The Life of Samuel Johnson

by James Boswell

294. Ranelagh: Pleasure gardens on the Thames near Chelsea, opened to the public in 1742.

  295. a certain player: Thomas Sheridan.

  296. the apostolical injunction: ‘Giv[e] thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ – Ephesians 5:20.

  297. Strange cozenage… remain: John Dryden, Aureng-Zebe (1675), IV.i. 39–40.

  298. Fingal: One of the Ossianic poems of James Macpherson, Fingal was published in 1762.

  299. lucidus ordo… nec certa recurrit imago: ‘Clear order… no certain image recurs’ – Horace, Ars Poetica, l. 41.

  300. magis… Christianus: More of a philosopher than a Christian.

  301. the Caliban of literature: In Shakespeare’s The Tempest Caliban is the son of the witch Sycorax, and in the dramatis personae he is referred to as ‘a savage and deformed… slave’.

  302. Optima… mortis: ‘Life’s fairest days are ever the first to flee for hapless mortals; on creep diseases, and sad age, and suffering; and stern death’s ruthlessness sweeps away its prey’ – Virgil, Georgics, iii.66-8.

  303. Aιν… αγγων: ‘Be always the best, and surpass other men’ – Homer, Iliad, vi.208.

  304. a certain Prelate: Perhaps the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Richard Robinson.

  305. a celebrated historian: Edward Gibbon.

  306. laudo tamen: The quotation comes from Juvenal, Satires, iii.2, a poem which Johnson himself had imitated in his London (1738), and in which he rendered ‘laudo tamen’, meaning literally ‘nevertheless I praise’, as ‘Yet still my calmer Thoughts his Choice commend’ (l. 3).

  307. Falkland’s Islands: See n. 14.

  308. Junius: The pseudonym of the author (now generally agreed to be Sir Philip Francis) of a series of brilliantly acerbic pro-Wilkes letters which appeared in the Public Advertiser between January 1769 and January 1772.

  309. principalities… this world: Ephesians 6:12.

  310. Manilla ransom: On 25 September 1762, as part of operations during the Seven Years War, British forces took Manila by storm. The Spanish inhabitants were allowed to ransom their possessions, and a large portion of this ransom was paid in the form of bills on the Spanish treasury. Unsurprisingly, these bills were later not honoured. In his Thoughts on Falkland’s Islands (1771) Johnson dismissed agitation for the repayment of this ransom as characteristic of ‘the inferior bellowers of sedition’.

  311. one of the Secretaries of the Treasury: Either Sir Grey Cooper or John Robinson.

  312. tristitiam… ventis: ‘Sadness and fear I banish to the wild winds, to go with them to the Cretan sea’ – Horace, Odes, I.xxvi.1-3.

  313. Sive per: ‘Sive per Syrtis iter aestuosas | sive…’ – ‘Whether he be making his way through the waves of the Syrtes, or…’ – Horace, Odes, I.xxii. 5-6.

  314. viaticum: The Eucharist, as administered to or received by one who is dying or in danger of death (OED, 1).

  315. the expedition: In 1772 the natural scientist and botanist Sir Joseph Banks proposed a scientific expedition to the Pacific. It was however frustrated by Lord Sandwich at the Admiralty, and did not take place.

  316. simples: Plants or herbs employed for medical purposes (OED, 6). Cf. ‘Culling of simples’ in Romeo and Juliet, V.i.40.

  317. the fast of the 30th of January: In the Church of England, a day of fasting and mortification to commemorate the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649.

  318. Royal Marriage Bill: The Royal Marriage Act (1772) prevented marriages of members of the royal family unless authorized by the monarch or ratified by the Privy Council.

  319. a friend: Lord Cullen.

  320. Lady––––––: Lady Emily Hervey.

  321. Saturday, March 27: In fact 27 March 1772 was a Friday.

  322. drank… with the wits: Matthew Prior, ‘The Chameleon’ (1708), l. 40.

  323. the fools who use it: Cf. Hamlet, III.ii.39–40.

  324. a certain prosperous member of Parliament: Henry Dundas.

  325. Dives… his brethren: Luke 16:19–31.

  326. the Pantheon: A place of public resort in Oxford Street, which had opened in January 1772.

  327. J’ai fait… un ingrat: ‘I have disaffected ten men and made one man ungrateful’ – attributed to Louis XIV, and quoted by Johnson in his ‘Life of Swift’ (Samuel Johnson, The Lives of the Poets, ed. Roger Lonsdale, 4 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006), III, 197).

