V /li ""■\( i^--y M (^mmll Hmmitg JilrtaiJg THE GIFT OF iHJ77e£^A^M^.. .^.jzcri/. liL n m.f.. Cornell University Library PR 3533.G33 Dr. Johnson as a Grecian.A paper read be 3 1924 013 187 152 DR. JOHNSON AS A GRECIAN. A PAPER READ BEFORE THE JOHNSON CLUB ON JUNE 28, 1898, J. GENNADIUS. The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 31 871 52 DR. JOHNSON AS A ORECIAN. A Paper read before the Johnson Club on ^une 28, 1898. "^ The subjoined paper on Dr. Johnson as a Greek scholar is by Mr. Gennadius, late Greek Minister in this country. The author, who is the present Prior of the Johnson Club, read it after supper on the occasion of the summer meeting, at the old inn on Hampstead Heath known as " The Spaniards," on the 28th of last June. These Club papers are always connected with some specific phase of the great Doctor's many-sided character ; and though they are expected to be substantial in matter, the authors are allowed some latitude as to the humour with which they treat the subject. This particular phase of Johnson's attainments has never before been taken up, and certainly no one could be better qualified to develop it than Mr. Gennadius. HAVE always felt that I was hardly competent to produce a paper such as would merit your attention or respond to your expectations. And this is my excuse for deferring so long what I deem a privi- lege as well as an obligation. However, I have written a paper of a sort ; and its perusal will, I am afraid, convince you that my misgivings were not without reason. I have at least endeavoured to choose a safe, not to say familiar, ground; and on going over it I was rejoiced to find that, so far as I am aware, no one has availed himself of a theme which occupies a large and important place in the life-work of the Master. This abstention on the part of those who. have preceded me I can only account for as an act of thoughtful courtesy, if I may say so, towards me ; for it is my purpose to speak to |you of Dr. Johnson as a Grecian. And I shall begin by asking you to consider how entirely Socratic in its method was his lifelong teaching ; I will re-' mind you that it was in this very neighbourhood of Hamp- stead that he proved himself superior even to his prototype in marital virtues, in his blind devotion to a motherly wife. For, whereas Socrates left his sweet-tempered Xanthippe slaving away at home, while he trifled in the Angora ; Mrs. Johnson, we are told, " indulged herself in country air and nice living at an unsuitable expense (at Hampstead), while her husband was drudging in the smoke of London ; and that she by no means treated him with that complacency which is the most engaging quality of a wife. But all this is perfectly compatible with his fondness for her, especially when it is remembered that he had a high opinion of her understanding, and that the impressions which her beauty, real or imaginary, had originally made upon his fancy, being continued by habit, had not been effaced, though she her- self was doubtless much altered for the worse." No wonder it was, during the rare whifEs of fresh air which the gentle Mrs. Johnson allowed him, that he betook him- self (at Hampstead in 1749) to the composition of "The Vanity of Human Wishes ;" and when at last his effulgent and elderly siren disappeared, he kept up his lamentations in Greek. " You know," he wrote to Th. Warton, " poor Dodsley has lost his wife. I believe he is much affected ; I hope he will not suffer so much as I yet suffer from the loss of mine. Oi;u,oi 1 ri &' I'ljMi ; 8»itT« ya.f iCiiriv^K.fi.i>." (Alas I but wherefore alas ? We have suffered the woes of mortals.) The quotation was aptly chosen. It is from "Bellerophon," one of the lost plays of Euripides (apud Suidas) ; and Euripides was an earlier and more abiding love of his than even Mrs. Johnson. " He told me (says Boswell) what he read solidly at Oxford was Greek ; not the Grecian historians, but Homer and Euripides, and now and then a little Epigram." What Boswell means by this quaint expression, "a little Epigram," is, no doubt, parts of the " Anthologia," — of which more anon. But, referring to Johnson's attempt at a methodical course of studies at Oxford, Boswell again says : — " I find a number of lines of two of Euripides' tragedies . . . and some part of Theocritus." On another occasion " armorial bearings having been mentioned, Johnson said they were as "ancient as the siege of Thebes, which he proved by a pas- sage in one of the tragedies of Euripides." * And on June Ttjt^i. T-OD A. Boswell notes : " He was not well to-day "and said very little, employing himself chiefly in reading Euripides." Even before going up to Oxford he had a wider know- ledge of Greek than was usual at that time. " What he read during those two years, he