Motto. "A wild beast spares his own kind."—Juvenal, Satires, xv. 159.
[65]: 13. The opera and the puppet-show. The absurd unrealities of the Italian opera, then recently introduced into England, were a subject of frequent sarcastic comment in The Spectator. "Audiences," says Addison, "have often been reproached by writers for the coarseness of their taste; but our present grievance does not seem to be the want of a good taste, but of common sense." For strictures on the opera, see Nos. 1, 13, 18, 22, 29, 31.
65: 15. Dress and equipage of persons of quality. Perhaps he refers to No. 16, in which the Spectator had ventured some criticism upon muffs and garters and fringed gloves and other "foppish ornaments."
65: 19. The city. Technically "the city" is that part of London north of the Thames from Temple Bar on the west to the Tower on the east, and extending as far as Finsbury on the north, which constituted the original walled city of London. It is the part of London under the immediate control of the lord mayor and aldermen, and its residents are "citizens." The trade and business of London was in Addison's time almost entirely—and still is very largely—included in this area.
Sir Andrew Freeport, as a merchant, of course stands up for the city.
[66]: 4. The wits of King Charles's time. The comedies of the writers of the time of Charles II—Farquhar, Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh—usually turn upon intrigue of which the wives and daughters of citizens are the victims.
66: 6. Horace (65-8 B.C.) and Juvenal (circa 60-140 A.D.), the masters of Latin satire; Boileau (1636-1711), a French satirist and critic.
66: 12. Persons of the Inns of Court. See Spectator, No. 21.
66: 25. Fox hunters. Whatever Mr. Spectator may have said in private, it does not seem that he had thus far written any paper disparaging fox hunters. A later essay, No. 474,—not written by Addison,—is rather severe upon them. Addison's famous picture of the Tory fox hunter is found in The Freeholder, No. 22.
[67]: 23. Vices ... too trivial for the chastisement of the law, and too fantastical for the cognizance of the pulpit. This is an admirable indication of the range and purpose of the Spectator's satire.