[52] 'Who never mentions hell:' this is a fact; a reverend Dean, preaching at court, threatened the sinner with punishment in 'a place which he thought it not decent to name in so polite an assembly.'--P.
[53] 'Sancho's dread doctor:' see 'Don Quixote,' chap, xlvii.--P.
[54] This was originally written in the year 1715, when Mr Addison intended to publish his book of medals; it was sometime before he was Secretary of State; but not published till Mr Tickell's edition of his works; at which time the verses on Mr Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz., in 1720.--P.
[55] 'Vadius:' see his history, and that of his shield, in the 'Memoirs of Scriblerus,' ch. ii.
[56] Alemena, mother of Hercules, is after his death here recounting her misfortunes to Iole, who replies by narrating the transformations of her sister Dryope.
[58] The Marchantes Tale. Written at sixteen or seventeen years of age.
[59] The first part of this prologue was written by Pope, the conclusion by Mallet.
[62] 'Basset-Table:' only this of all the Town Eclogues was Mr Pope's, and is here printed from a copy corrected by his own hand. The humour of it consists in this, that the one is in love with the game, and the other with the sharper--W.
[63] 'The Lady Frances Shirley:' a lady whose great merit Mr Pope took a real pleasure in celebrating.
[64] 'Bertrand's:' a famous toy-shop at Bath.
[66] 'Flattery or fib:' the 'Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.'--P.
[67] 'Arms:' such toys being the usual presents from lovers to their mistresses.--P.
[68] 'Print:' when she delivers Aeneas a suit of heavenly armour.--P.
[69] 'Truth nor lies:' if you have neither the courage to write satire, nor the application to attempt an epic poem. He was then meditating on such a work.--P.
[70] 'Algerian grot:' alluding to Numa's projecting his system of politics in this grot, assisted, as he gave out, by the goddess Aegeria.--P.
[71] 'What-d'ye-call-it:' a comedy by Gay.
[74] 'Bellenden, Lepell, and Griffin:' ladies of the Court of the Princess Caroline.
[77] 'God send the king safe landing:' this ballad was written anno 1717.
[81] 'Mrs Pulteney:' the daughter of John Gumley of Isleworth, who acquired his fortune by a glass manufactory.
[82] 'Sandys:' George Sandy's, the old, and as yet unequalled, translator of Ovid's Metamorphoses.