But they
have kept clamouring about his avarice, which has rescued him from much
obloquy and envy.'
Talking of the great difficulty of obtaining authentick information for
biography, Johnson told us, 'When I was a young fellow I wanted to write
the Life of Dryden, and in order to get materials, I applied to the only
two persons then alive who had seen him; these were old Swinney, and
old Cibber. Swinney's information was no more than this, "That at Will's
coffee-house Dryden had a particular chair for himself, which was set
by the fire in winter, and was then called his winter-chair; and that
it was carried out for him to the balcony in summer, and was then called
his summer-chair." Cibber could tell no more but "That he remembered him
a decent old man, arbiter of critical disputes at Will's." You are
to consider that Cibber was then at a great distance from Dryden, had
perhaps one leg only in the room, and durst not draw in the other.'
BOSWELL. 'Yet Cibber was a man of observation?' JOHNSON.
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