peu; mais elle a certainement prévalue autrefois dans les montagnes et dans la campagne. Le même auteur dit la même chose en parlant de Sardaigne; qu'il y a deux langues dans l'Isle, une des villes, l'autre de la campagne." The general immediately informed him that the lingua rustica was only in Sardinia 2. Piozzi, p. 120. Dr. Johnson went home with me, and drank tea till late in the night. He said, "General Paoli had the loftiest port of any man he had ever seen." He denied that military men were always the best bred men. "Perfect good breeding (he observed) consists in having no particular mark of any profession, but a general elegance of manners; whereas, in a millitary man, you can commonly distinguish the brand of a soldier, l'homme d'épée:" [and it was, she said, the essence of a gentleman's character to bear the visible mark of no profession whatever. He once named Mr. Berenger as the standard of true elegance; but some one objecting, that he too much resembled the gentleman in Congreve's comedies, Dr. Johnson said, "We must fix then upon the famous Thomas Hervey, whose manners were polished even to acuteness and brilliancy, though he lost but little in solid power of reasoning, and in genuine force of mind." Johnson had an avowed and scarcely limited partiality for all who bore the name, or boasted the alliance of an Aston or a Hervey.] met with a manly ease, mutually conscious sicæ rusticam: elle a peut-être passé, peu-à of their own abilities, and of the abilities of each other. The general spoke Italian, and Dr. Johnson English, and understood one another very well, with a little aid of interpretation from me, in which I compared myself to an isthmus which joins two great continents. Upon Johnson's approach, the general said, "From what I have read of your works, sir, and from what Mr. Boswell has told me of you, I have long held you in great veneration." The general talked of languages being formed on the particular notions and manners of a people, without knowing which, we cannot know the language. We may know the direct signification of single words; but by these no beauty of expression, no sally of genius, no wit is conveyed to the mind. All this must be by allusion to other ideas. Sir," said Johnson," you talk of language as if you had never done any thing else but study it, instead of governing a nation." The general said, "Questo e un troppo gran complimento;" this is too great a compliment. Johnson answered, "I should have thought so, sir, if I had not heard you talk" The general asked him what he thought of the spirit of infidelity which was so prevalent. JOHNSON. "Sir, this gloom of infidelity, I hope, is only a transient cloud passing through the hemisphere, which will soon be dissipated, and the sun break forth with his usual splendour." "You think then," said the general, "that they will change their principles like their clothes." JOHNSON. 66 Why, sir, if they bestow no more thought on principles than on dress, it must be so." The general said, that "a great part of the fashionable infidelity was owing to a desire of showing courage. Men who have no opportunities of showing it as to things in this life, take death and He honoured me with his company at futurity as objects on which to display it." dinner on the 16th of October, at my lodgJOHNSON. "That is mighty foolish affec-ings in Old Bond-street, with Sir Joshua tation. Fear is one of the passions of human nature, of which it is impossible to divest it. You remember that the Emperour Charles V. when he read upon the tombstone of a Spanish nobleman, Here lies one who never knew fear,' wittily said, 'Then he never snuffed a candle with his fingers.'" He talked a few words of French to the general; but finding he did not do it with facility, he asked for pen, ink, and paper, and wrote the following note: Dr. Johnson shunned to-night any discussion of the perplexed question of fate and free will, which I attempted to agitate: "Sir (said he), we know our will is free, and there's an end on 't." Reynolds, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Goldsmith, 2 [The Bishop of Ferns inquires whether it be not possible that a military colony of Jews, transported into Sardinia in the time of Tiberius, may have left some traces of their language there. Tac. An. l. 2, c. 85. Suet. vit. Tib. c. 36. Joseph. 1. 18, c. 3.—ED.] 3 [Isaac Bickerstaff, the authour of several thea trical pieces of considerable merit and continued popularity. This unhappy man was obliged to fly on suspicion of a capital crime, on which oc"J'ai lu dans la géographie de Lucas de casion Mrs. Poizzi relates, that "when Mr. BickLinda un Pater-noster écrit dans une lan-erstaff's flight confirmed the report of his guilt, and gue tout-à-fait differente de l'Italienne, et Mr. Thrale said, in answer to Johnson's astonishde toutes autres lesquelles se dérivent du ment, that he had long been a suspected man, Latin. L'auteur l'appelle linguam Cor-By those who look close to the ground, dirt will be seen, sir,' was the lofty reply; I hope that I 1 [See ante, p. 240, the compliment of the king see things from a greater distance."'" Piozzi, p. to himself.-ED.] 130.-ED.] Thomas Davies. Garrick played round him with a fond vivacity, taking hold of the breast of his coat, and, looking up in his face with a lively archness, complimented him on the good health which he seemed then to enjoy; while the sage, shaking his head, beheld him with a gentle complacency. One of the company not being come at the appointed hour, I proposed, as usual upon such occasions, to order dinner to be served; adding, "Ought six people to be kept waiting for one?" "Why, yes (answered Johnson, with a delicate humanity), if the one will suffer more by your sitting down, than the six will do by waiting." Goldsmith, to divert the tedious minutes, strutted about, bragging of his dress, and I believe was seriously vain of it, for his mind was wonderfully prone to such impressions: "Come, come (said Garrick), talk no more of that. You are, perhaps, the worst-eh, eh!"-Goldsmith was eagerly attempting to interrupt him, when Garrick went on, laughing ironically, " Nay, you will always look like a gentleman; but I am talking of being well or ill drest." "Well, let me tell you (said Goldsmith), when my tailor brought home my bloom-coloured coat, he said, Sir, I have a favour to beg of you. When any body asks you who made your clothes, be pleased to mention John Filby, at the Harrow, in Water-lane.'" JOHNSON. Why, sir, that was because he knew the strange colour would attract crowds to gaze at it, and thus they might hear of him, and see how well he could make a coat even of so absurd a colour.” After dinner our conversation turned first upon Pope. Johnson said, his characters of men were admirably drawn, those of women not so well. He repeated to us, in his forcible melodious manner, the concluding lines of the Dunciad1. While he was talking loudly in praise of those lines, one of the company ventured 2 to say, "Too fine for such a poem:-a poem on what?" JOHNSON (with a disdainful look). "Why, on dunces. It was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, sir, hadst thou lived in those days! It is not worth while being a dunce now, when there are no wits." Bickerstaff observed, as a peculiar circumstance, that Pope's fame was higher when he was alive than it was then. Johnson said, his Pas torals were poor things, though the versification was fine. He told us, with high satisfaction, the anecdote of Pope's inquiring who was the authour of his "London," and saying, he will be soon deterré. He observed, that in Dryden's poetry there were passages drawn from a profundity which Pope could never reach. He repeated some fine lines on love, by the former (which I have now forgotten), and gave great applause to the character of Zimri3. Goldsmith said, that Pope's character of Addison showed a deep knowledge of the human heart. Johnson said, that the description of the temple, in "The Mourning Bride," was the finest poetical passage he had ever read; he recollected none in Shaks peare equal to it." But (said Garrick, all alarmed for the god of his idolatry ') we know not the extent and variety of his powers. We are to suppose there are such passages in his works. Shakspeare must not suffer from the badness of our memories." Johnson, diverted by this enthusiastic jealousy, went on with great ardour: "No, sir; Congreve has nature (smiling on the tragic eagerness of Garrick); but composing himself, he added, "Sir, this is not comparing Congreve on the whole with Shakspeare on the whole: but only maintaining that Congreve has one finer passage than any that can be found in Shakspeare. Sir, a man may have no more than ten guineas in the world, but he may have those ten guineas in one piece; and so may have a finer piece than a man who has ten thousand pound: but then he has only one tenguinea piece.-What I mean is, that you can show me no passage where there is simply a description of material objects, without any intermixture of moral notions 5, which produced such an effect." Mr. Murphy mentioned Shakspeare's description of the night before the battle of Agincourt, but it was observed it had men in it, Mr. Davies suggested the speech of Juliet, in which she figures herself awaking in the tomb of her ancestors. Some one mentioned the description of Dover Cliff. JOHN 3 [The Duke of Buckingham, in Absalom and Achitophel.