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Lord Hailes. Besides my constant and radical disease, I have been for these ten days much harassed with the gout; but that has now remitted. I hope God will yet grant me a little longer life, and make me less unfit to appear before him."

["TO MR. TOMKESON, IN SOUTHAMPTONSTREET, COVENT GARDEN 1.

"1st October, 1783.

"SIR, I have known Mr. Lowe very familiarly a great while. I consider him as a man of very clear and vigorous understanding, and conceive his principles to be such that, whatever you transact with him, you have nothing to expect from him unbecoming a gentleman. I am, sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

MS.

"DR. JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS.
"1st October, 1783.

"DEAR MADAM,-I am very ill inReyn. deed, and to my former illness is superadded the gout. I am now without shoes, and I have lately been almost motionless.

"To my other afflictions is added solitude. Mrs. Williams, a companion of thirty years, is gone. It is a comfort to me to have you near me I am, madam, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

Letters, vol. ii. p 313.

"TO MRS. THRALE.

"London, 6th October, 1783.

"I yet sit without shoes, with my foot upon a pillow, but my pain and weakness are much abated, and I am no longer crawling upon two sticks. To the gout my mind is reconciled by another letter from Mr. Mudge, in which he vehemently urges the excision, and tells me that the gout will secure me from every thing paralytick if this be true, I am ready to say to the arthritick pains, Deh! venite ogne di, durate, un

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"This afternoon I have given [tea] to Mrs. Cholmondeley, Mrs. Way, Lady Sheffield's relation, Mr. Kindersley, the describer of Indian manners, and another anonymous lady.

"As Mrs. Williams received a pension from Mrs. Montagu, it was fit to notify her death. The account has brought me a letter not only civil but tender; so I hope peace is proclaimed."

"London, 9th October, 1783.

"Two nights ago Mr. Burke sat with me a long time. He seems much pleased with his journey. We had both seen Stonehenge this summer for the first time. I told him that the view had enabled me to confute two opinions which have been advanced about it. One, that the materials are not natural stones, but an artificial composition hardened by time. This notion is as old as Camden's time; and has this strong argument to support it, that stone of that species is nowhere to be found. The other opinion, advanced by Dr. Charlton, is, that it was erected by the Danes.

"Mr. Bowles made me observe, that the transverse stones were fixed on the perpendicular supporters by a knob formed on the top of the upright stone, which entered into a hollow cut in the crossing stone. This is a proof that the enormous edifice was raised by a people who had not yet the knowledge of mortar 3; which cannot be supposed of the Danes, who came hither in ships, and were not ignorant certainly of the arts of life. This proves also the stones not to be factitious; for they that could mould such durable masses could do much more than make mortar, and could have continued the transverse from the upright part with the same paste.

"You have doubtless seen Stonehenge; and if you have not, I should think it a hard task to make an adequate descrip

tion.

"It is in my opinion to be referred to the earliest habitation of the island, as a druidical monument of, at least, two thousand years; probably the most ancient work of man upon the island. Salisbury cathedral and its neighbour Stonehenge are two eminent monuments of art and rudeness, and may show the first essay and the last perfection in architecture."

"DR. JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS. "23d October, 1783. "DEAR MADAM,-Instead of havReyn. ing me at your table, which cannot, MS. I fear, quickly happen, come, if you

3 [Surely not. We who have the use of mortar use what are called mortices; similar in principle at least to the knobs and hollows of Stonehenge.-ED.]

can, to dine this day with me. It will give peasure to a sick friend.

"Let me know whether you can come. I am, madam, yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON."

"DR. JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS. "London, 27th October, 1783. “My dearest DEAR,-I am able enough to write, for I have now neither sickness nor pain; only the gout has left my ankles somewhat weak.

"While the weather favours you, and the air does you good, stay in the country: when you come home I hope we shall often see one another, and enjoy that friendship to which no time is likely to put an end on the part of, madam, your most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

He this autumn received a visit from the celebrated Mrs. Siddons. He gives this account of it in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale.

"27th October.

"Mrs. Siddons, in her visit to me, behaved with great modesty and propriety, and left nothing behind her to be censured or despised. Neither praise nor money, the two powerful corruptors of mankind, seem to have depraved her. I shall be glad to see her again. Her brother Kemble calls on me, and pleases me very well. Mrs. Siddons and I talked of plays; and she told me her intention of exhibiting this winter the characters of Constance, Catharine, and Isabella 2, in Shakspeare."

