M 155:15

M 155:15

<u>Life. Materials. Anecdotes and Memoranda.</u>

Sir John Hawkins and SJ's MS Diaries (<u>Life</u> iv.406, n.1)

See M 326, p.21.

Transcription: In our ["his" crossed out] search I ["his" crossed out] laid my ["his"] hands upon a parchment-covered book having been told that a person formerly intimately connected with him had been very importunate to get access to him, and having strong reasons to suspect that this man might find and make an ill use of the book I put it and a less of the same kind into my pocket: at the same time telling those around me and particularly Mr. Langton and Mr. Strahan that I had got both, and my reasons for*

*thus securing them. After the ceremony was over Johnson took me aside and told me I had a book of his in my pocket. I owned two. Gave him time to compose himself next day wrote him a letter apologising and assigning reasons for conduct and received a verbal answer by Mr. Langton which were I to repeat it would render me**

** suspected of inexcuseable vanity. It concluded with these words "If I was not satisfied with this I must be a savage".

(on opp.
side of
page)

Johnson was probably informed of it by somebody who was present and expressed a great indignation*

* and as it would have been uncertain to him how his Manuscripts had been carried off he said "I should have gone out of the world distrusting half mankind".

Bishop Sanderson could not have dictated a better letter. [altered from: Sir this
is a letter equal to ["alm " written above "to"] what Bishop Sanderson could have
written]. I could almost say Melius est sic penituisse quam nonerrasse.

(Note: Hill-Powell gives Hawkins's _Johnson_ ed.2, 586 as a ref. to the passage in _Life_ iv.406 n.1).

At the bottom of the page: Beattie pronounced Nullius adictus jurare &c.
(Note: Hor. Epist. 1, 1, 14, Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri.)

Also written on the page: Palmeria Blagdena, Sabbina Poppea Luisa Drusilla.
(Note: these are JB's trial names for the heroine of his _No Abolition of Slavery_.)

M 155:19

"Johnson's Poems". JB is referring to *Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth ... the Third edition, enlarged and corrected*. London: printed By and For John Nichols ... 1785.

Page 167, Note: The note is on Miss Vane: "To the fate of this lady Dr. Johnson has a beautiful allusion in his *Vanity of Human Wishes*, etc. etc." This passage in the *Vanity* is quoted and commented on in the *Tour*, v.49, but I think this note was made for the *Life*. The allusion in the *Life of Hogarth* is not mentioned. JB may have noted it for use in the edition of SJ's Poems he once planned to publish.

M 155:23

"A strange variation". For "Johnson's verses" see *Life* iii.159.

"Counsellor Godschal" was William Mann Godschall, a fellow counsellor on the Home circuit. This note must have been written on the circuit as on the back is part of a list which includes other names -- Trower, Knowles, and Garrow -- of Home Circuit companions; the list closes with "Boswell Junior" which means this was one of the early circuits he attended and he had the duty of keeping the accounts. JB's *first* attendance on the Home Circuit was in July 1786. His description of it in the Journal (BP xvi.213-215, 216-217) includes his duties as Junior -- "I had only to take care of dinner and supper and the Bills".

Godschal appears in *Alum. Oxonienses* under Godscall, William John Man, s. William of Albury, Surrey, arm. matric 28 Mar 1776, age 17; DCC 26 Nov 1789, barr at law, Inner Temple, 1784. In the Yale Lib. Cat. is a publication by him, 1787.

M 155:26

This would seem to be a trial opening for the *Life*, composed by JB.
Note that there is a blank space left for SJ's father's first name both
in this and in the notes for his life which SJ related to JB in 1775.
The paper seems to be in a rather early handwriting -- ?perhaps in the
'70s. I do not think it has any actual connection with the MS. of the
*Life*.

I had Harold Gulliver check the following biographies of SJ to see if
this could be traced: *Beauties of Johnson*. 1782 -- No.

Tindal, Wm. *Remarks on Dr. J's Life* ... [1782] --No

*Memoirs of the life and writings of ... Johnson*... 1785.--No

Tyers, T. *A biographical sketch* ... *Gent.Mag*. Dec 1784 (Pamphlet, 1785) --No.

Harrison, James, ed. Johnson's Dictionary ... with life of the author.
--No.

Towers, Joseph. *Essay on the life, character, and writings of ... Johnson*. --No.

*Olla Podrida*, 13, p132-141. George Horne. *Essay on Johnson*. No.

SJ's account of himself written in his 11th year. Pub. 1805. No.

M 155

See also:

M 58 ("For Johns Life: or perhaps that of Garick ...") *Life* ii.227; iv.112

M 84 (Warburton on Lyttelton and Dowdeswell) cf. *Life* ii.135

M 156:6 (Petition to the Lord Mayor in favour of Dr. Dodd) *Life* iii.143

J 64 pp.40d and e (SJ on Whitefield, *Life* iii.409; and, SJ's defence of money-getting, *Life* ii.323)