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 discover principles and practice; but by degrees, he himself was fascinated Mr. Beauclerk's being of the St. Albans family, and having, in some particulars, a resemblance to Charles the Second, contributed, in Johnson's imagination, to throw a lustre upon his other qualities; and, in a short time, the moral, pious Johnson, and the gay, dissipated Beauclerk, were companions. "What a coalition! (said Garrick, when he heard of this:) I shall have my old friend to bail out of the round-house." But I can bear tes-ed who they were, and was told their errand, timony that it was a very agreeable association. Beauclerk was too polite, and valued learning and wit too much, to offend Johnson by sallies of infidelity or licentiousness; and Johnson delighted in the good qualities of Beauclerk, and hoped to correct the evil. Innumerable were the scenes in which Johnson was amused by these young men. Beauclerk could take more liberty with him, than any body with whom I ever saw him; but, on the other hand, Beauclerk was not spared by his respectable companion, when reproot was proper. Beauclerk had such a propensity to satire, that at one time Johnson said to him, "You never open your mouth but with intention to give pain; and you have often given me pain, not from the power of what you said, but from seeing your intention." At another time applying to him, with a slight alteration, a line of Pope, he said, "Thy love of folly, and thy scorn of foolsEvery thing thou dost shows the one, and everything thou sayest the other." At another time he said to him, " Thy body is all vice, and 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 philosophy1. 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 tombstones. "Now, sir, (said Beauclerk) you are like Hogarth's Idle Apprentice." When Johnson got his pension, Beauclerk said to him, in the humourous phrase of Falstaff, "I hope you'll now purge, and live cleanly, like a gentleman." One night, when Beauclerk and Langton 1 [Probably some experiments in electricity, which was at one time a fashionable curiosity: it cannot be supposed that the natural philosophy of Mr. Beauclerk's country-house went very deep. -ED.] he smiled, and with great good-humour "Short, O short, then, be thy reign, 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 4 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 ob 2 Johnson, as Mr. Kemble observes to me, might here have had in his thoughts the words of Sir John Brute (a character which, doubtless, he had seen represented by Garrick), who uses nearly the same expression in " the Provoked Wife," act iii. sc. 1.-MALONE. 3 Mr. Langton recollected, or Dr. Johnson reLord Lansdowne's Drinking Song to Sleep, and peated, the passage wrong. The lines are from run thus: "Short, very short, be then thy reign, For I'm in haste to laugh and drink again."-BoS WELL. both thirty years younger than he, it is no won 4 [As Johnson's companions in this frolic were der that Garrick should be a little alarmed at such extravagances. Nor can we help smiling at the philosopher of fifty scolding a young man of twenty, for having the bad taste to prefer the compa ny of a set of wretched un-idea'd girls.-ED.] Hawk. p. served, "He durst not do such a thing. | As a proof of this, my readers, I imagine, His wife would not let him!" will not doubt that number 39, on Sleep, is his; for it not only has the general texture and colour of his style, but the authours with whom he was peculiarly conversant are readily introduced in it in cursory allusion. The translation of a passage in Statius 2, quoted in that paper, and marked C. B., has been erroneously ascribed to Dr. Bathurst, whose christian name was Richard. How much this amiable man actually contributed to "The Adventurer," cannot be known. Let me add, that Hawkesworth's imitations of Johnson are sometimes so happy, that it is extremely difficult to distinguish them, with certainty, from the composition of his great archetype. Hawkesworth was his closest imitator, a circumstance of which that writer would once have been proud to be told; though, when he had become elated by having arisen into some degree of consequence, he, in a conversation with me, had the provoking effrontery 3 to say he was not sensible of it. [His acquaintance was now 529, 340. sought by persons of the first eminence in literature, and his house, in respect of the conversations there, became an academy. Many persons were desirous of adding him to the number of their friends. Invitations to dine with such of those as he liked, he so seldom declined, that, to a friend of his, he said, "I never but once, upon a resolution to employ myself in study, balked an invitation out to dinner, and then I stayed at home and did nothing." Little, however, did that laxity of temper, which this confession seems to imply, retard the progress of the great work in which he was employed: the conclusion, and also the perfection of his dictionary, were objects from which his attention was not to be diverted. The avocations he gave way to were such only as, when complied with, served to invigorate his mind to the performance of his engagements to his employers and the publick, and hasten the approach of the day Johnson was truly zealous for the sucthat was to reward his labour with ap-cess of "The Adventurer;" and very soon plause.] after his engaging in it, he wrote the following letter: 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 judgments, 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, marking his essays with the signature T, by which most of his papers in that collection are distinguished: those, however, which have that signature, and also that of Mysargyrus, were not written by him, but, as I suppose, by Dr. Bathurst. Indeed Johnson's energy of thought and richness of language are still more decisive marks than any signature. [This sarcastic allusion to Garrick's domestic habits seems a little inconsistent with that almost morbid regret which Johnson felt so long for the loss of his own wife.