203. She was one of the literary
ladies who sat at Richardson's feet. Wraxall (_Memoirs_, ed. 1815, i.
155) says that 'under one of the most repulsive exteriors that any woman
ever possessed she concealed very superior attainments and extensive
knowledge.' Just as Mrs. Carter was often called 'the learned Mrs.
Carter,' so Mrs. Chapone was known as 'the admirable Mrs. Chapone.'
[770] See _ante_, iii. 373.
[771] A few copies only of this tragedy have been printed, and given to
the authour's friends. BOSWELL.
[772] Dr. Johnson having been very ill when the tragedy was first sent
to him, had declined the consideration of it. BOSWELL.
[773] Johnson refers, I suppose, to a passage in Dryden which he quotes
in his _Dictionary_ under _mechanick_:--'Many a fair precept in poetry
is like a seeming demonstration in mathematicks, very specious in the
diagram, but failing in the mechanick operation.'
[774]
'I could have borne my woes; that stranger Joy
Wounds while it smiles:--The long imprison'd wretch,
Emerging from the night of his damp cell,
Shrinks from the sun's bright beams; and that which flings
Gladness o'er all, to him is agony.
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