["MRS. PIOZZI1 TO JOHNSON. "Bath, June 30. 1784. "MY DEAR SIR, The enclosed is a circular letter, which I have sent to all the guardians; but our friendship demands somewhat more: it requires that should beg your pardon for concealing from you a connexion which you must have heard of by many, but I suppose never believed. Indeed, my dear Sir, it was concealed only to save us both needless pain. I could not have borne to reject that counsel it would have killed me to take, and I only tell it you now because all is irrevocably settled, and out of your power to prevent. I will say, however, that the dread of your disapprobation has given me some anxious moments, and though, perhaps, I am become by many privations the most independent woman in the world, I feel as if acting without a parent's consent till you write kindly to your faithful servant, H. L. P."] - Letters. He endeavoured to prevent it, but in vain. ["JOHNSON TO MRS. PIOZZI. "London, July 8. 1784. "DEAR MADAM,-What you have done, how ever I may lament it, I have no pretence to resent, as it has not been injurious to me; I therefore breathe out one sigh more of tenderness, perhaps useless, but at least sincere. "I wish that God may grant you every blessing, that you may be happy in this world for its short continuance, and eternally happy in a better state; and whatever I can contribute to your happiness I am very ready to repay, for that kindness which soothed twenty years of a life radically wretched. "Do not think slightly of the advice which I now presume to offer. Prevail upon M. Piozzi to settle in England: you may live here with more dignity than in Italy, and with more security: your rank will be higher, and your fortune more under your own eye. I desire not to detail all my reasons, but every argument of prudence and interest is for England, and only some phantoms of imagination seduce you to Italy. "I am afraid, however, that my counsel is vain; yet I have eased my heart by giving it. "Any letters that come for me hither will be sent me."] - Letters. If she would publish the whole of the correspondence that passed between Dr. Johnson and her on the subject, we should have a full view of his real sentiments. As it is, our judgment must be biassed by that characteristic specimen which Sir John Hawkins has given us.2 ["About the middle of 1784, he was, to appearance, so well, that both himself and his friends hoped that he had some years to live. He had recovered from the paralytic stroke of the last year to such a degree, that, saving a little difficulty in his articulation, he had no remains of it; he had also undergone a slight fit of the gout, and conquered an oppression on his lungs, so as to be able, as himself told me, to run up the whole staircase of the Royal Academy, on the day of the annual dinner there. In short, to such a degree of health was he restored, that he forgot all his complaints: he resumed sitting to Opie for his picture, which had been begun the year before, but, I believe, was never finished, and accepted an invitation to the house of a friend at Ashbourne in Derbyshire, proposing to stay there till towards the end of the his daughter-in-law, and others of his friends, at summer, and, in his return, to visit Mrs. Porter, Lichfield. "A few weeks before his setting out, he was made uneasy by a report that the widow of his in marriage to a foreigner, a singer by profession, friend Mr. Thrale was about to dispose of herself and with him to quit the kingdom. Upon this occasion, he took the alarm, and to prevent a degradation of herself, and, what as executor of her husband was more his concern, the desertion of her children, wrote to her, she then being at Bath, "MADAM,—If you are already ignominiously married, you are lost beyond all redemption; — if you are not, permit me one hour's conversation, to convince you that such a marriage must not take place. If, after a whole hour's reasoning, you should not be convinced, you will still be at liberty to act as you think proper. I have been ex "When Queen Mary took the resolution of sheltering herself in England, the Archbishop of St. Andrew's, attempting to dissuade her, attended on her journey; and when they came to the irre-tremely ill, and am still ill; but if you grant me meable stream that separated the two kingdoms, walked by her side into the water, in the middle of which he seized her bridle, and with earnestness proportioned to her danger and his own affection pressed her to return. The queen went forward. If the parallel reaches thus far, may it go no farther. The tears stand in my eyes. "I am going into Derbyshire, and hope to be followed by your good wishes, for I am, with great affection, your, &c., SAM, JOHNSON. In the lady's own publication of the correspondence, this letter is given as from Mrs. Piozzi, and is signed with the initial of her new name; Dr. Johnson's answer is also addressed to Mrs. Piozzi, and both the letters allude to the matter as past-hers as "settled." his as "done;" yet it appears by the periodical publications of the day, that the marriage did not take place until the 25th July, and Madame D'Arblay dates it "at the end of July." I know the audience I ask, I will instantly take a postchaise and attend you at Bath. Pray do not refuse this favour to a man who hath so many years loved and honoured you." "That this letter is spurious, as to the language, I have Johnson's own authority for saying; but, in respect of the sentiments, he avowed it, in a declaration to me, that not a sentence of it was his, but yet that it was an adumbration of one that he wrote upon the occasion. It may therefore be suspected, not how to account for this but by supposing that Mrs. Piozzi, to avoid Johnson's importunities, wished him to understand as done that which was only settled to be done. Any reader who is curious about this miserable mésalliance will find it most acrimoniously discussed in Baretti's Strictures in the European Magazine for 1788. - Croker. 2 Boswell had given but the last sentence of the following extract. I give the whole passage. CROKER. that some one who had heard him repeat the contents of the letter had given to the public in the form in which it appeared. "What answer was returned to his friendly monition I know not, but it seems that it was succeeded by a letter1 of greater length, written, as it afterwards appeared, too late to do any good, in which he expressed an opinion, that the person to whom it was addressed had forfeited her fame. The answer to this I have seen: it is written from Bath, and contains an indignant vindication as well of her conduct as her fame, an inhibition of Johnson from following her to Bath, and a farewell, concluding — Till you have changed your opinion of [Piozzi] let us converse no more.' "From the style of the letter, a conclusion was to be drawn that baffled all the powers of reasoning and persuasion : "One argument she summ'd up all in, The thing was done and past recalling; which being the case, he contented himself with reflecting on what he had done to prevent that which he thought one of the greatest evils that could befall the progeny of his friend, the alienation of the affections of their mother. He looked upon the desertion of children by their parents, and the withdrawing from them that protection, that mental nutriment, which, in their youth, they are capable of receiving, the exposing them to the snares and temptations of the world, and the solicitations and deceits of the artful and designing, as most unnatural; and in a letter on the subject to me, written from Ashbourne, thus delivered his sentiments:] "Poor Thrale! I thought that either her virtue or her vice,' (meaning, as I understood, by the former, the love of her children, and by the latter, her pride,) 'would have restrained her from such a marriage. She is now become a subject for her enemies to exult over, and for her friends, if she has any left, to forget or pity.'" It must be admitted that Johnson derived a considerable portion of happiness from the comforts and elegancies which he enjoyed in Mr. Thrale's family; but Mrs. Thrale assures us he was indebted for these to her husband alone, who certainly respected him sincerely. Her words are, "Veneration for his virtue, reverence for his talents, delight in his conversation, and habitual endurance of a yoke my husband first put upon me, and of which he contentedly bore his share for sixteen or seventeen years, ade me go on so long with Mr. Johnson; but the perpetual confinement 1 will own to have been terrifying in the first years of It is 1 It appears as if Hawkins (who had not had the advantage of seeing the correspondence published by Mrs. Piozzi) had made some confusion about these letters. clear that the first of the series must have been, not Johnson's remonstrance, but her announcement, dated Bath, June 30., which we have just seen. To that Johnson may have replied by the letter, the contents of which are adumbrated in the Gentleman's Magazine. To this she probably rejoined by the letter which Hawkins says that he saw, to which Johnson's of the 8th of July, given above, may have been the reply. Hawkins thinks that there were three letters from Dr. Johnson, whereas it seems probable that there were but two, of which one only is preserved.. CROKER. our friendship, and irksome in the last; nor could I pretend to support it without help, when my coadjutor was no more." Alas! how different is this from the declarations which I have heard Mrs. Thrale make in his lifetime, without a single murmur against any peenliarities, or against any one circumstance which attended their intimacy! As a sincere friend of the great man whose life I am writing, I think it necessary to guard my readers against the mistaken notion of Dr. Johnson's character, which this Lady's "Aneedotes" of him suggest; for, from the very nature and form of her book, " it lends deception lighter wings to fly." "Let it be remembered," says an eminent critic1, "that she has comprised in a small volume all that she could recollect of Dr. Johnson in