series, that would not disgrace the poet and his admirer. Garrick produced a passage that he had once heard the Doctor commend, in which he now found, if I remember rightly, sixteen faults, and made Garrick look silly at his own table. When I told Mr. Johnson the story, Why, what a monkey was David now," says he, "to tell of his own disgrace!" 66 In the course of that hour's chat, he told me how he used to tease Garrick by commendations of the tomb scene in Congreve's Mourning Bride, protesting that Shakspeare had, in the same line of excellence, nothing as good: "All which is strictly true," said he; but that is no reason for supposing Congreve is to stand in competition with Shakspeare: these fellows know not how to blame, nor how to commend." I forced him one day, in a similar humour, to prefer Young's description of night to the so much admired ones of Dryden and Shakspeare, as more forcible, and more general. Every reader is not either a lover or a tyrant, but every reader is interested when he hears that "Creation sleeps; 't is as the general pulse Of life stood still, and nature made a pause; "This," said he, " is true; but remember that, taking the compositions of Young in general, they are but like bright stepping-stones over a miry road. Young froths, and foams, and bubbles sometimes very vigorously; but we must not compare the noise made by your tea-kettle here with the roaring of the ocean.” " 22. Corneille.-Shakspeare. - Steele. Somebody was praising Corneille one day in opposition to Shakspeare: "Corneille is to Shakspeare,' replied Mr. Johnson, "as a clipped hedge is to a forest." When we talked of Steele's Essays, They are too thin," says our critic, "for an Englishman's taste: 66 mere superficial observations on life and manners, without erudition enough to make them keep, - like the light French wines, which turn sour with standing a while for want of body, as we call it." 23. Style of Swift. A friend was praising the style of Dr. Swift; Mr. Johnson did not find himself in the humour to agree with him the critic was driven from one of his performances to the other. At length, 66 you must allow me," said the gentleman, "that there are strong facts 6 in the account of the Four last Years of Queen Anne.' "Yes, surely, Sir," replies Johnson, " and so there are in the Ordinary of Newgate's account." 24. "New Manner of Writing." This was like the story which Mr. Murphy tells, and Johnson always acknowledged: how Dr. Rose of Chiswick, contending for the preference of Scotch writers over the English, after having set up his authors like nine-pins, while the Doctor kept bowling them down again; at last, to make sure of victory, he named Ferguson upon "Civil Society," and praised the book for being written in a new manner. "I do not," says Johnson, perceive the value of this new manner; it is only like Buckinger, who had no hands, and so wrote with his feet." 25. Robertson. - Canting. When he related to me a short dialogue that passed between himself and a writer of the first eminence in the world, when he was in Scotland, I was shocked to think how he must have disgusted him. Dr. Robertson asked me, said he, why I did not join in their public worship when among them?" for," said he, "I went to your churches often when in England. "So," replied Johnson, "I have read that the Siamese sent ambassadors to Louis Quatorze, but I never heard that the king of France thought it worth his while to send ambassadors from his court to that of Siam." 66 He was no gentler with myself, or those for whom I had the greatest regard. When I one day lamented the loss of a first cousin killed in America; Prithee, my dear," said he, "have done with canting: how would the world be worse for it, I may ask, if all your relations were at once spitted like larks, and roasted for Presto's supper?" Presto was the dog that lay under the table while we talked. 26. Young Peas. When we went into Wales together, and spent some time at Sir Robert Cotton's at Lleweny, one day at dinner I meant to please Mr. Johnson particularly with a dish of very young peas. "Are not they charming? said I to him, while he was eating them.-" Perhaps," said he, "they would be so to a pig." 27. Warton's Poems. When a well known author published his poems in the year 1777: such a one's verses are come out, said I. " Yes," replied Johnson," and this frost has struck them in again. Here are some lines I have written to ridicule them: but remember that I love the fellow dearly, now-for all I laugh at him: "Wheresoe'er I turn my view, All is strange, yet nothing new: (1) The metre of these lines was no doubt suggested by Warton's "Crusade" and "The Grave of King Arthur," (Works, vol. ii. pp. 38. 51.); but they are, otherwise, rather a criticism than a parody. — C. 28. Potter's Euripides. When he parodied the verses of another eminent writer (1), it was done with more provocation, I believe, and with some merry malice. A serious translation of the same lines, which I think are from Euripides, may be found in "Burney's History of Music." Here are the burlesque ones : — "Err shall they not, who resolute explore Shall deem our hoar progenitors unwise. "They to the dome where smoke with curling play Her baleful eyes where Sorrow rolls around; "When cates luxuriant pile the spacious dish, 29. Legendary Stories.-Bishop Percy. Some of the old legendary stories put in verse by (1) Malone's MS._notes, communicated by Mr. Markland, state that this was "Robert Potter, the translator of Eschylus and Euripides, who wrote a pamphlet against Johnson, in consequence of his criticism on Gray." It may, therefore, be presumed that these verses were made subsequently to that publication, in 1783. Potter died, a prebendary of Norwich, in 1804, æt. eighty-three. — C. modern writers (1), provoked him to caricature them thus one day at Streatham; but they are already well known, I am sure. "The tender infant, meek and mild, Fell down upon the stone; The nurse took up the squealing child, A famous ballad also, beginning, "Rio verde, Rio verde," when I commended the translation of it (2), he said he could do it better himself as thus: Glassy water, glassy water, Down whose current, clear and strong, Moor and Christian, roll along." But, Sir, said I, this is not ridiculous at all. " Why, no,” replied he, "why should I always write ridiculously? perhaps, because I made these verses to imitate such a one, naming him : "Hermit hoar, in solemn cell, Wearing out life's evening gray; "Thus I spoke, and speaking sigh'd,— Come, my lad, and drink some beer." (3) (1) This alludes to Bishop Percy and his "Hermit of Warkworth."-C. (2) No doubt the translation by Bishop Percy: "Gentle river, gentle river, Lo, thy streams are stain'd with gore; Many a brave and noble captain Floats along thy willow'd shore." Neither of these pretended translations give any idea of the peculiar simplicity of the original. — C. (3) [See antè, Vol. VI. p. 299.] |