The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [934]
786. He would not… to thunder: Coriolanus, III.i.256-7.
787. a gentleman: Bennet Langton.
788. freni strictio: A tight rein.
789. fortunam… habet: ‘Treats his good fortune with deference’ – Ausonius, Epigrammata, viii.7.
790. an eminent friend: John Mudge, whose son William was Johnson’s godson.
791. a gentleman: James Boswell.
792. the authour of that song: The song, beginning ‘Welcome, welcome, brother debtor’, has been attributed to Charles Coffey (d. 1745), and appeared in The Charmer (1749), pp. 269–70.
793. Smith’s Latin verses… the great traveller: Edmund Smith (1672–1710) wrote a Latin ode on the orientalist Dr Edward Pococke (1604–91) which Johnson, in his ‘Life of Smith’, praised as ‘excellent’ (Lives of the Poets, ed. Lonsdale, II, 173). The ‘great traveller’, however, was Dr Richard Pococke (1704–65).
794. said in his wrath: Cf. Psalms 2:5.
795. Odin: One of the principal gods in Norse mythology.
796. Salus populi: The first part of the classical legal tag ‘salus populi suprema lex est’, meaning ‘the safety of the people is the supreme law.’
797. a gentleman: Perhaps Norton Nicholls.
798. Parcus… relictos: ‘I have been a grudging and infrequent worshipper of the gods while I wandered, following a wisdom that is folly; I have been forced now to turn my sails backward and steer again in the course which I had abandoned’ – Horace, Odes, I.xxxiv.1-5.
799. facies… tamen: ‘Features neither exactly alike, nor yet diverse’ – Ovid, Metamorphoses, ii.13.
800. in potestate… in actu: Potentially… actually.
801. a friend: George Steevens.
802. Veniam… vicissim: ‘This licence we claim ourselves, and in our turn we grant the like’ – Horace, Ars Poetica, l. 11.
803. an old gentleman: Littleton Poyntz Meynell.
804. Coarse… thinks it luxury: Addison, Cato, I.iv.63–71, p. 10.
805. Maccaronick verses: A burlesque form of verse in which vernacular words are introduced into the context of another language (originally and chiefly Latin), often with corresponding inflections and constructions; hence designating any form of verse in which two or more languages are mingled together (OED).
806. Kγνββoισιν βανχθν: Klubboisin ebancten.
807. an English Benedictine Monk: The abbe Hooke.
808. If two… must ride behind: Much Ado about Nothing, III.v.33.
809. He… has no friend: Cf. Diogenes Laertius, V.i. – ‘He had friends, but no friend.’
810. Do the devils lie… not subsist: Thomas Brown, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646), I.xi.16; cf. Samuel Johnson, Adventurer, 50 (1753).
811. Miss —: Hannah More.
812. The righteous… in his death: Proverbs 14.32.
813. I have fought… crown of life: Cf. 2 Timothy, 4:7-8.
814. Miss —: Jane Harry.
815. Copernican and Ptolemaick systems: The Ptolemaic system is a model of the universe created by the Alexandrian mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy about ad 100. It assumes that the Earth is the stationary centre of the universe. The Copernican system is a model of the solar system created by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), which places the Sun at the centre and arranges the Earth and the other planets circling around it.
816. a gentleman: Bennet Langton.
817. Tempe: The vale of Tempe is a narrow valley in north-eastern Thessaly. The ancient Greeks dedicated Tempe to the cult of Apollo, who, legend says, purified himself in the waters of the Pinios after killing the serpent Python. A temple was built in a recess on the right bank, and every eighth year a procession came from Delphi to gather sacred laurels to be awarded to the victors of contests.
818. Jo Ann. 2… erubuit: ‘John 2 | Water turned into Wine | Whence comes this redness, this strange purple colour? | What new blush changes the wondering waters? |A God, O guests! recognize the present God! | The shy nymph saw her God, and blushed’ – Richard Crashaw, Epigrammatum sacrorum liber (1634), p. 37.
819. Mira… secuta est: I sing a marvel: the sun set, but no night followed.’ Camden tentatively ascribed the line to Giraldus Cambrensis (William Camden, Remaines Concerning Britain, 6th edn (1657), p. 321).
820. a gentleman: The Revd