Quote about looking up bad words in the dictionary

[alfabex]

Hey, guys, I’m trying to find a quote and I’m not having much luck with google.

This quote was supposedly said by Dr. Johnson after he had published his first dictionary. The quote is something along the lines of, some ladies commend Dr. Johnson for not including the bad words in his dictionary and Dr. Johnson commends the ladies for knowing the bad words so they could look them up.

As I say, I’m having a hard time with google. Does this quote sound familiar to anyone else? Does any else know the actual quote?

[Lungfish]

Mrs. Digby told me that when she lived in London with her sister, Mrs. Brooke, they were every now and then honoured by the visits of Dr. Johnson. He called on them one day soon after the publication of his immortal dictionary. The two ladies paid him due compliments on the occasion. Amongst other topics of praise they very much commended the omission of all naughty words. ‘What! my dears! then you have been looking for them?’ said the moralist. The ladies, confused at being thus caught, dropped the subject of the dictionary.

H.D. Best, Personal and Literary Memorials, London, 1829, printed in Johnsonian Miscellanies, (1897) vol. II, page 390, edited by George Birkbeck Hill

Source: Samuel Johnson - Wikiquote

[gnoitall]

Good find, Lungfish. I had some indirect info but yours is on-point, so I’ll just remove my non-contributory stuff.

[alfabex]

Hey, that was fast. Thanks a lot, lungfish.

[Colophon]

And here I was thinking of the Blackadder version:

Johnson: (to George) So, ahem, tell me, sir, what words particularly interested
you?

G: Oh, er, nothing… Anything, really, you know…

J: Ah, I see you’ve underlined a few (takes dictionary, reads): bloomers'; bottom’; burp'; (turns a page) fart’; fiddle'; fornicate’?

G: Well…

J: Sir! I hope you’re not using the first English dictionary to look up
rude words!

E: I wouldn’t be too hopeful; that’s what all the other ones will be
used for.