Lovers; and I must own, in the latter there are some things almost solemn enough for a sermon.’ Joseph Andrews, Book III, chap. xi.
[1439] In the first number of The Hypochondriack Boswell writes:—‘It is a saying in feudal treatises, “Semel Baro semper Baro_,” “Once a baron always a baron.”’ London Mag. 1777, p. 493. He seems of Mr. Thrale’s inferiority by speaking of him as Thrale and his house as Thrale’s. See post, April 5 and 12, 1776, April 7, 1778, and under March 30, 1783. He never, I believe, is thus familiar in the case of Beauclerk, Burke, Langton, and Reynolds.
[1440] For her extraction see Hayward’s Mrs. Piozzi, i. 238.
[1441] Miss Burney records in May 1779, how one day at Streatham ‘Mr. Murphy met with a very joyful reception; and Mr. Thrale, for the first time in his life, said he was “a good fellow;” for he makes it a sort of rule to salute him with the title of “scoundrel,” or “rascal.” They are very old friends; and I question if Mr. Thrale loves any man so well.’ Mme. D’Arblay’s Diary, i. 210.
[1442] From the Garrick Corres, i. 116, it seems that Murphy introduced Garrick to the Thrales. He wrote to him on May 13, 1760:—‘You stand engaged to Mr. Thrale for Wednesday night. You need not apprehend drinking; it is a very easy house.’
[1443] Murphy (Life, p. 98) says that Johnson’s introduction to the Thrales ‘contributed more than anything else to exempt him from the solicitudes of life.’ He continues that ‘he looks back to the share he had in that business with self congratulation, since he knows the tenderness which from that time soothed Johnson’s cares at Streatham, and prolonged a valuable life.’ Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale from Lichfield on July 20, 1767:—‘I have found nothing that withdraws my affections from the friends whom I left behind, or which makes me less desirous of reposing at that place which your kindness and Mr. Thrale’s allows me to call my home.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 4. From Mull, on Oct. 15, 1773, he wrote:—‘Having for many weeks had no letter, my longings are very great to be informed how all things are at home, as you and mistress allow me to call it.’ Ib. p. 166. Miss Burney in 1778 wrote that ‘though Dr. Johnson lives almost wholly at Streatham, he always keeps his apartments in town.’ Mme. D’Arblay’s Diary, i. 58. Johnson (Works, viii. 381) tells how, in the house of Sir Thomas Abney, ‘Dr. Watts, with a constancy of friendship and uniformity of conduct not often to be found, was treated for thirty-six years with all the kindness that friendship could prompt, and all the attention that respect could dictate.’ He continues:—‘A coalition like this, a state in which the notions of patronage and dependence were overpowered by the perception of reciprocal benefits, deserves a particular memorial.’ It was such a coalition which he formed with the Thrales—a coalition in which, though the benefits which he received were great, yet those which he conferred were still greater.
[1444] On this Mrs. Piozzi notes:—‘No, no! Mr. Thrale’s manners presented the character of a gay man of the town; like Millamant, in Congreve’s comedy, he abhorred the country and everything in it.’ Hayward’s Piozzi, i. 10. Mrs. Millamant, in The Way of the World, act iv. sc. iv., says:—‘I loathe the country and everything that relates to it.’
[1445] ‘It is but justice to Mr. Thrale to say, that a more ingenuous frame of mind no man possessed. His education at Oxford gave him the habits of a gentleman; his amiable temper recommended his conversation, and the goodness of his heart made him a sincere friend.’ Murphy’s Johnson, p. 99. Johnson wrote of him to Mrs. Thrale:—‘He must keep well, for he is the pillar of the house; and you must get well, or the house will hardly be worth propping.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 340. See post, April 18, 1778. Mme. D’Arblay (Memoirs of Dr. Burney, ii. 104) gives one reason for Thrale’s fondness for Johnson’s society. ‘Though entirely a man of peace, and a gentleman in his character, he had a singular amusement in hearing, instigating, and provoking a war of words, alternating triumph and overthrow, between clever and ambitious colloquial combatants, where there was nothing that could inflict disgrace upon defeat.’
