A friend suggests, that Johnson thought his manner as a writer affected, while at the same time the matter did not compensate for that fault. In short, that he meant to make a remark quite different from that which a celebrated gentleman made on a very eminent physician: 'He is a coxcomb, but a satisfactory coxcomb.' BOSWELL. Malone says that the celebrated gentleman was Gerard Hamilton. See Boswell's Hebrides, Nov. 3, where Johnson says that 'he thought Harris a coxcomb,' and ante, ii. 225.
[693] Hermes.
[694] On the back of the engraving of Johnson in the Common Room of University College is inscribed:--'Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in hac camera communi frequens conviva. D.D. Gulielmus Scott nuper socius.' Gulielmus Scott is better known as Lord Stowell. See ante, i. 379, note 2, and iii. 42; and post, April 17, 1778.
[695] See ante, under March 15, 1776.
[696] See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 31.
[697] See ante, p. 176.
[698] See ante, i. 413.
[699] Eminent is the epithet Boswell generally applies to Burke (ante, ii. 222), and Burke almost certainly is here meant. Yet Johnson later on said, 'Burke's talk is the ebullition of his mind. He does not talk from a desire of distinction, but because his mind is full.' Post, March 21, 1783.
[700] Kames describes it as 'an act as wild as any that superstition ever suggested to a distempered brain.' Sketches, etc. iv. 321.
[701] See ante, p. 243.
[702] 'Queen Caroline,' writes Horace Walpole, 'much wished to make Dr. Clarke a bishop, but he would not subscribe the articles again. I have often heard my father relate that he sat up one night at the Palace with the Doctor, till the pages of the backstairs asked if they would have fresh candles, my father endeavouring to persuade him to subscribe again, as he had for the living of St. James's. Clarke pretended he had then believed them. "Well," said Sir Robert, "but if you do not now, you ought to resign your living to some man who would subscribe conscientiously." The Doctor would neither resign his living nor accept the bishopric.' Journal of the Reign of George III, i. 8. See ante, i. 398, post, Dec. 1784, where Johnson, on his death-bed, recommended Clarke's Sermons; and Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 5.
[703] Boswell took Ogden's Sermons with him to the Hebrides, but Johnson showed no great eagerness to read them. See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 15 and 32.
[704] See ante, p. 223.
[705] King Lear, act iii. sc. 4.
[706] The Duke of Marlborough.
[707] See Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, i. 330.
[708] See ante, p. 177.
[709] 'The accounts of Swift's reception in Ireland given by Lord Orrery and Dr. Delany are so different, that the credit of the writers, both undoubtedly veracious, cannot be saved but by supposing, what I think is true, that they speak of different times. Johnson's Works, viii. 207. See Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. Lord Orrery says that Swift, on his return to Ireland in 1714, 'met with frequent indignities from the populace, and indeed was equally abused by persons of all ranks and denominations.' Orrery's Remarks on Swift, ed. 1752, p. 60. Dr. Delany says (Observations, p. 87) that 'Swift, when he came--to take possession of his Deanery (in 1713), was received with very distinguished respect.'
[710] 'He could practise abstinence,' says Boswell (post, March 20, 1781), 'but not temperance.'
[711] 'The dinner was good, and the Bishop is knowing and conversible,' wrote Johnson of an earlier dinner at Sir Joshua's where he had met the same bishop. Piozzi Letters, i. 334.
[712] See post, Aug 19, 1784.
[713] There is no mention in the Journey to Brundusium of a brook. Johnson referred, no doubt, to Epistle I. 16. 12.
[714]
'Ne ought save Tyber hastning to his fall Remaines of all. O world's inconstancie! That which is firme doth flit and fall away, And that is flitting doth abide and stay.'
Spenser, The Ruines of Rome.
[715] Giano Vitale, to give him his Italian name, was a theologian and poet of Palermo. His earliest work was published in 1512, and he died about 1560. Brunet, and Zedler's Universal Lexicon.
[716]
'Albula Romani restat nunc nominis index, Qui quoque nunc rapidis fertur in aequor aquis. Disce hinc quid possit Fortuna. Immota labascunt, Et quae perpetuo sunt agitata manent.'
Jani Vitalis Panormitani De Roma. See Delicia C.C. Italorum Poetarum, edit. 1608, p. 1433, It is curious that in all the editions of Boswell that I have seen, the error labescunt remains unnoticed.
[717] See post, June 2, 1781.
[718] Dr. Shipley was chaplain to the Duke of Cumberland. CROKER. The battle was fought on July 2, N.S. 1747.
[719]
'Inconstant as the wind I various rove; At Tibur, Rome--at Rome, I Tibur love.'
FRANCIS. Horace, Epistles, i. 8. 12. In the first two editions Mr. Cambridge's speech ended here.
[720]
'More constant to myself, I leave with pain, By hateful business forced, the rural scene.'
FRANCIS. Horace, Epist., I. 14. 16.
[721] See ante, p. 167.
[722] Fox, it should be remembered, was Johnson's junior by nearly forty years.