14. Falkland’s Islands: In June 1770 the Falkland Islands, a small archipelago off the south-eastern coast of Argentina, were seized by the Spanish, in retaliation for British operations against their settlements in Havana and Manila during the Seven Years War. After firm diplomatic representations from Britain the Spanish eventually withdrew. Johnson wrote in support of the diplomatic line taken by Lord North, and against those who clamoured for a military response, whom he bitterly reproached as men without honour hoping to profit from the dangers and hardships suffered by others.
15. Resolutions… of the American Congress: The first session of the American Continental Congress had convened in Philadelphia on 5 September 1774, and had set itself to formulate the principles on which the thirteen colonies would take their stand against the measures for their government proposed by George III and his prime minister Lord North. It was to these so-called ‘Declarations of Rights’ that Johnson was invited by Lord North’s ministry to compose a reply, published in 1775 as Taxation No Tyranny.
16. After my death… Griffith: Henry VIII, IV.ii.69–72.
17. a lady… with him: Mrs Thrale.
18. a superannuated lord and lady: William, 3rd Earl of Jersey, and his wife.
19. N.S., 1709: N.S. stands for ‘New Style’, and refers to the consequences of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. In England and Scotland the Gregorian calendar was established by the Act 24 Geo. II. c. 23 (1751), which provided that the year 1752 and all future years should begin on 1 January instead of 25 March, that the day after 2 September 1752 should be reckoned as 14 September, and that the reformed rule for leap year should in future be adopted. Ireland followed in 1788.
20. the unfortunate house of Stuart: The Stuarts were ‘unfortunate’ because James II had either abdicated or (depending on your point of view) been driven from the throne in 1688.
21. kenneclass="underline" The surface drain of a street; a gutter (OED).
22. scrophula, or king’s eviclass="underline" Scrophula, or scrofula, is a constitutional disease characterized by chronic enlargement and degeneration of the lymphatic glands. In England and France it was formerly supposed to be curable by the king’s (or queen’s) touch. The practice of touching for the ‘king’s evil’ (as it was also known) continued from the time of Edward the Confessor to the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The office for the ceremony has not been printed in the Prayer Book since 1719 (OED).
23. Rod… thy duty: Cf. 2 Henry VI, IV.ix.64: ‘Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed.’
24. Pastoral I: Virgil, Eclogues, i (Virgil’s Eclogues were commonly referred to as ‘Pastorals’ in the eighteenth century).
25. The Distressed Mother: The Distressed Mother (1712), by Ambrose Philips, is modelled very closely on Racine’s Andromaque. It was a great success when first performed, and was lavishly praised by Steele in The Spectator, 290 (1 February 1712).
26. that gentleman: Probably Andrew Corbet.
27. Ex alieno… versificator: ‘A poet by another’s genius, merely a versifier by his own’ – J. C. Scaliger, Poetices, bk VI, ch. 4 (1561), p. 308.
28. the tuneful Nine: The nine Muses, in Greek mythology the daughters of Mnemosyne, and goddesses of literature and the arts.
29. one of the chapters of his Rasselas: Chapter 44, ‘The Dangerous Prevalence of Imagination’.
30. Igneus… origo: ‘To these seeds a flame-like vigour belongs, and a divine origin’ – Virgil, Aeneid, vi.730.
31. ‘The Whole Duty of Man’: Richard Allestree, The Whole Duty of Man (1658), an enormously popular work of practical morality and religion, many times reprinted for over a century after its first publication.
32. De veritate Religionis: ‘Of the Truth of Religion’; books so entitled were composed by Hugo Grotius (Leyden, 1627), Philip van Limborch (Gouda, 1687), and Philippe du Plessis Mornay (Antwerp, 1583).
33. Stet pro ratione voluntas: ‘Let my desires be reason enough’ – Juvenal, Satires, vi.223.
34. what… to be saved: Cf. Acts 16:30.
35. somebody: Possibly William Vyse.
36. res angusta domi: ‘Financial constraint at home’ – Juvenal, Satires, iii.164.
37. petites morales: Minor social conventions or morals; the ethics of everyday life (OED).
38. My time… happily spent: The opening line of ‘A Pastoral’ by John Byrom (1692–1763).
39. usher: An assistant to a schoolmaster or head teacher; an under-master, assistant master (OED, 4).
40. Julii 16… petii: ‘July 16. I betook myself to Bosworth on foot.’
41. his admirable philosophical tale: The History of Rasselas (1759).
42. in quo Natura… compensavit: ‘In whom, as formerly in Angelo Polit-iano, nature compensated for bodily ugliness with great intellectual eminence’.
43. first… in the Gent. Mag.: Gentleman’s Magazine, lv (1785), 3-8.
44. multos et felices annos: Many years, and happy ones.
45. Delightful task… toshoot: James Thomson, ‘Spring’ (1728), ll.1152-3.
46. Utpueris… discere prima: ‘As teachers sometimes give little boys cakes to coax them into learning their letters’ – Horace, Satires, I.i.25-6.
47. a relation: The Revd Samuel Ford (1717–93), Johnson’s cousin.
48. the Turkish History: Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes (1603). Johnson admired this work immoderately, and drew from it the plot of his unsuccessful play Irene (composed 1736, first performed 1749).
49. porter’s knot: A kind of double shoulder pad, with a loop passing round the forehead, the whole roughly resembling a horse collar, used by London market porters for carrying their burdens (OED, ‘knot’, 5).
50. His Ofellus… an Irish painter: Ofellus is the wise peasant in Horace’s Satires II.ii, who is able to teach the art of frugal living. The Irish painter was possibly Michael Ford.
51. disjecta membra: ‘Dismembered limbs’ – Horace, Satires, I.iv.62.
52. gave the walclass="underline" Yielded passage (the side of the pavement nearest the wall being cleaner and safer).
53. Iris: In Greek mythology, the goddess of the rainbow.
54. Lewis le Grand: That is, Louis XIV (1638–1715), king of France.
55. Will no… happy Muse: Samuel Derrick, ‘Fortune, a rhapsody’, Gentleman’s Magazine, xxi (1751), 527.
56. May I… a Pauclass="underline" Charles Churchill, The Conference (1763), p. 13.