Part 10

=1= 10-11. =a strong religious and political sympathy.= Macaulay's use of the article would lead us to think that the two kinds of sympathy were very closely connected. Michael Johnson was a member of the Established Church of England, and at heart a believer in the "divine right" kings. The student who is not familiar with the history of this period will do well to look up _Jacobite_ in Brewer's _Historic Note-book_ and then to read in some brief history an account of the _sovereigns in possession_ who followed James II,--William and Mary (1689-1702) and Anne (1702-1714). Boswell says, "He no doubt had an early attachment to the House of Stuart; but his zeal had cooled as his reason strengthened."

=1= 16. =In the child.= Pause to take the glimpse ahead which this sentence gives. The construction helps one to remember the three kinds of peculiarities and the order in which they are mentioned.

=2= 26. =Augustan delicacy of taste.= You may read in Harper's _Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities_, in the article on Augustus Cæsar, how "the court of Augustus thus became a school of culture, where men of genius acquired that delicacy of taste, elevation of sentiment, and purity of expression which characterize the writers of the age."

=2= 32. =Petrarch.= Does Macaulay imply that Petrarch is one of "the great restorers of learning"? See _Renaissance_ in _The Century Dictionary_ and Harper's _Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities_. Note that Petrarch "may be said to have rediscovered Greek, which for some six centuries had been lost to the western world." Keep in mind, too, that his friend and disciple, Boccaccio, translated Homer into Latin.

=3= 11. =Pembroke College.= The University of Oxford consists of twenty-one colleges which together form a corporate body. The colleges are "endowed by their founders and others with estates and benefices; out of the revenue arising from the estates, as well as other resources, the Heads and Senior and Junior Members _on the foundation_ receive an income, and the expenses of the colleges are defrayed. Members _not on the foundation_, called 'independent members,' reside entirely at their own expense." Among the members _on the foundation_ are the Heads, Fellows, and Scholars.

=3= 17-18. =Macrobius.= A Roman grammarian who probably lived at the beginning of the fifth century.

=3= 20. =about three years.= Apparently Johnson remained at Oxford only fourteen months. See Dr. Hill's _Dr. Johnson, His Friends and His Critics_.

=4= 1-2. "It was bitterness which they mistook for frolic. I was miserably poor, and I thought to fight my way by my literature and my wit; so I disregarded all power and all authority."--Johnson, quoted by Boswell. Although aware of what he considered the defects of his college, Johnson loved Pembroke as long as he lived. He delighted in boasting of its eminent graduates and would have left to it his house at Lichfield had not wiser friends induced him to bequeath it to some poor relatives.

=4= 15-16. =his father died.= "I now therefore see that I must make my own fortune. Meanwhile let me take care that the powers of my mind be not debilitated by poverty, and that indigence do not force me into any criminal act."--Johnson, quoted by Boswell.

=5= 32. =Walmesley.= "I am not able to name a man of equal knowledge. His acquaintance with books was great, and what he did not immediately know, he could, at least, tell where to find."--Johnson, quoted by Boswell.

=6= 13. =Politian.= Another of "the great restorers of learning" (see =2= 31). His beginning of a translation of the _Iliad_ into Latin attracted the attention of Lorenzo de' Medici, under whose patronage he became one of the first scholars of Italy.

=6= 17. =fell in love.= Boswell says that Johnson's early attachments to the fair sex were "very transient," and considers it but natural that when the passion of love once seized him it should be exceedingly strong, concentrated as it was in one object.

=6= 22. =Queensberrys and Lepels.= Families of high rank in England.

=7= 3-4. =half ludicrous.= Carlyle says it is no matter for ridicule that the man "whose look all men both laughed at and shuddered at, should find any brave female heart, to acknowledge, at first sight and hearing of him, 'This is the most sensible man I ever met with'; and then, with generous courage, to take him to itself, and say Be thou mine!... Johnson's deathless affection for his Tetty was always venerable and noble."

=7= 6-7. At Edial. Although this enterprise did not prosper, the man, as Carlyle says, "was to become a Teacher of grown gentlemen, in the most surprising way; a man of Letters, and Ruler of the British Nation for some time,--not of their bodies merely, but of their minds; not over them, but _in_ them."

=7= 13. =David Garrick.= The mere fact that this celebrated actor and successful manager brought out twenty-four of Shakspere's plays is reason enough why we should look him up. A slight knowledge of his career enables one to enjoy all the more the frequent references to him in Boswell's _Life of Johnson_. After reading the sketch in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ it would be a good plan to read Boswell's references consecutively by means of the index.

=8= 9. =Fielding.= For an enjoyable short sketch of the first great English novelist, see Thackeray's _English Humourists_.

=8= 10. =The Beggar's Opera=, by John Gay, appeared in 1728.

=8= 19. =knot.= See _The Century Dictionary_.

=8= 34. =Drury Lane.= A street in the heart of the city, near the Strand,--one of the chief thoroughfares. It was beginning to lose its old-time respectability.

=9= 9. =the sight of food.= Once when Boswell was giving a dinner and one of the company was late, Boswell proposed to order dinner to be served, adding, "'Ought six people to be kept waiting for one?' 'Why, yes,' answered Johnson, with a delicate humanity, 'if the one will suffer more by your sitting down than the six will do by waiting.'" Is it probable that Macaulay exaggerates?

=9= 27. =Harleian Library.= The library collected by Robert Harley, First Earl of Oxford. Osborne afterwards bought it and Johnson did some of the cataloguing for him. As to Osborne's punishment, Boswell says: "The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. 'Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber.'"

=10= 6. =Blefuscu, Mildendo.= If Blefuscu and Mildendo look unfamiliar, go to Lilliput for them. (See _Gulliver's Travels_.)

=10= 9. "Johnson told me, that as soon as he found that the speeches were thought genuine, he determined that he would write no more of them; for he 'would not be accessory to the propagation of falsehood.'"--Boswell.

=10= 15. Cf. _The Traveller_. Do you suppose that either Johnson or Goldsmith really believed that one form of government is as good as another?

=10= 17. =Montagues.= See Shakspere's _Romeo and Juliet_.

_10_ 18. =Greens.= In Roman chariot races there was the bitterest rivalry between the different colors of the factions, and the betting often led to scenes of riot and bloodshed. Once in Justinian's reign, in the great circus at Constantinople, the tumult was not suppressed till about thirty thousand of the rioters had been killed. See Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, Chapter XL.

=10= 22. =Sacheverell.= What do you gather from the context about this preacher? Was he high church? Did he preach resistance to the king?

=10= 31. =Tom Tempest.= See Johnson's _Idler_, No. 10.

=10= 32. =Laud.= Read in Gardiner's _Student's History of England_ the account of this archbishop who tried to enforce uniformity of worship.

=11= 2-4. =Hampden, Falkland, Clarendon.= In the case of these three statesmen, as well as in the case of Laud, the context shows which of them were supporters of Charles I and which resisted him. Does Macaulay imply that Johnson would have been excusable if he had sympathized with Hampden's refusal to pay "ship money"?

=11= 5. =Roundheads.= If you do not know why they were so called, see _The Century Dictionary_.

=11= 20-21. =Great Rebellion.= If in doubt as to which rebellion Macaulay refers, see _The Century Dictionary_ or Brewer's _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_.

=12= 2, 8, 10. =Juvenal.= Dryden has translated five of the poems of this great Roman satirist. It is worth while to compare Johnson's _London_, a free imitation of the Third Satire, with Dryden's version. Johnson's poem may be found in Hales's _Longer English Poems_.

=12= 19. Boswell, too, asks us to remember Pope's candor and liberal conduct on this occasion. Let us not forget it.

=13= 8. =Psalmanazar.= Pretending to be a Japanese, this Frenchman wrote what he called a _History of Formosa_. Although fabulous, it deceived the learned world.

=13= 14-15. =blue ribands.= Worn by members of the Order of the Garter.

=13= 16. =Newgate.= The notorious London prison.

=13= 26. =Piazza= here has its first meaning,--"an open square in a town surrounded by buildings or colonnades, a plaza." This space was once the "convent" garden of the monks of Westminster. For a brief sketch of it down to the time its "coffee houses and taverns became the fashionable lounging-places for the authors, wits, and noted men of the kingdom," see _The Century Dictionary_.

=14= 11-12. =Grub Street.= "Originally the name of a street in Moorfields in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called _grubstreet_.

'I'd sooner ballads write, and _grubstreet_ lays.' Gay."

--Johnson's _Dictionary_, edition of 1773.

