LAUDER'S FORGERIES His just abhorrence of Milton's political notions was ever strong. But this did not prevent his warm admiration of Milton's great poetical merit, to which he has done illustrious justice, beyond all who have written upon the subject. And this year he not only wrote a Prologue, which was spoken by Mr. Garrick before the acting of "Comus at Drury-lane theatre, for the benefit of Milton's grand-daughter, but took a very zealous interest in the success of the charity. On the day preceding the performance he_published the following letter in the "General Advertiser," addressed to the printer of that paper : 66 SIR, "THAT a certain degree of reputation is acquired merely by approving the works of genius, and testifying a regard to the memory of authors, is a truth too evident to be denied; and celebrated poet, many, who would, perhaps, have contributed to starve him when alive, have heaped expensive pageants on his grave. therefore to ensure a participation of fame with a "It must, indeed, be confessed, that this method of becoming known to posterity with honour, is peculiar to the great, or at least to the wealthy; but an opportunity now offers for almost every individual to secure the praise of paying a just regard to the illustrious dead, united with the pleasure of doing good to the living. To assist industrious indigence, struggling with distress and debilitated by age, is a display of virtue, and an acquisition of happiness and honour. "Whoever, then, would be thought capable of pleasure in reading the works of our incomparable Milton, and not so destitute of gratitude as to refuse to lay out a trifle in rational and elegant entertainment, for the benefit of his living remains, for the exercise of their own virtue, the increase of their reputation, and the pleasing consciousness of doing good, should appear at Drury-lane theatre to-morrow, April 5, when 'Comus' will be performed for the benefit of Mrs. Elizabeth Foster, grand-daughter to the author, and the only surviving branch of his family.2 "N.B. There will be a new prologue on the occasion, written by the author of 'Irene,' and spoken by Mr. Garrick; and, by particular desire, there will be added to the Masque a dramatic satire, called 'Lethe,' in which Mr. Garrick will perform." 75 In 1751 we are to consider him as carrying on both his Dictionary and “Rambler. But he also wrote "The Life of Cheynel,"* in the miscellany called "The Student"; and the Reverend Dr. Douglas having with uncommon acuteness clearly detected a gross forgery and imposition upon the public by William Lauder, a Scotch schoolmaster, who had, with equal impudence and ingenuity, represented Milton as a plagiary from certain modern Latin poets, Johnson, who had been so far imposed upon as to furnish a Preface and Postscript to his work, now dictated a letter for Lauder, addressed to Dr. Douglas, acknowledging his fraud in terms of suitable contrition.3 This extraordinary attempt of Lauder was no sudden effort. He had brooded over it for many years: and to this hour it is uncertain what his principal motive was, unless it were a vain notion of his superiority, in being able, by whatever means, to deceive mankind. To effect this, he produced certain passages from Grotius, Masenius, and others, which had a faint resemblance to some parts of the "Paradise Lost." In these he intertranslation of that poem, alleging that the polated some fragments of Hog's Latin mass thus fabricated was the archetype 3 Lest there should be any person, at any future period, absurd enough to suspect that Johnson was a partaker in Lauder's fraud, or had any knowledge of it, when he assisted him with his masterly pen, it is proper here to quote the words of Dr. Douglas, now Bishop of Salisbury, at the time, when he detected the imposition. "It is to be hoped, nay it is expected, that the elegant and nervous writer, whose judicious sentiments and inimitable style point out the author of Lauder's Preface and Postscript, will no longer allow one to plume himself with his feathers, who appeareth so little to deserve assistance; an assistance which I am persuaded would never have been communicated, had there been the least suspicion of those facts which I have been the instrument of conveying to the world in these sheets. Milton no Plagiary, 2nd edit. p. 78. And his Lordship has been pleased now to authorize me to say, in the strongest manner, that there is no ground whatever for any unfavourable reflection against Dr. Johnson, who expressed the strongest indignation against Lauder. B. Lauder afterwards went to Barbadoes, where he tried to keep a school, but fell into general contempt, and died very miserably about the year 1771. See Lockhart's Life of Scott, iii. 294, for an attempt to play a similar trick on Scott. from which Milton copied. These fabrications he published from time to time in the "Gentleman's Magazine"; and, exulting in his fancied success, he in 1750 ventured to collect them into a pamphlet, entitled "An Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the Moderns in his Paradise Lost." To this pamphlet Johnson wrote a Preface, in full persuasion of Lauder's honesty, and a Postscript recommending, in the most persuasive terms, a subscription for the relief of a grand-daughter of Milton, of whom he thus speaks: "It is yet in the power of a great people to reward the poet whose name they boast, and from their alliance to whose genius they claim some kind of superiority to every other nation of the earth; that poet, whose works may possibly be read when every other monument of British greatness shall be obliterated; to