Book VI

.

_That wandering voice._ Wordsworth. _To the Cuckoo._

VI. ON SWIFT, YOUNG, GRAY, COLLINS, ETC.

104. _Parnell._ Thomas Parnell (1679–1717). His poems were published by Pope, and his life was written by Goldsmith.

_Arbuthnot._ John Arbuthnot (1667–1735), physician and writer. He had the chief share in the _Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus_, which was published amongst Pope’s works in 1741. His _History of John Bull_ was published in 1712.

105. _Trim ... the old jack-boots._ _Tristram Shandy_, III. 20.

106. _Prior._ Matthew Prior (1664–1721), diplomatist and writer of ‘occasional’ verse. See Thackeray’s _English Humourists_.

_Sedley._ Sir Charles Sedley (1639–1701), Restoration courtier and poet.

_Little Will._ An English Ballad on the taking of Namur by the King of Great Britain, 1695.

107. _Gay._ John Gay (1685–1732), the author of _Fables_, _The Beggar’s Opera_, so often quoted by Hazlitt, and _Black-eyed Susan_. _Polly_ was intended as a sequel to _The Beggar’s Opera_, but it was prohibited from being played, though permitted to be printed. See _The Round Table_, _The Beggar’s Opera_, and notes thereto. That Essay was used as part of the present lecture.

_Happy alchemy of mind._ See _The Round Table_, vol. i., p. 65. Cf. also Lamb’s essay, ‘The Londoner,’ _Morning Post_, Feb. 1, 1802: ‘Thus an art of extracting morality from the commonest incidents of a town life, is attained by the same well-natured alchemy, with which the Foresters of Arden,’ etc.

_O’erstepping_ [not] _the modesty of nature_. _Hamlet_, III. 2.

108. _Miss Hannah More’s laboured invectives._ _Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society_, 1788, and _An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World_, 1790. Each passed through several editions before the close of the century. Of the first named, the third edition is stated to have been sold out in four hours.

_Sir Richard Blackmore._ Court physician to William and Anne. He died in 1729, after having written six epics in sixty books.

109. _Mr. Jekyll’s parody._ Joseph Jekyll (1754–1837), Master of Chancery. The parody was published in the _Morning Chronicle_, Friday, Aug. 19, 1809.

_A City Shower._ See _The Tatler_, No. 238.

110. _Mary the cookmaid ... Mrs. Harris._ ‘Mary the Cook-maid’s letter to Dr. Sheridan,’ 1723, which begins thus:—

‘Well, if ever I saw such another man since my mother bound my head! You a gentleman! marry come up! I wonder where you were bred.’

‘Mrs. Harris’s Petition,’ 1699, after the preliminaries—

‘Humbly sheweth, That I went to warm myself in Lady Betty’s chamber, because I was cold; And I had in a purse seven pounds, four shillings, and sixpence, besides farthings, in money and gold.’

_Rector of Laracor._ Swift was appointed to the vicarage of Laracor, Trim, West Meath, Ireland, in 1700.

_Gulliver’s nurse._ In the Voyage to Brobdingnag.

_An eminent critic._ Jeffrey’s article on Scott’s _Swift_, _Edinburgh Review_, No. 53, Sept. 1816, vol. xxvii. pp. 1 _et seq._

112. _Shews vice her own image._ [To shew virtue her own feature, scorn her own image.] _Hamlet_, III. 2.

_Indignatio facit versus._ [Facit indignatio versum.] Juvenal, _Sat._ I. 79.

_As dry as the remainder biscuit._ _As You Like It_, II. 7.

_Reigned there and revelled._ _Paradise Lost_, IV. 765.

_As riches fineless._ _Othello_, III. 3.

113. _Camacho’s wedding._ Part II . chap. xx.

_How Friar John ... lays about him._ _Gargantua_, Book I ., chap. xxvii.

_How Panurge whines in the storm._ _Pantagruel_, Book IV . chap. xix., _et seq._

_How Gargantua mewls._ _Gargantua_,