Footnotes

1. Johnson seeking a publisher for London

1   Probably Johnson’s ode ‘Ad Urbanum’.
2   Although Cave liked the poem he suggested that Robert Dodsley should publish it.
3   A poem (1737) by Thomas Beach.

2. William Mudford on London and The Vanity of Human Wishes

*   ‘His poetry, though not any where loaded with epithets, is destitute of animation. We are now and then struck with a fine thought, a fine line, or a fine passage, but little interested by the whole. After reading his best pieces once, few are desirous of reading them again.’ [William Shaw,] Life of Johnson, 1785, [71–2].
1   Boswell, Life, i. 128–9.
*   He did not often conform himself to his own precepts. In his Essay on Pope’s Epitaphs, (which is indeed an invidious piece of criticism), he says, ‘I think it may be observed that the particle O! used at the beginning of a sentence, always offends.’4 Yet, in his translation of the dialogue between Hector and Andromache, he himself uses it.
How would the Trojans brand great Hector’s name,
And one base action sully all my fame,
Acquired by wounds and battles bravely fought!
Oh! how my soul abhors so mean a thought.5
And in many other of his pieces, as his ‘Lines to a Friend’, ‘To a Young Lady on her birthday’, &c. &c.
2   Both this and the previous example of tautology were cited by William Shaw (Memoirs of the Life of Johnson, 51) to whom, it would appear, Mudford was often indebted.
3   Ambrose Philips (1675?–1749) and Nahum Tate (1652–1715).
4   Lives, iii. 266.
5   Poems, 19.
6   Lives, iii. 439.
7   The poem appeared in January 1749.
8   In fact poetry ‘formed a major part of his writing from his school-days till his death’. Poems, xvi.
9   Lives, i. 239.

4. A Criticism on Mahomet and Irene. In a Letter to the Author

1   In fact the scene is laid in a palace garden near the shore of the Bosphorus. See Irene I. v. 1; II. ii. 36–9; III. ii. 50–2.
2   Colley Cibber, The Careless Husband, 1705, III. 489–92.
3   At the first performance Garrick’s intention to have Irene strangled on stage was thwarted by the audience; they stopped the play with cries of ‘Murder’; and Irene had to be killed off stage.
4   By Sir William Yonge.

5. John Hippisley (?), An Essay on Tragedy, with a Critical Examen of Mahomet and Irene

*   Had the author taken notice of the title page, and head title, of the printed copy of the Play, he would have perceived that, tho’ ’twas called Mahomet and Irene in the bills, ’tis only Irene in the book.
1   Aeneid, XI, l. 782. (‘[She] was afire with a womanly love of booty.’)
2   Henry Brooke, Prologue to Edward Moore’s The Foundling, 1747.
3   ‘Propriety’ or ‘decorum’.
4   ‘Discours sur la Tragédie’ in Œuvres Complètes, Paris, 1859, i. 151. (The ‘Discours’, which forms the preface to Voltaire’s Brutus, is addressed to Bolingbroke.)
5   L’Art Poétique, 1674, iii. 157–8. (‘Everything he says should be easy to remember, leaving you with a permanent memory of his work.’)

7. Johnson surveys his purpose and achievement, Rambler No. 208

1   Diogenes Laertius, IX. i. 16. The translation is by Johnson himself (see Poems, 255).
2   For the authors of these contributions see Boswell, Life, i. 203.
3   The Book of the Courtier, 1528, 11. ii.
4   Publilius Syrus, in Minor Latin Poets, ed. J.W. and A.M.Duff, 1954, 50.
5   Dionysius, Periegesis, l. 1186. The translation is Johnson’s (see Poems, 255).

8. Arthur Murphy, Essay on the Life and Genius of Johnson

1   Lives, ii. 364–7.
2   Published in 1784.
3   Tatler No. 12.
4   This poem, ‘Ad Urbanum’, Johnson’s first certainly known contribution to the Gentleman’s Magazine, was printed in March 1738. For the poem and a contemporary translation, see Poems, 40–2.
5   Lives, i. 64.
6   Rambler No. 208 (see above, document No. 7).
7   Preface to the Aeneid, in Critical Essays, ed. G.Watson, 1962, ii. 252.
8   Works, 1724, iii. 391.
9   Tacitus, Annals, 1. 69 (‘what he might store away, and bring out when they had become fruitful’).
10   Cf. Absalom and Achitophel, l. 158.
11   Cf. Rambler Nos. 120, 190, 204, 205; Spectator No. 159.
12   Spectator Nos. 411–21.
13   Journey, 207; see Boswell, Life, v. 76–7.
14   Aeneid, i. 255 (‘With the countenance with which he [Jupiter] calms the heaven and the storms’).
15   Preface to the Iliad.

9. George Gleig in the Encyclopaedia Britannica

16   Johnson’s essays appeared in the Adventurer 1753–4; in the Idler 1758–60,

10. Mudford on the ‘moral utility’ of the Rambler

*   This enquiry has been in some measure pursued by Dr. Towers, in an ingenious work of his, entitled ‘An Essay on the life, character, and writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1786.’
1   Preface to the Dictionary, see document No. 18.
2   Rambler No. 59.
3   John Wolcot (1738–1819), the satirist who used the pseudonym ‘Peter Pindar’; and the political philosopher William Godwin (1756–1836).
4   i.e. in his Life of Milton.
5   Nos. 186–7.
6   See above, document No. 7.
7   Arthur Murphy; see above, document No. 8.
8   Rambler No. 80.

11. Alexander Chalmers in British Essayists

1   Rambler No. 208 (see above, document No. 7).
2   ‘His style is stiff; there is nothing gentle, nothing smooth in it.’
3   Eliza Haywood, The Female Spectator, 1744–6.
4   Arthur Murphy (document No. 8).
5   Boswell, Life, iii. 82. (‘He never touched any subject but he adorned it.’)

12. William Hazlitt on the Rambler

1   Paradise Lost, 1v. 345–7 (misquoted).
2   Boswell, Life, ii. 231.
3   Cowper, The Task, iv. 119.
4   William Lauder (d. 1771), literary forger. See Boswell, Life, i. 228–31.

13. Johnson’s Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language

1   Ausonius, Preface to the Emperor Theodosius, l. 12 (‘Why should I say that I cannot do what he thinks I can’).
2   Paradise Lost, i. 613; v. 270 (misquoted).
3   Possibly paraphrased from Cicero, Brutus, 97.

