[1001] See ante, ii. 167, where he said much the same. Another day, however, he agreed that a landlord ought to give leases to his tenants, and not 'wish to keep them in a wretched dependance on his will. "It is a man's duty," he said, "to extend comfort and security among as many people as he can. He should not wish to have his tenants mere Ephemerae—mere beings of an hour."' Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 10, 1773.
[1002] 'Thomas Hickey is now best remembered by a characteristic portrait of his friend Tom Davies, engraved with Hickey's name to it.' P. CUNNINGHAM.
[1003] See ante, ii. 92. In the Life of Pope (Works, viii. 302),
Johnson says that 'the shafts of satire were directed in vain against
Cibber, being repelled by his impenetrable impudence.' Pope speaks of
Gibber's 'impenetrability.' Elwin's Pope, ix. 231.
[1004] He alludes perhaps to a note on the Dunciad, ii, 140, in which it is stated that 'the author has celebrated even Cibber himself (presuming him to be the author of the Careless Husband).' See post, May 15, 1776, note.
[1005] See ante, ii. 32.
[1006] Burke told Malone that 'Hume, in compiling his History, did not give himself a great deal of trouble in examining records, &c.; and that the part he most laboured at was the reign of King Charles II, for whom he had an unaccountable partiality.' Prior's Malone, p. 368.
[1007] Yet Johnson (Works, vii. 177) wrote of Otway, who was nine years old when Charles II. came to the throne, and who outlived him by only a few weeks:—'He had what was in those times the common reward of loyalty; he lived and died neglected.' Hawkins (Life, p. 51) says that he heard Johnson 'speak of Dr. Hodges who, in the height of the Great Plague of 1665, continued in London, and was almost the only one of his profession that had the courage to oppose his art to the spreading of the contagion. It was his hard fate, a short time after, to die in prison for debt in Ludgate. Johnson related this to us with the tears ready to start from his eyes; and, with great energy, said, "Such a man would not have been suffered to perish in these times."'
[1008] Johnson in 1742 said that William III. 'was arbitrary, insolent, gloomy, rapacious, and brutal; that he was at all times disposed to play the tyrant; that he had, neither in great things nor in small, the manners of a gentleman; that he was capable of gaining money by mean artifices, and that he only regarded his promise when it was his interest to keep it.' Works, vi. 6. Nearly forty years later, in his Life of Rowe (ib. vii. 408), he aimed a fine stroke at that King. 'The fashion of the time,' he wrote, 'was to accumulate upon Lewis all that can raise horrour and detestation; and whatever good was withheld from him, that it might not be thrown away, was bestowed upon King William.' Yet in the Life of Prior (ib. viii. 4) he allowed him great merit. 'His whole life had been action, and none ever denied him the resplendent qualities of steady resolution and personal courage.' See Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 24, 1773.
[1009] 'The fact of suppressing the will is indubitably true,' wrote Horace Walpole (Letters, vii. 142). 'When the news arrived of the death of George I, my father carried the account from Lord Townshend to the then Prince of Wales. The Council met as soon as possible. There Archbishop Wake, with whom one copy of the will had been deposited, advanced, and delivered the will to the King, who put it into his pocket, and went out of Council without opening it, the Archbishop not having courage or presence of mind to desire it to be read, as he ought to have done. I was once talking to the late Lady Suffolk, the former mistress, on that extraordinary event. She said, "I cannot justify the deed to the legatees; but towards his father, the late King was justifiable, for George I. had burnt two wills made in favour of George II."'
[1010] 'Charles II. by his affability and politeness made himself the idol of the nation, which he betrayed and sold.' Johnson's Works, vi. 7.