Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'You
really do not use me well in thinking that I am in less pain on this
occasion than I ought to be. There is nobody left for me to care about
but you and my master, and I have now for many years known the value of
his friendship, and the importance of his life, too well not to have
him very near my heart.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 56. To him he wrote
shortly after the attack, no doubt with a view to give the sick man
confidence:--'To shew you how well I think of your health, I have sent
you an hundred pounds to keep for me.' _Ib_. p. 54. Miss Burney wrote
very soon after the attack:--'At dinner everybody tried to be cheerful,
but a dark and gloomy cloud hangs over the head of poor Mr. Thrale which
no flashes of merriment or beams of wit can pierce through; yet he seems
pleased that everybody should be gay.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 220.
The attack was in June. _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 47. On Aug. 3, Johnson
wrote to Dr. Taylor:--'Mr. Thrale has perfectly recovered all his
faculties and all his vigour.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 461.
[1205] Which I communicated to him from his Lordship, but it has not yet
been published.
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