told me (says Boswell) was not works of mere amusement, ' not voyages and travels, but all literature. Sir, all ancient writers, all manly; though but little Greek; only Anacreon and Hesiod.' " ^ To Anacreon, like the ladies' man he was (in spite of Mrs. Johnson), he remained faithful to the end, as we shall see. But in the statement just quoted he rather underrates his early pro- ficiency in Greek, if we are to judge from his very creditable translation, while at Stourbridge School, of that most beau- tiful of Homeric passages the dialogue of Hector and Andromache, as well as from the " Designs," as he calls them, of the various works he projected. In this list, drawn up early in life, and added to in 1752 and 1753, ^^^ following entries refer to Greek literature alone : — "Aristotle's Rhetorick, a translation of it into English. — Aristotle's Ethicks, an English translation of them, with notes. — Translation of the ' History of Herodian.' — Hiero- cles upon Pythagoras, translated into English, perhaps with notes.^ — From .(Elian, a volume of select stories, perhaps 1 "Phoenissae, 1120, 1 imagine," adds Boswell, jun. But this line — does not respond to Johnson's suggestion ; and it seems odd the discrepancy has not been noticed by Boswell's editors. Among Johnson's other Latin renderings of Greek verse there is the well-known passage in Euripides' " Medea," 193-203 ("Works," Oxf. 1825, 1. 191.) 2 This was at the age of nineteen. And he adds : — " When I came to Oxford Dr. Adams, now Master of Pembroke College, told me that I was the best qualified for the University that he had ever known come there." Considering the scholarly equip- ment even of professors, in those days, the praise appears now bat faint. Lord Chesterfield in a letter to his son (1748) urges him to consider the advantages of a Greek professorship in one of the Universities— a snug sinecure, requiring but meagre know- ledge of the language. Eeferring to some reminiscences of Mr. Edwards, as to the respect and fear with which he inspired his fellow-students, Johnson remarked : — " Sir, they respected me for my literature ; and yet it was not great, but by comparison." 3 In a note, added later, he remarks " This is done by Norris." from others. — Plutarch's lives in English, with notes. — Coluthus, to be translated. — Classical Miscellanies ; Select translations from Ancient Greek and Latin authors. — Maximes, Characters and Sentiments, after the manner of Bruyfere, collected out of ancient authors, particularly the Greek, with apophthegms. — Lives of the Philosophers,* written with a polite air, in such a manner as may divert as well as instruct." — There are also projects of a history of Mythology, a history of the Revival of classic learning in Europe, &c. His own modest estimate of his knowledge of Greek is accounted for by the very fact that he knew what it is to know Greek thoroughly. " Mr. Beauclerk told Dr. Johnson that Dr. James said to him he knew more Greek than Mr. Walmesley. ' Sir,' said he, ' Dr. James did not know enough Greek tn be sensible of his ignorance. Walmesley did.' " And, being asked if Barnes knew a good deal of Greek, he answered, " I doubt. Sir, he was unoculus inter coecos." Very much in this sense is Ford's anecdote : — *" Here the conversation turned one morning on a Greek criticism of Dr. Johnson in some volume lying on the table, which I ventured (for I was then young) to deem incorrect, and pointed it out to him [Jacob Bryant]. I could not help thinking that he was somewhat of my opinion, but was cautious and reserved. ' But, Sir,' said I, willing to over- come his scruples, 'Dr. Johnson himself admitted that he was not a good Greek scholar.' • Sir,' he replied with a serious and impressive air, ' it is not easy for us to say what such a man as Johnson would call a good Greek scholar.' " The reason why the notion obtained currency that Johnson was not a Hellenist is best explained by Dr. Parr, who, with characteristic self-complacency, claimed to be the most eminent Greek scholar in England, next to Porson.^ He says, " Dr. Johnson was an admirable scholar.^ . . , The i Most probably after Diogenes Laertius, from whom he repeatedly quotes in bis conversations. 5 GifEord's " Works of Ford, I., Ixii. 6 He said : " There are three great Grecians in England ; Porson is the first, Burney is the third, and who is the second I need not say." W. Field's " Memoirs of the Eev. Samuel Parr," London, 1828, ii., 215. 