1727, and died on Aug. 2, 1803. At the age of seventeen he was placed as a clerk in the East-India House; but, like his successors, James and John Stuart Mill, he was an author as well as a clerk. See ante, i. 383.
[848] Cleonice. BOSWELL. Nichols (Lit. Anec. ii. 407) says that as Cleonice was a failure on the stage 'Mr. Hoole returned a considerable part of the money which he had received for the copy-right, alleging that, as the piece was not successful on the stage, it could not be very profitable to the bookseller, and ought not to be a loss.'
[849] See ante, i. 255.
[850] See post, March 20, 1776.
[851] 'The King,' wrote Horace Walpole on Jan. 21, 1775 (Letters, vi. 179), 'sent for the book in MS., and then wondering said, "I protest, Johnson seems to be a Papist and a Jacobite--so he did not know why he had been made to give him a pension."'
[852] Boswell's little daughter. Boswell's Hebrides, Aug, 15, 1773.
[853] 'Bis dat qui cito dat, minimi gratia tarda pretii est.' Alciat's Emblems, Alciati Opera 1538, p. 821.
[854] It was at the Turk's Head coffee-house in the Strand. See ante, i. 450.
[855] Hamlet, act iii. sc. 2.
[856] 'Exegi monumentum aere perennius.' Horace, Odes, iii. 30. I.
[857] The second edition was not brought out till the year after Johnson's death. These mistakes remain uncorrected. Johnson's Works, ix. 44. 150.
[858] See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 23.
[859] In the Court of Session of Scotland an action is first tried by one of the Judges, who is called the Lord Ordinary; and if either party is dissatisfied, he may appeal to the whole Court, consisting of fifteen, the Lord President and fourteen other Judges, who have both in and out of Court the title of Lords, from the name of their estates; as, Lord Auchinleck, Lord Monboddo, &c. BOSWELL. See ante, ii. 201, note 1.
[860] Johnson had thus written of him (Works, ix. ll5):--'I suppose my opinion of the poems of Ossian is already discovered. I believe they never existed in any other form than that which we have seen. The editor, or author, never could show the original; nor can it be shown by any other. To revenge reasonable incredulity by refusing evidence is a degree of insolence with which the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt.' See ante, ii. 126.
[861] Taxation no Tyranny. See post, under March 21, 1775.
[862] See ante, p. 265.
[863] In Tickell's Epistle from the Hon. Charles Fox to the Hon. John Townshend (1779) are the following lines (p. 11):--
'Soon as to Brooks's thence thy footsteps bend, What gratulations thy approach attend!
See Beauclerk's cheek a tinge of red surprise, And friendship give what cruel health denies.'
[864] It should be recollected, that this fanciful description of his friend was given by Johnson after he himself had become a water-drinker. BOSWELL. Johnson, post, April 18, 1775, describes one of his friends as muddy. On April 12, 1776, in a discussion about wine, when Reynolds said to him, 'You have sat by, quite sober, and felt an envy of the happiness of those who were drinking,' he replied, 'Perhaps, contempt.' On April 28, 1778, he said to Reynolds: 'I won't argue any more with you, Sir. You are too far gone.' See also ante, i. 313, note 3, where he said to him: 'Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?'
[865] See them in Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 337 [Oct. 17]. BOSWELL.
[866] He now sent me a Latin inscription for my historical picture of Mary Queen of Scots, and afterwards favoured me with an English translation. Mr. Alderman Boydell, that eminent Patron of the Arts, has subjoined them to the engraving from my picture.
'Maria Scotorum Regina Homimun seditiosorum Contumeliis lassata, Minis territa, clamoribus victa Libello, per quem Regno cedit, Lacrimans trepidansque Nomen apponit?'
'Mary Queen of Scots, Harassed, terrified, and overpowered By the insults, menaces, And clamours Of her rebellious subjects, Sets her hand, With tears and confusion, To a resignation of the kingdom.'
BOSWELL.
Northcote (Life of Reynolds, ii. 234) calls Boydell 'the truest and greatest encourager of English art that England ever saw.'
[867] By the Boston Port-Bill, passed in 1774, Boston had been closed as a port for the landing and shipping of goods. Ann. Reg. xvii. 64.
[868] Becket, a bookseller in the Strand, was the publisher of Ossian.
[869] His Lordship, notwithstanding his resolution, did commit his sentiments to paper, and in one of his notes affixed to his Collection of Old Scottish Poetry, he says, that 'to doubt the authenticity of those poems is a refinement in Scepticism indeed.' J. BLAKEWAY.
[870] Mr. Croker writes (Croker's Boswell, p. 378, note):--'The original draft of these verses in Johnson's autograph is now before me. He had first written:--
'Sunt pro legitimis pectora pura sacris;'
he then wrote--
'Legitimas faciunt pura labella preces;'
which more nearly approaches Mr.