who, he tells us, lived in such poverty, that he was supposed fami non famæ scribere; and another in French, Degente de fate [fatu] et affamé a’argent, instead of Dégouté de fame, (an old word for renommée) et affamé d’argent. The manuscript being written in an exceedingly small hand, is indeed very hard to read; but it would have been better to have left blanks than to write nonsense. BOSWELL.
[623] When we know that of the 208 Ramblers all but five were written by Johnson, it is amusing to read a passage in one of Miss Talbot’s letters to Mrs. Carter, dated Oct. 20, 1750:—‘Mr. Johnson would, I fear, be mortified to hear that people know a paper of his own by the sure mark of somewhat a little excessive, a little exaggerated in the expression.’ Carter Corres. i. 357.
[624] The Ramblers certainly were little noticed at first. Smart, the poet, first mentioned them to me as excellent papers, before I had heard any one else speak of them. When I went into Norfolk, in the autumn of 1751, I found but one person, (the Rev. Mr. Squires, a man of learning, and a general purchaser of new books,) who knew anything of them. Before I left Norfolk in the year 1760, the Ramblers were in high favour among persons of learning and good taste. Others there were, devoid of both, who said that the hard words in the Rambler were used by the authour to render his Dictionary indispensably necessary. BURNEY. We have notices of the Rambler in the Carter Corres:—‘May 28, 1750. The author ought to be cautioned not to use over many hard words. In yesterday’s paper (a very pretty one indeed) we had _equiponderant, and another so hard I cannot remember it [adscititious], both in one sentence.’ ‘Dec. 17, 1750:—Mr. Cave complains of him for not admitting correspondents; this does mischief. In the main I think he is to be applauded for it. But why then does he not write now and then on the living manners of the times?’ In writing on April 22, 1752, just after the Rambler had come to an end, Miss Talbot says:—‘Indeed ‘tis a sad thing that such a paper should have met with discouragement from wise and learned and good people too. Many are the disputes it has cost me, and not once did I come off triumphant.’ Mrs. Carter replied:—‘Many a battle have I too fought for him in the country, out with little success.’ Murphy says:—‘of this excellent production the number sold on each day did not amount to five hundred; of course the bookseller, who paid the author four guineas a week, did not carry on a successful trade.’ Murphy’s Johnson, p. 59.
[625] Richardson wrote to Cave on Aug. 9, 1750, after forty-one numbers had appeared:—‘I hope the world tastes them; for its own sake I hope the world tastes them. The author I can only guess at. There is but one man, I think, that could write them.’ Rich. Corres, i. 165. Cave replied:—‘Mr. Johnson is the Great Rambler, being, as you observe, the only man who can furnish two such papers in a week, besides his other great business.’ He mentioned the recommendation it received from high quarters, and continued:—‘Notwithstanding, whether the price of two-pence, or the unfavourable season of their first publication hinders the demand, no boast can be made of it.’ Johnson had not wished his name to be known. Cave says that ‘Mr. Carrick and others, who knew the author’s powers and style from the first, unadvisedly asserting their suspicions, overturned the scheme of secrecy.’ Ib. pp. 168-170.
[626] Horace Walpole, while justifying George II. against ‘bookish men who have censured his neglect of literature,’ says:—‘In truth, I believe King George would have preferred a guinea to a composition as perfect as Alexander’s Feast.’ Reign of George II, iii. 304.
[627] ‘Dr. Johnson said to an acquaintance of mine, “My other works are wine and water; but my Rambler is pure wine.”’ Rogers’s Table Talk, p. 10.
[628] See post, April 5, 1772; April 19, 1773; and April 9, 1778.
[629] It was executed in the printing-office of Sands, Murray, and Cochran, with uncommon elegance, upon writing-paper, of a duodecimo size, and with the greatest correctness; and Mr. Elphinston enriched it with translations of the mottos. When completed, it made eight handsome volumes. It is, unquestionably, the most accurate and beautiful edition of this work; and there being but a small impression, it is now become scarce, and sells at a very high price. BOSWELL.
[630] Mr. Thomas Ruddiman, the learned grammarian of Scotland, well known for his various excellent works, and for his accurate editions of several authours. He was also a man of a most worthy private character. His zeal for the Royal House of Stuart did not render him less estimable in Dr. Johnson’s eye. BOSWELL.
[631] In the Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1750, and for Oct. 1752, translations of many of the mottoes were given; but in each number there are several of Elphinston’s. Johnson seems to speak of only one.
[632] Writing to Miss Porter on July 12, 1749, he said:—‘I was afraid your letter had brought me ill news of my mother, whose death is one of the few calamities on which I think with terror.’ Crokers Boswell, p. 62.
[633] Mr. Strahan was Elphinston’s brother-in-law. Post, April 9, 1778.
[634] In the Gent. Mag. for January, 1752, in the list of books published is:—‘A correct and beautiful edition of the Rambler in 4 volumes, in 12mo. Price 12s.’ The Rambler was not concluded till the following March. The remaining two volumes were published in July. Gent. Mag. xxii. 338.
[635] According to Hawkins (Life, P. 269) each edition consisted of 1250 copies.
[636] No. 55 [59.]. BOSWELL.
[637] Miss Burney records in her Diary that one day at Streatham, while she and Mrs. Thrale ‘were reading this Rambler, Dr. Johnson came in. We told him what we were about. “Ah, madam!” cried he, “Goldsmith was not scrupulous; but he would have been a great man had he known the real value of his own internal resources.”’ Mme. D’Arblay’s Diary, i. 83. See post, beginning of 1768.
[638] It is possible that Mrs. Hardcastle’s drive in She Stoops to Conquer was suggested by the Rambler, No. 34. In it a young gentleman describes a lady’s terror on a coach journey. ‘Our whole conversation passed in dangers, and cares, and fears, and consolations, and stories of ladies dragged in the mire, forced to spend all the night on a heath, drowned in rivers, or burnt with lightning…. We had now a new scene of terror, every man we saw was a robber, and we were ordered sometimes to drive hard, lest a traveller whom we saw behind should overtake us; and sometimes to stop, lest we should come up to him who was passing before us. She alarmed many an honest man by begging him to spare her life as he passed by the coach.’
[639] Dr. Johnson was gratified by seeing this selection, and wrote to Mr. Kearsley, bookseller in Fleet-Street, the following note:—
‘Mr. Johnson sends compliments to Mr. Kearsley, and begs the favour of seeing him as soon as he can. Mr. Kearsley is desired to bring with him the last edition of what he has honoured with the name of BEAUTIES. May 20, 1782.’ BOSWELL. The correspondence, post, May 15, 1782, shews that Johnson sent for this book, not because he was gratified, but because he was accused, on the strength of one of the Beauties, of recommending suicide. On that day, being in the country, he wrote: ‘I never saw the book but by casual inspection, and considered myself as utterly disengaged from its consequences.’ He adds:—‘I hope some time in the next week to have all rectified.’ The letter of May 20 shews that on his return to town he lost little time, if any, in sending for Kearsley.
[640] See post, April 12, 1781.
[641] Ecclesiastes vii. 4.
[642] In the original ‘separated sooner than subdued.’ Johnson acted up to what he said. When he was close on his end, ‘all who saw him beheld and acknowledged the invictum animum Catonis … Talking of his illness he said:—“I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.”’ See post, Oct. 1784.
[643] In the Spectator, No. 568, Addison tells of a village in which ‘there arose a current report that somebody had written a book against the ‘squire and the whole parish.’ The book was The Whole Duty of Man.
[644]