7 Johnson always spoke of himself as a " scholar," i.e. , a man of letters, possessing a mastery of both ancient and modern literature. In this sense he uses the word in " The Vanity of Human Wishes," and so he styles himself in his letters to Lord classical scholar was forgotten in the great original con- tributor to the literature of his country." Similar is the testimony in M. Tyer's " Biographical Sketch " : — " He (Johnson) owned that many knew more Greek than himself, but that his grammar would show he had once taken pains, Sir Wm. Jones, one of the most enlightened of the sons of men, as Johnson described him, has often said he knew a great deal of Greek." But the question is set at rest by Boswell, when he says : — " A very erroneous notion has circulated as to Johnson's deficiency in the knowledge of the Greek language, partly owing to the modesty with which, knowing how much there was to be learnt, he used to mention his own comparative acquisitions. When Mr. Cumberland talked to him of the Greek fragments which Are sp well illustrated in The Observer, and of the Greek dramatists in general, he candidly acknowledged his insufficiency in that particular branch of Greek literature. Yet it may be said that, though not a great, he was a good Greek scholar. Dr. Charles Burney, the younger, who is universally acknowledged by the best judges to be one of the few men of this age who are very eminent for their skill in that noble language, has assured me that Johnson could give a Greek word for almost every English one ; and that, although not sufficiently con- versint in the niceties of the language, he upon some occasions discovered, even in these, a considerable degree of critical acumen. Dr. Dalzel, Professor of Greek at Edinburgh, whose skill in it is unquestionable, mentioned to me, in very liberal terms, the impression which was made upon him by Johnson, in a conversation which they had in London concerning that language. As Johnson, therefore, was undoubtedly one of the first Latin scholars in modern times, let us not deny to his fame some additional splendour from Greek." That Johnson often displayed " a considerable degree of critical acumen," as regards Greek, is amply shown from his remarks on Potter's translation of .ffischylus. When (1778) asked by Garrick, "And what think you, sir, of it? " Johnson replied, " I thought what I read of it, verbiage ; but upon Mr. Harris's recommendation I will read a play. (And to Harris), Don't prescribe two." On another occasion, Boswell says, " As an instance of the niceness of his taste, CheBterfield, and in a letter to the King's Librarian. As such, he was, perhaps, the one man best qualified to write (1763) the " Life of Ascham," his forerunner in scholarship and the love of Greet, and, in many respects, his counterpart in character. 8 though he praised [Gilbert] West's translation of Pindar [London, 1749,] he pointed out the following passage as faulty, by expressing a circumstance so minute as to detract from the general dignity which should prevail : — Down then from thy glittering nwil Take, O Muse, thy Dorian lyre." The juxtaposition of the Greek text (.Olym. I. 25) — — oKKa, Aupias oc'jro ^opijutyya 'jeauua.'Kov renders the delicacy of Johnson's appreciation all the more evident.8 Like acumen is manifest in his remark " that the delineation of character in the end of the first book of ' The Retreat of the Ten Thousand,' was the first instance of the kind that was known." The incident related by Baretti to Malone (Prior's " Malone," p. 160) may also be quoted here : " Dr. Tanner picked up on a stall a book of Greek hymns. He brought it to Johnson, who ran his eyes over the pages and returned it. A year or two afterwards he dined at Sir Joshua Reynolds's with Dr. Muisgrave, the editor of Euripides. Musgrave made a great parade of his Greek learning, and among other less known writers mentioned these hymns, which he thought none of the company were acquainted with, and extolled them highly. Johnson said the first of them was indeed very fine, and immediately repeated it. It consisted of ten or twelve lines."9 It is nevertheless certain that, in his earlier struggles for existence, Johnson had neglected Greek. " He renewed 8 Johnson included West's translation in " The Works of the English Poets ; " and his criticism of it shows a thorough insight into the power and beauty of the Greek text. " A work of this kind (he says in his prefaec) must, in a minute examina- tion, discover many imperfections ; but West's version, so far as I have considered it, appears to be a product of great labour and great abilities." 9 Here again the editors leave us in the dark. I think, how- ever, there is little doubt the hymn in question is the "Thanks- giving at Lamplighting," 'EiriXixviog 'Evxaptaria, sung at Evensong, — one of the earliest Christian hymns, which St. Basil says (De Spir. Sauot. 0. 