The Life of Samuel Johnson

877. piling their arms: Placing muskets or rifles (usually in threes) with their butts on the ground and their muzzles meeting to support one another in an upright position, either at the cessation of fighting or as part of an act of surrender (OED).

878. Il y a… dans la guerre: There is much childishness in warfare.

879. In ccelum jusseris ibit: ‘And bid him go to heaven, to heaven he will go’ – Juvenal, Satires, iii.78. Cf. Samuel Johnson, London: A Poem (1738), l.116.

880. The slip… hand-writing: Presented to the Bodleian Library in 1947 by Col. Ralph H. Isham.

881. —: Bennet Langton.

882. —: Langton, in Lincolnshire.

883. shorn of his beams: With his brightness removed or diminished – cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, i.596; John Dryden, Aeneis (1697), xii.887 (quoted by Johnson in his Dictionary under ‘shorn’).

884. to frank my letters: Members of Parliament, such as Strahan, were entitled to free postage, and it was a fairly common practice during the eighteenth century for the friends of MPs to ask them to supply them with ‘franks’, that is to say, a letter or envelope bearing their superscription.

885. The Coxheath men: George III had visited Warley Camp on 20 October 1778, and Coxheath Camp on 23 November 1778.

886. Pour le Chevalier Reynolds… la peinture: ‘For Sir Joshua Reynolds, as evidence of the pleasure I felt in reading his excellent discourse on painting.’

887. in the year 1780: In fact in 1781.

888. conge d’elire: Royal permission to a monastic body or cathedral chapter to fill up a vacant see or abbacy by election (OED).

889. a clergyman: The Revd William Tasker.

890. Bayes: See n. 328.

891. a friend of ours: Perhaps Sir Joshua Reynolds.

892. one of his old acquaintances: James Elphinston.

893. the drunken Helot: The helots were the slave caste of ancient Sparta. Plutarch in his ‘Life of Lycurgus’ (xxviii) records that the Spartans would display drunken helots to their children, to instil in them a contempt for intoxication.

894. A gentleman: William Strahan.

895. one of our friends: Bennet Langton.

896. The Government of the Tongue: Richard Allestree, The Government of the Tongue (1 667); cf. also William Perkins, A Direction for the Government of the Tongue (1632).

897. and one: Mauritius Lowe.

898. an eminent physician: Dr William Heberden.

899. no man… his windows: The reference is to notorious disturbances in London on 23 April 1715, the anniversary of the accession of Queen Anne, when a Tory mob, intent on disruptive celebration, went about ‘imperiously commanding the People to illuminate their Windows, and contribute to their Bonefires. They were so intent upon Mischief, that they not only threw Stones, &c. at such Windows as were not illuminated, but at such People as were setting up Candles to prevent their Windows being broke; and threw Flint-Stones of such a Size and Weight, as were enough to have kill’d any Person they had hit. They likewise stopt Coaches, to extort Money from the Passengers; insulted those that were passing the Streets about their lawful Occasions, robb’d them of their Hats, Wigs, &c. buffeted them, and threatn’d farther Mischief if they would not Huzza, God bless the Queen and High Church’ (The annals of King George, year the first (1716), p. 405).

900. a nobleman: John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.

901. Lord––––––: Lord Charles Spencer.

902. Mr. —: Mr Delmis.

903. a young Lord and an eminent traveller: Viscount Althorp and Sir Joseph Banks.

904. another gentleman: George Steevens.

905. se’nnight: A period of seven days and nights; a week (OED).

906. to make… go down: Lord Rochester, A Letter from Artemiza in the Towne to Chloe in the Country’ (composed? i673~5), l. 45.

907. a celebrated wit: John Wilkes.

908. Il n’a de l’esprit que contre Dieu: ‘He is witty only when he attacks God’ – a quip attributed to Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux (1636–1711), and said to have been made at the expense of Francois Payot de Lignieres (1628–1704), a satirist who was at first Boileau’s friend, and then his adversary.

909. a physician: Dr Robert James.

910. A bookseller: Andrew Millar.

911. an eminent friend of ours: Edmund Burke.

912. a little girl: Boswell’s daughter Veronica.

913. Partem… renovarentur: I shaved my right arm next the wrist, and the skin round the right nipple, to discover how soon the hair would grow again.’

914. τò βγτιoν: The better.

915. quid valeant humeri: ‘What your shoulders can bear’ – Horace, Ars Poetica, l. 39.

916. aliis lcetus, sapiens sibi: Happy with others, wise when alone.

917. The Spleen, a Poem: See n. 601.

918. A gentleman: James Boswell.

919. a notorious infidel: Edward Gibbon.

920. a celebrated friend: Topham Beauclerk.

921. corrupted by evil communications: 1 Corinthians 15:33.

922. invented the other day: See p. 741.

923. one of the Prebendaries: The Revd Roger Barnston.

924. amor nummi: ‘Love of money’ – Juvenal, Satires, xiv.139.

925. Circe: In Homer’s Odyssey (x), Odysseus was detained for a year by the enchantress Circe on the island of Aeaea, where his companions were turned into swine.

926. In culpa… usquam: ‘The true culprit is the mind, which can never run away from itself – Horace, Epistles, I.xiv.13.

927. a gentleman: James Susannah Patton.

928. Delenda est Carthago: ‘Carthage must be destroyed’ – the sentence with which the elder Cato is said to have concluded every speech he made in the Senate.

929. nec… dabis joca: ‘Nor wilt thou play any longer as thou art wont’ – Hadrian, ‘Animula, vagula, blandula’.

