'
_Adriani morientis ad animam suam_.
'Poor little, pretty, fluttering thing,
Must we no longer live together?
And dost thou prune thy trembling wing,
To take thy flight thou know'st not whither?
Thy humorous vein, thy pleasing folly
Lies all neglected, all forgot;
And pensive, wavering, melancholy,
Thou dread'st and hop'st thou know'st not what.' _Prior_.
In _The Spectator_, No. 532, is a letter from Pope to Steele on these
'famous verses which the Emperor Adrian spoke on his death-bed.' See in
Pope's _Correspondence_ (Elwin's _Pope_, vi. 394), this letter to Steele
of Nov. 7, 1712, for his version of these lines.
[1293] See _ante_, ii. 246, note 1.
[1294] Mr. Beauclerk's library was sold by publick auction in April and
May 1781, for L5011. MALONE. See _post_, May 8, 1781.
[1295] By a fire in Northumberland-house, where he had an apartment, in
which I have passed many an agreeable hour. BOSWELL.
[1296] See _post_, iv. 31.
[1297] In 1768, on his birthday, Johnson recorded, 'This day it came
into my mind to write the history of my melancholy.' _Ante_, ii. 45,
note 1.
[1298] Johnson had dated his letter, 'London, April 25, 1780,' and added,
'now there is a date; look at it.
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