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Dedication to Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully

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By Johnson, Samuel

Samuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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Dedication to Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune,

Duke of Sully (1756)

[Editorial Introduction]

Despite a complicated controversy about the authorship of this work (involving, as often, a confusion between preface and dedication), on stylistic grounds Hazen is “quite certain that this Dedication was furnished by Johnson.” He finds support for his view in the testimony of Thomas Tyers, who knew Johnson at the time, and J. W. Croker, the editor of Boswell’s Life of Johnson in 1831.1 More convincingly, a note in Boswell’s hand on the list

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of Johnson’s “Fugitive Pieces” given him by Thomas Percy indicates that Anna Williams told Boswell that Johnson was the author of the dedication.2

Lennox’s translation of Sully’s Memoirs was published in three volumes quarto on 8 November 1755 (Hazen, p. 110) but dated 1756. The full title is Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, Prime Minister to Henry the Great. Containing the History of the Life and Reign of that Monarch, and his own Administration under Him. Translated from the French. To which is added, The Tryal of Ravaillac for the Murder of Henry the Great. Lennox translated a French version of the Memoirs by Pierre Mathurin de L’Écluse des Loges (1716–83) in which he took “the [original] work to pieces, and mould[ed] it anew” (Memoirs, I.vii). The principal figure, Henry IV of France (Henry of Navarre), was a coeval of Queen Elizabeth, born in 1553 and assassinated in 1610 by a mad Catholic extremist named François Ravaillac. Johnson reviewed Lennox’s translation in the Literary Magazine, I, no. VI (1756), 281–82.3 We print Johnson’s review below (p. 209).

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To the High, Puissant, and Most Noble Prince,

Thomas Holles-Pelham,

Duke of Newcastle, Marquis and Earl of Clare,

Viscount Haughton,

and Baron Pelham of Laughton, and Baronet,

One of His Majesty’s privy-council, Lord Lieutenant and custos rotulorum1 for the counties of Middlesex, Westminster, and Nottingham; steward, keeper, and guardian of the forest of Sherwood, and park of Folewood, in the county of Nottingham; one of the governors of the charter-house, knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, First Lord Commissioner of His Majesty’s treasury, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, LL.D. and F.R.S.2

My Lord,

Authors are often unfortunate in the choice of their patrons: and works are devoted with great solemnity, to the use of those who cannot use them, and the pleasure of those whom they cannot please.

That I have avoided this impropriety, in dedicating to your Grace these Memoirs of the Duke of Sully, a whole nation, whose affairs you have so long and so happily directed, will bear me witness; but then, I can claim no praise from my own discernment; because I only echo the voice of the people, and address myself, where that leads me.

Though my sex and manner of life make me a stranger to public affairs; I yet discover of myself, that the history I have translated, is not only interesting but important: and that the original author of it was not only well versed in all the prime operations of government, but that he saved a nation by bringing method and order into every branch of her revenues, and administering the whole with the most accurate economy.

A book, thus filled with political wisdom, could be fitly offered only to him, who lays out his whole time and attention, in labours of the same tendency; and for the service of a more free, and therefore a nobler people.

That providence may co-operate with your endeavours; and that your Grace may steer not only safely, but triumphantly, though every difficulty of the present conjuncture, are wishes so natural to all true Britons, that they cannot be thought improper even from a woman, and in this manner. She is, with the profoundest respect,

My Lord,

Your Grace’s most obedient,

and most humble servant,

Charlotte Lennox.

London, Sept. 5, 1755.

Page 209

Review of The Memoirs of the Duke of Sully (1756)

The Memoirs of the Duke de Sully, &c. Translated from the French by Mrs. Lennox.

This translation has been already so well received by the public that we can add little to its reputation by the addition of our suffrage in its favour. But as the copies are about to be multiplied by a cheaper edition;1 it is not yet too late to remark, that those memoirs contain an account of that time in which France first began to assume her superiority in Europe; that they exhibit a nation torn with factions, and plundered by tax-gatherers, rescued by a great king and an honest minister. There can be no age or people to which such a history may not be useful and pleasing, but it must more particularly invite the attention of those who like us are now labouring with the same distresses, and whose duty it is to endeavour at the same relief.

But we live in an age where even profit is recommended in vain if it be not associated with pleasure, we therefore should scarcely solicit for this book the notice of the public, unless we could declare that it has the variety of romance with the truth of history; and that the style of the translation is easy, spritely, and elegant, equally remote from the turgid and the mean.

It is difficult from a narrative well connected to detach a specimen. The following incident is selected only because it may be understood alone, and requires little room, not because it is otherwise preferable to other passages.2

The manner in which Fescamp was surprised is so remarkable, that it well deserves a particular recital here. When this fort was taken by Birona from the league, in the garrison that was turned out of it, there was a

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gentleman, called Bois-rosé, a man of sense and courage, who making an exact observation of the place,b and having concerted his scheme, contrived to get two soldiers, whom he had bound to his interest, to be received into the new garrison which was put into Fescamp,c by the royalists. That side of the fort next the sea, is a perpendicular rock,d six hundred feet high, the bottom of which, for about the heighte of twelve feet, is continually washed by the sea, except four or five days in the year, during the utmost recess of the sea, whenf for the space of three or four hours, it leaves fifteen or twenty fathom of dry sand at the foot of the rock. Bois-rosé, who found it impossible,g by any other way to surprize a garrisonh who guarded with great care a place lately taken, did not doubt of accomplishing his design, if he could enter by that side,i which was thought inaccessible; this he endeavoured by the following contrivance to perform. He had agreed upon a signal with the two soldiers,j whom he had corrupted, and one of them waited continually upon the top of the rock, where he posted himself during the whole time that it was low water. Bois-rosé taking the opportunity of a very dark night, camek with fifty resolute men, chosen from amongst the soldiers,l in two large boats, to the foot of the rock. He had provided himself with a thick cable, equal in length to the heightm of the rock, and tying knots at equal distances, run short sticks through, to serve to support them as

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they climbed. The soldier whom he had gained, having waited six months for the signal, no sooner perceived it, than he let down a cord from the top of the precipice, to which those below fastened the cable, by which means it was wound up to the top, and made fast to an opening in the battlement, with a strong crow,3 run through an iron staple,n made for that purpose. Bois-rosé giving the lead to the two serjeants whose courage he was well convinced of, ordered the fifty soldiers to mount the ladder in the same manner, one after another, with their weapons tied round their bodies, himself bringing up the rear, to take away all hope of returning; which indeed soon became impossible, for before they had ascended half-way,o the sea rising more than six feet, carried off their boats, and set their cable a floating. The necessity of withdrawing from a difficult enterprizep is not always a security against fear, when the danger appears almost inevitable. If the mind represents to itself these fifty men, suspended between heaven and earth, in the midst of darkness;q trusting their safety to a machine so insecure, that the least want of caution, the treachery of a mercenary soldier, or the slightest fear, might precipitate4 them into the abyss of the sea, or dash them against the rocks; add to this, the noise of the waves, the heightr of the rock, their wearinesss and exhausted spirits; it will not appear surprizing,t that the boldest amongst them trembled, as in effect,u he who was foremost did. This serjeant telling

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the next man,v that he could mount no higher, and that his heart failed him, Bois-rosé, to whom this discourse passed from mouth to mouth, and who perceived the truth of it,w by their advancing no higher, crept over the bodies of those that were before him, advising each to keep firm, and got up to the foremost, whose spirits he at first endeavoured to animate; but finding that gentleness would not prevail, he obliged him to mount by pricking him in the back with his poinard;x andy doubtless, if he had not obeyed him, he would have precipitated him into the sea. At length, with incredible labour and fatigue, the whole troop got to the top of the rock, a little before the break of day, and was introduced by the two soldiers into the castle, where they began to slaughter without mercy the centinels and the whole guard; sleep delivered them up an easy prey to the enemy, who killed all that resisted, and possessed themselves of the fort.

Editorial Notes

1 Hazen, pp. 110–13; Tyers, in Early Biographies, p. 89.

2 Correspondence, p. 5 and n. 26.

3 See Donald D. Eddy, Samuel Johnson, Book Reviewer in the Literary Magazine: or, Universal Review 1756–58 (1979), pp. 56–58.

1 Master of the Rolls (i.e., the titles in chancery), a judicial appointment.

2 Fellow of the Royal Society. When this dedication was written, Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, was virtually prime minister and had just signed a treaty with Russia to bolster the defenses of Britain against an attack by Frederick the Great, whose life SJ wrote in 1756 (see Yale, XIX.376–422). He resigned his ministry in 1756 but returned to power the next year and leagued together with William Pitt throughout the conduct of the Seven Years’ War (see the entry by Reed Browning in ODNB and Isles, “The Lennox Collection,” XIX.58–60n).

1 The second edition (1757) was five volumes in octavo (Bibliography, I.699–700).

2 SJ quotes from volume I, pp. 266–68. In the textual notes, we record his deviations from Lennox’s text.

a Byron Lennox

b of the place he left, Lennox

c Fescamp^ Lennox

d next the sea^ is a perpendicular rock^ Lennox

e heighth Lennox

f when, Lennox

g impossible^ Lennox

h garrison, Lennox

i side^ Lennox

j soldiers^ Lennox

k came, Lennox

l sailors, Lennox

m heighth Lennox

3 Crow: “A piece of iron used as a lever; as the Latins called a hook corvus” (Dictionary).

n with a strong crow^ run through an iron staple^ Lennox

o half way, Lennox

p enterprise Lennox

q darkness, Lennox

4 To precipitate: “To throw headlong” (Dictionary).

r heighth Lennox

s weariness, Lennox

t surprising^ Lennox

u effect^ Lennox

v man^ Lennox

w it^ Lennox

x poignard; Lennox

y and, Lennox

Transcription

Document Details

Document TitleDedication to Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully

AuthorJohnson, Samuel

Creation DateN/A

Publ. DateN/A

Alt. TitleN/A

Contrib. AuthorLennox, Charlotte

ClassificationSubject: Novel; Subject: Thomas Holles-Pelham; Subject: Woman authors; Subject: Women; Genre: Dedication

PrinterN/A

PublisherAndrew Millar and Robert & James Dodsley

Publ. PlaceLondon

VolumeSamuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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