It is remarkable that with Johnson’s scrupulous attachment to the doctrines and ceremonies of the church of England, he was sincerely attached to Baretti, whose notions on religious matters widely differed from the opinions of “the great lexicographer.” Johnson seems to have been won by his friend’s love of literature and independence of character. Baretti often refused pecuniary aid when it was greatly needed by his circumstances: his morals were pure, and his conduct, except in the unhappy instance which placed his life in jeopardy, was uniformly correct. He died with the reputation of an honest man.
There is an engraving representing Diogenes at noon-day with his lantern in one hand, and in the other a circular picture frame, which is left vacant, that a purchaser of the print may insert the portrait of the man he delights to honour as the most honest. Hence the vacancy is sometimes supplied by the celebrated John Wilkes, the prophetic Richard Brothers, the polite lord Chesterfield, Churchill, the satirist, Sam House, or Joseph Baretti, or any other. “Cornelius May,” of whose existence, however, there is reason to doubt, would scarcely find a head to grace the frame.
“Poetry.”
“The Knaverie of the Worlde, sette forthe in homelie verse, by Cornelius May,” from “The Seven Starrs of Witte,” 1647.
Ah me throughoute the worlde
Doth wickednesse abounde!
And well I wot on neither hande
Can honestie be founde.
The wisest man in Athens
Aboute the citie ran
With a lanthorne in the light of daie
To find an honeste man;
And when at night he sate him downe
To reckon on his gaines,
He onely founde—alack poore man!
His labour for his paines.
And soe thou now shalt finde
Alle men of alle degree
Striving, as if their onely trade
Were that of cheating thee.
Thy friend will bid thee welcome,
His servantes at thy calle—
The dearest friend he has on earthe
Till he has wonne thy alle;