PAGE 3. Motto. Statius, Theb. ii. 128. (Epist. to Dr. Arbuthnot, 232-3). -It was the custom of the playhouse at this time for the wits and men-about-town to go to the Side-boxes, and for the ladies to sit in the Front or Middle-boxes (Cf. Nos. 88, 311, 377) Steele epitomises an audience thus "Three of the fair sex for the front boxes, two gentlemen of wit and pleasure for the side-boxes, and three substantial citizens for the pit" (Theatre, No. 3). Cf. Congrove's Double-Dealer, II. ii.; Tatler, Nos. 77 and 217; Rape of the Lock, v. 14; and Gay's Toilette. At the first performance of Cato, Addison entertained Bishop Berkeley and some friends in a sidebox with "two or three flasks of burgundy and champagne. Dr. Johnson's definition of a side-box as the "seat for the ladies on the side of the theatre" shows that by his time that part of the house was no longer reserved for only the bolder or less reputable of their sex. He and his party occupied the "front row in a side-box" at Covent Garden on the first night of She Stoops to Conquer (Forster's Goldsmith, IV. xv., quoted by Mr. Dobson). -Patches. See vol. i. p. 187. The setting' of the headdress was also symbolic of political leanings. Cf. The Free•holder: "She has contrived to shew her principles by the setting of her commode.” PAGE 4 Addison quotes from Cowley's Davideis, iii. 403-4, but changes the sex of the Tiger:for his present purpose. He borrows the quotation from Statius from Cowley's notes. PAGE 6. Oration of Pericles. Thucydides, II. xlv. No. 81. Motto. Juvenal, Sat. iii. 33. No. 82. -Ludgate was, till the order for its removal in July 1760, a prison for debtors who were freemen of the city, lawyers, or clergy men. PAGE 7. Denham's: Cooper's Hill, ll. 31-2. "Tho' several ways:' No. 83. PAGE 12. An old man. Hogarth has satirised this image in his "Time smoking a Picture" (1761). See also his Analysis of Beanity (p. 118, ed. 1753). PAGE 13. Motto. Virgil, Æn. ii. 6-8. No, 84, Duelling. See vol. i. p. 36 n. 323 1 No. 84, No. 85, Pharamond. See vol. i. p. 288 and note. The names Eucrate (ib.) and Spinamont are coined by Steele to give point to his modern application, the former signifying 'temperate (eкparoS), the latter being a disguise for Mr. Richard Thornhill, who shot Sir Cholmondeley Dering in a duel in Tuttle-fields on 9th May 1711. This encounter, which, according to Swift, "made a noise at the time, is referred to by him in his Journal to Stella under that date. See B. I. (Thornhill, Richard). Jeremy Collier had already anticipated some of Steele's arguments in his conference 'Of Duelling' between Philotimus and Philalethes (Essays, 2nd ed. 1697, p. 103). PAGE 15. Line 12. 'which spoke the utmost sense of his Majesty without ability to express it,' A. PAGE 17. Motto. Horace, Ars Poet., 319-322. Pye, piety, a very ancient pun. Cf. vol. i. p. 316. PAGE 18. The evergreen "History of the Two Children in the Wood" was printed with "The old Song upon the Same" in chap-book form in 1700. See Ashton's Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century, p. 369 et seq., for an account of this rare pamphlet. The earliest version of the ballad in the British Museum is dated 1640. Line 29. are such as Virgil himself would have touched upon had the like story been told by that Divine Poet. For which..” A. With this allusion to Virgil in A cf. vol. i. Nos. 70 and 74. Addison's emendations throughout this paper are for the most part a reduction of the emphasis of the first issue-e.g. ' wonderfully natural' becomes 'natural,'—a peace-offering to the "little conceited Wits" who had not relished his praise of the Ballads. In the concluding paragraph Addison may refer to an anonymous threepenny pamphlet, ascribed to Dr. William Wagstaffe, A Comment upon the History of Tom Thumb, which reached a second edition in 1711. "It is a surprising thing," writes the satirist, "that in an Age so Polite as this, in which we have such a number of Poets, Criticks, and Commentators, some of the best things that are extant in our language should pass unobserv'd. Indeed we had an Enterprising Genius of late, that has thought fit to disclose the Beauties of some Pieces to the World, that might have been otherwise indiscernable, and believ'd trifling and insipid, for no other Reason but their unpolish'd Homeliness of Dress. And if we were to apply our selves, instead of the Classicks, to the Study of Ballads it is impossible to say what improvement might be made to Wit in general and the Art of Poetry in particular." The story of Tom Thumb will be found "superior to either of those incomparable Poems of Chevy Chase or The Children in the Wood" (pp. 1, 2). He commends "the Beauty, Regularity, and Majestic Simplicity of the Relation" (p. 18) and adds, "tho' I am very well satisfied with this Performance, yet according to the usual modesty of Authors, I am oblig'd to tell the World it will be a great Satisfaction to me, knowing my own insufficiency, if I have given but some hints of the Beauties of this Poem " (p. 21). And again, "The most refin'd Writers of this Age have been delighted with the reading it. Mr. Tho. D'Urfey, I am told, is an Admirer, and Mr. John Dunton has |