The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [922]
322. drank… with the wits: Matthew Prior, ‘The Chameleon’ (1708), l. 40.
323. the fools who use it: Cf. Hamlet, III.ii.39–40.
324. a certain prosperous member of Parliament: Henry Dundas.
325. Dives… his brethren: Luke 16:19–31.
326. the Pantheon: A place of public resort in Oxford Street, which had opened in January 1772.
327. J’ai fait… un ingrat: ‘I have disaffected ten men and made one man ungrateful’ – attributed to Louis XIV, and quoted by Johnson in his ‘Life of Swift’ (Samuel Johnson, The Lives of the Poets, ed. Roger Lonsdale, 4 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006), III, 197).
328. The Rehearsal: George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, The Rehearsal (1672); a farcical mockery of the heroic tragedies of the period, which in particular lampooned Sir William D’Avenant (but also aimed some thrusts at Dryden) in the character of the ridiculous playwright Bayes.
329. coup d’œil: A view or scene as it strikes the eye at a glance (OED).
330. in time of mourning: On 8 February 1772 the Princess Augusta, daughter-in-law of George III and consort of the Prince of Wales, had died of cancer of the throat.
331. a schoolmaster of his acquaintance: James Elphinston.
332. a Probationer: William MacMaster.
333. passage in scripture… forty thousand Assyrians: 2 Kings 19:35 (where the number given is in fact 185,000).
334. a passage… of Euripides: Euripides, The Phoenician Maidens, l. 1120. The siege of Thebes was conducted by Eteocles, ejected from Thebes by his brother Oedipus, and assisted by Adrastus, king of Argos, and the army of the seven chiefs. It also supplied the subject for Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes.
335. Il a bien fait… commence: ‘He did well, my prince – you started it.’
336. the siege of Belgrade: Belgrade had been taken by Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1717.
337. the Rockingham party: A group of pure Whigs led by the Marquis of Rockingham, whom Burke had served in the capacity of private secretary since 1765.
338. Bluebeard: The subject of a fairy story by Charles Perrault (1628–1703), Bluebeard killed his wives for disobeying his order not to look in a particular room, within which were the bodies of their predecessors.
339. Sappho in Ovid: Ovid, Heroides, xv.37-8. As part of her love letter to Phaon, Sappho argues that her own physical plainness should not put off the beautiful Phaon, since nature shows many examples of such apparent mismatches.
340. the Spectator… The Gentleman: See The Spectator, 12 (14 March 1711).
341. loco parentis: In place of a parent.
342. Elzevir edition: A family of printers in the Netherlands renowned since the late sixteenth century for the high quality and design of their books, the Elzevirs were also famous for producing duodecimo, or small-format, editions of the classics.
343. A gentleman: James Boswell.
344. one of his friends: Perhaps James Boswell.
345. A learned gentleman: Dr Robert Vansittart.
346. a modern historian… moralist: William Robertson and James Beattie.
347. a friend of mine: David Boswell, brother to James.
348. misera est… aut vagum: Where law is unknown or uncertain, life is pitiful slavery.
349. jura vaga… jura incognita… misera servitus: Unclear laws… unknown laws… miserable servitude.
350. Qui… in illicita: ‘Whoever is temperate in lawful pleasures will never fall into those which are unlawful’ – probably a misremembering of Radulfus Ardens, homily xxviii: ‘quoniam qui intemperanter sequuntur licita, cadunt in illicita. Et ille solus in illicita non cadit, qui a licitis caute se restringit.’
351. mala fide: In bad faith.
352. covin: A privy agreement between two or more to the prejudice of another; conspiracy, collusion (OED, 3).
353. Lex non recipit majus et minus: The law does not acknowledge greater and lesser.
354. Suum cuique tribuito: ‘To each his due’ – Justinian, Institutes, I.i.i.
355. Beattie’s book: James Beattie, An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth (1770); the third edition was published in 1772.
356. Dum memor… artus: ‘While I yet am conscious of myself, and while my breath governs