ii. p. 191, he says of the day of Mr. Thrale's death, 'Johnson and I, and many other friends, were to dine with him that day.' The rest of the note, at all events, is inaccurate, for he says that 'Mrs. Thrale imparted to Johnson the news [of her husband's death],' whereas Johnson saw him die.
[283] Mrs. Piozzi says that this money was given to Baretti as a consolation for the loss of the Italian tour (ante, iii. 6). Hayward's Piozzi, ii. 337.
[284] The Duke of York was present when Foote had the accident by which he lost his leg (ante, ii. 95). Moved by compassion, he obtained for him from the King a royal patent for performances at the Haymarket from May 14 to Sept. 14 in every year. He played but thrice after his retirement. Forster's Essays, ii. 400, 435.
[285] Strahan showed greater sagacity about Gibbon's Decline and Fall, which had been declined by Elmsly. 'So moderate were our hopes,' writes Gibbon (Misc. Works, i. 223), 'that the original impression had been stinted to five hundred, till the number was doubled by the prophetic taste of Mr. Strahan.' Carrick called Strahan 'rather an obtuse man.' Post, April 9 1778.
[286] See post, Sept. 19, 1777, and April 20, 1781.
[287] Johnson, I believe, at this time suffered less than usual from despondency. See ante, iii. 25, note 1. The passage in which these words are found applies to one day only. It is as follows:--'March 28. This day is Good Friday. It is likewise the day on which my poor Tetty was taken from me. My thoughts were disturbed in bed. I remembered that it was my wife's dying day, and begged pardon for all our sins, and commended her; but resolved to mix little of my own sorrows or cares with the great solemnity. Having taken only tea without milk I went to church; had time before service to commend my wife, and wished to join quietly in the service, but I did not hear well, and my mind grew unsettled and perplexed. Having rested ill in the night I slumbered at the sermon, which, I think, I could not as I sat perfectly hear.... At night I had some ease. L.D. [Laus Deo] I had prayed for pardon and peace.' Pr. and Med. p. 153. Hawkins, however (Life, p. 532), says, perhaps with considerable exaggeration, that at this time, 'he sunk into indolence, till his faculties seemed to be impaired; deafness grew upon him; long intervals of mental absence interrupted his conversation, and it was difficult to engage his attention to any subject. His friends concluded that his lamp was emitting its last rays, but the lapse of a short period gave them ample proofs to the contrary.' The proofs were The Lives of the Poets. Johnson himself says of this time:--'Days and months pass in a dream; and I am afraid that my memory grows less tenacious, and my observation less attentive.' Pr. and Med. 160.
[288]
'Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.'
Pope's Essay on Man, i. 99.
[289] '"I inherited," said Johnson, "a vile melancholy from my father, which has made me mad all my life, at least not sober."' Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 16, 1773. See ante, i. 65, and post, Sept. 20, 1777.
[290] Pr. and Med. p. 155. BOSWELL.
[291] Pr. and Med. p. 158. BOSWELL.
[292] He continues:--'I passed the afternoon with such calm gladness of mind as it is very long since I felt before. I passed the night in such sweet uninterrupted sleep as I have not known since I slept at Fort Augustus.' See post, Nov. 21, 1778, where in a letter to Boswell he says:--'The best night that I have had these twenty years was at Fort Augustus.' In 1767 he mentions (Pr. and Med. p. 73) 'a sudden relief he once had by a good night's rest in Fetter Lane,' where he had lived many years before. His good nights must have been rare indeed.
[293] Bishop Percy says that he handed over to Johnson various memoranda which he had received from 'Goldsmith's brother and others of his family, to afford materials for a Life of Goldsmith, which Johnson was to write and publish for their benefit. But he utterly forgot them and the subject.' Prior successfully defends Johnson against the charge that he did not include Goldsmith's Life among the Lives of the Poets. 'The copy-right of She Stoops to Conquer was the property of Carnan the bookseller (surviving partner of F. Newbery); and Carnan being "a most impracticable man and at variance with all his brethren," in the words of Malone to the Bishop, he refused his assent, and the project for the time fell to the ground.' But Percy clearly implies that it was a separate work and not one of the Lives that Johnson had undertaken. See Prior's Goldsmith, Preface, p. x. Malone, in a note on Boswell's letter of July 9, 1777, says:--'I collected some materials for a Life of Goldsmith, by Johnson's desire.' He goes on to mention the quarrel with Carnan. It should seem then that Johnson was gathering materials for Goldsmith's Life before the Lives of the Poets were projected; that later on he intended to include it in that series, but being thwarted by Carnan that he did nothing.