καὶ ξυγχαίρουσιν ὁμοιοπρεπεῖς ἀγέλαστα πρόσωπα βιαζόμενοι.” 141. dog days. See Lycidas, 138. 143. [What is the meaning of fix here? What other meanings has the word?] 153. commence your lords Comp. the Uuiversity phrase, "to commence M.A." The construction is elliptical. 154. [What is the sense of by numbers here?] 155. Perhaps no poet has treated Poverty with less mercy than Pope. See the Dunciad, passim. 63. 163. Comp. Juvenal: "Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se Quam quod ridiculos homines facit." 169. The Pope, Alexander VI., at the beginning of the 16th century, had assigned to Spain all lands discovered more than 470 leagues west of the Azores. 170. Comp. Hor. Epod. xvi. 177. The groom, i. e. The great man's great man. 180. [What is the force of rais'd here?] 192. spread. Comp. the Lat. sterno, as frequently in Virgil. So Ovid's Met. xii. 550: "Ille tuus genitor Messania moenia quondam 64. 199. dome is used by Pope and Prior also in the simple sense of a house, a building. 200. They pay back, in part at least, what has been paid them for their support in parliament for so selling their souls, for so "their sauls indentin'," as Burns has it (Twa Dogs, 148). "Every man has his price," was Walpole's theory, founded on an extensive experience. 206. the park and play should rather be the park and the play. [What should be the difference in meaning?] 210. the smiling land. See Gray's Elegy, 63. 211. [What is the force of rent here?] 212. Much attention was about this time beginning to be paid to landscape gardening. See, for instance, Johnson's Life of Shenstone. When Leasowes had in 1745 come into Shenstone's possession, "he took the whole estate into his own hands, more to the improvement of its beauty than the increase of its produce. Now was excited his delight in rural pleasures, and his ambition of rural elegance; he began from this time to point his prospects, to diversify his surface, to entangle his walks, and to wind his waters; which he did with such judgment and such fancy as made his little domain the envy of the great and the admiration of the skilful; a place to be visited by travellers and copied by designers," &c. Aislabie begun to "lay out" the grounds of Studley Royal (= Fountain's Abbey) about 1720. 218. With the rhyme between smile and toil, comp. Dunciad, ii. 221: "Now turn to different sports, the goddess cries, And learn, my sons, the wond'rous pow'r of noise." 224. frolick. See note to L'Alleg. 18. 235. [bursts the faithless bar. In what sense do we now use burst?] 238. In one year ninety-seven malefactors were executed in London; on one morning twenty were hanged. "Hanging-day" came round regularly. See Knight's Pop. Hist. Eng. VII. chap. vi. In Butler's time there was a great executing once a month; see Hudibras, I. ii. 532. "Tyburn was anciently a manor and village west of London, in the Tybourn or Brook, subsequently the West-bourn, the western boundary of the district, now incorporated in Paddington.' (Timbs' Curiosities of London.) As early as 1196, the execution of London and Middlesex criminals took place on its banks. Then, early in the 15th century, the gallows was for a time brought nearer London, to St Giles'-in-the-Fields. Then again it was removed westward to its old neighbourhood; and there remained till 1783, when the place of execution was changed to Newgate. As to its precise site, it would seem to have been originally Elms Lane, Bayswater (see Map of London); there lay the channel of the old stream; then to have been transferred eastward, and been, at various times where Connaught Square now is, where Oxford Street and the Edgeware Road meet, and thirdly, at the junction of Upper Bryanston Street and the Edgeware Road. See Oldham's Satires, Imitation of the Third of Juvenal: "Then fatal carts through Holborn seldom went, And Tyburn with few pilgrims was content." 65. 