Chapter 1

Your earthly audit; sure, in that I deem you an ill husband.

35. _fine when a tenement falls_. When a tenement became vacant, the incoming tenant paid dues to the landlord.

Page 18.

18. _manumission_. Release. The word is derived from the process of freeing a Roman slave--_manumissio_.

28. _that fortune was all the difference between them_. That their inferior position did not imply an inferiority of nature.

Page 19.

1. _prentice_. Shortened form of apprentice. Cf. Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV._, II. ii. 194, 'From a prince to a prentice.'

SPECTATOR 108.

Page 20.

2. _Mr. William Wimble_, v. Appendix II.

8. _jack_. Pike.

32. _angle-rods_. Fishing-rods. Cf. Shakespeare, _Antony and Cleopatra_, II. v. 10:

Give me mine angle,--we'll to the river.

_officious_. Serviceable, ready to do things for other people. The word is now restricted to its bad sense of meddlesome. Cf. Shakespeare, _Titus Andronicus_, v. ii. 202:

Come, come, be every one officious To make this banquet.

35. _correspondence_. Communication.

36. _a tulip-root_. William III. brought to England the passion for tulip-growing which originated in Holland. At this time it was already on the wane in England.

Page 21.

5. _setting dog_. Setter.

_made_. Trained.

10. _humours_. Pleasantries.

Page 22.

4. _played with it_. Now _played it_.

9. _quail-pipe_. A pipe with which quails are lured to the nets.

26. _humour_. Whim, notion. Cf. Shakespeare, I _Henry IV_, III. i. 237, 'You are altogether governed by humours.'

Page 23.

4. _turned_. Adapted.

8. _my twenty-first speculation_ argues that it is better for a man to go into trade than to enter an over-crowded profession, and reproves 'parents who will not rather choose to place their sons in a way of life where an honest industry cannot but thrive, than in stations where the greatest probity, learning, and good sense may miscarry.'

SPECTATOR 109.

Page 23.

16. _conversation_. Intercourse, behaviour. Cf. Shakespeare, _Antony and Cleopatra_, II. vi. 131, 'Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation.'

Page 24.

1. _jetting_. Projecting. Cf. Shakespeare, _Titus Andronicus,_ II. i. 64:

How dangerous It is to jet upon a prince's right.

_habit_. v. note on p. 10, 1. 20.

2. The bonnet of the Yeomen of the Guard is a round cap of black velvet with a gold band.

10. _the tilt-yard_. Formerly the yard of St. James's Palace.

11. _Whitehall_ was formerly a royal palace. It was almost entirely destroyed in the two fires of 1691 and 1697.

14. _target_. Small shield. Cf. Shakespeare, 3 Henry VI., II i. 40:

Bear Upon my target three fair-shining suns.

16. _pommel_. Rim in front of saddle.

17. _rid_. Obsolete. Now _rode_.

_tournament_. Here used for lists.

24. _the coffee-house_, v. Appendix I.

27. _bass-viol_. A large fiddle-shaped instrument held between the legs. It was very fashionable in the eighteenth century, and was generally to be found in the sitting-rooms of the upper classes for the use of any guests who could perform on it. It is the viol-de-gamboys of Sir Andrew Aguecheek (_Twelfth Night_, i. iii. 27).

28. _basket-hilt_. Steel hilt shaped like a basket.

Page 25.

1. _go-cart_. A sort of cage on small wheels for teaching children to walk.

5. _hasty-pudding_. A kind of batter made of flour or meal and water.

6. _white-pot_. A very rich Devonshire dish.

20. _slashes_. Slits to show the lining of a garment.

Page 26.

18. _knight of this shire_. Member of Parliament for this county.

30. _such_. Such and such, a certain. Cf. Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_, I. iii. 128, 'You spurned me such a day.'

Page 27.

2. _discourse of_. Discourse concerning. Cf. Shakespeare, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, II. iv. 140:

Now no discourse, except it be of love.

6. _the battle of Worcester_, 1651, was the final defeat of Charles II. by Cromwell.

7. _whim_. Whimsical idea.

SPECTATOR 110.

Page 27.

22. Psalm cxlvii. 9, 'He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.'

Page 28.

25. _Locke_. The author of the _Essay on the Human Understanding_ died in 1704. The reference is to II. xxxiii. 10.

26. _curious_. Elaborate, minutely detailed. Cf. Shakespeare, _Cymbeline_, V. v. 361:

A most curious mantle, wrought by the hand Of his queen mother.

