Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/408

 400 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.

President of his College (Jesus) at Oxford, Dr. Bernard r. Dr. Ber nard ventured to put a joke upon Johnson ; but being terrified by a tremendous snarl, ' Indeed, indeed, Doctor, believe me/ said he, * I meant nothing.' * Sir/ said Johnson, ' if you mean nothing, say nothing/ and was quiet for the rest of the evening.

��BY OZIAS HUMPHRY, R.A.

[' In a letter to his brother, the Rev. William Humphry, dated September 19, 1764.' Croker's Boswell, ix. 257.

For Johnson's letters to Humphry see Life, iv. 268, and for anecdotes of him see Northcote's Reynolds ', ii. 174, 248.]

The day after I wrote my last letter to you I was introduced to Mr. Johnson by a friend : we passed through three very dirty rooms to a little one that looked like an old counting-house, where this great man was sat at his breakfast 2. The furniture of this room was a very large deal writing-desk 3, an old walnut- tree table, and five ragged chairs of four different sets. I was very much struck with Mr. Johnson's appearance, and could hardly help thinking him a madman for some time, as he sat waving over his breakfast like a lunatic 4.

de tant de vertus apparentes, il est La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, No.

raisonnable de dire quelque chose de 528.

la faussete du me'pris de la mort. ... * Johnson was for some days in

II y a de la difference entre souffrir la June, 1782, the guest of Dr. Edwards,

mort constamment, et la mepriser. Vice-Principal of Jesus College.

Le premier est assez ordinaire ; mais Letters, ii. 257, n. 4 ; 261, n. i. No

je crois que 1'autre n'est jamais sin- Principal [not President] of Jesus

cere. ... La raison, dans laquelle on bore the name of Bernard. The story

croit trouver tant de ressources, est which follows resembles one told of

trop faible en cette rencontre pour the elder Pitt.

nous persuader de ce que nous vou- 2 Johnson in 1764 was living in

Ions. C'est elle au contraire qui Inner Temple Lane. Life, i. 350, n. 3,

nous trahit le plus souvent, et qui, 375, n. I ; iii. 406 n.

au lieu de nous inspirer le me'pris 3 No doubt the desk in the Library

de la mort, sert a nous decouvrir of Pembroke College.

ce qu'elle a d'affreux et de terrible.' 4 Hogarth, eleven years earlier,

He

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