Chapter XIX: Book III: ED (1)

Footnote 52:

Line 20.—[Sir FRANCIS BURDETT, then M.P. for Boroughbridge.—ED.]

Footnote 53:

Line 23.—[JOHN RICHARDSON, M.P. for Newport, Cornwall, and one of the
proprietors of Drury Lane Theatre. In the _Rolliad_ he was the author,
in Part I., of Nos. iv., x., and xi.; and in Part II. of Nos. iii. and
iv. He wrote No. iv. of _Probationary Odes_, in ridicule of Sir R.
Hill, Bart.; No. xix. on Viscount Mountmorres, and the concluding
prose portion. To the _Political Miscellanies_ he contributed, “This
is the House that George Built,” and in conjunction with Tickell, the
“Epigrams by Sir Cecil Wray,” “Pretymaniana,” and “Foreign Epigrams”.
In the latter Dr. Laurence assisted them. Also “A Tale: At Brookes’s
once it so fell out”. “Theatrical Intelligence Extraordinary.”
“Epigram: Who shall Expect the Country’s Friend?” “A new Ballad: Billy
Eden,” in conjunction with Tickell. “Proclamation.” He died in
1803.—ED.]

Footnote 54:

Line 25.—[The Rev. SAMUEL PARR, LL.D., was not only a great scholar,
but an uncompromising Whig, and one of Fox’s most enthusiastic
supporters. His conversational powers were great, and his arguments
were enforced by boldness, dogmatism, and arrogance, which qualities,
however, did not always exempt him from stinging retorts even from the
fair sex. The following, among other attacks, appears in Crabb
Robinson’s interesting _Diary_, ii. 457:—

A RECIPE.

To half of BUSBY’S skill in mood and tense
Add BENTLEY’S pleasantry, without his sense:
Of WARBURTON take all the spleen you find,
And leave his genius and his wit behind.
Squeeze CHURCHILL’S rancour from the verse it flows in,
And knead it stiff with JOHNSON’S heavy prosing.
Add all the piety of ST. VOLTAIRE,
Mix the gross compound—_Fiat_ DR. PARR.

His person, in full canonicals, with capacious wig, unfailing tobacco
pipe and tankard, is, with the effigies of many other noted
politicians of the period, introduced into a spirited bacchanalian
scene by Gillray, published in 1801, entitled _The Union Club_.]

Footnote 55:

BUZZ PROSE.—The learned reader will perceive that this is an elegant
_metonymy_, by which the quality belonging to the outside of the head
is transferred to the inside. _Buzz_ is an epithet usually applied to
a large wig. It is here used for swelling, burly, bombastic writing.

There is a picture of HOGARTH’S (the Election Ball, we believe), in
which there are a number of Hats thrown together in one corner of the
room; and it is remarked as a peculiar excellence that there is not a
Hat among them of which you cannot to a certainty point out the owner
among the figures dancing, or otherwise distributed through the
picture.

We remember to have seen an experiment of this kind tried at one of
the Universities with the _wig_ and _writings_ here alluded to. A page
taken from the most happy and elaborate part of the writings was laid
upon a table in a barber’s shop, round which a number of wigs of
different descriptions and dimensions were suspended, and among them
that of the Author in question. It was required of a young student,
after reading a few sentences in the page, to point out among the wigs
that which must of necessity belong to the Head in which such
sentences had been engendered. The experiment succeeded to a miracle.
The learned reader will now see all the beauty and propriety of the
_metonymy_.

Footnote 56:

Line 25.—[JOHN COURTENAY was for many years one of the men of mark in
the House of Commons for his ability, independent spirit, erudition,
and coarse sarcastic wit. He was born at Carlingford, Ireland, in
1738. Having obtained the patronage of George, Viscount Townshend,
Lord-Lieutenant (1767–72), he became the principal writer in the
“_Batchelor_,” a government paper, distinguished by genuine wit and
humour, conducted by Simcox, a clergyman; Richard Marlay, afterwards
Bishop of Waterford and Lismore; Robert Jephson, a dramatic poet of
note; the Rev. Mr. Boroughs, and others. The chief task of these
advocates of the Castle was to counteract the “_Baratarian Letters_,”
an Irish imitation of _Junius_, which, attacking the Lord-Lieutenant’s
government, received contributions from Flood, and first published
Grattan’s character of Chatham. At the “Coalition,” 1783, he was
appointed Surveyor-general of the Ordnance, and henceforward attached
himself to FOX. He wrote, among other works, _A Poetical Review of the
Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D., 1786_;
_The Rape of Pomona, an Elegiac Epistle from the Waiter at Hockrel to
the Hon. Mr. Lyttelton, 1773_; _Philosophical Reflections on the late
Revolution in France_; and a _Biographical Sketch of his own Life_. In
his _Epistles in Rhyme_ he thus ridicules Horace Walpole’s _Strawberry
Verses_ on the two Misses Berry:—

“Who to love tunes his note, with the fire of old age,
And chirps the trim lay in a trim Gothic cage.”

Walpole, however (_Correspondence_, ix. 434–5), good-naturedly laughed
at them, saying that these verses on himself were really some of the
best in the whole set. Courtenay was a member of _The Literary Club_,
founded by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and figures in several of Gillray’s
caricatures. He it was who, referring to Gay’s _Beggars’ Opera_,
designated the author the _Orpheus of Highwaymen_. He died 24th March,
1816.—ED.]

Footnote 57:

KIDNAPP’D RHYMES.—Kidnapp’d implies something more than _stolen_.
It is, according to an expression of Mr. Sheridan’s (in the
“Critic”), _using other people’s “thoughts as gipsies do stolen
children—disfiguring them, to make them pass for their own”_.

This is a serious charge against an author, and ought to be well
supported. To the proof then!

In an Ode of the late LORD NUGENT’S are the following spirited lines:

“Though CATO liv’d—though TULLY spoke—[58]
Though BRUTUS dealt the godlike stroke,
Yet perish’d fated ROME!”

The author above mentioned saw these lines, and liked them—as well he
might; and as he had a mind to write about Rome himself, he did not
scruple to enlist them into his service; but he thought it right to
make a small alteration in their appearance, which he managed thus.
Speaking of Rome, he says it is the place

“_Where_ CATO liv’d”:—

A sober truth! which gets rid at once of all the poetry and spirit of
the original, and reduces the sentiment from an example of manners,
virtue, patriotism, from the _vitæ exemplar dedit_ of LORD NUGENT, to
a mere question of inhabitancy. _Ubi habitavit Cato_—where he was an
inhabitant-householder, paying scot and lot, and had a house on the
right-hand side of the way, as you go down _Esquiline_ Hill, just
opposite to the poulterer’s. But to proceed—

“_Where_ CATO liv’d; where TULLY spoke,
Where BRUTUS dealt the godlike stroke—
—_By which his glory rose_!!!”

