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James published this year his

suppose him to be the author of an advertise- | profession.' ment for Osborne concerning the great Harleian | Medicinal Dictionary, in three volumes folio. Catalogue.

But I should think myself much wanting, both to my illustrious friend and my readers, did I not introduce here, with more than ordinary respect, an exquisitely beautiful Ode, which has not been inserted in any of the collections of Johnson's poetry, written by him at a very early period, as Mr. Hector informs me, and inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine of this year :

FRIENDSHIP, AN ODE.[*]

Friendship, peculiar boon of heaven,
The noble mind's delight and pride,
To men and angels only given,

To all the lower world denied.
While love unknown among the blest,
Parent of thousand wild desires,
The savage and the human breast

Torments alike with raging fires;

With bright, but oft destructive, gleam,
Alike o'er all his lightnings fly;
Thy lambent glories only beam

Around the fav'rites of the sky.

Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys

On fools and villains ne'er descend:
In vain for thee the tyrant sighs,

And hugs a flatterer for a friend.

Directress of the brave and just,

O guide us through life's darksome way!
And let the tortures of mistrust
On selfish bosoms only prey.

Nor shall thine ardour cease to glow,

When souls to blissful climes remove;
What rais'd our virtue here below,
Shall aid our happiness above.

Johnson had now an opportunity of obliging his schoolfellow Dr. James, of whom he once observed, 'No man brings more mind to his

was many years ago pointed out to James Bindley, Esq., as written by Johnson, and may safely be attributed to him:

AD ORNATISSIMAM PUELLAM

Vanæ sit arti, sit studio modus,
Formosa virgo! sit speculo quies,
Curamque quærendi decoris

Mitte, supervacuosque cultus.
Ut fortuitis verna coloribus
Depicta vulgo rura magis placent,
Nec invident horto nitenti

Divitias operosiores :
Lenique fons cum murmure pulcrior
Obliquat ultro præcipitem fugam
Inter reluctantes lapillos, et
Dacit aquas temere sequentes:
Utque inter undas, inter et arbores,
Jam vere primo dulce strepunt aves,
Et arte nulla gratiores

Ingeminant sine lege cantus:
Nativa sic te gratia, te nitor
Simplex decebit, te Veneres tuæ ;
Nudus Cupido suspicatur
Artifices nimis apparatus.

Johnson, as I understood from him, had written, or assisted in writing, the proposals for this work; and being very fond of the study of physic, in which James was his master, he furnished some of the articles. He, however, certainly wrote for it the Dedication to Dr. Mead [+], which is conceived with great address, to conciliate the patronage of that very eminent man.1

It has been circulated, I know not with what authenticity, that Johnson considered Dr. Birch as a dull writer, and said of him, 'Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties.' That the literature of this country is much indebted to Birch's activity and diligence must certainly be acknowledged. We have seen that Johnson honoured him with a Greek Epigram; and his correspondence with him during many years proves that he had no mean opinion of him. ་ TO DR. BIRCH.

'Thursday, Sept. 29, 1743. 'SIR,-I hope you will excuse me for troubling you on an occasion on which I know not whom else I can apply to. I am at a loss for the Lives and Characters of Earl Stanhope, the two

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'SIR,-That the Medicinal Dictionary is dedicated to you, is to be imputed only to your reputation for superior skill in those sciences which I have endeavoured to explain and facilitate; and you are therefore to consider this address, if it be agreeable to you, as one of the rewards of merit; and if otherwise, as one of the inconveniences of eminence.

'However you shall receive it, my design cannot be disappointed, because this public appeal to your judgment will show that I do not found my hopes of approbation upon the ignorance of my readers, and that I fear his censure least whose knowledge is most extensive.-I am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, 'R. JAMES.' -BOSWELL.

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'SIR,-I am extremely sorry that we have encroached so much upon your forbearance with respect to the interest, which a great perplexity of affairs hindered me from thinking of with that attention that I ought, and which I am not immediately able to remit to you, but will pay it (I think twelve pounds) in two months. I look upon this, and on the future interest of that mortgage, as my own debt; and beg that you will be pleased to give me directions how to pay it, and not mention it to my dear mother. If it be necessary to pay this in less time, I believe I can do it; but I take two months for certainty, and beg an answer whether you can allow me so much time. I think myself very much obliged to your forbearance, and shall esteem it a great happiness to be able to serve you. I have great opportunities of dispersing anything that you may think it proper to make public. I will give a note for the money, payable at the time mentioned, to any one here that you shall appoint. -I am, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.

