the author; who, though he had forborne to subscribe his name to the pamphlet, the vigilance of those in pursuit of him had discovered;' and we are informed that he lay concealed in Lambeth Marsh till the scent after him grew cold. This, however, is altogether without foundation; for Mr. Steele, one of the Secretaries of the Treasury, who, amidst a variety of important business, politely obliged me with his attention to my inquiry, informed me that 'he directed every possible search to be made in the records of the Treasury and Secretary of State's Office, but could find no trace whatever of any warrant having been issued to apprehend the author of this pamphlet.' sive kind, that attacks him sometimes so as to Johnson had been told of this note; and Sir Joshua Reynolds informed him of the compliment which it contained, but from delicacy avoided showing him the paper itself. When Sir Joshua observed to Johnson that he seemed very desirous to see Pope's note, he answered, 'Who would not be proud to have such a man as Pope so solicitous in inquiring about him?' The infirmity to which Mr. Pope alludes, ap Marmor Norfolciense became exceedingly scarce, so that I for many years endeavoured in vain to procure a copy of it. At last I was indebted to the malice of one of Johnson's nume-peared to me also, as I have elsewhere1 observed, rous petty adversaries, who in 1775 published a to be of the convulsive kind, and of the nature new edition of it, 'with Notes and a Dedication of that distemper called St. Vitus's dance; and to Samuel Johnson, LL.D., by Tribunus;' in in this opinion I am confirmed by the descripwhich some puny scribbler invidiously attempted tion which Sydenham gives of that disease: to found upon it a charge of inconsistency against This disorder is a kind of convulsion. It maniits author, because he had accepted of a pension fests itself by halting, or unsteadiness of one of from his present Majesty, and had written in the legs, which the patient draws after him like support of the measures of Government. As a an idiot. If the hand of the same side be apmortification to such impotent malice, of which plied to the breast, or any other part of the there are so many instances towards men of body, he cannot keep it a moment in the same eminence, I am happy to relate that this telum posture, but it will be drawn into a different one imbelle did not reach its exalted object till about by a convulsion, notwithstanding all his efforts a year after it thus appeared, when I mentioned to the contrary.' Sir Joshua Reynolds, howit to him, supposing that he knew of the repub-ever, was of a different opinion, and favoured lication. To my surprise, he had not yet heard me with the following paper :of it. He requested me to go directly and get it for him, which I did. He looked at it and laughed, and seemed to be much diverted with the feeble efforts of his unknown adversary, who, I hope, is alive to read this account. 'Now,' said he, 'here is somebody who thinks he has vexed me sadly: yet if it had not been for you, you rogue, I should probably never have seen it.' As Mr. Pope's note concerning Johnson, alluded to in a former page, refers both to his London and his Marmor Norfolciense, I have deferred inserting it till now. I am indebted for it to Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, who permitted me to copy it from the original in his possession. It was presented to his Lordship by Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom it was given by the son of Mr. Richardson the painter, the person to whom it is addressed. I have transcribed it with minute exactness, that the peculiar mode of writing and imperfect spelling of that celebrated poet may be exhibited to the curious in literature. It justifies Swift's epithet of 'paper-sparing Pope,' for it is written on a slip no larger than a common message-card, and was sent to Mr. Richardson, along with the imitation of Juvenal : This is imitated by one Johnson who put in for a Publick-school in Shropshire, but was disappointed. He has an infirmity of the convul "Those motions or tricks of Dr. Johnson are improperly called convulsions. He could sit motionless when he was told so to do, as well as any other man. My opinion is, that it proceeded from a habit2 which he indulged himself in, of accompanying his thoughts with certain untoward actions, and those actions always appeared to me as if they were meant to reprobate some part of his past conduct. Whenever he was not engaged in conversation, such thoughts were sure to rush into his mind; and for this reason, any company, any employment whatever, he preferred to being alone. The great business of his life, he said, was to escape from himself; this disposition he considered as the disease of his mind, which nothing cured but company. 