86 whatever accidentally becomes indisposed, etc.; i.e. whoever falls out with the authorities.
87 There never was a period, etc.: this was written in 1777, during the American War of Independence.
90 'Puss' was Cowper's tame hare.
92 The initials at the foot of the letter are those of William Cowper and Mary Unwin, a friend of the poet's.
99 David Garrick: the celebrated actor (1717-1779).
100 Frank Osbaldistone, the hero of Scott's novel Rob Roy, goes to Yorkshire on a visit to his uncle, Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, whom he has never seen. As he approaches his destination he falls in with a young lady on horseback, who turns out to be Diana Vernon, a niece of Sir Hildebrand's. The period of the story is early in the eighteenth century.
106 The 'Festin de pierre': Moliere's play, in which the hero, Don Juan, rashly invites the statue of a man he has murdered to dine with him. The invitation is unexpectedly accepted.
107 Coleridge, the poet, was an old friend and school-fellow of Charles Lamb's.
109 An imaginary dialogue between the two philosophers. Plato, born 427 B.C., was some years the older of the two.
111 Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, with whom Plato had lived for a time, was overthrown and expelled by his subjects, and driven to support himself as a schoolmaster at Corinth.