Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/445

 4to volumes for two guinea on 16 May 1791. The success was immediate. He tells Temple on 22 Aug. that 1,200 out of 1,700 copies were sold, and that the remainder might be gone before Christmas. The second edition, with eight sheets of additional matter, appeared in three 8vo volumes in July 1793. In July 1791 Boswell was elected secretary of foreign correspondence to the Royal Academy ( and, Reynolds, ii. 640). The sucoess of his book must have cheered Boswell, but he still complains, and not without cause, of great depression. His drinking habits seenr to have grown upon him. After a melancholy visit to Auchinleck in the sprin of 1793 he was knocked down and robbed of a small sum in June, when in a state of intoxication; and he says (for the last time) that he will be henceforth a sober, regular man. In the spring of 1795 he came home ‘ weak and languid ' from a meeting of the Literary Club. His illness rapidly proved dangerous, and he died in his house at Great Portland Street on 19 May 1795. His will (dated 28 May 1785) is printed in Rogers’s ‘Boswell’ (p. 183), and is remarkable for the care taken to secure kind treatment of his tenants. His manuscripts, it is said, were immediately destroyed. [For his sons Alexander and James see Boswell, and ] His daughter Veronica died of consumption on 26 Sept. 1795. Euphenria showed her father's eccentricity in an exaggerated form. She left her family, proposed to support herself by writing operas, and made appeals for charity, being under the delusion that her relatives neglected her. She died at the age of about 60, Elizabeth married her cousin William Boswell in 1799, and died on 1 Jan. 1814. The entail, upon which Boswell had been so much interested, was upset by his grandson, Sir James, son of Sir Alexander, in 1850.

The unique character of Boswell is impressed upon all his works. The many foibles which ruined his career are conspicuous but never offensive; the vanity which makes him proud of his hypochondria and his supposed madness is redeemed by his touching confidence in the sympathy of his fellows; his absolute good-nature, his hearty appreciation of the excellence of his eminent contemporaries, though pushed to absurdity, is equalled by the real vivacity of his observations and the dramatic power of his narrative. Macaulay’s graphic description of his absurdities, and Car1yle's more penetrating appreciation of his higher qua ities, contain all that can be said.

The most vivid account of Boswell’s manner when in company with Johnson is given in Mme. d‘Arblay‘s ‘Memoirs of Dr. Burney,’ and there are some excellent descriptions in later years in her ‘Diary’ (v. 136, 260). In spite of her perception of his absurdities and her irritation at the indiscreet exposures in the ‘Life,' Miss Bumey confesses that his good-humour was irresistible. Burke and Reynolds retained their friendship for him through life. Reynolds wrote a curious paper in which he defended the taste for seeing executions, which he shared to some degree with Boswell. Boswell’s presence at such scenes is noted in his ‘Life of Jolinson,’ and an account from the ‘St. James’s Chronicle’ (April 1779) of his riding in the cart to Tyburn with the murderer Hickman may be found in the third series of ‘Notes and Queries' (iv. 232).

A full-length sketch by Laugton, engraved in the ‘Works,‘ gives a good idea of his appearance. There is also a pencil sketch by Sir T. Lawrence engraved in Croker (vol. iv.) A profile by Dance is engraved in Nichols's ‘ lllustratinns ' (vii. 300). A portrait of Kit-Kat size was painted by Re nolds in pursuance of a ba ain proposedv by Boswell (7 June 1785), who undertakes to pay for it from his first fees at the English bar. It has been engraved ten times, and was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, 1884 ( and, Life and Times of Reynolds, ii. 477; and Preface).

Boswell’s works are as follows: 1. ‘Ode to Tragedy' 1701. 2. ‘Elegy upon the Death of a Young Lady, with Commendatory Letters from A. E[rskine], G. D[empster], and J. B[oswell],' 1761. 3. Contributions to ‘Collections of Original Poems by Mr. Blacklock and other Scotch Gentlemen,' vol. ii., 1762. 4. ‘The Cub at Newmarket,' 1762. 5. ‘Letters between the Honourable Andrew Erskine and James Boswell, Esq.,’ 1763. 6. ‘Critical Strictures on Mallet's “Elvira"’ (by Erskine and Boswell). 7. ‘An Account of Corsica; the Journal of a Tour to that Island; and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli,’ by James Boswell, 1763. 8. Prologue to ‘The Coquettes,’ at the opening of the Edinburgh Theatre. December 1767. 9. ‘British Essays in favour of the brave Corsicans, by several hands, collected and published by James Boswell,’ 17 69. 10. ‘The Essence of the Douglas Cause,‘ 1767. 11. Contributions to the ‘London Magazine,’ including an account of the Shakespeare Jubilee, September 1769, ‘Remarks on the Profession of a Player,’ 1770 (reprinted in Nichols's ‘Illustrations,’ vii. 368), and ‘The Hypochondriack,’ a series of twenty-seven articles in the ‘London Magazine’ from October 1777 to December 1779. 12. ‘Doraneto' (a story 