Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

the great, he was yet so cordial an admirer of merit, whereve: found, that much public ridicule, and something like contempt, were excited by the modest assurance with which he pressed his acquaintance on all the notorieties of his time, and by the ostentatious (but, in the main, laudable) assiduity with which he attended the exile Paoli and the low-born Johnson! These were amiable, and, for us, fortunate inconsistencies. His contemporaries indeed, not without some colour of reason, occasionally complained of him as vain, inquisitive, troublesome, and giddy; but his vanity was inoffensive his curiosity was commonly directed towards laudable objects — when he meddled, he did so, generally, from good-natured motives - and his giddiness was only an exuberant gaiety, which never failed in the respect and reverence due to literature, morals, and religion; and posterity gratefully acknowledges the taste, temper, and talents with which he selected, enjoyed, and described that polished and intellectual society which still lives in his work and without his work had perished!

'Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona

Multi sed omnes illacrymabiles

Urgentur, ignotique longâ

Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.' (1) — Hor.

Such imperfect though interesting sketches as Ben Jonson's visit to Drummond, Selden's Table Talk, Swift's Journal, and Spence's Anecdotes, only tantalise our curiosity and excite our regret that there was no Boswell to preserve the conversation and illustrate the life and times of Addison, of Swift himself, of Milton, and, above all, of Shakspeare! We can hardly refrain from indulging ourselves with the imagination of works so instructive and delightful; but that were idle; except as it may tend to increase our obligation to the faithful and fortunate biographer of Dr. Johnson.

(1) ["Before great Agamemnon reign'd

Reign'd kings as great as he, and brave,
Whose huge ambition 's now contain'd
In the small compass of a grave;

In endless night they sleep, unwept, unknown;

No bard had they to make all time their own."-FRANCIS.]

"Mr. Boswell's birth and education familiarised him with the highest of his acquaintance, and his good-nature and conviviality with the lowest. He describes society of all classes with the happiest discrimination. Even his foibles assisted his curiosity; he was sometimes laughed at, but always well received; he excited no envy, he imposed no restraint. It was well known that he made notes of every conversation, yet no timidity was alarmed, no delicacy demurred; and we are perhaps indebted to the lighter parts of his character for the patient indulgence with which every body submitted to sit for their pictures.

"Nor were his talents inconsiderable. He had looked a good Ideal into books, and more into the world. The narrative portion of his work is written with good sense, in an easy and perspicuous style, and without (which seems odd enough) any palpable imitation of Johnson. But in recording conversations he is unrivalled: that he was eminently accurate in substance, we have the evidence of all his contemporaries; but he is also in a high degree characteristic dramatic. The incidental observations with which he explains or enlivens the dialogue, are terse, appropriate, and picturesque - we not merely hear his company, we see them!

[ocr errors]

"Yet his father was, we are told, by no means satisfied with the life he led, nor his eldest son with the kind of reputation he attained neither liked to hear of his connexion even with Paoli or Johnson; and both would have been better pleased if he had contented himself with a domestic life of sober respectability.

:

"The public, however, the dispenser of fame, has judged differently, and considers the biographer of Johnson as the most eminent part of the family pedigree. With less activity, less indiscretion, less curiosity, less enthusiasm, he might, perhaps, have been what the old lord would, no doubt, have thought more respectable; and have been pictured on the walls of Auchinleck (the very name of which we never should have heard) by some stiff, provincial painter, in a lawyer's wig or a squire's hunting cap; but his portrait, by Reynolds, would not have been ten times engraved; his name could never have

become -as it is likely to be - -as far spread and as lasting as the English language; and the world had wanted' a work to which it refers as a manual of amusement, a repository of wit, wisdom, and morals, and a lively and faithful history of the manners and literature of England, during a period hardly second in brilliancy, and superior in importance, even to the Augustan age of Anne.”

To these masterly strictures of Mr. Croker we now append some of the passages in which other writers have recorded their estimation of Boswell; concluding with a few extracts from the periodical literature of our own times.

[ocr errors]

Malone.

