146. 17. the O's, the Macs, and the Teagues - Irish Papists hostile to England. 146. 18. Eustace Commins " is doubtless the Eustace Comyne who in November 1680 presented information to the House of Commons of a horrid plot of the Papists in Ireland” (Mr Ryland, ‘Addison'). 146. 22. J. G. is Sir John Gibson, Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth. 150. 3. impertinent, unsuitable. 150. 18. bringing it on the stage. This is inaccurate. In a Greek play the chorus went through its performance in the orchestra before the stage. 151. 4. bully, usually a hectoring boisterous fellow," to quote Bailey's Dict. (1776 edition); but was a not uncommon term of familiarity-e.g., "bully Bottom" of 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' Act III. sc. i. 152. 3. whimsies, fanciful notions. 152. 27. sign of the Gaper. 'Spectator,' No. 47, refers to a Dutch standing jest of hanging up in several of their streets "the head of an idiot dressed in a cap and bells, and gaping in a most immoderate manner." 154. 10. candle-snuffer, a minor attendant in a theatre. 154. 15. eavesdropping, or eves- -dropping (Matthew Arnold). The form eve-dropping (retained in Mr Waugh's edition) is philologically wrong. Eaves is not a plural, but the modern representative of the A.S. efese, edge of a roof. 154. 29. Plato's treatise. The 'Phædo,' in which Socrates, under sentence of death, argues the question of a future life. 155. 6. translated lately by Bernard Lintot. This was Theobald's translation, published by the bookseller Lintot. 155. 17. lecture, reading (in the literal, not the modern, sense). 156. 7. Kneller. Sir Godfrey Kneller (1648-1723) was an eminent portrait-painter. There are several portraits of Addison by Kneller, including the Kit-cat Club picture painted for Tonson, and the Northwick Park picture engraved for Miss Aikin's 'Life of Addison.' See abridged list, Johnson's Lives, edition Napier, ii. 127, and fuller list in Bloxam's 'Register' of Magdalen College, vi. 92. 156. 12. licentiously paraphrastical is "Johnsonese" for free. 156. 22. versification which he had learned from Dryden-i.e., the heroic couplet, each line consisting of ten syllables (or five accents). 156. 26. triplets, sets of three rhyming lines of five accents or ten syllables each. Alexandrines, lines of six feet or twelve syllables-e.g., the last line of a Spenserian stanza. Pope manufactured an example in his 'Essay on Criticism' : "A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along." The alexandrine, in rhyming couplets, is the normal line in French tragedy. The name arises from its use in the 'Alexandreis,' a French romance poem of the twelfth century on Alexander the Great. Both triplets and alexandrines were common variations among heroic couplets. Cowley first used alexandrines so. Dryden furnishes many instances. Johnson discusses the point in his Dryden (Lives, edition Napier, i. 479 sqq.) 156. 30. Rosamond' is in octosyllabic verse, varied by many kinds of shorter lines. 'Cato' is in blank verse. 157. 15. in the female world. Compare Johnson's remark in his 'Milton,' p. 51, 1. 32, "The women had not then aspired to literature." 157. 28. his prefaces. Some of Dryden's best critical essays appeared as prefaces-e.g., his 'Discourse on Satire' prefixed to his translation of Juvenal; and his 'Discourse on Epic Poetry' prefixed to his translation of Virgil's ' Æneid.' 158. 15. beauties of 'Chevy Chase.' Addison treats these in 'Spectator,' 70 and 74. 158. 16. ridicule of Wagstaff. 'A Comment on the History of Tom Thumb,' by William Wagstaffe, M.D., was written in ridicule of Addison's appreciative essays on 'Chevy Chase.' 158. 29. lifeless imbecility. Johnson and his age cared little for ballads; but the publication of Bishop Percy's 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,' 1765, was significant of a coming change in taste. Contrast with Johnson's chilling judgment the enthusiastic words of Sir Philip Sidney, "I never heard the old song of 'Percy and Douglas' that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet" ('Apologie for Poetrie,' published 1595). 159. 2. 'Remarks on Ovid' accompanied Addison's translations from the 'Metamorphoses' (Addison's Works, edition Hurd, 1811, i. 171). 159. 5. on Wit and on .. Imagination. the 'Spectator.' These are essays in "O'erstep" is 159. 15. outsteps the modesty of nature. Shakespeare's word with this phrase ('Hamlet,' Act III. sc. ii.) Modesty here means "moderation" (L. modestia). 159. 23. enthusiastic. Johnson means "wildly emotional." The sense of enthusiasm in the eighteenth century has already been noted, p. 37, 1. 12. 160. 9. snatch a grace. The phrase is from Pope's 'Essay on Criticism' : "And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art.” tautological remark by Johnson: it amounts to saying that fewer peculiarly English constructions and expressions would have made Addison's style less English. 202 APPENDIX. A.-JOHNSON'S LETTER TO THE EARL OF To the Right Honourable The Earl of Chesterfield. February 7, 1755. MY LORD,I have been lately inforined by the proprietor of the 'World' that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your lordship. To be so distinguished is an honour which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address, and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le Vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre; that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending: but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little. Seven years, my lord, have now passed since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before. The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks. Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the public should consider me as owing that to a patron which Providence has enabled me to do for myself. Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, My lord, Your lordship's most humble, SAM. JOHNSON. B.-JOHNSON'S FAVOURITE PASSAGE IN POETRY. "Johnson said that the description of the temple in 'The Mourning Bride' was the finest poetical passage he had ever read: he recollected none in Shakespeare equal to it."-Boswell's 'Life of Johnson,' chap. xvii. CONGREVE, THE MOURNING BRIDE,' Act II. sc. i. "No, all is hushed, and still as death.-'Tis dreadful! Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads, To bear aloft its arched and ponderous roof, By its own weight made steadfast and immoveable |