednesday, May 5, I arrived in London, and next morning had the
pleasure to find Dr. Johnson greatly recovered. I but just saw him;
for a coach was waiting to carry him to Islington, to the house of his
friend the Reverend Mr. Strahan, where he went sometimes for the benefit
of good air, which, notwithstanding his having formerly laughed at the
general opinion upon the subject, he now acknowledged was conducive to
health.
One morning afterwards, when I found him alone, he communicated to