29) was already considered old at his day (390). It is composed, of just 13 lines (*ws iXapbv ayiag doliig, &o.) of surpassing beauty, such as to have captivated Johnson's attention and memory. It has been translated repeatedly : into Englith by G. W. Bethune and by the late Archbishop Benson. The book picked up by Dr. Tanner must have been Gh. Felargus's " Enohizidion Grseco - Latinum hymnorum, cantionum et precationum quas christiani Grsaei hodie recitant. Francofurti, 1594," in which this hymn occurs. his Greek some years ago " (says Tyers) " for which he found no occasion for twenty years." And Croker (p. 795) although he questions the fact, on insufficient grounds as I think, yet records that " it has been said that Dr. Johnson never exerted such steady application as he did for the last ten years of his life in the study of Greek." What appears to have rekindled his ardour for the lan- guage is the incident related by Mrs. Piozzi : — "When the King of Denmark was in England (in 1768) one of his noblemen was brought by Mr. Coleman 10 see Dr. Johnson at Mr. Thrale's country house ; and having heard, he said, that he was not famous for Greek literature, attacked him on the weak side, politely addiijg that be chose that con- versation on purpose, to favour himself. Dr. Johnson, how- ever, displayed so copious a knowledge of authors, books, and every branch of learning in that language, that the gentleman appeared astonished. ' When he was gone John- son said, ' Now, for all this triumph I may thank Thrale's Xenophon here; as, I think, excepting that one, I have not looked in a Greek book these ten years. But see what haste my dear friends were all in,' continued he, 'to tell this poor innocent foreigner thfit I knew nothing of Greek I Oh, no ! he knows nothing of Greek !' with a loud burst of laughter." After this triumph he was evidently enamoured with Xenophon. His reference to the delineation of character in the " Anabasis " was made subsequently to this incident, and, ten years later, in introducing Dr. Burney, who desired to consult a Welsh MS. in the Bodleian, he wrote (2 Nov., 1778) to Dr. Edwards: — "But we must not let Welsh drive us from Greek. What comes of Xenophon ? If you do not like the trouble of publishing the book, do not let your commentaries be lost; contrive that they may be published somewhere." Boswell's editors mention that an edition of the " Memorabilia " was then being pre- pared by Dr. Edwards, but do not state who he was and whether the book was ever published. It was, as a matter of fact, issued by H. Owen, with a short preface, from the Clarendon Press in 1785. Edward Edwards appears to have been Johnson's fellow student referred to above (n. 2) and was then a fellow of St. John's. " Greek sir, is like lace ; every man gets as much of it as he can." The simile is not Mrs. Johnson's, or any other lady's. It is the Doctor's own. For he had a special weak- ness for lace, and indignantly characterised as " absurd " Sir Joshua Reynolds's remark that " nobody wore laced coats lO now." He himself made his appearance on the first repre- sentation of his " Irene " bedecked in a scarlet waistcoat with rich gold lace, and carrying a gold-laced hat. The importance he attached to classic studies appears from his statement to Boswell, who having got him fast in a sculler, began to cross-question him on their way to Green- wich. " I asked him if he really thought a knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages an essential to a good education. Johnson : Most certainly, sir ; for those who know them have a very great advantage over those who do not. Nay, sir, it is wonderful what a difference learning makes upon people, even in the common intercourse of life, which does not appear to be much connected with it." And on another occasion, " having regretted to him that I had learnt little Greek, as is too generally the case in Scotland ; that I had for a long time hardly applied at all to the study of that noble language, and that I was desirous of being told by him what method to follow ; he recommended to me as easy helps, Sylvanus's " First Book of the Iliad ; " Dawson's " Lexicon of the Greek New Testament ; " and Hesiod with " Person's Lexicon " at the end of it." And again : " He roused me with manly and spirited conversation. He advised me ... to apply to Greek an hour every day." Johnson himi-elf appeared to have followed this precept ; and his inmost thoughts, his most cherished yearnings, he recorded in Greek. On July 2t^ 1776 he indited a special prayer beseeching God " to look with mercy upon his studies and endeavours ; " and from a subjoined note it appears that this referred to his resolve " to apply vigorously to study particularly of the Greek and Italian languages." His eagerness for Italian may be explained by the fact that about that time Piozzi first appeared upon the scene. On April 4th, 1779, he notes in his " Prayers and Medita- tions," " At the Altar