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CHAPTER XLVI-1780

DEATH OF BEAUCLERK

"The Lives of the Poets"-Lord Marchmont-Johnson's Letter to Dr. Lawrence-Beauclerk's DeathMr. Thrale-Johnson's Correspondence with Mrs. Thrale-Langton on Beauclerk's Death-Johnson Lionised-The Gordon Riots-Johnson's Account of the same-Akerman's Bravery at the Newgate Fire-Johnson and David Boswell-Dr. Dunbar-Johnson's Advice to a Young ClergymanThrale's Election-Correspondence-Alexander Macbean.

IN 1780, the world was kept in impatience for the completion of his "Lives of the Poets," upon which he was employed so far as his indolence allowed him to

labour.

I wrote to him on January 1 and March 13, sending him my notes of Lord Marchmont's information concerning Pope;-complaining that I had not heard from him for almost four months, though he was two letters in my debt;-that I had suffered again from melancholy ;-hoping that he had been in so much better company (the Poets), that he had not time to think of his distant friends; for, if that were the case, I should have some recompense for my uneasiness;—that the state of my affairs did not admit of my coming to London this year; and begging he would return me Goldsmith's two poems, with his lines marked.

His friend Dr. Lawrence having now suffered the greatest affliction to which a man is liable, and which Johnson himself had felt in the most severe manner, Johnson wrote to him in an admirable strain of sympathy and pious consolation.

"DEAR SIR,—

"TO DR. LAWRENCE.

"AT a time when all your friends ought to show their kindness, and with a character which ought to make all that know you your friends, you may wonder that you have yet heard nothing from me.

"I have been hindered by a vexatious and incessant cough, for which within these ten days I have been bled once, fasted four or five times, taken physic five times, and opiates, I think, six. This day it seems to remit.

"The loss, dear Sir, which you have lately suffered, I felt many years ago, and know therefore how much has been taken from you, and how little help can be had from consolation. He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes, and fears, and interest; from the only companion with whom he has shared much good or evil; and with whom he could set his mind at liberty, to retrace the past or anticipate the future. The continuity of being is lacerated; the settled course of sentiment and action is stopped; and life stands suspended and motionless, till it is driven by external causes into a new channel. But the time of suspense is dreadful.

"Our first recourse in this distressed solitude is, perhaps for want of habitual piety, to a gloomy acquiescence in necessity. Of two mortal beings, one must lose

the other; but surely there is a higher and better comfort to be drawn from the consideration of that Providence which watches over all, and a belief that the living and the dead are equally in the hands of GOD, who will reunite those whom he has separated; or who sees that it is best not to reunite. I am, dear Sir,

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WELL, I had resolved to send you the Chesterfield letter; but I will write once again without it. Never impose tasks upon mortals. To require two things is the way to have them both undone.

"For the difficulties which you mention in your affairs, I am sorry; but difficulty is now very general: it is not therefore less grievous, for there is less hope of help. I pretend not to give you advice, not knowing the state of your affairs: and general counsels about prudence and frugality would do you little good. You are, however, in the right not to increase your own perplexity by a journey hither; and I hope that by staying at home you will please your father.

"Poor dear Beauclerk *-nec, ut soles, dabis joca. His wit and his folly, his acuteness and his maliciousness, his merriment and reasoning, are now over. Such another will not often be found among mankind. He directed himself to be buried by the side of his mother, an instance of tenderness which I hardly expected. He has left his children to the care of Lady Di, and if she dies, of Mr. Langton, and of Mr. Leicester, his relation, and a man of good character. His library has been offered to sale to the Russian ambassador.†

"Dr. Percy, notwithstanding all the noise of the newspapers, has had no literary loss. Clothes and movables were burnt to the value of about £100; but his papers, and I think his books, were all preserved.

"Poor Mr. Thrale has been in extreme danger from an apoplectical disorder, and recovered beyond the expectation of his physicians; he is now at Bath, that his mind may be quiet, and Mrs. Thrale and Miss are with him.

"Having told you what has happened to your friends, let me say something to you of yourself. You are always complaining of melancholy, and I conclude from those complaints that you are fond of it. No man talks of that which he is desirous to conceal, and every man desires to conceal that of which he is ashamed. Do not pretend to deny it; manifestum habemus furem; make it an invariable and obligatory law to yourself never to mention your own mental diseases; if you are never to speak of them you will think on them but little, and if you think little of them, they will molest you rarely. When you talk of them, it is plain that you want either praise or pity; for praise there is no room, and pity will do you no good; therefore, from this hour speak no more, think no more, about them.

"Your transaction with Mrs. Stewart gave me great satisfaction; I am much obliged to you for your attention. Do not lose sight of her; your countenance may

* [The Hon. Topham Beauclerk died March 11, 1780. M.]

† [Mr. Beauclerk's library was sold by public auction in April and May, 1781, for £5,011. M.] By a fire in Northumberland-house, where he had an apartment, in which I have passed many an agreeable hour.

CALIFORNIA

[graphic]

engraving by Samuel Fiellin, after the picture by 2. P. Harding

Topham Beauclerk. (0.17:30 d.1780)

Etat. 71]

THE DEATH OF BEAUCLERK

873

be of great credit, and of consequence of great advantage to her. The memory of her brother is yet fresh in my mind; he was an ingenious and worthy man.

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Please to make my compliments to your lady and to the young ladies. I should like to see them, pretty loves. I am, dear Sir, yours affectionately,

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Mrs. Thrale being now at Bath with her husband, the correspondence between Johnson and her was carried on briskly. I shall present my readers with one of her original letters to him at this time, which will amuse them probably more than those well-written but studied epistles which she has inserted in her collection, because it exhibits the easy vivacity of their literary intercourse. It is also of value as a key to Johnson's answer, which she has printed by itself, and of which I shall subjoin extracts.

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I MRS. THRALE TO
DR. JOHNSON.

"I HAD a very kind letter from you yesterday, dear Sir, with a most circumstantial date. You took trouble with my circulating letter, Mr. Evans writes me word, and I thank you sincerely for so doing one might do mischief else, not being on the spot.

"Yesterday's evening was passed at Mrs. Montague's there was Mr. Melmoth*; I do not like him though, nor he me; it was expected we should have pleased each other; he is, however, just Tory enough to hate the Bishop of Peterborough† for Whiggism, and Whig enough to abhor you for Toryism.

"Mrs. Montague flattered him finely; so he had a good afternoon on't. This evening we

[William Melmoth (17101799), author of "Fitzosborne's Letters" and translation of Pliny and Cicero.-Croker.] † Dr. John Hinchliffe.

From a lithograph by G. P. Harding after the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds,

P.R.A.

LADY DIANA BEAUCLERK (b. 1734, d. 1808)

was the daughter of Charles Spencer, second Duke of Marlborough. She married in 1757 Frederick, second Viscount Bolingbroke; this marriage was dissolved March 10th, 1768, and two days afterwards she married Hon. Topham Beauclerk. She was a gifted amateur artist.

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