"MADAM, JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS. "May 28th, 1784. "You do me wrong by imputing my omission to any captious punctiliousness. I have not yet seen Sir Joshua, and, when I do see him, I know not how to serve you. When I spoke upon your affairs to him, at Christmas, I received no encouragement to speak again. "But we shall never do business by letters. We must see one another. "I have returned your papers, [pp. 697, 706] and am glad that you laid aside the thought of printing them. I am, Madam, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." -Reyn. MSS. JOHNSON TO DR. HAMILTON.1 "REVEREND SIR, "Bolt Court, June 4, 1783. "Be pleased to excuse this application from a stranger in favour of one who has very little ability to speak for herself. The unhappy woman who waits on you with this, has been known to me many years. She is the daughter of a clergyman of Leicestershire, who by an unhappy marriage is reduced to solicit a refuge in the workhouse of your parish, to which she has a claim by her husband's settlement. "Her case admits of little deliberation; she is turned out of her lodging into the street. What my condition allows me to do for her I have already done, and having no friend, she can have recourse only to the parish. I am, reverend Sir, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." -MSS. This and the following notes addressed to the Rev. Dr. Hamilton, Vicar of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, are published from the originals in the possession of his son, who observes that they are of no further interest than as showing the goodness of Johnson's heart, and the spirit with which he entered into the cause and interests of an individual in distress, when he was almost on the bed of sickness and death himself.-Wright. "SIR, JOHNSON TO DR. HAMILTON. "Bolt Court, Feb. 11, 1784. "My physicians endeavour to make me believe that I shall sometime be better qualified to receive visits from men of elegance and civility like yours. "Mrs. Pellè shall wait upon you, and you will judge what will be proper for you to do. I once more return you my thanks, and am, Sir, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." -MSS. JOHNSON TO DR. HAMILTON. "June 2, 1784. "SIR, "You do everything that is liberal and kind. Mrs. Pellè is a bad manager for herself, but I will employ a more skilful agent, one Mrs. Gardiner, who will wait on you and employ Pelle's money to the best advantage. Mrs. Gardiner will wait on you. "I return you, Sir, sincere thanks for your attention to me. I am ill, but hope to come back better, and to be made better still by your conversation. I am, Sir, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." -MSS. "MY LORD, BOSWELL TO LORD THURLOW.' 66 General Paoli's, Upper Seymour Street, "Dr. Samuel Johnson, though wonderfully recovered from a complication of dangerous illness, is by no means well, and I have reason to think that his valuable life cannot be preserved long without the benignant influence of a southern climate. "It would therefore be of very great moment were he to go to Italy before winter sets in; and I know he wishes it much. But the objection is, that his pension of three hundred pounds a year would not be sufficient to defray his expense, and make it convenient for M. Sastres, an ingenious and worthy native of that country, and a teacher of Italian here, to accompany him. 'See antè, p. 417. "As I am well assured of your lordship's regard for Dr. Johnson, I presume, without his knowledge, so far to indulge my anxious. concern for him, as to intrude upon your lordship with this suggestion, being persuaded that if a representation of the matter were made to his majesty by proper authority, the royal bounty would be extended in a suitable manner. "Your lordship, I cannot doubt, will forgive me for taking this liberty. I even flatter myself you will approve of it. I am to set out for Scotland on Monday morning, so that if your lordship should have any commands for me as to this pious negotiation, you will be pleased to send them before that time. But Sir Joshua Reynolds, with whom I have consulted, will be here, and will gladly give all attention to it. I am, &c., "JAMES BOSWELL.” -Reyn. MSS. JOHNSON TO DR. ADAMS. "London, 11th June (July), 1784. "DEAR SIR, "I am going into Staffordshire and Derbyshire in quest of some relief, of which my need is not less than when I was treated at your house with so much tenderness. "I have now received the collations for Xenophon, which I have sent you with the letters that relate to them. I cannot at present take any part in the work, but I would rather pay for a collation of Oppian than see it neglected; for the Frenchmen act with great liberality. Let us not fall below them. "I know not in what state Dr. Edwards left his book. Some of his emendations seemed to me to (be) irrefragably certain, and such, therefore, as ought not to be lost. His rule was not (to) change the text; and, therefore, I suppose he has left notes to be subjoined. As the book is posthumous, some account of the editor ought to be given. "You have now the whole process of the correspondence before you. When the prior is answered, let some apology be made for me. "I was forced to divide the collation, but as it is paged, you will easily put every part in its proper place. "Be pleased to convey my respects to Mrs. and Miss Adams. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." JOHNSON TO DR. HEBERDEN. "Lichfield, 13th October, 1784. "Though I doubt not but Dr. Brocklesby would communicate to you any incident in the variation of my health which appeared either curious or important, yet I think it time to give you some account of myself. "Not long after the first great efflux of the water, I attained as much vigour of limbs and freedom of breath, that without rest or intermission, I went with Dr. Brocklesby to the top of the painters' Academy. This was the greatest degree of health that I have obtained, and this, if it could continue, were perhaps sufficient; but breath soon failed, and my body grew weak. my "At Oxford (in June) I was much distressed by shortness of breath, so much that I never attempted to scale the Library: the water gained upon me, but by the use of squills was in a great measure driven away. "In July I went to Lichfield, and performed the journey with very little fatigue in the common vehicle, but found no help from my native air. I then removed to Ashbourne, in Derbyshire, where for some time I was oppressed very heavily by the asthma; and the dropsy had advanced so far, that I could not without great difficulty button me at my knees. * * * "No hydropical humour has been lately visible. The relaxation of my breath has not continued as it was at first, but neither do I breathe with the same angustia and distress as before the remission. The summary of my state is this: "I am deprived, by weakness and the asthma, of the power of walking beyond a very short space. "I draw my breath with difficulty upon the least effort, but not with suffocation or pain. "The dropsy still threatens, but gives way to medicine. "The summer has passed without giving me any strength. "My appetite is, I think, less keen than it was, but not so abated as that its decline can be observed by any but myself. "Be pleased to think on me sometimes. I am, Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." -MS. II. MALONE'S NOTE ON CERTAIN QUOTATIONS.' THE words occur (as Mr. Bindley observes to me) in the first Eclogue of Mantuanus, "De Honesto Amore," &c. "Id commune malum; semel insanivimus omnes." With the following elucidation of the other saying-Quos Deus (it should rather be, Quem Jupiter) vult perdere, prius dementat Mr. Boswell was furnished by Mr. Richard How, of Apsley, in Bedfordshire, as communicated to that gentleman by his friend, Mr. John Pitts, late rector of Great Brickhill, in Buckingham: "Perhaps no scrap of Latin whatever has been more quoted than this. It occasionally falls even from those who are scrupulous even to pedantry in their Latinity, and will not admit a word into their compositions which has not the sanction of the first age. The word demento is of no authority, either as a verb active or neuter. After a long search, for the purpose of deciding a bet, some gentlemen of Cambridge found it among the fragments of Euripides, in what edition I do not recollect, where it is given as a translation of a Greek Iambic : Ον Θεος θελει απολέσαι, πρωτ' αποφρεναι. "The above scrap was found in the handwriting of a suicide of fashion, Sir D. O., some years ago, lying on the table of the room where he had destroyed himself. The suicide was a man of classical acquirements: he left no other paper behind him." Another of these proverbial sayings, "Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim," I, some years ago, in a note on a passage in "The Merchant of Venice," traced to its source. It occurs (with a slight variation) in the "Alexandreis" of Philip Gualtier (a poet of the thirteenth century), which was printed at Lyons in 1558. Darius is the person addressed :- 1 See antè, p. 292. 2 No such line among the Fragments of Euripides; for Euripides wrote Greek, and this is not Greek.-Editor. |