for a little while, in a state of meditation, he almost extempore produced the following verses: "Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove At the same time that Mr. Garrick favoured me with this anecdote, he repeated a very pointed epigram by Johnson, on George the Second and Colley Cibber, which has never yet appeared, and of which I know not the exact date. Dr. Johnson afterwards "Augustus still survives in Maro's strain, In 1741 he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine "the Preface t;""Conclusion of his Lives of Drake* (p. 38) and Barretier *" (p. 87); "a free Translation of the Jests of Hierocles, with an Introduction †” (p. 477); and, I think, the following pieces: "Debate on the Proposal of Parliament to Cromwell, to The epitaph of Philips is in the porch of Wolverhampton church. Mr. Garrick appears not to have recited the verses correctly; and one of the various readings is remarkable, as it is the germ of Johnson's concluding line, "And meet thy Saviour's consort in the skies."-BOSWELL. [By consort, I suppose concert is meant ; but still I do not see the germ of Johnson's thought. That music may be among the joys of heaven has been sometimes suggested; but that the dead were to be "awakened by harmonious notes," seems quite new, and not quite orthodox.-ED.] assume the Title of King, abridged, modified, and digested1+" (p. 94); "Translation of Abbé Guyon's Dissertation on the Amazons +" (p. 202); "Translation of Fontenelle's Panegyrick on Dr. Morin † " (p. S75). Two notes upon this appear to me undoubtedly his. He this year, and the two following, wrote the Parliamentary Debates. He told me himself, that he was the sole composer of them for those three years only. He was not, however, precisely exact in his statement, which he mentioned from hasty recollection; for it is sufficiently evident that his composition of them began November 19, 1740, and ended February 23, 1742-3. It appears from some of Cave's letters to Dr. Birch, that Cave had better assistance for that branch of his Magazine than has been generally supposed; and that he was indefatigable in getting it made as perfect as he could. Thus 21st July, 1735, "I trouble you with the enclosed, because you said you could easily correct what is here given for Lord C-ld's speech. I beg you will do so as soon as you can for me, because the month is far advanced." And 15th July, 1737, "As you remember the debates so far as to perceive the speeches already printed are not exact, I beg the favour that you will peruse the enclosed, and, in the best manner your memory will serve, correct the mistaken passages, or add any thing that is omitted. I should be very glad to have something of the Duke of N-le's speech, which would be particularly of service. "A gentleman has Lord Bathurst's speech to add something to." And July 3, 1744, [This is only a reprint, better arranged, of a debate, published in 1660, with a few introductory sentences (which may be by Johnson), stating that the editor had reduced the confusion and intricacies of the original report into a more intelligible order.-ED.] p. 43-5. "You will see what stupid, low, abominable stuff is put upon your noble and learned friend's character, such as I should quite reject, and endeavour to do something better towards doing justice to the character. But as I cannot expect to attain my desire in that respect, it would be a great satisfaction, as well as an honour to our work, to have the favour of the genuine speech. It is a method that several have been pleased to take, as I could show, but I think myself under a restraint. I shall say so far, that I have had some by a third hand, which I understood well enough to come from the first; others by penny-post, and others by the speakers themselves, who have been pleased to visit St. John's-gate, and show particular marks of their being pleased "." There is no reason, I believe, to doubt the veracity of Cave. It is, however, remarkable that none of these letters are in the years during which Johnson alone furnished the Debates, and one of them is in the very year after he ceased from that labour. Murphy [That Johnson was the authour of the debates during that period was not generally known; but the secret transpired several years afterwards, and was avowed by himself on the following occasion. Mr. Wedderburne (afterwards Lord Loughborough and Earl of Rosslyn), Dr. Johnson, Dr. Francis (the translator of Horace), Mr. Murphy, who relates the anecdote, and others, dined with the late Mr. Foote. An important debate towards the end of Sir Robert Walpole's administration being mentioned, Dr. Francis observed, "that Mr. Pitt's speech on that occasion was the best he had ever read." He added, "that he had employed eight years of his life in the study of Demosthenes, and finished a translation of that celebrated orator, with all the decorations of style and language within the reach of his capacity; but he had met with nothing equal to the speech above 4 I suppose in another compilation of the same kind.-BosWELL. 2 Doubtless, Lord Hardwick.-BOSWELL. 3 Birch's MSS. in the British Museum, 4302.-BoswELL. [No doubt that celebrated reply to old Horace Walpole, which begins "The atrocious crime of being a young man," 10th March, 1741.-ED.] p. 43-5. mentioned." Many of the company remembered Murphy the debate; and some passages were cited, with the approbation and applause of all present. During the ardour of conversation, Johnson remained silent. As soon as the warmth of praise subsided, he opened with these words: "That speech I wrote in a garret in Exeter-street.' The company was struck with astonishment. After staring at each other in silent amaze, Dr. Francis asked "how that speech could be written by him?" "Sir," said Johnson, "I wrote it in Exeter-street 1. I never had been in the gallery of the House of Commons but once. Cave had interest with the door-keepers. He, and the persons employed under him, gained admittance: they brought away the subject of discussion, the names of the speakers, the sides they took, and the order in which they rose, together with notes of the arguments advanced in the course of the debate. The whole was afterwards communicated to me, and I composed the speeches in the form which they now have in the parliamentary debates." To this discovery Dr. Francis made answer: "Then, sir, you have exceeded Demosthenes himself; for to say that you have exceeded Francis's Demosthenes, would be saying nothing." The rest of the company bestowed lavish encomiums on Johnson: one, in particular, praised his impartiality; observing that he dealt out reason and eloquence with an equal hand to both parties. "That is not quite true," said Johnson; "I saved appearances tolerably well, but I took care that the WHIG DOGS should not have the best of it."] [In the perusal of these debates, we cannot but Hawk. [There is here some inaccuracy; the debate in question was written in 1741. In Mr. Boswell's list of Johnson's residences, he appears not to have resided in Exeter-street after his return to London, in 1737.—ED.] p. 122 129. p. 122 Hawk. wonder at the powers that produced them. The 129. authour had never passed those gradations that lead to the knowledge of men and business: born to a narrow fortune, of no profession, conversant chiefly with books, unacquainted with the style of any other than academical disputation, and so great a stranger to senatorial manners, that he never was within the walls of either house of parliament. That a man, under these disadvantages, should be able to frame a system of debate, to compose speeches of such excellence, both in matter1 and form, as scarcely to be equalled by those of the most able and experienced statesmen, is, I say, matter of astonishment, and a proof of talents that qualified him for a speaker in the most august assembly on earth. Cave, who had no idea of the powers of eloquence over the human mind, became sensible of its effects in the profits it brought him: he had long thought that the success of his Magazine proceeded from those parts of it that were conducted by himself, which were the abridgement of weekly papers written against the ministry, such as the Craftsman, Fog's Journal, Common Sense!' the Weekly Miscellany, the Westminster Journal, and others, and also marshalling the pastorals, the elegies, and the songs, the epigrams, and the rebuses that were sent him by various correspondents, and was scarcely able to see the causes that at this time increased the sale of his pamphlet from ten to fifteen thousand copies a month. But if he saw not, he felt them, and manifested his good fortune by buying an old coach and a pair of older horses; and, that he might avoid the suspicion of pride in setting up an equipage, he displayed to 1 [With the matter he was supplied, though probably imperfectly.—ED.] \~1. Tom Paine al |
