'"
Boswell's Life of Johnson was not published till 1791; but the
controversy kindled by the Tour to the Hebrides and the Anecdotes,
raged fiercely enough to fix general attention and afford ample scope
for ridicule: "The Bozzi &c. subjects," writes Hannah More in April
1786, "are not exhausted, though everybody seems heartily sick of
them. Everybody, however, conspires not to let them drop. _That_, the
Cagliostro, and the Cardinal's necklace, spoil all conversation, and
destroyed a very good evening at Mr. Pepys' last night." In one of
Walpole's letters about the same time we find:
"All conversation turns on a trio of culprits--Hastings, Fitzgerald,
and the Cardinal de Rohan.... So much for tragedy. Our comic
performers are Boswell and Dame Piozzi. The cock biographer has fixed
a direct lie on the hen, by an advertisement in which he affirms that
he communicated his manuscript to Madame Thrale, and that she made no
objection to what he says of her low opinion of Mrs. Montagu's book.
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 him; but how 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
woman will be strangely disappointed. As she must have heard that
_the whole first impression of her book was sold the first day_, no
doubt she expected on her landing, to be received like the governor
of Gibraltar, and to find the road strewed with branches of palm.
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