5 Cacus' trick] of dragging his cattle by the tails.
7 spirit] A word their abuse of which was constantly thrown in the face of the Puritans till Swift's thrice rectified vitriol almost destroyed the abuse itself.
8 malignant] in the technical Roundhead sense.
9 The gibe at Huntingdon, clear enough from the passage, is one of many old local insults. I can remember when it was a little unsafe, in one of the Channel islands, to speak of a donkey. This particular jest recurs in Pepys (May 22, 1677), who was in a way a Huntingdon man.
11 Elsing] Clerk to the House of Commons.
13 'thus' 1677: 'but' 1647 and the earlier texts. write] 1653, 'right'—evidently one of the numerous mistakes due to dictating copy.
14 'The Prince' was a title which Rupert monopolized early and kept till his death.
15 'these' 1677: 'the' 1647, 1651, 1653, 1687.
20 1677 'th' equitable'.
24 The rhyme of '-cles' to an ee syllable occurs in Dryden.