He has, I think, no power
of assuming either that dignity or elegance which some men, who have
little of either in common life, can exhibit on the stage. His voice
when strained is unpleasing, and when low is not always heard. He seems
to think too much on the audience, and turns his face too often to the
galleries[1062].
'However, I wish him well; and among other reasons, because I like his
wife[1063].
'Make haste to write to, dear Sir,
'Your most affectionate servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Oct. 18, 1760.'
[Page 359: Instances of literary fraud. AEtat 52.]
1761: AETAT. 52.--In 1761 Johnson appears to have done little. He was
still, no doubt, proceeding in his edition of _Shakespeare_; but what
advances he made in it cannot be ascertained. He certainly was at this
time not active; for in his scrupulous examination of himself on Easter
eve, he laments, in his too rigorous mode of censuring his own conduct,
that his life, since the communion of the preceding Easter, had been
'dissipated and useless[1064].' He, however, contributed this year the
Preface[*] to _Rolt's Dictionary of Trade and Commerce_, in which he
displays such a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the subject, as
might lead the reader to think that its authour had devoted all his life
to it. I asked him whether he knew much of Rolt, and of his work. 'Sir,
(said he) I never saw the man, and never read the book.
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