243. George II. several times visited his continental possessions, e. g. in 1735, and 1736. These absences made him highly unpopular at home. In 1736 "People of all ranks were indignant at the king's long stay in Germany. The national ill-humour was expressed in pasquinades... In December the king came home after the public hopes rather than fears had been excited by the belief that he was at sea during a terrible storm in which many ships had been wrecked." See Knight's Pop. Hist. Eng. VI. Chap. v. 244 gaol and cage, strangely different as they look, are probably derived ultimately from the same Latin word, viz. cavea, gaol coming from the dim. form. See Ital. gaiola =gabbiuola. French geôle. See Wedgwood, to whom "the origin seems gael, gabh, to take, seize, to make prisoner, hold or contain." But is not the origin rather to be seen in the Lat. cavus, cavea, meaning radically much the same as caverna? The place where Joshua confined the five kings was literally a gaol. The first notion is that of a hole or hollow. Just such was the Tullianum at Rome; and just such very commonly were the prisons of the mediæval castles. But perhaps cavus may be ultimately connected with capio. Alfred's reign is the golden age with many a Satirist and many a historian. 248. No special juries. There were no juries at all, in our sense of the word, known in King Alfred's time. Trial by jury, however pertinaciously assigned to him by popular tradition, does really date from the 13th century or thereabouts. According to eminent authorities, as Sir F. Palgrave, it was of Norman rather than of "Anglo-Saxon" origin. 253. wilds is perhaps a corruption of wealds, = woods, wooded districts. A. S. weald, Germ. wald. The extent of the Weald of South Kent may still be traced by the placenames ending in den and hurst, as Tenterden, Standen, Sandhurst, &c. VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES. This piece was published in 1749, the twelfth year of Johnson's London struggles. It was in that same year that Gray finished his Elegy. As London of the Third, so this is an imitation of Juvenal's Tenth Satire. There is much difference of tone between the two Satires as well in the originals as in the English versions. The Tenth Satire is not only destructive, it is partly constructive; that is, it is not only satirical, it is also didactic. The text might well be: "He gave them their desire, and sent leanness withal into their soul" (Psalm cvi. 15, the Book of Common Prayer Version). See Horace's Od. 1. xxxi. [See Juvenal's Tenth Satire, and Dryden's Translation of it along with this imitation. Notice any differences between Johnson's style here and that of London. Take any 20 lines of each poem, and compare them together. Can you see any differences in grammatical structure, in the word-order, in the language, &c.? Into how many parts would you divide this poem? Add fresh historical illustrations to those successively given by Johnson.] 65. 3. [What is there noticeable about the use of toil here?] 6. The hidden pathway of our lives is made yet more dark and difficult by our own wilfulnesses. 7. vent'rous. We now use venturesome. 9. [What part of the sentence is this clause?] 11. Stubborn = radically, as fixed and immoveable as a stub. Comp. stock-still. 15. Comp. Pope's Moral Essays, ii. 147: 66 Atossa, cursed with every granted prayer," &c. 16. [What parts of the sentence are each gift of nature, each grace of art?] 17. Observe how much the predicative force of the sentence lies in what is grammatically but a subordinate part. Perhaps the style in which such a form of predication is most used-used to a degree of obscurity and frequent misleading—is that of Gibbon; but it is common in nearly all the writers of the middle of the last century. It is immediately of Latin, ultimately of Greek origin. 66. 22. [What is the force of of here?] 25. Comp. Soph. Antig. 295-301, Timon of Athens, IV. iii. 382-394. 30. madded maddened. The shorter form often occurs in Elizabethan writers, as in Sidney's Arcadia: "O villain! cried out Zalmane, madded with finding an unlooked for rival. Mad also occurs as a neut. verb = to be inad; as in Milton: So Gray's Elegy, 73. "The madding wheels Of brazen chariots rag'd." 33. hind, A. S. hina, Scot. hyne, used by Barbour, Douglas, &c. See Milton's Comus, 174, &c. This line, as many others in this poem, shows what vigorous English Dr Johnson could write, when for a while forgetting his extreme predilection for "Sesquipedal " Latinisms. See on this point Macaulay's Biog. of him. 37. See Chaucer's Wyf of Bathes Tale: "Iuvenal saith of povert merily The pore man when he goth by the way Bifore the theves he may synge and play." 38. the wide heath. The heaths around London were about this time, and long afterwards, infested with highwaymen. Hounslow Heath was especially notorious in this respect. See Knight's Pop. Hist. Eng. VII. chap. v. 43. [Is the sing. verb correct here?] 46. [Explain load the tainted gales.] 