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"When Mrs. Siddons came into the room, there happened to be no chair ready for her, which he observing said, with a smile, Madam, you who so often occasion a want of seats to other people will the more easily excuse the want of one yourself.

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Having placed himself by her, he, with great good-humour, entered upon a consideration of the English drama; and, among other inquiries, particularly asked her which of Shakspeare's characters she was most 1 [This great actor and amiable and accomplished man left the stage in 18-, and died 26th February, 1823, at Lausanne. In his own day he had no competitor in any walk of tragedy; and those who remembered Barry, Mossop, Henderson, and Garrick admitted, that in characters of high tragic dignity, such as Hamlet, Coriolanus, Alexander, Cato, he excelled all his predecessors, almost as much as his sister did all actresses in the female characters of the same heroic class.--ED.]

2 [Isabella in Shakspeare's Measure for MeaMrs. Siddons had made her first appearance in Isabella in The Fatal Marriage.-ED.]

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"In the course of the evening he thus gave his opinion upon the merits of some of the principal performers whom he remembered to have seen upon the stage. Mrs. Porter in the vehemence of rage, and Mrs. Clive in the sprightliness of humour, I have never seen equalled. What Clive did best, she did better than Garrick; but could not do half so many things well: she was a better romp than any I ever saw in nature. Pritchard, in common life, was a vulgar idiot; she would talk of her gownd: but, when she appeared upon the stage, seemed to be inspired by gentility and understanding. I once talked with Colley Cibber, and thought him ignorant of the principles of his art. Garrick, madam, was no declaimer; there was not one of his own sceneshifters who could not have spoken To be or not to be better than he did: yet he was the only actor I ever saw, whom I could call a master both in tragedy and comedy; though I liked him best in comedy. A true conception of character, and natural expression of it, were his distinguished excellences.' Having expatiated, with his usual force and eloquence, on Mr. Garrick's extraordinary eminence as an actor, he concluded with this compliment to his social talents: And after all, madam, I thought him less to be envied on the stage than at the head of a table.'"

Johnson, indeed, had thought more upon the subject of acting than might be generally supposed. Talking of it one day to Mr. Kemble, he said, "Are you, sir, one of those enthusiasts who believe yourself transformed into the very character you represent?" Upon Mr. Kemble's answering that he had never felt so strong a persuasion himself; "To be sure not, sir," said Johnson; "the thing is impossible. And if Garrick really believed himself to be that monster, Richard the Third, he deserved to be hanged every time he performed it 4."

3 [It was played many years after with critical attention to historical accuracy, and with great success. Mrs. Siddons played Catharine; Mr. Kemble, Wolsey; Mr. Charles Kemble, Cromwell. There is a very interesting picture, by Harlow (since engraved), of the trial-scene, with portraits of all the performers.—ED.]

4 [Mr. Kemble told the Editor that the occa

My worthy friend, Mr. John Nichols, was present when Mr. Henderson, the actor, paid a visit to Dr. Johnson, and was received in a very courteous manner 1.

I found among Dr. Johnson's papers the following letter to him, from the celebrated Mrs. Bellamy 2:

"TO DR. JOHNSON.

"No. 10 Duke-street, St. James's, 11th May, 1783. "SIR,-The flattering remembrance of the partiality you honoured me with some years ago, as well as the humanity you are known to possess, has encouraged me to solicit your patronage at my benefit.

"By a long chancery suit, and a complicated train of unfortunate events, I am reduced to the greatest distress; which obliges me, once more, to request the indulgence of the publick.

"Give me leave to solicit the honour of your company, and to assure you, if you grant my request, the gratification I shall feel from being patronized by Dr. Johnson will be infinitely superiour to any advantage that may arise from the benefit; as I am, with the profoundest respect, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

"G. A. BELLAMY."

I am happy in recording these particulars, which prove that my illustrious friend lived to think much more favourably of players than he appears to have done in the early part of his life 3.

"TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD.

"Bolt-court, Fleet-street, 10th Nov. 1783. "DEAR MADAM,-The death of poor Mr. Porter, of which your maid has sent an account, must have very much surprised you. The death of a friend is almost always unexpected: we do not love to think of it, and therefore are not prepared for its coming. He was, I think, a religious man, and therefore that his end was happy.