  328. The Rehearsal: George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, The Rehearsal (1672); a farcical mockery of the heroic tragedies of the period, which in particular lampooned Sir William D’Avenant (but also aimed some thrusts at Dryden) in the character of the ridiculous playwright Bayes.

  329. coup d’œil: A view or scene as it strikes the eye at a glance (OED).

  330. in time of mourning: On 8 February 1772 the Princess Augusta, daughter-in-law of George III and consort of the Prince of Wales, had died of cancer of the throat.

  331. a schoolmaster of his acquaintance: James Elphinston.

  332. a Probationer: William MacMaster.

  333. passage in scripture… forty thousand Assyrians: 2 Kings 19:35 (where the number given is in fact 185,000).

  334. a passage… of Euripides: Euripides, The Phoenician Maidens, l. 1120. The siege of Thebes was conducted by Eteocles, ejected from Thebes by his brother Oedipus, and assisted by Adrastus, king of Argos, and the army of the seven chiefs. It also supplied the subject for Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes.

  335. Il a bien fait… commence: ‘He did well, my prince – you started it.’

  336. the siege of Belgrade: Belgrade had been taken by Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1717.

  337. the Rockingham party: A group of pure Whigs led by the Marquis of Rockingham, whom Burke had served in the capacity of private secretary since 1765.

  338. Bluebeard: The subject of a fairy story by Charles Perrault (1628–1703), Bluebeard killed his wives for disobeying his order not to look in a particular room, within which were the bodies of their predecessors.

  339. Sappho in Ovid: Ovid, Heroides, xv.37-8. As part of her love letter to Phaon, Sappho argues that her own physical plainness should not put off the beautiful Phaon, since nature shows many examples of such apparent mismatches.

  340. the Spectator… The Gentleman: See The Spectator, 12 (14 March 1711).

  341. loco parentis: In place of a parent.

  342. Elzevir edition: A family of printers in the Netherlands renowned since the late sixteenth century for the high quality and design of their books, the Elzevirs were also famous for producing duodecimo, or small-format, editions of the classics.

  343. A gentleman: James Boswell.

  344. one of his friends: Perhaps James Boswell.

  345. A learned gentleman: Dr Robert Vansittart.

  346. a modern historian… moralist: William Robertson and James Beattie.

  347. a friend of mine: David Boswell, brother to James.

  348. misera est… aut vagum: Where law is unknown or uncertain, life is pitiful slavery.

  349. jura vaga… jura incognita… misera servitus: Unclear laws… unknown laws… miserable servitude.

  350. Qui… in illicita: ‘Whoever is temperate in lawful pleasures will never fall into those which are unlawful’ – probably a misremembering of Radulfus Ardens, homily xxviii: ‘quoniam qui intemperanter sequuntur licita, cadunt in illicita. Et ille solus in illicita non cadit, qui a licitis caute se restringit.’

  351. mala fide: In bad faith.

  352. covin: A privy agreement between two or more to the prejudice of another; conspiracy, collusion (OED, 3).

  353. Lex non recipit majus et minus: The law does not acknowledge greater and lesser.

  354. Suum cuique tribuito: ‘To each his due’ – Justinian, Institutes, I.i.i.

  355. Beattie’s book: James Beattie, An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth (1770); the third edition was published in 1772.

  356. Dum memor… artus: ‘While I yet am conscious of
myself, and while my breath governs these limbs’ – Virgil, Aeneid, iv.336.

  357. Divisum… habet: ‘Caesar has divided the empire with Jove.’

  358. This gentleman: Phineas Bond.

  359. a new comedy: She Stoops to Conquer.

  360. a gentleman eminent in the literary world: Bishop Percy.

  361. another hand: Dr John Calder.

  362. a young woman: Perhaps Miss Carmichael.

  363. An eminent publick character: Edmund Burke.

  364. A friend of ours: Sir Joshua Reynolds.

  365. And every poet… friend: Untraced.

  366. For colleges… a friend: Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, ll. 872-3.

  367. Il a fait… grande dame: ‘He has paid a very gracious compliment to a certain great lady.’ The lady in question was the Duchess of Cumberland.

  368. Monsieur Goldsmith… elegamment: ‘Mr Goldsmith is like the sea, which throws up pearls and many other beautiful things, without noticing that he does so… Very well said, and very elegantly.’

  369. A person: Sir Henry Cavendish.

  370. A gentleman: Arthur Murphy.

  371. Molus: In Greek mythology the guardian of the winds, who gave Odysseus a leather bag confining the winds adverse to his voyage.

