This, and a thousand other such attempts, are totally unlike the original, which the writers imagined they were turning into ridicule.  There is not similarity enough for burlesque, or even for caricature.

’To Mr. Green, apothecary, at Lichfield.

’Dear sir,—­I have enclosed the Epitaph for my Father, Mother, and Brother, to be all engraved on the large size, and laid in the middle aisle in St. Michael’s church, which I request the clergyman and churchwardens to permit.

’The first care must be to find the exact place of interment, that the stone may protect the bodies.  Then let the stone be deep, massy, and hard; and do not let the difference of ten pounds, or more, defeat our purpose.

’I have enclosed ten pounds, and Mrs. Porter will pay you ten more, which I gave her for the same purpose.  What more is wanted shall be sent; and I beg that all possible haste may be made, for I wish to have it done while I am yet alive.  Let me know, dear Sir, that you receive this.  I am, Sir, your most humble servant,

‘Dec. 2, 1784.’

‘Sam.  Johnson.’

Death had always been to him an object of terrour; so that, though by no means happy, he still clung to life with an eagerness at which many have wondered.  At any time when he was ill, he was very much pleased to be told that he looked better.  An ingenious member of the Eumelian Club, informs me, that upon one occasion when he said to him that he saw health returning to his cheek, Johnson seized him by the hand and exclaimed, ‘Sir, you are one of the kindest friends I ever had.’

Dr. Heberden, Dr. Brocklesby, Dr. Warren, and Dr. Butter, physicians, generously attended him, without accepting any fees, as did Mr. Cruikshank, surgeon; and all that could be done from professional skill and ability, was tried, to prolong a life so truly valuable.  He himself, indeed, having, on account of his very bad constitution, been perpetually applying himself to medical inquiries, united his own efforts with those of the gentlemen who attended him; and imagining that the dropsical collection of water which oppressed him might be drawn off by making incisions in his body, he, with his usual resolute defiance of pain, cut deep, when he thought that his surgeon had done it too tenderly.*

* This bold experiment, Sir John Hawkins has related in such a manner as to suggest a charge against Johnson of intentionally hastening his end; a charge so very inconsistent with his character in every respect, that it is injurious even to refute it, as Sir John has thought it necessary to do.  It is evident, that what Johnson did in hopes of relief, indicated an extraordinary eagerness to retard his dissolution.—­Boswell.

About eight or ten days before his death, when Dr. Brocklesby paid him his morning visit, he seemed very low and desponding, and said, ’I have been as a dying man all night.’  He then emphatically broke out in the words of Shakspeare:—­