=14= 23. =Warburton.= Bishop Warburton thus praised Johnson in the Preface to his own edition of _Shakspere_, and Johnson showed his appreciation by saying to Boswell, "He praised me at a time when praise was of value to me." On another occasion, when asked whether he considered Warburton a superior critic to Theobald, he replied, "He'd make two-and-fifty Theobalds, cut into slices!" Johnson's sketch of him, in the _Life of Pope_, Boswell calls "the tribute due to him when he was no longer in 'high place,' but numbered with the dead."

=14= 28-31. He employed six amanuenses, not a large number of assistants for a task of such magnitude. Nor was the sum of fifteen hundred guineas a generous one from which to pay these assistants.

=14= 33. =Chesterfield.= Every young man should read an abridged edition of Chesterfield's _Letters to his Son_; for example, the volume in the Knickerbocker Nugget Series. It contains much that is worth remembering, and the style is entertaining.

=15= 17. It is hard to realize what a stupendous task Johnson undertook when he began his Dictionary. Other dictionaries, notably Bailey's, were in existence, but they were mere beginnings of what he had in mind. As lists of words, with explanations of the meanings, they were useful, but none of them could reasonably be considered a standard. A standard Johnson's certainly was. Although no etymologist, in general he not only gave full and clear definitions, but he chose remarkably happy illustrations of the meanings of words. By taking care, also, to select passages which were interesting and profitable reading as well as elegant English, he succeeded in making probably the most readable dictionary that has ever appeared.

=15= 23. For the _Vanity of Human Wishes_, see Hales's _Longer English Poems_ or Syle's _From Milton to Tennyson_. As in the case of _London_, the student will wish to compare Dryden's translation.

=16= 8-9. And this was eleven years after the _London_ had appeared; as Boswell says, his fame was already established.

=16= 13. =Goodman's Fields.= Garrick made this theater successful.

=16= 15. =Drury Lane Theatre.= Near Drury Lane. (See note to =8= 34.) Other prominent actors in this famous old theatre were Kean, the Kembles, and Mrs. Siddons.

=17= 13. See page 7. The story on which _Irene_ is based is as follows:--

Mahomet the Great, first emperor of the Turks, in the year 1453 laid siege to the city of Constantinople, then possessed by the Greeks, and, after an obstinate resistance, took and sacked it. Among the many young women whom the commanders thought fit to lay hands on and present to him was one named Irene, a Greek, of incomparable beauty and such rare perfection of body and mind, that the emperor, becoming enamored of her, neglected the care of his government and empire for two whole years, and thereby so exasperated the Janizaries, that they mutinied and threatened to dethrone him. To prevent this mischief, Mustapha Bassa, a person of great credit with him, undertook to represent to him the great danger to which he lay exposed by the indulgence of his passion: he called to his remembrance the character, actions, and achievements of his predecessors, and the state of his government; and, in short, so roused him from his lethargy, that he took a horrible resolution to silence the clamors of his people by the sacrifice of this admirable creature. Accordingly, he commanded her to be dressed and adorned in the richest manner that she and her attendants could devise, and against a certain hour issued orders for the nobility and leaders of his army to attend him in the great hall of his palace. When they were all assembled, himself appeared with great pomp and magnificence, leading his captive by the hand, unconscious of guilt and ignorant of his design. With a furious and menacing look, he gave the beholders to understand that he meant to remove the cause of their discontent; but bade them first view that lady, whom he held with his left hand, and say whether any of them, possessed of a jewel so rare and precious, would for any cause forego her; to which they answered that he had great reason for his affection toward her. To this the emperor replied that he would convince them that he was yet master of himself. And having so said, presently, with one of his hands catching the fair Greek by the hair of the head, and drawing his falchion with the other, he, at one blow, struck off her head, to the great terror of them all; and having so done, he said unto them, "Now by this judge whether your emperor is able to bridle his affections or not."--Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_.

=17= 20-21. =Tatler, Spectator.= It is to be hoped that the reader needs no introduction to these papers or to the account of them in Macaulay's essay on Addison.

=17= 30. =Rambler.= A suitable title for a series of moral discourses? At the time of the undertaking he composed a prayer to the effect that he might in this way promote the glory of Almighty God and the salvation both of himself and others.--_Prayers and Meditations_, p. 9, quoted by Boswell.

=17= 31-32. Boswell considers it a strong confirmation of the truth of Johnson's remark that "a man may write at any time if he will set himself doggedly to it," that "notwithstanding his constitutional indolence, his depression of spirits, and his labour in carrying on his Dictionary, he answered the stated calls of the press twice a week from the stores of his mind during all that time."

