Page 116. Dr. Percy gives a more intelligible account of the manner in which Johnson compiled his Dictionary. He began "by devoting his first care to a diligent perusal of all such English writers as were most correct in their language; and under every sentence which he meant to quote he drew a line, and noted in the margin the first letter of the word under which it was to occur." These sentences were then transcribed on separate slips of paper, and arranged under the word referred to. 118. John Hawkesworth (1715-1773) is said to have received £6000 for his Account of the Voyages undertaken, etc., and successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret and Captain Cook, published in 1773. 123. Sir William Yonge (d. 1755) was a lieutenant of Sir R. Walpole, and was appointed Secretary at War in 1735. 127. Mrs. Chapone (1727-1801), author of Letters on the Improvement of the Mind (1773), one of Samuel Richardson's correspondents. 128. Mr. Addison. See Spectator, No. 46. 129. Bruy. La Bruyère, referring to the Dictionary of the French Academy, says: "L'on n'a guère vu jusqu'à présent un chef-d'œuvre d'esprit qui soit l'ouvrage de plusieurs (Caractères, ch. i.). 131. James Elphinston (1721-1809), translated Martial, and in his later works endeavoured to introduce a kind of phonetic spelling. 136. note. George Bubb Dodington, created Lord Melcombe in 1761, whose Diary was published in 1784. 139. For Robert Sanderson (1587-1663), Bishop of Lincoln, see Walton's Lives. George Hakewill (1578-1649) wrote An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World (1627). 139. A Great Personage. Probably George III. 139. Cum tabulis, etc. 66 [But he, who studies masterly to frame Long darken'd words he shall with art refine; Page Once by the Catoes, and Cethegi told, And bless his Latium with a vocal tide.”—Francis. 140. Si fortè, etc. 66 A new-discovered theme For those, unheard in ancient times, may claim New words, and lately made, shall credit claim, Be envied, if my little fund supply Its frugal wealth of words, since bards who sung If with a legal, public stamp imprest.”—Francis. 141. Harmonious Jones. Sir William Jones (1746-1794), the great Orientalist. 145. note 1. See also Dunciad iii. 325. 145. Cheynel. Francis Cheynell (1608-1665), the turbulent Nonconformist divine, notorious for his dispute with Chillingworth. 153. Mrs. Masters. Mary Masters published a small volume of poems about 1738, and in 1755 Familiar Letters and Poems in 8vo. She is supposed to have died in 1759. Croker. 153. Mrs. Macaulay. Catherine Macaulay (1731-1791), according to Mr. Lecky, "the ablest writer of the new Radical school," wrote, among other works, A History of England from James I. to the Revolution (1763-1777), and a Reply to Burke's Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent (1770). 153. Southwell, Thomas, second Lord Southwell, F.R.S., born 1698, succeeded his father in 1720, and died in 1766. Croker. 156. Topham Beauclerk, only son of Lord Sidney Beauclerk, third son of the first Duke of St. Albans, was born in 1739, and entered Trinity College, Oxford, in November, 1757. Croker. Page 171. In Dr. Johnson: His Friends and Critics, Dr. Birkbeck Hill shews that the "respectable Hottentot" could not be Johnson. 171. A late noble lord. Mr. Croker suggested the second Earl of Macclesfield, in 1752 President of the Royal Society. 172. Thomas Warton (1728-1790), brother of Joseph Warton, was Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1757 to 1768. His chief work was his History of English Poetry (3 vols., 1774-1781). 186. Dr. Maty. For Matthew Maty (1718-1776), who wrote the Memoirs of his patron, Lord Chesterfield, see Gibbon's Memoirs (ed. G. B. Hill (19co), pp. 124 et. seq.). 194. note. Mr. Croker discovered in the records of the Excise Board a letter which affords an explanation of Johnson's definition of Excise. It is addressed to the Supervisor of Excise at Lichfield: “July 27, 1725. The Commissioners received yours of the 22nd instant, and since the justices would not give judgment against Mr. Michael Johnson, the tanner, notwithstanding the facts were fairly against him, the Board direct that the next time he offends, you do not lay an information against him, but send an affidavit of the fact, that he may be prosecuted in the Exchequer." See ante., p. 9. 200. Christopher Smart (1722-1770) wrote, besides many heavy poems, the remarkable Song to David, published in 1763. This poem, which was written in Bedlam, has been recently (1901) republished. 204. Mrs. Rowe. Elizabeth Rowe (1674-1737), author of Friendship in Death (1728), and Letters Moral and Entertaining (1729-1733). 204. Boyle. The Hon. Robert Boyle's (1627-1691) Works were published in five folio volumes in 1744. 205. Iste tulit, etc. Ovid, Metam. xiii. 19. "Losing he wins, because his name will be Ennobled by defeat, who durst contend with me."-Dryden. 213. Quamvis digressu, etc. Juvenal, Sat. iii. 1. "Grieved though I am to see the man depart, Who long has shared, and still must share my heart, Yet (when I call my better judgment home) I praise his purpose; to retire from Rome, And give on Cumae's solitary coast, The Sibyl one inhabitant to boast."-Gifford. 213. Bellamy. George Anne Bellamy (1731?-1788), the actress, published an Apology for her life (6 vols., 1785). 