had any disputes with particular persons about the justness and regularity of his productions.’ See post, March 23, 1783.
[593] ‘Were I,’ he said, ‘to wear a laced or embroidered waistcoat, it should be very rich. I had once a very rich laced waistcoat, which I wore the first night of my tragedy.’ Boswell’s Hebrides, Oct. 27, 1773.
[594] ‘Topham Beauclerc used to give a pleasant description of this greenroom finery, as related by the author himself: ‘But,’ said Johnson, with great gravity, ‘I soon laid aside my gold-laced hat, lest it should make me proud.’ Murphy’s Johnson, p. 52. In The Idler (No. 62) we have an account of a man who had longed to ‘issue forth in all the splendour of embroidery.’ When his fine clothes were brought, ‘I felt myself obstructed,’ he wrote, ‘in the common intercourse of civility by an uneasy consciousness of my new appearance; as I thought myself more observed, I was more anxious about my mien and behaviour; and the mien which if formed by care is commonly ridiculous.’
[595] See ante, p. 167.
[596] See post, 1780, in Mr. Langton’s Collection.
[597] The Tatler came to an end on Jan 2, 1710-1; the first series of The Spectator on Dec 6, 1712; and the second series of The Spectator on December 20, 1714.
[598] ‘Two new designs have appeared about the middle of this month [March, 1750], one entitled, The Tatler Revived; or The Christian Philosopher and Politician, half a sheet, price 2_d_. (stamped); the other, The Rambler, three half sheets (un-stamped); price 2_d_.’ Gent. Mag. xx. 126.
[599] Pope’s Essay on Man, ii. 10.
[600] See post, under Oct. 12, 1779.
[601] I have heard Dr. Warton mention, that he was at Mr. Robert Dodsley’s with the late Mr. Moore, and several of his friends, considering what should be the name of the periodical paper which Moore had undertaken. Garrick proposed The Sallad, which, by a curious coincidence, was afterwards applied to himself by Goldsmith:
‘Our Garrick’s a sallad, for in him we see
Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree!’
[Retaliation, line II.]
At last, the company having separated, without any thing of which they approved having been offered, Dodsley himself thought of The World. BOSWELL.
[602] In the original MS. ‘in this my undertaking,’ and below, ‘the salvation both of myself and others.’
[603] Prayers and Meditations, p. 9. BOSWELL.
[604] In the original folio edition of the Rambler the concluding paper is dated Saturday, March 17. But Saturday was in fact March 14. This circumstance is worth notice, for Mrs. Johnson died on the 17th. MALONE.
[605] Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 28. [Aug. 16, 1773]. BOSWELL.
[606] ‘Gray had a notion not very peculiar, that he could not write but at certain times, or at happy moments; a fantastic foppery, to which my kindness for a man of learning and virtue wishes him to have been superior.’ Johnson’s Works, viii. 482. See post, under April 15, 1758.
[607] Her correspondence with Richardson and Mrs. Carter was published in 1807.
[608] The correspondence between her and Mrs. Carter was published in 1808.
[609] Dr. Birch says:—‘The proprietor of the Rambler, Cave, told me that copy was seldom sent to the press till late in the night before the day of publication,’ Croker’s Boswell, p. 121, note. See post, April 12, 1776, and beginning of 1781.
Johnson carefully revised the Ramblers for the collected edition. The editor of the Oxford edition of Johnson’s Works states (ii. x), that ‘the alterations exceeded six thousand.’ The following passage from the last number affords a good instance of this revision.
First edition.
‘I have never complied with temporary curiosity, nor furnished my readers with abilities to discuss the topic of the day; I have seldom exemplified my assertions by living characters; from my papers therefore no man could hope either censures of his enemies or praises of himself, and they only could be expected to peruse them, whose passions left them leisure for the contemplation of abstracted truth, and whom virtue could please by her native dignity without the assistance of modish ornaments.’ Gent. Mag. xxii. 117.
Revised edition.
‘I have never complied with temporary curiosity, nor enabled my readers to discuss the topic of the day; I have rarely exemplified my assertions by living characters; in my papers no man could look for censures of his enemies, or praises of himself; and they only were expected to peruse them, whose passions left them leisure for abstracted truth, and whom virtue could please by its naked dignity.’ Johnson’s Works, iii. 462.
[610] ‘Such relicks [Milton’s early manuscripts] shew how excellence is acquired; what we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.’ Johnson’s Works, vii. 119.
[611] Of the first 52 Ramblers 49 were wholly by Johnson; of the last 156, 154. He seems to say that in the first 49, 17 were written from notes, and in the last 154 only 13.
[612] No. 46.
[613] Hawkins’s Life of Johnson, p. 268 [p. 265]. BOSWELL.
[614] ‘The sly shadow steals away upon the dial, and the quickest eye can distinguish no more than that it is gone.’ Glanville, quoted in Johnson’s Dictionary.
[615] This most beautiful image of the enchanting delusion of youthful prospect has not been used in any of Johnson’s essays. BOSWELL.
[616] From Horace (Ars Poet. 1. 175) he takes his motto for the number:—
‘Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum,
Multa recedentes adimunt.’
The blessings flowing in with life’s full tide
Down with our ebb of life decreasing glide.’
FRANCIS.
[617] Lib. xii. 96 [95]. ‘In Tuccam aemulum omnium suorum studiorum.’ MALONE.
[618] ‘There never appear,’ says Swift, ‘more than five or six men of genius in an age; but if they were united, the world could not stand before them.’ Johnson’s Works, iv. 18.
[619] In the first edition this is printed [Greek: o philoi on philos]; in the second, [Greek: o philoi on philos]; in the ‘Corrections’ to the second, we find ‘for [Greek: o] read [Greek: oi];’ in the third it is printed as above. In three editions we have therefore five readings of the first word. See post, April 15, 1778, where Johnson says:
‘An old Greek said, “He that has friends has no friend,”’ and April 24, 1779, where he says: ‘Garrick had friends but no friend.’
[620]
‘gravesque
Principum amicitias.’
‘And fatal friendships of the guilty
great.’
FRANCIS, Horace, Odes, ii. 1. 4.
[621] 3 Post, under Jan. 1, 1753.
[622] Sir John Hawkins has selected from this little collection of materials, what he calls the ‘Rudiments of two of the papers of the Rambler.’ But he has not been able to read the manuscript distinctly. Thus he writes, p. 266, ‘Sailor’s fate any mansion;’ whereas the original is ‘Sailor’s life my aversion.’ He has also transcribed the unappropriated hints on Writers for bread, in which he decyphers these