=17= 34. =Richardson.= Samuel Richardson. When he was a boy, the girls employed him to write love letters for them; and his novels, written in after life, also took the form of letters. He wrote _Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded_; _Clarissa Harlowe, or the History of a Young Lady_; and _The History of Sir Charles Grandison_ (about 1750). Johnson called him "an author who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature and taught the passions to move at the command of virtue."

=18= 2. =Young.= Johnson held a high opinion of Edward Young's most famous work, _Night Thoughts_, and Boswell writes, "No book whatever can be recommended to young persons, with better hopes of seasoning their minds with _vital religion_, than Young's _Night Thoughts_."--=Hartley.= David Hartley, prominent as a psychologist, and as a physician benevolent and studious. For intimate friends he chose such men as Warburton and Young.

=18= 3. =Dodington.= A member of Parliament who patronized men of letters and was complimented by Young and Fielding.

=18= 7. =Frederic.= When Frederick, Prince of Wales, became the center of the opposition to Walpole, in 1737, among the leaders of his political friends, called "the Leicester House Party,"--at that time Leicester House was the residence of the Prince of Wales,--were Chesterfield, William Pitt, and Bubb Dodington.

=18= 25. In regard to the use of antiquated and hard words, for which Johnson was censured, he says in _Idler_ No. 90, "He that thinks with more extent than another, will want words of larger meaning."

=18= 30-32. =brilliancy ... eloquence ... humour.= Johnson wrote many of these discourses so hastily, says Boswell, that he did not even read them over before they were printed. Boswell continues: "Sir Joshua Reynolds once asked him by what means he had attained his extraordinary accuracy and flow of language. He told him, that he had early laid it down as a fixed rule to do his best on every occasion, and in every company: to impart whatever he knew in the most forcible language he could put it in; and that by constant practice, and never suffering any careless expressions to escape him, or attempting to deliver his thoughts without arranging them in the clearest manner, it became habitual to him." One man who knew Johnson intimately observed "that he always talked as if he was talking upon oath."

=18= 32-=19= 10. Cf. Johnson's comment: "Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison."--Boswell, 1750.

=19= 1-2. =Sir Roger=, etc. These two sets of allusions offer a good excuse for handling complete editions of the _Spectator_ and the _Rambler_.

=19= 21. =the Gunnings.= "The beautiful Misses Gunning," two sisters, were born in Ireland. They went to London in 1751, were continually followed by crowds, and were called "the handsomest women alive."--=Lady Mary.= Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Let one of the encyclopædias introduce you to this relative of Fielding who laughed at Pope when he made love to her, and whose wit had full play in the brilliant letters from Constantinople which added greatly to her reputation as an independent thinker.

=19= 23-24. =the Monthly Review.= This Whig periodical would not appeal to Johnson as did its rival, the _Critical Review_. It was the _Monthly_ that Goldsmith did hack work for. Smollett wrote for the other. See Irving's _Life of Goldsmith_, Chapter VII.

=19= 31. It was published in 1755, price £4 10_s._, bound.

=20= 17. The letter, which needs no comment, is as follows:

February 7, 1755.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.

My Lord,

I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of the World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the publick, were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.

When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself _Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre_;--that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in publick, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I have done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.

Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your outward rooms or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before.

The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.

Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the Publick should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.

Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation,

My Lord, Your Lordship's most humble, Most obedient servant, SAM. JOHNSON.

=20= 24. =Horne Tooke.= A name assumed by John Horne, a politician and philologist whose career is briefly outlined in _The Century Dictionary_. The passage which so moved him follows.

In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed; and though no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the authour, and the world is little solicitous to know whence proceeded the faults of that which it condemns; yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it that the _English Dictionary_ was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow. It may repress the triumph of malignant criticism to observe, that if our language is not here fully displayed, I have only failed in an attempt which no human powers have hitherto completed. If the lexicons of ancient tongues, now immutably fixed, and comprised in a few volumes, be yet, after the toil of successive ages, inadequate and delusive; if the aggregated knowledge, and co-operating diligence of the _Italian_ academicians, did not secure them from the censure of _Beni_; if the embodied criticks of _France_, when fifty years had been spent upon their work, were obliged to change its oeconomy, and give their second edition another form, I may surely be contented without the praise of perfection, which, if I could obtain, in this gloom of solitude, what would it avail me? I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.