16. Johnson writes to Thomas Warton

1   Felice de Giardini (1716–96), brilliant Italian violinist.
2   The critic, Joseph Warton.
3   From the Preface to Warburton’s edition of Shakespeare (1747).
4   Orlando Furioso, c. 46, st. 2.

17. Johnson’s letter to Chesterfield

1   Boileau, L’Art Poétique, iii. 272.
2   Eclogues, viii. 43.

18. Johnson’s Preface

1   Ecclesiastical Polity, 1594, iv. 14.
2   Hindu proverb.
3   Nathan Bailey (d. 1742), Robert Ainsworth (1660–1743) and Edward Phillips (1630– ?96), lexicographers whom Johnson acknowledges as his sources. He worked from an interleaved copy of Bailey’s Dictionarium Britannicum.
4   Cicero, Laws, II. xxiii, 59.
5   Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV. ii. 32.
6   J.J.Scaliger (1540–1609), ‘In lexicorum compilatores’, Poemata Omnia, Berlin, 1864, 38.
7   P.Beni (1552?–1625), Italian classical scholar.

20. Horne Tooke’s Diversions of Purley

1   Francis Junius (1589–1677), Etymologicum Anglicanum, 1743.
2   Stephen Skinner (1623–67), Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae, ed. Thomas Henshaw, 1671.

21. A German view of the Dictionary

*   Johnson’s merit ought not to be denied to him; but his Dictionary is the most imperfect and faulty, and the least valuable of any of his productions; and that share of merit which it possesses, makes it by so much the more hurtful. I rejoice however, that though the least valuable, he found it the most profitable: for I could never read his Preface without shedding a tear. And yet it must be confessed, that his Grammar and History and Dictionary of what he calls the English language, are in all respects (except the bulk of the latter) most truly contemptible performances; and a reproach to the learning and industry of a nation, which could receive them with the slightest approbation.
Nearly one third of this Dictionary is as much the language of the Hottentots as of the English; and it would be no difficult matter so to translate any one of the plainest and most popular numbers of the Spectator into the language of that Dictionary, that no mere Englishman, though well read in his own language, would be able to comprehend one sentence of it.
It appears to be a work of labour, and yet is in truth one of the most idle performances ever offered to the public: compiled by an author who possessed not one single requisite for the undertaking, and, being a publication of a set of booksellers, owing its success to that very circumstance which alone must make it impossible that it should deserve success.
*   This computation is made from the first Edition, Lond. 1755.
1   John Entick, New Latin and English Dictionary, 1771.
2   Abel Boyer, The Royal Dictionary, 1699; frequently revised.

22. An American view of the Dictionary

1   George Mason, A Supplement to Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary, 1803.
2   See document No. 20.
3   ‘Where we have despaired of the possibility of their being surpassed or equalled, enthusiasm grows old along with hope.’
4   John Wallis, Grammatica linguae Anglicanae, 1653.
5   Nathan Bailey, Universal Etymological English Dictionary, 1721, and Dictionarium Britannicum, 1730; Robert Ainsworth, Latin Thesaurus, 1736; Edward Phillips, The New World of English Words, 1658.
6   Thomas Sheridan, A General Dictionary of the English Language, 1780; John Walker, A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, 1791; Stephen Jones, Sheridan Improved. A general pronouncing and explanatory dictionary, 1796; William Perry, Synonymous, Etymological, and Pronouncing Dictionary, 1805; John Entick, New Latin and English Dictionary, 1771; Joseph Hamilton, Johnson’s Dictionary in miniature, 1799; John Ash, The New and Complete Dictionary, 1775.
7   Aaron Burr (1756–1836), American political leader, was involved in a scheme to invade Mexico and set up a Mexican government independent of Spain.
8   See above, p. 117n.
9   Gerardus Vossius, Etymologicon linguae Latinae, 1662; Julius Caesar Scaliger, De causis linguae Latinae, 1540.
10   ‘I consider—when it is taken in various ways it is difficult to say what is the principal notion, for it is difficult to indicate what origin it has.’
11   John Parkhurst, Hebrew and English Lexicon, 1762.
12   Robert Lowth, A Short Introduction to English Grammar; 1762.

23. Owen Ruffhead, unsigned review, Monthly Review

1   Epigrams, v. 5. 8. (Presumably intended to mean as in the original: ‘[Do not] place [yourself beside] the mighty work of lofty Maro [Virgil]’.)
2   Francis Noble, proprietor of a well-known circulating library.

26. Mrs Barbauld, The British Novelists

1   Published in 1735.
2   Published in 1759, only a few weeks after Rasselas was written.
3   By John Hawkesworth, 1761.
4   Translated from the Persian of Horam, son of Asmar, by Sir C.Morell, 1764, and frequently republished.
5   James Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, 1790; George Annesley, Earl of Mountnorris, Voyages and Travels…, 1809.
6   James Thomson, Summer (1727), ll. 752, 769–73.

27. Johnson’s Proposals for his edition of Shakespeare

1   Nicholas Rowe’s edition of Shakespeare, 1709; Pope’s, 1725; Lewis Theobald’s, 1733; William Warburton’s, 1747.
2   Pope and Warburton indicated favourite passages by these means.

28. From Johnson’s Preface to the first edition

1   2 Henry VI, 1v. i. 106 (‘…base men…’).
2   Dryden, Essay of Dramatick Poesie, ed. James T.Boulton, 1964, 87–8. The Latin line is from Virgil, Eclogues, 1. 25 (‘as cypresses usually do among the bending osiers’).

29. George Colman, unsigned notice, St. James’s Chronicle

1   Horace, Ars Poetica, l. 388; Pope, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, l. 40.
2   William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester.
3   Thomas Edwards and Benjamin Heath.

