from Johnson's diary, that their acquain- | Cotterells, daughters of Admiral Cotterell 4. tance commenced about the year 1746; and Reynolds used also to visit there, and thus such was Johnson's predilection for him, they met. Mr. Reynolds, as I have oband fanciful estimation of his moderate abil- served above, had, from the first reading of ities, that I have heard him say he should his "Life of Savage," conceived a very not be satisfied, though attended by all the high admiration of Johnson's powers of college of physicians, unless he had Mr. writing. His conversation no less delightLevet with him. Ever since I was ac-ed him; and he cultivated his acquaintance. quainted with Dr. Johnson, and many years before, as I have been assured by those who knew him earlier, Mr. Levet had an apartment in his house, or his chambers, and waited upon him every morning, through the whole course of his late and tedious breakfast. He was of a strange grotesque appearance, stiff and formal in his manner, and seldom said a word while any company was present 1. The circle of his friends, indeed, at this time was extensive and various, far beyond what has been generally imagined 2. To trace his acquaintance with each particular person, if it could be done, would be a task, of which the labour would not be repaid by the advantage. But exceptions are to be made; one of which must be a friend so eminent as Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was truly his dulce decus, and with whom he maintained an uninterrupted inWhen timacy to the last hour of life. Johnson lived in Castle-street, Cavendishsquare, he used frequently to visit two ladies, who lived opposite to him 3, Miss with the laudable zeal of one who was ambitious of general improvement. Sir Joshua, indeed, was lucky enough, at their very first meeting, to make a remark, which was so much above the common-place style of conversation, that Johnson at once perceived that Reynolds had the habit of thinking for himself. The ladies were regretting the death of a friend, to whom they owed great obligations; upon which Reynolds observed, "You have, however, the comfort of being relieved from a burden of gratitude." They were shocked a little at this alleviating suggestion, as too selfish; but Johnson defended it in his clear and forcible manner, and was much pleased with the mind, the fair view of human nature 6 which it exhibited, like some of the two in his letters to Barretti (see post, 1761 and 1762), that these ladies were connexions of his wife, but Dr. Harwood informs me, on the authority of Mrs. Pearson, that there was no relationship.-ED.] 4 ["Captain Charles Cotterell retired totally from the service in July, 1747, being put, with a number of other gentlemen, on the superannuated list, with the rank and pay of a rear-admiral. Biog. Nav.-ED.] He died in July, 1754." A more particular account of this person may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1785. It originally appeared in the St. James's Chronicle, and, I believe, was written [It would be naturally inferred from Mr. Boswell's account, that the acquaintance between by the late George Steevens, Esq.-MALONE. [Mr. Murphy, who is, as to this period, bet-Johnson and Sir Joshua took place so early as the time when the former resided in Castle-street. ter authority than Mr. Boswell, says, "It was Reynolds, late in life before he had the habit of mixing, This can hardly have been the case. otherwise than occasionally, with polite compa- then a youth under age, passed the years 1741 ny; and Dr. Harwood has favoured me with the and 1742 in London, but did not again revisit the (See Northfollowing memorandum, in Johnson's writing, metropolis till the end of 1752. That the acmade about this time, of certain visits which he cote's Life, p. 12, 31, and 32.) was to make (perhaps on his return from Ox-quaintance did not commence on the first visit, is ford in 1754), and which, as it contains the proved by its having occurred after the publicanames of some of the highest and lowest of his tion of the Life of Savage, which was in 1744. acquaintance, is probably a list of nearly all his Barber also must have been in error when he desfriends: cribed Reynolds as one of Johnson's intimates at the period of his wife's death.-En.] Visits to Hawkesworth Bathurst 6 Johnson himself has a sentiment somewhat similar in his 87th Rambler: "There are minds so impatient of inferiority, that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain."-J. BOSWELL. [This is, Simpson no doubt, "a somewhat similar sentiment;" but Rose in the Rambler, Johnson mentions it with the Giffard censure it deserves; whereas, in the text, he is Such an observaGregory represented as applauding it. Desmoulins tion is very little like the usual good manners, Lloyd good nature, and good sense of Sir Joshua; and Sherrard. we cannot but suspect the authority, whatever it was, on which Boswell admitted this anecdote.-ED.] Fowke Taylor Drew Millar Craster Richardson Boyle ED.] 3 [It might be inferred, from an expression or reflections of Rochefoucault. The consequence was, that he went home with Reynolds, and supped with him. Sir Joshua told me a pleasant characteristical anecdote of Johnson about the time of their first acquaintance. When they were one evening together at the Miss Cotterells', the then Duchess of Argyle and another lady of high rank came in. Johnson thinking that the Miss Cotterells were too much engrossed by them, and that he and his friend were neglected, as low company, of whom they were somewhat ashamed, grew angry; and resolving to shock their supposed pride, by making their great visitors imagine that his friend and he were low indeed, he addressed himself in a loud tone to Mr. Reynolds, saying, "How much do you think you and I could get in a week, if we were to work as hard as we could?" as if they had been common mechanicks. Piozzi, [Of Dr. Bathurst, who stands 464. first in the foregoing list of his friends, Dr. Johnson told Mrs. Piozzi that he loved "dear, dear Bathurst, better than he ever loved any human creature;" and it was on him that he bestowed the singular eulogy of being a good hater. "Dear Bathurst," said he to Mrs. Piozzi, was a man to my very heart's content; he hated a fool, and he hated a rogue, and he hated a whig-he was a very good hater!"] Dr. Bathurst, though a physician of no inconsiderable merit, had not the good fortune to get much practice in London 2. He was, therefore, willing to accept of employment abroad, and, to the regret of all who knew him, fell a sacrifice to the destructive climate, in the expedition against the Havannah. Mr. Langton recollects the following passage in a letter from Dr. Johnson to Mr. Beauclerk: "The Havannah is taken;-a conquest too dearly obtained; for Bathurst died before it. "Vix Priamus tanti totaque Troja fuit." [It would seem from the two folED. lowing letters that Dr. Bathurst left London and returned to the West Indies some years before the expedition against the Havannah; nor is his name to be found in the list of medical officers who accompa [Jane Warburton, second wife of John, second Duke of Argyle. His Grace died in 1743. She survived till 1767.-ED.] 2 [Sir John Hawkins is the authority on which these few and meagre particulars, relative to Dr. Bathurst, have been preserved. He adds, how ever, that Dr. Bathurst, before he went abroad, had been elected physician to an hospital (the Middlesex); but though Sir John tells so little (and that little not, it seems, very correctly) of the immediate subject of his notice, he gives a nied the army from England; he probably, therefore, joined the expedition in the West Indies. "DR. BATHURST TO DR. JOHNSON. "Barbadoes, 13 Jan. 1757. Harwood's Hist. Lich. "DEAR SIR,-The many acts of friendship and affection you have conferred upon me, so fully p. 451, 452. convince me of your being interested in my welfare, that even my present stupidity will not prevent my taking a pen in my hand to acquaint you that I am this instant arrived safe at Barbadoes, and I hope I may add, without having forgot all your lessons; and I am confident not without praying most fervently that the Supreme Being will enable me to deserve the approbation and friendship of so great and so good a man: alas! you little know how undeserving I am of the favours I have received from you. May health and happiness forever attend you. Excuse my dropping my pen, for it is impossible that it should express the gratitude that is due to you, from your most affectionate friend, and most obliged servant, "RICHARD BATHURST. "P. S. Let me trouble you with compliments to Miss Williams, to Mrs. Lennox, to Dr. Lawrence, and his family; in short, to all who shall be so obliging as to inquire after me; and if it will put you to no great inconvenience, let me beg that you will send to Mr. Scrocold and to Mr. Bathurst an account of my arrival at this place. I know you will call me a lazy dog, and, in truth, I deserve it; but I am afraid I shall never mend. I have indeed long known that I can love my friends without being able to tell them so. I find that I can write a long postscript, though I was not bred in Mr. Richardson's school: how easy is it to copy imperfections.-Is it not better to be blind than to be able to see our faults without beI must entreat ing able to correct them? you once more, my dear Mr. Johnson, to continue your forgiveness to me. Adieu, my dearest friend." "DR. BATHURST TO DR JOHNSON. "Jamaica. 18 March, 1757. "DEAR SIR,-In compliance with my promise to acquaint you Hist. Lich. Harwood's by the first conveyance of my p. 452. arrival at this place, I have now taken a pen into my hand, but with what fear and dread it is impossible for me to express; the danger of offending the best of friends, to whom I stand indebted for all the little virtue and knowledge that I have, could scarcely compel me to it; and I now very amusing account of the various characters and fortunes of several of the medical profession in London about the middle of the last century. See his Life of Johnson, pp. 234, &c.-ED.] tremble to think that I shall not long be able to avoid the horrid imputation of ingratitude. I esteem, I honour, and I love you, and though I cannot write, I shall for ever be proud to acknowledge myself, your most obliged and most affectionate "RICHARD BATHURST. "P. S. The inhabitants of this execrable region are much addicted to the making of promises which they never intend to perform, or I might flatter myself from the assurances of Mr. Joyce, the heir of Mr. Lamb, deceased, with a speedy return to England. Nothing, I think, but absolute want can force me to continue where I am. Let me request the continuance of your friendship, and kind wishes for a quick deliverance. Adieu."] His acquaintance with Bennet Langton1, esq., of Langton, in Lincolnshire, another much-valued friend, commenced soon after the conclusion of his Rambler, which that gentleman, then a youth2, had read with so much admiration, that he came to London chiefly with a view of endeavouring to be introduced to its authour. By a fortunate chance, he happened to take lodgings in a house where Mr. Levet frequently visited; and having mentioned his wish to his landlady, she introduced him to Mr. Levet, who readily obtained Johnson's permission to bring Mr. Langton to him; as, indeed, Johnson, during the whole course of his life, had no shyness, real or affected, but [Mr. Langton was born about 1737, and entered, as Dr. Hall informs me, of Trinity College, Oxford, 7th July, 1757. So much of his history is told with that of Dr. Johnson's, that it is unnecessary to say more in this place, except that he was remarkable for his knowledge of Greek, and that he seems, at one time of his life, to have practised engineering as a profession. On Dr. Johnson's death, he succeeded him as professor of ancient literature in the Royal Academy. He died on the 10th December, 1801, and was buried at Southampton. The following description of his person and appearance later in life may be amusing. "O! that we could sketch him with his mild countenance, his elegant features, and his sweet smile, sitting with one leg twisted round the other, as if fearing to occupy more space than was equitable; his person inclining forward, as if wanting strength to support his height, and his arms crossed over his bosom, or his hands locked together on his knee; his oblong gold-mounted snuff-box, taken from the waistcoat pocket opposite his hand, and either remaining between his fingers or set by him on the table, but which was never used but when his mind was occupied on conversation; so soon as conversation began, the box was produced." Miss Hawkins's Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 282.— ED.] 2 [Mr. Langton was only fifteen when the Rambler was terminated.-ED.] 14 VOL. I. was easy of access to all who were properly recommended, and even wished to see numbers at his levee, as his morning circle of company might, with strict propriety, be called. Mr. Langton was exceedingly surprised when the sage first appeared. He had not received the smallest intimation of his figure, dress, or manner. From perusing his writings, he fancied he should see a decent, well-dressed, in short, a remarkably decorous philosopher. Instead of which, down from his bedchamber, about noon, came, as newly risen, a huge uncouth figure, with a little dark wig, which scarcely covered his head, and his clothes hanging loose about him. But his conversation was so rich, so animated, and so forcible, and his religious and political notions so congenial with those in which Langton had been educated, that he conceived for him that veneration and attachment which he ever preserved. Johnson was not the less ready to love Mr. Langton for his being of a very ancient family; for I have heard him say, with pleasure, "Langton, sir, has a grant of' free-warren from Henry the Second; and Cardinal Stephen Langton, in King John's reign, was of this family 3." Mr. Langton afterwards went to pursue his studies at Trinity College, Oxford, where he formed an acquaintance with his fellow-student, Mr. Topham Beauclerk 4; who, though their opinions and modes of life were so different, that it seemed utterly improbable that they should at all agree, had so ardent a love of literature, so acute an understanding, such elegance of manners, and so well discerned the excellent qualities of Mr. Langton, a gentleman eminent not only for worth and learning, but for an inexhaustible fund of entertaining conversation, that they became intimate friends. Johnson, soon after this acquaintance began, passed a considerable time at Oxford. He at first thought it strange that Langton should associate so much with one who had the character of being loose, both in his 3 [It is to be wondered that he did not also mention Bishop Langton, a distinguished benefactor to the cathedral of Lichfield, and who also had a grant of free-warren over his patrimonial inheritance, from Edward I.; the relationship might probably be as clearly traced in the one case as in the other. Harwood's History of Lichfield, p. 139.