NOTES TO THE ESSAY ON

ADDISON

WHIGS AND TORIES. As these two political parties are so frequently mentioned by Macaulay in this essay, the student would do well to consult Lecky's History of England in the XVIII. Century, vol. i., ch. 1. He says in part: "The main object of the Whig party in the early part of the eighteenth century was to establish in England a system of government in which the will of the people as expressed by Parliament should be supreme, and the power of the monarch should be subject to the limitations it imposed. The substitution of a parliamentary title for divine right as the basis of the throne, and the assertion of the right of the nation to depose a dynasty which had transcended the limits of the constitution, were the great principles for which the Whigs were contending. ... The Tory party, on the other hand, under Queen Anne was to a great extent, and under George I. almost exclusively Jacobite. The overwhelming majority of its members held fervently the doctrines of the divine right of kings and of the sinfulness of all resistance, and they accordingly regarded the power of Parliament as altogether subordinate to that of a legitimate king."

103. Lucy Aikin (1781–1864) made her reputation chiefly

by her historical works, which were Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth 1818; Memoirs of the Court of King James I., 1822; Memoirs of the Court of Charles I., 1833; and The Life of Joseph Addison, 1843.

103, 14. the courteous knight refers to Rogero, a character in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, who was forced to fight a duel with Bradamante, a woman disguised as a man. To avoid hurting her he exchanged his magic sword "Balisarda " for one less deadly.

104, 18. Laputan flapper. See Gulliver's Travels by Swift, Part III., chap. ii. In the flying island of Laputa, Gulliver found the people so absent-minded by reason of deep thinking that it was customary for the great men of the country to employ boys, carrying flappers" made of bladders, to strike them on the head, and so arouse them when their attention was required.

66

105, 10. Theobald's was a palace near London used as a residence by Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer under Queen Elizabeth, and later as a private hunting seat by James I.

105. 11. Steenkirks: large, loose neckties. After the defeat of the French at the battle of Steenkirk (1692), these ties became popular in England, and were worn to commemorate the negligent dress of the French officers who had been taken by surprise.

105, 13.

Hampton: Hampton Court Palace, about twelve miles from London.

106, 7. a hundred and twenty years. Addison died in 1719. Westminster Abbey: in London, built by Edward the Confesor in 1049-65. It was rebuilt by Henry III. and Edward I., and now stands substantially as they left it. The abbey contains the tombs of most of England's sovereigns,

besides those of a host of other celebrated persons. The last great honor that England can pay her dead is to bury them within the walls of Westminster Abbey.

106, 18. Thomas Parnell: (1679-1718) a minor poet of the reign of Queen Anne, whose chief work is The Hermit.

106, 19. Hugh Blair: (1718-1800) a Scotch preacher, and an 18th century authority on rhetoric. His criticisms, especially those in connection with the genuineness of Ossian's poems, were faulty.

106, 20.

Johnson wrote a tragedy called Irene. See note to Milton, 7, 13.

106, 21. high department of literature: i.e., the writing of essays, such as the papers of the Tatler and the Spectator.

107, 6. Button's, a London coffee-house frequented by Addison, Steele, Pope, Swift, and other wits and literary men of their time. Letters were frequently left here for the Spectator, being dropped into the mouth of a lion erected to receive them.

108, 15.

Wild of Sussex: formerly an immense forest in the south-eastern part of England.

108, 17. Dunkirk: a town in north-eastern France which Charles II. sold to Louis XIV. in 1661.

108, 19. Tangier, the port of Morocco, was given to Charles II. as part of the dower of Catharine of Braganza, in 1662.

109, 11.

Rabbinical Learning: the teaching of the Tal

mud and of the Jewish law.

109, 16. the Revolution: i.e., of 1688, when William of Orange ascended the English throne.

109, 19. John Tillotson: (1630–1694) Archbishop of Can

terbury in 1691. He had a seat in the Council, and was King William's chief adviser in matters of church government.

109, 24.

Charter House: a celebrated London school founded in 1611. It was removed to Surrey in 1687.

110, 22. Magdalene College (pronounced Maudlin), the wealthiest of the twenty-three colleges that go to make up Oxford University.

111, 6, 7. his chancellor: judge Jeffreys. See Macaulay's History, vol. iii., ch. 8.

111. 13. a Papist. The right of electing a president lay with the Fellows of the college, and a Roman Catholic was ineligible. John Hough, Bp. of Coventry, had been elected by the Fellows; but he and they were expelled by James II., who appointed a Roman Catholic, one Anthony Farmer, to be president. Not insisting, however, on the appointment of Farmer, James ordered Parker, Bp. of Oxford, to be installed president, and appointed twelve Romanists as Fellows.

112, 12. Demies students who hold scholarships at Magdalene College. At all other Oxford colleges the holders of scholarships are called "scholars." The word "Demy" is abbreviated from “demi-socius,” a half-fellow.

113, 10. and poet.

Lucretius: (B.C. 95-51) a Roman philosopher Catullus: (B.c. 87-47) a writer of epigrams and Claudian: (b. about A.D. 365) the last of the classic Latin poets.

love poems.

113, 11. Prudentius: (b. A.D. 348) one of the earliest Christian poets.

113, 17. George Buchanan: (1506-1582) a native of Scotland, renowned as an historian and a writer of Latin poetry. He taught both in Scotland and on the Continent, and was at one time tutor to Mary Queen of Scots.

114, 8, 9. Eton and Rugby: celebrated English schools. 114, 14. Notice the five arguments that Macaulay gives to prove that Addison's knowledge of Greek and of Latin prose was not large. Mr. Courthope ("English Men of Letters," Addison, p. 28) disagrees with Macaulay in regard to Addison's knowledge of Greek.

114, 16. Metamorphoses: the chief poetical work of Ovid (B.c. 43-A.D. 17). It comprises 15 books, which arc mainly devoted to the love episodes of the gods.

114, 20. Statius (45-96) a Latin poet, author of Thebais, an epic poem in 12 books.

115, 1. Pentheus, king of Thebes, opposed the worship of Bacchus. In revenge the god caused him to be torn in pieces by his mother and two aunts who discovered him secretly watching them as they worshipped. Both Theocritus, a Syracusan pastoral poet born about B.C. 290, and Euripides (B.C. 480), one of the three great Greek tragedians, relate this story of Pentheus.

115, 13. Ausonius (b. A.D. 310) and Manilius were Latin poets.

115, 22. Hannibal: (B.c. 247-183), the famous Carthaginian general, who, with 59,000 soldiers, unsuccessfully attempted to capture Rome. After crossing the Pyrenees, his army had been reduced by hardships and by attacks from the enemy to barely 26,000 men.

115, 24.

Polybius: (B.c. 204-122) a Greek historian.

116, 1. Livy: (B.c. 59-A.D. 17) the celebrated Roman historian, whose chief work is Historia, or Annales Rerum Romanorum ab Urbe condita, in 142 books. Silius Italicus (A.D. 25-100) wrote an epic poem on the Second Punic War.

116, 3. Plutarch (d. A.D. 120) wrote the lives of eminent