30. William Kenrick, unsigned review, Monthly Review

1   Thomas Edwards, Canons of Criticism, 1748.
2   See document No. 29.
3   Terence, Phormio, 11. 2. 14 (‘as many opinions as men’).
4   John Sheffield, An Essay on Poetry, 1682, l. 195.
*   Doth not this whole paragraph serve egregiously to prove, that, altho’ our Editor may not be fond of down-right punning, he takes full as much delight in starting and hunting down a poor conceit as he affirms Shakespeare did? We will venture to assert, indeed, that this is a species of quibbling, which, barren and pitiful as it is, seems to give the critic himself so much delight, that he is ‘content to purchase it, by the sacrifice of reason, propriety and truth.’
5   Preface to Shakespeare edn, 1743, in Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare, ed. D.Nichol Smith, 1903, 94.
6   Horace, Ars Poetica, l. 351 (‘where more things shine’).
7   Monsieur Bossu’s Treatise of the Epick Poem, trans. by ‘W.J.’, 2nd edn, 1719, i. 183–4.
8   Paradoxa Stoicorum, praef. 1 (‘There is nothing so unbelievable as not to become probable by being told’).
9   By Thomas Otway, 1682. David Garrick and Mrs Cibber acted together in this play, as Jaffier and Belvidera respectively.
10   Epistles, II. i. 210–13 (‘I think that poet is able to walk a tightrope, who with airy nothings wrings my heart, inflames, soothes, fills it with vain alarms like a magician, and sets me down now at Thebes, now at Athens’).
11   Ars Poetica, l. 188 (‘I discredit and abhor’).
12   Ibid, ll.179–88 (‘Either an event is acted on the stage, or the action is narrated. Less vividly is the mind stirred by what finds entrance through the ears than by what is brought before the trusty eyes, and what the spectator can see for himself. Yet you will not bring upon the stage what should be performed behind the scenes, and you will keep much from our eyes which an actor’s ready tongue will narrate anon in our presence; so that Medea is not to butcher her boys before the people, nor impious Atreus cook human flesh upon the stage, nor Procne be turned into a bird, Cadmus into a snake. Whatever you thus show me, I discredit and abhor.’
*   This language is not quite so correct as might be expected from a writer so capable of expressing himself philosophically. The heart is often affected without any appeal to the judgment; nor is it necessary, in order to work upon our sensibility, to address the understanding. This is more frequently and more easily done by addressing the passions immediately through the senses.
†   Is this an accurate use of the verb remember? Can we be properly said to remember what is yet to come, or what may never come at all? The meaning is, that she recollects the precept or maxim which inculcates the probability of death’s depriving her of her child: but this is imperfectly expressed. Indeed this preface is not, in general, written with that precision and accuracy of style, which distinguishes some other of this celebrated Author’s writings.
13   Edmund Burke, Philosophical Enquiry into… the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757, ed. James T.Boulton, 1958, 35–7.
14   Pope, Essay on Criticism, ll. 132–3.
*   See Aristotle’s Poetics, Chap. VI.

31. William Kenrick, Review of Johnson’s Shakespeare

1   Preface; see Shakespeare, 99–100.
2   Ibid., 100.
3   See Boswell, Life, i. 154.
4   Horace, Epistles, 11. ii. 138–40 (‘Truly you have killed me…for thus you have robbed me of a pleasure and forcibly taken away the dearest illusion of my heart’).
*   Dr. Johnson, indeed, says, in his Preface: ‘Not a single passage in the whole work has appeared to me corrupt, which I have not attempted to restore; or obscure, which I have not endeavoured to illustrate.’ How he hath succeeded in these attempts, the reader is left to judge for himself on perusal of the following sheets.
5   Horace, Ars Poetica, ll. 138–9 (‘What will this braggart produce in keeping with such boasts? Mountains will labour, a mouse causing laughter will be born’).
*   See Dr. Johnson’s Preface [Shakespeare, no].
6   Epistulae ad Familiares, vii. 1 (‘not that I have nothing better to do, but I have plenty of affection for you’).
*   And here lies the difference between Dr. Warburton and Dr. Johnson, whose commentaries I place both on a footing with regard to their utility, as they are themselves pretty equal with respect to that arrogance with which they have treated the public, the living patrons of Shakespeare. In the commentary of Dr. Warburton, however, we have all the fire and spirit of a restif imagination, bridled in by as perverse an understanding: whereas, in that of Dr. Johnson, we see but too plainly the waywardness of senescence struggling with the weakness of puerility.
It may be thought strange that I should treat Dr. Johnson’s pretensions to wit so contemptuously, when it is notorious that his bons-mots have been constantly repeated for these ten years past in taverns and in coffeehouses, at dinners, and over tea-tables, to the great gratification of his admirers, and the edification of their hearers. Nay, it is well known, that a certain literary projector, excited by the success of BEN Johnson’s jests, had schemed the publication of the Johnsoniana, under the name of our editor, intending to insert on his title page, instead of O rare BEN! O brave SAM! —But I know not how, yet so it happened, that, upon enquiry, the projector could not muster up above a dozen genuine jokes worth printing. It was found that most of the wise sayings, smart repartees, pregnant puns, and cramp conundrums, imputed to him, had been forged or invented for him by his friends and acquaintance.

32. James Barclay, Examination of Mr. Kenrick’s Review

1   ‘Before our Aristarchus’ (the famous Alexandrian critic).
2   Epistles to Lorenzo, published 1756; the Rousseau translation in 1762.
*   This supposition is not founded upon hearsay, but a perusal of Mr. Kenrick’s various performances. His Epistles to Lorenzo proceed upon deistical principles, and those of the blackest, most detestable nature, —UNIVERSAL SCEPTICISM; for if I mistake not, he proposes raising an altar to The unknown God—A kindred mode of thinking led him to the translation of Rousseau’s Emilius, a book pregnant with the most blasphemous notions. And in the Review before me, he makes such a jest of the language of inspiration, as to apply it to a ludicrous occasion! Judge, then, reader, if the charge above is ill founded.
3   In Bolingbroke’s Familiar Letter to the most Impudent Man Living, 1749.

33. Voltaire, ‘Art Dramatique’, in Questions sur l’Encyclopédie

1   Shakespeare, 65–6.

34. Schlegel, Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature

1   Hieroclis Commentaries in Aurea Carmina, ed. P.Needham, 1709, 462. Cf. Johnson, Shakespeare, 62.
2   Shakespeare, 74.

35. Coleridge on Johnson’s Shakespeare

1   Cf. Johnson, Shakespeare, 74.
2   Tenth Satire of Juvenal, l. 1 (‘Look round the Habitable World’).
3   Coleridge apparently relished this jibe; he repeated it on at least four other occasions. See Shakespearean Criticism, ii. 170; Letters, iv. 1031; Miscellaneous Criticism, ed. T.M. Raysor, 1936, 225–6, 439.
4   Shakespeare, 990.

36. Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespear’s Plays

1   Merchant of Venice, 1v. i. 216.
2   Twelfth Night, 1. i. 15.
3   Shakespeare, 74.
4   Burke, Second Letter on a Regicide Peace, 1796, para. 7.
5   Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey, ll. 105–6.
6   Winter’s Tale, 1v. iv. 118–22.
7   Cf. Pope, First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace, l. 150.
8   Shakespeare, 69.
9   Ibid., 74.