930. manifestum habemus furem: We have caught the thief in the act.

931. a taylor’s daughter: Jenny Guest.

932. to ride with him now… : The ellipsis should read, ‘Captain Cotton who married Miss Aston’.

933. Fitzosborne’s Letters: William Melmoth, Letters on Several Subjects. By the late Sir Thomas Fitzosborne, Bart. (1748).

934. par pluribus: A host in herself.’

935. outrage… civilized country: In 1779 Lord George Gordon organized and made himself head of the Protestant associations formed to secure the repeal of the Catholic Relief Act of 1778. He led a mob that marched on the Houses of Parliament on 2 June 1780, to present a petition against the Act. The ensuing riot lasted a week, causing great property damage and nearly 500 casualties. For his part in instigating this violence, Gordon was arrested on a charge of high treason, but he was acquitted on the ground that he had no treasonable intentions.

936. Sic fata ferunt: ‘The fates wrought to this end’ – Virgil, Aeneid, ii.34.

937. a young clergyman: The Revd Charles Lawrence.

938. O! preclarum diem: ‘O glorious day!’ – Cicero, De Senectute, 84.

939. Herculaneum: An ancient city at the base of Mount Vesuvius which was destroyed in the eruption of ad 79. Excavation of the site began in the eighteenth century, and the discoveries provided a rich and detailed vision of life in the ancient world which transformed men’s understanding of antiquity.

940. dactyl: A metrical foot consisting of a long syllable followed by two short (or, in modern verse, of an accented syllable and two unaccented) (OED).

941. Tu… non sei filosofo: ‘You are a saint, but you are not a philosopher.’

942. anfractuosities: Winding or tortuous crevices, channels, passages (OED).

943. gabble monstrously: Cf. The Tempest, I.ii.358–60, where Miranda tells Caliban ‘When thou didst not, savage, | Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like | A thing most brutish…’

944. High Life below Stairs: The Revd James Townley, High Life below Stairs (1759).

945. The Wonder: Susannah Centlivre, The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret (1714).

946. The Thane of Ross: A minor role in Macbeth.

947. his grotto: Pope constructed a celebrated grotto (i.e. an excavation or structure made to imitate a rocky cave, often adorned with shellwork, etc., and serving as a place of recreation or a cool retreat) in the grounds of his villa at Twickenham: cf. Maynard Mack, The Country and the City (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969), esp. ch. 2, ‘The Shadowy Cave’, pp. 41–76.

948. Let modest Foster… well: Pope, ‘Epilogue to the Satires’, i.131-2.

949. a person: Richard Cumberland.

950. Domina de North et Gray: Lady North and Gray.

951. its authour: George Marriott.

952. One of the company: Edmund Burke.

953. Aristotle… the dead: Diogenes Laertius, V.i.19.

954. A lady of my acquaintance… her uncle: Mrs Thrale and Sir Thomas Salusbury.

955. A lady… how happy shall: Gentleman’s Magazine, lxii (1792), 213–14.

956. Ah, Monsieur… trop: Ah, sir, you study too much.

957. one of the remarkers… revealed to him: Johnson alludes to a passage in Elizabeth Robinson Montagu’s Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear (1769), pp. 160–61, in which she compares Shakespeare with Corneille.

958. Lord—: John Boyle, 5th Earl of Cork and Orrery.

959. A clergyman: Possibly Dr Michael Lort.

960. The Old Man’s Wish: Walter Pope, The Old Man’s Wish (?i74o).

961. May I govern… sway: Ibid., p. 1; cf. The Spectator, 410 (20 June 1712).

962. unoculus inter ccecos: The one-eyed man among the blind (who proverbially was their king).

963. A gentleman: Possibly Sir Joshua Reynolds.

964. praxis: An example or collection of examples to serve for practice or exercise in a subject, esp. in grammar (OED, 2a).

965. A gentleman… his brother: Possibly James and David Boswell.

966. Parnassus’ hill: In Greek mythology, Mount Parnassus was the home of the Muses; hence metonymic of poetic or artistic achievement.

967. South Sea: An allusion to the South Sea Bubble, a British speculation mania which created and destroyed great fortunes in 1720.

968. a friend: Perhaps Topham Beauclerk.

969. She will outstrip… behind her: The Tempest, IV.i.io-n.

970. a very young man: The Revd Thomas Robertson.

971. the admirable scolding of Timon of Athens: Timon of Athens, III.vii. 80–97; IV.i.1-41; IV.iii.1-23.

972. Nil… extra: ‘Seek not to find yourself outside yourself – Persius, Satires, i.7.

973. Down then… Dorian lyre: Gilbert West, Odes of Pindar… translated from the Greek (1749), p. 6.

974. a certain noble Lord: John Boyle, 5th Earl of Cork and Orrery.

975. a very angry answer: John Wilkes, A Letter to Samuel Johnson LL.D. (1770).

976. Philosophy and vain deceit: Colossians 2:8.

977. the Retreat of the Ten Thousand: Xenophon, Anabasis.

978. the Arian heresy: Named after the early Christian theologian Arius (c. 250–336), who denied the doctrine of the Trinity advanced by his great rival St Athanasius (c. 293–373); hence used to denote a spectrum of theological positions ranging from outright unitarianism to varying degrees and kinds of subordination of the Son to the Father. The first Arian controversy broke out in the fourth century, but it was echoed in the eighteenth century in England, when the doctrine of the Trinity again came under sceptical pressure: see Maurice Wiles, Archetypal Heresy: Arianism Through the Centuries (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).

979. an ingenious writer: Joseph Warton.

