The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [927]
532. sartum tectum: Literally, ‘a restored roof – the technical term in Roman law for a building in good repair.
533. 1773: A slip for 1776.
534. Stirpes: Family, or good birth.
535. the 20th: In fact the 29th.
536. A person: Mr Carter.
537. a respectable dignitary of the church: Dr John Douglas.
538. Dr. ∗∗∗∗∗∗∗: Dr Douglas.
539. Hermippus redivivus: ‘Hermippus restored’. Boswell refers to a work by Johann Heinrich Cohausen, Hermippus Redivivus (Frankfurt, 1742), which was translated by John Campbell as Hermippus Redivivus: or, the Sage’s Triumph (1744). This work argued that long life might be attained by breathing in the exhalations of young girls (anhelitu puellarum), a theory derived from a Roman inscription which recorded that L. Colodius Hermippus had lived to be 115 by employing this method.
540. the representative… in Scotland: Norman Macleod, twentieth chief of Macleod.
541. a countryman of his and mine: Alexander Wedderburn.
542. debitum justitice: Debt in law.
543. debitum caritatis: Debt of kindness.
544. ∗∗∗∗∗∗∗: Bennet Langton.
545. the Lady Abbess of a convent: Mrs Fermor.
546. One of his friends: James Boswell.
547. one who loved mischief: George Colman.
548. a gentleman of Merton College: Identified in Boswell’s papers as ‘a young gentleman of Gloucestershire’.
549. Atlas: In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan who, in punishment for his part in the revolt of the Titans against the gods of Olympus, was made to support the heavens with his head and hands.
550. a Gothick attack: A barbarous attack.
551. an ugly fellow: Traditionally thought to refer to Edward Gibbon.
552. Cicero’s beautiful image of Virtue: In De Officiis, i.5, Cicero insists on the affinity between, on the one hand, Nature and Reason, and, on the other, our human love for beauty, loveliness and harmony.
553. Mallem… sapere: I prefer to be in the wrong with Scaliger than in the right with Clavius’ – a remark uttered in the context of the dispute between Joseph Justus Scaliger and Christopher Clavius concerning corrections to the Gregorian calendar: see W. C. Waterhouse, A Source for Johnson’s “Malim Cum Scaligero Errare’”, Notes and Queries, 248 (2003), pp. 222-3. Johnson also referred to this tag in his ‘Life of Dryden’ (Lives of the Poets, ed. Lonsdale, II, 120).
554. The chaplain of a late Bishop: The Revd John Darby and Bishop Zachary Pearce.
555. not being English: The phrase was objected to as a ‘Scotticism’: Monthly Review (1792), viii, 79.
556. The authour: Edward Gibbon.
557. a man: James Boswell.
558. Tristram Shandy: Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1759–67).
559. a lady who had been much talked of: Mrs Caroline Rudd.
560. The lofty arch… flows: Attributed to Dr Abel Evans (1679–1737).
561. In contradiction… find delight: Sir John Hawkins, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1787), p. 87.
562. Whoe’er… at an inn: William Shenstone (1714–63), ‘Written at an Inn at Henley’, ll. 17–20.
563. Homer’s battle… mice: The Batrachomyomachia, or ‘Battle of the Frogs and Mice’, is a parody of an epic poem attributed in antiquity to Homer, but probably composed later.
564. salatticum: Attic (Athenian) salt (i.e. wit).
565. an ingenious acquaintance… A West-India gentleman… a young woman: James Grainger, Mr Bourryau and Miss Burt.
566. genio loci: To the spirit of the place.
567. The Beaux Stratagem: George Farquhar, The Beaux’ Stratagem (1707).
568. a lady abroad: Isabelle de Zuylen.
569. Sh’ apprens t’etre fif: I am learning to be lively.
570. Hob in the Well: Colley Cibber, Hob; or, The Country Wake (1711).
571. elegans… spectator: ‘A nice judge of the female form’ – Terence, Eunuchus, III. 5.
572. Sir Harry Wildair: A character in two plays by George Farquhar: The Constant Couple (1699) and Sir Harry Wildair (1701).
573. Nemo sibi vivat: ‘Let no man live for himself.’
574. A physician: Dr John Boswell (James Boswell’s uncle).
575. solemn temple: Cf. The Tempest, IV.i.153.
576. Theodosius