one. "I saw a letter from Foote, with an ac count of an Irish tragedy; the subject is Manlius, and the last speech which he makes, when he is pushed off from the Tarpeian rock, is, Sweet Jesus, where am I going?" Pray send me word if this is true We have a good comedy 5 here which is good for nothing; bad as it is, however, it succeeds very well, and has almost killed Goldsmith with envy. "I have no news either literary or political to send you. Every body, except myself and about a million of vulgars, are in the country. I am closely confined, as Lady Di expects to be every hour. I am, my dear lord, very sincerely and affectionately yours, "T. BEAUCLERK."] "Our poor club is in a miserable state | either to the happiness or misery of any of decay; unless you come and relieve it, it will certainly expire. Would you imagine that Sir Joshua Reynolds is extremely anxious to be a member at Almack's1? You see what noble ambition will make a man attempt. That den is not yet opened, consequently I have not been there; so, for the present, I am clear upon that score. I suppose your confounded Irish politics take up your whole attention at present. If they could but have obtained the absentee tax, the Irish parliament would have been perfect. They would have voted themselves out of parliament, and lessened their estates one half of the value. This is patriotism with a vengeance! There is nothing new at present in the literary world. Mr. Jones2, of our club, is going to publish an account, in Latin, of the eastern poetry, with extracts translated verbatim in verse. I will order Elmsly 3 to send it to you, when it comes out; I fancy it will be a very pretty book. Goldsmith has written a prologue for Mrs. Yates, which she spoke this evening before the Opera. It is very good. You will see it soon in all the newspapers, otherwise I would send it to you. I hope to hear in your next letter that you have fixed your time for returning to England. We cannot do without you. If you do not come here, I will bring all the club over to Ireland, to live with you, and that will drive you here in your own defence. Johnson shall spoil your books, Goldsmith pull your flowers, and Boswell talk to you: stay then if you can. Adieu, my dear lord. Pray make my compliments to Lady Charlemont, and believe me to be very sincerely and affectionately yours, 4 "T. BEAUCLERK." TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "8th April, 1780. "DEAR SIR, Well, I had resolved to send you the Chesterfield letter 6, but I will write once again without it. Never impose tasks upon mortals. To require two things is the way to have them both undone. * "For the difficulties which you mention in your affairs, I am sorry; but difficulty is now very general: it is not therefore less grievous, for there is less hope of help. I pretend not to give you advice, not knowing the state of your affairs; and general counsels about prudence and frugality would do you little good. You are, however, in the right not to increase your own perplexity by a journey hither; and I hope that by staying at home you will please your father. "Poor dear Beauclerk nec, ut soles, dabis joca. His wit and his folly, his "MR. BEAUCLERK TO LORD CHARLE acuteness and maliciousness, his merriment MONT. "Adelphi, 24th Dec. 1773. "MY DEAR LORD, I hope you received a letter from me some time ago; I mention this that I may not appear worse than I am, and likewise to hint to you that, when you receive this, you will be two letters in my debt. I hope your parliament has finished all its absurdities, and that you will be at leisure to come over here to attend your club, where you will do much more good than all the patriots in the world ever did to any body, viz. you will make very many of your friends extremely happy; and you know Goldsmith has informed us that no form of government ever contributed [At this period a gaming club.-ED.] 2 [Sir William Jones.-En.]. 3 [The bookseller. ED.] 4 [The reader will observe Mr. Beauclerk's estimate of Boswell's conversation.