��Anecdotes.
��Of the truth of stories which ran currently about the town concerning Dr. Johnson, it was impossible to be certain, unless one asked him himself ; and what he told, or suffered to be told before his face without contradicting, has every possible mark I think of real and genuine authenticity *. I made one day very minute enquiries about the tale of his knocking down the famous Tom Osborne with his own Dictionary in the man's own house. And how was that affair, in earnest ? do tell me, Mr. Johnson ?
- There is nothing to tell, dearest Lady, but that he was insolent
and I beat him, and that he was a blockhead and told of it, which I should never have done ; so the blows have been multi plying, and the wonder thickening for all these years, as Thomas was never a favourite with the Public. I have beat many a fel low, but the rest had the wit to hold their tongues V
��1 ' I once got from one of his friends a list, [of his works] which there was pretty good reason to sup pose was accurate, for it was written down in his presence by this friend, who enumerated each article aloud, and had some of them mentioned to him by Mr. Levett, in concert with whom it was made out ; and John son, who heard all this, did not contradict it. But when I shewed a copy of this list to him, and men tioned the evidence for its exactness, he laughed, and said, " I was willing to let them go on as they pleased, and never interfered." ' Life, iii. 321.
8 ' It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that John son one day knocked Osborne down in his shop, with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. "Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop : it was in my own chamber." ' Life, i. 154.
' The identical book with which Johnson knocked down Osborne (Biblia Graeca Septuaginta, fol. 1594,
��Frankfort; the note written by the Rev. Mills) I saw in February, 1812, at Cambridge, in the posses sion of J. Thorpe, bookseller ; whose Catalogue, since published, contains particulars authenticating this asser tion.' Nichols's Lit. Anec. viii. 446. This folio is not mentioned in the Sale Catalogue of Johnson's Library. It is scarcely likely that Osborne brought it to Johnson's chamber, as schoolboys used to provide the birch rods with which they were beaten.
In Sir Henry Irving's collection is a copy of The Shakespeare Folio (The Second Impression) in which are the following three inscription :
(1) 'Bo* at Dr. Johnson's Sale Feb. 18,1785. S. J.'
(2) 'This book at the death [in 1744] of Theobald the editor of Shakespear came into the hands of Osbourn ye bookseller of Gray's Inn who soon after presented it to the late Dr. Johnson.
S. J. Feb. 25, 1785.'
(3) [This is a printed cutting pasted in.] ' In the late sale of Dr. Johnson's books there were several
I have
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