'Come, come, (said Garrick,) talk no more of that. You
are, perhaps, the worst--eh, eh!'--Goldsmith was eagerly attempting to
interrupt him, when Garrick went on, laughing ironically, 'Nay, you
will always LOOK like a gentleman; but I am talking of being well or ILL
DREST.' 'Well, let me tell you, (said Goldsmith,) when my tailor brought
home my bloom-coloured coat, he said, "Sir, I have a favour to beg of
you. When any body asks you who made your clothes, be pleased to mention
John Filby, at the Harrow, in Waterlane."' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, that was
because he knew the strange colour would attract crowds to gaze at it,
and thus they might hear of him, and see how well he could make a coat
even of so absurd a colour.'
After dinner our conversation first turned upon Pope. Johnson said, his
characters of men were admirably drawn, those of women not so well. He
repeated to us, in his forcible melodious manner, the concluding lines
of the Dunciad. While he was talking loudly in praise of those lines,
one of the company* ventured to say, 'Too fine for such a poem:--a poem
on what?' JOHNSON, (with a disdainful look,) 'Why, on DUNCES.
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