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"Exalted soul! whose harmony could please
The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease:
Could jarring discord, like Amphion, move
To beauteous order and harmonious love;
Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,
And meet thy blessed Saviour in the skies."
Johnson shook his head at these common-
place funeral lines, and said to Garrick, "Ied February 23, 1742-3.
think, Davy, I can make a better." Then,
stirring about his tea for a little while, in a
state of meditation, he almost extempore
produced the following verses:

liamentary Debates. He told me himself,
that he was the sole composer of them for
those three years only. He was not, how-
ever, precisely exact in his statement, which
he mentioned from hasty recollection; for
it is sufficiently evident that his composition
of them began November 19, 1740, and end-

"Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power or hapless love;
Rest here, distress'd by poverty no more,
Here find the calm thou gav'st so oft before;
Sleep undisturb'd, within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine,
At the same time that Mr. Garrick favour-
ed me with this anecdote, he repeated a
very pointed epigram by Johnson, on George
the Second and Colley Cibber, which has
never yet appeared, and of which I know
not the exact date. Dr. Johnson afterwards
gave it to me himself:

"Augustus still survives in Maro's strain,

And Spenser's verse prolongs Eliza's reign;
Great George's acts let tuneful Cibber sing;
For Nature form'd the Poet for the King."

In 1741 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine "the Prefacet;" " Conclusion of his Lives of Drake* (p. 38) and Barretier*" (p. 87); "a free Translation of the Jests of Hierocles, with an Introductiont" (p. 477); and, I think, the following pieces: "Debate on the Proposal of Parliament to Cromwell, to assume the Title of King, abridged, modified, and digested 24" (p. 94); "Translation of Abbé Guyon's Dissertation on the Amazons†" (p. 202); "Translation of Fontenelle's Panegyrick on Dr. Morint" (p. 375). Two notes upon this appear to me undoubtedly his. He this year, and the two following, wrote the Par

1 The epitaph of Philips is in the porch of Wolverhampton church. Mr. Garrick appears not to have recited the verses correctly; and one of the various readings is remarkable, as it is the germ of Johnson's concluding line,

"And meet thy Saviour's consort in the skies."— BOSWELL.

It appears from some of Cave's letters to Dr. Birch, that Cave had better assistance for that branch of his Magazine than has been generally supposed; and that he was indefatigable in getting it made as perfect as he could.

Thus 21st July, 1735,

"I trouble you with the enclosed, because you said you could easily correct what is here given for Lord C-ld's speech. I beg you will do so as soon as you can for me, because the month is far advanced.” And 15th July, 1737,

"As you remember the debates so far as to perceive the speeches already printed are not exact, I beg the favour that you will peruse the enclosed, and, in the best manner your memory will serve, correct the mistaken passages, or add any thing that is omitted. I should be very glad to have something of the Duke of N- -le's speech, which would be particularly of service.

"A gentleman has Lord Bathurst's speech to add something to."

And July 3, 1744,

"You will see what stupid, low, abominable stuff is put upon your noble and learned friend's character, such as I should quite reject, and endeavour to do something better towards doing justice to the character. But as I cannot expect to attain my desire in that respect, it would be a great satisfaction, as well as an honour to our work, to have the favour of the genuine speech. It is a method that several have been pleased to take, as I could show, but I think myself under a restraint. I shall say so far, that I have had some by a third hand, which I understood well enough to come from the first; others by penny-post, and others by the speakers themselves, who and show particular marks of their being have been pleased to visit St. John's-gate, pleased,"

There is no reason, I believe, to doubt the [By consort, I suppose concert is meant; but able that none of these letters are in the veracity of Cave. It is, however, remarkstill I do not see the germ of Johnson's thought. That music may be among the joys of heaven years during which Johnson alone furnishhas been sometimes suggested; but that the deaded the Debates, and one of them is in the were to be "awakened by harmonious notes," seems quite new, and not quite orthodox.-ED.]

[This is only a reprint, better arranged, of a debate, published in 1660, with a few introductory sentences (which may be by Johnson), stating that the editor had reduced the confusion and intricacies of the original report into a more intelligible order. —ED.]

very year after he ceased from that labour. [That Johnson was the authour of the

3 I suppose in another compilation of the same kind.-BOSWELL.

4 Doubtless, Lord Hardwick.-BOSWELL. 5 Birch's MSS. in the British Museum, 4302. -BOSWELL.

p. 43-5.

that the WHIG DOGS should not have the best of it."]

