She looked upon it, and quivering her fingers in a manner which I thought very pretty, but of which I knew not whether it was art or play, multiplied the sum regularly in two lines, observing the decimal place; but did not add the two lines together, probably disdaining so easy an operation.' Johnson's Works, ix. 161.
[1102]
'Words gigantic.'
FRANCIS. Horace, Ars Poet.. 1. 97.
[1103] One of the best criticks of our age 'does not wish to prevent the admirers of the incorrect and nerveless style which generally prevailed for a century before Dr. Johnson's energetick writings were known, from enjoying the laugh that this story may produce, in which he is very ready to join them.' He, however, requests me to observe, that 'my friend very properly chose a long word on this occasion, not, it is believed, from any predilection for polysyllables, (though he certainly had a due respect for them,) but in order to put Mr. Braidwood's skill to the strictest test, and to try the efficacy of his instruction by the most difficult exertion of the organs of his pupils.' BOSWELL. 'One of the best critics of our age' is, I believe, Malone. See ante, p. 78, note 5.
[1104] It was here that Lord Auchinleck called him Ursa Major. Ante, p. 384.
[1105] See ante, iii. 266, and v. 20, where 'Mr. Crosbie said that the English are better animals than the Scots.'
[1106] Johnson himself had laughed at them (ante, ii. 210) and accused them of foppery (ante, ii. 237).
[1107] Johnson said, 'I never think I have hit hard, unless it rebounds (ante, ii. 335), and, 'I would rather be attacked than unnoticed' (ante, iii. 375). When he was told of a caricature 'of the nine muses flogging him round Parnassus,' he said, 'Sir, I am very glad to hear this. I hope the day will never arrive when I shall neither be the object of calumny or ridicule, for then I shall be neglected and forgotten.' Croker's Boswell, p. 837. See ante, ii. 61, and pp. 174, 273. 'There was much laughter when M. de Lesseps mentioned that on his first visit to England the publisher who brought out the report of his meeting charged, as the first item of his bill, "L50 for attacking the book in order to make it succeed." "Since then," observed M. de Lesseps, "I have been attacked gratuitously, and have got on without paying."' The Times, Feb. 19, 1884.
[1108]
'To wing my flight to fame.'
DRYDEN. Virgil, Georgics, iii. 9.
[1109] On Nov. 12 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'We came hither (to Edinburgh) on the ninth of this month. I long to come under your care, but for some days cannot decently get away.' Piozzi Letters, i. 202.
[1110] He would have been astonished had he known that a few miles from Edinburgh he had passed through two villages of serfs. The coal-hewers and salt-makers of Tranent and Preston-Pans were still sold with the soil. 'In Scotland domestic slavery is unknown, except so far as regards the coal-hewers and salt-makers, whose condition, it must be confessed, bears some resemblance to slavery; because all who have once acted in either of the capacities are compellable to serve, and fixed to their respective places of employment during life.' Hargrave's Argument in the case of James Sommersett, 1772. Had Johnson known this he might have given as his toast when in company with some very grave men at Edinburgh:--'Here's to the next insurrection of the slaves in Scotland.' Ante, iii. 200.
[1111] The year following in the House of Commons he railed at the London booksellers, 'who, he positively asserted, entirely governed the newspapers.' 'For his part,' he added, 'he had ordered that no English newspaper should come within his doors for three months.' Parl. Hist. xvii. 1090.
[1112] See ante, iii. 373.
[1113] 'At the latter end of 1630 Ben Jonson went on foot into Scotland, on purpose to visit Drummond. His adventures in this journey he wrought into a poem; but that copy, with many other pieces, was accidentally burned.' Whalley's Ben Jonson, Preface, p. xlvi.
[1114] Perhaps the same woman showed the chapel who was there 29 years later, when Scott visited it. One of his friends 'hoped that they might, as habitual visitors, escape hearing the usual endless story of the silly old woman that showed the ruins'; but Scott answered, 'There is a pleasure in the song which none but the songstress knows, and by telling her we know it all ready we should make the poor devil unhappy.' Lockharts Scott, ed. 1839, ii. 106.
[1115] O rare Ben Jonson is on Jonson's tomb in Westminster Abbey.
[1116] See ante, ii. 365.
[1117] 'Essex was at that time confined to the same chamber of the Tower from which his father Lord Capel had been led to death, and in which his wife's grandfather had inflicted a voluntary death upon himself. When he saw his friend carried to what he reckoned certain fate, their common enemies enjoying the spectacle, and reflected that it was he who had forced Lord Howard upon the confidence of Russel, he retired, and, by a Roman death, put an end to his misery.' Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, vol.