The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 08

141

In 1743.

142

In 1744.

143

Mr. Roscoe, with good reason, doubts the accuracy of this inconsistent and improbable story. See his Life of Pope, 556.

144

Spence.

145

This is somewhat inaccurately expressed. Lord Bolingbroke was not an executor: Pope’s papers were left to him specifically, or, in case of his death, to lord Marchmont.

146

This account of the difference between Pope and Mr. Allen is not so circumstantial as it was in Johnson’s power to have made it. The particulars communicated to him concerning it he was too indolent to commit to writing; the business of this note is to supply his omissions. Upon an invitation, in which Mrs. Blount was included, Mr. Pope made a visit to Mr. Allen, at Prior-park, and having occasion to go to Bristol for a few days, left Mrs. Blount behind him. In his absence Mrs. Blount, who was of the Romish persuasion, signified an inclination to go to the popish chapel at Bath, and desired of Mr. Allen the use of his chariot for the purpose; but he being at that time mayor of the city, suggested the impropriety of having his carriage seen at the door of a place of worship, to which, as a magistrate, he was at least restrained from giving a sanction, and might be required to suppress, and, therefore, desire to be excused. Mrs. Blount resented this refusal, and told Pope of it at his return, and so infected him with her rage that they both left the house abruptly[1].

An instance of the like negligence may be noted in his relation of Pope’s love of painting, which differs much from the information I gave him on that head. A picture of Betterton, certainly copied from Kneller by Pope[2], lord Mansfield once showed me at Kenwood-house, adding, that it was the only one he ever finished, for that the weakness of his eyes was an obstruction to his use of the pencil. H.

(Footnote 1: This is altogether wrong. Pope kept up his friendship with Mr. Allen to the last, as appears by his letters, and Mrs. Blount remained in Mr. Allen’s house some time after the coolness took place between her and Mrs. Allen. Allen’s conversation with Pope on this subject, and his letters to Mrs. Blount, all whose quarrels he was obliged to share, will be found in Mr. Bowles’s edition of Pope’s works. C.—See further and more minute information on this affair in Roscoe’s Pope, i. 526, and following pages. Ed.)

(Footnote 2: See p. 249.)

147

But see this matter explained by facts more creditable to Pope, in his life, Biographical Dictionary, vol. xxv.

148

Part of it arose from an annuity of two hundred pounds a year, which he had purchased either of the late duke of Buckinghamshire, or the dutchess, his mother, and which was charged on some estate of that family. [See p. 256.] The deed by which it was granted was some years in my custody. H.

149

The account herein before given of this lady and her catastrophe, cited by Johnson from Ruffhead, with a kind of acquiescence in the truth thereof, seems no other than might have been extracted from the verses themselves. I have in my possession a letter to Dr. Johnson, containing the name of the lady; and a reference to a gentleman well known in the literary world for her history. Him I have seen; and, from a memorandum of some particulars to the purpose, communicated to him by a lady of quality, he informs me, that the unfortunate lady’s name was Withinbury[1], corruptly pronounced Winbury; that she was in love with Pope, and would have married him; that her guardian, though she was deformed in person, looking upon such a match as beneath her, sent her to a convent; and that a noose, and not a sword, put an end to her life. H.

(Footnote 1: According to Warton, the lady’s name was Wainsbury. Ed.)

150

Bentley was one of these. He and Pope, soon after the publication of Homer, met at Dr. Mead’s at dinner; when Pope, desirous of his opinion of the translation, addressed him thus: “Dr. Bentley, I ordered my bookseller to send you your books: I hope you received them.” Bentley, who had purposely avoided saying any thing about Homer, pretended not to understand him, and asked, “Books! books! what books?”—“My Homer,” replied Pope, “which you did me the honour to subscribe for.”—“Oh,” said Bentley, “aye, now I recollect—your translation:—it is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope; but you must not call it Homer.” H. Some good remarks on Pope’s translation may be found in the work of Melmoth, entitled Fitzosborne’s Letters. Ed.

151

In one of these poems is a couplet, to which belongs a story that I once heard the reverend Dr. Ridley relate:

“Slander or poison dread from Delia’s rage;Hard words, or hanging, if your judge be ****,”

Sir Francis Page, a judge well known in his time, conceiving that his name was meant to fill up the blank, sent his clerk to Mr. Pope, to complain of the insult. Pope told the young man that the blank might be supplied by many monosyllables, other than the judge’s name:—“but, sir,” said the clerk, “the judge says that no other word will make sense of the passage.”—“So then it seems,” says Pope “your master is not only a judge but a poet; as that is the case, the odds are against me. Give my respects to the judge, and tell him, I will not contend with one that has the advantage of me, and he may fill up the blank as he pleases.” H.