Hawk.
p. 122-129.

The

[In the perusal of these debates, we cannot but wonder at the powers that produced them. authour had never passed those gradations that lead to the knowledge of men and business: born to a narrow fortune, of no profession, conversant chiefly with books, unacquainted with the style of any other than academical disputation, and so great a stranger to senatorial manners, that he never was within the walls of either house of parliament. That a man, under these disadvantages, should be able to frame a system of debate, to compose speeches of such excellence, both in matter 3 and form, as scarcely to be equalled by those of the most able and experienced statesmen, is, I say, matter of astonishment, and a proof of talents that qualified him for a speaker in the most august assembly on earth.

Murphy, debates during that period was not generally known; but the secret transpired several years afterwards, and was avowed by himself on the following occasion. Mr. Wedderburne (afterwards Lord Loughborough and Earl of Rosslyn), Dr. Johnson, Dr. Francis (the translator of Horace), Mr. Murphy, who relates the anecdote, and others, dined with the late Mr. Foote. An important debate towards the end of Sir Robert Walpole's administration being mentioned, Dr. Francis observed, "that Mr. Pitt's speech on that occasion was the best he had ever read." He added, "that he had employed eight years of his life in the study of Demosthenes, and finished a translation of that celebrated orator, with all the decorations of style and language within the reach of his capacity; but he had met with nothing equal to the speech above-mentioned." Many of the company remembered the debate; and some passages were cited, with the approbation Cave, who had no idea of the powers of and applause of all present. During the ar- eloquence over the human mind, became dour of conversation, Johnson remained si- sensible of its effects in the profits it brought lent. As soon as the warmth of praise sub- him: he had long thought that the success sided, he opened with these words: "That of his Magazine proceeded from those parts speech I wrote in a garret in Exeter-street." of it that were conducted by himself, which The company was struck with astonishment. were the abridgement of weekly papers writAfter staring at each other in silent amaze, ten against the ministry, such as the CraftsDr. Francis asked "how that speech could man, Fog's Journal, Common Sense, the be written by him?" "Sir," said Johnson, Weekly Miscellany, the Westminster Jour"I wrote it in Exeter-street 2. I never had nal, and others, and also marshalling the been in the gallery of the House of Com- pastorals, the elegies, and the songs, the mons but once. Čave had interest with the epigrams, and the rebuses that were sent door-keepers. He, and the persons employ-him by various correspondents, and was ed under him, gained admittance: they scarcely able to see the causes that at this brought away the subject of discussion, the time increased the sale of his pamphlet from names of the speakers, the sides they took, ten to fifteen thousand copies a month. But and the order in which they rose, together if he saw not, he felt them, and manifested with notes of the arguments advanced in the his good fortune by buying an old coach course of the debate. The whole was after- and a pair of older horses; and, that he wards communicated to me, and I composed might avoid the suspicion of pride in setting the speeches in the form which they now up an equipage, he displayed to the world have in the parliamentary debates." To this the source of his affluence, by a representadiscovery Dr. Francis made answer: "Then, tion of St. John's Gate, instead of his arms, sir, you have exceeded Demosthenes him- on the door-panel. This he himself told self; for to say that you have exceeded Sir J. Hawkins was the reason of distinFrancis's Demosthenes, would be saying no-guishing his carriage from others, by what thing." The rest of the company bestow- some might think a whimsical device, and ed lavish encomiums on Johnson: one, in also for causing it to be engraven on all his particular, praised his impartiality; observ-plate. ing that he dealt out reason and eloquence with an equal hand to both parties. That is not quite true," said Johnson; "I saved appearances tolerably well, but I took care

1 [No doubt that celebrated reply to old Horace Walpole, which begins "The atrocious crime of being a young man," 10th March, 1741.ED.]

[There is here some inaccuracy; the debate in question was written in 1741. In Mr. Boswell's list of Johnson's residences, he appears not to have resided in Exeter-street after his return to London, in 1737.—ED.]

Johnson had his reward, over and above the pecuniary recompense vouchsafed him by Cave, in the general applause of his labours, which the increased demand for the Magazine implied; but this, as his perform3 With the matter he was supplied, though probably imperfectly.-ED.]

4 [Sir J. Hawkins seems (as well as the other biographers) to have overrated the value, to Cave and the public, of Johnson's Parliamentary Debates. It is shown in the preface to the Parliamentary History for 1738 (ed. 1812), that one of Cave's rivals, the London Magazine, often

ances fell short of his powers, gratified him | vous, methodical, and weighty; Mr. Ship but little; on the contrary, he disapproved pen's blunt and dogmatical; Sir John Barthe deceit he was compelled to practice; his nard's clear, especially on commercial subnotions of morality were so strict, that hejects; Lyttelton's stiff and imitative of the would scarcely allow the violation of truth | Roman oratory; and Pitt's void of arguin the most trivial instances, and saw, in ment, but rhapsodically and diffusively elofalsehood of all kinds, a turpitude that he quent. could never be thoroughly reconciled to; and though the fraud was perhaps not greater than the fictitious relations in Sir Thomas More's Utopia, Lord Bacon's Nova Atlantis, and Bishop Hall's Mundus alter et idem, Johnson was not easy till he had disclosed the deception.

In the mean time it was curious to observe how the deceit operated. It has above been remarked, that Johnson had the art to give different colours to the several speeches, so that some appear to be declamatory and energetic, resembling the orations of Demosthenes; others like those of Cicero, calm, persuasive; others, more particularly those attributed to such country gentlemen, merchants, and seamen as had seats in parliament, bear the characteristic of plainness, bluntness, and unaffected honesty as opposed to the plausibility of such as were understood or suspected to be courtiers: the artifice had its effect; Voltaire was betrayed by it into a declaration, that the eloquence of ancient Greece and Rome was revived in the British senate, and a speech of the late Earl of Chatham when Mr. Pitt, in opposition to one of Mr. Horatio Walpole, received the highest applause, and was by all that read it taken for genuine.

It must be owned, that with respect to the general principles avowed in the speeches, and the sentiments therein contained, they agree with the characters of the persons to whom they are ascribed. Thus, to instance in those of the upper house, the speeches of the Duke of Newcastle, the Lords Carteret and Ilay, are calm, temperate, and persuasive; those of the Duke of Argyle and Lord Talbot furious and declamatory, and Lord Chesterfield's and Lord Hervey's florid but flimsy. In the other house the speeches may be thus characterised: the minister's mild and conciliatory: Mr. Pulteney's nerexcelled the Gentleman's Magazine, in the priority and accuracy of its parliamentary reports, which were contributed by Gordon, the translator of Tacitus.-ED.]

1

The confession of Johnson above-mentioned was the first that revealed the secret that the debates inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine were fictitious, and composed by himself. After that, he was free, and indeed industrious, in the communication of it, for being informed that Dr. Smollet was writing a history of England, and had brought it down to the last reign, he cautioned him not to rely on the debates as given in the Magazine, for that they were not authentic, but, excepting as to their general import, the work of his own imagination.]

Johnson told me that as soon as he found that the speeches were thought genuine, he determined that he would write no more of them; "for he would not be accessary to the propagation of falsehood." And such was the tenderness of his conscience, that a short time before his death he expressed his regret for his having been the authour of fictions, which had passed for realities.

He nevertheless agreed with me in thinking, that the debates which he had framed were to be valued as orations upon questions of publick importance. They have accordingly been collected in volumes, properly arranged, and recommended to the notice of parliamentary speakers by a preface, written by no inferior hand 2. I must, however, observe, that although there is in those debates a wonderful store of political information, and very powerful eloquence, I cannot agree that they exhibit the manner of each particular speaker, as Sir John Hawkins seems to think. But, indeed, what opinion can we have of his judgment, and taste in public speaking, who presumes to give, as the characteristicks of two celebrated orators," the deep-mouthed rancour of Pulteney, and the yelping pertinacity of Pitt?"

Hawk.

p. 100.

