After dinner our conversation first turned upon Pope.Johnson said,his characters of men were admirably drawn,those of women not so well.He repeated to us,in his forcible melodious manner,the concluding lines of the Dunciad.While he was talking loudly in praise of those lines,one of the companyventured to say,'Too fine for such a poem:--a poem on what?'JOHNSON,(with a disdainful look,)'Why,on DUNCES.It was worth while being a dunce then.Ah,Sir,hadst THOU lived in those days!It is not worth while 'being a dunce now,when there are no wits.'
Bickerstaff observed,as a peculiar circumstance,that Pope's fame was higher when he was alive than it was then.Johnson said,his Pastorals were poor things,though the versification was fine.He told us,with high satisfaction,the anecdote of Pope's inquiring who was the authour of his London,and saying,he will be soon deterre.He observed,that in Dryden's poetry there were passages drawn from a profundity which Pope could never reach.He repeated some fine lines on love,by the former,(which I have now forgotten,)and gave great applause to the character of Zimri.
Goldsmith said,that Pope's character of Addison shewed a deep knowledge of the human heart.Johnson said,that the deion of the temple,in The Mourning Bride,was the finest poetical passage he had ever read;he recollected none in Shakspeare equal to it.'But,(said Garrick,all alarmed for the 'God of his idolatry,')we know not the extent and variety of his powers.We are to suppose there are such passages in his works.Shakspeare must not suffer from the badness of our memories.'Johnson,diverted by this enthusiastick jealousy,went on with greater ardour:'No,Sir;Congreve has NATURE;'(smiling on the tragick eagerness of Garrick;)but composing himself,he added,'Sir,this is not comparing Congreve on the whole,with Shakspeare on the whole;but only maintaining that Congreve has one finer passage than any that can be found in Shakspeare.Sir,a man may have no more than ten guineas in the world,but he may have those ten guineas in one piece;and so may have a finer piece than a man who has ten thousand pounds:but then he has only one ten-guinea piece.
What I mean is,that you can shew me no passage where there is simply a deion of material objects,without any intermixture of moral notions,which produces such an effect.'Mr.Murphy mentioned Shakspeare's deion of the night before the battle of Agincourt;but it was observed,it had MEN in it.Mr.Davies suggested the speech of Juliet,in which she figures herself awaking in the tomb of her ancestors.Some one mentioned the deion of Dover Cliff.JOHNSON.'No,Sir;it should be all precipice,--all vacuum.The crows impede your fall.The diminished appearance of the boats,and other circumstances,are all very good deions;but do not impress the mind at once with the horrible idea of immense height.The impression is divided;you pass on by computation,from one stage of the tremendous space to another.Had the girl in The Mourning Bride said,she could not cast her shoe to the top of one of the pillars in the temple,it would not have aided the idea,but weakened it.'
Everyone guesses that 'one of the company'was Boswell.--HILL.
Talking of a Barrister who had a bad utterance,some one,(to rouse Johnson,)wickedly said,that he was unfortunate in not having been taught oratory by Sheridan.JOHNSON.'Nay,Sir,if he had been taught by Sheridan,he would have cleared the room.'GARRICK.
'Sheridan has too much vanity to be a good man.'We shall now see Johnson's mode of DEFENDING a man;taking him into his own hands,and discriminating.JOHNSON.'No,Sir.There is,to be sure,in Sheridan,something to reprehend,and every thing to laugh at;but,Sir,he is not a bad man.No,Sir;were mankind to be divided into good and bad,he would stand considerably within the ranks of good.
And,Sir,it must be allowed that Sheridan excels in plain declamation,though he can exhibit no character.'
Mrs.Montagu,a lady distinguished for having written an Essay on Shakspeare,being mentioned;REYNOLDS.'I think that essay does her honour.'JOHNSON.'Yes,Sir:it does HER honour,but it would do nobody else honour.I have,indeed,not read it all.But when I take up the end of a web,and find it packthread,I do not expect,by looking further,to find embroidery.Sir,I will venture to say,there is not one sentence of true criticism in her book.'GARRICK.'But,Sir,surely it shews how much Voltaire has mistaken Shakspeare,which nobody else has done.'JOHNSON.'Sir,nobody else has thought it worth while.And what merit is there in that?You may as well praise a schoolmaster for whipping a boy who has construed ill.No,Sir,there is no real criticism in it:none shewing the beauty of thought,as formed on the workings of the human heart.'
The admirers of this Essay may be offended at the slighting manner in which Johnson spoke of it;but let it be remembered,that he gave his honest opinion unbiassed by any prejudice,or any proud jealousy of a woman intruding herself into the chair of criticism;for Sir Joshua Reynolds has told me,that when the Essay first came out,and it was not known who had written it,Johnson wondered how Sir Joshua could like it.At this time Sir Joshua himself had received no information concerning the authour,except being assured by one of our most eminent literati,that it was clear its authour did not know the Greek tragedies in the original.One day at Sir Joshua's table,when it was related that Mrs.Montagu,in an excess of compliment to the authour of a modern tragedy,had exclaimed,'I tremble for Shakspeare;'Johnson said,'When Shakspeare has got ----for his rival,and Mrs.Montagu for his defender,he is in a poor state indeed.'