37. Unsigned review of The False Alarm, Critical Review

1   John Selden (1584–1654), eminent constitutional lawyer.

38. Unsigned review of The False Alarm, Monthly Review

*   ‘Essay on the Middlesex Election.’

39. Percival Stockdale, The Remonstrance

1   Charles Holland (1733–69), a pupil of Garrick, was widely condemned for servile imitations of his master. Cf. Churchill, The Rosciad, 1761, ll. 323–36.

40. John Wilkes, A Letter to Samuel Johnson LL.D.

1   False Alarm, in Works, viii. 84.
2   Ibid., viii. 92.
3   An allusion to the Scot, Lord Bute, who was Prime Minister when Johnson’s pension was granted; he was a favourite target for radical abuse.
*   The unfortunate Mr. Richard Savage.
†   It is remarkable, that the original ground of Mr. Wilkes’s expulsion (as set forth in the votes) was his being the author of Number 45, of the North Briton; an allegation that never was revoked. And yet he has at no time been even accused, judicially, of the fact.
4   In his Dictionary Johnson had defined ‘pensioner’ as ‘a dependant’, ‘a slave of state hired by a stipend to obey his master’.
5   Cf. Boswell, Life, i. 164.
6   False Alarm, in Works, viii. 67.
7   Essay on Woman, 1762. For printing the Essay and reprinting the North Briton No. 45, Wilkes was banished in 1764.
*   In the next edition of your Dictionary, you will hardly fail to insert the following new acceptation of a verb. ‘To PUBLISH (from the Latin publicare) to suppress; to keep private; to lock up in a scrutore.’ —You know whither to go for your authority.
8   False Alarm, in Works, viii. 78; London, l. 56.
9   Ibid, viii. 84.
10   Ibid., viii. 87, 78.
11   Ibid., viii. 81.
12   Ibid., viii. 68–9, 81.
13   George III.
14   Works, viii. 93.
15   The court of the deposed James II.

41. Joseph Towers, A Letter to Dr. Samuel Johnson

16   Works, viii. 74.
1   London, ll. 29, 91, 65, 200–1, 213, 60.
2   Ibid., ll. 250–3.
3   False Alarm, in Johnson’s Works, 1792, viii. 90.
4   Vanity of Human Wishes, ll. 131, 168.
5   Thoughts on the Transactions respecting Falkland’s Islands, in Works, viii. 120–39; False Alarm, in Works, viii. 80.
6   Thoughts on the Transactions respecting Falkland’s Islands, in Works, viii. 118.
7   London, ll. 93–4.
8   False Alarm, in Works, viii. 84.
9   Patriot, in Works, viii. 144.
10   False Alarm, in Works, viii. 92.
11   Patriot, in Works, viii. 143.
12   Idler No. 20.
13   Horace, Epistles, 1. x. 24 (‘You may drive out Nature with a pitchfork, yet she will always hurry back’).
14   False Alarm, in Works, viii. 93.
15   London, ll. 170–5.

42. Tyranny Unmasked

1   Taxation no Tyranny, in Works, viii. 156.
2   Perhaps the Prime Minister, Lord North, who, as Chancellor of Oxford University, on 23 March 1775 proposed the award to Johnson of the degree of Doctor in Civil Law.
3   ‘Nothing comes to exist out of nothing’, a recurrent idea in Lucretius, De Rerum Naturâ.
4   Horace, Ars Poetica, l. 139. Cf. The Art of Poetry by Boileau, Made English by Dryden, l. 701.
5   Works, viii. 194–7.
6   Hume and Smollett, History of England, 1762, 1846 edn, 502, 517, 538 et al.
7   Works, viii. 173.
8   Cf. Matthew 26:24.
9   Cf. Genesis 42:9.

43. Robert Fergusson, ‘To Dr. Samuel Johnson: Food for a new Edition of his Dictionary’

*   Catenations, vide chains. JOHNSON.
1   Cf. Charles Churchill, The Prophecy of Famine, A Scots Pastoral, 1763, ll. 311–34.

44. Ralph Griffiths, unsigned review, Monthly Review

1   Thomas Pennant, naturalist, antiquarian and traveller; published his Tour in Scotland, 1771, and A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides, 1774–6.

45. Anonymous, Remarks on a Voyage to the Hebrides, in a letter to Samuel Johnson LL.D.

1   Cf. Boswell, Life, ii. 311.
2   Journey, 4.
3   George Buchanan (1506–82), poet and scholar, was Principal of St. Leonard’s College, St. Andrews, 1566–70.
4   Isaiah 29:13.
5   Journey, 9.
6   Cf. Journey, 107.

46. James McIntyre, ‘On Samuel Johnson, who wrote against Scotland’

7   Ibid., 3.
8   Bute (see above, p. 212n.).

47. Donald McNicol, Remarks on Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Hebrides

1   See above, p. 234n.
2   Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland, 1760, was James Macpherson’s first publication of ‘Ossian’.
3   Journey, 104–8.
4   Ibid., 108.
5   James Macpherson (1736–96), alleged translator of the Ossianic poems.
6   Journey, 131.
7   Ibid., 147.
8   Archibald Campbell (see document No. 62).

48. Edward Dilly to James Boswell

1   ‘It has always been understood by the trade, that he, who buys the copy-right of a book from the authour, obtains a perpetual property’ (Boswell, Life, i. 438).
2   ‘Johnson’s moderation in demanding so small a sum is extraordinary. Had he asked one thousand, or even fifteen hundred guineas, the booksellers, who knew the value of his name, would doubtless readily have given it. They have probably got five thousand guineas by this work in the course of twenty-five years.’ Note by Edmond Malone, 4th edn of Boswell’s Life, 1804.

49. Advertisement to the Lives

1   Gerard Langbaine (1656–92), Account of the English Dramatick Poets, 1691.
2   Joseph Spence (1699–1768). His Anecdotes, observations and characters of Mr. Pope and other eminent persons of his time was first published in 1820 (ed. S.W.Singer). (Cf. Boswell, Life, iv. 63.)

50. Edmund Cartwright, unsigned review, Monthly Review

1   Elijah Fenton (1683–1730) published Works of Waller, 1729; he was also the editor and biographer of Milton.
2   A prayer from Sidney’s Arcadia which was inserted into Eikon Basilike, a book of meditations supposed to be those used by Charles I.
3   Lives, iii. 436.
4   Cf. Macbeth, 11. iv. 12.

51. Unsigned review, Critical Review

5   Candide, chapter 25.
1   Lives, iii. 440.

52. William Cowper’s opinions of the Lives

1   In Life of Prior, Lives, ii. 202–3.
2   Lives, ii. 209.
3   Edmund Curll (1675–1747), the rascally bookseller; John Dennis (1657–1734), the irascible critic.
4   Lives, ii. 205.

53. Francis Blackburne, Remarks on Johnson’s Life of Milton

1   William Lauder (d. 1771), literary forger. (See Boswell, Life, i. 228–9.) His pamphlet appeared in 1754.
2   See above, p. 257n.
3   Lives, i. 104. The Miltonic allusion is to Paradise Lost, 11. 719.
4   Lives, i. 125–6.
5   Ibid., i. 140.
6   Ibid., i. 157.
7   Edward Phillips, Life of Milton, in Milton’s Letters of State, 1694, xliii.
8   Lives, i. 157.
9   I Corinthians 14:34.
10   William Prynne (1600–69), Henry Burton (1578–1648), John Bastwick (1593–1654); all anti-episcopal writers.
11   William Laud (1573–1645), Archbishop of Canterbury under Charles I; executed ‘for endeavouring to subvert the laws and to overthrow the Protestant religion’.

54. Horace Walpole on the Life of Pope

1   Henry Cromwell (c. 1658–1728), critic and poet.
2   Lives, iii. 101, 105, 104, 112.

55. William Fitzthomas, Cursory Examination of Dr. Johnson’s Strictures on the Lyric Performances of Gray

3   Ibid., iii. 117, 134, 135, 216.
4   Ibid., iii. 178.
5   Hurlothrumbo, 1729, a popular burlesque written by Samuel Johnson (1691–1773), the Manchester dancing-master.
1   Lives, iii. 436–8.
*   The analogical resemblance between these two noble arts, is indeed so perfect, that music may, with some propriety, be said to furnish a system of colours, for the ornament of the chiaro-oscuro of poetical sentiment.
*   The passage imitated by Gray, begins at the latter part of line 11, of Pindar’s first Pythian, and ends with the beginning of line 21.
2   Pope’s Essay on Criticism, 1711, ll. 225–32; Addison’s Campaign, 1704, in Works, ed. G.W.Greene, 1891, i. 187–8. (See Lives, ii. 130–1.)
*   His observation is this: Gray’s ‘position is at last false: in the time of Dante and Petrarch, from whom he derives our first school of poetry, Italy was over-run by tyrant power and coward vice; nor was our state much better when we first borrowed the Italian arts’.

57. Robert Potter, Inquiry into some passages in Dr. Johnson’s Lives of the Poets

1   Cf. ‘With the philosophical or religious tenets of the author I have nothing to do; my business is with his poetry’ (Life of Akenside), Lives, iii. 417.
2   John Philips, Cyder, 1708, i. 767–76.
3   Lives, iii. 197.
4   Ibid., iii. 200.
5   Ibid., iii. 345.
6   Ibid., iii. 345.
7   Ibid., iii. 346.
8   Paradise Lost, v1. 68–71.
9   Lives, ii. 81, 106.
10   Ibid., ii. 118, 96, 126, 146.
11   Ibid., ii. 314.
12   Robert Shiels (d. 1753) whose memoir of Hammond Johnson used; he was one of Johnson’s amanuenses for the Dictionary.
13   See Lives, ii. 313 n. l.
14   Faerie Queene, 1v. i. 2.
15   Lives, ii. 316.
16   Ibid., i. 425.
17   J. and A.L.Aikin, Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose, 1773, 138–89.
18   Milton, Paradise Lost, v11. 411–12.
19   James Beattie, Essays…on Poetry and Music, Dublin, 1778, ii. 255.
20   Ibid., ii. 255.
21   Potter’s own translation was published in 1777.
22   Lucretius, De Rerum Naturâ, i. 72 (‘lively energy of mind’).
23   Lives, iii. 242.
24   Sidney, An Apology for Poetry, in Prose Works, ed. A.Feuillerat, 1963, iii. 23.

58. Sir John Hawkins, Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D.

1   Johnson translated Pope’s ‘Messiah’ into Latin. See Poems, 29–36.
2   Midsummer Night’s Dream, v. i. 12–17.
3   L’Allegro, l. 129.
4   Mrs Elizabeth Montagu, (see p. 408 n. 45).

59. Robert Potter, The Art of Criticism as exemplified in Dr. Johnson’s Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets

1   George Granville. See Lives, ii. 286–96.
2   Lives, iii. 348.
3   Ibid., iii. 356.
4   Thomas Tickell, ‘To the Earl of Warwick, on the Death of Mr Addison’, 1721, ll. 45–6.
5   Lives, iii. 351, 354.
6   In Poems of Alexander Pope, ed. John Butt, 1963, 120.
7   Bacon, Advancement of Learning, 11. xxi. 9.
8   Lives, iii. 254–72.
9   John Hawkesworth (1715?–73).
10   Journey, 322–3; see Boswell, Life, v. 243.
11   Journey, 427; see Boswell, Life, v. 395.

60. Anna Seward’s opinions of the Lives

1   Lives, i. 183.
*   Miss Seward’s strictures, in this and some of the preceding letters, on Dr Johnson’s character as a critic, may, to many readers, appear perhaps to be carried too far: yet they have lately received a sanction from a writer of the highest authority, whose candour is no less conspicuous than his penetration or his eloquence, and whose situation precludes him from all suspicion of being here influenced by local prejudices. It is in the following fine strain of moral indignation that Mr Stewart expresses himself upon this subject.
‘Among our English poets, who is more vigorous, correct, and polished than Dr Johnson, in the few poetical compositions which he has left? Whatever may be thought of his claims to originality of genius, no person who reads his verses can deny that he possessed a sound taste in this species of composition; and yet how wayward and perverse, in many instances, are his decisions, when he sits in judgment on a political adversary, or when he
2   Gillray attributed a similar motive to Johnson, in a cartoon of 1783. See M.D.George, Hogarth to Cruikshank, 1967, Plate 121.

