Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/278

 ��Recollections of Dr. Johnson

��smith, than Goldsmith had for him x. He always appear'd to be overawed by Johnson 2, particularly when in company with people of any consequence, visibly as if impress'd with fear doubtless of disgrace ; for I have been witness to many mortifications he has suffer'd in his company: one Day in particular, at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, a gentleman to whom he was talking his best stop'd \sic\ him, in the midst of his discourse, with ' Hush ! hush ! Dr. Johnson is going to say something V

At another time, a gentleman who was sitting between Dr. John son and Dr. Goldsmith, and with whom he had been disputing, remarked to another, loud enough for Goldsmith to hear him, ' That he had a fine time of it, between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor*!'

Dr. Johnson seem'd to delight in drawing characters ; and when he [did so] con amore, delighted every one that heard him 5. Indeed, I cannot say I ever heard him draw any con odiare \sic\, tho' he professed himself to be, or at least to love, a good hater 6.

��1 See, howeyer, Life, ii. 66, where Goldsmith said : ' Johnson, to be sure, has a roughness in his manner ; but no man alive has a more tender heart. He has nothing of the bear but his skin ' ; and ii. 256, where, on Johnson asking his pardon, 'he answered placidly, "It must be much from you, Sir, that I take ill." '

2 ' Goldsmith could sometimes take adventurous liberties with him, and escape unpunished.' Ib. iv. 113.

3 Ib. ii. 257.

4 Boswell's father and Gray both gave Johnson the name of Ursa Major. Ib. v. 384. See ib. p. 97, and ante, i. 270, where Johnson and Goldsmith are distinguished by an insolent fellow as Doctor Major and Doctor Minor.

5 'BOSWELL. " His power of reason ing is very strong, and he has a pecu liar art of drawing characters, which is as rare as good portrait painting." SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. "He is

��undoubtedly admirable in this ; but, in order to mark the characters which he draws, he overcharges them, and gives people more than they really have, whether of good or bad." ' Life, iii. 332. See also ii. 306 ; iii. 20.

6 Ante, i. 204. Iii one of her MSS. Miss Reynolds continues: ' But I have remarked that his dis like of any one seldom prompted him to say mucn more than that the fellow is a blockhead, a poor creature, or some such epithet.'

Speaking of Churchill he said : head at first, and I will call him a blockhead still.' Life, i. 419. ' Field ing being mentioned, Johnson ex claimed, " he was a blockhead." ' Ib. ii. 173. He told Hector's maid servant that she was ' a blockhead,' to Boswell's surprise, who ' never heard the word applied to a woman before.' Ib. ii. 456. Goldsmith called Sterne 1 a blockhead.' Ib. ii. I73> 2 -
 * No, Sir, I called the fellow a block

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