1720, was a noted society. It consisted of thirty-nine noblemen and gentlemen, and included, among other distinguished men, the Duke of Marlborough, Lords Halifax and Somers, Sir Robert Walpole, Vanbrugh, Congreve, Steele, and Addison. The October Club united persons of high Tory sentiments, while the members of the Calves Head Club were opposed to the "present establishment in Church and State." Spectator No. 17 contains an amusing account of the so-called Merry Club; in No. 9 and No. 72, Addison treats of clubs.

5 26. Sir Roger de Coverley. It was Swift who proposed that this name should be given to the kindly and whimsical country squire. The names of the members of the Spectator Club are all suggestive; for instance, Captain Sentry, Sir Andrew Freeport, Will Honeycomb. There have been various unsuccessful attempts to connect these fictitious characters with persons living at the time of the Spectator. See Addison's remarks at the end of the fourth paper in the present volume.

61. That famous country-dance. It has been discovered that the dance called Sir Roger de Coverley was originally tripped to a tune called Roger a Calverley, after a certain knight of that name who lived in the time of Richard I. A country-dance was a dance practiced by country people, particularly in the open air. The term is specifically applied to a dance in which the partners are placed opposite each other in lines. The French contredanse and the English contradance are corruptions of this word. (See Murray's English Dictionary.)

6 11. When he is in town he lives in Soho Square. Sir Roger's place of abode in the city is changed several times, always to less fashionable quarters. This is doubtless due to the fact that the papers relating to him were contributed by several persons, each of whom had a different conception of his character. Steele begins by making the squire the owner of a house in a new and fashionable part of London. 6 15. Lord Rochester. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, a witty, dissipated man, a favorite of Charles II.

6 16. Sir George Etherege. A wit and a dramatist of the Restoration period.

6 17. Bully Dawson. Morley calls him "a swaggering sharper of Whitefriars."

6 30. Esteemed. In this case the word signifies highly respected, revered.

7 1. Justice of the quorum, justice of the peace.

7 2. Quarter session, a general court of criminal jurisdiction in England, held quarterly by the justices of the peace in counties, and by recorders in boroughs. Quarter sessions is the common term.

7 6. The Inner Temple. The Inns of Court and Chancery are voluntary non-corporate legal societies situated in London, and having their origin toward the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century. There are four Inns of Court: Lincoln's Inn, the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, and Gray's Inn. These include certain subordinate Inns. Gray's Inn Walks was a popular resort at the time of the Spectator.

7 9. Humorsome, whimsical, eccentric. The word humor first signified moisture, especially the fluid of animal bodies. The ancient physicians believed that in the human body there were four fluids or humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile or choler, and black bile or melancholy. On the relative proportion of these the temperament and health depended. Hence, humor came to mean the state of the mind in a general way, and then, changing, or whimsical states of mind. It is interesting to consider the various meanings of the word at the present time, and to note the changes through which it has passed.

7 12. Aristotle, a celebrated Greek philosopher who died B.C. 322.

99

7 12. Longinus, a Greek philosopher and critic, executed at Palmyra, A.D. 273. His treatise "On the Sublime was much quoted by seventeenth century critics.

7 13.

Littleton or Coke. Judge Littleton, who died in 1487, wrote a celebrated treatise on "Tenures." Lord Chief-justice Coke (pronounced Cook by members of the English bar) wrote a commentary on this work, which is known as "Coke upon Littleton."

7 20. Demosthenes, a famous Greek orator, the opponent of Philip of Macedon.

7 20. Tully. Marcus Tullius Cicero, often called Tully by English writers, was an illustrious Roman orator, philosopher, and statesman. He lost his life, B.C. 43, being on the list of proscribed persons made out by the triumvirs, Octavianus, Antony, and Lepidus.

7 26. Taste of books, taste in books.

7 30. Occurs to him, i.e. presents itself to him.

7 31. The time of the play. The Daily Courant for Oct. 5, 1703, contains the following notice: "Her Majesty's Servants of the Theatre Royal being return'd from the Bath, do intend, to morrow being Wednesday the Sixth of this instant October, to act a Comedy call'd Love makes a Man, or, the Fop's Fortune. With singing and Dancing. And whereas the Audiences have been incommoded by the Plays usually beginning too late, the Company of the said Theatre do therefore give Notice that they will constantly begin at Five a Clock without fail, and continue the

Same Hour all the Winter." In the supposed journal of a fashionable lady, given in No. 323 of the Spectator, the opera is said to begin at six. 7 33. New Inn is connected with the Middle Temple.

8 2. The Rose, a tavern adjoining Drury Lane Theatre.

8 30. Captain Sentry. It has been supposed that Captain Sentry was modelled after Colonel Kempenfelt (alluded to in Spectator, No. 544, as Colonel Camperfelt), who was, towards the end of his life, lieutenant-governor of Jersey. His son was the admiral who was lost with the "Royal George " in 1728.

8 32. Invincible. Note the peculiar use of the word.

9 24.

10 1.

10 11.

10 20.

10 22.

In his own vindication, i.e. in pressing his own claims.
Humorists, whimsical, eccentric persons,
Habits, styles of dress.

Will take notice to you, i.e. will call your attention to.
The Duke of Monmouth.

James Scott, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch, was a natural son of Charles II. of England. In 1685 he invaded England with a party of armed exiles, and proclaimed himself king. He gained a victory at Axminster, but was defeated at the battle of Sedgemoor, July 6, 1685, — the last battle fought on English soil. A few days later he was executed on Tower Hill.

10 24. In the Park. A Frenchman, Misson, writing in the latter part of the seventeenth century, says of the "Ring," in Hyde Park: "Here the people of fashion take the diversion of the ring. In a pretty high place, which lies very open, they have surrounded a circumference of two or three hundred paces diameter, with a sorry kind of balustrade, or rather with poles placed upon stakes, but three foot from the ground; and the coaches drive round and round this. When they have turned for some time round one way, they face about and turn t’other: so rowls the world."— Quoted by John Brand, in his Popular Antiquities of Great Britain.

St. James's Park was the favorite resort for pedestrians in the eighteenth century. The "Mall" in this Park is often spoken of in old books. The following was written in 1700: "The Green Walk afforded us variety of discourses from persons of both sexes. Here walked a beau bareheaded, here a French fop with both his hands in his pockets, carrying all his pleated coat before to shew his silk breeches. There were a cluster of senators talking of state affairs and the price of corn and cattle, and were disturbed with the noisy milk folks, crying, — ‘A can of milk, ladies! A can of red cow's milk, sir!'"-London Past and Present, by Wheatley and Cunningham.

10 24. In all these important relations, etc., i.e. when talking of these important (?) occurrences he incidentally mentions his own love affairs.

11 1. A well-bred fine gentleman. The fashionable men of this period had, as a rule, a low moral standard.

III. SIR ROGER MORALIZES.

11. Motto: "They used to think it a crime, and deserving of death, if a young man did not rise in the presence of an elder."- Juvenal: Sat. xiii. 54 (Spectator, No. 6).

12 22. Lincoln's Inn Fields, a "noble square" west of Lincoln's Inn, was laid out in walks in the reign of James I. "These fields were frequented from an early period down to the year 1735 by wrestlers, bowlers, cripples, beggars, and rabble of all kinds."— Wheatley and Cunningham London Past and Present.

12 26. No relish above sensations, i.e. no taste for anything higher than the gratification of the senses.

13 3. Equipage, the appurtenances of office or social position.

13 32.

Pass upon, impose upon fraudulently, deceive.

13 32. Sir Richard Blackmore says, etc.

which Steele seems to have quoted (not very

"The following passages,

accurately) from memory,

are taken from the preface to Sir Richard Blackmore's epic, 'Prince Arthur,' 1695."— (From Mr. Aitken's note.)

cian and a poet.

14 17. Humor, caprice.

14 25.

Blackmore was a physi

Mode and gallantry, fashion and courtesy, or good breeding. What is so ridiculous, i.e. what is esteemed so ridiculous. 15 9. Quality, rank, social position.

15 1.

IV. A CLUB DEBATE.

16. Motto: "The spotted leopard spares his kind."- Juvenal: Sat. xv. 159 (Spectator, No. 34).

16 19. Softest, most courteous or conciliatory.

16 22.

The opera and the puppet-show. These subjects are dealt with in previous numbers of the Spectator. No. 13 affords an excellent example of Addison's humor.

17 2.

Their wives and daughters. As a merchant, Sir Andrew speaks for the citizens of London.

17 12.

on p. 7.

The Templar, the "member of the Inner Temple " mentioned

17 17. Horace, a Latin poet of the first century B.C., celebrated for his epistles, odes, and satires.

17 17. Juvenal, a Roman satirical poet who died A.D. 120.

17 17. Boileau, a noted French writer who lived during the reign of Louis XIV. He was critic and satirist as well as poet.

17 23.

The Inns of Court.

See note referring to p. 7, 1. 6.

In that point, in that particular.

12 6. 19 16. The Roman triumvirate, the second triumvirate, which consisted of Octavianus (Augustus), Antony, and Lepidus. See Life of Antony in Clough's Plutarch's Lives, vol. v.

19 27. If Punch grows extravagant. "Martin Powell, puppet showman, brought his marionettes to London from the provinces in 1710, and established himself in the galleries of Covent Garden, where he produced puppet operas 'at Punch's Theatre in Covent Garden.””. (From Mr. Aitken's note.) Punch was at times rather broad in his humor, and occasionally indulged in personal remarks of an unpleasant character. In No. 16 of the Tatler, the writer says, speaking of a performance at Punch's Theatre: "When we came to Noah's flood in the show, Punch and his wife were introduced dancing in the ark. [A critic present] told us it was against all morality, as well as rules of the stage, that Punch should be in jest in the deluge, or indeed, that he should appear at all."

19 28. If the stage becomes a nursery of folly and impertinence. In 1689, Jeremy Collier published his "Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage.” He alleged that in many of the plays presented, all the important characters were professed libertines, and that these were allowed to pass without censure. Collier's attack helped to make the English stage more decent.

V. SIR ROGER'S CLIENT.

20. Motto: "No woman's hands had she, apt to the distaff and Minerva's skeins."— Virgil: Æn. vii. 805 (Spectator, No. 37).

20 8.

Leonora. The following is from an oft-quoted letter, printed in No. 92 of the Spectator. The letter is from the "Leonora " of this paper, who was a certain Mrs. Perry.