The last line is _not_ borrowed.

We question whether the history of modern literature can produce an
instance of a theft so shameless, and turned to so little advantage.]

Footnote 58:

[Horace Walpole, in a letter to Hannah More, quotes one word of these
verses incorrectly, writing:—“Though Cato _died_,” an error which P.
Cunningham allows to pass, as also another, that _Mr._—instead of
_Lord_—Nugent wrote them.—ED.]

Footnote 59:

Line 26.—[Sir ROBERT ADAIR. Some observations on his alleged mission
to St. Petersburgh to counteract the measures of Government will be
found on a subsequent page. The publication here satirized is entitled
“Part of a Letter from Robert Adair, Esq., to the Rt. Hon. C. J. Fox;
occasioned by Mr. Burke’s mention of Lord Keppel in a recent
publication,” London, Debrett, 1796, and is by no means a contemptible
composition. It is called “_Part_ of a Letter,” because it is a
portion of a longer one, being only the part devoted to a vindication
of the writer’s uncle, Admiral Lord Keppel, and of Fox; with
characteristic delineations of Sir G. Saville, the Marquis of
Rockingham, Lord North, and George Byng, M.P., on all of whom he
passes great compliments.—ED.]

Footnote 60:

_And loads the blunderbuss with_ BEDFORD’S _brains._—This line is
wholly unintelligible without a note. And we are afraid the note will
be wholly incredible, unless the reader can fortunately procure the
book to which it refers.

In the “Part of a Letter,” which was published by MR. ROBT. ADAIR, in
answer to MR. BURKE’S “Letter to the D. of B.,” nothing is so
remarkable as the studious imitation of Mr. Burke’s style.

His vehemence, and his passion, and his irony, his wild imagery, his
far-sought illustrations, his rolling and lengthened periods, and the
short quick pointed sentences in which he often condenses as much
wisdom and wit as others would expand through pages, or through
volumes,—all these are carefully kept in view by his opponent, though
not always very artificially copied or applied.

But imitators are liable to be led strangely astray; and never was
there an instance of a more complete mistake of a plain meaning, than
that which this line is intended to illustrate—a mistake no less than
that of a _coffin_ for a _corpse_. This is hard to believe or to
comprehend—but you shall hear.

MR. BURKE, in one of his publications, had talked of the French
“_unplumbing_ the dead in order to destroy the living,”—by which he
intended, without doubt, not metaphorically, but literally,
“_stripping the dead of their_ LEADEN COFFINS, _and then making them_
(_not the_ DEAD _but the_ COFFINS) _into bullets_”. A circumstance
perfectly notorious at the time the book was written.

But this does not satisfy our author. He determines to retort MR.
BURKE’S own words upon him; and unfortunately “reaching at a
metaphor,” where MR. BURKE only intended a fact, he falls into the
little mistake above mentioned, and by a stroke of his pen transmutes
the illustrious HEAD of the house of RUSSELL into a metal, to which it
is not for us to say how near or how remote his affinity may possibly
have been. He writes thus—“_If_ MR. BURKE _had been content with
‘unplumbing’ a dead Russell, and hewing_ HIM (observe—not the coffin,
but HIM—the old dead Russell himself) _into grape and canister, to
sweep down the whole generation of his descendants_,” _&c., &c._

The thing is scarcely credible; but IT IS SO! We write with the book
open before us.

Footnote 61:

Qu.—Surcharge?

[Footnote:

[62]HORACE, ODE VIII., BOOK II.
IN BARINEM.

_Ulla si juris tibi pejerati
Pœna, Barine, nocuisset unquam,
Dente si nigro fieres, vel uno
Turpior ungui_,

_Crederem. [64]Sed tu simul obligâsti
Perfidum votis caput, enitescis
Pulchrior multo_, juvenumque prodis
Publica cura.

[66]Expedit _matris cineres_ opertos
Fallere, et toto [66]_taciturna noctis
Signa_ cum cœlo, gelidâque Divos
Morte carentes.

_Ridet hoc, inquam, [67]Venus ipsa; rident
Simplices [69]Nymphæ, ferus et [73]Cupido
Semper ardentes acuens sagittas_
Cote cruentâ.

Adde quod pubes tibi crescit omnis,
[74]_Servitus crescit nova; [75]nec priores
Impiæ tectum dominæ relinquunt,
Sæpe minati._

Te suis matres metuunt juvencis;
Te [76]_senes parci, miseræque [77]nuper
Virgines nuptæ, tua ne retardet
Aura Maritos._

®

Footnote 63:

Line 3.—[Referring to LORD MOIRA’S complaints against the Government agents, for unnecessary cruelty to the Irish rebels.—ED.]

Footnote 65:

Line 13.—[The following attack upon Lord Moira, “for his patriotic zeal, and the correctness and propriety with which he gave, in the upper House of Parliament, an account of the insurrection upon his estates, and in other parts of Ireland,” is extracted from the “_Batchelor_”. These observations were there pointed at the father of Lord Moira, but have been adapted by the Author of the _Ode_ and the Artist to the son.

_Lord Moira._—“My Lords, I rise to return my thanks to the Noble Lord who spoke last. I can testify the truth of all he has asserted. At the time of the Insurrection in the North, I had frequent and intimate conversations with that celebrated enchanter, _Moll Coggin_. I have often seen her riding on a black ram with a blue tail. Once I endeavoured to fire at her, but my gun melted in my hand into a clear jelly. This jelly I tasted, and if it had been a little more acid, it would have been most excellent. The Noble Lords may laugh; but I declare the fact upon my veracity, which has never been doubted. Once I pursued this fiend into my ale cellar: she rode instantly out of my sight into the bung-hole of a beer barrel. She was at that time mounted on her black ram with the blue tail. Some time after, my servants were much surprised to find their ale full of _blue hairs_. I was not surprised, as I knew the blue _hairs_ were the hairs of the ram’s _blue tail_. Noble Lords may stare, but the fact is as I relate it. This _Moll Coggin_ was the fiend who raised the _Oak-boys_ to rebellion. I was also well acquainted with the two Cow-boys mentioned by the Noble Lord; they were my tenants, and were certainly endowed with supernatural powers. I have known one of them tear up by the roots an Oak two hundred feet high, and bear it upright on his head four miles! his party were on that account called Oak-boys. Noble Lords may laugh, but I speak from certain knowledge. The Oak-tree grew in my garden, and I have often seen five hundred Swans perching on its boughs; these swans were remarkable for destroying all the snipes in the country—they flew faster than any snipe I ever saw, and you may imagine a small bird could make but a feeble resistance in the talons of a swan. I hope, my Lords, you will pardon my wandering a little from the present subject,” &c.—ED.]

Footnote 68:

Line 17.—[“One night after _nine o’clock_, a party of Soldiers saw a light in a house by the road-side—they went and ordered it to be extinguished immediately: the people of the house begged that the light might be suffered to remain because there was a child belonging to the family in convulsion fits, who must expire for want of help if the people were to be without fire and candle; _but this request_ HAD NO EFFECT.” _Lord Moira’s Speech in the House of Lords, November 22, 1797._ This statement was, however, satisfactorily disproved. The incident forms a feature in the accompanying engraving. Notwithstanding official denials, it has long been admitted that the conduct of the Soldiery in Ireland was simply infamous. Billeting on Catholics and reputed malcontents of the better class appears to have been invariably as an unlimited licence for robbery, devastation, ravishment, and, in case of resistance, murder. Sir Ralph Abercromby, on assuming the command of the army in Ireland, declared, in general orders, that their habits and discipline were such as to render them “formidable to everybody but the enemy”. The just severity of this phrase was confirmed by the subsequent experience of Lord Cornwallis.—ED.]

Footnote 70:

Line 19.—[Sir George Augustus William Shuckburgh, distinguished by his scientific researches, married the daughter and sole heiress of Jas. Evelyn, Esq. of Felbridge, Surrey, by whom he had an only daughter, Julia, who became, in 1810, the wife of the Earl of Liverpool. Sir George, on the decease of his father-in-law in 1793, assumed the additional surname of Evelyn. He died in 1804, having been five times returned to Parliament for the county of Warwick.—ED.]

Footnote 71:

Line 20.—[Sir John Macpherson, Bart. was M.P. for Horsham, and for a short period Governor-General of India.—ED.]

Footnote 72:

Line 21.—[Col. Bastard was M.P. for Devon. He was returned with Mr. Rolle, the hero of “_The Rolliad_,” on the Pitt interest.—ED.]

Footnote 78:

Line 31.—[Sir William Pulteney was M.P. for Shrewsbury, and no Member in the House was more looked up to. He was the second son of Sir James Johnstone, Bart., of Westerhall, and brother of Governor Johnstone. He married the cousin of Lt.-Gen. Henry Pulteney, surviving brother of William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, assuming the name of Pulteney. The General left immense wealth, “the fruits of his brother’s virtues!” as Horace Walpole sarcastically phrases it. The greater part of it he bequeathed to the said cousin. Sir William Johnstone Pulteney died in 1805. His daughter was created Countess of Bath.—ED.]

Footnote 79:

The trepidation of Mr. Tooke, though natural, was not necessary; as it appeared from the ever-memorable “Letter to Mr. M‘Mahon” (which was published about this time in the _Morning Chronicle_, and threw the whole town into paroxysms of laughter), that in the Administration which his Lordship was so gravely employed in forming, Mr. Fox was to have no place!

Footnote 81:

Line 36.—[Of M‘MAHON it is said in T. RAIKES’S _Journal_ (November, 1836):—“George IV. never had any private friends: he selected his confidants from his minions. M‘MAHON was an Irishman of low birth and obsequious manners: he was a little man, his face red, covered with pimples; always dressed in the blue and buff uniform, with his hat on one side, copying the air of his master, to whom he was a prodigious foil, and ready to execute any commissions, which in those days were somewhat complicated.” He was private secretary and keeper of the privy purse to King George IV. when Prince Regent, was sworn of the Privy Council, and created a Baronet, 7th August, 1817, with remainder, in default of male issue, to his brother. SIR JOHN died 12th September, 1817, the title devolving on his brother THOMAS, a distinguished military officer, who was Adjutant-General of Her Majesty’s forces in India, Lieut.-Gov. of Portsmouth, Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army, &c.

SIR JOHN M‘MAHON left a large personal property, amounting to £90,000. One of his bequests is thus worded: “To THOMAS MARRABLE, a dear and esteemed friend, £2000; and with my last prayers for the glory and happiness of the best-hearted man in the world, the PRINCE REGENT, I bequeath him the said Thomas Marrable, an invaluable servant”. The latter was a member of the household of King George IV., and one of his confidential agents. A full-length portrait of him as one of the procession is given in Sir G. Nayler’s history of the coronation of that monarch.

Among Gillray’s _Caricatures_ is an amusing one, engraved but not designed by him, published in 1804, representing the Heir-Apparent, mounted on a tall horse, with the much smaller person of M‘Mahon consequentially riding on a diminutive steed at his side, passing the gates of Carlton House. The quotation from Burns engraved on it suggests that the Prince might still prove a worthy occupant of the throne.—ED.]

Footnote 82:

[As if written by ROBERT ADAIR, who had previously indited “HALF _a Letter to Mr. Fox_”.]

[Footnote:

[83]Non usitatâ nec tenui ferar
Pennâ biformis per liquidum æthera
Vates.
[84]——Non ego, quem vocas
Dilecte, Mæcenas, obibo,
[85]Nec Stygiâ cohibebor undâ.
[86]Jamjam residunt cruribus asperæ
Pelles, et album mutor in alitem
[87]Supernê, nascunturque leves
Per digitos humerosque plumæ.
Visam gementis littora Bosphori,
Syrtesque Gætulas,[89] canorus
Ales,[90] Hyperboreosque campos.
[91]Me Colchus, et qui[92] dissimulat metum
* * *
* * * me peritus
Discet Iber Rhodanique[93] potor.
Absint[94] inani funere neniæ,
[95]Luctusque turpes et querimoniæ.
[96] —— —— —— sepulchri
Mitte supervacuous honores.

®

Footnote 88:

[MR. PITT’S Tax upon Hair-powder proved a failure; many of the public declining its use. Those who continued it were called “_guinea-pigs_,” the tax being a guinea per head.—ED.]

Footnote 97:

[For an explanation of this allusion, see Note at p. 74.—ED.]

[Footnote:

[98]Acmen Septimius suos amores
Tenens in gremio, mea, inquit, Acme,
Ni te perdite amo, &c.
[99]Cæsio veniam obvius Leoni.
[100]Hoc ut dixit, Amor sinistram, ut ante
Dextram, sternuit approbationem.
[101]At Acme leviter caput reflectens,
Et dulcis pueri ebrios ocellos
Illo purpureo ore suaviata,
Sic, inquit, mea vita,[102] Septimille, &c.
[103]Nunc ab auspicio bono profecti
Mutuis animis amant, amantur.
Unam Septimius misellus Acmen
Mavult quam[104] Syrias Britanniasque.[105]

®

Footnote 105:

_I.e._, The Clerkship of the Pells in Ireland, and Auditorship of South Wales.

Footnote 106:

[On 7th Feb., 1796, a _forged_ French newspaper called _L’Eclair_, containing false intelligence, was circulated in London for stock-jobbing purposes. On 3rd July a verdict of £100 was given against D. STUART, proprietor of _The Morning Post_, for sending the above paper to the proprietors of _The Telegraph_, by which it was discredited; and on the following day, a verdict of £1500 was given against Mr. Dickinson, for falsely accusing Mr. Goldsmid, the money-broker, of forging the above. It announced a peace between Austria and France.—ED.]

Footnote 107:

_Morning Post_, Jan. 25.

Footnote 108:

_Morning Chronicle_, Jan. 25.

Footnote 109:

This appears to allude to Mr. SHERIDAN’S conduct during the _Mutiny_.

Footnote 110:

This is not the first time that we have heard of Mr. TIERNEY’S discouragement of impiety. However we may disapprove of this gentleman’s political principles, we are not insensible to the merit of such conduct.

Footnote 111:

_Morning Post_, Jan. 25.

Footnote 112:

_Morning Chronicle_, Jan. 25.

Footnote 113:

_Morning Chronicle_, _Morning Post_, _Morning Herald_, &c.

Footnote 114:

The Company seem to have recollected (had _his Grace_ forgotten?) that the DUKE of NORFOLK has _another_ SOVEREIGN, to whom he has recently, more than once, sworn Allegiance; and under whom he _now_ holds the LIEUTENANCY of the WEST RIDING of the COUNTY OF YORK, and the Command of a REGIMENT of MILITIA.

Footnote 115:

See _The True Briton_, of Thursday, Jan. 25.

Footnote 116:

Conjuravere Cives nobilissimi Patriam incendere—_Gallorum_ gentem infestissimam nomini Romano in bellum arcessunt—Dux Hostium cum exercitu supra caput est.—ORAT. CATON. ap. SALLUST.

Footnote 117:

Tum Catilina polliceri tabulas novas, proscriptionem locupletium, Magistrates, Sacerdotia, rapinas, alia omnia quæ bellum atque lubido Victorum fert.—SALLUST.

Footnote 118:

[“A Correspondent cautions us against making a profane use of MR. WILBERFORCE’S appearance on Sunday; that gentleman would not have been so ungodly as to gallop there without a sufficient reason—it was the fulfilment of some Prophecy; and the horse he rode might be related to the White Horse of the Revelations.”—_Morning Chronicle_, Jan. 11, 1798.—ED.]

Footnote 119:

[This refers to Charles Howard, eleventh DUKE OF NORFOLK, (who gave, at a public dinner, the famous toast of “Our Sovereign’s health, the Majesty of the People,”) and to John Horne Tooke, who was a regularly ordained clergyman, and had been tried for High Treason and acquitted.—ED.]

Footnote 120:

[These lines allude to the Empress Catherine’s placing in her gallery the bust of Fox between those of Demosthenes and Cicero, as a token of gratitude for his exertions in defeating the project of PITT, who, in conjunction with Prussia and Holland, had, in 1791, prepared a powerful armament to compel her to give up Ockzakow, which she had seized. The Court party delighted in stigmatizing FOX as the modern _Catiline_. “But the part which he took in parliament subsequent to 1793, (says _Sir N. W. Wraxall_), and the eulogiums lavished by him on the French Revolution, soon changed the Empress’s tone. She caused the bust to be removed; and when reproached with such a change in her conduct, she replied, ‘C’étoit Monsieur Fox de _Quatre-vingt-onze_ que j’ai placé dans mon cabinet’.”—_Wraxall’s Posthumous Memoirs_, vol. 1, pp. 435, 436.

“It seems to have escaped general notice, (says Sir James Prior in his Life of Burke), that the misfortunes of Poland in her final partition may be, in some degree, attributed, however undesignedly on their part, to Mr. Fox and the Opposition, in the strong and unusual means made use of to thwart Mr. Pitt in the business of Ockzakow. They lay claim, it is true, to the merit of having prevented war on that occasion. But if war had then taken place with England for one act of violence comparatively trivial, Russia, in all probability, would not have ventured upon a second and still greater aggression, involving the existence of a nation, with the certainty of a second war. Nothing, after all, might have saved Poland from the combination then on foot against her; but it is certain that Mr. Pitt, from recent experience, had little encouragement to make the attempt.”

It is a curious circumstance that, though the _plate_ illustrating these _Lines_ was published, according to its inscription, on the 17th March, 1792, the five stanzas engraved on it are identical with those which appeared in the _Anti-Jacobin_ of 12th Feb., 1798, though these were introduced as written “by an English Traveller just [_sic_] returned from Petersburgh”.

Assuming the date on the engraving to be correct, we might account for the _parachronism_ on the supposition that the author of the earlier _plate-stanzas_ availed himself of the appearance of the _Lines written under the Bust of Charles Fox at the Crown and Anchor to reproduce them_—six years afterwards—with a few verbal alterations, to adapt them to a later period—and with an equivocal statement as to the period of their first production.

The following are the alterations in the reprinted version:—

Stanza 2 line 3, frantic _for_ lawless.
„ 3 „ 1, their country’s _for_ domestic.
„ 3 „ 1, and wealth and _for_ external.
„ 3 „ 3, honoured _for_ sacred.
„ 4 „ 1, now _for_ then.
„ 4 „ 3, advocate _for_ tool confessed.
„ 4 „ 4, later _for_ modern.
„ 5 „ 2, thus _for_ now.
„ 5 „ 4, Catiline _for_ Cataline.
„ 5 „ 4, modern _for_ later.—ED.]

Footnote 121:

[Written to ridicule Richard Payne Knight’s _Progress of Civil Society_, a Didactic Poem, in Six Books. London, 1796, 4to.—ED.]

Footnote 122:

_Ver._ 3. A modern author of great penetration and judgment observes very shrewdly, that “the cosmogony of the world has puzzled the philosophers of all ages. What a medley of opinions have they not broached upon the creation of the world. Sanconiathon, Manetho, Berosus, and Ocellus Lucanus have all attempted it in vain. The latter has these words—_Anarchon ara kai ateleutaion to pan_—which imply, that all things have neither beginning nor end.” See Goldsmith’s _Vicar of Wakefield_; see also Mr. Knight’s Poem on the _Progress of Civil Society_.

Footnote 123:

_Ver._ 12. The influence of Mind upon Matter, comprehending the whole question of the Existence of Mind as independent of Matter, or as co-existent with it, and of Matter considered as an intelligent and self-dependent Essence, will make the subject of a larger Poem in 127 Books, now preparing under the _same_ auspices.

