Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

The consideration of numerous papers of which he was possessed, seems to have struck Johnson's mind with a sudden anxiety, and as they were in great confusion, it is much to be lamented that he JOHNSON, being in full possession of my faculties, but fearing this night may put an end to my life, do ordain this my last Will and Testament. I bequeath to God a soul polluted by many sins, but I hope purified by Jesus Christ. I leave seven hundred and fifty pounds in the hands of Bennet Langton, Esq.; three hundred pounds in the hands of Mr. Barclay and Mr. Perkins, brewers; one hundred and fifty pounds in the hands of Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore; one thousand pounds, Three per cent. Annuities in the public funds; and one hundred pounds now lying by me in ready money: all these beforementioned sums and property I leave, I say, to Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir John Hawkins, and Dr. William Scott, of Doctors' Commons, in trust, for the following uses:-That is to say, to pay to the representatives of the late William Innys, bookseller, in St. Paul's Churchyard, the sum of two hundred pounds; to Mrs. White, my female servant, one hundred pounds stock in the Three per cent. Annuities aforesaid. The rest of the aforesaid sums of money and property, together with my books, plate, and household furniture, I leave to the before mentioned Sir Joshua Reynolds. Sir John Hawkins, and Dr. William Scott, also in trust, to be applied, after pay. ing my debts, to the use of Francis Barber, my manservant, a negro, in such manner as they shall judge most fit and available to his benefit. And I appoint the aforesaid Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir John Hawkins, and Dr. William Scott, sole executors of this my last will and testament, hereby revoking all former wills and testaments whatever. In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name, and affix my seal, this eighth day of December, 1784. SAM. JOHNSON (L.S.)

[blocks in formation]

had not entrusted some faithful and discreet per-
son with the care and selection of them: instead
of which, he, in a precipitate manner, burnt large
masses of them, with little regard, as I apprehend,

Dr. Butter, and Mr. Cruikshank, the surgeon who at-
tended me, Mr. Holder, my apothecary, Gerard Hamilton,
Esq., Mrs. Gardiner, of Snow-hill, Mrs. Frances Rey-
nolds, Mr. Hoole, and the Reverend Mr. Hoole, his son,
each a book at their election, to keep as a token of re-
membrance. I also give and bequeath to Mr. John
Desmoulins, two hundred pounds Consolidated Three
per cent. Annuities; and to Mr. Sastres, the Italian
master, the sum of five pounds, to be laid out in books of
piety for his own use." And whereas the said Bennet
Langton hath agreed, in consideration of the sum of
seven hundred and fifty pounds, mentioned in my will to
be in his hands, to grant and secure an annuity of seventy
pounds, payable during the life of me and my servant,
Francis Barber, and the life of the survivor of us, to Mr.
George Stubbs, in trust for us; my mind and will is, that
in case of my decease before the said agreement shall be
perfected, the said sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds,
and the bond for securing the said sum, shall go to the
said Francis Barber; and I hereby give and bequeath to
him the same, in lieu of the bequest in his favour, con-
tained in my said will. And I hereby empower my exe-
cutors to deduct and retain all expenses that shall or
may be incurred in the execution of my said will, or of
this codicil thereto, out of such estate and effects as I
shall die possessed of. All the rest, residue, and remain-
der of my estate and effects I give and bequeath to my
said executors, in trust for the said Francis Barber, his
executors and administrators. Witness my hand and seal,
this ninth day of December, 1784.
"SAM. JOHNSON (L.S.)

"Signed, sealed, published, declared, and/de-
livered, by the said Samuel Johnson, as and for a
codicil to his last will and testament, in the pre-
sence of us, who, in his presence, and at his
request, and also in the presence of each other,
have hereto subscribed our names as witnesses.

"JOHN COPELY.
"WILLIAM GIBSON.
HENRY COLE."

Upon these testamentary deeds it is proper to make a few observations.

His legacy of two hundred pounds to the representatives of Mr. Innys, bookseller, in St. Paul's Churchyard, proceeded from a very worthy motive. He told Sir John Hawkins that, his father having become a bankrupt, Mr. Innys had assisted him with money or credit to contiuue his business. "This," said he, "I consider as an obligation on me to be grateful to his descendants.'

