[1791] number, thirty-five. After about ten years, instead of supping weekly, it was resolved to dine together once a fortnight during the meeting of Parliament. Their original tavern having been converted into a private house, they moved first to Prince's in Sackville Street, then to Le Telier's in Dover Street, and now meet at Parsloe's, St. James's Street. Between the time of its formation, and the time at which this work is passing through the press (June, 1792), the following persons, now dead, were members of it: Mr. Dunning (afterwards Lord Ashburton), Mr. Samuel Dyer, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Shipley Bishop of St. Asaph, Mr. Vesey, Mr. Thomas Warton, and Dr. Adam Smith. The present members are, Mr. Burke, Mr. Langton, Lord Charlemont, Sir Robert Chambers, Dr. Percy Bishop of Dromore, Dr. Barnard Bishop of Killaloe, Dr. Marlay Bishop of Clonfert, Mr. Fox, Dr. George Fordyce, Sir William Scott, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Charles Bunbury, Mr. Windham of Norfolk, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Gibbon, Sir William Jones, Mr. Colman, Mr. Steevens, Dr. Burney, Dr. Joseph Warton, Mr. Malone, Lord Ossory, Lord Spencer, Lord Lucan, Lord Palmerston, Lord Eliot, Lord Macartney, Mr. Richard Burke junior, Sir William Hamilton, Dr. Warren, Mr. Courtenay, Dr. Hinchliffe Bishop of Peterborough, the Duke of Leeds, Dr. Douglas Bishop of Salisbury, and the writer of this account. lady, distinguished by her beauty, and taste for literature, invited us, two successive years, to a dinner at her house. Curiosity was her motive, and possibly a desire of intermingling with our conversation the charms of her own. She affected to consider us as a set of literary men, and perhaps gave the first occasion for distinguishing the society by the name of the "Literary Club," an appellation which it never assumed to itself. At these meetings, Johnson, as indeed he did every where, led the conversation, yet was he far from arrogating to himself that superiority, which, some years before, he was disposed to contend for. He had seen enough of the world to know, that respect was not to be extorted, and began now to be satisfied with that degree of eminence to which his writings had exalted him. This change in his behaviour was remarked by those who were best acquainted with his character, and it rendered him an easy and delightful companion. Our discourse was miscellaneous, but chiefly literary. Politics were alone excluded. - Hawkins. "It was a supper-meeting then," says Mrs. Either Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Vesey, or Mrs. Ord. Mr. Pennington (Miss Carter's nephew) thought the latter.CROKER. consulted me upon it; and when I could find no objection to receiving him, exclaimed, He will disturb us by his buffoonery;'— and afterwards so managed matters, that he was never formally proposed, and, by consequence, never admitted." 66 In justice both to Mr. Garrick and Dr. Johnson, I think it necessary to rectify this mis-statement. The truth is, that not very long after the institution of our club, Sir Joshua Reynolds was speaking of it to Garrick. "I like it much," said he; "I think I shall be of you." When Sir Joshua mentioned this to Dr. Johnson, he was much displeased with the actor's conceit. "He'll be of us,” said Johnson, "how does he know we will permit him? the first duke in England has no right to hold such language." However, when Garrick was regularly proposed some time afterwards, Johnson, though he had taken a momentary offence at his arrogance, warmly and kindly supported him, and he was accordingly elected [March, 1773], was a most agreeable member, and continued to attend our meetings to the time of his death. Mrs. Piozzi 3 has also given a similar misrepresentation of Johnson's treatment of Garrick in this particular, as if he had used these contemptuous expressions: "If Garrick does apply, I'll blackball him. Surely, one ought to sit in a society like ours, I am happy to be enabled by such unquestionable authority as that of Sir Joshua Reynolds', as well as from my own knowledge, to vindicate at once the heart of Johnson and the social merit of Garrick. In this year, except what he may have done in revising Shakspeare, we do not find that he laboured much in literature. He wrote a review of Grainger's "Sugar Cane," a poem, in the London Chronicle. He told me that Dr. Percy wrote the greatest part of this review; but, I imagine, he did not recollect it distinctly, for it appears to be mostly, if not altogether, his own. He also wrote, in the Piozzi, on a Friday night, and I fancy Dr. Nugent [Mrs. Burke's father, who was a Roman Catholic] ordered an omelet; and Johnson felt very painful sensations at the sight of that dish soon after his death, and cried, Ah, my poor dear friend, I shall never eat omelet with thee again!' quite in an agony." - CROKER. From Sir Joshua Reynolds. - BOSWELL. The knight having refused to pay his portion of the reckoning for supper, because he usually ate no supper at home, Johnson observed, "Sir John, Sir, is a very unclubable man."- BURNEY. Hawkins was not knighted till October, 1772, long after he had left the club. Burney, in relating the story, puts the nunc pro tunc. CROKER. 2 Hawkins no doubt meant "never" while he himself belonged to the Club. - CROKER. 3 Letters, vol. ii. p. 387. - BOSWELL. 4 It does not appear how Sir Joshua Reynolds's authority can be made available in this case. The expression is stated to have been used to Mr. Thrale; and the apt quotation from Pope, the saucy phrase which Boswell admits that Garrick used, and the fact, that he was for near ten years excluded from the Club, seem to accredit Mrs. Piozzi's anecdote.CROKER. "My indolence, since my last reception of the sacrament, has sunk into grosser sluggishness, and my dissipation spread into wilder negligence. My thoughts have been clouded with sensuality; and, except that from the beginning of this year I have, in some measure, forborne excess of strong drink, my appetites have predominated over my reason. A kind of strange oblivion has overspread me, so that I know not what has become of the last year; and perceive that incidents and intelligence pass over me without leaving any impression.' He then solemnly says, "This is not the life to which heaven is promised;" and he earnestly resolves an amendment. ["Easter-day, April 22. 1764. Having, before I went to bed, composed the foregoing meditation, and the following prayer, I tried to compose my self, but slept unquietly. I rose, took tea, and prayed for resolution and perseverance. Thought on Tetty, dear poor Tetty, with my eyes full. I went to church; came in at the first of the Psalms, and endeavoured to attend the service, which I went through without perturbation. After sermon, I recommended Tetty in a prayer by herself; and my father, mother, brother, and Bathurst, in an other. I did it only once, so far as it might be lawful for me. "I then prayed for resolution and perseverance to amend my life. I received soon: the communicants were many. At the altar, it occurred to me that I ought to form some resolutions. I resolved, in the presence of God, but without a vow, to repel sinful thoughts, to study eight hours daily, and, I think, to go to church every Sunday, and read the Scriptures. I gave a shilling; and seeing a poor girl at the sacrament in a bedgown, gave her privately a crown, though I saw Hart's Hymns' in her hand. I prayed earnestly for amendment, and repeated my prayer at home. Dined with Miss Williams]; went to prayers at church; went , spent the evening not pleasantly. Avoided wine, and tempered a very few glasses to 1 "Hymns composed on various Subjects, by the Rev. John Hart, of the Grey Friars' Church, Edinburgh; with a Brief Account of the Author's Experience." 12mo. 1759. The "though" is here very characteristic. - CROKER. 2 Dr. Hall found, in the original MS., instead of this blank, the letters Davi, followed by some other letters which are illegible. They, no doubt, meant either Davies, the bookseller, or David Garrick; most likely the former.CROKER. 3 See post, p. 167.-C. 4 It used to be imagined at Mr. Thrale's, when Johnson retired to a window or corner of the room, by perceiving his lips in motion, and hearing a murmur without audible articulation, that he was praying; but this was not always the with sherbet. Came home and prayed. I saw at the sacrament a man meanly dressed, whom I have always seen there at Easter.""] It was his custom to observe certain days with a pious abstraction : viz. New-year's-day, the day of his wife's death, Good Friday. Easter-day, and his own birth-day. He this year [on his birth-day] says, "I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving; having, from the earliest time almost that I can remember, been forming schemes of a better life. I have done nothing. The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short. O God, grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my resolutions, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." fervent desire of improvement, will rarely be Such a tenderness of conscience, such a found. It is, surely, not decent in those who are hardened in indifference to spiritual improvement, to treat this pious anxiety of Johnson with contempt. About this time he was afflicted with a very severe return of the hypochondriac disorder, which was ever lurking about him. He was so ill, as, notwithstanding his remarkable love of company, to be entirely averse to society, the most fatal symptom of that malady. Dr. Adams told me, that, as an old friend, he was admitted to visit him, and that he found him in a deplorable state, sighing, groaning, talking to himself, and restlessly walking from room to room. He then used this emphatical expression of the misery which he felt: "I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits." singularities ever since I knew him. I was Talking to himself was, indeed, one of his certain that he was frequently uttering pious ejaculations; for fragments of the Lord's Prayer have been distinctly overheard. His friend Mr. Thomas Davies, of whom Churchill says, "That Davies hath a very pretty wife;" when Dr. Johnson muttered "lead us not into temptation"-used with waggish and gallant humour to whisper Mrs. Davies, "You, my dear, are the cause of this." He had another particularity, of which none of his friends ever ventured to ask an explanation. It appeared to me some superstitious habit, which he had contracted early, and from which he had never called upon his reason to disentangle him. This was his case, for I was once, perhaps unperceived by him, writing at a table, so near the place of his retreat, that I