[590] Given by a lady at Edinburgh. BOSWELL.
[591] There had been masquerades in Scotland; but not for a very long time. BOSWELL. 'Johnson,' as Mr. Croker observes, 'had no doubt seen an account of the masquerade in the Gent. Mag. for January,' p. 43. It is stated there that 'it was the first masquerade ever seen in Scotland.' Boswell appeared as a dumb Conjurer.
[592] Mrs. Thrale recorded in 1776, after her quarrel with Baretti:—'I had occasion to talk of him with Tom Davies, who spoke with horror of his ferocious temper; "and yet," says I, "there is great sensibility about Baretti. I have seen tears often stand in his eyes." "Indeed," replies Davies, "I should like to have seen that sight vastly, when—even butchers weep."' Hayward's Piozzi, ii. 340. Davies said of Goldsmith:—'He least of all mankind approved Baretti's conversation; he considered him as an insolent, overbearing foreigner.' Davies, in the same passage, speaks of Baretti as 'this unhappy Italian.' Davies's Garrick, ii. 168. As this was published in Baretti's life-time, the man could scarcely have been so ferocious as he was described.
[593] 'There were but a few days left before the comedy was to be acted, and no name had been found for it. "We are all in labour," says Johnson, whose labour of kindness had been untiring throughout, "for a name to Goldy's play." [See Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 14, 1773.] What now stands as the second title, The Mistakes of a Night, was originally the only one; but it was thought undignified for a comedy. The Old House a New Inn was suggested in place of it, but dismissed as awkward. Sir Joshua offered a much better name to Goldsmith, saying, "You ought to call it The Belle's Stratagem, and if you do not I will damn it." When Goldsmith, in whose ear perhaps a line of Dryden's lingered, hit upon She Stoops to Conquer.' Forster's Goldsmith, ii. 337, and Northcote's Reynolds, i. 285. Mr. Forster quotes the line of Dryden as
'But kneels to conquer, and but stoops to rise.'
In Lord Chesterfield's Letters, iii. 131, the line is given,
'But stoops to conquer, and but kneels to rise.'
[594] This gentleman, who now resides in America in a publick character of considerable dignity, desired that his name might not be transcribed at full length. BOSWELL.
[595] Now Doctor White, and Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania. During his first visit to England in 1771, as a candidate for holy orders, he was several times in company with Dr. Johnson, who expressed a wish to see the edition of his Rasselas, which Dr. White told him had been printed in America. Dr. White, on his return, immediately sent him a copy. BOSWELL.
[596] Horace. Odes, iii. I. 34.