CHAPTER IV. 1782. Death of Robert Levett.-Verses to his Memory. Death of Friendship. "Beauties" and " Deformities" of Johnson. - Misery of being in Debt.- Six Rules for Travellers.-Death of Lord Auchinleck. "Kindness and Fondness." Life. Old Age. Evils of Po- Visit to - verty.- Prayer on leaving Streatham. Cowdry.-Nichols's "Anecdotes."- Wilson's "Archeological Dictionary."- Dr. Patten. IN 1782 his complaints increased, and the history of his life this year is little more than a mournful recital of the variations of his illness, in the midst of which, however, it will appear from his letters, that the powers of his mind were in no degree impaired. LETTER 405. TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "Jan. 5. 1782. "DEAR SIR, - I sit down to answer your letter on the same day in which I received it, and am pleased that my first letter of the year is to you. No man ought to be at ease while he knows himself in the wrong; and I have not satisfied myself with my long silence. The letter relating to Mr. Sinclair, however, was, I believe, never brought. 66 My health has been tottering this last year; and I can give no very laudable account of my time. I am always hoping to do better than I have ever hitherto done. My journey to Ashbourne and Staffordshire was not pleasant; for what enjoyment has a sick man visiting the sick? Shall we ever have another frolic like eur journey to the Hebrides? “I hope that dear Mrs. Boswell will surmount her complaints in losing her you will lose your anchor, and be tossed, without stability, by the waves of life. (1) I wish both you and her very many years, and very happy. "For some months past I have been so withdrawn from the world, that I can send you nothing particular. All your friends, however, are well, and will be glad of your return to London. I am, dear Sir, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." At a time when he was less able than he had once been to sustain a shock, he was suddenly deprived of Mr. Levett, which event he thus communicated to Dr. Lawrence. LETTER 406. TO DR. LAWRENCE. SIR, "Jan. 17. 1782. Our old friend, Mr. Levett, who was last night eminently cheerful, died this morning. The man who lay in the same room, hearing an uncommon noise, got up and tried to make him speak, but without effect. He then called Mr. Holder, the apothecary, who, though when he came he thought him dead, opened a vein, but could draw no blood. So has ended the long life of a blameless man. I am, Sir, your SAM. JOHNSON." very useful' and very most humble servant, In one of his memorandum-books in my possession is the following entry : (1) The truth of this has been proved by sad experience. — B. Mrs. Boswell died June 4. 1789.-M. 66 January 20, Sunday, Robert Levett was buried in the churchyard of Bridewell, between one and two in the afternoon. He died on Thursday, 17, about seven in the morning, by an instantaneous death. He was an old and faithful friend: I have known him from about [17]46. Commendavi. May God have mercy on him! May he have mercy on me!" Such was Johnson's affectionate regard for Levett (1), that he honoured his memory with the following pathetic verses: "Condemn'd to Hope's delusive mine, As on we toil from day to day, By sudden blast or slow decline "Well try'd through many a varying year, Of every friendless name the friend. "Yet still he fills affection's eye, Obscurely wise and coarsely kind; "When fainting Nature call'd for aid, And hovering death prepared the blow, His vigorous remedy display'd The power of art without the show. "In misery's darkest caverns known, (1) See an account of him, antè, Vol. I. p. 290. But he afterwards altered it to the present reading. "No summons mock'd by chill delay, "The busy day, the peaceful night, His frame was firm, his powers were bright, "Then, with no throbs of fiery pain, LETTER 407. TO MRS. STRAHAN. "Feb. 4. 1782. "DEAR MADAM, Mrs. Williams showed me your kind letter. This little habitation is now but a melancholy place, clouded with the gloom of disease and death. Of the four inmates, one has been suddenly snatched away; two are oppressed by very afflictive and dangerous illness; and I tried yesterday to gain some relief by a third bleeding from a disorder which has for some time distressed me, and I think myself to-day much better. “I am glad, dear Madam, to hear that you are so far recovered as to go to Bath. Let me once more entreat you to stay till your health is not only obtained, but confirmed. Your fortune is such as that no moderate expense deserves your care; and you have a husband who, I believe, does not regard it. Stay, therefore, till you are quite well. I am, for my part, very much deserted; but complaint is useless. I hope God will bless you, and I desire you to form the same wish for me. I am, dear Madam, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." LETTER 408. TO EDMUND MALONE, ESQ. "Feb. 27. 1782. "SIR, I have for many weeks been so much out of order, that I have gone out only in a coach to Mrs. Thrale's, where I can use all the freedom that sickness requires. Do not, therefore, take it amiss, that I am not with you and Dr. Farmer. I hope hereafter to see you often. I am, Sir, &c. SAM. JOHNSON." LETTER 409. TO THE SAME. "March 2. 1782. I think "DEAR SIR, I hope I grow better, and shall soon be able to enjoy the kindness of my friends. this wild adherence to Chatterton (1) more unaccountable (1) This note was in answer to one which accompanied one of the earliest pamphlets on the subject of Chatterton's forgery, entitled "Cursory Observations on the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley," &c. Mr. Thomas Warton's very able "Inquiry" appeared about three months afterwards; and Mr. Tyrwhitt's admirable "Vindication of his Appendix," in the summer of the same year, left the believers in this daring imposture nothing but "the resolution to say again what had been said before." Daring, however, as this fiction was, and wild as was the adherence to Chatterton, both were greatly exceeded in 1795 and the following year, by a still more audacious imposture, and the pertinacity of one of its adherents, who has immortalised his name by publishing a bulky volume, of which the direct and manifest object was, to prove the authenticity of certain papers attributed to Shakspeare, after the fabricator of the spurious trash had publicly acknowledged the imposture. M. Mr. Malone alludes to the forgery, by Mr. William Henry Ireland, of the Shakspearian papers which were exhibited, with a ridiculous mixture of pomp and mystery at his father's house in Norfolk Street. It seems scarcely conceivable how such palpable impositions could have deceived the most ignorant, and yet there were numerous dupes in the critical and literary circles of the day. Mr. W. H. Ireland has since published a full and minute confession of the whole progress of his forgery; but, with a curious obstinacy, he, in this work, vehemently accuses of blindness, ignorance, and bad faith all those who detected what he confesses to have been an imposture, and is equally lavish in praise of the discernment and judgment of those whom he proves to have been dupes.-C. [W.H. Ireland died in 1834.] |