than is required of that which is commonly performed with reluctance it proceeds that few authors write their own lives.’ Idler, No. 102. See also post, May 1, 1783.
[87] Mrs. Piozzi records the following conversation with Johnson, which, she says, took place on July 18, 1773. ‘And who will be my biographer,’ said he, ‘do you think?’ ‘Goldsmith, no doubt,’ replied I; ‘and he will do it the best among us.’ ‘The dog would write it best to be sure,’ replied he; ‘but his particular malice towards me, and general disregard for truth, would make the book useless to all, and injurious to my character.’ ‘Oh! as to that,’ said I, ‘we should all fasten upon him, and force him to do you justice; but the worst is, the Doctor does not know your life; nor can I tell indeed who does, except Dr. Taylor of Ashbourne.’ ‘Why Taylor,’ said he, ‘is better acquainted with my heart than any man or woman now alive; and the history of my Oxford exploits lies all between him and Adams; but Dr. James knows my very early days better than he. After my coming to London to drive the world about a little, you must all go to Jack Hawkesworth for anecdotes: I lived in great familiarity with him (though I think there was not much affection) from the year 1753 till the time Mr. Thrale and you took me up. I intend, however, to disappoint the rogues, and either make you write the life, with Taylor’s intelligence; or, which is better, do it myself after outliving you all. I am now,’ added he, ‘keeping a diary, in hopes of using it for that purpose sometime.’ Piozzi’s Anec. p. 31. How much of this is true cannot be known. Boswell some time before this conversation had told Johnson that he intended to write his Life, and Johnson had given him many particulars (see post, March 31, 1772, and April 11, 1773). He read moreover in manuscript most of Boswell’s Tour to the Hebrides, and from it learnt of his intention. ‘It is no small satisfaction to me to reflect,’ Boswell wrote, ‘that Dr. Johnson, after being apprised of my intentions, communicated to me, at subsequent periods, many particulars of his life.’ Boswell’s Hebrides, Oct. 14, 1773.
[88] ‘It may be said the death of Dr. Johnson kept the public mind in agitation beyond all former example. No literary character ever excited so much attention.’ Murphy’s Johnson, p. 3.
[89] The greatest part of this book was written while Sir John Hawkins was alive; and I avow, that one object of my strictures was to make him feel some compunction for his illiberal treatment of Dr. Johnson. Since his decease, I have suppressed several of my remarks upon his work. But though I would not ‘war with the dead’ offensively, I think it necessary to be strenuous in defence of my illustrious friend, which I cannot be without strong animadversions upon a writer who has greatly injured him. Let me add, that though I doubt I should not have been very prompt to gratify Sir John Hawkins with any compliment in his lifetime, I do now frankly acknowledge, that, in my opinion, his volume, however inadequate and improper as a life of Dr. Johnson, and however discredited by unpardonable inaccuracies in other respects, contains a collection of curious anecdotes and observations, which few men but its author could have brought together. BOSWELL.
[90] ‘The next name that was started was that of Sir John Hawkins; and Mrs. Thrale said, “Why now, Dr. Johnson, he is another of those whom you suffer nobody to abuse but yourself: Garrick is one too; for, if any other person speaks against him, you brow-beat him in a minute.” “Why madam,” answered he, “they don’t know when to abuse him, and when to praise him; I will allow no man to speak ill of David that he does not deserve; and as to Sir John, why really I believe him to be an honest man at the bottom; but to be sure he is penurious, and he is mean, and it must be owned he has a degree of brutality, and a tendency to savageness, that cannot easily be defended…. He said that Sir John and he once belonged to the same club, but that as he eat no supper, after, the first night of his admission he desired to be excused paying his share.” “And was he excused?” “O yes; for no man is angry at another for being inferior to himself. We all scorned him, and admitted his plea. For my part, I was such a fool as to pay my share for wine, though I never tasted any. But Sir John was a most unclubable man.”’ Madame D’Arblay’s Diary, i. 65.
