DR. JOHNSON"s HEROIC FORBEARANCE.
_Tuesday, December 9_--This evening at Mrs. Vesey"s, Mr. George Cambridge came, and took the chair half beside me. I told him of some new members for Dr. Johnson"s club![179]
"I think," said he, "it sounds more like some club that one reads of in the "Spectator," than like a real club in these times; for the forfeits of a whole year will not amount to those of a single night in other clubs. Does Pepys belong to it?"
"Oh no! he is quite of another party! He is head man on the side of the defenders of Lord Lyttelton. Besides, he has had enough of Dr. Johnson; for they had a grand battle upon the "Life of Lyttelton," at Streatham."
"And had they really a serious quarrel? I never imagined it had amounted to that."
"Yes, serious enough, I a.s.sure you. I never saw Dr. Johnson really in a pa.s.sion but then: and dreadful, indeed, it was to see. I wished myself away a thousand times. It was a frightful scene. He so red, poor Mr.
Pepys so pale!"
"But how did it begin? What did he say?"
"Oh, Dr. Johnson came to the point without much ceremony. He called out aloud, before a large company, at dinner, "What have you to say, sir, to me or of me? Come forth, man! I hear you object to my "Life of Lord Lyttelton. What are your objections? If you have anything to say, let"s hear it. Come forth, man, when I call you!""
"What a call, indeed! Why, then, he fairly bullied him into a quarrel!"
"Yes. And I was the more sorry, because Mr. Pepys had begged of me, before they met, not to let Lord Lyttelton be mentioned. Now I had no more power to prevent it than this macaroon cake in my hand."
"It was behaving ill to Mrs. Thrale, certainly, to quarrel in her house."
"Yes; but he never repeated it; though he wished of all things to have gone through just such another scene with Mrs. Montagu, and to refrain was an act of heroic forbearance."
"Why, I rather wonder he did not; for she was the head of the set of Lytteltonians."
"Oh, he knows that; he calls Mr. Pepys only her prime minister."
"And what does he call her?
"Queen," to be sure! "Queen of the blues." She came to Streatham one morning, and I saw he was dying to attack her. But he had made a promise to Mrs. Thrale to have no more quarrels in her house, and so he forced himself to forbear. Indeed he was very much concerned, when it was over, for what had pa.s.sed; and very candid and generous in acknowledging it.
He is too n.o.ble to adhere to wrong."
"And how did Mrs. Montagu herself behave?"
"Very stately, indeed, at first. She turned from him very stiffly, and with a most distant air, and without even courteseying to him, and with a firm intention to keep to what she had publicly declared--that she would never speak to him more! However, he went up to her himself, longing to begin! and very roughly said,--"Well, madam, what"s become of your fine new house? I hear no more of it."
"But how did she bear this?"
"Why she was obliged to answer him; and she soon grew so frightened--as everybody else does--that she was as civil as ever."
He laughed heartily at this account. But I told him Dr. Johnson was now much softened. He had acquainted me, when I saw him last, that he had written to her upon the death of Mrs. Williams, because she had allowed her something yearly, which now ceased. "And I had a very kind answer from her," said he.
""Well then, sir," cried I, "I hope peace now will be again proclaimed.""
""Why, I am now," said he, "come to that time when I wish all bitterness and animosity to be at an end. I have never done her any serious harm--nor would I; though I could give her a bite!--but she must provoke me much first. In volatile talk, indeed, I may have spoken of her not much to her mind; for in the tumult of conversation malice is apt to grow sprightly! and there, I hope, I am not yet decrepid!""
He quite laughed aloud at this characteristic speech.
I most readily a.s.sured the doctor that I had never yet seen him limp.
"SWEET BEWITCHING MRS. LOCKE."
_Friday, April 23, 1784._--The sweet and most bewitching Mrs. Locke called upon me in the evening, with her son George.[179] I let her in and did so rejoice I had not gone to Mrs. Vesey"s. But I rejoiced for only a short time; she came but to take leave, for she was going to Norbury the very next morning. I was quite heavy all the evening. She does truly interest both head and heart. I love her already. And she was so kind, so caressing, so soft; pressed me so much to fix a time for going to Norbury; said such sweet things of Mrs. Phillips; and kissed me so affectionately in quitting me, that I was quite melted by her.
What a charm has London lost for me by her departure sweet creature that she is; born and bred to dispense pleasure and delight to all who see or know her! She, Mrs. Thrale and Mrs. Delany, in their several ways all excellent, possess the joint powers of winning the affections, while they delight the intellects, to the highest summit I can even conceive of human attraction. The heart-fascination of Mrs. Thrale, indeed, few know---but those few must confess and must feel her sweetness, to them, is as captivating as her wit is brilliant to all.
MRS. THRALE"S SECOND MARRIAGE.
MRS. THRALE to f.a.n.n.y BURNEY
Mortimer-st., Cavendish-sq.
_Tuesday night, May [11], 1784._
I am come, dearest Burney. It is neither dream nor fiction, though I love you dearly, or I would not have come. Absence and distance do nothing towards wearing out real affection so you shall always find it in your true and tender H. L. T.
I am somewhat shaken bodily, but "tis the mental shocks that have made me unable to bear the corporeal ones. "Tis past ten o"clock, however, and I must lay myself down with the sweet expectation of seeing my charming friend in the morning to breakfast. I love Dr. Burney too well to fear him, and he loves me too well to say a word which should make me love him less.
_May 17._--Let me now, my Susy, acquaint you a little more connectedly than I have done of late how I have gone on. The rest of that week I devoted almost wholly to sweet Mrs. Thrale, whose society was truly the most delightful of cordials to me, however, at times, mixed with bitters the least palatable. Were I not sensible of her goodness, and full of incurable affection for her, should I not be a monster?...
I parted most reluctantly with my dear Mrs. Thrale, whom, when or how I shall see again heaven only knows! but in sorrow we parted--on my side in real affliction.
[Towards the end of July in this year, Mrs. Thrale"s second marriage took place with Mr. Piozzi, and Miss Burney went about the same time to Norbury Park, where she pa.s.sed some weeks with Mr and Mrs. Locke. The following "sketch" of a letter, and memorandum of what had recently pa.s.sed between Mrs. Piozzi and herself, is from the journal of that period.]
f.a.n.n.y BURNEY to MRS. PIOZZI
Norbury Park,
Aug. 10, 1784.
When my wondering eyes first looked over the letter I received last night, my mind instantly dictated a high-spirited vindication of the consistency, integrity, and faithfulness of the friendship thus abruptly reproached and cast away. But a sleepless night gave me leisure to recollect that you were ever as generous as precipitate, and that your own heart would do justice to mine, in the cooler judgment of future reflection. Committing myself, therefore, to that period, I determined Simply to a.s.sure you, that if my last letter hurt either you or Mr.