Aetat. 38.] Poems wrongly assigned to Johnson. 207 there is the following note: The authour being ill of the gout:' but Johnson was not attacked with that distemper till at a very late period of his life'. May not this, however, be a poetical fiction? Why may not a poet suppose himself to have the gout, as well as suppose himself to be in love, of which we have innumerable instances, and which has been admirably ridiculed by Johnson in his Life of Cowley? I have also some difficulty to believe that he could produce such a group of conceits' as appear in the verses to Lyce, in which he claims for this ancient personage as good a right to be assimilated to heaven, as nymphs whom other poets have flattered; he therefore ironically ascribes to her the attributes of the sky, in such stanzas as this: 'Her teeth the night with darkness dies, Her tongue like nimble lightning plies, But as at a very advanced age he could condescend to trifle in namby-pamby rhymes, to please Mrs. Thrale and her daughter, he may have, in his earlier years, composed such a piece as this. It is remarkable, that in this first edition of The Winter's Walk, the concluding line is much more Johnsonian than it was afterwards printed; for in subsequent editions, after praying Stella to 'snatch him to her arms,' he says, 'And shield me from the ills of life.' Whereas in the first edition it is 'And hide me from the sight of life.' 'See post under Sept. 18, 1783. 'See Johnson's Works, vii. 4, 34. 'Boswell italicises conceits to shew that he is using it in the sense in which Johnson uses it in his criticism of Cowley:- These conceits Addison calls mixed wit; that is, wit which consists of thoughts true in one sense of the expression and false in the other.' Ib. vii. 35. • Namby Pamby was the name given to Ambrose Philips by Pope. Ib. viii. 395. A horrour 208 Verses on Lord Lovat. [A.D. 1747. A horrour at life in general is more consonant with Johnson's habitual gloomy cast of thought. I have heard him repeat with great energy the following verses, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for April this year; but I have no authority to say they were his own. Indeed one of the best criticks of our age' suggests to me, that 'the word indifferently being used in the sense of without concern,' and being also very unpoetical, renders it improbable that they should have been his composition. 'On Lord LOVAT'S Execution. 'Pity'd by gentle minds KILMARNOCK died; The soft lamented, and the brave approv'd. Malone most likely is meant. Mr. Croker says:-'Johnson has “indifferently" in the sense of “without concern" in his Dictionary, with this example from Shakespeare, And I will look on death indifferently." Johnson however here defines indifferently as in a neutral state; without wish or aversion; which is not the same as without concern. The passage, which is from Julius Cæsar, i. 2, is not correctly given. It is 'Set honour in one eye and death i' the other And I will look on both indifferently.' We may compare Johnson's use of indifferent in his Letter to Chesterfield, post, Feb. 7, 1755:- The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours . . . has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it.' 24 Radcliffe, when quite a boy, had been engaged in the rebellion of 1715, and being attainted had escaped from Newgate. . . . During the insurrection [of 1745], having been captured on board a French vessel bound for Scotland, he was arraigned on his original sentence which had slumbered so long. The only trial now conceded to him was confined to his identity. For such a course there was no precedent, except in the case of Sir Walter Raleigh, which had brought shame upon the reign of James I.' Campbell's Chancellors (edit. 1846), v. 108. Campbell adds, his execution, I think, reflects great disgrace upon Lord Hardwicke [the Lord Chancellor].' But Aetat. 38.] A Prologue by Johnson. But LOVAT's fate' indifferently we view, The honest mourn not, knowing him a knave'!' 209 This year his old pupil and friend, David Garrick, having become joint patentee and manager of Drury-lane theatre, Johnson honoured his opening of it with a Prologue*,* which for just and manly dramatick criticism, on the whole range of the English stage, as well as for poetical excellence', These verses are somewhat too severe on the extraordinary person who is the chief figure in them, for he was undoubtedly brave. His pleasantry during his solemn trial (in which, by the way, I have heard Mr. David Hume observe, that we have one of the very few speeches of Mr. Murray, now Earl of Mansfield, authentically given) was very remarkable. When asked if he had any questions to put to Sir Everard Fawkener, who was one of the strongest witnesses against him, he answered, 'I only wish him joy of his young wife.' And after sentence of death, in the horrible terms in cases of treason, was pronounced upon him, and he was retiring from the bar, he said, 'Fare you well, my Lords, we shall not all meet again in one place.' He behaved with perfect composure at his execution, and called out 'Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori.' ['What joys, what glories round him wait, Who bravely for his country dies!' FRANCIS. Horace, Odes, iii. 2. 