[106]. Prior. Matthew Prior (1664–1721), diplomatist and writer of ‘occasional’ verse. See Thackeray’s English Humourists.
Sedley. Sir Charles Sedley (1639–1701), Restoration courtier and poet.
Little Will. An English Ballad on the taking of Namur by the King of Great Britain, 1695.
[107]. Gay. John Gay (1685–1732), the author of Fables, The Beggar’s Opera, so often quoted by Hazlitt, and Black-eyed Susan. Polly was intended as a sequel to The Beggar’s Opera, but it was prohibited from being played, though permitted to be printed. See The Round Table, The Beggar’s Opera, and notes thereto. That Essay was used as part of the present lecture.
Happy alchemy of mind. See The Round Table, vol. i., p. 65. Cf. also Lamb’s essay, ‘The Londoner,’ Morning Post, Feb. 1, 1802: ‘Thus an art of extracting morality from the commonest incidents of a town life, is attained by the same well-natured alchemy, with which the Foresters of Arden,’ etc.
O’erstepping [not] the modesty of nature. Hamlet, III. 2.
[108]. Miss Hannah More’s laboured invectives. Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society, 1788, and An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World, 1790. Each passed through several editions before the close of the century. Of the first named, the third edition is stated to have been sold out in four hours.
Sir Richard Blackmore. Court physician to William and Anne. He died in 1729, after having written six epics in sixty books.
[109]. Mr. Jekyll’s parody. Joseph Jekyll (1754–1837), Master of Chancery. The parody was published in the Morning Chronicle, Friday, Aug. 19, 1809.
A City Shower. See The Tatler, No. 238.