284.
[1172] Mr. Cumberland assures me, that he was always treated with great courtesy by Dr. Johnson, who, in his Letters to Mrs. Thrale, vol. ii. p. 68 thus speaks of that learned, ingenious, and accomplished gentleman: 'The want of company is an inconvenience: but Mr. Cumberland is a million.' BOSWELL. Northcote, according to Hazlitt (Conversations of Northcote, p. 275), said that Johnson and his friends 'never admitted C----[Cumberland] as one of the set; Sir Joshua did not invite him to dinner. If he had been in the room, Goldsmith would have flown out of it as if a dragon had been there. I remember Garrick once saying, "D--n his dish-clout face; his plays would never do, if it were not for my patching them up and acting in them."'
[1173] See ante, p. 64, note 2.
[1174] Dr. Parr said, "There are three great Grecians in England: Porson is the first; Burney is the third; and who is the second I need not tell"' Field's Parr, ii. 215.
[1175] 'Dr. Johnson,' said Parr, 'was an admirable scholar.... The classical scholar was forgotten in the great original contributor to the literature of his country.' Ib. i. 164. 'Upon his correct and profound knowledge of the Latin language,' he wrote, 'I have always spoken with unusual zeal and unusual confidence.' Johnson's Parr, iv. 679. Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 54) recounts a 'triumph' gained by Johnson in a talk on Greek literature.
[1176] Ante, iii. 172.
[1177] We must smile at a little inaccuracy of metaphor in the Preface to the Transactions, which is written by Mr. Burrowes. The critick of the style of JOHNSON having, with a just zeal for literature, observed, that the whole nation are called on to exert themselves, afterwards says: 'They are called on by every tye which can have a laudable influence on the heart of man.' BOSWELL.
[1178] Johnson's wishing to unite himself with this rich widow, was much talked of, but I believe without foundation. The report, however, gave occasion to a poem, not without characteristical merit, entitled, 'Ode to Mrs. Thrale, by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. on their supposed approaching Nuptials; printed for Mr. Faulder in Bond-street.' I shall quote as a specimen the first three stanzas:--
'If e'er my fingers touch'd the lyre, In satire fierce, in pleasure gay; Shall not my THRALIA'S smiles inspire? Shall Sam refuse the sportive lay? My dearest Lady! view your slave, Behold him as your very Scrub; Eager to write, as authour grave, Or govern well, the brewing-tub. To rich felicity thus raised, My bosom glows with amorous fire; Porter no longer shall be praised, 'Tis I MYSELF am Thrale's Entire'
[1179] See ante, ii. 44.
[1180] 'Higledy piggledy,--Conglomeration and confusion.
'Hodge-podge,--A culinary mixture of heterogeneous ingredients: applied metaphorically to all discordant combinations.
'Tit for Tat,--Adequate retaliation.
'Shilly Shally,--Hesitation and irresolution.
'Fee! fau! fum!--Gigantic intonations.
Rigmarole,-Discourse, incoherent and rhapsodical.
'Crincum-crancum,--Lines of irregularity and involution.
'Dingdong--Tintinabulary chimes, used metaphorically to signify dispatch and vehemence.' BOSWELL. In all the editions that I have examined the sentence in the text beginning with 'annexed,' and ending with 'concatenation,' is printed as if it were Boswell's. It is a quotation from vol. ii. p. 93 of Colman's book. For Scrub, see ante, iii. 70, note 2.
[1181] See ante, iii. 173.
[1182] History of America, vol. i. quarto, p. 332. BOSWELL.
[1183] Gibbon (Misc. Works, i. 219) thus writes of his own style:--'The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise. Many experiments were made before I could hit the middle tone between a dull chronicle and a rhetorical declamation; three times did I compose the first chapter, and twice the second and third, before I was tolerably satisfied with their effect.' See ante, p. 36, note 1.
[1184] Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. i. chap. iv. BOSWELL.
[1185] Macaulay (Essays, ed. 1874, iv. 157) gives a yet better example of her Johnsonian style, though, as I have shewn (ante, p. 223, note 5), he is wrong in saying that Johnson's hand can be seen.
[1186] Cecilia, Book. vii. chap. i. [v.] BOSWELL.
[1187] The passage which I quote is taken from that gentleman's Elements of Orthoepy; containing a distinct View of the whole Analogy of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE, so far as relates to Pronunciation, Accent, and Quantity, London, 1784. I beg leave to offer my particular acknowledgements to the authour of a work of uncommon merit and great utility. I know no book which contains, in the same compass, more learning, polite literature, sound sense, accuracy of arrangement, and perspicuity of expression. BOSWELL.
[1188] That collection was presented to Dr. Johnson, I believe by its authours; and I heard him speak very well of it. BOSWELL. The Mirror was published in 1779-80; by 1793 it reached its ninth edition.