48 Goldsmith's affected indifference. [A.D. 1767. of advantage, from being in a situation, where the powers of the mind are at once excited to vigorous exertion, and tempered by reverential awe. During all the time in which Dr. Johnson was employed in relating to the circle at Sir Joshua Reynolds's the particulars of what passed between the King and him, Dr. Goldsmith remained unmoved upon a sopha at some distance, affecting not to join in the least in the eager curiosity of the company. He assigned as a reason for his gloom and seeming inattention, that he apprehended Johnson had relinquished his purpose of furnishing him with a Prologue to his play', with the hopes of which he had been flattered; but it was strongly suspected that he was fretting with chagrin and envy at the singular honour Dr. Johnson had lately enjoyed. At length, the frankness and simplicity of his natural character prevailed. He sprung from the sopha, advanced to Johnson, and in a kind of flutter, from imagining himself in the situation which he had just been hearing described, exclaimed, Well, you acquitted yourself in this conversation better than I should have done; for I should have bowed and stammered through the whole of it'.' I received no letter from Johnson this year; nor have I The Good-Natured Man, post, p. 45. 'It has been said that the King only sought one interview with Dr. Johnson. There was nothing to complain of; it was a compliment paid by rank to letters, and once was enough. The King was more afraid of this interview than Dr. Johnson was; and went to it as a schoolboy to his task. But he did not want to have this trial repeated every day, nor was it necessary. The very jealousy of his self-love marked his respect; and if he had thought less of Dr. Johnson, he would have been more willing to risk the encounter.' Hazlitt's Conversations of Northcote, p. 45. It should seem that Johnson had a second interview with the King thirteen years later. In 1780, Hannah More records (Memoirs, i. 174) :—‘Johnson told me he had been with the King that morning, who enjoined him to add Spenser to his Lives of the Poets.' It is strange that, so far as I know, this interview is not mentioned by any one else. It is perhaps alluded to, post, Dec. 1784, when Mr. Nichols told Johnson that he wished 'he would gratify his sovereign by a Life of Spenser.' discovered Aetat. 58.] Death of Catharine Chambers. 49 discovered any of the correspondence' he had, except the two letters to Mr. Drummond, which have been inserted, for the sake of connection with that to the same gentleman in 1766. His diary affords no light as to his employment at this time. He passed three months at Lichfield'; and I cannot omit an affecting and solemn scene there, as related by himself': 'Sunday, Oct. 18, 1767. Yesterday, Oct. 17, at about ten in the morning, I took my leave for ever of my dear old friend, Catharine Chambers, who came to live with my mother about 1724, and has been but little parted from us since. She buried my father, my brother, and my mother. She is now fifty-eight years old. "I desired all to withdraw, then told her that we were to part for ever; that as Christians, we should part with prayer; and that I would, if she was willing, say a short prayer beside her. She expressed great desire to hear me; and held up her poor hands, as she lay in bed, with great fervour, while I prayed, kneeling by her, nearly in the following words: 'Almighty and most merciful Father, whose loving kindness is over all thy works, behold, visit, and relieve this thy servant, who is grieved with sickness. Grant that the sense of her weakness may add strength to her faith, and seriousness to her repentance. And grant that by the help of thy Holy Spirit, after the pains and labours of this short life, we may all obtain everlasting happiness, through JESUS CHRIST our Lord; for whose sake hear our prayers. Amen. Our Father, &c. 'I then kissed her. She told me, that to part was the greatest pain that she had ever felt, and that she hoped we should meet again in a better place. I expressed, with swelled eyes, and great It is proper here to mention, that when I speak of his correspondence, I consider it independent of the voluminous collection of letters which, in the course of many years, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale, which forms a separate part of his works; and as a proof of the high estimation set on any thing which came from his pen, was sold by that lady for the sum of five hundred pounds. BoSWELL. 2 ' He was away from London' near six months.' See ante, ii. 34. 'On Aug. 17 he recorded:-'I have communicated with Kitty, and kissed her. I was for some time distracted, but at last more composed. I commended my friends, and Kitty, Lucy, and I were much affected. Kitty is, I think, going to heaven.' Pr. and Med. p. 75. II.-4 emotion 50 Lexiphanes. [A.D. 1767. emotion of tenderness, the same hopes. We kissed, and parted. I humbly hope to meet again, and to part no more'.' By those who have been taught to look upon Johnson as a man of a harsh and stern character, let this tender and affectionate scene be candidly read; and let them then judge whether more warmth of heart, and grateful kindness, is often found in human nature. We have the following notice in his devotional record: ‘August 2, 1767. I have been disturbed and unsettled for a ⚫ long time, and have been without resolution to apply to study or to business, being hindered by sudden snatches"." He, however, furnished Mr. Adams with a Dedication* to the King of that ingenious gentleman's Treatise on the Globes, conceived and expressed in such a manner as could not fail to be very grateful to a Monarch, distinguished for his love of the sciences. This year was published a ridicule of his style, under the title of Lexiphanes. Sir John Hawkins ascribes it to Dr. Kenrick'; but its authour was one Campbell, a Scotch purser in the navy. The ridicule consisted in applying Johnson's 'words of large meaning to insignificant matters, as if one should put the armour of Goliath upon a dwarf. The contrast might be laughable; but the dignity of the armour must remain the same in all considerate minds. This malicious drollery, therefore, it may easily be supposed, could do no harm to its illustrious object'. 1 Pr. and Med. pp. 77 and 78. BOSWELL. 2 Pr. and Med. p. 73. BOSWELL. On Aug. 17 he recorded:-' By abstinence from wine and suppers I obtained sudden and great relief, and had freedom of mind restored to me, which I have wanted for all this year, without being able to find any means of obtaining it.' Ib. P. 74. 'Hawkins, in his second edition (p. 347), assigns it to Campbell, 'who,' he says, ' as well for the malignancy of his heart as his terrific countenance, was called horrible Campbell.' • See ante, i. 253. 'The book is as dull as it is indecent. The 'drollery' is of the following kind. Johnson is represented as saying:- Without dubiety 'To Aetat. 59.] Prologue to THE GOOD-NATURED MAN. 51 'TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT MR. ROTHWELL'S, PERFUMER, IN NEW BOND-STREET, LONDON. 'DEAR SIR, 'That you have been all summer in London, is one more reason for which I regret my long stay in the country. I hope that you will not leave the town before my return. We have here only the chance of vacancies in the passing carriages, and I have bespoken one that may, if it happens, bring me to town on the fourteenth of this month; but this is not certain. 'It will be a favour if you communicate this to Mrs. Williams: I long to see all my friends. 'I am, dear Sir, your most humble servant, 'Lichfield, Oct. 10, 1767.' 'SAM. JOHNSON.' 1768 ÆTAT. 59.-It appears from his notes of the state of his mind', that he suffered great perturbation and distraction in 1768. Nothing of his writing was given to the publick this year, except the Prologue* to his friend Goldsmith's comedy of The Good-Natured Man'. The first lines of this Prologue are strongly characteristical of the dismal gloom of his mind; which in his case, as in the case of all who are distressed with the same malady of imagination, transfers to others its own feelings. Who could suppose it was to introduce a comedy, when Mr. Bensley solemnly began, 'Press'd with the load of life, the weary mind you misapprehend this dazzling scintillation of conceit in totality, and had you had that constant recurrence to my oraculous dictionary which was incumbent upon you from the vehemence of my monitory injunctions,' &c.—p. 2. Pr. and Med. p. 81. BOSWELL. This day,' he wrote on his birthday, 'has been passed in great perturbation; I was distracted at church in an uncommon degree, and my distress has had very little intermission. . . . This day it came into my mind to write the history of my melancholy. On this I purpose to deliberate; I know not whether it may not too much disturb me.' See post, April 8, 1780. "It is strange that Boswell nowhere quotes the lines in The GoodNatured Man, in which Paoli is mentioned. That's from Paoli of Corsica,' said Lofty. Act v. sc. I. ' In the original, 'Pressed by." Boswell, in thus changing the prepoBut 52 Boswell's book on Corsica. [A.D. 1768. But this dark ground might make Goldsmith's humour shine the more. In the spring of this year, having published my Account of Corsica, with the Journal of a Tour to that Island1, I returned to London', very desirous to see Dr. Johnson, and hear him upon the subject. I found he was at Oxford, with his friend Mr. Chambers', who was now Vinerian Professor, sition, forgot what Johnson says in his Plan of an English Dictionary (Works, v. 12) :—'We say, according to the present modes of speech, The soldier died of his wounds, and the sailor perished with hunger; and every man acquainted with our language would be offended with a change of these particles, which yet seem originally assigned by chance.' 1 1 Boswell, writing to Temple on March 24, says:-My book has amazing celebrity; Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Walpole, Mrs. Macaulay, and Mr. Garrick have all written me noble letters about it. There are two Dutch translations going forward.' Letters of Boswell, p. 145. It met with a rapid sale. A third edition was called for within a year. Dilly, the publisher, must have done very well by it, as he purchased the copyright for one hundred guineas. Ib. p. 103. Pray read the new account of Corsica,' wrote Horace Walpole to Gray on Feb. 18, 1768 (Letters, v. 85). The author is a strange being, and has a rage of knowing everybody that ever was talked of. He forced himself upon me at Paris in spite of my teeth and my doors.' To this Gray replied Mr. Boswell's book has pleased and moved me strangely; all, I mean, that relates to Paoli. He is a man born two thousand years after his time! The pamphlet proves, what I have always maintained, that any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity.' In the Letters of Boswell (p. 122) there is the following under date of Nov. 9, 1767:-'I am always for fixing some period for my perfection, as far as possible. Let it be when my account of Corsica is published; I shall then have a character which I must support.' In April 16 of the following year, a few weeks after the book had come out, he writes:-'To confess to you at once, Temple, I have since my last coming to town been as wild as ever' (p. 146). Boswell used to put notices of his movements in the newspapers, such as- -James Boswell, Esq., is expected in town.' Public Adver tiser, Feb. 28, 1768. 'Yesterday James Boswell, Esq., arrived from Scotland at his lodgings in Half-Moon Street, Piccadilly.' Ib. March 24, 1768. Prior's Goldsmith, i. 449. 'Johnson was very ill during this visit. Mrs. Thrale had at the and |