13.] BOSWELL. 'Old Lovat was beheaded yesterday,' wrote Horace Walpole on April 10, 1747, and died extremely well: without passion, affectation, buffoonery, or timidity; his behaviour was natural and intrepid.' Letters, ii. 77. 'See post, 1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection. My friend, Mr. Courtenay, whose eulogy on Johnson's Latin Poetry has been inserted in this Work [ante, p. 72], is no less happy in praising his English poetry. But hark, he sings! the strain ev'n Pope admires; Indignant virtue her own bard inspires. I.-14 is 210 THE PLAN OF THE DICTIONARY. [A.D. 1747. is unrivalled. Like the celebrated Epilogue to the Distressed Mother', it was, during the season, often called for by the audience. The most striking and brilliant passages of it have been so often repeated, and are so well recollected by all the lovers of the drama and of poetry, that it would be superfluous to point them out. In the Gentleman's Magazine for December this year, he inserted an 'Ode on Winter,' which is, I think, an admirable specimen of his genius for lyrick poetry'. But the year 1747 is distinguished as the epoch, when Johnson's arduous and important work, his DICTIONARY OF the English LANGUAGE, was announced to the world, by the publication of its Plan or Prospectus. How long this immense undertaking had been the object of his contemplation, I do not know. I once asked him by what means he had attained to that astonishing knowledge of our language, by which he was enabled to realise a design of such extent, and accumulated difficulty. He told me, that it was not the effect of particular study; but that it had grown up in his mind insensibly.' I have been informed by Mr. James Dodsley, that several years before this period, Sublime as Juvenal he pours his lays, And with the Roman shares congenial praise ; In glowing numbers now he fires the age, And Shakspeare's sun relumes the clouded stage. BOSWELL. The play is by Ambrose Philips. It was concluded with the most successful Epilogue that was ever yet spoken on the English theatre. The three first nights it was recited twice; and not only continued to be demanded through the run, as it is termed, of the play; but, whenever it is recalled to the stage, where by peculiar fortune, though a copy from the French, it yet keeps its place, the Epilogue is still expected, and is still spoken.' Johnson's Works, viii. 389. See post, April 21, 1773, note on Eustace Budgel. The Epilogue is given in vol. v. p. 228 of Bohn's Addison, and the great success that it met with is described in The Spectator, No. 341. 'Such poor stuff as the following is certainly not by Johnson : THE PLAN OF THE DICTIONARY. 211 Aetat. 38.] when Johnson was one day sitting in his brother Robert's shop, he heard his brother suggest to him, that a Dictionary of the English Language would be a work that would be well received by the publick'; that Johnson seemed at first to catch at the proposition, but, after a pause, said, in his abrupt decisive manner, I believe I shall not undertake it.' That he, however, had bestowed much thought upon the subject, before he published his Plan, is evident from the enlarged, clear, and accurate views which it exhibits; and we find him mentioning in that tract, that many of the writers whose testimonies were to be produced as authorities, were selected by Pope'; which proves that he had been furnished, probably by Mr. Robert Dodsley, with whatever hints that eminent poet had contributed towards a great literary project, that had been the subject of important consideration in a former reign. The booksellers who contracted with Johnson, single and unaided, for the execution of a work, which in other countries has not been effected but by the co-operating exertions of many, were Mr. Robert Dodsley, Mr. Charles Hitch', Mr. Andrew Millar, the two Messieurs Longman, and the two Messieurs Knapton. The price stipulated was fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds'. ''Dodsley first mentioned to me the scheme of an English Dictionary; but I had long thought of it.' Post, Oct. 10, 1779. 'It would seem from the passage to which Boswell refers that Pope had wished that Johnson should undertake the Dictionary. Johnson, in mentioning Pope, says :-' Of whom I may be justified in affirming that were he still alive, solicitous as he was for the success of this work, he would not be displeased that I have undertaken it.' Works, v. 20. As Pope died on May 30, 1744, this renders it likely that the work was begun earlier than Boswell thought. In the title-page of the first edition after the name of Hitch comes that of L. Hawes. During the progress of the work he had received at different times the amount of his contract; and when his receipts were produced to him at a tavern-dinner given by the booksellers, it appeared that he had been paid a hundred pounds and upwards more than his due. Murphy's Johnson, p. 78. See post, beginning of 1756. The |