24 Dodsley's CLEOne. [A.D. 1780. 'Of Dodsley's Publick Virtue, a Poem, he said, "It was fine blank (meaning to express his usual contempt for blank verse'); however, this miserable poem did not sell, and my poor friend Doddy said, Publick Virtue was not a subject to interest the age."' 'Mr. Langton, when a very young man, read Dodsley's Cleone a Tragedy, to him, not aware of his extreme impatience to be read to. As it went on he turned his face to the back of his chair, and put himself into various attitudes, which marked his uneasiness. At the end of an act, however, he said, "Come let's have some more, let's go into the slaughter-house again, Lanky. But I am afraid there is more blood than brains." Yet he afterwards said, "When I heard you read it, I thought higher of its power of language: when I read it myself, I was more sensible of its pathetick effect;" and then he paid it a compliment which many will think very extravagant. “Sir, (said he,) if Otway had written this play, no other of his pieces would have been remembered." Dodsley himself, upon this being repeated to him, said, "It was too much :" it must be remembered, that Johnson always appeared not to be sufficiently sensible of the merit of Otway'.' 'Snatches of reading, (said he,) will not make a Bentley or a Clarke. They are, however, in a certain degree advantageous. I would put a child into a library, (where no unfit books are,) and let him read at his choice. A child should not be discouraged from reading any thing that he takes a Greek, that while five of them employed themselves in feminine works, the sixth should read a Greek author for the general amusement.' She describes how 'he would get into the most fluent recitation of half a page of Greek, breaking off for fear of wearying, by saying, "and so it goes on," accompanying his words with a gentle wave of his hand.' 2 See ante, i. 377. 1 See post, iv. 50. This assertion concerning Johnson's insensibility to the pathetick powers of Otway, is too round. I once asked him, whether he did not think Otway frequently tender: when he answered, 'Sir, he is all tenderness.' BURNEY. He describes Otway as 'one of the first names in the English drama.' Works, vii. 173. Aetat. 71.] Johnson studies Low Dutch. 25 liking to, from a notion that it is above his reach. If that be the case, the child will soon find it out and desist; if not, he of course gains the instruction; which is so much the more likely to come, from the inclination with which he takes up the study'.' 'Though he used to censure carelessness with great vehemence, he owned, that he once, to avoid the trouble of locking up five guineas, hid them, he forgot where, so that he could not find them.' 'A gentleman who introduced his brother to Dr. Johnson was earnest to recommend him to the Doctor's notice, which he did by saying, "When we have sat together some time, you'll find my brother grow very entertaining.”—“ Sir, (said Johnson,) I can wait."' 'When the rumour was strong that we should have a war, because the French would assist the Americans, he rebuked a friend with some asperity for supposing it, saying, “No, Sir, national faith is not yet sunk so low." 'In the latter part of his life, in order to satisfy himself whether his mental faculties were impaired, he resolved that he would try to learn a new language, and fixed upon the Low Dutch, for that purpose, and this he continued till he had read about one half of Thomas à Kempis; and finding that there appeared no abatement of his power of acquisition, he then desisted, as thinking the experiment had been duly tried'. Mr. Burke justly observed, that this was not the most vigorous trial, Low Dutch being a language so near 2 my 1 See ante, April 16, 1779. Johnson, it seems, twice took up this study. In July, 1773, he recorded that between Easter and Whitsuntide, he attempted to learn the Low Dutch language. My application,' he continues, 'was very slight, and my memory very fallacious, though whether more than in earlier years, I am not very certain.' Pr. and Med. p. 129, and ante, ii. 301. On his death-bed, he said to Mr. Hoole :- About two years since I feared that I had neglected God, and that then I had not a mind to give him; on which I set about to read Thomas à Kempis in Low Dutch, which I accomplished, and thence I judged that my mind was not impaired, Low Dutch having no affinity with any of the languages which I knew.' Croker's Boswell, p. 844. See ante, iii. 266. to 26 Goldsmith's visionary project. [A.D. 1780. to our own; had it been one of the languages entirely dif ferent, he might have been very soon satisfied.' 'Mr. Langton and he having gone to see a Freemason's funeral procession, when they were at Rochester', and some solemn musick being played on French horns, he said, "This is the first time that I have ever been affected by musical sounds;" adding, "that the impression made upon him was of a melancholy kind." Mr. Langton saying, that this effect was a fine one,-JOHNSON. "Yes, if it softens the mind, so as to prepare it for the reception of salutary feelings, it may be good but inasmuch as it is melancholy per se, it is bad'.' 