152

See note, by Gifford, on Johnson’s criticism here in Massinger’s works.

153

Johnson, I imagine, alludes to a well-known line by Rochester:

The best good man with the worst-natur’d muse.

154

Major Bernardi, who died in Newgate, Sept. 20, 1736. See Gent. Mag. vol. 1. p. 125. N.

155

This was altered much for the better, as it now stands on the monument in the abbey, erected to Rowe and his daughter. WARB. See Bowles’s edition of Pope’s works, ii. 416.

156

In the north aisle of the parish church of St. Margaret, Westminster. H.

157

The thought was, probably, borrowed from Carew’s Obsequies to the lady Anne Hay:

I heard the virgins sigh, I saw the sleekAnd polish’d courtier channel his fresh cheekWith real tears.

J.B.

158

Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child. DRYDEN, on Mrs. Killigrew.

159

The same thought is found in George Whetstone’s epitaph on the good lord Dyer, 1582:

Et semper bonus ille bonis fuit, ergo bonorumSunt illi demum pectora sarcophagus.

J.B.

160

It has since been added to the collection. R.

161

According to the Biographical Dictionary the name of Thomson’s mother was Beatrix Trotter. Hume was the name of his grandmother. Ed.

162

See the Life of Beattie, by sir William Forbes, for some additional anecdotes. Ed.

163

Warton was told by Millan that the book lay a long time unsold on his stall. Ed.

164

“It was at this time that the school of Pope was giving way: addresses to the head rather than to the heart, or the fancy; moral axioms and witty observations, expressed in harmonious numbers, and with epigrammatick terseness; the limae labor, all the artifices of a highly polished style, and the graces of finished composition, which had long usurped the place of the more sterling beauties of the imagination and sentiment, began first to be lessened in the public estimation by the appearance of Thomson’s Seasons, a work which constituted a new era in our poetry.” Censura Literaria, iv. 280.

165

An interesting anecdote respecting Thomson’s deportment before a commission, instituted in 1732, for an inquiry into the state of the public offices under the lord chancellor, is omitted by Johnson and all the poet’s biographers. We extract it from the nineteenth volume of the Critical Review, p. 141. “Mr. Thomson’s place of secretary of the briefs fell under the cognizance of this commission; and he was summoned to attend it, which he accordingly did, and made a speech, explaining the nature, duty, and income of his place, in terms that, though very concise, were so perspicuous and elegant, that lord chancellor Talbot, who was present, publicly said he preferred that single speech to the best of his poetical compositions.” The above praise is precisely such as we might anticipate that an old lawyer would give, but it, at all events, exempts the poet’s character from the imputation of listless indolence, advanced by Murdoch, and leaves lord Hardwicke little excuse for his conduct. Ed.

166

It is not generally known that in this year an edition of Milton’s Areopagitiea was published by Millar, to which Thomson wrote a preface.

167

See vol. v. p. 329 of this edition, and Mr. Roscoe’s Life of Pope, for some anecdotes respecting Gay’s Beggars’ Opera and Polly, illustrative of the efficacy of a lord-chamberlain’s interference with the stage. Ed.

168

Several anecdotes of Thomson’s personal appearance and habits are scattered over the volumes of Boswell. Ed.

169

For an interesting collection of the various readings of the successive editions of the Seasons, see vols. ii. in. and iv. of the Censura Literaria. Thomson’s own preface to the second edition of Winter may be found in vol. ii. p. 67, of the above-quoted work. Ed.

170

He took his degrees, A. B. 1696, A. M. 1700.

171

This ought to have been noticed before. It was published in 1700, when he appears to have obtained a fellowship of St. John’s.

172

Spence.

173

Ibid.

174

The archbishop’s letters, published in 1760, (the originals of which are now in Christ-church library, Oxford,) were collected by Mr. Philips.

175

At his house in Hanover-street, and was buried in Audley chapel.

176

Mr. Ing’s eminence does not seem to have been derived from his wit. That the men who drive oxen are goaded, seems to be a custom peculiar to Staffordshire. J.B.

177

Certainly him. It was published in 1697.

178

In the Poetical Calendar, a collection of poems by Fawkes and Woty, in several volumes, 1763, &c.

179

A monument of exquisite workmanship, by Flaxman, is erected in Chichester to Collins’s memory.

180

It is printed in the late collection.

181

This charge against the Lyttelton family has been denied, with some degree of warmth, by Mr. Potter, and since by Mr. Graves. The latter says, “The truth of the case, I believe, was, that the Lyttelton family went so frequently with their family to the Leasowes, that they were unwilling to break in upon Mr. Shenstone’s retirement on every occasion, and, therefore, often went to the principal points of view without waiting for any one to conduct them regularly through the whole walks. Of this Mr. Shenstone would sometimes peevishly complain; though, I am persuaded, he never really suspected any ill-natured intention in his worthy and much-valued neighbours.” R.

182

Mr. Graves, however, expresses his belief that this is a groundless surmise. “Mr. Shenstone,” he adds, “was too much respected in the neighbourhood to be treated with rudeness; and though his works, (frugally as they were managed) added to his manner of living, must necessarily have made him exceed his income, and, of course, he might sometimes be distressed for money, yet he had too much spirit to expose himself to insults from trifling sums, and guarded against any great distress, by anticipating a few hundreds; which his estate could very well bear, as appeared by what remained to his executors after the payment of his debts, and his legacies to his friends, and annuities of thirty pounds a year to one servant, and six pounds to another, for his will was dictated with equal justice and generosity.” R.

183

We may, however, say with the Grecian orator, ὁτι απολλὑμενος ευφραἱνει, he gives forth a fragrance as he wastes away. Ed.

184

“These,” says Mr. Graves, “were not precisely his sentiments, though he thought, right enough, that every one should, in some degree, consult his particular shape and complexion in adjusting his dress; and that no fashion ought to sanctify what was ungraceful, absurd, or really deformed.”

185

Mr. D’Israeli’s remarks on Shenstone and his writings, may be profitably compared with Johnson’s life. See last edition of the Curiosities of Literature. Ed.

186

See Gent. Mag. vol. lxx. p. 225. N.

187

As my great friend is now become the subject of biography, it should be told, that every time I called upon Johnson during the time I was employed in collecting materials for this life and putting it together, he never suffered me to depart without some such farewell as this: “Don’t forget that rascal Tindal, sir. Be sure to hang up the atheist.” Alluding to this anecdote, which Johnson had mentioned to me.

188

Dr. Johnson, in many cases, thought and directed differently, particularly in Young’s works. J.N.

189

Not in the Tatler, but in the Guardian, May 9, 1713.

190

See a letter from the duke of Wharton to Swift, dated 1717, in Swift’s works, in which he mentions Young being then in Ireland. J.B.N.

191

Davies, in his life of Garrick, says 1720, and that it was produced thirty-three years after.

192

Mr. Boswell discovered in this heavy piece of biography a successful imitation of Johnson’s style. An eminent literary character exclaimed, “No, no, it is not a good imitation of Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force; it has all the nodosities of the oak without its strength.” Endeavouring to express himself still more in Johnsonian phrase, he added, “It has all the contortions of the Sybil, without the inspiration.” See Boswell, iv. According to Malone, this eminent person was Burke, and the observation is assigned to him, without hesitation, in Prin’s Life. It has sometimes been attributed to G. Stevens. Ed.

193

See Mrs. Piozzi’s Anecdotes, 162.

194

Mallet’s William and Margaret was printed in Aaron Hill’s Plain Dealer, No. 36, July 24,1724 In its original state it was very different from what it is in the last edition of his works.    Dr. J.

195

See note on this passage of Pope’s life in the present edition.

196

Johnson entertained a very high idea of the varied learning and science necessarily connected with the character of an accomplished physician, and often affirmed of the physicians of this island, that “they did more good to mankind without a prospect of reward, than any profession of men whatever.” His friendship for Dr. Bathurst, and the most eminent men in the medical line of his day, is well known. See an epistle to Dr. Percival, developing the wide field of knowledge over which a physician should expatiate, prefixed to Observations on the Literature of the Primitive Christian Writers. Ed.

197

A most curious and original character of Akenside is given by George Hardinge, in vol. viii. of Nichols’s Literary Anecdotes. Ed.

198

We shall, in comparison with this criticism, quote a passage from Rasselas, and deduce no inference:

“As they were sitting together, the princess cast her eyes on the river that flowed before her: answer, said she, great father of waters, thou that rollest thy floods through eighty nations, to the invocation of the daughter of thy native king. Tell me, if thou waterest, through all thy course, a single habitation from which thou dost not hear the murmurs of complaint.” Ed.

199

I have a soul, that like an ample shield

Can take in all; and verge enough for more.

Dryden’s Sebastian.

200

Lord Orford used to assert, that Gray “never wrote any thing easily, but things of humour;” and added, that humour was his natural and original turn. For a full examination of Johnson’s strange and capricious strictures on the poetry of Gray, we, with much satisfaction, refer our readers to the life prefixed to, and the notes that accompany, an elegant edition of Gray’s works, 2 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1825. Much that is both elegant and useful will be found in that publication. Ed.

201

Dr. Johnstone, of Kidderminster.