To which is added, an Appendix concerning the Descent of the Soul of Christ into Hell, while his Body lay in the Grave. Together with the Judgment of the Reverend Dr. Hickes concerning this Book, so far as relates to a Middle State, particular Judgment, and Prayers for the Dead as it appeared in the first Edition. 'And a Manuscript of the Right Reverend Bishop Overall upon the Subject of a Middle State, and never before printed. Also, a Preservative against several of the Errors of the Roman Church, in six small Treatises. By the Honourable Archibald Campbell. Folio, 1721. BOSWELL.
[956] The release gained for him by Lord Townshend must have been from his last imprisonment after the accession of George I; for, as Mr. Croker points out, Townshend was not Secretary of State till 1714.
[957] See ante, iv. 286.
[958] He was the grandson of the first Marquis, who was beheaded by Charles II in 1661, and nephew of the ninth Earl, who was beheaded by James II in 1685. Burke's Peerage. He died on June 15, 1744, according to the Gent. Mag. xiv. 339; where he is described as 'the consecrated Archbishop of St. Andrews.' See ante, ii. 216.
[959] George Hickes, 1642-1715. A non-juror, consecrated in 1693 suffragan bishop of Thetford by three of the deprived non-juror bishops. Chalmers's Biog. Dict. xvii. 450. Burnet (Hist. of his own Time, iv. 303) describes him as 'an ill-tempered man, who was now [1712] at the head of the Jacobite party, and who had in several books promoted a notion, that there was a proper sacrifice made in the Eucharist.' Boswell mentions him, ante, iv. 287.
[960] See ante, ii. 458.
[961] This must be a mistake for He died.
[962] 'It is generally supposed that life is longer in places where there are few opportunities of luxury; but I found no instance here of extraordinary longevity. A cottager grows old over his oaten cakes like a citizen at a turtle feast. He is, indeed, seldom incommoded by corpulence, Poverty preserves him from sinking under the burden of himself, but he escapes no other injury of time.' Johnson's Works, ix. 81.
[963] Lady Lucy Graham, daughter of the second Duke of Montrose, and wife of Mr. Douglas, the successful claimant: she died in 1780, whence Boswell calls her 'poor Lady Lucy.' CROKER
[964] Her first husband was the sixth Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. On his death she refused the Duke of Bridgewater. She was the mother of four dukes--two of Hamilton and two of Argyle. Her sister married the Earl of Coventry. Walpole's Letters, ii. 259, note. Walpole, writing on Oct. 9, 1791, says that their story was amazing. 'The two beautiful sisters were going on the stage, when they were at once exalted almost as high as they could be, were Countessed and double-Duchessed.' Ib. ix. 358. Their maiden name was Gunning. The Duchess of Argyle was alive when Boswell published his Journal.
[965] See ante, iv. 397, and v. 210. It was Lord Macaulay's grandfather who was thus reprimanded. Mr. Trevelyan remarks (Life of Macaulay, i. 7), 'When we think what well-known ground this [subject] was to Lord Macaulay, it is impossible to suppress a wish that the great talker had been at hand to avenge his grandfather.' The result might well have been, however, that the great talker would have been reduced to silence--one of those brilliant flashes of silence for which Sydney Smith longed, but longed in vain.
[966] See ante, ii. 264, note 2.
[967] See ante, iv. 8, for his use of 'O brave!'
[968] Having mentioned, more than once, that my Journal was perused by Dr. Johnson, I think it proper to inform my readers that this is the last paragraph which he read. BOSWELL. He began to read it on August 18 (ante, p. 58, note 2).
[969] See ante, ii. 320.
[970] Act i. sc. 1. The best known passage in Douglas is the speech beginning 'My name is Norval.' Act ii. The play affords a few quotations more or less known, as:--
'I found myself As women wish to be who love their lords.' Act i.
'He seldom errs Who thinks the worse he can of womankind.' Act iii.
'Honour, sole judge and umpire of itself.' Act iv.
'Unknown I die; no tongue shall speak of me. Some noble spirits, judging by themselves, May yet conjecture what I might have proved, And think life only wanting to my fame.' Act v.
'An honest guardian, arbitrator just Be thou; thy station deem a sacred trust. With thy good sword maintain thy country's cause; In every action venerate its laws: The lie suborn'd if falsely urg'd to swear, Though torture wait thee, torture firmly bear; To forfeit honour, think the highest shame, And life too dearly bought by loss of fame; Nor to preserve it, with thy virtue give That for which only man should wish to live.'
[Satires, viii. 79.]
For this and the other translations to which no signature is affixed, I am indebted to the friend whose observations are mentioned in the notes, pp. 78 and 399.