'Goldsmith had long a visionary project, that some time or other when his circumstances should be easier, he would go to Aleppo, in order to acquire a knowledge as far as might be of any arts peculiar to the East, and introduce them into Britain. When this was talked of in Dr. Johnson's company, he said, "Of all men Goldsmith is the most unfit to go out upon such an inquiry; for he is utterly ignorant of such arts as we already possess, and consequently could not know what would be accessions to our present stock of mechanical knowledge. Sir, he would bring home a grinding barrow, which you see in every street in London, and think that he had furnished a wonderful improvement"." 1 See post, under July 5, 1783. 2 See ante, ii. 469, note, and iii. 224, 225. • One of Goldsmith's friends 'remembered his relating [about the year 1756] a strange Quixotic scheme he had in contemplation of going to decipher the inscriptions on the written mountains, though he was altogether ignorant of Arabic, or the language in which they might be supposed to be written.' Goldsmith's Misc. Works, ed. 1801, i. 40. Percy says that Goldsmith applied to the prime minister, Lord Bute, for a salary to enable him to execute 'the visionary project' mentioned in the text. 'To prepare the way, he drew up that ingenious essay on this subject which was first printed in the Ledger, and afterwards in his Citizen of the World [No. 107].' Ib. p. 65. Percy adds that the Earl of Northumberland, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, regretted 'that he had not been made acquainted with his plan; 'Greek, Aetat. 71.] Lord Charles Hay. 27 'Greek, Sir, (said he,) is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can'.' 'When Lord Charles Hay', after his return from America, was preparing his defence to be offered to the Court-Martial which he had demanded, having heard Mr. Langton as high in expressions of admiration of Johnson, as he usually was, he requested that Dr. Johnson might be introduced to him; and Mr. Langton having mentioned it to Johnson, he very kindly and readily agreed; and being presented by Mr. Langton to his Lordship, while under arrest, he saw him several times; upon one of which occasions Lord Charles read to him what he had prepared, which Johnson signified his approbation of, saying, "It is a very good soldierly defence." Johnson said, that he had advised his Lordship, that as it was in vain to contend with those who were in possession of power, if they would offer him the rank of Lieutenant-General, and a government, it would be better judged to desist from urging his complaints. It is well known that his Lordship died before the sentence was made known.' 'Johnson one day gave high praise to Dr. Bentley's verses in Dodsley's Collection, which he recited with his for he would have procured him a sufficient salary on the Irish establishment.' Goldsmith, in his review of Van Egmont's Travels in Asia, says:- Could we see a man set out upon this journey [to Asia] not with an intent to consider rocks and rivers, but the manners, and the mechanic inventions, and the imperfect learning of the inhabitants; resolved to penetrate into countries as yet little known, and eager to pry into all their secrets, with an heart not terrified at trifling dangers; if there could be found a man who could unite thus true courage with sound learning, from such a character we might hope much information.' Goldsmith's Works, ed. 1854, iv. 225. Johnson would have gone to Constantinople, as he himself said, had he received his pension twenty years earlier. See post, iv. 33. 'It should be remembered, that this was said twenty-five or thirty years ago, [written in 1799,] when lace was very generally worn. MALONE. 'Greek and Latin,' said Porson, ' are only luxuries.' Rogers's Table-Talk, p. 325. 2 See ante, iii. 10. ' Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Cowley, says, that these are 'the only 28. Dr. Bentley's Verses. [A.D. 1780. usual energy. Dr. Adam Smith, who was present, observed in his decisive professorial manner, "Very well-Very well." English verses which Bentley is known to have written.' I shall here insert them, and hope my readers will apply them. 'Who strives to mount Parnassus' hill, Who studies ancient laws and rites, Who travels in religious jars, (Truth mixt with errour, shades with rays;) Like Whiston, wanting pyx or stars, In ocean wide or sinks or strays. But grant our hero's hope, long toil Yet what reward, or what renown? Envy, innate in vulgar souls, Envy steps in and stops his rise, He lives inglorious or in want, To college and old books confin'd; Dunces advanc'd, he's left behind: Great without patron, rich without South Sea.' In Mr. Croker's octavo editions, arts in the fifth stanza is changed into hearts. J. Boswell, jun., gives the following reading of the first four lines of the last stanza, not from Dodsley's Collection, but from an earlier one, called The Grove. Johnson |