-ED.] 4 Act ii. scene 3.-MALONE. 5 In Congreve's description there seems to be an intermixture of moral notions; as the affecting power of the passage arises from the vivid impression of the described objects on the mind of the speaker: "And shoots a chillness," &c.KEARNEY. [So, also, the very first words of the Mr. Langton informed me that he once related to Johnson (on the authority of Spence) that Pope himself admired those lines so much, that when he repeated them, his voice faultered: "and well it might, sir (said Johnson), for they are no-speech," how reverend;" and again, “it strikes ble lines."-J. BOSWELL. 2 [What an idea of the tyranny of Johnson's conversation does this word-ventured-give! There is reason, as will appear hereafter, to suspect that Boswell himself was the object of this sarcasm.-ED.] an awe and terror;" and again, "looking tranquillity." All this is surely describing the building by its effects on the mind. The truth is, as Mrs. Piozzi states, Johnson loved to tease Garrick with this apparent preference of Congreve over Shakspeare. See ante, p. 222.-ED.] SON. No, sir; it should be all precipiceall vacuum. The crows impede your fall. The diminished appearance of the boats, and other circumstances, are all very good description; but do not impress the mind at once with the horrible idea of immense height. The impression is divided; you pass on by computation, from one stage of the tremendous space to another. Had the girl in The Mourning Bride' said, she could not cast her shoe to the top of one of the pillars in the temple, it would not have aided the idea, but weakened it." it worth while. And what merit is there Talking of a barrister who had a bad ut- Mrs. Montague, a lady distinguished for having written an Essay on Shakspeare, being mentioned-REYNOLDS. "I think that essay does her honour." JOHNSON. "Yes, sir; it does her honour, but it would do nobody else honour. I have, indeed, not read it all. But when I take up the end of a web, and find it packthread, I do not expect, by looking further, to find embroidery. Sir, I will venture to say, there is not one sentence of true criticism in her book." GARRICK. "But, sir, surely it shows how much Voltaire has mistaken Shakspeare; which nobody else has done." JOHNSON. 66 Sir, nobody else has thought [This is a singular avowal, which, had it proceeded from Hawkins or Mrs. Piozzi, Boswell would have very justly censured. But the phrase which he would have thus suppressed, out of regard to Sheridan, happens to be the most favour able to his character, and even to his talents, of the many observations of Johnson's which he has recorded. See ante, p. 176, relative to what Boswell so unjustly calls Sheridan's "outrageous at tack" on Johnson and his admirers.-ED.] for Piozzi, p. 158. sion, when Mrs. Montague 2 Of whom I acknowledge myself to be one considering it as a piece of the secondary or comparative species of criticism; and not of that profound species which alone Dr. Johnson would allow to be "real criticism." It is, besides, clearly and elegantly expressed, and has done effectually what it professed to do, namely, viudicated Shakspeare from the misrepresentations of Voltaire; and considering how many young people were misled by his witty, though false observations, Mrs. Montague's essay was of service to Shaks peare with a certain class of readers, and is, therefore, entitled to praise. Johnson, I am assured, allowed the merit which I have stated, saying (with reference to Voltaire), "it is conclusive ad hominem."-BOSWELL. 3 [Probably Mr. Jephson, the authour of "Braganza," which appeared, with great and somewhat exaggerated applause, in 1775, to which date this latter conversation must therefore be referred. —ED.] 4 [It has been supposed, that the coolness between Mrs. Montague and Dr. Johnson arose out of his treatment of Lord Lyttelton in the Lives of the Poets; but we see that he began to speak disrespectfully of her long before that publication; and, indeed, there is hardly any point of Dr. Johnson's conduct less respectable, than the contemptuous way in which he appears to have sometimes spoken of a lady, to whom he continued to Johnson proceeded:-"The Scotchman 1 | peculiar to Scotland, of which I showed him has taken the right method in his Ele-a specimen. "Sir," said he, "Ray has ments of Criticism.' I do not mean