'One instance of his absence of mind and particularity, as it is characteristic of the man, may be worth relating. When he and I took a journey together into the West, we visited the late Mr. Banks, of Dorsetshire. The conversation turning upon pictures, which Johnson could not well see, he retired to a corner of the room, stretching out his right leg as far as he could reach before him, then bringing up his left leg, and stretching his right still further on. The old gentleman observing him, went up to him, and in a very courteous manner assured him, though it was not a new house, the flooring was perfectly safe. The Doctor started from his reverie, like a person waked out of his sleep, but spoke not a word.' While we are on this subject, my readers may not be displeased with another anecdote communicated to me by the same friend, from the relation of Mr. Hogarth. Johnson used to be a pretty frequent visitor at the house of Mr. Richardson, author of Clarissa, and other novels of extensive reputation. Mr. Hogarth came one day to see Richardson, soon after the execution of Dr. Cameron for having taken arms for the house of Stuart in 1745-6; and being a warm partisan of George the Second, he observed to Richardson, that certainly there must have been some very unfavourable circumstances lately discovered in this particular case, which had induced the King to approve of an execution for rebellion so long after the time when it was committed, as this had the appearance of putting a man to death in cold blood,' and was very unlike his Majesty's usual clemency. While he was talking, he perceived a person standing at a window in the room, shaking his head, and rolling himself about in a strange, ridiculous manner. He concluded that he was an idiot whom his relations had put under the care of Mr. Richardson, as a very good man. To his great surprise, however, this figure stalked forwards to where he and Mr. Richardson were sitting, and all at once took up the argument, and burst out into an invective against George the Second, as one who upon all occasions was unrelenting and barbarous, mentioning many instances; particularly, that when an officer of 1 Impartial posterity may, perhaps, be as little inclined as Dr. Johnson was to justify the uncommon rigour exercised in the case of Dr. Archibald Cameron. He was an amiable and truly honest man, and his offence was owing to a generous, though mistaken, principle of duty. Being obliged, after 1746, to give up his profession as a physician, and to go into foreign parts, he was honoured with the rank of colonel both in the French and Spanish service. He was a son of the ancient and respectable family of Cameron of Lochiel; and his brother, who was the chief of that brave clan, distinguished himself by moderation and humanity, while the Highland army marched victorious through Scotland. It is remarkable of this chief, that though he had earnestly remonstrated against the attempt as hopeless, he was of too heroic a spirit not to venture his life and fortune in the cause, when personally asked by him whom he thought his prince.BOSWELL high rank had been acquitted by a court-martial, George the Second had with his own hand struck his name off the list. In short, he displayed such a power of eloquence, that Hogarth looked at him with astonishment, and actually imagined that this idiot had been at the moment inspired. Neither Hogarth nor Johnson were made known to each other at this interview. In 1740 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine the 'Preface '[t], the 'Life of Admiral Blake '[*], and the first parts of those of 'Sir Francis Drake '[*] and Philip Barretier' [*]," both which he finished the following year. He also wrote an Essay on Epitaphs[*], and an Epitaph on Phillips, a musician [*], which was afterwards published, with some other pieces of his, in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies. This Epitaph is so exquisitely beautiful, that I remember even Lord Kaimes, strangely prejudiced as he was against Dr. Johnson, was compelled to allow it very high praise. It has been ascribed to Mr. Garrick, from its appearing at first with the signature G.; but I have heard Mr. Garrick declare that it was written by Dr. Johnson, and give the following account of the manner in which it was composed. Johnson and he were sitting together; when, amongst other things, Garrick repeated an Epitaph upon this Phillips, by a Dr. Wilkes, in these words: 'Exalted soul! whose harmony could please The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease; Could jarring discord, like Amphion, move To beauteous order and harmonious love: Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise, And meet thy blessed Saviour in the skies.' Johnson shook his head at these commonplace funereal lines, and said to Garrick, 'I think, Davy, I can make a better.' Then, stirring about his tea for a little while, in a state of meditation, he almost extempore produced the following verses : 'Phillips, whose touch harmonious could remove 1 To which in 1742 he made very large additions, which have never yet been incorporated in any edition of Barretier's life.-A. CHALMERS. 