38. My time… happily spent: The opening line of ‘A Pastoral’ by John Byrom (1692–1763).
39. usher: An assistant to a schoolmaster or head teacher; an under-master, assistant master (OED, 4).
40. Julii 16… petii: ‘July 16. I betook myself to Bosworth on foot.’
41. his admirable philosophical tale: The History of Rasselas (1759).
42. in quo Natura… compensavit: ‘In whom, as formerly in Angelo Polit-iano, nature compensated for bodily ugliness with great intellectual eminence’.
43. first… in the Gent. Mag.: Gentleman’s Magazine, lv (1785), 3-8.
44. multos et felices annos: Many years, and happy ones.
45. Delightful task… toshoot: James Thomson, ‘Spring’ (1728), ll.1152-3.
46. Utpueris… discere prima: ‘As teachers sometimes give little boys cakes to coax them into learning their letters’ – Horace, Satires, I.i.25-6.
47. a relation: The Revd Samuel Ford (1717–93), Johnson’s cousin.
48. the Turkish History: Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes (1603). Johnson admired this work immoderately, and drew from it the plot of his unsuccessful play Irene (composed 1736, first performed 1749).
49. porter’s knot: A kind of double shoulder pad, with a loop passing round the forehead, the whole roughly resembling a horse collar, used by London market porters for carrying their burdens (OED, ‘knot’, 5).
50. His Ofellus… an Irish painter: Ofellus is the wise peasant in Horace’s Satires II.ii, who is able to teach the art of frugal living. The Irish painter was possibly Michael Ford.
51. disjecta membra: ‘Dismembered limbs’ – Horace, Satires, I.iv.62.
52. gave the wall: Yielded passage (the side of the pavement nearest the wall being cleaner and safer).
53. Iris: In Greek mythology, the goddess of the rainbow.
54. Lewis le Grand: That is, Louis XIV (1638–1715), king of France.
55. Will no… happy Muse: Samuel Derrick, ‘Fortune, a rhapsody’, Gentleman’s Magazine, xxi (1751), 527.
56. May I… a Paul: Charles Churchill, The Conference (1763), p. 13.
57. deterre: Unearthed, or dug up.
58. ne ullius… moraretur: That no election of a teacher be delayed more than three months.
59. impransus: Not having dined.
60. Elisje Carters… 1738: Dr Thomas Birch to Elizabeth Carter. I have now read your translation of Crousaz’s Examen, with admiration of the consummate elegance of your style and of its fitness to a very difficult subject. Written 27 November 1738.
61. Pica: A size of type, now standardized as 12 point (OED, ia).
62. the Brunswick succession… upon it: The Brunswick succession refers to the accession of the House of Hanover to the throne of Great Britain with George I in 1714, a dynastic change which cemented the exclusion of the House of Stuart; ‘measures of government’ refers to the management of the House of Commons by Sir Robert Walpole which secured majorities for the King’s business, and which in the eyes of the disaffected was tantamount to corruption.
63. telum imbelle: ‘Unwarlike [i.e. harmless] spear’ – Virgil, Aeneid, ii.544.
64. Emptoris sit eligere: The purchaser has the right of choice.
65. Great Primer: A size of type approximately equal to 18 point, formerly much used in Bibles (OED, ‘primer’, 3b).
66. Angliacas… Dece: ‘Laura, prettiest girl in England, you will soon be rid of your grievous burden. May Lucina be kind to you in your pains; may you not suffer for having excelled a goddess.’ Lucina in Roman religion was a name associated with Juno as goddess of childbirth – ‘parituram’ in the epigram’s title means ‘about to give birth’.
67. a noble Lord: Lord Tyrconnel.
68. Ad Ricardum Savage… genus: ‘To Richard Savage. May the human race cherish him, in whose breast burns the love of human kind.’
69. Respicere… jubebo: ‘I advise him to take as his model real life and manners’ – Horace, Ars Poetica, l. 317.
70. falsum… omnibus: ‘False in one respect, false in all.’
71. his great philological work: That is his Dictionary of the English Language (1755).
72. one of the best criticks of our age: Probably Edmond Malone.
73. Dulce et decorum… mori: ‘It is sweet and becoming to die for one’s homeland’ – Horace, Odes, III.ii.13.
74. Cur… putat: ‘Why should I say that I cannot do what he thinks I am capable of?’ – Ausonius, Epigrams, i.12.
75. a noble Lord: Possibly William, 3rd Earl of Jersey.