"By way of Codicil to my last will and testament, I, SAMUEL JOHNSON, give, devise, and bequeath my messuage or tenement situate at Lichfield, in the county of Stafford, with the appurtenances in the tenure and occupation of Mrs. Bond, of Lichfield aforesaid, or of Mr. Hinchman, her under-tenant, to my executors in His express declaration with his dying breath as a trust, to sell and dispose of the same; and the money Christian, as it had been often practised in such solemn arising from such sale I give and bequeath as follows-writings, was of real consequence from this great man, viz., to Thomas and Benjamin, the sons of Fisher John- for the conviction of a mind equally acute and strong, son, late of Leicester, and Whiting, daughter might well overbalance the doubts of others, who were of Thomas Johnson, late of Coventry, and the grand- his contemporaries. The expression polluted may, to daughter of the said Thomas Johnson, one full and some, convey an impression of more than ordinary conequal fourth part each; but in case there shall be more tamination; but that is not warranted by its genuine grand-daughters than one of the said Thomas Johnson, meaning, as appears from "The Rambler," No. 42. The living at the time of my decease, I give and bequeath the same word is used in the will of Dr. Sanderson, Bishop of part or share of that one to and equally between such Lincoln, who was piety itself. grand-daughters. I give and bequeath to the Rev. Mr. Rogers, of Berkeley, near Froom, in the county of Somerset, the sum of one hundred pounds, requesting him to apply the same towards the maintenance of Elizabeth Herne, a lunatic. I also give and bequeath to my godchildren, the son and daughter of Mauritius Lowe, painter, each of them one hundred pounds of my stock in the Three per cent. Cónsolidated Annuities, to be applied and disposed of by and at the discretion of my executors, in the education or settlement in the world of them my said legatees. Also I give and bequeath to Sir John Hawkins, one of my executors, the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius, and Holinshed's and Stowe's Chronicles, and also an octavo Common Prayer Book. To Bennet Langton, Esq., I give and bequeath my Polyglot Bible. To Sir Joshua Reynolds, my great French Dictionary, by Martiniere, and my own copy of my folio English Dictionary of the last revision. To Dr. William Scott, one of my executors, the Dictionnaire de Commerce, and Lectius's edition of the Greek Poets. To Mr. Windham, Poetæ Græci Heroici per Henricum StephaTo the Rev. Mr. Strahan, Vicar of Islington, in Middlesex, Mill's Greek Testament, Beza's Greek Testament, by Stephens, all my Latin Bibles, and my Greek Bible, by Wechelius. To Dr. Heberden, Dr. Brocklesby,

num.

The amount of his property proved to be considerably more than he had supposed it to be. Sir John Hawkins estimates the bequest of Francis Barber at a sum little short of fifteen hundred pounds, including an annuity of seventy pounds to be paid to him by Mr. Langton, in consideration of seven hundred and fifty pounds, which Johnson had lent to that gentleman. Sir John seems not a little angry at this bequest, and mutters "a caveat against ostentatious bounty and favour to negroes." But surely when a man has money entirely of his own acquisition, especially when he has no near relations, he may, without blame, dispose of it as he pleases, and with great propriety to a faithful servant. Mr. Barber, by the recommendation of his master, retired to Lichfield, where he might pass the rest of his days in comfort.

It has been objected that Johnson has omitted many of his best friends, when leaving books to several as tokens of his last remembrance." The names of Dr.

to discrimination. Not that I suppose we have thus been deprived of any compositions which he had ever intended for the public eye; but from what escaped the flames, I judge that many curious circumstances relating both to himself, and other literary characters, have perished.