that he made a collection of north-country words. has taught us any thing; but he has told By collecting those of your country, you us old things in a new way." MURPHY. will do a useful thing towards the history "He seems to have read a great deal of of the language." He bade me also go on French criticism, and wants to make it his with collections which I was making upon own; as if he had been for years anatomis- the antiquities of Scotland. "Make a large ing the heart of man, and peeping into book; a folio." BosWELL. "But of what every cranny of it." GOLDSMITH. "It is use will it be, sir?" JOHNSON. "Never easier to write that book, than to read it." mind the use: do it.” JOHNSON. "We have an example of true criticism in Burke's Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful;' and if I recollect, there is also Du Bos; and Bouhours, who shows all beauty to depend on truth. There is no great merit in telling how many plays have ghosts in them, and how this ghost is better than that. You must show how terrour is impressed on the human heart. In the description of night in Macbeth, the beetle and the bat detract from the general idea of darkness,-inspissated gloom." Politicks being mentioned, he said, "This petitioning is a new mode of distressing government, and a mighty easy one. I will undertake to get petitions either against quarter guineas or half guineas, with the help of a little hot wine. There must be no yielding to encourage this. The object is not important enough. We are not to blow up half a dozen palaces, because one cottage is burning." The conversation then took another turn. JOHNSON. "It is amazing what ignorance of certain points one sometimes finds in men of eminence. A wit about town, who wrote loose Latin verses, asked me how it happened that England and Scotland, which were once two kingdoms, were now one: and Sir Fletcher Norton did not seem to know that there were such publications as the Reviews." "The ballad of Hardyknute has no great merit, if it be really ancient 3. People talk of nature. But mere obvious nature may be exhibited with very little power of mind." On Thursday, October 19, I passed the evening with him at his house. He advised me to complete a Dictionary of words address such extravagant compliments as that quoted in the text, and to write such flattering letters as we shall read in the course of this work. -ED.] 1 [Lord Kames. See ante, p. 57, and 179. -ED.] [A great number of petitions, condemnatory of the proceedings against Mr. Wilkes, and inflamed with all the violence of party, were at this period presented to the king.-ED.] It is unquestionably a modern fiction. It was written by Sir John Bruce of Kinross, and first published at Edinburgh in folio, 1719. See "Percy's Relics of ancient English Poetry," vol. ii. pp. 96. 111. Fourth edition.-MALONE. I complained that he had not mentioned Garrick in his Preface to Shakspeare; and asked him if he did not admire him. JOHNSON. "Yes, as a poor player, who frets and struts his hour upon the stage;' as a shadow." BosWELL. "But has he not brought Shakspeare into notice?" ЈонкsoN. "Sir, to allow that, would be to lampoon the age. Many of Shakspeare's plays are the worse for being acted: Macbeth, for instance." BOSWELL. "What, sir, is nothing gained by decoration and action? Indeed, I do wish that you had mentioned Garrick." JOHNSON. 'My dear sir, had I mentioned him, I must have mentioned many more; Mrs. Pritchard, Mrs. Cibber,-nay, and Mr. Cibber too; he too altered Shakspeare." Boswell. "You have read his apology 5, sir?" JOHNSON. Yes, it is very entertaining. But as for Cibber himself, taking from his conversation all that he ought not to have said, he was a poor creature. I remember when he brought me one of his Odes to have my opinion of it, I could not bear such nonsense, and would not let him read it to the end; so little respect had I for that great man! (laughing.) Yet I remember Richardson wondering that I could treat him with familiarity." I mentioned to him that I had seen the execution of several convicts at Tyburn 6, two days before, and that none of them seemed to be under any concern. JOHNSON. "Most of them, sir, have never thought at all." BOSWELL. "But is not the fear of death natural to man?" JOHNSON. "So much so, sir, that the whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of it." He then, in a low and earnest tone, talked of his meditating upon the awful hour of his own dissolution, and in what manner he should conduct himself upon that occasion: -"I know not (said he), whether I should 4 [See ante, p. 213.