23370. The quotation is actually from Juvenal, but it is attributed to Horace both here and in Conf. Am. vii. 3581. The lines are Sat. viii. 269 ff.,
‘Malo pater tibi sit Thersites, dummodo tu sis
Aeacidae similis Vulcaniaque arma capessas,
Quam te Thersitae similem producat Achilles.’
Our author no doubt picked up the quotation in a common-place book. He refers to ‘Orace’ also in ll. 3804 and 10948, the true reference in the latter case being to Ovid, while the former quotation is really from Horace.
23393. The ‘pigas’ is the long-pointed shoe worn by fashionable people at the time. ‘Not one of these rich men is born with his pointed shoe,’ says the author.
23413. ‘Much is that bird to be blamed,’ &c. Cp. Vox Clam. v. 835 f.,
‘Turpiter errat auis, proprium que stercore nidum,
Cuius erit custos, contaminare studet.’
23492. si te pourvoie, ‘and provide thyself (accordingly).’