[ocr errors]

Two very valuable articles, I am sure, we have lost, which were two quarto volumes, containing a full, fair, and most particular account of his own life, from his earliest recollection. I owned to him, that having accidentally seen them, I had read a great deal in them; and apologising for the liberty I had taken, asked him if I could help it. He placidly answered, Why, Sir, I do not think you could have helped it." I said that I had, for once in my life, felt half an inclination to commit theft. It had come into my mind to carry off those two volumes, and never see him more. Upon my inquiring how this would have affected him, "Sir," said he, "I believe I should have gone mad."*

Adams, Dr. Taylor, Dr. Burney, Mr Hector, Mr. Murphy, the author of this work, and others who were intimate with him, are not to be found in his will. This may be accounted for by considering, that as he was very near his dissolution at the time, he probably mentioned such as happened to occur to him; and that he may have recollected that he had formerly shown others such proofs of his regard, that it was not necessary to crowd his will with their names. Mrs. Lucy Porter was much displeased that nothing was left to her; but besides what I have now stated, she should have considered that she had left nothing to Johnson by her will, which was made during his lifetime, as appeared at her decease.

His enumerating several persons in one group, and leaving them "each a book at their election," might possibly have given occasion to a curious question as to the order of choice, had they not luckily fixed on different books. His library, though by no means handsome in its appearance, was sold by Mr. Christie for two hundred and forty-seven pounds nine shillings; many people being desirous to have a book which had belonged to Johnson. In many of them he had written little notes; sometimes tender memorials of his departed wife; as, "This was dear Tetty's book;" sometimes occasional remarks of different sorts. Mrs. Lyons, of Clifford's-inn, has favoured me with the two following:

In "Holy Rules and Helps to Devotions," by Bryan Duppa, Lord Bishop of Winton," "Preces quidam videtur diligenter tractasse; spero non inauditus."

In "The Rosicrucian infallible Axiomata, by John Heydon, Gent.," prefixed to which are some verses addressed to the author, signed Ambr. Waters, A. M. Coll. Ex. Oxon, "These Latin verses were written to Hobbes by Bathurst, upon his Treatise on Human Nature, and have no relation to the book.An odd fraud."-BOS

WELL.

Francis Barber, Dr. Johnson's principal legatee, died in the infirmary at Stafford, after undergoing a painful operation, Feb. 13, 1801.-MALONE.

One of these volumes, Sir John Hawkins informs us, he put into his pocket; for which the excuse he states is, that he meant to preserve it from falling into the hands of a person whom he describes so as to make it sufficiently clear who is meant; "having strong reasons," said he, to suspect that this man might find and make an ill use of the book." Why Sir John should suppose that the gentleman alluded to would act in this manner, he has not thought fit to explain. But what he did was not approved of by Johnson; who, upon being acquainted of it without delay by a friend, expressed great indignation, and warmly insisted on the book being delivered up; and, afterwards, in the supposition of his missing it, without knowing by whom it had been taken, he said, "Sir, I should have gone out of the world distrusting half mankind." Sir John next day wrote a letter to Johnson, assigning reasons for his conduct; upon which Johnson observed to Mr. Langton, "Bishop Sanderson could not have dictated a better letter. I could almost say Melius est sic panituisse quam non errasse." The agitation

During his last illness, Johnson experienced the steady and kind attachment of his numerous friends. Mr. Hoole has drawn up a narrative of what passed in the visits which he paid him during that time, from the 10th of November to the 13th of December, the day of his death, inclusive, and has favoured me with a perusal of it, with permission to make extracts, which I have done. Nobody was more attentive to him than Mr. Langton, to whom he tenderly said, Te teneam moriens deficiente manu. And I think it highly to the honour of Mr. Windham, that his important occupations as an active statesman did not prevent him from paying assiduous respect to the dying sage whom he revered. Mr. Langton informs me, that one day he found Mr. Burke and four or five more friends sitting with Johnson. Mr. Burke said to him, I am afraid, Sir, such a number of us may be oppressive to you.'-No, i Sir,' said Johnson, it is not so; and I must be in a wretched state, indeed, when your company would not be a delight to me.' Mr. Burke, in a tremulous voice, expressive of being very tenderly affected, replied, My dear Sir, you have always been too good to me.' Immediately afterwards he went away. This was the last circumstance in the acquaintance of these two eminent

men.

The following particulars of his conversation within a few days of his death, I give on the authority of Mr. John Nichols: t

"He said that the Parliamentary Debates were

into which Johnson was thrown by this incident, probably made him hastily burn those precious records which must ever be regretted.-BOSWELL.