twenty years, during which period, doubtless, some severe things were said by him: and they who read the book in two hours naturally enough suppose that his whole conversation was of this complexion. But the fact is, I have been often in his company, and never once heard him say a severe thing to any one; and When he did many others can attest the same. say a severe thing, it was generally extorted by ignorance pretending to knowledge, or by extreme vanity or affectation. "Two instances of inaccuracy," adds he, “are peculiarly worthy of notice. "It is said, 'that natural roughness of his manner larity of his notions, burst through them all from time so often mentioned would, notwithstanding the regu. to time; and he once bade a very celebrated lady Hannah More], who praised him with too much zeal perhaps, or perhaps too strong an emphasis (which always offended him), consider what her flattery was worth before she choked him with it.' "Now let the genuine anecdote be contrasted with this. The person thus represented as being harshly treated, though a very celebrated lady, was then just come to London from an obscure situation in the country. At Sir Joshua Reynolds's one evening, she met Dr. Johnson. She very soon began to pay her court to him in the most fulsome strain. Spare me, I beseech you, dear Madam, let us have no more of this,' he rejoined. was his reply. She still laid it on. Pray, Madam,' Not paying any attention to these warnings, she continued still her eulogy. At length, provoked by this indelicate and vain obtrusion of compliments, he exclaimed, Dearest Lady, consider with yourself what your flattery is worth, before you bestow it so freely.' "How different does this story appear, when accompanied with all those circumstances which 3 Who has been pleased to furnish me with his remarks.— BOSWELL. This "critic" is no doubt Mr. Malone, whose MS. notes on Mrs. Piozzi's "Anecdotes" contain the germs of these criticisms. Several of his similar animadversions have been already noticed, with my reasons for differing essentially from both Boswell and Malone in their estimate of Mrs. Piozzi's work. Mr. Malone's notes were communicated to me by Mr. Markland, who purchased the volume at the sale of the library of the late James Boswell, junior, în 1825.CROKER. really belong to it, but which Mrs. Thrale either did not know, or has suppressed! "She says, in another place, 'One gentleman, how ever, who dined at a nobleman's house in his company, and that of Mr. Thrale, to whom I was obliged for the anecdote, was willing to enter the lists in defence of King William's character; and having opposed and contradicted Johnson two or three times, petulantly enough, the master of the house began to feel uneasy, and expect disagreeable consequences; to avoid which | he said, loud enough for the doctor to hear, 'Our friend has no meaning now in all this, except just to relate at club to-morrow how he teased Johnson at dinner to-day; this is all to do himself honour.' No, upon my word,' replied the other, I see no honour in it, whatever you may do.'-' Well, Sir,' returned Mr. Johnson sternly, if you do not see the honour, I am sure I feel the disgrace.' "This is all sophisticated. Mr. Thrale was not in the company, though he might have related the story to Mrs. Thrale. A friend, from whom I had the story, was present; and it was not at the house of a nobleman. On the observation being made by the master of the house on a gentleman's contradieting Johnson, that he had talked for the honour, &c., the gentleman muttered in a low voice, 'I see no honour in it;' and Dr. Johnson said nothing: so all the rest (though bien trouvé) is mere garnish." I have had occasion several times, in the course of this work, to point out the incorrectness of Mrs. Thrale as to particulars which consisted with my own knowledge. But indeed she has, in flippant terms enough, expressed her disapprobation of that anxious desire of authenticity which prompts a person who is to record conversations to write them down at the moment. Unquestionably, if they are to be recorded at all, the sooner it is done the better. This lady herself says, "To recollect, however, and to repeat the sayings of Dr. Johnson, is almost all that can be done by the writers of his life; as his life, at least since my acquaintance with him, consisted in little else than talking, when he was not employed in some serious piece of work." She boasts of her having kept a commonplace book; and we find she noted, at one time or other, in a very lively manner, specimens of the conversation of Dr. Johnson, and of those who talked with him; but had she done it recently, they probably would have been less erroneous, and we should have been relieved from those disagreeable doubts of their authenticity with which we must now pursue them. She says of him, 1 Mrs. Piozzi may have been right or wrong as to the degree in which Dr. Johnson's indolence operated on those occasions; but at least she was sincere, for she did not conceal from Johnson himself that she thought him negligent in doing small favours: and Mr. Boswell's own work affords several instances in which Johnson exhibits and avows the contradictions in his character which are here imputed to Mrs. Piozzi as total misrepresentations. The truth seems to be that to all the little idle matters about which Mrs. Piozzi teased him, probably too often, he was very indifferent; and she describes him as she found him. -CROKER, "He was the most charitable of mortals, without being what we call an active friend. Admirable at giving counsel, no man saw his way so clearly: but he would not stir a finger for the assistance of those to whom he was willing enough to give advice. And again, on the same page, If you wanted a slight favour, you must apply to people of other dispositions; for not a step would Johnson move to obtain a man a vote in a society, to repay a compliment which might be useful or pleasing, to write a letter of request, &c., or to obtain a hundred pounds a year more for a friend who perhaps had already two or three. No force could urge him to diligence, no importunity could conquer his resolution to stand still." It is amazing that one who had such opportunities of knowing Dr. Johnson should appear so little acquainted with his real character. I am sorry this lady does not advert, that she herself contradicts the assertion of his being obstinately defective in the petites morales, in the little endearing charities of social life in conferring smaller favours; for she says, "Dr. Johnson was liberal enough in granting literary assistance to others, I think; and innumecations which he used to make for people who rable are the prefaces, sermons, lectures, and dedibegged of him.” I am certain that a more active friend has rarely been found in any age. This work, which I fondly hope will rescue his : memory from obloquy, contains a thousand instances of his benevolent exertions in almost every way that can be conceived; and particularly in employing his pen with a generous readiness for those to whom its aid could be useful. Indeed his obliging activity in doing little offices of kindness, both by letters and personal application, was one of the most remarkable features in his character; and for the truth of this I can appeal to a number of his respectable friends: Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Langton, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Burke, Mr. Windham, Mr. Malone, the Bishop of Dromore, Sir William Scott, Sir Robert Chambers. And can Mrs. Thrale forget the advertisements which he wrote for her husband at the time of his election contest; the epitaphs on him and her mother; the playful and even trifling verses for the amusement of her and her daughters, his corresponding with her children, and entering into their minute concerns, which shows him in the most amiable light? She relates "That Mr. Cholmondeley' unexpectedly rode up to Mr. Thrale's carriage, in which Mr. Thrale, 2 George James Cholmondeley, Esq., grandson of George, third Earl of Cholmondeley, and one of the commissioners of excise; a gentleman respected for his abilities and elegance of manners. BosWELL. He was the son of the Mrs. Cholmondeley [p. 349. n. 3.] so often mentioned. When I spoke to him a few years before his death upon this point, I found him very sore at being made the topic of such a debate, and very unwilling to remember any thing about either the offence or the apology. He died in Feb. 1831, ætat. 79. CROKER, 1847. and she, and Dr. Johnson were travelling; that he "With thee conversing, I forget all time." paid them all his proper compliments; but observing that Dr. Johnson, who was reading, did not I certainly, then, do not claim too much i see him, tapped him gently on the shoulder.' behalf of my illustrious friend in saying, that 'Tis Mr. Cholmondeley,' says my husband. however smart and entertaining Mrs. Thrale's 'Well, Sir-and what if it is Mr. Cholmondeley?'"Anecdotes" are, they must not be held a says the other, sternly, just lifting his eyes a moment from his book, and returning to it again with renewed avidity." This surely conveys a notion of Johnson, as if he had been grossly rude to Mr. Cholmondeley, a gentleman whom he always loved and esteemed. If, therefore, there was an absolute necessity for mentioning the story at all, it might have been thought that her tenderness for Dr. Johnson's character would have disposed her to state any thing that could soften it. Why then is there a total silence as to what Mr. Cholmondeley told her? - that Johnson, who had known him from his earliest years, having been made sensible of what had doubtless a strange appearance, took occasion, when he afterwards met him, to make a very courteous and kind apology. There is another little circumstance which I cannot but remark. Her book was published in 1785;_she had then in her possession a letter from Dr. Johnson, dated in 1777, which begins thus: "Cholmondeley's story shocks me, if it be true, which I can hardly think, for I am utterly unconscious of it: I am very sorry, and very much ashamed." Why then publish the anecdote? Or, if she did, why not add the circumstances, with which she was well acquainted? In his social intercourse she thus describes him: : "Ever musing till he was called out to converse, and conversing till the fatigue of his friends, or the promptitude of his own temper to take offence, consigned him back again to silent meditation." Yet in the same book she tells us,"He was, however, seldom inclined to be silent when any moral or literary question was started; and it was on such occasions that, like the sage in Rasselas,' he spoke, and attention watched his lips; he reasoned, and conviction closed his periods." His conversation, indeed, was so far from ever fatiguing his friends, that they regretted when it was interrupted or ceased, and could exclaim in Milton's language, good evidence against him; for wherever an instance of harshness and severity is told I beg leave to doubt its perfect authenticity; though there may have been some foundation for it, yet, like that of his reproof to the "ver celebrated lady," it may be so exhibited. the narration as to be very unlike the rea fact. The evident tendency of the following anee dote is to represent Dr. Johnson as extremer deficient in affection, tenderness, or even common civility. cousin killed in America, - Prithee, my dear (sul "When I one day lamented the loss of a firs he), have done with canting; how would the ward be the worse for it, I may ask, if all your relations were at once spitted like larks, and roasted fr Presto's supper?- Presto was the dog that lay under the table while we talked." I suspect this too of exaggeration and d tortion. I allow that he made her an ang speech; but let the circumstances fairly appea as told by Mr. Baretti', who was present: "Mrs. Thrale, while supping very heartily unt larks, laid down her knife and fork, and abrupt exclaimed, O, my dear Johnson! do you know bu has happened? The last letters from abroad br brought us an account that our poor cousin's beat was taken off by a cannon-ball.' Johnson, wi was shocked both at the fact and her light unferiz, ; manner of mentioning it, replied, Madam, it we give you very little concern if all your relative were spitted like those larks, and dressed iz Presto's supper.' It is with concern that I find myself obli to animadvert on the inaccuracies of MPiozzi's "Anecdotes," and perhaps I may thought to have dwelt too long upon her collection. But as from Johnson's long r sidence under Mr. Thrale's roof, and intimacy with her, the account which she given of him may have made an unfavoura! and unjust impression, my duty, as a fait biographer, has obliged me reluctantly to p form this unpleasing task.3 1 Baretti's evidence is worth nothing against Mrs. Piozzi. -CROKER. 2 Upon mentioning this to my friend Mr. Wilkes, he, with his usual readiness, pleasantly matched it with the following sentimental anecdote. He was invited by a young man of fashion at Paris to sup with him and a lady, who had been for some time his mistress, but with whom he was going to part. He said to Mr. Wilkes that he really felt very much for her, she was in such distress, and that he meant to make her a present of two hundred louis-d'ors. Mr. Wilkes ob. served the behaviour of mademoiselle, who sighed, indeed, very piteously, and assumed every pathetic air of grief, but ate no less than three French pigeons, which are as large as English partridges, besides other things. Mr. Wilkes whispered the gentleman, "We often say in England, ex cessive sorrow is exceeding dry, but I never heard erre sorrow is exceeding hungry. Perhaps one hundred wit The gentleman took the hint. — BOSWELL. 3 Instead of answering seriatim (as I had done in myt edition) Boswell's objections to Mrs. Piozzi's anecdic will here finally state my opinion that, although after deplorable marriage, she had lost much of her revers and all her affection for her guide, philosopher, and fr and was therefore disposed to give a harsh unfavour colour to his character, and though her reports are bling, flippant, and often inaccurate in expressions details, they are never, I believe, intentionally nur stantially untrue, nor at all liable to the sweeping 54 tions that Boswell and Malone make against them. KER, 1847. HAVING left the pious negotiation, as I called it, in the best hands, I shall here insert what relates to it. Johnson wrote to Sir Joshua Reynolds on July 6. as follows: — lordship explained the meaning of the mortgage to be, that he wished the business to be conducted in such a manner, that Dr. Johnson should appear to be under the least possible obligation. Sir Joshua mentioned that he had by the same post communicated all this to Dr. Johnson. How Johnson was affected upon the occasion will appear from what he wrote to Sir Joshua Reynolds: "Ashbourne, Sept. 9. "Many words I hope are not necessary between you and me, to convince you what gratitude is excited in my heart by the Chancellor's liberality, and your kind offices. I have