Highly as this work is now estimated, it will, I am confident, be still more valued by posterity a century hence, when the excellent and extraordinary man, whose wit and wisdom. are here recorded, shall be viewed at a still greater distance; and the instruction and entertainment they afford will at once produce reverential gratitude, admiration, and delight."Preface, 1804.

Sir William Forbes.

"The circle of Mr. Boswell's acquaintance among the learned, the witty, and indeed among men of all ranks and professions, was extremely extensive, as his talents were considerable, and his convivial powers made his company much in request. His warmth of heart towards his friends was very great; and I have known few men who possessed a stronger sense of piety, or more fervent devotion (tinctured, no doubt with some little share of superstition; which had, probably, in some degree, been fostered by his habits of intimacy with Dr. Johnson), perhaps not always sufficient to regulate his imagination, or direct his conduct, yet still genuine, and founded both in his understanding and his heart. His Life of

that extraordinary man must be allowed to be one of the most characteristic and entertaining biographical works in the English language."-Life of Beattie, vol. ii. p. 166.

Cumberland.

"Under the hospitable roof of Mr. Dilly, the biographer of Johnson passed many jovial, joyous hours: here he has located some of the liveliest scenes and most brilliant passages in his entertaining anecdotes of his friend Samuel Johnson, who yet lives and speaks in him. The book of Boswell is, ever as the year comes round, my winter-evening's entertainment. I loved the man he had great convivial powers, and an inexhaustible fund of good-humour in society; no body could detail the spirit of a conversation in the true style and character of the parties more happily than my friend James Boswell."– Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 227.

Farrington.

"Of those who were frequently at Sir Joshua Reynolds's parties, Mr. Boswell was very acceptable to him. He was a man of excellent temper, and with much gaiety of manner, possessed a shrewd understanding, and close observation of character. He had a happy faculty of dissipating that reserve, which too often damps the pleasure of English society. His good-nature and social feeling always inclined him to endeavour to produce that effect; which was so well known, that when he appeared, he was hailed as the harbinger of festivity. Sir Joshua was never more happy than when, on such occasion, Mr. Boswell was seated within his hearing. The Royal Society gratified Sir Joshua by electing Mr. Boswell their Secretary of Foreign Correspondence; which made him an Honorary Member of that body."— Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, p. 83.

Sir Walter Scott.

"Of all the men distinguished in this or any other age, Dr. Johnson has left upon posterity the strongest and most

vivid impression, so far as person, manners, disposition, and conversation are concerned. We do but name him, or open a book which he has written, and the sound or action recall to the imagination at once his form, his merits, his peculiarities, nay, the very uncouthness of his gestures, and the deep impressive tone of his voice. We learn not only what he said, but form an idea how he said it; and have, at the same time, a shrewd guess of the secret motive why he did so, and whether he spoke in sport or in anger, in the desire of conviction, or for the love of debate. It was said of a noted wag, that his bonmots did not give full satisfaction when published, because he could not print his face. But with respect to Dr. Johnson, this has been in some degree accomplished; and, although the greater part of the present generation never saw him, yet he is, in our mind's eye, a personification as lively as that of Siddons in Lady Macbeth, or Kemble in Cardinal Wolsey. All this, as the world knows, arises from his having found in James Boswell such a biographer as no man but himself ever had, or ever deserved to have. Considering the eminent persons to whom it relates, and the quantity of miscellaneous information and entertaining gossip which it brings together, his Life of Johnson may be termed, without exception, the best parlour-window book that ever was written."— Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. i. p. 260.

Edinburgh Review.

"Boswell was the very prince of retail wits and philosophers. One principal attraction of his Life of Johnson is the contrast which, in some respects, it presents to the Doctor's own works. Instead of the pompous common-places which he was in the habit of piling together and rounding into periods in his closet, his behaviour and conversation in company might be described as a continued exercise of spleen, an indulgence of irritable humours, a masterly display of character. He made none but home-thrusts, but desperate lounges, but palpable hits. No turgidity; no flaccidness; no bloated flesh: all was

a

« VorigeDoorgaan »