The Life of Samuel Johnson

by James Boswell

  a I am told that Horace, Earl of Orford, has a collection of Bon-Mots by persons who never said but one.

  b I am informed by Mr. Langton, that a great many years ago he was present when this question was agitated between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Burke; and, to use Johnson’s phrase, they ‘talked their best;’ Johnson for Homer, Burke for Virgil. It may well be supposed to have been one of the ablest and most brilliant contests that ever was exhibited. How much must we regret that it has not been preserved.

  a Pope mentions,

  ‘Stretch’d on the rack of a too easy chair.’732

  But I recollect a couplet quite apposite to my subject in Virtue, an Ethick Epistle, a beautiful and instructive poem, by an anonymous writer, in 1758; who, treating of pleasure in excess, says: –

  ‘Till languor, suffering on the rack of bliss,

  Confess that man was never made for this.’733

  a See ante, p. 560.

  a Gray’s Elegy, 68.

  a A daughter born to him.

  b Mrs. Aston.

  a See State Trials, vol. xi, p. 339, and Mr. Hargrave’s argument.

  b The motto to it was happily chosen: –

  ‘Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses.’741

  I cannot avoid mentioning a circumstance no less strange than true, that a brother Advocate in considerable practice, but of whom it certainly cannot be said, Ingenuas didicit fideliter artes,742 asked Mr. Maclaurin, with a face of flippant assurance, ‘Are these words your own?’

  a The friendship between Mr. Welch and him was unbroken. Mr. Welch died not many months before him, and bequeathed him five guineas for a ring, which Johnson received with tenderness, as a kind memorial. His regard was constant for his friend Mr. Welch’s daughters; of whom, Jane is married to Mr. Nollekens the statuary, whose merit is too well known to require any praise from me.

  b Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, humorously observed, that Levett used to breakfast on the crust of a roll, which Johnson, after tearing out the crumb for himself, threw to his humble friend. [Perhaps the word threw is here too strong. Dr. Johnson never treated Levett with contempt.]

  a See this subject discussed in a subsequent page, under May 3, 1779 {p. 735}.

  b Alluding to a line in his Vanity of Human Wishes, describing Cardinal Wolsey in his state of elevation: –

  ‘Through him the rays of regal bounty shine.’

  a Daughter of Dr. Swinfen, Johnson’s godfather, and widow of Mr. Desmoulins, a writing-master.

  a [The first edition was in 1492. Between that period and 1792, according to this account, there were 3600 editions. But this is very improbable.]

  b See ante, p. 533.

  c [Since this was written the attainder has been reversed; and Nicholas Barnewall is now a peer of Ireland with this title. The person mentioned in the text had studied physick, and prescribed gratis to the poor. Hence arose the subsequent conversation.]

  a Literary Magazine, 1756, p. 37.

  b The following plausible but overprudent counsel on this subject is given by an Italian writer, quoted by ‘Rbedi de generatione insectarum,’ with the epithet of ‘divini poette:’756

  ‘Sempre a quel ver ch’ha faccia di menzogna

  De’ l’uom chiuder le labbra fin ch’el pote,

  Verb ehe senza colpa fa vergogna.’757

  a Lord Bolingbroke, who, however detestable as a metaphysician, must be allowed to have had admirable talents as a political writer, thus describes the House of Commons, in his ‘Letter to Sir William Wyndham:’ – ‘You know the nature of that assembly; they grow, like hounds, fond of the man who shews them game, and by whose halloo they are used to be encouraged.’

  a Pope thus introduces this story:

  ‘Faith in such case if you should prosecute,

  I think Sir Godfrey should decide the suit,

  Who sent the thief who stole the cash away,

  And punish’d him that put it in his way.’ Imitations of Horace, book II. epist. ii.

  a The reverse of the story of Combabus, on which Mr. David Hume told Lord Macartney, that a friend of his had written a tragedy. It is, however, possible that I may have been inaccurate in my perception of what Dr. Johnson related, and that he may have been talking of the same ludicrous tragical subject that Mr. Hume had mentioned. [The story of Combabus, which was originally told by Lucian, may be found in Bayle’s Dictionary.]

