Augustan dogs

[AS Rounce]

On Fri, 1 Aug 1997 andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk wrote:

> And now that I
> remember it does not Nabokov have some allusion to Johnson (or is it
> Pope) re a dog called Hodge, where he has the great man (whichever of
> the two it is) recalling how certain dogs were rounded up and killed
> and stating `No Sir, Hodge shall not be shot' or some such. Is the LED
> wrapped up in some C18th/20th literary triangle between Pynch, his old
> tutor and Uncle Sam? (beats being wrapped in a Palm leaf, anyway).

Hodge is Johnson's cat, and the anecdote comes from the *Life*,
post-March 1783 (a long, undated section); it  concerns the
"despicable state" of a young gentleman: "Sir, when I heard of him last,
he was running about town shooting cats...But Hodge shan't be shot; no,
no, Hodge shall not be shot." I'd be interested to know where the
Nabokov quote is to be found.

Pope is the "dog" man: a succession of great danes, (all called Bounce)
that supposedly came in handy protecting his small person, especially
after the publication of *The Dunciad*. Also the famous epigram
'engraved on the collar of a dog which I gave his Royal Highness':
    
     I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
     Pray tell me Sir, whose Dog are you?


Best,


Adam Rounce.