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The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 08

Автор Samuel Johnson

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Дата написания1970-01-01

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152

See note, by Gifford, on Johnson’s criticism here in Massinger’s works.

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153

Johnson, I imagine, alludes to a well-known line by Rochester:

The best good man with the worst-natur’d muse.

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154

Major Bernardi, who died in Newgate, Sept. 20, 1736. See Gent. Mag. vol. 1. p. 125. N.

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155

This was altered much for the better, as it now stands on the monument in the abbey, erected to Rowe and his daughter. WARB. See Bowles’s edition of Pope’s works, ii. 416.

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156

In the north aisle of the parish church of St. Margaret, Westminster. H.

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157

The thought was, probably, borrowed from Carew’s Obsequies to the lady Anne Hay:

I heard the virgins sigh, I saw the sleek And polish’d courtier channel his fresh cheek With real tears.

J.B.

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158

Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child. DRYDEN, on Mrs. Killigrew.

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159

The same thought is found in George Whetstone’s epitaph on the good lord Dyer, 1582:

Et semper bonus ille bonis fuit, ergo bonorum Sunt illi demum pectora sarcophagus.

J.B.

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160

It has since been added to the collection. R.

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161

According to the Biographical Dictionary the name of Thomson’s mother was Beatrix Trotter. Hume was the name of his grandmother. Ed.

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162

See the Life of Beattie, by sir William Forbes, for some additional anecdotes. Ed.

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163

Warton was told by Millan that the book lay a long time unsold on his stall. Ed.

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164

“It was at this time that the school of Pope was giving way: addresses to the head rather than to the heart, or the fancy; moral axioms and witty observations, expressed in harmonious numbers, and with epigrammatick terseness; the limae labor, all the artifices of a highly polished style, and the graces of finished composition, which had long usurped the place of the more sterling beauties of the imagination and sentiment, began first to be lessened in the public estimation by the appearance of Thomson’s Seasons, a work which constituted a new era in our poetry.” Censura Literaria, iv. 280.

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165

An interesting anecdote respecting Thomson’s deportment before a commission, instituted in 1732, for an inquiry into the state of the public offices under the lord chancellor, is omitted by Johnson and all the poet’s biographers. We extract it from the nineteenth volume of the Critical Review, p. 141. “Mr. Thomson’s place of secretary of the briefs fell under the cognizance of this commission; and he was summoned to attend it, which he accordingly did, and made a speech, explaining the nature, duty, and income of his place, in terms that, though very concise, were so perspicuous and elegant, that lord chancellor Talbot, who was present, publicly said he preferred that single speech to the best of his poetical compositions.” The above praise is precisely such as we might anticipate that an old lawyer would give, but it, at all events, exempts the poet’s character from the imputation of listless indolence, advanced by Murdoch, and leaves lord Hardwicke little excuse for his conduct. Ed.

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166

It is not generally known that in this year an edition of Milton’s Areopagitiea was published by Millar, to which Thomson wrote a preface.

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167

See vol. v. p. 329 of this edition, and Mr. Roscoe’s Life of Pope, for some anecdotes respecting Gay’s Beggars’ Opera and Polly, illustrative of the efficacy of a lord-chamberlain’s interference with the stage. Ed.

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168

Several anecdotes of Thomson’s personal appearance and habits are scattered over the volumes of Boswell. Ed.

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169

For an interesting collection of the various readings of the successive editions of the Seasons, see vols. ii. in. and iv. of the Censura Literaria. Thomson’s own preface to the second edition of Winter may be found in vol. ii. p. 67, of the above-quoted work. Ed.

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170

He took his degrees, A. B. 1696, A. M. 1700.

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171

This ought to have been noticed before. It was published in 1700, when he appears to have obtained a fellowship of St. John’s.

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172

Spence.

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173

Ibid.

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174

The archbishop’s letters, published in 1760, (the originals of which are now in Christ-church library, Oxford,) were collected by Mr. Philips.

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175

At his house in Hanover-street, and was buried in Audley chapel.

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176

Mr. Ing’s eminence does not seem to have been derived from his wit. That the men who drive oxen are goaded, seems to be a custom peculiar to Staffordshire. J.B.

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