Dear Ed. and Candi,

I´d only perused "The Life of Samuel Johnson" at the time I wanted to learn more about Hodges and missed the Kinbotian climate completely.  And yet, although this seems to be a very good hypothesis for VN´s quote, I´m still not satisfied because, as a reference, it seems excessively convoluted to be a deliberate association or as a hint linking Boswell and Kinbote. Still, it was quite amusing to follow Candi´s lead.     
The references to Johnson´s fondness for animals begin on the last line of page 1072. Before writing down his own regrets for not having Johnson write the history of his family, after the sentence : "no,no, Hodge shall not be shot." -  there are two other paragraphs mentioning Mr.Beauclerck,Mr Seward and Mr. Langton and the excelencies of his "Bow to an Archbishop". The paragraph mentioned by Candi reads: "I cannot help mentioning wih much regret... ( text already mailed to the List by Sergey Karpukhin).
I would like to underline the following: Such was his goodness to me (...) he was pleased to say, "Let me have all the materials you can collect, and I will do it both in Latin and English; then let is be printed, and copies of it be deposited in various places for security and preservation." Cf.  James Boswell "The Life of Dr. Johnson". Everyman´s Library ( 1992: pg 1073/1074).

One must realize the difference bt. what Johnson offered Boswell ( get his history "printed and copies placed in various places for security and preservation") and Boswells´s ambitions.  To print to preserve a historical record is not the same as publishing a work, that is, making it public. 

Boswell´s attempts at having his family´s history perpetuated and Dr.Johnson´s own "archival" remarks can be compared to another naive attempt by Boswell to obtain some kind of recognition from Johnson ( on page 383):

Boswell: 
" I was volatile enough to repeat to him a little epigrammatick song of mine, on matrimony, which Mr. Garrick had a few days before procured to be set to musick bu the very ingenious Mr. Dibden.

A Matrimonial Thought.

In the blithe days of honey-moon,
With Kate allurements smitten,
I lov´d her late, I lov´d her soon,
And calle´d her dearest kitten.

But now my kittn´s grown a cat,
And cross like other wives,
O! by my sould, my honest Ma,
I fear she has nine lives."

My illustrious friend said, " It is very well, Sir, but you should not swear." Upon which I altered "O! by my soul," to "alas,alas!".


Anyway, Hodge was definitely a male cat...
Jansy


  -----Mensagem Orig

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