-ED.] 5 The Memoirs of himself and of the stage, which Cibber published under the modest title of an Apology for his Life. See ante, p. 181. -ED.] 6 [Six unhappy men were executed at Tyburn on Wednesday the 18th (one day before). It was one of the irregularities of Mr. Eoswell's mind to be passionately fond of seeing these melancholy spectacles.-ED.] wish to have a friend by me, or have it all between God and myself." 66 Talking of our feeling for the distresses of others: JOHNSON. Why, sir, there is much noise made about it, but it is greatly exaggerated. No, sir, we have a certain degree of feeling to prompt us to do good; more than that, Providence does not intend. It would be misery to no purpose." BosWELL. "But suppose now, sir, that one of your intimate friends were apprehended for an offence for which he might be hanged." JOHNSON. "I should do what I could to bail him, and give him any other assistance; but if he were once fairly hanged, I should not suffer." BOSWELL. "Would you eat your dinner that day, sir?" JOHNSON. "Yes, sir, and eat it as if he were eating with me. Why, there's Baretti, who is to be tried for his life to-morrow; friends have risen up for him on every side, yet if he should be hanged, none of them will eat a slice of plum-pudding the less. Sir, that sympathetick feeling goes a very little way in depressing the mind." I told him that I had dined lately at Foote's, who showed me a letter which he had received from Tom Davies, telling him that he had not been able to sleep, from the concern he felt on account of "This sad affair of Baretti," begging of him to try if he could suggest any thing that might be of service; and, at the same time, recommending to him an industrious young man who kept a pickle-shop. JOHNSON. "Ay, sir, here you have a specimen of human sympathy-a friend hanged, and a cucumber pickled. We know not whether Baretti or the pickleman has kept Davies from sleep: nor does he know himself. And as to his not sleeping, sir: Tom Davies is a very great man; Tom has been upon the stage, and knows how to do those things: I have not been upon the stage, and cannot do those things." Boswell. "I have often blamed myself, sir, for not feeling for others, as sensibly as many say they do." JOHNSON. "Sir, don't be duped by them You will find these very feeling people are not very ready to do you good. They pay you by feeling." any more. Piozzi, p. 66, 67. 118. 136. [Though Dr. Johnson possessed the strongest compassion for poverty or illness, he did not even pretend to feel for those who lamented the loss of a child, a parent, or a friend. [It would seem that Davies's anxiety was more sincere than Johnson would represent, He says, in a letter to Granger, "I have been so taken up with a very unlucky accident that befel an intimate friend of mine, that for this last fortnight I have been able to attend to no business, though ever so urgent.”— Granger's Letters, p. 28.-ED.] "These are the distresses of sentiment," he would reply, "which a man who is really to be pitied has no leisure to feel. The sight of people who want food and raiment is so common in great cities, that a surly fellow like me has no compassion to spare for wounds given only to vanity or softCanter indeed was he none: he ness." would forget to ask people after the health of their nearest relations, and say in excuse, "That he knew they did not care: why should they?" said he, "every one in this world has as much as they can do in caring for themselves, and few have leisure really to think of their neighbours' distresses, however they may delight their tongues with talking of them." Lady Tavistock 2, who grieved herself to death for the loss of her husband, was talked of. "She was rich and wanted employment," said Johnson, "so she cried till she lost all power of restraining her tears: other women are forced to outlive their husbands, who were just as much beloved, depend on it; but they have no time for grief: and I doubt not, if we had put my Lady Tavistock into a small chandler's shop, and given her a nurse-child to tend, her life would have been saved. The poor and the busy have no leisure for sentimental sorrow. Mrs. Thrale mentioned an event, which, if it had happened, would greatly have injured her husband and his family-" and then, dear sir," said she, "how sorry you would have been!" "I hope," replied he, after a long pause, "I should have been very sorry;-but remember Rochefoucault's maxim." An acquaintance 3 lost the almost certain hope of a good estate that had been long expected. "Such a one will grieve," said Mrs. Thrale, Piozzi, p. 68, 69. |