530. pro bono… prcestito: For good and faithful service rendered us.
531. an entaiclass="underline" The settlement of the succession of a landed estate so that it cannot be bequeathed at pleasure by any one possessor (OED).
532. sartum tectum: Literally, ‘a restored roof – the technical term in Roman law for a building in good repair.
533. 1773: A slip for 1776.
534. Stirpes: Family, or good birth.
535. the 20th: In fact the 29th.
536. A person: Mr Carter.
537. a respectable dignitary of the church: Dr John Douglas.
538. Dr. ∗∗∗∗∗∗∗: Dr Douglas.
539. Hermippus redivivus: ‘Hermippus restored’. Boswell refers to a work by Johann Heinrich Cohausen, Hermippus Redivivus (Frankfurt, 1742), which was translated by John Campbell as Hermippus Redivivus: or, the Sage’s Triumph (1744). This work argued that long life might be attained by breathing in the exhalations of young girls (anhelitu puellarum), a theory derived from a Roman inscription which recorded that L. Colodius Hermippus had lived to be 115 by employing this method.
540. the representative… in Scotland: Norman Macleod, twentieth chief of Macleod.
541. a countryman of his and mine: Alexander Wedderburn.
542. debitum justitice: Debt in law.
543. debitum caritatis: Debt of kindness.
544. ∗∗∗∗∗∗∗: Bennet Langton.
545. the Lady Abbess of a convent: Mrs Fermor.
546. One of his friends: James Boswell.
547. one who loved mischief: George Colman.
548. a gentleman of Merton College: Identified in Boswell’s papers as ‘a young gentleman of Gloucestershire’.
549. Atlas: In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan who, in punishment for his part in the revolt of the Titans against the gods of Olympus, was made to support the heavens with his head and hands.
550. a Gothick attack: A barbarous attack.
551. an ugly fellow: Traditionally thought to refer to Edward Gibbon.
552. Cicero’s beautiful image of Virtue: In De Officiis, i.5, Cicero insists on the affinity between, on the one hand, Nature and Reason, and, on the other, our human love for beauty, loveliness and harmony.
553. Mallem… sapere: I prefer to be in the wrong with Scaliger than in the right with Clavius’ – a remark uttered in the context of the dispute between Joseph Justus Scaliger and Christopher Clavius concerning corrections to the Gregorian calendar: see W. C. Waterhouse, A Source for Johnson’s “Malim Cum Scaligero Errare’”, Notes and Queries, 248 (2003), pp. 222-3. Johnson also referred to this tag in his ‘Life of Dryden’ (Lives of the Poets, ed. Lonsdale, II, 120).
554. The chaplain of a late Bishop: The Revd John Darby and Bishop Zachary Pearce.
555. not being English: The phrase was objected to as a ‘Scotticism’: Monthly Review (1792), viii, 79.
556. The authour: Edward Gibbon.
557. a man: James Boswell.
558. Tristram Shandy: Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1759–67).
559. a lady who had been much talked of: Mrs Caroline Rudd.
560. The lofty arch… flows: Attributed to Dr Abel Evans (1679–1737).
561. In contradiction… find delight: Sir John Hawkins, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1787), p. 87.
562. Whoe’er… at an inn: William Shenstone (1714–63), ‘Written at an Inn at Henley’, ll. 17–20.
563. Homer’s battle… mice: The Batrachomyomachia, or ‘Battle of the Frogs and Mice’, is a parody of an epic poem attributed in antiquity to Homer, but probably composed later.
564. salatticum: Attic (Athenian) salt (i.e. wit).
565. an ingenious acquaintance… A West-India gentleman… a young woman: James Grainger, Mr Bourryau and Miss Burt.
566. genio loci: To the spirit of the place.
567. The Beaux Stratagem: George Farquhar, The Beaux’ Stratagem (1707).
568. a lady abroad: Isabelle de Zuylen.
569. Sh’ apprens t’etre fif: I am learning to be lively.
570. Hob in the Welclass="underline" Colley Cibber, Hob; or, The Country Wake (1711).
571. elegans… spectator: ‘A nice judge of the female form’ – Terence, Eunuchus, III. 5.
572. Sir Harry Wildair: A character in two plays by George Farquhar: The Constant Couple (1699) and Sir Harry Wildair (1701).
573. Nemo sibi vivat: ‘Let no man live for himself.’
574. A physician: Dr John Boswell (James Boswell’s uncle).
575. solemn temple: Cf. The Tempest, IV.i.153.
576. Theodosius… The Stratford Jubilee: Nathaniel Lee, Theodosius: or, The Force of Love (1680); Francis Gentleman, The Stratford Jubilee (1769).
577. an acquaintance of mine: Dr John Boswell.
578. a physician: Dr William Butter.
579. an eminent judge: Lord Mansfield.
580. Il Palmerino d’Inghilterra: Apparently an Italian translation of what was originally a sixteenth-century Portuguese romance by Francisco de Moraes. An English translation, Palmerin of England, by Anthony Mun-day, was published in 1602.
581. Imlac: A character in Johnson’s Rasselas (1759) who shares certain attitudes with Johnson himself.
582. a friend: James Hutton.
583. Epicurean… Stoick: Epicurean: a follower of the ancient philosopher Epicurus (341–270 bc), who taught that the proper conduct of life involved trusting to the evidence of the senses and a disbelief in supernatural intervention. Stoic: an adherent of the school of philosophy founded c. 315 bc by Zeno of Citium, of which the central tenet was that of detachment from, and independence of, the outer world. The Stoics and Epicureans were rivals, and held sharply contrasting views of the world and man’s place in it.
584. like Horace: Horace, Satires, I.vi.65–88.
585. a popular gentleman: Charles Fox.
586. stews: Brothels.
587. verbum solenne: Religious word.
588. a gentleman: Joseph Fowke.
589. a lady of my acquaintance: Possibly Jane, Countess of Eglinton.
590. Nunquam… vectorem: I never take on a passenger except when the vessel is full’ – i.e. she has affairs only when pregnant by her husband (and hence will not introduce a spurious child).
591. a man… vicious actions: James Boswell.
592. Leonidas: King of Sparta, who heroically commanded the Greek troops against overwhelming Persian forces at Thermopylae in 480 bc.