1 (return)
[ 'Patricio:' Lord
Godolphin.]
2 (return)
[ 'Charron:' an imitator of
Montaigne.]
3 (return)
[ 'Perjured prince:' Louis
XI. of France. See 'Quentin Durward'.]
4 (return)
[ 'Godless regent:' Philip
Duke of Orleans, Regent of France in the minority of Louis XV., a believer
in judicial astrology, though an unbeliever in all religion.]
5 (return)
[ 'Charles:' Charles V.]
6 (return)
[ 'Philip:' Philip II. in the
battle of Quintin.]
7 (return)
[ 'Punk:' Cleopatra.]
8 (return)
[ 'Wilmot:' Earl of
Rochester.]
9 (return)
[ 'Noble dame a whore:' the
sister of Cato, and mother of Brutus.]
10 (return)
[ 'Lanesborough:' an
ancient nobleman, who continued this practice long after his legs were
disabled by the gout. Upon the death of Prince George of Denmark, he
demanded an audience of the Queen, to advise her to preserve her health
and dispel her grief by dancing.—P.]
11 (return)
[ 'Narcissa:' Mrs Oldfield,
the actress.]
12 (return)
[ 'Sappho:' Lady M. W.
Montague.]
13 (return)
[ 'Narcissa:' Duchess of
Hamilton.]
14 (return)
[ 'Philomede:' Henrietta,
younger Duchess of Marlborough, to whom Congreve left the greater part of
his fortune.]
15 (return)
[ 'Her Grace:' Duchess of
Montague.]
16 (return)
[ 'Atossa:' Sarah, Duchess
of Marlborough.]
17 (return)
[ 'Chloe:' Mrs Howard,
afterwards Countess of Suffolk.]
18 (return)
[ 'Mahomet:' servant to the
late king, said to be the son of a Turkish pasha, whom he took at the
siege of Buda, and constantly kept about his person—P.]
19 (return)
[ 'Parson Hale;' Dr Stephen
Hale, not more estimable for his useful discoveries as a natural
philosopher, than for his exemplary life and pastoral charity as a parish
priest.—P.]
20 (return)
[ 'Epistle III.:' this
epistle was written after a violent outcry against our author, on a
supposition that he had ridiculed a worthy nobleman merely for his wrong
taste. He justified himself upon that article in a letter to the Earl of
Burlington; at the end of which are these words: 'I have learnt that there
are some who would rather be wicked than ridiculous; and therefore it may
be safer to attack vices than follies. I will therefore leave my betters
in the quiet possession of their idols, their groves, and their high
places; and change my subject from their pride to their meanness, from
their vanities to their miseries; and as the only certain way to avoid
misconstructions, to lessen offence, and not to multiply ill-natured
applications, I may probably, in my next, make use of real names instead
of fictitious ones.'—P.]
21 (return)
[ 'Ward:' John Ward of
Hackney, Esq., member of Parliament, being prosecuted by the Duchess of
Buckingham, and convicted of forgery, was first expelled the House, and
then stood in the pillory on the 17th of March 1727.—P.]
22 (return)
[ 'Chartres:' see a former
note.]
23 (return)
[ 'The patriot's cloak:'
this is a true story, which happened in the reign of William III. to an
unsuspected old patriot, who coming out at the back-door from having been
closeted by the king, where he had received a large bag of guineas, the
bursting of the bag discovered his business there.—P.]
24 (return)
[ 'Ship off senates:'
alludes to several ministers, counsellors, and patriots banished in our
times to Siberia, and to that more glorious fate of the Parliament of
Paris, banished to Pontoise in the year 1720.—P.]
25 (return)
[ 'Coals:' some misers of
great wealth, proprietors of the coal-mines, had entered at this time into
an association to keep up coals to an extravagant price, whereby the poor
were reduced almost to starve, till one of them, taking the advantage of
underselling the rest, defeated the design. One of these misers was worth
ten thousand, another seven thousand a-year.—P.]
26 (return)
[ 'Colepepper:' Sir William
Colepepper, Bart., a person of an ancient family and ample fortune,
without one other quality of a gentleman, who, after ruining himself at
the gaming table, passed the rest of his days in sitting there to see the
ruin of others; preferring to subsist upon borrowing and begging, rather
than to enter into any reputable method of life, and refusing a post in
the army which was offered him.—P.]
27 (return)
[ 'Turner:' a miser of the
day.]
28 (return)
[ 'Hopkins:' a citizen
whose rapacity obtained him the name of Vulture Hopkins.—P.]
29 (return)
[ 'Japhet:' Japhet Crook,
alias Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the loss of those parts, for
having forged a conveyance of an estate to himself.—P.]
30 (return)
[ 'Endow a college or a
cat:' a famous Duchess of Richmond, in her last will, left considerable
legacies and annuities to her cats.—P.]
31 (return)
[ 'Bond:' the director of a
charitable corporation.]
32 (return)
[ 'To live on venison:' in
the extravagance and luxury of the South-sea year, the price of a haunch
of venison was from three to five pounds.—P.]
33 (return)
[ 'General excise:' many
people, about the year 1733, had a conceit that such a thing was intended,
of which it is not improbable this lady might have some intimation.—P.]
34 (return)
[ 'Wise Peter:' an attorney
who made a large fortune.]
35 (return)
[ 'Rome's great Didius:' a
Roman lawyer, so rich as to purchase the Empire when it was set to sale
upon the death of Pertinax.—P.]
36 (return)
[ 'Blunt:' one of the first
projectors of the South-sea scheme.]
37 (return)
[ 'Oxford's better part:'
Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford—P.]
38 (return)
[ 'The Man of Ross:' the
person here celebrated, who, with a small estate, actually performed all
these good works, and whose true name was almost lost (partly by the title
of the Man of Ross, given him by way of eminence, and partly by being
buried without so much as an inscription) was called Mr John Kyrle. He
effected many good works, partly by raising contributions from other
benevolent persons. He died in the year 1724, aged 90, and lies interred
in the chancel of the church of Ross, in Herefordshire.—P.]
39 (return)
[ 'Go search it there:' the
parish register.]
40 (return)
[ 'Eternal buckle takes in
Parian stone:' the poet ridicules the wretched taste of carving large
periwigs on bustos, of which there are several vile examples in the tombs
at Westminster and elsewhere.—P.]
41 (return)
[ 'Great Villiers lies:'
this lord, yet more famous for his vices than his misfortunes, after
having been possessed of about L.50,000 a-year, and passed through many of
the highest posts in the kingdom, died in the year 1687, in a remote inn
in Yorkshire, reduced to the utmost misery.—P.]
42 (return)
[ 'Shrewsbury:' the
Countess of Shrewsbury, a woman abandoned to gallantries. The earl, her
husband, was killed by the Duke of Buckingham in a duel; and it has been
said, that during the combat she held the duke's horse in the habit of a
page.—P.]
43 (return)
[ 'Cutler:' a notorious
miser.]
44 (return)
[ 'Where London's column:'
the monument, built in memory of the fire of London, with an inscription,
importing that city to have been burnt by the Papists.]
45 (return)
[ 'Topham:' a gentleman
famous for a judicious collection of drawings.—P.]
46 (return)
[ 'Hearne:' the
antiquarian.]
47 (return)
[ 'Ripley:' this man was a
carpenter, employed by a first minister, who raised him to an architect,
without any genius in the art; and after some wretched proofs of his
insufficiency in public buildings, made him comptroller of the Board of
Works.—P.]
48 (return)
[ 'Bubo:' Bubb Doddington,
who had just finished a mansion at Eastbury.]
49 (return)
[ 'Dr Clarke:' Dr S.
Clarke's busto placed by the Queen in the Hermitage, while the doctor duly
frequented the court.—P.]
50 (return)
[ 'Timon's villa:' Cannons,
the estate of Lord Chandos. See Life.]
51 (return)
[ 'Verrio or Laguerre:'
Verrio (Antonio) painted many ceilings, &c., at Windsor, Hampton
Court, &c; and Laguerre at Blenheim Castle, and other places.—P.]
52 (return)
[ 'Who never mentions
hell:' this is a fact; a reverend Dean, preaching at court, threatened the
sinner with punishment in 'a place which he thought it not decent to name
in so polite an assembly.'—P.]
53 (return)
[ 'Sancho's dread doctor:'
see 'Don Quixote,' chap, xlvii.—P.]
54 (return)
[ This was originally
written in the year 1715, when Mr Addison intended to publish his book of
medals; it was sometime before he was Secretary of State; but not
published till Mr Tickell's edition of his works; at which time the verses
on Mr Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz., in 1720.—P.]
55 (return)
[ 'Vadius:' see his
history, and that of his shield, in the 'Memoirs of Scriblerus,' ch. ii.]
56 (return)
[ Alemena, mother of
Hercules, is after his death here recounting her misfortunes to Iole, who
replies by narrating the transformations of her sister Dryope.]
57 (return)
[ Such sons: Eteocles and
Polynices.]
58 (return)
[ The Marchantes Tale.
Written at sixteen or seventeen years of age.]
59 (return)
[ The first part of this
prologue was written by Pope, the conclusion by Mallet.]
60 (return)
[ Shows a cap with ears.]
61 (return)
[ Flings down the cap, and
exit.]
62 (return)
[ 'Basset-Table:' only this
of all the Town Eclogues was Mr Pope's, and is here printed from a copy
corrected by his own hand. The humour of it consists in this, that the one
is in love with the game, and the other with the sharper—W.]
63 (return)
[ 'The Lady Frances
Shirley:' a lady whose great merit Mr Pope took a real pleasure in
celebrating.]
64 (return)
[ 'Bertrand's:' a famous
toy-shop at Bath.]
65 (return)
[ 'Fool or ass:' 'The
Dunciad.'—P.]
66 (return)
[ 'Flattery or fib:' the
'Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.'—P.]
67 (return)
[ 'Arms:' such toys being
the usual presents from lovers to their mistresses.—P.]
68 (return)
[ 'Print:' when she
delivers Aeneas a suit of heavenly armour.—P.]
69 (return)
[ 'Truth nor lies:' if you
have neither the courage to write satire, nor the application to attempt
an epic poem. He was then meditating on such a work.—P.]
70 (return)
[ 'Algerian grot:' alluding
to Numa's projecting his system of politics in this grot, assisted, as he
gave out, by the goddess Aegeria.—P.]
71 (return)
[ 'What-d'ye-call-it:' a
comedy by Gay.]
72 (return)
[ 'Turk:' Ulrick, the
Turk.]
73 (return)
[ 'Pope:' the author.]
74 (return)
[ 'Bellenden, Lepell, and
Griffin:' ladies of the Court of the Princess Caroline.]
75 (return)
[ 'Blunderland:' Ireland.]
76 (return)
[ 'Meadows:' see verses to
Mrs Howe.]
77 (return)
[ 'God send the king safe
landing:' this ballad was written anno 1717.]
78 (return)
[ 'Philips:' Ambrose
Philips.]
79 (return)
[ 'Budgell:' Eustace
Budgell.]
80 (return)
[ 'Carey:' Henry Carey.]
81 (return)
[ 'Mrs Pulteney:' the
daughter of John Gumley of Isleworth, who acquired his fortune by a glass
manufactory.]
82 (return)
[ 'Sandys:' George Sandy's,
the old, and as yet unequalled, translator of Ovid's Metamorphoses.]
83 (return)
[ 'Jacob's:' old Jacob
Tonson, the publisher of the Metamorphoses.]
84 (return)
[ 'P——:'
perhaps Pembroke.]
85 (return)
[ 'Umbra:' intended, it is
said, for Ambrose Philips.]
86 (return)
[ 'Only Johnson:' Charles
Johnson, a second-rate dramatist.]
87 (return)
[ 'The Man Mountain:' this
Ode, and the three following pieces, were produced by Pope on reading
'Gulliver's Travels.']
88 (return)
[ 'Biddel:' name of a sea
captain mentioned in Gulliver's Travels.]
89 (return)
[ 'Pannel:' name of a sea
captain mentioned in Gulliver's Travels.]
90 (return)
[ 'B——:'
Britain.]
91 (return)
[ 'C——:'
Cobham.]
92 (return)
[ 'P——'s:
Pulteney's.]
93 (return)
[ 'S——:'
Sandys.]
94 (return)
[ 'S——:'
Shippen.]
95 (return)
[ 'C——:'
Perhaps the Earl of Carlisle.]
96 (return)
[ 'Ch—-s W——:'
Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.]
97 (return)
[ 'Sir Har-y or Sir P——:'
Sir Henry Oxenden or Sir Paul Methuen.]
98 (return)
[ 'G—-r, C—-m,
B—-t:' Lords Gower, Cobham, and Bathurst.]
99 (return)
[ 'C—-d:'
Chesterfield.]
100 (return)
[ 'C—-t:' Lord
Carteret.]
101 (return)
[ 'P——:'
William Pulteney, created in 1742 Earl of Bath.]
102 (return)
[ 'W——:'
Walpole.]
103 (return)
[ 'H——:'
either Sir Robert's brother Horace, who had just quitted his embassy at
the Hague, or his son Horace, who was then on his travels.]
104 (return)
[ 'W——:' W.
Winnington.]
105 (return)
[ 'Young:' Sir William
Young.]
106 (return)
[ 'Bub:' Dodington.]
107 (return)
[ 'H——:'
probably Hare, Bishop of Chicester.]
108 (return)
[ 'F——, H—-y:'
Fox and Henley.]
109 (return)
[ 'H—-n:' Hinton.]
110 (return)
[ 'Ebor:' Blackburn,
Archbishop of York, and Hoadley, Bishop of Winchester.]
111 (return)
[ 'O—-w:' Onslow,
Speaker of the House of Commons, and the Earl of Delawar, Chairman of the
Committees of the House of Lords.]
112 (return)
[ 'N——:'
Newcastle.]
113 (return)
[ 'D——'s
sager:' Dorset; perhaps the last word should be sneer.]
114 (return)
[ 'M——'s:'
Duke of Marlborough.]
115 (return)
[ 'J——'s:'
Jekyll.]
116 (return)
[ 'H—-k's:'
Hardwick.]
117 (return)
[ 'C——:'
probably Sir John Cummins, Lord Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas.]
118 (return)
[ 'B——:'
Britain.]
119 (return)
[ 'S—-w:' Earl of
Scarborough.]
120 (return)
[ 'M-m-t's:' Marchmont.]
121 (return)
[ 'P—-th:'
Polwarth, son to Lord Marchmont.]
122 (return)
[ 'W—-m:' Wyndham.]
123 (return)
[ 'Sl—-s:' slaves.]
124 (return)
[ 'Se—-s:'
senates.]
125 (return)
[ 'Ad....:'
administration.]
126 (return)
[ King's.]
127 (return)
[ 'Religion:' an allusion
perhaps to Frederick Prince of Wales.]
128 (return)
[ 'First Book of Horace:'
attributed to Pope.]
129 (return)
[ The person here meant
was Dr Robert Friend, head master of Westminster School.]
130 (return)
[ The Misses Lisle.]
131 (return)
[ There occurred here
originally the following lax stanza:—