The other:—
Cloth of gold do not despise,
Though thou art match'd with cloth of frize.
[Page 201,] line 3 from foot. Eliot's famous troop. General George Augustus Eliott (afterwards Lord Heathfield), the defender of Gibraltar and the founder of the 15th or King's Own Royal Light Dragoons, now the 15th Hussars, whose first action was at Emsdorf. At the time that regiment was being collected, there was a strike of tailors, many of whom joined it. Eliott, one version of the incident says, wished to get men who never having ridden had not to unlearn any bad methods of riding. Later they were engaged against the Spaniards in Cuba in 1762-1763.
[Page 202,] line 6. Speculative politicians. Lamb was probably referring to Francis Place (1771-1854), the tailor-reformer, among whose friends were certain of Lamb's own—William Frend, for example.
[Page 202.] Footnote. "Gladden life." From Johnson's Life of Edmund Smith—"one who has gladdened life"; or possibly from Coombe's "Peasant of Auburn":—
And whilst thy breast matures each patriot plan
That gladdens life and man endears to man.
[Page 203,] line 22. Dr. Norris's famous narrative. The Narrative of Dr. Robert Norris concerning the strange and deplorable Frenzy of Mr. John Dennis was a satirical squib by Pope against the critic John Dennis (1657-1734). The passage referred to by Lamb runs:—
Doct. Pray, Sir, how did you contract the Swelling?
Denn. By a Criticism.
Doct. A Criticism! that's a Distemper I never read of in Galen.