The apostasy of a gentleman-commoner would of course be for a time the chief subject of conversation in the common room of Magdalene. His whim about Arabic learning would naturally be mentioned, and would give occasion to some jokes about the probability of his turning Mussulman. If such jokes were made, Johnson, who frequently visited Oxford, was very likely to hear of them.' Though Gibbon's Autobiography ends with the year 1788, yet he wrote portions of it, I believe, after the publication of the Life of Johnson. (See ante, ii. 8, note 1.) I have little doubt that in the following lines he refers to the attack thus made on him by Boswell and Johnson. 'Many years afterwards, when the name of Gibbon was become as notorious as that of Middleton, it was industriously whispered at Oxford that the historian had formerly "turned Papist;" my character stood exposed to the reproach of inconstancy.' Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 65.
[1319] Steele, in his Apology for Himself and his Writings (ed. 1714, p. 80), says of himself:--'He first became an author when an ensign of the Guards, a way of life exposed to much irregularity, and being thoroughly convinced of many things of which he often repented, and which he more often repeated, he writ, for his own private use, a little book called the Christian Hero, with a design principally to fix upon his own mind a strong impression of virtue and religion, in opposition to a stronger propensity towards unwarrantable pleasures. This secret admonition was too weak; he therefore printed the book with his name, in hopes that a standing testimony against himself, and the eyes of the world, that is to say of his acquaintance, upon him in a new light, might curb his desires, and make him ashamed of understanding and seeming to feel what was virtuous, and living so quite contrary a life.'
[1320] 'A man,' no doubt, is Boswell himself.
[1321] '"I was sure when I read it that the preface to Baretti's Dialogues was Dr. Johnson's; and that I made him confess." "Baretti's Dialogues! What are they about?" "A thimble, and a spoon, and a knife, and a fork! They are the most absurd, and yet the most laughable things you ever saw. They were written for Miss Thrale, and all the dialogues are between her and him, except now and then a shovel and a poker, or a goose and a chair happen to step in."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 263.
[1322] 'April 4, 1760. At present nothing is talked of, nothing admired, but what I cannot help calling a very insipid and tedious performance; it is a kind of novel called The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy; the great humour of which consists in the whole narration always going backwards.' Walpole's Letters, iii. 298. 'March 7, 1761. The second and third volumes of Tristram Shandy, the dregs of nonsense, have universally met the contempt they deserve.' Ib 382. '"My good friend," said Dr. Farmer (ante, i. 368), one day in the parlour at Emanuel College, "you young men seem very fond of this Tristram Shandy; but mark my words, however much it may be talked about at present, yet, depend upon it, in the course of twenty years, should any one wish to refer to it, he will be obliged to go to an antiquary to inquire for it."' Croker's Boswell, ed. 1844, ii. 339. See ante, ii. 173, note 2, and 222.
[1323] Mrs. Rudd. She and the two brothers Perreau were charged with forgery. She was tried first and acquitted, the verdict of the jury being 'not guilty, according to the evidence before us.' The Ann. Reg. xviii. 231, adds:--'There were the loudest applauses on this acquittal almost ever known in a court of justice.' 'The issue of Mrs. Rudd's trial was thought to involve the fate of the Perreaus; and the popular fancy had taken the part of the woman as against the men.' They were convicted and hanged, protesting their innocence. Letters of Boswell, pp. 223-230. Boswell wrote to Temple on April 28:--'You know my curiosity and love of adventure; I have got acquainted with the celebrated Mrs. Rudd.' Ib P. 233--Three days later, he wrote:-- 'Perhaps the adventure with Mrs. Rudd is very foolish, notwithstanding Dr. Johnson's approbation.' Ib p. 235. See post, iii. 79, and April 28, 1778.
[1324] See post, May 15, 1784, where Johnson says that Mrs. Montagu has 'a constant stream of conversation,' and a second time allows that 'Burke is an extraordinary man.' Johnson writes of 'a stream of melody.' Works, viii. 92. For Burke's conversation see post, April 7, 1778, 1780 in Mr. Langton's Collection, March 21, 1783, and Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 15.
[1325] See ante, ii. 16.
[1326] According to Boswell's record in Boswelliana, p. 273, two sayings are here united. He there writes, on the authority of Mr. Langton:--'Dr. Johnson had a very high opinion of Edmund Burke. He said, "That fellow calls forth all my powers"; and once when he was out of spirits and rather dejected he said, "Were I to see Burke now 'twould kill me."'
[1327] See ante, ii. 100, iii. 24, and under May 8, 1781.
[1328] In a note on the Dunciad, ii.