heard him repeating some lines in an ode of Horace, over and over again, as if by iteration to exercise the organs of speech, and fix the ode in his memory: "Audiet cives accuisse ferrum Quo graves Persa melius perirent, "Our sons shall hear, shall hear to latest times, It was during the American war. - BURNEY. anxious care to go out or in at a door or passage, by a certain number of steps from a certain point, or at least so as that either his right or his left foot (I am not certain which) should constantly make the first actual movement when he came close to the door or passage. Thus I conjecture: for I have, upon innumerable occasions, observed him suddenly stop, and then seem to count his steps with a deep earnestness; and when he had neglected or gone wrong in this sort of magical movement, I have seen him go back again, put himself in a proper posture to begin the ceremony, and, having gone through it, break from his abstraction, walk briskly on, and join his companion. A strange instance of something of this nature, even when on horseback, happened when he was in the Isle of Sky [12th October, 1773]. Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed him to go a good way about, rather than cross a particular alley in Leicester Fields; but this Sir Joshua imputed to his having had some disagreeable recollection associated with it.' That the most minute singularities which belonged to him, and made very observable parts of his appearance and manner, may not be omitted, it is requisite to mention, that, while talking, or even musing as he sat in his chair, he commonly held his head to one side towards his right shoulder, and shook it in a tremulous manner, moving his body backwards and forwards, and rubbing his left knee in the same direction, with the palm of his hand. In the intervals of articulating he made various sounds with his mouth, sometimes as if ruminating, or what is called chewing the cud, sometimes giving a half whistle, sometimes making his tongue play backwards from the roof of his mouth, as if clucking like a hen, and sometimes protruding it against his upper gums in front, as if pronouncing quickly, under his breath, too, too, too: all this accompanied sometimes with a thoughtful look, but more frequently with a smile. Generally, when he had concluded a period, in the course of a dispute, by which time he was a good deal exhausted by violence and vociferation, he used to blow out his breath like a whale. This, I suppose, was a relief to his lungs; and seemed in him to be a contemptuous mode of expression, as if he had made the arguments of his opponent fly like chaff before the wind. I am fully aware how very obvious an occasion I here give for the sneering jocularity of such as have no relish of an exact likeness; which to render complete, he who draws it must not disdain the slightest strokes. But if witlings should be inclined to attack this account, let them have the candour to quote what I have offered in my defence. He was for some time in the summer at Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire, on a visit to the Rev. Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore.2 Whatever dissatisfaction he felt at what he considered as a slow progress in intellectual improvement, we find that his heart was tender, and his affections warm, as appears from the following very kind letter : 1 See, antè, p. 42., his conduct at Mr. Bankes's, which each side the streets was not universally adopted, and seems something of the same kind. Dr. Fisher, Master of stone posts were in fashion, to prevent the annoyance of the Charter House, told me, that in walking on the quad-carriages, Upon every post, as he passed along, I could rangle of University College, he would not step on the junc- observe, he deliberately his hand; but missing one of ture of the stones, but carefully on the centre: but this is a them when he had got at some distance, he seemed suddenly trick which many persons have when sauntering on any kind to recollect himself, and immediately returning back, careof tessellation. Dr. Fisher adds, that he would sometimes fully performed the accustomed ceremony, and resumed his take a phial to the college pump, and alternately fill and former course, not omitting one till he gained the crossing. empty it, without any object that Dr. Fisher could dis- This, Mr. Sheridan assured me, however odd it might cern. "Mr. Sheridan," says Mr. Whyte, "at one time lived appear, was his constant practice; but why or wherefore he in Bedford Street, opposite Henrietta Street, which ranges could not inform me.". Whyte, Miscellanea Nova, p. 49. with the south side of Covent Garden, so that the prospect Mr. Samuel Whyte, the writer of this volume, was a celebrated schoolmaster in Dublin, related, I believe, and much lies open the whole way, free of interruption. We were standing together at the drawing-room window, expecting attached to the Sheridan family. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Johnson, who was to dine there. Mr. Sheridan asked me, and his elder brother Charles, were placed very early under could I see the length of the Garden? No, Sir.' [Mr. his tuition, as was, at an interval of above thirty years, my Whyte was short-sighted.] Take out your opera-glass, friend Thomas Moore, who, in his Life of Sheridan, pays an Johnson is coming; you may know him by his gait." I affectionate tribute to their common preceptor. - CROKER. perceived him at a good distance, working along with a 2 He spent parts of the months of June, July, and August peculiar solemnity of deportment, and an awkward sort with me, accompanied by his friend, Mrs. Williams, whom of measured step. At that time the broad flagging at Mrs. Percy found a very agreeable companion. - PERCY. in the Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1785, being an extract of a letter from the late Dr. John Sharp.1 66 Cambridge, March 1. 1765. As to Johnson, you will be surprised to hear that I have had him in the chair in which I am now writing. He has ascended my aërial citadel. He came down on a Saturday evening, with a Mr. Beauclerk, who has a friend at Trinity [Mr. Lister]. Caliban, you may be sure, was not roused from his lair before next day noon, and his breakfast probably kept him till night. I saw nothing of him, nor was he heard of by any one, till Monday afternoon, when I was sent for home to two gentlemen unknown. In conversation I made a strange faux pas about Burnaby Greene's poem 2, in which Johnson is drawn at full length. He drank his large potation of tea with me, interrupted by many an indignant contradiction, and many a noble sentiment. He had on a better wig than usual, but one whose curls were not, like Sir Cloudesley's, 'formed for eternal buckle.' Our conversation was chiefly on books, you may be sure. He was much pleased with a small Milton of mine, published in the author's lifetime, and with the Greek epigram on his own effigy, of its being the picture, not of him, but of a bad painter. There are many manuscript stanzas, for aught I know, in Milton's own handwriting, and several interlined hints and fragments. We were puzzled about one of the sonnets, which we thought was not to be found in Newton's edition, and differed from all the printed ones. But Johnson cried, 'No, no!' repeated the whole sonnet instantly, memoriter, and showed it us in Newton's book. After which he learn edly harangued on sonnet-writing, and its different numbers. He tells me he will come hither again quickly, and is promised 'an habitation in Emanuel College' [with Dr. Farmer]. He went back to town next morning; but as it began to be known that he was in the university, several persons got into his company the last evening at Trinity, where, about twelve, he began to be very great; stripped poor Mrs. Macaulay to the very skin, then gave her for his toast, and drank her in two bumpers." 3 The strictness of his self-examination, and scrupulous Christian humility, appear in his pious meditation on Easter-day this year. "I purpose again to partake of the blessed sacrament; yet when I consider how vainly I have hitherto resolved, at this annual commemoration of my Saviour's death, to regulate my life by his laws, I am almost afraid to renew my resolutions." [p. 61.] The concluding words are very remarkable, and show that he laboured under a severe depression of spirits. habit; my time has been unprofitably spent, and memory grows confused, and I know not how the days seems as a dream that has left nothing behind. My "Since the last Easter I have reformed no evil pass over me. Good Lord, deliver me!" [He proceeds: shall not yet rise early, it will be much earlier than I purpose to rise at eight, because, though I I now rise, for I often lie till two, and will gain me and give time for other duties. I hope to rise yet much time, and tend to a conquest over idleness, earlier." "I invited home with me the man whose pious behaviour I had for several years observed on this day, and found him a kind of Methodist, full of texts, but ill-instructed. I talked to him with temper, and offered him twice wine, which he refused. I suffered him to go without the dinner which I had purposed to give him. I thought this day that there was something irregular and particular in his look and gesture; but having intended to invite him to acquaintance, and having a fit opportunity by finding him near my own seat after I had missed him, I did what I at first de signed, and am sorry to have been so much disagainst the appearance of piety in mean persons, appointed. Let me not be prejudiced hereafter who, with indeterminate notions, and perverse or inelegant conversation, perhaps are doing all they can."] 1 Dr. John Sharp, grandson of Sharp, Archbishop of York, and son of the Archdeacon of Durham, in which preferment he succeeded his father. He was a member of Trinity College, Cambridge. He died in 1792, aged 69. — CROKER. ? Edward Burnaby, who took the name of Greene, pubHished in 1756 an imitation of the 10th Ep. of the First Book of Horace. He died in 1788. — CROKER. 3 Of this letter Boswell had quoted only the two paragraphs marked in Italics, adding that" they were very characteristic" but surely the rest is equally so.- CROKER. 4 This and the following letter are from the originals in the possession of Mr. Upcott. It would be a great palliation of Johnson's ill humour towards Garrick, if he was under the impression that Garrick had not subscribed to his Shakespeare. GARRICK TO JOHNSON. May 31. 