[379] This has no reference to any recent representation of the tragedy of "Macbeth." Shadwell, from the witchcraft introduced in his play, is ironically termed, "Macbeth and Simon Magus."
[380] Alluding to the Roman citizens, who had the right of voting, denied to the lower, or provincial orders.
[381] Our author was educated at Cambridge. Whether the sons of Cam relished this avowed preference of Oxford, may be doubted.
[382] Alluding to the Whigs, who called themselves so. See Vol. IX. p. 211.
[383] Alluding to the gratulating speech of Orator Higgins to Clause, when elected King of the Beggars:
Who is he here that did not wish thee chosen,
Now thou art chosen? Ask them; all will say so,
Nay, swear't—'tis for the king,—but let that pass.
Beggars' Bush, Act II. Scene I.
[384] The severity of the Austrian government, in Hungary particularly, towards those who dissented from the Roman Catholic faith, occasioned several insurrections. The most memorable was headed by Count Teckeli, who allied himself with the sultan, assumed the crown of Transylvania, as a vassal of the Porte, and joined, with a considerable force, the large army of Turks which besieged Vienna, and threatened to annihilate the Austrian empire. A similarity of situation and of interest induced the Whig party in England to look with a favourable eye upon this Hungarian insurgent, as may be fully inferred from the following passage in De Foe's "Appeal to Honour and Justice:"