New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-12-12


and the translator OF Epictetus;" OF such stun
rs this, even the biggest oi books are sometimes
| composed. go A.,
Among "Dr. Johnson's Women y was Mrs.
| Carter, as we have already sctn. There were
also the rich and clever ladies with whom he
was omte ready To dine, aud who took care
| that there should be upon the table hat strange
| dish OF veal roasted with plums, OF when ne
| WAS so fond and which recoDclled HIM To John
| Wilkes. when he met that dlsagIeeable dema-
| gogue at the booksellers, and was helped by
| John assiduously TO the bits OF leg Oh
shoulder, whichever IT was. Again, there were
| those other women who were the inmates Ot
| his house, whose feminine uncertainties he bore
| with patiently, and of whom the best known
was Mrs. Anna Williams. ] take her as an ex-
ample uf the cons'derate kindness with which
women Of the least literary taste are treated
almost always by literary men. She was bind
and she was drcadfully poor, and she had
Welsh temper which did not make the house
pleasant for poor Frank, the negro servant, nor
indeed foI the Great Mogu of Literature him
self Miss Hawkins says that from her DIS
course might be derived high ideas of moral
recttuden | am therefore extremely GLAD that
it was not my fortune to 6e personally az, a.
Quainted with this ancient Welsh lady. me
point 10 which | would direct attention Is mat
in literature, Mrs. Williams did and could do
nothing likely to excite the respectful admiia-
ton CT Dr. johnson. She figures, the poor,
blind creature, rather drearily IN the bi6lo-
graphical manuals. Whether 1t wss because
limited, there seems always TO have been con
spiracy TO help her Her igreat book, upon the
proce eds of which suppose that she lived twlth
DIR. JOhnsons hep) for a long Tune was ne
Life of the Emperor Julian. with Notes; trans
lated from the French OF F. La Beuerie. Lon
don, 1746." Pray. does anybody know who
NJ. La Bctterie wasf And has anybody ever
seen his Life of ImperatOr Julian" or read
what Monsieur had to say OF that apostateT
For all | know. the bi0gIapher may have been,
like Door Prom, "nOt even an Acadentclan.
The mention of his astonishing work. translated
by Mrs. Williams, reminds me OF that DOCK
taste in the last century when Is not alto
gether unlike the book taste OF the present.
with a difference. We like tIanslatlons from
the French, rs our great grandslres did ana
whether we like them or not. women (ls well as
mem do produce them.prollilcally; Bur the YER
sioDs in the old time were altogether OF another
sort. Long before Dr.. JOhnsOn's day, Dryden
had set the example OF giving the English
reader notion of Plutarch, by rendering MN
from the French of Amyot, as North had dOnc
before him. glorious John being helped hy
hundred hungry Servants who have since passed
into oblivion even if they can be said to have
emerged from it. Every reader knows what .
dreary lot of rubbish these versions OF classical
works, filtered from the French into the Eng
lsh were. We buy them tor imprint, or Tor
that other foOshcr reason, because they are
scarce ; but we seldom fall into the greater folly
of reading them. &c..
Poor blind Mrs. Williams also published
.,
uted preface. He also wrote some OF the
pieces, and there was a general contribution by
other bards. There was a deep plot to get
money from those who had 1t for the poor
sightless Welsh lady who had 1t not. Alter all,
in snite of McFlecknOe and the Dunclad, the
members OF the book making guild, he or she,
were good to each other IN those days. But
our dear Doctor, as Hannah More might nave
called him, was good TO everyo body. mere was
thai Mrs. Desmoulins who appears here and
there upon the pages OF Boswell. She had no
claim upon johnson except that her Iaiher, DR..
Swinfen, of Litchfeld, was tho lexicographers
godfather. The husband OF the old lady had
been writing master, which Is rather Inelan-
choly fact. She, too, had her little tempers,
which did not help to make the house III Bolt
Court more pleasant. There is Il delicious little
entry in DR.. JOhnson's Diary, over winch
have often smiled: October 81, 111o. To-
day Mrs Williams and Mrs. DesmOullns had
seOld, and Williams was going away; but Dld
her not turn tail, and she came back and ralheT
got the upper hand When one remembers
that Dr. johnson was at this time in very i'll
health, and tnat these ungratetul women were
actually living upon his bounty, while he was
very far from being rich, such evidence OF his
real tenderness Of heart. If 1t does no more,
should at least elevate our estimate OF human
nature.
think if one could only get leisure for such a
luxury, that pretty book might be made
about Or. JOhnsons women, as books are man
utactuTed in these days. great deal Is said
OF his bad manners. OF ms slOVenly haoits' OF
his occasionally coarse speech but most won-
en-, whether they are learned or not, Dke
clever men, and ale not ashamed TO nave even
an under bred lion in their saloons. Mrs. Mon
tagu and Mis-. Fesey, and Mrs. Ora, VINO had
n large property aud Mrs. CbapOne. and all the
sweetly speaking danes who were wont 10
cOdde Grandson RICHARDSON, gathered with
feminine ofiicousDess about the old grampns or
literature, went into raptures at bis snOrtlnesand
asked him to revise their manuscripts, which he
a yy 0d-pH
recommend their tragedies to Garrlck, ana then
novels TO this boob seller or the other. Some
OF these women hOnoIably remembered
now, when their hooped DettlcOats have long
since collapsed. their wondr0us headgeaIs
fallen fat into the dust, and the fans .; which
little Gay sang, and behind which they ogled
and smIrkod, passed maybe into the collection
Of the south KensingtOn Museum. l like to
dream of those old DANES of the goose quill ana
the inkstand-of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, for
instance, who welcomed the Bas Blue Society
TO her handsome house, where "the princes,
mobiles, and cOutlers," ~ Mad me ArDlay
tells us, were mingled with poets, ph"-0-
pliers, and blue stocking vOtarieS." She pro-
duced book about the writings and genius of
Shakespeare which one may still read II com
ueled to- aud Of which johnson said, Neither
], nor Beauceik, nor Mrs. Ihrae could get
through it," | quote this saving because there
WAS pleasant little ffacas about II, when Bos-
well published it. Up came the lively Mrs:
Tbrale vehemently protesting that she had
never said anything of the KIND, but on the
contrary, bad always asserted the exe elence OF
Mrs. Montagu's book. The dear Thrale this
was only one of her many Observation-Disclosures,
when the mania for JohnsOniln biography was
at its height.
But Hester Lynch Salisbury Thrale Piozzi,
after all, has the best of her women c0ntempo-
rarics OF the literary sort Somehow she Is, If
not o central figure of Boswells "Lfe Of
Johnson" NJ least one of the most prominent
Of the iDnumcrabie dramatis persona. She,
-. - IL
ing and especially at "Anccdotes OF Samuel
Johnson Lib" of which Horace Walpole
wrote 20 his friend Manu. "Ihe book is
wretched high Vanished preface to heap
of rubbish in very vulgar style, and too void
of method even for such iarrago." " hat "a
plea ant. generous and gcnilemany person