61. Thomas De Quincey, ‘Postscript respecting Johnson’s Life of Milton’

treads on the ashes of a departed rival! To myself (much as I admire his great and various merits, both as a critic and as a writer), human nature never appears in a more humiliating form, than when I read his Lives of the Poets; a performance which exhibits a more faithful, expressive, and curious picture of the author, than all the portraits attempted by his biographers; and which, in this point of view, compensates fully, by the moral lessons it may suggest, for the critical errors which it sanctions. The errors, alas! are not such as any one who has perused his imitations of Juvenal can place to the account of a bad taste; but such as had their root in weaknesses, which a noble mind would be still more unwilling to acknowledge.’ —Philosophical Essays, by Dugald Stewart, [1810] 491.
1   Malachi Malagrowther, a pseudonym used (in 1826) by Sir Walter Scott.
2   Lives, i. 183.
3   Hamlet, 11. ii. 312.
*   In candour I must add—if uncultured. This will suggest a great addition to the one in a hundred whom I have supposed capable of sympathy with the higher class of models. For the majority of men have had no advantages, no training, no discipline. [De Quincey]
4   The Elgin Marbles—the work of Pheidias (c. 440 B.C.) —from the Parthenon at Athens, were collected by the Earl of Elgin (1766–1841) and sold to the British Government. They were placed in the British Museum in 1816.
5   Historical painter (1786–1846), one of the few who recognised the distinguished quality of the Marbles.
6   Matthew 9:24.
7   Jean Pierre de Béranger (1780–1857), French poet.
8   Adapted from Virgil, Eclogues, 111. 15 (intended to mean: ‘whom, if he had not harmed in some way, he would have died’).

62. Archibald Campbell, Lexiphanes, a Dialogue, Imitated from Lucian

1   Oroonoko (c. 1678), a novel by Aphra Behn.
2   The supposed ghost at 33 Cock Lane, Smithfield. Many people believed or alleged that Johnson was deceived by the imposture; but see Boswell, Life, i. 406–8.
*   Rambler No. 10, critically condemned.
†   I beg leave to observe here once for all, that I do not intend to confine myself to a close imitation of Lexiphanes’s manner of writing only, but propose to shew by example the absurdity of hard words, and affectation in general. For instance, the words novel and signal are not much used by Lexiphanes, that I remember, but Gordon, in his Tacitus, is mighty fond of them.3 They are here affected, as they generally are in Gordon, yet have been used by some of our best writers, though very sparingly. But bad authors have the same influence on words, that the dregs of the people have upon dress.
‡   Rambler, No. 141.
§   Rasselas, vehement injunctions of haste. Rambler, No. 26, monitory letters.
3   Thomas Gordon (d. 1750) published his translation of Tacitus in 1728.
*   Tales and romances of our author well known [Rambler Nos. 186–7, and Rasselas].
†   Ram. No. 154.
‡   Rass. [chapter 3].
§   Ram. No. 95.
||   Rass. [chapter 18].
¶   Rass. [chapter 39].
**   Ram. No. 141.
4   Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1671–1713), author of Characteristicks, 1711.
*   This is quite in Lexiphanes’s style. He is mighty fond of ending a sentence with three phrases of this sort, for the most part equally superfluous and insignificant. When he hath done this, no doubt he thinks he hath rounded off the period well, and hath added something to the harmony of its cadence. Ram. No. 208. Innumerable examples of this kind are to be met with in his writings. One I found in the very paragraph whence I took the last quotation Colloquial barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular combinations. Ram. 208. Another I met with, as I just now cast my eye on the first number of his third volume. The prejudice of faction, the stratagem of intrigue, and the servility of adulation. Ram. No. 106. These may very properly be called Triads. But sometimes, and when he is disposed to be more eloquent than common, he mounts it up to a Quaternion, of which there are likewise many examples in his Ramblers.
†   Ram. No. 108. If one could suspect such an original genius as Lexiphanes of being a plagiary, he hath borrowed grasp a system by intuition, from king Phys, in the Rehearsal, who grasps a storm with the eye of reason.5 Akenside, our poetical, or rather blank-verse Lexiphanes, has an expression of much the same nature,
When despair shall grasp
His agonizing bosom.
Pleas, of Imag. b. ii. v. 491.
‡   Almost literal from Lucian.
§   Rasselas.
||   Ram. No. 2.
¶   Here’s another Triad more Lexiphanico.
**   Gordon’s Tacitus.
††   In the place answering this, in the original, Lucian tells Lexiphanes, that he has no vermin about him, neither lice nor fleas; a play upon words which it was impossible to preserve in the copy.
5   Buckingham, The Rehearsal, 1671, 11. i.
*   Exordial verses. Ram. No. 158.
†   What goes before is a pretty close copy of Lucian, the same conceits and playing upon words as near as the different turn of the two languages would allow. For instance, Lexiphanes tells Lucian, that he antisymposiazes Aristo, which was Plato’s original name, but by which he was little known. In the same manner J——n tells the Critick, who, in this dialogue, acts the part of Lucian, that he anti-rhapsodizes Ashley, a name, at least, never used when one speaks of my Lord Shaftsbury. Lucian’s Lexiphanes is a pert conceited fop, whereas mine, like his living original, is a grave solemn affected pedant and coxcomb. Lucian’s Symposium, as far as we can now know of the matter, is an original. But my Rhapsody is mostly taken from the Ramblers with some few quotations and parodies from the Elements of Criticism, Night-Thoughts, Pleasures of Imagination, Centaur not Fabulous, and Warton’s Essay on Pope.6 Lucian has jumbled together a parcel of the strangest incoherent stuff and nonsense that can well be imagined. I hope I have equall’d him in this point, however short I may have fallen in other articles.
‡   Elements of Criticism.
§   Pistol in Shakespear [Henry V, 1v. iv. 8].
||   Pleas. of Imag. B. 2. l. 306.
¶   ’Tis supposed that in this sentence Lexiphanes means no more than that the critic should step aside while he puts on his spectacles. For some of the hard words, and quaint phrases, consult Rambler, No. 9.
And now Lexiphanes begins to read his Rhapsody, conceived in the following words: After our postmeridional refection, rejoined Hypertatus, &c. and continues reading till interrupted by the critic. The fragment here given, without either beginning or ending, is supposed to be only a small part of a larger work; for Mr. J——n tells us, he inchoates with one of its most delicious morsels of eloquence. Lucian begins and ends his Symposium in the same abrupt manner, and though it be in itself a matter of perfect indifference, I thought it better to follow the example of so great an original.
6   Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, 1762; Edward Young, Night Thoughts, 1742–5, and Centaur not Fabulous, 1754; Mark Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination, 1744; Joseph Warton, Essay on…Pope, i., 1756.
*   For most of the hard words, quaintnesses, and absurdities of style in this paragraph, consult the character of Suspirius the screech-owl, in the Rambler No. 59.

