The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [921]
291. Albano… locutas: ‘Spoken by the Muses on the Alban hill’ – Horace, Epistles, II.i.26.
292. the long Parliament: The Parliament summoned by Charles I in November 1640, and which lasted until April 1653, when its members were ejected by Cromwell’s troops.
293. a French lady: Mme de Boufflers.
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