CHAP. vi.J INTRODUCTIONS AT TOM DAVIESJS.
iirst seen in here, and lie found its impressions always oddly 176U.
mingled with whatever respect or consideration he challenged Jit. 34.
in later life. Only -Johnson saw into that life as yet, or could
measure what the past had been to him; and few so well as
Goldsmith had reason to know the great heart which heat so
gently under those harsh manners. The friendship of
Johnson was Ms first relish of fame; he repaid it with
affection and deference of no ordinary kind; and so coni-
nionly were they seen together, now that Johnson's change of
fortune brought him more into the world, that when a puppet-
caricature of the Idler was threatened this summer by the
Hayniarket Aristophanes, the Citizen of the World was to be
a puppet too. " What is the common price of an oak stick,
" sir ? " asked Johnson, when he heard of it. " Sixpence,"
answered Davies. " Why then, sir, give me leave to send your
" servant to purchase me a shilling one. I'll have a double
" quantity; for I am told Foote means to take me off,
" as he calls it, and I am determined the fellow shall not do
" it with impunity."* The Orators came out without the
* SosweH, v. 232, 3. Johnson's offence to Foote was reported from Garrick's
dinner-table, at which, on the occasion of a Christmas party (1760) with Burke, the
Wartons, Murphy, and others, after hearing that somebody in Dublin had thought it
" worth while" to horsewhip the modern Aristophanes, he had said he was glad
"the man was rising in the world." Foote in return gave out that he would in a
short time produce the Caliban of literature on the stage. Being informed of this
design, Johnson sent word to Foote, that, the theatre being intended for the refor-
mation of vice, he would go from the boxes on the stage, and correct him before the
audience. '' Foote abandoned the design. No ill-will ensued. Johnson used to
" say that for broad-faced mirth, Foote had not his equal." See an article in the
Monthly JRei-iew (Ixxvi. 374), one of a series admirably written, I suspect by
Murphy. Since I threw out this suggestion, I have found several passages from
these reviews reproduced in Murphy's Essay on Johnson, and among them the
notice of the Christmas-day dinner at Garrick's (55). Let me not here omit what
Johnson so admirably said of Foote, in talking of him to Boswell a few years later.
BOSWBLL. "Foote has a great deal of humour." JOHNSON. "Yes, sir." BOSWELL.
"He has a singular talent of exhibiting character." JOHNSON. "Sir, it is not a
" talent, it is a vice; it is what others abstain from. It is not comedy, which
" exhibits the character of a species, as that of a miser gathered from many misers: