[RawGod]

(06-03-2015 02:51 AM)RawGod Wrote:  

Dr Johnson. In the sumo ring.

And oddly enough, a little research has turned up Boswell's record of such an incident:

Boswells Life of Dr Johnson, Chapter XXXIII (Cheapside Edition) Wrote:

I remarked to Dr Johnson that evening, that was it not a most singular circumstance, that he had seen fit to subject himself to remark by the rabble, & the Odious atmosphere of the tavern back Hall, with its broken beer bottles &C, with the sole aim of besting that odd and unsavory individual known pseudonymously as RawGod, in single combat, according to the rite of the Japanese? Surely, I gently offered, such an undertaking was not altogether in Keeping with his occupation, and I might say so exalted Vocation, as a celebrated man of English letters.

His response took me unawares. He pondered for a moment, as if giving my remarks due consideration, and I wondered anew at the workings of the great vault of Mind stored away beneath his mighty cranial dome. Then he brought down his fist amongst the Teacups, rattling the remnants of the evening's Lamb-chops, and only then deigned to unload the Contents of his mental Workings about the subject, to all Hearers.

"My dear Boswell. It is commonly thought, by those of mean and Mischievous cast of mind, that those who labor in the high fields of Scholarship, and dwell daily in the elevated and indeed Heavenly realms of Ratiocination, must necessarily shy away from the meaner physical aspects of Life. But let me assure you, to the contrary!"

Here he underscored his point with a jab of his vigorous forefinger, in itself a majestic sight, none the less for the trifle of Marmalade which adhered to it at that precise Instant.

"However it may be amongst the natives of the cold shores of Caledonia, who know little of the disciplines of Body and Mind which have brought our Southern civilisation to so great a product..." (here I blushed with shame) "In an Individual who has united the Spiritual, Mental, and Physical virtues into one object" (a slightly rotund object, I mentally appended, with justice if not overmuch charity) "In such an individual, no such fear exists, for indeed there is no contradiction. My daily searchings of books and interrogations of Mind with the masters of Old have produced such concentrated force in my Being, that, body and Soul united in one, I am able to attain prodigies of Physical effort, such as will leave many men, nay, even those who Labour in body daily, quivering and quaking before my powerful Special Moves."

I pondered. "Yet how was it then, dear Doctor, that this RawGod fellow was able, with such alacrity, to cast you upon your fundament?"

"My dear Boswell, clearly you are not able to grasp the intricacies of my skills, and indeed my thinking, which is in no way limited to such mean matters as the rules prescribed by the heathen Japanese. I would surely have dealt this RawGod a salutary Blow, had not the mob, probably out of anxious concern for his Scrawny form, prematurely declared the bout finished!"

"But Doctor, given your advanced concatenation of the disciplines of Spirit and Body - "

"Let us speak no more more of this matter!" His tone was grave, but certainly obstinate.

And noting that a rosy hue had come over his face, and a glare on his brows like the intimation of a summer storm over the cliffs of Dover, I indeed let the matter rest. It was to be a closed chapter in the life of the great Doctor, but nevertheless one which I often returned to Mentally, in admiration for the stern virtues embodied in the tale, and as an example of the wonderfully multifaceted life of the Doctor, which could never cease to fascinate his admirers.