1783.

Etat. 74.

the Poets," in which he fays, "I beg your acceptance of thefe volumes, as an acknowledgement of the great favours which you have beftowed on, Sir, your moft obliged and moft humble fervant." I have in my poffeffion feveral more letters from him to Mr. Cruikshank, and alfo to Dr. Mudge at Plymouth, which it would be improper to infert, as they are filled with unpleafing technical details. I fhall, however, extract from his letters to Dr. Mudge fuch paffages as fhew either a felicity of expreffion, or the undaunted ftate of his mind.

"My conviction of your skill, and my belief of your friendship, determine me to intreat your opinion and advice."-" In this ftate I with great earnestnefs defire you to tell me what is to be done. Excifion is doubtless neceffary to the cure, and I know not any means of palliation. The operation is doubtless painful; but is it dangerous? The pain I hope to endure with decency; but I am loth to put life into much hazard."-" By representing the gout as an antagonist to the palfy, you have faid enough to make it welcome. This is not ftrictly the first fit, but I hope it is as good as the firft; for it is the fecond that ever confined me; and the first was ten years ago, much less fierce and fiery than this."-"Write, dear Sir, what you can, to inform or encourage me. The operation is not delayed by any fears or objections of mine.”

Happily the complaint abated without his being put to the torture of amputation. But we must furely admire the manly refolution which he discovered while it hung over him.

"DEAR SIR,

To BENNET LANGTON, Efq.

"YOU may very reafonably charge me with infenfibility of your kindness, and that of Lady Rothes, fince I have suffered so much time to pafs without paying any acknowledgement. I now, at laft, return my thanks; and why I did it not fooner I ought to tell you. I went into Wiltfhire as foon as I well could, and was there much employed in palliating my own malady. Disease produces much selfishness. A man in pain is looking after eafe; and lets most other things go as chance fhall difpofe of them. In the mean time I have loft a companion, to whom I have had recourfe for domestick amufement for thirty years, and whose variety of knowledge never was exhaufted; and now return to a habitation vacant and defolate. carry about a very troublefome and dangerous complaint, which admits no cure but by the chirurgical knife. Let me have your prayers. I am, &c. SAM. JOHNSON."

I

London, Sept. 29, 1783.

1783.

In his next letter to the fame gentleman he writes, "The gout has within thefe four days come upon me with a violence which I never experienced Atat. 74. before. It made me helplefs as an infant."And in the following, having mentioned Mrs. Williams, fays, "Whofe death following that of Levett, has now made my houfe a folitude. She left her little fubftance to a charityschool. She is, I hope, where there is neither darkness, nor want, nor forrow."

I wrote to him, begging to know the state of his health, and mentioned that "Baxter's Anacreon, which is in the library at Auchinleck, was, 1 find, collated by my father in 1727, with the M. S. belonging to the University of Leyden, and he has made a number of Notes upon it. Would you advife me to publish a new edition of it ?"

His answer was dated September 30.-" You fhould not make your letters fuch rarities, when you know, or might know, the uniform ftate of my health. It is very long fince I heard from you; and that I have not answered is a very infufficient reason for the filence of a friend.-Your Anacreon is a very uncommon book; neither London nor Cambridge can fupply a copy of that edition. Whether it fhould be reprinted, you cannot do better than confult Lord Hailes.-Befides my conftant and radical disease, I have been for these ten days much harraffed with the gout, but that has now remitted. I hope GOD will yet grant me a little longer life, and make me lefs unfit to appear before him."

He this autumn received a vifit from the celebrated Mrs. Siddons. He gives this account of it in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale:-" Mrs. Siddons, in her visit to me, behaved with great modefty and propriety, and left nothing behind her to be cenfured or defpifed. Neither praise nor money, the two powerful corrupters of mankind, feem to have depraved her. I fhall be glad to fee her again. Her brother Kemble calls on me, and pleases me very well. Mrs. Siddons and I talked of plays; and fhe told me her intention of exhibiting this winter the characters of Conftance, Catherine, and Ifabella, in Shakspeare."

Mr. Kemble has favoured me with the following minute of what paffed at this vifit.

"When Mrs. Siddons came into the room, there happened to be no chair ready for her, which he obferving, faid with a smile, Madam, you who so often occafion a want of feats to other people, will the more eafily excufe the want of one yourself.'

1783.

Etat. 74.

ce

Having placed himself by her, he with great good humour entered upon a confideration of the English drama; and, among other enquiries, particularly asked her which of Shakspeare's characters she was most pleased with. Upon her answering that the thought the character of Queen Catherine in Henry the Eighth the moft natural. I think fo too, Madam, (faid he;) and whenever you perform it I will once more hobble out to the theatre myfelf.' Mrs. Siddons promifed fhe would do herself the honour of acting his favourite part for him; but many circumstances happened to prevent the representation of King Henry the Eighth during the Doctor's life.

"In the course of the evening he thus gave his opinion upon the merits of fome of the principal performers whom he remembered to have seen upon the stage. Mrs. Porter, in the vehemence of rage, and Mrs. Clive in the sprightliness of humour, I have never feen equalled. What Clive did best, fhe did better than Garrick; but could not do half fo many things well; she was a better romp than any I ever faw in nature. Pritchard, in common life, was a vulgar ideot; fhe would talk of her gownd: but, when she appeared upon the stage, seemed to be inspired by gentility and understanding. I once talked with Colley Cibber, and thought him ignorant of the principles of his art. Garrick, Madam, was no declaimer; there was not one of his own scene-shifters who could not have spoken To be, or not to be, better than he did; yet he was the only actor I ever faw whom I could call a mafter both in tragedy and comedy; though I liked him beft in comedy. A true conception of character, and natural expreffion of it were his diftinguishing excellencies.' Having expatiated, with his ufual force and eloquence, on Mr. Garrick's extraordinary eminence as an actor, he concluded with this compliment to his focial talents: And after all, Madam, I thought him lefs to be envied on the stage than at the head of a table.”

Johnson, indeed, had thought more upon the fubject of acting than might be generally fuppofed. Talking of it one day to Mr. Kemble, he faid, “Are you, Sir, one of those enthusiasts who believe yourself transformed into the very character you reprefent." Upon Mr. Kemble's anfwering that he had never felt so strong a perfuafion himself; "To be fure not, Sir, (faid Johnson). The thing is impoffible. And if Garrick really believed himself to be that monster Richard the Third, he deferved to be hanged every time he performed it."

A pleasing instance of the generous attention of one of his friends has been discovered by the publication of Mrs. Thrale's collection of Letters. In a

I

letter to one of the Miss Thrales 4, he writes, "A friend, whose name I will 1783. tell when your mamma has tried to guess it, fent to my physician to enquire Etat. 74. whether this long train of illness had brought me into difficulties for want of money, with an invitation to fend to him for what occasion required. fhall write this night to thank him, having no need to borrow." And afterwards, in a letter to Mrs. Thrale, "Since you cannot guefs, I will tell you, that the generous man was Gerard Hamilton. I returned hím a very thankful and refpectful letter "."

I applied to Mr. Hamilton, by a common friend, and he has been fo obliging as to let me have Johnson's letter to him upon this occafion, to adorn my collection.

To the Right Honourable WILLIAM GERARD HAMILTON.

"DEAR SIR,

"YOUR kind enquiries after my affairs, and your generous offers have been communicated to me by Dr. Brocklesby. I return thanks with great fincerity, having lived long enough to know what gratitude is due to fuch friendship; and entreat that my refufal may not be imputed to fullenness or pride. I am, indeed, in no want. Sickness is, by the generofity of my phyficians, of little expence to me. But if any unexpected exigence should prefs me, you shall fee, dear Sir, how cheerfully I can be obliged to fo much liberality. I am, Sir, your moft obedient and most humble fervant,

"Nov. 19, 1783.

SAM. JOHNSON."

I find in this, as in former years, notices of his kind attention to Mrs. Gardiner, who, though in the humble station of a tallow-chandler upon Snow-hill, was a woman of excellent good fenfe, pious, and charitable. She told me, she had been introduced to him by Mrs. Masters the poetess, whofe volumes he revised, and, it is faid, illuminated here and there with a ray of his own genius. Mrs. Gardiner was very zealous for the fupport of a Welch charity-school; and Johnson this year, I find, obtained for it a fermon from the late Bishop of St. Afaph, Dr. Shipley, whom he, in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale, characterifes as "knowing and converfible;" and whom all who knew his Lordship, even those who differed from him in politicks, remember with much respect.

1783. བ

Etat. 74.

The Earl of Carlisle having written a tragedy entitled "THE FATHER'S REVENGE," some of his Lordship's friends applied to Mrs. Chapone, to prevail on Dr. Johnfon to read and give his opinion of it, which he accordingly did, in a letter to that lady. Sir Joshua Reynolds having informed me that this letter was in Lord Carlifle's poffeffion, though not fortunate enough to have the honour of being known to his Lordship, trufting to the general courtesy of literature, I wrote to him, requesting the favour of a copy of it, and to be permitted to infert it in my life of Dr. Johnson. His Lordfhip was fo good as to comply with my requeft, and has thus enabled me to enrich my work with a very fine piece of writing, which displays at once the critical skill and politenefs of my illuftrious friend; and perhaps the curiosity which it will excite, may induce the noble and elegant authour to gratify the world by the publication of a performance, of which Dr. Johnson has fpoken in fuch terms.

"MADAM,

6

To Mrs. CHAPONE.

"BY fending the tragedy to me a fecond time", I think that a very honourable distinction has been fhewn me, and I did not delay the perufal, of which I am now to tell the effect.

"The conftruction of the play is not completely regular; the stage is too often vacant, and the scenes are not fufficiently connected. This, however, would be called by Dryden only a mechanical defect; which takes away little from the power of the poem, and which is feen rather than felt.

"A rigid examiner of the diction might, perhaps, wish some words changed, and fome lines more vigorously terminated. But from fuch petty imperfections what writer was ever free?

"The general form and force of the dialogue is of more importance. It feems to want that quickness of reciprocation which characterises the English drama, and is not always fufficiently fervid or animated.

"Of the fentiments, I remember not one that I wished omitted. In the imagery I cannot forbear to distinguish the comparison of joy fucceeding grief

A few copies only of this tragedy have been printed, and given to the authour's friends.

7 Dr. Johnson, having been very ill when the tragedy was first sent to him, had declined the confideration of it.

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