-ED.] and reasoning, are now over. Such another will not often be found among mankind. He directed himself to be buried by the side of his mother, an instance of tenderness which I hardly expected. He has left his children to the care of Lady Di, and if she dies, of Mr. Langton, and of Mr. Leicester his relation, and a man of good character. His library has been offered to sale to the Russian ambassador 7. "Dr. Percy, notwithstanding all the noise of the newspapers, has had no literary loss 8. Clothes and moveables were burnt to the value of about one hundred pounds; but his papers, and I think his books, were all preserved. "Poor Mr. Thrale has been in extreme danger from an apoplectical disorder, and recovered, beyond the expectation of his physicians: he is now at Bath, that his mind may be quiet, and Mrs. Thrale and Miss are with him. "Seward (Mr. William) called on me one day and read Spence 4. I dined yesterday at Mr. Jodrell's in a great deal of company. On Sunday I dine with Dr. Lawrence, and at night go to Mrs. Vesey. I have had a little cold, or two, or three; but I did not much mind them, for they were not very bad."] Having told you what has happened to your friends, let me say something to you of yourself. You are always complaining of melancholy, and I conclude from those complaints that you are fond of it. No man talks of that which he is desirous to conceal, and every man desires to conceal that of which he is ashamed. Do not pre-["DR. tend to deny it; manifestum habemus furem. Make it an invariable and obligatory law to yourself, never to mention your own mental diseases. If you are never to speak of them, you will think on them but little; and if you think little of them, they will molest you rarely. When you talk of them, it is plain that you want either praise or pity: for praise there is no room, and pity will do you no good; therefore, from this hour speak no more, think no more, about them. "Your transaction with Mrs. Stewart 1 gave me great satisfaction. I am much obliged to you for your attention. Do not lose sight of her. Your countenance may be of great credit, and of consequence of great advantage to her. The memory of her brother is yet fresh in my mind: he was an ingenious and worthy man. "Please to make my compliments to your lady and to the young ladies. I should like to see them, pretty loves! I am, dear sir, yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON." at the fire at Northumberland-house; but I was present when his apartments were in flames, and can explicitly declare that all his books and papers were safely removed."-Cradock's Memoirs, p. 43.-ED.] 1 [See ante, p. 225.-ED.] JOHNSON TO MRS. LUCY PORTER. "London, 8th April, 1780. "DEAR MADAM,-I am indeed but a sluggish correspondent, and MSS know not whether I shall much mend: however, I will try. Pearson "I am glad that your oysters proved good, for I would have every thing good that belongs to you; and would have your health good, that you may enjoy the rest. My health is better than it has been for some years past; and, if I see Lichfield again, I hope to walk about it. "Your brother's request I have not forgotten. I have bought as many volumes as contain about an hundred and fifty sermons, which I will put in a box, and get Mr. Mathias to send him. I shall add a letter. "We have been lately, much alarmed at Mr. Thrale's. He has had a stroke, like that of an apoplexy; but he has at last got so well as to be at Bath, out of the way of trouble and business, and is likely to be in a short time quite well. "I hope all the Lichfield ladies are quite well, and that every thing is prosperous among them. "A few weeks ago I sent you a little stuffgown, such as is all the fashion at this time. Yours is the same with Mrs. Thrale's, and Miss bought it for us. These stuffs are very cheap, and are thought very pretty. "Pray give my compliments to Mr. Pearson, and to every body, if any such body there be, that cares about me. "I am now engaged about the rest of the join extracts." This insinuation against Mrs. Thrale is quite unfounded: her letters are certainly any thing but studied epistles; and that one which Mr. Boswell has published is not more easy and unaffected, nor in any respect of a different character from those she herself has given.— ED.] 2 [Here Mr. Boswell had prefaced the introduction of the letter of the 28th April by the following words: "I shall present my readers with one of her original letters to him at this time, which will amuse them probably more than those well-written, but studied epistles which she has inserted in her collection, because it exhibits the easy vivacity of their literary intercourse. It is 4 [Spence's very amusing anecdotes, which had also of value as a key to Johnson's answer, which been lent Johnson in manuscript: they were not she has printed by itself, and of which I shall sub-printed till 1820.