49. Democritus. See Class. Dict. Burton, the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, styles himself Democritus junior. 51. motley is of the same word-family as smut, smutch, bysmotered (Chaucer's Cant. Tales, 76), A. S. besmitan, &c. For the s, comp. Nottingham from Snottengaham, smelt and melt, &c. 52. [What part of the verb, and what part of the sentence is feed here?] 54. man was of a piece, i. e. when people were less completely inconsistent and variable than they now are. a = one. See notes on L'Alleg. 14. 56. This is as true as history written by satirists mostly is. Aristophanes was but some 16 years younger than Democritus, and were sycophants and parasites scarce in his time? 57. Were all the debates of the Bûlé and of the Ekklesia so unexceptionably grave and earnest? 58. The Lord Mayor's show dates from the 15th century. It was in 1453 that the first lord mayor went to be sworn at Westminster. The route then was the river. 67. 62. Gibe is from the same root as gabble, Old Eng. gab, Fr. gaber. 63. [What part of the sentence is to descry?] 65. [What is the predicate in this sentence?] 68. [What is the antecedent of where?] 72. Canvass = strictly, to examine by passing the object through canvas, or a sieve, to sift. Canvas is the Lat. cannabis, Gr. Kávvaßis, Old High G. hanf, Eng. hemp. 74. athirst. See note on Eve of St. Agnes, 2. 79. Comp. Virg. Georg. ii. 461, 462: 84. The Palladium was an image of Pallas preserved at Troy, said to have fallen from heaven (as that of Diana at Ephesus; see Acts of the Apostles, xix. 35), and believed to have supreme protecting power. See Virg. Æn. ii. 165-8 and 227. As the city could not be taken while this divine statue was in it, Diomede and Ulysses plotted how to carry it off. Afterwards it, or what passed for it, was transferred from Greece to Rome, where Metellus signalized himself by rescuing it from being burnt along with the temple of Vesta, in which it was deposited. See Cic. Phil. XI. x. 24, where the orator says that Brutus ought to be preserved and supported "ut id signum quod de cælo delapsum Vestæ custodiis continetur : quo salvo, salvi sumus futuri." 94. [Illustrate from English History of the 17th century.] 97. The act for Septennial Parliaments was passed in 1716. Comp. "Septennial bribe" in Crabbe's Village, Bk. 1. 98. [What is meant by full here ?] 99. Wolsey. See Shakspere's Henry VIII. "Thus passed the cardinal," says Cavendish, "his life and time from day to day and year to year, in such great wealth, joy, and triumph, and glory, having always on his side the king's especial favour.' 100. [What part of the sentence is law in his voice?] 68. 109. The frown came in 1529. In the spring of 1530 he was commanded to reside within his archbishopric. Early in November of that same year he was arrested at Cawood on a charge of high treason. At the close of that month he died at Leicester Abbey, being then on his way to London to be put upon his trial. 113. On the brilliancy of Wolsey's establishment see Hist. Eng. "Pope Leo himself," it has been said, "scarcely lived with more splendour and magnificence. He became most gorgeous in his dress, retinue, housekeeping, and all other things. He maintain'd a train of one hundred persons, among whom were nine or ten lords. Whenever he appeared in public his cardinal's hat was borne before him by a person of rank," &c. &c. 116. menial is strictly an adj. belonging to a meiny (K. Lear, II. iv.), or household staff. Thus it is strictly synonymous with Lat. familiaris. 118. See note on 1. 109. 129. See Hist. Eng. sub anno 1628. 130. Harley survived his release from the Tower seven years. It was during this period that he made his famous collection of MSS., afterwards purchased for the British Museum. 