1828.] Mr. Field's Memoirs and Opinions of Dr. Parr. 151 



doctor's friends and acquaintance than of himself; and our conclusion 

 must necessarily be abrupt, as the Jirst volume only is as yet before the 

 public. What may be expected from the second as well as what 

 worth or reason there is,, in writing the biography of such a man as 

 Dr. Parr the short description that we have given may afford the public 

 an opportunity of judging. In the same style of extract which we have 

 already presented, we might go on from this one volume and about this 

 great man half through our Magazine. 



For instance, what shall we say of a philosopher, who could write, with 

 his own hand, the following passage about himself contained in a pub- 

 lished epitaph upon his daughter ? " Her venerable father, whose AT- 

 TAINMENTS are only exceeded by THE STRENGTH OP HIS UNDERSTANDING, 

 will long and deeply feel," &c. &c. ! And this, too, while, in another place, 

 he expresses fierce indignation at the "false and injurious intimation" of 

 Dr. Lucas, the rector of Ripple ; who, in a pamphlet published upon some 

 dispute between Parr and Bishop Hurd, accused him of " having written 

 puffs in the newspapers, about his own learning and his claims," &c. 



Again : that he should have been a dupe to Ireland's hoax of the 

 Shakspeare Papers, was no impeachment of his understanding ; because 

 there are worse things in Shakspeare (or in works attributed to Shakspeare) 

 than many, even of the mediocre passages, written by Ireland. And that 

 he should have been forward, and ready to put his name down, in testimony 

 of his belief on this subject, is not surprising : because he was a busy, self- 

 important person and naturally very anxious that he should appear to 

 take the lead, in determining that doubt or any other. But there is 

 not much candour, after this, in talking of " Ireland's" " impudent" and 

 " infamous" " forgery;" and calling the author a " detected impostor." 

 The same device used by Ireland had been attempted, and used with 

 success, and laughed at, a hundred times over. At worst, the fault was 

 venial ; and we doubt if the mere success that attended it did not go a 

 great way towards its (literary) redemption. Ireland's " impudent for- 

 gery" would never have been so very loudly railed against, if a great 

 many people, very high and mighty in their own estimation, had not 

 become open to ridicule from their having been the dupes of it. To talk 

 of the " solemn asseveration of the bold literary forgers" is unworthy 

 cant and trash. Did the believers (we put the question to all of them) 

 did they believe upon Ireland's affirmation or did they believe, because, 

 upon reading, they believed the poems to be Shakspeare's ? And this is 

 the sort of man God help us ! that called " Pitt by a Greek appella- 

 tion ;" " avoiding, in testimony of contempt, to give him his proper name!" 



The truth is and it is a truth which, if any doubt existed in the 

 individual's life, his friends have taken care to make sufficiently unques- 

 tionable since his death that Parr was a scholar, and a worthy man, and 

 a man of competent understanding ; but that, of claim to intellectual greatness 

 or superiority, he had not an iota. He was an imitator of Johnson's pre- 

 tence, with nothing at all of Johnson's genius. Like the " rivers" in 

 " Macedon," and in (t Monmouth," they both wore wigs, and were 

 both christened Samuel ; but there the resemblance ended. Johnson was 

 pedantic and ostentatious ; but the matter contained in what he said and 

 wrote will make it last for ever. Boswell's history of his life and gossip- 

 ings though parts of the detail are petty enough will be read for cen- 

 turies by every man that can appreciate power: but we put it to any 

 sane individual what there is delivered by Mr. Field worth an hour's 

 remembrance of the habits or conversations of Parr ? Through every 