  b The late Duke of Montrose was generally said to have been uneasy on that account; but I can contradict the report from his Grace’s own authority. As he used to admit me to very easy conversation with him, I took the liberty to introduce the subject. His Grace told me, that when riding one night near London, he was attacked by two highwaymen on horseback, and that he instantly shot one of them, upon which the other galloped off; that his servant, who was very well mounted, proposed to pursue him and take him, but that his Grace said, ‘No, we have had blood enough: I hope the man may live to repent.’ His Grace, upon my presuming to put the question, assured me, that his mind was not at all clouded by what he had thus done in self-defence.

  a When I told this to Miss Seward, she smiled, and repeated, with admirable readiness, from Acis and Galatea,

  ‘Bring me a hundred reeds of ample growth,

  To make a pipe for my capacious mouth.’765

  a Lord Macartney observes upon this passage, ‘I have heard him tell many things, which, though embellished by their mode of narrative, had their foundation in truth; but I never remember any thing approaching to this. If he had written it, I should have supposed some wag had put the figure of one before the three.’ – I am, however, absolutely certain that Dr. Campbell told me it, and I gave particular attention to it, being myself a lover of wine, and therefore curious to hear whatever is remarkable concerning drinking. There can be no doubt that some men can drink, without suffering any injury, such a quantity as to others appears incredible. It is but fair to add, that Dr. Campbell told me, he took a very long time to this great potation; and I have heard Dr. Johnson say, ‘Sir, if a man drinks very slowly, and lets one glass evaporate before he takes another, I know not how long he may drink.’ Dr. Campbell mentioned a Colonel of Militia who sat with him all the time, and drank equally.

  a What my friend meant by these words concerning the amiable philosopher of Salisbury, I am at a loss to understand. A friend suggests, that Johnson thought his manner as a writer affected, while at the same time the matter did not compensate for that fault. In short, that he meant to make a remark quite different from that which a celebrated gentleman769 made on a very eminent physician:770 ‘He is a coxcomb, but a satisfactory coxcomb.’

  a See p. 260.

  a It was called The Siege of Aleppo. Mr. Hawkins, the authour of it, was formerly Professor of Poetry at Oxford. It is printed in his Miscellanies, 3 vols. octavo.

  a When Johnson told this little anecdote to Sir Joshua Reynolds, he mentioned a circumstance which he omitted to-day: – ‘Why, (said Garrick,) it is as red as blood.’

  a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit., p. 221 {17 Sept.}.

  a See this accurately stated, and the descent of his family from the Earls of Northumberland clearly deduced in the Reverend Dr. Nash’s excellent History of Worcestershire, vol. ii. p. 318. The Doctor has subjoined a note, in which he says, ‘The Editor hath seen and carefully examined the proofs of all the particulars above-mentioned, now in the possession of the Reverend Thomas Percy.’ The same proofs I have also myself carefully examined, and have seen some additional proofs which have occurred since the Doctor’s book was published; and both as a Lawyer accustomed to the consideration of evidence, and as a Genealogist versed in the study of pedigrees, I am fully satisfied. I cannot help observing, as a circumstance of no small moment, that in tracing the Bishop of Dromore’s genealogy, essential aid was given by the late Elizabeth Duchess of Northumberland, Heiress of that illustrious House; a lady not only of high dignity of spirit, such as became her noble blood, but of excellen
t understanding and lively talents. With a fair pride I can boast of the honour of her Grace’s correspondence, specimens of which adorn my archives.

  a The title of a book translated by Dr. Percy.

  b This is the common cant against faithful Biography. Does the worthy gentleman mean that I, who was taught discrimination of character by Johnson, should have omitted his frailties, and, in short, have bedawbed him as the worthy gentleman has bedawbed Scotland?

  a Sunday, April 12, 1778.

  a Though the Bishop of Dromore kindly answered the letters which I wrote to him, relative to Dr. Johnson’s early history; yet, in justice to him, I think it proper to add, that the account of the foregoing conversation and the subsequent transaction, as well as some other conversations in which he is mentioned, has been given to the publick without previous communication with his Lordship.

  a See note, ante, p. 576.