[91] ‘In censuring Mr. [sic] J. Hawkins’s book I say: “There is throughout the whole of it a dark, uncharitable cast, which puts the most unfavourable construction on my illustrious friend’s conduct.” Malone maintains cast will not do; he will have “malignancy.” Is that not too strong? How would “disposition” do?… Hawkins is no doubt very malevolent. Observe how he talks of me as quite unknown.’ Letters of Boswell, p. 281. Malone wrote of Hawkins as follows: ‘The bishop [Bishop Percy of Dromore] concurred with every other person I have heard speak of Hawkins, in saying that he was a most detestable fellow. He was the son of a carpenter, and set out in life in the very lowest line of the law. Dyer knew him well at one time, and the Bishop heard him give a character of Hawkins once that painted him in the blackest colours; though Dyer was by no means apt to deal in such portraits. Dyer said he was a man of the most mischievous, uncharitable, and malignant disposition. Sir Joshua Reynolds observed to me that Hawkins, though he assumed great outward sanctity, was not only mean and grovelling in dispostion, but absolutely dishonest. He never lived in any real intimacy with Dr. Johnson, who never opened his heart to him, or had in fact any accurate knowledge of his character.’ Prior’s Malone, pp. 425-7. See post, Feb. 1764, note.
[92] Mrs. Piozzi. See post, under June 30, 1784.
[93] Voltaire in his account of Bayle says: ‘Des Maizeaux a écrit sa vie en un gros volume; elle ne devait pas contenir six pages.’ Voltaire’s Works, edition of 1819, xvii. 47.
[94] Brit. Mus. 4320, Ayscough’s Catal., Sloane MSS. BOSWELL.—Horace Walpole describes Birch as ‘a worthy, good-natured soul, full of industry and activity, and running about like a young setting-dog in quest of anything, new or old, and with no parts, taste, or judgment.’ Walpole’s Letters, vii. 326. See post, Sept. 1743.
[95] ‘You have fixed the method of biography, and whoever will write a life well must imitate you.’ Horace Walpole to Mason; Walpole’s Letters, vi. 211.
[96] ‘I am absolutely certain that my mode of biography, which gives not only a History of Johnson’s visible progress through the world, and of his publications, but a view of his mind in his letters and conversations, is the most perfect that can be conceived, and will be more of a Life than any work that has ever yet appeared.’ Letters of Boswell, p. 265.
[97] Pope’s Prologue to Addison’s Cato, 1. 4.
[98] ‘Boswell is the first of biographers. He has distanced all his competitors so decidedly that it is not worth while to place them. Eclipse is first, and the rest nowhere.’ Macaulay’s Essays, i. 374.
[99] See post, Sept. 17, 1777, and Malone’s note of March 15, 1781, and Boswell’s Hebrides, Sept. 22, 1773. Hannah More met Boswell when he was carrying through the press his Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. ‘Boswell tells me,’ she writes, ‘he is printing anecdotes of Johnson, not his Life, but, as he has the vanity to call it, his pyramid. I besought his tenderness for our virtuous and most revered departed friend, and begged he would mitigate some of his asperities. He said roughly: “He would not cut off his claws, nor make a tiger a cat, to please anybody.” It will, I doubt not, be a very amusing book, but, I hope, not an indiscreet one; he has great enthusiasm and some fire.’ H. More’s Memoirs, i. 403.
[100] Rambler, No. 60. BOSWELL.
[101] In the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.
[102] ‘Mason’s Life of Gray is excellent, because it is interspersed with letters which show us the man. His Life of Whitehead is not a life at all, for there is neither a letter nor a saying from first to last.’ Letters of Boswell, p. 265.
[103] The Earl and Countess of Jersey, WRIGHT.
[104] Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, Langhorne’s Translation. BOSWELL.
[105] In the original, revolving something.
[106] In the original, and