also that I had for some years lived in his neighbourhood, &c., he begged of me that when I returned to Ireland, I would endeavour to procure for him a poem of Dr. Madden's called 'Boulter's Monument.' The reason (said he) why I wish for it, is this when Dr. Madden came to London, he submitted that work to my castigation; and I remember I blotted a great many lines, and might have blotted many more without making the poem worse. However, the Doctor was very thankful, and very generous, for he gave me ten guineas, which was to me at that time a great sum." 2 He this year resumed his scheme of giving an edition of Shakspeare with notes. He issued Proposals of considerable length, in which he shewed that he perfectly well knew what are held in each year, in various prescribed branches of literature and science; and premiums, consisting of books impressed with the College Arms, are adjudged by examiners (composed generally of the Junior Fellows), to those who have most distinguished themselves in the severa' classes, after a very rigid trial, which lasts two days. This regulation, which has subsisted about seventy years, has been attended with the most beneficial effects. Dr. Samuel Madden was the first proposer of those premiums. They were instituted about the year 1734. He was also one of the founders of the Dublin Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Agriculture. In addition to the premiums which were and are still annually given by that society for this purpose, Dr. Madden gave others from his own fund. Hence he was usually called Premium Madden.”Malone. ' Dr. Hugh Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of Ireland. He died Sept. 27, 1742, at which time he was, for the thirteenth time, one of the Lords Justices of that kingdom. Johnson speaks of him in high terms of commendation, in his Life of Ambrose Philips. 2 Hawkins's Life, pp. 391-92. "About this time, as it is supposed, for sundry beneficed clergymen that requested him, he composed pulpit discourses, and for these, he made no scruple of confessing, he was paid; his price, I am informed, was a moderate one—a guinea; and such was his notion of justice, that having been paid, he considered them so absolutely the property of the purchaser, as to renounce all claim to them. He reckoned that he had written about forty sermons; but, except as to some, knew not in what hands they were. "I have," said he, "been paid for them, and have no right to inquire about them.”—Croker. 3 They have been reprinted by Mr. Malone, in the Preface to his edition of Shakspeare.-Note in third edition, vol. i. p. 281. a variety of research such an undertaking required; but his indolence prevented him from pursuing it with that diligence which alone can collect those scattered facts, that genius, however acute, penetrating, and luminous, cannot discover by its own force. It is remarkable, that at this time his fancied activity was for the moment so vigorous, that he promised his work should be published before Christmas, 1757. Yet nine years elapsed before it saw the light. His throes in bringing it forth had been severe and remittent; and at last we may almost conclude that the Cæsarian operation was performed by the knife of Churchill, whose upbraiding satire, I dare say, made Johnson's friends urge him to dispatch. "He for subscribers baits his hook, And takes their cash; but where's the book? Forbids the robbing of a foe; But what, to serve our private ends, Forbids the cheating of our friends ?" About this period he was offered a living of considerable value in Lincolnshire,' if he were inclined to enter into holy orders. It was a rectory in the gift of Mr. Langton, the father of his much valued friend. But he did not accept of it; partly, I believe, from a conscientious motive, being persuaded that his temper and habits rendered him unfit for that assiduous and familiar instruction of the vulgar and ignorant, which he held to be an essential duty in a clergyman; and partly because his love of a London life was so strong, that he would have thought himself an exile in any other place, particularly if residing in the country. Whoever would wish to see his thoughts upon that subject displayed in their full force, may peruse the Adventurer, Number 126. In 1757 it does not appear that he published any thing, except some of those articles in the Literary Magazine, which have been mentioned. That magazine, after Johnson ceased to write in it, gradually declined, though the popular epithet of Antigallican was added to it; and in July, 1758, it expired. He probably prepared a part of his Shakspeare this year, and he dictated a speech on the subject of an address to the Throne, after the expedition to Rochfort, which was delivered by one of his friends, I know not in what public meeting. It is printed in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for October, 1785, as his, and bears sufficient marks of authenticity. By the favour of Mr. Joseph Cooper Walker,' of the Treasury, Dublin, I have obtained a copy of the following letter from Johnson to the venerable author of "Dissertations on the History of Ireland." "SIR, TO CHARLES O'CONNOR, ESQ.* "London, April 9. 1757. "I have lately, by the favour of Mr. Faulkner, seen your account of Ireland, and cannot forbear to solicit a prosecution of your design. Sir William Temple complains that Ireland is less known than any other country, as to its ancient state. The natives have had little leisure, and little encouragement for inquiry; and strangers, not knowing the language, have had no ability. "I have long wished that the Irish literature were cultivated.' Ireland is known by tradition to have been once the seat of piety and Mr, Walker was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, author of the Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards, an Historical Memoir on Italian Tragedy, &c. He died in 1810.