Footnote 124:

_Ver._ 14. See Godwin’s _Enquirer_; Darwin’s _Zoonomia_; Paine; Priestley, &c. &c.; also all the French Encyclopædists.

Footnote 125:

_Ver._ 16. _Quæstio spinosa et contortula._

Footnote 126:

_Ver._ 26. “Add thereto a tiger’s chawdron.”—Macbeth.

Footnote 127:

_Ver._ 26, 27.

“In softer notes bids Lybian lions roar,
And warms the whale on Zembla’s frozen shore.”
_Progress of Civil Society_, Book I. ver. 98.

Footnote 128:

_Ver._ 29. “An oyster may be crossed in love.”—Mr. Sheridan’s _Critic_.

Footnote 129:

_Ver._ 34. Birds fly.

Footnote 130:

_Ver._ 35. But neither fish, nor beasts—particularly as here exemplified.

Footnote 131:

_Ver._ 36. The bear.

Footnote 132:

_Ver._ 37. The mackerel—there are also _hard-roed_ mackerel. _Sed de his alio loco._

Footnote 133:

_Ver._ 38. Bear’s _grease_, or _fat_, is also in great request; being supposed to have a _criniparous_, or hair-producing quality.

Footnote 134:

_Ver._ 39. There is a special Act of Parliament which permits mackerel to be cried on Sundays.

Footnote 135:

_Ver._ 45 to 49. Every animal contented with the lot which it has drawn in life. A fine contrast to man, who is always discontented.

Footnote 136:

_Ver._ 49. _Salt wave_—wave of the sea—“_briny wave_”.—Poetæ passim.

Footnote 137:

_Ver._ 50. A still stronger contrast, and a greater shame to man, is found in plants;—they too are contented—he restless and changing. _Mens agitat mihi, nec placida contenta quiete est._

Footnote 138:

_Ver._ 50. _Potatoes ’tatoes breed._ Elision for the sake of verse, not meant to imply that the root degenerates.—Not so with man—

Mox daturus
Progeniem vitiosiorem.

Footnote 139:

_Ver._ 61–66. Simple state of savage life—previous to the pastoral, or even the hunter state.

Footnote 140:

_Ver._ 66. First savages disciples of Pythagoras.

Footnote 141:

_Ver._ 67, &c. Desire of animal food natural only to beasts, or to man in a state of civilized society. First suggested by the circumstances here related.

Footnote 142:

_Ver._ 71. Pigs of the _Chinese_ breed most in request.

Footnote 143:

_Ver._ 76. First formation of a bow. Introduction of the science of archery.

Footnote 144:

_Ver._ 79. Grass twisted, used for a string, owing to the want, of other materials not yet invented.

Footnote 145:

_Ver._ 83. Bone—fish’s bone found on the sea-shore, shark’s teeth, &c. &c.

Footnote 146:

_Ver._ 90. Ah! what avails, &c.—See Pope’s _Description of the death of a Pheasant_.

Footnote 147:

_Ver._ 93. “With leaden eye that loves the ground.”

Footnote 148:

_Ver._ 94. The first effusion of blood attended with the most dreadful consequences to mankind.

Footnote 149:

_Ver._ 97. _Social_ Man’s wickedness opposed to the simplicity of savage life.

Footnote 150:

_Ver._ 100, 101. Different causes of war among men.

Footnote 151:

_Ver._ 106. Invention of fire—first employed in cookery, and produced by rubbing dry sticks together.

Footnote 152:

[Written in the character of C. J. FOX, at his seat, St. Anne’s Hill, near Chertsey, during his secession from Parliament from 1797 to 1802. His fondness for the Greek Poets is well known.—ED.]

Footnote 153:

[Alluded to at page 79.—ED.]

Footnote 154:

[Erskine was noted for his intense vanity, which procured him the nickname of _Ego_. Sir John Bowring, who knew him well, gives in his _Autobiography_ several instances of this peculiarity, one of which is here inserted. “The master-string of his mind was vanity; its vibrations trembling to the very end of his existence. He said, ‘When the Emperor Alexander came to England, Lord Granville told me that the Emperor wished to see me. I went. He received me with particular attention, and said he was very anxious to make my acquaintance. He spoke English as well as you do. “You are a friend and correspondent,” he said, “of my most valued friend La Harpe?” “Yes, sire.” “Is he a regular correspondent?” “Yes, a very kind one.” “Has he been so of late?” “Well, if your Majesty will cross-examine me, I must own he owes me a letter.” He put his hand into his pocket, and drew forth a letter addressed to me. “Yes, there is his answer. I intercepted it that I might have the pleasure of knowing Lord Erskine.” I gave Alexander all my writings and speeches, which he received with many expressions of satisfaction.’”—ED.]

Footnote 155:

[On April 3, 1797, an open-air meeting of the inhabitants of Westminster was held in Palace Yard, during very inclement weather (Westminster Hall having been shut against them by order of the keeper), to consider of an address to his Majesty to dismiss PITT’S ministry. FOX and the Duke of Bedford took part in the proceedings. Meetings were held about the same time all over the country for the same object.—ED.]

Footnote 156:

[After Lord Shelburne’s resignation of the office of Prime Minister, consequent on the coalition of Fox and Lord North, he was created Marquis of Lansdowne, and withdrew almost entirely from public life, passing his time principally at his magnificent seat, Bowood, near Calne, Wiltshire.—ED.]

Footnote 157:

NOTES TO THE “NEW COALITION”.

[The Secret History of FOX’S coalition with LORD NORTH, his former adversary,—a proceeding which entailed on him much odium,—was first brought to light by the publication of the “Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox,” begun by the late Lord Holland, and edited by Earl Russell. It was occasioned by his disgust at the conduct of the Earl of Shelburne, for while FOX as one of the Secretaries of State under the Rockingham Administration was treating with Dr. Franklin for peace with the United States through the agent of the Cabinet (Thomas Grenville) Lord Shelburne, the other Secretary of State, was, through _his_ agent Oswald, privately thwarting his measures, and that with the concurrence of the King! The consequence of the Coalition was the fall of Lord Shelburne’s ministry, and Fox and Lord North’s “taking the Treasury by storm”.—ED.]

Footnote 158:

[The _India Bill_ brought in by FOX, shortly after his accession to office, was the signal for his downfall. The Bill passed the House of Commons by large majorities, but when it reached the Lords, the King, who hated FOX, empowered Earl Temple to declare that he would consider everyone who supported the measure as personally his enemy. The Bill was consequently lost on the second reading by a majority of eighty-seven against twenty-nine. The Coalition Ministry resigned, and PITT, then in his 23rd year, became Prime Minister.]

