Boswelliana: The Commonplace Book of James Boswell, with a Memoir and AnnotationsBoswell, James
History
Boswelliana: The Commonplace Book of James Boswell, with a Memoir and Annotations
Boswell, James
Boswell, James, 1740-1795
“Boswell went from Berlin to Charlottenburg while the entertainments
were there on account of the betrothing of the Princess Elizabeth
of Brunswick to the Prince of Prussia; all the ladies and gentlemen
pressed eagerly to get places at the windows of the palace, in order
to see the royal families at supper. Boswell found this a little
ridiculous, so came up to his acquaintances and said, ‘Allons, allons,
je vous en prie voyons la seconde table; je vous assure il vaut mieux
la peine; ces gens mangent plus que les autres?’ (‘Come, come, pray do
let us go see the second table; I assure you it is more worth while;
they eat more than the others.’)”
* * * * *
“Boswell said that Sir Joseph Yorke was so anxious lest people should
forget that he was an ambassador, that he held his head as high and
spoke as little as possible. As in the infancy of painting it was found
necessary to write below a picture, this is a cow, or this is a horse,
so from the mouth of Sir Joe cometh a label with these words—‘I am an
ambassador.’”
* * * * *
“Boswell said that the descriptions of human life which we find in
books are very false, because written in retirement. When a painter
would take a portrait or a landscape, he is always sure to be present,
whereas a painter of human life gets away from the object, buries
himself in the shade, or basks in the sunshine, and consequently gives
either too black or too gay a creature of his imagination, which he
calls human life.”
* * * * *
“Two Scotch Highlanders were benighted, and lay down to sleep on the
side of a mountain. After they had lain a little, one of them got up,
but soon returned again. The other asked him, ‘What’s this, Donald?
what have you been about?’ Duncan replied, ‘I was only bringing a
stane to put under my head.’ Donald started up and cried, ‘H—g your
effeminacy, man! canna ye sleep without a stane aneath your head?’”
MR. BURNET.
* * * * *
“After the Prince of Prussia had been defeated by the Austrians, the
King, who was marching desperate against them, wrote to him thus:—‘Mon
frère, Daun vous a traité comme un petit Ecolier. Il vous a foueté avec
des verges. Un homme qui va mourir, n’a rien d’dissimuler.’”
MR. BURNET.
* * * * *
“Lord Auchinleck was one of the most firm and indefatigable judges that
ever lived. Brown at Utrecht said that he was one of those great beams
which are placed here and there to support the edifice of Society.”
I was present.
* * * * *
“Boswell said that Berkley[166] reasoned himself out of house and home.”
* * * * *
“An unhappy hypochondriack complained that in his gloomy hours he
believed himself a fool. A hard-hearted wag was cruel enough to say to
him, ‘Crede quod habes et habes.’”
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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