76. Sed hie sunt nugce: ‘But they are trifles.’
77. the Charterhouse: A charitable institution or ‘hospital’ founded in London, in 1611, upon the site of the Carthusian monastery (OED, ‘Charterhouse’, 2).
78. the Monument: The column erected in the City of London to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666, and imputing the guilt of that disaster to the actions of Roman Catholics – cf. Alexander Pope, ‘Epistle to Bathurst’ (1733), ll. 339–40.
79. genus irritabile: ‘Fretful tribe [of poets]’ – Horace, Epistles, II.ii.102.
80. notanda: Things to be noted.
81. Dial… conspicimus: ‘The sly shadow steals away upon the dial, and the quickest eye can discover no more than that it is gone’ – Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis scientifica (1664), xi.6o. Quoted in Johnson’s Dictionary.
82. Bruy: Jean de la Bruyere (1645–96), French satirist and moralist.
83. Scribebamus, &c. Mart.: ‘Scribebamus epos; coepisti scribere: cessi, | aemula ne starent carmina nostra tuis. | transtulit ad tragicos se nostra Thalia cothurnos: | aptasti longum tu quoque syrma tibi. | fila lyrae movi Calabris exculta Camenis: | plectra rapis nobis, ambitiose, nova. | audemus saturas: Lucilius esse laboras. | ludo levis elegos: tu quoque ludis idem. | quid minus esse potest? epigrammata fingere coepi: | huic etiam petitur iam mea palma tibi. | elige quid nolis – quis enim pudor omnia velle? – | et si quid non vis, Tucca, relinque mihi’ – ‘I was writing an epic; you started to write one. I gave up, so that my poetry should not stand in comparison with yours. My Thalia [the muse of comedy] transferred herself to tragic buskins; you too fitted the long train on yourself. I stirred the lyre strings, as practised by Calabrian Muses; eager to show off, you snatch my new quill away from me. I try my hand at satire; you labour to be Lucilius. I play with light elegy; you play with it too. What can be humbler? I start shaping epigrams; here again you too are already after my trophy. Choose what you don’t want (modesty forbids us to want everything), and if there’s anything you don’t want, Tucca, leave it for me’: Martial, Epigrams, xii.94.
84. Oι ΦιγOι ΦιγOζ: ‘He had friends, but no friend’ – Diogenes Laertius, V.i.
85. Principum amicitias: ‘The [deadly] friendships of princes’ – Horace, Odes, II.i.4.
86. fami non famce scribere: To write for food, not fame.
87. Degoute… d’argent: Disgusted with fame, and starving for money.
88. bark and steel for the mind: Bark was used in tanning and preserving leather; so ‘bark and steel’ suggests that Johnson’s prose preserves and strengthens the mind.
89. No. 88: In fact no. 98.
90. A GREAT PERSONAGE: George III.
91. Cum tabulis… divite lingua: ‘When he takes his tablets to write he will take also the spirit of an honest censor. Any words that he shall find lacking in dignity, or without proper weight, or that are held unworthy of the rank, he will have heart of courage to degrade from their position, however unwilling they may be to retire, and bent still on haunting the precincts of Vesta [in Roman religion, the goddess of the blazing hearth, who was worshipped in every household]. Phrases of beauty that have been lost to popular view he will kindly disinter and bring into the light – phrases which, though they were on the lips of a Cato and a Cethegus of old time, now lie uncouth because out of fashion and disused because old. He will admit to the franchise new phrases which use has fathered and given to the world. In s
trength and clearness, like a crystal stream, he will pour his wealth along, and bless Latium with a richer tongue.’
92. Si forte… nomen: ‘If so there be abstruse things which absolutely require new terms to make them clear, it will be in your power to frame words which never sounded in the ears of a cinctured Cethegus, and free pardon will be granted if the licence be used modestly. New words and words of yesterday’s framing will find acceptance if the source from which they flow be Greek, and if the stream be turned on sparingly. Think you that there is any licence which the Romans will grant to Caecilius and Plautus, and then refuse to Virgil and Varius? Why should you grudge even such a one as myself the right of adding, if I can, something to the store, when the tongue of Cato and of Ennius has been permitted to enrich our mother speech by giving to the world new names for things? Each generation has been allowed, and will be allowed still, to issue words that bear the mint mark of the day’ – Horace, Ars Poetica, ll. 48–59.