131. Wentworth. See Hist. Eng. for the year 1641. Hyde. See Hist. Eng. for the year 1667. 136. [Is the metre of this line decasyllabic?] 139. Bodley, after being employed by Queen Elizabeth on various embassies, falling into disgrace, retired in 1597 to Oxford, his old University, and presently set about restoring the University Library; to whose support and extension he subsequently bequeathed all his property. He died in 1612. 140. "There is a tradition that the study of friar Bacon, built on an arch over the bridge, will fall when a man greater than Bacon shall pass under it. To prevent so shocking an accident, it was pulled down many years since" (Johnson's note). Roger Bacon spent the greater part of his studious life at Oxford, many years of it in confinement, his contemporaries being unable to appreciate his learning and attributing the discoveries he made to Satanic agency. What precisely those discoveries were, it is difficult to ascertain, as Bacon's name has been as thickly surrounded with traditions as that of King Alfred. But it seems certain that both as a man of research and as an original thinker he was one of the greatest if not the greatest, Englishman of the Middle Ages. He died in 1272. 69. 149. thy cell refrain = refrain itself with regard to thy cell, refrain from thy cell. So forbear is sometimes used. Comp. muse in Shaksp. Temp. III. iii. 36, &c. 154. Burton considers at length Study as a Cause of Melancholy. See Anat. of Mel. I. ii. 3. Subs. 15. Jaques speaks of the Scholar's Melancholy; his was not that; see As you like it, IV. i. ro. 160. The age of the Patron was at this very time beginning to pass away, the age of the Public to dawn. No one did more to deliver literature from Patronage than Johnson himself. In his earlier London life he had sorely needed a helping hand; but no such hand was stretched out to him; nor was it so, until he had ceased to need it. See his Letter to the Earl of Chesterfield. As books and the ability to read them became more widely diffused, it became less and less important to an author to be supported by some aristocratic name. 162. As to "Hudibras" Butler see the Epigram by Samuel Wesley (the father of John and Charles Wesley): "While Butler, needy wretch, was still alive No generous patron would a dinner give, See him when starv'd to death and turn'd to dust Presented with a monumental bust. The poet's fate is here in emblem shown: He ask'd for bread, and he received a stone." 164. Lydiat was a man of various learning, distinguished as a theologian, a chronologer, a mathematician. After a somewhat troubled life, including severe sufferings as a royalist, he died in indigence in 1646. To say nothing of previous dangers, Galileo was summoned before the Inquisition in 1633, and compelled to renounce his great discoveries and confirmations of Copernicus' discoveries; but his "E pur si muove" (= and yet it moves) sent him to imprisonment. In 1634 his sentence was commuted to banishment to the Episcopal palace at Sienna, and soon after, to the palace of Arceti not far from Florence. Then various bodily ailments, blindness, deafness, want of sleep, pains and aches, came upon him in the midst of his immortal studies. "In my darkness," he writes in 1638, "I muse now upon this object of nature and now upon that, and find it impossible to soothe my restless head, however much I wish it. This perpetual action of mind deprives me almost wholly of sleep." It was in that same year that Milton saw him. "There [in Italy] it was that I found and visited the famous Galileo grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition, for thinking in Astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought" (Milton's Areopagitica); where by "a prisoner to the Inquisition" is meant not in the dungeons of the Inquisition, but kept under some restraint by the Inquisition. His was what the Latins called a "libera custodia." He died in 1642, a prey to a slowly consuming fever. See Hallam's Liter. of Eur. 1600-1650, chap. viii. 168. Rebellion. Johnson's extreme Toryism, and his Jacobitism are well-known. |