640 T o M A N N 30 APRIL 1786

deal with Cagliostro for the secret of raising the dead,6 as he m a y

have occasion for it soon—so m u c h for tragedy. O u r comic per-
formers are Boswell and D a m e Piozzi. T h e cock biographer has
fixed a direct lie on the hen, by an advertisement,? in which he
affirms that he communicated his manuscript to M a d a m Thrale,8
and that she m a d e no objection to what he says9 of her low
opinion of Mrs Montagu's book.10 It is very possible that it might
not be her real opinion, but was uttered in compliment to Johnson,
or for fear he should spit in her face if she disagreed with h i m — b u t
h o w will she get over her not objecting to the passage remaining?
She must have known, by knowing Boswell, and by having a similar
intention herself, that his anecdotes would certainly be published—
in short, the ridiculous w o m a n will be strangely disappointed. As
she must have heard that the wholefirstimpression of her book was
sold thefirstday, no doubt she expects on her landing to be received
like the Governor of Gibraltar,11 and to find the road strewed with
branches of palm—Alack! she will discover, that though she has
ridden an ass, she will be welcomed with no hosannahs. She and
Boswell and their hero are the joke of the public. A D r Woolcot,
soi-disant Paul 12 Pindar, has published a burlesque eclogue,13 in
which Boswell and the Signora are the interlocutors, and all the
H W ' s copy, n o w W S L , is Hazen, Cat. of 8. 'My manuscript Journal . . . con-
HW's Lib., N o . 1609:49:2; it contains 21 taining this paragraph [on Mrs M o n -
articles of charges,filling405 pp. It was tagu's Essay, see n. 9 below], was read
advertised as 'this day is published' in several years ago by Mrs Thrale herself
the General Evening Post 18-20 April, (London Chronicle, loc. cit.). O n her
sub 20 April. reading Boswell's M S journal of the tour
6. Cagliostro in his 'Memoire pour le to the Hebrides, see Johnson to Boswell
Comte de Cagliostro' (ante 16 March 27 Aug. 1775, and, to Mrs Thrale 22
1786, n. 14) states that M m e de Lamotte M a y and 11 June 1775 in Boswell's Life
accused him of selling Timmortalite aux of Johnson, ed. Hill and Powell, Ox-
riches,' and that libels at Strasbourg ford, 1934-51, ii. 383 and n. 2. Mrs
called him an 'homme de 1400 [ans]' Thrale herself mentions in her Thraliana
(pp. 20, 44-5). It was rumoured also that i. 171 sub Sept.—Nov. 1777 that she had
Cagliostro raised the illustrious dead, to read Boswell's journal.
converse with them (OSSORY ii. 507, n. 5). 9. In his Tour to the Hebrides, 1st
7. In a letter 'To the Printer of the edn, p. 299 (ante 16 March 1786, n. 36).
London Chronicle,' dated 'London, April 10. H W ' s copy of An Essay on the
17' and signed James Boswell (London Writings and Genius of Shakespear, com-
Chronicle 18-20 April, lix. 373). T h e same pared with the Greek and French Dra-
letter appeared in several other news- matic Poets, 1769 (Hazen, Cat. of HW's
papers (cf. J. L. Clifford, Hester Lynch Lib., N o . 1609:23:2), is n o w W S L .
Piozzi, 2d edn, 1952, p. 272, n. 1; see also 11. Eliott.
Boswell's Journal, sub 15 April, Private 12. A mistake for Peter.
Papers of James Boswell, Vol. X V I 13. Bozzy and Piozzi (ante 28 March
[1932], ed. Geoffrey Scott and F. A. Pottle, 1786, n. 15).
pp. 184-5).