P. 29, 1. 27. chapman here = customer. Cf. Swift, Directions to Servants, 1746, p. 4:-'Your Father sent a Cow to you to sell, and you could not get a Chapman till Nine at Night.' P. 30, 1. 25. Captain Sentry. See Spectator, No. 2, p. 109 in this volume. P. 32, 1. 9. a gay Frenchman. The Chevalier de Flourilles, who was killed at the battle of Senelf in 1674. The anecdote is told in the Memoirs of Condé. 1. 29. trow?, a corruption of 'think you?'-' believe you?' (Singer). Cf. Cymbeline, Act. i, Sc. 6:-'What is the matter, trow?' P. 33, 1. 7. the fine gentleman. This and the ensuing character has been supposed to indicate Lieutenant-General Cornelius Wood 'an excellent Officer of Horse, and a very just and charitable Man.' He died in May, 1712, aged 74. Prior refers to him and Lord Cutts in the Letter to Monsieur Boileau Despreaux; Occasion'd by the Victory at Blenheim, 1704 :— 'CUTTS is in Meeter something harsh to read: Let generous SYLVIUS speak for honest WOOD.' See also Tatler, No. 144. P. 35, 1. 34. My author. See Bossu, Traité du Poëme Epique, Ed. 1708, liv. iv. P. 43, 1. 34. Long-lane. Long Lane, West Smithfield, was a place of note for second-hand clothes. Cf. Congreve, Way of the World, 1700, Act iii, Sc. 5, where Lady Wishfort says—' I hope to see him hung with Tatters, like a Long-lane Penthouse;' and Tom Brown's Amusements of London, 1700, p. 37-'I ... was mortally frighted in my Passage through Barbican and Long-Lane, by the Impudent Ragsellers, in those Scandalous Climates, who laid hold of my Arm to ask me, What I lack' d' P. 44, 1. 3. St. John-street, i. e. St. John's Street, Clerkenwell. 6 1. 4. bands, or band. A neckcloth. The next that mounted the Stage was an Under-Citizen of the Bath, a Person remarkable among the inferior People of that Place for his great Wisdom and his Broad Band.' (Spectator, No. 179.) Later in the century the term was restricted to the neckcloth worn by students in colleges, lawyers, and clergymen. 1. 38. the author of them. For account of Estcourt the player, see Spectator, No. 468, p. 368, in this volume and notes. On January 1, 1712, he opened the Bumper Tavern in James Street, Covent Garden, having duly advertised his intention to do so in Nos. 260 and 261 of the Spectator. Steele's Coverley letter is a kindly puff of his friend's enterprize. 1 He was created Baron Cutts of Gowran, in Ireland, Dec. 6, 1690. P. 45, 1. 4. Sir Roger. See Spectator, No. 2, p. 107 in this volume, and notes. P. 46, 1. 1. John Sly's best. John Sly, mentioned in note to p. 169, 1. 6, also sold tobacco. In Spectator, No. 526, he is styled 'Haberdasher of Hats and Tobacconist.' P. 47, 1. 40. Sir Richard Blackmore says, etc. These passages, which are not textual, are from the Preface to Prince Arthur, an Heroick Poem in ten Books, 1695. Blackmore (1650-1729), a voluminous writer, author of several epics, had been physician to William the Third, by whom he was knighted. He was a Whig and a pious well-meaning man; but a poet invita Minerva. In the above Preface he had anticipated Jeremy Collier in attacking the stage; and in his Satyr against Wit, 1700, he carried the war into Will's Coffee-House itself. The whole hive rose at him in a series of Commendatory Verses; and Captain Steele, taking up the cudgels for the absent Addison, was among the assailants. In the preface to the collection is an oft-repeated gibe against Blackmore's fruitless fluency. 'When he is in his Coach he is still list'ning to the Chimes to put his Ear in tune, and stumbles upon a Distich every Kennel he is jolted over.' Dryden, whom he had impugned among the rest, uses the same idea in the Prologue to The Pilgrim, 1700,— 'At leisure Hours, in Epique Song he deals, Writes to the rumbling of his Coaches Wheels.' At the date of the present Spectator, however, these quarrels, at least as far as Addison and Steele were concerned, were of the past, and Addison gave Blackmore's Creation, 1712, a laudatory paragraph in Spectator, No. 339. P. 50, 1. 30. Cæsar, etc. See Lucan, Pharsalia, ii. 657. P. 52, 1. 6. Ludgate was used as a prison for such debtors as were freemen of the city of London, clergymen or attorneys. In 1762, when it was pulled down, the inmates were removed to the London Workhouse in Bishopsgate Street. It was the duty of some of the prisoners in turn to stand at the window-grating, shaking a box, and crying Remember the poor Debtors.' P. 53, 1. 15. verses of Denham. The couplet is from Cooper's Hill, 1642. P. 54, 1. 19. Sir Andrew Freeport, the merchant of the 'Spectator Club' (cf. Spectator, No. 2, p. 109 in this volume). 1. 26. Jack Truepenny. In 'Jack Truepenny,' Steele, to some extent, intended to describe himself, if we may believe a note in the early editions, ascribed to Dr. John Hoadly, the son of Sir Richard's friend, the Bishop of Bangor. The author fell here under his own censure, but on a much reduced income, he retired first to Hertfordshire [Hereford], and afterwards to Carmarthen in Wales, from a principle of doing justice to his creditors.' (See Introduction, p. xlii.) P. 61, 1. 17. A priest. This story is founded upon a note in Bayle's account of Leo X. P. 63, 1. 19. the character. Rochester said this of Lord Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset. In the epitaph on Caleb Whitefoord, which was added to the 5th edition of Goldsmith's Retaliation, 1774, PP. 1922, it is misquoted as the final line: 'This debt to thy mem'ry I cannot refuse, "Thou best humour'd man with the worst humour'd muse." P. 67, 1. 10. It is to be allowed, etc. This almost reads as if Callisthenes were modelled on Addison. Cf. 'Ned Softly,' Tatler, No. 163: and Swift's Character of Mrs. Johnson (Stella), 'She was never positive in arguing; and she usually treated those who were so, in a manner which well enough gratified that unhappy disposition; yet in such a sort as made it very contemptible, and at the same time did some hurt to the owners. Whether this proceeded from her easiness in general, or from her indifference to persons, or from her despair of mending them, or from the same practice which she much liked in Mr. Addison' I cannot determine; but when she saw any of the company very warm in a wrong opinion, she was more inclined to confirm them in it than oppose them.' Cf. also Macaulay, Essays, 1860, ii. 337, and Pope's exaggeration of the same characteristic (Prologue to the Satires, 11.201–2):— 'Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer.' P. 68, 1. 29. Mr. Congreve's Doris. See the entire poem in Congreve's Works, 1710, iii. 992-5. Steele extravagantly praised these verses. In his Dedication to Congreve of the Poetical Miscellanies, 1714 (see Introduction, p. xxxv), he refers to 'Your inimitable Doris, which excels, for Politeness, fine Raillery, and courtly Satyr, any Thing we can meet with in any Language.' P. 69, 1. 15. Mr. Hart. Hart was a distinguished tragic actor, and says Cibber (Apology, 1740, p. 55) 'famous for Othello.' He is often mentioned in Pepys. He was the lover of Nell Gwyn, and one of the many favourites of Lady Castlemaine. P. 70, 1. 20. Tully. See Cicero, De Officiis, iii. 9. P. 71, 1. 14. Mr. Rayner. In Tatler, No. 135, original folio, is advertised the following:-'The Paul's Scholars Copy-Book, containing the Round and Round-Text Hands, with Alphabets at large of the Greek and Hebrew, and Joyning Pieces of each. Embellished with proper Ornaments of Command of Hand. By J. Rayner, at the Hand and Pen in St. Paul's Churchyard, London . . . Price is.' ... 1. 19. Mr. Morphew John Morphew, near Stationer's Hall, who sold the Tatler, and received advertisements. Mr. Lillie. Charles Lillie, a perfumer at the corner of Beaufort 1 The italics are the editor's. Buildings, Strand. [He was also an agent for the sale of the paper. P. 72, 1. 9. It is to me, etc. Cf. Thackeray's Book of Snobs, 1848, passim. 1. 22. It is not, etc. See the Encheiridion, Sect. xvii. P. 73, 1. 1. indesert, want of merit. This' says Johnson 'is a useful word, but not much received,' and he gives an example of its use by Addison. Steele had already employed it in the Lying Lover, 1704, Act ii, where Lovemore says:— 'Tis my 1. 