considered Garrick as his property, and would never suffer any one to praise or abuse him but himself 1 .' In the first of these supposed dialogues, Sir Joshua himself, by high encomiums upon Garrick, is represented as drawing down upon him John son's censure ; in the second, Mr. Gibbon, by taking the opposite side, calls forth his praise 2 .]
JOHNSON AGAINST GARRICK.
Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds.
REYNOLDS. Let me alone, I'll bring him out 3 . (Aside.} I have been thinking, Dr. Johnson, this morning, on a matter that has puzzled me very much ; it is a subject that I dare say has often passed in your thoughts, and though / cannot, I dare say you have made up your mind upon it.
JOHNSON. Tilly fally 4 ! what is all this preparation, what is all this mighty matter ?
REY. Why, it is a very weighty matter. The subject I have been thinking upon is predestination and freewill, two things I cannot reconcile together for the life of me ; in my opinion, Dr. Johnson, freewill and foreknowledge cannot be reconciled 5 .
Return of the Ark, now in the tered into such an argument. He
National Gallery. Lesli'e and Taylor's would not have 'trusted himself with
Reynolds, ii.636. To him Wordsworth Johnson.' Life, ii. 366. Miss Burney
addressed an Epistle, though Beau- records his silence when she met
mont never saw it. Wordsworth's him and Burke. Sir Joshua explained
Works, ed. 1857, iv. 308. it by saying, ' He's terribly afraid
1 ' Sir Joshua Reynolds observed, you'll snatch at him for a character
with great truth, that Johnson con- in your next book.' Memoirs of Dr.
sidered Garrick to be as it were his Burney, ii. 239. Horace Walpole,
property. He would allow no man when the first volume of the Decline
either to blame or to praise Garrick and Fall appeared, wrote (Letters,
in his presence, without contradicting vi. 311), 'I know Mr. Gibbon a little,
him.' Life, iii. 312. See also ante, never suspected the extent of his
i. 456. talents, for he is perfectly modest, or
' In my conscience I believe the I want penetration, which I know too.'
baggage loves me ; for she never 3 For instances of this see Letters,
speaks well of me herself, nor suffers ii. 439, and Life, iii. 70.
anybody else to rail at me.' Con- 4 Tillyvally. Twelfth Night, Act
greve, Old Bachelor, Act i. sc. I. ii. sc. 3.
3 'Gibbon would scarcely have en- 5 Boswell often worried Johnson
JOHNS.
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