-ED.] "TO THE REV. DR. JOSEPH WARTON. "8 March, 1759. DEAR SIR,-I ought to have written to you before now, but I ought to do many things which I do not; nor can I, indeed, claim any merit from this letter; for being desired by the authors and proprietor of the Adventurer to look out for another hand, my thoughts necessarily fixed upon you, whose fund of literature will enable you to assist them, with very little interruption of your studies. "They desire you to engage to furnish one paper a month, at two guineas a paper, which you may very readily perform. We have considered that a paper should consist of pieces of imagination, pictures of life, and disquisitions of literature. The 2 This is a slight inaccuracy. The Latin Sapphicks translated by C. B. in that paper were written by Cowley, and are in his fourth book on Plants.-MALONE. 3 [This is not a tone in which Mr. Boswell should have allowed himself to speak of Doctor Hawkesworth on such an occasion; the improved style of Dr. Johnson in the Idler might as well be said to be borrowed from the Adventurer, as that of the Adventurer from the Rambler. Johnother, and yet either might say, without effronteson and Hawkesworth may have influenced each ry, that he was not conscious of it. Boswell had the mania of imagining, that every eminent writer of the day owed his fame to being an imitator of Johnson; we shall see several instances of it in the course of the work.-ED.] part which depends on the imagination is very well supplied, as you will find when you read the paper; for descriptions of life, there is now a treaty almost made with an authour and an authouress 1; and the province of criticism and literature they are very desirous to assign to the commentator on Virgil. "I hope this proposal will not be rejected, and that the next post will bring us your compliance. I speak as one of the fraternity, though I have no part in the paper, beyond now and then a motto; but two of the writers are my particular friends, and I hope the pleasure of seeing a third united to them will not be denied to, dear sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, "SAM JOHNSON.] The consequence of this letter was, Dr. Warton's enriching the collection with several admirable essays. Ed. [And here, though a little out of the order of date, may be introduced Doctor Johnson's letter to Dr. Warton on the conclusion of the Adventurer. Life of Dr. War: ton, p. 219. "8 March, 1754. "DEAR SIR,-I cannot but congratulate you upon the conclusion of a work, in which you have borne so great a part with so much reputation. I immediately determined that your name should be mentioned, but the paper having been some time written, Mr. Hawkesworth, I suppose, did not care to disorder its text, and therefore put your eulogy in a note. He and every other man mentions your papers of Criticism with great commendation, though not with greater than they deserve. "But how little can we venture to exult in any intellectual powers or literary attainments, when we consider the condition of poor Collins. I knew him a few years ago full of hopes and full of projects, versed in many languages, high in fancy, and strong in retention. This busy and forcible mind is now under the government of those who lately would not have been able to comprehend the least and most narrow of its designs. What do you hear of him? are there hopes of his recovery? or is he to pass the remainder of his life in misery and degradation? perhaps with complete consciousness of his calamity. "You have flattered us, dear sir, for some time with hopes of seeing you; when you come you will find your reputation increased, and with it the kindness of those [Mr. Malone here added a long note, surmising that this author and authoress were Henry Fielding and his sister; but he produces no proof, and seems to admit, that even if they were the persons meant, they never contributed.-ED.] friends who do not envy you; for success always produces either love or hatred. I enter my name among those that love, and love you more and more in proportion, as by writing more you are more known; and believe, that as you continue to diffuse among us your integrity and learning, I shall be still with greater esteem and affection, dear sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] Johnson's saying "I have no part in the paper, beyond now and then a motto," may seem inconsistent with his being the authour of the papers marked T. But he had, at this time, written only one number?; 2 The authour, I conceive, is here in an errour. He had before stated, that Johnson began to write in "The Adventurer" on April 10th (when No. 45 was published), above a month after the date of his letter to Dr. Warton. The two papers published previously with the signature T, and subscribed MYSARGYRUS (No. 34 and 41), were written, I believe, by Bonnel Thornton, who contributed also the papers signed A. This information I received several years ago; but do not precisely remember from whom I derived it. I believe, however, my informer was Dr. Warton. With respect to No. 39, on Sleep, which our authour has ascribed to Johnson (see p. 107), even if it were written by him, it would not be inconsistent with his statement to Dr. Warton; for it appeared on March 20th, near a fortnight after the date of Johnson's letter to that