Читать книгу The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. - James Boswell - Страница 194

[582] Murphy referring to Boswell’s statement says:—‘The Epilogue, we are told in a late publication, was written by Sir William Young. This is a new discovery, but by no means probable. When the appendages to a Dramatic Performance are not assigned to a friend, or an unknown hand, or a person of fashion, they are always supposed to be written by the author of the Play.’ Murphy’s Johnson, p. 154. He overlooks altogether the statement in the Gent. Mag. (xix. 85) that the Epilogue is ‘by another hand.’ Mr. Croker points out that the words ‘as Johnson informed me’ first appear in the second edition. The wonder is that Johnson accepted this Epilogue, which is a little coarse and a little profane. Yonge was Secretary at War in Walpole’s ministry. Walpole said of him ‘that nothing but Yonge’s character could keep down his parts, and nothing but his parts support his character.’ Horace Walpole’s Letters, i. 98, note.

[583] I know not what Sir John Hawkins means by the cold reception of Irene. (See note, p. 192.) I was at the first representation, and most of the subsequent. It was much applauded the first night, particularly the speech on to-morrow [Act iii. sc. 2]. It ran nine nights at least. It did not indeed become a stock-play, but there was not the least opposition during the representation, except the first night in the last act, where Irene was to be strangled on the stage, which John could not bear, though a dramatick poet may stab or slay by hundreds. The bow-string was not a Christian nor an ancient Greek or Roman death. But this offence was removed after the first night, and Irene went off the stage to be strangled.—BURNEY.

[584] According to the Gent. Mag. (xix. 76) ‘it was acted from Monday, Feb. 6, to Monday, Feb. 20, inclusive.’ A letter in the Garrick Corres, (i. 32), dated April 3, 1745, seems to shew that so long a run was uncommon. The writer addressing Garrick says:—‘You have now performed it [Tancred] for nine nights; consider the part, and whether nature can well support the frequent repetition of such shocks. Permit me to advise you to resolve not to act upon any account above three times a week.’ Yet against this may be set the following passage in the Rambler, No. l23:—‘At last a malignant author, whose performance I had persecuted through the nine nights, wrote an epigram upon Tape the critic, which drove me from the pit for ever.’ Murphy writing in 1792 said that Irene had not been exhbited on any stage since its first representation. Murphy’s Johnson, p. 52.

[585] Mr. Croker says that ‘it appears by a MS. note in Isaac Reed’s copy of Murphy’s Life, that the receipts of the third, sixth, and ninth nights, after deducting sixty guineas a night for the expenses of the house, amounted to £195 17s.: Johnson cleared therefore, with the copyright, very nearly £300.’ Irene was sold at the price of 1s. 6d. a copy (Gent. Mag. xix. 96); so that Dodsley must have looked for a very large sale.

[586] See post, 1780, in Mr. Langton’s Collection for Johnson’s estimate of Irene in later life.

[587] Aaron Hill (vol. ii. p. 355), in a letter to Mr. Mallett, gives the following account of Irene after having seen it: ‘I was at the anomalous Mr. Johnson’s benefit, and found the play his proper representative; strong sense ungraced by sweetness or decorum.’ BOSWELL.

[588] See ante, p. 102

[589] Murphy (Life, p. 53) says that some years afterwards, when he knew Johnson to be in distress, he asked Garrick why he did not produce another tragedy for his Lichfield friend? Garrick’s answer was remarkable: “When Johnson writes tragedy, declamation roars, and passion sleeps: when Shakespeare wrote; he dipped his pen in his own heart.” Johnson was perhaps aware of the causes of his failure as a tragedy-writer. In his criticism of Addison’s Cato he says: ‘Of Cato it has been not unjustly determined that it is rather a poem in dialogue than a drama, rather a succession of just sentiments in elegant language than a representation of natural affections, or any state probable or possible in human life … The events are expected without solicitude, and are remembered without joy or sorrow…. Its success has introduced or confirmed among us the use of dialogue too declamatory, of unaffecting elegance and chill philosophy.’ Works, vii. 456. ‘Johnson thought: Cato the best model of tragedy we had; yet he used to say, of all things the most ridiculous would be to see a girl cry at the representation of it.’ Johnson’s Works (1787), xi. 207. Cato, if neglected, has added at least eight ‘habitual quotations’ to the language (see Thackeray’s English Humourists, p. 98). Irene has perhaps not added a single one. It has neverthingless some quotable lines, such as—

‘Crowds that hide a monarch from

himself.’ Act i. sc. 4.

‘To cant … of reason to a lover.’

Act iii. sc. 1.

‘When e’en as love was breaking

off from wonder,

And tender accents quiver’d on my

lips.’ Ib.

‘And fate lies crowded in a narrow

space.’ Act iii. sc. 6.

‘Reflect that life and death, affecting

sounds,

Are only varied modes of endless

being.’ Act ii. sc. 8.

‘Directs the planets with a careless

nod.’ Ib.

‘Far as futurity’s untravell’d waste.’

Act iv. sc. 1.

‘And wake from ignorance the

western world.’ Act iv. sc. 2.

‘Through hissing ages a proverbial

coward,

The tale of women, and the scorn

of fools.’ Act iv. sc. 3.

‘No records but the records of the

sky.’ Ib.

‘… thou art sunk beneath reproach.’

Act v. sc. 2.

‘Oh hide me from myself.’

Act v. sc. 3.

[590] Johnson wrote of Milton:—‘I cannot but conceive him calm and confident, little disappointed, not at all dejected, relying on his own merit with steady consciousness, and waiting without impatience the vicissitudes of opinion, and the impartiality of a future generation.’ Johnson’s Works, vii. 108.

[591]

‘Genus irritabile vatum.’

‘The fretful tribe of rival poets.’

Francis, Horace, Ep. ii. 2. 102.

[592] This deference he enforces in many passages in his writings; as for instance:—‘Dryden might have observed, that what is good only because it pleases, cannot be pronounced good till it has been found to please.’ Johnson’s Works, vii. 252. ‘The authority of Addison is great; yet the voice of the people, when to please the people is the purpose, deserves regard.’ Ib. 376. ‘About things on which the public thinks long, it commonly attains to think right.’ Ib. 456. ‘These apologies are always useless: “de gustibus non est disputandum;” men may be convinced, but they cannot be pleased against their will.’ Ib. viii. 26. ‘Of things that terminate in human life, the world is the proper judge; to despise its sentence, if it were possible, is not just; and if it were just, is not possible.’ Ib. viii. 316. Lord Chesterfield in writing to his son about his first appearance in the world said, ‘You will be tried and judged there, not as a boy, but as a man; and from that moment there is no appeal for character.’ Lord Chesterfield’s Letters, iii. 324. Addison in the Guardian, No. 98, had said that ‘men of the best sense are always diffident of their private judgment, till it receives a sanction from the public. Provoco ad populum, I appeal to the people, was the usual saying of a very excellent dramatic poet, when he had any disputes with particular persons about the justness and regularity of his productions.’ See post, March 23, 1783.

[593] ‘Were I,’ he said, ‘to wear a laced or embroidered waistcoat, it should be very rich. I had once a very rich laced waistcoat, which I wore the first night of my tragedy.’ Boswell’s Hebrides, Oct. 27, 1773.

[594] ‘Topham Beauclerc used to give a pleasant description of this greenroom finery, as related by the author himself: ‘But,’ said Johnson, with great gravity, ‘I soon laid aside my gold-laced hat, lest it should make me proud.’ Murphy’s Johnson, p. 52. In The Idler (No. 62) we have an account of a man who had longed to ‘issue forth in all the splendour of embroidery.’ When his fine clothes were brought, ‘I felt myself obstructed,’ he wrote, ‘in the common intercourse of civility by an uneasy consciousness of my new appearance; as I thought myself more observed, I was more anxious about my mien and behaviour; and the mien which if formed by care is commonly ridiculous.’

[595] See ante, p. 167.

[596] See post, 1780, in Mr. Langton’s Collection.