6. Eboracensis. of New York in 1709. Of you I am not jealous; own indesert that gives me fears.' This was Robert Hunter, appointed Governor P. 74, 1. 37. Mr. Collier, i. e. Jeremy Collier, the Nonjuror, Part IV of whose Essays upon Several Moral Subjects, containing at pp. 205-36 this one' Of Fortitude,' was published in 1709. P. 75, 1. 23. delicates, dainties. Cf. Shakespeare, 3 Henry VI, Act ii, Sc. 5 -the shepherd's homely curds, Is far beyond a prince's delicates.' P. 76, 1. 19. tragedian, here a tragic author. Johnson gives the following example from Stillingfleet :- Many of the poets themselves had much nobler conceptions of the Deity, than to imagine him to have anything corporeal, as in these verses out of the eminent tragedian.' 1. 22. Mr. Cowley. The quotation is from Essay No. VI, Of Greatness. P. 77, 1. 13. Pyrrhus. The philosopher was Cineas the orator. See North's Plutarch, 1579, PP. 434-5. P. 78, 1. 40. the Trumpet. See note to p. 169, 1. 6. P. 80, 1. 8. my author. Cicero, a motto from whose De Senectute is prefixed to the paper. P. 84, 1. 9. These instances. See North's Plutarch, 1579, p. 813. 1. 32. a friend. Stephen Clay, a young barrister of the Inner Temple. He is referred to several times in Steele's Correspondence; and Nichols prints two of his poems from the Muses Mercury, 1707, which show him to have been an easy versifier. P. 86, 1. 26. St. James's Garlick-Hill, or Garlickhithe, is near Thames Street in Vintry-Ward. It was burnt in the Great Fire of London, and rebuilt in 1676-83. The reader referred to was the Rev. Philip Stubbs, rector of the parish, who afterwards became Archdeacon of St. Alban's. P. 87, 1. 10. Sion-College, London Wall. It was founded in 1623 for the use of the Clergy in and about London. P. 88, 1. 2. Cant.' Steele's derivation is doubtful. Cant seems more probably to come from cantare. 'This word "canting," seems to be derived from the Latine verbe canto, which signifies in English to sing, or to make a sound with wordes, that is to say, to speake. And very aptly may canting take his derivation from singing, because canting is a kind of musicke, and he that can cant best is the best musician.' (English Villanies, 1683.) 1. 35. Dr. S -e. Probably Dr. George Smalridge, the 'Favonius' of Tatler, No. 114. He ultimately became Bishop of Bristol. Macaulay calls him the 'humane and accomplished Smalridge.' There is an excellent print of him by Vertue after Kneller (1724). P. 89, 1. 4. Do you read, etc. Si legis, cantas, si cantas, male cantas. 1. 16. a gentleman, etc. Probably the Rev. Philip Stubbs, referred to in Note to p. 86, 1. 26. P. 90, 1. 2. a set of poor scrubs of us. Cf. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Six Town Eclogues, 1747; The Toilette, p. 28 :— 'What shall I do to spend the hateful day? At chapel shall I wear the morn away? and St. James's Coffee-House, p. 9:— 'St. JAMES's bell had toll'd some wretches in, (As tatter'd riding-hoods alone could sin).' Cf. also Hogarth's Four Times of the Day, 1738, Morning. 1. 8. mobs. The mob was a loose undress, sometimes a hood. Cf. Addison's 'Fine Lady's Diary' (Spectator, No. 323) Went in our Mobbs to the Dumb Man [Duncan Campbell].' 'Mobs' were in vogue long after the date of this paper. They are referred to as late as 1773 or 4 in those dancing couplets which Goldsmith wrote to pretty Mrs. Bunbury at Barton : 'Both are plac'd at the bar, with all proper decorum, Both cover their faces with mobs and all that, But the judge bids them, angrily, take off their hat.' (Hanmer Correspondence, 1838, p. 382.) 1. 11. lady Lizard's daughters. Lady Lizard and her daughters are described in Guardian, Nos. 2 and 5, not here reprinted. P. 91, 1. 28. oraisons=orisons. 'They were commonly called, the judgments of God, and performed with solemn oraisons and other ceremonies.' (Temple's Works, 1770, iii. 167.) Dryden also writes it in this way. 1. 31. fifty pounds a year. The condition of the inferior clergy |