Boswell’s Life of Johnson: 120

Edited by Dan Leo, LL.D., Associate Professor of Golden Age Comic Book Studies, Assistant Women’s Karate Team Coach, Olney Community College; author of Bozzie and Dr. Sam: A Fair Wind for Calais!, the Olney Community College Press.

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Oct. 16. Monday. The Palais Royal very grand, large, and lofty.— A very great collection of pictures.— Three of Raphael.— Two Holy Family.— One small piece of M. Angelo.— One room of Rubens— I thought the pictures of Raphael fine.’ 'The Thuilleries.— Statues.– The walks not open to mean persons.— Chairs at night hired for two sous apiece.’ 'At the Boulevards saw nothing, yet was glad to be there.— Rope-dancing and farce.— Egg dance.’ 'Near Paris, whether on week-days or Sundays, the roads empty.’ 'Oct. 17, Tuesday. At the Palais Marchand I bought A snuff-box Table book Scissars’ 'The Palais Bourbon, belonging to the Prince of Condé. Only one small wing shown;— lofty;— splendid;— gold and glass.— The battles of the great Condé are painted in one of the rooms. The present Prince a grandsire at thirty-nine.’ 'The sight of palaces, and other great buildings, leaves no very distinct images, unless to those who talk of them. As I entered, my wife was in my mind: she would have been pleased. Having now nobody to please, I am little pleased.’ 'In France there is no middle rank.’ 'So many shops open, that Sunday is little distinguished at Paris.’ 'The Colosseum a mere wooden building, at least much of it.’ 'Oct. 18. Wednesday. We went to Fontainebleau, which we found a large mean town, crowded with people.— The forest thick with woods, very extensive.— The appearance of the country pleasant. No hills, few streams, only one hedge.— I remember no chapels nor crosses on the road.’ 'Nobody but mean people walk in Paris.’ 'Oct. 19. Thursday. At Court, we saw the apartments;— the King's bed-chamber and council-chamber extremely splendid.’ ‘We went and saw the King and Queen at dinner.— At night we went to a comedy. I neither saw nor heard.— Drunken women.— Mrs. Th. preferred one to the other.’   'Oct. 20. Friday. We saw the Queen mount in the forest.— Brown habit; rode aside.— The Queen's horse light grey.— She galloped.— We then went to the apartments, and admired them.— Then wandered through the palace.— In the passages, stalls and shops.— Painting in Fresco by a great master, worn out.— We saw the King's horses and dogs.— The dogs almost all English.—Degenerate.’ 'The horses not much commended.— The stables cool; the kennel filthy.’ 'At night the ladies went to the opera. I refused, but should have been welcome.’ 'The King fed himself with his left hand as we.’ 'Saturday, 21. Soldiers at the court of justice.— Soldiers not amenable to the magistrates.’   'Faggots in the palace.— Every thing slovenly, except in the chief rooms.— Trees in the roads.’ 'Women's saddles seem ill made.’ 'Sunday, Oct. 22. To Versailles, a mean town. Carriages of business passing.— Mean shops against the wall— The palace of great extent.— The front long; I saw it not perfectly.— The Menagerie. Cygnets dark; their black feet; on the ground; tame.— Halcyons, or gulls.— Stag and hind, young.— Aviary, very large; the net, wire.— Black stag of China, small.— Rhinoceros, the horn broken and pared away, which, I suppose, will grow; the basis, I think, four inches 'cross; the skin folds like loose cloth doubled over his body, and cross his hips; a vast animal, though young; as big, perhaps, as four oxen.— The young elephant, with his tusks just appearing.— The brown bear put out his paws;— all very tame.— The lion.— The tigers I did not well view.— The camel, or dromedary with two bunches, taller than any horse.— Two camels with one bunch.— Among the birds was a pelican, who being let out, went to a fountain, and swam about to catch fish. His feet well webbed: he dipped his head, and turned his long bill sidewise. He caught two or three fish, but did not eat them.’   'Oct. 24, Tuesday. We visited the King's library.— Thence to the Sorbonne.— The library very large.— The Prior and Librarian dined [with us]:— I waited on them home. — Their garden pretty, with covered walks, but small.— The Doctors of the Sorbonne are all equal:—choose those who succeed to vacancies.— Profit little.’ 'Oct. 27. Friday. I staid at home.— Gough and Keene, and Mrs. S——'s friend dined with us.— This day we began to have a fire.— The weather is grown very cold, and I fear, has a bad effect upon my breath, which has grown much more free and easy in this country.’   classix comix™ is sponsored in part by Bob’s Bowery Bar, conveniently located at the northwest corner of Bleecker and the Bowery: “Ever have one of those ‘morning afters’ when just the thought of wielding a knife and fork fills you with dread, and yet you’re still ravenously hungry because you were too busy ‘making merry’ the previous day to eat? Me too. So why not do what I always do and stumble over to Bob’s Bowery Bar and order ‘Mom’s Boozer’s Brunch Sandwich’: a home-baked toasted kaiser roll slathered with fresh butter and layered with three thick slices of fried Taylor pork roll, a scrambled cage-free egg, a quarter pound of melted organic basket cheese and a half-inch slice of raw Vidalia onion – pour on some of the house proprietary hot sauce and slosh down a tall schooner of Bob’s basement-brewed bock, and you can kiss another killing hangover goodbye!” – Horace P. Sternwall, host of Bob’s Bowery Bar Presents the Philip Morris Commander All Star Jam Session, featuring Tony Winston & his Winstonians, with songbird Miss Shirley De LaSalle and the Betty Baxter Dancers, broadcast live from the Prince Hal Room of the Hotel St Crispian, Mondays at 10pm (EST) exclusively on the Dumont Television Network; this week’s special guests: Conte Candoli, Lord Buckley, Oscar Levant, and Miss Kitty Carlisle.) part 121