2 The epitaph of Phillips is in the porch of Wolverhampton Church. The prose part of it is curious: 'Near this place lies CHARLES CLAUDIUS PHILLIPS, Whose absolute contempt of riches, and inimitable performances upon the violin, made him the admiration of all that knew him. He was born in Wales, made the tour of Europe; and, after the experience of both kinds of fortune, died in 1732.' Mr. Garrick appears not to have recited the verses correctly, the original being as follows. One of the me with this anecdote, he repeated a very pointed Epigram by Johnson, on George the Second and Colley Cibber, which has never yet appeared, and of which I know not the exact date. Dr. Johnson afterwards gave it to me himself: anything that is omitted. I should be very glad to have something of the Duke of New castle's speech, which would be particularly of service. 'A gentleman has Lord Bathurst's speech to add something to.' And July 3, 1744: 'You will see what stupid, low, abominable stuff is put upon your noble and learned friend's character, such as I should quite re towards doing justice to the character. But as I cannot expect to attain my desire in that respect, it would be a great satisfaction, as well as an honour to our work, to have the favour of the genuine speech. It is a method that several have been pleased to take, as I could show, but I think myself under a restraint. I shall say so far, that I have had some by a third hand, which I understood well enough to come from the first; others by penny-post, and others by the speakers themselves, who have been pleased to visit St. John's Gate, and show particular marks of their being pleased.' 'Augustus still survives in Maro's strain, And Spenser's verse prolongs Eliza's reign; Great George's acts let tuneful Cibber sing, For nature form'd the poet for the king.' In 1741 he wrote for the Gentleman's Maga-ject, and endeavour to do something better zine the 'Preface' [+], 'Conclusion of his Lives of Drake and Barretier '[*], 'A free Translation of the Jests of Hierocles, with an Introduction;' and, I think, the following pieces ::-'Debate on the Proposal of Parliament to Cromwell, to assume the Title of King, abridged, modified, and digested' [+]; "Translation of Abbé Guyon's Dissertation on the Amazons' [+]; 'Translation of Fontenelle's Panegyric on Dr. Morin'[+]. Two notes upon this appear to me undoubtedly his. He this year, and the two following, wrote the 'Parliamentary Debates.' He told me himself that he was the sole composer of them for those three years only. He was not, however, precisely exact in his statement, which he mentioned from hasty recollection; for it is sufficiently evident that his composition of them began November 19, 1740, and ended February 23, 1742-43. It appears from some of Cave's letters to Dr. Birch, that Cave had better assistance for that branch of his Magazine than has been generally supposed, and that he was indefatigable in getting it made as perfect as he could. Thus, 21st July 1735: 'I trouble you with the enclosed, because you said you could easily correct what is here given for Lord Chesterfield's speech. I beg you will do so as soon as you can for me, because the month is far advanced.' And 15th July 1737: 'As you remember the debates so far as to perceive the speeches already printed are not exact, I beg the favour that you will peruse the enclosed, and, in the best manner your memory will serve, correct the mistaken passages, or add There is no reason, I believe, to doubt the veracity of Cave. It is, however, remarkable that none of these letters are in the years during which Johnson alone furnished the debates, and one of them is in the very year after he ceased from that labour. Johnson told me, that as soon as he found that the speeches were thought genuine, he determined that he would write no more of them: 'for he would not be accessory to the propagation of falsehood.' And such was the tenderness of his conscience, that a short time before his death he expressed his regret for his having been the author of fictions which had passed for realities. He nevertheless agreed with me in thinking, that the debates which he had framed were to be valued as orations upon questions of public importance. They have accordingly been collected in volumes, properly arranged, and recommended to the notice of parliamentary speakers by a preface written by no inferior hand. Imust, however, observe, that although there is in those debates a wonderful store of various readings is remarkable, as it is the germ of political information and very powerful elo Johnson's concluding line: 'Exalted soul, thy various sounds could please The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease; Could jarring crowds, like old Amphion, move To beauteous order and harmonious love; Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise, And meet thy SAVIOUR'S consort in the skies.' Dr. Wilkes, the author of these lines, was a Fellow of Trinity College in Oxford, and Rector of Pitchford in Shropshire. He collected materials for a history of that county, and is spoken of by Brown Willis, in his History of Mitred Abbies, vol. ii. p. 189. But he was a native of Staffordshire, and to the antiquities of that county was his attention chiefly confined. Mr. Shaw has had the use of his papers.-J. BLAKEWAY. quence, I cannot agree that they exhibit the manner of each particular speaker, as Sir John Hawkins seems to think. But, indeed, what opinion can we have of his judgment, and taste in public speaking, who presumes to give as the characteristics of two celebrated orators, 'the 1 I suppose in another compilation of the same kind. -BOSWELL. 