[1] See ante, March 15, 1776.
[2] _Anecdotes of Johnson_, p. 176. BOSWELL. 'It is,' he said, 'so
_very_ difficult for a sick man not to be a scoundrel.' Ib. p. 175.
He called Fludyer a scoundrel (_ante_, March 20, 1776), apparently
because he became a Whig. 'He used to say a man was a scoundrel that was
afraid of anything. "Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve
o'clock is," he said, "a scoundrel."' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 199,
211. Mr. Croker points out that 'Johnson in his _Dictionary_ defined
_knave_, a scoundrel; _sneakup_, a scoundrel; _rascal_, a scoundrel;
_loon_, a scoundrel; _lout_, a scoundrel; _poltroon_, a scoundrel; and
that he coined the word _scoundrelism_' (Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 25,
1773). Churchill, in _The Ghost_, Book ii. (_Poems_, i. 1. 217),
describes Johnson as one
'Who makes each sentence current pass,
With _puppy, coxcomb, scoundrel, ass_.'
Swift liked the word. 'God forbid,' he wrote, 'that ever such a
scoundrel as Want should dare to approach you.' Swift's _Works_, ed.
1803, xviii. 39.
[3] See _ante_, i. 49, for Johnson's fondness for the old romances.
[4] Boswell, _ante_, i. 386, implies that Sheridan's pension was partly
due to Wedderburne's influence.
[5] See _ante_, i. 386.
[6] Akenside, in his _Ode to Townshend_ (Book ii. 4), says:--
'For not imprudent of my loss to come,
I saw from Contemplation's quiet cell
His feet ascending to another home,
Where public praise and envied greatness dwell.'