Vulgar words in The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes - Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II (Page 1)
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~ ~ ~ Sentence 506 ~ ~ ~
But the fate of this impious buffoon is very different; for in a protestant kingdom, zealous of their civil and religious immunities, he has not only escaped affronts, and the effects of publick resentment, but has been caressed and patronised by persons of great figure, and of all denominations.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 691 ~ ~ ~
Of this performance the value certainly is but little; but it was one of the lucky trifles that give pleasure by novelty, and was so much favoured by the audience, that envy appeared against it in the form of criticism; and Griffin, a player, in conjunction with Mr. Theobald, a man afterwards more remarkable, produced a pamphlet, called the Key to the What d'ye call it; which, says Gay, "calls me a blockhead, and Mr. Pope a knave."
~ ~ ~ Sentence 778 ~ ~ ~
A patten may be made by the hammer of a mortal; and a bastard may be dropped by a human strumpet.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,301 ~ ~ ~
He now thought himself again at liberty to expose the cruelty of his mother; and, therefore, I believe, about this time, published the Bastard, a poem remarkable for the vivacious sallies of thought in the beginning, where he makes a pompous enumeration of the imaginary advantages of base birth; and the pathetick sentiments at the end, where he recounts the real calamities which he suffered by the crime of his parents.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,303 ~ ~ ~
One circumstance attended the publication, which Savage used to relate with great satisfaction: his mother, to whom the poem was with "due reverence" inscribed, happened then to be at Bath, where she could not conveniently retire from censure, or conceal herself from observation; and no sooner did the reputation of the poem begin to spread, than she heard it repeated in all places of concourse; nor could she enter the assembly-rooms, or cross the walks, without being saluted with some lines from the Bastard.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,323 ~ ~ ~
He may be considered as a child exposed to all the temptations of 145 indigence, at an age when resolution was not yet strengthened by conviction, nor virtue confirmed by habit; a circumstance which, in his Bastard, he laments in a very affecting manner: No mother's care Shielded my infant innocence with pray'r: No father's guardian hand my youth maintain'd, Call'd forth my virtues, or from vice restrain'd.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,324 ~ ~ ~
The Bastard, however it might provoke or mortify his mother, could not be expected to melt her to compassion, so that he was still under the same want of the necessaries of life; and he, therefore, exerted all the interest which his wit, or his birth, or his misfortunes, could procure, to obtain, upon the death of Eusden, the place of poet laureate, and prosecuted his application with so much diligence, that the king publickly declared it his intention to bestow it upon him; but such was the fate of Savage, that even the king, when he intended his advantage, was disappointed in his schemes; for the lord chamberlain, who has the disposal of the laurel, as one of the appendages of his office, either did not know the king's design, or did not approve it, or thought the nomination of the laureate an encroachment upon his rights, and, therefore, bestowed the laurel upon Colley Cibber.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,900 ~ ~ ~
"Mr. Bettesworth," answered he, "I was in my youth acquainted with great lawyers, who, knowing my disposition to satire, advised me, that if any scoundrel or blockhead whom I had lampooned should ask, 'Are you the author of this paper?'
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,568 ~ ~ ~
"Some false editions of the book having an owl in their frontispiece, the true one, to distinguish it, fixed in its stead an ass laden with authors.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,569 ~ ~ ~
Then another surreptitious one being printed with the same ass, the new edition in octavo returned, for distinction, to the owl again.