93. Camdeo’s sports: Camdeo, the Hindu god of love, was the subject of Sir William Jones’s ‘A Hymn to Camdeo’ (1784).
94. Lethe: David Garrick, Lethe, a dramatic satire (1749).
95. O.S.: Old Style. See n. 19.
96. intenerate: Make tender, soften (Johnson).
97. Eheu… 1752: ‘Ah! Elizabeth Johnson, wedded 9 July 1736, died (alas) 17 March 1752.’
98. the expedition against the Havannah: On 12 August 1762 English forces under the command of the 3rd Earl of Albemarle launched a successful assault on Havana, then occupied by the Spanish.
99. Vix Priamus… fuit: ‘The death of Priam and the capture of Troy were hardly worth the cost’ – Ovid, Heroides, i.4.
100. dulce decus: ‘Dear dignity’ – Horace, Odes, I.i.2.
101. Thy love of folly, and thy scorn of fools: More accurately, ‘Your Taste of Follies, with our Scorn of Fools’ – ‘Epistle to a Lady’ (1735), in Alexander Pope, Moral Essays, ii.276.
102. I hope… gentleman: Having survived the battle of Shrewsbury, Falstaff resolves to ‘purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do’ (1 Henry IV, V.iv.156-7).
103. an authouress: Either Catherine Talbot or Elizabeth Carter.
104. my particular friends: John Hawkesworth and (probably) Elizabeth Carter.
105. Esau sold his birth-right: See Genesis 25:29–34.
106. the Tarpeian maid… ornaments: During a siege of Rome by the Sabines, Tarpeia, the daughter of the commanding officer, betrayed the citadel in return for what the Sabines bore on their left arms (i.e. golden bracelets). Having taken the city, however, the Sabines crushed her under their shields.
107. Le vainqueur… dela terre: The conqueror of the conqueror of the world.
108. The shepherd… the rocks: An allusion to Virgil, Eclogue viii.43-5: ‘Now I know what love is. On flinty crags Tmarus bore him, or Rhodope, or the farthest Garamantes – a child not of our race or blood.’
109. one of the vices… of society: That is, adultery.
110. no. a late noble Lord: George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield.
111. Lost in. Lost in… gloom: Alexander Pope, ‘Eloisa to Abelard’ (1717), l. 38.
112. Vallis… nubes: ‘See spicy clouds from lowly Saron rise’ – Alexander Pope, Messiah (1712), l. 27.
113. one other Fellow… now resident: John Collins.
114. the Titans: In Greek mythology the Titans were the children of the primeval couple, Uranus and Ge. There were twelve of them – six of each sex.
115. a learned Swede: Possibly Peter Chriström.
116. Oιμμ… ππóΦαμν: ‘Alas – but wherefore alas? We have suffered the fate of men’ – Euripides, fragment.
117. Calypso… Polypheme… resist: In Greek mythology Calypso was the daughter of Atlas; she detained Odysseus seven years on the island of Ogygia (Homer, Odyssey, V). Polyphemus was a cyclops (a one-eyed giant), and the son of Poseidon. Odysseus escaped from him by blinding him with a stake (Odyssey, IX).
118. Crescimbeni: A reference to recent works of Italian literary history by Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni – probably the Istoria della volgar poesia (1698) and the Commentarii (1702-n).
119. Term. Scti.… munitum: ‘Hilary Term 1755. The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford, to all who may read this, greetings. Whereas our ancestors instituted academic degrees to the end that men of outstanding genius and learning might be distinguished by titles also; and whereas the learned Samuel Johnson of Pembroke College has long been known to the world of letters by writings that have shaped the manners of his countrymen and is even now labouring at a work of the greatest usefulness in adorning and fixing our native tongue (he is about to publish an English Dictionary, compiled with the greatest diligence and judgement); therefore we, the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars, have unanimously made the said Samuel Johnson a Master of Arts, and we wish him joy of all the rights and privileges that belong to that degree. In evidence of this we have affixed the seal of the University of Oxford. Given in the Convocation House 20 February 1755. The diploma written above was read out by the Registrar, and was confirmed by the decree of Convocation and with the seal of the University.’
