'TO MR. BOSWELL.
'Mr. Johnson laments the absence of Mr. Boswell, and will come to him.'
'Harley-street[1191].
He came to me in the evening, and brought Sir Joshua Reynolds. I need scarcely say, that their conversation, while they sat by my bedside, was the most pleasing opiate to pain that could have been administered[1192].
Johnson being now better disposed to obtain information concerning Pope than he was last year[1193], sent by me to my Lord Marchmont a present of those volumes of his Lives of the Poets which were at this time published, with a request to have permission to wait on him; and his Lordship, who had called on him twice, obligingly appointed Saturday, the first of May, for receiving us.
On that morning Johnson came to me from Streatham, and after drinking chocolate, at General Paoli's, in South-Audley-street, we proceeded to Lord Marchmont's in Curzon-street. His Lordship met us at the door of his library, and with great politeness said to Johnson, 'I am not going to make an encomium upon myself, by telling you the high respect I have for you, Sir.' Johnson was exceedingly courteous; and the interview, which lasted about two hours, during which the Earl communicated his anecdotes of Pope, was as agreeable as I could have wished[1194]. When we came out, I said to Johnson, that considering his Lordship's civility, I should have been vexed if he had again failed to come. 'Sir, (said he,) I would rather have given twenty pounds than not have come.' I accompanied him to Streatham, where we dined, and returned to town in the evening.
On Monday, May 3, I dined with him at Mr. Dilly's[1195]; I pressed him this day for his opinion on the passage in Parnell, concerning which I had in vain questioned him in several letters, and at length obtained it in due form of law.
CASE for Dr. JOHNSON'S Opinion; 3rd of May, 1779.
'PARNELL, in his Hermit, has the following passage:
"To clear this doubt, to know the world by sight,
To find if books and[1196] swains report it right:
(For yet by swains alone the world he knew,
Whose feet came wand'ring o'er the nightly dew.)"