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LIFE OF JOHNSON
INCLUDING BOSWELL’S JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES AND JOHNSON’S DIARY OF A JOURNEY INTO NORTH WALES
IN SIX VOLUMES
VOLUME VI: ADDENDA, INDEX, DICTA PHILOSOPHI, &C.
EDITED BY GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L.
PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD
M DCCC LXXXVII
CONTENTS
TITLES OF WORKS QUOTED IN THE NOTES
ADDENDA (AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, ETC.)
INDEX
DICTA PHILOSOPH
TITLES OF MANY OF THE WORKS
QUOTED IN THE NOTES.
In my notes I have often given but brief references to the authors whom I quote. The following list, which is not, however, so complete as I could wish, will, I hope, do much towards supplying the deficiency. Most of the poets, and a few of the prose writers also, I have not found it needful to include, as my references apply equally well to all editions of their works. The date in each case shows, not the year of the original publication, but of the edition to which I have referred.
ADDISON, Joseph, _Works_, 6 vols., London, 1862.
AIKIN, J. and A. L., _Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose_, 1773.
ALBEMARLE, Earl of, _Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham,_ 2 vols., London, 1852.
ALMON, John, _Correspondence, etc. of John Wilkes_, 5 vols., London, 1805.
ARRIGHI, A., _Histoire de Pascal Paoli_, 2 tom., Paris, 1843.
BACON, Francis, _Philosophical Works_, edited by Ellis, Spedding, and Heath, 7 vols., London, 1857-62; _Life and Letters_, edited by Spedding, Ellis, and Heath, 7 vols., London, 1869-74.
BAIN, Alexander, _Life of James Mill_, London, 1882.
BAKER, David Erskine, _Biographia Dramatica_. See REED, Isaac.
BARBAULD, Anna Letitia, _Works_, 2 vols., London, 1825; _Lessons for Children_, London, 1878.
BARCLAY, Robert, _An Apology_, London, 1703.
BARETTI, Joseph, _Account of Manners and Customs of Italy_, 2 vols., London, 1769; _Journey from London to Genoa_, 4 vols., London, 1770; _Tolondron_, London, 1786.
BARRY, James, _Works_, 2 vols., London, 1809.
BEATTIE, James, _Life_. See FORBES, Sir William.
BELLAMY, George Anne, _An Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy_, 5 vols., London, 1786.
BERRY, Miss, _Journal and Correspondence_, 3 vols., London, 1865.
BEST, Henry Digby, _Personal and Literary Memorials_, London, 1829.
BLACKIE, C., _Etymological Geography_, London, 1875.
BLACKSTONE, Sir William, _Commentaries_, 4 vols., Oxford, 1778.
BLAIR, Hugh, _A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal_, London, 1765.
BOLINGBROKE, Lord Viscount, _Works, with Life by Dr. Goldsmith_, 8 vols., London, 1809.
_Bookseller of the Last Century, being some account of the Life of John Newbery_. By Charles WELSH, London, 1885.
BOSWELL, James, _British Essays in favour of the brave Corsicans_, London, 1769; _Correspondence with the Honourable Andrew Erskine and Journal of a Tour to Corsica_, edited by George Birkbeck Hill, D.C.L., London, 1879; _The Cub at Newmarket_, 1762; _An Elegy on the Death of an Amiable Young Lady_, with _An Epistle from Menalcas to Lycidas_, 1761; _The Hypochondriack_, published in the _London Magazine_, from 1777 to 1783; _Journal of a Tour to Corsica_: see above under _Correspondence with the Hon. Andrew Erskine; Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, first and second editions, 1785; third, 1786; fourth, 1807; _A Letter to the People of Scotland on the present state of the Nation_, Edinburgh, 1783; _A Letter to the People of Scotland on the Alarming Attempt to infringe the Articles of the Union and introduce a Most Pernicious Innovation by Diminishing the Number of the Lords of Session_, London, 1785; _Letters of James Boswell addressed to the Rev. W.J. Temple_, London, 1857; _Ode to Tragedy_, 1661 (1761).
_Boswelliana, The Common-place Book of James Boswell_, edited by Rev. C. Rogers, LL.D., London, Grampian Club, 1876.
_Boulter’s Monument_, Dublin, 1745.
BOWEN, Emanuel, _A Complete System of Geography_, 2 vols., London, 1747.
BREWSTER, Sir David, _Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton_, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1860.
BRIGHT, John, M.P., _Speeches_, edited by James E. Thorold Rogers, 2 vols., London, 1869.
BRITISH MUSEUM MSS., Letters by Johnson to Nichols, Add. MS. 5159.
BROOME, Herbert, _Constitutional Law_, London, 1885.
BROWNE, Sir Thomas, _Works_, 4 vols., London, 1836.
BRYDONE, Patrick, _Tour through Sicily and Malta_, 2 vols., London, 1790.
BURKE, Edmund, _Correspondence of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke_, 4 vols., London, 1844. See PAYNE, E.J., and PRIOR, Sir James.
BURNET, Gilbert, Bishop of Salisbury, _History of his own Time_, 4 vols., London, 1818; _Vindication of the authority, &c. of the Church and State of Scotland_, Glasgow, 1673.
BURNET, James (Lord Monboddo), _Origin of Languages_, 6 vols., Edinburgh, 1773-92.
BURNET, Thomas, _Sacred Theory of the Earth_, 2 vols., London, 1722.
BURNEY, Dr. Charles, _Present State of Music in France and Italy_, London, 1771; _Present State of Music in Germany_, 2 vols., London, 1773; _Memoirs_: see D’ARBLAY, Madame.
BURNEY, Frances, _Evelina_, 2 vols., London, 1784. See D’ARBLAY, Madame.
Burns, Life of. By James CURRIE, in _Works of Burns_, 1 vol., 1846.
BURTON, John Hill, _Life and Correspondence of David Hume_, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1846; _Reign of Queen Anne_, 3 vols, Edinburgh, 1880.
BUTLER, Samuel, _Hudibras_, 2 vols., London, 1806.
CALDERWOOD, Mrs., of Polton, _Letters and Journals_, Edinburgh, 1884.
_Cambridge Shakespeare_. See SHAKESPEARE.
CAMDEN, William, _Remains_, London, 1870.
CAMPBELL, John, Lord, _Lives of the Chancellors_, 8 vols., London, 1846; _Lives of the Chief Justices_, 3 vols., London, 1849-57.
CAMPBELL, Dr. John, _Hermippus Redivivus; or, The Sage’s Triumph over Old Age and the Grave_, London, 1744.
CAMPBELL, Thomas, _Specimens of the British Poets_, London, 1845.
CAMPBELL, Rev. Dr. Thomas, _Diary of a Visit to England in_ 1775 _by an Irishman_, Sydney, 1854; _A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland_, 1777.
CARLYLE, Rev. Alexander, D.D., _Autobiography_, Edinburgh, 1860.
CARLYLE, Thomas, _French Revolution_, 2 vols., London, 1857; _Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches_, 3 vols., London, 1857; _Miscellanies_, London, 1872.
CARSTARES, Rev. William, _State Papers_, Edinburgh, 1774.
CARTE, Thomas, _History of the Life of James, Duke of Ormonde_, 3 vols., London, 1735-6.
CARTER, Elizabeth, _Memoirs of her Life_, by Montagu Pennington, 2 vols., London, 1816.
_Carter and Talbot Correspondence_, 4 vols., London, 1809.
CAVENDISH, H., _Debates of the House of Commons_, 2 vols., London, 1841-2.
CHALMERS, Alexander, _General Biographical Dictionary_, 32 vols., London, 1812-17; _British Essayists_, 38 vols., London, 1823.
CHALMERS, George, _Life of Ruddiman_, London, 1794.
CHAMBERS, Ephraim, _Cyclopaedia_, 2 vols., London, 1738.
CHAMBERS, Dr. Robert, _History of the Rebellion in Scotland in_ 1745, 1746, Edinburgh, 1827; _Traditions of Edinburgh_, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1825.
CHAPONE, Mrs. Hester, _Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, with the Life of the Author_, London, 1806; _Posthumous Works_, 2 vols., London, 1807.
CHAPPE D’AUTEROCHE, _Voyage en Siberie_, 2 tom., Paris, 1768.
CHARLEMONT, Earl of, _Memoirs_. See HARDY, Francis.
CHATHAM, Earl of, _Correspondence_, 4 vols., London, 1838.
CHESTERFIELD, Earl of, _Letters to his Son_, 4 vols., London, 1774; _Miscellaneous Works_, 4 vols., London, 1779.
CHEYNE, Dr. George, _English Malady, or a Treatise of Nervous Diseases of all Kinds_, London, 1733.
CHURCHILL, Charles, _Poems_, 2 vols., London, 1766.
CLARENDON, Edward, Earl of, _History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England_, 8 vols., Oxford, 1826.
COCKBURN, Henry Thomas (Lord), _Life of Lord Jeffrey_, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1852.
COLLINS, Arthur, _The Peerage of England_, 5 vols., London, 1756.
COLMAN, George, _Comedies of Terence_, 2 vols., London, 1768; _Prose on Several Occasions_, 3 vols., London, 1787.
COLMAN, George, Junior, _Random Records_, 2 vols., London, 1830.
_Contemplation_, London, 1753.
CONWAY, Moncure, _Thomas Carlyle_, London, 1881.
COOKE, William, _Memoirs of Charles Macklin_, London, 1806.
COURTENAY, John, _A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late S. Johnson_, London, 1786.
COWPER, William, _Life_. See under SOUTHEY.
COXE, Rev. William, _Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole_, 3 vols., London, 1798.
CRABBE, Rev. George, _Life and Poems_, 8 vols., London, 1834.
CRADOCK, Joseph, _Literary Memoirs_, 4 vols., London, 1828.
CROKER, Right Hon. John Wilson, _Boswell’s Life of Johnson_, 1 vol. 8vo., London, 1866; _Correspondence and Diaries_, edited by Louis J. Jennings, 3 vols., London, 1884.
CUMBERLAND, Richard, _Memoirs_, 2 vols., London, 1807.
DALRYMPLE, Sir David (Lord Hailes), _Remarks on the History of Scotland_, Edinburgh, 1773.
DALRYMPLE, Sir John, _Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland_, Edinburgh and London, 1771-8.
D’ARBLAY, Madame, _Diary and Letters_, 7 vols., London, 1842; _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, 3 vols., London, 1832.
DAVIES, Thomas, _Dramatic Miscellanies_, 3 vols., London, 1785; _Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick_, 2 vols., London, 1781; _Miscellaneous and Fugitive Pieces_, 3 vols., London, 1773-4.
DEAN, Rev. Richard, _Essay on the Future Life of Brutes_, Manchester, 1767.
DELANY, Dr., _Observations on Swift_, London, 1754.
DE QUINCEY, Thomas, _Works_, 16 vols., Edinburgh, 1862.
DICEY, Professor Albert Venn, _Lectures introductory to the Study of the Law of the Constitution_, London, 1885.
DIDEROT, Denys, _Oeuvres_, Paris, 1821.
D’ISRAELI, Isaac, _Calamities of Authors_, 2 vols., London, 1812; _Curiosities of Literature_, 6 vols., London, 1834.
DOBLE, C.E., _Thomas Hearne’s Remarks and Collections_, vol. i., Oxford, 1885.
DODD, Rev. Dr. William, _The Convict’s Address to his Unhappy Brethren_, 1777.
DODSLEY, Robert, _A Muse in Livery; or, The Footman’s Miscellany_, London, 1732; _Collection of Poems by Several Hands_, 6 vols., London, 1758.
DRUMMOND, William, of Hawthorne-denne, _Flowers of Sion_, Edinburgh, 1630; _Polemo-Middinia_, Oxford, 1691.
DRYDEN, John, _Comedies, Tragedies, and Operas_, 2 vols., London, 1701.
DUMONT, Etienne, _Recollections of Mirabeau_, London, 1835.
DUPPA, R., _Diary of a Journey into North Wales in the year 1774, by Samuel Johnson_, London, 1816. (See _ante_, vol. v. p. 427.)
_Edinburgh Review_, Edinburgh, 1753.
ELDON, Lord Chancellor, _Life_. See Twiss, Horace.
ELWALL, E., _The Grand Question in Religion Considered_, London.
ERASMUS, _Adagiorum Chiliades_, 1559; _Colloquia Familiaria_, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1867.
_Farm and its Inhabitants, with some Account of the Lloyds of Dolobran_, by Rachel J. Lowe, privately printed, 1883.
FIELD, Rev. William, _Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel Parr_, LL.D., 2 vols., London, 1828.
FIELDING, Henry, _Works_, 10 vols., London, 1806.
FITZGERALD, Percy, _The Life of David Garrick_, 2 vols., London, 1868.
FITZMAURICE, Lord Edmond, _Life of William, Earl of Shelburne_, 3 vols., London, 1875.
FORBES, Sir William, _Life of James Beattie_, London, 1824.
FORSTER, John, _Historical and Biographical Essays_, 2 vols., London, 1858; _Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith_, 2 vols., London, 1871.
Foss, Edward, _Lives of the Judges of England_, 9 vols., London, 1848-64.
_Foundling Hospital for Wit_, London, 1771-3.
FRANKLIN, Dr. Benjamin, _Memoirs_, 6 vols., London, 1818.
FREDERICK II (the Great), of Prussia, _Oeuvres_, 30 tom., Berlin, 1846-56.
FROUDE, James Anthony, _Thomas Carlyle_, vols. i. and ii., London, 1882; vols. iii. and iv., 1885.
GARDEN, F. (Lord Gardenston), _Miscellanies_, Edinburgh, 1792.
GARRICK, David, _Private Correspondence_, 2 vols., London, 1831; _Life_: see DAVIES, Thomas; FITZGERALD, Percy; and MURPHY, Arthur.
GIBBON, Edward, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, 12 vols. London, 1807; _Miscellaneous Works_, 5 vols., London, 1814.
GOLDSMITH, Oliver, _History of the Earth and Animated Nature_, 8 vols., London, 1779; _Miscellaneous Works_, 4 vols., London, 1801; _Works_, edited by Cunningham, 4 vols., London, 1854.
GRAY, Thomas, _Works, with Memoirs of his Life_, by the Rev. William Mason, 2 vols., London, 1807; _Works_, edited by the Rev. John Mitford, 5 vols., London, 1858; _Works_, edited by Edmund Gosse, London, 1884.
GREVILLE, Charles C.F., _Greville Memoirs_, edited by Henry Reeve, 3 vols., London, 1874; second part, 3 vols., London, 1885.
GRIMM, Baron, _Correspondance Litteraire_, 1829.
HALL, Robert, _Works_, 6 vols., London, 1834.
HAMILTON, Right Hon. William Gerard, _Parliamentary Logick_, London, 1808.
HAMILTON, William, of Bangour, _Poems_, Edinburgh, 1760.
HARDY, Francis, _Memoirs of the Earl of Charlemont_, 2 vols., London, 1812.
HARGRAVE, Francis, _An Argument in the Case of James Sommersett_, London, 1772.
HARWOOD, Rev. Thomas, _History of Lichfield_, Gloucester, 1806.
HAWKESWORTH, John, _Voyages of Discovery in the Southern Hemisphere_, 3 vols., London, 1773.
HAWKINS, Sir John, _Life of Samuel Johnson_, London, 1787; Johnson’s _Works_: See JOHNSON, Samuel.
HAWKINS, Laetitia Matilda, _Memoirs, Anecdotes, &c._, 2 vols., London, 1824.
HAYWARD, Abraham, _Mrs. Piozzi’s Autobiography_, 2 vols., London, 1861.
HAZLITT, William, _Conversations of James Northcote, R.A._, London, 1830.
HEARNE, Thomas, _Remains_, edited by Philip Bliss, 3 vols., London, 1869; _Remarks and Collections_, edited by C.E. Doble, vol. i., Oxford, 1885.
_Herodotus_, edited by Rev. J.W. Blakesley, 2 vols., London, 1854.
HERVEY, Rev. James, _Meditations_, London, 1748.
HILL, George Birkbeck, _Dr. Johnson: his Friends and his Critics_, London, 1878; _Boswell’s Correspondence with the Hon. Andrew Erskine, and Journal of a Tour to Corsica_, London, 1879.
HOGG, James, _Jacobite Relics_, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1819.
HOLCROFT, Thomas, _Memoirs_, 3 vols., London, 1816.
HOME, Henry. See KAMES, Lord.
HORNE, Dr. George, Bishop of Norwich, _A Letter to Adam Smith_, Oxford, 1777; _Essays and Thoughts on Various Subjects_, London, 1808.
HORNE, Rev. John. See TOOKE, Horne.
HORREBOW, Niels, _Natural History of Iceland_, London, 1758.
_House of Lords, Scotch Appeal Cases_, vol. xvii.
HOWELL, James, _Epistoloe_, London, 1737.
HOWELL, T.B. and T.J., _State Trials_, 33 vols., London, 1809-1826.
HUME, David, _Essays_, 4 vols., London, 1770; _History of England_, 8 vols., London, 1802; _Private Correspondence_, London, 1820; _Life_: see BURTON, John Hill.
HUSBANDS, J., _A Miscellany of Poems_, Oxford, 1731.
HUTTON, William, _History of Derby_, London, 1791; _Life_, London, 1816.
JAMES, Robert, M.D., _Dissertation on Fevers_, London, 1770.
JEFFREY, Lord, _Life_. See COCKBURN, H.J.
JOHNSON, Samuel, _Annals of Johnson, being an Account of the Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson from his Birth to his Eleventh Year_, London, 1805; _Diary of a Journey into North Wales_: see DUPPA, R; _Dictionary_, first edition, London, 1755; fourth edition, London, 1773; _Abridgment_, London, 1766; _Letters_, published by Hester Lynch Piozzi, 2 vols., London, 1788; _Life_, printed for G. Kearsley, London, 1785; _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the late Dr. Samuel Johnson_, printed for J. Walker, London, 1785; _Prayers and Meditations composed by Samuel Johnson_, second edition, London, 1785; _Rasselas_, edited by the Rev. W. West, London, 1869; _Works_, edited by Sir John Hawkins, 13 vols. (the last two vols. by the Rev. Percival Stockdale), London, 1787-9: vol. xi. contains a collection of Johnson’s _Apophthegms; Works_, 9 vols.; _Parliamentary Debates_, 2 vols. (11 vols. in all), Oxford, 1825.
_Johnsoniana_, published by John Murray, London, 1836.
JOHNSTONE, John. See PARR, Samuel.
JONES, Sir William. See TEIGNMOUTH, Lord.
JONSON, Ben, _Works_, 7 vols., London, 1756.
KAMES, Lord (Henry Home), _Sketches of the History of Man_, 4 vols., Edinburgh, 1788.
KING, Dr. William, Principal of St. Mary Hall,_ Anecdotes of His Own Times_, London, 1819.
KING, William, Archbishop of Dublin, _Essay on the Origin of Evil_, edited by Bishop Law, 1781.
KNIGHT, Charles, _English Cyclopedia (Biography)_, 6 vols., London 1856-1858.
KNOX, Rev. Dr. Vicesimus, _Works_, 7 vols., London, 1824.
LAMB, Charles, _Works_, edited by Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, London, 1865.
LANDOR, Walter Savage, _Works_, 8 vols., London, 1874.
LANGTON, Bennet, _Collection of Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson_, _ante_, iv. 1-33.
LAW, Bishop Edmund. See KING, Archbishop.
LECKY, W.E.H., _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_, 4 vols. London, 1878-82.
LESLIE, Charles Robert, R.A., _Autobiographical Recollections_, London 1860.
LESLIE, Charles Robert, R.A., and TOM TAYLOR, _Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds_, 2 vols., London, 1865.
_Lexiphanes: a Dialogue_, London, 1767.
LITTLETON, Dr. Adam, _Linguae Latinae Liber Dietionarius_, London, 1678 and 1703.
LOCKE, John, _Works_, London, 1824.
LOCKHART, J. G., _Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott_, Bart., 10 vols., Edinburgh, 1839.
LOFFT, Capel, _Reports of Cases_, London, 1776.
_London and its Environs_, Dodsley, 6 vols., London, 1761.
LOWE, Charles, _Prince Bismarck; an Historical Biography_, 2 vols., London, 1885.
LOWNDES, William Thomas,_ Bibliographer’s Manual_, 4 vols., London, 1871.
MACAULAY, Rev. Kenneth, _History of St. Kilda_, London, 1764.
MACAULAY, Thomas Babington, _Critical and Historical Essays_, 3 vols., London, 1843, and 4 vols., 1874; _History of England_, 8 vols., London, 1874; _Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches_, London, 1871; _Life_: see TREVELYAN, George Otto.
MACKENZIE, Sir George, _Works_, Edinburgh, 1716-22.
MACKENZIE, Henry, _Life of John Home_, Edinburgh, 1822.
MACKINTOSH, Sir James, _Memoirs of his Life_, 2 vols., London, 1836.
MACKLIN, Charles, _Life_. See COOKE, William.
McNEILL, P., _Tranent and its Surroundings_, 2nd ed., Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1884.
MADAN, Rev. Martin, _Thoughts on Executive Justice_, London, 1785.
MAHON, Lord. See STANHOPE, Earl.
MAINE, Sir Henry Sumner, _Lectures on Early History of Institutions_, London, 1875.
MAITTAIRE, M., _Senilia_, London, 1742.
MANDEVILLE, Bernard, _Fable of the Bees_, 1724.
MARSHALL, William, _Minutes on Agriculture_, London, 1799.
MARTIN, M., _A Description of the Western Islands_, London, 1716; _Voyage to St. Kilda_, London, 1753.
MASON, William, _Life of Gray_. See GRAY, Thomas.
MAXWELL, Rev. Dr. William, _Collectanea_, _ante_, ii. 116-133.
MICKLE, William Julius, _The Lusiad_, Oxford, 1778.
MILL, James, _History of British India_, London, 1840; _Life_: see BAIN, Alexander.
MILL, John Stuart, _Autobiography_, London, 1873; _Principles of Political Economy_, 2 vols., London, 1865.
_Modern Characters from Shakespeare_, London, 1778.
MONBODDO, Lord. See BURNET, James.
MONTAGU, Mrs. Elizabeth, _Essay on the Writings of Shakespeare_, London, 1769; _Letters_, 4 vols., London, 1810.
MONTAGUE, Lady Mary Wortley, _Letters_, London, 1769.
MOORE, John, M.D., _Journal during a Residence in France_, 2 vols., London, 1793; _Life of Smollett_, 1797; _View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany_, 2 vols., London, 1789.
MOORE, Thomas, _Life of R.B. Sheridan_, 2 vols., London, 1825.
MORE, Hannah, _Life and Correspondence_, 4 vols., London, 1834.
MORRIS, William, _AEneids of Virgil done into English verse_, London, 1876.
MORRISON, Alfred, _Catalogue of the Collection of Autograph Letters, &c._, formed by Alfred Morrison, edited by A. W. Thibaudeau, printed for private circulation, London, 1883.
MUNK, William, _The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London_, 3 vols., London, 1878.
MURPHY, Arthur, _Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson_, London, 1792; _Life of David Garrick_, Dublin, 1801.
MURRAY, John, _Guide to Scotland_, London, 1867, 1883; _Johnsoniana_, London, 1836.
NAPIER, Rev. Alexander, _Boswell’s Life of Johnson_, 5 vols., London, 1884.
_New Foundling Hospital for Wit_, 3 vols., London, 1769.
NEWMAN, John Henry, _History of my Religious Opinions_, London, 1865.
NEWTON, Rev. John, _An Authentic Narrative of some remarkable and interesting particulars in the Life of_, London, 1792.
NEWTON, Thomas, Bishop of Bristol, _Works_, 3 vols., London, 1782.
NICHOLS, John, _Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_, 9 vols., London, 1812-15; _Literary History_, 8 vols., London, 1817-58.
_Ninth Report of the Commissioners of the Post-office_, London, 1837.
NORTHCOTE, James, _Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds_, 2 vols., London, 1819. See HAZLITT, William, for Northcote’s _Conversations_.
_Nouvelle Biographie Generale_, 46 vols., Paris, 1855-1866.
O’LEARY, Rev. Arthur, _Remarks on the Rev. Mr. Wesley’s Letters_, Dublin 1780.
ORRERY, —- John, fifth Earl of Orrery and Corke, _Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Swift_, London, 1752.
ORTON, Job, _Memoirs of Doddridge_, Salop, 1766.
_Oxford during the Last Century_ [by G. Roberson and J.R. Green], Oxford, 1859.
PALEY, Rev. William, D.D., _Principles of Philosophy_, London, 1786.
_Parliamentary History of England_, 33 vols., London, 1806.
PARR, Samuel, LL.D., _Works, with Memoir_, by John Johnstone, M.D. 8 vols., London, 1828. See FIELD, Rev. William.
PATERSON, Daniel, _British Itinerary_, 2 vols., London, 1800.
PATTISON, Mark, _Memoirs_, London, 1885. See POPE, Alexander.
PAYNE, E.J., _Select Works of Burke_, 2 vols., Oxford, 1874.
PENNANT, Thomas, _Literary Life_, London, 1793; _Tour in Scotland_, London, 1772.
_Penny Cyclopaedia_, 27 vols., London, 1833.
PEPYS, Samuel, _Diary and Correspondence_, 5 vols., London, 1851.
PHILIPPS, Erasmus, _Diary_, published in _Notes and Queries_, second series, x. 443.
PILKINGTON, James, _A View of the Present State of Derbyshire_, 2 vols., Derby, 1789.
PINKERTON, John, _Voyages_, 17 vols., London, 1808-1814.
PIOZZI, Hester Lynch, _Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson_, fourth edition, London, 1786; _Autobiography: see_ under HAYWARD, Abraham; _British Synonymy_, 2 vols., London, 1794; _Journey through France, Italy, and Germany_, 2 vols., London, 1789.
_Piozzi Letters. See_ under JOHNSON, Samuel.
POPE, Alexander, _Works_, edited by Rev. W. Elwin and W.J. Courthope, 10 vols., London, 1871-86; _Satires and Epistles_, edited by Mark Pattison, Oxford, 1872.
PORSON, Richard, _Tracts and Miscellaneous Criticisms_, London, 1815.
PRIESTLEY, Joseph, _Works_, 25 vols., London, 1817-31.
PRIOR, Sir James, _Life of Edmund Burke_ (Bohn’s British Classics), London, 1872; _Life of Oliver Goldsmith_, 2 vols., London, 1837; _Life of Edmond Malone_, London, 1860.
_Probationary Odes for the Laureateship_, London.
PSALMANAZAR, George, _Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa_, London, 1704; _Memoirs_, London, 1764.
RADCLIFFE, John, _Some Memoirs of his Life_, London, 1715.
RANKE, Professor, _The Popes of Rome_. Translated from the German by Sarah Austin, 3 vols., London, 1866.
_Recreations and Studies of a Country Clergyman of the Eighteenth Century. See_ TWINING, Rev. Thomas.
REED, Isaac, _Baker’s Biographia Dramatica_, 3 vols., London, 1812.
REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua, _Life_: see under LESLIE and NORTHCOTE; _Works_, 3 vols., London, 1824.
RICHARDSON, Samuel, _Correspondence_, 6 vols., London, 1804; _One hundred and seventy-three Letters written for particular Friends on the most important occasions_, seventh edition, London, no date.
RITSON, Joseph, _English Songs_, 3 vols., London, 1813.
ROBINSON, Henry Crabb, _Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence_, 3 vols., London, 1869.
ROGERS, Samuel, _Table Talk_, London, 1856.
_Rolliad, The_, London, 1795.
ROMILLY, Sir Samuel, _Memoirs of his Life_, 3 vols., London, 1840.
ROSE, Hugh James, _New General Biographical Dictionary_, 12 vols., London, 1840-1848.
RUSKIN, John, _Lectures on Architecture and Painting_, London, 1854; _Praeterita_, Orpington, 1886.
SACHEVERELL, W., _An Account of the Isle of Man, with a Voyage to I-Columb-Kill_, London, 1702.
SAVAGE, Richard, _Works_, 2 vols., London, 1777.
SCOTT, Sir Walter, _Life of Swift_, London, 1834; Novels, 41 vols., Edinburgh, 1860; _Life_: See under LOCKHART.
SELWYN, George, _Life and Correspondence_. By J.H. Jesse, 4 vols., London, 1843.
_Session Papers of Old Bailey Trials for 1758_, London.
SEWARD, Anna, _Elegy on Captain Cook_, London, 1781; _Letters_, 6 vols., Edinburgh, 1811.
SEWARD, William, _Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons_, 4 vols., London, 1798; _Biographiana_, 2 vols., London, 1799.
Shakespeare, edited by W.G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright, 9 vols., Cambridge, 1864-66.
SHELBURNE, Earl of, _Life_. See FITZMAURICE, Lord Edmond.
SHENSTONE, William, _Works_, 3 vols., London, 1773.
SMART, Christopher, _Poems on Several Occasions_, London, 1752.
SMOLLETT, Tobias, _History of England_, 5 vols., London, 1800; _Travels through France and Italy_, 2 vols., London, 1766.
SOUTHEY, Robert, _Life and Correspondence_, 6 vols., London, 1849; _Life and Works of William Cowper_, 15 vols., London, 1835; _Life of John Wesley_, 2 vols., London, 1846.