-Croker. 2 Of this gentleman, who died at his seat at Ballynegar, in the county of Roscommon, July, 1791, in his eighty-second year, some account may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine of that date. Of the Dissertations on the History of Ireland a second and much-improved edition was published in 1776.—Malone. * The celebrated orator, Mr. Flood [who died December, 1791], has shown himself to be of Dr. Johnson's opinion; having by his will bequeathed his estate, after the death of his wife, Lady Frances, to the University of Dublin; "desiring that immediately after the said estate shall come into their possession, they shall appoint two professors, one for the study of the native Erse or Irish Language, and the other for the study of Irish antiquities and Irish history, and for the study of any other European language illustrative of, or auxiliary to, the study of Irish antiquities or Irish history; and that they shall give yearly two liberal premiums for two com learning; and surely it would be very acceptable to all those who are curious either in the original of nations, or the affinities of languages, to be further informed of the revolution of a people so ancient, and once so illustrious. "What relation there is between the Welsh and Irish language, or between the language of Ireland and that of Biscay, deserves inquiry. Of these provincial and unextended tongues, it seldom happens that more than one are understood by any one man; and, therefore, it seldom happens that a fair comparison can be made. I hope you will continue to cultivate this kind of learning, which has too long lain neglected, and which, if it be suffered to remain in oblivion for another century, may, perhaps, never be retrieved. As I wish well to all useful undertakings, I would not forbear to let you know how much you deserve, in my opinion, from all lovers of study, and how much pleasure your work has given to, Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." TO THE REV. MR. THOMAS WARTON. "DEAR SIR, "[London,] June 21. 1757. "Dr. Marsili, of Padua, a learned gentleman, and good Latin poet, has a mind to see Oxford. I have given him a letter to Dr. Huddesford,' and shall be glad if you will introduce him, and show him any thing in Oxford. "I am printing my new edition of Shakspeare. "I long to see you all, but cannot conveniently come yet. You might write to me now and then, if you were good for anything. But2 honores mutant mores. Professors forget their friends. I shall certainly complain to Miss Jones. I am, your, &c. "SAM JOHNSON." "Please to make my compliments to Mr. Wise." positions, one in verse, and the other in prose, in the Irish language." Note in the second edition, vol. i. p. 293. Since the above was written, Mr. Flood's will has been set aside, after a trial at bar, in the Court of Exchequer in Ireland.—Malone. 1 "Now, or late Vice-Chancellor."-Warton. 2 Mr. Warton was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford in the preceding year.-Warton. 3 Miss Jones lived at Oxford, and was often of our parties. She was a very ingenious poetess, and published a volume of poems; and, on the whole, was a most sensible, agreeable, and amiable woman. She was TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ.,' OF TRINITY "DEAR SIR, COLLEGE, OXFORD. "Jan. 28. 1758.2 "Though I might have expected to hear from you, upon your entrance into a new state of life at a new place, yet recollecting (not without some degree of shame) that I owe you a letter upon an old account, I think it my part to write first. This, indeed, I do not only from complaisance but from interest; for living on in the old way, I am very glad of a correspondent so capable as yourself to diversify the hours. You have, at present, too many novelties about you to need any help from me to drive along your time. "I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed. You, who are very capable of anticipating futurity, and raising phantoms before your own eyes, must often have imagined to yourself an academical life, and have conceived what would be the manners, the views, and the conversation of men devoted to letters; how they would choose their companions, how they would direct their studies, and how they would regulate their lives. Let me know what you expected, and what you have found. At least record it to yourself, before custom has reconciled you to the scenes before you, and the disparity of your discoveries to your hopes has vanished from your mind. It is sister to the Rev. River Jones, Chanter of Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford, and Johnson used to call her the Chantress. I have heard him often address her in this passage from Il Penseroso : "Thee, Chantress, oft the woods among She died unmarried.-Warton. First inserted in the third edition, vol. i., p. 297.-Editor. 2 This letter is dated June 28, 1758, and so placed by Mr. Boswell; but this must be a mistake; for it is evidently written on Mr. Langton's entrance into college life; now Langton entered Trinity College, Oxford, 7th July, 1757, and no doubt began to reside in the following autumn, and we shall see in a subsequent letter dated June 1, 1758, that Langton had been already some time the pupil of Warton. The true date, therefore, of this letter was, probably, January and not June.-Croker. |