[597] The Tatler came to an end on Jan 2, 1710-1; the first series of The Spectator on Dec 6, 1712; and the second series of The Spectator on December 20, 1714.

[598] ‘Two new designs have appeared about the middle of this month [March, 1750], one entitled, The Tatler Revived; or The Christian Philosopher and Politician, half a sheet, price 2_d_. (stamped); the other, The Rambler, three half sheets (un-stamped); price 2_d_.’ Gent. Mag. xx. 126.

[599] Pope’s Essay on Man, ii. 10.

[600] See post, under Oct. 12, 1779.

[601] I have heard Dr. Warton mention, that he was at Mr. Robert Dodsley’s with the late Mr. Moore, and several of his friends, considering what should be the name of the periodical paper which Moore had undertaken. Garrick proposed The Sallad, which, by a curious coincidence, was afterwards applied to himself by Goldsmith:

‘Our Garrick’s a sallad, for in him we see

Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree!’

[Retaliation, line II.]

At last, the company having separated, without any thing of which they approved having been offered, Dodsley himself thought of The World. BOSWELL.

[602] In the original MS. ‘in this my undertaking,’ and below, ‘the salvation both of myself and others.’

[603] Prayers and Meditations, p. 9. BOSWELL.

[604] In the original folio edition of the Rambler the concluding paper is dated Saturday, March 17. But Saturday was in fact March 14. This circumstance is worth notice, for Mrs. Johnson died on the 17th. MALONE.

[605] Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 28. [Aug. 16, 1773]. BOSWELL.

[606] ‘Gray had a notion not very peculiar, that he could not write but at certain times, or at happy moments; a fantastic foppery, to which my kindness for a man of learning and virtue wishes him to have been superior.’ Johnson’s Works, viii. 482. See post, under April 15, 1758.

[607] Her correspondence with Richardson and Mrs. Carter was published in 1807.

[608] The correspondence between her and Mrs. Carter was published in 1808.

[609] Dr. Birch says:—‘The proprietor of the Rambler, Cave, told me that copy was seldom sent to the press till late in the night before the day of publication,’ Croker’s Boswell, p. 121, note. See post, April 12, 1776, and beginning of 1781.

Johnson carefully revised the Ramblers for the collected edition. The editor of the Oxford edition of Johnson’s Works states (ii. x), that ‘the alterations exceeded six thousand.’ The following passage from the last number affords a good instance of this revision.

First edition.

‘I have never complied with temporary curiosity, nor furnished my readers with abilities to discuss the topic of the day; I have seldom exemplified my assertions by living characters; from my papers therefore no man could hope either censures of his enemies or praises of himself, and they only could be expected to peruse them, whose passions left them leisure for the contemplation of abstracted truth, and whom virtue could please by her native dignity without the assistance of modish ornaments.’ Gent. Mag. xxii. 117.

Revised edition.

‘I have never complied with temporary curiosity, nor enabled my readers to discuss the topic of the day; I have rarely exemplified my assertions by living characters; in my papers no man could look for censures of his enemies, or praises of himself; and they only were expected to peruse them, whose passions left them leisure for abstracted truth, and whom virtue could please by its naked dignity.’ Johnson’s Works, iii. 462.

[610] ‘Such relicks [Milton’s early manuscripts] shew how excellence is acquired; what we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.’ Johnson’s Works, vii. 119.

[611] Of the first 52 Ramblers 49 were wholly by Johnson; of the last 156, 154. He seems to say that in the first 49, 17 were written from notes, and in the last 154 only 13.

[612] No. 46.

[613] Hawkins’s Life of Johnson, p. 268 [p. 265]. BOSWELL.

[614] ‘The sly shadow steals away upon the dial, and the quickest eye can distinguish no more than that it is gone.’ Glanville, quoted in Johnson’s Dictionary.

[615] This most beautiful image of the enchanting delusion of youthful prospect has not been used in any of Johnson’s essays. BOSWELL.

[616] From Horace (Ars Poet. 1. 175) he takes his motto for the number:—

‘Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum,

Multa recedentes adimunt.’

The blessings flowing in with life’s full tide

Down with our ebb of life decreasing glide.’