(_Notes on Boswell's note on page 408_.)
[G-1] Mrs. Piozzi records (_Anecdotes_, p. 120) that Johnson told her,--
'When Boyse was almost perishing with hunger, and some money was
produced to purchase him a dinner, he got a bit of roast beef, but could
not eat it without ketch-up; and laid out the last half-guinea he
possessed in truffles and mushrooms, eating them in bed too, for want of
clothes, or even a shirt to sit up in.'
Hawkins (_Life_, p. 159) gives 1740 as the year of Boyse's destitution.
'He was,' he says, 'confined to a bed which had no sheets; here, to
procure food, he wrote; his posture sitting up in bed, his only covering
a blanket, in which a hole was made to admit of the employment of
his arm.'
Two years later Boyse wrote the following verses to Cave from a
spunging-house:--
'Hodie, teste coelo summo,
Sine pane, sine nummo,
Sorte positus infeste,
Scribo tibi dolens moeste.
Fame, bile tumet jecur:
Urbane, mitte opem, precor.
Tibi enim cor humanum
Non a malis alienum:
Mihi mens nee male grato,
Pro a te favore dato.
Ex gehenna debitoria,
Vulgo, domo spongiatoria.'
He adds that he hopes to have his _Ode on the British Nation_ done that
day. This _Ode_, which is given in the _Gent. Mag._ 1742, p. 383,
contains the following verse, which contrasts sadly with the poor
poet's case:--
'Thou, sacred isle, amidst thy ambient main,
_Enjoyst the sweets of freedom_ all thy own.'
[G-2] It is not likely that Johnson called a sixpence 'a serious
consideration.' He who in his youth would not let his comrades say
_prodigious_ (_ante/_, in. 303) was not likely in his old age so to
misuse a word.
[G-3] Hugh Kelly is mentioned _ante_, ii. 48, note 2, and iii. 113.
[G-4] It was not on the return from Sky, but on the voyage from Sky to
Rasay, that the spurs were lost. _Post_, v. 163.
[G-5] Dr. White's _Bampton Lectures_ of 1784 'became part of the
triumphant literature of the University of Oxford,' and got the preacher
a Christ Church Canonry. Of these _Lectures_ Dr. Parr had written about
one-fifth part. White, writing to Parr about a passage in the manuscript
of the last Lecture, said:--'I fear I did not clearly explain myself; I
humbly beg the favour of you to make my meaning more intelligible.' On
the death of Mr. Badcock in 1788, a note for £500 from White was found
in his pocket-book. White pretended that this was remuneration for some
other work; but it was believed on good grounds that Badcock had begun
what Parr had completed, and that these famous _Lectures_ were mainly
their work. Badcock was one of the writers in the _Monthly Review_.
Johnstone's _Life of Dr. Parr_, i. 218-278. For Badcock's correspondence
with the editor of the _Monthly Review_, see _Bodleian_ MS. _Add._
C. 90.
[G-6] 'Virgilium vidi tantum.' Ovid, _Tristia_, iv. 10. 51.
[G-7] Mackintosh says of Priestley:--'Frankness and disinterestedness in
the avowal of his opinion were his point of honour.' He goes on to point
out that there was 'great mental power in him wasted and scattered.'
_Life of Mackintosh_, i. 349. See _ante_, ii. 124, and iv. 238 for
Johnson's opinion of Priestley.
[G-8] Badcock, in using the term 'index-scholar,' was referring no doubt
to Pope's lines:--
'How Index-learning turns no student pale,
Yet holds the eel of science by the tail.'
_Dunciad_, i. 279.