--"I have been now laughing
and crying by turns, for two days, over Boswell's book. That poor man
should have a _Bon Bouillon_ and be put to bed ... he is quite
light-headed, yet madmen, drunkards, and fools tell truth, they say
... and if Johnson was to me the back friend he has represented ...
let it cure me of ever making friendship more with any human being."
"_25th May_, 1791.--The death of my son, so suddenly, so horribly
produced before my eyes now suffering from the tears then shed ... so
shockingly brought forward in Boswell's two guinea book, made me very
ill this week, very ill indeed[1]; it would make the modern friends
all buy the work I fancy, did they but know how sick the _ancient_
friends had it in their power to make me, but I had more wit than
tell any of 'em. And what is the folly among all these fellows of
wishing we may know one another in the next world.... Comical enough!
when we have only to expect deserved reproaches for breach of
confidence and cruel usage. Sure, sure I hope, rancour and resentment
will at least be put off in the last moments: ... sure, surely, we
shall meet no more, except on the great day when each is to answer to
other and before other.... After _that_ I hope to keep better company
than any of them."
[Footnote 1: The death of her son is not unkindly mentioned by
Boswell. See p. 491, roy. oct. edit. But the imputations on her
veracity rest exclusively on his prejudiced testimony.]
In 1801, Mrs. Piozzi published "Retrospection; or a Review of the
Most Striking and Important Events, Characters, Situations, and their
Consequences, which the Last Eighteen Hundred Years have presented to
the View of Mankind.
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