fectly reconciled, and he consented to write an inscription for her tomb a few years afterwards. Whatever petty squabbles might have arisen out of the overbearing and impatient manners of Johnson, it is quite certain that this family contributed for fifteen years to the prolongation and comfort of his valuable life; and when the benevolent master of this social circle sank into the grave, the remembrance of his kindness was acknowledged by the living object of his regard, with the confession, that with him were buried many of his hopes and pleasures; that the face upon which he had looked for the last time, had never been turned upon him but with respect and benignity; that he obtained from him many opportunities of amusement, and turned to him as a refuge from disappointment and misfortune.

The death of Mr. Thrale took place April 4, 1781. Dr. Johnson was with him when he expired, and upon receiving a call to attend a meeting of the literary club, excused his absence by the following note:

"Mr. Johnson knows that Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the other gentlemen, will excuse his incompliance with his call, when they are told that Mr. Thrale died this morning.

"April 4, 1781."

The death of this worthy and hospitable man was a serious loss to Johnson, who, although he could not foresee all that afterwards happened, was sufficiently convinced, that the comforts which Mr. Thrale's family afforded him, would now, in a great measure cease. "He, however (says Boswell) continued to shew a kind attention to his widow and children, as long as it was acceptable; and he took upon him with a very earnest concern the office of one of the executors, the importance of which seemed greater than was usual to him, from his circumstances having been always such, that he had scarcely any share in the real business of life. His friends of the club were in hopes that Mr. Thrale might have made a liberal provision for him for life, which, as Mr. Thrale had left no son, and a very large fortune, it would have been highly to his honour to have done; and, considering Dr. Johnson's

age, could not have been of long duration; but he bequeathed him only two hundred pounds, which was the legacy left to each of his two executors."

The death of Mr. Thrale, who was wont, when occasion required, to overrule by some gentle observation the domineering and tyrannical spirit which Dr. Johnson evinced in conversation, left him, as it were, virtual monarch of the fireside; and the consequence was, that he began to exercise his unlimited power of insulting Mrs. Thrale's friends, to so annoying an extent, that it was extremely difficult for her to find any body with whom he could converse, without living always on the verge of a quarrel, or of something too like a quarrel to be at all agreeable. Several instances of his aristocratical severity towards her friends have been detailed by her, and admitted by Boswell, which must have rendered his society rather a nuisance, than an acquisition*. Nor were these disagreeables of unfrequent occurrence: to release herself from them altogether without positively offending the Doctor, Mrs. Thrale took advantage of an unsuccessful law

* Mr. Thrale (says Mrs. Piozzi, in her anecdotes) had a very powerful influence over the Doctor, and could make him suppress many rough answers; he could likewise prevail on him to change his shirt, his coat, or his plate, before it became indispensably necessary to the comfortable feelings of his friends. But as I never had any ascendancy over Dr. Johnson, except just in the things which concerned his health, it grew extremely perplexing and difficult to live in the house with him, when the master of it was no more; the worse, indeed, because his dislikes grew capricious; and he could scarce bear to have any body come to the house, whom it was absolutely necessary for me to see. Two gentlemen, I perfectly well remember dining with us at Streatham, in the summer of 1782, when Elliot's brave defence of Gibraltar was a subject of common discourse; one of these persons, naturally enough, began talking about red-hot balls thrown with surprising effect; which Dr. Johnson having listened some time to, 'I would advise you, Sir, (said he, with a cold sneer,) never to relate this story again; you can scarce imagine how very poor a figure you make in the telling of it!' Our guest being bred a Quaker, and a man of extremely gentle disposition, needed no more reproofs for the same offence; or if he did speak again, it was in a low tone of voice to the friend who came with him. The check was given before dinner, and after coffee. When in the evening, however, our companions were returned to town, and Dr. Johnson and I were alone, he observed, I did not quarrel with those fellows.' 'You did perfectly right,' said I, for they gave you no cause of offence.' No offence,' (returned he, with an altered voice,) and is it nothing to sit whispering together when I am present, without even directing their discourse towards me, or offering me a share in the conversation?'

