' JOHNSON. (smiling,) 'Well,
he left out FIRST. And Rich, he said, refused him IN FALSE ENGLISH:
he could shew it under his hand.' GARRICK. 'He wrote to me in violent
wrath, for having refused his play: "Sir, this is growing a very serious
and terrible affair. I am resolved to publish my play. I will appeal
to the world; and how will your judgement appear?" I answered, "Sir,
notwithstanding all the seriousness, and all the terrours, I have no
objection to your publishing your play; and as you live at a great
distance, (Devonshire, I believe,) if you will send it to me, I will
convey it to the press." I never heard more of it, ha! ha! ha!'
On Friday, April 10, I found Johnson at home in the morning. We resumed
the conversation of yesterday. He put me in mind of some of it which
had escaped my memory, and enabled me to record it more perfectly than
I otherwise could have done. He was much pleased with my paying so
great attention to his recommendation in 1763, the period when our
acquaintance began, that I should keep a journal; and I could perceive
he was secretly pleased to find so much of the fruit of his mind
preserved; and as he had been used to imagine and say that he always
laboured when he said a good thing--it delighted him, on a review, to
find that his conversation teemed with point and imagery.
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