302 Johnson's spelling. [A.D. 1754. This is that celebrated letter of which so much has been said, and about which curiosity has been so long excited, without being gratified. I for many years solicited Johnson to favour me with a copy of it', that so excellent a composition might not be lost to posterity. He delayed from time to time to give it me'; till at last in 1781, when we were on a visit at Mr. Dilly's, at Southill in Bedfordshire, he was pleased to dictate it to me from memory'. He afterwards found among his papers a copy of it, which he had dictated to Mr. Baretti, with its title and corrections, in his own handwriting. This he gave to Mr. Langton; adding that if it were to come into print, he wished it to be from that copy. By Mr. Langton's kindness, I am enabled to enrich my work with a perfect transcript of what the world has so eagerly desired to see. cording to Mr. Warburton's phrase, in this vast sea of words.' Post, Feb. 1, 1755. 'See post, Nov. 22, 1779, and April 8, 1780. Sir Henry Ellis says that 'address' in Johnson's own copy of his letter to Lord Chesterfield is spelt twice with one d. Croker's Corres. ii. 44. In the series of Letters by Johnson given in Notes and Queries, 6th S. v, Johnson writes persuit (p. 325); I cannot butt' (p. 342); 'to retain council' (p. 343); harrassed (p. 423); imbecillity (p. 482). In a letter to Nichols quoted by me, post, beginning of 1783, he writes ilness. He commonly, perhaps always, spelt Boswell Boswel, and Nichols's name in one series of letters he spelt Nichols, Nichol, and Nicol. Post, beginning of 1781, note. 'Dr. Johnson appeared to have had a remarkable delicacy with respect to the circulation of this letter; for Dr. Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury, informs me that, having many years ago pressed him to be allowed to read it to the second Lord Hardwicke, who was very desirous to hear it (promising at the same time, that no copy of it should be taken), Johnson seemed much pleased that it had attracted the attention of a nobleman of such a respectable character; but after pausing some time, declined to comply with the request, saying, with a smile, 'No, Sir; I have hurt the dog too much already;' or words to that purpose. BOSWELL. 'See post, June 4, 1781. In 1790, the year before the Life of Johnson came out, Boswell published this letter in a separate sheet of four quarto pages under 'To Aetat. 45.] Johnson's letter to Lord Chesterfield. 303 'TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. 'February 7, 1755. 'MY LORD, 'I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of the World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the publick, were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. 'When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre';—that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in publick, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little. 'Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance', one word of the following title:- The celebrated Letter from Samuel Johnson, LL.D., to Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield; Now first published with Notes, by James Boswell, Esq., London. Printed by Henry Baldwin: for Charles Dilly in the Poultry, MDCCXC. Half-a-Guinea. Entered in the Hall-Book of the Company of Stationers. It belongs to the same impression as The Life of Johnson. Price Je chante le vainqueur des vainqueurs de la terre.' Boileau, L'Art poétique, iii. 272. The following note is subjoined by Mr. Langton :- Dr. Johnson, when he gave me this copy of his letter, desired that I would annex to it his information to me, that whereas it is said in the letter that "no assistance has been received," he did once receive from Lord Chesterfield the sum of ten pounds; but as that was so inconsiderable a sum, he thought the mention of it could not properly find place in a letter of the kind that this was.' BOSWELL. This surely is an unsatisfactory excuse,' writes Mr. Croker. He read Johnson's encouragement, 304 Johnson's letter to Lord Chesterfield. [A.D. 1754. encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before. 'The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks. 'Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it'; till I am known, letter carelessly, as the rest of his note shews. Johnson says, that during the seven years that had passed since he was repulsed from Chesterfield's door he had pushed on his work without one act of assistance. These ten pounds, we may feel sure, had been received before the seven years began to run. No doubt they had been given in 1747 as an acknowledgment of the compliment paid to Chesterfield in the Plan. He had at first been misled by Chesterfield's one act of kindness, but he had long had his eyes opened. Like the shepherd in Virgil (Eclogues, viii. 43) he could say:-'Nunc scio quid sit Amor.' In this passage Dr. Johnson evidently alludes to the loss of his wife. We find the same tender recollection recurring to his mind upon innumerable occasions: and, perhaps no man ever more forcibly felt the truth of the sentiment so elegantly expressed by my friend Mr. Malone, in his Prologue to Mr. Jephson's tragedy of JULIA [Julia or the Italian Lover was acted for the first time on April 17, 1787. Gent. Mag. 1787, p. 354]: BOSWELL. 