Mr. Langton, whose name so often occurs in these volumes, survived Johnson several years. He died at Southampton, Dec. 18, 1801.-MALONE.

On the same undoubted authority I give a few articles, which should have been inserted in chronological order; but which, now that they are before me, I should be sorry to omit :

"In 1736, Dr. Johnson had a particular inclination to have been engaged as an assistant to the Reverend Mr. Budworth, then head master of the Grammar-school at Brewood, in Staffordshire, an excellent person, who possessed every talent of a perfect instructor of youth, in a degree which (to use the words of one of the brightest ornaments of literature, the Reverend Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester) has been rarely found in any of that profession since the days of Quintilian.' Mr. Budworth, who was less known in his lifetime, from that obscure situation to which the caprice of fortune oft condemns the most accomplished characters, than his highest merit deserved,' had been bred under Mr. Blackwell, at Market Bosworth, where Johnson was sometime an usher; which might naturally lead to the application. Mr. Budworth was certainly no stranger to the learning or abilities of Johnson, as he more than once lamented his having been under the necessity of declining the engagement, from an apprehension that the paralytic affection, under which our great Philologist laboured through life, might become the object of imitation or of ridicule, among his pupils." Captain Budworth, his grandson, has confirmed to me this anecdote.

"Among the early associates of Johnson, at St. John's Gate, was Samuel Boyse, well known by his ingenious productions; and not less noted for his imprudence. It was not unusual for Boyse to be a customer to the pawnbroker. On one of these occasions, Dr. Johnson collected a sum of money to redeem his friend's clothes, which in two days after were pawned again. The sum,' said Johnson, was collected by sixpences, at a time when to me sixpence was a serious consideration.'

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

1

the only part of his writings which then gave him any compunction; but that at the time he wrote them, he had no conception he was imposing upon the world, though they were frequently written from very slender materials, and often from none at all-the mere coinage of his own imagination. He never wrote any part of his works with equal velocity. Three columns of the Magazine in an hour was no uncommon effort, which was faster than most persons could have transcribed that quantity.

"Of his friend Cave, he always spoke with great affection. 'Yet,' said he, Cave (who never looked out of his window but with a view to the Gentleman's Magazine) was a penurious paymaster; he would contract for lines by the hundred, and expect the long hundred; but he was a good man, and always delighted to have his friends at his table.'

ticed, and with the most profound devotion that can be imagined. His hearing not being quite perfect, he more than once interrupted Mr. Hoole, with 'Louder, my dear Sir, louder, I entreat you, or you pray in vain!'-and when the service was ended, he, with great earnestness, turned round to an excellent lady who was present, saying, I thank you, Madam, very heartily, for your kindness in joining me in this solemn exercise. Live well, I conjure you; and you will not feel the compunction at the last, which I now feel.' So truly humble were the thoughts which this great and good man entertained of his own approaches to religious perfection.

'He was earnestly invited to publish a volume of Devotional Exercises;' but this (though he listened to the proposal with much complacency, and a large sum of money was offered for it) he declined, from motives of the sincerest modesty. "He seriously entertained the thought of transsubject, and once in particular, when I was rather wishing that he would favour the world, and gratify his sovereign, by a Life of Spenser (which he said that he would readily have done, had he been able to obtain any new materials for the purpose), he added, I have been thinking again, Sir, of "Thuanus;" it would not be the laborious task which you have supposed it. I should have no trouble but that of dictation, which would be performed as speedily as an amanuensis could write.'

"When talking of a regular edition of his own works, he said, that he had power (from the book-lating 'Thuanus.' He often talked to me on the sellers) to print such an edition, if his health admitted it; but had no power to assign over any edition, unless he could add notes, and so alter them as to make them new works, which his state of health forbade him to think of. 'I may possibly live,' said he, 'or rather breathe, three days, or perhaps three weeks; but find myself daily and gradually weaker.'

"He said at another time, three or four days only before his death, speaking of the little fear he had of undergoing a chirurgical operation, 'I would give one of these legs for a year more of life-I mean of comfortable life, not such as that which I now suffer;' and lamented much his inability to read during his hours of restlessness. I used formerly,' he added, 'when sleepless in bed, to read like a Turk.'