suit, and pleaded her pecuniary inability to remain longer in London, or its vicinity. "I had been crossed in my intention of going abroad, (says this lady in her anecdotes,) and found it convenient for every reason, of health, peace, and pecuniary circumstances, to retire to Bath, where I knew Dr. Johnson would not follow me, and where I could for that reason command some little portion of time for my own use,—a thing impossible while I remained at Streatham or at London, as my horses, carriage, and servants, had long been at his command, who would not ride in the morning till twelve o'clock, perhaps, and oblige me to make breakfast for him, till the bell rung for dinner, though much displeased if the toilet was neglected; and though much of the time we passed together in blaming or deriding very justly my neglect of economy, and waste of that money which might make many families happy. The original reason of our connection, his particu larly disordered health and spirits, had long been at an end, and he had no other ailments than old age and general infirmity, which every professor of medicine was ardently zealous, and generally attentive to palliate, and to contribute all in their power for the prolongation of so valuable a life. 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 years, made me go on so long with Dr. Johnson; but the perpetual confinement, I will own to have been terrifying in the first years of our friendship, and irksome in the last; nor would I pretend to support it without help, when my coadjutor was no more. To the assistance we gave him, the shelter our house afforded to his uneasy fancies, and to the pains which we took to soothe or repress them, the world, perhaps, is indebted for the three Political Tracts, the new edition and corrections of his Dictionary, and for the Poets' Lives, which he would scarce have lived, I think, and kept his faculties entire, to have written, had not incessant care been exerted at the time of his first coming to be our guest in the country; and several times after that, when he found him

self particularly oppressed with diseases incident to the most vivid and fervent imaginations. I shall for ever consider it as the greatest honour which could be conferred on any one, to have been the confidential friend of Dr. Johnson's health; and to have in some measure, with Mr. Thrale's assistance, saved from distress at least, if not from worse, a mind, greatly beyond the comprehension of common mortals, and good beyond all hope of imitation from perishable beings."

This statement, apparently candid, and free from the invidiousness imputed by Boswell to Mrs. Thrale, was in all probability perfectly warranted by the behaviour of Dr. Johnson, whose repulsive manners are described as being endured with far less forbearance by the wife of his biographer.

"The death of Mrs. Thrale (remarks Boswell), made a very material alteration with respect to Johnson's reception in that family. The manly authority of the husband no longer curbed the lively exuberance of the lady; and as her vanity had been fully gratified by having the colossus of literature attached to her for many years, she gradually became less. assiduous to please him." There is great want of generosity in these insinuations. The yoke imposed upon Mrs. Thrale, from the earliest stage of her connexion with Dr. Johnson, appears to have been by no means voluntary; and although her respect for his transcendant talents and eminent virtues induced her, through a long series of years, to the manifest inconve nience of herself and family, to retain him as an inmate in her house, humour his caprices, and contribute to his comfort by the most minute, and even affectionate attentions, there could be no satisfactory reason why, when duty to her husband no longer required the sacrifice, she should, for his sake, quarrel with the whole circle of her acquaintance, and subject herself to his peevish and unqualified animadversions upon her conduct, simply because his genius commanded her admiration, and the moral points of his character obtained her respect. It is impossible to blame her with any degree of justice for desiring to get rid of so troublesome a tax upon her time and attention.

She seems to have formed a proper estimate of the noble qualities of this great man; but there was no tie between them which could warrant the expectation that she was to sacrifice her comfort and happiness exclusively to his convenience.

Desirous, however, of retaining his good opinion, she bore her thraldom without open complaint, and waited patiently until an opportunity presented itself for her to obtain her release, without paining the feelings of Dr. Johnson; and her continued correspondence with him, so long as her letters appeared to give him any pleasure, is a proof that she was actuated by no unkind sentiments towards him.

Epistolary intercourse of a very cordial description was kept alive between Mrs. Thrale and the Doctor until her second marriage, with Signior Piozzi, a native of Florence, and a music-master of the city of Bath, when an expostulation on the part of Johnson, implying his disapprobation of this step, seems altogether to have dissolved their friendship. On this occasion we must confess that our verdict of condemnation rests almost entirely with the lady; for the tone of remonstrance in which Dr. Johnson's letter was couched, was no more than, as an old and intimate friend, he was fully justified in adopting; as there is no question but that the respectability of Mrs. Thrale was in nowise increased by her second marriage, at the age of forty-four years, with an Italian music-master. We shall enable our readers to judge of the propriety of the opinion, by citing Mrs. Piozzi's letter to Dr. Johnson, informing him of the event, and the reply, at which she thought proper to take such unnecessary and, as we conceive, unprovoked offence.

"Bath, June 20. 1784.

"MY DEAR SIR, The enclosed is a circular letter which I have sent to all the guardians; but our friendship demands something more; it requires that I should beg your pardon for concealing from you a connection 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