ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

"He then took a most affecting leave of me; said, he knew it was a point of duty that called me away. 'We shall all be sorry to lose you,' said he: laudo tamen.""

resident at Bath, for the purpose of ascertaining their author: but that gentleman could furnish no aid on this occasion. At length_the_lines have been discovered by the author's second son, Mr. James Boswell, in the London Magazine for July, 1732, where they form part of a poem on Retirement, there published anonymously, but in fact (as he afterwards found) copied, with some slight variations, from one of Walsh's smaller poems, entitled "The Retirement;" and they exhibit another proof of what has been elsewhere observed by the author of the work before us, that Johnson retained in his memory fragments of obscure or neglected poety. In quoting verses of that description, he appears by a slight variation to have sometimes given them a moral turn, and to have dexterously adapted them to his own sentiments, where the original had a very different tendency. Thus, in the present instance (as Mr. J. Boswell observes to me), "the author of the poem above mentioned exhibits himself as having retired to the country, to avoid the vain follies of a town life,-ambition, avarice, and the pursuit of pleasure, contrasted with the enjoyments of the country, and the delightful conversation that the brooks, &c. furnish; which he holds to be infinitely more pleasing and instructive than any which towns afford. He is then led to consider the weakness of the human mind, and, after lamenting that he (the writer) who is neither enslaved by avarice, ambition, or pleasure, has yet made himself a slave to love, he thus proceeds:

"If this dire passion never will be done,

If beauty always must my heart enthral,
O, rather let me be enslaved by one,
Than madly thus become a slave to all:

'One who has early known the pomp of state

(For things unknown 't is ignorance to condemn), And, after having view'd the gaudy bait,

Can coldly say, the trifle I contemn;

In her blest arms contented could I live,
Contented could I die. But O, my mind
Imaginary scenes of bliss deceive

With hopes of joys impossible to find.""

Another instance of Johnson's retaining in his memory verses by obscure authors is given [post, Aug. 27. 1773], where, in

consequence of hearing a girl spinning in a chamber over that in which he was sitting, he repeated these lines, which he said were written by one Giffard, a clergymen; but the poem in which they are introduced has hitherto been undiscovered:·

"Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound:
All at her work the village maiden sings;
Nor while she turns the giddy wheel around,
Revolves the sad vicissitude of things."

In the autumn of 1782, when he was at Brighthelmstone, he frequently accompanied Mr. Philip Metcalfe in his chaise, to take the air; and the conversation in one of their excursions happening to turn on a celebrated historian (1), since deceased, he repeated, with great precision, some verses, as very characteristic of that gentleman. These furnish another proof of what has been above observed; for they are found in a very obscure quarter, among some anonymous poems appended to the second volume of a collection frequently printed by Lintot, under the title of "Pope's Miscellanies: "

"See how the wand'ring Danube flows,

Realms and religions parting;

A friend to all true christian foes,
To Peter, Jack, and Martin.

"Now Protestant, and Papist now,
Not constant long to either,
At length an infidel does grow,
And ends his journey neither.

"Thus many a youth I've known set out,
Half Protestant, half Papist,

And rambling long the world about,

Turn infidel or atheist."

In reciting these verses, I have no doubt that Johnson substituted some word for infidel in the second stanza, to avoid the disagreeable repetition of the same expression. - MALONE.

(1) [No doubt Gibbon.]

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

consequence of hearing a girl spinning in a chamber over that in which he was sitting, he repeated these lines, which he said were written by one Giffard, a clergymen; but the poem in which they are introduced has hitherto been undiscovered:

"Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound:
All at her work the village maiden sings;
Nor while she turns the giddy wheel around,
Revolves the sad vicissitude of things."

In the autumn of 1782, when he was at Brighthelmstone, he frequently accompanied Mr. Philip Metcalfe in his chaise, to take the air; and the conversation in one of their excursions happening to turn on a celebrated historian (1), since deceased, he repeated, with great precision, some verses, as very characteristic of that gentleman. These furnish another proof of what has been above observed; for they are found in a very obscure quarter, among some anonymous poems appended to the second volume of a collection frequently printed by Lintot, under the title of "Pope's Miscellanies:

"See how the wand'ring Danube flows,

Realms and religions parting;

A friend to all true christian foes,
To Peter, Jack, and Martin.

"Now Protestant, and Papist now,
Not constant long to either,
At length an infidel does grow,
And ends his journey neither.

"Thus many a youth I've known set out,
Half Protestant, half Papist,

And rambling long the world about,

Turn infidel or atheist."

In reciting these verses, I have no doubt that Johnson substituted some word for infidel in the second stanza, to avoid the disagreeable repetition of the same expression. MALONE.

(1) [No doubt Gibbon.]

[ocr errors]

151

CHAPTER VI.

1771.

"Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands." Lord George Grenville.· - Junius. · Design of bringing Johnson into Parliament. Mr. Strahan. Lord North.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Boswell's Marriage.

Mr. Flood.

- Visit to Lichfield and Ashbourne. - Dr. Beattie. Lord Monboddo. St. Kilda. Scots Church. Second Sight.

Thirty-nine Articles.

Royal Marriage Act.·

[ocr errors]

Thirtieth of January.

The

Old Families. Mimickry.

Foote. Mr. Peyton. Origin of Languages.Irish and Gaelic. — Flogging at Schools. - Lord Mansfield. Sir Gilbert Elliot.

IN 1771 he published another political pamphlet, entitled "Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands," in which, upon materials furnished to him by ministry, and upon general topics, expanded in his rich style, he successfully endeavoured to persuade the nation that it was wise and laudable to suffer the question of right to remain undecided, rather than involve our country in another war. It has been suggested by some, with what truth I shall not take upon me to decide, that he rated the consequence of those islands to Great Britain too low. But however this may be, every humane mind must surely applaud the earnestness

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »