[5] P. 5, l. 21. Scaramouch.—A traditional character in Italian comedy.
[6] P. 5, l. 22. The doctor.—Also a traditional character in Italian comedy.
[7] P. 5, l. 24. Cleobuline.—Princess, and afterwards Queen of Corinth, figures in the romance of Mademoiselle de Scudéry, entitled Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus. She is enamoured of one of her subjects, Myrinthe. But she "loved him without thinking of love; and remained so long in that error, that this affection was no longer in a state to be overcome, when she became aware of it." The character is supposed to have been drawn from Christina of Sweden.
[8] P. 6, l. 21. Rivers are, etc.—Apparently suggested by a chapter in Rabelais: How we descended in the isle of Odes, in which the roads walk.
[9] P. 6, l. 30. Salomon de Tultie.—A pseudonym adopted by Pascal as the author of the Provincial Letters.
[10] P. 7, l. 7. Abstine et sustine.—A maxim of the Stoics.
[11] P. 7, l. 8. Follow nature.—The maxim in which the Stoics summed up their positive ethical teaching.
[12] P. 7, l. 9. As Plato.—Compare Montaigne, Essais, iii, 9.
[13] P. 9, l. 29. We call this jargon poetical beauty.—According to M. Havet, Pascal refers here to Malherbe and his school.