" Once when somebody produced a newspaper in which there was a letter of stupid abuse of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of which Johnson himself came in for a share,––‘Pray (said he), let us have it read aloud from beginning to end’; which being done, he with a ludicrous earnestness, and not directing his look to any particular person, called out, ‘Are we alive after all this satire? "

― James Boswell , The Life of Samuel Johnson