1765. "DEAR SIR, My brother greatly astonished me this morning, by asking me if I was a subscriber to your Shakspeare? I told him, yes, that I was one of the first, and as soon as I heard of your intention; and that I gave you, at the same time, some other names, among which were the Duke of Devonshire, Mr. Beighton, &c. I cannot imme diately have recourse to my memorandum, though I remember to have seen it just before I left England. I hope that you will recollect it, and not think me capable of neglecting to make you so trifling a compliment, which was doubly due from me, not only on account of the respect I have always had for your abilities, but from the sincere regard I shall ever pay to your friendship. I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, DAVID GARRICK." CROKER. JOHNSON TO GEORGE STRAHAN, to say. University College, Oxford. "May 25. 1765. "DEAR SIR, That I have answered neither of your letters you must not impute to any declension of good will, but merely to the want of something I suppose you pursue your studies diligently, and diligence will seldom fail of success. Do not tire yourself so much with Greek one day as to be afraid of looking on it the next; but give it a certain portion of time, suppose four hours, and pass the rest of the day in Latin or English. I would have you learn French, and take in a literary journal once a month, which will accustom you to various subjects, and inform you what learning is going forward in the world. Do not omit to mingle some lighter books with those of more importance; that which is read remisso animo is often of great use, and takes great hold of the remembrance. However, take what course you will, if you be diligent you will be a scholar. I am, dear Sir, yours affectionately, SAM. JOHNSON."] Trinity College, Dublin, at this time surprised Johnson with a spontaneous compliment of the highest academical honours, by creating him Doctor of Laws. The diploma, which is in my possession, is as follows: JOHNSON TO DR. LELAND. "Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London, "Oct. 17. 1765. 4 "SIR, Among the names subscribed to the degree which I have had the honour of receiving from the University of Dublin, I find none of which I have any personal knowledge but those of Dr. Andrews and yourself. "Men can be estimated by those who know them not, only as they are represented by those who know them; and therefore I flatter myself tinction gives me, to your concurrence with Dr. that I owe much of the pleasure which this disAndrews in recommending me to the learned society. "Having desired the Provost to return my general thanks to the University, I beg that you, Sir, will accept my particular and immediate acknowledgments. I am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." 5 He appears this year to have been seized with a temporary fit of ambition, for he had thoughts both of studying law, and of engaging in politics. His "Prayer [p. 67.] before the Study of Law" is truly admirable: Sept. 26. 1765. Almighty God, the giver of wisdom, without whose help resolutions are vain, without whose blessing study is ineffectual; enable me, if it be thy will, to attain such knowledge as may qualify me to direct the doubtful, and instruct the ignorant; to prevent wrongs and terminate con tentions; and grant that I may use that knowledge which I shall attain, to thy glory and my own "OMNIBUS ad quos præsentes literæ pervenerint, salutem. Nos Præpositus et Socii Seniores Collegii Sacrosanctæ et Individua Trinitatis Reginæ Eliza-salvation, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." betha juxta Dublin, testamur, Samueli Johnson, Armigero, ob egregiam scriptorum elegantiam et utilitatem, gratiam concessam fuisse pro gradu Doctoratûs in utroque Jure, octavo die Julii, Anno Domini millesimo septingentesimo sexagesimo-quinto. A quarter's pension. In 2 Dr. Thomas Leland, the translator of Demosthenes, and author of the History of Ireland, was born at Dublin, in 1722, and died in 1785. WRIGHT. 3 The same who has contributed some notes to this work, and the elder brother of my earliest literary friend Dr. John Kearney, sometime Provost of Dublin College, and afterwards Bishop of Ossory. Both the brothers were amiable men and accomplished scholars.- CROKER. 4 Hawkins and Murphy seem to think that this honour followed the publication of Shakspeare, but that is a mistake. The degree was in July at the annual Commencement; the publication of Shakspeare in October. Johnson's acknowledgment was postponed to the end of the academic vacation. CROKER. His prayer in the view of becoming a politician is entitled, "Engaging in politics with H-n," no doubt, his friend, the Right Hon. William Gerard Hamilton 6, for whom, during 5 Hawkins and Murphy thought that Johnson's attachment to Oxford prevented him from assuming the title which it conferred. The fact is true; but it is still more remarkable that he never used the title of Doctor before his name, even after his Oxford degree, (post, 30th Mar. 1775.) Hawkins says that he disliked to be called Doctor, as reminding him that he had been a schoolmaster. This seems improbable; my opinion is, that he did not use his Irish title, expecting an Oxford one, and when the Oxford one came tardily and ungraciously ten years later, he disdained to assume it. CROKER. 6 Single-speech Hamilton had been secretary to Lord Halifax, as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and remained a short time with his successor, Lord Northumberland, but he resigned in 1764. Though he never spoke in parliament after |