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him he was a bad joker. JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, thus much I can say upon the subject. One day he and a few more agreed to go and dine in the country, and each of them was to bring a friend in his carriage with him. Charles Townshend asked Fitzherbert to go with him, but told him, 'You must find somebody to bring you back: I can only carry you there.' Fitzherbert did not much like this arrangement. He, however, consented, observing sarcastically,' It will do very well; for then the same jokes will serve you in returning as in going.'

An eminent public character being mentioned ;-JOHNson: "I remember being present when he shewed himself to be so corrupted, or at least something so different from what I think right, as to maintain, that a member of Parliament should go along with his party right or wrong. Now, Sir, this is so remote from native virtue, from scholastic virtue, that a good man must have undergone a great change before he can reconcile himself to such a doctrine. It is maintaining that you may lie to the public; for you lie when you call that right which you think wrong, or the reverse. A friend of ours, who is too much an echo of that gentleman, observed, that a man who does not stick uniformly to a party, is only waiting to be bought. Why then, said I, he is only waiting to be what that gentleman is already."1

We talked of the King's coming to see Goldsmith's new play." I wish he would," said Goldsmith: adding, however, with an affected indifference, "Not that it would do me the least good." JOHNSON: "Well then, Sir, let us say it would do him good (laughing). No, Sir, this affectation will not pass;—it is mighty idle. In such a state as ours, who would not wish to please the Chief

splendid eloquence, of low principles, and of boundless vanity and presumption . who had belonged to every party and cared for none." There does not however appear to have been any foundation for Fitzherbert's sarcasm; both Walpole and Burke bear the strongest testimony to his wit.

1 Croker believed Burke to be "the eminent public character," and the "friend of ours" to be Reynolds.

GOLDSMITH AS A JACOBITE

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Magistrate?" GOLDSMITH: "I do wish to please him. I remember a line in Dryden,

'And every poet is the monarch's friend.'

It ought to be reversed." JOHNSON: "Nay, there are finer lines in Dryden on this subject:

'For colleges on bounteous Kings depend,
And never rebel was to arts a friend.""

General Paoli observed, that successful rebels might. MARTINELLI: "Happy rebellions." GOLDSMITH: "We have no such phrase.' GENERAL PAOLI: "But have you not the thing?" GOLDSMITH: "Yes; all our happy revolutions. They have hurt our constitution, and will hurt it, till we mend it by another HAPPY REVOLUTION."-I never before discovered that my friend Goldsmith had so much of the old prejudice in him.

General Paoli, talking of Goldsmith's new play, said, "Il a fait un compliment très gracieux à une certaine grande dame;" meaning a Duchess of the first rank.1

I expressed a doubt whether Goldsmith intended it, in order that I might hear the truth from himself. It, perhaps, was not quite fair to endeavour to bring him to a confession, as he might not wish to avow positively his taking part against the Court. He smiled and hesitated. The General at once relieved him, by this beautiful image: "Monsieur Goldsmith est comme la mer, qui jette des perles et beaucoup d'autres belles choses, sans s'en apperçevoir." GOLDSMITH: "Très bien dit, et très élégamment."

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A person was mentioned, who it was said could take down in short-hand the speeches in Parliament with perfect exactness. JOHNSON: "Sir, it is impossible. I remember one Angel, who came to me to write for him a

1 The compliment will be found in Hastings' speech to Miss Neville, act ii., an allusion to the Royal Marriage Act recently passed owing to the marriages of the Duke of Cumberland with Mrs. Horton, and the Duke of Gloucester with Lady Waldegrave. See Forster's Life of Goldsmith.

preface or dedication to a book upon short-hand, and he professed to write as fast as a man could speak. In order to try him, I took down a book, and read while he wrote; and I favoured him, for I read more deliberately than usual. I had proceeded but a very little way, when he begged I would desist, for he could not follow me." Hearing now for the first time of this preface or dedication, I said, "What an expense, Sir, do you put us to in buying books, to which you have written prefaces or dedications.' JOHNSON: "Why, I have dedicated to the Royal Family all round; that is to say, to the last generation of the Royal Family." GOLDSMITH: GOLDSMITH: "And, perhaps, Sir, not one sentence of wit in a whole dedication.' JOHNSON: "Perhaps not, Sir." BOSWELL: "What then is the reason for applying to a particular person to do that which any one may do as well?" JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, one man has greater readiness at doing it than another."

""

I spoke of Mr. Harris, of Salisbury,' as being a very learned man, and in particular an eminent Grecian. JOHNson: "I am not sure of that. His friends give him out as such, but I know not who of his friends are able to judge of it." GOLDSMITH: GOLDSMITH: "He is what is much better: he is a worthy humane man. JOHNSON: "Nay, Sir, that is not to the purpose of our argument; that will as much. prove that he can play upon the fiddle as well as Giardini,2 as that he is an eminent Grecian." GOLDSMITH: "The greatest musical performers have but small emoluments. Giardini, I am told, does not get above seven hundred a

1

1 James Harris (1709-178; father of the first Lord Malmesbury. Hermes, the best known of his writings, was published in 1751; a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Language and Universal Grammar, written, says Coleridge, "with the precision of Aristotle and the elegance of Quintilian." In 1761 he entered Parliament as Member for Christchurch, which seat he retained until his death. He served successively as Lord of the Admiralty, Lord of the Treasury, and Secretary and Comptroller to the Queen.

2 Felix Giardini (1716-96) an Italian violinist and composer, who made a fortune in London with his concerts and pupils, and lost it as manager of the Italian Opera. Napier.

JOHNSON ON THE FIDDLE

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year." JOHNSON: "That is indeed but little for a man to get, who does best that which so many endeavour to do. There is nothing, I think, in which the power of art is shewn so much as in playing on the fiddle. In all other things we can do something at first. Any man will forge a bar of iron, if you give him a hammer; not so well as a smith, but tolerably. A man will saw a piece of wood, and make a box, though a clumsy one; but give him a fiddle and a fiddle-stick, and he can do nothing.'

On Monday, April 19, he called on me with Mrs. Williams, in Mr. Strahan's coach, and carried me out to dine with Mr. Elphinston at his Academy at Kensington. A printer having acquired a fortune sufficient to keep his coach, was a good topic for the credit of literature. Mrs. Williams said, that another printer, Mr. Hamilton, had not waited so long as Mr. Strahan, but had kept his coach several years sooner. JOHNSON "He was in the right. Life is short. The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth, the better.

Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked Dr. Johnson if he had read it. JOHNSON: "I have looked into it." "What," said Elphinston, "have you not read it through?" Johnson, offended at being thus pressed, and so obliged to own his cursory mode of reading, answered tartly, "No, Sir; do you read books through?

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He this day again defended duelling, and put his argument upon what I have ever thought the most solid basis; that if public war be allowed to be consistent with morality, private war must be equally so. Indeed we may

observe what strained arguments are used to reconcile war with the Christian religion. But, in my opinion, it is exceeding clear that duelling having better reasons for its barbarous violence, is more justifiable than war in which thousands go forth without any cause of personal quarrel, and massacre each other.

On Wednesday, April 21, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's. A gentleman attacked Garrick for being vain. JOHNSON: "No wonder, Sir, that he is vain; a man

who is perpetually flattered in every mode that can be conceived. So many bellows have blown the fire, that one wonders he is not by this time become a cinder." BOSWELL: "And such bellows too. Lord Mansfield with his cheeks like to burst: Lord Chatham like an Æolus. I have read such notes from them to him as were enough to turn his head." JOHNSON: "True. "True. When he whom every body else flatters, flatters me, I then am truly happy.' MRS. THRALE: "The sentiment is in Congreve, I think." JOHNSON: "Yes, Madam, in 'The Way of the World':

'If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see

That heart which others bleed for, bleed for me.'

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"No, Sir, I should not be surprised though Garrick chained the ocean and lashed the winds." Boswell: "Should it not be, Sir, lashed the ocean and chained the winds?" JOHNSON: "No, Sir; recollect the original:

'In Corum atque Eurum solitus sævire flagellis
Barbarus, Æolio nunquam hoc in carcere passos,
Ipsum compedibus qui vinxerat Ennosigæum.'

Juv. Sat. x. 180.

This does very well, when both the winds and the sea are personified, and mentioned by their mythological names, as in Juvenal; but when they are mentioned in plain language, the application of the epithets suggested by me is the most obvious; and accordingly my friend himself, in his imitation of the passage which describes Xerxes,

has

"The waves he lashes, and enchains the wind."

The modes of living in different countries, and the various views with which men travel in quest of new scenes, having been talked of, a learned gentleman who holds a considerable office in the law,' expatiated on the happiness of a savage life; and mentioned an instance of

1 Most probably Mr. (afterwards Sir W.) Pepys, a Master in Chancery, a frequent visitor at Streatham, between whom and Johnson there was no good will. Croker.

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