  a Dr. Johnson, describing her needle-work in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale, i, p. 326, uses the learned word sutile; which Mrs. Thrale has mistaken, and made the phrase injurious by writing ‘futile pictures.’

  a As Physicians are called the Faculty, and Counsellors at Law the Profession; the Booksellers of London are denominated the Trade. Johnson disapproved of these denominations.

  a If any of my readers are disturbed by this thorny question, I beg leave to recommend to them Letter 69 of Montesquieu’s Lettres Persanes; and the late Mr. John Palmer of Islington’s Answer to Dr. Priestley’s mechanical arguments for what he absurdly calls ‘Philosophical Necessity.’

  a Mrs. Knowles, not satisfied with the fame of her needlework, the ‘sutile pictures’ mentioned by Johnson, in which she has indeed displayed much dexterity, nay, with the fame of reasoning better than women generally do, as I have fairly shewn her to have done, communicated to me a Dialogue of considerable length, which after many years had elapsed, she wrote down as having passed between Dr. Johnson and herself at this interview. As I had not the least recollection of it, and did not find the smallest trace of it in my Record taken at the time, I could not in consistency with my firm regard to authenticity, insert it in my work. It has, however, been published in The Gent. Mag. for June 1791. It chiefly relates to the principles of the sect called Quakers; and no doubt the Lady appears to have greatly the advantage of Dr. Johnson in argument as well as expression. From what I have now stated, and from the internal evidence of the paper itself, any one who may have the curiosity to peruse it, will judge whether it was wrong in me to reject it, however willing to gratify Mrs. Knowles.

  a I believe, however, I shall follow my own opinion; for the world has shewn a very flattering partiality to my writings, on many occasions.

  a Pr. and Med. p. 164.

  a Johnson said to me afterwards, ‘Sir, they respected me for my literature; and yet it was not great but by comparison. Sir, it is amazing how little literature there is in the world.’

  a [This line has frequently been attributed to Dryden, when a King’s Scholar at Westminster. But neither Eton nor Westminster have in truth any claim to it, the line being borrowed, with a slight change, from an Epigram by Crashaw: –

  ‘JOANN. 2,

  ‘AquiS in vinum versee.

  ‘Unde rubor vestris et non sua purpura lymphis?

  Quae rosa mirantes tarn nova mutat aquas?

  Numen, convive, pr&sens agnoscite numen,

  Nympba pudica DEUM vidit, et erubuit.’]818

  a I am not absolutely sure but this was my own suggestion, though it is truly in the character of Edwards.

  a In summer 1792, additional and more expensive decorations having been introduced, the price of admission was raised to two shillings. I cannot approve of this. The company may be more select; but a number of the honest commonalty are, I fear, excluded from sharing in elegant and innocent entertainment. An attempt to abolish the one-shilling gallery at the playhouse has been very properly counteracted.

  a I am not entirely without suspicion that Johnson may have felt a little momentary envy; for no man loved the good things of this life better than he did; and he could not but be conscious that he deserved a much larger share of them, than he ever had. I attempted in a newspaper to comment on the above passage, in the manner of Warburton, who must be allowed to have shewn uncommon ingenuity, in giving to any authour’s text whatever meaning he chose it should carry. As this imitation may amuse my readers, I shall here introduce it: –

  ‘No saying of Dr. Johnson’s has been more misunderstood than his applying to Mr. Burke when he first saw him at his fine place at Beaconsfield, Non equidem invideo; miror magis. These two celebrated men had been friends for many years before Mr. Burke entered on his parliamentary career. They were both writers, both members of The Literary Club; when, therefore, Dr. Johnson saw Mr. Burke in a situation so much more splendid than that to which he himself had attained, he did not mean to express that he thought it a disproportionate prosperity; but while he, as a philosopher, asserted an exemption from envy, non equidem invideo, he went on in the words of the poet miror magis; thereby signifying, either that he was occupied in admiring what he was glad to see; or, perhaps, that considering the general lot of men of superiour abilities, he wondered that Fortune, who is represented as blind, should, in this instance, have been so just.’

