Charles Fox. Charles James Fox (1749–1806).
Lord Stormont. David Murray (1727–1796), diplomatist and statesman, second Earl of Mansfield (1793) and eldest son of David, sixth Viscount Stormont, who died in 1748.
[8]. To come trippingly off the tongue. Hamlet, III. 2.
Invita Minervâ. ‘Tu nihil invita dices faciesve Minerva,’ Horace, De Arte Poet., 385.
[9]. Like Goldsmith ... a Noble Lord. Prior, in his Life of Goldsmith, II. pp. 66–68, refers to this as a ‘ludicrous story’ which has ‘long been told.’ He describes it as ‘wholly a fabrication.’
[10]. Treads the primrose path. Hamlet, I. 3.
The highest [brightest] heaven of invention. King Henry V. Prologue.
He is nothing if not fanciful [critical]. Othello, II. 1.
Bristol-stones. Brilliant crystals of colourless quartz, found on St. Vincent’s Rocks near Bristol, go by the name of Bristol Diamonds.
On the unstedfast footing of a spear. 1 King Henry IV., I. 3.