Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/185

 ��Verses said to be written by Dr. Samuel Johnson, at the request of a Gentleman to whom a Lady had given a Sprig of Myrtle.

What hopes, what terrors, does thy gift create, Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate : The Myrtle, ensign of supreme command, Consign'd by Venus to Melissa's hand, Not less capricious than a reigning fair, Now grants, and now rejects a lover's prayer 1. In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain, In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain: The myrtle crowns the happy lovers' heads, Th' unhappy lover's grave the myrtle spreads: O then the meaning of thy gift impart, And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart ! Soon must this bough, as you shall fix his doom, Adorn Philanders head, or grace his tomb.

(cries Mr. Johnson;) I think it is now just forty years ago 3 that a young fellow had a sprig of myrtle given him by a girl he courted, and asked me to write him some verses that he might present her in return. I promised, but forgot ; and when he called for his lines at the time agreed on Sit still a moment (says I), dear Mund 4, and I'll fetch them thee so stepped aside for five minutes, and wrote the nonsense you now keep such a stir about V
 * Why now, do but see how the world is gaping for a wonder !

Upon revising these Anecdotes, it is impossible not to be struck with shame and regret that one treasured no more of

1 In the Gentlemaris Magazine this 5 Johnson told Nichols also that line is given : he had written these verses in five

'Oft favours, oft rejects a lover's minutes. Works, i. 128 n. prayer.' Boswell, who in his first edition, on

2 ' Th' unhappy lovers graves.' Ib. ; the authority of the mendacious Miss but Boswell, who had seen the ori- Seward, ' was induced to doubt the ginal manuscript, gives it ' Th' un- authenticity ' of Mrs. Piozzi's anec- happy lovers' grave.' Life, i. 92. dote, says in a note to the second :

3 It was in 1731. Ib. i. 93 n. 'I am obliged in so many instances

4 It was Edmund Hector at whose to notice Mrs. Piozzi's incorrectness request these verses were written. of relation, that I gladly seize this For Johnson's habit of contracting opportunity of acknowledging, that the names of his friends, see ib. ii. however often, she is not always in- 258. accurate.' Life, i. 93.

them

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