P. 175, 1. 21. the Mohock-club. The Mohocks, or Mohawks, are frequently referred to in early eighteenth-century literature. Who has not trembled at the Mohock's name?' sings Gay (Trivia, 1716, Bk. iii, 1. 326); and Swift writes 'Did I tell you of a race of rakes, called the Mohocks, that play the devil about this town every night, slit people's noses and beat them, etc.?' Again, 'Our Mohocks go on still, and cut people's faces every night. 'Faith, they shan't cut mine: I like it better as it is. The dogs will cost me at least a crown a week in chairs. I believe the souls of your houghers of cattle have got into them, and now they don't distinguish between a cow and a Christian.' (Journal to Stella, Forster's corrected text, March 8 and 26, 1712.) 'Here is nothing talked about but men that goes in partys about the street and cuts peaple with swords or knives'- says Lady Strafford under date of March 11-and they call themselves by som hard name that I can nethere speak nor spell.' Lady Wentworth, three days later, is more explicit,-'I am very much frighted with the fyer, but much more with a gang of Devils that call themselves Mohocks; they put an old woman into a hogshead, and rooled her down a hill, they cut of soms nosis, others hands, and severel barbarass tricks, without any provocation. They are said to be young gentlemen, they never take any mony from any; insteed of setting fifty pound upon the head of a highwayman, sure they would doe much better to sett a hundred upon thear heads.' (Wentworth Papers, 1883, 277-8.) Cf. also Spectator, No. 347. P. 176, 1. 6. Carbonadoed = slashed across for broiling on the coals. Cf. Coriolanus, Act iv, Sc. 5:-'He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on't: before Corioli, he scotch'd him and notch'd him like a carbonado. 1. 17. the tumblers. Cf. Lady Wentworth's letter above, and Gay, Trivia, 1716, Bk. iii, ll. 329-34: I pass their desp'rate deeds, and mischiefs done, O'er the stones thunders, bounds from side to side. See also Spectator, No. 332, as to a fourth sort-the 'Sweaters.' 'Who has not heard the Scowrer's midnight fame?' 1. 19. Thread-paper, a paper to hold lengths of silk or thread. 'I have had Two or Three Quarrels with my Wife's Woman for putting Thread in your Paper, and had like to have turned away my Butler for setting up Candles in it.' (Tatler (vol. v.), 1720, p. 210.) 1. 23. Mrs. Margaret Clark. See note to p. 134, 1. 26. P. 177, 1. 32. ten yard land. A yard land (virgata terrae), in some counties contains 20, in some 24, and in others 30 acres of land. 1. 36. brass and pewter. Common earthenware was rare in the eighteenth century, all plates, basins, flagons, etc., being of 'brass and pewter.' Cf. an interesting article on 'Mrs. Harris's Household Book' in the Saturday Review for January 21, 1882. P. 178, 1. 2. good- After 'good,' the original Spectator goes on:'The rest is torn off; and Posterity must be contented to know that Mrs. Margaret Clark was very pretty, but are left in the Dark as to the Name of her Lover.' In a later No. (328 in the original issue, but afterwards suppressed in the reprint) the conclusion of the letter is given, as it is added between brackets at p. 178 of this volume. Mrs. Clark did not marry Mr. Bullock; but (says tradition) bestowed her hand on one Cole, a Northampton attorney. P. 179, l. 16. Beaver the haberdasher. See note to p. 231, 1. 1. 1. 28. night-gowns = morning or dressing-gowns. You must know that I am in my night-gown every morning between six and seven.' (Swift, Journal to Stella, Nov. 11, 1710). From the numerous advertisements in the Tatler (original folio) these articles of costume must have been frequently magnificent enough to justify the 'strawberry sash' mentioned at 1. 40. 1. 32. Grecian, Squire's, Serle's. These coffee-houses were all near the Inns of Court,-Serle's by Lincoln's Inn, Squire's by Grays Inn, and the Grecian by the Temple. P. 181, 1. 8. Eubulus has so great an authority, etc. Can this passage have suggested Goldsmith's 'Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee At all his jokes, for many a joke had he; Full well the busy whisper, circling round, Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd'? Deserted Village, 1770, II. 201-4. 1. 19. Tom the Tyrant. The waiter at White's, also nicknamed Sir Thomas. See Tatler, Nos. 16, 26 and 36. P. 182, 1. 7. Cervantes reports. See Don Quixote, chap. 1 (Watts's translation, 1895, i.). The phrases quoted are 'composed by the famous Feliciano de Silva.' 1. 27. the upholsterer, i. e. the political upholsterer of Addison's Tatler, No. 155, whose prototype is supposed to have been Thomas Arne, father of Arne the musician and Mrs. Cibber, the tragic actress. See also Tatler, No. 171, p. 393 in this volume. 1. 28. crack, craze. Cf. also Spectator, No. 251 (by Addison), where it is used to signify a crazy person:-'I cannot get the Parliament to listen to me, who look upon me, forsooth, as a Crack, and a Projector." 1. 32. novelists. Newsmongers or Intelligencers' (Bailey's Dictionary). P. 183, 1. 18. Albergotti held Douai for Lewis XIV in 1710. P. 184. 1. 1. Ichabod Dawks' Letter. This, like Dyer's, was a news-letter with a blank page for correspondence. Edmund Smith, author of Phædra and Hippolitus, 1707, put them both into Latin verse: 'Scribe securus quid agit Senatus, Quid caput stertit grave Lambethanum, Quid comes Guildford, quid habent novorum 1. 6. Ramillies, etc. The battle of Ramillies was fought on Whitsunday, May 12, 1706. 1. 22. whether print or manuscript. The news-letters were printed so as to imitate MS. P. 186, 1. 1. On the Misbehaviour of Servants. This paper is supposed to have afforded the first hint for Townley's farce of High Life below Stairs, 1759. P. 188, 1. 3. rustic, here inelegant,' or 'impolite,' rather than 'rural' or 'countrified.' 'An inelegant clown cannot learn fine language or a courtly behaviour, when his rustick airs have grown up with him till the age of forty.' (Watts in Latham's Johnson.) 1. 19. the Ring in Hyde Park was a favourite eighteenth-century ride and promenade. While the quality took the air in their chariots, their footmen waited at the gate, and amused themselves with wrestling and other diversions. In McCarthy's History of the Four Georges, 1884, i. 102, is the following passage in point, which has a curious similarity to this paper of Steele's :-'The writer of the "Patriot" of Thursday, August 19, 1714, satirises misplaced ambition by "A discourse which I overheard not many evenings ago as I went with a friend of mine into Hyde Park. We found, as usual, a great number of gentlemen's servants at the park gate, and my friend, being unacquainted with the saucy custom of those fellows to usurp their masters' titles, was very much surprised to hear a lusty rogue tell one of his companions who enquired after his fellow-servant that his Grace had his head broke by the cook-maid for making a sop in the pan." Presently after another assured the company of the illness of my lord bishop. "The information had doubtless continued had not a fellow in a blue livery alarmed the rest with the news that Sir Edward and the marquis were at fisticuffs about a game at chuck, and that the brigadier had challenged the major-general to a bout at cudgels.” ' 1. 30. White's Chocolate House in St. James's Street, a noted haunt of fashionable gamblers, was first established in 1698. Under Anne it stood five doors from the bottom of the west side of the street, ascending from the palace. It was burnt down in April 1733. (See Hogarth's Rake's Progress, Pt. iv.) Side-boxes. In the early eighteenth-century theatre, the gentlemen sat in the side-, the ladies in the front-boxes. Cf. the Rape of the Lock, v. 14: 'Why round our coaches croud the white-glov'd Beaux, and Six Town Eclogues, 1747,-the Toilette, p. 28:- And, as they catch the glance, in rows arise Also Spectator, No. 311:- Suffenus has comb'd and powder'd at the Ladies for thirty Years together, and taken his Stand in a Side-box, 'till he has grown wrinkled under their Eyes;' and the bill of Mortality in Spectator, No. 377:-'W. W. killed by an unknown Hand, that was playing, with the Glove off, upon the Side of the front Box in Drurylane.' But even in Steele's day the rule must have had its exceptions :— 'Pray, Mr. Neverout, What Lady was that you were talking with in the Side-Box last Tuesday?' (Swift's Polite Conversation, 1738, p. 22.) Later in the century the distinction seems to have been disregarded, for Goldsmith, Good-Natur'd Man, Act i, puts Miss Biddy Bundle in the front of a side-box'; and Johnson and his party occupied the 'front row in a side-box' at Covent Garden, when they went to the first night of She Stoops to Conquer (Forster's Goldsmith, Bk. iv, ch. xv). P. 189, l. 6. a lady in the case. Cf. Gay's Hare and Many Friends: And when a lady's in the case, You know all other things give place.' P. 190, 1. 10. your Spectator, No. 107. See p. 116 of this volume. 1. 37. Clarendon, etc. This reference escapes the editor. P. 191, 1. 36. the Five fields. The five Fields are now covered by Eaton and Belgrave Squares. Cf. Tatler, No. 34, p. 391 in this volume. P. 195, 1. 18. the epistle. This is a paraphrase of Horace, Ep. i, 9, in the form of a letter of recommendation. Steele was fond of this method of modernising. In the Christian Hero he treats St. Paul's letter about Onesimus in the same way. P. 199, 1. 3. civilities and salutations. See Spectator, No. 454, p. 380, 1. 16, of this volume, P. 202, 1. 16. Mum, a thick strong ale, brewed from wheat, and said to have been introduced into this country from Brunswick by General Monk, the name coming from one Christian Mumme, its inventor. Cf. the Reader, No. 8,-'The Blood of a Claret-Drinker grows Vinegar, that of your Port-man Mum.' Cf. also Pope, Dunciad, ii. 385 :— 'The clam'rous crowd is hush'd with mugs of Mum.' From Mr. Gladstone's speech on the Budget in 1881, it appears that mum was still mentioned in Tariffs, although, according to the speaker, none of the Revenue Department could 'throw the smallest light upon the meaning of the term.' Yet, as a correspondent to Notes and Queries gleefully pointed out, an explanation lay all the while in Johnson, from whom one of the foregoing quotations is derived. P. 202, 1. 20. piddling at a mushroom. To piddle'-according to Johnson-is 'to pick at table; to feed squeamishly and without appetite.' Cf. Pope, Satire ii, 1. 137: 'Content with little, I can piddle here On brocoli and mutton, round the year.' P. 204, 1. 9. Dorimant. This and the following references are to .characters in Etheredge's Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter, which Steele had criticised in Spectator, No. 65, not here reprinted. P. 208, 1. 9. profused = lavished, squandered. Latham's Johnson gives this passage for its example, and says the use of it is rare. P. 209, 1. 33. though I and you too grow older, etc. Hor. Od. i. 11.7:— 'Dum loquimur, fugerit invida Aetas.' P. 210, 1. 15. hot cockles. Hot Cockles is a game in which one player covers his eyes, and guesses who strikes him. As at Hot-Cockles once I laid me down, And felt the weighty Hand of many a Clown; Quick rose, and read soft Mischief in her Eye. (Gay's Shepherd's Week, 1714, p. 9.) P. 211, 1. 6. madam in her grogram gown. This is a quotation from Swift's Baucis and Philemon, 1708:: 'Her petticoat, transformed apace, Became black satin flounc'd with lace. 'Twas Madam, in her grogram gown. Johnson gives grogram as a 'stuff woven with large woof and a rough pile.' In this material Will Honeycomb's country beauty captivated her future husband (Spect., No. 530). It is also alleged that the beverage' grog' derives its name from it-Admiral Vernon, who first issued this mixture to his crew, being known as ' Old Grog' from his partiality to grogram breeches. 1. 27. the Ring at Hyde Park. See note to p. 188, 1. 19. P. 217, 1. 22. in one of his pleadings, i. e. in his defence of the ædile Cnæus Plancius, who was accused of bribery. P. 218, 1. 20. The statue in Rome. The reference is to the satirical placards placed on the broken statue, which went by the name of Pasquin, a Roman cobbler of the 16th century, noted for his caustic satire. P. 222, 1. 13. ubiquitary = existing everywhere. 'For wealth and an ubiquitary commerce, none can exceed her' (Howell in Johnson). 1. 16. a plumb, i. e. £100,000. Cf. Prologue in Arthur Maynwaring's Life, 1715, p. 72 :— 'Where Sober Cit to bite his Bubbles comes, And gets by Paper and false News, his Plumbs.' |