  372. If there’s delight… bleed for me: William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700), III.i.422-3.

  373. In Corum… Ennosigceum: ‘He that had been wont to inflict barbaric stripes upon the winds Corus and Eurus – never so mistreated in their Aeolian prison-house – he who had bound the Earth-shaker himself with chains’ – Juvenal, Satires, x.180–82.

  374. The waves… the wind: Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), l. 232.

  375. a learned gentleman: Sir William Weller Pepys.

  376. a gentleman who had destroyed himself: William Fitzherbert.

  377. Otaheite: Tahiti, visited by Captain Samuel Wallis, of the British navy, in 1767.

  378. Pressens… Augustus: ‘Augustus shall prove himself a god on earth’ – Horace, Odes, III.v.2.

  379. Forsitan… istis: ‘It may be that our names too will mingle with these’ – Ovid, De Arte Amandi, iii.339.

  380. the Authour of Eugenio: Thomas Beach.

  381. Thenwe… securely pry: JohnDryden, Annus Mirabilis (x66j), ll. 653-6.

  382. Menagiana: Menagiana (1693–1715) is a collection of the jokes and sayings of Gilles Menage (1613–92), the French scholar and man of letters, compiled after his death by his friends.

  383. Il preche… bien fort: ‘He preaches very well, and I preach very loud.’

  384. Madme de Bourdonne… corps: ‘Madame de Bourdonne, canoness of Remiremont, had just listened to a sermon full of fire and spirit, but flimsy and very irregular. One of her lady friends, who was interested on behalf of the preacher, said to her as they were leaving, “Well, madame: how did what you have just heard strike you? Was it witty?” “ So much so, replied Madame de Bourdonne, that I saw no substance in it.”’ (The witticism depends on the multiple meanings of the French words esprit and corps, which can mean respectively both ‘wit’ and ‘soul’, and ‘substance’ and ‘body’.)

  385. the Defence of Pluralities: Henry Wharton, A Defence of Pluralities (1692); a traditionalist defence of the Church of England practice of allowing a clergyman to hold two benefices simultaneously.

  386. Caius… Titius: Fictional parties in Roman law.

  387. a lady: Lady Diana Beauclerk.

  388. the gentleman: Topham Beauclerk.

  389. the father: Bennet Langton senior.

  390. Exceptio probat regulam: The exception proves the rule.

  391. nidification: The action of nest-building (OED).

  392. the Grand Signor: The sultan of Turkey.

  393. extra scandalum: Without offence.

  394. A gentleman present: Bennet Langton.

  395. a German: George Michael Moser; in fact a Swiss.

  396. Sunday, May 8: In fact Sunday fell on 9 May in 1773.

  397. Monday, May 9: See n. 396.

  398. one of our friends: Bennet Langton.

  399. pars magna fuit: ‘He was a great part’ – Virgil, Aeneid, ii.6.

  400. Inchoavi… Homeri: ‘Began reading the Pentateuch. Finished the Confutatio Fabulae Burdonum. Read the first Act of Troades. Read Clarke’s last Dissertation on the Pentateuch. Two of Clarke’s Sermons. Read the Betriciam [in fact Bebrycian] in Apollonius. Read a hundred lines of Homer.’

  401. —: Bennet Langton.

  402. —: Langton, in Lincolnshire.

  403. Flora: Flora MacDonald (1722–90), a Jacobite heroine, who assisted Bonnie Prince Charlie in escaping from Hanoverian troops in 1745.

  404. Maria… cogunt: ‘Mary Queen of Scots, worthy of a better age, reluctantly surrenders her rights to her rebellious people’; ‘Rebellious subjects force Mary Queen of Scots against her will to abdicate her office.’

  405. novce… vires: ‘In the battle new strength returns’ – a misremembering of Virgil, Aeneid, xii.424, ‘novae rediere in pristina vires’: ‘new-born strength returned to its old vigour’.

  406. A gentleman: Edward Gibbon.

  407. tell Dr. Blair… begin again: See p. 410.

  408. simile non est idem: Likeness is not identity.

  409. Maria… data 15—: ‘Mary Queen of Scots, born 15—, driven into exile by her countrymen 15—, executed by her hostess 15—.’

  410. Kνσι γησoν: ‘Lord have mercy upon us.’

  411. Busy, curious, thirsty fly: Johnson composed a Latin version of this popular song.

  412. Töv ταΦoν… Φνσιxóν: ‘Stranger, you behold the tomb of Oliver Goldsmith. Tread not on his hallowed ashes with careless feet. If you have any care for nature, for the beauty of verse, for antiquity, then weep for a poet, a historian, and a naturalist.’

  413. Ipecacuanha: A South American small shrubby plant, which possesses emetic, diaphoretic, and purgative properties (OED).

  414. Even… see desert: A reworking of Alexander Pope, ‘Epilogue to the Satires’ (1738), ii.70.

  415. concessere columnce: ‘Booksellers [never] concede’– Horace, Ars Poetica, l.373.

  416. a convict: John Reid.

  417. the Pollio and Gallus: Respectively Virgil, Eclogues iv and x.

  418. Bis datqui cito dat: ‘He who gives quickly gives twice over’– Erasmus, Adages.

  419. witching time o’ night: Hamlet, III.ii.358.

  420. monumentum perenne: ‘Enduring monument’ – Horace, Odes, III.xxx.i.

  421. the resolutions… Bostonians: The Boston Port Bill of 1774 had closed Boston as a port for the landing and shipping of goods.

  422. Legitimas… preces: ‘Pure hearts make lawful prayers.’

  423. De non existentibus… ratio: There is no distinction to be drawn between what does not exist and what does not appear.

  424. of something after death: Hamlet, III.i.80.

  425. an account of it: John Knox, A tour through the Highlands of Scotland, and the Hebride isles, in MDCCLXXXVI. By John Knox (1787).

  426. a Scot, if ever Scot there were: Untraced.

  427. natale solum: Native soil.

  428. some low man: The Revd Donald M’Nicol.

  429. another Scotchman: James Macpherson.

  430. loved Scotland better than truth: Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), p. 192. The allusion is to the saying, attributed to Aristotle, that truth was to him an even dearer friend than Plato.

  431. Resolutions… the American Congress: See n. 15.

  432. a certain popular Lord Chancellor: Lord Camden.

  433. Fallitur… Claudianus: ‘It is a mistake to think that obedience to a prince is slavery; a more pleasant freedom is not to be found than with a pious monarch’ – Claudian, Consulatus Stilichonis, iii.133.

  434. a Right Honourable friend: William Gerard Hamilton.

  435. counterfeiting Apollo’s coin: Johnson’s remark implies that Sheridan had no right to
set himself up as a judge on literary matters.

  436. The Hypocrite… Cibber’s Nonjuror: Isaac Bickerstaffe, The Hypocrite (1768); Colley Cibber, The Nonjuror (1717).

  437. oath of abjuration: See n. 97 to the Introduction.

  438. had he not… swore: Cf. Macbeth, II.ii.12–13, which has ‘slept’ rather than ‘swore’.

  439. a poor boy from the country: William Davenport.

  440. Bon Ton: David Garrick, Bon Ton: or, high life above stairs (1759).

  441. Os homini… tollere vultus: ‘Man looks aloft, and with uplifted eyes | Beholds his own hereditary skies’– Ovid, Metamorphoses, i.85, tr. Dryden.

  442. Weave… room enough: Gray, ‘The Bard’, ll. 49–51.

  443. A young lady… a man: Lady Susan Fox and William O’Brien.

  444. virum volitare per ora: ‘To fly through the mouths of men’ – Virgil, Georgics, iii.9.

  445. One of the company: James Boswell.

  446. CANCELLARIUS… quinto: ‘The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford, to all those who may read this, greeting. Know that the illustrious Samuel Johnson, a man learned in all humane letters and happy in his grasp of the sciences, long since became so famous for his writings, eminently calculated in form and matter to improve the manners of his countrymen, that the University thought him worthy of signal honour and so enrolled him among its honoured Masters. Now whereas this distinguished man has won such repute by his subsequent labours, notably in refining and fixing our language, that he is justly reckoned a chief and leader in the republic of letters, therefore we the Chancellor, Master, and Scholars of the University of Oxford, wishing at once to honour him as he deserves, and to record our own devotion to letters, have in our solemn Convocation of Doctors and Masters made the said Samuel Johnson a Doctor of Civil Law, and have by the present diploma made him free of all the rights and privileges that belong to that degree. Given in our Convocation House, 30 March 1775.’

  447. un gentilhomme comme un autre: A gentleman like any other.

  448. Viro… 1775: ‘To the Reverend Thomas Fothergill, Professor of Theology, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. Dr Samuel Johnson. I need not use many words to tell you how I receive the commendation with which the University over which you preside has transmitted my name to posterity. Every man is glad to think well of himself; and that man must think well of himself, of whom you, the arbiters of letters, can think well. But the good you have done me has one drawback: henceforth any fault of mine, of commission or omission, will hurt your reputation; I must always fear that what is a signal honour to me may one day bring discredit upon you. 7 April 1775’