Footnote 159:

[JOHN NICHOLLS, M.P. for Tregony, was blind of one eye, and altogether remarkably ugly. His delivery was ungraceful, and his action generally much too vehement. He wrote _Recollections and Reflections during the Reign of George III._, 2 vols. 8vo., 1822. His hostile pamphlet on the _Income Tax_ is marked by great ability.—ED.]

Footnote 160:

[On the 14th April, 1794, THELWALL was in the chair at a supper of one of the Divisions of the Reformers, and blowing off the head of a pot of porter said, “This is the way I would have all kings served”.—ED.]

Footnote 161:

[JOHN HORNE TOOKE was educated for the Church, and in 1760 became vicar of _New Brentford_. Resigning this he studied the Law, but being a clergyman was refused admission to the Bar. At first he supported PITT, then a _promising_ Reformer, publishing in 1788 his “Two Pair of Portraits,” disadvantageously contrasting FOX and his father with Pitt and his father. But Pitt not fulfilling his hopes, he became his bitter opponent and softened his animosity towards FOX. In 1775 he was imprisoned for a libel on the king’s troops in America. In 1790 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Westminster; the other candidates being FOX and Admiral Sir Alan Gardner. In 1794 he was tried, in company with THELWALL and others, for high treason, when all were acquitted. In 1796 he again stood for Westminster, and failed; but in 1801 he obtained a seat in Parliament for Old Sarum, on the nomination of Lord Camelford. A remarkable memoir of him was contributed to the _Quarterly Review_, vol. 7, by Lord Dudley, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Canning’s administration, 1827–8.—ED.]

[Footnote:

HOR. LIB. III., CARM. XXV.
DITHYRAMBUS.

[162]Quo me, Bacche, rapis, tui
Plenum? quæ nemora, aut quos agor in specus,
Velox mente novâ?
[163]Quibus
Antris egregii Cæsaris audiar
Eternum meditans decus
Stellis inserere, et consilio Jovis?

®

Footnote 164:

Dicam insigne, recens, adhuc
Indictum ore alio.

Footnote 165:

Non secus in jugis
Exsomnis stupet Evias,
Hebrum prospiciens.

Footnote 166:

et nive candidam
Thracen, ac _pede barbaro
Lustratam Rhodopen_.

Footnote 167:

There appears to have been some little mistake in the Translator here—_Rhodope_ is not, as he seems to imagine, the name of a woman, but of a mountain, and not in _Russia_. Possibly, however, the Translator may have been misled by the inaccuracy of the traveller here alluded to.

Footnote 168:

Ut mihi devio
Rupes, et vacuum nemus
Mirari libet!

[Footnote:

[169]O Naiadum potens
Baccharumque valentium
Proceras manibus vertere fraxinos.
[170]Nil parvum, aut humili modo,
Nil mortale loquar. Dulce periculum est,
O Lenæe, sequi deum
Cingentem viridi tempora pampino.

®

Footnote 171:

[This clever parody has reference to the attempt made by the DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND to evade payment of PITT’S Income-tax. To mitigate the severity of the pressure on persons with large families, a deduction of ten per cent. was allowed to persons who had above a certain number of children. Among others the Duke was not ashamed to avail himself of this clause.—ED.]

Footnote 172:

[See Note at p. 84 in “_A Bit of an Ode to Mr. Fox_,” line 18.—ED.]

Footnote 173:

[SIR HUGH SMITHSON married Lady Eliz. Seymour, great-granddaughter of Joceline, eleventh Earl of Northumberland, who was the last of the male Percies. He was created DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND in 1766. The hero of this Ballad was his son, who died in 1817.—ED.]

Footnote 174:

The ceremony of invocation (in didactic poems especially) is in some measure analogous to the custom of drinking toasts; the corporeal representatives of which are always supposed to be absent, and unconscious of the irrigation bestowed upon their names. Hence it is, that our Author addresses himself to the natives of an island who are not likely to hear, and who, if they did, would not understand him.

Footnote 175:

His Majesty’s ship _Endeavour_.

Footnote 176:

In justice to our Author we must observe, that there is a delicacy in this picture, which the words, in their common acceptation, do not convey. The amours of an English shepherd would probably be preparatory to marriage (which is contrary to our Author’s principles), or they might disgust us by the vulgarity of their object. But in Otaheite, where the place of a shepherd is a perfect sinecure (there being no sheep on the island), the mind of the reader is not offended by any disagreeable allusion.

Footnote 177:

Laws made by parliaments or kings.

Footnote 178:

Customs voted or imposed by ditto, not the customs here alluded to.

Footnote 179:

M. Bailly and other astronomers have observed, that in consequence of the varying obliquity of the Ecliptic, the climates of the circumpolar and tropical climates may, in process of time, be materially changed. Perhaps it is not very likely that even by these means Britain may ever become a small island in the South Seas. But this is not the meaning of the verse—the similarity here proposed relates to manners, not to local situation.

Footnote 180:

The word _one_ here, means all the inhabitants of Europe (excepting the French, who have remedied this inconvenience), not any particular individual. The Author begs leave to disclaim every allusion that can be construed as personal.

Footnote 181:

As a stream—simile of dissimilitude, a mode of illustration familiar to the ancients.

Footnote 182:

Walks of polished life, see “Kensington Gardens,” a poem.

Footnote 183:

Germania—Germany; a country in Europe, peopled by the Germani: alluded to in Cæsar’s Commentaries, page 1, vol. ii. edit. prin. See also several Didactic Poems.

Footnote 184:

A beautiful figure of German literature. The Hottentots remarkable for staring at each other—God knows why.

Footnote 185:

This delightful and instructive picture of domestic life is recommended to all keepers of boarding-schools, and other seminaries of the same nature.

Footnote 186:

It is a singular quality of brandied cherries that they exchange their flavour for that of the liquor in which they are immersed.—See Knight’s _Progress of Civil Society_.

Footnote 187:

This division of the word is in the true spirit of the English as well as the ancient Sapphic. See the “Counter-Scuffle,” “Counter-Rat,” and other poems in this style.

Footnote 188:

[The Rev. Gilbert Wakefield wrote several pamphlets against government, of which no notice was taken, until his Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff appeared, when the Attorney-General instituted a prosecution against him. He was found guilty and imprisoned; during which imprisonment a subscription of £3000 among his friends supported his wife and family very comfortably.—ED.]

Footnote 189:

[John Gale Jones was an active political agitator for many years. In 1810, he was the conductor of the debating club, denominated the “British Forum,” which at one of its meetings discussed the propriety of the exclusion of strangers from the House of Commons during the debates on the Walcheren Expedition. For his observations the House, disregarding his apology, committed him to Newgate.—ED.]

