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

[Page 354: Mary Queen of Scots. A.D. 1760.]

Johnson was now neither very idle, nor very busy with his Shakspeare ; for I can find no other public composition by him except an introduction to the proceedings of the Committee for cloathing the French Prisoners[1053];[*] one of the many proofs that he was ever awake to the calls of humanity; and an account which he gave in the Gentlemen’s Magazine of Mr. Tytler’s acute and able vindication of Mary Queen of Scots.[*] The generosity of Johnson’s feelings shines forth in the following sentence:—

“It has now been fashionable, for near half a century, to defame and vilify the house of Stuart and, to exalt and magnify the reign of Elizabeth. The Stuarts have found few apologists, for the dead cannot pay for praise; and who will, without reward, oppose the tide of popularity? Yet there remains still among us, not wholly extinguished, a zeal for truth, a desire of establishing right in opposition to fashion[1054]”.

In this year I have not discovered a single private letter, written by him to any of his friends. It should seem, however, that he had at this period a floating intention of writing a history of the recent and wonderful successes of the British arms in all quarters of the globe; for among his resolutions or memorandums, September 18, ‘send for books for Hist. of War[1055].’ How much is it to be regretted that this intention was not fulfilled. His majestick expression would have carried down to the latest posterity the glorious achievements of his country with the same fervent glow which they produced on the mind of the time. He would have been under no temptation to deviate in any degree from truth, which he held very sacred, or to take a licence, which a learned divine told me he once seemed, in a conversation, jocularly to allow to historians.

[Page 355: Consecrated lies. Ætat 51.]

‘There are (said he) inexcusable lies, and consecrated lies. For instance, we are told that on the arrival of the news of the unfortunate battle of Fontenoy, every heart beat, and every eye was in tears. Now we know, that no man eat his dinner the worse[1056], but there should have been all this concern; and to say there was , (smiling) may be reckoned a consecrated lie.’

This year Mr. Murphy, having thought himself ill-treated by the Reverend Dr. Francklin, who was one of the writers of The Critical Review , published an indignant vindication in A Poetical Epistle to Samuel Johnson, A.M ., in which he compliments Johnson in a just and elegant manner:

Transcendant Genius! whose prolific vein

Ne’er knew the frigid poet’s toil and pain;

To whom APOLLO opens all his store,

And every Muse presents her sacred lore;

Say, pow’rful JOHNSON, whence thy verse is fraught

With so much grace and such energy of thought;

Whether thy JUVENAL instructs the age

In chaster numbers, and new-points his rage;

Or fair IRENE sees, alas! too late.

Her innocence exchang’d for guilty state;

Whatever you write, in every golden line

Sublimity and elegance combine;

Thy nervous phrase impresses every soul,

While harmony gives rapture to the whole.’

[Page 356: Arthur Murphy. A.D. 1760.]

Again, towards the conclusion:

‘Thou then, my friend, who seest the dang’rous strife

In which some demon bids me plunge my life,

To the Aonian fount direct my feet,

Say where the Nine thy lonely musings meet?

Where warbles to thy ear the sacred throng,

Thy moral sense, thy dignity of song?

Tell, for you can, by what unerring art

You wake to finer feelings every heart;

In each bright page some truth important give,

And bid to future times thy RAMBLER live[1057]?

I take this opportunity to relate the manner in which an acquaintance first commenced between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Murphy. During the publication of The Grays-Inn Journal , a periodical paper which was successfully carried on by Mr. Murphy alone, when a very young man, he happened to be in the country with Mr. Foote; and having mentioned that he was obliged to go to London in order to get ready for the press in one of the numbers of that Journal , Foote said to him, ‘You need not to go on that account. Here is a French magazine, in which you will find a very pretty oriental tale; translate that, and send it to your printer.’ Mr. Murphy having read the tale, was highly pleased with it, and followed Foote’s advice. When he returned to town, this tale was pointed out to him in The Rambler , from whence it had been translated into the French magazine. Mr. Murphy then waited upon Johnson, to explain this curious incident. His talents, literature, and gentleman-like manners, were soon perceived by Johnson, and a friendship was formed which was never broken[1058].

[Page 357: Letter to Mr. Langston. Ætat 51.]