-ED.] 4 [Only son of Lord Sidney, third son of the first Duke of St. Albans. He was entered (as Dr. Hall informs me), of Trinity College, Oxford, 11th Nov. 1757, as "Topham, the son of Sidney of Windsor, Esq. aged seventeen;" and I find in the Gent. Mag. that the lady of Lord Sidney Beauclerk was on the 21st Dec. 1739, delivered of a son and heir,"-no doubt the person in question. -ED.] had supped at a tavern in London, and sat till about three in the morning, it came into their heads to go and knock up Johnson, and see if they could prevail on him to join them in a ramble. They rapped violently at the door of his chambers in the Temple, till at last he appeared in his shirt, with his little black wig on the top of his head, instead of a nightcap, and a poker in his hand, imagining, probably, that some ruffians were coming to attack him. When he discover principles and practice; but by degrees, he himself was fascinated. Mr. Beauclerk's being of the St. Albans family, and having, in some particulars, a resemblance to Charles the Second, contributed, in Johnson's imagination, to throw a lustre upon his other qualities; and, in a short time, the moral, pious Johnson, and the gay, dissipated Beauclerk, were companions. "What a coalition! (said Garrick, when he heard of this:) I shall have my old friend to bail out of the round-house." But I can bear tes-ed who they were, and was told their errand, timony that it was a very agreeable association. Beauclerk was too polite, and valued learning and wit too much, to offend Johnson by sallies of infidelity or licentiousness; and Johnson delighted in the good qualities of Beauclerk, and hoped to correct the evil. Innumerable were the scenes in which Johnson was amused by these young men. Beauclerk could take more liberty with him, than any body with whom I ever saw him; but, on the other hand, Beauclerk was not spared by his respectable companion, when reproof was proper. Beauclerk had such a propensity to satire, that at one time Johnson said to him, "You never open your mouth but with intention to give pain; and you have often given me pain, not from the power of what you said, but from seeing your intention." other time applying to him, with a slight alteration, a line of Pope, he said, At an "Thy love of folly, and thy scorn of foolsEvery thing thou dost shows the one, and everything thou sayest the other." At another time he said to him, "Thy body is all vice, and thy mind all virtue." Beauclerk not seeming to relish the compliment, Johnson said, "Nay, sir, Alexander the Great, marching in triumph into Babylon, could not have desired to have had more said to him." Johnson was some time with Beauclerk at his house at Windsor, where he was entertained with experiments in natural philosophy. One Sunday, when the weather was very fine, Beauclerk enticed him, insensibly, to saunter about all the morning. They went into a church-yard, in the time of divine service, and Johnson laid himself down at his ease upon one of the tombstones. "Now, sir, (said Beauclerk) you are like Hogarth's Idle Apprentice." When Johnson got his pension, Beauclerk said to him, in the humourous phrase of Falstaff, "I hope you'll now purge, and live cleanly, like a gentleman.” One night, when Beauclerk and Langton [Probably some experiments in electricity, which was at one time a fashionable curiosity: it cannot be supposed that the natural philosophy of Mr. Beauclerk's country-house went very deep. -ED.] he smiled, and with great good-humour agreed to their proposal: "What, is it you, you dogs! I'll have a frisk with you." He was soon dressed, and they sallied forth together into Covent-garden, where the greengrocers and fruiterers were beginning to arrange their hampers, just come in from the country. Johnson made some attempts to help them; but the honest gardeners stared so at his figure and manner, and odd interference, that he soon saw his services were not relished. They then repaired to one of the neighbouring taverns, and made a bowl of that liquor called bishop, which Johnson had always liked: while, in joyous contempt of sleep, from which he had been roused, he repeated the festive lines, Short, O short, then, be thy reign, And give us to the world 3 199 again They did not stay long, but walked down to the Thames, took a boat and rowed to Billingsgate. Beauclerk and Johnson were so well pleased with their amusement, that they resolved to persevere in dissipation 4 for the rest of the day: but Langton deserted them, being engaged to breakfast with some young ladies. Johnson scolded him for "leaving his social friends, to go and sit with a set of wretched un-idea'd girls." Garrick being told of this ramble, said to him smartly, "I heard of your frolick t'other night. You'll be in the Chronicle." Upon which Johnson afterwards ob 2 Johnson, as Mr. Kemble observes to me, might here have had in his thoughts the words of Sir John Brute (a character which, doubtless, he had seen represented by Garrick), who uses nearly the same expression in "the Provoked Wife," act iii. sc. 1.-MALONE. 3 Mr. Langton recollected, or Dr. Johnson repeated, the passage wrong. The lines are from Lord Lansdowne's Drinking Song to Sleep, and run thus: "Short, very short, be then thy reign, 4 [As Johnson's companions in this frolic were both thirty years younger than he, it is no wonder that Garrick should be a little alarmed at such extravagances. Nor can we help smiling at the philosopher of fifty scolding a young man of twenty, for having the bad taste to prefer the company of a set of wretched un-idea'd girls.