This last play seems to have been first acted in 1773. See Brewer’s Reader’s Handbook.
[27]. ‘The coarse pot-house valour of Sir John Brute, Garrick’s famous part, is finely contrasted with the fine lady airs and affectation of his wife.’—Chambers’s English Literature.
[28]. ‘All the domestic business will be taken from my wife’s hands, I shall[I shall] shall make the tea, comb the dogs, and dress the children myself.’—Fribble, in Miss in her Teens (Garrick).
[29]. Mrs. Young was sister to Fanny Burney’s stepmother. The marriage proved unhappy from the beginning.
[30]. See his work, Les Intérêts de la France mal entendus, Henri, Comte de Boulainvilliers, voluminous author on French history, 1658-1722.
[31]. Rev. W. Harte, poet, writer on rural affairs, historian, 1700-1774. Dr. Johnson much commended Harte as a scholar and a man of the most companionable talents he had ever known. He said the defects in his history (Gustavus Adolphus) arose not from imbecility, but from foppery. His Essays on Husbandry is an elegant, erudite, and valuable work (Lowndes).
[32]. The accompanying letter is included in Arthur Young’s correspondence of this year, and is given, although not addressed to himself.
[33]. Duhamel du Monceau, botanist and agronome, contributor to the Encyclopédie, 1700-1781.
[34]. Patulle. A French writer on agriculture.
[35]. Here is an illustration. The Suffolk husbandman’s afternoon collation is invariably called ‘beaver.’ In Nares’ Glossary we find, ‘Bever, from the Sp. and It.: an intermediate refreshment between breakfast and dinner.’ ‘Without any prejudice to their bevers, drinkings, and suppers.’—B. and Fletcher, ‘The Woman Hater.’