Page 29.

14. _by that means_. On that account. Cf. Shakespeare, 2 _Henry VI._, II. i. 178:

By this means Your lady is forthcoming yet at London.

Page 30.

8. _Lucretius_. Poet and philosopher of the last century B.C. His opinion on this point is expressed in _De Rerum Natura_, IV. 29, 33, et seq.

13. _pressed_. Impressed, constrained.

27. _Antiquities of the Jews_, XVII. xv. 415.

SPECTATOR 112.

Page 33.

27. _do_. Strictly _does_.

Page 34.

3. _incumbent_. Occupant (of the clerk's place).

13. _tithe-stealers_. The tithes being paid in kind, it was easy to cheat the parson out of some portion of them.

16. _his patron_. The squire, who gave him his living.

SPECTATOR 113.

Page 35.

11. _settled_. Salmon thinks that the walk was not actually settled upon the widow as her property, but that it was indissolubly connected with her in Sir Roger's mind.

20. Cf. Orlando in _As You Like It_, III. ii. 10:

Carve on every tree The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.

Page 36.

17. _rid_. v. note on p. 24, 1. 17.

19. _bitted_. Trained to carry their heads well with a bearing rein.

22. _assizes_. Sessions of the court.

Page 37.

20. _far gone_. Deeply experienced. For this use of _gone_, cf. Keats, _On a Lock of Milton's Hair_, 25, 'Grey gone in passion.'

21. _confident_. Now _confidant_.

28. _humane_. Human, civilized.

34. _pretended_. Presumed, attempted. Cf. Shakespeare, I Henry VI., IV. i. 6:

And none your foes but such as shall pretend Malicious practices against his state.

Page 38.

7. _go on with_. Continue to charm you with, proceed with.

20. _discovered_, v. note on p. 5, 1, 12.

31. _last_. Most extreme.

Page 39.

9. _the sphinx_. The monster which continued to oppress Thebes until such time as one of her victims should be able to answer the riddle she put to him. Oedipus answered her, and she destroyed herself.

21. _a publick table_. When away from home, it was usual for a traveller to dine, not at his lodgings, but at a _public table_ or _ordinary_.

22. _tansy_. A very popular dish of the seventeenth century, a kind of rich, spiced custard.

Page 40.

3. _Martial_. A Latin poet of the first century of our era. i. 69.

SPECTATOR 114.

Page 40.

24. _pretending_. Pretentious.

_in both cases._ In both particulars, i.e. fortune and conversation.

Page 41.

12. _dipped_. Mortgaged.

32. _personate_. Appear the possessor of.

Page 42.

7, 13. _Laertes and Irus_. Laertes was king of Ithaca and father of Ulysses; Irus, or properly Arnaeus, a beggar who kept watch over Penelope's suitors. Their names are here introduced as typical of the rich and the poor man.

10. _four shillings in the pound_. The amount of the land tax.

19. _way_. If the verb is correctly _are_, _way_ should be written in the plural.

Page 43.

11. _Cowley_, the poet and essayist, who died in 1667.

14. _author who published his works_. Dr. Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, published Cowley's works in 1688.

18. _face_. Appearance. Cf. Shakespeare, _Tempest_, 1. ii. 104, 'The outward face of royalty.'

_great Vulgar_. Cowley concludes his Sixth Essay, Of Greatness, with a translation of Horace, Book III, _Ode_ i, commencing:

Hence, ye profane, I hate ye all, Both the great vulgar, and the small.

25. _lately mentioned_. In Steele's last paper, _Spectator_ 109, p. 26, 1. 29.

26. _point_. Appoint. Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet xiv. 6:

Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind.

Page 44.

2. _being_. Existence, state of being. Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet lxxxi. II:

Tongues to be your being shall rehearse.

7. _relish_. Taste, enjoyment. Cf. Shakespeare, _Troilus and Cressida_, III. ii. 20:

The imaginary relish is so sweet

10. _mansions_. Abiding-places. Cf. St. John, xiv. 2, 'In my Father's house are many mansions.'

13. Quoted from an earlier passage in the same essay (v. note on p. 43, 1. 18).

SPECTATOR 115.

Page 45.

26. _the spleen_. Melancholy disposition, not the organ of that name. Cf. Shakespeare, _As You Like It_, iv. i. 217, 'Begot of thought, conceived of spleen.'

27. _the vapours_. Moods of depression. Cf. Fielding, _Amelia_,