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ducing even Rats in a grave poem might be liable to banter.. He, however, could not bring himself to relinquish the idea; for they are thus, in a still more ludicrous manner, periphrastically exhibited in his Poem as it now stands.

Nor with less waste the whisker'd vermin race,

A countless clan, despoil the lowland cane."

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Johnson said, that Dr. Grainger was an agree able man; a man who would do any good that was in his power. His translation of Tibullus, he thought, was very well done; but The Sugar Cane' did not please him; for he exclaimed, "What could he make of a sugar-cane? One might as well write the Parsley Bed, a Poem; or, The Cabbage Garden, a Poem.'". BOSWELL. "You must then pickle your cabbage. with the sal atticum."-JOHNSON. "You know there is already The Hop Garden, a Poem ;? and I think one could say a great deal about cabbage. The poem might begin with the advantages, of civilized society over a rude state, exemplified by the Scotch, who had no cabbages till Oliver Cromwell's soldiers introduced them; and: one might thus shew how arts are propagated by conquest, as they were by the Roman arms.". He seemed to be much diverted with the fertility of his own fancy.

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He spoke slightingly of Dyer's Fleece.

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"The subject, Sir, cannot be made poetical. How can a man write poetically of serges and druggets? Yet you will hear many people talk to you gravely of that excellent poem • The

Fleece.'"

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Speaking of Cheyne, whom Mr. Boswell reckoned, whimsical, "So he was (said Johnson) in some things; but there is no end of objections. There are few books to which some objection or other may not be made."-He added, "I would not have you read any thing else but his book on Health, and his lady.""

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The Lives of

He said, that the book entitled the Poets,' by Mr. Cibber, was entirely compiled by Mr. Shiels, a Scotchman, one of his ama"The booksellers (said he) gave Theophilus Cibber, who was then in prison, ten guineas to allow Mr. Cibber to be put upon the title-page, as the author; by this, a double imposition was intended: in the first place, that it was the work of a Cibber at all; and in the second place, that it was the work of old Cibber*.".

* In the Monthly Review for May 1792, there is a correction of the above passage. "This account (says the Critic) is very inaccurate. The following statement of facts we know to be true, in every material circumstance :-Shiels was the principal collector and digester of the materials for the work; but as he was

"I once introduced (says Mr. B.) Aristotle's doctrine in his Art of Poetry,' of xatagris TWY

very raw in authorship, and an indifferent writer in prose, and his language full of Scoticisms, Cibber, who was a clever, lively fellow, and then soliciting employment among the booksellers, was engaged to correct the style and diction of the whole work, then intended to make only four volumes, with power to alter, expunge, or add, as he liked. He was also to supply notes occasionally, especially concerning those dramatic poets with whom he had been chiefly conversant. He also engaged to write several of the Lives; which (as we are told) he accordingly performed. He was farther useful in striking out the Jacobitical and Tory sentiments which Shiels had industriously interspersed wherever he could bring them in; and, as the success of the work appeared, after all, very doubtful, he was content with twenty-one pounds for his labour, besides a few sets of the books to disperse among his friends. Shiels had nearly seventy pounds, beside the advantage of many of the best lives in the work being communicated by friends to the undertaking; and for which Mr. Shiels had the same consideration as for the rest, being paid by the sheet for the whole. He was, however, so angry with his Whiggish supervisor (THE. like his father, being a violent stickler for the political principles which prevailed in the reign of George the Se-. cond), for so unmercifully mutilating his copy, and scouting his politics, that he wrote Cibber a challenge; but was prevented from sending it by the publisher, who fairly laughed him out of his fury. The proprietors, too, were discontented in the end, on account of Mr. Cibber's unexpected industry; for his corrections and alterations in the proof-sheets were so numerous and considerable, that the printer made for them a grievous addition to his bill; and, in fine, all parties were dissatisfied. On the whole, the work was productive of no profit to the undertakers, who had agreed, in case of success, to make Cibber a present of some addition to the twenty guineas which he had received, and for which his receipt is now in the bookseller's hands. We are far

Tanμalwv, the purging of the passions, as the purpose of tragedy. But how are the passions to be purged by terror and pity?" (said I, with an

ther assured, that he actually obtained an additional sum. He soon after (in the year 1758) unfortunately embarked for Dublin, on an engagement for one of the theatres there: but the ship was cast away, and every person on board perished. There were about sixty passengers, among whom was the Earl of Drogheda, with many other persons of consequence and property.

"As to the alledged design of making the compilement pass for the work of old Mr. Cibber, the charges seem to have been founded on a somewhat uncharitable construction. We are assured that the thought was not harboured by some of the proprietors, who are still living; and we hope that it did not occur to the first designer of the work, who was also the printer of it, and who bore a respectable character.

"We have been induced to enter thus circumstantially into the foregoing detail of facts relating to the lives of the Poets, compiled by Messrs. Cibber and Shiels, from a sincere regard to that sacred principle of Truth, to which Dr. Johnson so rigidly adhered, according to the best of his knowledge; and which, we believe, no consideration would have prevailed on him to violate. In regard to the matter, which we now dismiss, he had, no doubt, been misled by partial and wrong information. Shiels was the doctor's amanuensis; he had quarrelled with Cibber; it is natural to suppose that he told his story in his own way; and it is certain that he was not a very sturdy moralist.''

This explanation appears very satisfactory. It is, however, to be observed, that the story told by Johnson does not rest solely upon this record of his conversation; for he himself has published it in his Life of Hammond, where he says, "The manuscript of Shiels is now in my possession." Very probably he had trusted to Shiels's word, and never looked at it so as to compare it with The Lives of the Poets,' as published under Mr. Cibber's

name.

assumed air of ignorance to excite him to talk, for which it was often necessary to employ some address).-JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, you are to consider what is the meaning of purging in the original sense. It is to expel impurities from the human body. The mind is subject to the same imperfection. The passions are the great movers of human actions; but they are mixed with such impurities, that it is necessary they should be purged or refined by means of terror and pity. For instance, ambition is a noble passion; but by seeing upon the stage that a man, who is so excessively ambitious as to raise himself by injustice, is punished, we are terrified at the fatal consequences of such a passion. In the same manner a certain degree of resentment is necessary; but if we see that a man carries it too far, we pity the object of it, and are taught to moderate that passion."

Mr. Boswell observed, that the great defect of the tragedy of Othello' was, that it had not a moral; for that no man could resist the circumstances of suspicion which were artfully suggested to Othello's mind. JOHNSON. "In the first place, Sir, we learn from Othello this very useful moral, not to make an unequal match; in the second place, we learn not to yield too readily to suspicion. The handkerchief is merely a trick, though a very pretty trick: but there are no

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