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Stark full of pride, of folly, of – yourselves;

Say where’s the wretch of all your impious crew

Who dares confront his character to view?

Behold Eugenio, view him o’er and o’er,

Then sink into yourselves, and be no more.’

Mr. Reed informs me that the Authour of Eugenio,380 a Wine Merchant at Wrexham in Denbighshire, soon after its publication, viz. 17th May, 1737, cut his own throat; and that it appears by Swift’s Works that the poem had been shewn to him, and received some of his corrections. Johnson had read Eugenio on his first coming to town, for we see it mentioned in one of his letters to Mr. Cave, which has been inserted in this work {p. 72}.

b I formerly thought that I had perhaps mistaken the word, and imagined it to be Corps, from its similarity of sound to the real one. For an accurate and shrewd unknown gentleman, to whom I am indebted for some remarks on my work, observes on this passage – ‘Q. if not on the word Fort? A vociferous French preacher said of Bourdaloue, “Il preche fort bien, et moi bien fort.”383 - Menagiana. See also Anecdotes Litteraires, Article Bourdaloue.’ But my ingenious and obliging correspondent, Mr. Abercrombie of Philadelphia, has pointed out to me the following passage in Menagiana; which renders the preceding conjecture unnecessary, and confirms my original statement:

Mad de Bourdonne, Chanoinesse de Remiremont, venoit d entendre un discours plein de feu et d’esprit, mais fort peu solide, et tres-irregulier. Une de ses amies, qui y prenoit interet pour l’orateur, lui dit en sortant, “Eh bien, Mad, que vous semble-t-il de ce que vous venez d’entendre? – Qu’il y a d’esprit?” – “Il y a tant, repondit Mad de Bourdonne, que je n’y ai pas vu de corps.”384 – Menagiana, tome ii. p. 64. Amsterd. 1713.

a Dr. Mayo’s calm temper and steady perseverance rendered him an admirable subject for the exercise of Dr. Johnson’s powerful abilities. He never flinched; but, after reiterated blows, remained seemingly unmoved as at the first. The scintillations of Johnson’s genius flashed every time he was struck, without his receiving any injury. Hence he obtained the epithet of The Literary Anvil.

a Pr. and Med. p. 40.

a The Reverend Thomas Bagshaw, M.A., who died on November 20, 1787, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, Chaplain of Bromley College, in Kent, and Rector of Southfleet. He had resigned the cure of Bromley Parish some time before his death. For this, and another letter from Dr. Johnson in 1784, to the same truely respectable man, I am indebted to Dr. John Loveday, of the Commons, a son of the late learned and pious John Loveday, Esq., of Caversham in Berkshire, who obligingly transcribed them for me from the originals in his possession. This worthy gentleman, having retired from business, now lives in Warwickshire. The world has been lately obliged to him as the Editor of the late Rev. Dr. Townson’s excellent work, modestly entitled, A Discourse on the Evangelical History, from the Interment to the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; to which is prefixed, a truly interesting and pleasing account of the authour, by the Reverend Mr. Ralph Churton.

a Pr. and Med. p. 129.

b Mrs. Piozzi’s Anecdotes of Johnson, p. 131.

a [The authour was not a small gainer by this extraordinary Journey; for Dr. Johnson thus writes to Mrs. Thrale, Nov. 3, 1773: – ‘Boswell will praise my resolution and perseverance, and I shall in return celebrate his good humour and perpetual cheerfulness. He has better faculties than I had imagined; more justness of discernment, and more fecundity of images. It is very convenient to travel with him; for there is no house where he is not received with kindness and respect.’ Let. 90, to Mrs. Thrale.]

b Yet surely it is a very useful work, and of wonderful research and labour for one man to have executed.

a In this he shewed a very acute penetration. My wife paid him the most assiduous and respectful attention, while he was our guest; so that I wonder how he discovered her wishing for his