[618] See this subject discussed in a subsequent page, under May 3, 1779. BOSWELL.
[619] On Feb. 17, Lord North 'made his Conciliatory Propositions.' Parl. Hist. xix. 762.
[620] See ante, ii 111.
[621] See ante, ii. 312.
[622] Alluding to a line in his Vanity of Human Wishes, describing Cardinal Wolsey in his state of elevation:--
'Through him the rays of regal bounty shine.' BOSWELL.
[623] See ante, p. 205.
[624] 'In my mind's eye, Horatio.' Hamlet, act i. sc. 2.
[625] Mr. Langton. See ante, p. 48.
[626] See ante, May 12, 1775.
[627] Daughter of Dr. Swinfen, Johnson's godfather, and widow of Mr. Desmoulins, a writing-master. BOSWELL.
[628] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Montagu on March 5:--'Now, dear Madam, we must talk of business. Poor Davies, the bankrupt bookseller, is soliciting his friends to collect a small sum for the repurchase of part of his household stuff. Several of them gave him five guineas. It would be an honour to him to owe part of his relief to Mrs. Montagu.' Croker's Boswell, p. 570. J. D'Israeli says (Calamities of Authors, i. 265):--'We owe to Davies beautiful editions of some of our elder poets, which are now eagerly sought after; yet, though all his publications were of the best kinds, and are now of increasing value, the taste of Tom Davies twice ended in bankruptcy.' See post, April 7, 1778.
[629] See ante, i. 391. Davies wrote to Garrick in 1763:--'I remember that during the run of Cymbeline I had the misfortune to disconcert you in one scene of that play, for which I did immediately beg your pardon, and did attribute it to my accidentally seeing Mr. Churchill in the pit, with great truth; and that was the only time I can recollect of my being confused or unmindful of my business when that gentleman was before me. I had even then a more moderate opinion of my abilities than your candour would allow me, and have always acknowledged that gentleman's picture of me was fair.' He adds that he left the stage on account of Garrick's unkindness, 'who,' he says, 'at rehearsals took all imaginable pains to make me unhappy.' Garrick Corres. i. 165.
[630] He was afterwards Solicitor-General under Lord Rockingham and Attorney-General under the Duke of Portland. 'I love Mr. Lee exceedingly,' wrote Boswell, 'though I believe there are not any two specifick propositions of any sort in which we exactly agree. But the general mass of sense and sociality, literature and religion, in each of us, produces two given quantities, which unite and effervesce wonderfully well. I know few men I would go farther to serve than Jack Lee.' Letter to the People of Scotland, p. 75. Lord Eldon said that Lee, in the debates upon the India Bill, speaking of the charter of the East India Company, 'expressed his surprise that there could be such political strife about what he called "a piece of parchment, with a bit of wax dangling to it." This most improvident expression uttered by a Crown lawyer formed the subject of comment and reproach in all the subsequent debates, in all publications of the times, and in everybody's conversation.' Twiss's Eldon, iii. 97. In the debate on Fox's India Bill on Dec. 3, 1783, Lee 'asked what was the consideration of a charter, a skin of parchment with a waxed seal at the corner, compared to the happiness of thirty millions of subjects, and the preservation of a mighty empire.' Parl. Hist. xxiv. 49. See Twiss's Eldon, i. 106-9, and 131, for anecdotes of Lee; and ante, ii. 48, note 1.
[631] 'For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face.' I Corinthians, xiii. 12.
[632] Goldsmith notices this in the Haunch of Venison:--
My friend bade me welcome, but struck me quite dumb With tidings that Johnson and Burke would not come; For I knew it (he cried), both eternally fail, The one with his speeches, and t'other with Thrale.'
CROKER. See ante, i. 493.
[633] See post, April 1, 1781. 'Johnson said:--"He who praises everybody praises nobody."' Johnson's Works (1787), xi. 216.
[634] See ante, p. 55.
[635] Johnson wrote in July 1775:--'Everybody says the prospect of harvest is uncommonly delightful; but this has been so long the summer talk, and has been so often contradicted by autumn, that I do not suffer it to lay much hold on my mind. Our gay prospects have now for many years together ended in melancholy retrospects.' Piozzi Letters, i. 259. On Aug. 27, 1777, he wrote:--'Amidst all these little things there is one great thing. The harvest is abundant, and the weather a la merveille. No season ever was finer.' Ib. p. 360. In this month of March, 1778, wheat was selling at 5s. 3d. the bushel in London; at 6s. 10d. in Somerset; and at 5s. 1d. in Northumberland, Suffolk, and Sussex. Gent. Mag. xlviii. 98. The average price for 1778 was 5s. 3d. Ann. Reg. xxi. 282.
[636] See post, iii. 243, Oct. 10, 1779, and April 1, 1781.
[637] The first edition was in 1492. Between that period and 1792, according to this account, there were 3600 editions. But this is very improbable. MALONE. Malone assumes, as Mr.