PAGE 563. In a volume entitled, "Sententiæ Phil. Melancthonis, Martini Buceri, Casp. Hedionis, et aliorum in Germaniâ Theologorum de pace Ecclesiæ; ad virum nobilissimum Gulielmum Bellaium Langæum, &c. 1534." PAGE 564. On a tablet of white marble in Worcester Cathedral. At Norwich. PAGE 565. PAGE 566. DR. JOHNSON'S MONUMENT, IN ST. PAUL'S. DEAR PARR, Maddox Street, January 15th, 1790. Should you like to undertake an Edition of Dr. Johnson's Works, with his Life, and a Critique on his Writings? The first Edition of them is nearly sold, and Mr. Cadell would be glad to have them edited by a scholar, and an admirer of poor Johnson. Let me know as soon as possible what you think of my proposal. I wish, too, you would turn your thoughts upon an Epitaph for Johnson's intended Monument. DEAR PARR, Yours, W. SEWARD. May 25, 1791. You say nothing about Johnson's Epitaph. Sir Joshua Reynolds desires me to iterate his request to you to write it. Boswell and myself add our solicitations. Why will you not do it? Compliments to Mrs. Parr. Yours very truly, W. SEWARD. DEAR SIR, Dr. Parr, to Sir Joshua Reynolds. This is a strictly confidential letter, and I entreat you to communicate the contents of it to no man living, except Mr. Windham; in the soundness of whose judgment, and the delicacy of whose honour I can implicitly and entirely confide. Seward, enforcing his own request by the names of yourself and Mr. Boswell, has urged me to write Johnson's Epitaph. Fairly and fully I have stated to him the difficulty of the task; and because it is difficult I have prudently, and I hope politely, declined it. Believe me, however, when I tell you that I am not without a most awful and most painful sense of the situation in which I stand. To the memory of Johnson I, as a scholar and as a man, owe every thing; and to the wishes of Sir Joshua Reynolds there is scarcely anything which I can with propriety refuse. Permit me, then, to lay before you the reasons which dissuade, and even deter me from undertaking to do at all, what I despair of doing well. Johnson was a great writer, an accurate scholar, and a good man. Upon his correct and profound knowledge of the Latin language, I have always spoken with unusual zeal and unusual confidence, in opposition to the cavils of Monboddo, and to the insinuations of Joseph Warton. Whatever may have been the success of his efforts in Latin epitaphs, he had most just notions of the art itself; and my opinion is, that beyond all other men in the world, he has a right to such an inscription as perfectly corresponds with his ideas of the art, and his skill in Latinity. Now the question is, from whom such an inscription is to be obtained? In regard to myself, I distrust my own abilities to perform what is excellent, in proportion as I understand in what excellence consists. Already have I told Seward of my objections to the lapidary style; and yet this, unfortunately, is the style in which almost all modern epitaphs are composed. Novelty itself, therefore, will wear the appearance of singularity, and singularity will be imputed to pedantry, or to ignorance. What is simple, may be generally unintelligible and unpleasing; and what is not simple, will in my judgment be grossly improper. Besides, the peculiarity and the amplitude of Johnson's character cannot, I fear, be luminously described in that diction which I should think myself authorised to employ. Even the most marked and splendid phraseology which usually appears upon epitaphs, would be offensive to my taste, and, among real scholars, would be degrading to my reputation. Terence, Cæsar, Livy, Tacitus, and even Cicero, whose writings are the common storehouse of modern Latinity, are according to my apprehensions, merely a plebs superúm upon such an occasion. Simple must be the form of the whole epitaph, simple must be every phrase. But that which is simple will appear neither striking nor proper to the numerous class of readers, especially where every reader will think himself a critic. The inscription itself may be written according to the best Latin models; but the man upon whom it is written is an English writer, and every enlightened English reader will therefore expect to find something which he has found before, in the trite and popular language of modern epitaphs. Yet they cannot find it, if the sentiments, or if the words, or if the construction be suited to that charming simplicity, which alone I see in the epitaphs of antiquity, and which alone I can persuade myself to adopt upon a modern subject. If Latin is to be the language, the whole spirit and the whole phraseology ought to be such as a Latin writer would use. To a man of your most elegant taste and most deep judgment, this statement of my opinions will, I am sure, not appear unimportant; and such too is your candour, that you will readily acquit me of all affectation in explaining what ought to be attempted, and of all hypocrisy in confessing my inability to attempt it successfully. However, if your general sentiments upon the business coincide with my own, I will hazard the attempt. At the same time, I beseech you not to say one word of my conditional compliance. At present I am busy in a different way; but in the course of next month I will think upon the subject, and throw myself into a right train of reading. If I should, in any moderate degree, satisfy myself, I will send you what occurs to me; and if other-wise, I shall confess to you the plain truth. In the mean time, I desire you to inform me of the very day upon which Johnson was born, and how old he was when he died. You will also be so good as to inform me, in a general way, by whom the money was subscribed for his monument; because all these circumstances may influence my mind when I write his epitaph, and I shall not even begin to write it till I know them. I hope that you will, under a strict charge of secrecy, lay the contents of this letter before Mr. Windham, and ask his opinion about them. Should you and he approve of what I may hereafter send, I take it for granted that you will both of you employ your high authority in explaining the principles upon which the epitaph may be written. On the other hand, should you disapprove of it, I conjure you to deal openly with me. In the world I shall not suffer, because the world has no right to know of my miscarriage; neither can I suffer in your estimation, or in Mr. Windham's, because with this proof of my willingness to do what is right, you will connect the remembrance of the diffidence I feel in my own capacity for doing it. I have the honour to be, dear Sir, with the greatest respect your faithful and obedient servant, S. PARR. DEAR SIR, Sir Joshua Reynolds, to Dr. Parr. London, May 31st, 1791. I felt myself much flattered in receiving a letter from Dr. Parr, and still more by its being a long one, and more still by the confidence which you have been pleased to repose in me: I may add, likewise, that a man is most successfully flattered by being supposed to possess virtues to which he has the least pretensions. My critical skill, alas! I am afraid is entirely confined to my own profession. It would be in me the highest degree of impertinence to speak of your superior qualifications for this business as from my own judgment: it is my learned friends who have universally pointed you out as the only man qualified in all points for this task. That it is an arduous task I am well aware, and that you are alarmed at the difficulty is a presumption in favour of what may be expected from your head. A blind horse starts at no precipice. I have heard you speak of Dr. Johnson, and am therefore confident that you have nothing to seek in regard to sentiment; and in regard to your ability of expressing those sentiments in Latin, nobody has any doubt. You have, therefore, nothing to do but "skrew your courage to the sticking place, and we'll not fail." Since I have stumbled by accident on this passage in Macbeth, I cannot quit it without observing that this metaphor is taken from a wheel engine, which, when wound up, receives a check that prevents it from running back. The only check that I can imagine to prevent you from retreating from what I wish to consider as a private half-promise, would be its being publicly known that you had undertaken it. And then, as Dr. Johnson used to say, "what must be done, will be done." I do not at all wonder at your being terrified at the difficulty: I am inclined to think that it is the most difficult of all compositions. Perhaps it is impossible to write an epitaph that shall be universally approved; or that shall not be open to some objection on one side or the other: even men of the best and most refined taste, are often unreasonable in their demands, and require (as I have seen connoisseurs do) an union of excellencies incompatible with each other. The simplicity which you intend to adopt, and which is perfectly congenial to my own taste, will be criticised that it is not the lapidary style, that it wants dignity and stateliness, and so vice versa. Though I have great abhorrence of pertness or quaintness, either in the style or sentiment, yet perhaps an epitaph will admit of something of the epigrammatic turn. I remember once having made this observation to Edmund Burke, that it would be no bad definition of one sort of epitaphs, to call them grave epigrams. He repeated the words "grave epigrams," and gave me the credit of a pun, which I never intended. I have no doubt but that you are surprised to receive a letter in this form. The truth is, this was intended only as a rough draft, but the weakness of my eyes must prove my excuse in not writing it over fair. I shall enclose, if it will not make too large a packet for the post, the list of subscribers. Dr. Johnson, born Sept. 18, 1709, died Dec. 13, 1784. I am, with the greatest respect, Your most humble and most obedient servant, JOSHUA REYNOLDS. |