120. Dom. Doctori Huddesford… existimo: ‘To Dr Huddesford, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. Both you and I would think me ungrateful if I failed to express in a letter (the most trifling form of acknowledgement) the pleasure I feel in the honour which (I imagine at your instigation) the Senatus Academicus has done me. I should be equally ungrateful if I did not acknowledge the kindness of the excellent man who has put into my hands the proof of your regard. My pleasure is enhanced by this, that I am enrolled in your ranks at a time when cunning but foolish men are straining every nerve to lessen your authority and to injure the good name of Oxford. I have always opposed them in so far as an obscure scholar can, and always shall. Whoever, in these days of trouble, fails in his duty to you and the University I regard as failing in his duty to virtue and learning, to himself and posterity.’ The reference to attempts to injure the good name of Oxford invites the reader to recall the events of the Oxfordshire election of 1754-5, which had been bitterly fought, and in which a politically polarized University had been besmirched once more with allegations of Jacobitism, notoriously by Pitt the elder in the House of Commons on 26 November 1754. See The History of the University of Oxford, vol. V, ‘The Eighteenth Century’, ed. L. S. Sutherland and L. G. Mitchell (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 129–42.
121. vasta mole superbus: ‘Proud in its vast bulk’ – cf. Virgil, Aeneid, iii.656.
122. a Bibliotheque: That is to say, a review or literary journal.
123. in luminis oras: ‘Into the bright coasts of light’ – Lucretius, i.23.
124. De tristitia… ante captionem ejus: Of the passion, weariness, fear, and prayer of Christ before his arrest.
125. De resignatione… Morum: Of Sir Thomas More’s resignation of the Great Seal into the King’s hands.
126. Mori Defensio Morice: More’s Defence of Folly.
127. His definition of Network: ‘Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections’.
128. his Tory… Oats: Tory: ‘One who adheres to the antient constitution of the state, and the apostolical hierarchy of the church of England, opposed to a whig’. Whig: ‘The name of a faction’. Pension: ‘An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.’ Oats: ‘A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people’.
129. the great parliamentary reward: In 1714 Parliament offered a reward of £20,000 for the discovery of a reliable method of determining the precise longitude at sea, essential for reliable navigation. The problem was eventually solved in 1759, when John Harrison (1693–1776) invented the marine chronometer.
130. making provision… over him: In the Preface to his Dictionary, Johns
on wrote, ‘much of my life has been lost under the pressure of disease; much has been trifled away; and much has always been spent in provision for the day that was passing over me’ (2nd edn, 2 vols. (1755-6), I, sig. b/}v).
131. the Militia Bill: See n. 7.
132. Treaties with… the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel: See n. 8.
133. Admiral Byng: See n. 9.
134. con amore: With love, zeal or delight (OED).
135. Iste tulit… feretur: ‘Losing he wins, because his name will be | Ennobled by defeat who durst contend with me’ – Ovid, Metamorphoses, xiii.19–20.
136. pour encourager les autres: To put heart in the others.
137. Antigallican: Opposed to what is French (OED).
138. expedition to Rochfort: See n. 10.
139. honores mutant mores: ‘Honours change manners’ – cf. Suetonius, ‘Tiberius’, lxvii.4.
140. Thee… I woo: John Milton, ‘Il Penseroso’ (composed? i63i, first published 1645), ll. 63-4.
141. Quamvis… Sibylles: ‘Though I regret the departure of my old friend, I commend his resolve to settle at Cumae, and to present one citizen to the Sibyl’ – Juvenal, Satires, iii.1-3.
142. Sibyl: The name given by the Greeks and Romans to a prophetess inspired by a deity.
143. a poem by Blacklock: Thomas Blacklock (1721–91), ‘On Punch: An Epigram’.
144. a very accomplished lady: Possibly Mrs Boswell.
145. a Turkish lady: Mlle Emetulla.
146. Ma foi… circule: ‘Believe me, monsieur, our happiness depends on how our blood is flowing.’
147. Apres tout… passable: ‘When all is said and done, it’s a satisfactory world.’ Cf. the conclusion of Voltaire’s Le Monde comme il va (1748), where Ituriel resolves ‘de laisser aller le monde comme il va “car, dit-il, si tout n’est pas bien, tout est passable” ‘(‘to let the world alone, “for, he said, even though everything isn’t good, everything is fairly good”’).
148. Where ignorance… wise: Thomas Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (ij^j), ll. 99–100.
149. la theorie des sensations agreables: Boswell alludes to Louis Jean Levesque de Pouilly’s Theorie des sentimens agreables (1743), which was translated into English anonymously as The Theory of Agreeable Sensations (1749).
The Life of Samuel Johnson Page 201
