to remove it; but bade them firft view that lady, whom he still held with his left hand, and fay whether any of them being poffeffed of a jewel fo rare and precious, a woman fo lovely and fair, would for any cause forego her; to which they answered, that he had great reason for his affection towards her. To this the emperor replied, that this being their opinion, he would convince them that his actions were in his own power, and that he was yet mafter of himself. And having fo faid,' fays my author, prefently with one of his hands catching the fair Greek by the hair of the head, and drawing his • falchion with the other, he, at one blow, struck off her head, to the great terror of them all; and C having fo done, said unto them, "Now by this, judge whether your emperor is able to bridle his "affections or not." * It no where appears that, in this journey to London, Mrs. Johnson was one of the company; it is rather to be conjectured, that her husband, having abandoned the hope of fucceeding in his attempt to raise a school, left to her the care of the house, and the management of the fmall part of her fortune, which, after the fitting Two tragedies founded on this ftory had already appeared, before Johnfon conceived his intention of producing a third. The former of these was written by Gilbert Swinhoe, Efq; a native of Northumberland, who lived temp. Car. I. & Car. II. ; and was published in 4to. 1658, with the title of Unhappy Fair Irene her Tragedy. See Langbaine's Account of Dramatic Poets, edit. 1691, P. 499. Of the latter, entitled, Irene or the Fair Greek, 4to. 1708, one Charles Goring, Efq; fuppofed to be the same person with one of that name who was of Magdalen college, Oxford, and in 1687 took the degree of Master of Arts, was the author. See Biographia Dramatica, art. Goring, Charles, Efq. up up and furnishing the fame, together with two years' expenditure, must be fuppofed to be left; and, that this could be no other than fmall, may be inferred from her natural temper, which it is faid was as little difpofed to parfimony as that of her husband. It is not my intention to pursue the history of Mr. Garrick's progrefs in life, both because I have not taken upon me to be his biographer, and, because the principal events of it occur in the memoirs of him, written with great candour and, I dare fay, truth, by Mr. Thomas Davies, and by him published in two volumes, octavo; but the course of this narration requires me occafionally to mention fuch particulars concerning him, as in any manner connect him with the fubject I am engaged in; and this leads me to mention a fact concerning them both, that I had from a perfon now living, who was a witnefs to it, and of whofe veracity the leaft doubt cannot be entertained. They had been but a fhort time in London before the stock of money that each fet out with, was nearly exhausted; and, though they had not, like the prodigal fon, wafted their fubftance in riotous living,' they began, like him, to be in want.' In this extremity, Garrick fuggefted the thought of obtaining credit from a tradefman, whom he had a flight knowledge of, Mr. Wilcox a bookfeller, in the Strand: to him they applied, and representing themselves to him, as they really were, two young men, friends, and travellers from the fame place, and just arrived with a view to settle here, he was fo moved with their artlefs tale, that, on their joint note, he advanced them all that their modefty would permit them to afk, (five pounds), which was, foon after, punctually repaid. It enjau It has been before related, that Johnson had engaged his pen in the fervice of Cave; as it seems, under fome fictitious name, perhaps, that common one of Smith, which he directs Cave to address him by, in his letter of 25th Nov. 1734. Being now come to town, and determined, or rather conftrained, to rely on the labour of his brain for fupport, he, to improve the correspondence he had formed, thought proper to discover himself, and in his real name to communicate to Cave a project which he had formed, and which the following letter will explain : ‹ SIR, Greenwich, next door to the Golden-Heart,' Having obferved in your papers very uncommon ' offers of encouragement to men of letters, I have chofen, being a stranger in London, to communicate to you the following defign, which, I hope, if you join in it, will be of advantage to both of < us. The history of the Council of Trent, having been lately tranflated into French, and published with large notes by Dr. Le Courayer, the reputation of that book is fo much revived in England, that, it is prefumed, a new tranflation of it from the Italian, together with Le Courayer's notes from the French, could not fail of a favourable recep⚫tion. If it be answered that the hiftory is already in English, it must be remembered that there was the fame objection against Le Courayer's undertaking, with this difadvantage, that the French had a verfion by one of their beft tranflators, whereas you cannot read three pages of the English history ' without discovering that the ftyle is capable of great / improvements, but whether those improvements are to be expected from this attempt, you must judge from the fpecimen, which, if you approve the propofal, I fhall fubmit to your examina ⚫tion. Suppose the merit of the versions equal, we may hope that the addition of the notes will turn the balance in our favour, confidering the reputation of the Annotator. ‹ Be pleased to favour me with a speedy answer, if you are not willing to engage in this fcheme; and appoint me a day to wait on you, if you are. 'I am, Sir, your humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON.' Cave's acquiefcence, in the above proposal, drew Johnson into a close intimacy with him he was much at St. John's Gate, and taught Garrick the way thither. Cave had no great relifh for mirth, but he could bear it; and having been told by Johnson, that his friend had talents for the theatre, and was come to London with a view to the profeffion of an actor, expreffed a wifh to fee him in fome comic character: Garrick readily complied; and, as Cave himself told me, with a little preparation of the room over the great arch of St. John's gate, and, with the affiftance of a few journeymen printers, who were called together for the purpose of reading the other parts, reprefented, with all the graces of comic humor, the principal character in Fielding's farce of the Mock-Doctor. Cave's Cave's temper was phlegmatic: though he assumed, as the publisher of the Magazine, the name of Sylvanus Urban, he had few of thofe qualities that conftitute the character of urbanity. Judge of his want of them by this question, which he once put to an author: • Mr., I hear you have just published a pamphlet, and am told there is a very good paragraph in it, upon the fubject of mufic: did you write that yourfelf?' His difcernment was alfo flow; and as he had already at his command fome writers of profe and verfe, who, in the language of bookfellers are called good hands,* he was the backwarder in making advances, * Mr. Moses Browne, originally a pen-cutter, was, so far as concerned the poetical part of it, the chief fupport of the Magazine, which he fed with many a nourishing morfel. This perfon being a lover of angling, wrote pifcatory eclogues; and was a candidate for the fifty pound prize mentioned in Johnson's first letter to Cave, and for other prizes which Cave engaged to pay him who should write the best poem on certain subjects; in all or moft of which competitions Mr. Browne had the good fortune to fucceed. He published thefe and other poems of his writing, in an octavo volume, Lond. 1739; and has therein given proofs of an exuberant fancy and a happy invention. Some years after he entered into holy orders. A farther account of him may be seen in the Biographia Dramatica, to a place in which work he seems to have acquired a title, by fome juvenile compofitions for the stage. Being a perfon of a religious turn, he also published in verse, a series of devout contemplations, called Sunday Thoughts. Johnfon, who often expreffed his diflike of religious poetry, and who, for the purpose of religious meditation, feemed to think one day as proper as another, read them with cold approbation, and faid, he had a great mind to write and publish Monday Thoughts. To the proofs above adduced of the coarfeness of Cave's manners, let me add the following: he had undertaken, at his own rifque, to publish a tranflation of Du Halde's Hiftory of China, in which were |