Lot Essay
Literature: MEAKIN, Annette M. B. Hannah More, A Biographical Study, London, 1919, pp. 145-46, 335 & 393; BOSWELL, James. Life of Johnson, Oxford, 1934, edited by Hill, vol. III, p. 88, note 1.
The notes chiefly consist of marginalia in chapters 1-10, 14-5. 17-8, 20-26, 28, and 32. The relevant passages for the most part are bracketed in ink or pencil, some with a few words of explanation.
Hannah More in a letter to her sister Elizabeth in the Spring of 1781 describes the following meeting with SAMUEL JOHNSON that took place on the Tuesday and Wednesday the 18th and 19th of April 1781: "we were a very small and very choice party at Bishop Shipley's ... Lord and Lady Spencer, Lord and Lady Althorp, Sir Joshua [Reynolds], Langton, Boswell, Gibbon, and , to the agreeable suprise, Dr Johnson, were there. Mrs Garrick and he had never met since her bereavement. I was heartily disgusted with mr. Boswell, who came up stairs after dinner, much disordered with wine, and addressed me in a manner which drew from me a sharp rebuke, for which I fancy he will not easily forget me! Johnson came to see us the next morning, and made a long visit. On Mrs. Garrick's telling him she was more at her ease with persons who had suffered the same loss as herself, he said that was a comfort she could seldom have, considering the superioity of his merit, and the cordiality of their union. He reproved me with pretended sharpness for reading Les Pensées de Pascal or any of the Port-Royal authors; alleging that, as a Protestant, I ought to abstain from books written by Catholics. I was beginning to stand my defence, when he took me with both hands, and with a tear running down his cheeks, 'Child' said he, with the most affecting earnistness, 'I am heartily glad that you read pious books, by whomsoever they may be written.'" The M. Addington to whom the book was presented in 1824 was possible Mrs A. Addington with whom Hannah More corresponded and from whom she received books on loan.
The notes chiefly consist of marginalia in chapters 1-10, 14-5. 17-8, 20-26, 28, and 32. The relevant passages for the most part are bracketed in ink or pencil, some with a few words of explanation.
Hannah More in a letter to her sister Elizabeth in the Spring of 1781 describes the following meeting with SAMUEL JOHNSON that took place on the Tuesday and Wednesday the 18th and 19th of April 1781: "we were a very small and very choice party at Bishop Shipley's ... Lord and Lady Spencer, Lord and Lady Althorp, Sir Joshua [Reynolds], Langton, Boswell, Gibbon, and , to the agreeable suprise, Dr Johnson, were there. Mrs Garrick and he had never met since her bereavement. I was heartily disgusted with mr. Boswell, who came up stairs after dinner, much disordered with wine, and addressed me in a manner which drew from me a sharp rebuke, for which I fancy he will not easily forget me! Johnson came to see us the next morning, and made a long visit. On Mrs. Garrick's telling him she was more at her ease with persons who had suffered the same loss as herself, he said that was a comfort she could seldom have, considering the superioity of his merit, and the cordiality of their union. He reproved me with pretended sharpness for reading Les Pensées de Pascal or any of the Port-Royal authors; alleging that, as a Protestant, I ought to abstain from books written by Catholics. I was beginning to stand my defence, when he took me with both hands, and with a tear running down his cheeks, 'Child' said he, with the most affecting earnistness, 'I am heartily glad that you read pious books, by whomsoever they may be written.'" The M. Addington to whom the book was presented in 1824 was possible Mrs A. Addington with whom Hannah More corresponded and from whom she received books on loan.