OHNSON.
'What, Sir, a fellow who claps a hump on his back, and a lump on his
leg, and cries "I am Richard the Third"? Nay, Sir, a ballad-singer is
a higher man, for he does two things; he repeats and he sings: there is
both recitation and musick in his performance: the player only recites.'
BOSWELL. 'My dear Sir! you may turn anything into ridicule. I allow,
that a player of farce is not entitled to respect; he does a little
thing: but he who can represent exalted characters, and touch the
noblest passions, has very respectable powers; and mankind have agreed
in admiring great talents for the stage. We must consider, too, that
a great player does what very few are capable to do: his art is a very
rare faculty. WHO can repeat Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be, or not to be,"
as Garrick does it?' JOHNSON. 'Any body may. Jemmy, there (a boy about
eight years old, who was in the room,) will do it as well in a week.'
BOSWELL. 'No, no, Sir: and as a proof of the merit of great acting,
and of the value which mankind set upon it, Garrick has got a hundred
thousand pounds.' JOHNSON. 'Is getting a hundred thousand pounds a proof
of excellence? That has been done by a scoundrel commissary.'

This was most fallacious reasoning. I was SURE, for once, that I had
the best side of the argument. I boldly maintained the just distinction
between a tragedian and a mere theatrical droll; between those who rouse
our terrour and pity, and those who only make us laugh. 'If (said I,)
Betterton and Foote were to walk into this room, you would respect
Betterton much more than Foote.' JOHNSON. 'If Betterton were to walk
into this room with Foote, Foote would soon drive him out of it. Foote,
Sir, quatenus Foote, has powers superiour to them all.'

On Monday, September 22, when at breakfast, I unguardedly said to Dr.
Johnson, 'I wish I saw you and Mrs. Macaulay together.' He grew very
angry; and, after a pause, while a cloud gathered on his brow, he burst
out, 'No, Sir; you would not see us quarrel, to make you sport. Don't
you know that it is very uncivil to PIT two people against one another?'
Then, checking himself, and wishing to be more gentle, he added, 'I
do not say you should be hanged or drowned for this; but it IS very
uncivil.' Dr. Taylor thought him in the wrong, and spoke to him
privately of it; but I afterwards acknowledged to Johnson that I was to
blame, for I candidly owned, that I meant to express a desire to see a
contest between Mrs. Ma