book i

, "Lintot's rubric post." He made a handsome fortune, and died High Sheriff of Sussex in 1736, aged sixty-one.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 5: The coffee-house most frequented by the wits and poets of that time.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 6: See _ante_, p. 192, "On Stephen Duck, the Thresher Poet."--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 7: Allusion to the large sums paid by Walpole to scribblers in support of his party.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 8: "Sunt geminae Somni portae: quarum altera fertur Cornea; qua veris facilis datur exitus Vmbris: Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto; Sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia Manes." VIRG., _Aen._, vi.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 9: See the "South Sea Project," _ante_, p. 120.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 10: Thomas Rymer, archaeologist and critic. The allusion is to his "Remarks on the Tragedies of the last Age," on which see Johnson's "Life of Dryden" and Spence's "Anecdotes," p. 173. Rymer is best known by his work entitled "Foedera," consisting of leagues, treaties, etc., made between England and other kingdoms.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 11: John Dennis, born 1657, died 1734. He is best remembered as "The Critic." See Swift's "Thoughts on various subjects," "Prose Works," i, 284; Disraeli, "Calamities of Authors: Influence of a bad Temper in Criticism"; Pope's Works, edit. Elwin and Courthope, _passim._--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 12: Highly esteemed as a French critic by Dryden and Pope.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 13: By Leonard Welsted, who, in 1712, published the work of "Longinus on the Sublime," stated to be "translated from the Greek." He is better known through his quarrel with Pope. See the "Prologue to the Satires."--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 14: Dryden, whose armed chair at Will's was in the winter placed by the fire, and in the summer in the balcony. Malone's "Life of Dryden," p. 485. Why Battus? Battus was a herdsman who, because he Betrayed Mercury's theft of some cattle, was changed by the god into a Stone Index. Ovid, "Metam.," ii, 685.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 15: The ancient name of London, also called Troynovant. See Journal to Stella, "Prose Works," ii, 249; and Cunningham's "Handbook of London," introduction.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 16: The two bad Roman poets, hateful and inimical to Virgil and Horace: Virg., "Ecl." iii, 90; Horat., "Epod." x. The names have been well applied in our time by Gifford in his satire entitled "The Baviad and Maeviad."--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 17: A musician, also a censurer of Horace. See "Satirae," lib. 1. iii, 4.--_--W. E. B._]

[Footnote 18: In consequence of "Polly," the supplement to the "Beggar's Opera," but which obtained him the friendship of the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 19: The grant of two hundred a year, which he obtained from the Crown, and retained till his death in 1765.--_W. E. B._]

[Footnote 20: See "Leviathan,"