This year I find that his tragedy of Irene had been for some time ready for the stage, and that his necessities made him desirous of getting as much as he could for it with2 I am assured that the editor is Mr. George [It is very remarkable that Dr. Maty, who Chalmers, whose commercial works are well wrote the life and edited the works of Lord Ches-known and esteemed.-BOSWELL. [This collecterfield, with the use of his lordship's papers, under the eye of his surviving friends, and in the lifetime of Johnson, should have published, as "specimens of his lordship's eloquence, in the strong nervous style of Demosthenes, as well as in the witty ironical manner of Tully," three speeches, which are certainly the composition of Dr. Johnson. See Chesterfield's Works, vol. ii. p. 319. ED.]

tion is stated in the preface to the Parliamentary History, vol. ii. to be very incomplete-of thirtytwo debates, twelve are given under wrong dates, and several of Johnson's best compositions are wholly omitted; amongst others, the important debate of the 13th February, 1741, on Mr. Sandys's motion for the removal of Sir Robert Walpole; other omissions, equally striking, are complained of.-ED.]

'Sept. 9, 1741.

out delay; for there is the following letter | denham (p. 633)*," afterwards prefixed to from Mr. Cave to Dr. Birch in the same Dr. Swan's edition of his works; "Propovolume of manuscripts in the British Mu- sals for printing Bibliotheca Harleiana, or seum, from which I copied those above a Catalogue of the Library of the Earl of quoted. They were most obligingly point- Oxford (p. 636)*." His account of that ed out to me by Sir William Musgrave, celebrated collection of books, in which he one of the curators of that noble repository. displays the importance to literature, of what the French call a catalogue raisonné, various, and it is executed with ability, canwhen the subjects of it are extensive and not fail to impress all his readers with admonition of his philological attainments. It was afterwards prefixed to the first volaccounts of books were written by him. ume of the Catalogue, in which the Latin He was employed in this business by Mr. chased the library for 13,000l., a sum which Thomas Osborne, the bookseller, who purMr. Oldys says, in one of his manuscripts, was not more than the binding of the books had cost; yet, as Dr. Johnson assured me, the slowness of the sale was such, that there was not much gained by

"I have put Mr. Johnson's play into Mr. Gray's hands, in order to sell it to him, if he is inclined to buy it; but I doubt whether he will or not. He would dispose of the copy, and whatever advantage may be made by acting it. Would your society, or any gentleman, or body of men that you know, take such a bargain? He and I are very unfit to deal with theatrical persons. Fleetwood was to have acted it last season, but Johnson's diffidence or 3 prevented it."

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I have already mentioned that "Irene" was not brought into public notice till Garrick was manager of Drury-lane theatre. In 17424 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine the Prefacet," the "Parliamentary Debates," "Essay on the Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough (p. 128)*," then the popular topick of conversation. This Essay is a short but masterly performance. We find him, in No. 13 of his Rambler, censuring a profligate sentiment in that "Account;" and again insisting upon it strenuously in conversation. "An AcSept. 10, count of the Life of Peter Bur1773. man (p. 206)*," I believe chiefly taken from a foreign publication; as, indeed, he could not himself know much about Burman; "Additions to his Life of Barretier 5 (p. 242)*;" "The Life of Sy

1 A bookseller of London.

it.

It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. "Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber."

A very diligent observer may trace him where we should not easily suppose him to be found. I have no doubt that he wrote the little abridgement entitled "Foreign History," in the Magazine for December (p. 660). To prove it, I shall quote the introduction.

"As this is that season of the year in which Nature may be said to command a suspension of hostilities, and which seems intended, by putting a short stop to violence and slaughter, to afford time for mal2 Not the Royal Society: [as Boswell in his ice to relent, and animosity to subside; we first and second editions had strangely supposed. can scarce expect any other account than ED.] but a society for the encouragement of of plans, negotiations, and treaties, of prolearning, of which Dr. Birch was a leading mem-posals for peace, and preparations for war." ber. Their object was, to assist authours in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when, having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved.-BoswELL.

There is no erasure here, but a mere blank: to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture.-BOSWELL.. [Probably pride. Such, at least, is the common-place antithesis. ED.]

4 From one of his letters to a friend, written in

As also this passage:

"Let those who despise the capacity of the Swiss tell us by what wonderful policy, or by what happy conciliation of interests, it is brought to pass, that in a body made up of different communities and different religions, there should be no civil commotions, though the people are so warlike, that to nominate and raise an army is the same." I would also ascribe to him an 66 the Description of China, from the French Essay on of Du Halde (p. 320)†."

June, 1742, it should seem that he then purposed to write a play on the subject of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, and to have it ready for the ensuing winter. The passage alluded to, however, I am obliged to Mr. Astle for his ready is somewhat ambiguous; and the work which he permission to copy the two following letthen had in contemplation may have been a his-ters, of which the originals are in his postory of that monarch.-MALONE.

