JOHNSONIAN A. 



235 



bracelet you wear on your arm?" 

 u Nay," replied she, laying her head 

 on the pillow, " that is too much !" 



LOUIS XIV. AND SPINOLA. 



Louis XIV., grave and dignified 

 as he was, could not restrain the 

 joy he felt on the birth of the Duke 

 of Burgundy, on the 6th of August, 

 1682. He refused the attendance 

 of his guards, and every one was 

 allowed to address hiru. As all 

 were admitted to the honour of 

 kissing his hand, the Marquis Spi- 

 nola, in the ardour of his zeal, bit 

 his finger in doing so, and that so 

 sharply, that the king was forced 

 to call out. " I beg your majesty's 

 pardon," said the marquis; "if I 

 had not bit your finger, you would 

 not have distinguished me from the 

 crowd." 



LONG SPEECHES AND GRAY HAIRS. 



Louis XII. one day looking at 

 himself in his mirror, was aston- 

 ished to see a number of gray hairs 

 on his head. "Ah!" said he, "these 

 must be owing to the long speeches 

 I have listened to ; and it is those 

 of M. le - in particular, that 

 have ruined my hair." 



MARCO DE LODI. 



Marco do Lodi having presented 

 a sonnet of his own composition to 

 Clement VII., the Pope found one 

 of the lines in the first quatrain 

 deficient in a syllable. " Do not 

 let that disturb your Holiness," said 

 the poet ; " in the next you will 

 probably find a syllable too much, 

 which will balance the defect." 



RACAN. 



Eacan was a man of talent, and 

 frequently said good things; but 

 his voice was \vr:ik, and he spoke 

 rather indistinctly. One day in a 

 numerous company, when he was 

 present, the conversation turned on 

 some subject which gave an oppor- 

 tunity of introducing an agreeable 



I story. When he had finished, see- 

 ing that the company, who probably 

 had not heard it, did not laugh, he 

 turned to Menage, who was sitting 

 near him, and said, "I see plainly 

 that these gentlemen have not un- 

 derstood me translate me, if you 

 please, into the vulgar tongue." 



JOHNSONIANA. 



The following are extracts from 

 Boswell's Life : 



When the dictionary was upon 

 the eve of publication, Lord Ches- 

 terfield, who, it is said, had flattered 

 himself with expectations that 

 Johnson would dedicate the work 

 to him, attempted, in a courtly 

 manner, to soothe and insinuate 

 himself with the sage, conscious, as 

 it should seem, of the cold indif- 

 ference with which he had treated 

 its learned author ; and further 

 attempted to conciliate him, by 

 writing two papers in The World, 

 in recommendation of the work : 

 and it must be confessed, that they 

 contain some studied compliments, 

 so finely turned, that, if there had 

 been no previous offence, it is pro- 

 bable Johnson would have been 

 highly delighted. Praise, in gene- 

 ral, was pleasing to him; but, by 

 praise from a man of rank and ele- 

 gant accomplishments, he was pecu- 

 liarly gratified. 



This courtly device failed of its 

 effect. Johnson, who thought that 

 " all was false and hollow," despised 

 the honeyed words, and was even 

 indignant that Lord Chesterfield 

 should, for a moment, imagine that 

 he could be the dupe of such an 

 artifice. His expression to Bos well 

 concerning Lord Chesterfield, upon 

 this occasion, was, " Sir, after mak- 

 ing great professions, he had, for 

 many years taken no notice of me ; 

 but when my dictionary was com- 

 ing out, he fell a-scribbling in The 

 World about it. Upon which I 

 wrote him a letter, expressed in 

 civil terms, but si:ch as might show 



