The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [923]
357. Divisum… habet: ‘Caesar has divided the empire with Jove.’
358. This gentleman: Phineas Bond.
359. a new comedy: She Stoops to Conquer.
360. a gentleman eminent in the literary world: Bishop Percy.
361. another hand: Dr John Calder.
362. a young woman: Perhaps Miss Carmichael.
363. An eminent publick character: Edmund Burke.
364. A friend of ours: Sir Joshua Reynolds.
365. And every poet… friend: Untraced.
366. For colleges… a friend: Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, ll. 872-3.
367. Il a fait… grande dame: ‘He has paid a very gracious compliment to a certain great lady.’ The lady in question was the Duchess of Cumberland.
368. Monsieur Goldsmith… elegamment: ‘Mr Goldsmith is like the sea, which throws up pearls and many other beautiful things, without noticing that he does so… Very well said, and very elegantly.’
369. A person: Sir Henry Cavendish.
370. A gentleman: Arthur Murphy.
371. Molus: In Greek mythology the guardian of the winds, who gave Odysseus a leather bag confining the winds adverse to his voyage.
372. If there’s delight… bleed for me: William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700), III.i.422-3.
373. In Corum… Ennosigceum: ‘He that had been wont to inflict barbaric stripes upon the winds Corus and Eurus – never so mistreated in their Aeolian prison-house – he who had bound the Earth-shaker himself with chains’ – Juvenal, Satires, x.180–82.
374. The waves… the wind: Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), l. 232.
375. a learned gentleman: Sir William Weller Pepys.
376. a gentleman who had destroyed himself: William Fitzherbert.
377. Otaheite: Tahiti, visited by Captain Samuel Wallis, of the British navy, in 1767.
378. Pressens… Augustus: ‘Augustus shall prove himself a god on earth’ – Horace, Odes, III.v.2.
379. Forsitan… istis: ‘It may be that our names too will mingle with these’ – Ovid, De Arte Amandi, iii.339.
380. the Authour of Eugenio: Thomas Beach.
381. Thenwe… securely pry: JohnDryden, Annus Mirabilis (x66j), ll. 653-6.
382. Menagiana: Menagiana (1693–1715) is a collection of the jokes and sayings of Gilles Menage (1613–92), the French scholar and man of letters, compiled after his death by his friends.
383. Il preche… bien fort: ‘He preaches very well, and I preach very loud.’
384. Madme de Bourdonne… corps: ‘Madame de Bourdonne, canoness of Remiremont, had just listened to a sermon full of fire and spirit, but flimsy and very irregular. One of her lady friends, who was interested on behalf of the preacher, said to her as they were leaving, “Well, madame: how did what you have just heard strike you? Was it witty?” “ So much so, replied Madame de Bourdonne, that I saw no substance in it.”’ (The witticism depends on the multiple meanings of the French words esprit and corps, which can mean respectively both ‘wit’ and ‘soul’, and ‘substance’ and ‘body’.)
385. the Defence of Pluralities: Henry Wharton, A Defence of Pluralities (1692); a traditionalist defence of the Church of England practice of allowing a clergyman to hold two benefices simultaneously.
386. Caius… Titius: Fictional parties in Roman law.
387. a lady: Lady Diana Beauclerk.
388. the gentleman: Topham Beauclerk.
389. the father: Bennet Langton senior.
390. Exceptio probat regulam: The exception proves the rule.
391. nidification: The action of nest-building (OED).
392. the Grand Signor: The sultan of Turkey.
393. extra scandalum: Without offence.
394. A gentleman present: Bennet Langton.
395. a German: George Michael Moser; in fact a Swiss.
396. Sunday, May 8: In fact Sunday fell on 9 May in 1773.
397. Monday, May 9: See n. 396.
398. one of our friends: Bennet Langton.
399. pars magna fuit: ‘He was a great part’ – Virgil, Aeneid, ii.6.
400. Inchoavi… Homeri: ‘Began reading the Pentateuch. Finished the Confutatio Fabulae Burdonum. Read the first Act of Troades. Read Clarke’s last Dissertation on the Pentateuch. Two of Clarke’s Sermons. Read the Betriciam [in fact Bebrycian] in Apollonius. Read a hundred lines of Homer.’
401. —: Bennet Langton.
402.