[52]. Line 20.—[Sir Francis Burdett, then M.P. for Boroughbridge.—Ed.]
[53]. Line 23.—[John Richardson, M.P. for Newport, Cornwall, and one of the proprietors of Drury Lane Theatre. In the Rolliad he was the author, in Part I., of Nos. iv., x., and xi.; and in Part II. of Nos. iii. and iv. He wrote No. iv. of Probationary Odes, in ridicule of Sir R. Hill, Bart.; No. xix. on Viscount Mountmorres, and the concluding prose portion. To the Political Miscellanies he contributed, “This is the House that George Built,” and in conjunction with Tickell, the “Epigrams by Sir Cecil Wray,” “Pretymaniana,” and “Foreign Epigrams”. In the latter Dr. Laurence assisted them. Also “A Tale: At Brookes’s once it so fell out”. “Theatrical Intelligence Extraordinary.” “Epigram: Who shall Expect the Country’s Friend?” “A new Ballad: Billy Eden,” in conjunction with Tickell. “Proclamation.” He died in 1803.—Ed.]
[54]. Line 25.—[The Rev. Samuel Parr, LL.D., was not only a great scholar, but an uncompromising Whig, and one of Fox’s most enthusiastic supporters. His conversational powers were great, and his arguments were enforced by boldness, dogmatism, and arrogance, which qualities, however, did not always exempt him from stinging retorts even from the fair sex. The following, among other attacks, appears in Crabb Robinson’s interesting Diary, ii. 457:—
A RECIPE.
To half of Busby’s skill in mood and tense
Add Bentley’s pleasantry, without his sense:
Of Warburton take all the spleen you find,
And leave his genius and his wit behind.
Squeeze Churchill’s rancour from the verse it flows in,
And knead it stiff with Johnson’s heavy prosing.