'Vain-wealth, and fame, and fortune's fostering care, If no fond breast the splendid blessings share; And, each day's bustling pageantry once past, There, only there, our bliss is found at last.' Three years earlier, when his wife was dying, he had written in one of the last Ramblers (No. 203):-'It is necessary to the completion of every good, that it be timely obtained; for whatever comes at the close of life will come too late to give much delight... What we acquire by bravery or science, by mental or corporal diligence, comes at last when we cannot communicate, and therefore cannot enjoy it.' Chesterfield himself was in no happy state. Less than a month before he received Johnson's letter he wrote (Works, lii. 308):—' For these six months past, it seems as if all the complaints that ever attacked heads had joined to overpower mine. Continual noises, headache, giddiness, and impenetrable deafness; I could not stoop to and Aetat. 45.] Warburton's compliments. 305 and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the Publick should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself. 'Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning', I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, 'My Lord, 'Your Lordship's most humble, 'While this was the talk of the town, (says Dr. Adams, in a letter to me) I happened to visit Dr. Warburton, who finding that I was acquainted with Johnson, desired me earnestly to carry his compliments to him, and to tell him, that he honoured him for his manly behaviour in rejecting these condescensions of Lord Chesterfield, and for resenting the treatment he had received from him, with a proper spirit. Johnson was visibly pleased with this compliment, for he had write; and even reading, the only resource of the deaf, was painful to me.' He wrote to his son a year earlier (Letters, iv. 43), Reading, which was always a pleasure to me in the time even of my greatest dissipation, is now become my only refuge; and I fear I indulge it too much at the expense of my eyes. But what can I do? I must do something. I cannot bear absolute idleness; my ears grow every day more useless to me, my eyes consequently more necessary. will not hoard them like a miser, but will rather risk the loss than not enjoy the use of them.' I The English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow.' Johnson's Works, v. 51. • Upon comparing this copy with that which Dr. Johnson dictated to me from recollection, the variations are found to be so slight, that this must be added to the many other proofs which he gave of the wonderful extent and accuracy of his memory. To gratify the curious in composition, I have deposited both the copies in the British Museum. BOSWELL. I.-20 always 306 Johnson's Imitations of Juvenal. [A.D. 1754. always a high opinion of Warburton'. Indeed, the force of mind which appeared in this letter, was congenial with that which Warburton himself amply possessed'.' There is a curious minute circumstance which struck me, in comparing the various editions of Johnson's imitations of Juvenal. In the tenth Satire, one of the couplets upon the vanity of wishes even for literary distinction stood thus: 'Yet think' what ills the scholar's life assail, Pride', envy, want, the garret, and the jail.' But after experiencing the uneasiness which Lord Chesterfield's fallacious patronage made him feel, he dismissed the 'Soon after Edwards's Canons of Criticism came out, Johnson was dining at Tonson the Bookseller's, with Hayman the Painter and some more company. Hayman related to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that the conversation having turned upon Edwards's book, the gentlemen praised it much, and Johnson allowed its merit. But when they went farther, and appeared to put that authour upon a level with Warburton, 'Nay, (said Johnson,) he has given him some smart hits to be sure; but there is no proportion between the two men; they must not be named together. A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.' BOSWELL. Johnson in his Preface to Shakespeare (Works, v. 141) wrote:- Dr. Warburton's chief assailants are the authors of The Canons of Criticism, and of The Revisal of Shakespeare's Tert. ... The one stings like a fly, sucks a little blood, takes a gay flutter and returns for more; the other bites like a viper.... When I think on one with his confederates, I remember the danger of Coriolanus, who was afraid that "girls with spits, and boys with stones, should slay him in puny battle;" when the other crosses my imagination, I remember the prodigy in Macbeth: "A falcon tow'ring in his pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.” Let me, however, do them justice. One is a wit and one a scholar.' 'To Johnson might be applied what he himself said of Dryden :— 'He appears to have known in its whole extent the dignity of his character, and to have set a very high value on his own powers and performances.' Works, vii. 291. 'In the original Yet mark. • In the original Toil. word |