Life of Johnson

J >> James Boswell >> Life of Johnson


'He said, that once, when he had a violent tooth-ache, a Frenchman
accosted him thus:--"Ah, Monsieur vous etudiez trop."'

'Colman, in a note on his translation of Terence, talking of
Shakspeare's learning, asks, "What says Farmer to this? What says
Johnson?" Upon this he observed, "Sir, let Farmer answer for himself: I
never engaged in this controversy. I always said, Shakspeare had Latin
enough to grammaticise his English."'

'A clergyman, whom he characterised as one who loved to say little
oddities, was affecting one day, at a Bishop's table, a sort of slyness
and freedom not in character, and repeated, as if part of The Old Man's
Wish, a song by Dr. Walter Pope, a verse bordering on licentiousness.
Johnson rebuked him in the finest manner, by first shewing him that he
did not know the passage he was aiming at, and thus humbling him:

"Sir, that is not the song: it is thus." And he gave it right. Then
looking stedfastly on him, "Sir, there is a part of that song which I
should wish to exemplify in my own life:--


"May I govern my passions with absolute sway!"'


'He used frequently to observe, that men might be very eminent in a
profession, without our perceiving any particular power of mind in them
in conversation. "It seems strange (said he,) that a man should see so
far to the right, who sees so short a way to the left. Burke is the only
man whose common conversation corresponds with the general fame which
he has in the world. Take up whatever topick you please, he is ready to
meet you."'

'Mr. Langton, when a very young man, read Dodsley's Cleone, a Tragedy,
to him, not aware of his extreme impatience to be read to. As it went
on he turned his face to the back of his chair, and put himself into
various attitudes, which marked his uneasiness. At the end of an
act, however, he said, "Come let's have some more, let's go into the
slaughter-house again, Lanky. But I am afraid there is more blood than
brains."

'Snatches of reading (said he,) will not make a Bentley or a Clarke.
They are, however, in a certain degree advantageous. I would put a
child into a library (where no unfit books are) and let him read at his
choice. A child should not be discouraged from reading any thing that he
takes a liking to, from a notion that it is above his reach. If that
be the ease, the child will soon find it out and desist; if not, he of
course gains the instruction; which is so much the more likely to come,
from the inclination with which he takes up the study.'

'A gentleman who introduced his brother to Dr. Johnson was earnest to
recommend him to the Doctor's notice, which he did by saying, "When
we have sat together some time, you'll find my brother grow very
entertaining."--"Sir, (said Johnson,) I can wait."'

'In the latter part of his life, in order to satisfy himself whether his
mental faculties were impaired, he resolved that he would try to learn
a new language, and fixed upon the Low Dutch, for that purpose, and this
he continued till he had read about one half of Thomas a Kempis; and
finding that there appeared no abatement of his power of acquisition, he
then desisted, as thinking the experiment had been duly tried.'

'Mr. Langton and he having gone to see a Freemason's funeral procession,
when they were at Rochester, and some solemn musick being played on
French horns, he said, "This is the first time that I have ever been
affected by musical sounds;" adding, "that the impression made upon him
was of a melancholy kind." Mr. Langton saying, that this effect was a
fine one,--JOHNSON. "Yes, if it softens the mind, so as to prepare it
for the reception of salutary feelings, it may be good: but inasmuch as
it is melancholy per se, it is bad."'

'Goldsmith had long a visionary project, that some time or other when
his circumstances should be easier, he would go to Aleppo, in order to
acquire a knowledge as far as might be of any arts peculiar to the
East, and introduce them into Britain. When this was talked of in Dr.
Johnson's company, he said, "Of all men Goldsmith is the most unfit to
go out upon such an inquiry; for he is utterly ignorant of such arts
as we already possess, and consequently could not know what would be
accessions to our present stock of mechanical knowledge. Sir, he would
bring home a grinding barrow, which you see in every street in London,
and think that he had furnished a wonderful improvement."'

'Greek, Sir, (said he,) is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he
can.'

'Johnson one day gave high praise to Dr. Bentley's verses in Dodsley's
Collection, which he recited with his usual energy. Dr. Adam Smith,
who was present, observed in his decisive professorial manner, "Very
well--Very well." Johnson however added, "Yes, they ARE very well, Sir;
but you may observe in what manner they are well. They are the forcible
verses of a man of a strong mind, but not accustomed to write verse; for
there is some uncouthness in the expression."'

