5. Sir Roger de Coverley. For a discussion of the identity of Sir Roger and the other characters v. Appendix II, On the Spectator's Acquaintance. The name was suggested by Swift (Elwin).
7. that famous country-dance. Originated by the minstrels of Sir Roger of Calverley in the reign of Richard I. (Wills).
8. parts. Qualifications, capacities. Cf. Shakespeare, King Lear, i. iv. 285:
My train are men of choice and rarest parts.
17. Soho-Square, south of Oxford Street, was a fashionable place of residence. The name is derived from the cry 'So Hoe' in use when the Mayor and Corporation hunted the hare over the fields of that district.
In Spectator 329 Sir Roger says that he is staying in Norfolk-
Buildings.
19. a perverse beautiful widow. v. Appendix II.
22. Lord Rochester, the poet-wit, who died in 1680, was notorious as a leader of fashionable dissipation. In this connexion he is mentioned by Evelyn and Pepys.
Sir George Etherege, author of The Man of Mode and two other comedies, was the companion of Rochester in dissipation and notoriety. He died in 1691.
23. Bully Dawson. A notorious ruffian and sharper.