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 290 Recollections of Dr. Johnson

GENTLEMAN. ' Had you any acquaintance in Paris ? '

' No, I did not stay long enough to make any x. I spoke only latin, and I could not have much conversation. There is no good in letting the French have a superiority over you every word you speak 2.

' Barreti \sic\ was sometimes displeased with us for not liking the French/

LADY. * Perhaps he had a kind of partiality for that country, because it was in the way to Italy, and perhaps their manners resembled the Italians.'

JOHNSON. ' No. He was the showman, and we did not like his show ; that was all the reason.'

From Mr. Barreti [sic] 3.

A lady observed that Dr. Johnson had said that Madam De Bo age [Du Bocage] was a poor creature.

BARRETI. ' Yes, because he hated her before he saw her, for the lady Mrs. Strickland 4, who went with us from Diepe 5 to Paris, being introduced to Madam D e (by a letter she carried) told her, that le grand Johnson, 1'homme le plus savant de toute 1'Angleterre, was come to Paris, and Mr. Barretti. " Oh Barretti, Barretti, that I have heard so much of, and that I have wish'd so much to see ; bring me, bring me Baretti, je vous en prie," MRS. S D. * Et le grand Johnson aussi ? '

M. D. ' Je ne me soucie de qui que ce soit d'autre, pourvu que vous m'amenez Barretti. Je lis actuellement son livre, son voyage d'Espagne, et je suis variment [sic] impatiente d'en con- noitre 1'Auteur 6. Mais je vous prie de faire mes compliments a

1 'I was (he said) just beginning land, a high lady.' Life, iii. 118. to creep into acquaintance.' Life, ii. He mentions her in a letter to Mrs. 401. Thrale. Letters, i. 401.

2 ' It was a maxim with Johnson 5 Johnson crossed from Dover to that a man should not let himself Calais, but he visited Rouen on the down by speaking a language which way to Paris. I suppose he went he speaks imperfectly.' Ib. ii. 404. along the coast to Dieppe.

3 In the next few lines Miss Rey- 6 Of this book Johnson wrote : nolds spells Baretti's name in three ' I know not whether the world has different ways. ever seen such Travels before.' Let-

4 Johnson described her as 'a ters, i. 165. Roman Catholick lady in Cumber-

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