-ED.] 3 [Dated in Mrs. Thrale's volume 1779 by mistake.-ED.] Lives, which I am afraid will take some enthusiast? The pure voice of nature and time, though I purpose to use despatch; of friendship. Now of whom shall I probut something or other always hinders. Iceed to speak? Of whom but Mrs. Monhave a great number to do, but many of tagu? Having mentioned Shakspeare and them will be short. Nature does not the name of Montagu force "I have lately had colds: the first was itself upon me2? Such were the tranpretty bad, with a very troublesome and sitions of the ancients, which now seem frequent cough; but by bleeding and phy-abrupt because the intermediate idea is lost to modern understandings." sick it was sent away. I have a cold now, but not bad enough for bleeding. "For some time past, and indeed ever since I left Lichfield last year, I have abated much of my diet, and am, I think, the better for abstinence. I can breathe and move with less difficulty; and I am as well as people of my age commonly are. I hope we shall see one another again some time this year. I am, dear love, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] Letters, ["TO MRS. THrale. "11th April, 1780. "On Sunday I dined with poor Lawrence, who is deafer than ever. When he was told that Dr. Moisy visited Mr. Thrale, he inquired for what, and said that there was nothing to be done which Nature would not do for herself. On Sunday evening I was at Mr. Vesey's, and there was inquiry about my master; but I told them all good. There was Dr. Barnard of Eton, and we made a noise all the evening: and there was Pepys, and Wraxal till I drove him away. "15th April, 1780. "I thought to have finished Rowe's Life to-day, but I have had five or six visiters who hindered me; and I have not been quite well. Next week I hope to despatch four or five of them.” "18th April, 1780. "You make verses, and they are read in publick, and I know nothing about them. This very crime, I think, broke the link of amity between Richardson and Miss M- 3, after a tenderness and confidence of many years." "London, 25th April, 1780. "How do you think I live? On Thursday I dined with Hamilton 4, and went thence to Mrs. Ord 5. On Friday, with much company, at Mrs. Reynolds's. On Saturday at Dr. Bell's. On Sunday at Dr. Burney's, with your two sweets from Kennington, who are both well: at night came Mrs. Ord, Mr. Harris, and Mr. Greville, &c. On Monday with Reynolds; at night with Lady Lucan; to-day with Mr. Lang"[Miss] Burney said she would write-ton; to-morrow with the Bishop of St. she told you a fib. She writes nothing to me. Asaph; on Thursday with Mr. Bowles; She can write home fast enough. I have Friday -; Saturday at the acade a good mind not to let her know that Dr. my6; Sunday with Mr. Ramsay. Barnard, to whom I had recommended her "I told Lady Lucan how long it was since novel 1, speaks of it with great commenda- she sent to me; but she said I must consider tion; and that the copy which she lent me how the world rolls about her. has been read by Dr. Lawrence three times over. And yet what a gipsy it is! She no more minds me than if I were a Brangton. * * * "I not only scour the town from day to day, but many visiters come to me in the morning, so that my work makes no great 2 [Compare this with two former phrases, in which Shakspeare and Mrs. Montagu are mentioned (ante, vol. i. p. 260), and wonder at the inconsistencies to which the greatest genius and the highest spirit may be reduced!-ED.] 3 [Probably Miss Mulso, afterwards Mrs. Chapone, one of Richardson's female coterie.-ED.] 4 [Probably the Right Honourable W. G. Hamilton.-ED.] 5 [This lady (a celebrated blue stocking of daughter of Mr. Dillingham, an eminent surgeon. her day) was Miss Anne Dillingham, the only She was early married to Mr. Ord, of Northumberland, who, on his decease, left her a very large property. She died in May, 1808, at the age of 82. See Gent. Mag. for July, 1808.-ED.] 6 [The annual dinner on opening the Exhibi tion.