161. Life of Johnson, below, p. 21. The quotation is taken from Alexander Pope’s ‘Prologue’ to Addison’s Cato (1713). The notion of writing Johnson’s life ‘in scenes’ seems first to have occurred to Boswell in 1780, and to have been touched on again in a letter to Thomas Percy of 1788: see Redford, Designing the Life, p. 84. The theatrical template for the Life shows the preferences of the biographer triumphing over those of the subject. Johnson’s distaste for the theatre is evident in his remark to Daniel Astle that ‘it would afford him more entertainment to sit up to the chin in water for an hour than be obliged to listen to the whining, daggle-tail Cibber, during the tedious representation of a fulsome tragedy’ (Waingrow, ed., Correspondence &c., p. 143). Boswell’s contrasting enthusiasm for the theatre is clear from his journal, and also from the three essays ‘On the Profession of a Player’ which he contributed to the London Magazine in 1770 (On the Profession of a Player: Three Essays by James Boswell, Reprinted from ‘The London Magazine’ for August, September, October, 1770 (London: Elkin Mathews and Marrot, 1929)).
162. Life of Johnson, below, p. 23.
163. ‘Si j’etais ecrivain, et mort, comme j’aimerais que ma vie se reduisit, par les soins d’un biographe amical et desinvolte, à quelques details, à quelques gouts, à quelques inflexions, disons: des “biographemes”…’ Roland Barthes, Sade, Fourier, Loyola (Paris: Tel Quel, 1971), p. 14.
164. Life of Johnson, below, p. 25.
165. Ibid., p. 230. This Johnsonian enthusiasm for chemistry was noted also by William Bowles (Waingrow, ed., Correspondence &c., p. 195).
166. Life of Johnson, below, p. 269.
167. Ibid., pp. 439, 876. Might he have used it to light fires (a purpose for which dried orange peel is well suited)?
168. Ibid., p. 530. Note, in this connection, William Adams’s recollection that Johnson at one stage in his life considered ‘becoming an Advocate in Doctor’s Commons’ (Waingrow, ed., Correspondence &c., p. 136).
169. Life of Johnson, below, p. 657.
170. Ibid., pp. 986-8.
171. Ibid., pp. 628, 617, 784, 892, 872, 994, 976-9, 992.
172. Ibid., p. 29.
Appendix 2
1. For the discovery of the manuscript, see David Buchanan, The Treasure of Auchinleck: The Story of the Boswell Papers (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974) and Frederick Pottle, Pride and Negligence: The History of the Boswell Papers (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982).
2. James Boswell’s Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript. In Four Volumes. Volume I: 1709—1765, ed. Marshall Waingrow (Edinburgh, New Haven and London: Edinburgh University Press and Yale University Press, 1994). James Boswell’s Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript. In Four Volumes. Volume II: 1766–1776, ed. Bruce Redford with Elizabeth Goldring (Edinburgh, New Haven and London: Edinburgh University Press and Yale University Press, 1998).
Notes to Text
Shakespeare references are to the Oxford/Norton edition.
1. noctes ccenceque Deum: ‘Nights and suppers of the gods’ – Horace, Satires, II.vii.85.
2. finibus Atticis… Sic te Diva potens Cypri: ‘To the Attic shore’… ‘So guide thee the goddess queen of Cyprus’ (i.e. Venus) – Horace, Odes, I.iii.5, 1.
3. Quid virtus… Ulyssen: ‘Of the power of virtue and of wisdom he has given us a profitable example in Ulysses’ – Horace, Epistles, I.ii.17.
4. out of the abundance of the heart: Matthew 12:34; and cf. Luke 6:45.
5. An honourable and reverend friend: Probably William Stuart.
6. crotchets: Square brackets.
7. the Militia Bilclass="underline" The initial success of the Jacobite forces in 1745 and the need to employ Hessian and Hanoverian mercenaries in 1756 had resulted in popular agitation for a militia. On 12 March 1756 a bill to establish a militia was introduced into and passed the Commons, but on 24 May it was rejected by the Lords after an impressive speech by Lord Hardwicke. In 1757, when a French invasion was seriously apprehended, a militia was established, and it remained in existence until 23 December 1762.
8. Treaties with… the Landgrave of Hesse Casseclass="underline" The evident inadequacy of British ground troops had resulted in a series of agreements with Russia and Hesse for the supply of troops. On 11 December 1742 a treaty of mutual assistance had been agreed with Tsarina Elizabeth of Russia, whereby Russia agreed to supply 12,000 troops for the protection of Hanover; on 18 June 1755 the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel had agreed to supply 8,000 troops in return for a payment of £54,000; and in September 1755 a new treaty had been signed with Russia, whereby 40,000 Russian troops were to be held in readiness to protect Hanover, in return for a payment of £100,000. These measures were violently attacked in the House of Commons by Pitt, and in the House of Lords by his ally, and brother-in-law, Richard Grenville, Lord Temple.
9. Admiral Byng: John Byng (1704–57), Admiral of the Red, was court-martialled and executed by firing squad on 14 March for not doing his utmost to relieve the besieged British garrison in Port Mahon in Minorca. His trial and its revelations dominated public opinion in the closing weeks of 1756 and the early months of 1757. In Candide (1759) Voltaire famously said that Byng had been executed ‘pour encourager les autres’ (‘to put heart in the others’) (ch. 23).
10. Expedition to Rochefort: In September 1757 Sir Edward Hawke had led an expedition against the important French arms depot of Rochefort, on the western coast. The nearby island of Aix was temporarily occupied, but the expedition returned home without having made an attempt on its principal target, to be greeted with derision and indignation.
11. Blackfriars Bridge: The project for the construction of a bridge at Black-friars had been discussed for many years by the City of London, a plan finally being accepted in 1760 (Nicolas Tindal, The Continuation of Mr. Rapin’s History of England, vol. XXI (1759), p. 581; Tobias Smollett, Continuation of the Complete History of England, vol. III (1765), p. 387). Construction of the first pier beganinJune 1761, thefirst stonehavingbeen laid by Sir Robert Ladbrooke on 23 May (General Magazine of Arts and Sciences, xii (1764), 682). The stonework of the sixth pier was completed inSeptember 1765(TheAnnual Register for the Year1765(1766), p.127), and the great arch was finally openedon1October 1765 (Thomas Salmon, A New Geographical and Historical Grammar (1766), p. 356).
12. the French Prisoners: These French soldiers had been taken prisoner in the course of the Seven Years War (1756–63), and were being held at Knowle, near Bristol, where their plight had stimulated widespread concern. The common people made generous contributions of money and clothing to relieve them.
13. the Cock-Lane Ghost: A celebrated imposture which in 1762 was widely believed in London. A man named Parsons had persuaded his daughter to act the part of a ghost in order to persecute a man who had sued him for debt. See the London Magazine, xxxi (1762), 50–52, 103, 112, 151– 3, 258–9, 395 and xxxii (1763), 102 and 164. Johnson’s detection of the fraud was published in the Gentleman’s Magazine, xxxii (1762), 81; cf. also xxxii, 43 and xxxiii (1763), 144.