He was supposed to have assisted Goldsmith very much in that poem, but has been heard to say, that he might have contributed three or four lines, taking together all he had done r .
He held all authors very cheap, that were not satisfied with the opinion of the publick about them. He used to say, that every man who writes, thinks he can amuse or inform mankind, and they must be the best judges of his pretensions 2 .
Of Warburton he always spoke well. He gave me, says he, his good word when it was of use to me. Warburton, in the Preface to his Shakespeare, has commended Johnson's Observa tions on Macbeth 3 .
Two days before he died, he said, with some pleasantry, Poor Johnson is dying; **** will say, he dies of taking a few grains more of squills than were ordered him ; **** will say, he dies of the scarifications made by the surgeon in his leg 4 . His last act of understanding is said to have been exerted in giving his blessing to a young lady that requested it of him 5 .
He was always ready to assist any authors in correcting their works, and selling them to booksellers. I have done writing, said he, myself, and should assist those that do write 6 .
pened. 'We talked of Goldsmith's prose?"' Warton's Pope's Works,
Traveller, of which Dr. Johnson iv. 199, n.
spoke highly; and, while I was help- 3 Life, i. 175; jv. 288. Johnson,
ing him on with his great coat, he in his Shakespeare, often ridicules
repeated from it the character of the Warburton. See ante, i. 381, and
British nation, which he did with post, in Steevens's Anecdotes.
such energy, that the tear started 4 The supposed speakers were
into his eye.' Life, v. 344. Brocklesby and Heberden. The wit
1 Ib. ii. 5. has been lost in the narration ; for
2 Ib. iv. 172 ; post, p. 19. Smollett, what Johnson said see/tfj/, in Wind- writing of the Age of George II, ham's Anecdotes.
says : ' Genius in writing spon- 3 Life, iv. 418 ; ante, i. 447, n. 5. taneously arose; and, though neg- 6 Ib. ii. 195 ; iii. 373; iv. 121. lected by the great, flourished under The Rev. John Hussey wrote on the culture of a public which had his copy of the first edition of Bos- pretensions to taste, and piqued it- well, opposite a passage about profits self on encouraging literary merit.' of authors (Ib. iv. 121) : ' Mem. History of England, ed. 1800, v. Mr. Townshend's manuscripts. I 379- think it was Mr. Allen, the late ' When somebody was highly prais- Minister of Wandsworth, who told ing Milton George II asked, "Why me that Mr.Townshend (if that were did he not write his Paradise Lost in his name, he was afterwards either
When
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