EXPLANATORY INDEX.

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."

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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."

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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-

rians.

Cenis, Mont: the site of an Alpine road from Savoy into Italy, built
by Napoleon I. about 1802 +.

dubious hand."

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;