[1175] ‘Dr. Johnson,’ said Parr, ’was an admirable scholar....  The classical scholar was forgotten in the great original contributor to the literature of his country.’ Ib. i. 164.  ’Upon his correct and profound knowledge of the Latin language,’ he wrote, ’I have always spoken with unusual zeal and unusual confidence.’  Johnson’s Parr, iv. 679.  Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 54) recounts a ‘triumph’ gained by Johnson in a talk on Greek literature.

[1176] Ante, iii. 172.

[1177] We must smile at a little inaccuracy of metaphor in the Preface to the Transactions, which is written by Mr. Burrowes.  The critick of the style of JOHNSON having, with a just zeal for literature, observed, that the whole nation are called on to exert themselves, afterwards says:  ’They are called on by every tye which can have a laudable influence on the heart of man.’  BOSWELL.

[1178] Johnson’s wishing to unite himself with this rich widow, was much talked of, but I believe without foundation.  The report, however, gave occasion to a poem, not without characteristical merit, entitled, ’Ode to Mrs. Thrale, by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. on their supposed approaching Nuptials; printed for Mr. Faulder in Bond-street.’  I shall quote as a specimen the first three stanzas:—­

     ’If e’er my fingers touch’d the lyre,
        In satire fierce, in pleasure gay;
      Shall not my THRALIA’S smiles inspire? 
        Shall Sam refuse the sportive lay? 
      My dearest Lady! view your slave,
        Behold him as your very Scrub;
      Eager to write, as authour grave,
        Or govern well, the brewing-tub. 
      To rich felicity thus raised,
        My bosom glows with amorous fire;
      Porter no longer shall be praised,
        ‘Tis I MYSELF am Thrale’s Entire’

[1179] See ante, ii. 44.

[1180] ’Higledy piggledy,—­Conglomeration and confusion.

’Hodge-podge,—­A culinary mixture of heterogeneous ingredients:  applied metaphorically to all discordant combinations.

’Tit for Tat,—­Adequate retaliation.

’Shilly Shally,—­Hesitation and irresolution.

’Fee! fau! fum!—­Gigantic intonations.

Rigmarole,-Discourse, incoherent and rhapsodical.

’Crincum-crancum,—­Lines of irregularity and involution.

’Dingdong—­Tintinabulary chimes, used metaphorically to signify dispatch and vehemence.’  BOSWELL.  In all the editions that I have examined the sentence in the text beginning with ‘annexed,’ and ending with ‘concatenation,’ is printed as if it were Boswell’s.  It is a quotation from vol. ii. p. 93 of Colman’s book.  For Scrub, see ante, iii. 70, note 2.

[1181] See ante, iii. 173.

[1182] History of America, vol. i. quarto, p. 332.  BOSWELL.