[Footnote 5: 'Prolific hum': this alludes to a phenomenon, not more strange than true,--the person here meant having actually laid upwards of forty eggs, as several physicians and fellows of the Royal Society can attest: one of whom, we hear, has undertaken the incubation, and will no doubt favour the world with an account of his success.]
[Footnote 6: 'Drum': this is a riotous assembly of fashionable people, of both sexes, at a private house, consisting of some hundreds: not unaptly styled a drum, from the noise and emptiness of the entertainment. There are also drum-major, rout, tempest, and hurricane, differing only in degrees of multitude and uproar, as the significant name of each declares.]
[Footnote 7: 'Lockman's fate': to be little read, and less approved.]
[Footnote 8: 'Chardin': this genial knight wore at his own banquet a garland of flowers, in imitation of the ancients; and kept two rosy boys robed in white, for the entertainment of his guests.]
[Footnote 9: 'Isis': in allusion to the unnatural orgies said to be solemnised on the banks of this river; particularly at one place, where a much greater sanctity of morals and taste might be expected.]
[Footnote 10: 'Russell:' a famous mimic and singer, ruined by the patronage of certain ladies of quality.]
[Footnote 11: 'Guthrie:' a scribbler of all work in that age.]
[Footnote 12: 'Bosom of the wood:' this last line relates to the behaviour of the Hanoverian general in the battle of Dettingen.]
Howe'er I turn, or wheresoe'er I tread, This giddy world still rattles round my head! I pant for silence e'en in this retreat-- Good Heaven! what demon thunders at the gate?
In vain you strive, in this sequester'd nook, To shroud you from an injured friend's rebuke.
An injured friend! who challenges the name? If you, what title justifies the claim? Did e'er your heart o'er my affliction grieve, Your interest prop me, or your praise relieve? 10 Or could my wants my soul so far subdue, That in distress she crawl'd for aid to you? But let us grant the indulgence e'er so strong; Display without reserve the imagined wrong: Among your kindred have I kindled strife, Deflower'd your daughter, or debauch'd your wife; Traduced your credit, bubbled you at game; Or soil'd with infamous reproach your name?