it is strongly reported; and of that ingenious, but thread-bare excuse for a downright lie, it wants confirmation.’
[417] The Lives of Blake and Drake were certainly written with a political aim. The war with Spain was going on, and the Tory party was doing its utmost to rouse the country against the Spaniards. It was ‘a time,’ according to Johnson, ‘when the nation was engaged in a war with an enemy, whose insults, ravages, and barbarities have long called for vengeance.’ Johnson’s Works, vi. 293.
[418] Barretier’s childhood surpassed even that of J. S. Mill. At the age of nine he was master of five languages, Greek and Hebrew being two of them. ‘In his twelfth year he applied more particularly to the study of the fathers.’ At the age of fourteen he published Anti-Artemonius; sive initium evangelii S. Joannis adversus Artemonium vindicatum. The same year the University of Halle offered him the degree of doctor in philosophy. ‘His theses, or philosophical positions, which he printed, ran through several editions in a few weeks.’ He was a deep student of mathematics, and astronomy was his favourite subject. His health broke down under his studies, and he died in 1740 in the twentieth year of his age. Johnson’s Works, vi. 376.
[419] He wrote also in 1756 A Dissertation on the Epitaphs written by Pope.
[420] See post, Oct. 16, 1769.
[421] In the original and. Gent. Mag. x. 464. The title of this poem as there given is:—‘An epitaph upon the celebrated Claudy Philips, Musician, who died very poor.’
[422] The epitaph of Phillips is in the porch of Wolverhampton Church. The prose part of it is curious:—
‘Near this place lies
Charles Claudius Phillips,
Whose absolute contempt of riches
and inimitable performances upon the
violin
made him the admiration of all that
knew him.
He was born in Wales,
made the tour of Europe,
and, after the experience of both
kinds of fortune,
Died in 1732.’
Mr. Garrick appears not to have recited the verses correctly, the original being as follows:—
‘Exalted soul, thy various sounds could please The love-sick virgin and the gouty ease; Could jarring crowds, like old Amphion, move To beauteous order and harmonious love; Rest here in peace, till Angels bid thee rise, And meet thy Saviour’s consort in the skies.’ BLAKEWAY.
Consort is defined in Johnson’s Dictionary as a number of instruments playing together.
[423] I have no doubt that it was written in 1741; for the second line is clearly a parody of a line in the chorus of Cibber’s Birthday Ode for that year. The chorus is as follows:
‘While thou our Master of the Main
Revives Eliza’s glorious reign,
The great Plantagenets look down,
And see your race adorn your crown.’
Gent. Mag. xi. 549.
In the Life of Barretier Johnson had also this fling at George II:—‘Princes are commonly the last by whom merit is distinguished.’ Johnson’s Works, vi. 381.
[424] See Boswell’s Hebrides, Oct. 23 and Nov. 21, 1773.
[425] Hester Lynch Salusbury, afterwards Mrs. Thrale, and later on Mrs. Piozzi, was born on Jan. 27, 1741.
[426] This piece is certainly not by Johnson. It contains more than one ungrammatical passage. It is impossible to believe that he wrote such a sentence as the following:—‘Another having a cask of wine sealed up at the top, but his servant boring a hole at the bottom stole the greatest part of it away; sometime after, having called a friend to taste his wine, he found the vessel almost empty,’ &c.
[427] Mr. Carlyle, by the use of the term ‘Imaginary Editors’ (Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches, iii. 229), seems to imply that he does not hold with Boswell in assigning this piece to Johnson. I am inclined to think, nevertheless, that Boswell is right. If it is Johnson’s it is doubly interesting as showing the method which he often followed in writing the Parliamentary Debates. When notes were given him, while for the most part he kept to the speaker’s train of thoughts, he dealt with the language much as it pleased him. In the Gent. Mag. Cromwell speaks as if he were wearing a flowing wig and were addressing a Parliament of the days of George II. He is thus made to conclude Speech xi:—‘For my part, could I multiply my person or dilate my power, I should dedicate myself wholly to this great end, in the prosecution of which I shall implore the blessing of God upon your counsels and endeavours.’ Gent. Mag. xi. 100. The following are the words which correspond to this in the original:—‘If I could help you to many, and multiply myself into many, that would be to serve you in regard to settlement…. But I shall pray to God Almighty that He would direct you to do what is according to His will. And this is that poor account I am able to give of myself in this thing.’ Carlyle’s Cromwell, iii. 255.
[428] See Appendix A.
[429] Lord Chesterfield.
[430] Duke of Newcastle.
[431] I suppose in another compilation of the same kind. BOSWELL.
[432] Doubtless, Lord Hardwick. BOSWELL.
[433] The delivery of letters by the penny-post ‘was originally confined to the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark and the respective suburbs thereof.’ In 1801 the postage was raised to twopence. The term ‘suburbs’ must have had a very limited signification, for it was not till 1831 that the limits of this delivery were extended to all places within three miles of the General Post Office. Ninth Report of the Commissioners of the Post Office, 1837, p. 4.
[434] Birch’s MSS. in the British Museum, 4302. BOSWELL.
[435] See post, Dec. 1784, in Nichols’s Anecdotes. If we may trust Hawkins, it is likely that Johnson’s ‘tenderness of conscience’ cost Cave a good deal; for he writes that, while Johnson composed the Debates, the sale of the Magazine increased from ten to fifteen thousand copies a month. ‘Cave manifested his good fortune by buying an old coach and a pair of older horses.’ Hawkins’s Johnson, P. 123.
[436] I am assured that the editor is Mr. George Chalmers, whose commercial works are well known and esteemed. BOSWELL.
[437] The characteristic of Pulteney’s oratory is thus given in Hazlitts Northcole’s Conversations (p. 288):—‘Old Mr. Tolcher used to say of the famous Pulteney—“My Lord Bath always speaks in blank verse.”’
[438] Hawkins’s Life of Johnson, p. 100. BOSWELL.
[439] A bookseller of London. BOSWELL
[440] Not the Royal Society; but the Society for the encouragement of learning, of which Dr. Birch was a leading member. Their object was to assist authors in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved. BOSWELL.
[441] There is no erasure here, but a mere blank; to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture. BOSWELL.
[442] Johnson, writing to Dr. Taylor on June 10, 1742, says:—‘I propose to get Charles of Sweden ready for this winter, and shall therefore, as I imagine, be much engaged for some months with the dramatic writers into whom I have scarcely looked for many years. Keep Irene close, you may send it back at your leisure.’ Notes and Queries, 6th S., v. 303. Charles of Sweden must have been a play which he projected.
[443] The profligate sentiment