I commended my 0. *., and again I prayed the prayer." On Caster Day, 1781, he again writes : " I commended my friends, as I have formerly done." Over the meaning of these two mysterious Greek letters a lively controversy arose. The more prosaic, and no doubt accurate, explanation advanced, is that they stand for davovTSf pixoi, " departed friends." But a professed insight into the tender yearning of Dr. Johnson's heart has suggested that they signify " Thrale friends. "1° 10 " Grentleman's Magazine," 1838, ii., 361. Maoaulay, in his first essay on Johnson (Sept., 1831), deservedly belabours Croker for infering that 9 stands for OvjitoI, and for supposing At the age of 63 he made the following entry : " Easter Day (1772), after twelve at night. The day is now begun on which I hope to begin a new course, Sjn-cp i^' va-ir^.iyyay " (as from the starting place). The phrase is taken from the Athletics of the Greeks, and may he rendered in familiar parlance as " turning a new leaf." There appears to have been good cause for this pious resolve. On the previous day Dr. Johnson had made the following entry : " I read the Greek Testament without construing, and this day con- cluded the Apocalypse." It is of that very day that Boswell relates : " I paid him a short visit both on Friday and Saturday, and seeing his large folio Greek Testament before him, beheld him with ja reverential awe, and would not intrude upon his time." Now Boswell does not confess why this discreet forbearance, so unusual in him. The fact is, his reverential awe at the sight of the large folio Greek Testament was the efEect of what had just happened to Thomas Osborne, the bookseller, who, having ventured to worry the Doctor when similarly occupied, was knocked down with the volume in question. For Boswell relates the occurrence : " The simple truth I had from Johnson himself, ' Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop ; it was in my own chambers.' " And to Mrs. Thrale, who questioned him, Johnson said, " There is nothing to tell, dear madame, but that he was insolent and I beat him ; and he was a block- head and told of it, which I should never have dtone. . . . I have beaten many a felhw, but the rest had the wit to hold their tongues." The Doctor, you will observe, suppresses the fact that he made a militant use of the sacred volume which he was reading for his spiritual edification. that this word, which really means mortals, can be rendered by Dr. Q. Birkbeck Hill has kindly communicated to me the following, which occurs in the Bemains of Thomas Hearne (Ed. 1869, 1. 208) under date of Oct. 26, 1710 :— " When any monument in the old time was erected to the memory of several persons, they put the mark © to denote such persons as were dead, and the mark V for those that were living. Thus we have this instance in Lipsius : De recta Promwntiatione LatmcB Lmgiuee, p. 75 : — @ N. Oogubrius. Gn. L. Nicephorus. @ Gulnia. Cn. L. Nice. V L, Safinius. d. h. Surus. where the two former marks signifie that the persons were dead, and the latter that he was living ; and there are other examples there." 12 But the historic folio, which it appears included the Septua- gint, and thus added to Johnson's innate pugnacity, was to be seen in its belaboured condition at a bookseller's in Cambridge as late as 1812 — a warning to the like of Osborne, "a man," as Johnson said, "entirely destitute of shame, without sense of any disgrace, but poverty." Osborne had even the honour of beinq; introduced in the "Dunciad" by Pope ; but, as Johnson goes on to say, " the shafts of satire . . . . were deadened by his impassive dulness" (" Works " viii., 302). Thus Johnson had recourse to Greek Scripture, as to a daily mentor, guardian and guide. " I observed upon the dial plate of his watch," says L'oswell, " a short Greek in- scription taken from the New Testament, »u| yap £p;r;tTa(, being the first words of our Saviour's solemn admonition to the improvement of that time which is allowed us to prepare for eternity : ' The night cometh when no man can work.' " (John ix., 4). In like manner, Johnson's usual seal was a head of Homer. (But Dr. Johnson and Homer may well serve as the special subject of some future paper— provided always you do not succumb under the infliction of the present one.) Writing to Langton (July 5th, 1774) he says, " I grow gradually better; much however remains to mend." And he adds the supplication in Greek, Ki/pi£ ehinirot, "Lord have mercy." The most portentous Greek entry however occurs in his Diary of a journey into Wales (1774). Under date of August 14, two Greek words iSpSo-is oAiyij significantly stand of themselves ; and being rendered into homely English reveal " short commons." The first editor of the Diary, commenting upon them, infers that " on that day Johnson ate sparingly." No doubt; for he could not have helped himself. And unless Duppa put forward that inference by way of charitable interpretation, his knowledge of Greek must have been as beggarly ^ the victuals to which Johnson was then reduced by some inhospitable host. As a matter of fact the Doctor indignantly records, in suitably severe Laconics, the Spartan fare provided for him on that inaus- picious occasion. - The Diary bristles with Greek thoughts and Greelc .allusions. At Lleweney he dined with his old friend Dr. Shipley, the Bishop of St. Asaph, and there was " talk of Greek." On that day (August 8) Johnson " read Phocylides, and distinguished the paragraphs " ; meaning evidently that he made out the sections each treating of a special subject. He does not appear however to have suspected that this didactic 13 poem, " the litle of which (as Duppa is careful to note) is XloUjia NovisTixm, but which is also known as Oaxt/^iJow ipyvpa ETTij and }\iji,ouTi fiiifMitif On another occasion he composed the following on his friend, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Birch (" Works " I., 170) -.r— Kail |3>ov, liirev, oraii ff^nt SanSnoto ^ihtcai Xov iton yfut^ifiisiiav Bip^iov cthho)) exfi^f- And in his letter to Langton, in which the KiJpie ixina-ot occurs, he says : " I wrote the following tetrastick on poor Goldsmith : — Toy ra^ov sitrofaisi^ Tov OX(|3apoto^ x-ovIthi "A^poo-i fti o-sfctir, leiJE, itoisara-i varii. OTcrt |XE|xij^E (piaiz, //.iTfuit pfspi;, ifya traXawt, KXxUri trotYitiiii , iVropixon, pvcriKov." It is an epitaph full of classic solemnity and grace, of 13 " GrsBviuB and Benedictus give place to Sir Thomas More among all the translators of Luoian " (Ors^ker, p. 837) Jacobus Moltzer, b. 1503, was suruamed Mioyllus when he played that rdle in Lucian's " Somnium," whioh was dramatised at the Gyumasium of Frankfort. He translated Lucian Into Latin (1538), edited Homer with Scholia (1541), became Hector of the Gymnasium in 1547, and subsequently held the chair of Greek at Heidelberg, where he died in 1588. IS which Mr. Seward ("Anec." ii., 466) gives the following translation : — Whoe'er thou art with reyerenoe tread Where Goldsmith's letter'd dust is laid. If nature and the historic page, If the sweet muse thy care engage, Lament him dead whose powerful mind Their various energies combined. In another letter, to Mr. Cave, Johnson writes : — " I have composed a Greek epigram to Eliza, and think she ought to be celebrated in as many different languages as Lewis le Grand." The epigram in question, with a Latin version, is inserted in Works I., p. 170. EIS TO THS EAI2SH2 HEPI TON ONEIPXIN AINIFMA. T? KaTAovq ffiivajuEi ti tsAo;; Zeu; iravra M^oxii KvTTfin, fiiy avTov a-xmrfa ^Efiij^E flea. Ek A105 Eo-Tif 'o>apj isToi; itm' iy^a,\i}i "Oftijpo;, 'KKha, ToJ' EK SniTou? Kun'fii; 'i'iCi\Ai\iv onap, ZeV? ^OVVO^ ^AoyoE^'Tt 9roXE(? ETTEpcTE iCi^OiVVU "Oiii^airi }\cifii1t(a, Aio; Kun'pi; oicTa ^ifit. This was the famous Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, whose attain- ments he esteemed so highly that even of Langton he said " that he understood Greek better than any one whom he had ever known, except Elizabeth Carter." In fact, he recognised in her an exception to the rule he himself had laid down in respect to the scholarly training of the fair sex.*'' " A man (he said) is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table than when his wife talks Greek. My old friend, Mrs. Carter would make a pudding as well as translate Epictetus.'''^ Johnson's reverence for Greek learning was such that proficiency in the language immediately raised a man in his 14 Johnson's opinion on the social status of ttie sex is clearly set forth in a letter to Taylor, first published by the Philobiblon Society: "Nature (he says) has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little " He was, never- theless, ready to encourage and assist another lady in her literary pursuits. To the English version of The Greeli Theatre of Father Brumoy, which Mrs. Gh. Lennox published in 17S9, Dr. Johnson contributed the translation of " A disserta- tion on the Greek Oomedy," and " The general conclusion of the book." 15 All the Works of Epictetus which are now extant, con- taining his Discourses, preserved by Arrian in four bool^s, the Enchiridion and Fragments. Translated from the original Greek by Elizabeth Garter, with an Introduction and Notes. London, 1788. 49. (In the list of subscribers the name of " S. Johnson, M.A.," occurs.) i6 consideration. Of Mr. Longley, father of Archbishop Longley and Recorder of Rochester, whom he met there, he said, " My heart warms towards him. I was surprised to find in him such a nice acquaintance with the metre in the learned languages ; though 1 was somewhat mortified that I had it not so much to myself as I should have thought." Mr. Longley, however, modestly explains that the Impression he made upon Johnson was by a mere fluke. " Had he examined me further, I fear he could have found me ignorant."'^ And he adds, about Langton his neighbour, that he " was a very good Greek scholar, much superior to Johnson, to whom, nevertheless, he paid profound deference ; sometimes, indeed, I thought niore than he deserved." Bennet Langton's qualities and attainments were many and various, and all such as to impress Johnson deeply. The tall Lincolnshire squire, " resembling a stork standing on one leg near the shore in Raphael's cartoon of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes '' (and hence nick-named Lanky), was a man of that ancient lineage and those polished manners which fascinated Johnson ; while his sincere piety and his equable and entertaining conversation endeared him to the Doctor. Johnson writes (June i, 1758) to Th. Warton, Langton's tutor at Oxford : — " His mind is as exalted as his stature. I am half afraid of him ; but he is no less amiable than formidable." And again he said : — " The earth does not bear a worthier man than Bennet^ Langton pi know not who will go to Heaven if Langton does not. Sir, I will almost say, sit anima mea cum Langtono." "" But it was Langton's knowledge of Greek which com- pletely subjugated Johnson. It was not, what may be styled the pedantic, nor the mercenary knowledge of the language, acquired as a means to ostentation or gain. Langton loved Greek for its own sake ; he felt its beauty ; he was imbued with the charm of its literature and the en- nobling influence of its go#ike grandeur. So that he came to live and think in it, and even crack jokes in Greek. When he first met Johnson he took him by storm. He had read a good deal in Clenardus's Greek Grammar. " Why, sir (said Johnson), who is there in this town who knows anything of Clenardus but you and I " ? Clenardus's Grammar, although at that time superannuated, had long held the field and had gone through as many editions in the 16 The passage from Longley's unpublished "Autobiography " is quoted by Dr. G. Birkbeok Hill (iv., p. 8), to whose monu- mental edition of Thi Life I am greatly indebted. 17 West as George Gennadius's Greek Grammar is still being issued in Greece and the East. But Langton iiad also learned by heart the whole of the Epistle of St. Basil, which is given in that grammar as praxis. " Sir (said Johnson in wrapt admiration), I never made such an effort to attain Greek." Langton's ready command of Greek is attested by Miss L. M. Hawkins," who writes : " He would get into the most fluent recitation of half a page of Greek, breaking off for fear of wearying, by saying, as I well remember his phrase, ' and so it goes on,' accompanying his words with a gentle wave of his hand, indicating that you might better suppose the rest than bear his proceeding." Langton would nevertheless enjoy a liberty taken with his beloved Greek, and one evening, as Boswell writes, "made us laugh heartily at some lines by Joshua Barnes, in which are to be found such comical Anglo-Hellenisms as xXuQ8 Johnson, as we have seen, was from the very first enamoured with these sweet flowers of Greek literature — soothing by their fragrance and enchanting in their varied hues. On August 8, 1772, he wrote to Boswell : " You promised to get me a little Pindar you may add to it a VM\^ Anacreon." And again in February, 1782, "When you come hither, pray bring with you Baxter's Anacreon. I cannot get that edition in London." And he repeated his request on March 18, 1784 : " Please to bring with you Baxter's Anacreon." But Boswell's father apparently would not let the rare volume go. Johnson liad not seen it till he visited Auchinlech. "Dr. Johnson found here Baxter's Anacreon which he told me (writes Boswell) he had long enquired for in vain, and began to suspect there was no such book. My father has written many notes on this book, and Dr. Johnson and I talked of having it reprinted.'''^ In like manner with other Greek poets. In his " Meditations " (1773) he refers to the " Argonautica " as a daily reading of his. 2° "How goes Apollonius?" he enquires (May 13, 1775) of Mr. Warton wlio was preparing a translation. And 18 He himself wrote to Mrs. Piozzi on April 19th, 1784 : "When I lay sleepless I used to drive tl^e night along by turning Greek epigrams into Latin. I know not if I have not turned a hundred." There are just over ninety reprinted in his "Works," I., 175-179. He had before him the text of BrodsBus, Basil. 1549. 19 'AvaKpeovrog MiXij. Pluribus quibus hoeotanus soatebant mendis purgavit . . . notarque . . . adjesit. W. Baxter. Londini, 1695. — Ed. Altera, Londini, 1710. 