202 OBSERVATIONS ON MACBETH. [A.D. 1746. He this year wrote the Preface to the Harleian Miscel lany.* The selection of the pamphlets of which it was composed was made by Mr. Oldys, a man of eager curiosity and indefatigable diligence, who first exerted that spirit of inquiry into the literature of the old English writers, by which the works of our great dramatick poet have of late been so signally illustrated. In 1745 he published a pamphlet entitled Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with remarks on Sir T. H.'s (Sir Thomas Hanmer's) Edition of Shakspeare.* To which he affixed, proposals for a new edition of that poet'. As we do not trace any thing else published by him during the course of this year, we may conjecture that he was occupied entirely with that work. But the little encouragement 'Among the names of subscribers to the Harleian Miscellany there occurs that of “Sarah Johnson, bookseller in Lichfield." Johnsoniana, p. 466. 2 A brief account of Oldys is given in the Gent. Mag. liv. 161, 260. Like so many of his fellows he was thrown into the Fleet. After poor Oldys's release, such was his affection for the place that he constantly spent his evenings there.' In the Feb. number of the Gent. Mag. for this year (p. 112) is the following advertisement:-'Speedily will be published (price 15.) Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with remarks on Sir T. H.'s edition of Shakespear; to which is affix'd proposals for a new edition of Shakespear, with a specimen. Printed for J. Roberts in Warwick Lane.' In the March number (p. 114), under the date of March 31, it is announced that it will be published on April 6. In spite of the two advertisements, and the title-page which agrees with the advertisements, I believe that the Proposals were not published till eleven years later (see post, end of 1756). I cannot hear of any copy of the Miscellaneous Observations which contains them. The advertisement is a third time repeated in the April number of the Gent. Mag. for 1745 (p. 224), but the Proposals are not this time mentioned. Tom Davies the bookseller gives 1756 as the date of their publication (Misc. and Fugitive Pieces, ii. 87). Perhaps Johnson or the booksellers were discouraged by Hanmer's Shakespeare as well as by Warburton's. Johnson at the end of the Miscellaneous Observations says:- After the foregoing pages were printed, the late edition of Shakespeare ascribed to Sir T. H. fell into my hands.' Aetat. 37.] The Rebellion of 1745. 203 which was given by the publick to his anonymous proposals for the execution of a task which Warburton was known to have undertaken, probably damped his ardour. His pamphlet, however, was highly esteemed, and was fortunate enough to obtain the approbation even of the supercilious Warburton himself, who, in the Preface to his Shakspeare published two years afterwards, thus mentioned it: 'As to all those things which have been published under the titles of Essays, Remarks, Observations, &c. on Shakspeare, if you except some critical notes on Macbeth, given as a specimen of a projected edition, and written, as appears, by a man of parts and genius, the rest are absolutely below a serious notice.' Of this flattering distinction shewn to him by Warburton, a very grateful remembrance was ever entertained by Johnson, who said, 'He praised me at a time when praise was of value to me.' 1746: ÆTAT. 37.]-IN 1746 it is probable that he was still employed upon his Shakspeare, which perhaps he laid aside for a time, upon account of the high expectations which were formed of Warburton's edition of that great poet'. It is somewhat curious, that his literary career appears to have been almost totally suspended in the years 1745 and 1746, those years which were marked by a civil war in GreatBritain, when a rash attempt was made to restore the House of Stuart to the throne. That he had a tenderness for that unfortunate House, is well known; and some may fancifully imagine, that a sympathetick anxiety impeded the exertion of his intellectual powers: but I am inclined to think, that he was, during this time, sketching the outlines of his great philological work'. The excellence of the edition proved to be by no means proportionate to the arrogance of the editor.' Cambridge Shakespeare, i. xxxiv. *When you see Mr. Johnson pray [give] my compliments, and tell him I esteem him as a great genius-quite lost both to himself and the world!' Gilbert Walmesley to Garrick, Nov. 3, 1746. Garrick Correspondence, i. 45. Mr. Walmesley's letter does not shew that Johnson was idle. The old man had expected great things from him. 'I have None 204 Johnson not an ardent Jacobite. [A.D. 1747. None of his letters during those years are extant, so far as I can discover. This is much to be regretted. It might great hopes,' he had written in 1737 (see ante, p. 118), 'that he will turn out a fine tragedy writer.' In the nine years in which Johnson had been in town he had done, no doubt, much admirable work; but by his poem of London only was he known to the public. His Life of Savage did not bear his name. His Observations on Macbeth were published in April, 1745; his Plan of the Dictionary in 1747. What was Johnson doing meanwhile? Boswell conjectures that he was engaged on his Shakespeare and his Dictionary. That he went on working at his Shakespeare when the prospect of publishing was so remote that he could not issue his proposals is very unlikely. That he had been for some time engaged on his Dictionary before he addressed Lord Chesterfield is shewn by the opening sentences of the Plan. Mr. Croker's conjecture that he was absent or concealed on