6 13. Politian. Another of "the great restorers of learning" (see 2 31). His beginning of a translation of the Iliad into Latin attracted the attention of Lorenzo de' Medici, under whose patronage he became one of the first scholars of Italy.
6 17. fell in love. Boswell says that Johnson's early attachments to the fair sex were "very transient," and considers it but natural that when the passion of love once seized him it should be exceedingly strong, concentrated as it was in one object.
6 22. Queensberrys and Lepels. Families of high rank in England.
7 3–4. half ludicrous. Carlyle says it is no matter for ridicule that the man "whose look all men both laughed at and shuddered at, should find any brave female heart, to acknowledge, at first sight and hearing of him, 'This is the most sensible man I ever met with'; and then, with generous courage, to take him to itself, and say Be thou mine!... Johnson's deathless affection for his Tetty was always venerable and noble."
7 6–7. At Edial. Although this enterprise did not prosper, the man, as Carlyle says, "was to become a Teacher of grown gentlemen, in the most surprising way; a man of Letters, and Ruler of the British Nation for some time,—not of their bodies merely, but of their minds; not over them, but in them."
7 13. David Garrick. The mere fact that this celebrated actor and successful manager brought out twenty-four of Shakspere's plays is reason enough why we should look him up. A slight knowledge of his career enables one to enjoy all the more the frequent references to him in Boswell's Life of Johnson. After reading the sketch in the Encyclopædia Britannica it would be a good plan to read Boswell's references consecutively by means of the index.
8 9. Fielding. For an enjoyable short sketch of the first great English novelist, see Thackeray's English Humourists.
8 10. The Beggar's Opera, by John Gay, appeared in 1728.
8 19. knot. See The Century Dictionary.
8 34. Drury Lane. A street in the heart of the city, near the Strand,—one of the chief thoroughfares. It was beginning to lose its old-time respectability.