infallibly destroy us (Note by "J. B." in Murphy's edition of Johnson's Works).

1. 27. [just. In the first, the reference to "young diamonds" is contrary to nature; in the second, the genius (guardian spirit) of the castle is confused with the castle itself, and said to "bow its towery forehead. C. D. P.]

Page 95, 1. 10. connects religion and fable too closely. This charge is brought here against Dryden for the third time in the Life. See the note on p. 68, 1. 28.

66

1. 15. When virtue spooms before a prosperous gale, My heaving wishes help to fill the sail."

Hind and Panther, Part III., 96.

1. 19. He had heard of reversing, etc. Johnson has mistaken the construction. "Revers'd" is an absolute construction, and means 'when Nature's optics had been revers'd.' All this criticism is petty.

1. 24. A hollow crystal pyramid, etc. "The love of conceit and point, that inveterate though decaying disease of the literature of the time, has not failed to infect the Annus Mirabilis. That monstrous verse, in which the extinction of the fire is described, cannot be too often quoted, both to expose the meanness of the image, and the confusion of the metaphor; for it will be noticed, that the extinguisher, so unhappily conceived, is not even employed in its own mean office. The flames of London are first a tallow candle; and secondly hawks, which, while pouncing on their quarry, are hooded with an extinguisher" (Scott).

Page 97, 1. 14. Of Triplets and Alexandrines, etc. A Triplet is a combination of three lines with the same rhyme in place of the couplet that is the rule in the heroic stanza. An Alexandrine is a line of twelve, instead of the usual ten syllables. There is an example of both in the passage quoted above, p. 94, 1. 22.

"True, 'tis a narrow way that leads to bliss,

But right before there is no precipice;

Fear makes men look aside, and so their footing miss."

1. 24. [was the last. This Iliad was published in 1598. C. D. P.] Page 98, 1. 8. Cowley was the first that inserted the Alexandrine at pleasure, etc. "This is an error. The Alexandrine inserted among heroic lines of the syllables is found in many of the writers of Queen Elizabeth's reign" (Murphy).

1. 13. [wrote some lines, the last three lines of A Description of a City Shower written in 1710, and first published in the Tatler. C. D. P.]

1. 31. the braces of the margins. The brackets, as we now call them, put at the side to show that three lines have a common

rhyme. The use of these brackets has been almost entirely given up in modern printing.

1. 35. [casualty, accidental changes of metre. A science is governed by fixed laws, and therefore does not admit of casualty or chance. C. D. P.]

Page 99, 1. 7. [grateful, pleasing. C. D. P.]

1. 8. Fenton. Elijah Fenton, a poet clean forgotten now, but in his own day of some reputation. He translated four books of the Odyssey for Pope.

1. 14. a weak or grave syllable.

An unaccented syllable.

1. 15. Together o'er the Alps, etc. A couplet of Pope's. Johnson, as was common with him, quotes without taking the trouble to see if his memory has served him well. Pope wrote "fir'd" not "fill'd." So in the quotation immediately following Johnson puts "that" where Dryden wrote "who."

Page 100, 1. 2. Davies. Sir John Davies (1569-1626) was the author of a philosophical poem, Nosce Teipsum (Know Thyself). 1. 5. What was said of Rome, etc. It was the Emperor Augustus himself, according to Suetonius, who described in this way the improvements he had wrought in Rome.

1. 13. that no particle of Dryden may be lost. This is hardly an adequate reason for inserting these observations in a life of Dryden. They are as much out of place there as the long quotation from Milbourne's version of Virgil. Johnson was weary of his task, and was glad to insert anything.

1. 18. [the tendre, the affections, the tender passion. C. D. P.]

Page 102, 1. 11. [not quoad, etc., not on account of its superior merit, but as being the primary basis on which to construct the play. C. D. P.]

Page 106, 1. 17. [event, result. C. D. P.]

Lambeth Palace,

Page 108, 1. 20. the Library at Lambeth. in London, is the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Vyse was the librarian there in Dr. Johnson's time. 1. 28. A.S.S. That is, ad Sacram Sedem, at the Holy See, the Court of the Pope.

When

1. 31. our style. Compare "your style," p. 109, 1. 1. Dryden wrote, England had not yet adopted the Gregorian reformation of the calendar. In all intercommunication, therefore, it was necessary to say whether the date given was according to the English style ("our style") or the style of the greater part of Catholic Europe.

Page 109, 1. 14. he has missed of his design in the Dedication, etc. Tonson, the publisher, was extremely anxious that Dryden should dedicate his translation of Virgil to King William III.,

which, however, Dryden sturdily refused to do. In the hope
that Dryden would relent at the last, Tonson had given Aeneas
throughout the pictures in the book the "hooked nose
" of King
William. The story became public, and Cunningham quotes
from the Harleian MSS. an epigram with the heading, "To be
published in the next edition of Dryden's Virgil."

"Old Jacob, by deep judgment sway'd,
To please the wise beholders,

Has placed old Nassau's hook-nosed head
On poor Aeneas' shoulders.

To make the parallel hold tack,
Methinks there's little lacking;
One took his father pick-a-pack,
And t'other sent his packing.

This song

1. 22. [St. Cecilia's Feast fell on Nov. 22, 1697. was Alexander's Feast. See note on p. 90, 1. 21. C. D. P.]

1. 29. I remember the counsel, etc. His sons would appear to have asked him to write with more charity of the priesthood. See note on p. 51, 1. 12.

Page 110, 1. 2. Charles will begin to recover his perfect health, etc. See the note on p. 55, l. 12.

1. 9. the profits might have been more. If he had dedicated it to the King may be what is meant.