980. the shield of Achilles: The shield forged for the Greek warrior Achilles by Hephaestus, the god of fire and metalworking, is the subject of a famous description in bk 18 of The Iliad.

981. Latiùs… suscepi: ‘But as my matter grew under my hand, I voluntarily undertook a bigger task than had been laid upon me’ – I.Proem.3.

982. Some other nymphs… the boy: Edmund Waller, ‘Of Loving at First Sight’, ll. 15–18.

983. Life of Sheffield: Johnson, Lives of the Poets, ed. Lonsdale, III, 47.

984. pannus assutus: ‘Purpureus… unus et alter | Assuitur pannus’ – ‘a purple patch or two is tacked on’ – Horace, Ars Poetica, ll. 15–16.

985. blazon: A record of virtues or excellencies (OED, 4).

986. The Revolution Society: A society established to commemorate the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Its members had been early enthusiasts for the French Revolution, and it was to a meeting of that society on 4 November 1789 that Richard Price delivered the speech which provoked Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).

987. fallen on… compassed round: Milton, Paradise Lost, vii.25-7.

988. a common friend: Possibly Edmond Malone.

989. But, gracious God… Three in One: John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther (1687), i.64–79.

990. the editor: Samuel Parr.

991. balance of the sanctuary: Cf. Daniel 5:27.

992. a person: Richard Hurd.

993. And the bright flame… soul: Alexander Pope, ‘Verses on a Grotto by the River Thames at Twickenham, composed of Marbles, Spars, and Minerals’ (1741), l. 12.

994. execution: The enforcement by the sheriff, or other officer, of the judgement of a court; chiefly, the seizure of the goods or person of a debtor in default of payment (OED, 7).

995. Hic requiescit… deesset: ‘Here lies Thomas Parnell, D. D., who, at once priest and poet, so played both parts that the poet’s sweetness was never false to the priest, nor the priest’s piety false to the poet.’

996. Molly Aston: In fact Hill Boothby.

997. published by Mrs. Thrale: Hester Lynch Piozzi, Letters to and from the late Samuel Johnson, 2 vols. (1788), II, 391.

998. placido lumine: See n. 155.

999. a very eminent literary character: Edmund Burke.

1000. nodosities: Knotty swellings or protuberances (OED).

1001. the Sybil: See n. 142.

1002. Eheu fugaces: See n. 724.

1003. an ardent judge… giving sentence: Cf. Pope, An Essay on Criticism, ll. 677-8: ‘An ardent Judge, who Zealous in his Trust, | With Warmth gives Sentence, yet is always Just…’

1004. distichs: A couple of lines of verse, usually making complete sense, and (in modern poetry) rhyming; a couplet (OED).

1005. Jan. 9: The original is dated 29 January.

1006. From his cradle… Heaven: Henry VIII, IV. ii. 50–51, 67-8.

1007. See… a man: Hamlet, III.iv.54–61.

1008. His… broad: Milton, Paradise Lost, iv.300–303.

1009. a gentleman: William Strahan.

1010. A bishop… tippling-house: Johnson is referring to Bishop Shipley of St Asaph.

1011. routs: A rout was a fashionable gathering or assembly, a large evening party or reception, much in vogue in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (OED, 9.)

1012. the Bishop of—: Bishop Porteus of Chester.

1013. The Spectator:No. 2, 2March 1711 (actually written by Richard Steele).

1014. bag: A small silken pouch to contain the back-hair of a wig (OED, 5).

1015. Il pétille d’esprit: ‘He fizzes with wit.’

1016. Marcellus: A reference to Marcus Claudius Marcellus (43–23 bc), adoptive son of Augustus and married to Augustus’s daughter Julia. He was intended to succeed Augustus in the principate but, like Sir James Macdonald (1742–66), he died young.

1017. a gentleman: Charles Selwyn.

1018. ∗∗∗∗∗∗: William Seward.

1019. Some other gentlemen: William Seward, Sir John Lade and Henry Smith.

1020. Mr. ∗∗∗∗∗: Henry Smith.

1021. One of the gentlemen: William Seward.

1022. a Bishop: Dr Beilby Porteus, then bishop of Chester.

1023. another Bishop: Dr Jonathan Shipley, bishop of St Asaph.

1024. And the graves… unto many: Matthew 27:52–3.

1025. Scripture… grain sown: Matthew 13:31–2.

1026. An acquaintance: James Boswell’s clerk, Brown.

1027. But two at a time… can bear: John Gay, ‘Tom Tinker’s my true love’, The Beggar’s Opera, III.xi.31. The outlaw Macheath is here singing about having to choose between his two wives, Polly and Lucy.

1028. who gladdened life: The quotation comes from Johnson’s ‘Life of Edmund Smith’, where it refers to David Garrick (Lives of the Poets, ed. Lonsdale, II, 179.)

1029. A merrier man… his discourse: Love’s Labours Lost, II.i.66–76.

1030. One of the company: Probably Boswell himself.

1031. a very respectable authour: Dr John Campbell.

1032. parole: Language.

1033. Behold…pencil writ: ‘[There wasa]clubatthe King’s HeadinPall Mall that (arrogantly) called themselves “the World”. Lord Stanhope then (now Lord Chesterfield), Lord Herbert, etc. etc. [were members]. Epigrams [were] proposed to be writ by each after dinner once when Dr. Young was invited thither. [He] would have declined writing, because he had no diamond. Lord Chesterfield lent him his, and he wrote immediately: Accept a miracle instead of wit: See two dull lines by Stanhope’s pencil writ.’ (Joseph Spence, Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters of Books and Men, ed. James M. Osborn, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), no. 852, I, 343). Young needed a diamond because the epigrams were to be engraved on the glasses.

1034. a young lady: Possibly Fanny Burney.

1035. Chief Justice —: Sir John Willes.

1036. a celebrated orator: Edmund Burke.

1037. Sure, Sir… law of the land: Wilkes had defied a resolution of the House of Commons excluding him from sitting as a member.

1038. Proteus: In Greek mythology a sea god who had the power of assuming different shapes.

1039. in Scripture… the kid: Isaiah 11:6 (slightly misremembered).

1040. the most charming Duchess: Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

1041. an eminent friend of his: William Gerard Hamilton.

1042. cui bono: To the benefit of whom?

1043. a friend: Possibly Boswell himself.

1044. non est tanti: It is not worthwhile.

1045. The authour: William Mason.

1046. Rarus… Fortuna: ‘Regard for others is rarely encountered among the nobility’ – Juvenal, Satires, viii.73-4.

1047. That no man… his own condition: The allusion is to Horace, Satires, I.i.1-3: ‘Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem | seu ratio dederit seu fors obiecerit, illa | contentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentis?’ – ‘How is it, Maecenas, that no living man is happy with the lot either which he has chosen or which fate has thrown in his way, but rather praises those who have followed other paths of life?’

1048. address: Skill, dexterity, adroitness (OED, 4).

1049. Ambulantis… vocem Dei: ‘They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden’ – Genesis 3:8.

1050. Vivendi… horam, &c: ‘He who puts off the hour of right-living is like the bumpkin waiting for the river to run out: yet on it glides, and on it will glide, rolling its flood for ever’ – Horace, Epistles, I.ii.41-3.

1051. St. Paul… a cast-away: 1 Corinthians 9:27.

1052. a learned Bishop: Dr Thomas Barnard, bishop of Killaloe.

1053. as the Apostle says… not by sight: 2 Corinthians 5:7.

1054. The Lamb of God… the world: John 1:29.

1055. Our Saviour… to fulfill: Matthew 5:17.

1056. fourteen years: In fact seven years.

1057. Solventur… abibis: ‘The tables will dissolve with laughter, and you will be discharged’ – Horace, Satires, II.i.86.

1058. De minimis… Prcetor: The law does not concern itself with trifles.

1059. animus injuriandi: Intention to injure.

1060. animus irritandi: Intention to annoy.

1061. genus irritabile: ‘The sensitive race of poets’ – Horace, Epistles, II.ii.102.

1062. honores mutant mores: Honours change manners.

1063. jus est… servitus: Law is either unknown or uncertain… the slavery is wretched.

1064. a friend of mine: Charles Dilly.

1065. Commendavi: I commended (his soul to heaven).

1066. Nostrum… Deus: God have mercy on us all.

1067. T. Lawrencio… vertam: ‘To Dr Lawrence. A fresh chill, a fresh cough, and a fresh difficulty in breathing call for a fresh letting of blood. Without your advice, however, I would not submit to the operation. I cannot well come to you, nor need you come to me. Say yes or no in one word, and leave the rest to Holder and to me. If you say yes, tell the messenger to send Holder. May 1,1782. When you have left, to whom shall I turn?’

1068. Without… this time: In fact postmarked 28 August, and therefore belonging to an earlier year.

1069. some obscure scribbler: J. Thomson Callender.

1070. phlebotomy: The action or practice of extracting blood from a vein for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes (OED, 1).

1071. The Reverend Mr. —: Lancelot St Albyn.

1072. Exercise… his folly: Johnson, Rambler, 85 (1751).

1073. Life… a well-ordered poem: ‘Life should a well-order’d Poem be’ – Abraham Cowley, ‘Upon Liberty’ (composed? 1665-7, first published 1668), vi.

1074. Templo… osculo: I took my leave of the church with a kiss.

1075. an old man: John Colvil.

1076. isolee: Isolated.

1077. ebullition: Effervescence.

1078. one of our old acquaintance: Thomas Sheridan, father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

1079. a respectable friend: General Paoli.

1080. Mcecenas: Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (?64~8 bc), close counsellor of Augustus, and enlightened and generous patron of a literary circle which included Virgil, Horace, Propertius and Varius; hence, by extension, any generous patron of poetry or the arts.

1081. the Corycius Senex: An old man from Corycus.

1082. Regum… animis: ‘In contentment, he matched the riches of kings’ – Virgil, Georgics, iv.132.

1083. A gentleman: Boswell himself.

1084. Lord ∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗: Lord Shelburne.

1085. Malagrida… reproach: George III used to call Shelburne ‘Malagrida’, after a Jesuit executed in 1761 in Lisbon for having sanctioned an attempt on the life of King Joseph of Portugal, and as a result at this time the name ‘Malagrida’ had become associated with malice and duplicity.

1086. one of his friends: Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1087. a respectable gentleman: Sir John Pringle.

1088. a lady whom I mentioned: Mrs Stuart.

1089. another lady: Mrs Boswell.

1090. an acquaintance of ours: George Steevens.

1091. a late eminent noble judge: Possibly Lord Mansfield.

1092. another law-Lord: Lord Wedderburn.

1093. Nec… gemmce: ‘Unable to support a gem of weight’ – Juvenal, Satires, i.29.

1094. some Essays which I had written: As ‘The Hypochondriack’ in the London Magazine.