gentleman. But on considering it attentively, though the style bears a strong resemblance to that of Johnson, I believe it was written by his friend, Dr. Bathurst, and perhaps touched in a few places by Johnson. Mr. Boswell has observed, that "this paper not only has the general texture and colour of his style, but the authours with whom he was peculiarly conversant are readily introduced in it, in cursory allusion." Now the authours mentioned in that paper are Fontenelle, MilBarretier, Statius, Cowley, and Sir Thomas ton, Ramazzini, Madlle. Scuderi, Swift, Homer, Browne. With many of these, doubtless, Johnwhether he would have characterised the expres son was particularly conversant; but I doubt sion quoted from Swift as elegant; and with the works of Ramazzini it is very improbable that he should have been acquainted. Ramazzini was a celebrated physician, who died at Padua, in 1714, at the age of 81; with whose writings Dr. Bathurst may be supposed to have been conversant. So also with respect to Cowley Johnson, without doubt, had read his Latin poem on plants; but Bathurst's profession probably led him to read it with more attention than his friend had given to it; and Cowley's eulogy on the POPPY would more readily occur to the naturalist and the physician, than to a more general reader. I believe, however, that the last paragraph of the paper on Sleep, in which Sir Thomas Browne is quoted, to show the propriety of prayer, before we lie down to rest, was added by Johnson.—MALONE. [There is a great confusion and, as it seems, 9 and besides, even at any after period, he | might have used the same expression, considering it as a point of honour not to own them; for Mrs. Williams told me that," as he had given those Essays to Dr. Bathurst, who sold them at two guineas each, he never would own them; nay, he used to say he did not write them: but the fact was, that he dictated them while Bathurst wrote." I read to him Mrs. Williams's account; he smiled and said nothing. I am not quite satisfied with the casuistry by which the productions of one person are thus passed upon the world for the productions of another. I allow that not only knowledge, but powers and qualities of mind may be communicated; but the actual effect of individual exertion never can be transferred, with truth, to any other than its own original cause. One person's several errors in Mr. Boswell's and Mr. Malone's account of Johnson's share in the Adventurer, but it may be confidently asserted, on the evidence of Dr. Warton, and on Johnson's own confession to Miss Boothby (Letters, p. 48), that he wrote all those marked with the signature T. of which No. 39-on Sleep is one. The only difficulty is, that on the 8th March he tells Dr. Warton that he had "no part in the paper," and that one of the letters of Mysargyrus, marked T., was published on the 3d: but Johnson, whether he gave some of these essays to Dr. Bathurst or not, probably did not consider himself as having, by the writing one letter, a part,—that is, a proprietary or responsible part,-in the paper; and even if the letters principally in question had not had the mark T., the pedantic signature Mysargyrus would have been enough to lead us to suspect that they were Johnson's. Almost all the names, whether of men or women, affixed to the letters in the Rambler and Idler are of the same class.-ED.] 1 [Mr. Boswell's reprehension of this casuistry seems just and candid. A man may undoubtedly sell the works of his mind as well as of his hands, but in neither case can falsehood (which might become fraud) be justified. Dollond would have had a perfect right to present a friend with one of his instruments to be sold to that friend's advantage, but he would not have been justifiable in allowing another maker to use his name. If a publisher had, on the strength of these papers in the Adventurer, offered Dr. Bathurst a large price for a literary work, could Johnson have possibly acquiesced in such a mistake? But after all, it seems doubtful that Johnson did give up all his share of the profits of the Adventurer to Dr. Bathurst, who, as Hawkins says, wrote the papers marked A. Johnson was at this period in great pecuniary distress-greater, we may suppose, than Bathurst was likely to be in. Chalmers treats lightly Dr. Johnson's seeming acquiescence in Mrs. Williams's statement: "Dr. Johnson," says he, "probably smiled to see his friend puzzling himself with a difficulty which a plain question could in a moment have removed." -Brit. Ess. vol. xxiii. p. 32.-ED.] Mr. child may be made the child of another person by adoption, as among the Romans, or by the ancient Jewish mode of a wife having children borne to her upon her knees, by her handmaid. But these were children in a different sense from that of nature. It was clearly understood that they were not of the blood of their nominal parents. So in literary children, an authour may give the profits and fame of his composition to another man, but cannot make that other the real authour. A Highland gentleman, a younger branch of a family, once consulted me if he could not validly purchase the chieftainship of his family from the chief, who was willing to sell it. I told him it was impossible for him to acquire, by purchase, à right to be a different person from what he really was; for that the right of chieftainship attached to the incapable of being transferred. blood of primogeniture, and, therefore, was that though Esau sold his birthright, or I added, the advantages belonging to it, he still remained the first-born of his parents; and that whatever agreement a chief might make with any of the clan, the heralds'-office could not admit of the metamorphosis, or with any decency attest that the younger was the elder; but I did not convince the worthy gentleman. Johnson's papers in the Adventurer are very similar to those of the Rambler2; but being rather more varied in their subjects, and being mixed with essays by other writers, upon topicks more generally attractive than even the most elegant ethical discourses, the sale of the work, at first, was more extensive. Without meaning, however, to depreciate the Adventurer, I must observe, that as the value of the Rambler came, in the progress of time, to be better known, it grew upon the publick estimation, and that its sale has far exceeded that of any other periodical papers since the reign of Queen Anne. 