[5c] “Presto,” substituted by the original editor for “Pdfr,” was suggested by a passage in the Journal for Aug. 2, 1711, where Swift says that the Duchess of Shrewsbury “could not say my name in English, but said Dr. Presto, which is Italian for Swift.”
[5d] Charles Jervas, the popular portrait-painter, has left two portraits of Swift, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery, and the other in the Bodleian Library.
[5e] Sir William Temple’s nephew, and son of Sir John Temple (died 1704), Solicitor and Attorney-General, and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. “Jack” Temple acquired the estate of Moor Park, Surrey, by his marriage with Elizabeth, granddaughter of Sir William Temple, and elder daughter of John Temple, who committed suicide in 1689. As late as 1706 Swift received an invitation to visit Moor Park.
[5f] Dr. Benjamin Pratt, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, was appointed Dean of Down in 1717. Swift calls him “a person of wit and learning,” and “a gentleman of good birth and fortune, . . . very much esteemed among us” (Short Character of Thomas, Earl of Wharton). On his death in 1721 Swift wrote, “He was one of the oldest acquaintance I had, and the last that I expected to die. He has left a young widow, in very good circumstances. He had schemes of long life. . . . What a ridiculous thing is man!” (Unpublished Letters of Dean Swift, 1899, p. 106).
[6a] A Westmeath landlord, whom Swift met from time to time in London. The Leighs were well acquainted with Esther Johnson.
[6b] Dr. Enoch Sterne, appointed Dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin, in 1704. Swift was his successor in the deanery on Dr. Sterne’s appointment as Bishop of Dromore in 1713. In 1717 Sterne was translated to the bishopric of Clogher. He spent much money on the cathedrals, etc., with which he was connected.
[6c] Archdeacon Walls was rector of Castle Knock, near Trim. Esther Johnson was a frequent visitor at his house in Queen Street, Dublin.
[6d] William Frankland, Comptroller of the Inland Office at the Post Office, was the second son of the Postmaster-General, Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart. Luttrell (vi. 333) records that in 1708 he was made Treasurer of the Stamp Office, or, according to Chamberlayne’s Mag. Brit. Notitia for 1710, Receiver-General.
[6e] Thomas Wharton, Earl and afterwards Marquis of Wharton, had been one of Swift’s fellow-travellers from Dublin. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under the Whig Government, from 1708 to 1710, Wharton was the most thorough-going party man that had yet appeared in English politics; and his political enemies did not fail to make the most of his well-known immorality. In his Notes to Macky’s Characters Swift described Wharton as “the most universal villain that ever I knew.” On his death in 1715 he was succeeded by his profligate son, Philip, who was created Duke of Wharton in 1718.
[6f] This money was a premium the Government had promised Beaumont for his Mathematical Sleying Tables, calculated for the improvement of the linen manufacture.