"
This version, assuming its truth, aggravates the personal rudeness of
the speech. But her marginal notes on the passage are: "Boswell
appealing to Baretti for a testimony of the truth is comical enough!
I never addressed him (Johnson) so familiarly in my life. I never did
eat any supper, and there were no larks to eat."
"Upon mentioning this story to my friend Mr. Wilkes," adds Boswell,
"he pleasantly matched it with the following sentimental anecdote. He
was invited by a young man of fashion at Paris to sup with him and a
lady who had been for some time his mistress, but with whom he was
going to part. He said to Mr. Wilkes that he really felt very much
for her, she was in such distress, and that he meant to make her a
present of 200 louis d'ors. Mr. Wilkes observed the behaviour of
Mademoiselle, who sighed indeed very piteously, and assumed every
pathetic air of grief, but ate no less than three French pigeons,
which are as large as English partridges, besides other things. Mr.
Wilkes whispered the gentleman, 'We often say in England, "Excessive
sorrow is exceeding dry," but I never heard "Excessive sorrow is
exceeding hungry." Perhaps one hundred will do. The gentleman took
the hint." Mrs. Piozzi's marginal ebullition is: "Very like my hearty
supper of larks, who never eat supper at all, nor was ever a hot dish
seen on the table after dinner at Streatham Park."
Two instances of inaccuracy, announced as particularly worthy of
notice, are supplied by "an eminent critic," understood to be Malone,
who begins by stating, "I have often been in his (Johnson's) company,
and never _once_ heard him say a severe thing to any one; and many
others can attest the same.
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