James Boswell, Esquire
The Hooded Hawk, or The Case of Mr. Boswell. By D. B. Wyndham Lewis. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 12s. 6d.) B 0 S WELL is generally analysed under one or the other of at least four separate aspects : (a) as the author of the Tour and the Life, (b) as a component of the Johnson complex, (c) as a psychopathic personality—a schizoid, or (d) as "a thorough good fellow" with a few condonable weaknesses. Mr. Wyndham Lewis, fiercely benevolent and acrimoniously charitable, advocates a more zealously humanistic view of this peculiar fellow. Perhaps it is largely a question of method and accent ; and I still maintain, after perusal of this exceedingly bracing study, that we cannot understand our Boswell in purely categorical terms unless we choose to employ the language of mental science. In speaking of the " case " of Boswell, Mr. Wyndham Lewis, I fancy, is much closer to the truth than he himself would care to allow. Thus I have to disagree, unhappily but honestly, with Mr. Lewis, though I am very glad to observe that we are admittedly unanimous on one or two minor
points. I am sorry about. this disagreetifent, for 'greatly admire his irascible generosity, and I have read this book with pleasure, and excitement, and with delight in the supreme literary skill which Ms. Lewis reveals on every page and almost in every sentence.. It is impossible to imagine anything better than his prodigiously _ vital account of London in ¶760; a piece of animated erudition in which the pattern of detail is hardled with gusto, confidence and a -tare felicity of choice; not as a mere background and accessory, but with perturbing and riotous energy . as a spatial environment.: One of the most important features in this obviously important eSsay is the treatment of the relations between Boswell and Wilkes.
had always realised the value Of -Wilkes as a moral antibody, but I had certainly not realised adequately his full influence in die life of Boswell. Mr. Lewis portrays Wilkes in a manner that is always acute and enlivening. His comment that "Boswell was pOssibly oftener in Wilkes's company than in Johnson's "is admirably: suggestive. In reminding us that Johnson was ignorant of Boswell's% ".other life "—his life as a peculiarly squalid lecher—he is equally.: shrewd in implication. It is when Mr. Lewis is putting the case for a fiery defence of 0 Boswell that I, the humblest of opposersi: must venture to disagree. (And how odd it is that one cannot write: about this mutable creature without the danger of evoking such ant extremity and acidity of argument!) Nor is Mr. Lewis contented: with mere defence ; he develops a hot and, exhausting flank-attack ' upon the sort of person whom he regards as eminently disagreeable, the lingering Liberal or provocative don. One is willing enough: tojoin Mr. Lewis in his opposition to the priggish donnery, but one cannot follow him when he wobbles badly, as he frequently does,; in his line of defence. When he tells us for example, that there is "-no spark of malice" in Boswell, he leaves us gasping for the malice of Boswell cracks and leaps incessantly, both in gasping; Tour: and the Life. Again, when he tries to show Boswell as a drinker,i not a drunkard, he would have done well to cm out his own in-, cautious reference to "nearly forty intensive years of the bottle."-
Factual accuracy, though generally observable, breaks down very, curiously on page 168. Mr. Lewis is here speaking of Johnson's death, and he asks why Boswell was not with Johnson_on December ridi and 13th, 1784, "with old Mrs. Williams and the negro Frank." Now, the answer to this question is brutally clear. Nobody could have been present at this particular scene, for it could never have taken place. Old Mrs. Williams had died more than fifteen months previously, in September, 1783. It is very strange that anyone so affectionately devoted to the Life of Yohnson as Mr. Wyndham Lewis could have failed to remember Johnson's pathetic letter to Langton (September 29th, 1783) in which he bewails the loss of Anna Williams. He has also forgotten, I luppose, a letter to Lucy Porter (November ioth, ¶783) in which Johnson speaks of the death of this dear companion "who had been to me for thirty years in the place of a sister." On page 175 Mr. Lewis refers to " Frederick " Prince of Wales (1780) when, I venture to assume, he means George; on page ¶72 he speaks of a "psychopath-" when he is quite clearly thinking of a psychiatrist ; and I would remind Mr. Lewis (with reference to page 9) that, however remarkable he may have been in eyther respects, Boswell could have had only one pituitary.
-.Mr. Lewis fights hard for the., esseptia1 worthiness of Boswell, but he figlita a losing battle ; the evidence, into Which he so frequently injects the kindliness of his own nature, must always turn against him. It is extremely misleading to say- that Boswell " baggeet--" Itousseau and Voltaire and Sterne, and in talking of Johnsoft love" for Boswell he fails to reckon with two vital considerations —:the inflated! urbanity Of the -age and our pardonable hesitation in always believing Boswell when he is recording speeches whida are strongly in his own favour. I must also quarrel with Mr. Lewis's belittlement of Malone, whose importance in the production of the Tour and the Life was absolutely decisive. Thus, I have read this book with deep and unfailing admiration but also with
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