Footnote 190:

[“John Thelwall left his shop (that of a silk mercer) to be one of the Reformers of the age. After his acquittal he went about the country lecturing. Sometimes he was attended by numerous admirers, but more frequently hooted and pelted by the mob. In order to escape prosecution for sedition, he took as his subject Greek and Roman history, and had ingenuity enough to give such a colouring to events and characters, as to render the application to living persons and present events an exciting mental exercise. I heard one or two of these lectures, and thought very differently of him then from what I thought afterwards. When, however, he found his popularity on the wane, and more stringent laws had been passed, to which he individually gave occasion, he came to the prudent resolution of abandoning his vagrant habits, and leading a farmer’s life in a beautiful place near Brecon.... He was an amiable man in private life, an affectionate husband, and a fond father. He altogether mistook his talents—he told me without reserve that he believed he should establish his name among the epic poets of England; and it is a curious thing considering his own view’s that he thought the establishment of Christianity, and the British Constitution, very appropriate subjects for his poem.... THELWALL, unlike Hardy, had the weakness of vanity; but he was a perfectly honest man, and had a power of declamation which qualified him to be a mob orator. He used to say that if he were at the gallows with liberty to address the people for half-an-hour, he should not fear the result; he was sure he could excite them to a rescue. I became acquainted with him soon after his acquittal, and never ceased to respect him for his sincerity, though I did not think highly of his understanding.”—_Crabb Robinson’s Diary_, 1790 and 1799.—ED.]

Footnote 191:

[These “Gagging Bills,” of 1796, required that notice should be given to the magistrate of any public meeting to be held on political subjects; he was authorized to be present, and empowered to seize those guilty of sedition on the spot; and a second offence against the act was punishable with transportation. So exasperated were the Opposition with this measure that Fox and a large part of the minority withdrew altogether for a considerable time from the House.—ED.]

Footnote 192:

There is a doubt, whether this word should not have been written _liar_.

Footnote 193:

These words, of _conviction_ and _hanging_, have so ominous a sound, it is rather odd they were chosen.

Footnote 194:

[The hero of the above song was Charles Howard, eleventh Duke of Norfolk, who both as a member of the House of Commons (while Earl of Surrey), and afterwards as a peer, was one of FOX’S most strenuous supporters. SIR N. WRAXALL thus describes him: “Nature, which cast him in her coarsest mould, had not bestowed on him any of the external insignia of high descent. His person, large, muscular, and clumsy, was destitute of grace or dignity, though he possessed much activity. At a time when men of every description wore hair-powder and a queue, he had the courage to cut his hair short, and to renounce powder, which he never used except when going to court. In his youth he led a most licentious life, having frequently passed the whole night in excesses of every kind, and even lain down, when intoxicated, occasionally to sleep in the streets, or on a block of wood. In cleanliness he was negligent to so great a degree that he rarely made use of water for the purpose of bodily refreshment and comfort.” Complaining one day to Dudley North that he was a martyr to the rheumatism, and had ineffectually tried every remedy for its relief, “Pray, my lord,” said he, “did you ever try a clean shirt?” It must not be forgotten, however, that he was a munificent patron of literature, for he defrayed the entire expense of printing Taylor’s Translation of Plato, 5 vols. 4to.; Dallaway’s History of Sussex, 2 vols. 4to.; and Duncumb’s History of Herefordshire, 2 vols. The initials B. O. B. refer to _Mr._ (afterwards _Sir Robert_) _Adair_, who is often alluded to in these pages.—ED.]

Footnote 195:

[These observations are directed against Godwin’s work on “Political Justice,” which, on its first appearance, excited extraordinary attention. His aim was to represent the whole system of society as radically and essentially wrong, and to extirpate all those principles which uphold its present constitution. The existence of the Deity is spoken of as an hypothesis, and the ethics are worthy of the religion. HOLCROFT reviewed it in the “Monthly Review,” but was doubtful whether to praise or blame it.—ED.]

[“I noticed (says CRABB ROBINSON in 1811) the infinite superiority of GODWIN over the French writers in moral feeling and tendency. I had learned to hate Helvetius and Mirabeau, and yet retained my love for GODWIN. This was agreed to as a just sentiment.”—ED.]

Footnote 196:

[Written in ridicule of Dr. DARWIN’S _Loves of the Plants_.]

Footnote 197:

Ver. 1–4. Imitated from the introductory couplet to the _Economy of Vegetation_:

“Stay your rude steps, whose throbbing breasts infold
The legion fiends of glory and of gold”

This sentiment is here expanded into four lines.

Footnote 198:

Ver. 6. _Definition_—A distinct notion explaining the genesis of a thing.—_Wolfius._

Footnote 199:

Ver. 7. _Postulate_—A self-evident proposition.

Footnote 200:

Ver. 8. _Axiom_—An indemonstrable truth.

Footnote 201:

Ver. 9. _Tangents_—So called from touching, because they touch circles, and never cut them.

Footnote 202:

Ver. 10. _Circles_—See Chambers’s Dictionary, article “Circle”.

Footnote 203:

Ver. 10. _Osculation_—For the _osculation_, or kissing of circles and other curves, see Huygens, who has veiled this delicate and inflammatory subject in the decent obscurity of a learned language.

Footnote 204:

Ver. 11. _Cissois_—A curve supposed to resemble the sprig of ivy, from which it has its name, and therefore peculiarly adapted to poetry.

Footnote 205:

Ver. 12. _Conchois_, or _Conchylis_—A most beautiful and picturesque curve; it bears a fanciful resemblance to a _conch_ shell. The conchois is capable of infinite extension, and presents a striking analogy between the animal and mathematical creation—every individual of this species containing within itself a series of _young_ conchoids for several generations, in the same manner as the Aphides and other insect tribes are observed to do.

Footnote 206:

Ver. 15. _Hydrostatics_—Water has been supposed, by several of our philosophers, to be capable of the passion of love. Some later experiments appear to favour this idea. Water, when pressed by a moderate degree of heat, has been observed to simper, or simmer, as it is more usually called. The same does not hold true of any other element.

Footnote 207:

Ver. 17. _Acoustics_—The doctrine or theory of sound.

Footnote 208:

Ver. 18. _Euclid and Algebra_—The loves and nuptials of these two interesting personages, forming a considerable episode in the third canto, are purposely omitted here.

Footnote 209:

Ver. 19. _Pulley_—So called from our Saxon word to PULL, signifying to pull or draw.

Footnote 210:

Ver. 23. _Fair sylphish forms_—_Vide_ modern prints of nymphs and shepherds dancing to nothing at all.

