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 2d. (stamped); the other, The Rambler, three half sheets (un-stamped); price 2d.' 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.