1095. Nullum… prudentia: ‘Heaven’s help is not refused, if wisdom be present’ – Juvenal, Satires, x.365.

1096. Nullum… imprudentia: Heaven’s help is withheld in the presence of folly.

1097. NugiS antiquce: Ancient trifles.

1098. namque… nugas: ‘For you used to think that my trifles were worth something’ – Catullus, i.3 – 4.

1099. Ingenium… corpore: ‘Vast gifts of mind are hidden under that uncouth exterior’ – Horace, Satires, I.iii.33-4.

1100. Quos… dementat: ‘Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad.’

1101. Semel… omnes: ‘We have all been mad once’ – Virgil, Eclogues, i.117–18.

1102. in Johannes Baptista Mantuanus: Baptistae Mantuani Carmelitae, Ado-lescentia, seu Bucolica (1498), i.118.

1103. Love and Madness: Sir Herbert Croft, Love and Madness (1780).

1104. Wickham: Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire.

1105. Hic… passi: ‘Here was the band who had battled and bled for their homeland’ – Virgil, Aeneid, vi.66o.

1106. Inventas… per artes: ‘Those who ennobled life by the arts they discovered’ – Virgil, Aeneid, vi.663.

1107. a Prince of Spain… his tutor: Don Gabriel Antonio and F. Perez Bayer.

1108. fortunate senex: Happy old man.

1109. imagines majorum: Images of our ancestors (as used to be displayed in the homes of Roman aristocrats).

1110. the Turkish Spy: Giovanni Paolo Marana, L’esploratore turco e le di lui relazioni segrete alla Porta Ottomana (1684), a much-reprinted and translated work which inaugurated a new genre in European literature, that of the pseudo-foreign letter.

1111. à posteriori: From effect to cause.

1112. à priori: From cause to effect.

1113. When we beat Louis… when Louis beat us: The reference is to Louis XIV (1638–1714), crowned king of France on 14 May 1643. While William III was on the English throne, Louis had enjoyed victories over allied forces (which incorporated English troops) during the War of the League of Augsburg (1689–97) and at the battles of Fleurus (1690), Steenkerke (1692) and Neerwinden (1693). During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), however, for all but the first year of which the Stuart Queen Anne was on the English throne, Louis suffered a series of defeats at the hands of English troops under Marlborough, at the battles of Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708) and Malplaquet (1709). Johnson’s comment therefore weakens the case for his Jacobitism, since he rejects an opportunity to praise Stuart monarchy to the detriment of William III.

1114. Omne… magnifico est: ‘The unknown is always taken for something grand’ – Tacitus, Agricola, xxx.

1115. Inspissated: Thickened.

1116. Pomatum: An ointment for the skin or hair (OED, 1).

1117. nonpareils: Several formerly popular varieties of apple characterized by very late ripening and a sweet-sharp flavour (OED, 4).

1118. Currat Lex: Let the law take its course.

1119. a noble friend: Lord Mountstuart.

1120. Amici fures temporis: ‘Friends are the thieves of time’ – Bacon, Advancement of Learning, bk 2.

1121. a near relation… antagonist: Lieutenant David Cuninghame had killed Mr Riddell.

1122. Unto him… the other: Luke 6:29.

1123. From him… not away: Matthew 5:42.

1124. Between the stirrup… mercy found: Camden, Remaines Concerning Britain, p. 387 (where however it reads, ‘Betwixt the stirrop and the ground | Mercy I askt, mercy I found’).

1125. a gentleman: Sir Thomas Rumbold.

1126. communibus sheetibus: For average sheets.

1127. his oratorical plans: In 1756 Thomas Sheridan had published a work of which the purpose and argument are made plain in its title: British Education: Or, the Source of the Disorders of Great Britain. Being an Essay towards proving, that the Immorality, Ignorance, and false Taste, which so generally prevail, are the natural and necessary Consequences of the present defective System of Education. With an Attempt to shew, that a Revival of the Art of Speaking, and the Study of our own Language, might contribute, in a great measure, to the Cure of those Evils.

1128. Monday, April 29: In fact Wednesday 30 April.

1129. Parcus… infrequens: ‘A grudging and infrequent worshipper of the gods’ – Horace, Odes, i.34.

1130. a worthy friend: Bennet Langton.

1131. one of our friends: Edmund Burke.

1132. an eminent person: Probably Burke once more.

1133. A gentleman: Again, possibly Burke.

1134. Friday, May 29: Actually a Thursday.

1135. a very learned man: Bennet Langton.

1136. As the tree… must lie: Cf. Ecclesiastes 11:3.

1137. Shenstone’s witty remark… death-bed: ‘When a tree is falling, I have seen the laborers, by a trivial jerk with a rope, throw it upon the spot where they would wish it should lie. Divines, understanding this text too literally, pretend by a little interposition in the article of death, to regulate a person’s everlasting happiness. I fancy the allusion will hardly countenance their presumption’: William Shenstone, ‘On Religion’, in Works in Verse and Prose, 2 vols. (1764), II, 297.

1138. cantharides: The pharmacopoeial name of the dried beetle Cantharis vesicatoria or Spanish Fly. Used externally as a rubefacient and vesicant; internally as a diuretic and stimulant to the genito-urinary organs, etc. Formerly considered an aphrodisiac (OED, 2).

1139. one of his friends: William Bowles.

1140. a certain literary friend: Dr Joseph Warton.

1141. rest… for the people of God: Cf. Hebrews 4:9.

1142. sarcocele: A hard fleshy enlargement of the testicle (OED).

1143. Constance, Catharine, and Isabella, in Shakspeare: Characters in, respectively, King John, Henry VIII and Measure for Measure.

1144. a common friend: Edmond Malone.

