Note 50 — Johnson and Garrick.[50]

This jeu d’esprit was written by Sir Joshua Reynolds to illustrate a remark which he had made—“That Dr. Johnson considered Garrick as his property, and would never suffer anyone to praise or abuse him but himself.” In the first of these supposed dialogues, Sir Joshua himself, by high encomiums upon Garrick, is represented as drawing down upon him Johnson’s censure; in the second, Gibbon, by taking the opposite side, calls forth his praise.

It should be added that the jeu d’esprit was printed privately in 1816, given by Lady Thomond to Mrs. Gwynne, who gave it to a lady connected with the family of Wynn of Wynnstay.