'Drinking tea one day at Garrick's with Mr. Langton, he was questioned
if he was not somewhat of a heretick as to Shakspeare; said Garrick, "I
doubt he is a little of an infidel."--"Sir, (said Johnson,) I will stand
by the lines I have written on Shakspeare in my Prologue at the opening
of your Theatre." Mr. Langton suggested, that in the line


"And panting Time toil'd after him in vain,"


Johnson might have had in his eye the passage in The Tempest, where
Prospero says of Miranda,

"-----She will outstrip all praise,
And make it halt behind her."

Johnson said nothing. Garrick then ventured to observe, "I do not think
that the happiest line in the praise of Shakspeare." Johnson exclaimed
(smiling,) "Prosaical rogues! next time I write, I'll make both time and
space pant."'

'It is well known that there was formerly a rude custom for those who
were sailing upon the Thames, to accost each other as they passed, in
the most abusive language they could invent, generally, however, with as
much satirical humour as they were capable of producing. Addison gives
a specimen of this ribaldry, in Number 383 of The Spectator, when Sir
Roger de Coverly and he are going to Spring-garden. Johnson was once
eminently successful in this species of contest; a fellow having
attacked him with some coarse raillery, Johnson answered him thus, "Sir,
your wife, under pretence of keeping a bawdy-house, is a receiver of
stolen goods." One evening when he and Mr. Burke and Mr. Langton were
in company together, and the admirable scolding of Timon of Athens was
mentioned, this instance of Johnson's was quoted, and thought to have at
least equal excellence.'

'As Johnson always allowed the extraordinary talents of Mr. Burke, so
Mr. Burke was fully sensible of the wonderful powers of Johnson. Mr.
Langton recollects having passed an evening with both of them, when Mr.
Burke repeatedly entered upon topicks which it was evident he would have
illustrated with extensive knowledge and richness of expression; but
Johnson always seized upon the conversation, in which, however, he
acquitted himself in a most masterly manner. As Mr. Burke and Mr.
Langton were walking home, Mr. Burke observed that Johnson had been very
great that night; Mr. Langton joined in this, but added, he could have
wished to hear more from another person; (plainly intimating that he
meant Mr. Burke.) "O, no (said Mr. Burke,) it is enough for me to have
rung the bell to him."'

'Beauclerk having observed to him of one of their friends, that he was
aukward at counting money, "Why, Sir, (said Johnson,) I am likewise
aukward at counting money. But then, Sir, the reason is plain; I have
had very little money to count."'

'Goldsmith, upon being visited by Johnson one day in the Temple, said
to him with a little jealousy of the appearance of his accommodation, "I
shall soon be in better chambers than these." Johnson at the same time
checked him and paid him a handsome compliment, implying that a man of
his talents should be above attention to such distinctions,--"Nay, Sir,
never mind that. Nil te quaesiveris extra."'

'When Mr. Vesey was proposed as a member of The LITERARY CLUB, Mr.
Burke began by saying that he was a man of gentle manners. "Sir, (said
Johnson,) you need say no more. When you have said a man of gentle
manners; you have said enough."'

'The late Mr. Fitzherbert told Mr. Langton that Johnson said to him,
"Sir, a man has no more right to SAY an uncivil thing, than to ACT one;
no more right to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down"'

'Richardson had little conversation, except about his own works, of
which Sir Joshua Reynolds said he was always willing to talk, and glad
to have them introduced. Johnson when he carried Mr. Langton to see him,
professed that he could bring him out into conversation, and used this
allusive expression, "Sir, I can make him REAR." But he failed; for in
that interview Richardson said little else than that there lay in the
room a translation of his Clarissa into German.'

'Once when somebody produced a newspaper in which there was a letter of
stupid abuse of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of which Johnson himself came in
for a share,--"Pray," said he, "let us have it read aloud from beginning
to end;" which being done, he with a ludicrous earnestness, and not
directing his look to any particular person, called out, "Are we alive
after all this satire!"'

'Of Dr. Goldsmith he said, "No man was more foolish when he had not a
pen in his hand, or more wise when he had."'

'An observation of Bathurst's may be mentioned, which Johnson repeated,
appearing to acknowledge it to be well founded, namely, it was somewhat
remarkable how seldom, on occasion of coming into the company of any new
person, one felt any wish or inclination to see him again.'

1781: AETAT. 72.]--In 1781 Johnson at last completed his Lives of the
Poets, of which he gives this account: 'Some time in March I finished
the Lives of the Poets, which I wrote in my usual way, dilatorily and
hastily, unwilling to work, and working with vigour and haste.' In a
memorandum previous to this, he says of them: 'Written, I hope, in such
a manner as may tend to the promotion of piety.'