SPENCE, Rev. Joseph, _Anecdotes_, London, 1820.
_Spiritual Quixote_, 3 vols., London, 1773.
STANHOPE, Earl, _History of England_, 7 vols., London, 1836-1854; _History of the War of the Succession in Spain_, London, 1832-3; _Life of William Pitt_, 4 vols., London, 1861.
STANLEY, Arthur Penrhyn, _Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey_, London, 1868.
STEELE, Sir Richard, _Apology for Himself and his Writings_, London, 1714.
STEPHENS, Alexander, _Memoirs of Horne Tooke_, 2 vols., London, 1813.
STERNE, Lawrence, _Sentimental Journey_, 2 vols., London, 1775.
STEWART, Dugald, _An Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Reid, William Robertson, and Adam Smith_, Edinburgh, 1811; also _Life of Reid_, Edinburgh, 1802; _Life of Robertson_, Edinburgh, 1802.
STOCKDALE, Rev. Percival, _Memoirs_, London, 1809; _The Remonstrance_, London, 1770.
STORY, Thomas, _Journal of his Life_, 2 vols., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1747.
SWIFT, Jonathan, _Works_, 24 vols., London, 1803; _Life_: See SCOTT, Sir Walter.
SYDENHAM, Thomas, _Works_, London, 1685.
TAYLOR, Jeremy, _Works_, 10 vols., London, 1864.
TAYLOR, Tom, _Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds_. See under LESLIE, C.R.
TEIGNMOUTH, Lord, _Memoirs of the Life of Sir William Jones_, London, 1815.
TEMPLE, Sir William, _Works_, 4 vols., London, 1757.
THACKERAY, W.M., _English Humourists_, London, 1858.
THICKNESSE, Philip, _A Year’s Journey through France and part of Spain_, 2 vols., Bath and London, 1770.
TICKELL, Richard, _Epistle from the Hon. Charles Fox to the Hon. John Townshend_, 1779.
TILLOTSON, John, _Sermons preached upon Several Occasions_, London, 1673.
TIMMINS, Samuel, _Dr. Johnson in Birmingham: a Paper read to the Archaeological Section of the Birmingham and Midland Institute_, Nov. 22, 1876, and reprinted from Transactions_ (12 copies only), quarto, pp. viii.
TOOKE, Home, _Diversions of Purley_, London, 1798; _Life_: See STEPHENS, Alexander; _A Letter to John Dunning, Esq._, London, 1778.
_Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain_, originally begun by De Foe, 4 vols., London, 1769.
TREVELYAN, George Otto, _Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay_, 2 vols., London, 1877.
TWINING, Rev. Thomas, _Recreations and Studies of a Country Clergyman of the Eighteenth Century_, London, 1882.
Twiss, Horace, _Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon_, 3 vols., London, 1844.
TYERMAN, Rev. Luke, _Life of George Whitefield_, 2 vols., London, 1876-7.
VICTOR, Benjamin, _Original Letters_, London, 1776.
VOLTAIRE, _Oeuvres Completes_, 66 tom., Paris, 1819-25.
WALPOLE, Horace, _Journal of the Reign of King George III_, 2 vols., London, 1859; _Letters_, 9 vols., London, 1861; _Memoirs of the Reign of George II_, 3 vols., London, 1846; _Memoirs of the Reign of King George III_, 4 vols., London, 1845.
WALTON, Izaak, _Lives_, London, 1838.
WARBURTON, William, _Divine Legation of Moses_, 5 vols., London, 1765.
WARNER, Rebecca, _Original Letters_, Bath and London, 1817.
WARNER, Rev. Richard, _A Tour through the Northern Counties of England_, Bath, 1802.
WARTON, Dr. Joseph, _Essay on Pope_, London, vol. i. 1772; vol. ii. 1782; _Life_: See under WOOLL.
WARTON, Rev. Thomas, _Poetical Works_, 2 vols., Oxford, 1802.
WATSON, Richard, Bishop of Llandaff, _A Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury_, London, 1783.
WESLEY, John, _Journals_, 4 vols., London, 1827; _Life_: See under SOUTHEY.
_Westminster Abbey, with other Poems_, 1813.
WHYTE, Samuel, _Miscellanea Nova_, Dublin, 1800.
WILKES, John, _Correspondence_. See ALMON, John.
WILLIAMS, Anna, _Miscellanies_, London, 1766.
WILLIAMS, Sir Charles Hanbury, _Odes_, London, 1775.
WINDHAM, William, Right Hon., _Diary_, London, 1866.
WOOD, Robert, _The Ruins of Palmyra_, London, 1753; _The Ruins of Balbec_, London, 1757.
WOOLL, John, D.D., _Biographical Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Warton_, 1 vol. (vol. ii. never published), London, 1806.
WORDSWORTH, William, _Works_, 6 vols., London, 1857.
WRAXALL, Sir Nathaniel William, Bart., _Historical Memoirs of My Own Time_, 2 vols., London, 1815; also edited by H.B. Wheatley, 5 vols., London, 1884.
YOUNG, Arthur, _Six Months’ Tour through the North of England_, 4 vols., London, 1770-1.
ADDENDA
Last summer Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson sold some very interesting autograph letters written by Johnson to William Strahan, the printer.
I was fortunate enough to find that the purchasers, with but one exception, were mindful of what Boswell so well describes as ‘the general courtesy of literature[1],’ and were ready to place their treasures at my service. To one of them, Mr. Frederick Barker, of 43, Rowan Road, Brook Green, I am still more indebted, for he entrusted me not only with the original letters which he had just bought, but also with some others that he had previously possessed. His Johnsonian collection is one of unusual interest. I have moreover to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Fawcett, of 14, King Street, Covent Garden; to Messrs. J. Pearson and Co., of 46, Pall Mall; to Messrs. Robson and Kerslake, of Coventry Street, Haymarket; to Mr. Frank T. Sabin, of 10 and 12, Garrick Street, Covent Garden; and to Mr. John Waller, of 2, Artesian Road, Westbourne Grove. Those of the letters which are undated, I have endeavoured to assign to their proper places by internal evidence. The absence of a date is in itself very strong evidence that they belong to a comparatively early period (see _ante_, i. 122, n. 2).
[Footnote 1: Ante, iv. 246.]
I.
_A letter about a projected Geographical Dictionary by Mr. Bathurst, with Bathurst’s Proposal; dated March 22, probably written in 1753_.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker, of 43, Rowan Road, Brook Green.]
‘SIR,
‘I have inclosed the Scheme which I mentioned yesterday in which the work proposed is sufficiently explained.
‘The Undertaker, Mr. Bathurst, is a Physician of the University of Cambridge, of about eight years standing, and will perform the work in such a manner as may satisfy the publick. No advice of mine will be wanting, but advice will be all that I propose to contribute unless it should be thought worth while that I should write a preface, which if desired I will do and put my name to it. The terms which I am commissioned to offer are these:
‘1. A guinea and half shall be paid for each sheet of the copy.
‘2. The authour will receive a Guinea and half a week from the date of the Contract.
‘3. As it is certain that many books will be necessary, the Authour will at the end of the work take the books furnished him in part of payment at prime Cost, which will be a considerable reduction of the price of the Copy; or if it seems as you thought yesterday no reduction, he will allow out of the last payment fifty pounds for the use of the Books and return them.
‘4. In two months after his first demand of books shall be supplied, he purposes to write three Sheets a week and to continue the same quantity to the end of the work, unless he shall be hindered by want of Books. He does not however expect to be always able to write according to the order of the Alphabet but as his Books shall happen to supply him, and therefore cannot send any part to the press till the whole is nearly finished.
‘5. He undertakes as usual the Correction.
‘I am, Sir, Your most humble servant, ‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘March 22nd.
‘To Mr. Strahan.’
‘PROPOSAL.
‘There is nothing more apparently wanting to the English Literature, than a Geographical Dictionary, which, though its use is almost every day necessary, not only to Men of Study, but of Trade or publick employment, yet has been hitherto, not only unperformed, but almost unattempted among us. Bohun’s Dictionary, the only one which has any pretension to regard, owes that pretension only to its bulk; for it is in all parts contemptibly defective and is therefore deservedly forgotten. In Collier’s Dictionary, what Geography there is, can scarcely be found among the crowd of other subjects, and when it is found, is of no great importance. The books of Eachard and Salmon, though useful for the ends proposed by them, are too small to be considered as anticipations of this work, which is intended to consist of two volumes of the same size and print with Harris’s Dictionary, in which will be comprised the following particulars:
‘The situation of every Country with its Provinces and dependencies according to its present state, and latest observation.
‘The description of all remarkable Cities, Towns, Castles, Fortresses, and places observable for their situation, products or other particulars.
‘An account of the considerable Rivers, their Springs, Branches, Course, Outlets, how far navigable, the Produce and Qualities of their waters.
‘The course of Voyages, giving directions to sailors for navigating from one place of the World to another, with particular attention to the Traffic of these Kingdoms.
‘An account of all the principal Ports and Harbours of the known World, in which will be laid down the Pilotage, Bearings, depth of water, danger from Sands or Rocks, firmness or uncertainty of Anchorage, and degree of safety from particular Winds.
‘An exact account of the Commodities of each Country, both natural and artificial.
‘A description of the remarkable Animals in every Country, whether Beasts, Birds or Fishes.
‘An account of the Buildings, whether ancient or modern, and of Ruins or other remains of Antiquity.
‘Remarks upon the soil, air, and waters of particular Places, their several qualities and effects, the accidents to which every Region is exposed, as Earthquakes and Hurricanes, and the diseases peculiar to the Inhabitants or incident to strangers at their arrival.
‘The political State of the World, the Government of Countries, and the Magistracy of Cities, with their particular Laws, or Privileges.
‘The most probable and authentic Calculations of the number of Inhabitants of each place.
