Grampian Club > Boswelliana

170 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL.
what to do. . . I have now desired to have but one com-
positor. Indeed, I go sluggishly and comfortlessly about my
work. As I pass your door I cast many a longing look. . .
We had a nvimerous club on Tuesday ; I in the chair, quoting
Homer and Fielding, &c. to the astonishment of Jo. Warton,
who with Langton and Seward eat a plain bit with me in my
new house last Saturday."
On the 10th February, Boswell informed Mr. Malone that he
had invested £16 8s. in a lottery ticket, and that instead of
obtaining £5000 had drawn a blank. He proceeds : —
"Oh, could I but get a few thousands, what a difference
would it make upon my state of mind, which is harassed by
thinking of my debts ! I am anxious to have your determina-
tion as to my magnum opus. I am very unwilling to part with
the property of it, and certainly would not, if I could but get
credit for £1000 for three or four years. Could you not assist
me in that way, on the security of the book, and of an assign-
ment to one half of my rents, £700, which, upon my honour,
are always due, and would be forthcoming in the case of my
decease. I will not sell till I have your answer as to this."
Mr. Malone did not reply. On the 25th Boswell made a
new proposal. After referring to a severe attack of melancholy
which had lately oppressed him, he proceeds : —
" I am in a distressing perplexity how to decide as to the
property of my book. You must know that I am certainly
informed that a certain person, who delights in mischief, has
been depreciating it, so that I fear the sale of it may be very
dubious. Two quartos and two guineas sound in an alarming
manner. I believe in my present frame I should accept even
of £500, for I suspect that were I now to talk to Eobinson, I
should find him not disposed to give £1000. Did he absolutely
offer it, or did he only express himself so as that you concluded
he would give it ? The pressing circumstance is that I must
lay down £1000 by the 1st of May on account of the purchase