Abyssinia: a country in eastern Africa, south of Egypt, and the pre- tended scene of Johnson's Rasselas.
Addison, Joseph (1672-1719): a leading figure in the Augustan Age of English literature. Addison's classical tragedy, Cato (which Johnson called the noblest production of his genius), inspired Johnson's Irene. The Tatler and the Spectator (begun by Steele, but greatly enriched by Addison) called forth a swarm of similar periodicals, including Johnson's Rambler. (See Macaulay's Essay on Addison, this series.) Johnson's oft-quoted advice at the end of his Life of Addison was expressed more tersely in counselling a young man : Give days and nights, sir, to the study of Addison, if you mean to be a good writer, or, what is more worth, an honest man."
Eschylus (525-456 B.C.), Euripides (480-406 B.C.), Sophocles (495- 405 B.C.): the three great tragic dramatists of ancient Greece. They were contemporaries and rivals, and a thorough understand- ing of one is consequently impossible without a knowledge of the others. The period in which they flourished, the Age of Pericles, holds the same position in the history of Greece that the Age of Elizabeth holds in the history of England.
Alamode beef-shops: where beef was served à la mode, i.e. stewed with vegetables, wine, spices, etc.
Almon and Stockdale: leading booksellers of Johnson's time.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.): a profound philosopher of ancient Greece. His influence dominated the intellectual world for two thousand years.
Attic: practically equivalent to Athenian. Athens, the leading city of ancient Greece, was situated in the district of Attica. Augustan marked by the purity and refinement which characterized
the works of the Augustan Age (31 B.C.-14 A.D.), the most illustri- ous period of Roman literature. Under the patronage of Augustus, the first Roman emperor, flourished such writers as Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Livy. The term Augustan Age is also applied meta- phorically to periods of the same relative refinement in other liter- atures, e.g. the reign of Queen Anne.
Bath: one hundred miles west of London; famous for its baths and as the most fashionable watering-place of Johnson's time. Beauclerk, Topham (1739-1780): descended from Henry IV. of France and Charles II. of England, both of whom he resembled in some degree. Though strongly unlike Langton or Johnson in character, Beauclerk became a very close friend of both. Johnson declared that Beauclerk's talents were those which he had felt himself more disposed to envy than those of any whom he had known." When Beauclerk was dying, Johnson said, with great emotion, "I would walk to the extent of the diameter of the earth to save Beauclerk."
Bentincks: a powerful Whig family of Dutch descent, which owed its position in England to the Revolution of 1688, and therefore ardently supported the Hanoverian kings of England. Bentley, Richard (1662-1742): an eminent critic and " the greatest scholar that had appeared in Europe since the revival of letters (Macaulay). Johnson thought very highly" of Bentley, but ob- served, regarding the apothegm referred to, that "he was right not to answer; for, in his hazardous method of writing, he could not but be often enough wrong." (See Macaulay's Life of Atterbury.) Birmingham: a manufacturing town of middle England. It was not until several decades after Johnson's residence there that its rapid growth occurred.
Blue ribbons: members of the Order of the Garter, the highest grade of English knighthood. They were so called from the blue ribbons worn below the knee as badges of the Order.
Blues and Greens of the Roman circus: The charioteers in the Roman circus were discriminated by various liveries, - at first white and red, to which were soon added blue and green. The contests gradually increased in intensity until the entire multitude, as well as princes and magistrates, espousing sides according to colors, became involved in bloody and tumultuous rivalries. After the decline of Rome, the factions continued their strife with much greater fury in Constantinople, where the dissensions were attended with murder and pillage, and culminated in the terrible "Nika" riot (532) in which many thousands were slain. Boswell, James (1740-1795): "the prince of biographers." He was born in Edinburgh, "a gentleman," as he describes himself, "of ancient blood, the pride of which was his predominant passion." He studied law in the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, was called to the Scottish bar in 1766, and to the English twenty years later. On his second visit to London (1763) he obtained his cele- brated introduction to Johnson. The great dictator at once ad- mitted him to the most cordial friendship, and accompanied his
admirer to the coast when Boswell departed for the continent to continue his studies. After travelling extensively in Europe, where he visited Voltaire and Rousseau, he returned to London in 1766. His Account of Corsica (1768) brought him into public notice, and in 1773 he was elected a member of "The Club." The same year he accompanied Johnson on their famous tour to the Hebrides, the narrative of which by Boswell (1785) is more interesting than John- son's own account. Johnson pronounced Boswell the best trav- elling companion in the world," and praised his "good humor and perpetual cheerfulness." He approved of him as his biographer, and gave him many details of his early life, though all together Boswell was in Johnson's company little over two years. Finally, in 1791, Boswell published his great work, the Life of Samuel Johnson, in two volumes quarto. It met with widespread and immediate success, and Boswell was at work on the third edition when he died, four years later. (See p. 55.)
Brescia in Lombardy, northern Italy.
Brighton: south of London; now the leading seashore resort in England.
Bruce, James (1730-1794): a pioneer of African exploration, the Stanley of his day. He explored Abyssinia in 1768-1770, and twenty years later published his Travels in five volumes-"the epic of African travel."
Buck: a gay, finical fellow; a coxcomb. (See Maccaroni.) Burke, Edmund (1729-1797): the greatest master of English prose in the eighteenth century. His utterances on the French Revolution, and on England's policy toward the American and Indian colonies, reveal the profoundest orator and statesman of his time. He was a stanch friend of Johnson, despite their political differences, and each appreciated the other's talents. "The first man everywhere," Johnson called him, and maintained repeatedly that he alone was "an extraordinary man.' On the other hand, Burke valued John- son's friendship as "the greatest consolation and happiness of his life," and was content, in conversation, " to have rung the bell to him."
Burney, Frances (1752-1840): an English novelist of very great temporary popularity. Her first novel, Evelina (1778), procured her the warm praise and endearing regard of her father's friend, Johnson. Macaulay terms Evelina "the first tale written by a woman, and purporting to be a picture of life and manners, that lived or deserved to live." Miss Burney afterward married General D'Arblay, and her entertaining Diary and Letters, pub- lished after her death, called forth Macaulay's Essay on Madame D'Arblay.
Button: proprietor of a famous coffee-house near Covent Garden (see map, p. 70) during the Queen Anne period. "Here it was," ays Johnson," that the wits of that time used to assemble." It was the favorite resort of Addison, Pope, and Swift.
Capulets and Montagues: two noble families of Verona, Italy, in the fourteenth century. The bitter hostility between them, which forms an important element in the plot of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, had no other basis than irrational pride.
Cave, Edward (1691-1754): a printer and publisher widely known as the founder and first editor of the Gentleman's Magazine. His ownership of what Johnson calls one of the most successful and lucrative pamphlets which literary history has upon record," procured for him an ample fortune. He also published Johnson's Life of Savage and the Rambler. Johnson's first contribution to the Magazine was a Latin ode to Cave, and one of his latest was a biographical sketch of his employer after Cave's death.
Cavendishes: a noble English family, "old friends" of the Hanove-
Cenis, Mont: the site of an Alpine road from Savoy into Italy, built by Napoleon I. about 1802 +.
Charles XII. (1682-1718), King of Sweden: one of the most brilliant generals of modern times. After a meteoric succession of vic- tories, he marched toward Moscow to dethrone Peter the Great, but was completely defeated at Pultowa (in the year of Johnson's birth). His attempts to regain power were ineffectual, and during the siege of Frederikshald he was killed by a random bullet fired by some Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of (1694-1773): a brilliant statesman and letter writer, "the most distinguished orator in the Upper House and the undisputed sovereign of wit and fashion" (Macaulay). As Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1745-1746, when England and Scotland were torn by civil war, he kept the country quiet by his discreet and tolerant policy, besides encour- aging education and industries. He served as principal secretary
of state from 1746 to 1748. His fame rests chiefly, however, upon the Letters to his Son (1774), still much admired for their refine- ment, good sense, and graceful style. Johnson's advice - "Take out the immorality, and it should be put into the hands of every young gentleman "- has been followed in many expurgated editions, but the immorality is much exaggerated.
Churchill, Charles (1731-1764): a powerful English satirist of dis- solute character, whose rancorous and incisive verses are now little remembered.
Cibber, Colley (1671-1757): a popular dramatist and comic actor;
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