‘The military state of Countries, their Forces, manner of making War, Weapons, and naval Power.
‘The Commercial State, extent of their Trade, Number and strength of their Colonies, quantity of Shipping.
‘The pretensions of Princes with their Alliances, Relations and Genealogies.
‘The customs of Nations with regard to Trade, and receptions of strangers, their domestic Customs, as Rites of Marriage and Burial. Their particular Laws. Their habits, recreations and amusements.
‘The religious Opinions of all Nations.
‘These and many other heads of observation will be collected, not merely from the Dictionaries now extant in many Languages, but from the best Surveys, Local Histories, Voyages, and particular accounts[1], among which care will be taken to select those of the best authority, as the basis of the Work, and to extract from them such observations as may best promote Knowledge and gratify Enquiry, so that it is to be hoped, there will be few remarkable places in the known World, of which the Politician, the Merchant, the Sailor, or the Man of Curiosity may not find a useful and pleasing account, of the credit of which the Reader may always judge, as the Authors from whom it is taken will be regularly quoted, a caution which if some, who have attempted such general works, had observed, their labours would have deserved, and found more favour from the Publick.’
[Footnote 1: That this is done will appear from the authours’ names exactly quoted.]
This letter must have been written about the year 1753, for Bathurst is described as a physician of about eight years’ standing. He took his degree as Bachelor of Medicine at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1745, and did not, it should seem, proceed to the higher degree. In 1757 he was at the Havannah, where he died (_ante_, i. 242, n. i). He was Johnson’s beloved friend, of whom ‘he hardly ever spoke without tears in his eyes’ (_ante_, i. 190, n. 2). The Proposal, I have no doubt, was either written, or at all events revised, by Johnson. It is quite in his style. It may be assumed that it is in Bathurst’s handwriting.
II.
_An apologetical letter about some work that was passing through the press; undated, but probably written about the years 1753-5_.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]
‘DEAR SIR,
‘What you tell me I am ashamed never to have thought on–I wish I had known it sooner–Send me back the last sheet; and the last copy for correction. If you will promise me henceforward to print a sheet a day, I will promise you to endeavour that you shall have every day a sheet to print, beginning next Tuesday.
‘I am Sir, Your most, &c.
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘To Mr. Strahan.’
In all likelihood Johnson is writing about the Dictionary. The absence of a date, as I have already said, is strong evidence that the letter was written comparatively early. As the first edition of the Dictionary was in folio a sheet consisted of four pages. Johnson writing on April 3, 1753 says, ‘I began the second vol. of my Dictionary, room being left in the first for Preface, Grammar, and History, none of them yet begun’ (_ante_, i. 255). As the book was published on April 15, 1755 (_ante_, i. 290, n. 1), the printing must have gone on very rapidly, when a start was once made. By _copy_ he means his _manuscript for printing_.
III, IV.
_Two undated letters about printing the Dictionary_.[In the possession of Mr. John Waller, 2, Artesian Road, Westbourne Grove.]
‘DEAR SIR,
‘I must desire you to add to your other civilities this one, to go to Mr. Millar and represent to him the manner of going on, and inform him that I know not how to manage. I pay three and twenty shillings a week to my assistants, in each instance having much assistance from them, but they tell me they shall be able to pull better in method, as indeed I intend they shall. The Point is to get two Guineas.
‘Sir, Your humble Servant,
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
(Address on back.) ‘To Mr. Strahan.’
‘SIR,
‘I have often suspected that it is as you say, and have told Mr. Dodsley of it. It proceeds from the haste of the amanuensis to get to the end of his day’s work. I have desired the passages to be clipped close, and then perhaps for two or three leaves it is done. But since poor Stuart’s time I could never get that part of the work into regularity, and perhaps never shall. I will try to take some more care but can promise nothing; when I am told there is a sheet or two I order it away. You will find it sometimes close; when I make up any myself, which never happens but when I have nobody with me, I generally clip it close, but one cannot always be on the watch.
‘I am Sir, Your most, &c.
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
These letters refer to the printing of the _Dictionary_, of which Dodsley and Millar were two among the proprietors, and Strahan the printer. Francis Stuart or Stewart was one of Johnson’s amanuenses (_ante_, i. 187). In 1779 Johnson paid his sister a guinea for an old pocket-book of her brother’s (_ante_, iii. 418), and wrote on April 8,1780 (_ante_, iii. 421):–‘The memory of her brother is yet fresh in my mind; he was an ingenious and worthy man.’ In February 1784 he gave her another guinea for a letter relating to himself that he had found in the pocket-book (_ante_, iv. 262). A writer in the _Gent. Mag._ for 1799, p. 1171, who had been employed in Strahan’s printing-works, says that ‘Stewart was useful to Johnson in the explanation of low cant phrases; all words relating to gambling and card-playing, such as _All-Fours_, _Catch-honours_ [not in Johnson’s Dictionary], _Cribbage_ [merely defined as _A game at cards_], were said to be Stewart’s corrected by the Doctor.’ He adds that after the printing had gone on some time ‘the proprietors of the _Dictionary_ paid Johnson through Mr. Strahan at the rate of a guinea for every sheet of MS. copy delivered. The copy was written upon quarto post, and in two columns each page. Johnson wrote in his own hand the words and their explanation, and generally two or three words in each column, leaving a space between each for the authorities, which were pasted on as they were collected by the different amanuenses employed: and in this mode the MS. was so regular that the sheets of MS. which made a sheet of print could be very exactly ascertained.’ The same writer states that Stewart in a night ramble in Edinburgh with some of his drinking companions ‘met with the mob conducting Captain Porteous to be hanged; they were next day examined about it before the Town Council, when, as Stewart used to say, “we were found to be too drunk to have any hand in the business.” He gave an accurate account of it in the Edinburgh Magazine of that time.’
V.
_A letter about Miss Williams, taxes due, and a journey; undated, but perhaps written at Oxford in 1754_.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]
‘SIR,
‘I shall not be long here, but in the mean time if Miss Williams wants any money pray speak to Mr. Millar and supply her, they write to me about some taxes which I wish you would pay.
‘My journey will come to very little beyond the satisfaction of knowing that there is nothing to be done, and that I leave few advantages here to those that shall come after me.
‘I am Sir, &c.
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘My compliments to Mrs. Strahan.
To Mr. Strahan.’
Miss Williams came to live with Johnson after his wife’s death in 1752 (_ante_, i. 232). The fact that Strahan is asked to supply her with money after speaking to Mr. Millar seems to show that this letter was written some time before the publication of the _Dictionary_ in April 1755. Millar ‘took the principal charge of conducting its publication,’ and Johnson ‘had received all the copy-money, by different drafts, a considerable time before he had finished his task’ (_ante_, i. 287).
His ‘journey’ may have been his visit to Oxford in the summer of 1754. He went there, because, ‘I cannot,’ he said, ‘finish my book [the Dictionary] to my mind without visiting the libraries’ (_ante_, i. 270). According to Thomas Warton ‘he collected nothing in the libraries for his _Dictionary_’ (_ib_ n. 5). It is perhaps to this failure that the latter part of the letter refers, Johnson’s visit, however, was one of five weeks, while the first line of the letter shews that he intended to be away from London but a short time.
VI.
_A letter about ‘Rasselas,’ dated_ Jan. 20, 1759.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]
‘When I was with you last night I told you of a story which I was preparing for the press. The title will be
“The Choice of Life
or
The History of … Prince of Abissinia.”
‘It will make about two volumes like little Pompadour, that is about one middling volume. The bargain which I made with Mr. Johnson was seventy five pounds (or guineas) a volume, and twenty five pounds for the second edition. I will sell this either at that price or for sixty[2], the first edition of which he shall himself fix the number, and the property then to revert to me, or for forty pounds, and I have the profit that is retain half the copy. I shall have occasion for thirty pounds on Monday night when I shall deliver the book which I must entreat you upon such delivery to procure me. I would have it offered to Mr. Johnson, but have no doubt of selling it, on some of the terms mentioned.
[Footnote 2: ‘Fifty-five pounds’ written first and then scored over.]
‘I will not print my name, but expect it to be known. I am Dear Sir, Your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON.
Jan. 20, 1759.
Get me the money if you can.’
This letter is of unusual interest, as it proves beyond all doubt that _Rasselas_ was written some weeks before _Candide_ was published (see _ante_, i. 342, n. a). Baretti, as I have shewn (i. 341, n. 3), says that ‘any other person with the degree of reputation Johnson then possessed would have got L400 for the work, but he never understood the art of making the most of his productions.’ We see, however, by this letter that Johnson did ask for a larger sum than the booksellers allowed him. He received but one hundred pounds for the first edition, but he had made a bargain for one hundred and fifty pounds or guineas. Johnson, the bookseller, seems to have been but in a small way of business as a publisher. I do not find in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1758 any advertisement of books published by him, and only one in 1759 (P. 339). Cowper’s publisher in 1778 was Joseph Johnson of St. Paul’s Churchyard. (Cowper’s _Works_ by Southey, i. 285; see also Nichols’ _Literary Anecdotes_, iii. 461-464.)
By ‘little Pompadour’ Johnson, no doubt, means the second and cheaper edition of _The History of the Marchioness de Pompadour_. The first edition was published by Hooper in one volume, price five shillings (_Gent. Mag_. for October 1758, p. 493). and the second in two volumes for three shillings and sixpence (_Gent. Mag_. for November, 1758, p. 543).
Johnson did not generally ‘print his name.’ He published anonymously his translation of _Lobos Voyage to Abyssinia; London; The Life of Savage; The Rambler_, and _The Idler_, both in separate numbers and when collected in volumes; _Rasselas; The False Alarm; Falkland’s Islands; The Patriot;_, and _Taxation no Tyranny_; (when these four pamphlets were collected in a volume he published them with the title of _Political Tracts, by the Authour of the Rambler_). He gave his name in _The Vanity of Human Wishes, Irene_, the _Dictionary_, his edition of _Shakespeare_, the _Journey to the Western Islands_, and the _Lives of the Poets_.
