121, says:--'Johnson was a real true-born Englishman. He hated the Scotch, the French, the Dutch, the Hanoverians, and had the greatest contempt for all other European nations; such were his early prejudices which he never attempted to conquer.' Reynolds wrote of Johnson:--'The prejudices he had to countries did not extend to individuals. In respect to Frenchmen he rather laughed at himself, but it was insurmountable. He considered every foreigner as a fool till they had convinced him of the contrary.' Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 460. Garrick wrote of the French in 1769:--'Their politesse has reduced their character to such a sameness, and their humours and passions are so curbed by habit, that, when you have seen half-a-dozen French men and women, you have seen the whole.' Garrick Corres. i. 358.
[54] 'There is not a man or woman here,' wrote Horace Walpole from Paris (Letters iv. 434), 'that is not a perfect old nurse, and who does not talk gruel and anatomy with equal fluency and ignorance.'
[55] '"I remember that interview well," said Dr. Parr with great vehemence when once reminded of it; "I gave him no quarter." The subject of our dispute was the liberty of the press. Dr. Johnson was very great. Whilst he was arguing, I observed that he stamped. Upon this I stamped. Dr. Johnson said, "Why did you stamp, Dr. Parr?" I replied, "Because you stamped; and I was resolved not to give you the advantage even of a stamp in the argument."' This, Parr said, was by no means his first introduction to Johnson. Field's Parr, i. 161. Parr wrote to Romilly in 1811:--'Pray let me ask whether you have ever read some admirable remarks of Mr. Hutcheson upon the word merit. I remember a controversy I had with Dr. Johnson upon this very term: we began with theology fiercely, I gently carried the conversation onward to philosophy, and after a dispute of more than three hours he lost sight of my heresy, and came over to my opinion upon the metaphysical import of the term.' Life of Romilly, ii. 365. When Parr was a candidate for the mastership of Colchester Grammar School, Johnson wrote for him a letter of recommendation. Johnstone's Parr, i. 94.
[56] 'Somebody was praising Corneille one day in opposition to Shakespeare. "Corneille is to Shakespeare," replied Mr. Johnson, "as a clipped hedge is to a forest."' Piozzi's Anec. p. 59.
[57] Johnson, it is clear, discusses here Mrs. Montagu's Essay on Shakespeare. She compared Shakespeare first with Corneille, and then with Aeschylus. In contrasting the ghost in Hamlet with the shade of Darius in The Persians, she says:--'The phantom, who was to appear ignorant of what was past, that the Athenian ear might be soothed and flattered with the detail of their victory at Salamis, is allowed, for the same reason, such prescience as to foretell their future triumph at Plataea.' p. 161.
[58] Caution is required in everything which is laid before youth, to secure them from unjust prejudices, perverse opinions, and incongruous combinations of images. In the romances formerly written, every transaction and sentiment was so remote from all that passes among men, that the reader was in very little danger of making any applications to himself.' The Rambler, No. 4.
[59] Johnson says of Pope's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day:--'The next stanzas place and detain us in the dark and dismal regions of mythology, where neither hope nor fear, neither joy nor sorrow can be found.' Works, viii. 328. Of Gray's Progress of Poetry, he says:--'The second stanza, exhibiting Mars' car and Jove's eagle, is unworthy of further notice. Criticism disdains to chase a school-boy to his common-places.' Ib. p. 484.
[60] See ante, ii. 178.
[61]
'A Wizard-Dame, the Lover's ancient friend, With magic charm has deaft thy husband's ear, At her command I saw the stars descend, And winged lightnings stop in mid career, &c.'
Hammond. Elegy, v. In Boswell's Hebrides (Sept. 29), he said 'Hammond's Love Elegies were poor things.'
[62] Perhaps Lord Corke and Orrery. Ante, iii. 183. CROKER.
[63] Colman assumed that Johnson had maintained that Shakespeare was totally ignorant of the learned languages. He then quotes a line to prove 'that the author of The Taming of the Shrew had at least read Ovid;' and continues:--'And what does Dr. Johnson say on this occasion? Nothing. And what does Mr. Farmer say on this occasion? Nothing.' Colman's Terence, ii. 390. For Farmer, see ante, iii. 38.
[64] 'It is most likely that Shakespeare had learned Latin sufficiently to make him acquainted with construction, but that he never advanced to an easy perusal of the Roman authors.' Johnson's Works, V. 129. 'The style of Shakespeare was in itself ungrammatical, perplexed, and obscure.' Ib. p. 135.
[65]
'May I govern my passion with an absolute sway, And grow wiser and better, as my strength wears away, Without gout or stone by a gentle decay.'
The Old Man's Wish was sung to Sir Roger de Coverley by 'the fair one,' after the collation in which she ate a couple of chickens, and drank a full bottle of wine.