74

General Election.

September 30; and Thrale, who was a strong supporter of Lord North, having again to encounter a contested election, Johnson came forward with his third political pamphlet, entitled The Patriot,' in defence of the Government. This tract, like its two predecessors, was written in a remarkably short space of time. 'It was called for,' said the author, 'by my political friends on Friday, and was written on Saturday.'

On October 16 Horace Walpole wrote that there had been outrageous rioting in Southwark, but that he knew nothing of the candidates, their connections, or their success. In the end Thrale was again returned, though, as before, he was only second on the poll. He had not the popular manners necessary for a good candidate, and owed great part of his success to his wife, who threw herself heart and soul into the business of electioneering, for which she was as well qualified as the Duchess of Devonshire, or Mrs. Crewe. In later life Mrs. Thrale, having occasion to pass through Southwark, expressed her astonishment at no longer recognising a place every hole and corner of which she had three times visited as a canvasser.

On one of these expeditions Johnson accompanied her, and a rough fellow, a hatter by trade, seeing his beaver in a state of decay, seized it suddenly with one hand, and clapping him on the back with the other, cried out, ‘Ah, Master Johnson, this is no time to be thinking about hats.' 'No, no, sir,' replied the Doctor in a cheerful tone; hats are of no use now, as you say, except to throw up in the air and huzza with,' accompanying his words with the true election halloo.t On October 27 Johnson was Boswell that Thrale had happily

* 'Letters,' vi. 134.

able to write to surmounted a very + Anec., p. 214.

violent and acrimonious opposition; but, added he: 'All joys have their abatement: Mrs. Thrale has fallen from her horse, and hurt herself very much.'

Thrale's gratitude to Johnson, or his admiration of him, made him at one time anxious that his friend should be brought into Parliament. Sir John Hawkins says that Thrale had two meetings with the Minister, who at first seemed inclined to find Johnson a seat, but eventually discouraged the proposal. Lord Stowell told Mr. Croker that Lord North was afraid that Johnson's help might sometimes prove embarrassing. He perhaps thought, and not unreasonably,' added Lord Stowell, that, like the elephant in the battle, he was quite as likely to trample down his friends as his foes.' Boswell expresses a wish that the moralist had tried his hand in the House, and wonders that the Ministry did not make the experiment. On this Mrs. Thrale remarks very sensibly: 'Boswell had leisure for curiosity; Ministers had not. Boswell would have been equally amused by his failure as by his success, but to Lord North there would have been no joke at all in the experiment ending untowardly.'

CHAPTER IV.

Mrs. Abington's Benefit-Johnson created Doctor-Marriages with Inferiors in Rank-Thrale not a Wit-Baretti-Account of Him-Tried for Murder -Enters Thrale's Family-His Character drawn by Mrs. Piozzi-Dr. Thomas Campbell-His Diary of a Visit to England-His Impressions of Baretti and Johnson-Dinners at Thrale's-Tour to France-Baretti makes Himself Useful-Johnson's Letters and Diary-Johnson Intractable-Disagreements-Verses to Mrs. Thrale-She translates an Epigram Impromptu -Johnson removes to Bolt Court-Boswell again in London-He goes with Johnson to the Midlands-Sudden Death of Thrale's only SonJohnson and Boswell return to London-Johnson comforts the ParentsProposed Tour to Italy given up-Garrick's Retirement-His ActingThe Thrales at Bath with Johnson-Visit from Boswell-Johnson Severe to Mrs. Thrale-He returns to London-Dines with Wilkes- Pressed to go again to Bath-Quarrel with Baretti-Mrs. Thrale describes the Rupture-Johnson's Account-Baretti's Version-Apparent Reconciliation -Thraliana-Thrale described by his Wife.

IN the spring of 1775 Boswell was again in London, and on Monday, March 27, breakfasted at Mr. Strahan's* with Johnson, where he learned that the latter was engaged to go that night to Mrs. Abington's† benefit. The two met again at Drury Lane Theatre in the evening. 'Sir Joshua Reynolds,' writes the biographer, 'at Mrs. Abington's request, had promised to bring a body of wits, and having secured forty places in the front boxes, had done me the honour to put me in the group. Johnson sat in the seat directly behind me; and as he could * William Strahan, the King's printer. He was great-grandfather of Dr. Spottiswoode, the late President of the Royal Society.

This celebrated actress was then at the zenith of her fame. Her range was large, extending from Ophelia and Beatrice to Miss Prue and Polly Peachum. Murphy dedicated to her his comedy of How to Keep Him,' and she was the original representative of Lady Teazle in 1777.

Marriages with Inferiors.

77

neither see nor hear at such a distance from the stage, he was wrapped up in grave abstraction, and seemed quite in a cloud, amidst all the sunshine of glitter and gaiety. He said very little. He was more disposed for talk next day at a dinner given by Mr. Thrale. He was then awaiting his diploma of Doctor of Laws from Oxford, and was understood to be highly pleased with the prospect of his new dignity.

Boswell, who was also a guest, records a little sparring between Johnson and their hostess respecting the poet Gray, whom the lady, to her credit, was disposed to admire, while Johnson reviled him as a dull fellow and a mechanical poet. The conversation next turned on the subject of unequal matches, a question arising how a woman who married a man much her inferior in rank should be treated by her relations. While I recapitulate the debate,' says its reporter, and recollect what has since happened, I cannot but be struck in a manner that delicacy forbids me to express. While I contended that she ought to be treated with an inflexible steadiness of displeasure, Mrs. Thrale was all for mildness and forgiveness, and, according to the vulgar phrase, making the best of a bad bargain.' Johnson, he adds, thought that when there was a gross and shameful deviation from rank it should be punished, so as to deter others from the same perversion. The allusion in this passage to Mrs. Thrale's second marriage is so pointed, as well as so unnecessary, that Scotch James's affectation of delicacy has the air of a studied impertinence.

On May 10 in this year, Boswell wrote to his friend Temple: '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