"Death has likewise visited my mournful habitation. Last month died Mrs. Williams, who had been to me for thirty years in the place of a sister: her knowledge was great and her conversation pleasing. I now live in cheerless solitude.

sion on which he had felt himself the most affected the most personally touched--was in playing the last scene of The Stranger with Mrs. Siddons. Her pathos, he said, in that part always overcame him.-ED.]

1 See Gentleman's Magazine, June, 1791.BOSWELL.

2 [An actress who published memoirs of her life.-ED.]

[Johnson's dislike to players in early life was nothing more than his jealousy of Garrick's sudden elevation. After Garrick's death he began "to think more favourably of them."-ED.]

"My two last years have passed under the pressure of successive diseases. I have lately had the gout with some severity. But I wonderfully escaped the operation which I mentioned, and am upon the whole restored to health beyond my own expectation.

"As we daily see our friends die round us, we that are left must cling closer, and, if we can do nothing more, at least pray for one another; and remember, that as others die we must die too, and prepare ourselves diligently for the last great trial. I am, madam, yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON."

["TO MRS. THRALE.
"London, 13th November, 1783.

"Since you have written to me with the attention and tenderness of ancient time 4, your letters give me

Letters, vol. ii. p. 325.

a great part of the pleasure which a life of solitude admits. You will never bestow any share of your good-will on one who deserves better. Those that have loved longest love best. A sudden blaze of kindness may by a single blast of coldness be extinguished; but that fondness which length of time has connected with many circumstances and occasions, though it may for a while be depressed by disgust or resentment, with or without a cause, is hourly revived by accidental recollection. To those that have lived long together, every thing heard and every thing seen recalls some pleasure communicated or some benefit conferred, some petty quarrel or some slight endearment. Esteem of great powers, or amiable qualities newly discovered, may embroider a day or a week, but a friendship of twenty years is interwoven with the texture of life. A friend may be often found and lost; but an old friend never can be found, and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.

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P 342.

wards, in a letter to Mrs. Thrale, "Since you cannot guess, I will tell you, that the generous man was Gerard Hamilton. I returned him a very thankful and respectful letter."

1 applied to Mr. Hamilton, by a common friend, and he has been so obliging as to let me have Johnson's letter to him upon this occasion, to adorn my collection.

"TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM GERARD HAMILTON.

"19th November, 1783. "DEAR SIR,-Your kind inquiries after my affairs, and your generous offers, have been communicated to me by Dr. Brocklesby. I return thanks with great sincerity, having lived long enough to know what gratitude is due to such friendship; and entreat that my refusal may not be imputed to sullenness or pride. I am, indeed, in no want. Sickness is, by the generosity of: physicians, of little expense to me. But if any unexpected exigence should press me, you shall see, dear sir, how cheerfully I can be obliged to so much liberality. I am, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

my

I find in this, as in former years, notices of his kind attention to Mrs. Gardiner, who, though in the humble station of a tallowchandler upon Snow-hill, was a woman of excellent good sense, pious, and charitable 1. She told me she had been introduced to him by Mrs. Masters 2, the poetess, whose volumes he revised, and, it is said, illuminated here and there with a ray of his own genius. Mrs. Gardiner was very zealous for the support of the ladies' charity-school, in the parish of St. Sepulchre. It is confined to females; and, I am told, it afforded a hint for the story of "Betty Broom" in "The Idler." Johnson this year, I find, obtained for it a sermon from the late Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Shipley, whom he, in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale, characterises as "knowing and conversable ;" and

1 In his will Dr. Johnson left her a book "at her election, to keep as a token of remembrance." -MALONE. [See ante, vol. i. p. 102. She died in 1789, æt. 74-ED.]

[Ante, vol. i. p. 102.—Ed.]
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VOL. II.

whom all who knew his lordship, even those who differed from him in politicks, remember with much respect.

["DR. JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS.
"27th November, 1783.

Reyn.

MS.

"DEAR MADAM,-I beg that you will let me know by this messenger whether you will do me the honour of dining with me, and, if you will, whether we shall eat our dinner by our own selves, or call Mrs. Desmoulins. I am, dearest dear, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."]

The Earl of Carlisle having written a tragedy, entitled "The Father's Revenge,' some of his lordship's friends applied to Mrs. Chapone 3, to prevail on Dr. Johnson to read and give his opinion of it, which he accordingly did, in a letter to that lady. Sir Joshua Reynolds having informed me that this letter was in Lord Carlisle's possession, though I was not fortunate enough to have the honour of being known to his lordship, trusting to the general courtesy of literature, I wrote to him, requesting the favour of a copy of it, and to be permitted to insert it in my Life of Dr. Johnson. His lordship was so good as to comply with my request, and has thus enabled me to enrich my work with a very fine piece of writing, which displays both the critical skill and politeness of my illus trious friend; and perhaps the curiosity which it will excite may induce the noble and elegant authour to gratify the world by the publication of a performance of which Dr. Johnson has spoken in such terms.

"TO MRS. CHAPONE.

"28th November, 1783. "MADAM,-By sending the tragedy to me a second time 5, I think that a very honourable distinction has been shown me; and I did not delay the perusal, of which I am now to tell the effect.

"The construction of the play is not completely regular: the stage is too often vacant, and the scenes are not sufficiently connected. This, however, would be called by Dryden only a mechanical defect; which takes away little from the power of the poem, and which is seen rather than felt.

"A rigid examiner of the diction might, perhaps, wish some words changed, and some lines more vigorously terminated.

3 [Miss Mulso. See ante, p. 239.-ED.] 4 A few copies only of this tragedy have been printed, and given to the authour's friends.-Bos

WELL.

5 Dr. Johnson having been very ill when the tragedy was first sent to him, had declined the consideration of it.--Boswell.

But from such petty imperfections what writer was ever free?

"The general form and force of the dialogue is of more importance. It seems to want that quickness of reciprocation which characterises the English drama, and is not always sufficiently fervid or animated.

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"Öf the sentiments, I remember not one that I wished omitted. In the imagery I cannot forbear to distinguish the comparison of joy succeeding grief to light rushing on the eye accustomed to darkness 1. It seems to have all that can be desired to make it please. It is new, just, and delightful.

"With the characters, either as conceived or preserved, I have no fault to find; but was much inclined to congratulate a writer who, in defiance of prejudice and fashion, made the archbishop a good man, and scorned all thoughtless applause, which a vicious churchman would have brought him.

The

"The catastrophe is affecting. father and daughter both culpable, both wretched, and both penitent, divide between them our pity and our sorrow.

"Thus, madam, I have performed what I did not willingly undertake, and could not decently refuse. The noble writer will be pleased to remember that sincere criticism ought to raise no resentment, because judgment is not under the control of will; but involuntary criticism, as it has still less of choice, ought to be more remote from possibility of offence. I am, &c.

"SAM. JOHNSON."

“TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD.

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I consulted him on two questions of a very different nature: one, Whether the unconstitutional influence exercised by the peers of Scotland in the election of the representatives of the commons, by means of fictitious qualifications, ought not to be resisted; the other, What in propriety and humanity should be done with old horses unable to labour. I gave him some account of my life at Auchinleck; and expressed my satisfaction that the gentlemen of the county had, at two publick meetings, elected me their prases or chairman.

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"London, 24th Dec. 1783. "DEAR SIR,-Like all other men who have great friends, you begin to feel the pangs of neglected merit; and all the comfort that I can give you is, by telling you that you have probably more pangs to feel, and more neglect to suffer. You have, indeed, begun to complain too soon; and 1 hope I am the only confidant of your dis

content. "London, 29th Nov. 1783.

"DEAR MADAM,—You may perhaps think me negligent that I have not written to you again upon the loss of your brother; but condolences and consolations are such com

mon and such useless things, that the omission of them is no great crime; and my own diseases occupy my mind and engage my care. My nights are miserably restless, and my days, therefore, are heavy. I try, however, to hold up my head as high as I

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Your friends have not yet had leisure to gratify personal kindness; they have hitherto been busy in strengthening their ministerial interest. If a vacancy happens in Scotland, give them early intelligence: and as you can serve government as powerfully as any of your probable competitors, you may make in some sort a warrantable claim.

"Of the exaltations and depressions of your mind you delight to talk, and I hate to hear. Drive all such fancies from you.

"On the day when I received your letter, I think, the foregoing page was written; to which one disease or another has hindered me from making any additions. I am now a little better. But sickness and solitude press me very heavily. I could bear sickness better, if I were relieved from solitude.

"The present dreadful confusion of the publick ought to make you wrap yourself up in your hereditary possessions, which, though less than you may wish, are more than you can want; and in an hour of religious retirement return thanks to God,

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