paration made at sea by the French on all the channel, but at Brest; and that Great Britain being an island, which cannot be attacked but by a naval power, we may esteem France effectually removed, by the demolition, from Great Britain, as far as the distance from Dunkirk to Brest.

'Pray, Mr. Ironside, repeat this last particular, and put it in a different letter, That the demolition of Dunkirk will remove France many hundred miles further off from us; and then repeat again, That the British nation expects the demolition 10 of Dunkirk.

'I demand of you, as you love and honour your queen and country, that you insert this letter, or speak to this purpose, your own way; for in this all parties must agree, that however bound in friendship one nation is with another, it is but prudent that in case of a rupture, they should be, if possible, upon equal

terms.

'Be honest, old Nestor, and say all this; for whatever halfwitted hot whigs may think, we all value our estates and liberties, and every true man of each party must think himself 20 concerned that Dunkirk should be demolished.

'It lies upon all who have the honour to be in the ministry to hasten this matter, and not let the credulity of an honest brave people be thus infamously abused in our open streets.

'I cannot go on for indignation; but pray God that our mercy to France may not expose us to the mercy of France. 'Your humble servant,

'ENGLISH TORY "'

Guardian, No. 128.]

[August 7, 1713.

NOTES.

I.

MORAL AND DIDACTIC PAPERS.

P. 1, 1. 17. prevent to anticipate. It is no Grace to a Iudge.. to prevent Information, by Questions though Pertinent.' (Bacon, Essays, 1625, No. lvi.) Cf. also Psalms, cxix. 148.

P. 2, 1. 32. this illustrious day. This paper is dated February 6th, which was Queen Anne's birthday.

P. 3, 1. 30. St. Bride's church. St. Bride's, or St. Bridget's, Fleet Street. In the parish of St. Bride's is a Charity School for 50 Boys and 50 Girls, who are clothed, taught and placed apprentices by the voluntary subscriptions of the inhabitants, and by a Collection at the Church Door once a year. Steele's paper was doubtless in aid of this collection. At this date the school seems to have been for boys only; the girls' school was added afterwards. (See Spectator, No. 380.) 1. 37. Dr. Snape. Dr. Andrew Snape, d. 1742, was Hoadly's adversaries in the Bangorian Controversy.

published in 1745.

one of His sermons were

P. 4, 1. 29. my beloved author. Cicero, a motto from whom heads the paper.

P. 7, 1. 20. York-buildings was the general name for the streets and houses erected upon the site of old York House, when it was pulled down in 1672. Steele himself lived in Villiers Street, York Buildings, from 1721 to 1724; and here he built his Censorium.' (See Introduction, p. xxxvii.)

1. 22. George Powell (see note to p. 359, l. 11) acted the part of Falstaff (Henry IV, Pt. I) at his benefit, April 7, 1712. From Chetwood's History of the Stage, it appears that he modelled himself upon Betterton, mimicking not only his merits as an actor, but, less judiciously, his infirmities as a man.

P. 9, 1. 16. a city romance. The eminent trader' here intended was a Mr. John Moreton; the 'generous merchant' Sir William Scawen. In Spectator, No. 546 (Nov. 26, 1712) Steele makes further reference to this incident. 'It was no small Pleasure to me . . . to remark as I passed by Cornhill, that the Shop of that worthy, honest, tho' lately unfortunate Citizen Mr. John Moreton, so well known in the Linnen Trade, is fitting up anew.'

G g

P. 10, 1. 5. It has been heretofore urged. In the Spectator, No. 218, not included in this volume.

1. 11. a custom of choosing kings. The person referred to is Richard Nash, afterwards Master of the Ceremonies at Bath. He was a Member of the Middle Temple in the reign of William the Third. Goldsmith retells this story upon the authority of the Spectator, in his Life of Richard Nash, of Bath, Esq. 1762, p. 14.

P. 11, 1. 5. the Satirist. The quotation is from the 4th Satire of Persius, 11. 51-2 :—

'Tollat sua munera cerdo:

Tecum habita.'

1. 27. the Lacedæmonians. For this cause therefore in all their warres, when they should geue battell, the King dyd first sacrifice to the Muses, to put his souldiers in minde (as it should seeme) of the discipline & wisdome of the Muses that they had bene brought vp in, to the end than when his souldiers were in the most extreme daunger, the Muses should present them selues before the souldiers eyes, to pricke them forward to doe some noble actes of worthy memorie.' (North's Plutarch, 1579, p. 59.) P. 12, 1. 15. the objects of ridicule. See Guardian, No. 4, which is an admirable paper on fulsome dedications, ascribed to Pope.

