NOTES

PAGE 1. LINE 4.

Lichfield. Observe how near Lichfield comes

to being in the exact center of England.

1 4-5. the midland counties. As you run your eye over the map, what counties should you naturally include under this head? In what county is Lichfield?

1 9. oracle. "Johnson, the Lichfield librarian, is now here; he propagates learning all over this diocese, and advanceth knowledge to its just height; all the clergy here are his pupils, and suck all they have from him."- From a letter written by Rev. George Plaxton, quoted by Boswell.

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 (1689–1792) 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 iny 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.

ท

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. 73-4. 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."

66

76-7. 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, Bosweli 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. "66 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.