BOSWELL.'I fancy London is the best place for society;though Ihave heard that the very first society of Paris is still beyond any thing that we have here.'JOHNSON.'Sir,I question if in Paris such a company as is sitting round this table could be got together in less than half a year.They talk in France of the felicity of men and women living together:the truth is,that there the men are not higher than the women,they know no more than the women do,and they are not held down in their conversation by the presence of women.'
We talked of old age.Johnson (now in his seventieth year,)said,'It is a man's own fault,it is from want of use,if his mind grows torpid in old age.'The Bishop asked,if an old man does not lose faster than he gets.JOHNSON.'I think not,my Lord,if he exerts himself.'One of the company rashly observed,that he thought it was happy for an old man that insensibility comes upon him.
JOHNSON.(with a noble elevation and disdain,)'No,Sir,I should never be happy by being less rational.'BISHOP OF ST.ASAPH.
'Your wish then,Sir,is [Greek text omitted].'JOHNSON.'Yes,my Lord.'
This season there was a whimsical fashion in the newspapers of applying Shakspeare's words to describe living persons well known in the world;which was done under the title of Modern Characters from Shakspeare;many of which were admirably adapted.The fancy took so much,that they were afterwards collected into a pamphlet.
Somebody said to Johnson,across the table,that he had not been in those characters.'Yes (said he,)I have.I should have been sorry to be left out.'He then repeated what had been applied to him,'I must borrow GARAGANTUA'S mouth.'
Miss Reynolds not perceiving at once the meaning of this,he was obliged to explain it to her,which had something of an aukward and ludicrous effect.'Why,Madam,it has a reference to me,as using big words,which require the mouth of a giant to pronounce them.
Garagantua is the name of a giant in Rabelais.'BOSWELL.'But,Sir,there is another amongst them for you:
"He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,Or Jove for his power to thunder."'
JOHNSON.'There is nothing marked in that.No,Sir,Garagantua is the best.'Notwithstanding this ease and good humour,when I,a little while afterwards,repeated his sarcasm on Kenrick,which was received with applause,he asked,'WHO said that?'and on my suddenly answering,Garagantua,he looked serious,which was a sufficient indication that he did not wish it to be kept up.
When we went to the drawing-room there was a rich assemblage.
Besides the company who had been at dinner,there were Mr.Garrick,Mr.Harris of Salisbury,Dr.Percy,Dr.Burney,Honourable Mrs.
Cholmondeley,Miss Hannah More,&c.&c.
After wandering about in a kind of pleasing distraction for some time,I got into a corner,with Johnson,Garrick,and Harris.
GARRICK.(to Harris,)'Pray,Sir,have you read Potter's Aeschylus?'HARRIS.'Yes;and think it pretty.'GARRICK.(to Johnson,)'And what think you,Sir,of it?'JOHNSON.'I thought what I read of it VERBIAGE:but upon Mr.Harris's recommendation,Iwill read a play.(To Mr.Harris,)Don't prescribe two.'Mr.
Harris suggested one,I do not remember which.JOHNSON.'We must try its effect as an English poem;that is the way to judge of the merit of a translation.Translations are,in general,for people who cannot read the original.'I mentioned the vulgar saying,that Pope's Homer was not a good representation of the original.
JOHNSON.'Sir,it is the greatest work of the kind that has ever been produced.'BOSWELL.'The truth is,it is impossible perfectly to translate poetry.In a different language it may be the same tune,but it has not the same tone.Homer plays it on a bassoon;Pope on a flagelet.'HARRIS.'I think Heroick poetry is best in blank verse;yet it appears that rhyme is essential to English poetry,from our deficiency in metrical quantities.In my opinion,the chief excellence of our language is numerous prose.'
JOHNSON.'Sir William Temple was the first writer who gave cadence to English prose.Before his time they were careless of arrangement,and did not mind whether a sentence ended with an important word or an insignificant word,or with what part of speech it was concluded.'
GARRICK.'Of all the translations that ever were attempted,Ithink Elphinston's Martial the most extraordinary.He consulted me upon it,who am a little of an epigrammatist myself,you know.Itold him freely,"You don't seem to have that turn."I asked him if he was serious;and finding he was,I advised him against publishing.Why,his translation is more difficult to understand than the original.I thought him a man of some talents;but he seems crazy in this.'JOHNSON.'Sir,you have done what I had not courage to do.But he did not ask my advice,and I did not force it upon him,to make him angry with me.'GARRICK.'But as a friend,Sir--.'JOHNSON.'Why,such a friend as I am with him--no.'GARRICK.'But if you see a friend going to tumble over a precipice?'JOHNSON.'That is an extravagant case,Sir.You are sure a friend will thank you for hindering him from tumbling over a precipice;but,in the other case,I should hurt his vanity,and do him no good.He would not take my advice.His brother-in-law,Strahan,sent him a subion of fifty pounds,and said he would send him fifty more,if he would not publish.'GARRICK.'What!eh!is Strahan a good judge of an Epigram?Is not he rather an OBTUSE man,eh?'JOHNSON.'Why,Sir,he may not be a judge of an Epigram:but you see he is a judge of what is not an Epigram.'
BOSWELL.'It is easy for you,Mr.Garrick,to talk to an authour as you talked to Elphinston;you,who have been so long the manager of a theatre,rejecting the plays of poor authours.You are an old Judge,who have often pronounced sentence of death.You are a practiced surgeon,who have often amputated limbs;and though this may have been for the good of your patients,they cannot like you.