1. 16. Bulfinch. A character in Brome's Northern Lasse, 1632. (Cf. Spectator, No. 468, p. 368 in this volume.)

Droll. A Droll or Drollery was a dramatic piece made up of scenes from different plays, and acted chiefly at booths by strolling companies. It is said to have been invented by an actor named Cox. Cf. Swift, On Poetry, 1733

'Some as justly Fame extols

For lofty Lines in Smithfield Drols.

1. 28. Phocion. 'Another time he chaunced to say his opinion before all the people, the which they all praised and approued: but he saw they were so sodeinly become of his minde, he turned backe to his friendes, and asked them: alas, hath not some evill thing slipped my mouth unwares.' (North's Plutarch, 1579, p. 800.)

P. 14, 1. 37. as pages, etc. The royal children, at one time, were punished by proxy. Burnet (History of his Own Time, ed. 1724, i. 244) gives an account of one Mr. Murray, of the bed-chamber, who had been whipping-boy to King Charles I. See also Spectator, No. 313, for Budgell's pretty story of the Westminster Scholar who was flogged by Dr. Busby in the place of his friend.

1. 39. pasquils = pasquinades, from Pasquin (v. Note to p. 218, 1. 20.) He never valued any pasquils that were dropped up and down, to think them worthy of his revenge.' (Howell, in Johnson, where Steele's sentence is also quoted.) Cf. also Swift to Sheridan :

Tom, for a goose you keep but base quills,

They're fit for nothing else but pasquils.'

P. 16, 1. 15. Undeserved praise, etc. This is a translation of the motto from Horace which heads the paper.

P. 17, 1. 11. Sir Francis Bacon. See Bacon's Essays, 1625, No. ix, 'Of Envy,' par. I.

P. 19, 1. 20. a description of my face. Cf. Spectator, No. 17, p. 173 of this volume, 11. 2-11.

P. 20, 1. 36. a led friend, i. e. a parasite, a hanger-on. Thackeray gives the title of 'led captain' to Lord Steyne's toady Mr. Wagg. (Vanity Fair, 1848, ch. li.) Cf. also Walpole's Letters, 1857, i. 392.

P. 22, 1. 20. this pleasant remark. See the Eunuchus of Terence, Act ii, Sc. 2, 1. 23:- Hic homines prorsus ex stultis insanos facit. Steele also uses this quotation in Tatler, No. 127, p. 24 in this volume. 1. 28. a droll. (See note to p. 12, 1. 16.) Here the word means a jester, a funny fellow. Cf. Prior's Democritus and Heraclitus:'Democritus, dear Droll, revisit Earth,

And with our Follies glut Thy heighten'd Mirth.'

1. 39. Sir Jeffery. Sir Jeffery or Jeoffery Notch of the 'Trumpet Club.' See p. 169 of this volume.

P. 24, 1. 25. an admirable reflection. See note to p. 22, 1. 20.

1. 36. that magnificent palace.

Bedlam, it must be remembered, was one of the sights of London in the last century. See Tatler, No. 30, p. 156, 1. 13 in this volume. Cf. also Hogarth's Rake's Progress, 1735, Pl. viii, and World, 1753, No. 23.

P. 25, 1. 34. the Trumpet. See note to p. 169, 1. 6.

P. 26, 1. 34. Belinda. The lady here intended is supposed to have been Mary-Ann, daughter of the Prussian Ambassador, Ezekiel, Baron of Spanheim. She was a Kit-Cat toast for whom Halifax wrote verses; and 'as beautiful as Madam Spanheim' seems to have been a proverbial expression. On April 21, 1710, shortly after the date of this paper, she was married to Francis de la Rochefoucauld, Marquis de Montandre, then a Lieut.-General in the English Army. Her father died in November of the same year; and Queen Anne, who greatly esteemed him, was 'generously pleas'd to honour his Memory, by giving to his only Daughter (the Marchioness of Montandre) the sum of one thousand Guineas, the usual Present of this Court to Ambassadors Extraordinary, when they take their Leaves.' (Boyer's Reign of Queen Anne, in the Annual List of the Deaths of Eminent Persons.)

P. 27, 1. 14. One of the greatest souls. John, Lord Somers (16501716). Swift, who dedicated the Tale of a Tub to him, specially refers to 'his evenness of temper.' Addison published a panegyric of him in No. 39 of the Free-Holder, 'published on the Day of his Interment' (May 4, 1716).

P. 28, 1. 17. Nat Lee. Lee (1650-1690) was four years in Bedlam. The quotation is from Act iii, Sc. 1 of The Rival Queens; or, the Death of Alexander the Great, 1677.