James Boswell - THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON - All 6 Volumes in One Edition

[921] Yet in his reply to Mr. Hanway he said ( Works , vi. 33):—‘I allowed tea to be a barren superfluity, neither medicinal nor nutritious, that neither supplied strength nor cheerfulness, neither relieved weariness, nor exhilarated sorrow.’ Cumberland writes ( Memoirs , i. 357):—‘I remember when Sir Joshua Reynolds at my house reminded Dr. Johnson that he had drank eleven cups, he replied: “Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?” And then laughing in perfect good humour he added:—“Sir, I should have released the lady from any further trouble, if it had not been for your remark; but you have reminded me that I want one of the dozen, and I must request Mrs. Cumberland to round up my number.”’

[922] In this Review Johnson describes himself as ‘a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning.’ Johnson’s Works , vi. 21. That ‘he never felt the least inconvenience from it’ may well be doubted. His nights were almost always bad. In 1774 he recorded:—‘I could not drink this day either coffee or tea after dinner. I know not when I missed before.’ The next day he recorded:—‘Last night my sleep was remarkably quiet. I know not whether by fatigue in walking, or by forbearance of tea.’ Diary of a Journey into North Wales , Aug. 4.

[923] See post , May, 1768.

[924]

‘Losing, he wins, because his

name will be

Ennobled by defeat who durst

contend with me.’

DRYDEN, Ovid, Meta ., xiii. 19.

[925] In Hanway’s Essay Johnson found much to praise. Hanway often went to the root when he dealt with the evils of life. Thus he writes:—‘The introducing new habits of life is the most substantial charity.’ But he thus mingles sense and nonsense:—‘Though tea and gin have spread their baneful influence over this island and his Majesty’s other dominions, yet you may be well assured that the Governors of the Foundling Hospital will exert their utmost skill and vigilance to prevent the children under their care from being poisoned, or enervated, by one or the other.’ Johnson’s Works , vi. 26, 28.

[926] ‘Et pourquoi tuer cet amiral? C’est, lui dit-on, parce qu’il n’a pas fait tuer assez de monde; il a livré un combat à un amiral français, et on a trouvé qu’il n’était pas assez près de lui. Mais, dit Candide, l’amiral français était aussi loin de l’amiral anglais que celui-ci l’était de l’autre. Cela est incontestable, lui répliquat-on; mais dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres.’ Candide , ch. xxiii.

[927] See post , June 3, 1781, when Boswell went to this church.

[928] Johnson reprinted this Review in a small volume by itself. See Johnson’s Works , vi. 47, note.

[929]

‘I have ventured,

Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,

This many summers in a sea of glory,

But far beyond my depth.’

Henry VIII, Act iii. sc. 2.

[930] Musical Travels through England , by Joel Collier [not Collyer], Organist, 1774. This book was written in ridicule of Dr. Burney’s Travels , who, says his daughter, ‘was much hurt on its first appearance.’ Dr. Burney’s Memoirs , i. 259.

[931] See ante , p. 223.

[932] Some time after Dr. Johnson’s death there appeared in the newspapers and magazines an illiberal and petulant attack upon him, in the form of an Epitaph, under the name of Mr. Soame Jenyns, very unworthy of that gentleman, who had quietly submitted to the critical lash while Johnson lived. It assumed, as characteristicks of him, all the vulgar circumstances of abuse which had circulated amongst the ignorant. It was an unbecoming indulgence of puny resentment, at a time when he himself was at a very advanced age, and had a near prospect of descending to the grave. I was truly sorry for it; for he was then become an avowed, and (as my Lord Bishop of London, who had a serious conversation with him on the subject, assures me) a sincere Christian. He could not expect that Johnson’s numerous friends would patiently bear to have the memory of their master stigmatized by no mean pen, but that, at least, one would be found to retort. Accordingly, this unjust and sarcastick Epitaph was met in the same publick field by an answer, in terms by no means soft, and such as wanton provocation only could justify:

‘ Prepared for a creature not quite dead yet .

‘Here lies a little ugly nauseous elf,

Who judging only from its wretched self,

Feebly attempted, petulant and vain,

The “Origin of Evil” to explain.

A mighty Genius at this elf displeas’d,

With a strong critick grasp the urchin squeez’d.

For thirty years its coward spleen it kept,

Till in the duat the mighty Genius slept;

Then stunk and fretted in expiring snuff,

And blink’d at JOHNSON with its last poor puff.’

The epitaph is very likely Boswell’s own. For Jenyns’s conversion see post , April 12 and 15, 1778.

[933] Mr. John Payne, afterwards chief accountant of the Bank, one of the four surviving members of the Ivy Lane Club who dined together in 1783. See Hawkins’s Johnson , pp. 220, 563; and post , December, 1783.

[934] See post , under March 19, 1776.

[935] ‘He said, “I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life; it generates kindness and consolidates society.”’ Boswell’s Hebrides , Nov. 21, 1773.

[936] Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides , 3d edit. p. 48. [Aug. 19.] BOSWELL.

[937] Johnson’s Works , p. 435.

[938] He was paid at the rate of a little over twopence a line. For this Introduction see Ib . 206.

[939] See post , Oct. 26, 1769.

[940] See post , April 5, 1775.

[941] In 1740 he set apart the yearly sum of £100 to be distributed, by way of premium, to the authors of the best inventions, &c., in Ireland. Chalmers’s Biog. Dict .

[942] Boulter’s Monument. A Panegyrical Poem, sacred to the memory of that great and excellent prelate and patriot, the Most Reverend Dr. Hugh Boulter; Late Lord-Archbishop of Ardmagh, and Primate of All Ireland . Dublin, 1745. Such lines as the following might well have been blotted, but of them the poem is chiefly formed:—

‘My peaceful song in lays instructive paints

The first of mitred peers and Britain’s saints.’ p. 2.

‘Ha! mark! what gleam is that which paints the air?

The blue serene expands! Is Boulter there?’ p. 88.

The poet addresses Boulter’s successor Hoadley, who he says,

‘Shall equal him; while, like Elisha, you

Enjoy his spirit, and his mantle too.’ p. 89.

A note to mantle says ‘Alluding to the metropolitan pallium.’

Boulter is the bishop in Pope’s lines, ( Prologue to the Satires , 1. 99):—

‘Does not one table Bavius still admit?

‘Still to one bishop Philips seem a wit?’

Pattison’s Pope’s Satires , p. 107. In the Life of Addison , Johnson mentioning Dr. Madden adds:—‘a name which Ireland ought to honour.’ Johnson’s Works , vii. 455.

[943] See ante , p. 175. Hawkins writes ( Life , p. 363):—‘I congratulated him length, on his being now engaged in a work that suited his genius. His answer was:—“I look upon this as I did upon the Dictionary ; it is all work, and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which is the only motive to writing that I know of.”’