'At Mr. Osborne's, bookseller, in Gray's Inn.'

It does not appear that he wrote anything in 1744 for the Gentleman's Magazine but the Preface [+]. His Life of Barretier was now republished in a pamphlet by itself. But he produced one work this year, fully sufficient to maintain the high reputation which he had acquired.

profligacy, insolence, and ingratitude: yet, as he undoubtedly had a warm and vigorous, though unregulated mind, had seen life in all its varieties, and been much in the company of the statesmen and wits of his time, he could communicate to Johnson an abundant supply of such materials as his philosophical curiosity most eagerly desired; and as Savage's misfortunes and misconduct had reduced him to the

lowest state of wretchedness as a writer for bread, his visits to St. John's Gate naturally brought Johnson and him together.'

It is melancholy to reflect that Johnson and

Savage were sometimes in such extreme indigence, that they could not pay for a lodging; so that they have wandered together whole

swear away my life, that is, the life of your creditor,
because he asks you for a debt.-The public shall soon
be acquainted with this, to judge whether you are not
fitter to be an Irish evidence than to be an Irish peer.-
I defy and despise you.-I am, your determined adver-
sary,
'R. S.'
-BOSWELL.

1 Sir John Hawkins gives the world to understand that Johnson, being an admirer of genteel manners, was captivated by the address and demeanour of Savage, who, as to his exterior, was to a remarkable degree accomplished.'-Hawkins's Life, p. 52. But Sir John's notions of gentility must appear somewhat ludicrous, from his stating the following circumstance as presumptive evidence that Savage was a good swordsman-That he understood the exercise of a gentleman's weapon, may be inferred from the use made of it in that rash encounter which is related in

his life. The dexterity here alluded to was, that Savage, in a nocturnal fit of drunkenness, stabbed a man at a coffeehouse, and killed him for which he was tried at the Old Bailey, and found guilty of murder.

Johnson, indeed, describes him as having a grave and manly deportment, a solemn dignity of mien; but which, upon a nearer acquaintance, softened into an engaging easiness of manners.' How highly Johnson admired him for that knowledge which he himself so much cultivated, and what kindness he entertained for him, appears from the following lines in the Gentleman's Magazine for April 1738, which I am assured were written by Johnson :

'Ad RICARDUM SAVAGE.
'Humani studium generis cui pectore fervet
O colat humanum te foveatque genus.'

-BOSWELL.

2 The following striking proof of Johnson's extreme

This was the Life of Richard indigence, when he published the Life of Savage, was

Savage [*],-a man of whom it is difficult to speak impartially, without wondering that he was for some time the intimate companion of Johnson; for his character' was marked by

1 As a specimen of his temper, I insert the following letter from him to a noble Lord [Tyrconnel] to whom he was under great obligations, but who, on account of his bad conduct, was obliged to discard him. The original was in the hands of the late Francis Cockayne Cust, Esq., one of his Majesty's counsel learned in the law :

'Right Honourable BRUTE and BOOBY.

'I find you want (as Mr. is pleased to hint) to

communicated to Mr. Boswell by Mr. Richard Stowe, of Aspley, in Bedfordshire, from the information of Mr. Walter Harte, author of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus

'Soon after Savage's Life was published, Mr. Harte dined with Edward Cave, and occasionally praised it. Soon after, meeting him, Cave said, "You made a man very happy t'other day."-"How could that be?" says Harte; "nobody was there but ourselves." Cave answered by reminding him that a plate of victuals was sent behind a screen, which was to Johnson, dressed so shabbily, that he did not choose to appear; but on hearing the conversation, he was highly delighted with the encomiums on his book.'-MALONE.

nights in the streets. Yet in these almost incredible scenes of distress, we may suppose that Savage mentioned many of the anecdotes with which Johnson afterwards enriched the life of his unhappy companion, and those of other poets.

He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that one night in particular, when Savage and he walked round St. James's Square for want of a lodging, they were not at all depressed by their situation, but in high spirits, and brim-full of patriotism, traversed the square for several hours, inveighed against the minister, and 'resolved they would stand by their country.'

I am afraid, however, that by associating with Savage, who was habituated to the dissipation and licentiousness of the town, Johnson, though his good principles remained steady, did not entirely preserve that conduct for which, in days of greater simplicity, he was remarked by his friend Mr. Hector, but was imperceptibly led into some indulgences which occasioned much

distress to his virtuous mind.

That Johnson was anxious that an authentic and favourable account of his extraordinary friend should first get possession of the public attention, is evident from a letter which he wrote in the Gentleman's Magazine for August of the year preceding its publication :

'MR. URBAN,

'As your collections show how often you have owed the ornaments of your poetical pages to the correspondence of the unfortunate and ingenious Mr. Savage, I doubt not but you have so much regard to his memory as to encourage any design that may have a tendency to the preservation of it from insults or calumnies, and therefore with some degree of assurance entreat you to inform the public, that his Life will speedily be published by a person who was favoured with his confidence, and received from

himself an account of most of the transactions which he proposes to mention, to the time of his retirement to Swansea, in Wales.

'From that period to his death in the prison

of Bristol, the account will be continued from materials still less liable to objection: his own letters, and those of his friends, some of which will be inserted in the work, and abstracts of others subjoined in the margin.

'It may be reasonably imagined that others may have the same design; but as it is not credible that they can obtain the same materials, it must be expected they will supply from invention the want of intelligence; and that under the title of "The Life of Savage" they will publish only a novel, filled with romantic adventures and imaginary amours. You may therefore perhaps gratify the lovers of truth and wit, by giving me leave to inform them in your Magazine, that my account will be published in 8vo, by Mr. Roberts, in Warwick Lane.' [No signature.]

In February 1744 it accordingly came forth from the shop of Roberts, between whom and Johnson I have not traced any connection, except the casual one of this publication. In Johnson's Life of Savage, although it must be allowed that its moral is the reverse of 'Respicere exemplar vitæ morumque jubebo,' a very useful lesson is inculcated, to guard men of warm passions from a too free indulgence of them; and the various incidents are related in so clear and animated a manner, and illuminated throughout with so much philosophy, that it is one of the most interesting narratives in the English language. Sir Joshua Reynolds told me, that upon his return from Italy he met with it in Devonshire, knowing nothing of its author, and began to read it while he was standing with his arm leaning against a chimney-piece. It seized his attention so strongly, that, not being able to lay down the book till he had finished it, when he attempted to move, he found his arm totally benumbed. The rapidity with which this work was composed is a

wonderful circumstance. Johnson has been heard to say, 'I wrote forty-eight of the printed octavo pages of the Life of Savage at a sitting; but then I sat up all night.'1

He exhibits the genius of Savage to the best

he has selected, some of which are of uncommon merit. We, indeed, occasionally find such vigour and such point, as might make us suppose that the generous aid of Johnson had been imparted to his friend. Mr. Thomas Warton made this remark to me; and, in support of it, quoted from the poem entitled The Bastard, a line in which the fancied superiority of one 'stamped in Nature's mint with ecstasy,' is contrasted with a regular lawful descendant of some great and ancient family:

1 As Johnson was married before he settled in Lon-advantage, in the specimens of his poetry which don, and must have always had a habitation for his wife, some readers have wondered how he ever could have been driven to stroll about with Savage all night, for want of a lodging. But it should be remembered that Johnson at different periods had lodgings in the vicinity of London; and his finances certainly would not admit of a double establishment. When, therefore, he spent a convivial day in London, and found it too late to return to any country residence he may occasionally have had, having no lodging in town, he was obliged to pass the night in the manner described above; for though at that period it was not uncommon for two men to sleep together, Savage, it appears, could accommodate him with nothing but his company in the open air. The Epigram given above, which doubtless was written by Johnson, shows that their acquaintance commenced before April 1788.-MALONE.

'No tenth transmitter of a foolish face.'

1 Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 35.BOSWELL.

But the fact is, that this poem was published some years before Johnson and Savage were acquainted.

It is remarkable, that in this biographical disquisition there appears a very strong symptom of Johnson's prejudice against players; a prejudice which may be attributed to the following causes: first, the imperfection of his organs, which were so defective that he was not susceptible of the fine impressions which theatrical excellence produces upon the generality of mankind; secondly, the cold rejection of his tragedy; and lastly, the brilliant success of Garrick, who had been his pupil, who had come to London at the same time with him, not in a much more prosperous state than himself, and whose talents he undoubtedly rated low, compared with his own. His being outstripped by his pupil in the race of immediate fame, as well as of fortune, probably made him feel some indignation, as thinking that whatever might be Garrick's merits in his art, the reward was too great when compared with what the most successful efforts of literary labour could attain. At all periods of his life Johnson used to talk contemptuously of players, but in this work he speaks of them with peculiar acrimony; for which, perhaps, there was formerly too much reason, from the licentious and dissolute manners of those engaged in that profession. It is but justice to add, that in our own time such a change has taken place, that there is no longer room for such an unfavourable distinction.