63. Johnson defends his style

1   Giuseppe Marc Antonio Baretti (1719–89), critic and miscellaneous writer, edited his review October 1763–January 1765. (See Boswell, Life, iii. 503.)
2   James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714–99), Scottish judge.
3   Journey, 134–5. (See Boswell, Life, v. 334.)

65. Robert Burrowes, ‘Essay on the Stile of Doctor Samuel Johnson’, Nos. I and II

1   Lives, i. 190.
2   Horace, Ars Poetica, l. 51 (‘the liberty will be granted if taken with moderation’).
3   See Rambler Nos. 141, 130, 133, 123, 117.
4   Lives, iii. 398.
5   Rambler Nos. 200, 194, 51, 135; Lives, iii. 55.
6   See document No. 7.
7   Idler No. 70.
8   Lives, ii. 214.
9   Rambler No. 191.
10   Ibid. No. 78.
11   See Works, 1792, xii. 283–6.
12   Lives, iii. 52.
13   Lives, i. 174; ii. 295; Rambler No. 58.
14   Rambler Nos. 153, 54.
15   Journey, 4; Rambler No. 26.
16   Lives, ii. 81.
17   Journey, 118, 43, 4, 7; Rambler No. 63; Lives, i. 316.
18   Journey, 118; Lives, iii. 48.
19   Rambler No. 167; Journey, 72; Rambler No. 131.
20   Robert Lowth (1710–87) published his Introduction to English Grammar in 1762.
21   Lives, ii. 20; iii. 422; Shakespeare, 65; Lives, i. 5; Journey, 44, 74.
22   Lives, ii. 128.
23   Ibid., ii. 97, 228.
24   Rambler No. 49.
25   Lives, ii. 121.
26   Rambler No. 101; Lives, i. 3, 183.
27   Lives, i. 292.
28   Rambler No. 74.
29   Ibid. No. 177; Lives, i. 64.
30   Idler No. 11.
31   Lives, ii. 241.
32   Ibid., ii. 49.
33   Rambler No. 144; Shakespeare, 84.
34   Lives, ii. 325.
35   Ibid., iii. 103–4; Rambler No. 187.
36   Lives, iii. 440.

66. Anna Seward on Johnson’s prose style

1   Edward Gibbon (1737–94); Joseph Berington (1746–1827).

67. Nathan Drake on the influence of Johnson’s style

2   Journey, 34.
1   See above, document No. 6.
2   Published 1786.
3   Vicesimus Knox (1752–1821); his Winter Evenings; or, Lucubrations on Life and Letters, published 1788.
4   Boswell, Life, i. 215.

69. Coleridge’s opinions on Johnson’s style

1   The pseudonym adopted by the unknown writer who contributed a series of virulent letters to the Public Advertiser, 1769–72.

70. Charles Churchill, ‘Pomposo’ in The Ghost

1   Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, 11. 846.
2   Proposals were issued and subscribers sought for Johnson’s edition of Shakespeare in 1756; the edition did not appear until 1765.
3   Johnson was nominated for his pension by John Stuart, Earl of Bute.

71. John Wilkes, North Briton Nos. XI and XII

1   A weekly periodical inaugurated on 29 May 1762 by Smollett in Lord Bute’s interest.
2   A weekly paper in the Whig interest, founded in 1755 by Richard Beckford and edited by John Entick.

72. William Blake, ‘An Island in the Moon’

1   Cf. Collins, ‘Ode to Evening’, ll. 9–10.

73. John Courtenay, A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson LL.D.

*   ‘The incumbrances of fortune were shaken from his mind, like dew-drops from the lion’s mane.’ Johnson’s Preface to his edition of Shakspeare.
*   The style of the Ramblers seems to have been formed on that of Sir Thomas Brown’s Vulgar Errors and Christian Morals.
†   See Victoria’s Letter, Rambler, No. 130. —‘I was never permitted to sleep till I had passed through the cosmetick discipline, part of which was a regular lustration performed with bean-flower water and may-dews; my hair was perfumed with a variety of unguents, by some of which it was to be thickened, and by others to be curled. The softness of my hands was secured by medicated gloves, and my bosom rubbed with a pomade prepared by my mother, of virtue to discuss dimples, and clear discolorations.’
*   See his admirable Lives of the Poets, and particularly his Disquisition on metaphysical and religious poetry.
†   See his Review of Soame Jennings’s Essay on the Origin of Evil; a masterpiece of composition, both for vigour of style and precision of ideas.
‡   Pope’s or rather Bolingbroke’s system was borrowed from the Arabian meta-physicians.
§   The scheme of the Essay on Man was given by Lord Bolingbroke to Pope.
||   See that sublime and beautiful Tale, The Prince of Abyssinia; and The Rambler, No. 65, 204, &c. &c.
*   See [Johnson’s] Prologue spoken by Mr. Garrick in 1747, on the opening of Drury-Lane theatre.
1   Johnson wrote a Latin ode to Mrs Thrale in Skye on 6 September 1773. See Poems, 280–1.
*   The celebrated Flora Macdonald. See Boswell’s Tour.
2   Dr Charles Burney (1726–1814), musician and author.
3   Edmond Malone (1741–1812), described by Boswell as ‘one of the best criticks of our age’ (Life, v. 78 n. 5).
4   George Steevens (1736–1800), Shakespearean editor.
5   John Hawkesworth (1715?–73), edited the Adventurer.
6   Sir William Jones (1746–94), the distinguished orientalist, produced his Poesos Asiaticae Commentariorum Libri Sex, 1774, at an early age.
*   It is observable that Dr. Johnson did not prefix a dedication to any one of his various works.

74. Joseph Towers, An Essay on the Life, Character, and Writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson

*   ‘Who noble ends by noble means obtains.’ Pope. [Essay on Man, 1v. 233.]
1   Thomas Tyers, A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson, 1785 (in Johnsonian Miscellanies, ii).
2   Tyers, in Johnsonian Miscellanies, ii. 336.
*   Numbers 14, 16, 22, 23, 43, 49, 52, 59, 62, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 91, 94.
3   See Johnsonian Miscellanies, i. 178.
4   Life of Roger Ascham, in Works, 1792, xii. 321.
5   Works, viii. 92.
6   The Patriot, in Works, viii. 149.
7   Works, viii. 171–2.
8   Lives, i. 255.
9   See Poems, 240–1.
10   Rambler No. 208; see above, document No. 7.
11   Boswell, Life, iv. 203.
12   Lives, i. 249.
13   Anecdotes, in Johnsonian Miscellanies, i. 243.
14   Ibid., i. 241.
15   Boswell, Life, ii. 263.
16   Ibid., iii. 90.

75. James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D.

1   Idler No. 84.
2   It was never published.
3   Psalm 90:12.
4   Ars Poetica, 1.388.
5   Yonge (d. 1755) was Secretary at War in Walpole’s government.
6   Boswell, Life, i. 102.
7   Horace, Epistles, II. ii. 102 (‘fretful tribe’).
8   Pope, Essay on Man, II. 10.
9   Journey, 184; see Life, v. 40.
10   See document No. 67.
11   See document No. 6.
12   Rambler No. 59.
13   The Beauties of Johnson, 1781. See Introduction, p. 14.
14   Ecclesiastes 7:4.
15   In No. 200.
16   Idler No. 70.
17   Temple (1628–99) was patron to Swift who published his Letters, 1700, and Memoirs, 1709.
18   Ephraim Chambers (d. 1740); published his Cyclopaedia in 1728.
19   Richard Hooker (1554?–1600); Francis Bacon (1561–1626); Robert Sanderson (1587– 1663), Bishop of Lincoln; George Hakewill (1578–1649), Oxford divine.
20   George III.
21   See Rambler Nos. 170–1, 12, 107, 62.
22   See document No. 18.
23   Both are defined ‘towards the wind’.
24   Ecclesiastes 1:14.
25   Candide was published in late February 1759, Rasselas on 19 April.
26   See documents Nos. 30, 31.
27   See document No. 32.
28   On 13 April 1768 Wilkes received 1143 votes, Luttrell 296.
29   On 3 May 1782.
30   See document No. 39.
31   Robert Orme (1728–1801).
32   Richard II, 1. iii. 309.
33   George Dempster (1732–1818), Scottish M.P. and agriculturalist.
34   John Knox, Tour through the Highlands of Scotland, 1787, lxviii-ix. 103.
35   William Tytler (1711–92).
36   The politician, William Windham (1750–1810).
37   Five of the six amanuenses employed on the Dictionary were Scotsmen.
38   McNicol’s Remarks, 1779. See document No. 47.
39   James (‘Ossian’) Macpherson. (He may indeed have contributed to McNicol’s book.)
40   Stilichonis, III. 113 (‘He errs who deems obedience to a prince slavery; a happier freedom never reigns than with a pious monarch’).
41   See document No. 41.
42   The Revd William J.Temple (1739–96).
43   Institutio Oratoria, liber 1, Prooemium 3 (‘But as my matter grew under my hand, I voluntarily undertook a bigger task than had been laid upon me’).
44   See Lives, i. 276; iii. 112, 26.
45   Elizabeth Montagu (1720–1800) published her Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare in 1769.
46   Richard Cumberland (1732–1811), author of sentimental comedies and editor of the periodical, The Observer.
47   Lucretius, De Rerum Naturâ, i. 72 (‘lively energy’).
48   See above, p. 114.
49   Luke 12:48.
50   1 Corinthians 15:19.

76. Anna Seward’s general estimate of Johnson

*   A literary society, often frequented by Dr Johnson, in which a dispute had arisen concerning the meaning of the epitaph on him, which appeared in the beginning of this month, in several of the newspapers, with A.Seward’s signature, most unwarrantably given, and which obliged her publicly to disavow the composition. This was the epitaph:
The groans of Learning tell that Johnson dies.
Adieu, rough critic, of Colossal size!
Grateful, ye virtues, round his grave attend,
And boldly guard your energetic friend!
Ye vices keep aloof—a foe to you!
Yet one, the subtlest of your tribe, he knew;
In silence, Envy, to his fame be just,
And, tho’ you stain’d his spirit, spare his dust.
1   Nos. 84, 10.

78. Richard Cumberland, Memoirs

1   See Boswell, Life, i. 154.
2   The ‘Young Roscius’, William H. Betty (1791–1874); in 1803–5 he appeared extensively in Shakespearean adult roles in London, Ireland and Scotland.
3   ‘Even the dead speaks’ (cf. Hebrews 11:4).
4   Rambler No. 139.
5   Lives, ii. 230.

80. Macaulay, review of Croker’s edition of Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Edinburgh Review

1   Boswell, Life, iii. 85.
2   Ibid., v. 108.
3   Ibid., ii. 170–1, 211.
4   John Moore, Zeluco, 1786, chapter 73.
5   Boswell, Life, iii. 352.
6   Ibid., ii. 366, 236–7; iii. 206n. 1.
7   See document No. 75, headnote.
8   Journey, 43.
9   Boswell, Life, iv. 320.
10   i.e. a dandy or fop.
11   Boswell, Life, ii. 231.
12   In Walter Scott’s Monastery, 1820.
*   It is proper to observe that this passage [Merry Wives of Windsor, 1v. ii. 205] bears a very close resemblance to a passage in the Rambler (No. 20). The resemblance may possibly be the effect of unconscious plagiarism.
13   See Rambler Nos. 42, 46, for Euphelia; No. 62 for Rhodoclia; Nos. 204–5 for Seged; No. 51 for Cornelia; No. 119 for Tranquilla.

81. Thomas Carlyle, review of Croker’s edition of Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Fraser’s Magazine

1   Milton, Paradise Lost, 111. 44.
2   Horace, Odes, 1. xi. 8 (‘make the most of today’).
3   Samuel Boyse (1708–49), a destitute minor poet.
4   Ephesians 5:16.
5   Boswell, Life, ii. 214 et al.
6   From Johnson’s prayer ‘Against inquisitive and perplexing thoughts’, quoted in Boswell, Life, iv. 370 n. 3.
7   Boswell, Life, iv. 221.
8   Boswell, Life, ii. 66.
9   Ibid., ii. 119; iv. 321–2.
10   Virgil, Georgics, 11. 173 (‘Hail noble parent’).
11   Boswell, Life, ii. 43–4.
12   Ibid., iv. 373.
13   Johnsonian Miscellanies, ii. 426–7.
14   Macbeth, 111. ii. 23.
15   Boswell, Life, i. 484, 485 n. l.
16   Ibid., iii. 54 and n. l.
17   Ibid., ii. 406.
18   Johnsonian Miscellanies, ii. 259–60.
19   Boswell, Life, ii. 34–42.
20   Boswell, Life, iv. 299.
21   Ibid., i. 434; ii. 406 (‘of the most acute intellect, but little scholarship’); ii. 11–12; i. 444.
22   Ibid., ii. 397, 399, 404.