[83] "Lanterloo" or "langteraloo" was the name of a game at cards.
[84] The glasses.
[85] Or Knipp, the friend of Mr. Pepys. She played the part of Lady Fidget.
[86] Ridicule commonly decides great matters more forcibly and better than severity.—Sat. i. 10, 14-15.
[87] It cannot have been earlier than the latter year, as Le Misanthrope, upon which Wycherley's play is based, did not appear until 1666.
[88] Dryden.
[89] Letters concerning the English Nation. London, 1733.
[90] It is, to say the least, doubtful if Les Plaideurs were written before The Plain Dealer. The former was produced in 1668. This supposed discovery of a non-existent coincidence appears to have arisen from a misinterpretation of Voltaire's words in the French edition of his Letters concerning the English Nation: "On a encore lardé cette piece (The Plain Dealer) d'une Comtesse de Pimbesche, vieille plaideuse." But Voltaire clearly employs the title of "Comtesse de Pimbesche" only as a generic term for a litigious female.
[91] Mother Bennet, a noted procuress. "The ironical commendation of the industry and charity of these antiquated ladies, these directors of Sin, after they can no longer commit it, makes up the beauty of the inimitable dedication to The Plain Dealer, and is a masterpiece of raillery on this vice."—Steele, in the Spectator, No. 266.
[92] Nothing is bolder than they who are detected; the sense of their own infamy gives them anger and spirit.