The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [913]
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