His Life of Savage was no sooner published, than the following liberal praise was given to it in The Champion, a periodical paper :

'This pamphlet is, without flattery to its author, as just and well-written a piece of its kind as I ever saw; so that at the same time that it highly deserves, it certainly stands very little in need of, this recommendation. As to the history of the unfortunate person whose memoirs compose this work, it is certainly penned with equal accuracy and spirit, of which I am so much the better judge, as I know many of the facts mentioned to be strictly true, and very fairly related. Besides, it is not only the story of Mr. Savage, but innumerable incidents relating to other persons and other affairs, which renders this a very amusing, and withal a very instructive and valuable performance. The author's observations are short, significant, and just, as his narrative is remarkably smooth and well-disposed. His reflections open to all the recesses of the human heart; and in a word, a more just or pleasant, a more engaging or a more improving treatise, on all the excellences and defects of human nature, is scarce to be found in our own, or perhaps any other language:"1

Johnson's partiality for Savage made him entertain no doubt of his story, however extraordinary and improbable. It never occurred to him to question his being the son of the Countess of Macclesfield, of whose unrelenting barbarity he so loudly complained, and the particulars of which are related in so strong and affecting a manner in Johnson's life of him. Johnson was certainly well warranted in publishing his narrative, however offensive it might be to the lady and her relations, because her alleged unnatural and cruel conduct to her son, and shameful avowal of guilt, were stated in a Life of Savage now lying before me, which came out so early as 1727, and no attempt had been made to confute it, or to punish the author or printer as a libeller: but for the honour of human nature, we should be glad to find the shocking tale not true; and from a respectable gentleman 2 connected with the lady's family, I have received such information and remarks, as, joined to my own inquiries, will, I think, ' render it at least somewhat doubtful, especially

His schoolfellow and friend, Dr. Taylor, told me a pleasant anecdote of Johnson's triumphing over his pupil, David Garrick. When that great actor had played some little time at Goodman's Fields, Johnson and Taylor went to see him perform, and afterwards passed the evening at a tavern with him and old Giffard. Johnson, who was ever depreciating stage-players, after censuring some mistakes in emphasis, which Garrick had committed in the course of that night's acting, said, 'The players, sir, have got a kind of rant, with which they run on, without any regard either to accent or emphasis.' Both Garrick and Giffard were offended at this sarcasm, and endeavoured to refute it; upon which Johnson rejoined, 'Well, now, I'll give you something to speak, with which you are little acquainted, and then we shall see how just my observation is. That shall be the criterion. Let me hear you repeat the ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false wit-phasis, but only be distinctly enunciated.-BOSWELL. ness against thy neighbour." Both tried at it, said Dr. Taylor, and both mistook the emphasis, which should be upon not and false witness. Johnson put them right, and enjoyed his victory with great glee.

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1 I suspect Dr. Taylor was inaccurate in his statement. The emphasis should be equally upon shalt and not, as both concur to form the negative injunction;

and false witness, like the other acts prohibited in the Decalogue, should not be marked by any peculiar em

A moderate emphasis should be placed on false.KEARNEY.

1 This character of the Life of Savage was not written

by Fielding, as has been supposed, but most probably by Ralph, who, as appears from the minutes of the partners of The Champion in the possession or Mr. Reed, of Staple Inn, succeeded Fielding in his share of the paper, before the date of that eulogium.-BosWELL

2 The late Francis Cockayne Cust, Esq., one of his Majesty's (George 111.) Counsel.-BoSWELL.

when we consider that it must have originated from the person himself who went by the name of Richard Savage,

If the maxim, Falsum in uno, falsum in omnibus, were to be received without qualification, the credit of Savage's narrative as conveyed to us would be annihilated; for it contains some assertions which, beyond a question, are not true.

1. In order to induce a belief that the Earl Rivers-on account of a criminal connection with whom, Lady Macclesfield is said to have been divorced from her husband by Act of Parliament [1697]—had a peculiar anxiety about the child which she bore to him, it is alleged that his lordship gave him his own name, and had it duly recorded in the register of St. Andrew's, Holborn. I have carefully inspected that register, but no such entry is to be found.' 2. It is stated that 'Lady Macclesfield, having lived for some time upon very uneasy terms

1 Mr. Cust's reasoning, with respect to the filiation of Richard Savage, always appeared to me extremely unsatisfactory, and is entirely overturned by the following decisive observations, for which the reader is indebted to the unwearied researches of Mr. Bindley. The story on which Mr. Cust so much relies, that Savage was a supposititious child, not the son of Lord Rivers and Lady Macclesfield, but the offspring of a shoemaker, introduced in consequence of her real son's death, was, without doubt, grounded on the circumstance of Lady Macclesfield's having in 1696, previously to the birth of Savage, had a daughter by the Earl Rivers, who died in her infancy; a fact which, as the same gentleman observes to me, was proved in the course of the proceedings on Lord Macclesfield's Bill of Divorce. Most fictions of this kind have some admixture of truth in them.-MALONE.

with her husband, thought a public confession of adultery the most obvious and expeditious method of obtaining her liberty;' and Johnson, assuming this to be true, stigmatizes her with indignation, as 'the wretch who had, without scruple, proclaimed herself an adulteress." But I have perused the Journals of both Houses of Parliament at the period of her divorce, and there find it authentically ascertained, that, so far from voluntarily submitting to the ignominious charge of adultery, she made a strenuaus defence by her counsel; the bill having been first moved the 15th of January 1697-8 in the House of Lords, and proceeded on (with various applications for time to bring up witnesses at a distance, etc.) at intervals till the 3d of March, when it passed. It was brought to the Commons, by a message from the Lords, the 5th of March, proceeded on the 7th, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 15th, on which day, after a full examination of witnesses on both sides, and hearing of counsel, it was reported without amendments, passed, and carried to the Lords. That Lady Macclesfield was convicted of the crime of which she was accused, cannot be denied; but the question now is, whether the person calling himself Richard Savage was her

son.

It has been said, that when Earl Rivers was dying, and anxious to provide for all his natural children, he was informed by Lady Macclesfield that her son by him was dead. Whether, then, shall we believe that this was a malignant lie, invented by a mother to prevent her own child from receiving the bounty of his father, which was accordingly the consequence, if the person whose life Johnson wrote was her son; or shall we not rather believe that the person who then assumed the name of Richard Savage was an

maker, under whose wife's care3 Lady Macclesfield's child was placed; that after the death of the real Richard Savage he attempted to personate him; and that the fraud being known to Lady Macclesfield, he was therefore repulsed by her with just resentment.

From the Earl of Macclesfield's Case, which in 1697-8 was presented to the Lords, in order to procure an act of divorce, it appears that Anne, Countess of Mac-impostor, being in reality the son of the shoeclesfield, under the name of Madam Smith, was delivered of a male child in Fox Court, near Brook Street, Holborn, by Mrs. Wright, a midwife, on Saturday, the 16th of January 1696-7, at six o'clock in the morning, who was baptized on the Monday following, and registered by the name of Richard, the son of John Smith, by Mr. Burbridge, assistant to Dr. Manningham's curate for St. Andrew's, Holborn; that the child was christened on Monday, the 18th of January, in Fox Court; and from the privacy, was supposed by Mr. Burbridge to be "a by-blow, or bastard." It also appears that during her delivery the lady wore a mask; and that Mary Pegler, on the next day after

the baptism (Tuesday), took a male child, whose mother

was called Madam Smith, from the house of Mrs. Pheasant, in Fox Court (running from Brook Street into Gray's Inn Lane), who went by the name of Mrs. Lee.

Conformable to this statement is the entry in the register of St. Andrew's, Holborn, which is as follows, and which unquestionably records the baptism of Richard Savage, to whom Lord Rivers gave his own Christian name, prefixed to the assumed surname of his mother: Jan. 1696-7. Richard, son of John Smith and Mary, in Fox Court, in Gray's Inn Lane, baptized the 18th.'-BINDLEY.

There is a strong circumstance in support of the last supposition, though it has been mentioned as an aggravation of Lady Macclesfield's unnatural conduct; and that is, her having prevented him from obtaining the benefit of a legacy left to him by Mrs. Lloyd, his godmother. For if there was such a legacy left,

No divorce can be obtained in the Courts on confession of the party. There must be proofs.-KEARNEY. 2 By Johnson in his Life of Savage.—MALONE.

3 This, as an accurate friend remarks to me, is not correctly stated. The shoemaker under whose care Savage was placed, with a view to his becoming his apprentice, was not the husband of this nurse.-See Johnson's Life of Savage. Lives of the Poets, vol iii. p. 131, edit. 1782.-BOSWELL

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