[Pages 16, 17.]—“Graham. D. of R. E. of E. Lord and Lady H.”—I do not know that attempts at identifying these shadowy personages would be very wise. But the date assigned to the Colonel is one of the marks of long incubation. “Towards the end” of Charles II.’s reign would be about 1684. A fine gentleman of that day might very well have been Mr. Wagstaff’s “companion” had the latter written in 1710—less well had he written a quarter of a century later.
[Page 18], l. 24.—Swift, like a good Tory and Churchman, never forgave Burnet.
[Page 21], l. 2. “Selling of Bargains” is the returning of a coarse answer to a question or other remark. So in Dorset’s charming poem about “This Bess of my heart, this Bess of my soul.”
[Page 24], l. 26. “Great Ornaments of Style,” or, as it hath been put otherwise, “a grand set-off to conversation.”—Observe that in these passages as to Free-Thinking and Oaths, Swift maintains his invariable attitude as to profanity.
[Page 25], last line. “Poet.”—I know him not, if he ever existed save as a maggot of Swift’s brain.
[Page 26], l. 13. “Sir John Perrot.”—Deputy of Ireland and a stout soldier, but an unlucky politician. He died in the Tower, where he is not unlikely to have had leisure and reason to perfect himself in commination.
[Page 31], l. 16. “Lilly.”—The Latin grammarian, of course, not the astrologer.
[Page 32], l. 12. “e’n’t” I presume to be identical with ain’t.
[Page 36], l. 21. It may seem strange that Mr. Wagstaff, who loves not books and scholars, should refer to a grave philosopher. But fine gentlemen in his youth had to know or seem to know their Hobbes.
[Page 38], l. 26. “Please.”—sic in orig.