‘To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE.

‘You that travel about the world, have more materials for letters, than I who stay at home; and should, therefore, write with frequency equal to your opportunities. I should be glad to have all England surveyed by you, if you would impart your observations in narratives as agreeable as your last. Knowledge is always to be wished to those who can communicate it well. While you have been riding and running, and seeing the tombs of the learned, and the camps of the valiant, I have only staid at home, and intended to do great things, which I have not done. Beau[1059] went away to Cheshire, and has not yet found his way back. Chambers passed the vacation at Oxford.

‘I am very sincerely solicitous for the preservation or curing of Mr. Langton’s sight, and am glad that the chirurgeon at Coventry gives him so much hope. Mr. Sharpe is of opinion that the tedious maturation of the cataract is a vulgar errour, and that it may be removed as soon as it is formed. This notion deserves to be considered; I doubt whether it be universally true; but if it be true in some cases, and those cases can be distinguished, it may save a long and uncomfortable delay.

‘Of dear Mrs. Langton you give me no account; which is the less friendly, as you know how highly I think of her, and how much I interest myself in her health. I suppose you told her of my opinion, and likewise suppose it was not followed; however, I still believe it to be right.

[Page 358: Thomas Sheridan. A.D. 1761.]

‘Let me hear from you again, wherever you are, or whatever you are doing; whether you wander or sit still, plant trees or make Rusticks ,[1060] play with your sisters or muse alone; and in return I will tell you the success of Sheridan[1061], who at this instant is playing Cato, and has already played Richard twice. He had more company the second than the first night, and will make, I believe, a good figure in the whole, though his faults seem to be very many; some of natural deficience, and some of laborious affectation. He has, I think, no power of assuming either that dignity or elegance which some men, who have little of either in common life, can exhibit on the stage. His voice when strained is unpleasing, and when low is not always heard. He seems to think too much on the audience, and turns his face too often to the galleries[1062].

‘However, I wish him well; and among other reasons, because I like his wife[1063].

‘Make haste to write to, dear Sir,

‘Your most affectionate servant,

‘Oct. 18, 1760.’

[Page 359: Instances of literary fraud. Ætat 52.]

1761: ÆTAT. 52.—In 1761 Johnson appears to have done little. He was still, no doubt, proceeding in his edition of Shakespeare ; but what advances he made in it cannot be ascertained. He certainly was at this time not active; for in his scrupulous examination of himself on Easter eve, he laments, in his too rigorous mode of censuring his own conduct, that his life, since the communion of the preceding Easter, had been ‘dissipated and useless[1064].’ He, however, contributed this year the Preface[*] to Rolt’s Dictionary of Trade and Commerce , in which he displays such a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the subject, as might lead the reader to think that its authour had devoted all his life to it. I asked him whether he knew much of Rolt, and of his work. ‘Sir, (said he) I never saw the man, and never read the book. The booksellers wanted a Preface to a Dictionary of Trade and Commerce . I knew very well what such a Dictionary should be, and I wrote a Preface accordingly.’ Rolt, who wrote a great deal for the booksellers, was, as Johnson told me, a singular character[1065]. Though not in the least acquainted with him, he used to say, ‘I am just come from Sam. Johnson.’ This was a sufficient specimen of his vanity and impudence. But he gave a more eminent proof of it in our sister kingdom, as Dr. Johnson informed me. When Akenside’s Pleasures of the Imagination first came out, he did not put his name to the poem. Rolt went over to Dublin, published an edition of it, and put his own name to it. Upon the fame of this he lived for several months, being entertained at the best tables as ‘the ingenious Mr. Rolt[1066].’ His conversation indeed, did not discover much of the fire of a poet; but it was recollected, that both Addison and Thomson were equally dull till excited by wine. Akenside having been informed of this imposition, vindicated his right by publishing the poem with its real authour’s name. Several instances of such literary fraud have been detected. The Reverend Dr. Campbell, of St. Andrew’s, wrote An Enquiry into the original of Moral Virtue , the manuscript of which he sent to Mr. Innes, a clergyman in England, who was his countryman and acquaintance. Innes published it with his own name to it; and before the imposition was discovered, obtained considerable promotion, as a reward of his merit[1067].