-ED.] Yesterday's evening was passed at Mrs. Montagu's. There was Mr. Melmoth 2. I do not like him though, nor he me. It was expected we should have pleased each other: he is, however, just tory enough to hate the Bishop of Peterborough 3 for whiggism, and whig enough to abhor you for toryism. "Mrs. Montagu flattered him finely; so he had a good afternoon on 't. This evening we spend at a concert. Poor Queeney's sore eyes have just released her: she had a long confinement, and could neither read nor write, so my master treated her, very good-naturedly, with the visits of a young woman in this town, a tailor's daughter, who professes musick, and teaches so as to give six lessons a day to ladies, at five and threepence a lesson. Miss Burney says she is a great performer; and I respect the wench for getting her living so prettily. She is very modest and pretty-mannered, and not seventeen years old. "You live in a fine whirl indeed. If I did not write regularly, you would half forget me, and that would be very wrong, for I felt my regard for you in my face last night, when the criticisms were going on. This morning it was all connoisseurship. We went to see some pictures painted by a gentleman-artist, Mr. Taylor, of this place. My master makes one every where, and has got a good dawdling companion to ride with him now. **** He looks well enough, but I have no notion of health for a man whose mouth cannot be sewed up. Burney and I and Queeney tease him every meal he eats, and Mrs. Montagu is quite serious with him; but what can one do? He will eat, I think; and if he does eat, I know he will not live. It makes me very unhappy, but I must bear it. Let me always have your friendship. I am, most sincerely, dear sir, your faithful servant, "H. L. T." 1 [This alludes to Johnson's frequent advice to her and Miss Thrale to date their letters; a laudable habit, which, however, he himself did not always practise. ED.]. [William Melmoth, the author of Fitzosborne's Letters, and the translator of the Letters of Pliny and Cicero, and some of the minor works of the latter. He was about Johnson's age, but .ong survived him, dying in 1799, ætat. 89.-ED.] 3 Dr John Hinchcliffe -BOSWELL. "DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. THRALE. "London, 1st May, 1780. "DEAREST MADAM,-Mr. Thrale never will live abstinently, till he can persuade himself to live by rule 4. * Encour age, as you can, the musical girl. 66 Nothing is more common than mutual dislike, where mutual approbation is particularly expected. There is often on both sides a vigilance not over-benevolent; and as attention is strongly excited, so that nothing drops unheeded, any difference in taste or opinion, and some difference where there is no restraint will commonly appear, immediately generates dislike. "Never let criticisms operate on your face or your mind; it is very rarely that an authour is hurt by his criticks. The blaze of reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket. A very few names may be considered as perpetual lamps that shine unconsumed. From the authour of Fitzosborne's Letters' I cannot think myself in much danger. I met him only once about thirty years ago, and in some small dispute reduced him to whistle. Having not seen him since, that is the last impression. Poor Moore, the fabulist, was one of the company. 5 "Mrs. Montagu's long stay, against her own inclination, is very convenient. You would, by your own confession, want a companion; and she is par pluribus. Conversing with her you may find variety in one. ["At Mrs. Ord's I met one Mrs. Ba travelled lady, of great spirit, and some consciousness of her own abilities. We had a contest of gallantry an hour long, so much to the diversion of the company, that, at Ramsay's, last night, in a crowded room, they would have pitted us again. There were Smelt and the Bishop of St. Asaph, who comes to every place; and Lord Monboddo, and Sir Joshua, and ladies out of tale. "The exhibition, how will you do, either to see or not to see! The exhibition is eminently splendid. There is contour, and keeping, and grace, and expression, and all the varieties of artificial excellence. The apartments were truly very noble. The pictures, for the sake of a skylight, are at the top of the house: there we dined, and I sat over against the Archbishop of York.” "Bolt-court, Fleet-street, 7th May, 1780. "I dined on Wednesday with Mr. Fitzmaurice, who almost made me promise to pass part of the summer at Llewenny 4 I have taken the liberty to leave out a few lines.-BosWELL. ⚫ [The editor would have supposed this to have been Mrs. Boscawen, but that Johnson appears to have met this lady two years before. See ante, p. 191.