2 Doubtless Lord Hardwicke.-BOSWELL. WELL. I am assured that the editor is Mr. George Chalmers, whose commercial works are well known and esteemed.-BOSWELL. deep-mouthed rancour of Pulteney, and the about Burman; 'Additions to his Life of Baryelping pertinacity of Pitt'? 1 CHAPTER VI. 1741-1744. THIS year I find that his tragedy of Irene had been for some time ready for the stage, and that his necessities made him desirous of getting as much as he could for it without delay; for there is the following letter from Mr. Cave to Dr. Birch in the same volume of manuscripts in the British Museum from which I copied those above quoted. They were most obligingly pointed out to me by Sir William Musgrave, one of the Curators of that noble repository : 2 3 'Sept. 9, 1741. 'I have put Mr. Johnson's play into Mr. Gray's hands, in order to sell it to him, if he is inclined to buy it; but I doubt whether he will or not. He would dispose of the copy, and whatever advantage may be made by acting it. Would your society or any gentleman, or body of men that you know, take such a bargain? He and I are very unfit to deal with theatrical persons. Fleetwood was to have acted in it last | season, but Johnson's diffidence or prevented it.' I have already mentioned that Irene was not brought into public notice till Garrick was manager of Drury Lane Theatre. retier' [*]; The Life of Sydenham ' [*], afterwards prefixed to Dr. Swan's edition of his works; 'Proposals for printing the Bibliotheca Harleiana, or a catalogue of the Library of the Earl of Oxford '[*]. His account of that celebrated collection of books, in which he displays the importance to literature of what the French call a catalogue raisonné, when the subjects of it are extensive and various, and it is executed with ability, cannot fail to impress all his readers with admiration of his philological attainments. It was afterwards prefixed to the first volume of the Catalogue, in which the Latin accounts of books were written by him. He was employed in this business by Mr. Thomas Osborne the bookseller, who purchased the library for £13,000, a sum which Mr. Oldys says in one of his manuscripts was not more than the binding of the books had cost; yet, as Dr. Johnson assured me, the slowness of the sale was such, that there was not much gained by it. It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. 'Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop; it was in my own chamber.' A very diligent observer may trace him where we should not easily suppose him to be found. I have no doubt that he wrote the little abridgment entitled 'Foreign History,' in the Maga In 1742 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine the 'Preface '[t], the 'Parliamentary De-zine for December. bates'[*], 'Essay on the Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough '[*], then the popular topic of conversation. This essay is a short but masterly performance. We find him, in No. 13 of his Rambler, censuring a profligate sentiment in that 'Account,' and again insisting upon it strenuously in conversation. 'An Account of the Life of Peter Burman' [*], I believe chiefly taken from a foreign publication; as, indeed, he could not himself know much 1 Sir J. Hawkins's Life of Johnson.-BOSWELL. 2 A London bookseller.-BOSWELL. Not the Royal Society, but the Society for the Encouragement of Learning, of which Dr. Birch was a leading member. Their object was to assist authors in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when, having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved.-BoSWELL. There is no erasure here, but a mere blank, to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture. -BOSWELL. 5 From one of his letters to a friend, written in June 1742, it should seem that he then purposed to write a play on the subject of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, and to have it ready for the ensuing winter. The pas sage alluded to, however, is somewhat ambiguous, and the work which he then had in contemplation may have been a history of that monarch.-MALONE. • Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d ed. p. 167.BOSWELL. To prove it, I shall quote the introduction :'As this is that season of the year in which Nature may be said to command a suspension of hostilities, and which seems intended, by putting a short stop to violence and slaughter, to afford time for malice to relent, and animosity to subside, we can scarce expect any other account than of plans, negotiations, and treaties, of proposals for peace and preparations for war.' As also this passage : 'Let those who despise the capacity of the Swiss, tell us by what wonderful policy, or by what happy conciliation of interests, it is brought to pass, that in a body made up of different communities and different religions, there should be no civil commotions, though the people are so warlike, that to nominate and raise an army is the same.' I am obliged to Mr. Astle for his ready permission to copy the two following letters, of which the originals are in his possession. Their contents show that they were written about this time, and that Johnson was now engaged in preparing an historical account of the British Parliament. 