I therefore send you the poor dear Doctor's epitaph.Read it first yourself;and if you then think it right,shew it to the Club.Iam,you know,willing to be corrected.If you think any thing much amiss,keep it to yourself,till we come together.I have sent two copies,but prefer the card.The dates must be settled by Dr.
Percy.I am,Sir,your most humble servant,'May 16,1776.'
'SAM.JOHNSON.'
It was,I think,after I had left London this year,that this Epitaph gave occasion to a Remonstrance to the MONARCH OFLITERATURE,for an account of which I am indebted to Sir William Forbes,of Pitsligo.
That my readers may have the subject more fully and clearly before them,I shall first insert the Epitaph.
OLIVARII GOLDSMITH,Poetae,Physici,Historici,Qui nullum fere scribendi genus Non tetigit,Nullum quod tetiqit non ornavit:
Sive risus essent movendi,Sive lacrymae,Affectuum potens at lenis dominator:
Ingenio sublimis,vividus,versatilis,Oratione grandis,nitidus,venustus:
Hoc monumento memoriam coluit Sodalium amor,Amicorum fides,Lectorum veneratio.
Natus in Hibernia Forniae Longfordiensis,In loco cui nomen Pallas,Nov.XXIX.MDCCXXXI;Eblanae literis institutus;
Obiit Londini,April IV,MDCCLXXIV.'
Sir William Forbes writes to me thus:--
'I enclose the Round Robin.This jeu d'esprit took its rise one day at dinner at our friend Sir Joshua Reynolds's.All the company present,except myself,were friends and acquaintance of Dr.
Goldsmith.The Epitaph,written for him by Dr.Johnson,became the subject of conversation,and various emendations were suggested,which it was agreed should be submitted to the Doctor's consideration.But the question was,who should have the courage to propose them to him?At last it was hinted,that there could be no way so good as that of a Round Robin,as the sailors call it,which they make use of when they enter into a conspiracy,so as not to let it be known who puts his name first or last to the paper.
This proposition was instantly assented to;and Dr.Barnard,Dean of Derry,now Bishop of Killaloe,drew up an address to Dr.Johnson on the occasion,replete with wit and humour,but which it was feared the Doctor might think treated the subject with too much levity.Mr.Burke then proposed the address as it stands in the paper in writing,to which I had the honour to officiate as clerk.
'Sir Joshua agreed to carry it to Dr.Johnson,who received it with much good humour,and desired Sir Joshua to tell the gentlemen,that he would alter the Epitaph in any manner they pleased,as to the sense of it;but he would never consent to disgrace the walls of Westminster Abbey with an English inion.
He however,upon seeing Dr.Warton's name to the suggestion,that the Epitaph should be in English,observed to Sir Joshua,'I wonder that Joe Warton,a scholar by profession,should be such a fool.'
He said too,'I should have thought Mund Burke would have had more sense.'Mr.Langton,who was one of the company at Sir Joshua's,like a sturdy scholar,resolutely refused to sign the Round Robin.
The Epitaph is engraved upon Dr.Goldsmith's monument without any alteration.At another time,when somebody endeavoured to argue in favour of its being in English,Johnson said,'The language of the country of which a learned man was a native,is not the language fit for his epitaph,which should be in ancient and permanent language.Consider,Sir;how you should feel,were you to find at Rotterdam an epitaph upon Erasmus IN DUTCH!'--BOSWELL.
'I consider this Round Robin as a species of literary curiosity worth preserving,as it marks,in a certain degree,Dr.Johnson's character.'
Sir William Forbes's observation is very just.The anecdote now related proves,in the strongest manner,the reverence and awe with which Johnson was regarded,by some of the most eminent men of his time,in various departments,and even by such of them as lived most with him;while it also confirms what I have again and again inculcated,that he was by no means of that ferocious and irascible character which has been ignorantly imagined.
This hasty composition is also to be remarked as one of a thousand instances which evince the extraordinary promptitude of Mr.Burke;who while he is equal to the greatest things,can adorn the least;can,with equal facility,embrace the vast and complicated speculations of politicks,or the ingenious topicks of literary investigation.
'DR.JOHNSON TO MRS.BOSWELL.
'MADAM,--You must not think me uncivil in omitting to answer the letter with which you favoured me some time ago.I imagined it to have been written without Mr.Boswell's knowledge,and therefore supposed the answer to require,what I could not find,a private conveyance.
'The difference with Lord Auchinleck is now over;and since young Alexander has appeared,I hope no more difficulties will arise among you;for I sincerely wish you all happy.Do not teach the young ones to dislike me,as you dislike me yourself;but let me at least have Veronica's kindness,because she is my acquaintance.
'You will now have Mr.Boswell home;it is well that you have him;he has led a wild life.I have taken him to Lichfield,and he has followed Mr.Thrale to Bath.Pray take care of him,and tame him.
The only thing in which I have the honour to agree with you is,in loving him;and while we are so much of a mind in a matter of so much importance,our other quarrels will,I hope,produce no great bitterness.I am,Madam,your most humble servant,'May 16,1776.'
'SAM.JOHNSON.'
