Complete Works of Samuel Johnson
Page 868
Boswelf’s intention to attend on Johnson in his illness, and to publish ‘Praises’ of him.
(Vol. iv, p. 265.)
‘JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO BISHOP PERCY.
‘Edinburgh, 8 March, 1784.
“…I intend to be in London about the end of this month, chiefly to attend upon Dr. Johnson with respectful affection. He has for some time been very ill…I wish to publish as a regale [ante, iii. 308, n. 2; v. 347, n. 1] to him a neat little volume, The Praises of Dr. Johnson, by contemporary Writers. …Will your Lordship take the trouble to send me a note of the writers you recollect having praised our much respected friend?…An edition of my pamphlet [ante, iv. 258] has been published in London.”’ — Nichols’s Literary History, vii. 302.
The reported Russian version of the ‘Rambler’.
(Vol. iv, p. 277, n. 1.)
I am informed by my friend, Mr. W. R. Morfill, M.A., of Oriel College, Oxford, who has, I suppose, no rival in this country in his knowledge of the Slavonic tongues, that no Russian translation of the Rambler has been published. He has given me the following title of the Russian version of Rasselas, which he has obtained for me through the kindness of Professor Grote, of the University of Warsaw: —
‘Rasselas, printz Abissinskii, Vostochnaya Poviest Sochinenie Doktora
Dzhonsona Perevod s’angliiskago. 3 chasti, Moskva. 1795.
‘Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia, An Eastern Tale, by Doctor Johnson.
Translated from the English. 2 parts, Moscow, 1795.’
‘It has not wit enough to keep it sweet.’
(Vol. iv, p. 320.)
‘Heylyn, in the Epistle to his Letter-Combate, addressing Baxter, and speaking of such “unsavoury pieces of wit and mischief” as “the Church-historian” asks, “Would you not have me rub them with a little salt to keep them sweet?” This passage was surely present in the mind of Dr. Johnson when he said concerning The Rehearsal that “it had not wit enough to keep it sweet.”’ — J. E. Bailey’s Life of Thomas Fuller, p. 640.
Pictures of Johnson.
(Vol. iv, p. 421, n. 2.)
In the Common Room of Trinity College, Oxford, there is an interesting portrait of Johnson, said to be by Romney. I cannot, however, find any mention of it in the Life of that artist. It was presented to the College by Canon Duckworth.
The Gregory Family.
(Vol. v, p. 48, n. 3.)
Mr. P. J. Anderson (in Notes and Queries, 7th S. iii. 147) casts some doubt on Chalmers’ statement. He gives a genealogical table of the Gregory family, which includes thirteen professors; but two of these cannot, from their dates, be reckoned among Chalmers’ sixteen.
The University of St. Andrews in 1778.
(Vol. v, p. 63, n. 2.)
In the preface to Poems by George Monck Berkeley, it is recorded (p. cccxlviii) that when ‘Mr. Berkeley entered at the University of St. Andrews [about 1778], one of the college officers called upon him to deposit a crown to pay for the windows he might break. Mr. Berkeley said, that as he should reside in his father’s house, it was little likely he should break any windows, having never, that he remembered, broke one in his life. He was assured that he would do it at St. Andrews. On the rising of the session several of the students said, “Now for the windows. Come, it is time to set off, let us sally forth!” Mr. Berkeley, being called upon, enquired what was to be done? They replied, “Why, to break every window in college.” “For what reason?” “Oh! no reason; but that it has always been done from time immemorial.”’ The Editor goes on to say that Mr. Berkeley prevailed on them to give up the practice. How poor some of the students were is shown by the following anecdote, told by the College Porter, who had to collect the crowns. ‘I am just come,’ he said, ‘from a poor student indeed. I went for the window croon; he cried, begged, and prayed not to pay it, saying, “he brought but a croon to keep him all the session, and he had spent sixpence of it; so I have got only four and sixpence.”’ His father, a labourer, who owned three cows, ‘had sold one to dress his son for the University, and put the lamented croon in his pocket to purchase coals. All the lower students study by fire-light. He had brought with him a large tub of oatmeal and a pot of salted butter, on which he was to subsist from Oct. 20 until May 20.’ Berkeley raised ‘a very noble subscription’ for the poor fellow.
