'May Spaniards, or French, all who join with a Highland,
In disturbing the peace of this our bless'd island,
Meet tempests on sea and halters on dry land.
We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord.'
Gent. Mag. xv. 551.
He would be disgusted the following year at seeing the Duke of Cumberland praised as 'the greatest man alive' (Gent. Mag. xvi. 235), and sung in verse that would have almost disgraced Cibber (p. 36). It is remarkable that there is no mention of Johnson's Plan of a Dictionary in the Magazine. Perhaps some coolness had risen between him and Cave.
[513] Boswell proceeds to mention six.
[514] In Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in which this paraphrase is inserted, it is stated that the Latin epitaph was written by Dr. Freind. I do not think that the English version is by Johnson. I should be sorry to ascribe to him such lines as:—
'Illustrious age! how bright thy glories shone,
When Hanmer filled the chair—and Anne the throne.'
[515] In the Observations, Johnson, writing of Hanmer, says:—'Surely the weapons of criticism ought not to be blunted against an editor who can imagine that he is restoring poetry while he is amusing himself with alterations like these:—
For,—This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought;
—This is the sergeant who
Like a right good and hardy soldier fought.
Such harmless industry may surely be forgiven, if it cannot be praised; may he therefore never want a monosyllable who can use it with such wonderful dexterity.' Johnson's Works, v. 93. In his Preface to Shakespeare published eighteen years later, he describes Hanmer as 'A man, in my opinion, eminently qualified by nature for such studies.' Ib. p. 139. The editors of the Cambridge Shakespeare (i. xxxii) thus write of Hanmer:—
'A country gentleman of great ingenuity and lively fancy, but with no knowledge of older literature, no taste for research, and no ear for the rhythm of earlier English verse, amused his leisure hours by scribbling down his own and his friend's guesses in Pope's Shakespeare.'