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fit while pronouncing fentence of death. Confider a clals of men whose business it is to diftribute death-foldiers, who die scattering bullets.-Nobody thinks they die ill on that account."

Talking of Biography, he faid, he did not think that the life of any literary man in England had been well written. Befide the common incidents of life, it fhould tell us his ftudies, his mode of liv ing, the means by which he attained to excellence, and his opinion of his own works. He told us, he had fent Derrick to Dryden's relations, to gather materials for his Life; and he believed Derrick had got all that he himself should have got; but it was nothing. He added, he had a kindness for Der rick, and was forry he was dead.

His notion as to the poems published by Mr. M'Pherson, as the works of Offian, was not fhaken here. Mr. M'Queen always evaded the point of authenticity, faying only that Mr. McPherfon's pieces fell far fhort of those he knew in Erfe, which were faid to be Offian's.-Johnfon. "I hope they do. I am not difputing that you may have poetry of great merit; but that M'Pherson's is not a tranflation from ancient poetry. You do not believe it. I fay before you, you do not believe it, though you are very willing that the world fhould believe it."Mr. M'Queen made no answer to this,-Dr. Johnfon proceeded "I look upon M'Pherfon's Fingal to be as grofs an impofition as ever the world was troubled with. Had it been really an ancient work, a true fpecimen how men thought at that time, it would have been a curiofity of the first rate. As a modern production, it is nothing."-He faid, he could never get the meaning of an Erfe fong ex

plained

plained to him. They told him, the chorus was generally unmeaning. "I take it, (faid he,) Erfe fongs are like a fong which I remember: it was composed in Queen Elizabeth's time, on the Earl of Effex; and the burthen was

"Radaratoo, radarate, radara tadara tandore."

"But furely, faid Mr. M'Queen, there were words to it, which had meaning.-Johnson. "Why, yes, fir; I recollect a ftanza, and you fhall have it:

"O! then befpoke the prentices all,

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Living in London, both proper and tall,

"For Effex's fake they would fight all.

"Radaratoo, radarate, radara, tadara, tandore *.”

When Mr. M'Queen began again to expatiate on the beauty of Offian's poetry, Dr. Johnson entered into no further controverfy, but, with a pleafant fmile, only cried, "Ay, ay; Radaratoo radarate."

Thursday, 23d September.

I took Fingal down to the parlour in the morn ing, and tried a teft proposed by Mr. Roderick M'Leod, fon to Ulinifh. Mr. M'Queen had faid he had fome of the poem in the original. I defired

*This droll quotation, I have finçe found, was from a fong in honour of the Earl of Effex, called "Queen Elizabeth's Champion,” which is preferved in a collection of Old Ballads, in three volumes, published in London in different years, between 1720 and 1730. The full verfe is as follows:

"Oh! then bespoke the prentices all,

"Living in London, both proper and tall,
In a kind letter fent straight to the Queen,

"For Effex's fake they would fight all.

"Raderer too, tandaro te,
"Raderer, tandorer, tan do re."
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him to mention any paffage in the printed book, of which he could repeat the original. He pointed out one in page 50 of the quarto edition, and read the Erfe, while Mr. Roderick M'Leod and I looked on the English; and Mr. M'Leod faid, that it was pretty like what Mr. M'Queen had recited. But when Mr. M'Queen read a defcription of Cuchullin's fword in Erfe, together with a tranflation of it in English verse, by Sir James Foulis, Mr. M'Leod faid, that was much more like than Mr. McPherson's tranflation of the former paffage. Mr. M'Queen then repeated in Erfe a description of one of the horfes in Cuchillin's car. Mr. M'Leod faid, Mr. McPherson's English was nothing like it.

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When Dr. Johnson came down, I told him that I had now obtained fome evidence concerning Fingal; for that Mr. M'Queen had repeated a passage in the original Erfe, which Mr. M'Pherson's tranflation was pretty like; and reminded him that he himself had once faid, he did not require Mr. McPherson's Offian to be more like the original than Pope's Homer.Johnson. Well, fir, this is just what I always maintained. He has found names, and stories, and phrases, nay paffages in old fongs, and with them has blended his own compofitions, and so made what he gives to the world as the tranflation of an ancient poem."-If this was the case, I obferved, it was wrong to publish it as a poem in fix books. Johnson. "Yes, fir; and to afcribe it to a time too when the Highlanders knew nothing of books, and nothing of fix;-or perhaps were got the length of counting fix. We have been told, by Condamine, of a nation that could count no more than four. This fhould be told to Monboddo; it

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would help him. There is as much charity in helping a man down-hill, as in helping him up-hill.".Bofwell. "I don't think there is as much charity." -Johnson. "Yes, fir, if his tendency be downwards. Till he is at the bottom, he flounders; get him once there, and he is quiet. Swift tells, that Stella had a trick, which the learned from Addison, of encouraging a man in abfurdity, inftead of endeavouring to extricate him.".

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Mr. M'Queen's anfwers to the inquiries concerning Offian were fo unfatisfactory, that I could not help obferving, that, were he examined in at court of juftice, he would find himself under a neceffity of being more explicit.-Johnfon. "Sir, he has told Blair a little too much, which is published; and he sticks to it. He is fo much at the head of things here, that he has never been accustomed to be closely examined; and fo he goes on quite fmoothly."-Bofwell. "He has never had any body to work him."-Johnson. "No, fir; and a man is feldom difpofed to work himself; though he ought to work himself, to be sure.”—Mr. M‘Queen made no reply *.

Having talked of the ftrictnefs with which witneffes are examined in courts of juftice, Dr. Johnfon told us, that Garrick, though accustomed to face multitudes, when produced as a witnefs in Westminster-hall, was fo difconcerted by a new mode of publick appearance, that he could not understand what was afked. It was a cause where an actor claimed a free benefit; that is to say, a benefit

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* I think it but justice to fay, that I believe Dr. Johnfon meant to afcribe Mr. M'Queen's conduct to inaccuracy and enthusiasm, and did not mean any fevere imputation against him.

benefit without paying the expence of the houfei but the meaning of the term was difputed. Garrick was asked, "Sir, have you a free benefit?”— "Yes."—"Upon what terms have you it?”. "Upon the terms of a free benefit."-He was difmiffed as one from whom no information could be obtained. Dr. Johnson is often too hard on our friend Mr. Garrick. When I asked him, why he did not mention him in the Preface to his Shakspeare, he faid, "Garrick has been liberally paid for any thing he has done for Shakspeare. If I fhould praise him, I should much more praise the nation who paid him. He has not made Shakspeare better known*; he cannot illuftrate Shakspeare: So I have reasons enough against mentioning him, were reasons neceffary. There fhould be reafons for it."I fpoke of Mrs. Montague's very high praifes of Garrick.Johnson. "Sir, it is fit fhe fhould fay fo much, and I fhould fay nothing. Reynolds is fond of her book, and I wonder at it; for neither

* It has been triumphantly asked, "Had not the plays of Shakfpeare lain dormant for many years before the appearance of Mr. Garrick? Did he not exhibit the most excellent of them frequently for thirty years together, and render them extremely popular by his own inimitable performance?" He undoubtedly did. But Dr. Johnfon's affertion has been misunderstood. Knowing as well as the objectors what has been just stated, he must neceffarily have meant, that "Mr. Garrick did not as a critick make Shakspeare better · known; he did not illuftrate any one passage in any of his plays by acuteness of difquifition, or fagacity of conjecture:" and what had been done with any degree of excellence in that way was the proper and immediate fubject of his preface. I may add in fupport of this explanation the following anecdote, related to me by one of the ableft commentators on Shakspeare, who knew much of Dr. Johnfon: "Now I have quitted the theatre, cries Garrick, I will fit down and read Shakspeare." "Tis time you should, exclaimed Johnson, for I much doubt if you ever examined one of his plays from the first, icene to the last."

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