In another passage (p. cxcviii) it is recorded that Berkeley ‘boasted to his father, “Well, Sir, idle as you may think me, I never have once bowed at any Professor’s Lecture.” An explanation being requested of the word bowing, it was thus given: “Why, if any poor fellow has been a little idle, and is not prepared to speak when called upon by the Professor, he gets up and makes a respectful-bow, and sits down again.”’ Berkeley was a grandson of Bishop Berkeley.
Johnson’s unpublished sermons.
(Vol. v, p. 67, n. i.)
‘JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO JAMES ABERCROMBIE, ESQ., of Philadelphia.
‘June 11, 1792.
“I have not yet been able to discover any more of Johnson’s sermons besides those left for publication by Dr. Taylor. I am informed by the Lord Bishop of Salisbury, that he gave an excellent one to a clergyman, who preached and published it in his own name on some public occasion. But the Bishop has not as yet told me the name, and seems unwilling to do it. Yet I flatter myself I shall get at it.”’ — Nichols’s Literary History, vii. 315.
Tillotson’s argument against the doctrine of transubstantiation.
(Vol. v, p. 71.)
Gibbon, writing of his reconversion from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism in the year 1754, after allowing something to the conversation of his Swiss tutor, says: —
‘I must observe that it was principally effected by my private reflections; and I still remember my solitary transport at the discovery of a philosophical argument against the doctrine of transubstantiation — that the text of scripture which seems to inculcate the real presence is attested only by a single sense — our sight; while the real presence itself is disproved by three of our senses — the sight, the touch, and the taste.’ — Memoirs of Edward Gibbon, ed. 1827, i. 67.
Jean Pierre de Crousaz.
(Vol. v, p. 80.)
Gibbon, describing his education at Lausanne, says:— ‘The principles of philosophy were associated with the examples of taste; and by a singular chance the book as well as the man which contributed the most effectually to my education has a stronger claim on my gratitude than on my admiration. M. de Crousaz, the adversary of Bayle and Pope, is not distinguished by lively fancy or profound reflection; and even in his own country, at the end of a few years, his name and writings are almost obliterated. But his philosophy had been formed in the school of Locke, his divinity in that of Limborch and Le Clerc; in a long and laborious life several generations of pupils were taught to think and even to write; his lessons rescued the Academy of Lausanne from Calvinistic prejudice; and he had the rare merit of diffusing a more liberal spirit among the clergy and people of the Pays de Vaud.’ — Memoirs of Edward Gibbon, ed. 1827, i. 66.
The new pavement in London.
(Vol. v, p. 84, n. 3.)
‘By an Act passed in 1766, For the better cleansing, paving, and enlightning the City of London and Liberties thereof, &c., powers are granted in pursuance of which the great streets have been paved with whyn-quarry stone, or rock-stone, or stone of a flat surface.’ — A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain, ed. 1769, vol. ii, p. 121.
Boswell’s Projected Works.
(Vol. v, p. 91, n. 2.)
To this list should be added an account of a Tour to the Isle of Man (ante, iii. 80).
A cancel in the first edition of Boswell’s ‘Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.’
(Vol. v, p. 151.)
In my note on the suppression of offensive passages in the second edition of Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (ante, v. 148), I mention that Rowlandson in one of his Caricatures paints Boswell begging Sir Alexander Macdonald for mercy, while on the ground lie p
ages 165, 167, torn out. I have discovered, though too late to mention in the proper place, that in the first edition the leaf containing pages 167, 168, was really cancelled. In my own copy I noticed between pages 168 and 169 a narrow projecting slip of paper. I found the same in the copy in the British Museum. Mr. Horace Hart, the printer to the University, who has kindly examined my copy, informs me that the leaf was cancelled after the sheets had been stitched together. It was cut out, but an edge was left to which the new one was attached by paste. The leaf thus treated begins with the words ‘talked with very high respect’ (ante, v. 149) and ends ‘This day was little better than a blank’ (ante, v. 151). This conclusion was perhaps meant to be significant to the observant reader.
Boswell’s conversation with the King about the title proper to be given to the Young Pretender.
(Vol. v, p. 185, n. 4.)