account of some difficulties which had arisen through the rebellion of 1745 is absurd. At no time of his life had he been an ardent Jacobite. I have heard him declare,' writes Boswell, that if holding up his right hand would have secured victory at Culloden to Prince Charles's army, he was not sure he would have held it up;' post, July 14, 1763. He had never in his life been in a nonjuring meetinghouse; post, June 9, 1784. For the fact that he wrote very little, if indeed anything, in the Gent. Mag. during these years more than one reason may be given. In the first place, public affairs take up an unusual amount of room in its columns. Thus in the number for Dec. 1745 we read :--' Our readers being too much alarmed by the present rebellion to relish with their usual delight the Debates in the Senate of Lilliput we shall postpone them for a season, that we may be able to furnish out a fuller entertainment of what we find to be more suitable to their present taste.' In the Preface it is stated: We have sold more of our books than we desire for several months past, and are heartily sorry for the occasion of it, the present troubles.' During these years then much less space was given to literature. But besides this, Johnson likely enough refused to write for the Magazine when it shewed itself strongly Hanoverian. He would highly disapprove of A New Protestant Litany, which was written after the following fashion :'May Spaniards, or French, all who join with Highland, In disturbing the peace of this our bless'd island, Meet tempests on sea and halters on dry land. We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord.' Gent. Mag. xv. 551. He would be disgusted the following year at seeing the Duke of afford Aetat. 38.] THE LIFE OF ALFRED. 205 afford some entertainment to see how he then expressed himself to his private friends, concerning State affairs. Dr. Adams informs me, that at this time a favourite object which he had in contemplation was The Life of Alfred; in which, from the warmth with which he spoke about it, he would, I believe, had he been master of his own will, have engaged himself, rather than on any other subject.' 1747: ÆTAT. 38.]—IN 1747 it is supposed that the Gentleman's Magazine for May was enriched by him with five' short poetical pieces, distinguished by three asterisks. The first is a translation, or rather a paraphrase, of a Latin Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer. Whether the Latin was his, or not, I have never heard, though I should think it probably was, if it be certain that he wrote the English'; as to which my only cause of doubt is, that his slighting character of Hanmer as an editor, in his Observations on Macbeth, is very different from that in the 'Epitaph.' It may be said, that there is the same contrariety between the character in the Observations, and that in his own Preface to Shakspeare'; but a considerable time elapsed between the Cumberland praised as 'the greatest man alive' (Gent. Mag. xvi. 235), and sung in verse that would have almost disgraced Cibber (p. 36). It is remarkable that there is no mention of Johnson's Plan of a Dictionary in the Magazine. Perhaps some coolness had risen between him and Cave. 'Boswell proceeds to mention six. In Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in which this paraphrase is inserted, it is stated that the Latin epitaph was written by Dr. Freind. I do not think that the English version is by Johnson. I should be sorry to ascribe to him such lines as : 'Illustrious age! how bright thy glories shone, When Hanmer filled the chair-and Anne the throne.' In the Observations, Johnson, writing of Hanmer, says: Surely the weapons of criticism ought not to be blunted against an editor who can imagine that he is restoring poetry while he is amusing himself with alterations like these: For, This is the sergeant Who like a good and hardy soldier fought; Like a right good and hardy soldier fought. one 206 Poems wrongly assigned to Johnson. [a.D. 1747. one publication and the other, whereas the Observations and 'Unhappy, whom to beds of pain Such harmless industry may surely be forgiven, if it cannot be praised; may he therefore never want a monosyllable who can use it with such wonderful dexterity.' Johnson's Works, v. 93. In his Preface to Shakespeare published eighteen years later, he describes Hanmer as 'A man, in my opinion, eminently qualified by nature for such studies.' Ib. p. 139. The editors of the Cambridge Shakespeare (i. xxxii) thus write of Hanmer :-'A country gentleman of great ingenuity and lively fancy, but with no knowledge of older literature, no taste for research, and no ear for the rhythm of earlier English verse, amused his leisure hours by scribbling down his own and his friend's guesses in Pope's Shakespeare. In the Universal Visiter, to which Johnson contributed, the mark which is affixed to some pieces unquestionably his, is also found subjoined to others, of which he certainly was not the author. The mark therefore will not ascertain the poems in question to have been written by him. They were probably the productions of Hawkesworth, who, it is believed, was afflicted with the gout. MALONE. It is most unlikely that Johnson wrote such poor poems as these. I shall not easily be persuaded that the following lines are his :— Love warbles in the vocal groves, And vegetation paints the plain.' 'And love and hate alike implore The skies-"That Stella mourn no more." 'The Winter's Walk' has two good lines, but these may have been supplied by Johnson. The lines to Lyce, an elderly Lady,' would, if written by him, have been taken as a satire on his wife. there |