Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/361

 and which was often adorned with such guests, that to dine there was, epulis accumbere divum x. Of Mrs. Thrale, if mentioned at all, less cannot be said, than that in one of the latest opinions of Johnson, ' if she was not the wisest woman in the world, she was undoubtedly one of the wittiest V She took or caused such care to be taken of him, during an illness of continuance, that Gold smith told her, 'he owed his recovery to her attention 3 .' She taught him to lay up something of his income every year 4. Be sides a natural vivacity in conversation, she had reading enough, and the gods had made her poetical. The Three Warnings* (the subject she owned not to be original) are highly interesting and serious, and literally come home to every body's breast and bosom. The writer of this would not be sorry if this mention could follow the lady to Venice 6. At Streatham, where our Philologer was also guide, philosopher, and friend 7, he passed much time. His inclinations here were consulted, and his will was a law. With this family he made excursions into Wales 8 and to Brighthelmstone. Change of air and of place were grateful to him, for he loved vicissitude. But he could not long endure the illiteracy and rusticity of the country 9, for woods and groves, and hill and dale, were not his scenes :

1 Aeneid, i. 79. 5 Ib. ii. 26. Hayward's Piozzi, ed.


 * '"I wonder," said Mrs. Thrale, 1861, ii. 165.

"you bear with my nonsense." "No, According to Lysons 'the first

Madam, you never talk nonsense; hint of this poem was given to her

you have as much sense and more by Johnson ; she brought it to him

wit than any woman I know." ' Mme. very incorrect ; and he not only re-

D'Arblay's Diary, i. 87. See also vised it throughout, but supplied

Letters, ii. 153. several new lines.' She denied that

3 Ante, i. 234. it was suggested by Johnson, but

4 If this is a fact, which I greatly apparently admitted the rest of the doubt, he repaid her lesson by statement. Prior's Malone, p. 413. urging economy on her and her 6 After her second marriage, in husband. Letters,\. 198-9. See Life, July, 1784, she had gone to Italy. v. 442, where he recorded in his Letters, ii. 407, n. 3.

Diary : ' Mrs. Thrale lost her purse. ^ Pope, Essay on Man, iv. 390.

She expressed so much uneasiness, Applied also by Boswell to Johnson in

that I concluded the sum to be very connexion with Mrs. Thrale. Life,\\\.6.

great ; but when I heard of only 8 Ib. v. 427. He also accompanied

seven guineas, I was glad to find them to France. Ib. ii. 384. Brighton

that she had so much sensibility of he frequently visited with them,

money.' 9 Nevertheless he paid long visits

VOL. II. A a ' Tower'd

�� �