The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [924]
403. Flora: Flora MacDonald (1722–90), a Jacobite heroine, who assisted Bonnie Prince Charlie in escaping from Hanoverian troops in 1745.
404. Maria… cogunt: ‘Mary Queen of Scots, worthy of a better age, reluctantly surrenders her rights to her rebellious people’; ‘Rebellious subjects force Mary Queen of Scots against her will to abdicate her office.’
405. novce… vires: ‘In the battle new strength returns’ – a misremembering of Virgil, Aeneid, xii.424, ‘novae rediere in pristina vires’: ‘new-born strength returned to its old vigour’.
406. A gentleman: Edward Gibbon.
407. tell Dr. Blair… begin again: See p. 410.
408. simile non est idem: Likeness is not identity.
409. Maria… data 15—: ‘Mary Queen of Scots, born 15—, driven into exile by her countrymen 15—, executed by her hostess 15—.’
410. Kνσι γησoν: ‘Lord have mercy upon us.’
411. Busy, curious, thirsty fly: Johnson composed a Latin version of this popular song.
412. Töv ταΦoν… Φνσιxóν: ‘Stranger, you behold the tomb of Oliver Goldsmith. Tread not on his hallowed ashes with careless feet. If you have any care for nature, for the beauty of verse, for antiquity, then weep for a poet, a historian, and a naturalist.’
413. Ipecacuanha: A South American small shrubby plant, which possesses emetic, diaphoretic, and purgative properties (OED).
414. Even… see desert: A reworking of Alexander Pope, ‘Epilogue to the Satires’ (1738), ii.70.
415. concessere columnce: ‘Booksellers [never] concede’– Horace, Ars Poetica, l.373.
416. a convict: John Reid.
417. the Pollio and Gallus: Respectively Virgil, Eclogues iv and x.
418. Bis datqui cito dat: ‘He who gives quickly gives twice over’– Erasmus, Adages.
419. witching time o’ night: Hamlet, III.ii.358.
420. monumentum perenne: ‘Enduring monument’ – Horace, Odes, III.xxx.i.
421. the resolutions… Bostonians: The Boston Port Bill of 1774 had closed Boston as a port for the landing and shipping of goods.
422. Legitimas… preces: ‘Pure hearts make lawful prayers.’
423. De non existentibus… ratio: There is no distinction to be drawn between what does not exist and what does not appear.
424. of something after death: Hamlet, III.i.80.
425. an account of it: John Knox, A tour through the Highlands of Scotland, and the Hebride isles, in MDCCLXXXVI. By John Knox (1787).
426. a Scot, if ever Scot there were: Untraced.
427. natale solum: Native soil.
428. some low man: The Revd Donald M’Nicol.
429. another Scotchman: James Macpherson.
430. loved Scotland better than truth: Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), p. 192. The allusion is to the saying, attributed to Aristotle, that truth was to him an even dearer friend than Plato.
431. Resolutions… the American Congress: See n. 15.
432. a certain popular Lord Chancellor: Lord Camden.
433. Fallitur… Claudianus: ‘It is a mistake to think that obedience to a prince is slavery; a more pleasant freedom is not to be found than with a pious monarch’ – Claudian, Consulatus Stilichonis, iii.133.
434. a Right Honourable friend: William Gerard Hamilton.
435. counterfeiting Apollo’s coin: Johnson’s remark implies that Sheridan had no right to set himself up as a judge on literary matters.
436. The Hypocrite… Cibber’s Nonjuror: Isaac Bickerstaffe, The Hypocrite (1768); Colley Cibber, The Nonjuror (1717).
437. oath of abjuration: See n. 97 to the Introduction.
438. had he not… swore: Cf. Macbeth, II.ii.12–13, which has ‘slept’ rather than ‘swore’.
439. a poor boy from the country: William Davenport.
440. Bon Ton: David Garrick, Bon Ton: or, high life above stairs (1759).
441. Os homini… tollere vultus: ‘Man looks aloft, and with uplifted eyes | Beholds his own hereditary skies’– Ovid, Metamorphoses, i.85, tr. Dryden.
442. Weave… room enough: Gray, ‘The Bard’, ll. 49–51.
443. A young lady… a man: Lady Susan Fox and William O’Brien.
444. virum volitare per ora: ‘To fly through the mouths of men’ – Virgil, Georgics, iii.9.
445. One of the company: James Boswell.
446. CANCELLARIUS… quinto: ‘The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars