Mr. Croker, who knew him, says that 'he was very convivial, and in other respects like his father--though altogether on a smaller scale.' He edited a new edition of Malone's Shakespeare. He died in 1822. Croker's Boswell, p. 620.
[1094] See Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 30, 1773.
[1095] Ib. Nov. 1.
[1096] Regius Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church. Johnson wrote in 1783:--'At home I see almost all my companions dead or dying. At Oxford I have just left [lost] Wheeler, the man with whom I most delighted to converse.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 302. See post, Aug. 30, 1780.
[1097] Johnson, in 1784, wrote about a visit to Oxford:--'Since I was there my convivial friend Dr. Edwards and my learned friend Dr. Wheeler are both dead, and my probabilities of pleasure are very much diminished.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 371.
[1098] Dr. Edwards was preparing an edition of Xenophon's Memorabilia. CROKER.
[1099] Johnson wrote on the 14th:--'Dr. Burney had the luck to go to Oxford the only week in the year when the library is shut up. He was, however, very kindly treated; as one man is translating Arabick and another Welsh for his service.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 38.
[1100] Johnson three years later, hearing that one of Dr. Burney's sons had got the command of a ship, wrote:--'I question if any ship upon the ocean goes out attended with more good wishes than that which carries the fate of Burney. I love all of that breed whom I can be said to know, and one or two whom I hardly know I love upon credit, and love them because they love each other.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 225. See post, Nov. 16, 1784.
[1101] Vol. ii. p. 38. BOSWELL.
[1102] Miss Carmichael. BOSWELL.
[1103] See Appendix D.
[1104] See ante, ii. 382, note 1.
[1105] See ante, i. 446.
[1106] See ante, iii. 99, note 4.
[1107] It was the collected edition containing the first seven Discourses, which had each year been published separately. 'I was present,' said Samuel Rogers (Table-Talk, p. 18), 'when Sir Joshua Reynolds delivered his last lecture at the Royal Academy. On entering the room, I found that a semicircle of chairs immediately in front of the pulpit was reserved for persons of distinction, being labelled "Mr. Burke," "Mr. Boswell," &c.'
[1108] In an unfinished sketch for a Discourse, Reynolds said of those already delivered:--'Whatever merit they may have must be imputed, in a great measure, to the education which I may be said to have had under Dr. Johnson. I do not mean to say, though it certainly would be to the credit of these Discourses if I could say it with truth, that he contributed even a single sentiment to them; but he qualified my mind to think justly.' Northcote's Reynolds, ii. 282. See ante, i. 245.
[1109] The error in grammar is no doubt Boswell's. He was so proud of his knowledge of languages that when he was appointed Secretary for Foreign Correspondence to the Royal Academy (ante, ii. 67, note 1), 'he wrote his acceptance of the honour in three separate letters, still preserved in the Academy archives, in English, French, and Italian.' The Athenaeum, No. 3041.
[1110] The remaining six volumes came out, not in 1780, but in 1781. See post, 1781. He also wrote this year the preface to a translation of Oedipus Tyrannus, by Thomas Maurice, in Poems and Miscellaneous Pieces. (See preface to Westminster Abbey with other Poems, 1813.)
[1111] See ante, ii. 272.
[1112] Life of Watts [Works, viii. 380]. BOSWELL.
[1113] See ante, ii. 107.
[1114] See ante, iii. 126.
[1115] 'Perhaps no composition in our language has been oftener perused than Pomfret's Choice.' Johnson's Works, vii. 222.
[1116] Johnson, in his Life of Yalden (Ib. viii. 83), calls the following stanza from his Hymn to Darkness 'exquisitely beautiful':--
'Thou dost thy smiles impartially bestow, And know'st no difference here below: All things appear the same by thee, Though Light distinction makes, thou giv'st equality.'
It is strange that Churchill was left out of the collection.
[1117] Murphy says, though certainly with exaggeration, that 'after Garrick's death Johnson never talked of him without a tear in his eyes. He offered,' he adds, 'if Mrs. Garrick would desire it of him, to be the editor of his works and the historian of his life.' Murphy's Johnson, p. 145. Cumberland (Memoirs, ii. 210) said of Garrick's funeral:--'I saw old Samuel Johnson standing beside his grave, at the foot of Shakespeare's monument, and bathed in tears.' Sir William Forbes was told that Johnson, in going to the funeral, said to William Jones:--'Mr. Garrick and his profession have been equally indebted to each other. His profession made him rich, and he made his profession respectable.' Forbes's Beattie, Appendix CC.
[1118] See ante, i. 456.
[1119] See Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 23.
[1120] The anniversary of the death of Charles I.
[1121] See ante, i. 211.
[1122] He sent a set elegantly bound and gilt, which was received as a very handsome present. BOSWELL.
[1123] On March 10 he wrote:--'I got my Lives, not yet quite printed, put neatly together, and sent them to the King; what he says of them I know not.