The booksellers, justly sensible of the great additional value of the
copy-right, presented him with another hundred pounds, over and above
two hundred, for which his agreement was to furnish such prefaces as he
thought fit.

As he was so good as to make me a present of the greatest part of the
original and indeed only manuscript of this admirable work, I have an
opportunity of observing with wonder, the correctness with which he
rapidly struck off such glowing composition.

The Life of COWLEY he himself considered as the best of the whole, on
account of the dissertation which it contains on the Metaphysical Poets.

While the world in general was filled with admiration of Johnson's
Lives of the Poets, there were narrow circles in which prejudice and
resentment were fostered, and from which attacks of different sorts
issued against him. By some violent Whigs he was arraigned of injustice
to Milton; by some Cambridge men of depreciating Gray; and his
expressing with a dignified freedom what he really thought of George,
Lord Lyttelton, gave offence to some of the friends of that nobleman,
and particularly produced a declaration of war against him from Mrs.
Montagu, the ingenious Essayist on Shakspeare, between whom and his
Lordship a commerce of reciprocal compliments had long been carried on.
In this war the smaller powers in alliance with him were of course led
to engage, at least on the defensive, and thus I for one was excluded
from the enjoyment of 'A Feast of Reason,' such as Mr. Cumberland has
described, with a keen, yet just and delicate pen, in his Observer.
These minute inconveniences gave not the least disturbance to Johnson.
He nobly said, when I talked to him of the feeble, though shrill outcry
which had been raised, 'Sir, I considered myself as entrusted with a
certain portion of truth. I have given my opinion sincerely; let them
shew where they think me wrong.'

I wrote to him in February, complaining of having been troubled by a
recurrence of the perplexing question of Liberty and Necessity;--and
mentioning that I hoped soon to meet him again in London.


'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

'DEAR SIR,--I hoped you had got rid of all this hypocrisy of misery.
What have you to do with Liberty and Necessity? Or what more than to
hold your tongue about it? Do not doubt but I shall be most heartily
glad to see you here again, for I love every part about you but your
affectation of distress.

'I have at last finished my Lives, and have laid up for you a load of
copy, all out of order, so that it will amuse you a long time to set it
right. Come to me, my dear Bozzy, and let us be as happy as we can. We
will go again to the Mitre, and talk old times over. I am, dear Sir,
yours affectionately,

'March 14, 1781.'

'SAM. JOHNSON.'


On Monday, March 19, I arrived in London, and on Tuesday, the 20th, met
him in Fleet-street, walking, or rather indeed moving along; for his
peculiar march is thus described in a very just and picturesque manner,
in a short Life of him published very soon after his death:--'When he
walked the streets, what with the constant roll of his head, and the
concomitant motion of his body, he appeared to make his way by that
motion, independent of his feet.' That he was often much stared at while
he advanced in this manner, may easily be believed; but it was not safe
to make sport of one so robust as he was. Mr. Langton saw him one day,
in a fit of absence, by a sudden start, drive the load off a porter's
back, and walk forward briskly, without being conscious of what he had
done. The porter was very angry, but stood still, and eyed the huge
figure with much earnestness, till he was satisfied that his wisest
course was to be quiet, and take up his burthen again.

Our accidental meeting in the street after a long separation was
a pleasing surprize to us both. He stepped aside with me into
Falcon-court, and made kind inquiries about my family, and as we were
in a hurry going different ways, I promised to call on him next day;
he said he was engaged to go out in the morning. 'Early, Sir?' said I.
JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, a London morning does not go with the sun.'

I waited on him next evening, and he gave me a great portion of his
original manuscript of his Lives of the Poets, which he had preserved
for me.

I found on visiting his friend, Mr. Thrale, that he was now very ill,
and had removed, I suppose by the solicitation of Mrs. Thrale, to a
house in Grosvenor-square. I was sorry to see him sadly changed in his
appearance.

He told me I might now have the pleasure to see Dr. Johnson drink
wine again, for he had lately returned to it. When I mentioned this
to Johnson, he said, 'I drink it now sometimes, but not socially.' The
first evening that I was with him at Thrale's, I observed he poured
a large quantity of it into a glass, and swallowed it greedily. Every
thing about his character and manners was forcible and violent; there
never was any moderation; many a day did he fast, many a year did he
refrain from wine; but when he did eat, it was voraciously; when he
did drink wine, it was copiously. He could practise abstinence, but not
temperance.

Mrs. Thrale and I had a dispute, whether Shakspeare or Milton had drawn
the most admirable picture of a man.* I was for Shakspeare; Mrs. Thrale
for Milton; and after a fair hearing, Johnson decided for my opinion.

* The passages considered, according to Boswell's note, were
the portrait of Hamlet's father (Ham. 3. 4. 55-62), and the
portrait of Adam (P. L. 4. 300-303).--ED.

I told him of one of Mr. Burke's playful sallies upon Dean Marlay:
'I don't like the Deanery of Ferns, it sounds so like a BARREN
title.'--'Dr. HEATH should have it;' said I. Johnson laughed, and
condescending to trifle in the same mode of conceit, suggested Dr. MOSS.

He said, 'Mrs. Montagu has dropt me. Now, Sir, there are people whom one
should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by.' He
certainly was vain of the society of ladies, and could make himself very
agreeable to them, when he chose it; Sir Joshua Reynolds agreed with
me that he could. Mr. Gibbon, with his usual sneer, controverted it,
perhaps in resentment of Johnson's having talked with some disgust of
his ugliness, which one would think a PHILOSOPHER would not mind.
Dean Marlay wittily observed, 'A lady may be vain, when she can turn a
wolf-dog into a lap-dog.'

His notion of the duty of a member of Parliament, sitting upon an
election-committee, was very high; and when he was told of a gentleman
upon one of those committees, who read the newspapers part of the time,
and slept the rest, while the merits of a vote were examined by the
counsel; and as an excuse, when challenged by the chairman for
such behaviour, bluntly answered, 'I had made up my mind upon that
case.'--Johnson, with an indignant contempt, said, 'If he was such a
rogue as to make up his mind upon a case without hearing it, he should
not have been such a fool as to tell it.' 'I think (said Mr. Dudley
Long, now North,) the Doctor has pretty plainly made him out to be both
rogue and fool.'

Johnson's profound reverence for the Hierarchy made him expect from
bishops the highest degree of decorum; he was offended even at
their going to taverns; 'A bishop (said he,) has nothing to do at a
tippling-house. It is not indeed immoral in him to go to a tavern;
neither would it be immoral in him to whip a top in Grosvenor-square.
But, if he did, I hope the boys would fall upon him, and apply the
whip to HIM. There are gradations in conduct; there is
morality,--decency,--propriety. None of these should be violated by
a bishop. A bishop should not go to a house where he may meet a young
fellow leading out a wench.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, every tavern does not
admit women.' JOHNSON. 'Depend upon it, Sir, any tavern will admit a
well-drest man and a well-drest woman; they will not perhaps admit a
woman whom they see every night walking by their door, in the street.
But a well-drest man may lead in a well-drest woman to any tavern in
London. Taverns sell meat and drink, and will sell them to any body who
can eat and can drink. You may as well say that a mercer will not sell
silks to a woman of the town.'

He also disapproved of bishops going to routs, at least of their staying
at them longer than their presence commanded respect. He mentioned a
particular bishop. 'Poh! (said Mrs. Thrale,) the Bishop of ------ is
never minded at a rout.' BOSWELL. 'When a bishop places himself in a
situation where he has no distinct character, and is of no consequence,
he degrades the dignity of his order.' JOHNSON. 'Mr. Boswell, Madam has
said it as correctly as it could be.'

Johnson and his friend, Beauclerk, were once together in company with
several clergymen, who thought that they should appear to advantage,
by assuming the lax jollity of men of the world; which, as it may be
observed in similar cases, they carried to noisy excess. Johnson, who
they expected would be ENTERTAINED, sat grave and silent for some time;
at last, turning to Beauclerk, he said, by no means in a whisper, 'This
merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.'

On Friday, March 30, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, with the
Earl of Charlemont, Sir Annesley Stewart, Mr. Eliot of Port-Eliot, Mr.
Burke, Dean Marlay, Mr. Langton; a most agreeable day, of which I regret
that every circumstance is not preserved; but it is unreasonable to
require such a multiplication of felicity.

Mr. Eliot mentioned a curious liquor peculiar to his country, which the
Cornish fishermen drink. They call it Mahogany; and it is made of two
parts gin, and one part treacle, well beaten together. I begged to
have some of it made, which was done with proper skill by Mr. Eliot. I
thought it very good liquor; and said it was a counterpart of what is
called Athol Porridge in the Highlands of Scotland, which is a mixture
of whisky and honey. Johnson said, 'that must be a better liquor than
the Cornish, for both its component parts are better.' He also observed,
'Mahogany must be a modern name; for it is not long since the wood
called mahogany was known in this country.' I mentioned his scale of
liquors;--claret for boys,--port for men,--brandy for heroes. 'Then
(said Mr. Burke,) let me have claret: I love to be a boy; to have the
careless gaiety of boyish days.' JOHNSON. 'I should drink claret too, if
it would give me that; but it does not: it neither makes boys men, nor
men boys. You'll be drowned by it, before it has any effect upon you.'