VII.
_A letter about George Strahan’s election to a scholarship at University College, Oxford, and about William Strahan’s ‘affair with the University’; dated October 24, 1764_.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]
‘SIR,
‘I think I have pretty well disposed of my young friend George, who, if you approve of it, will be entered next Monday a Commoner of University College, and will be chosen next day a Scholar of the House. The Scholarship is a trifle, but it gives him a right, upon a vacancy, to a Fellowship of more than sixty pounds a year if he resides, and I suppose of more than forty if he takes a Curacy or small living. The College is almost filled with my friends, and he will be well treated. The Master is informed of the particular state of his education, and thinks, what I think too, that for Greek he must get some private assistance, which a servitour of the College is very well qualified and will be very willing to afford him on very easy terms.
‘I must desire your opinion of this scheme by the next post, for the opportunity will be lost if we do not now seize it, the Scholarships being necessarily filled up on Tuesday.
‘I depend on your proposed allowance of a hundred a year, which must the first year be a little enlarged because there are some extraordinary expenses, as
Caution (which is allowed in his last quarter). . 7 0 0 Thirds. (He that enters upon a room pays two thirds of the furniture that he finds, and receives from his successor two thirds of what he pays; so that if he pays L20 he receives L13 6s. 8d., this perhaps may be) 12 0 0 Fees at entrance, matriculation &c., perhaps 2 0 0 His gown (I think) 2 10 0 ________
L 23 10 0
‘If you send us a Bill for about thirty pounds we shall set out commodiously enough. You should fit him out with cloaths and linen, and let him start fair, and it is the opinion of those whom I consult, that with your hundred a year and the petty scholarship he may live with great ease to himself, and credit to you.
‘Let me hear as soon as is possible.
‘In your affair with the university, I shall not be consulted, but I hear nothing urged against your proposal.
‘I am, Sir,
‘Your humble servant,
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘Oct. 24, 1764.
‘My compliments to Mrs. Strahan.
‘To Mr. Strahan, Printer, in New Street, Shoe-lane, London.’
My friend, Mr. C. J. Faulkner, Fellow and Tutor of University College, has given me the following extracts from the College records:–
‘Oct. 30-31, 1764. Candidatis examinatis electi sunt Gulielmus Jones et Georgius Strahan in vacuas Exhibitiones Dmi Simonis Benet Baronetti.’
Gulielmus Jones is the famous oriental scholar, Sir William Jones, whose portrait adorns the Hall of his ancient College (_ante_, ii. 25, n. 2).
On April 16, 1767, is found the election of ‘Georgium Strahan, sophistam in perpetuum hujus Collegii Socium.’
He vacated his fellowship in 1773.
The value of a Bennet scholarship in 1764 was ten pounds a year, with rooms added, the rent of which was reckoned as equal to two pounds more. A fellowship on the same foundation was worth about twenty pounds, with a yearly dividend added to it that amounted to about thirty pounds. ‘Fines’ (_ante_, iii. 323) and other extra payments might easily raise the value to more than sixty pounds.
The ‘caution’ is the sum deposited by an undergraduate with the College Bursar or Steward as a security for the payment of his ‘battells’ or account. Johnson in 1728 had to pay at Pembroke College the same sum (seven pounds) that George Strahan in 1764 had to pay at University College. _Ante_, i. 58, n. 2.
Johnson wrote four letters to George Strahan, when he was a boy at school, and one letter when he was at College. (See Croker’s _Johnson_, pp. 129, 130, 161, 168.) In this last letter, dated May 25, 1765, he writes: ‘Do not tire yourself so much with Greek one day as to be afraid of looking on it the next; but give it a certain portion of time, suppose four hours, and pass the rest of the day in Latin or English. I would have you learn French, and take in a literary journal once a month, which will accustom you to various subjects, and inform you what learning is going forward in the world. Do not omit to mingle some lighter books with those of more importance; that which is read _remisso animo_ is often of great use, and takes great hold of the remembrance. However, take what course you will, if you be diligent you will be a scholar.’
George Strahan attended Johnson on his death-bed, and published the volume called _Prayers and Meditations composed by Samuel Johnson_. _Ante_, i. 235, n. i; iv. 376, n. 4.
William Strahan’s ‘affair with the University’ was very likely connected with the lease of the University Printing House. From the ‘Orders of the Delegates of the Press,’ 1758, I have been permitted to copy the following entry, which bears a date but six days later than that of Johnson’s letter.
‘Tuesday, Oct. 30, 1764. At a meeting of the Delegates of the Press.
‘Ordered,
‘That the following articles be made the foundation of the new lease to be granted of the moiety of the Printing House; that a copy of them be delivered to Mr. Baskett and Mr. Eyre, and that they be desired to give in their respective proposals at a meeting to be held on Tuesday the sixth of November.’ (P. 41.)
The chief part of the lease consisted of the privilege to print Bibles and Prayer Books. I conjecture that Strahan had hoped to get a share in the lease.
VIII.
_A letter about a cancel in Johnson’s ‘Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland’, dated Nov. 30_, 1774.[In the possession of Messrs. Pearson and Co., 46, Pall Mall.]
‘SIR,
‘I waited on you this morning having forgotten your new engagement; for this you must not reproach me, for if I had looked upon your present station with malignity I could not have forgotten it. I came to consult you upon a little matter that gives me some uneasiness. In one of the pages there is a severe censure of the clergy of an English Cathedral which I am afraid is just, but I have since recollected that from me it may be thought improper, for the Dean did me a kindness about forty years ago. He is now very old, and I am not young. Reproach can do him no good, and in myself I know not whether it is zeal or wantonness. Can a leaf be cancelled without too much trouble? tell me what I shall do. I have no settled choice, but I would not wish to allow the charge. To cancel it seems the surer side. Determine for me.
‘I am, Sir, Your most humble servant, ‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘Nov. 30, 1774.
‘Tell me your mind: if you will cancel it I will write something to fill up the vacuum. Please to direct to the borough.’
Mr. Strahan’s ‘new engagement’ was in the House of Commons at Westminster, to which he had been elected for the first time as member for Malmesbury. The new Parliament had met on Nov. 29, the day before the date of Johnson’s letter (_Parl. Hist_, xviii. 23).
The leaf that Johnson cancelled contained pages 47, 48 in the first edition of his _Journey to the Western Islands_. It corresponds with pages 19-30 in vol. ix. of Johnson’s _Works_ (ed. 1825), beginning with the words ‘could not enter,’ and ending ‘imperfect constitution.’ The excision is marked by a ridge of paper, which was left that the revised leaf might be attached to it. Johnson describes how the lead which covered the Cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen had been stripped off by the order of the Scottish Council, and shipped to be sold in Holland. He continues:–‘Let us not however make too much haste to despise our neighbours. Our own cathedrals are mouldering by unregarded dilapidation. It seems to be part of the despicable philosophy of the time to despise monuments of sacred magnificence, and we are in danger of doing that deliberately, which the Scots did not do but in the unsettled state of an imperfect constitution.’
In the copy of the first edition in the Bodleian Library, which had belonged to Gough the antiquary, there is written in his hand, as a foot-note to ‘neighbours’: ‘There is now, as I have heard, a body of men not less decent or virtuous than the Scottish Council, longing to melt the lead of an English Cathedral. What they shall melt, it were just that they should swallow.’ It can scarcely be doubted that this is the suppressed passage. The English Cathedral to which Johnson refers was, I believe, Lichfield. ‘The roof,’ says Harwood (History of Lichfield, p. 75), ‘was formerly covered with lead, but now with slate.’ Addenbroke, who had been Dean since 1745, was, we may assume, very old at the time when Johnson wrote. I had at first thought it not unlikely that it was Dr. Thomas Newton, Dean of St. Paul’s and Bishop of Bristol, who was censured. He was a Lichfield man, and was known to Johnson (see _ante_, iv. 285, n. 3). He was, however, only seventy years old. I am informed moreover by the Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, the learned editor of _Documents illustrating the History of St. Paul’s_, that it is very improbable that at this time the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s entertained such a thought.
My friend Mr. C. E. Doble has kindly furnished me with the following curious parallel to Johnson’s suppressed wish about the molten lead.
‘The chappell of our Lady [at Wells], late repayred by Stillington, a place of great reverence and antiquitie, was likewise defaced, and such was their thirst after lead (I would they had drunke it scalding) that they tooke the dead bodies of bishops out of their leaden coffins, and cast abroad the carkases skarce throughly putrified.’–Harington’s _Nuga Antiquae_, ii. 147 (ed. 1804).
In the postscript Johnson says ‘Please to direct to the borough.’ He was staying in Mr. Thrale’s town-house in the Borough of Southwark. (See _ante_, i, 493.)
IX.
_A letter about apprenticing a lad to Mr. Strahan, and about a presentation to the Blue Coat School, dated December 22_, 1774. [In the possession of Messrs. Robson and Kerslake, 25, Coventry Street Haymarket.]
‘Sir,
‘When we meet we talk, and I know not whether I always recollect what I thought I had to say.
‘You will please to remember that I once asked you to receive an apprentice, who is a scholar, and has always lived in a clergyman’s house, but who is mishapen, though I think not so as to hinder him at the case. It will be expected that I should answer his Friend who has hitherto maintained him, whether I can help him to a place. He can give no money, but will be kept in cloaths.
‘I have another request which it is perhaps not immediately in your power to gratify. I have a presentation to beg for the blue coat hospital. The boy is a non-freeman, and has both his parents living. We have a presentation for a freeman which we can give in exchange. If in your extensive acquaintance you can procure such an exchange, it will be an act of great kindness. Do not let the matter slip out of your mind, for though I try others I know not any body of so much power to do it.
‘I am, Sir, Your most humble Servant,
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘Dec. 22, 1774.’
