JOHNSON. "Ah, Sir, don't give way to such a fancy. At one time of my
life I had taken it into my head that it was not wholesome to study
between breakfast and dinner[31]."'
'Mr. Beauclerk one day repeated to Dr. Johnson Pope's lines,
"Let modest Foster, if he will, excel
Ten metropolitans in preaching well:" [32]
Then asked the Doctor, "Why did Pope say this?" JOHNSON. 'Sir, he hoped
it would vex somebody.'
'Dr. Goldsmith, upon occasion of Mrs. Lennox's bringing out a play[33],
said to Dr. Johnson at the CLUB, that a person had advised him to go and
hiss it, because she had attacked Shakspeare in her book called
_Shakspeare Illustrated_[34]. JOHNSON. "And did not you tell him he was
a rascal[35]?" GOLDSMITH. "No, Sir, I did not. Perhaps he might not mean
what he said." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, if he lied, it is a different thing."
Colman slily said, (but it is believed Dr. Johnson did not hear him,)
"Then the proper expression should have been,--Sir, if you don't lie,
you're a rascal."'
'His affection for Topham Beauclerk was so great, that when Beauclerk
was labouring under that severe illness which at last occasioned his
death, Johnson said, (with a voice faultering with emotion,) "Sir, I
would walk to the extent of the diameter of the earth to save
Beauclerk[36].
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