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, 2 Dr. Johnson lowered and somewhat disguised his style, in writing the Adventurers, in order that his papers might pass for those of Dr. Bathurst to whom he consigned the profits. This was Hawkesworth's opinion.-BURNEY. [This seems very improbable; it is much more likely that, observing and feeling that a lighter" style was better suited to such essays, he, with his natural good sense, fell a little into the easier manner of his colleagues. See ante, p. 102, n. -ED.] and in the whole task of my present state; and 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." ["DR. JOHNSON TO MR. RICHARDSON. "26th Sept. 1753. "DEAR SIR,-I return you my sincerest thanks for the volumes of your new work'; but it is a kind of tyrannical kindness to give only so much at a time; as makes more longed for; but that will probably be thought, even of the whole, when you have given it. "I have no objection but to the preface, in which you first mention the letters as fallen by some chance into your hands, and afterwards mention your health as such, that you almost despaired of going through your plan. If you were to require my opinion which part should be changed, I should be inclined to the suppression of that part which seems to disclaim the composition. What is modesty, if it deserts from truth? Of what use is the disguise by which nothing is concealed? "You must forgive this, because it is meant well. "I thank you once more, dear sir, for your books; but cannot I prevail this time for an index?-such I wished, and shall wish, to Clarissa 2. Suppose that in one volume an accurate index was made to the three works-but while I am writing an objection arises-such an index to the three would look like the preclusion of a fourth, to which I will never contribute; for if I cannot benefit mankind, I hope never to injure them. I am, sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, "ŠAM. JOHNSON."] He this year favoured Mrs. Lenox with a Dedication to the Earl of Orrery, of her Shakspeare Illustrated 3 ̧” 1 [Sir Charles Grandison, which was originally published in successive volumes. This relates to the sixth and seventh volumes.-ED.] 2 Richardson adopted Johnson's hint; for in 1755 he published in octavo, "A Collection of the Moral and Instructive Sentiments, Maxims, Cautions, and Reflections, contained in the Histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison, digested under proper heads." It is remarkable, that both to this book, and to the first two volumes of Clarissa, is prefixed a Preface by a friend. The "friend," in this latter instance, was the celebrated Dr. Warburton.-MALONE. 3 [Dr. Warton, in a letter to his brother, 7th June, 1753, says, "I want to see Charlotte Lennox's book," upon which Mr. Wooll adds the following note: "This eminently learned lady translated the Enchiridion of Epictetus, and the Greek Theatre of Le Père Brumoy."-Life of W. p. 217. Poor Mrs. Lennox had no claim In 1754 I can trace nothing published by him, except his numbers of the Adventurer, and "The Life of Edward Cave," in the Gentleman's Magazine for February. In biography there can be no question that he excelled, beyond all who have attempted that species of composition; upon which, indeed, he set the highest value. To the minute selection of characteristical circumstances, for which the ancients were remarkable, he added a philosophical research, and the most perspicuous and energetick language. Cave was certainly a man of esti- . mable qualities, and was eminently diligent and successful in his own business, which, doubtless, entitled him to respect. But he was peculiarly fortunate in being recorded by Johnson; who, of the narrow life of a printer and publisher, without any digression or adventitious circumstances, has made an interesting and agreeable narrative. 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 exertions 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, 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 that to the title of "an eminently learned lady." She did not translate Epictetus; and her translation from the French of Brumoy was not published till 1759. It was probably her abovementioned book on Shakspeare that Dr. Warton was desirous of seeing in 1753.-ED.] 4 [This is not Johnson's appropriate praise; and indeed his want of attention to details is his greatest if not his only fault as a biographer. In the whole Life of Savage there is not one date: and no one, from his Life of Cave, would have imagined that Cave had been invited to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales at a country-house. Several details and corrections of errors, with which he was furnished for his Lives of the Poets, were wholly neglected. But in truth Mr. Boswell himself has, more than any other writer, contributed to create the public taste for biographical details; "the minute selection of characteristic circumstances," was neither the style of Johnson, nor the fashion of his day.-ED.] |