“May, 1791.—­Mr. Boswell’s book is coming out, and the wits expect me to tremble:  what will the fellow say? ... that has not been said already.”

No date, but previous to 25th May, 1791.—­“I have been now laughing and crying by turns, for two days, over Boswell’s book.  That poor man should have a Bon Bouillon and be put to bed ... he is quite light-headed, yet madmen, drunkards, and fools tell truth, they say ... and if Johnson was to me the back friend he has represented ... let it cure me of ever making friendship more with any human being.”

“25th May, 1791.—­The death of my son, so suddenly, so horribly produced before my eyes now suffering from the tears then shed ... so shockingly brought forward in Boswell’s two guinea book, made me very ill this week, very ill indeed[1]; it would make the modern friends all buy the work I fancy, did they but know how sick the ancient friends had it in their power to make me, but I had more wit than tell any of ’em.  And what is the folly among all these fellows of wishing we may know one another in the next world....  Comical enough! when we have only to expect deserved reproaches for breach of confidence and cruel usage.  Sure, sure I hope, rancour and resentment will at least be put off in the last moments:  ... sure, surely, we shall meet no more, except on the great day when each is to answer to other and before other....  After that I hope to keep better company than any of them.”

[Footnote 1:  The death of her son is not unkindly mentioned by Boswell.  See p. 491, roy. oct. edit.  But the imputations on her veracity rest exclusively on his prejudiced testimony.]

In 1801, Mrs. Piozzi published “Retrospection; or a Review of the Most Striking and Important Events, Characters, Situations, and their Consequences, which the Last Eighteen Hundred Years have presented to the View of Mankind.”  It is in two volumes quarto, containing rather more than 1000 pages.  A fitting motto for it would have been De omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis. The subject, or range of subjects, was beyond her grasp; and the best that can be said of the book is that a good general impression of the stream of history, lighted up with some striking traits of manners and character, may be obtained from it.  It would have required the united powers and acquirements of Raleigh, Burke, Gibbon, and Voltaire to fill so vast a canvass with appropriate groups and figures; and she is more open to blame for the ambitious conception of the work than for her comparative failure in the execution.  In 1799 she writes to Dr. Gray:  “The truth is, my plans stretch too far for these times, or for my own age; but the wish, though scarce hope, of my heart, is to finish the work I am engaged in, get you to look it over for me, and print in March 1801.”  She published it in January 1801, but it was not looked over by her learned correspondent.  Some slight misgiving is betrayed in the Preface: