[Page 177,] line 24. Mrs. Abingdon ... Mrs. Cibber, etc. Frances Abington (1737-1815) left the stage in 1799. Mrs. Susannah Maria Cibber (1714-1766) and Anne (or Nance) Oldfield (1683-1730) were, of course, before Lamb's time.
[Page 177,] line 25. Whole artillery of charms. Lamb is here recalling Colley Cibber's account of Mrs. Bountiful's Melantha in Marriage a la Mode in his Apology.
[Page 177,] line 34. Miss Kelly. Lamb's friend, Frances Maria Kelly (1790-1882), of whom he wrote so much ([see pages 217] to 223 of the present volume, and "Barbara S——" in Elia essays. See also note to "Miss Kelly at Bath," [page 486]).
[Page 177,] at foot. The Glovers ... Johnstons ... St. Legers. Mrs. Julia Glover (1779-1850), the original Alhadra in Coleridge's "Remorse" in 1813. Mrs. Johnstone, a well-known Elvira in "Pizarro." She made her London début in 1797. Mrs. Saint Ledger (née Williams) made her London début in 1799, and began well, but declined into pantomime.
[Page 178,] line 1. Miss Candour. Probably a misprint for Mrs. Candour in "The School for Scandal," a part created by Miss Pope.
[Page 178.] III.—[Books with One Idea in Them.]
The Examiner, July 18, 1813. Reprinted by Leigh Hunt in The Indicator, December 13, 1820, under the title of Table Talk, together with the notes on "Gray's Bard" and "Playhouse Memoranda," on [pages 181 and 184] of the present volume. Leigh Hunt thus introduced these reprints:—
It has been a great relief to us during our illness (from which, we trust, we are now recovering) to find that the re-publication of some former pieces from other periodical works has not been disapproved. Being still compelled to make up our numbers in this way, we have the pleasure of supplying the greater part of the present one with some Table-Talk, with which a friend entertained us on a similar occasion a few years ago in The Examiner. To the reader who happens not to be acquainted with them they will be acceptable for very obvious reasons: those who remember them, will be glad to read them again; and as for ourselves, besides the other reasons for being gratified, we feel particular satisfaction in recalling to the author's memory as well as our own, some genuine morsels of writing which he appears to have forgotten.
[Page 178,] line 11., Patrick's "Pilgrim." The Parable of the Pilgrim, 1664, by Simon Patrick, Bishop of Ely (1626-1707), which bears a curious accidental likeness to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Writing to Wordsworth, in 1815, Lamb says: "Did you ever read Charron on Wisdom or Patrick's Pilgrim? If neither, you have two great pleasures to come." The particular passage quoted from Patrick is in one of Lamb's Commonplace Books.
[Page 178,] line 22. Single-Speech Hamiltons. William Gerard Hamilton (1729-1796). He entered Parliament in 1754, and made his famous maiden speech in 1755. It was not, however, by any means his only speech, although his nickname still prevails.