—ED.] served, "He durst not do such His wife would not let him!" Hawk. As a proof of this, my readers, 1 imagine, will not doubt that number 39, on Sleep, is his; for it not only has the general texture and colour of his style, but the authours with whom he was peculiarly conversant are readily introduced in it in cursory allusion. The translation of a passage in Statius 2, quoted in that paper, and marked C. B., has been erroneously ascribed to Dr. Bathurst, whose christian name was Richard. How much this amiable man ac thing. [His acquaintance was now 329, 340 sought by persons of the first eminence in literature, and his house, in respect of the conversations there, became an academy. Many persons were desirous of adding him to the number of their friends. Invitations to dine with such of those as he liked, he so seldom declined, that, to a friend of his, he said, "I never but once, upon a resolution to em-tually contributed to "The Adventurer," ploy myself in study, balked an invitation out to dinner, and then I stayed at home and did nothing." Little, however, did that laxity of temper, which this confession seems to imply, retard the progress of the great work in which he was employed: the conclusion, and also the perfection of his dictionary, were objects from which his attention was not to be diverted. The avocations he gave way to were such only as, when complied with, served to invigorate his mind to the performance of his engagements to his employers and the publick, and hasten the approach of the day Johnson was truly zealous for the sucthat was to reward his labour with ap-cess of "The Adventurer;" and very soon plause.] after his engaging in it, he wrote the following letter: He entered upon this year, 1753, with his usual piety, as appears from the following prayer, which I transcribed from that part of his diary which he burnt a few days before his death: "Jan. 1, 1753, N. S. which I shall use for the future. "Almighty God, who hast continued my life to this day, grant that, by the assistance of thy Holy Spirit, I may improve the time which thou shalt grant me, to my eternal salvation. Make me to remember, to thy glory, thy judgments, and thy mercies. Make me so to consider the loss of my wife, whom thou hast taken from me, that it may dispose me, by thy grace, to lead the residue of my life in thy fear. Grant this, O LORD, for JESUS CHRIST's sake. Amen." pa He now relieved the drudgery of his Dictionary, and the melancholy of his grief, by taking an active part in the composition of" The Adventurer," in which he began to write, April 10, marking his essays with the signature T, by which most of his pers in that collection are distinguished: those, however, which have that signature, and also that of Mysargyrus, were not written by him, but, as I suppose, by Dr. Bathurst. Indeed Johnson's energy of thought and richness of language are still more decisive marks than any signature. cannot be known. Let me add, that Hawkesworth's imitations of Johnson are sometimes so happy, that it is extremely difficult to distinguish them, with certainty, from the composition of his great archetype. Hawkesworth was his closest imitator, a circumstance of which that writer would once have been proud to be told; though, when he had become elated by having arisen into some degree of consequence, he, in a conversation with me, had the provoking effrontery 3 to say he was not sensible of it. "TO THE REV. DR. JOSEPH WARTON. "8 March, 1753. DEAR SIR,-I ought to have written to you before now, but I ought to do many things which I do not; nor can I, indeed, claim any merit from this letter; for being desired by the authors and proprietor of the Adventurer to look out for another hand, my thoughts necessarily fixed upon you, whose fund of literature will enable you to assist them, with very little interruption of your studies. "They desire you to engage to furnish one paper a month, at two guineas a paper, which you may very readily perform. We have considered that a paper should consist of pieces of imagination, pictures of life, and disquisitions of literature. The 2 This is a slight inaccuracy. The Latin Sapphicks translated by C. B. in that paper were written by Cowley, and are in his fourth book on Plants.-MALONE. 3 [This is not a tone in which Mr. Boswell should have allowed himself to speak of Doctor Hawkesworth on such an occasion; the improved style of Dr. Johnson in the Idler might as well be said to be borrowed from the Adventurer, as John that of the Adventurer from the Rambler. son and Hawkesworth may have influenced each other, and yet either might say, without effrontery, that he was not conscious of it. Boswell had [This sarcastic allusion to Garrick's domes- the mania of imagining, that every eminent writic habits seems a little inconsistent with that al-ter of the day owed his fame to being an imitamost morbid regret which Johnson felt so long for tor of Johnson; we shall see several instances of the loss of his own wife.-ED.] it in the course of the work.-ED.] |