The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [920]
259. the gentleman… night-cap: The Spectator, 576 (4 August 1714).
260. Artemisias: Artemisia was a poetic name for a learned woman or bluestocking: cf. Alexander Pope, Imitations of English Poets, ‘E. of Dorset’ (1727), ‘Artimesia’, ll. 1-6. It derived originally perhaps from the Artemisia who was queen of Halicarnassus and who fought manfully at the Battle of Salamis (Herodotus, viii.87-8).
261. a gentleman of my acquaintance: Lord Auchinleck (Boswell’s father).
262. one of our common friends: Bennet Langton.
263. vails: A vail is a gratuity given to a servant or attendant; a tip; one of those given by a visitor on his departure to the servants of the house in which he has been a guest (OED, 5).
264. foenum habet in cornu: ‘He carries hay on his horns’ – Horace, Satires, I.iv.34.
265. J’ai lu… de la campagne: ‘In the geography of Lucas de Linda I have read a paternoster written in a language completely different from Italian, and from all other languages which derive from Latin. The author calls it “the rustic language of Corsica”; perhaps it has gradually died out; but in the past it was certainly prevalent in the hills and countryside. The same author says the same thing when speaking of Sardinia: that there are two languages on the island, one urban, the other rural.’
266. lingua rustica: Country language or dialect.
267. l’homme d’epee: The man of the sword.
268. One of the company: Possibly Joshua Reynolds.
269. one of the company: James Boswell.
270. Zimri: In John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel (1681), ll. 543–68 – a portrait of the Duke of Buckingham.
271. Pope’s character of Addison: In Alexander Pope, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735), ll. 193–214.
272. description… in the Mourning Bride: William Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697), II.i.
273. god of his idolatry: Cf. Romeo and Juliet, II.i.156.
274. Agincourt… the tomb of her ancestors… Dover Cliff: Henry V, IV.i; Romeo and Juliet, IV.iii.14–57; King Lear, IV.vi.
275. some one: Probably James Boswell.
276. ad hominem: To the man.
277. one of our most eminent literati: Edmond Malone.
278. the authour of a modern tragedy: Robert Jephson.
279. The Scotchman: Lord Kames.
280. A wit about town: Benjamin Loveling.
281. The ballad of Hardyknute: An ancient poem collected by Thomas Percy in his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 3 vols. (1765), II, 87–102.
282. a poor player… stage: Macbeth, V.v.23-4.
283. centos: A cento is a composition formed by joining scraps from other authors (Johnson).
284. a very laborious Judge: Lord Auchinleck.
285. e secretioribus consiliis: One of his most confidential advisers.
286. Heliconian spring: Helicon is a mountain in Boeotia, thought in Greek mythology to be the home of the Muses (see n. 28). On it were the sacred springs of Hippocrene and Aganippe, which by a natural association became poetic metonyms for artistic inspiration.
287. One of the company: James Boswell.
288. one of Cibber’s comedies… butt end of it: In Act I of Colley Cibber’s The Refusal: or, the Ladies Philosophy (1720), Witling says to Granger, ‘What, now your fire’s gone, you would knock me down with the butt-end, would you?’
289. the Middlesex election: Having stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the City of London on 25 March 1768, Wilkes decided to stand as a candidate for Middlesex, and, after a well-organized campaign buoyed up by popular enthusiasm, he was returned to Parliament for Middlesex on 28 March. He was then expelled on the grounds that he was still outlawed. The episode was an important test of whether popular support or the favour of the Crown was of greater importance in matters of political authority, and it prompted Edmund Burke’s pamphlet on that subject, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770).
290. Council of Trent: The nineteenth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic