Colman's Prose on Several Occasions, ii. 273.
[982] 'These Odes,' writes Colman, 'were a piece of boys' play with my schoolfellow Lloyd, with whom they were written in concert.' Ib i. xi. In the Connoisseur (ante, i. 420) they had also written in concert. 'Their humour and their talents were well adapted to what they had undertaken; and Beaumont and Fletcher present what is probably the only parallel instance of literary co-operation so complete, that the portions written by the respective parties are undistinguishable.' Southey's Cowper, i. 47.
[983] Ante, i. 402.
[984] Boswell writing to Temple two days later, recalled the time 'when you and I sat up all night at Cambridge and read Gray with a noble enthusiasm; when we first used to read Mason's Elfrida, and when we talked of that elegant knot of worthies, Gray, Mason, Walpole, &c.' Letters of Boswell, p. 185.
[985] 'I have heard Mr. Johnson relate how he used to sit in some coffee-house at Oxford, and turn M——'s C-r-ct-u-s into ridicule for the diversion of himself and of chance comers-in. "The Elf—da," says he, "was too exquisitely pretty; I could make no fun out of that."' Piozzi's Anec. p. 37. I doubt whether Johnson used the word fun, which he describes in his Dictionary as 'a low cant [slang] word.'
[986] See post, March 26, 1779, and Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 1, and under Nov. 11, 1773. According to Dr. T. Campbell (Diary, p. 36), Johnson, on March 16, had said that Taxation no Tyranny did not sell.
[987] Six days later he wrote to Dr. Taylor:—'The patriots pelt me with answers. Four pamphlets, I think, already, besides newspapers and reviews, have been discharged against me. I have tried to read two of them, but did not go through them.' Notes and Queries, 6th S., v. 422.
[988] 'Mrs. Macaulay,' says Mr. Croker, who quotes Johnson's Works, vi. 258, where she is described as 'a female patriot bewailing the miseries of her friends and fellow-citizens.' See ante, i. 447.
[989] See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 24, 1773, and post, Sept. 24, 1777, for another landlord's account of Johnson.
[990] From Dryden's lines on Milton.