Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/280

 262 Anecdotes.

��antica onesta* Quando bisogna, Saprai sereno in volto Vezzeggiare un nemico; accib m cada, Aprirgli innanzi un \it\ precipizio, e poi Piangerne la caduta. Offrirti a tutti, E non esser che tuo; di false lodi Vestir le accuse, ed aggravar le coipe Nel fame la difesa; ognor dal trono

I buoni allontanar; d'ogni castigo Lasciar Fodio allo scettro, e d'ogni dono

II merito usurpar : tener nascosto Sotto un zelo apparente un empio fine; Ne fabbricar che sulle altrui rouine 2.

Grown old in courts, thou art not surely one

Who keeps the rigid rules of ancient honour;

Well skilFd to sooth a foe with looks of kindness,

To sink the fatal precipice before Jjiim,

And then lament his fall with seaming friendship :

Open to all, true only to thyself,

Thou know'st those arts which blast with envious praise,

Which aggravate a fault with feign'd excuses,

And drive discountenanc'd virtue from the throne :

That leave the blame of rigour to the prince,

And of his every gift usurp the merit ;

That hide in seeming zeal a wicked purpose,

And only build upon another's ruin.

These characters Dr. Johnson however did not delight in reading, or in hearing of: he always maintained that the world was not half as wicked as it was represented 3 ; and he might very well continue in that opinion, as he resolutely drove from him every story that could make him change it ; and when Mr. BickerstafFs flight confirmed the report of his guilt 4, and my husband said in answer to Johnson's astonishment, that he

1 ' Tu che in corte invecchiasti, ably spelt that she had better have

Non dovresti invidiarne. lo studied her own language before

giurerei she floundered into other tongues.'

Che fra 'pochi non sei tenaci Walpole's Letters, ix. 179.

ancora 2 < Ne fabbricar que su 1'altrui

Dell' antica onesta.' ruine.'

Horace Walpole says of Mrs. 3 Ante, p. 208.

Piozzi's Journey : Her Latin, 4 Life, ii. 82, n. 3. French and Italian too are so miser- had

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