Poetical Murphy's "Transcendant Genius! whose prolifick vein Epistle And every Muse presents her sacred lore; Say, pow'rful JOHNSON, whence thy verse is fraught dood With so much grace, such energy of thought; H Thy nervous phrase impresses every soul, Again, towards the conclusion: "Thou then, my friend, who see'st the dang'rous In which some demon bids me plunge my life, Say, where the Nine thy lonely musings meet? You wake to finer feelings every heart; I take this opportunity to relate the manner in which an acquaintance first commenced between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Murphy. During the publication of "The Gray's-Inn Journal," a periodical paper which was successfully carried on by Mr. Johnson Murphy a very young man, he hap- and alone, when pened to be in the country with Mr. Foote; and Murphy having mentioned that he was obliged to go to London in order to get ready for the press one of the numbers of that Journal, Foote said to him, "You need not go on that account. Here is a French magazine, in which you will find a very pretty oriental tale; translate that, and send it to your printer."Mr. Murphy having read the tale, was highly pleased with it, and followed Foote's advice. When he returned to Town, this tale was pointed out to him in "The Rambler," from whence it had been translated into the French magazine. Mr. Murphy then waited upon Johnson, to explain this curious incident. His talents, literature, and gentleman-like manners, were soon perceived by Johnson, and a friendship was formed which was never broken.1 21 [When Mr. Murphy first became acquainted with Dr. Johnson, he was about thirty-one years old. He died at Knightsbridge, June 18, 1805, it is believed in his eighty-second year. 653 In an account of this gentleman, published vrecently after his death, he is reported to have said, that "he was but twenty-one, when he had the impudence to write a periodical paper, during the time that Johnson was publishing the Rambler." - In a subsequent page, in which Mr. Boswell gives an account of his first introduction to Johnson, will be found a striking instance of the incorrectness of Mr. Murphy's memory; and the assertion above-mentioned, if indeed he made it, which is by no means improbable, furnishes an additional proof of his inaccuracy for both the facts asserted are unfounded. He appears to have been eight years older than twenty-one, when he began the Gray's-Inn Journal; and that paper, instead of running a race with Johnson's A Letter to Bennet Langton "To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. ❝ DEAR SIR, "You that travel about the world, have more materials for letters, than I who stay at home and should, therefore, write with frequency equal to your opportunities. I should be glad to have all England surveyed by you, if you would impart your observations in narratives as agreeable as your last. Knowledge is always to be wished to those who can communicate it well. While you have been riding and running, and seeing the tombs of the learned, and the camps of the valiant, I have only staid at home, and intended to do great things, production, did not appear till after the closing of the Rambler, which ended March 14, 1752. The first number of the Gray's-Inn Journal made its appearance about seven months afterwards, in a news-paper of the time, called the Craftsman, October 21, 1752; and in that form the first forty-nine numbers were given to the publick. On Saturday, Sept. 29, 1753, it assumed a new form, and was published as a distinct periodical paper; and in that shape it continued to be published till the 21st of Sept. 1754, when it finally closed; forming in the whole one hundred and one Essays, in the folio copy. The extraordinary paper mentioned in the text, is No. 38 of the second series, published on June 15, 1754; which is a retranslation from the French version of Johnson's Rambler, No. 190. It was omitted in the re-publication of these Essays in two volumes 12mo, in which one hundred and four are found, and in which the papers are not always dated on the days when they really appeared; so that the motto prefixed to this Anglo-Gallick Eastern tale, obscuris vera involvens, might very properly have been prefixed to this work, when re-published. Mr. Murphy did not, I believe, wait on Johnson recently after the publication of this adumbration of one of his Ramblers, which I have not done. Beau went away to Letter to "I am very sincerely solicitous for the preserva- "Of dear Mrs. Langton you give me no account; as seems to be stated in the text; for, in Topham Beauclerk, Esq. actor Thomas "Let me hear from you again, wherever you are, Sheridan or whatever you are doing; whether you wander or as an sit still, plant trees or make Rusticks,1 play with your sisters or muse alone; and in return I will tell you the success of Sheridan, who at this instant is playing Cato, and has already played Richard twice. He had more company the second than the first night, and will make I believe a good figure in the whole, though his faults seem to be very many; some of natural deficience, and some of laborious affectation. He has, I think, no power of assuming either that dignity or elegance which some men, who have little of either in common life, can exhibit on the stage. His voice when strained is unpleasing, and when low is not always heard. He seems to think too much on the audience, and turns his face too often to the galleries. "However, I wish him well; and among other reasons, because I like his wife.2 "Make haste to write to, dear Sir, "Your most affectionate servant, "Oct. 18, 1760." 7 In 1761 Johnson appears to have done little. He was still, no doubt, proceeding in his edition of Shakspeare; but what advances he made in it cannot be ascertained. He certainly was at this time not active; for, in his scrupulous examination of 1 Essays with that title, written about this time by Mr. Langton, but not published. 2 Mrs. Sheridan was authour of "Memoirs of Miss Sydney Biddulph," a novel of great merit, and of some other pieces. See her character, p. 71. |