The apprentice was young William Davenport, the orphan son of a clergyman. His friend was the Rev. W. Langley, the master of Ashbourne School. Strahan received him as an apprentice (_ante_, ii. 334, n. i). See also Nichols’ _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. iii. p. 287.
The ‘case’ is the frame containing boxes for holding type.
X.
_A letter about suppressions in ‘Taxation no Tyranny! dated March 1, 1775_.[In the possession of Mr. Frank T. Sabin, 10 & 12, Garrick Street Covent Garden.]
‘SIR,
‘I am sorry to see that all the alterations proposed are evidences of timidity. You may be sure that I do [? not] wish to publish, what those for whom I write do not like to have published. But print me half a dozen copies in the original state, and lay them up for me. It concludes well enough as it is.
‘When you print it, if you print it, please to frank one to me here, and frank another to Mrs. Aston at Stow Hill, Lichfield.
‘The changes are not for the better, except where facts were mistaken. The last paragraph was indeed rather contemptuous, there was once more of it which I put out myself.
‘I am Sir, Your humble Servant,
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘March 1, 1775.’
This letter refers to _Taxation no Tyranny_, which was published before March 31, 1775, the date of Boswell’s arrival in London (_ante_, ii. 311). Boswell says that he had in his possession ‘a few proof leaves of it marked with corrections in Johnson’s own hand-writing’ (ib. p. 313). Johnson, he says,’ owned to me that it had been revised and curtailed by some of those who were then in power.’ When Johnson writes ‘when you print it, if you print it,’ he uses, doubtless, _print_ in the sense of _striking off copies_. The pamphlet was, we may assume, in type before it was revised by ‘those in power.’ The corrections had been made in the proof-sheets. Johnson asks to have six copies laid by for him in the state in which he had wished to publish it. It seems that the last paragraph had been struck out by the reviser, for Johnson says ‘it was rather contemptuous.’ He does not think it needful to supply anything in its place, for he says ‘it concludes well enough as it is.’
Mr. Strahan had the right, as a member of Parliament, to frank all letters and packets. That is to say, by merely writing his signature on the cover he could pass them through the post free of charge. Johnson, when he wrote to Scotland, used to employ him to frank his letters, ‘that he might have the consequence of appearing a parliament-man among his countrymen’ (_ante_, iii. 364). It was to Oxford that a copy of the pamphlet was to be franked to Johnson. That he was there at the time is shown by a letter from him in Mrs. Piozzi’s _Collection_ (vol. i. p. 212), dated ‘University College, Oxford, March 3, 1775.’ Writing to her, evidently from Bolt Court, on February 3, he had said: ‘My pamphlet has not gone on at all’ (ib. i. 211). Mrs. Aston (or rather Miss Aston) is mentioned _ante_, ii. 466.
XI
_A letter about ‘copy’ and a book by Professor Watson, dated Oct. 14, 1776’_.[In the possession of Mr. H. Fawcett, of 14, King Street, Covent Garden.]
‘SIR,
‘I wrote to you about ten days ago, and sent you some copy. You have not written again, that is a sorry trick.
‘I am told that you are printing a Book for Mr. Professor Watson of Saint Andrews, if upon any occasion, I can give any help, or be of any use, as formerly in Dr. Robertson’s publication, I hope you will make no scruple to call upon me, for I shall be glad of an opportunity to show that my reception at Saint Andrews has not been forgotten.
‘I am Sir, Your humble Servant,
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
‘Oct. 14, 1776.’
The’ copy’ or MS. that Johnson sent is, I conjecture, _Proposals for the Rev. Mr. Shaw’s Analysis of the Scotch Celtick Language_ (_ante_, iii. 107). This is the only acknowledged piece of writing of his during 1776. The book printing for Professor Watson was _History of the Reign of Philip II_, which was published by Strahan and Cadell in 1777. This letter is of unusual interest, as showing that Johnson had been of some service as regards one of Robertson’s books. It is possible that he read some of the proof-sheets, and helped to get rid of the Scotticisms. ‘Strahan,’ according to Beattie, ‘had corrected (as he told me himself) the phraseology of both Mr. Hume and Dr. Robertson’ (_ante_, v. 92, n. 3). He is not unlikely, in Robertson’s case, to have sought and obtained Johnson’s help.
XII.
_The following letter is published in Mr. Alfred Morrison’s ‘Collection of Autographs’, vol. ii. p. 343._
‘To Dr. TAYLOR. Dated London, April 20, 1778.’
‘The quantity of blood taken from you appears to me not sufficient. Thrale was almost lost by the scrupulosity of his physicians, who never bled him copiously till they bled him in despair; he then bled till he fainted, and the stricture or obstruction immediately gave way and from that instant he grew better.
‘I can now give you no advice but to keep yourself totally quiet and amused with some gentle exercise of the mind. If a suspected letter comes, throw it aside till your health is reestablished; keep easy and cheerful company about you, and never try to think but at those stated and solemn times when the thoughts are summoned to the cares of futurity, the only cares of a rational being.
‘As to my own health I think it rather grows better; the convulsions which left me last year at Ashbourne have never returned, and I have by the mercy of God very comfortable nights. Let me know very often how you are till you are quite well.’
This letter, though it is dated 1778, must have been written in 1780. Thrale’s first attack was in June, 1779, when he was in ‘extreme danger’ (_ante_, iii. 397, n. 2, 420). Johnson had the remission of the convulsions on June 18, 1779. He recorded on June 18, 1780:–
‘In the morning of this day last year I perceived the remission of those convulsions in my breast which had distressed me for more than twenty years. I returned thanks at church for the mercy granted me, which has now continued a year.’–_Prayers and Meditations_, p. 183.
Three days later he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:–
‘It was a twelvemonth last Sunday since the convulsions in my breast left me. I hope I was thankful when I recollected it; by removing that disorder a great improvement was made in the enjoyment of life.’ –_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 163. (See _ante_, iii. 397, n. 1.)
He was at Ashbourne on June 18, 1779 (_ante_, iii. 453).
On April 20, 1778, the very day of which this letter bears the date, he recorded:–
‘After a good night, as I am forced to reckon, I rose seasonably…. In reviewing my time from Easter, 1777, I found a very melancholy and shameful blank. So little has been done that days and months are without any trace. My health has, indeed, been very much interrupted. My nights have been commonly not only restless, but painful and fatiguing. ….Some relaxation of my breast has been procured, I think, by opium, which, though it never gives me sleep, frees my breast from spasms.’ –_Prayers and Meditations_, p. 169. See _ante_, iii. 317, n. 1.
For Johnson’s advice about bleeding, see _ante_, iii. 152; and for possible occasions for ‘suspected letters,’ _ante_, i. 472, n. 4; and ii. 202, n. 2.
_Mr. Mason’s ‘sneering observation in his “Memoirs of Mr. William Whitehead”‘_
(Vol. i, p. 31.)
I had long failed to find a copy of these _Memoirs_, though I had searched in the Bodleian, the British Museum, and the London Library, and had applied to the University Library at Cambridge, and the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh. By the kindness of Mr. R. H. Soden Smith and Mr. R. F. Sketchley, I have obtained the following extract from a copy in the Dyce and Forster Libraries, in the South Kensington Museum:–
‘Conscious, notwithstanding, that to avoid writing what is _unnecessary_ is, in these days, no just plea for silence in a biographer, I have some apology to make for having strewed these pages so thinly with the tittle-tattle of anecdote. I am, however, too proud to make this apology to any person but my bookseller, who will be the only real loser by the ‘Those readers, who believe that I do not write immediately under his pay, and who may have gathered from what they have already read, that I am not so passionately enamoured of Dr. Johnson’s biographical manner, as to take that for my model, have only to throw these pages aside, and wait till they are new-written by some one of his numerous disciples, who may follow his master’s example; and should more anecdote than I furnish him with be wanting (as was the Doctor’s case in his life of Mr. Gray), may make amends for it by those acid eructations of vituperative criticism, which are generated by unconcocted taste and intellectual indigestion.’–_Poems by William Whitehead_, York, 1788 (vol. iii, p. 128).
With this ‘sneering observation,’ which Boswell might surely have passed over in silence, the Memoirs close.
_Michael Johnson as a bookseller._
(Vol. i, p. 36, n. 3.)
Mr. R. F. Sketchley kindly informs me that in the Dyce and Forster Libraries at the South Kensington Museum there is a book with the following title:–
_S. Shaw’s ‘Grammatica Anglo–Romana’, London, printed for Michael Johnson, bookseller: and are to be sold at his shops in Litchfield and Uttoxiter in Stafford-shire; and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, 1687._
Mr. C. E. Doble tells me that in the proposals issued in 1690 by Thomas Bennet, St. Paul’s Churchyard, for printing Anthony a Wood’s _Athenae Oxonienses_ and _Fasti Oxonienses_, among ‘the booksellers who take subscriptions, give receipts, and deliver books according to the proposals’ is ‘Mr. Johnson in Litchfield.’
_The City and County of Lichfield_.
(Vol. i, p. 36, n. 4.)
‘The City of Litchfield is a County of itself, with a jurisdiction extending 10 or 12 miles round, which circuit the Sheriff rides every year on Sept. 8.’–_A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain_, ed. 1769, ii. 419.
Balliol College has a copy of this work containing David Garrick’s book-plate, with Shakespeare’s head at the top of it, and the following quotation from _Menagiana_ at the foot:–
‘_La premiere chose qu’on doit faire quand on a emprunte un livre, c’est de le lire, afin de pouvoir le rendre plutot’ (sic)_.
_Felixmarte of Hircania_.
(Vol. i, p. 49.)
‘”He that follows is _Florismarte of Hyrcania_” said the barber. “What! is Signor Florismarte there?” replied the priest; “in good faith he shall share the same fate, notwithstanding his strange birth and chimerical adventures; for his harsh and dry style will admit of no excuse. To the yard with him, therefore.” “With all my heart, dear Sir,” answered the housekeeper; “and with joyful alacrity she executed the command.'” –_Don Quixote_, ed. 1820, i. 48.
