In consequence of Johnson's request that I should ask our physicians about his case, and desire Sir Alexander Dick to send his opinion, I transmitted him a letter from that very amiable Baronet, then in his eighty-first year, with his faculties as entire as ever; and mentioned his expressions to me in the note accompanying it: 'With my most affectionate wishes for Dr. Johnson's recovery, in which his friends, his country, and all mankind have so deep a stake:' and at the same time a full opinion upon his case by Dr. Gillespie, who, like Dr. Cullen, had the advantage of having passed through the gradations of surgery and pharmacy, and by study and practice had attained to such skill, that my father settled on him two hundred pounds a year for five years, and fifty pounds a year during his life, as an honorarium to secure his particular attendance.
The opinion was conveyed in a letter to me, beginning, 'I am sincerely sorry for the bad state of health your very learned and illustrious friend, Dr. Johnson, labours under at present.'
'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
'DEAR SIR,
'Presently after I had sent away my last letter, I received your kind medical packet. I am very much obliged both to you and your physicians for your kind attention to my disease. Dr. Gillespie has sent me an excellent consilium medicum, all solid practical experimental knowledge.
I am at present, in the opinion of my physicians, (Dr. Heberden and Dr. Brocklesby,) as well as my own, going on very hopefully. I have just begun to take vinegar of squills. The powder hurt my stomach so much, that it could not be continued.
'Return Sir Alexander Dick my sincere thanks for his kind letter; and bring with you the rhubarb which he so tenderly offers me.
'I hope dear Mrs. Boswell is now quite well, and that no evil, either real or imaginary, now disturbs you.
'I am, &c.
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'London, March 2, 1784.'
'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
'DEAR SIR,
'I am too much pleased with the attention which you and your dear lady show to my welfare, not to be diligent in letting you know the progress which I make towards health. The dropsy, by GOD'S blessing, has now run almost totally away by natural evacuation; and the asthma, if not irritated by cold, gives me little trouble.
While I am writing this, I have not any sensation of debility or disease. But I do not yet venture out, having been confined to the house from the thirteenth of December, now a quarter of a year.
'When it will be fit for me to travel as far as Auchinleck, I am not able to guess; but such a letter as Mrs. Boswell's might draw any man, not wholly motionless, a great way. Pray tell the dear lady how much her civility and kindness have touched and gratified me.
'I wish you an easy and happy journey, and hope I need not tell you that you will be welcome to, dear Sir,
'Your most affectionate, humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'London, March 18, 1784.'
I wrote to him, March 28, from York, informing him that I was thus far on my way to him, but that news of the dissolution of Parliament having arrived, and had some intention of being a candidate to represent the county in Parliament.
'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
'DEAR SIR,
'You could do nothing so proper as to haste back when you found the Parliament dissolved. It may reasonably be expected that your presence will be of importance, and your activity of effect.
'Your solicitude for me gives me that pleasure which every man feels from the kindness of such a friend: and it is with delight I relieve it by telling, that Dr. Brocklesby's account is true, and that I am, by the blessing of GOD, wonderfully relieved.
'You are entering upon a transaction which requires much prudence. You must endeavour to oppose without exasperating; to practise temporary hostility, without producing enemies for life. This is, perhaps, hard to be done; yet it has been done by many, and seems most likely to be effected by opposing merely upon general principles, without descending to personal or particular censures or objections. One thing I must enjoin you, which is seldom observed in the conduct of elections;— I must entreat you to be scrupulous in the use of strong liquors.
One night's drunkenness may defeat the labours of forty days well employed. Be firm, but not clamorous; be active, but not malicious; and you may form such an interest, as may not only exalt yourself, but dignify your family.
'Let me hear, from time to time, how you are employed, and what progress you make.
'Make dear Mrs. Boswell, and all the young Boswells, the sincere compliments of, Sir, your affectionate humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'London, March 30, 1784.'
To Mr. Langton he wrote with that cordiality which was suitable to the long friendship which had subsisted between him and that gentleman.
'Since you left me, I have continued in my own opinion, and in Dr. Brocklesby's, to grow better with respect to all my formidable and dangerous distempers: though to a body battered and shaken as mine has lately been, it is to be feared that weak attacks may be sometimes mischievous.
I have, indeed, by standing carelessly at an open window, got a very troublesome cough, which it has been necessary to appease by opium, in larger quantities than I like to take, and I have not found it give way so readily as I expected; its obstinacy, however, seems at last disposed to submit to the remedy, and I know not whether I should then have a right to complain of any morbid sensation. My asthma is, I am afraid, constitutional and incurable; but it is only occasional, and unless it be excited by labour or by cold, gives me no molestation, nor does it lay very close siege to life.
'The ladies, I find, are at your house all well, except Miss Langton, who will probably soon recover her health by light suppers. Let her eat at dinner as she will, but not take a full stomach to bed. Pay my sincere respects to dear Miss Langton in Lincolnshire, let her know that I mean not to break our league of friendship, and that I have a set of Lives for her, when I have the means of sending it.'
April 8.
'I am still disturbed by my cough; but what thanks have I not to pay, when my cough is the most painful sensation that I feel? and from that I expect hardly to be released, while winter continues to gripe us with so much pertinacity. The year has now advanced eighteen days beyond the equinox, and still there is very little remission of the cold. When warm weather comes, which surely must come at last, I hope it will help both me and your young lady.
'The man so busy about addresses is neither more nor less than our own Boswell, who had come as far as York towards London, but turned back on the dissolution, and is said now to stand for some place. Whether to wish him success, his best friends hesitate.
'Let me have your prayers for the completion of my recovery: I am now better than I ever expected to have been. May GOD add to his mercies the grace that may enable me to use them according to his will. My compliments to all.'
April 13.
'I am, by GOD'S blessing, I believe, free from all morbid sensations, except a cough, which is only troublesome. But I am still weak, and can have no great hope of strength till the weather shall be softer. The summer, if it be kindly, will, I hope, enable me to support the winter. GOD, who has so wonderfully restored me, can preserve me in all seasons.
'Let me enquire in my turn after the state of your family, great and little. I hope Lady Rothes and Miss Langton are both well. That is a good basis of content.
Then how goes George on with his studies? How does Miss Mary? And how does my own Jenny? I think I owe Jenny a letter, which I will take care to pay. In the mean time tell her that I acknowledge the debt.
'Be pleased to make my compliments to the ladies. If Mrs. Langton comes to London, she will favour me with a visit, for I am not well enough to go out.'
(classix comix™ is brought to you by Bob’s Bowery Bar, conveniently located at the northwest corner of Bleecker and the Bowery: “Yes, Saint Patrick’s Day is upon us again, and already the gutters of the Bowery are flowing green and viscously with the convulsive purgations of green beer, Irish Car Bombs, and those one-too-many shots of Jameson and Bushmills. Please remember that, if you’re going to drink, you shouldn’t drive, and in fact even if you are a teetotaler you should still play it safe and either take a cab or public transportation if shank’s mare will not suffice to take you where you want to go, although I fail to see why any non-imbiber should even want to leave the house and risk life and limb in the Bacchic madness now raging in our streets and on the public roads and highways. It is on days such as this that I am glad that I live in the same building as my favorite stopping place Bob’s Bowery Bar, and, if, as has happened oh so many times in the past, at night’s end I find myself unable to mount the four stories to my railroad flat, I can always sleep it off stretched out in a booth.”
– Horace P. Sternwall, host and narrator of Bob’s Bowery Bar Presents Philip Morris Commander’s “Blanche Weinberg, Lady Psychiatrist”, broadcast live 8pm Sundays {EST} exclusively on the Dumont Television Network. This week’s play: “Where Did the Snakes Go when St. Paddy Chased them out of Ireland?”, by Hubert Philip Sheehan, starring Kitty Carlisle as “Dr. Blanche”, and with special guest star Seamas McSeamas as “Father Mike”.)
part 252
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment