Pepys did all
that could be done, and Johnson, who was sent for at eleven o'clock,
never left him, for while breath remained he still hoped. I ventured
in once, and saw them cutting his clothes off to bleed him, but I saw
no more."
[Footnote 1: (_Note_ by Mrs. T.). "I rejected all propositions of the
sort, and said, as he had got the money, he had the best right to
throw it away.... I should always prefer my husband, to my children:
let him do his _own_ way."]
We learn from Madame D'Arblay's Journal, that, towards the end of
March, 1781, Mr. Thrale had resolved on going abroad with his wife,
and that Johnson was to accompany them, but a subsequent entry states
that the doctors condemned the plan; and "therefore," she adds, "it
is settled that a great meeting of his friends is to take place
before he actually prepares for the journey, and they are to encircle
him in a body, and endeavour, by representations and entreaties, 'to
prevail with him to give it up; and I have little doubt myself but,
amongst us, we shall be able to succeed." This is one of the oddest
schemes ever projected by a set of learned and accomplished gentlemen
and ladies for the benefit of a hypochondriac patient. Its execution
was prevented by his death. A hurried note from Mrs. Thrale
announcing the event, beginning, "Write to me, pray for me," is
endorsed by Madame D'Arblay: "Written a few hours after the death of
Mr. Thrale, which happened by a sudden stroke of apoplexy, on the
morning of a day on which half the fashion of London had been invited
to an intended assembly at his house in Grosvenor Square.
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