ow different does this story appear, when accompanied with all
those circumstances which really belong to it, but which Mrs. Thrale
either did not know, or has suppressed!"

How do we know that these circumstances really belong to it? what
essential difference do they make? and how do they prove Mrs.
Thrale's inaccuracy, who expressly states the nature of the probable,
though certainly most inadequate, provocation.

The other instance is a story which she tells on Mr. Thrale's
authority, of an argument between Johnson and a gentleman, which the
master of the house, a nobleman, tried to cut short by saying loud
enough for the doctor to hear, "Our friend has no meaning in all
this, except just to relate at the Club to-morrow how he teased
Johnson at dinner to-day; this is all to do himself honour." "No,
upon my word," replied the other, "I see no honour in it, whatever
you may do." "Well, Sir," returned Mr. Johnson sternly, "if you do
not see the honour, I am sure I feel the disgrace." Malone, on the
authority of a nameless friend, asserts that it was not at the house
of a nobleman, that the gentleman's remark was uttered in a low tone,
and that Johnson made no retort at all. As Mrs. Piozzi could hardly
have invented the story, the sole question is, whether Mr. Thrale or
Malone's friend was right. She has written in the margin: "It was the
house of Thomas Fitzmaurice, son to Lord Shelburne, and Pottinger the
hero."[1]

"Mrs. Piozzi," says Boswell, "has given a similar misrepresentation
of Johnson's treatment of Garrick in this particular (as to the
Club), as if he had used these contemptuous expressions: 'If Garrick
does apply, I'll blackball him. Surely one ought to sit in a society
like ours--

"'Unelbow'd by a gamester, pimp, or player.'"

The lady retorts, "He did say so, and Mr. Thrale stood astonished."
Johnson was constantly depreciating the profession of the stage.[2]

[Footnote 1: "Being in company with Count Z----, at Lord ----'s
table, the Count thinking the Doctor too dogmatical, observed, he did
not at all think himself honoured by the conversation.' And what is
to become of me, my lord, who feel myself actually
disgraced?"--_Johnsoniana_, p. 143, first edition.]

[Footnote 2: "_Boswell_. There, Sir, you are always heretical, you
never will allow merit to a player. _Johnson_. Merit, Sir, what
merit? Do you respect a rope-dancer or a
ballad-singer?"--_Boswell's Life of Johnson_, p. 556.]

Whilst f