[1446] In like manner he called Mr. Thrale Master or My master. ‘I hope Master’s walk will be finished when I come back.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 355. ‘My master may plant and dig till his pond is an ocean.’ Ib. p. 357. See post, July 9, 1777.
[1447] Miss Burney thus described her in 1776:—‘She is extremely lively and chatty; and showed none of the supercilious or pedantic airs so scoffingly attributed to women of learning or celebrity; on the contrary, she is full of sport, remarkably gay, and excessively agreeable. I liked her in everything except her entrance into the room, which was rather florid and flourishing, as who should say, “It is I!—No less a person than Mrs. Thrale!” However, all that ostentation wore out in the course of the visit, which lasted the whole morning; and you could not have helped liking her, she is so very entertaining— though not simple enough, I believe, for quite winning your heart.’ Memoirs of Dr. Burney, ii. 88.
[1448] Mrs. Piozzi’s Anecdotes, p. 279. BOSWELL.
[1449] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Oct. 13, 1777:—‘I cannot but think on your kindness and my master’s. Life has upon the whole fallen short, very short, of my early expectation; but the acquisition of such a friendship, at an age when new friendships are seldom acquired, is something better than the general course of things gives man a right to expect. I think on it with great delight; I am not very apt to be delighted.’ Piozzi Letters, ii. 7. Johnson’s friends suffered from this connection. See post, March 20, 1778, where it is said that ‘at Streatham he was in a great measure absorbed from the society of his old friends.’
[1450] Yet one year he recorded:—‘March 3, I have never, I thank God, since new year’s day deviated from the practice of rising. In this practice I persisted till I went to Mr. Thrale’s sometime before Midsummer; the irregularity of that family broke my habit of rising. I was there till after Michaelmas.’ Hawkins’s Johnson, p. 458, note. Hawkins places this in 1765; but Johnson states (Pr. and Med. p. 71), ‘I returned from Streatham, Oct. 1, —66, having lived there more than three months.’
[1451] Boswell wrote to Temple in 1775:—‘I am at present in a tourbillon of conversations; but how come you to throw in the Thrales among the Reynoldses and the Beauclerks? Mr. Thrale is a worthy, sensible man, and has the wits much about his house; but he is not one himself. Perhaps you mean Mrs. Thrale.’ Letters of Boswell, p. 192. Murphy (Life, p. 141) says:—‘It was late in life before Johnson had the habit of mixing, otherwise than occasionally, with polite company. At Mr. Thrale’s he saw a constant succession of well-accomplished visitors. In that society he began to wear off the rugged points of his own character. The time was then expected when he was to cease being what George Garrick, brother to the celebrated actor, called him the first time he heard him converse. “A TREMENDOUS COMPANION”’
[1452] Johnson wrote to Dr. Warton on Oct. 9:—‘Mrs. Warton uses me hardly in supposing that I could forget so much kindness and civility as she showed me at Winchester.’ Wooll’s Warton, p. 309. Malone on this remarks:—‘It appears that Johnson spent some time with that gentleman at Winchester in this year.’ I believe that Johnson is speaking of the year 1762, when, on his way to Devonshire, he passed two nights in that town. See Taylor’s Reynolds, i. 214.
[1453] It was in 1745 that he published his Observations on Macbeth, as a specimen of his projected edition (ante, p. 175). In 1756 he issued Proposals undertaking that his work should be published before Christmas, 1757 (p. 318). On June 21, 1757, he writes:—‘I am printing my new edition of Shakspeare‘ (p. 322). On Dec. 24 of the same year he says, ‘I shall publish about March’ (p. 323). On March 8, 1758, he writes:—‘It will be published before summer…. I have printed many of the plays’ (p. 327). In June of the same year Langton took some of the plays to Oxford (p. 336). Churchill’s Ghost (Parts 1 and 2) was published in the spring of 1762 (p. 319). On July 20, 1762, Johnson wrote to Baretti, ‘I intend that you shall soon receive Shakspeare’ (p. 369). In October 1765 it was published.