reward him, not with pictures or with medals, which, if he sees, he sees with contempt, but with tokens of gratitude, which he, perhaps, may even now consider as not unworthy the regard of an immortal spirit." the general zeal of men of genius and "Among the inquiries to which this ardour of criticism has naturally given occasion, none is more obscure in itself, or more worthy of rational curiosity, than a retrospection of the progress of this mighty genius in the construction of his work; a view of the fabric gradually rising, perhaps, from small beginnings, till its foundation rests in the centre, and its turrets sparkle in the skies; to trace back the structure through all its varieties, to the simplicity of its first plan; to find what was first projected, whence the scheme was taken, how it was improved, by what assistance it was executed, and from what stores the materials were collected; whether its founder dug them from the quarries of Nature, or demolished other buildings to embellish his own."1 Is this the language of one who wished to blast the laurels of Milton? Though Johnson's circumstances were at this time far from being easy, his humane and charitable disposition was constantly, Mrs. Anna Williams, exerting itself. enmity Surely this is inconsistent with "I could all along observe that Johnson seemed to approve not only of the design, but of the argument; and seemed to exult in a persuasion, that the reputation of Milton was likely to suffer by this discovery. That he was not privy to the imposture, I am well persuaded; that he wished well to the argument, may be inferred from the Preface, which indubitably was written by Johnson." 66 Is it possible for any man of clear judgment to suppose that Johnson, who so nobly praised the poetical excellence of Milton in a Postscript to this very discovery," as he then supposed it, could, at the same time, exult in a persuasion that the great poet's reputation was likely to suffer by it? This is an inconsistency of which Johnson was incapable; nor can any thing more be fairly inferred from the Preface, than that Johnson, who was alike distinguished for ardent curiosity and love of truth, was pleased with an investigation by which both were gratified. That he was actuated by these motives, and certainly by no unworthy desire to depreciate our great epic poet, is evident from his own words; for, after mentioning daughter of a very ingenious Welsh physician, and a woman of more than ordinary_talents and literature, having come to London in hopes of being cured of a cataract in both her eyes, which afterwards ended in total blindness, was kindly received as a constant visitor at his house while Mrs. Johnson lived; and, after her death, having come under his roof in order to have an operation upon her eyes performed with more comfort to her than in lodgings, she had an apartment from him during the rest of her life, at all times when he had a house. In 1752 he was almost entirely occupied with his Dictionary. The last paper of his "Rambler" was published March 14 this year; after which, there was a cessation for some time of any exertion of his talents as an essayist. But in the same year, Dr. Hawkesworth, who was his warm admirer, and a studious imitator of his style, 1 Proposals (written evidently by Johnson) for printing the Adamus Exul of Grotius, with a Translation and Notes by Wm. Lauder, A. M. Gent. Mag. 1747, vol. 17, p. 404. But Croker is right in maintaining that it was Johnson's duty to have taken some trouble to verify Lauder's. Had charges before writing a preface to them. he done so in a single instance the imposture could not have stood for a moment. DEATH OF MRS. JOHNSON indulge : 77 "April 26, 1752, being after 12 at night of the 25th. and then lived in great intimacy with him, always maintained and am fond to began a periodical paper, entitled, "THE ADVENTURER,' " in connection with other gentlemen, one of whom was Johnson's much-loved friend, Dr. Bathurst; and, without doubt, they received many valuable hints from his conversation, most of his friends having been so assisted in the course of their works. That there should be a suspension of his literary labours during a part of the year 1752, will not seem strange, when it is considered that soon after closing his "Rambler," he suffered a loss which, there can be no doubt, affected him with the deepest distress. For on the 17th of March, O. S. his wife died. Why Sir John Hawkins should unwarrantably take upon him even to suppose that Johnson's fondness for her was dissembled (meaning simulated or assumed), and to assert, that if it was not the case, "it was a lesson he had learned by rote," I cannot conceive; unless it proceeded from a want of similar feelings in his own breast. To argue from her being much older than Johnson, or any other circumstances, that he could not really love her, is absurd; for love is not a subject of reasoning, but of feeling, and therefore there are no common principles upon which one can persuade another concerning it. Every man feels for himself, and knows how he is affected by particular qualities in the person he admires, the impressions of which are too minute and delicate to be substantiated in language. of The following very solemn and affecting prayer was found after Dr. Johnson's decease, by his servant, Mr. Francis Barber, who delivered it to my worthy friend the Reverend Mr. Strahan, Vicar of Islington, who at my earnest request has obligingly favoured me with a copy it, which he and I compared with the original. I present it to the world as an undoubted proof of a circumstance in the character