The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [829]
d ‘Young students of the lowest rank at Oxford are so called.’ Warton.
e ‘His Dictionary.’Warton.
f ‘Of the degree at Oxford.’Warton.
a ‘His degree had now past, according to the usual form, the suffrages of the heads of Colleges; but was not yet finally granted by the University. It was carried without a single dissentient voice.’ Warton.
b ‘On Spenser.’ Warton.
a ‘Of the degree.’ Warton.
b ‘Principal of St. Mary Hall at Oxford. He brought with him the diploma from Oxford.’ WARTON.
c ‘I suppose Johnson means that my kind intention of being the first to give him the good news of the degree being granted was frustrated, because Dr. King brought it before my intelligence arrived.’ WARTON.
d ‘Dr. Huddesford, President of Trinity College.’ WARTON.
e Extracted from the Convocation-Register, Oxford.
a We may conceive what a high gratification it must have been to Johnson to receive his diploma from the hands of the great Dr. King, whose principles were so congenial with his own.
b The original is in my possession.
c ‘The words in Italicks are allusions to passages in Mr. Warton’s poem, called The Progress of Discontent, now lately published.’ Warton.
a Sir John Hawkins, p. 341, inserts two notes as having passed formally between Andrew Millar and Johnson, to the above effect. I am assured this was not the case. In the way of incidental remark it was a pleasant play of raillery. To have deliberately written notes in such terms would have been morose.
b His Dictionary.
a ‘A translation of Apollonius Rhodius was now intended by Mr. Warton.’ Warton.
b [Kettel Hall is an ancient tenement built about the year 1615 by Dr. Ralph Kettel, President of Trinity College, for the accommodation of commoners of that Society. It adjoins the College; and was a few years ago converted into a private house.]
c ‘At Ellsfield, a village three miles from Oxford.’ Warton.
d ‘Booksellers concerned in his Dictionary.’ Warton.
a He thus defines Excise: ‘A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom Excise is paid.’ The Commissioners of Excise being offended by this severe reflection, consulted Mr. Murray, then Attorney General, to know whether redress could be legally obtained. I wished to have procured for my readers a copy of the opinion which he gave, and which may now be justly considered as history; but the mysterious secrecy of office, it seems, would not permit it. I am, however, informed, by very good authority, that its import was, that the passage might be considered as actionable; but that it would be more prudent in the board not to prosecute. Johnson never made the smallest alteration in this passage. We find he still retained his early prejudice against Excise; for in The Idler, No. 65, there is the following very extraordinary paragraph: ‘The authenticity of Clarendon’s history, though printed with the sanction of one of the first Universities of the world, had not an unexpected manuscript been happily discovered, would, with the help of factious credulity, have been brought into question by the two lowest of all human beings, a Scribbler for a party, and a Commissioner of Excise.’ – The persons to whom he alludes were Mr. John Oldmixon, and George Ducket, Esq.
a In the third {fourth} edition, published in 1773, he left out the words perhaps never, and added the following paragraph: –
‘It sometimes begins middle or final syllables in words compounded, as block-head, or derived from the Latin, as compre-hended.’
b The number of the French Academy employed in settling their language.
a See note by Mr. Warton, ante, p. 149.
b ‘On Saturday the 12th, about twelve at night, died Mr. Zachariah Williams, in his eighty-third year, after an illness of eight months, in full possession of his mental faculties. He has been long known to philosophers and seamen for his skill in magnetism, and his proposal to ascertain the longitude by a peculiar system of the variation of the compass. He was