She said, "I cannot justify the deed to the legatees; but towards his father, the late King was justifiable, for George I. had burnt two wills made in favour of George II."'
[1010] 'Charles II. by his affability and politeness made himself the idol of the nation, which he betrayed and sold.' Johnson's Works, vi. 7.
[1011] 'It was maliciously circulated that George was indifferent to his own succession, and scarcely willing to stretch out a hand to grasp the crown within his reach.' Coxe's Memoirs of Walpole, i. 57.
[1012] Plin. Epist. lib. ii. ep. 3. BOSWELL.
[1013] Mr. Davies was here mistaken. Corelli never was in England. BURNEY.
[1014] Mr. Croker is wrong in saying that the Irishman in Mrs. Thrale's letter of May 16, 1776 (Piozzi Letters, i. 329), is Dr. Campbell. The man mentioned there had never met Johnson, though she wrote more than a year after this dinner at Davies's. She certainly quotes one of 'Dr. C-l's phrases,' but she might also have quoted Shakspeare. I have no doubt that Mrs. Thrale's Irishman was a Mr. Musgrave (post, under June 16, 1784, note), who is humorously described in Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 83. Since writing this note I have seen that the Edinburgh reviewer (Oct. 1859, p. 326) had come to the same conclusion.
[1015] See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 26, 1773, where Johnson said that 'he did not approve of a Judge's calling himself Farmer Burnett, and going about with a little round hat.'
[1016] 'If all the employments of life were crowded into the time which it [sic] really occupied, perhaps a few weeks, days, or hours would be sufficient for its accomplishment, so far as the mind was engaged in the performance.' The Rambler, No. 8.
[1017] Johnson certainly did, who had a mind stored with knowledge, and teeming with imagery: but the observation is not applicable to writers in general. BOSWELL. See post, April 20, 1783.
[1018] See ante, i. 358.
[1019] See ante, i. 306.
[1020] There has probably been some mistake as to the terms of this supposed extraordinary contract, the recital of which from hearsay afforded Johnson so much play for his sportive acuteness. Or if it was worded as he supposed, it is so strange that I should conclude it was a joke. Mr. Gardner, I am assured, was a worthy and a liberal man. BOSWELL. Thurlow, when Attorney-General, had been counsel for the Donaldsons, in the appeal before the House of Lords on the Right of Literary Property (ante, i. 437, and ii. 272). In his argument 'he observed (exemplifying his observations by several cases) that the booksellers had not till lately ever concerned themselves about authors.' Gent. Mag. for 1774, p. 51.
[1021] 'The booksellers of London are denominated the trade' (post, April 15, 1778, note).
[1022] Bibliopole is not in Johnson's Dictionary.
[1023] The Literary Club. See ante, p. 330, note 1. Mr. Croker says that the records of the Club show that, after the first few years, Johnson very rarely attended, and that he and Boswell never met there above seven or eight times. It may be observed, he adds, how very rarely Boswell records the conversation at the club, Except in one instance (post, April, 3, 1778), he says, Boswell confines his report to what Johnson or himself may have said. That this is not strictly true is shewn by his report of the dinner recorded above, where we find reported remarks of Beauclerk and Gibbon. Seven meetings besides this are mentioned by Boswell. See ante, ii. 240, 255, 318, 330; and post, April 3, 1778, April 16, 1779, and June 22, 1784. Of all but the last there is some report, however brief, of something said. When Johnson was not present, Boswell would have nothing to record in this book.
[1024] Travels through Germany, &c., 1756-7.
[1025] Travels through Holland, &c. Translated from the French, 1743.
[1026] See post, March 24, 1776, and May 17, 1778.
[1027] Description of the East, 1743-5.
[1028] Johnson had made the same remark, and Boswell had mentioned Leandro Alberti, when they were talking in an inn in the Island of Mull. Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 14, 1773.
[1029] Addison does not mention where this epitaph, which has eluded a very diligent inquiry, is found. MALONE. I have found it quoted in old Howell. 'The Italian saying may be well applied to poor England:--"I was well--would be better--took physic--and died."' Lett. Jan. 20, 1647. CROKER. It is quoted by Addison in The Spectator, No. 25:--'This letter puts me in mind of an Italian epitaph written on the monument of a Valetudinarian: Stavo ben, ma per star meglio sto qui, which it is impossible to translate.'
[1030] Lord Chesterfield, as Mr. Croker points out, makes the same observation in one of his Letters to his Son (ii. 351). Boswell, however, does not get it from him, for he had said the same in the Hebrides, six months before the publication of Chesterfield's Letters. Addison, in the preface to his Remarks, says:--'Before I entered on my voyage I took care to refresh my memory among the classic authors, and to make such collections out of them as I might afterwards have occasion for.'
[1031] See ante, ii.