XII. Sir Roger in Love
Motto. "(Her) features remain imprinted on (his) heart."—Virgil, Æneid, iv. 4.
[105]: 1. The perverse widow. Ingenious commentators have thought to identify the lady with a certain Mrs. Catherine Bovey, to whom Steele dedicated the second volume of his Ladies Library; but it seems altogether improbable that Steele and Addison would intend any of their characters as actual portraits.
[108]: 20. Such a desperate scholar that no country gentleman can approach her. It is probable that Sir Roger's estimate of the scholarship of country gentlemen in his time does them no great injustice. Macaulay says of the country squire at the end of the seventeenth century: "If he went to school and to college, he generally returned before he was twenty to the seclusion of the old hall, and then, unless his mind was very happily constituted by nature, soon forgot his academical pursuits in rural business and pleasures. His chief serious employment was the care of his property.... His chief pleasures were commonly derived from field sports and from unrefined sensuality. His language and pronunciation were such as we should now expect to hear only from the most ignorant clowns."—History of England, Chap. iii.
[109]: 20. Sphinx. The sphinx was sent by Juno to devastate the country of the Thebans, until some one could answer her riddle, "What animal goes on four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?" [OE]dipus gave the right answer, "Man," and so saved his countrymen.
[110]: 3. Her tucker. The tucker was an edging of muslin or lace at the top of the dress, covering the neck and bosom.
110: 8. Some tansy. A kind of pudding flavored with tansy.
110: 24. Dum tacet hanc loquitur. Even when silent he is speaking of her.
110: 25. Epigram. Martial, Epigram, I. lxviii. The last two lines of the epigram are not quoted.