of my illustrious friend, which, though some whose hard minds I never shall envy, may attack as superstitious, will I am sure endear him more to numbers of good men. I have an additional, and that a personal motive for presenting it, because it sanctions what I myself have "O Lord! Governor of heaven and earth, in whose hands are embodied and departed Spirits, if thou hast ordained the Souls of the Dead to minister to the Living, and appointed my departed Wife to have care of me, grant that I may enjoy the good effects of her attention and ministration, whether exercised by appearance, impulses, dreams, or in any other manner agreeable to thy Government. Forgive my presumption, enlighten my ignorance, and however meaner agents are employed, grant me the blessed influences of thy holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." What actually followed upon this most interesting piece of devotion by Johnson, we are not informed; but I, whom it has pleased God to afflict in a similar manner to that which occasioned it, have certain experience of benignant communication by dreams. That his love for his wife was of the most ardent kind, and, during the long period of fifty years, was unimpaired by the lapse of time, is evident from various passages in the series of his "Prayers and Meditations," published by the Reverend Mr. Strahan, as well as from other memorials, two of which I select, as strongly marking the tenderness and sensibility of his mind. "March 28, 1753. I kept this day as the an niversary of my Letty's death, with prayer and tears in the morning. In the evening I prayed for her conditionally, if it were lawful." "April 23, 1753. I know not whether I do not too much indulge the vain longings of affection; but I hope they intenerate my heart, and that when I die like my Tetty, this affection will be acknowledged in a happy interview, and that in the mean time I am incited by it to piety. I will, however, not deviate too much from common and received methods of devotion." Her wedding-ring, when she became his wife, was, after her death, preserved by him, as long as he lived, with an affectionate care, in a little round wooden box, in the inside of which he pasted a slip of paper, thus inscribed by him in fair characters, as follows: "Eheu! Eliz. Johnson, Nupta Jul. 9° 1736 Mortua, eheu! Mart. 17° 1752. After his death, Mr. Francis Barber, his faithful servant, and residuary legatee, offered this memorial of tenderness to Mrs. Lucy Porter, Mrs. Johnson's daughter; but she having declined to accept of it, he had it enamelled as a mourning-ring for his old master, and presented it to his wife, Mrs. Barber, who now has it. The state of mind in which a man must be upon the death of a woman whom he sincerely loves, had been in his contemplation many years before. In his "IRENE," we find the following fervent and tender speech of Demetrius, addressed to his Aspasia : "From those bright regions of eternal day, Array'd in purer light, look down on me! agitation. After being a little while together, Johnson requested him to join with him in prayer. He then prayed extempore, as did Dr. Taylor; and thus by means of that piety which was ever his primary object, his troubled mind was, in some degree, soothed and composed. The next day he wrote as follows: "TO THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR. tion. Do not live away from me. "Pray desire Mrs. Taylor to inform me what "March 18, 1752." his wife were severe, beyond what are That his sufferings upon the death of commonly endured, I have no doubt, from the information of many who were then about him, to none of whom I give more credit than to Mr. Francis Barber, his faithful negro servant, who came into his family about a fortnight after the dismal event. These sufferings were aggravated by the melancholy inherent in his constitution; and although he probably was not oftener in the wrong than she was, in the little disagreements which sometimes troubled his married state, during which, he owned to me, that the gloomy irritability of his existence was more painful to him than ever, he might very naturally, I have, indeed, been told by Mrs. Desmoulins, who before her marriage, lived for some time with Mrs. Johnson at Hampstead, that she indulged herself in country air and nice living at an unsuitable expense, while her husband was drudging in the smoke of London, and that she by no means treated him with that complacency which is the most engaging quality in a wife. But all this is perfectly compatible with his fondness for her, especially when it is remembered that he had a high opinion of her understanding, and that the impressions which her beauty, real or imaginary, had originally made upon his fancy, being continued by habit, had not been effaced, though she herself was doubtless much altered for 1 Francis Barber was born in Jamaica, and was the worse. The dreadful shock of sepa- brought to England in 1750 by Colonel Bathurst, ration took place in the night; and he father of Johnson's very intimate friend, Dr. Bathurst. He was sent, for some time, to the immediately dispatched a letter to his Reverend Mr. Jackson's school, at Barton, in friend, the Reverend Dr. Taylor, which, Yorkshire. The Colonel by his will left him his as Taylor told me, expressed grief in the freedom, and Dr. Bathurst was willing that he should enter into Johnson's service, in which he strongest manner he had ever read; so continued from 1752 till Johnson's death, with that it is much to be regretted it has not the exception of two intervals; in one of which, been preserved. The letter was brought upon