"Whilst confined by his last illness, it was his regular practice to have the church-service read to him by some attentive and friendly divine. The Rev. Mr. Hoole performed this kind office in my presence for the last time, when, by his own desire, no more than the litany was read; in which his responses were in the deep and sonorous voice which Mr. Boswell has occasionally no

friendship, but in whom vanity was somewhat too predominant, he observed, that 'Kelly was so fond of displaying on his sideboard the plate which he possessed, that he added to it his spurs. For my part,' said he, 'I never was master of a pair of spurs but once, and they are now at the bottom of the ocean. By the carelessness of Boswell's servant, they were dropped from the end of the boat, on our return from the Isle of Sky.""

The late Reverend Mr. Samuel Badcock, having been introduced to Dr. Johnson by Mr. Nichols, some years before his death, thus expressed himself in a letter to that gentleman:

"How much I am obliged to you for the favour you did me in introducing me to Dr. Johnson! Tantum vidi Virgilium. But to have seen him, and to have received a testimony of respect from him was enough. I recollect all the conversation, and shall never forget one of his expressions. Speaking of Dr. P (whose writings, I saw, he estimated at a low rate), he said, 'You have proved him as deficient in probity as he is in learning.' I called him an Index-scholar; but he was not willing to allow him a claim even to that merit. He said, that he borrowed from those who had been borrowers themselves, and did not know that the mistakes he adopted had been answered by others.' I often think of our short, but precious, visit to this great man. I shall consider it as a kind of an era in my life."-BOSWELL.

[ocr errors]

It is to the mutual credit of Johnson and divines of different communions, that although he was a steady Church of England man, there was, nevertheless, much agreeable intercourse between him and them. Let me particularly name the late Mr. La Trobe, and Mr. Hutton, of the Moravian profession. His intimacy with the English Benedictines at Paris, has been mentioned; and as an additional proof of the charity in which he lived with good men of the Romish Church, I am happy in this opportunity of recording his friendship with the Rev. Thomas Hussey, D.D., his Catholic Majesty's Chaplain of Embassy at the Court of London, that very respectable man, eminent not only for his powerful eloquence as a preacher, but for his various abilities and acquisitions. Nay, though Johnson loved a Presbyterian the least of all, this did not prevent his having a long and uninterrupted social connexion with the Rev. Dr. James Fordyce, who, since his death, hath gratefully celebrated him in a warm strain of devotional composition.

Amidst the melancholy clouds which hung over the dying Johnson, his characteristical manner showed itself on different occasions.

When Dr. Warren, in the usual style, hoped that he was better, his answer was, "No, Sir; you cannot conceive with what acceleration I advance towards death."

A man whom he had never seen before was employed one night to sit up with him. Being asked next morning how he liked his attendant, his answer was, "Not at all, Sir; the fellow's an idiot; he is as awkward as a turnspit when first put into the wheel, and as sleepy as a dormouse.'

[ocr errors]

Mr. Windham having placed a pillow con

veniently to support him, he thanked him for his kindness, and said, "That will do-all that a pillow can do."

He repeated with great spirit a poem, consisting of several stanzas, in four lines, in alternate rhyme, which he said he had composed some years before,* on occasion of a rich, extravagant young gentleman's coming of age, saying, he had never repeated it but once since he composed it, and had given but one copy of it. That copy was given to Mrs. Thrale, now Piozzi, who has published it in a book which she entitles "British Synonimy," but which is truly a collection of entertaining remarks and stories, no matter whether accurate or not. Being a piece of exquisite satire, conveyed in a strain of pointed vivacity and humour, and in a manner of which no other instance is to be found in Johnson's writings, I shall here insert it.

Long-expected one-and-twenty,
Ling'ring year, at length is flown;
Pride and pleasure, pomp and plenty,
Great, are now your own.
Loosen'd from the minor's tether,
Free to mortgage or to sell,
Wild as wind, and light as feather,
Bid the sons of thrift farewell.

Call the Betseys, Kates, and Jennies,
All the names that banish care;
Lavish of your grandsire's guineas,
Show the spirit of an heir.

All that prey on vice and folly
Joy to see their quarry fly;
There the gamester, light and jolly,
There the lender grave and sly.
Wealth, my lad, was made to wander,
Let it wander as it will;
Call the jockey, call the pander,

Bid them come and take their fill.
When the bonny blade carouses,
Pockets full, and spirits high-
What are acres? what are houses?
Only dirt, or wet or dry.

Should the guardian friend or mother
Tell the woes of wilful waste;
Scorn their counsel, scorn their pother,
. You can hang or drown at last.

As he opened a note which his servant brought to him, he said, "An odd thought strikes me-we shall receive no letters in the grave.'

"

He requested three things of Sir Joshua Reynolds:-To forgive him thirty pounds which he had borrowed of him; to read the Bible; and never to use his pencil on a Sunday. Sir Joshua readily acquiesced.

He

Indeed he showed the greatest anxiety for the religious improvement of his friends, to whom he discoursed of its infinite consequence. begged of Mr. Hoole to think of what he had said, and to commit it to writing; and upon being afterwards assured that this was done, pressed his hands, and in an earnest tone thanked him. Dr. Brocklesby having attended him with the utmost assiduity and kindness as his physician

In 1780. See his letter to Mrs. Thrale, dated August 8, 1780:-"You have heard in the papers how is come to age. I have enclosed a short song of congratulation, which you must not show to anybody. It is odd that it should come into anybody's head. I hope you will read it with candour; it is, I believe, one of the author's first essays in that way of writing, and a beginner is always to be treated with tenderness."-MALONE.

and friend, he was peculiarly desirous that this gentleman should not entertain any loose speculative notions, but be confirmed in the truths of Christianity, and insisted on his writing down in his presence, as nearly as he could collect it, the import of what passed on the subject; and Dr. Brocklesby having complied with the request, he made him sign the paper, and urged him to keep it in his own custody as long as he lived. Johnson, with that native fortitude, which, amidst all his bodily distress and mental sufferings, never forsook him, asked Dr. Brocklesby, as a man in whom he had confidence, to tell him plainly whether he could recover. "Give me, said he, "a direct answer." The doctor having first asked him if he could bear the whole truth, which way soever it might lead, and being answered that he could, declared that, in his opinion, he could not recover without a miracle. "Then," said Johnson, "I will take no more physic, not even my opiates; for I have prayed that I may render up my soul to GOD unclouded." In this resolution he persevered, and, at the same time, used only the weakest kinds of sustenance. Being pressed by Mr. Windham to take somewhat more generous nourishment, lest too low a diet should have the effect which he dreaded, by debilitating his mind, he said, "I will take anything but inebriating sustenance."

very

The Rev. Mr. Strahan, who was the son of his friend, and had been always one of his great favourites, had, during his last illness, the satisfaction of contributing to soothe and comfort him. That gentleman's house at Islington, of which he is vicar, afforded Johnson, occasionally and easily, an agreeable change of place and fresh air, and he attended also upon him in town in the discharge of the sacred offices of his profession.

Mr. Strahan has given me the agreeable assurance, that after being in much agitation, Johnson became quite composed, and continued so till his death.

Dr. Brocklesby, who will not be suspected of fanaticism, obliged me with the following

accounts:

[blocks in formation]

"He pressed me to study Dr. Clarke, and to read his Sermons. I asked him why he pressed is fullest on the propitiatory sacrifice."" Dr. Clarke, an Arian.* Because,' said he, 'he

The change of his sentiments with regard to Dr. Clarke is thus mentioned to me in a letter from the late Dr. Adams, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford :"The doctor's prejudices were the strongest, and cer tainly in another sense the weakest, that ever possessed a sensible man. You know his extreme zeal for orthodoxy. But did you ever hear what he told me himself? That he had made it a rule not to admit Dr. Clarke's name in his Dictionary. This, however, wore off. At some distance of time he advised with me what books he should read in defence of the Christian religion. I recommended 'Clarke's Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion.

[graphic][merged small]
« AnteriorContinua »