Blair Worden - A Book of Friendship

BLAIR WORDEN - A BOOK OF FRIENDSHIP

Even when recalling Johnson’s celebrated evocation of Taylor’s conversation, it is important to note the religious resonance, alluding to Ecclesiasticus 38.25, which he resolutely gave it: ‘As it is said in the Apocrypha, “his talk is of bullocks”.’ This immediately preceded his strongest criticism of Taylor: ‘I do not suppose that he is very fond of my company. His habits are by no means sufficiently clerical; this he knows that I see; and no man likes to live under the eye of perpetual disapprobation.’ 29 The evidence is to the contrary; Taylor much enjoyed Johnson’s company and incisively identified his qualities: ‘He is a man of a very clear head, great power of words, and a very gay imagination; but there is no disputing with him. He will not hear you, and having a louder voice than you, must roar you down.’ 30 Boswell had Taylor say what he had not dared openly to declare himself. Taylor’s honesty mattered to Johnson, and it was with him that he earnestly prayed after Tetty’s death, and it was to him that he often turned, in many a letter composed in moments of torment, and not to those members of The Club to whom Johnsonians are understandably devoted. 31 Lichfield Grammar School educated many clerical dignitaries when the friends attended it, including the Miltonist Thomas Newton, bishop of Bristol, but it was Taylor who read from the Book of Common Prayer at Johnson’s funeral at Westminster Abbey. 32 The historian’s preoccupation with politics, high and low, was not shared by Johnson. Even in December 1777, the infectiously insular inclination to pessimism returning as the Americans fought for independence, Hester Thrale Piozzi reported his ‘Contempt for small Matters’, ‘Politics not excepted’: ‘so that now the popular Clamour runs so high about our Disgraces in America, our Debt at home, our Terrors of a Bankruptcy, & Fears of a French War; what signifies all this Canting says the Doctor? the World goes on just as it did; who eats the less? or who sleeps the worse? or where is all this Consternation you talk of – but in the News papers. Nobody is thinking or feeling about the matter, otherwise than ‘tis somewhat to talk about.’ 33

29 Boswell, Life of Johnson , p. 861. 30 Boswell, Life of Johnson , p. 836. 31 Thrale Piozzi, Anecdotes , p. 114; Boswell, Life of Johnson , p. 169. 32 Reade, Johnsonian Gleanings , iii. 125-33, x. 49. 33 Thraliana , I. 192.

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