enclosed a letter to the Chancellor, which, when you have read it, you will be pleased to seal with a head, or any other general seal, and convey it to him: had I sent it directly to him, I should have seemed to overlook the favour of your intervention." "I am going, I hope, in a few days, to try the air of Derbyshire, but hope to see you before I go. Let me, however, mention to you what I have much at heart. If the Chancellor should continue his attention to Mr. Boswell's request, and confer TO THE LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR." with you on the means of relieving my languid state, I am very desirous to avoid the appearance of asking money upon false pretences. I desire you to represent to his lordship, what, as soon as it is suggested, he will perceive to be reasonable, that, if I grow much worse, I shall be afraid to leave my physicians, to suffer the inconveniences of travel, and pine in the solitude of a foreign country; that, if I grow much better, of which indeed there is now little appearance, I shall not wish to leave my friends and my domestic comforts, for I do not travel for pleasure or curiosity; yet if I should recover, curiosity would revive. In my present state I am desirous to make a struggle for a little longer life, and hope to obtain some help from a softer climate. Do for me what you can.' He wrote to me July 26. : "I wish your affairs could have permitted a longer and continued exertion of your zeal and kindness. They that have your kindness may want your ardour. In the meantime I am very feeble and very dejected." By a letter from Sir Joshua Reynolds I was informed that the Lord Chancellor had called on him, and acquainted him that the application had not been successful; but that his lordship, after speaking highly in praise of Johnson, as a man who was an honour to his country, desired Sir Joshua to let him know, that on granting a mortgage of his pension, he should draw on his lordship to the amount of five or six hundred pounds, and that his 1 “This offer has in the first view of it the appearance rather of a commercial than a gratuitous transaction; but Sir Joshua clearly understood at the making it that Lord Thurlow designedly put it in that form. He was fearful that Johnson's high spirit would induce him to reject it as a donation, but thought that in the way of loan it might be accepted." Hawkins's Life, p. 571.CROKER. 2 Sir Joshua Reynolds, on account of the excellence both of the sentiment and expression of this letter, took a copy of it, which he showed to some of his friends: one of whom [Lady Lucan, it is said.-C.], who admired it, being allowed to peruse it leisurely at home, a copy was made, and found its way into the newspapers and magazines. It was transcribed with some inaccuracies. I print it from "September, 1784. "MY LORD,-After a long and not inattentive observation of mankind, the generosity of your lordship's offer raises in me not less wonder than gratitude. Bounty, so liberally bestowed, I should gladly receive, if my condition made it necessary; for, to such a mind, who would not be proud to own his obligations? But it has pleased God to restore me to so great a measure of health, that if I should now appropriate so much of a fortune destined to do good, I could not escape from myself the charge of advancing a false claim. My journey to the Continent, though I once thought it necessary, was never much encouraged by my physicians; and I was very desirous that your lordship should be told of it by Sir Joshua Reynolds as an event very uncertain; for if I grew much better, I should not be willing, if much worse, not able, to migrate. Your lordship was first solicited without my knowledge; but, when I was told that you were pleased to honour me with your patronage, I did not expect to hear of a refusal; yet, as I have had no long time to brood hope, and have not rioted in imaginary opulence, this cold reception has been scarce a disappointment; and, from your lordship's kindness, I have received a benefit, which only men like you are able to bestow. I shall now live mihi carior, with a higher opinion of my own merit. I am, my Lord, &c., SAM. JOHNSON." Upon this unexpected failure I abstain from presuming to make any remarks, or to offer any conjectures.3 the original draft in Johnson's own handwriting.. WELL. Bos 3 This affair soon became a topic of conversation, and it was stated that the cause of the failure was the refusal of the King himself; but from the following letter it appears that the matter was never mentioned to his Majesty; that, as time pressed, Lord Thurlow proposed the before-mentioned arrangement as from himself-running the risk of obtaining the King's subsequent approbation when he should have an opportunity of mentioning it to his Majesty. This affords some, and yet not a satisfactory, explanation of the device suggested by Lord Thurlow of Johnson's giving him a mortgage on his pension. But it still seems very strange that Boswell, who evidently was much pained at the idea that the |