[See ante, p. 57. Miss Carter received Barretier's life from his family in March or April

of this year, and from it no doubt Johnson made these additions.-ED.

session. Their contents show that they were written about this time, and that Johnson was now engaged in preparing an historical account of the British Parlia

ment.

TO MR. CAVE.

[Aug. 1743].

"SIR,-I believe I am going to write a long letter, and have therefore taken a whole sheet of paper. The first thing to be written about is our historical design.

"You mentioned the proposal of printing in numbers as an alteration in the scheme, but I believe you mistook, some way or other, my meaning; I had no other view than that you might rather print too many of five sheets than of five and thirty.

"With regard to what I shall say on the manner of proceeding, I would have it understood as wholly indifferent to me, and my opinion only, not my resolution. Emptoris sit eligere.

"I think the insertion of the exact dates of the most important events in the margin, or of so many events as may enable the reader to regulate the order of facts with sufficient exactness, the proper medium between a journal, which has regard only to time, and a history which ranges facts according to their dependence on each other, and postpones or anticipates according to the convenience of narration. I think the work ought to partake of the spirit of history, which is contrary to minute exactness, and of the regularity of a journal, which is inconsistent with spirit. For this reason I neither admit numbers or dates, nor reject them.

"I am of your opinion with regard to placing most of the resolutions, &c. in the margin, and think we shall give the most complete account of parliamentary proceedings that can be contrived. The naked papers, without an historical treatise interwoven, require some other book to make them understood. I will date the succeeding facts with some exactness, but I think in the margin.

"You told me on Saturday that I had received money on this work, and found set down 131. 2s. 6d. reckoning the half guinea of last Saturday. As you hinted to me that you had many calls for money, I would not press you too hard, and therefore shall desire only, as I send it in, two guineas for a sheet of copy; the rest you may pay me when it may be more convenient; and even by this sheet payment I shall, for some time, be very expensive.

"The Life of Savage I am ready to go upon; and in Great Primer, and Pica notes, I reckon on sending in half a sheet a day; but the money for that shall likewise lie by in your hands till it is done. With the de

bates, shall not I have business enough? if I had but good pens.

"Towards Mr. Savage's Life what more have you got? I would willingly have his trial, &c. and know whether his defence be at Bristol, and would have his collection of Poems, on account of the Preface;- The Plain Dealer,'-all the magazines that have any thing of his or relating to him.

"I thought my letter would be long, but it is now ended; and I am, sir, yours, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON.

"The boy found me writing this almost in the dark, when I could not quite easily read yours.

"I have read the Italian:-nothing in it is well.

"I had no notion of having any thing for the inscription 2. I hope you don't think I kept it to extort a price. I could think of nothing till to-day. If you could spare me another guinea for the history, I should take it very kindly, to-night; but if you do not, I shall not think it an injury.—I am almost well again.”

"TO MR. CAVE.

"SIR,-You did not tell me your determination about the Soldier's Letter,3 which I am confident was never printed. I think it will not do by itself, or in any other place, so well as the Mag. Extraordinary. If you will have it at all, I believe you do not think I set it high, and I will be glad if what you give you will give quickly.

"You need not be in care about something to print, for I have got the State Trials, and shall extract Layer Atterbury and Macclesfield from them, and shall bring them to you in a fortnight; after which I will try to get the South Sea Report.”

[No date nor signature.]

His writings in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1743, are, the "Prefacet," "the Parliamentary Debates †," "Considerations on the Dispute between Crousaz and War

"The Plain Dealer" was published in 1724, and contained some account of Savage.

2 Perhaps the Runic Inscription, Gent. Mag. vol. xii. p. 132.-MALONE.

It

[Certainly not that was published in March, 1742, at least seventeen months before this letter was written; nor does there appear in the Magazine any inscription to which this can refer. seemed at first sight probable that it might allude to the translation of Pope's Inscription on his Grotto, which appeared (with an apology for haste) in the next Magazine; but the expression "I could think of nothing till to-day," negatives that supposition. The inscription, then, was probably one which Cave requested Johnson to devise, and which, when Johnson after a long delay produced it, Cave surprised him by paying.-ED.]

3 I have not discovered what this was.

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