  a [William Duncombe, Esq. He married the sister of John Hughes the poet; was the authour of two tragedies and other ingenious productions; and died 26th Feb. 1769, aged 79.]

  a By Richard Tickell.

  b [Dr. Johnson is supported by the usage of preceding writers. So in Musarum Delicite,832 8vo. 1656 (the writer is speaking of Suckling’s play entitled Aglaura, printed in folio): –

  ‘This great voluminous pamphlet may be said

  To be like one that hath more hair than head.’]

  a See this question fully investigated in the Notes upon my Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 21, et seq. {15 Aug.}. And here, as a lawyer mindful of the maxim Suum cuique tribuito,839 I cannot forbear to mention, that the additional Note beginning with ‘I find since the former edition,’ is not mine, but was obligingly furnished by Mr. Malone, who was so kind as to superintend the press while I was in Scotland, and the first part of the second edition was printing. He would not allow me to ascribe it to its proper authour; but, as it is exquisitely acute and elegant, I take this opportunity, without his knowledge, to do him justice.

  a Here he either was mistaken, or had a different notion of an extensive sale from what is generally entertained: for the fact is, that four thousand copies of that excellent work were sold very quickly. A new edition has been printed since his death, besides that in the collection of his works.

  b In the phraseology of Scotland, I should have said, ‘Mr. John Spottiswoode the younger, of that ilk.’ Johnson knew that sense of the word very well, and has thus explained it in his Dictionary, voce Ilk: – ‘It also signifies “the same;” as, Mackintosh ofthat ilk, denotes a gentleman whose surname and the title of his estate are the same.’

  a It is observed in Waller’s Life, in the Biographia Britannica, that he drank only water; and that while he sat in a company who were drinking wine, ‘he had the dexterity to accommodate his discourse to the pitch of theirs as it sunk.’ If excess in drinking be meant, the remark is acutely just. But surely, a moderate use of wine gives a gaiety of spirits which water-drinkers know not.

  a This experiment which Madame Dacier made in vain, has since been tried in our own language, by the editor of Ossian, and we must either think very meanly of his abilities, or allow that Dr. Johnson was in the right. And Mr. Cowper, a man of real genius, has miserably failed in his blank verse translation.

  a Mrs. Piozzi confidently mentions this as having passed in Scotland. Anecdotes, p. 62.

  a Johnson had an extraordinary admiration of this lady, notwithstanding she was a violent Whig. In answer to her high-flown speeches for Liberty, he addressed to her the following Epigram, of which I presume to offer a translation:
–

  ‘Liber ut esse velim suasisti pulchra Maria,

  Ut maneam liber pulchra Maria vale.’

  Adieu, Maria! since you’d have me free;

  For, who beholds thy charms a slave must be.

  A correspondent of The Gentleman’s Magazine, who subscribes himself Sciolus, to whom I am indebted for several excellent remarks, observes, ‘The turn of Dr. Johnson’s lines to Miss Aston, whose Whig principles he had been combating, appears to me to be taken from an ingenious epigram in the lAenagiana on a young lady who appeared at a masquerade, habillee en jesuite,858 during the fierce contentions of the followers of Molinos and Jansenius concerning free-will: –

  “On s’etonne ici que Caliste

  Ait pris l’habit de Moliniste.

  Puisque cette jeune beaute

  Ote à chacun sa liberte,

  N’est-ce pas une Janseniste?” ‘859

  a In Mr. Horne Tooke’s enlargement of that Letter, which he has since published with the title of 7Epea pseqoe´msa;875 or, the Diversions of Purley; he mentions this compliment, as if Dr. Johnson instead of several of his etymologies had said all. His recollection having thus magnified it, shews how ambitious he was of the approbation of so great a man.

  a The slip of paper on which he made the correction is deposited by me in the noble library to which it relates, and to which I have presented other pieces of his handwriting.880

  a dr. johnson was by no means attentive to minute accuracy in his lives of the poets; for notwithstanding my having detected this mistake, he has continued it.

  a Third edition, p. 111 {28 Aug.}.

  b When I one day at Court expressed to General Hall my sense of the honour he had done my friend, he politely answered, ‘Sir, I did myself honour.’