Footnote 211:

Ver. 27. _Such rich confusion_—Imitated from the following genteel and sprightly lines in the first canto of the “Loves of the Plants”:

“So bright its folding canopy withdrawn,
Glides the gilt landau o’er the velvet lawn,
Of beaux and belles displays the glittering throng,
And soft airs fan them as they glide along”.

Footnote 212:

Ver. 38. _Angle_—Gratus puellæ risus ab Angulo.—_Hor._

Footnote 213:

Ver. 39. _How slow progressive Points_—The Author has reserved the picturesque imagery which the _theory of fluxions_ naturally suggested for his “Algebraic Garden,” where the _fluents_ are described as rolling with an even current between a margin of _curves_ of the higher order over a pebbly channel, inlaid with _differential calculi_.

In the following six lines he has confined himself to a strict explanation of the theory, according to which lines are supposed to be generated by the motion of points, planes by the lateral motion of lines, and solids from planes, by a similar process.

_Quære_—Whether a practical application of this theory would not enable us to account for the genesis or original formation of space itself, in the same manner in which Dr. Darwin has traced the whole of the organized creation to his six filaments—Vide _Zoonomia_. We may conceive the whole of our present universe to have been originally concentred in a single point; we may conceive this primeval point, or _punctum saliens_ of the universe, evolving itself by its own energies, to have moved forward in a right line, _ad infinitum_, till it grew tired; after which the right line which it had generated would begin to put itself in motion in a lateral direction, describing an area of infinite extent. This area, as soon as it became conscious of its own existence, would begin to ascend or descend, according as its specific gravity might determine it, forming an immense solid space filled with vacuum, and capable of containing the present existing universe.

Space being thus obtained, and presenting a suitable nidus, or receptacle for the generation of chaotic matter, an immense deposit of it would gradually be accumulated; after which, the filament of _fire_ being produced in the chaotic mass by an _idiosyncrasy_, or self-formed habit, analogous to fermentation, _explosion_ would take place; _suns_ would be shot from the central chaos; _planets_ from _suns_; and _satellites_ from _planets_. In this state of things the filament of _organization_ would begin to exert itself in those independent masses which, in proportion to their bulk, exposed the greatest surface to the action of _light_ and _heat_. This filament, after an infinite series of ages, would begin to _ramify_, and its viviparous offspring would diversify their forms and habits, so as to accommodate themselves to the various _incunabula_ which Nature had prepared for them. Upon this view of things it seems highly probable that the first effort of Nature terminated in the production of vegetables, and that these, being abandoned to their own _energies_, by degrees detached themselves from the surface of the earth, and supplied themselves with wings or feet, according as their different propensities determined them in favour of aerial and terrestrial existence. Others, by an inherent disposition to society and civilization, and by a stronger effort of _volition_, would become men. These, in time, would restrict themselves to the use of their _hind feet_; their _tails_ would gradually rub off by sitting in their caves or huts, as soon as they arrived at a domesticated state; they would invent _language_ and the use of _fire_, with our present and hitherto imperfect system of _society_. In the meanwhile, the _Fuci_ and _Algæ_, with the _Corallines_ and _Madrepores_, would transform themselves into _fish_, and would gradually populate all the submarine portion of the globe.

Footnote 214:

Ver. 46. _Trochais_—The Nymph of the Wheel, supposed to be in love with Smoke-Jack.

Footnote 215:

Ver. 56. _The conscious fire_—The sylphs and genii of the different elements have a variety of innocent occupations assigned them; those of fire are supposed to divert themselves with writing _Kunkel_ in phosphorus.—See _Economy of Vegetation_:

“Or mark, with shining letters, Kunkel’s name
In the pale _phosphor’s_ self-consuming flame”.

Footnote 216:

Ver. 68. _Listening ears_—Listening, and therefore peculiarly suited to a pair of diamond ear-rings. See the description of Nebuchadnezzar in his transformed state—

“Nor flattery’s self can pierce his _pendent ears_”.

In poetical diction, a person is said to “_breathe the_ BLUE _air_,” and to “_drink the_ HOARSE _wave_!”—not that the colour of the sky or the noise of the water has any reference to drinking or breathing, but because the poet obtains the advantage of thus describing his subject under a _double relation_, in the same manner in which material objects present themselves to our different senses at the same time.

Footnote 217:

Ver. 73. _Cock-tailed mice_—Coctilibus Muris. _Ovid._—There is reason to believe that the _murine_, or _mouse_ species, were anciently much more numerous than at the present day. It appears from the sequel of the line, that Semiramis surrounded the city of Babylon with a number of these animals.

_Dicitur altam
Coctilibus Muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem._

It is not easy at present to form any conjecture with respect to the end, whether of ornament or defence, which they could be supposed to answer. I should be inclined to believe, that in this instance the mice were dead, and that so vast a collection of them must have been furnished by way of tribute, to free the country from these destructive animals. This superabundance of the _murine_ race must have been owing to their immense fecundity, and to the comparatively tardy reproduction of the _feline_ species. The traces of this disproportion are to be found in the early history of every country.—The ancient laws of Wales estimate a cat at the price of as much corn as would be sufficient to cover her, if she were suspended by the tail with her fore-feet touching the ground.—See Howel Dha.—In Germany, it is recorded that an army of rats, a larger animal of the mus tribe, was employed as the ministers of divine vengeance against a feudal tyrant; and the commercial legend of our own Whittington might probably be traced to an equally authentic origin.

Footnote 218:

Ver. 76. _Rectangle_—“A figure which has one angle, or more, of ninety degrees”. _Johnson’s Dictionary._—It here means a right-angled triangle, which is therefore incapable of having more than one angle of ninety degrees, but which may, according to our author’s _Prosopopœia_, be supposed to be in love with three, or any greater number of nymphs.

Footnote 219:

Ver. 80. _Plato’s and Menecmus’ lore_—Proclus attributes the discovery of the conic sections to Plato, but obscurely. Eratosthenes seems to adjudge it to Menecmus. “_Neque Menecmeos necesse erit in cono secare ternarios._” (Vide _Montucla_.) From Greece they were carried to Alexandria, where (according to our author’s beautiful fiction) _Rectangle_ either did or might learn magic.

Footnote 220:

Ver. 86. _Zatanai_—Supposed to be the same with Satan.—Vide the _New Arabian Nights_, translated by Cazotte, author of “_Le Diable amoureux_”.

Footnote 221:

Ver. 87. _Gins_—the Eastern name for Genii.—Vide _Tales of ditto_.

Footnote 222:

Ver. 87. _Dom-Daniel_—a submarine palace near Tunis, where Zatanai usually held his court.—Vide _New Arabian Nights_.

Footnote 223: