On the conclusion of this history Minos paused for a small time, and then ordered the gate to be thrown open for Anna Boleyn’s admittance on the consideration that whoever had suffered being the queen for four years, and been sensible during all that time of the real misery which attends that exalted station, ought to be forgiven whatever she had done to obtain it. 11
Footnotes:
1 (return)
[ Some doubt whether this
should not be rather 1641, which is a date more agreeable to the account
given of it in the introduction: but then there are some passages which
seem to relate to transactions infinitely later, even within this year or
two. To say the truth there are difficulties attending either conjecture;
so the reader may take which he pleases.]
2 (return)
[ Eyes are not perhaps so
properly adapted to a spiritual substance; but we are here, as in many
other places, obliged to use corporeal terms to make ourselves the better
understood. ]
3 (return)
[ This is the dress in which
the god appears to mortals at the theaters. One of the offices attributed
to this god by the ancients, was to collect the ghosts as a shepherd doth
a flock of sheep, and drive them with his wand into the other world.]
4 (return)
[ Those who have read of the
gods sleeping in Homer will not be surprised at this happening to
spirits.]
5 (return)
[ A particular lady of
quality is meant here; but every lady of quality, or no quality, are
welcome to apply the character to themselves.]
6 (return)
[ We have before made an
apology for this language, which we here repeat for the last time; though
the heart may, we hope, be metaphorically used here with more propriety
than when we apply those passions to the body which belong to the soul.]
7 (return)
[ That we may mention it once
for all, in the panegyrical part of this work some particular person is
always meant: but, in the satirical, nobody.]
8 (return)
[ These ladies, I believe, by
their names, presided over the leprosy, king’s-evil, and scurvy.]
9 (return)
[ This silly story is told as
a solemn truth (i.e., that St. James really appeared in the manner this
fellow is described) by Mariana, 1.7, Section 78.]
10 (return)
[ Here part of the
manuscript is lost, and that a very considerable one, as appears by the
number of the next book and chapter, which contains, I find, the history
of Anna Boleyn; but as to the manner in which it was introduced, or to
whom the narrative is told, we are totally left in the dark. I have only
to remark, that this chapter is, in the original, writ in a woman’s hand:
and, though the observations in it are, I think, as excellent as any in
the whole volume, there seems to be a difference in style between this and
the preceding chapters; and, as it is the character of a woman which is
related, I am inclined to fancy it was really written by one of that sex.]
11 (return)
[ Here ends this curious
manuscript; the rest being destroyed in rolling up pens, tobacco, &c.
It is to be hoped heedless people will henceforth be more cautious what
they burn, or use to other vile purposes; especially when they consider
the fate which had likely to have befallen the divine Milton, and that the
works of Homer were probably discovered in some chandlers shop in Greece.]