Dr. Johnson

[Peter Jiong]

“My idea of music is like Dr. Johnson’s,” said Edward, looking round for approval.
“Is Saul also among the prophets?” murmured Bertha.

(From Mrs. Craddock by W Somerset Maugham）

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47470/47470-h/47470-h.htm

Who is "Dr. Johnson" here, and what is his idea of music?

 

[GoesStation]

Samuel Johnson compiled the first authoritative dictionary of the English language. You can read some of his thoughts on music here. Does one of the quotes fit the context?

 

[Peter Jiong]

Thank you.

Music; Ouch!!
Dr. Johnson was observed by a musical friend of his to be extremely inattentive at a concert, whilst a celebrated solo player was running up the divisions and subdivisions of notes upon his violin. His friend, to induce him to take greater notice of what was going on, told him how extremely difficult it was. "Difficult do you call it, Sir?" replied the Doctor; "I wish it were impossible."
Anecdotes by William Seward, in Johnsonian Miscellanies, edited by G. B. Hill
What does the doctor mean by "I wish it were impossible."?

 

[Tarheel]

It's too bad you missed the humor in that one.

Dr. Johnson does not care for the performance and no doubt wishes he was somewhere else.

 

[Tarheel]

What does the doctor mean by "I wish it were impossible"?

Please note how I have changed the punctuation.

 

[emsr2d2]

What does the doctor mean by "I wish it were impossible."?

Tarheel's statement that Dr Johnson probably wishes he were somewhere else is fair but it loses an important part of the joke. He isn't saying he wishes he were somewhere else. He's saying that it's a shame that the piece of music isn't even more difficult to play than it is. If it were impossible to play, he wouldn't have to listen to it.

 

[Tdol]

It's too bad you missed the humor in that one.

Dr. Johnson does not care for the performance and no doubt wishes he was somewhere else.

And the wife sounds as if she's rather be anywhere else than listening to her husband.

 

[Tarheel]

Ems, we don't disagree. I just didn't want to do as much typing as you did.

(That is exactly what makes for humor. Dr. Johnson wishes the piece was so hard to play it was impossible. (I literally laughed out loud a couple of times thinking about that one.))

 

[Peter Jiong]

What does Bertha mean by “Is Saul also among the prophets”？

 

[GoesStation]

What does Bertha mean by “Is Saul also among the prophets”？

In the era of this story, a good chunk of English education consisted of studying the Bible. Few modern readers have anything approaching the level of familiarity with that text that was common in those days. We do learn to recognize biblical references from familiar names ("Saul") and style ("among the prophets").

Readers from cultures with less of a Jude-Christian heritage are at a bit of a disadvantage when facing this kind of reference.