Thursday, February 17, 2011

 

All in His Head

James Boswell, Life of Johnson (anno 1749, aetat. 40):
I remember when I once regretted to him that he had not given us more of Juvenal's Satires, he said, he probably should give more, for he had them all in his head; by which I understood, that he had the originals and correspondent allusions floating in his mind, which he could, when he pleased, embody and render permanent without much labour. Some of them, however, he observed, were too gross for imitation.
To save you the trouble of searching for the naughty bits, dear reader, 2, 6, and 9 are those usually considered too gross for imitation. Johnson imitated 3 (London) and 10 (The Vanity of Human Wishes).

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