[Footnote 2:  “Capello is a Venetian poet.”]

“17th December, 1781.—­Dear Mr. Johnson is at last returned; he has been a vast while away to see his country folks at Litchfield.  My fear is lest he should grow paralytick,—­there are really some symptoms already discoverable, I think, about the mouth particularly.  He will drive the gout away so when it comes, and it must go somewhere.  Queeny works hard with him at the classicks; I hope she will be out of leading-strings at least before he gets into them, as poor women say of their children.”

“1st January, 1782.—­Let me not, while censuring the behaviour of others, however, give cause of censure by my own.  I am beginning a new year in a new character.  May it be worn decently yet lightly!  I wish not to be rigid and fright my daughters by too much severity.  I will not be wild and give them reason to lament the levity of my life.  Resolutions, however, are vain.  To pray for God’s grace is the sole way to obtain it—­’Strengthen Thou, O Lord, my virtue and my understanding, preserve me from temptation, and acquaint me with myself; fill my heart with thy love, restrain it by thy fear, and keep my soul’s desires fixed wholly on that place where only true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ our Lord,—­Amen.’”

January, 1782.—­(After stating her fear of illness and other ills.) “If nothing of all these misfortunes, however, befall one; if for my sins God should take from me my monitor, my friend, my inmate, my dear Doctor Johnson; if neither I should marry, nor the brewhouse people break; if the ruin of the nation should not change the situation of affairs so that one could not receive regular remittances from England:  and if Piozzi should not pick him up a wife and fix his abode in this country,—­if, therefore, and if and if and if again all should conspire to keep my present resolution warm, I certainly would, at the close of the four years from the sale of the Southwark estate, set out for Italy, with my two or three eldest girls, and see what the world could show me.”

In a marginal note, she adds: 

“Travelling with Mr. Johnson I cannot bear, and leaving him behind he could not bear, so his life or death must determine the execution or laying aside my schemes.  I wish it were within reason to hope he could live four years.”

“Streatham, 4th January, 1782.—­I have taken a house in Harley Street for these three months next ensuing, and hope to have some society,—­not company tho’:  crowds are out of the question, but people will not come hither on short days, and ’tis too dull to live all alone so.  The world will watch me at first, and think I come o’ husband-hunting for myself or my fair daughters, but when I have behaved prettily for a while, they will change their mind.”