From this period a friendship took place between them, which ripened into the strictest and most cordial intimacy. After Mr. Boswell's death in 1795 Mr. Malone continued to shew every mark of affectionate attention towards his family.' Gent. Mag. 1813, p. 518.
[6] Malone began his edition of Shakespeare in 1782; he brought it out in 1790. Prior's Malone, pp. 98, 166.
[7] Boswell in the 'Advertisement' to the second edition, dated Dec. 20, 1785, says that 'the whole of the first impression has been sold in a few weeks.' Three editions were published within a year, but the fourth was not issued till 1807. A German translation was published in Luebeck in 1787. I believe that in no language has a translation been published of the Life of Johnson. Johnson was indeed, as Boswell often calls him, 'a trueborn Englishman'--so English that foreigners could neither understand him nor relish his Life.
[8] The man thus described is James I.
[9] See ante, i. 450 and ii. 291.
[10] A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Johnson's Works ix. 1.
[11] See ante, i. 450. On a copy of Martin in the Advocates' Library [Edinburgh] I found the following note in the handwriting of Mr. Boswell:--'This very book accompanied Mr. Samuel Johnson and me in our Tour to the Hebrides.' UPCOTT. Croker's Boswell, p. 267.
[12] Macbeth, act i. sc. 3.
[13] See ante, iii. 24, and post, Nov. 10.
[14] Our friend Edmund Burke, who by this time had received some pretty severe strokes from Dr. Johnson, on account of the unhappy difference in their politicks, upon my repeating this passage to him, exclaimed 'Oil of vitriol !' BOSWELL.
[15] Psalms, cxli. 5.
[16] 'We all love Beattie,' he had said. Ante, ii. 148.
[17] This, I find, is a Scotticism. I should have said, 'It will not be long before we shall be at Marischal College.' BOSWELL. In spite of this warning Sir Walter Scott fell into the same error. 'The light foot of Mordaunt was not long of bearing him to Jarlok [Jarlshof].' Pirate, ch. viii. CROKER. Beattie was Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic in Marischal College.
[18] 'Nil mihi rescribas; attamen ipse veni.' Ovid, Heroides, i. 2. Boswell liked to display such classical learning as he had. When he visited Eton in 1789 he writes, 'I was asked by the Head-master to dine at the Fellows' table, and made a creditable figure. I certainly have the art of making the most of what I have. How should one who has had only a Scotch education be quite at home at Eton? I had my classical quotations very ready.' Letters of Boswell, p. 308.
[19] Gray, Johnson writes (Works, viii. 479), visited Scotland in 1765. 'He naturally contracted a friendship with Dr. Beattie, whom he found a poet,' &c.
[20] Post, Sept. 12.
[21] See ante, i. 274.
[22] Afterwards Lord Stowell. He, his brother Lord Eldon, and Chambers were all Newcastle men. See ante, i. 462, for an anecdote of the journey and for a note on 'the Commons.'
[23] See ante, ii. 453.
[24] See ante, iv. III.
[25] Baretti, in a MS. note on Piozzi Letters, i. 309, says:--'The most unaccountable part of Johnson's character was his total ignorance of the character of his most familiar acquaintance.'
[26] Lord Pembroke said once to me at Wilton, with a happy pleasantry, and some truth, that 'Dr. Johnson's sayings would not appear so extraordinary, were it not for his bow-wow way:' but I admit the truth of this only on some occasions. The Messiah, played upon the Canterbury organ, is more sublime than when played upon an inferior instrument, but very slight musick will seem grand, when conveyed to the ear through that majestick medium. While therefore Dr. Johnson's sayings are read, let his manner be taken along with them. Let it, however, be observed, that the sayings themselves are generally great; that, though he might be an ordinary composer at times, he was for the most part a Handel. BOSWELL. See ante, ii. 326, 371, and under Aug. 29, 1783.
[27] See ante, i. 42.
[28] See ante, i. 41.
[29] Such they appeared to me; but since the first edition, Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed to me, 'that Dr. Johnson's extraordinary gestures were only habits, in which he indulged himself at certain times. When in company, where he was not free, or when engaged earnestly in conversation, he never gave way to such habits, which proves that they were not involuntary.' I still however think, that these gestures were involuntary; for surely had not that been the case, he would have restrained them in the publick streets. BOSWELL. See ante, i. 144.
[30] By an Act of the 7th of George I. for encouraging the consumption of raw silk and mohair, buttons and button-holes made of cloth, serge, and other stuffs were prohibited. In 1738 a petition was presented to Parliament stating that 'in evasion of this Act buttons and button-holes were made of horse-hair to the impoverishing of many thousands and prejudice of the woollen manufactures.' An Act was brought in to prohibit the use of horse-hair, and was only thrown out on the third reading.