VERSES TO A LADY, ON RECEIVING FROM HER A SPRIG OF MYRTLE. "What hopes, what terrors does thy gift create, 1 Mrs. Piozzi gives the following account of this little composition from Dr. Johnson's own relation to her, on her enquiring whether it was rightly attributed to him :-"I think it is now just forty years ago, that a young fellow had a sprig of myrtle given him by a girl he courted, and asked me to write him some verses that he might present her in return. I promised, but forgot; and when he called for his lines at the time agreed on,-'Sit still a moment,' says I,‘dear Mund, and I'll fetch them thee'--so stepped aside for five minutes, and wrote the nonsense you now keep such a stir about."-Anecdotes, p. 34. In my first edition I was induced to doubt the authenticity of this account, by the following circumstantial statement in a letter to me from Miss Seward, of Lichfield :—“I know those verses were addressed to Lucy Porter, when he was enamoured of her in his boyish days, two or three years before he had seen her mother, his future wife. He wrote them at my grandfather's [Mr. Hunter, the schoolmaster], and gave them to Lucy in the presence of my mother, to whom he showed them on the instant. She used to repeat them to me, when I asked her, for the Verses Dr. Johnson gave her on a Sprig of Myrtle, which he had stolen or begged from her bosom. We all know honest Lucy Porter to have been incapable of the mean vanity of applying to herself a compliment not intended for her." Such was Miss Seward's statement, which I make no doubt she supposed to be correct; but it shows how dangerous it is to trust too implicitly to traditional testimony and ingenious inference; for Mr. Hector has lately assured me that Mrs. Piozzi's account is, in this instance, accurate, and that ke was the person for whom Johnson wrote those verses, which have been erroneously ascribed to Mr. Hammond. I am obliged, in so many instances, to notice Mrs. Piozzi's incorrectness His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very transient; and it is certain, that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever. Mr. Hector, who lived with him in his younger days in the utmost intimacy and social freedom, has assured me, that even at that ardent season his conduct was strictly virtuous in that respect; and that, though he loved to exhilarate himself with wine, he never knew him intoxicated but once.1 of relation, that I gladly seize this opportunity of acknowledging, that however often, she is not always, inaccurate. The author having been drawn into a controversy with Miss Anna Seward, in consequence of the preceding statement (which may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxiii. and lxiv.), received the following letter from Mr. Edmund Hector on the subject: "Dear Sir, I am sorry to see you are engaged in altercation with a lady, who seems unwilling to be convinced of her errors. Surely it would be more ingenuous to acknowledge than to persevere. "Lately, in looking over some papers I meant to burn, I found the original manuscript of the ' Myrtle,' with the date on it, 1731, which I have enclosed. "The true history (which I could swear to) is as follows: Mr. Morgan Graves, the elder brother of a worthy clergyman near Bath [the Rev. Richard Graves, author of the 'Spiritual Quixote,'] with whom I was acquainted, waited upon a lady in this neighbourhood, who, at parting, presented him the branch. He showed it me, and wished much to return the compliment in verse. I applied to Johnson, who was with me, and in about half-an-hour dictated the verses, which I sent to my friend. I most solemnly declare, at that time, Johnson was an entire stranger to the Porter family; and it was almost two years after, that I introduced him to the acquaintance of Porter, whom I bought my clothes of. "If you intend to convince this obstinate woman, and to exhibit to the public the truth of your narrative, you are at liberty to make what use you please of this statement. "I hope you will pardon me for taking up so much of your time. Wishing you multos et felices annos, I shall subscribe myself your obliged humble servant, E. HECTOR. Birmingham, Jan. 9. 1794.” The portion of this long note, beginning: "The author having been drawn," &c., was added by Boswell in the third edition, vol. i., p. 66.-Editor. In 1735 Mr. Walmsley endeavoured to procure Johnson the mastership of the grammar-school at Solihull, in Warwickshire. This and the cause of failure appear by the following curious letter, addressed to Mr. Walmsley, and preserved in the records of Pembroke College : "Solihull, ye 30 August, 1735. Sir,-I was favoured with yours of ye In a man whom religious education has secured from licentious indulgences, the passion of love, when once it has seized him, is exceedingly strong; being unimpaired by dissipation, and totally concentrated in one object. This was experienced by Johnson, when he became the fervent admirer of Mrs. Porter, after her first husband's death. Miss Porter told me, that when he was first introduced to her mother, his appearance was very forbidding: he was then lean and lank, so that his immense structure of bones was hideously striking to the eye, and the scars of the scrofula were deeply visible. He also wore his hair, which was straight and stiff, and separated behind; and he often had, seemingly, convulsive starts and odd gesticulations, which tended to excite at once surprise and ridicule.' Mrs. Porter was so much engaged by his conversation, that she overlooked all these external disadvantages, and said to her daughter, "This is the most sensible man that I ever saw in my life." 2 Though Mrs. Porter was double the age of Johnson, and 13th inst. in due time, but deferred answering it til now, it takeing up some time to informe the ffœofees [of the school] of the contents thereof; and before they would return an Answer, desired some time to make enquiry of y caracter of Mr. Johnson, who all agree that he is an excellent scholar, and upon that account deserves much better than to be schoolmaster of Solihull. But then he has the caracter of being a very haughty, illnatured gent., and yt he has such a way of distorting his fface (wh though he can't help) ye gent. think it may affect some young ladds; for these two reasons he is not approved on, ye late master Mr. Crompton's huffing the ffcofees being stil in their memory. However we are all exstreamly obliged to you for thinking of us, and for proposeing so good a schollar, but more especially is, dear sir, your very humble servant, "HENRY GRESWOLD."-Croker. 'Johnson's countenance, when in a good humour, was not disagreeable his face clear, his complexion good, and his features not ill-formed, many ladies have thought they might not be unattractive when he was young. Much misrepresentation has prevailed on this subject.-Percy. * Mrs. Johnson's maiden name was Jervis. Though, having only completed her forty-eighth year in the month of February preceding her marriage, there was a great disparity of years between her and Dr. Johnson, she was not quite so old as she is here represented, as appears by the following extract from the parish register of Great Peatling, in Leicestershire, which was obligingly made at my request by the Hon. and Rev. Mr. her person and manner, as described to me by the late Mr. Garrick, were by no means pleasing to others,' she must have had a superiority of understanding and talents, as she certainly inspired him with more than ordinary passion; and she having signified her willingness to accept of his hand, he went to Lichfield to ask his mother's consent to the marriage; which 66 Anno Dom. 1688-9. Ryder, Rector of Lutterworth, in that county: Elizabeth, the daughter of William Jervis, Esq. and Mrs. Anne his wife, was born the 4th day of February and mané, baptized 16th day of the same month, by Mr. Smith, Curate of Little Peatling. John Allen, Vicar." The family of Jervis, Mr. Ryder informs me, once possessed nearly the whole lordship of Great Peatling (about 2,000 acres), and there are many monuments of them in the church; but the estate is now much reduced. The present representative of this family is Mr. Charles Jervis, of Hinckley, attorney-at-law. Malone. 1 That in Johnson's eyes she was handsome, appears from the epitaph which he caused to be inscribed on her tombstone, not long before his own death, and which will be found in a subsequent page, under the year 1752. Malone. The following account of Mrs. Johnson, and her family, is copied from a paper, written by Lady Knight, at Rome, and transmitted by her to John Hoole, Esq., the translator of Metastasio, by whom it was inserted in the "European Magazine" for October, 1799: "Mrs. Williams's account of Mrs. Johnson was, that she had a good understanding, and great sensibility, but inclined to be satirical. Her first husband died insolvent: her sons were much disgusted with her for her second marriage, perhaps because they, being struggling to get advanced in life, were mortified to think she had allied herself to a man who had not any visible means of being useful to them; however, she always retained her affection for them. While they [Dr. and Mrs. Johnson] resided in Gough Square, her son, the officer, knocked at the door, and asked the maid if her mistress was at home. She answered, 'Yes, sir, but she is sick in bed.'-'Oh,' says he, ‘if it's so, tell her that her son Jervis called to know how she did;' and was going away. The maid begged she might run up to tell her mistress, and, without attending his answer, left him. Mrs. Johnson, enraptured to hear her son was below, desired the maid to tell him she longed to embrace him. When the maid descended the gentleman was gone, and poor Mrs. Johnson was much agitated by the adventure; it was the only time he ever made an effort to see her. Dr. Johnson did all he could to console his wife, but told Mrs. Williams, 'Her son is uniformly undutiful; so I conclude, like many other sober men, he might once in his life be drunk, and in that fit nature got the better of his pride.'” -Malone. he could not but be conscious was a very imprudent scheme, both on account of their disparity of years, and her want of fortune. But Mrs. Johnson knew too well the ardour of her son's temper, and was too tender a parent to oppose his incli nations. I know not for what reason the marriage ceremony was not performed at Birmingham; but a resolution was taken that it should be at Derby,' for which place the bride and bridegroom set out on horseback, I suppose in very good humour. But though Mr. Topham Beauclerk used archly to mention Johnson's having told him, with much gravity, "Sir, it was a lovemarriage on both sides," I have had from my illustrious friend the following curious account of their journey to church upon the nuptial morn [9th July]:-"Sir, she had read the old romances, and had got into her head the fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should use her lover like a dog. So, sir, at first she told me that I rode too fast, and she could not keep up with me; and, when I rode a little slower, she passed me, and complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made the slave of caprice; and I resolved to begin as I meant to end. I therefore pushed on briskly, till I was fairly out of her sight. The road lay between two hedges, so I was sure she could not miss it; and I contrived that she should soon come up with me. When she did, I observed her to be in tears." This, it must be allowed, was a singular beginning of connubial felicity; but there is no doubt, that Johnson, though he thus showed a manly firmness, proved a most affectionate and indulgent husband to the last moment of Mrs. Johnson's life; and in his "Prayers and Meditations," we find very remarkable 'Extract from the parish register of the church of S. Werburgh, in Derby :-"July 9. 1735. Mar". Samuel Johnson of the Parish of St Mary in Lichfield and Elizth Porter of the Parish of St Philip in Birmingham." The editor has much pleasure in referring readers to an excellent article in the Cornhill Magazine, for November, 1880, by Dr. Birkbeck Hill, a good Johnsonian scholar, on the marriage of Johnson. |