8°. Boswell writing to Johnson, says " that Baxter's ' Anacreon ' which is in the library at Anchinlech, was, I find, collated by my father in 1727 with the MS. belonging to the University of Leyden, and he has made a number of notes upon it. Would you advise me to publish a new edition of it ? His answer was dated Sept., 30th (1783). . . . Your Anacreon is » very uncommon book. Whether it should be reprinted, you cannot do better than consult Lord Hailes." 20 " L. Apollonii pugnam Betrioiam." Dr. G.B.Hill explains (" Johnsonian Miseel.," I., 69) that in ApoUonius's Argonau- tica, book ii., there is the description of a fight between Poly- deuces and Amyeus, King of the Bebrjces, which Johnson may have latinized as pugna Bebryeia or Bebricia, and this may have been misprinted as Betricia. 20 with the concluding verse of Dionysius's Periegesis he brings to an end the last number ot " The Rambler." " Celestial powers I that piety regard, From you my labours wait their last reward." It is that verse — but distorted and maimed to suit the narrow evangelicalism of Sir W. Scott ; jumbled together to look like an ancient inscription, as pompous old Dr. Parr imagined'! — it is that same Greek verse we may now read on the scroll of his effigy at St. Paul's Cathedral : — To the last he prided himself on his Greek. With his Greek learning he taught; with his Greek erudition he battled ; with his Greek lore he repelled attack. When a ludicrous paragraph appeared in the newspapers that he was receiving lessons in dancing from Madame Vestris, and he was asked sarcastically if it was true, he told them they might reply : — " Why should Dr. Johnson not add to his other powers a little corporal agility? Socrates learnt to dance at an advanced age, and Cato learnt Greek at an advanced age." And when, lounging on the Scottish shore, he was hurriedly invited to em- bark, for the wind was fair and Skipper Simpson's boat ready to sail, with composure and solemnity he repeated that grand passage in Epictetus, in which we are warned that, " as man has the voyage of death before him, whatever may be his employment, he should be ready at the Master's call ; and an old man should never be far from the shore, lest he should not be able to get himself ready."** The 21 An amusing, but unedifyiug correBpondence (covering no less than 36 pages in vol. IV. of Dr. Parr's " Works ") in which Sir J. Reynolds, Sir W. Scott Malone, Burney, and Seward joined, furnishes an account of the debate waged over this question. It must be admitted that Parr pointed out the unreasonableness of the ch&pge insisted upon. 22 The editors of The Life have not identified this passage. It is evidently Johnson's (or Boswell's) recollection of Mrs. Garter's rather awkwardly worded version of the seventh chapter of the Enchiridion "As in a voyage, when the ship is at anchor, if you go on shore to get water, you may amuse yourself with picking up a shell-fish [shell] or an onion [sic I say rather a bulb, such as abound on the shores of Greece] in your way ; but your thoughts ought to be bent towards the ship and per- petually attentive, lest the captain should call ; and then you must leave all these things, that you may not be thrown into the vessel bound neck and heels, like a sheep. Thus likewise in life, if, instead of an onion or a shell-fish, such a thing as a wife or a child be granted you, there is no objection ; but if the 21 supreme moment when we are to exchange time for eternity, seemed, by the superb exhortation of the Greek philosopher, to be for once bereft of dread for Doctor Johnson. Thus, inured in life-long struggles, fortified in spirit by a robust faith, exalted in mind by the loftiest expression of Greek philosphy, Johnson was one of those few who are numbered among the immortals while still in this life : even as that other great Englishman and greatest of modern men, whom the world has mourned with you, but whom Immor- tallity now claims as one of her noblest ornaments. J. GENNADIUS. captain call, run to the ship, leave all these things, regard none of them. But if you are old, never go far from the ship ; lest, when you are called you should be unable to come in time." — Johnson had a just appreciation of the philosophy of Epiotetus which, in its loftiness and purity, is but little inferior to the teaching of our Saviour ; so much so that for many centuries the Discourses and the Enchiridion were in daily use in Greek Monasteries. It is therefore not surprising to find among Johnson.'s metrical renderings the following tetrastich, inscribed " Epictetus." Me rex deorum, tuque, due, necessitas, " Quo, lege vestra, vita me feret mea. Sequar libenter, sin reluctari veline, •/• Fram scelestus neo tameu minus sequar. i^^ J\i .^r v/ •■ - A