“May you, my Baretti, be very happy at Milan, or some other place nearer to, Sir, your most affectionate humble servant, SAMUEL JOHNSON.”

Johnson remarked of Baretti in 1768:  “I know no man who carries his head higher in conversation than Baretti.  There are strong powers in his mind.  He has not indeed many hooks, but with what hooks he has, he grapples very forcibly.”  Cornelia Knight was “disgusted by his satirical madness of manner,” although admitting him to be a man of great learning and information.  Madame D’Arblay was more struck by his rudeness and violence than by his intellectual vigour.  “Thraliana” confirms Johnson’s estimate of Baretti’s capacity: 

“Will.  Burke was tart upon Mr. Baretti for being too dogmatical in his talk about politics.  ‘You have,’ says he, ’no business to be investigating the characters of Lord Falkland or Mr. Hampden.  You cannot judge of their merits, they are no countrymen of yours.’  ‘True,’ replied Baretti, ’and you should learn by the same rule to speak very cautiously about Brutus and Mark Antony; they are my countrymen, and I must have their characters tenderly treated by foreigners.’

“Baretti could not endure to be called, or scarcely thought, a foreigner, and indeed it did not often occur to his company that he was one; for his accent was wonderfully proper, and his language always copious, always nervous, always full of various allusions, flowing too with a rapidity worthy of admiration, and far beyond the power of nineteen in twenty natives.  He had also a knowledge of the solemn language and the gay, could be sublime with Johnson, or blackguard with the groom; could dispute, could rally, could quibble, in our language.  Baretti has, besides, some skill in music, with a bass voice, very agreeable, besides a falsetto which he can manage so as to mimic any singer he hears.  I would also trust his knowledge of painting a long way.  These accomplishments, with his extensive power over every modern language, make him a most pleasing companion while he is in good humour; and his lofty consciousness of his own superiority, which made him tenacious of every position, and drew him into a thousand distresses, did not, I must own, ever disgust me, till he began to exercise it against myself, and resolve to reign in our house by fairly defying the mistress of it.  Pride, however, though shocking enough, is never despicable, but vanity, which he possessed too, in an eminent degree, will sometimes make a man near sixty ridiculous.

“France displayed all Mr. Baretti’s useful powers—­he bustled for us, he catered for us, he took care of the child, he secured an apartment for the maid, he provided for our safety, our amusement, our repose; without him the pleasure of that journey would never have balanced the pain.  And great was his disgust, to be sure, when he caught us, as he often did, ridiculing French manners, French sentiments, &c.  I think he half cryed to Mrs. Payne, the