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of Johnson, in 1744, and all of them while Lady 1744. Macclesfield was alive, should, notwithstanding the Etat. 35. fevere attacks upon her, have been fuffered to

pass without any publick and effectual contradiction.

I have thus endeavoured to fum up the evidence upon the cafe, as fairly as I can; and the refult seems to be, that the world must vibrate in a state of uncertainty as to what was the truth.

This digreffion, I truft, will not be cenfured, as it relates to a matter exceedingly curious, and very intimately connected with Johnson, both as a man and an authour3.

He this year wrote the "Preface to the Harleian Miscellany.*" The felection of the pamphlets of which it was compofed was made by Mr. Oldys, a man of eager curiofity and indefatigable diligence, who firft exerted that spirit of inquiry into the literature of the old English writers, by which the works of our great dramatick poet have of late been fo fignally illuftrated.

Mifs Mafon, after having forfeited the title of Lady Macclesfield by divorce, was married to Colonel Brett, and, it is faid, was well known in all the polite circles. Colley Cibber,

Mrs. Brett came into a room.

I am informed, had fo high an opinion of her taste and judge-
ment as to genteel life and manners, that he fubmitted every
fcene of his "Careless Hufband," to Mrs. Brett's revifal and
correction, Colonel Brett was reported to be too free in his
gallantry with his Lady's maid.
one day in her own house, and found the Colonel and her maid
both faft afleep in two chairs. She tied a white handkerchief
round her husband's neck, which was a fufficient proof that she
had discovered his intrigue; but she never at any time took
notice of it to him. This incident, as I am told, gave occa-
fion to the well-wrought fcene of Sir Charles and Lady Easy
and Edging.

1745.

Etat. 36.

In 1745 he publifhed a pamphlet entitled "Mifcellaneous Obfervations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with Remarks on Sir T. H's (Sir Thomas Hanmer's) Edition of Shakspeare.*" which he affixed, propofals for a new edition of that poet.

Atat. 37.

Το

As we do not trace any thing else published by him during the course of this year, we may conjecture that he was occupied entirely with that work. But the little encouragement which was given by the publick to his anonymous proposals for the execution of a task which Warburton was known to have undertaken, probably damped his ardour. His pamphlet, however, was highly efteemed, and was fortunate enough to obtain the approbation even of the fupercilious Warburton himself, who, in the Preface to his Shakspeare publifhed two years afterwards, thus mentioned it: "As to all those things which have been published under the titles of Effays, Remarks, Obfervations, &c. on Shakspeare, if you except fome critical notes on Macbeth, given as a specimen of a projected edition, and written, as appears, by a man of parts and genius, the rest are abfolutely below a serious notice."

Of this flattering diftinction fhewn to him by Warburton, a very grateful remembrance was ever entertained by Johnson, who faid, "He praised me at a time when praise was of value

to me."

In 1746 it is probable that he was still employed upon his Shakspeare, which perhaps he laid afide for a time, upon account of the high expectations

which were formed of Warburton's edition of that great poet. It is fomewhat curious, that his literary career appears to have been almost totally fufpended in the years 1745 and 1746, those years which were marked by a civil war in Great-Britain, when a rash attempt was made to restore the Houfe of Stuart to the throne. That he had a tenderness for that unfortunate Houfe, is well known; and fome may fancifully imagine, that a fympathetick anxiety impeded the exertion of his intellectual powers: but I am inclined to think, that he was, during this time, fketching the outlines of his great philological work.

None of his letters during thofe years are extant, fo far as I can discover. This is much to be regretted. It might afford fome entertainment to see how he then expreffed himself to his private friends, concerning State affairs. Dr. Adams informs me, that "at this time a favourite object which he had in contemplation was The Life of Alfred,' in which, from the warmth with which he spoke about it, he would, I believe, had he been master of his own will, have engaged himfelf, rather than on any other fubject."

1745.

Etat. 37.

In 1747 it is fuppofed that the Gentleman's Etat. 38. Magazine for May was enriched by him with five fhort poetical pieces, diftinguished by three afterifks. The firft is a tranflation, or rather a paraphrase, of a Latin Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer. Whether the Latin was his, or not, I have never heard, though I should think it probably was, if it be certain that he wrote the English; as to which my only caufe of doubt is, that his fighting

1747.

Ætat. 38.

flighting character of Hanmer as an editor, in his "Obfervations on Macbeth," is very different from that in the Epitaph. It may be faid, that there is the fame contrariety between the character in the Obfervations, and that in his own Preface to Shakspeare; but a confiderable time elapfed between the one publication and the other, whereas the Obfervations and the Epitaph came clofe together. The others are, " To Mifs

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her giving the Authour a gold and filk net-work Purfe of her own weaving;" "Stella in Mourning;' "The Winter's Walk;" "An Ode;" and, "To Lyce, an elderly Lady." I am not pofitive that all these were his productions; but as "The Winter's Walk," has never been controverted to be his, and all of them have the fame mark, it is reasonable to conclude that they are all written by the fame hand. Yet to the Ode, in which we find a paffage very characteristick of him, being a learned description of the gout,

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Unhappy, whom to beds of pain

"Arthritick tyranny configns;"

there is the following note: "The authour being ill of the gout:" but Johnson was not attacked with that diftemper till at a very late period of his life. May not this, however, be a poetical fiction? Why may not a poet fuppofe himself to have the gout, as well as fuppofe himself to be in love, of which we have innumerable inftances, and which has been admirably ridiculed by Johnfon in his "Life of Cowley?" I have also some difficulty to believe that he could produce fuch a group

of

1747.

of conceits as appear in the verfes to Lyce, in which he claims for this ancient perfonage as good tat. 38. a right to be affimilated to heaven, as nymphs whom other poets have flattered; he therefore ironically afcribes to her the attributes of the sky, in fuch ftanzas as this:

"Her teeth the night with darkness dies,
"She's ftarr'd with pimples o'er;
"Her tongue like nimble lightning plies,
"And can with thunder roar.”

But as at a very advanced age he could condescend to trifle in namby-pamby rhymes to please Mrs. Thrale and her daughter, he may have, in his earlier years, composed such a piece as this.

It is remarkable, that in this first edition of "The Winter's Walk," the concluding line is much more Johnfonian than it was afterwards printed; for in fubfequent editions after, praying Stella to "fnatch him to her arms," he says,

"And field me from the ills of life."

Whereas in the first edition it is

"And bide me from the fight of life."

A horrour at life in general is more confonant with
Johnson's habitual gloomy cast of thought.

I have heard him repeat with great energy the following verfes, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for April this year; but I have no authority to fay they were his own. Indeed

one

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