‘It sometimes begins middle or final syllables in words compounded, as block-head, or derived from the Latin, as compre-hended.’
b The number of the French Academy employed in settling their language.
a See note by Mr. Warton, ante, p. 149.
b ‘On Saturday the 12th, about twelve at night, died Mr. Zachariah Williams, in his eighty-third year, after an illness of eight months, in full possession of his mental faculties. He has been long known to philosophers and seamen for his skill in magnetism, and his proposal to ascertain the longitude by a peculiar system of the variation of the compass. He was a man of industry indefatigable, of conversation inoffensive, patient of adversity and disease, eminently sober, temperate, and pious; and worthy to have ended life with better fortune.’
a Prayers and Meditations p. 40 {p. 25}.
b Ib., p. 27.
a Some time after Dr. Johnson’s death there appeared in the newspapers and magazines an illiberal and petulant attack upon him, in the form of an Epitaph, under the name of Mr. Soame Jenyns, very unworthy of that gentleman, who had quietly submitted to the critical lash while Johnson lived. It assumed, as characteristicks of him, all the vulgar circumstances of abuse which had circulated amongst the ignorant. It was an unbecoming indulgence of puny resentment, at a time when he himself was at a very advanced age, and had a near prospect of descending to the grave. I was truly sorry for it; for he was then become an avowed, and (as my Lord Bishop of London, who had a serious conversation with him on the subject, assures me) a sincere Christian. He could not expect that Johnson’s numerous friends would patiently bear to have the memory of their master stigmatized by no mean pen, but that, at least, one would be found to retort. Accordingly, this unjust and sarcastick Epitaph was met in the same publick field by an answer, in terms by no means soft, and such as wanton provocation only could justify:
‘epitaph,
‘Prepared for a creature not quite dead yet.
‘Here lies a little ugly nauseous elf,
Who judging only from its wretched self,
Feebly attempted, petulant and vain,
The “Origin of Evil” to explain.
A mighty Genius at this elf displeas’d,
With a strong critick grasp the urchin squeez’d.
For thirty years its coward spleen it kept,
Till in the dust the mighty Genius slept;
Then stunk and fretted in expiring snuff,
And blink’d at Johnson with its last poor puff.’
a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 48 {19 Aug.}.
a They have been reprinted by Mr. Malone, in the Preface to his edition of Shakspeare.
a The celebrated oratour, Mr. Flood, has shown himself to be of Dr. Johnson’s opinion; having by his will bequeathed his estate, after the death of his wife Lady Frances, to the University of Dublin; ‘desiring that immediately after the said estate shall come into their possession, they shall appoint two professors, one for the study of the native Erse or Irish language, and the other for the study of Irish antiquities and Irish history, and for the study of any other European language illustrative of, or auxiliary to, the study of Irish antiquities or Irish history; and that they shall give yearly two liberal premiums for two compositions, one in verse, and the other in prose, in the Irish language.’
b ‘Now, or late, Vice-Chancellor.’ Warton.
c ‘Mr. Warton was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford in the preceding year.’ Warton.
d ‘Miss Jones lived at Oxford, and was often of our parties. She was a very ingenious poetess, and published a volume of poems; and, on the whole, was a most sensible, agreeable, and amiable woman. She was a sister to the Reverend River Jones, Chanter of Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford, and Johnson used to call her the Chantress. I have heard him often address her in this passage from Il Penseroso:
“Thee, Chantress, oft the woods among
I woo,” etc.140
She died unmarried.’ Warton.
a Tom. iii, p. 482.
b Of Shakspeare.
a Mr. Garrick.
b Mr. Dodsley, the Authour of Cleone.
c Mr. Samuel Richardson, authour of Clarissa.
a This letter was an answer to one in which was enclosed a draft for the payment of some subscriptions to his Shakspeare.
a Prayers and Meditations, p. 30 {p. 36}.
a This paper may be found in Stockdale’s supplemental volume of Johnson’s Miscellaneous Pieces.
b ‘Receipts for Shakspeare.’ Warton.
c ‘Then of Lincoln College. Now Sir Robert Chambers, one of the Judges in India.’ Warton.
a ‘Mr. Langton.’ Warton.
b ‘Part of the impression of the Shakespeare, which Dr. Johnson conducted alone, and published by subscription. This edition came out in 1765.’ Warton.
a Major-General Alexander Dury, of the first regiment of foot-guards, who fell in the gallant discharge of his duty, near St. Cas, in the well-known unfortunate expedition against France, in 1758. His lady and Mr. Langton’s mother were sisters. He left an only son, Lieutenant-Colonel Dury, who has a company in the same regiment.
b Hawkins’s Life of Johnson, p. 395.
a [See post, June 2, 1781. Finding it then accidentally in a chaise with Mr. Boswell, he read it eagerly. This was doubtless long after his declaration to Sir Joshua Reynolds.]
b Ecclesiastes, i. 14.
a Literary and Moral Character of Dr. Johnson, 1786.
b This paper was in such high estimation before it was collected into volumes, that it was seized on with avidity by various publishers of news-papers and magazines, to enrich their publications. Johnson, to put a stop to this unfair proceeding, wrote for the Universal Chronicle the following advertisement; in which there is, perhaps, more pomp of words than the occasion demanded:
‘London, January 5, 1759. Advertisement. The proprietors of the paper intitled The Idler, having found that those essays are inserted in the news-papers and magazines with so little regard to justice or decency, that the Universal Chronicle, in which they first appear, is not always mentioned, think it necessary to declare to the publishers of those collections, that however patiently they have hitherto endured these injuries, made yet more injurious by contempt, they have now determined to endure them no longer. They have already seen essays, for which a very large price is paid, transferred, with the most shameless rapacity, into the weekly or monthly compilations, and their right, at least for the present, alienated from them, before they could themselves be said to enjoy it. But they would not willingly be thought to want tenderness, even for men by whom no tenderness hath been shewn. The past is without remedy, and shall be without resentment. But those who have been thus busy with their sickles in the fields of their neighbours, are henceforward to take notice, that the time of impunity is at an end. Whoever shall, without our leave, lay the hand of rapine upon our papers, is to expect that we shall vindicate our due, by the means which justice prescribes, and which are warranted by the immemorial prescriptions of honourable trade. We shall lay hold, in our turn, on their copies, degrade them from the pomp of wide margin and diffuse typography, contract them into a narrow space, and sell them at an humble price; yet not with a view of growing rich by confiscations, for we think not much better of money got by punishment than by crimes. We shall, therefore, when our losses are repaid, give what profit shall remain to the Magdalens; for we know not who can be more properly taxed for the support of penitent prostitutes, than prostitutes in whom there yet appears neither penitence nor shame.’