I ventured to mention a ludicrous paragraph in the newspapers, that Dr.
Johnson was learning to dance of Vestris. Lord Charlemont, wishing to
excite him to talk, proposed in a whisper, that he should be asked,
whether it was true. 'Shall I ask him?' said his Lordship. We were, by
a great majority, clear for the experiment. Upon which his Lordship very
gravely, and with a courteous air said, 'Pray, Sir, is it true that
you are taking lessons of Vestris?' This was risking a good deal, and
required the boldness of a General of Irish Volunteers to make the
attempt. Johnson was at first startled, and in some heat answered, 'How
can your Lordship ask so simple a question?' But immediately recovering
himself, whether from unwillingness to be deceived, or to appear
deceived, or whether from real good humour, he kept up the joke: 'Nay,
but if any body were to answer the paragraph, and contradict it, I'd
have a reply, and would say, that he who contradicted it was no friend
either to Vestris or me. For why should not Dr. Johnson add to his
other powers a little corporeal agility? Socrates learnt to dance at an
advanced age, and Cato learnt Greek at an advanced age. Then it might
proceed to say, that this Johnson, not content with dancing on the
ground, might dance on the rope; and they might introduce the elephant
dancing on the rope.'

On Sunday, April 1, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's, with Sir Philip
Jennings Clerk and Mr. Perkins, who had the superintendence of Mr.
Thrale's brewery, with a salary of five hundred pounds a year. Sir
Philip had the appearance of a gentleman of ancient family, well
advanced in life. He wore his own white hair in a bag of goodly size,
a black velvet coat, with an embroidered waistcoat, and very rich laced
ruffles; which Mrs. Thrale said were old fashioned, but which, for that
reason, I thought the more respectable, more like a Tory; yet Sir Philip
was then in Opposition in Parliament. 'Ah, Sir, (said Johnson,) ancient
ruffles and modern principles do not agree.' Sir Philip defended the
Opposition to the American war ably and with temper, and I joined him.
He said, the majority of the nation was against the ministry. JOHNSON.
'I, Sir, am against the ministry; but it is for having too little of
that, of which Opposition thinks they have too much. Were I minister, if
any man wagged his finger against me, he should be turned out; for that
which it is in the power of Government to give at pleasure to one or to
another, should be given to the supporters of Government. If you will
not oppose at the expence of losing your place, your opposition will
not be honest, you will feel no serious grievance; and the present
opposition is only a contest to get what others have. Sir Robert Walpole
acted as I would do. As to the American war, the SENSE of the nation is
WITH the ministry. The majority of those who can UNDERSTAND is with it;
the majority of those who can only HEAR, is against it; and as those
who can only hear are more numerous than those who can understand,
and Opposition is always loudest, a majority of the rabble will be for
Opposition.'

This boisterous vivacity entertained us; but the truth in my opinion
was, that those who could understand the best were against the American
war, as almost every man now is, when the question has been coolly
considered.

Mrs. Thrale gave high praise to Mr. Dudley Long, (now North). JOHNSON.
'Nay, my dear lady, don't talk so. Mr. Long's character is very SHORT.
It is nothing. He fills a chair. He is a man of genteel appearance, and
that is all. I know nobody who blasts by praise as you do: for whenever
there is exaggerated praise, every body is set against a character. They
are provoked to attack it. Now there is Pepys; you praised that man with
such disproportion, that I was incited to lessen him, perhaps more than
he deserves. His blood is upon your head. By the same principle,
your malice defeats itself; for your censure is too violent. And yet,
(looking to her with a leering smile,) she is the first woman in the
world, could she but restrain that wicked tongue of hers;--she would be
the only woman, could she but command that little whirligig.'

Upon the subject of exaggerated praise I took the liberty to say, that I
thought there might be very high praise given to a known character which
deserved it, and therefore it would not be exaggerated. Thus, one might
say of Mr. Edmund Burke, He is a very wonderful man. JOHNSON. 'No,
Sir, you would not be safe if another man had a mind perversely to
contradict. He might answer, "Where is all the wonder? Burke is, to be
sure, a man of uncommon abilities, with a great quantity of matter in
his mind, and a great fluency of language in his mouth. But we are not
to be stunned and astonished by him." So you see, Sir, even Burke would
suffer, not from any fault of his own, but from your folly.'