The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [941]
1076. isolee: Isolated.
1077. ebullition: Effervescence.
1078. one of our old acquaintance: Thomas Sheridan, father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
1079. a respectable friend: General Paoli.
1080. Mcecenas: Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (?64~8 bc), close counsellor of Augustus, and enlightened and generous patron of a literary circle which included Virgil, Horace, Propertius and Varius; hence, by extension, any generous patron of poetry or the arts.
1081. the Corycius Senex: An old man from Corycus.
1082. Regum… animis: ‘In contentment, he matched the riches of kings’ – Virgil, Georgics, iv.132.
1083. A gentleman: Boswell himself.
1084. Lord ∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗: Lord Shelburne.
1085. Malagrida… reproach: George III used to call Shelburne ‘Malagrida’, after a Jesuit executed in 1761 in Lisbon for having sanctioned an attempt on the life of King Joseph of Portugal, and as a result at this time the name ‘Malagrida’ had become associated with malice and duplicity.
1086. one of his friends: Sir Joshua Reynolds.
1087. a respectable gentleman: Sir John Pringle.
1088. a lady whom I mentioned: Mrs Stuart.
1089. another lady: Mrs Boswell.
1090. an acquaintance of ours: George Steevens.
1091. a late eminent noble judge: Possibly Lord Mansfield.
1092. another law-Lord: Lord Wedderburn.
1093. Nec… gemmce: ‘Unable to support a gem of weight’ – Juvenal, Satires, i.29.
1094. some Essays which I had written: As ‘The Hypochondriack’ in the London Magazine.
1095. Nullum… prudentia: ‘Heaven’s help is not refused, if wisdom be present’ – Juvenal, Satires, x.365.
1096. Nullum… imprudentia: Heaven’s help is withheld in the presence of folly.
1097. NugiS antiquce: Ancient trifles.
1098. namque… nugas: ‘For you used to think that my trifles were worth something’ – Catullus, i.3 – 4.
1099. Ingenium… corpore: ‘Vast gifts of mind are hidden under that uncouth exterior’ – Horace, Satires, I.iii.33-4.
1100. Quos… dementat: ‘Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad.’
1101. Semel… omnes: ‘We have all been mad once’ – Virgil, Eclogues, i.117–18.
1102. in Johannes Baptista Mantuanus: Baptistae Mantuani Carmelitae, Ado-lescentia, seu Bucolica (1498), i.118.
1103. Love and Madness: Sir Herbert Croft, Love and Madness (1780).
1104. Wickham: Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire.
1105. Hic… passi: ‘Here was the band who had battled and bled for their homeland’ – Virgil, Aeneid, vi.66o.
1106. Inventas… per artes: ‘Those who ennobled life by the arts they discovered’ – Virgil, Aeneid, vi.663.
1107. a Prince of Spain… his tutor: Don Gabriel Antonio and F. Perez Bayer.
1108. fortunate senex: Happy old man.
1109. imagines majorum: Images of our ancestors (as used to be displayed in the homes of Roman aristocrats).
1110. the Turkish Spy: Giovanni Paolo Marana, L’esploratore turco e le di lui relazioni segrete alla Porta Ottomana (1684), a much-reprinted and translated work which inaugurated a new genre in European literature, that of the pseudo-foreign letter.
1111. à posteriori: From effect to cause.
1112. à priori: From cause to effect.
1113. When we beat Louis… when Louis beat us: The reference is to Louis XIV (1638–1714), crowned king of France on 14 May 1643. While William III was on the English throne, Louis had enjoyed victories over allied forces (which incorporated English troops) during the War of the League of Augsburg (1689–97) and at the battles of Fleurus (1690), Steenkerke (1692) and Neerwinden (1693). During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), however, for all but the first year of which the Stuart Queen Anne was on the English throne, Louis suffered a series of defeats at the hands of English troops under Marlborough, at the battles of Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708) and Malplaquet (1709). Johnson’s comment therefore weakens the case for his Jacobitism, since he rejects an opportunity to praise Stuart monarchy to the detriment of William III.
1114. Omne… magnifico est: ‘The unknown is always taken for something grand’ – Tacitus, Agricola, xxx.
1115. Inspissated: Thickened.
1116. Pomatum: