When Miss More was introduced to him, she began singing his praise in the warmest manner. For some time he heard her with that quietness which a long use of praise has given him: she then redoubled her strokes, till at length he turned suddenly to her, with a stern and angry countenance, and said, "Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i.103. Shortly afterwards Miss Burney records (ib. p. 121) that Mrs. Thrale said to him:--'We have told her what you said to Miss More, and I believe that makes her afraid.' He replied:--'Well, and if she was to serve me as Miss More did, I should say the same thing to her.' We have therefore three reports of what he said--one from Mrs. Thrale indirectly, one from her directly, and the third from Malone. However severe the reproof was, the Mores do not seem to have been much touched by it. At all events they enjoyed the meeting with Johnson, and Hannah More needed a second reproof that was conveyed to her through Miss Reynolds.
[1056] Anec. p. 202. BOSWELL.
[1057] See ante, i. 40, 68, 92, 415, 481; ii. 188, 194; iii. 229; and post, v. 245, note 2.
[1058] Anec. p. 44. BOSWELL. See ante, p. 318, note 1, where I quote the passage.
[1059] Ib. p. 23. BOSWELL.
[1060] Ib. p. 45. Mr. Hayward says:--'She kept a copious diary and notebook called Thraliana from 1776 to 1809. It is now,' [1861] he continues, 'in the possession of Mr. Salusbury, who deems it of too private and delicate a character to be submitted to strangers, but has kindly supplied me with some curious passages from it.' Hayward's Piozzi, i. 6.
[1061] Ib. p. 51 [192]. BOSWELL.
[1062] Anec. p. 193 [51]. BOSWELL.
[1063] Johnson, says Murphy, (Life, p. 96) 'felt not only kindness, but zeal and ardour for his friends.' 'Who,' he asks (ib. p. 144), 'was more sincere and steady in his friendships?' 'Numbers,' he says (ib. p. 146), 'still remember with gratitude the friendship which he shewed to them with unaltered affection for a number of years.'
[1064] See ante, ii. 285, and iii. 440.
[1065] Johnson's Works, i. 152, 3.
[1066] In vol. ii. of the Piozzi Letters some of these letters are given.
[1067] He gave Miss Thrale lessons in Latin. Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i. 243 and 427.
[1068] Anec. p. 258. BOSWELL.
[1069] George James Cholmondeley, Esq., grandson of George, third Earl of Cholmondeley, and one of the Commissioners of Excise; a gentleman respected for his abilities, and elegance of manners. BOSWELL. When I spoke to him a few years before his death upon this point, I found him very sore at being made the topic of such a debate, and very unwilling to remember any thing about either the offence or the apology. CROKER.
[1070] Letters to Mrs. Thrale, vol. ii. p. 12. BOSWELL.
[1071] Mrs. Piozzi (Anec.p. 258) lays the scene of this anecdote 'in some distant province, either Shropshire or Derbyshire, I believe.' Johnson drove through these counties with the Thrales in 1774 (ante, ii. 285). If the passage in the letter refers to the same anecdote--and Mrs. Piozzi does not, so far as I know, deny it--more than three years passed before Johnson was told of his rudeness. Baretti, in a MS. note on Piozzi Letters, ii. 12, says that the story was 'Mr. Cholmondeley's running away from his creditors.' In this he is certainly wrong; yet if Mr. Cholmondeley had run away, and others gave the same explanation of the passage, his soreness is easily accounted for.
[1072] Anec. p. 23. BOSWELL.
[1073] Ib. p. 302. BOSWELL.
[1074] Rasselas, chap, xvii
[1075] Paradise Lost, iv. 639.
[1076] Anec. p. 63. BOSWELL.
[1077] 'Johnson one day, on seeing an old terrier lie asleep by the fire-side at Streatham, said, "Presto, you are, if possible, a more lazy dog that I am."' Johnson's Works, ed. 1787, xi. 203.
[1078] Upon mentioning this to my friend Mr. Wilkes, he, with his usual readiness, pleasantly matched it with the following sentimental anecdote. He was invited by a young man of fashion at Paris, to sup with him and a lady, who had been for some time his mistress, but with whom he was going to part. He said to Mr. Wilkes that he really felt very much for her, she was in such distress; and that he meant to make her a present of two hundred louis-d'ors. Mr. Wilkes observed the behaviour of Mademoiselle, who sighed indeed very piteously, and assumed every pathetick air of grief; but eat no less than three French pigeons, which are as large as English partridges, besides other things. Mr. Wilkes whispered the gentleman, 'We often say in England, Excessive sorrow is exceeding dry, but I never heard Excessive sorrow is exceeding hungry. Perhaps one hundred will do.' The gentleman took the hint. BOSWELL.
[1079] See post, p. 367, for the passage omitted.
[1080] Sir Joshua Reynolds, on account of the excellence both of the sentiment and expression of this letter, took a copy of it which he shewed to some of his friends; one of whom, who admired it, being allowed to peruse it leisurely at home, a copy was made, and found its way into the newspapers and magazines.