viii. 485.
[1186] My friend Mr. Malone, in his valuable comments on Shakspeare, has traced in that great poet the disjecta membra of these lines. BOSWELL. Gray, in the edition of The Bard of the year 1768, in a note on these lines had quoted from King John, act v. sc. 1:—‘Mocking the air with colours idly spread.’ Gosse’s Gray, i. 41. But Malone quotes also from Macbeth, act i. sc. 2:—
‘Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
And fan our people cold.’
‘Out of these passages,’ he said, ‘Mr. Gray seems to have framed the first stanza of his celebrated Ode.’ Malone’s Shakespeare, xv. 344.
[1187] Cradock records (Memoirs, 1.230) that Goldsmith said to him:—‘You are so attached to Kurd, Gray, and Mason, that you think nothing good can proceed but out of that formal school;—now, I’ll mend Gray’s Elegy by leaving out an idle word in every line.
“The curfew tolls the knell of day,
The lowing herd winds o’er the lea
The ploughman homeward plods his way
And—-“
Enough, enough, I have no ear for more.’
[1188] So, less than two years later, Boswell opened his mind to Paoli. ‘My time passed here in the most agreeable manner. I enjoyed a sort of luxury of noble sentiment. Paoli became more affable with me. I made myself known to him.’ Boswell’s Corsica, p. 167.
[1189] See ante, p. 67.
[1190] See post, Sept. 22, 1777.
[1191] See post, March 30, 1778, where in speaking of the appearance of spirits after death he says:—‘All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.’ See also ante, p. 343, and post, April 15, 1778, under May 4, 1779, April 15, 1781, and June 12, 1784.
[1192] The caricature begins:—
‘Pomposo, insolent and loud
Vain idol of a scribbling crowd, Whose very name inspires an awe Whose ev’ry word is Sense and Law.’
Churchill’s Poems, i. 216.
[1193] The chief impostor, a man of the name of Parsons, had, it should seem, set his daughter to play the part of the ghost in order to pay out a grudge against a man who had sued him for a debt. The ghost was made to accuse this man of poisoning his sister-in-law, and to declare that she should only be at ease in her mind if he were hanged. ‘When Parsons stood on the Pillory at the end of Cock Lane, instead of being pelted, he had money given him.’ Gent. Mag. xxxii. 43, 82, and xxxiii. 144.
[1194] Horace Walpole, writing on Feb. 2, 1762 (Letters, iii. 481), says:—‘I could send you volumes on the Ghost, and I believe, if I were to stay a little, I might send its life, dedicated to my Lord Dartmouth, by the Ordinary of Newgate, its two great patrons. A drunken parish clerk set it on foot out of revenge, the Methodists have adopted it, and the whole town of London think of nothing else…. I went to hear it, for it is not an apparition, but an audition, … the Duke of York, Lady Northumberland, Lady Mary Coke, Lord Hertford, and I, all in one Hackney-coach: it rained torrents; yet the lane was full of mob, and the house so full we could not get in.’ See post, April 10, 1778.
[1195] Described by Goldsmith in Retaliation as ‘The scourge of impostors, the terror of quacks.’ See ante, p. 229.
[1196] The account was as follows:—‘On the night of the 1st of February [1762] many gentlemen eminent for their rank and character were, by the invitation of the Reverend Mr. Aldrich, of Clerkenwell, assembled at his house, for the examination of the noises supposed to be made by a departed spirit, for the detection of some enormous crime.
‘About ten at night the gentlemen met in the chamber in which the girl, supposed to be disturbed by a spirit, had, with proper caution, been put to bed by several ladies. They sat rather more than an hour, and hearing nothing, went down stairs, when they interrogated the father of the girl, who denied, in the strongest terms, any knowledge or belief of fraud.
‘The supposed spirit had before publickly promised, by an affirmative knock, that it would attend one of the gentlemen into the vault under the Church of St. John, Clerkenwell, where the body is deposited, and give a token of her presence there, by a knock upon her coffin; it was therefore determined to make this trial of the existence or veracity of the supposed spirit.
‘While they were enquiring and deliberating, they were summoned into the girl’s chamber by some ladies who were near her bed, and who had heard knocks and scratches. When the gentlemen entered, the girl declared that she felt the spirit like a mouse upon her back, and was required to hold her hands out of bed. From that time, though the spirit was very solemnly required to manifest its existence by appearance, by impression on the hand or body of any present, by scratches, knocks, or any other agency, no evidence of any preter-natural power was exhibited.
‘The spirit was then very seriously advertised that the person to whom the promise was made of striking the coffin, was then about to visit the vault, and that the performance of the promise was then claimed. The company at one o’clock went into the church, and the gentleman to whom the promise was made, went with another into the vault. The spirit was solemnly required to perform its promise, but nothing more than silence ensued: the person supposed to be accused by the spirit, then went down with several others, but no effect was perceived. Upon their return they examined the girl, but could draw no confession from her. Between two and three she desired and was permitted to go home with her father.
‘It is, therefore, the opinion of the whole assembly, that the child has some art of making or counterfeiting a particular noise, and that there is no agency of any higher cause.’ BOSWELL. Gent. Mag. xxxii. 81. The following MS. letter is in the British Museum:—
‘REVD. SIR,
The appointment for the examination stands as it did when I saw you last, viz., between 8 and 9 this evening. Mr. Johnson was applied to by a friend of mine soon after you left him, and promised to be with us. Should be glad, if convenient, you’d show him the way hither. Mrs. Oakes, of Dr. Macauley’s recommendation, I should be glad to have here on the occasion; and think it would do honour to the list of examiners to have Dr. Macauley with us.
I am, Dear Sir, your most obedient servant, STE. ALDRICH.
If Dr Macauley can conveniently attend, should be glad you’d acquaint Lord Dartmouth with it, who seemed to be at loss to recommend a gentleman of the faculty at his end of the town.
St. John’s Square. Monday noon.
To the Revd. Dr. Douglas.’
Endorsed ‘Mr. Aldrich, Feb. 1762, about the Cock Lane ghost.—Examination at his house.’
[1197] Boswell was with Paoli when news came that a Corsican under sentence of death ‘had consented to accept of his life, upon condition of becoming hangman. This made a great noise among the Corsicans, who were enraged at the creature, and said their nation was now disgraced. Paoli did not think so. He said to me:—“I am glad of this. It will be of service. It will contribute to form us to a just subordination. As we must have Corsican tailours, and Corsican shoemakers, we must also have a Corsican hangman.”’ Boswell’s Corsica, p. 201. See post, July 20 and 21, 1763, April 13, 1773, and March 28, 1775.
[1198] ‘Mallet’s Dramas had their day, a short day, and are forgotten.’ Johnson’s Works, viii. 468.
[1199] See ante, p. 384, note.
[1200] ‘A man had heard that Dempster was very clever, and therefore expected that he could say nothing but good things. Being brought acquainted, Mr. Dempster said to him with much politeness, “I hope, Sir, your lady and family are well.” “Ay, ay, man,” said he, “pray where