1145. the election… fictitious qualifications: In the unreformed House of Commons qualifications of various kinds, including property qualifications, were sought from both candidates and electors to ensure that only men of a certain standing might either vote for or become Members of Parliament (see Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 4 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1765–9), I, 164–74). Boswell is probably referring to the notorious practice whereby men were fraudulently granted freeholds (that is to say, the contract transferring the property contained an agreement to reconvey the property back to the original owner) in order temporarily to qualify them to vote (ibid., I, 167). By this expedient large landowners might create a number of electors in their own interest at the time of an election. This would certainly amount to ‘unconstitutional influence’.

1146. the sentence as it now stands: ‘… he is happy to be enabled to add Dr. Johnson to the number of those, whose kindness for the man, and good wishes for the translation, call for his sincerest gratitude’ – William Mickle (tr.), The Lusiad, 3rd edn, 2 vols. (1798), I, cccxxxi–ii.

1147. To-day… Milton:JohnMilton, Sonnet xxi,‘Cyriack, whose grandsire on the royal bench’ (composed? 1655, first published 1673), ll. 5–6.

1148. his name-sake… the Rules of his Club: Ben Jonson composed the ‘Leges Conviviales’ which were engraved over the mantelpiece in the Apollo of the Old Devil Tavern at Temple Bar, which he used as his club room.

1149. consilium medicum: Medical advice.

1150. squills: A preparation made from the bulb or root of the sea-onion or other related plant (OED).

1151. the triumph… over aristocratical influence: In January 1784 the ministry had been in a minority of 39 (in a House of 425); by April, and following a general election, they were in a majority of 97 (in a House of 369). On 30 March 1784 Horace Walpole, commenting on this reversal, noted its popularity: ‘The nation is intoxicated, and has poured in addresses of thanks to the crown for exerting the prerogative against the palladium of the people.’ The exertion of prerogative had been the dissolution of Parliament on 25 March 1784.

1152. the fervent prayer of this righteous man: Cf. James 5:16.

1153. One of the company: James Boswell.

1154. a gentleman of eminence: George Steevens.

1155. On Tuesday… not to appoint that gentleman minister: A reference to the mobbing of George III when he opened Parliament that day. Other witnesses suggest that the mob was favourable to Fox.

1156. Sit… Langtono: May my soul be with Langton.

1157. a very eminent friend: Edmund Burke.

1158. image in Bacon… shot by a child: In fact an image of Robert Boyle’s, not Bacon’s, and quoted in a compressed form by Johnson in the fourth edition of his Dictionary under crossbow. The passage occurs in the ‘Preface’ to Boyle’s Some Considerations About the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion (1675), and reads, ‘[T]here are some arguments, which being clearly built upon sense, or evident experiments, need borrow no assistance from the refutation of any of the proposers or approvers and may, I think, be fitly enough compared to arrows shot out of a cross-bow, and bullets shot out of a gun, which have the same strength, and pierce equally, whether they be discharged by a child, or a strong man. But then, there are other ratiocinations, which either do, or are supposed to depend, in some measure, upon the judgment and skill of those, that make the observations, whereon they are grounded, and their ability to discern truth from counterfeits, and solid things from those, that are but superficial ones: and these may be compared to arrows shot out of a long-bow, which make much the greater impres sion, by being shot by a strong and skilful archer’ (Robert Boyle, Works. A New Edition, 6 vols. (1772), IV, 156).

1159. The Journey to London: See n. 247.

1160. Nor think… and pills: Jonathan Swift, ‘Stella’s Birth-day. March 13. 1726/7’, ll. 5-6.

1161. Parenetick Divinity: Divinity composed in order to give exhortation or advice.

1162. seven Bishops… arbitrary power: A reference to the seven bishops of the Church of England who in 1687 had opposed James II’s Declaration of Indulgence – a measure which proposed to remove the disabilities attaching to Dissenters, but only in order to do the same for Roman Catholics.

1163. Here Learning… Fancy wild: Richard Savage, The Wanderer (1729), canto ii, p. 40 (where however it reads ‘Frenzy’, not ‘Fancy’).

1164. Epigram… t’other: ‘Timothy Silence’, The Foundling Hospital for Wit (1749), pp. 87-8.

1165. spoiled… deceit: Cf. Colossians 2:8.

1166. Multis… occidit: ‘He died mourned by many good men’ – Horace, Odes, I.xxiv.9.

1167. Every man… in others: William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1729), pp. 474-5.

1168. of whom I am the chief: 1 Timothy 1:15.

1169. True as the dial… shone upon: Butler, Hudibras, III.ii.175-6.

1170. a certain clergyman: The Revd Sir Henry Bate.

1171. As the soft plume… to the heart: Edward Young, Two Epistles to Mr. Pope, concerning the Authors of the Age (1730), ep. ii, p. 27.

1172. my Redeemer has said… on his left: Matthew 20:21-3.

1173. St. Paul’s thorn in the flesh: 2 Corinthians 12:7.

1174. sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof: Matthew 6:34.

1175. considering… his Rambler and his Rasselas: See pp. 119–22 and 182-4.

1176. Valeant… possunt: May they have all the weight they can.

1177. ex dono authoris: Given by the author.

1178. Condemn’d… mine: ‘On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet’ (1783), l. 1.

1179. Aurungzebe: Dryden, Aureng-Zebe, IV.i.33–42.

1180. Sun, how I hate thy beams: Milton, Paradise Lost, iv.37.

1181. While malice…to see: Alexander Pope, The Dunciad Variorum (1729), note to ii.134.

1182. Grongar Hill: John Dyer, Grongar Hill (1726).

1183. Voyages to the South Sea: James Cook, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (1784).

1184. mollia… fandi: ‘The most promising time to address him’ – Virgil, Aeneid, iv.293.

1185. The wits… to fame: Johnson, ‘Prologue Spoken by Mr. Garrick at the Opening of the Theatre in Drury-Lane, 1747’, l. 17.

1186. Wednesday, June 19: In fact it was the 16th.

1187. a gentleman: Dr John Taylor.

1188. A dull country magistrate: The mayor of Windsor.

1189. Who rules… be free: Henry Brooke, The Earl of Essex. A Tragedy (1761), p. 13.

1190. a gentleman: Possibly Boswell himself.

1191. I deny your Major: 1 Henry IV, II.v.452.

1192. De Claris Oratoribus: ‘Of famous orators’.

1193. take up thy bed and walk: Mark 2:9.

1194. Though fraught… a vote: Oliver Goldsmith, Retaliation: A Poem (1774), p. 8.

1195. An authour… vanity: Possibly Richard Cumberland.

1196. The wife of one of his acquaintance: Mrs Cave.

1197. A foppish physician: Sir Lucas Pepys.

1198. Pactolus: A river in Lydia whose sands contained gold.

1199. a writer of entertaining Travels: Dr John Moore.

1200. a little Miss: Jeanie Campbell, the step-daughter of Mrs Boswell’s sister.

1201. this lively conceit: Whitefoord, under the pseudonym ‘Papirius Cursor’, proposed a ‘new and humourous method of reading the News-papers’, namely reading across the two columns of a page of newsprint to produce paradoxical conjunctions, such as ‘This day his Majesty will go in state to | fifteen notorious common prostitutes.’

1202. a gentleman: Sir Richard Musgrave.

1203. another gentleman: Dr Joseph Warton.

1204. An authour: Possibly Dr James Beattie.

1205. a young man: John Lawrie, Boswell’s former clerk.

1206. A young gentleman: Richard Burke, son of Edmund Burke.

1207. In my mind’s eye, Horatio: Hamlet, I.ii.184.

1208. it lends deception… to fly: Cf. Pope, ‘Epistle to Bathurst’, ll. 69–70: ‘Blest paper-credit! last and best supply! | That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly!’

1209. an eminent critick: Edmond Malone.

1210. a very celebrated lady: Hannah More.

1211. the master of the house: Richard Pottinger, Clerk to the Privy Seal.

1212. a gentleman: Hon. Thomas Fitzmaurice.

1213. bien trouvee: Happily invented if untrue (cf. the Italian ben trovato).

1214. With thee… all time: Milton, Paradise Lost, iv.639.

1215. on July 6: In fact on 8 July.

1216. one of whom: Perhaps Lady Lucan.

1217. mihi carior: Endeared to myself.

1218. virtus… fugere: ‘To flee vice is the beginning of virtue’ – Horace, Epistles, I.i.41.

1219. Que les vers… vos amis: ‘Don’t let verse be your sole occupation; cultivate your friends’ – Nicolas Boileau, Art poetique (1674), ‘chant iv’, ll. 121-2.

1220. Ciceronianus: Possibly a speech by Bulephorus, ‘Dialogus Ciceronianus’, in Erasmi opera omnia (Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Company, 1969-), II, 618–19.

1221. abite curce: ‘Begone, dull cares’ – Martial, XI.vi.6.

1222. nocitura petuntur: ‘We crave what will harm us’ – Juvenal, Satires, x.8.

1223. vis vitce: Living force.

1224. vis inertice: Power of inertia.

1225. Quid… una: ‘What relief is there in plucking out one thorn from many?’ – Horace, Epistles, II.ii.212.

1226. the balloon… so long expected: Ballooning was a popular craze at this time.

1227. inter stellas Luna minores: ‘The moon among the lesser stars’ – Horace, Odes, I.xii.46.

1228. Chatsworth: The Derbyshire seat of the dukes of Devonshire.

1229. Prceterea… sola: ‘Besides all this, the little blood in his now chilly frame is never warm except with fever’ – Juvenal, Satires, x.217–18.

1230. Born… in London die: The Spectator, 518 (24 October 1712).

1231. But who… with death: George Colman, Two Odes (1760), p. 9; the line is reused in his and Robert Lloyd’s affectionate parody of Gray’s ‘The Bard’, printed in Poems by Mr. Gray (1768), p. 181.

1232. non progredi, est regredi: Not to make progress is to go back.

1233. Aug. 25: In fact 26 August.

1234. acceptum et expensum: Income and expense.

1235. res familiares: Domestic economies.

1236. a little favour from the court: Johnson probably refers to Reynolds’s appointment as court painter to George III.

1237. hydropick tumour: A tumour charged or swollen with water (OED).

1238. Mr. Garrick’s… his edition of Shakspeare: See above, p. 362.

1239. a curious edition of Politian: See above, p. 53.

1240. There was wanting… and right: Hawkins, The Life of Samuel Johnson, p. 409.

1241. a judicious friend: Probably Edmond Malone.

1242. Broad-market-street: In fact Bread Market Street.

1243. Salve… parens: ‘Hail, great Mother!’ – Virgil, Georgics, ii.173.

1244. invictum… Catonis: ‘Cato’s stubborn soul’ – Horace, Odes, II.i.24.

1245. Intentum… senectuti: ‘His mind was always as resilient as a strung bow, and he was never affected by the slackening of old age’ –Cato Major, XI.38 (slightly misremembered at the end).

