SPECTATOR 127.
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24. the post would have reached Sir Roger in Worcester twice a week, on Thursdays and Saturdays (Report for 1809.)
25. Dyer's letter. Dyer's News Letter was published three times a week. It dealt more in domestic news than did the regular newspapers, such as The Postman, and was sometimes driven to fill up space by relating fictitious events. Cf. Tatler 18, in which Steele and Addison declare that Dyer is famous for whales in the Thames!
29. under the quality of. In the office of. Cf. Shakespeare, Henry V., III. vi. 146, 'What is thy name? I know thy quality.'
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2. ordinary. Used as an adverb.
5. expence. Now expense, v. note on chace, p. 46, 1. 22.
13. You praised them. v. Spectator 98, On Ladies' Headdresses.
14. the humour. The fluid which causes the disease.
30. Sir George Etherege. v. note on p. 6, 1. 22. His first comedy, 1664, was entitled The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub. The reference is to IV. vi.
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2. the farthingale was a framework for extending the skirt of a woman's dress. It was introduced in 1545, and finally assumed a perfectly cylindrical shape.
the ruin of the Spanish monarchy. The defeat and dispersal of the Armada in 1558.
5. the tail of a blazing star. Comets have always been held to foretell disaster.
11. into meetings and conventicles. That is, to Dissent.
12. trunk-breeches. Very full, short breeches, reaching to the knee or half-way down the thigh.
16. it is recorded of Alexander the Great in Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. 'He first contrived many vain and sophistical things to serve the purposes of fame; among which were arms much bigger than his men could use … left scattered up and down.' This report is probably baseless, as it is opposed to the magnanimity of Alexander's character.
28. Rotunda. A building of circular shape both outside and inside, such as the Pantheon in Rome.
31. a little black monkey enshrined. Each Egyptian village had its sacred animal or fetish.
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8. the sensitive plant. Mimosa pudica, whose leaflets fold together at a touch.