Boswell speaks of _Felixmarte_ as the old Spanish romance. In the _Bibliografia dei Romanzi e Poeini Cavallereschi Italiani_ (2nd ed., Milan, 1838), p. 351, it is stated that in the Spanish edition it is called a translation from the Italian, and in the Italian edition a translation from the Spanish. The Italian title is _Historia di Don Florismante d’Ircania, tradotta dallo Spagnuolo_. Cervantes, in an edition of _Don Quixote_, published in 1605, which I have looked at, calls the book _Florismarte de Hircania_ (not _Florismante_). It should seem that he made his hero read the Italian version.
_Palmerin of England and Don Belianis_.
(Vol. i, p. 49, n. 2; and vol. iii, p. 2.)
‘”Let _Palmerin of England_ be preserved,” said the licentiate, “and kept as a jewel; and let such another casket be made for it as that which Alexander found among the spoils of Darius appropriated to preserve the works of the poet Homer….Therefore, master Nicholas, saving your better judgment let this and _Amadis de Gaul_ be exempted from the flames, and let all the rest perish without any farther inquiry.” “Not so neighbour,” replied the barber, “for behold here the renowned _Don Belianis_.” The priest replied, “This with the second, third, and fourth parts, wants a little rhubarb to purge away its excessive choler; there should be removed too all that relates to the castle of Fame, and other impertinencies of still greater consequence; let them have the benefit, therefore, of transportation, and as they show signs of amendment they shall hereafter be treated with mercy or justice; in the meantime, friend, give them room in your house; but let nobody read them.”‘
–_Don Quixote_, ed. 1820, i. 50.
_Mr. Taylor, a Birmingham manufacturer_.
(Vol. i, p. 86.)
‘John Taylor, Esq. may justly be deemed the Shakspear or Newton of Birmingham. He rose from minute beginnings to shine in the commercial hemisphere, as they in the poetical or philosophical. To this uncommon genius we owe the gilt button, the japanned and gilt snuff-box, with the numerous race of enamels; also the painted snuff-box. … He died in 1775 at the age of 64, after acquiring a fortune of L200,000. His son was a considerable sufferer at the time of the riots in 1791.’ –_A Brief History of Birmingham_, 1797, p. 9.
_Olivia Lloyd._
(Vol. i, p. 92.)
I am, no doubt, right in identifying Olivia Lloyd, the young quaker, with whom Johnson was much enamoured when at Stourbridge School, with Olive Lloyd, the daughter of the first Sampson Lloyd, of Birmingham, and aunt of the Sampson Lloyd with whom he had an altercation (_ante_, ii. 458 and _post_, p. liii). ‘A fine likeness of her is preserved by Thomas Lloyd, The Priory, Warwick,’ as I learn from an interesting little work called _Farm and its Inhabitants, with some Account of the Lloyds of Dolobran_, by Rachel J. Lowe. Privately printed, 1883, p. 24. Her elder brother married a Miss Careless; ib. p. 23. Johnson’s ‘first love,’ Hector’s sister, married a Mr. Careless (_ante_, ii. 459).
_Henry Porter, of Edgbaston_.
(Vol. i, p. 94, n. 3.)
In St. Mary’s Church, Warwick, is a monument to–
‘Anna Norton, Henrici Porter
Filia
Nuper de Edgberston in Com. Warw. Generosi; Vidua Thomae Norton….
Haec annis et pietate matura vitam deposuit. Maii 14, 1698.’
_A Brief Description of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Warwick_, published by Grafton and Reddell, Birmingham; no date.
_Mrs. Williams’s account of Mrs. Johnson and her sons by her former marriage_. (Vol. i, p. 95.)
The following note by Malone I failed to quote in the right place. It is copied from a paper, written by Lady Knight.
‘Mrs. Williams’s account of Mrs. Johnson was, that she had a good understanding and great sensibility, but inclined to be satirical. Her first husband died insolvent [this is a mistake, see _ante_, i. 95, n. 3]; her sons were much disgusted with her for her second marriage; … however, she always retained her affection for them. While they [Mr. and Mrs. Johnson] resided in Gough Square, her son, the officer, knocked at the door, and asked the maid if her mistress was at home. She answered, “Yes, Sir, but she is sick in bed.” “Oh,” says he, “if it’s so, tell her that her son Jervis called to know how she did;” and was going away. The maid begged she might run up to tell her mistress, and, without attending his answer, left him. Mrs. Johnson, enraptured to hear her son was below, desired the maid to tell him she longed to embrace him. When the maid descended the gentleman was gone, and poor Mrs. Johnson was much agitated by the adventure; it was the only time he ever made an effort to see her. Dr. [Mr.] Johnson did all he could to console his wife, but told Mrs. Williams: “Her son is uniformly undutiful; so I conclude, like many other sober men, he might once in his life be drunk, and in that fit nature got the better of his pride.”‘
_Johnson’s application for the mastership of the Grammar School at Solihull in Warwickshire_.
(Vol. i, p. 96.)
Johnson, a few weeks after his marriage, applied for the mastership of Solihull Grammar School, as is shown by the following letter, preserved in the Pembroke College MSS., addressed to Mr. Walmsley, and quoted by Mr. Croker. I failed to insert it in my notes.
_’Solihull, the 30 August 1735._
‘SIR,
‘I was favoured with yours of the 13th inst. in due time, but deferred answering it til now, it takeing up some time to informe the Foeofees of the contents thereof; and before they would return an Answer, desired some time to make enquiry of the caracter of Mr. Johnson, who all agree that he is an excellent scholar, and upon that account deserves much better than to be schoolmaster of Solihull. But then he has the caracter of being a very haughty, ill-natured gent., and that he has such a way of distorting his Face (which though he can’t help) the gent, think it may affect some young ladds; for these two reasons he is not approved on, the late master Mr. Crompton’s huffing the Foeofees being stil in their memory. However, we are all exstreamly obliged to you for thinking of us, and for proposeing so good a schollar, but more especially is, dear sir,
‘Your very humble servant,
‘HENRY GRESWOLD.’
_Johnson’s knowledge of Italian_.
(Vol. i, p. 115.)
Boswell says that he does not know ‘at what time, or by what means Johnson had acquired a competent knowledge of Italian.’ In my note on this I say ‘he had read Petrarch “when but a boy.”‘ As Petrarch wrote chiefly in Latin, it is quite possible that Johnson did not acquire his knowledge of Italian so early as I had thought.
_Johnson’s deference for the general opinion_.
(Vol. i, p. 200.)
Miss Burney records an interesting piece of criticism by Johnson. ‘There are,’ he said, ‘three distinct kinds of judges upon all new authors or productions; the first are those who know no rules, but pronounce entirely from their natural taste and feelings; the second are those who know and judge by rules; and the third are those who know, but are above the rules. These last are those you should wish to satisfy. Next to them rate the natural judges; but ever despise those opinions that are formed by the rules.’–_Mine. D’Arblay’s Diary_, i. 180. Later on she writes: –‘The natural feelings of untaught hearers ought never to be slighted; and Dr. Johnson has told me the same a thousand times;’ ib. ii. 128.
_Johnson in the Green Room_.
(Vol. i, p. 201.)
Mr. Richard Herne Shepherd, in _Watford’s Antiquarian_ for January, 1887, p. 34, asserts that the actual words which Johnson used when he told Garrick that he would no longer frequent his Green Room were indecent; so indecent that Mr. Shepherd can only venture to satisfy those whom he calls students by informing them of them privately. For proof of this charge against the man whose boast it was that ‘obscenity had always been repressed in his company’ (_ante_, iv. 295) he brings forward John Wilkes. The story, indeed, as it is told by Boswell, is not too trustworthy, for he had it through Hume from Garrick. As it reaches Mr. Shepherd it comes from Garrick through Wilkes. Garrick, no doubt, as Johnson says (_ante_, v. 391), was, as a companion, ‘restrained by some principle,’ and had ‘some delicacy of feeling.’ Nevertheless, in his stories, he was, we may be sure, no more on oath than a man is in lapidary inscriptions (_ante_, ii. 407). It is possible that he reported Johnson’s very words to Hume, and that Hume did not change them in reporting them to Boswell. Whatever they were, they were spoken in 1749 and published in 1791, when Johnson had been dead six years, Garrick twelve years, and Hume fourteen years. It is idle to dream that they can now be conjecturally emended. But it is worse than idle to bring in as evidence John Wilkes. What entered his ear as purity itself might issue from his mouth as the grossest obscenity. He had no delicacy of feeling. No principle restrained him. When he comes to bear testimony, and aims a shaft at any man’s character, the bow that he draws is drawn with the weakness of the hand of a worn-out and shameless profligate.
Mr. Shepherd quotes an unpublished letter of Boswell to Wilkes, dated Rome, April 22, 1765, to show ‘that the two men had become familiars, not only long before Wilkes’s famous meeting with Dr. Johnson was brought about, but before even the friendship of Boswell himself with Johnson had been consolidated.’ It needs no unpublished letters to show that. It must be known to every attentive reader of Boswell. See _ante_, i. 395, and ii. 11.
_Frederick III, King of Prussia_.
(Vol. i, p. 308.)
Boswell should have written Frederick II.
_Boswell’s visit to Rousseau and Voltaire_.
(Vol. i, p. 434; and vol. ii, p. 11.)
_Boswell to Andrew Mitchell, Esq., His Britannic Majesty’s Minister at Berlin_.
‘Berlin, 28 August, 1764.
… ‘I have had another letter from my father, in which he continues of opinion that travelling is of very little use, and may do a great deal of harm. … I esteem and love my father, and I am determined to do what is in my power to make him easy and happy. But you will allow that I may endeavour to make him happy, and at the same time not to be too hard upon myself. I must use you so much with the freedom of a friend as to tell you that with the vivacity which you allowed me I have a melancholy