I will get you (to Johnson,) a hundred guineas for any
thing whatever that you shall write, if you put your name to it.'
Dr. Goldsmith's new play, She Stoops to Conquer, being mentioned;
JOHNSON. 'I know of no comedy for many years that has so much
exhilarated an audience, that has answered so much the great end of
comedy--making an audience merry.'
Goldsmith having said, that Garrick's compliment to the Queen, which
he introduced into the play of The Chances, which he had altered and
revised this year, was mean and gross flattery; JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I
would not WRITE, I would not give solemnly under my hand, a character
beyond what I thought really true; but a speech on the stage, let it
flatter ever so extravagantly, is formular. It has always been formular
to flatter Kings and Queens; so much so, that even in our church-service
we have "our most religious King," used indiscriminately, whoever is
King. Nay, they even flatter themselves;--"we have been graciously
pleased to grant.
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