some difference with his master, he went to Dr. Taylor, at his house in the Cloi- and served an apothecary in Cheapside, but still visited Dr. Johnson occasionally; in another, he sters, Westminster, about three in the took a fancy to go to sea. Part of the time, morning; and as it signified an earnest indeed, he was, by the kindness of his master, at desire to see him, he got up, and went a school in Northamptonshire, that he might to Johnson as soon as he was dressed, and so lasting a connexion was there between have the advantage of some learning. So early, and found him in tears and in extreme | Dr. Johnson and this humble friend. B. HIS LOVE FOR HER وو after her death, be tenderly disposed to charge himself with slight omissions and offences, the sense of which would give him much uneasiness.1 Accordingly we find, about a year after her decease, that he thus addressed the Supreme Being: "O LORD, who givest the grace of repentance, and hearest the prayers of the penitent, grant that by true contrition I may obtain forgiveness of all the sins committed, and of all duties neglected, in my union with the wife whom thou hast taken from me; for the neglect of joint devotion, patient exhortation, and mild instruction (Prayers and Meditations, p. 19). The kindness of his heart, notwithstanding the impetuosity of his temper, is well known to his friends; and I cannot trace the smallest foundation for the following dark and uncharitable assertion by Sir John Hawkins: "The apparition of his departed wife was altogether of the terrific kind, and hardly afforded him a hope that she was in a state of happiness (Life of Johnson, p. 216). That he, in conformity with the opinion of many of the most able, learned, and pious Christians in all ages, supposed that there was a middle state after death, previous to the time at which departed souls are finally received to eternal felicity, appears, I think, unquestionably from his devotions: 66 And, O LORD, so far as it may be lawful in me, I commend to thy fatherly goodness the soul of my departed wife; beseeching thee to grant her whatever is best in her present state, and finally to receive her to eternal happiness (Prayers and Meditations, p. 20). But See Rambler (54):-"I asked him," writes Mrs. Piozzi in her Ancedotes, "if he ever disputed with his wife. 'Perpetually,' said he. 'My wife had a particular reverence for cleanliness, and desired the praise of neatness in her dress and furniture as many ladies do, till they become troublesome to their best friends, slaves to their own besoms, and only sigh for the hour of sweeping their husbands out of the house as dirt and useless lumber. "A clean floor is so comfortable," she would say sometimes by way of twitting; till at last I told her that I thought we had had talk enough about the floor, we would now have a touch at the ceiling!' I asked him if he ever huffed his wife about his dinner. So often,' replied he, that at last she called to me and said, "Nay, hold, Mr. Johnson, and do not make a farce of thanking God for a dinner which in a few minutes you will protest not eatable."'" 79 this state has not been looked upon with horror, but only as less gracious. He deposited the remains of Mrs. Johnson in the church of Bromley in Kent,2 to which he was probably led by the residence of his friend Hawkesworth at that place. The funeral sermon which he composed for her, which was never preached, but having been given to Dr. Taylor, has been published since his death, is a performance of uncommon excellence, and full of rational and pious comfort to such as are depressed by that severe affliction which Johnson felt when he wrote it. When it is considered that it was written in such an agitation of mind, and in the short interval between her death and burial, it cannot be read without wonder. From Mr. Francis Barber I have had the following authentic and artless account of the situation in which he found him recently after his wife's death: "He was in great affliction. Mrs. Williams was then living in his house, which was in Goughsquare. He was busy with the Dictionary. Mr. Shiels, and some others of the gentlemen who had formerly written for him, used to come about him. He had then little for himself, but frequently friends who visited him at that time, were chiefly sent money to Mr. Shiels when in distress. The Dr. Bathurst,3 and Mr. Diamond, an apothecary 2 A few months before his death. Johnson placed the following epitaph on her tomb-stone, in the church of Bromley: Hic conduntur reliquiæ ELIZABETHÆ antiqua Jarvisiorum gente, Peatlinge, apud Leicestrienses, orta; formosa, culta, ingeniosa, piæ; uxoris, primis nuptiis, HENRICI PORTER, secundis, SAMUELIS JOHNSON: qui multum amatam, diuque defletam hoc lapide contexit. Obiit Londini, Mense Mart. A.D. MDCCLII. 3 Dr. Bathurst, though a physician of no inconsiderable merit, had not the good fortune to get much practice in London. He was, therefore, willing to accept of employment abroad, and, to the regret of all who knew him, fell a sacrifice to the destructive climate, in the expedition against the Havannah. Mr. Langton recollects the following passage in a letter from Dr. Johnson to Mr. Beauclerk: "The Havannah is taken;-a conquest too dearly obtained; for, Bathurst died before it. 'Vix Priamus tanti totaque Troja fuit.' B. It was Bathurst whom Johnson praised for being a good hater: "Dear Bathurst was a man to my very heart's content; he hated a fool, and he hated a rogue, and he hated a Whig; he was a very good hater." Mrs. Piozzi that he loved "Dear, dear Bathurst better than he ever loved any human creature." He told |