Mr. Thrale's
attentions and my own now became so acceptable to him, that he often
lamented to us the horrible condition of his mind, which, he said, was
nearly distracted: and though he charged _us_ to make him odd solemn
promises of secrecy on so strange a subject, yet when we waited on him
one morning, and heard him, in the most pathetic terms, beg the prayers
of Dr. Delap [the Rector of Lewes] who had left him as we came in, I
felt excessively affected with grief, and well remember my husband
involuntarily lifted up one hand to shut his mouth, from provocation at
hearing a man so widely proclaim what he could at last persuade no one
to believe; and what, if true, would have been so unfit to reveal. Mr.
Thrale went away soon after, leaving me with him, and bidding me prevail
on him to quit his close habitation in the court, and come with us to
Streatham, where I undertook the care of his health, and had the honour
and happiness of contributing to its restoration.'
It is not possible to reconcile the contradiction in dates between
Johnson and Mrs. Piozzi, nor is it easy to fix the time of this illness.
That before February, 1766, he had had an illness so serious as to lead
him altogether to abstain from wine is beyond a doubt. Boswell, on his
return to England in that month, heard it from his own lips (_post_, ii.
8). That this illness must have attacked him after March 1, 1765, when
he visited Cambridge, is also clear; for at that time he was still
drinking wine (_ante_, Appendix C).
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