Aetat. 72.] Boswell's boisterous talk. 127 truth and politeness, 'Madam, if I had thought so, I certainly should not have said it.' Another evening Johnson's kind indulgence towards me had a pretty difficult trial. I had dined at the Duke of Montrose's with a very agreeable party, and his Grace, according to his usual custom, had circulated the bottle very freely. Lord Graham' and I went together to Miss Monckton's, where I certainly was in extraordinary spirits, and above all fear or awe. In the midst of a great number of persons of the first rank, amongst whom I recollect with confusion, a noble lady of the most stately decorum, I placed myself next to Johnson, and thinking myself now fully his match, talked to him in a loud and boisterous manner, desirous to let the company know how I could contend with Ajax. I particularly remember pressing him upon the value of the pleasures of the imagination, and as an illustration of my argument, asking him, 'What, Sir, supposing I were to fancy that the (naming the most charming Duchess in his Majesty's dominions) were in love with me, should I not be very happy?' My friend with much address evaded my interrogatories, and kept me as quiet as possible; but it may easily be conceived how he must have felt'. However, when a few days afterwards I 1 See ante, iii. 434, note 2. * Next day I endeavoured to give what had happened the most ingenious turn I could, by the following verses :— TO THE HONOURABLE MISS MONCKTON. 'Not that with th' excellent Montrose I had the happiness to dine; Not that I late from table rose, From Graham's wit, from generous wine. It was not these alone which led On sacred manners to encroach; And made me feel what most I dread, But when I enter'd, not abash'd, From your bright eyes were shot such rays, 128 Boswell's neglect of his journal. [A.D. 1781. waited upon him and made an apology, he behaved with the most friendly gentleness'. While I remained in London this year', Johnson and I dined together at several places. I recollect a placid day at Dr. Butter's', who had now removed from Derby to Lower Grosvenor-street, London; but of his conversation on that and other occasions during this period, I neglected to keep any regular record', and shall therefore insert here some miscellaneous articles which I find in my Johnsonian notes. His disorderly habits, when 'making provision for the day that was passing over him',' appear from the following anecdote, communicated to me by Mr. John Nichols: -In the year 1763, a young bookseller, who was an apprentice to Mr. Whiston, waited on him with a subscription to his Shakspeare: and observing that the Doctor made no At once intoxication flash'd, And all my frame was in a blaze. But not a brilliant blaze I own, Of the dull smoke I'm yet asham'd; And not enlighten'd though inflam'd. I hope, MARIA, you'll forgive; While I invoke the powers above, That henceforth I may wiser live.' The lady was generously forgiving, returned me an obliging answer, and I thus obtained an Act of Oblivion, and took care never to offend again. Boswell. 1 See ante, ii. 499, and iv. 102, note I. On May 22 Horace Walpole wrote (Letters, viii. 44) :—' Boswell, that quintessence of busybodies, called on me last week, and was let in, which he should not have been, could I have foreseen it. After tapping many topics, to which I made as dry answers as an unbribed oracle, he ventured his errand. Had I seen Dr. Johnson's 'Lives of the Poets?" I said slightly, "No, not yet ;" and so overlaid his whole impertinence.' 3 See ante, iii. 1. See ante, ii. 53, note 2; 403, note; and iii. 428, for explanations of like instances of Boswell's neglect. See ante, i. 346, note 2. entry From the original drawing in the possession of Mr. John Simco, taken from the life a short time before his decease, and etched by T. Trotter. Aetat. 72.] Talking for victory. 129 entry in any book of the subscriber's name, ventured diffidently to ask, whether he would please to have the gentleman's address, that it might be properly inserted in the printed list of subscribers. 'I shall print no list of subscribers,' said Johnson, with great abruptness: but almost immediately recollecting himself, added, very complacently, 'Sir, I have two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers;-one, that I have lost all the names, -the other, that I have spent all the money.' Johnson could not brook appearing to be worsted in argument, even when he had taken the wrong side, to shew the force and dexterity of his talents. When, therefore, he perceived that his opponent gained ground, he had recourse to some sudden mode of robust sophistry. Once when I was pressing upon him with visible advantage, he stopped me thus:- My dear Boswell, let's have no more of this; you'll make nothing of it. I'd rather have you whistle a Scotch tune.' Care, however, must be taken to distinguish between Johnson when he 'talked for victory',' and Johnson when he had no desire but to inform and illustrate. One of Johnson's principal talents, (says an eminent friend of his,) was shewn in maintaining the wrong side of an argument, and in a splendid perversion of the truth. If you could contrive to have his fair opinion on a subject, and without any bias from personal prejudice, or from a wish to be victorious in argument, it was wisdom itself, not only convincing, but overpowering.' He had, however, all his life habituated himself to consider conversation as a trial of intellectual vigour and skill3; ''He owned he sometimes talked for victory.' Boswell's Hebrides, opening pages. 3 The late Right Hon. William Gerard Hamilton. MALONE. Dr. Johnson, being told of a man who was thankful for being introduced to him, ' as he had been convinced in a long dispute that an opinion which he had embraced as a settled truth was no better than a vulgar error, "Nay," said he, "do not let him be thankful, for he was right, and I was wrong." Like his Uncle Andrew in the ring at and IV.-9 |