' CROKER. It. drew
tears from Johnson himself. 'When,' says Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 50),
'he read his own satire, in which the life of a scholar is painted, he
burst into a passion of tears. The family and Mr. Scott only were
present, who, in a jocose way, clapped him on the back, and
said:--"What's all this, my dear Sir? Why you, and I, and Hercules, you
know, were all troubled with melancholy." He was a very large man, and
made out the triumvirate with Johnson and Hercules comically enough. The
Doctor was so delighted at his odd sally, that he suddenly embraced him,
and the subject was immediately changed.'
[163] In Disraeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, iv. 180, is
given 'a memorandum of Dr. Johnson's of hints for the _Life of Pope_.'
[164] _Works_, viii. 345.
[165] 'Of the last editor [Warburton] it is more difficult to speak.
Respect is due to high place, tenderness to living reputation, and
veneration to genius and learning; but he cannot be justly offended at
that liberty of which he has himself so frequently given an example, nor
very solicitous what is thought of notes which he ought never to have
considered as part of his serious employments.
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