268 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
it to him. No, he said, she had not, and, after seesawing a few minutes, express'd some surprise that the defect should have escaped his observation.
Sometime after he told the Lady that these lines were inserted in the last edition of his Dictionary, under the word sport. But I had reason to believe that he mistrusted they were not a literal copy of the original J , as about this time I well remember he express d great solicitude, and made much enquiry among the Booksellers, to procure the printed poem ; whether he succeeded or not I never heard.
v Of Goldsmith's Traveller he used to s'peak in terms of the highest commendation 2 . A lady 3 I remember, who had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Johnson read it from end to end, before it was publish'd just as it came out from the press, to testify her admiration of it, exclaim'd, ' I never more shall think Dr. Goldsmith ugly.' In having thought so, however, she was by no means singular ; an instance of which I am rather inclined to mention, because it involves a remarkable one of Dr. Johnson's ready wit ; for this lady, one evening, being in a large Party, was call'd upon after supper for her Toast, and seeming embar rass' d, she was desired to give the uglest \sic\ man she knew ; and she immediately named Dr. Goldsmith. On which a lady on the other side of the Table rose up and reach' d across to shake hands with her, expressing some desire of being better acquainted with her, it being the first time they had met ; on which Dr. Johnson said, ' Thus the Ancients, on the commence- J ment of their Friendships, used to sacrifice a Beast betwixt them.'
same year, 1745. I have not dis- Dictionary Johnson gives it: 'Some covered any variations in the text, grave,' &c. He quoted it to Miss No second edition is known of in Reynolds : ' Some write.' Ireland. If Hawkins's statement is 2 * He said of Goldsmith's Travel- true, the poem, as corrected by ler, " There has not been so fine Johnson, has never been printed, a poem since Pope's time."' Life, In that case the corrected copy may ii. 5. See also ib. iii. 252. In the in still be in existence. It seems, how- terval had been published Thomson's ever, likely that Hawkins was mis- Castle of Indolence, his own Vanity taken. of Human Wishes, and Gray's Elegy. 1 The first of these lines runs in 3 Mrs. Cholmondely. Miss REY- the printed poem (p. 73) : * Men NOLDS. For this lady see Life, iii. grave their wrongs,' &c. In the 318, and ante, i. 451.
Sir
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