-ED.] To-morrow I dine with Mrs. Southwel; | little for love of contradiction, you will and on Thursday with Lord Lucan. To save him from his malevolent criticks, and, night I go to Miss Monkton's 1. Then I perhaps, do him the honour to devour him scramble, when you do not quite shut me yourself as a lion is said to take a great up; but I am miserably under petticoat bull now and then from the wolves which government, and yet am not very weary, had fallen upon him in the desert, and gravenor much ashamed.", ly eat him up for his own dinner.” "Bolt-court, Fleet-street, 8th May, 1780. "I dine on Thursday at Lord Lucan's, and on Saturday at Lady Craven's; and I dined yesterday with Mrs. Southwel. "As to my looks at the Academy, I was not told of them; and as I remember, I was very well, and I am well enough now." MRS. THRALE TO DR. JOHNSON. "When did I ever plague you about contour, and grace, and expression? I have dreaded them all three since that hapless day at Compeigne, when you teased me so, and Mr. Thrale made what I hoped would have proved a lasting peace; but French ground is unfavourable to fidelity perhaps, and so now you begin again: after having taken five years' breath, you might have done more than this. Say another word, and I will bring up afresh the history of your exploits at St. Denys, and how cross you were for nothing-but somehow or other, our travels never make any part either of our conversation or correspondence. * * "Mr. Fitzmaurice is always civiller both to you and me than either of us deserve. I wonder (as the phrase is) what he sees in us? Not much politeness surely. "Shall we have some chat about the Lives now? That of Blackmore will be very entertaining, I dare say, and he will be rescued from the old wits who worried him, much to your disliking: so a little for love of his christianity, a little for love of his physick, a little for love of his courage, and a "Did I tell you that Scot and Jones2 both offer themselves to represent the university in the place of Sir Roger Newdigate? They are struggling hard for what others think neither of them will obtain."] On the 2d of May I wrote to him, and requested that we might have another meeting somewhere in the north of Eng land in the autumn of this year. From Mr. Langton I received soon after this time a letter, of which I extract a passage, relative both to Mr. Beauclerk and Dr. Johnson. Langton. "The melancholy information you have received concerning Mr. Beauclerk's death is true. Had his talents been directed in any sufficient degree as they ought, I have always been strongly of opinion that they were calculated to make an illustrious figure; and that opinion, as it had been in part formed upon Dr. Johnson's judgment, receives more and more confirmation by hearing what, since his death, Dr. Johnson has said concerning them. A few evenings ago he was at Mr. Vesey's, where Lord Althorpe 3, who was one of a numerous company there, addressed Dr. Johnson on the subject of Mr. Beauclerk's death, saying, 'Our Club has had a great loss since we met last.' He replied A loss that perhaps the whole nation coula not repair!' The Doctor then went on to speak of his endowments, and particularly extolled the wonderful ease with which he uttered what was highly excellent. He said, that no man ever was so free, when he was going to say a good thing, from a look that expressed that it was coming; [The Honourable Mary Monkton, daughter of the first Viscount Galway, married in 1786 to Edmund, 7th Earl of Corke and Orrery. Some peerages state her to have been born in April, 1747, and her ladyship still mixes in society with health and spirits very extraordinary at the age of eighty-three; but Lodge's "Peerage of Ireland " makes her still older, stating her birth to have been in April, 1737. The dates, even in the best peerages, are so liable to errour, that the Editor would not have paid much attention to this one, but that he has found it corroborated by an announcement in the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1737, that Lady Galway was delivered of a daughter, and it does not any where appear that there was any other daughter. If Lady 3 [John-George, second Earl Spencer, who has Corke was the only daughter, there can be no been so kind as to answer some of the Editor's indoubt on the subject, for the statement in the Mag-quiries relative to the society, of which he and azine, published at the very time, cannot be erro- Lord Stowell are now almost the only survivors neous in point of date.-ED.] -ED.] 2 [Lord Stowell and Sir William Jones. Lord Stowell was elected for the University of Oxford in 1801, and represented it till his promotion to the peerage in 1821.-ED.] |