Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/341

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NOTES
267

Canto I. ll, 419-456. Butler was one of Swift's favourite authors. (Craik, I. 138, note.)

P. 33, l. 20. like the lady in a lobster, a name given by the fisher-folk to an internal part of the lobster. Cf. Herrick The Fairie Temple: or Oberon's Chappell:

The Saint, to which the most he prayes And offers Incense Nights and dayes, The Lady of the Lobster is . . .

P. 34, l. 1. Dryden in a long harangue, &c., a reference to the preliminary dissertations in Dryden's Vergil.

P. 34, l. 8. his was of gold, &c. Cf. Iliad vi. 234-6.

P. 34, l. 18. Bl-ckm-re, Sir Richard Blackmore (c. 1650-1729), a writer of immense and unreadable epics (hence the present of spurs), and a famous physician (hence the mention of Aesculapius). For the mention of spur and bridle, cf Tale, Sect. VIII. (S. i. 110).

P. 35, l. 10. Creech, Thomas (1650-1700), a translator of Horace and Lucretius.

P. 35, l. 15. Ogleby [or Ogilby], John (1600-1676), began life as a dancing-master, taught himself Greek and Latin, translated Homer and Vergil, and finally became a printer. His translations were painstaking but dull.

P. 35, l. 17. Oldham, John (1653-1683), a poet and satirist. He is here mentioned for his Pindarics.

P. 35, l. 18. Afra the Amazon (cf. Verg. Aen. vii. 803-I1), Mrs Aphra Behn (1640-1689), novelist, dramatist and poetess. Her works are not remarkable for decency (see the story in Chap. LIV. of Lockhart's Life of Scott). She wrote a number of Pindarics: hence the mention of her name here.