1246. Ita… suum: ‘A truly admirable old age is one in which a man still defends his opinions, still claims justice for himself, is beholden to no one, and maintains his just rights until his last breath’ – ibid.

1247. Spartam… orna: ‘Sparta is your country – make the most of it’ – Erasmus, Chiliades, II.i (1559), p. 485.

1248. Be… when you are not angry: A remark Sir William Temple makes apropos the spleen (to which he thinks the Dutch are particularly prone) in his ‘Observations Upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands’ (1673): ‘this is a Disease too refin’d for this Country and People, who are well, when they are not ill; and pleas’d, when they are not troubled; are content, because they think little of it; and seek their Happiness in the common Ease and Commodities of Life, or the encrease of Riches; not amusing themselves with the more speculative Contrivance of Passion, or Refinements of Pleasure’ (Works, 2 vols. (1720), I, 54).

1249. JEgri Ephemeris: ‘A sick man’s journal’.

1250. cum notis variorum: With various notes.

1251. De Natura Deorum: ‘On the nature of the gods’.

1252. Minutice Literarice: ‘Literary trifles’.

1253. While through life’s maze… glows: John Courtenay, A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson (1786), pp. 24, 26-7.

1254. De Bello Catilinario: ‘On the Catiline War’.

1255. the Anthologia: The Greek Anthology, a collection of Greek epigrams, songs, epitaphs and rhetorical exercises that includes about 3,700 short poems, mostly written in elegiac couplets.

1256. The Observer: Richard Cumberland, The Observer (1785).

1257. ignotum per ignotius: The unknown by the less well-known.

1258. A distinguished authour: Henry Mackenzie.

1259. imitari aveo: ‘Eager emulation’ – Lucretius, iii.6.

1260. Alma Mater: A title given by the Romans to several goddesses, especially to Ceres and Cybele, and transferred in England to universities and schools regarded as ‘fostering mothers’ to their alumni (OED).

1261. tumidity: The quality or condition of being tumid; swollenness (OED).

1262. An ingenious member: William Seward.

1263. Eumelian: Musical or rhythmical.

1264. Fraxinean: Pertaining to the ash (fraxinus being the Latin word for an ash tree).

1265. warring against the law of his mind: Romans 7:23.

1266. presumptuous sin: Psalms 19:13.

1267. cast a stone: John 8:7.

1268. die… one of the Princes: Psalms 82:7.

1269. Can’st thou not… the heart: Macbeth, V.iii.42-7.

1270. therein the patient… himself: Macbeth, V.iii.48-9.

1271. Orandum… sano: ‘We should pray for a sound mind in a sound body’ – Juvenal, Satires, x.356.

1272. Qui… ponat: ‘Who considers long life to be the least of Nature’s gifts’ – Juvenal, Satires, x.358.

1273. supremum for extremum: Supremum: final or dying. Extremum: long.

1274. nobilissimus: Most noble.

1275. Preces… inauditas: ‘He seems to have been careful in his prayers; I hope they were heard.’

1276. a person: George Steevens.

1277. Melius… non errasse: ‘Better so to have repented than never to have sinned.’

1278. Te teneam… manu: ‘When I expire, let my trembling hand hold yours’ – Tibullus, I.i.60. Cf. Johnson, Adventurer, 58 (1753).

1279. Mr. Blackwell: In fact the Revd Anthony Blackwall.

1280. Tantùm… Virgilium: ‘I caught a glimpse of Virgil’ – Ovid, Tristia, IV.x.5.

1281. Dr. P∗∗∗∗∗∗∗: Joseph Priestley.

1282. long hundred: Six score, or 120.

1283. an excellent lady: Mrs John Hoole.

1284. a rich… young gentleman: Sir John Lade.

1285. ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗∗: Sir John.

1286. use his pencil: Paint (and thus engage in gainful work).

1287. Samuel Johnson… lxxv : ‘Samuel Johnson, LL.D., died 13 December in the year of Our Lord 1784. Aged 75.’

1288. venew: A thrust or hit in fencing; a stroke or wound with a weapon (OED, 2a).

1289. Guide, Philosopher, and Friend: Pope, An Essay on Man, iv.390.

1290. a lady: Anne Penny.

1291. A… CVRAVER: ‘Alpha Omega | To Samuel Johnson, | a grammarian and critic | of great skill in English literature; | a poet admirable for the light of his sentences | and the weight of his words; | a most grave teacher of virtue | an excellent man of singular example, | who lived 75 years, 2 months, 14 days. | He died on the 13 December in the year of Christ 1784, | was buried in the Church of St Peter, Westminster, | the 20 December 1784. | His literary friends and companions | by a collection of money | caused this monument to be made.’

1292. ENMAKAPEΣΣIΠONΩNANTAIOΣEIHAMOIBH: An alteration by Dr Samuel Parr of a line of Dionysius Periegetes (l. 1186) which Johnson himself had used to conclude the final Rambler paper (208, 4 March 1752): Aντων x μαxαων ανταζιo ιη αμoιβη. Johnson himself translated the line into a couplet: ‘Celestial Pow’rs! that piety regard, | From you my labours wait their last reward.’

1293. Faciebat… m.dcc.lxxxxv: Made by John Bacon, sculptor, in the year of Christ 1795.

1294. laudari… viro: ‘To be praised by one whom all men praise.’

1295. vivida vis: Lively force.

1296. Olla Podrida: The Olla Podrida was a periodical published at Oxford in 1787.

1297. of him… much will be required: Luke 12:48.

1298. If in this life… miserable: Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:19.