He was engaged to dinner,but asked us to tea,and to sleep at his house.Johnson,however,would not quit his old acquaintance Wilkins,of the Three Crowns.The family likeness of the Garricks was very striking;and Johnson thought that David's vivacity was not so peculiar to himself as was supposed.'Sir,(said he,)Idon't know but if Peter had cultivated all the arts of gaiety as much as David has done,he might have been as brisk and lively.
Depend upon it,Sir,vivacity is much an art,and depends greatly on habit.'I believe there is a good deal of truth in this,notwithstanding a ludicrous story told me by a lady abroad,of a heavy German baron,who had lived much with the young English at Geneva,and was ambitious to be as lively as they;with which view,he,with assiduous exertion,was jumping over the tables and chairs in his lodgings;and when the people of the house ran in and asked,with surprize,what was the matter,he answered,'Sh'apprens t'etre fif.'
We dined at our inn,and had with us a Mr.Jackson,one of Johnson's schoolfellows,whom he treated with much kindness,though he seemed to be a low man,dull and untaught.He had a coarse grey coat,black waistcoat,greasy leather breeches,and a yellow uncurled wig;and his countenance had the ruddiness which betokens one who is in no haste to 'leave his can.'He drank only ale.He had tried to be a cutler at Birmingham,but had not succeeded;and now he lived poorly at home,and had some scheme of dressing leather in a better manner than common;to his indistinct account of which,Dr.Johnson listened with patient attention,that he might assist him with his advice.Here was an instance of genuine humanity and real kindness in this great man,who has been most unjustly represented as altogether harsh and destitute of tenderness.A thousand such instances might have been recorded in the course of his long life;though that his temper was warm and hasty,and his manner often rough,cannot be denied.
I saw here,for the first time,oat ale;and oat cakes not hard as in Scotland,but soft like a Yorkshire cake,were served at breakfast.It was pleasant to me to find,that Oats,the food of horses,were so much used as the food of the people in Dr.
Johnson's own town.He expatiated in praise of Lichfield and its inhabitants,who,he said,were 'the most sober,decent people in England,the genteelest in proportion to their wealth,and spoke the purest English.'I doubted as to the last article of this eulogy:for they had several provincial sounds;as THERE,pronounced like FEAR,instead of like FAIR;ONCE pronounced WOONSE,instead of WUNSE,or WONSE.Johnson himself never got entirely free of those provincial accents.Garrick sometimes used to take him off,squeezing a lemon into a punch-bowl,with uncouth gesticulations,looking round the company,and calling out,'Who's for POONSH?'
Very little business appeared to be going forward in Lichfield.Ifound however two strange manufactures for so inland a place,sail-cloth and streamers for ships;and I observed them making some saddle-cloths,and dressing sheepskins:but upon the whole,the busy hand of industry seemed to be quite slackened.'Surely,Sir,(said I,)you are an idle set of people.''Sir,(said Johnson,)we are a city of philosophers,we work with our heads,and make the boobies of Birmingham work for us with their hands.'
There was at this time a company of players performing at Lichfield,The manager,Mr.Stanton,sent his compliments,and begged leave to wait on Dr.Johnson.Johnson received him very courteously,and he drank a glass of wine with us.He was a plain decent well-behaved man,and expressed his gratitude to Dr.Johnson for having once got him permission from Dr.Taylor at Ashbourne to play there upon moderate terms.Garrick's name was soon introduced.JOHNSON.'Garrick's conversation is gay and grotesque.It is a dish of all sorts,but all good things.There is no solid meat in it:there is a want of sentiment in it.Not but that he has sentiment sometimes,and sentiment,too,very powerful and very pleasing:but it has not its full proportion in his conversation.'
When we were by ourselves he told me,'Forty years ago,Sir,I was in love with an actress here,Mrs.Emmet,who acted Flora,in Hob in the Well.'What merit this lady had as an actress,or what was her figure,or her manner,I have not been informed:but,if we may believe Mr.Garrick,his old master's taste in theatrical merit was by no means refined;he was not an elegans formarum spectator.
Garrick used to tell,that Johnson said of an actor,who played Sir Harry Wildair at Lichfield,'There is a courtly vivacity about the fellow;'when in fact,according to Garrick's account,'he was the most vulgar ruffian that ever went upon boards.'
We had promised Mr.Stanton to be at his theatre on Monday.Dr.
Johnson jocularly proposed me to write a Prologue for the occasion:
'A Prologue,by James Boswell,Esq.from the Hebrides.'I was really inclined to take the hint.Methought,'Prologue,spoken before Dr.Samuel Johnson,at Lichfield,1776;'would have sounded as well as,'Prologue,spoken before the Duke of York,at Oxford,'
in Charles the Second's time.Much might have been said of what Lichfield had done for Shakspeare,by producing Johnson and Garrick.But I found he was averse to it.
We went and viewed the museum of Mr.Richard Green,apothecary here,who told me he was proud of being a relation of Dr.
Johnson's.It was,truely,a wonderful collection,both of antiquities and natural curiosities,and ingenious works of art.
