THE DOCTOR AND YOUNG SHERIDAN. 309 CHAPTER XXXIII. DR. JOHNSON AND DR. DODD-LETTERS-PROPOSED LITTLE ADVENTURE." (1777.) In the summer of this year Johnson wrote one prologue and was lauded in another. His own was spoken before Hugh Kelly's comedy, "A Word to the Wise;" that in which he himself was complimented was composed by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the son of the man whom the doctor had unfortunately offended beyond forgiveness. This last was spoken before "Sir Thomas Overbury," a tragedy by Johnson's old companion of unhappy memory, Richard Savage. The closing lines, in which delicate reference is made to our Author's Life of his poor friend, and to the Dictionary, are these :— "So pleads THE TALE that gives to future times Fix'd by THE HAND THAT BIDS OUR LANGUAGE LIVE.” Young Sheridan was afterwards elected a member of the Literary Club, having been proposed by the Doctor, on this ground : "He who has written the two best comedies of his age, is surely a considerable man." The comedies referred to are "The Rivals," published in 1775, and "The School for Scandal," published in 1777. In doing the son this honour, Johnson may have meant also to pay an indirect compliment to the father; for we now know the Doctor's peculiar way of begging a man's pardon. But the Doctor's grandest summer work was something infinitely finer than any prologue to any comedy, and the praise due to it could not have been fitly spoken before any mere stage-tragedy. It was a great act of mercy; and is one of the most interesting scenes in a very real tragedy that was performed in London about that time. The Rev. William Dodd, a very popular preacher, a zealous promoter of charitable institutions, and the author of a number of works in theological literature, had nevertheless contracted some vicious habits ill suited to his solemn office. To make up the deficit which licence and luxury had made in his income, he, in an evil hour, forged a bill upon the Earl of Chesterfield, whose tutor he had once been, and who, he probably flattered himself, would step in between him and ruin when he saw that the fatal error had been committed. But these hopes, if he had them, were doomed to be blasted; the Earl allowed the law to take its course, and that course meant death to the forger. Knowing our Author's force of mind, and believing in his goodness of heart, the wretched criminal had recourse to him in his hour of need, and wrote him a letter imploring him to use his power of language and persuasion in craving the Royal Mercy. Johnson read the letter, walking up and down his room in great agitation, and having finished it, said, "I will do what I can." And he kept his word. He wrote Dr. Dodd's "Speech to the Recorder," at the Old Bailey, when sentence of death was about to be pronounced. He also wrote "The Convict's Address to his Unhappy Brethren," a sermon delivered by the condemned man to his fellow-prisoners in the chapel of Newgate. "DR. DODD TO DR. JOHNSON. "May 23, 1777. "I am so penetrated, my ever dear Sir, with a sense of your extreme benevolence towards me, that I cannot find words equal to the sentiments of my heart. "You are too conversant in the world to need the slightest hint from me, of what infinite utility the Speech on the awful day has been to me. I experience every hour some good effect from it. I am sure that effects still more salutary and important must follow from your kind and intended favour. I will labour-God being my helper-to do justice to it from the pulpit. I am sure, PETITION TO THE KING. 311 had I your sentiments constantly to deliver from thence, in all their mighty force and power, not a soul could be left unconvinced and unpersuaded." He added: "May GOD ALMIGHTY bless and reward, with his choicest comforts, your philanthropic actions, and enable me at all times to express what I feel of the high and uncommon obligation which I owe to the first man in our times.” 66 DR. DODD TO DR. JOHNSON. Sunday, June 22. "If his Majesty would be pleased of his royal clemency to spare me and my family the horrors and ignominy of a public death, which the public itself is solicitous to waive, and to grant me in some silent distant corner of the globe to pass the remainder of my days in penitence and prayer, I would bless his clemency and be humbled." Johnson received this letter in church; he stooped down and read it there; and, immediately on reaching home, wrote, in Dodd's name, the following petition to the King : "SIR, "May it not offend your Majesty, that the most miserable of men applies himself to your clemency, as his last hope and his last refuge; that your mercy is most earnestly and humbly implored by a clergyman, whom your Laws and Judges have condemned to the horror and ignominy of a public execution. "I confess the crime, and own the enormity of its consequences, and the danger of its example. Nor have I the confidence to petition for impunity; but humbly hope, that public security may be established without the spectacle of a clergyman dragged through the streets to a death of infamy, amidst the derision of the profligate and profane; and that justice may be satisfied with irrevocable exile, perpetual disgrace, and hopeless penury. "My life, Sir, has not been useless to mankind. I have benefited many. But my offences against GOD are numberless, and I have had little time for repentance. Preserve me, Sir, by your 312 DR. DODD'S GRATITUDE. prerogative of mercy, from the necessity of appearing unprepared at that tribunal, before which kings and subjects must stand at last together. Permit me to hide my guilt in some obscure corner of a foreign country, where, if I can ever attain confidence to hope that my prayers will be heard, they shall be poured with all the fervour of gratitude for the life and happiness of your Majesty. "I am, Sir, "Your Majesty's &c." Subjoined was the following note :— "SIR, "TO DR. Dodd. "I most seriously enjoin you not to let it be at all known that I have written this letter, and to return the copy to Mr. Allen in a cover to me. I hope I need not tell you, that I wish it success. But do not indulge hope.-Tell nobody." Our Author also wrote a petition from Mrs. Dodd to the Queen; several other supplicatory letters to men of influence ; and some observations in the newspapers upon a petition signed by 20,000 persons, and presented to the King by Earl Percy. But no entreaties could avail, and the unhappy man must prepare to meet his doom. “June 25, midnight. my "Accept, thou great and good heart, my earnest and fervent prayers for all thy benevolent and kind efforts in behalf.-Oh, Dr. Johnson! as I sought your knowledge at an early hour in life, would to heaven I had cultivated the love and acquaintance of so excellent a man !-I pray GoD most sincerely to bless you with the highest transports-the infelt satisfaction of humane and benevolent exertions !—And admitted, as I trust I shall be, to the realms of bliss before you, I shall hail your arrival there with transports, and rejoice to acknowledge that you were my Comforter, my Advocate, and my Friend! GOD be ever with you!" On the day before the execution Johnson wrote the following noble letter, as solemn as it is consolatory : "That which is appointed to all men is now coming upon you. Outward circumstances, the eyes and the thoughts of men, are below the notice of an immortal being about to stand the trial for eternity, before the Supreme Judge of heaven and earth. Be comforted: your crime, morally or religiously considered, has no very deep dye of turpitude. It corrupted no man's principles; it attacked no man's life. It involved only a temporary and repairable injury. Of this, and of all other sins, you are earnestly to repent; and may GOD, who knoweth our frailty, and desireth not our death, accept your repentance, for the sake of his Son JESUS CHRIST our Lord. "In requital of those well-intended offices which you are pleased so emphatically to acknowledge, let me beg that you make in your devotions one petition for my eternal welfare. "I am, dear Sir, "Your most affectionate servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." There may be many opinions about Dr. Dodd's claim to the Royal Mercy, but there can be only one about Dr. Johnson's high-souled attempt to procure it. Our Author's final reflections upon the miserable man's career are well worth quoting :-"For his reputation, which no man can give to himself, those who conferred it are to answer. Of his public ministry the means of judging were sufficiently attainable. He must be allowed to preach well, whose sermons strike his audience with forcible conviction. Of his life, those who thought it consistent with his doctrine did. not originally form false notions. He was at first what he endeavoured to make others; but the world broke down his resolution, and he in time ceased to exemplify his own instructions. Let those who are tempted to his faults tremble at his punishment; and those whom he impressed from the pulpit with religious sentiments endeavour to confirm them, by considering the regret and self-abhorrence with which he reviewed in prison his deviations from rectitude." |