Thrale's family[1047]; but Mrs. Thrale assures us he was indebted for
these to her husband alone, who certainly respected him sincerely. Her
words are,--
'_Veneration for his virtue, reverence for his talents_, delight _in his
conversation, and_ habitual endurance of a yoke my husband first put
upon me, _and of which he contentedly bore his share for sixteen or
seventeen years, made me go on so long with_ Mr. Johnson; _but the
perpetual confinement I will own to have been_ terrifying _in the first
years of our friendship, and_ irksome _in the last; nor could I pretend
to support _it without help, when my coadjutor was no more_[1048].'
Alas! how different is this from the declarations which I have heard
Mrs. Thrale make in his life-time, without a single murmur against any
peculiarities, or against any one circumstance which attended their
intimacy[1049].
As a sincere friend of the great man whose _Life_ I am writing, I think
it necessary to guard my readers against the mistaken notion of Dr.
Johnson's character, which this lady's _Anecdotes_ of him suggest; for
from the very nature and form of her book, 'it lends deception lighter
wings to fly'.
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