Anecdotes of the Learned Pig: With Notes, Critical and Explanatory, and Illustrations from Bozzy, Piozzi &c. &c.Boswell, James
General
Anecdotes of the Learned Pig: With Notes, Critical and Explanatory, and Illustrations from Bozzy, Piozzi &c. &c.
Boswell, James
Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 -- Humor
[17] Cant words are uſually begot in a cellar by _fun_ upon
_folly_: but the word _bore_ and _boar_ has another origin; it
was begot on a ſofa by _Madamoiſelle Ennui_ upon herſelf, and
brought forth into the world in the midſt of the ton. The roar
and fury of the river Severn the people of the country call the
_boar_. A female ſaint was reported miraculouſly to have ſhed
tears: the fact was denied by a Madrid carpenter who had made
the ſaint, “becauſe (ſays he) ſhe is not only compoſed of heart
of oak, but if ſhe had been at all diſpoſed to weep, ſhe muſt
have wept when I _bored_ an aperture with my largeſt augre in
her rump.” And thus teazing and vexation of every kind may be
called a _bore_. A dun is a _bore_, and a ſermon is a _bore_, and
ſo forth; but the greateſt of all poſſible _bores_, in whatever
ſpelling, is a huſband, a _bore_ at night, a _bore_ in the
morning, and, in ſhort, one general univerſal _bore_. Our author
has uſed this faſhionable word with the moſt perfect propriety,
in a ſenſe ſatisfying the very letter, as well as ſpirit of the
word.
[18] When we went into Wales together, and ſpent ſome time at Sir
Robert Cotton’s at Llewenney, one day at dinner I meant to pleaſe
Mr. Johnſon particularly with a diſh of very young peas.—“Are not
they charming?” ſaid I to him, while he was eating them.—“Perhaps
(ſaid he) they would be ſo—to a Pig.”—Piozzi, p. 63.
[19] This paſſage ſeems inexplicable. We have had reſort to Bozz,
but in vain: the ſtaff, indeed, he readily acknowledged; but as
to the other aſſociate, or who, or what was meant, neither he nor
we were able to diſcover.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Footnotes have been renumbered 1–19 and moved from within paragraphs
natural breaks in paragraphs. We would ordinarily have moved the
footnotes to the end of the book, we but did not wish to entirely
deprive you of the ambience that readers of the original printed book
enjoyed.
Original printed spelling and grammar are retained, with one exception:
Page 3. “refeences” changed to “references”.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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