And now for my friend. The appearance of Malone's Shakespeare on the 29th November was not attended with any external noise; but I suppose no publication seized more speedily and surely on the attention of those for whose critical taste it was chiefly intended'. At the Club on Tuesday, where I met Sir Joshua, Dr. Warren, Lord Ossory, Lord Palmerston 3, Windham, and Burke in the chair,-Burke was so full of his anti-French revolution rage, and poured it out so copiously, that we had almost nothing else. He, however, found time.

I

to praise the clearness and accuracy of your dramatic history; and Windham found fault with you for not taking the profits of so laborious a work. Sir Joshua is pleased, though he would gladly have seen more disquisition-you understand me! Mr. Daines Barrington is exceedingly gratified. He regrets that there should be a dryness between you and Steevens, as you have treated him with great respect. I understand that, in a short time, there will not be one of your books to be had for love or money.

Dec. 7. I dined last Saturday at Sir Joshua's with Mr. Burke, his lady, son, and niece, Lord Palmerston, Windham, Dr. Lawrence3, Dr. Blagden, Dr. Burney, Sir Abraham Hume, Sir William Scott 5. I sat next to young Burke at dinner,

had a right to tax America, Burke, instead of answering his arguments, would, if seated next to him, turn away in such a manner as to throw the end of his own tail into the face of the arguer."' Personal and Literary Memorials, p. 63. Burke no doubt wore his hair tied up in a pig-tail.

I

Barrington was not a member of the Literary Club. He had belonged to Johnson's Essex Head Club. Life, iv. 254.

2 Steevens, five years earlier, had taken offence at some notes on Shakespeare which Malone furnished to Isaac Reid. Prior's Malone, p. 122. Malone wrote to Lord Charlemont on Nov. 15, 1793, about Steevens's last edition of Shakespeare:-' In my new edition I mean to throw down the gauntlet, not by the hints and hesitations of oblique depreciation, as he has on all occasions served me in his late book, but by a fair and direct attack.' Hist. MSS. Com., Thirteenth Report, App. viii. 221.

3 Not Johnson's friend, the physician, who had been dead some years, but Dr. French Lawrence, the

Civilian, whose correspondence with
Burke was published in 1827.

'Talking of Dr. Blagden's copiousness and precision of communication, Dr. Johnson said:-"Blagden, Sir, is a delightful fellow." Life, iv. 30. Charlotte Burney describes him at a Twelfth Night Ball in 1784 as 'too elegant to undergo the fatigue of dancing.' Early Diary of F. Burney, ii. 316. Hannah More (Memoirs, ii. 98) met him at Mrs. Montagu's in 1788:-'He is (she wrote) a new blue-stocking and a very agreeable one. He is Secretary to the Royal Society.' Later on he became Sir Charles Blagden.

5 To many of these guests Sir Joshua, who died on Feb. 23, 1792, left bequests-to Burke, 2000, with the cancelling of a bond for the same amount borrowed; to young Burke, a miniature of Oliver Cromwell; to Lord Palmerston, the second choice of any picture of his own painting; to Sir Abraham Hume, the choice of his Claude Lorraines; and to Boswell £200 to be expended in the purchase of one of his pictures.

Malone too, and Burke, as executors, who

who said to me, that you had paid his father a very fine compliment'. I mentioned Johnson, to sound if there was any objection. He made none. In the evening Burke told me he had read your Henry VI., with all its accompaniment, and it was exceedingly well done. He left us for some time; I suppose on some of his cursed politics; but he returned-I at him again, and heard from his lips what, believe me, I delighted to hear, and took care to write down soon after. 'I have read his History of the Stage, which is a very capital piece of criticism and anti-agrarianism 2. I shall now read all Shakspeare through, in a very different manner from what I have yet done, when I have got such a commentator.' Will not this do for you my friend? Burke was admirable company all that day. He never once, I think, mentioned the French revolution 3, and was easy with me, as in days of old*.

Dec. 16. I was sadly mortified at the Club on Tuesday, where I was in the chair, and on opening the box found three

had each the same sum left for the same object. Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 636.

Sir William Scott was Dr. Scott (Lord Stowell), who with Reynolds and Hawkins had been Johnson's executor. He outlived this dinner forty-five years.

'At length the task of revising these plays was undertaken by one [Johnson] whose extraordinary powers of mind, as they rendered him the admiration of his contemporaries, will transmit his name to posterity as the brightest ornament of the eighteenth century; and will transmit it without competition, if we except a great orator, philosopher and statesman' now living, whose talents and virtues are an honour to human nature.' Malone's Shakespeare, ed. 1790, i. Preface, p. 68.

2

Boswell, I suppose, wrote antiquarianism.

Burke this day never thought of convincing, while they thought of dining.'

