Note 140 — Chapter IV · English Authors in Parisian Salons

Walpole’s account of him in dispute is less flattering. ‘He coloured; all his round features squeezed themselves into sharp angles; he screwed up his button-mouth and [rapped] his snuff-box.... I well knew his vanity, even about his ridiculous face and person, but thought he had too much sense to avow it so palpably.’ Letters 11. 376; 27 January 1781. Gibbon avoided disputes with Johnson, and Boswell (Life 2. 348) assumed that he feared ‘a competition of abilities.’