Dr. Lort wrote to Bishop Percy on Aug. 15, 1785: —
‘Boswell’s book [The Tour to the Hebrides], I suppose, will be out in the winter. The King at his levée talked to him, as was natural, on this subject. Boswell told his majesty that he had another work on the anvil — a History of the Rebellion in 1745 (ante, iii. 162); but that he was at a loss how to style the principal person who figured in it. “How would you style him, Mr. Boswell?” “I was thinking, Sire, of calling him the grandson of the unfortunate James the Second.” “That I have no objection to; my title to the Crown stands on firmer ground — on an Act of Parliament.” This is said to be the substance of a conversation which passed at the levée. I wish I was certain of the exact words.’ — Nichols’s Literary History, vii. 472.
Shakespeare’s popularity.
(Vol. v, p. 244, n. 2.)
Gibbon, after describing how he used to attend Voltaire’s private theatre at Monrepos in 1757 and 1758, continues: —
‘The habits of pleasure fortified my taste for the French theatre, and that taste has perhaps abated my idolatry for the gigantic genius of Shakespeare, which is inculcated from our infancy as the first duty of an Englishman.’ — Memoirs of Edward Gibbon, ed. 1837, i. 90.
Archibald Campbell.
(Vol. v, p. 357.)
Mr. C. E. Doble informs me that in the Bodleian Library ‘there is a characteristic letter of Archibald Campbell in a Life of Francis Lee in Rawlinson, J., 4to. 2. 197; and also a skeleton life of him in Rawlinson, J., 4to. 5. 301.’
Cocoa Tree Club.
(Vol. v, p. 386, n. 1.)
Gibbon records in his Journal on November 24, 1762, a visit to the Cocoa
Tree Club: —
‘That respectable body, of which I have the honour of being a member, affords every evening a sight truly English. Twenty or thirty, perhaps, of the first men in the kingdom in point of fashion and fortune, supping at little tables covered with a napkin, in the middle of a coffee-room, upon a bit of cold meat or a sandwich, and drinking a glass of punch. At present we are full of king’s counsellors and lords of the bed-chamber, who, having jumped into the ministry, make a very singular medley of their old principles and language with their modern ones.’ — Memoirs of Edward Gibbon, ed. 1827, i. 131.
Johnson’s use of the word ‘big’.
(Vol. v, p. 425.)
On volume i, page 471, Johnson says: ‘Don’t, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.’
Atlas, the Duke of Devonshire’s race-horse.
(Vol. v, p. 429.)
Johnson, in his Diary of a Journey into North Wales, records on
July 12, 1774: —
‘At Chatsworth…, Atlas, fifteen hands inch and half.’
Mr. Duppa in a note on this, says: ‘A race-horse, which attracted so much of Dr. Johnson’s attention, that he said, “of all the Duke’s possessions I like Atlas best.”’
Thomas Holcroft, who in childhood wandered far and wide with his father, a pedlar, was at Nottingham during the race-week of the year 1756 or 1757, and saw in its youth the horse which Johnson so much admired in its old age. He says: ‘The great and glorious part which Nottingham held in the annals of racing this year, arose from the prize of the King’s plate, which was to be contended for by the two horses which everybody I heard speak considered as undoubtedly the best in England, and perhaps equal to any that had ever been known, Childers alone excepted. Their names were Careless and Atlas…..There was a story in circulation that Atlas, on account of his size and clumsiness, had been banished to the cart-breed; till by some accident, either of playfulness or fright, several of them started together; and his vast advantage in speed happening to be noticed, he was restored to his blood companions…..Alas for the men of Nottingham, Careless was conquered. I forget whether it was at two or three heats, but there was many an empty purse on that night, and many a sorrowful heart.’ — Memoirs of Thomas Holcroft, i. 70.
Sir Richard Clough.
(Vol. v, p. 436.)
There is an interesting note on Sir Richard Clough, the founder of Bâch y Graig, in Professor Rhys’s edition of Pennant’s Tours in Wales (vol. ii, p. 137). The Professor writes to me: —
‘Sir Richard Clough’s wealth was so great that it became a saying of the people in North Wales that a man who grew very wealthy was or had become a Clough. This has long been forgotten; but it is still said in Welsh, in North Wales, that a very rich man is a regular clwch, which is pronounced with the guttural spirant, which was then (in the 16th century) sounded in English, just as the English word draught (of drink) is in Welsh dracht pronounced nearly as if it were German.’
Evan Evans.
(Vol. v, p. 443.)
Evan Evans, who is described as being ‘incorrigibly addicted to strong drink,’ was Curate of Llanvair Talyhaern, in Denbighshire, and author of Some Specimens of the Poetry of Antient Welsh Bards translated into English. London, R. & J. Dodsley, 1764. My friend Mr. Morfill informs me that he remembers to have seen it stated in a manuscript note in a book in the Bodleian, that ‘Evan Evans would have written much more if he had not been so much given up to the bottle.’
Gray thus mentions Evan Evans in a letter to Dr. Wharton, written in
July, 1760: —
‘The Welsh Poets are also coming to light. I have seen a discourse in MS. about them (by one Mr. Evans, a clergyman) with specimens of their writings. This is in Latin; and though it don’t approach the other [Macpherson], there are fine scraps among it.’ — The Works of Thomas Gray, ed. by the Rev. John Mitford. London, 1858, vol. iii, p. 250.
INDEX TO THE ADDENDA.
ABERCROMBIE, James, lxii, lxvi.
ADDENBROKE, Dean, xxxiv.
ATLAS, the race-horse, lxix, lxx.
BARCLAY’S Answer to Kenrick’s Review of Johnson’s Shakespeare, xlviii. BARETTI, Joseph, lvii. BASKETT, Mr., xxxii. BATHURST, Dr., Proposal for a Geographical Dictionary, xxi. BAXTER, Richard, on toleration, xlix; his doubt, liv; rule of preaching, lx; on the possible salvation of a suicide, lx; on the portion of babies who die unbaptized, lxi. BERKELEY, Dr., xlix. BERKELEY, George Monck, lxv. Big, lxix. BOSWELL, James, Bishop Percy’s Communications, lvii; Johnson in his last illness, and to publish ‘praises’ of him, lxiii; Lurgan Clanbrassil, li; projected works, lxvii; Remarks on the profession of a player, lxi; visit to Rousseau and Voltaire, xlvi. BROWNE, Sir Thomas, lviii. BROWNING, Mr. Robert, lii. BURKE, Edmund, lxii.
CAMDEN, Lord, xlix.
CAMPBELL, Archibald, lxix.
‘CAUTION’ money, xxxii.
CLARENDON, Edward, Earl of, l.
CLARENDON PRESS, xxxii.
CLOUGH, Sir Richard, lxx.
COCOA TREE CLUB, lxix.
CROUSAZ, Jean Pierre de, lxvi.
DAVENPORT, William, xxxv.
DAVIES, Rev. J. Hamilton, xlix, liv, lx, lxi.
DODSLEY, Robert, xxvi.
Don Belianis, xli.
ENGLAND barren in good historians, xlix.
ENGLISH pulpit eloquence, lvii.
EVANS, Evan, lxxi.
EYRE, Mr., xxxii.
Farm and its Inhabitants,
xlii, liii. Felixmarte of Hircania, xli. FLOYER, Sir John, lxii. FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, l. FRANKING LETTERS, xxxvii. FREDERICK II. OF PRUSSIA, xlvi.
FRENCH WRITERS, their superficiality, xlvii.
FULLER, Thomas, Life, lxiv.
GARRICK, David, xli, xlv, lxi.
GIBBON, Edward, xlvii, lvii, lxvi, lxviii, lxix.
GOUGH, Richard, xxxiv.
GRAY, Thomas, lxxi.
GREGORY FAMILY, lxiv.
HARINGTON’S Nugae Antiqua, xxxv.
HAZLITT, William, lxi.
History of the Marchioness de Pompadour, xxix.
HOLCROFT, Thomas, lxx.
HUME, David, xlv.
‘IT has not wit enough to keep it sweet,’ lxiv.
JOHNSON, Michael, xl.
JOHNSON, Mr., a bookseller, xxix.
JOHNSON, Mrs., xliii.
JOHNSON, Samuel, advantages of having a profession or business, lviii;
advice about studying, xxxii;
anonymous publications, xxix;
application for the mastership of Solihull School, xliv;
citation of living authors in the Dictionary, lviii;
critics of three classes, xlv;
difference with Baretti, lvii;
discussion on baptism with Mr. Lloyd, liii;
knowledge of Italian, xliv;
Letters to William Strahan:
Apology about some work that was passing through the press, xxv;
apprenticing a lad to Mr. Strahan, and a presentation to the Blue
Coat School, xxxv;
Bathurst’s projected Geographical Dictionary, xxi;