4 In 1783 Boswell visited Burke at Beaconsfield. Life, iv. 210. A few weeks later he wrote:-'I mentioned my expectations from the interest of an eminent person then in power' (no doubt Burke). Ib. p. 223. On May 28, 1794, Malone wrote of the Club:-'We are now so distracted by party there, in consequence of Windham and Burke, and I might add the whole nation, being on one side, and Fox and his little phalanx on the other, that we in general keep as clear of politics as we can, and did so yesterday.' Hist. MSS. Com., Thirteenth Report, App. viii. 239.

1 The Right Honourable Edmund Burke. Note by Malone.

balls

balls against General Burgoyne'. Present, besides moi, Lord Ossory, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Fordyce, Dr. Burney, young Burke, Courtenay, Steevens. One of the balls, I do believe, was put into the no side by Fordyce by mistake. You may guess who put in the other two. The Bishop of Carlisle and Dr. Blagden are put up 3. I doubt if the latter will be admitted, till Burgoyne gets in first. My work has met with a delay for a little while-not a whole day, however-by an unaccountable neglect in having paper enough in readiness. I have now before me p. 256. My utmost wish is to come forth on Shrove Tuesday (8th March) 5. 'Wits are game cocks,' &c. Langton is in town, and dines with me to-morrow quietly, and revises his Collectanea6.

Jan. 18. 1791. I have been so disturbed by sad moneymatters, that my mind has been quite fretful: 500l. which I

1 For his defeat at Saratoga, see Life, iii. 355. My friend, Mr. E. L. Bigelow, of Marlborough, Mass., U.S.A., has Burgoyne's folio Greek dictionary, one of the spoils of that battle. Richard Tickell celebrates

his manly sense.' Ib. iii. 388 n. According to Horace Walpole 'he had written the best modern comedy.' Letters, ix. 96.

2 Dr. George Fordyce. For an anecdote of his drinking see Life, ii. 274.

3 The Bishop (Dr. John Douglas, 'the detector of quacks') was elected on May 22, 1792 (he was at that time Bishop of Salisbury), and Dr. Blagden on March 18, 1794. Croker's Boswell, ii. 327.

It was no easy matter to get into the Club. 'When Bishops and Chancellors,' wrote William Jones in 1780, 'honour us by offering to dine with us at a tavern, it seems very extraordinary that we should ever reject such an offer.' Life of Sir W. Jones, p. 240.

Malone wrote to Lord Charlemont

on April 5, 1779-'I have lately made two or three attempts to get into your club, but have not yet been able to succeed-though I have some friends there-Johnson, Burke, Steevens, Sir J. Reynolds and Marlay. At first they said, I think, they thought it a respect to Garrick's memory [see Life, i. 481, n. 3] not to elect any one for some time in his room.' Hist. MSS. Com., Twelfth Report, App. x. 344. He was elected on Feb. 5, 1782. Croker's Boswell, ed. 1844, ii. 327.

'In the height of revolutionary proceedings in France, Rogers, not at all reserved in giving full swing to Whig opinions of the day, came forward as candidate for the Club, and was black-balled. This he attributed to Malone.' Prior's Malone, p. 204.

5 Reynolds wrote to Malone on this day-To-day is Shrove Tuesday, and no Johnson.' Prior's Malone, p. 174.

6 Life, iv. I.

borrowed

borrowed and lent to a first cousin, an unlucky captain of an Indiaman, were due on the 15th to a merchant in the city. I could not possibly raise that sum, and was apprehensive of being hardly used. He, however, indulged me with an allowance to make partial payments; 150/. in two months, 150%. in eight months, and the remainder, with the interests, in eighteen months. How I am to manage I am at a loss, and I know you cannot help me. So this, upon my honour, is no hint. I am really tempted to accept of the 100cl. for my Life of Johnson. Yet it would go to my heart to sell it at a price which I think much too low. Let me struggle and hope. I cannot be out on Shrove Tuesday, as I flattered myself. P. 376. of Vol. II. is ordered for press, and I expect another proof to-night. But I have yet near 200 pages of copy besides letters, and the death, which is not yet written. My second volume will, I see, be forty or fifty pages more than my first. Your absence is a woful want in all respects. You will, I dare say, perceive a difference in the part which is revised only by myself, and in which many insertions will appear. My spirits are at present bad but I will mention all I can recollect.

:

Jan. 29. 1791. You will find this a most desponding and disagreeable letter, for which I ask your pardon. But your vigour of mind and warmth of heart make your friendship of such consequence, that it is drawn upon like a bank. I have, for some weeks, had the most woful return of melancholy, insomuch that I have not only had no relish of any thing, but a continual uneasiness, and all the prospect before me for the rest of life has seemed gloomy and hopeless. The state of my affairs is exceedingly embarrassed. I mentioned to you that the 500l. which I borrowed several years ago, and lent to a first cousin, an unfortunate India captain, must now be paid; 150%. on the 18th of March, 150l. on the 18th of October, and 2571. 15s. 6d. on the 18th of July, 1792. This debt presses upon my mind, and it is uncertain if I shall ever get a shilling of it again. The clear money on my estate is scarcely 900l. a year. brother urges me to quit London,

which I can reckon out of
What can I do?
What can I do? My grave
and live at my seat in the

country;