ESSAY XXIII. ON ANTIQUITY
From The London Magazine, May 1821, Vol. III. p. 527, ‘Table Talk X.,’ signed T.
Auld Robin Gray. Believed at first to be a ‘relique.’ Lady Ann Barnard (1750–1825) acknowledged the authorship to Sir Walter Scott in 1823.
[253]. Lively, audible and full of vent. ‘Waking, audible and full of vent.’ Coriolanus, IV. 5.
Amadis de Gaul. A prose romance of knightly adventures of Portuguese origin (Vasco de Lobeira, d. 1403).
The seven Champions of Christendom. By Richard Johnson (1573–1659?). Published 1596–97. It was one of the books of Thomas Holcroft’s boyhood.
[254]. The dark rearward. Cf. ‘In the dark backward and abysm of time.’ The Tempest, I. 2.
The wars of old Assaracus. Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II. IX. 56.
Triple bob-majors. A term in church-bell ringing.
Chaos and old night. Paradise Lost, I. 543.