and see. "In recommending another to your favour, I ought not to omit thanks for the kindness which you have shown to myself. Have you any more notes on Shakspeare? I shall be glad of them. "I see your pupil sometimes; his mind is as exalted as his stature. I am half afraid of him; but he is no less amiable than formidable. He will, if the forwardness of his spring be not blasted, be a credit to you, and to the University. He brings some of my plays with him, which he has my permission to show you, on condition you will hide them from every body else. I am, dear Sir, &c., SAM. JOHNSON." JOHNSON TO LANGTON, At Langton. "Sep. 21. 1758. "DEAR SIR, I should be sorry to think that what engrosses the attention of my friend, should have no part of mine. Your mind is now full of the fate of Dury; but his fate is past, and nothing remains but to try what reflection will suggest to mitigate the terrors of a violent death, which is more formidable at the first glance, than on a nearer and more steady view. A violent death is never very painful; the only danger is, lest it should be unprovided. But if a man can be supposed to make no provision for death in war, what can be the state that would have awakened him to the care of futurity? When would that man have prepared himself to die, who went to seek death without preparation? What then can be the reason why we lament more him that dies of a wound, than him that dies of a fever? A man that languishes with disease, ends his life with more pain, but with less virtue: he leaves no example to his friends, nor bequeaths any honour to his descendants. The only reason why we lament a soldier's death, is, that we think he might have lived longer; yet this cause of grief is common to many other kinds of death, which are not so passionately bewailed. The truth is, that every death is violent which is the effect of accident; every death which is not gradually brought on by the miseries of age, or when life is extinguished for any other reason than that it is burnt out. He that 1 Mr. Langton. - WARTON. Part of the impression of the Shakspeare, which Dr. Johnson conducted alone, and published by subscription. This edition came out in 1765. WARTON. 3 Major-General Alexander Dury, of the First Regiment of Foot Guards, who fell in the gallant discharge of his duty, near St. Cas, in the well-known unfortunate expedition against France, in 1758. His lady and Mr. Langton's mother were sisters. He left an only son, Lieutenant-Colonel Dury, who has a company in the same regiment. BosWELL. 4 Gibbon, in his Memoirs, alludes to this subject with good taste and feeling: -"From my childhood to the present hour, I have deeply and sincerely regretted my sister, whose life was somewhat prolonged, and whom I remember to have dies before sixty, of a cold or consumption, dies, in reality, by a violent death; yet his death is borne with patience, only because the cause of his untimely end is silent and invisible. Let us endeavour to see things as they are, and then inquire whether we ought to complain. Whether to see life as it is, will give us much consolation, I know not; but the consolation which is drawn from truth, if any there be, is solid and durable: that which may be derived from error, inust be, like its original, fallacious and fugitive. I am, dear, dear Sir, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." JOHNSON TO LANGTON, "Jan. 9. 1758 (1759). "DEAREST SIR,-I must have indeed slept very fast, not to have been awakened by your letter. None of your suspicions are true; I am not much richer than when you left me; and what is worse, my omission of an answer to your first letter will prove that I am not much wiser. But I go on as I formerly did, designing to be some time or other both rich and wise; and yet cultivate neither mind nor fortune. Do you take notice of my example, and learn the danger of delay. When I was as you are now, towering in [the] confidence of twentyone, little did I suspect that I should be, at fortynine, what I now am. 66 But you do not seem to need my admonition. You are busy in acquiring and in communicating knowledge, and while you are studying, enjoy the end of study, by making others wiser and happier. I was much pleased with the tale that you told me of being tutor to your sisters. I, who have no sisters nor brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends; and cannot see, without wonder, how rarely that native union is afterwards regarded. It sometimes, indeed, happens, that some supervenient cause of discord may overpower this original amity; but it seems to me more frequently thrown away with levity, or lost by negligence, than destroyed by injury or violence. We tell the ladies that good wives make good husbands; I believe it is a more certain position that good brothers make good sisters. "I am satisfied with your stay at home, as Juvenal with his friend's retirement to Cumæ: I know that your absence is best, though it be not best for me. • Quamvis digressu veteris confusus amici, Laudo tamen vacuis quod sedem figere Cumis Destinet, atque unum civem donare Sibyllæ.'s "Langton is a good Cuma, but who must be Sibylla? Mrs. Langton is as wise as Sibyl, and as good; and will live, if my wishes can prolong life, till she shall in time be as old. But she differs seen an amiable infant. The relation of a brother and a sister, particularly if they do not marry, appears to me of a very singular nature. It is a familiar and tender friendship with a female much about our own age; an affection perhaps softened by the secret influence of the sex, but pure from any mixture of sensual desire-the sole species of Platonic love that can be indulged with truth, and without danger." Mem., p. 25. CROKER. "Grieved though I am to see the man depart, Who long has shared, and still must share my heart, I praise his purpose; to retire from Rome, And give on Cuma's solitary coast, The Sibylone inhabitant to boast!"-GIFFORD. in this, that she has not scattered her precepts in the wind, at least not those which she bestowed upon you. 2 The two Wartons just looked into the town, and were taken to see Cleone, where, David [Garrick] says, they were starved for want of company to keep them warm. David and Doddy' have had a new quarrel, and, I think, cannot conveniently quarrel any more. 'Cleone' was well acted by all the characters, but Bellamy left nothing to be desired. I went the first night, and supported it as well as I might; for Doddy, you know, is my patron, and I would not desert him. The play was very well received. Doddy, after the danger was over, went every night to the stageside, and cried at the distress of poor Cleone. "I have left off housekeeping, and therefore made presents of the game which you were pleased to send me. The pheasant I gave to Mr. Richardson3, the bustard to Dr. Lawrence, and the pot I placed with Miss Williams, to be eaten by myself. She desires that her compliments and good wishes may be accepted by the family; and I make the same request for myself. Mr. Reynolds has within these few days raised his price to twenty guineas a head, and Miss is much employed in miniatures. I know not any body [else] whose prosperity has increased since you left them. Murphy is to have hisOrphan of China' acted next month; and is therefore, I suppose, happy. I wish I could tell you of any great good to which I was approaching, but at present my prospects do not much delight me; however, I am always pleased when I find that you, dear Sir, remember your affectionate, humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." In 1759, in the month of January, his mother died, at the great age of ninety, an event which deeply affected him; not that "his mind had acquired no firmness by the contemplation of mortality;" but that his reverential affection for her was not abated by years, as indeed he retained all his tender feelings even to the latest period of his life. I have been told, that he regretted much his not having gone to visit 175 1 Mr. Dodsley, the author of Cleone, first played 2nd Dec., BosSWELL. The well-known Miss George Ann Bellamy, who played the heroine. CROKER. * The author of Clarissa. - BOSWELL. 4 Sir Joshua afterwards greatly advanced his price. I have been informed by Sir Thomas Lawrence, his admirer and rival, that in 1787 his prices were two hundred guineas for the whole length, one hundred for the half-length, seventy for the kit-ct, and fifty for (what is called) the three-quarters. But ren on these prices some increase must have been made, as Horace Walpole said, "Sir Joshua, in his old age, becomes saricious. He had one thousand guineas for my picture of the three ladies Waldegrave."- Walpoliana. This picture ze half-lengths of the three ladies on one canvas.- CROKER, 3 Miss Reynolds, the sister of Sir Joshua. - CROKER. Hawkins, p. 395. Mr. Boswell contradicts Hawkins, for the mere pleasure, as it would seem, of doing so. The reader st observe that Mr. Boswell's work is full of anecdotes of Janson's want of firmness in contemplating mortality: (see a striking instance sub Oct. 26. 1769:) and though Johnson may have been in theory an affectionate son, there is reason to fear that he had never visited Lichfield, and, consequently, not seen his mother, since 1737. Mr. Boswell alleges as an excuse, that he was engaged in literary Lories, which confined him to London. Such an excuse for as absence of twenty years is idle; besides, it is stated that Johnson visited Ashbourne about 1740 (antè, p. 20.), Tun bridge Wells in 1748 (antè, p. 58.), Oxford in 1754 (antè, p. 88.). We shall see presently, that Johnson felt remorse for this neglect.-CROKER. 7 Since the publication of the third edition of this work, the following letters of Dr. Johnson, occasioned by the last illness of his mother, were obligingly communicated to Mr. Malone, by the Rev. Dr. Vyse. They are placed here agreeably to the chronological order almost uniformly observed by the author; and so strongly evince Dr. Johnson's piety and tenderness of heart, that every reader must be gratified by their insertion.- MALONE. I have added some others. CROKER. 8 Written by mistake for 1759, as the subsequent letters show. On the outside of the letter of the 13th was written by another hand-"Pray acknowledge the receipt of this by return of post, without fail."- MALONE. 9 Six of these twelve guineas Johnson appears to have borrowed from Mr. Allen, the printer. See Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p 366. n.- MALONE. 10 Catherine Chambers, Mrs. Johnson's maid-servant. She died in October, 1767. See Dr. Johnson's Prayers and Meditations, p. 71.: Sunday, Oct. 18. 1767. Yesterday, Oct, 17., I took my leave for ever of my dear old friend, Catherine Chambers, who came to live with my mother about 1724, and has been but little parted from us since. She buried my father, my brother, and my mother. She is now fifty-eight years old." MALONE, I 1 This letter was written on the second leaf of the preceding, addressed to Miss Porter.- MALONE. 2 So, in the prayer which he composed on this occasion: "Almighty God, merciful Father, in whose hands are life and death, sanctify unto me the sorrow which I now feel. Forgive me whatever I have done unkindly to my mother, and whatever I have omitted to do kindly. Make me to remember her good precepts and good example, and to reform my life according to thy holy word," &c.—-- Prayers and Meditations, p. 31. MALONE. 3 Mrs. Johnson probably died on the 20th or 21st January, and was buried on the day this letter was written. — MALONE. 4 Mr. Murphy states: "With this supply (the price of Rasselas) Johnson set out for Lichfield; but did not arrive in time to close the eyes of a parent whom he loved. He attended the funeral, which, as appears among his memo Christ's sake. Amen. Lord Jesus receive your spirit. Amen.- I am, dear, dear mother, your dutiful son, SAM. JOHNSON." Malone. JOHNSON TO MISS PORTER. "23d Jan. 1759.3 "You will conceive my sorrow for the loss of my mother, of the best mother. If she were to live again, surely I should behave better to her. But she is happy, and what is past is nothing to her; and for me, since I cannot repair my faults to her, I hope repentance will efface them. I return you and all those that have been good to her my sincerest thanks, and pray God to repay you all with infinite advantage. Write to me, and comfort me, dear child. I shall be glad likewise, if Kitty will write to me. I shall send a bill of twenty pounds in a few days, which I thought to have brought to my mother; but God suffered it not. I have not power or composure to say much more. God bless you, and bless us all. I am, dear Miss, your affec tionate humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." [JOHNSON TO MISS PORTER. "25th Jan. 1759. (The beginning is torn and lost.) "You will forgive me if I am not yet so composed as to give any directions about any thing. But you are wiser and better than I, and I shall be pleased with all that you shall do. It is not of any use for me now to come down; nor can I bear the place. If you want any directions, Mr. Howard will advise you. The twenty pounds I could not get a bill for to-night, but will send it on Saturday. I am, my dear, your affectionate servant, Pearson MSS. 'SAM. JOHNSON."6 JOHNSON TO MISS PORTER. "6th Feb. 1759. "DEAR MISS, I have no reason to forbear writing, but that it makes my heart heavy, and I had nothing particular to say which might not be delayed to the next post; but had no thoughts of ceasing to correspond with my dear Lucy, the only person now left in the world with whom I think myself connected. There needed not my dear mother's desire, for every heart must lean to somebody, and I have nobody but you; in whom I put all my little affairs with too much confidence to desire you to keep receipts, as you prudently proposed. randums, was on the 23d of January, 1759." It is clear, from all these letters, that he did not personally attend on that occasion, and the memorandum mentioned must have referred to the date or expenses of the funeral, and not to his own presence. Rasselas was not written, nor of course, it may be presumed, sold, till two months later. - CROKER. Mr. Howard was a proctor in the Ecclesiastical Court, and resided in the Close. — CROKER. 6" No. 41. of the Idler," says Hawkins, "though it takes the character of a letter to the author, was written by Johnson himself on his mother's death, and may be supposed to describe as truly as pathetically his sentiments on the separation of friends and relations. But it is observable that the Idlers, which now bear the dates of the 13th and 20th January, are on trivial subjects, and are even written in a vein of pleasantry. CROKER. |