To wear that riband on thy breast,
When that same breast betraying shows
The whiteness of the rebel rose?"
White was adopted by the malcontent Irish as the French emblem. Johnson's epigram may have been suggested by Propertius:
"Nullus liber erit si quis amare volet."
reference to the flattery lavished on Garrick by Lord Mansfield and Lord Chatham, Johnson had said, "When he whom everybody else flatters, flatters me, then I am truly happy." Mrs. Thrale. "The sentiment is in Congreve, I think." Johnson. "Yes, Madam, in 'The Way of the World.'
"'If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see
The heart that others bleed for, bleed for me.'"
When Johnson is reported saying, "Those who have a style of distinguished excellence can always be distinguished," she objects: "It seems not. The lines always quoted as Dryden's, beginning,