He wrote a treatise De Locis Theologicis, in twelve books. BOSWELL.
[1161] D'Argenson's. CROKER.
[1162] See Macaulay's Essays, i. 355, and Mr. Croker's answer in his note on this passage. His notion that 'this book was exhibited purposely on the lady's table, in the expectation that her English visitors would think it a literary curiosity,' seems absurd. He does not choose to remember the 'Bibl. des Fees and other books.' Since I wrote this note Mr. Napier has published an edition of Boswell, in which this question is carefully examined (ii. 550). He sides with Macaulay.
[1163] 'Si quelque invention peut suppleer a la connaissance qui nous est refusee des longitudes sur la mer, c'est celle du plus habile horloger de France (M. Leroi) qui dispute cette invention a l'Angleterre.' Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV, ch. 43.
[1164] The Palais Marchand was properly only the stalls which were placed along some of the galleries of the Palais. They have been all swept away in Louis Philippe's restoration of the Palais. CROKER.
[1165] 'Petit siege de bois sur lequel on faisait asseoir, pour les interroger, ceux qui etaient accuses d'un delit pouvant faire encourir une peine afflictive.' LITTRE.
[1166] The Conciergerie, before long to be crowded with the victims of the Revolution.
[1167] This passage, which so many think superstitious, reminds me of Archbishop Laud's Diary. BOSWELL. Laud, for instance, on Oct. 27, 1640, records:--'In my upper study hung my picture taken by the life; and coming in, I found it fallen down upon the face, and lying on the floor, the string being broken by which it was hanged against the wall. I am almost every day threatened with my ruin in Parliament. God grant this be no omen.' Perhaps there was nothing superstitious in Johnson's entry. He may have felt ill in mind or body, and dreaded to become worse.
[1168] For a brief account of Freron, father and son, see Carlyle's French Revolution, part ii. bk. 1. ch. 4.
[1169] A round table, the centre of which descended by machinery to a lower floor, so that supper might be served without the presence of servants. It was invented by Lewis XV. during the favour of Madame du Barri. CROKER.
[1170] See ante, i. 363, note 3.
[1171] Before the Revolution the passage from the garden of the Tuileries into the Place Louis XV. was over a pont tournant. CROKER.
[1172] The niece of Arabella Fermor, the Belinda of the Rape of the Lock. Johnson thus mentions this lady (Works, viii. 246):--'At Paris, a few years ago, a niece of Mrs. Fermor, who presided in an English convent, mentioned Pope's works with very little gratitude, rather as an insult than an honour.' She is no doubt the Lady Abbess mentioned post, March 15, 1776. She told Mrs. Piozzi in 1784 'that she believed there was but little comfort to be found in a house that harboured poets; for that she remembered Mr. Pope's praise made her aunt very troublesome and conceited, while his numberless caprices would have employed ten servants to wait on him.' Piozzi's Journey, i. 20.
[1173] Mrs. Thrale wrote, on Sept. 18, 1777:--'When Mr. Thrale dismisses me, I am to take refuge among the Austin Nuns, and study Virgil with dear Miss Canning.' Piozzi Letters, i. 374.
[1174] Pensionnaires, pupils who boarded in the convent.
[1175] He brought back a snuff-box for Miss Porter. Ante, p. 387.
[1176] 63 livres = L2 12s. 6d.
[1177] Torture-chamber. See ante, i. 467, note 1.
[1178] 'Au parlement de Paris la chambre chargee des affaires criminelles.' LITTRE.
[1179] The grandson was the Duke d'Enghien who was put to death by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804.
[1180] His tender affection for his departed wife, of which there are many evidences in his Prayers and Meditations, appears very feelingly in this passage. BOSWELL. 'On many occasions I think what she [his wife] would have said or done. When I saw the sea at Brighthelmstone, I wished for her to have seen it with me.' Pr. and Med. p. 91.
[1181] See post, p. 402.
[1182] See post, iii. 89.
[1183] Dr. Moore (Travels in France, i. 31) says that in Paris, 'those who cannot afford carriages skulk behind pillars, or run into shops, to avoid being crushed by the coaches, which are driven as near the wall as the coachman pleases.' Only on the Pont Neuf, and the Pont Royal, and the quays between them were there, he adds, foot-ways.
[1184] Lewis XVI.
[1185] The King's sister, who was guillotined in the Reign of Terror.
[1186] See p. 391. BOSWELL.
[1187] 'When at Versailles, the people showed us the Theatre. As we stood on the stage looking at some machinery for playhouse purposes; "Now we are here, what shall we act, Mr. Johnson:--The Englishman in Paris"? "No, no," replied he, "we will try to act Harry the Fifth."' Piozzi's Anec. p. 101. The Englishman in Paris is a comedy by Foote.
[1188] This epithet should be applied to this animal, with one bunch. BOSWELL.
[1189] He who commanded the troops at the execution of Lewis XVI.
[1190] 1462.
[1191] I cannot learn of any book of this name.