who had been quartered at Lichfield as an officer of the army, and had at this time a house in London, where Johnson was frequently entertained, and had an opportunity of meeting genteel company. Not very long before his death, he mentioned this, among other particulars of his life, which he was kindly communicating to me; and he described this early friend "Harry Hervey," thus: "He was a vicious man,' but very kind to me. If you call a dog' Hervey,' I shall love him." He told me he had now written only three acts of his "Irene," and that he retired for some time to lodgings at Greenwich, where he proceeded in it somewhat further, and used to compose, walking in the Park; but did not stay long enough at that place to finish it. At this period we find the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave, which, as a link in the chain of his literary history, it is proper to insert: macy between Johnson and Hervey in or before 1738, because of the sneer at Lord Hervey, Henry Hervey's brother, which occurs in the poem London, published May, 1738. "And strive in vain to laugh at H-y's jest," and seems to imply that when his intimacy with Henry Hervey was formed, Johnson for Hy substituted Clodio, which we find in the collected editions of Johnson's works. But Hy occurs not only in the first edition, but in the fourth edition of London, 1739. In the poem, also, as printed in Dodsley's collection, second edition, 1748, vol. i., p. 192, it is still H——y; in an edition published 1765 Hy again, and in the 1782 edition, still H- -y. In the Poetical Works of Johnson, first collected in one volume, Lond. 1785, we find the same reading. Nor can we trace when H―y gives place to Clodio; not, we believe, in any edition published in Johnson's lifetime. Clodio appears in Hawkins', 1787, in Murphy's, 1792, and in all subsequent editions. The charming series of letters of young David to Captain Garrick, his father, Fitzgerald's Life of Garrick, vol. i., chap. ii., pp. 10-28, abundantly confirms the fact of Hervey's regiment being quartered at Lichfield.-Editor. 1 1 For the excesses which Dr. Johnson justly characterizes as vicious, Mr. Hervey, was, perhaps, as much to be pitied as blamed. He was very eccentric. His eldest brother was the celebrated Lord Hervey, Pope's Sporus; the next, Thomas, of whom we shall see more hereafter (Oct., 1766), was also very clever but very mad.-Croker. "SIR, TO MR. CAVE. "Greenwich, next door to the Golden Heart, Church Street, July 12. 1737. "Having observed in your papers very uncommon offers of encouragement to men of letters, I have chosen, being a stranger in London, to communicate to you the following design, which, I hope, if you join in it, will be of advantage to both of us. "The History of the Council of Trent having been lately translated into French, and published with large notes by Dr. Le Courayer, the reputation of that book is so much revived in England, that, it is presumed, a new translation of it from the Italian, together with Le Courayer's notes from the French, could not fail of a favourable reception. "If it be answered, that the History is already in English, it must be remembered that there was the same objection against Le Courayer's undertaking, with this disadvantage, that the French had a version by one of their best translators, whereas you cannot read three pages of the English history without discovering that the style is capable of great improvements; but whether those improvements are to be expected from this attempt, you must judge from the specimen, which, if you approve the proposal, I shall submit to your examination. "Suppose the merit of the versions equal, we may hope that the addition of the notes will turn the balance in our favour, considering the reputation of the annotator. "Be pleased to favour me with a speedy answer, if you are not willing to engage in this scheme; and appoint me a day to wait upon you, if you are. I am, Sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." It should seem from this letter, though subscribed with his own name, that he had not yet been introduced to Mr. Cave. We shall presently see what was done in consequence of the proposal which it contains. In the course of the summer he returned to Lichfield, where he had left Mrs. Johnson, and there he at last finished his tragedy, which was not executed with his rapidity of composi tion upon other occasions, but was slowly and painfully elabo rated. A few days before his death, while burning a great mass of papers, he picked out from among them the original unformed sketch of this tragedy, in his own handwriting, and gave it to Mr. Langton, by whose favour a copy of it is now in my possession. It contains fragments of the intended plot, and speeches for the different persons of the drama, partly in the raw materials of prose, partly worked up into verse; as also a variety of hints for illustration, borrowed from the Greek, Roman, and modern writers. The handwriting is very difficult to be read, even by those who were best acquainted with Johnson's mode of penmanship, which at all times was very particular. The King having graciously accepted of this manuscript as a literary curiosity, Mr. Langton made a fair and distinct copy of it, which he ordered to be bound up with the original and the printed tragedy; and the volume is deposited in the King's library. His Majesty was pleased to permit Mr. Langton to take a copy of it for himself. The whole of it is rich in thought and imagery, and happy expressions; and of the disjecta membra scattered throughout, and as yet unarranged, a good dramatic poet might avail himself with considerable advantage. I shall give my readers some specimens of different kinds, distinguishing them by the italic character. "Nor think to say, here will I stop, And quit their charge to horror and to ruin." A small part only of this interesting admonition is preserved in the play, and is varied, I think, not to advantage :— "The soul once tainted with so foul a crime, No more shall glow with friendship's hallow'd ardour, Guides erring mortals to the paths of virtue, Resign their charge to baseness and to ruin." "I feel the soft infection Flush in my cheek, and wander in my veins. Teach me the Grecian arts of soft persuasion." "Sure this is love, which heretofore I conceived the dream of idle maids, and wanton poets." Though no comets or prodigies foretold the ruin of Greece, signs which heaven must by another miracle enable us to understand, yet might it be foreshown, by tokens no less certain, by the vices which always bring it on." This last passage is worked up in the tragedy itself as follows: LEONTIUS. "That power that kindly spreads The clouds, a signal of impending showers, DEMETRIUS. "A thousand horrid prodigies foretold it; MAHOMET (to IRENE). "I have tried thee, and joy to find that thou deservest to be loved by Mahomet,—with a mind great as his own. Sure, thou art an error of nature, and an exception to the rest of thy sex, and art immortal; for sentiments like thine were never to sink into nothing. I thought all the thoughts of the fair had been to select the graces of the day, dispose the colours of the flaunting flowing) robe, tune the voice and roll the eye, place the gem, choose the dress, and add new roses to the fading cheek, but-sparkling." Thus in the tragedy : "Illustrious maid, new wonders fix me thine; Was but to choose the graces of the day, To tune the tongue, to teach the eyes to roll, And add new roses to the faded cheek." I shall select one other passage, on account of the doctrine which it illustrates. IRENE observes, "that the Supreme Being will accept of virtue, whatever outward circumstances it may be accompanied with, and may be delighted with varieties of worship: but is answered, That variety cannot affect that Being, who, infinitely happy in his own perfections, wants no external gratifications; nor can infinite truth be delighted with falsehood; that though he may guide or pity those he leaves in darkness, he abandons those who shut their eyes against the beams of day." Johnson's residence at Lichfield, on his return to it at this time, was only for three months; and as he had as yet seen but a small part of the wonders of the metropolis, he had little to tell his townsmen. He related to me the following minute anecdote of this period1:-"In the last age, when my mother lived in London, there were two sets of people, those who gave the wall and those who took it; the peaceable and the quarrelsome. When I returned to Lichfield, after having been in London, my mother asked me, whether I was one of those who gave the wall, or those who took it. Now it is fixed that every man keeps to the right; or, if one is taking the wall, another yields it; and it is never a dispute." He now removed to London with Mrs. Johnson; but her daughter, who had lived with them at Edial, was left with her 'Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, third edit., p. 232. |