Then came Sir J—— H—— Thundring at thy Cubboard: But you cast them like a Lubboard And did soon dispatch him.
[xxx] P. 21, line 10. The House of Commons had used St.Stephen's Chapel as its meeting place since the mid-sixteenth century. Dover-Court is "a proverbial term for a company, in which all are speakers and none hearers" (Bell).
[xxxi] P. 23, line 2. Waits: "a small body of wind instrumentalists maintained by a city or town at the public charge" (OED).
[xxxii] line 10. To sell bargains is to return indecent answers to civil questions.
[xxxiii] P. 24, line 6. Mother Needham was a prominent bawd, notorious for her foul language. See TE, 4, 374-75, and 5, 293-94.
[xxxiv] lines 7-8. "Oldfieldismus" and "Kibberismus" refer respectively to the styles of Anne Oldfield, a well-known actress, and Colley Cibber, playwright, stage manager, and hero of the Dunciad. Mrs. Oldfield was generally respected, but Pope, like Bramston, seems to have disliked her (TE, 4, 375).
[xxxv] line 11. Tallboy was a booby young lover in Richard Brome's comedy The Jovial Crew (1641), popular throughout the eighteenth century.
[xxxvi] P. 26, line 12.Mist: Nathaniel Mist, Tory journalist. See TE, 5, 448. Eusden: Laurence Eusden, Poet Laureate 1718-30, often ridiculed by Pope.
[xxxvii] line 14. Cibber's opera is Love in a Riddle (1729), designed to capitalize on the craze for ballad opera created by The Beggar's Opera.
[xxxviii] P. 27, line 5. Censor: Sir Richard Steele as Isaac Bickerstaffe, the nominal author of The Tatler.