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

[1153] Johnson, writing to Beattie, post , Aug 21, 1780, says:—‘Mr. Davies has got great success as an author, generated by the corruption of a bookseller.’ His principal works are Memoirs of Garrick , 1780, and Dramatic Miscellanies , 1784.

[1154] Churchill, in the Rosciad , thus celebrated his wife and mocked his recitation:—

‘With him came mighty Davies. On my life

That Davies hath a very pretty wife:—

Statesman all over!—In plots famous grown!—

He mouths a sentence, as curs mouth a bone.’

Churchill’s Poems , i. 16.

See post , under April 20, 1764, and March 20, 1778. Charles Lamb in a note to his Essay on the Tragedies of Shakespeare says of Davies, that he ‘is recorded to have recited the Paradise Lost better than any man in England in his day (though I cannot help thinking there must be some mistake in this tradition).’ Lamb’s Works , ed. 1840, p. 517.

[1155] See Johnson’s letter to Davies, post , June 18, 1783.

[1156] Mr. Murphy, in his Essay on the Life and Genius of Dr. Johnson , [p. 106], has given an account of this meeting considerably different from mine, I am persuaded without any consciousness of errour. His memory, at the end of near thirty years, has undoubtedly deceived him, and he supposes himself to have been present at a scene, which he has probably heard inaccurately described by others. In my note taken on the very day , in which I am confident I marked every thing material that passed, no mention is made of this gentleman; and I am sure, that I should not have omitted one so well known in the literary world. It may easily be imagined that this, my first interview with Dr. Johnson, with all its circumstances, made a strong impression on my mind, and would be registered with peculiar attention. BOSWELL.

[1157] See post , April 8, 1775.

[1158] That this was a momentary sally against Garrick there can be no doubt; for at Johnson’s desire he had, some years before, given a benefit-night at his theatre to this very person, by which she had got two hundred pounds. Johnson, indeed, upon all other occasions, when I was in his company, praised the very liberal charity of Garrick. I once mentioned to him, ‘It is observed, Sir, that you attack Garrick yourself, but will suffer nobody else to do it.’ JOHNSON, (smiling) ‘Why, Sir, that is true.’ BOSWELL. See post , May 15, 1776, and April 17, 1778.

[1159] By Henry Home, Lord Kames, 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1762. See post , Oct. 16, 1769. ‘Johnson laughed much at Lord Kames’s opinion that war was a good thing occasionally, as so much valour and virtue were exhibited in it. “A fire,” says Johnson, “might as well be thought a good thing; there is the bravery and address of the firemen employed in extinguishing it; there is much humanity exerted in saving the lives and properties of the poor sufferers; yet after all this, who can say a fire is a good thing?”’ Johnson’s Works , (1787) xi. 209.

[1160] No. 45 of the North Briton had been published on April 23. Wilkes was arrested under a general warrant on April 30. On May 6 he was discharged from custody by the Court of Common Pleas, before which he had been brought by a writ of Habeas Corpus . A few days later he was served with a subpoena upon an information exhibited against him by the Attorney-General in the Court of King’s Bench. He did not enter an appearance, holding, as he said, the serving him with the subpoena as a violation of the privilege of parliament. Parl. Hist . xv. 1360.

[1161] Mr. Sheridan was then reading lectures upon Oratory at Bath, where Derrick was Master of the Ceremonies; or, as the phrase is, KING. BOSWELL. Dr. Parr, who knew Sheridan well, describes him ‘as a wrong-headed, whimsical man.’ ‘I remember,’ he continues, ‘hearing one of his daughters, in the house where I lodged, triumphantly repeat Dryden’s Ode upon St. Cecilia’s Day , according to the instruction given to her by her father. Take a sample:—

“ None but the brave None but the brave . None but the brave deserve the fair.”

Naughty Richard [R. B. Sheridan], like Gallio, seemed to care nought for these things.’ Moore’s Sheridan , i. 9, 11. Sheridan writing from Dublin on Dec. 7, 1771, says:—‘Never was party violence carried to such a height as in this session; the House [the Irish House of Parliament] seldom breaking up till eleven or twelve at night. From these contests the desire of improving in the article of elocution is become very general. There are no less than five persons of rank and fortune now waiting my leisure to become my pupils.’ Ib . p. 60. See post , July 28, 1763.

[1162] Bonnell Thornton. See post July 1, 1763.

[1163] Lloyd was one of a remarkable group of Westminster boys. He was a school-fellow not only of Churchill, the elder Colman, and Cumberland, buy also of Cowper and Warren Hastings. Bonnell Thornton was a few years their senior. Not many weeks after this meeting with Boswell, Lloyd was in the Fleet prison. Churchill in Indepence ( Poems ii 310) thus addresses the Patrons of the age:—

‘Hence, ye vain boasters, to the Fleet repair

And ask, with blushes ask if Lloyd is there.’

Of the four men who thus enlivened Boswell, two were dead before the end of the following year. Churchill went first. When Lloyd heard of his death, ‘“I shall follow poor Charles,” was all he said, as he went to the bed from which he never rose again.’ Thornton lived three or four years longer, Forster’s Essays , ii 217, 270, 289. See also his Life of Goldsmith i. 264, for an account how ‘Lloyd invited Goldsmith to sup with some friends of Grub Street, and left him to pay the reckoning.’ Thornton, Lloyd, Colman, Cowper, and Joseph Hill, to whom Cowper’s famous Epistle was addressed, had at one time been members of the Nonsense Club. Southey’s Cowper , i. 37.

[1164] The author of the well-known sermons, see post , under Dec. 21, 1776.

[1165] See post , under Dec. 9, 1784.

[1166] See post , Feb. 7, 1775, under Dec. 24, 1783, and Boswell’s Hebrides , Nov. 10, 1773.

[1167] ‘Sir,’ he said to Reynolds, ‘a man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it;’ post , under March 30, 1783.

[1168] ‘Or behind the screen’ some one might have added, ante , i. 163.

[1169] Wesley was told that a whole waggon-load of Methodists had been lately brought before a Justice of the Peace. When he asked what they were charged with, one replied, ‘Why they pretended to be better than other people, and besides they prayed from morning to night.’ Wesley’s Journal , i. 361. See also post , 1780, near the end of Mr. Langton’s Collection .

[1170] ‘The progress which the understanding makes through a book has’ he said, ‘more pain than pleasure in it;’ post , May 1, 1783.

[1171] Matthew , vi. 16.

[1172] Boswell, it is clear, in the early days of his acquaintance with Johnson often led the talk to this subject. See post , June 25, July 14, 21, and 28, 1763.

[1173] See post , April 7, 1778.

[1174] He finished his day, ‘however late it might be,’ by taking tea at Miss Williams’s lodgings; post , July 1, 1763.

[1175] See post , under Feb. 15, 1766, Feb. 1767, March 20, 1776, and Boswell’s Hebrides , Sept. 20, 1773, where Johnson says:—‘I have been trying to cure my laziness all my life, and could not do it.’ It was this kind of life that caused so much of the remorse which is seen in his Prayers and Meditations .