three different accounts of the Life of Richard Savage, one published in "The Plain Dealer," in 1724, another in 1727, and another by the powerful pen of Johnson, in 1744, and all of them while Lady Macclesfield was alive,1 should, notwithstanding the severe attacks upon her, have been suffered to pass without any public and effectual contradiction." he would have left him to his fate. Indeed, I must observe, that although Johnson mentions that Lord Tyrconnel's patronage of Savage was "upon his promise to lay aside his design of exposing the cruelty of his mother," the great biographer has forgotten that he himself has mentioned, that Savage's story had been told several years before in The Plain Dealer; from which he quotes this strong saying of the generous Sir Richard Steele, that the "inhumanity of his mother had given him a right to find every good man his father." At the same time it must be acknowledged, that Lady Macclesfield and her relations might still wish that her story should not be brought into more conspicuous notice by the satirical pen of Savage. 1 Miss Mason, after having forfeited the title of Lady Macclesfield by divorce, was married to Colonel Brett, and, it is said, was well known in all the polite circles. Colley Cibber, I am informed, had so high an opinion of her taste and judgment as to genteel life and manners, that he submitted every scene of his Careless Husband to Mrs. Brett's revisal and correction. Colonel Brett was reported to be free in his gallantry with his lady's maid. Mrs. Brett came into a room one day in her own house, and found the Colonel and her maid both fast asleep in two chairs. She tied a white handkerchief round her husband's neck, which was a sufficient proof that she had discovered his intrigue; but she never at any time took notice of it to him. This incident, as I am told, gave occasion to the well-wrought scene of Sir Charles and Lady Easy, and Edging.— Boswell. Lady Macclesfield died 1753, aged above eighty. Her eldest daughter by Col. Brett, was, for the last few months of his life, the mistress of George I. (See Walpole's Reminiscences.) Her marriage, ten years after her royal lover's death is thus announced in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1737:-" Sept. 17. Sir W. Leman, of Northall, Bart., to Miss Brett of Bond Street, an heiress," and again next month- "Oct. 8. Sir William Leman, of Northall, Baronet, to Miss Brett, half sister to Mr. Savage, son to the late Earl Rivers;" for the difference of date I know not how to account; but the second insertion was, no doubt, made by Savage to countenance his own pretensions.-Croker. 2 It should, however, as Boswell himself suggests, be recollected, before we draw any conclusion from Lady Macclesfield's forbearance to prosecute a libeller, that, however innocent she might be as to Savage, she was I have thus endeavoured to sum up the evidence upon the case, as fairly as I can; and the result seems to be, that the world must vibrate in a state of uncertainty as to what was the truth. This digression, I trust, will not be censured, as it relates to a matter exceedingly curious, and very intimately connected with Johnson, both as a man and an author. He this year wrote the "Preface to the Harleian Miscellany."* The selection of the pamphlets of which it was composed was made by Mr. Oldys, a man of eager curiosity, and indefatigable diligence, who first exerted that spirit of inquiry into the literature of the old English writers, by which the works of our great dramatic poet have of late been so signally illustrated.1 In 1745, he published a pamphlet entitled "Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with Remarks on Sir T. H.'s (Sir Thomas Hanmer's) Edition of Shakspeare.”** To which he affixed, "Proposals for a new edition of that poet." As we do not trace any thing else published by him during the course of this year, we may conjecture that he was occupied entirely with that work. But the little encouragement which was given by the public to his anonymous proposals for the execution of a task which Warburton was known to have undertaken, probably damped his ardour. His pamphlet, however, was highly esteemed, and was fortunate enough to obtain undeniably and inexcusably guilty in other respects, and would have been naturally reluctant to drag her frailties again before the public.— Croker. 1 William Oldys was born in 1696. In 1737 he published The British Librarian; an Abstract of our most scarce, useful and valuable Books; and, in 1738, a Life of Sir Walter Raleigh. He also contributed several articles to the General Dictionary, and the Biographia Britannica. He died in 1761.-Wright. 2 Sir Thomas Hanmer was born in 1676. He was Speaker of the House of Commons in Queen Anne's last parliament, and died May 5th, 1746. His Shakespeare, in six volumes quarto, was published in 1744.— Wright. the approbation even of the supercilious Warburton himself, who, in the Preface to his "Shakspeare," published two years afterwards, thus mentioned it: "As to all those things which have been published under the titles of Essays, Remarks, Úbservations, &c. on Shakspeare, if you except some critical Notes on Macbeth, given as a specimen of a projected edition, and written, as appears, by a man of parts and genius, the rest are absolutely below a serious notice." Of this flattering distinction shown to him by Warburton, a very grateful remembrance was ever entertained by Johnson, who said, "He praised me at a time when praise was of value to me." In 1746, it is probable that he was still employed upon his "Shakspeare," which perhaps he laid aside for a time, upon account of the high expectations which were formed of Warburton's edition of that great poet. It is somewhat curious, that his literary career appears to have been almost totally suspended in the years 1745 and 1746, those years which were marked by a civil war in Great Britain, when a rash attempt was made to restore the House of Stuart to the throne. That he had a tenderness for that unfortunate House, is well known; and some may fancifully imagine, that a sympathetic anxiety impeded the exertion of his intellectual powers: but I am inclined to think, that he was, during this time, sketching the outlines of his great philological work. None of his letters during those years are extant, so far as I can discover. This is much to be regretted. It might afford some entertainment to see how he then expressed himself to his private friends concerning State affairs. Dr. Adams informs me, that "at this time a favourite object which he had in contemplation was 'The Life of Alfred ;' in which, from the warmth with which he spoke about it, he would, I believe, had he been master of his own will, have engaged himself, rather than on any other subject." In 1747, it is supposed that the "Gentleman's Magazine" for May was enriched by him with five short poetical pieces distinguished by three asterisks. The first is a translation, or rather a paraphrase, of a Latin Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer. Whether the Latin was his, or not, I have never heard, though I should think it probably was, if it be certain that he wrote the English; as to which my only cause of doubt is, that his slighting character of Hanmer as an editor, in his "Observations on Macbeth," is very different from that in the Epitaph. It may be said, that there is the same contrariety between the character in the Observations, and that in his own "Preface to Shakspeare;" but a considerable time elapsed between the one publication and the other, whereas, the Observations and the Epitaph came close together. The others are, "To Miss, on her giving the Author a gold and silk net-work Purse of her own weaving;" "Stella in Mourning;" "The Winter's Walk;" "An Ode ;" and, "To Lyce, an elderly Lady." I am not positive that all these were his productions;1 but as "The Winter's Walk" has never been controverted to be his, and all of them have the same mark, it is reasonable to conclude that they are all written by the same hand. Yet to the Ode, in which we find a passage In the Universal Visiter, to which Johnson contributed, the mark which is affixed to some pieces unquestionably his, is also found subjoined to others, of which he certainly was not the author. The mark, therefore, will not ascertain the poems in question to have been written by him. Some of them were probably the productions of Hawkesworth, who, it is believed, was afflicted with the gout. The verses on a Purse were inserted afterwards in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, and are, unquestionably, Johnson's. Malone. There is no evidence whatever that any of these were Johnson's, and every reason to suppose that they are all Hawkesworth's. The ode which Boswell doubts about on internal evidence, is the ode to Spring, which, as well as those on Summer, Autumn, and Winter, have been of late published as Johnson's, and are, no doubt, as Boswell says, all by the same hand. But we see that Spring bears internal marks of not being Johnson's, and of being Hawkesworth's. Winter and Summer, Mr. Chalmers asserts to be also Hawkesworth's; and the index to the Gentleman's Magazine for 1748 attributes Summer to Mr. Greville, a name known to have been assumed by Hawkesworth. The verses on the Purse, and to Stella in Mourning, are certainly by the same hand as the four odes. The whole therefore may be assigned to Hawkesworth, but at all events should be removed from Johnson's works.-Croker. very characteristic of him, being a learned description of the gout, "Unhappy, whom to beds of pain there is the following note, "The author being ill of the gout:" but Johnson was not attacked with that distemper till a very late period of his life. May not this, however, be a poetical fiction? Why may not a poet suppose himself to have the gout, as well as suppose himself to be in love, of which we have innumerable instances, and which has been admirably ridiculed by Johnson in his "Life of Cowley?" I have also some difficulty to believe that he could produce such a group of conceits as appear in the verses to Lyce, in which he claims for this ancient personage as good a right to be assimilated to heaven, as nymphs whom other poets have flattered; he therefore ironically ascribes to her the attributes of the sky, in such stanzas as this: "Her teeth the night with darkness dies, She's starr'd with pimples o'er; And can with thunder roar." But as, at a very advanced age, he could condescend to trifle in namby-pamby rhymes, to please Mrs. Thrale and her daughter, he may have, in his earlier years, composed such a piece as this. It is remarkable, that in this first edition of "The Winter's Walk," the concluding line is much more Johnsonian than it was afterwards printed; for in subsequent editions, after praying Stella to "snatch him to her arms," he says, "And shield me from the ills of life." Whereas in the first edition it is "And hide me from the sight of life.” A horror at life in general is more consonant with Johnson's habitual gloomy cast of thought.' 1 Johnson's habitual horror was not of life but of death.-Croker. |