1 Mr. Thomas Astle, keeper of the Records in the Tower. He died 1803. 'TO MR. CAVE. [No date.] 'SIR,-I believe I am going to write a long letter, and have therefore taken a whole sheet of paper. The first thing to be written about is our historical design. 'You mentioned the proposal of printing in numbers, as an alteration in the scheme; but I believe you mistook, some way or other, my meaning. I had no other view than that you might rather print too many of five sheets, than of five-and-thirty. 'With regard to what I shall say on the manner of proceeding, I would have it understood as wholly indifferent to me, and my opinion only, not my resolution. Emptoris sit cligere. -all the magazines that have anything of his or relating to him. 'I thought my letter would be long, but now it is ended; and I am, sir, yours, etc., 'SAM. JOHNSON. "The boy found me writing this almost in the dark, when I could not quite easily read yours. 'I have read the Italian :-nothing in it is well. 'I had no notion of having anything for the inscription. I hope you don't think I kept it to extort a price. I could think of nothing till to-day. If you could spare me another guinea for the history, I should take it very kindly tonight; but if you do not, I shall not think it an injury. 'I am almost well again." TO MR. CAVE 'SIR,-You did not tell me your determination about the Soldier's Letter, which I am con do by itself, or in any other place so well as the Mag. Extraordinary. If you will have it all, I believe you do not think I set it high; and I will be glad if what you give, you will give quickly. 'I think the insertion of the exact dates of the most important events in the margin, or of so many events as may enable the reader to regulate the order of facts with sufficient exactness, the proper medium between a journal, which has regard only to time, and a history which ranges facts according to their depend-fident was never printed. I think it will not ence on each other, and postpones or anticipates according to the convenience of narration. I think the work ought to partake of the spirit of history, which is contrary to minute exactness, and of the regularity of a journal, which is inconsistent with spirit. For this reason I neither admit numbers or dates, nor reject them. 'I am of your opinion with regard to placing most of the resolutions, etc., in the margin, and think we shall give the most complete account of parliamentary proceedings that can be contrived. The naked papers, without an historical treatise interwoven, require some other book to make them understood. I will date the succeeding facts with some exactness, but I think in the margin. You told me on Saturday that I had received money on this work, and found set down £13, 2s. 6d., reckoning the half guinea of last Saturday. As you hinted to me that you had many calls for money, I would not press you too hard, and therefore shall desire only, as I send it in, two guineas for a sheet of copy; the rest you may pay me when it may be more convenient; and even by this sheetpayment I shall, for some time, be very expensive. 'The Life of Savage I am ready to go upon; and in great primer and pica notes, I reckon on sending in half a sheet a day; but the money for that shall likewise lie by in your hands till it is done. With the debates, shall not I have business enough? if I had but good pens. "Towards Mr. Savage's Life, what more have you got? I would willingly have his trial, etc., and know whether his defence be at Bristol, and would have his collection of poems, on account of the Preface;-The Plain Dealer,' 1 The Plain Dealer was published in 1724, and con tained some account of Savage.—BOSWELL 'You need not be in care about something to print, for I have got the State Trials, and shall extract Layer, Atterbury, and Macclesfield from them, and shall bring them to you in a fortnight; after which I will try to get the South Sea Report.' [No date, nor signature.] I would also ascribe to him an Essay on the Description of China, from the French of Du His writings in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1743 are: the 'Preface '[+]; the 'Parliamentary Debates '[t]; 'Considerations on the Dispute between Crousaz and Warburton on Pope's Essay on Man'[t]; in which, while he defends Crousaz, he shows an admirable metaphysical acuteness and temperance in controversy; 'Ad Lauram parituram Epigramma '[*]; and, ‘A Latin Translation of Pope's verses on his Grotto;' and as he could employ his pen with equal success upon a small matter as a great, I 1 Perhaps the Runic inscription; Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xii. p. 132.—MALONE. 2 I have not discovered what this was.-BOSWELL Mr. Hector was present when this epigram was made impromptu. The first line was proposed by Dr. James, and Johnson was called upon by the company to finish it, which he instantly did.-BOSWELL The following elegant Latin ode, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1743 (vol. xiii. p. 548), |