' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 41.
Baretti, in a marginal note on his copy, says that B---- is Dr. Burney.
He adds:--'The musical scheme was the _Carmen Seculare_. That brought me
L150 in three nights, and three times as much to Philidor. It would have
benefited us both greatly more, if Philidor had not proved a scoundrel.'
'The complaisant Italian,' says the _Gent Mag_. (xlix. 361), 'in
compliment to our island chooses "to drive destructive war and
pestilence" _ad Mauros, Seras et Indos_, instead of _ad Persas atque
Britannos_.' Mr. Tasker, the clergyman, went a step further. 'I,' he
says in his version of the _Carmen_,
'Honour and fame prognosticate
To free-born Britain's naval state
And to her Patriot-King.' _Ib_.
[1127] We may compare with this the scene in _Le Misanthrope_ (Act i.
sc. 2), where Oronte reads his sonnet to Alceste; who thrice answers:
--'Je ne dis pas cela, mais--.' See _ante_, iii. 320.
[1128] This was a Mr. Tasker. Mr. D'Israeli informed me that this
portrait is so accurately drawn, that being, some years after the
publication of this work, at a watering-place on the coast of Devon, he
was visited by Mr. Tasker, whose name, however, he did not then know,
but was so struck with his resemblance to Boswell's picture, that he
asked him whether he had not had an interview with Dr.
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