The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [939]
987. fallen on… compassed round: Milton, Paradise Lost, vii.25-7.
988. a common friend: Possibly Edmond Malone.
989. But, gracious God… Three in One: John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther (1687), i.64–79.
990. the editor: Samuel Parr.
991. balance of the sanctuary: Cf. Daniel 5:27.
992. a person: Richard Hurd.
993. And the bright flame… soul: Alexander Pope, ‘Verses on a Grotto by the River Thames at Twickenham, composed of Marbles, Spars, and Minerals’ (1741), l. 12.
994. execution: The enforcement by the sheriff, or other officer, of the judgement of a court; chiefly, the seizure of the goods or person of a debtor in default of payment (OED, 7).
995. Hic requiescit… deesset: ‘Here lies Thomas Parnell, D. D., who, at once priest and poet, so played both parts that the poet’s sweetness was never false to the priest, nor the priest’s piety false to the poet.’
996. Molly Aston: In fact Hill Boothby.
997. published by Mrs. Thrale: Hester Lynch Piozzi, Letters to and from the late Samuel Johnson, 2 vols. (1788), II, 391.
998. placido lumine: See n. 155.
999. a very eminent literary character: Edmund Burke.
1000. nodosities: Knotty swellings or protuberances (OED).
1001. the Sybil: See n. 142.
1002. Eheu fugaces: See n. 724.
1003. an ardent judge… giving sentence: Cf. Pope, An Essay on Criticism, ll. 677-8: ‘An ardent Judge, who Zealous in his Trust, | With Warmth gives Sentence, yet is always Just…’
1004. distichs: A couple of lines of verse, usually making complete sense, and (in modern poetry) rhyming; a couplet (OED).
1005. Jan. 9: The original is dated 29 January.
1006. From his cradle… Heaven: Henry VIII, IV. ii. 50–51, 67-8.
1007. See… a man: Hamlet, III.iv.54–61.
1008. His… broad: Milton, Paradise Lost, iv.300–303.
1009. a gentleman: William Strahan.
1010. A bishop… tippling-house: Johnson is referring to Bishop Shipley of St Asaph.
1011. routs: A rout was a fashionable gathering or assembly, a large evening party or reception, much in vogue in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (OED, 9.)
1012. the Bishop of—: Bishop Porteus of Chester.
1013. The Spectator:No. 2, 2March 1711 (actually written by Richard Steele).
1014. bag: A small silken pouch to contain the back-hair of a wig (OED, 5).
1015. Il pétille d’esprit: ‘He fizzes with wit.’
1016. Marcellus: A reference to Marcus Claudius Marcellus (43–23 bc), adoptive son of Augustus and married to Augustus’s daughter Julia. He was intended to succeed Augustus in the principate but, like Sir James Macdonald (1742–66), he died young.
1017. a gentleman: Charles Selwyn.
1018. ∗∗∗∗∗∗: William Seward.
1019. Some other gentlemen: William Seward, Sir John Lade and Henry Smith.
1020. Mr. ∗∗∗∗∗: Henry Smith.
1021. One of the gentlemen: William Seward.
1022. a Bishop: Dr Beilby Porteus, then bishop of Chester.
1023. another Bishop: Dr Jonathan Shipley, bishop of St Asaph.
1024. And the graves… unto many: Matthew 27:52–3.
1025. Scripture… grain sown: Matthew 13:31–2.
1026. An acquaintance: James Boswell’s clerk, Brown.
1027. But two at a time… can bear: John Gay, ‘Tom Tinker’s my true love’, The Beggar’s Opera, III.xi.31. The outlaw Macheath is here singing about having to choose between his two wives, Polly and Lucy.
1028. who gladdened life: The quotation comes from Johnson’s ‘Life of Edmund Smith’, where it refers to David Garrick (Lives of the Poets, ed. Lonsdale, II, 179.)
1029. A merrier man… his discourse: Love’s Labours Lost, II.i.66–76.
1030. One of the company: Probably Boswell himself.
1031. a very respectable authour: Dr John Campbell.
1032. parole: Language.
1033. Behold…pencil writ: ‘[There wasa]clubatthe King’s HeadinPall Mall that (arrogantly) called themselves “the World”. Lord Stanhope then (now Lord Chesterfield), Lord Herbert, etc. etc. [were members]. Epigrams [were] proposed to be writ by each after dinner once when Dr. Young was