214. Jan. 1758. This letter must have been written in Jan. 1759. 215. Lewis Theobald (1688-1744) published his edition of Shakespeare in 1733. 218. Thomas Blacklock (1721-1791), the blind poet, whose letter to a friend in 1786 is usually supposed to have induced Burns to abandon his scheme of emigrating to the West Indies. Page 220. June 28, 1758. This date should be June 28, 1757, or, as Mr. Croker thinks, Jan. 28, 1758. 234. Born a Briton. "Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton.' George III.'s first speech to his Parliament. Croker. 237. Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788), actor and teacher of elocution, son of Swift's friend, and father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 241. The Jealous Wife. By George Colman. 243. Sir George Leonard Staunton, Bart. (1737-1801), was subsequently Secretary to Lord Macartney's Embassy to China, of which he published an account in 1797. 244. Dr. Richard Farmer (1735-1797), author of a valuable Essay on the learning of Shakspeare (1767). 254. Huggins. William Huggins (1696-1761), the translator of Ariosto. Johnson and Baretti had quarrelled with him. 258. His literary performances. Thomas Davies (17122-1785) published in 1780 a Life of Garrick and in 1785 Dramatic Miscellanies. 260. note. This note by Boswell first appeared in 1793, in the second edition of the Life, not, as Malone says, in 1791. Murphy's Essay was published in 1792. 261. Elements of Criticism. 1762). By Henry Home, Lord Kames (3 vols., 261. Speaking of one, etc. Mr. Wilkes, no doubt. Croker. 262. Dr. Hugh Blair (1718-1800), Professor of Rhetoric at Edinburgh University, published in 1763 A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal. He published also many sermons and, in 1783, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. 262. Dr. James Fordyce (1720-1796), a popular preacher, published, among other things, Sermons to Young Women (1765), Addresses to Young Men (1777), and Poems (1786). 272. A volume of Letters between the Honourable Andrew Erskine and James Boswell, Esq. was published in 1763. This correspondence and Boswell's Journal of a Tour to Corsica were reprinted in 1879, edited by Dr. Birkbeck Hill. 272. George Dempster (1732-1818), M.P. for the Forfar and Fife Burghs (1762-1790), authority on agriculture, and a Scottish patriot. See Burns's Epistle to James Smith and The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer. 278. Dr. John Campbell (1708-1775) wrote Lives of the Admirals (1742-4), A Political Survey of Great Britain (1774), and other things. His Hermippus Redivivus appeared in 1743. 281. John Ogilvie's (1733-1813) Poems on Several Subjects appeared in 1762. 288. Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes (1726-1792), the Scottish judge and historian, is frequently referred to in the Life. Page 288. The tyrant. Caligula. 289. Tall Sir Thomas Robinson. The elder brother of the first Lord Rokeby, called long Sir Thomas Robinson on account of his height, and to distinguish him from Sir Thomas Robinson, first Lord Grantham. Croker. Sir Thomas rebuilt Rokeby which he sold in 1769 to the father of Sir Walter Scott's friend, J. B. S. Morritt. 290. Boswell's letters to his friend, the Rev. William Johnson Temple (1739-1796), grandfather of the present Archbishop of Canterbury, were discovered in a shop at Boulogne. They had been bought from a hawker who was in the habit of passing through Boulogne for the purpose of supplying the different shops with paper. They were published in 1857. 291. Came to be ultimately tried. In Donaldson v. Becket (1774), where a majority of the House of Lords held that, though the author of a literary composition had, by the Common Law, the sole right of printing and publishing the same in perpetuity, this right had been taken away by the statute 8 Anne, c. 19. 291. Rousseau's treatise. Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes (1755). 291. Sir William Petty (1623-1687) wrote a number of enlightened tracts, chiefly on economical subjects. In his Political Arithmetic, or a Discourse concerning the Extent and Value of Lands, etc. (1699 ed., p. 261), he estimates "the middle expense of each head in the King's dominions at £7 per annum.' 294. Of a gentleman. No doubt Dempster, with whom he had dined the previous day. 298. The first volume of Dr. Joseph Warton's Essay was published in 1756, the second in 1782. 298. For particulars of Sir James Macdonald, who died at Rome in 1766, see the Tour to the Hebrides, Sep. 5. 298. M. Martin's Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (1703). 300. A young man. No doubt Boswell himself. 304. Johnston. Arthur Johnston (1587-1641) to whom Johnson assigns "among the Latin poets of Scotland the next place to the elegant Buchanan, "A Journey to the Western Islands, p. 23. See also Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides (Aug. 23). 306. Formosam, etc. Virgil, Eclogues i. 5. Johnson translated the line: "And the wood rings with Amarillis' name." See p. 19. 307. Sir William Scott (1745-1836), afterwards Lord Stowell, the great Admiralty judge. He was the elder brother of John Scott, Lord Eldon. 308. An imprudent publication. This probably alludes to Mr. Burke's Vindication of Natural Society, a work published in 1756, in a happy |