The Battle of the Books; with selections from the literature of the Phalaris controversy/Notes
ABBREVIATIONS
S. (followed by a Roman numeral), Swift's Prose Works, ed. Temple Scott. The numeral indicates the volume.
T. iii., Temple's Works (1814), Vol. III.
Craik (not followed by a numeral), Craik's Selections from Swift (1892), Vol. I.
Craik (followed by a Roman numeral), Craik's Life of Swift (1894), 2 vols. The numeral indicates the volume.
N.E.D., New English Dictionary, ed. Murray.
D.N.B., Dictionary of National Biography.
Courtenay, Courtenay's Memoirs of Sir William Temple (1836), 2 vols.
Unless otherwise stated the references to the following notes are to the pages of this book. NOTES
The Battle of The Books
P. lxiii, The Bookseller to the Reader; this account of the Ancient and Modern Learning Controversy was probably written just before the Battle of the Books was published (see note on l. 13, below). It is generally agreed that it was not written by Swift. In this preface the story of the quarrel is carried down to the year 1699: in the Battle itself the account ends with Boyle's attack on Bentley and Wotton (1698).
P. lxiii., l. 3. the former, the Tale of a Tub. The Tale and the Battle were first published in 1704, and appeared in one volume, along with A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit.
P. lxiii., l. 3. I mean the year 1697, as reference to the dates of the pamphlets published in the controversy will show, the years 1698 and 1699, rather than 1697, were those in which the 'dispute was on foot' (see Bibliography). Swift wished to make it appear that the 1704 volume was written long before publication (cf. p. xxxviii.), and the dates he gives are everywhere as early as possible. In this case, of course, he may not have been responsible for the text; but he would almost certainly see it before publication.
P. lxiii., l. 6. The essay of Sir William Temple's is that on Ancient and Modern Learning, which appeared in the second part of his Miscellanea (1690): the answer of W. Wotton is his Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1st edn. 1694: second edn. with Bentley's Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris, &c. 1697: third edn. with Wotton's Defence of the Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, 1705): the Appendix by Dr Bentley is the Dissertation just mentioned as having appeared in the second edn. of Wotton's book: the new edition of Phalaris is that published by Charles Boyle in 1695: Mr Boyle replied at large in Dr Bentley's Dissertations . . . Examined by the Honourable Charles Boyle, Esq. (first edn. 1698: second edn. with the addition of a Short Account of Dr Bentley, by way of Index, same year; third edn. with the addition of a few remarks occasioned by John Milner's View of the Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris, 1699: the Doctor voluminously rejoined in his Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris. With An Answer to the Objections of the Honourable Charles Boyle, Esquire . . . 1699.
P. lxiii., l. 13. the Honourable Charles Boyle became Earl of Orrery in 1703: the Battle was published in 1704.
P. lxiv., l. 6. St James's Library. The Royal Library was in St James's Palace. Bentley was appointed ⟨librarian⟩ in 1694 (see p. xxi.).
P. lxiv., l. 9. the manuscript by injury of fortune or weather. The lacunae in the Battle were probably not due to the cause here alleged. In the course of the Tale and the Battle there are nine such gaps (Tale, S. i. 52, 118, 138: Battle, pp. (of this edn.) 30, 31, 34, 35, 37; see also p. 47). In the fifth edition of the Tale and Battle (1710) the following note is added at the occurrence of the first hiatus: "Here is pretended a defect in the manuscript, and this is very frequent with our author, either when he thinks he cannot say anything worth reading, or when he has no mind to enter on the subject, or when it is a matter of little moment, or perhaps to amuse his reader (whereof he is frequently very fond), or lastly, with some satirical intention."
In the Battle it will be noticed that the lacunae occur at points where the narrative is in danger of becoming monotonous—a thing very likely to happen in the description of a series of combats. Another reason has been suggested for the existence of the gaps at p. 30, l. 20, and p. 31, l. 2: see the note on the first mentioned. Cf. S. i. 23 and 25.
On the question of the authorship of the notes quoted, see pp. xlviii.-ix.
P. lxv., l. 11. There is a brain seems to refer to Wotton, though the phrase wit without knowledge is ludicrously inapplicable to him. It may, of course, be a grim joke at Wotton's expense (cf. S. i. 24).
P. lxvi., l. 2. a sort of cream, &c. Curiously enough there is a similar metaphor in de Calliere's Histoire poétique (see p. xlv. of this vol.), p. 74, ed. 1688.
P. I, l. 2. the Annual Records of Time, almanacks. The reference, given by Swift, to the Ephem. de Mary Clarke has caused some difficulty. Scott (following Hawkesworth) added to it the explanation 'now called Wing's Sheet Almanack, and printed by J. Roberts, for the Company of Stationers.'
Swift referred, in fact, to the sheet almanack prepared by Vincent Wing and 'printed by Mary Clark for the Company of Stationers.' I have only been able to get a copy of this almanack for the year 1690. It contains in columns the calendar for the year, with weather prognostications, and other entries. In the top left hand corner is printed a figure showing the signs of the Zodiac, and beside it is printed the following rhyme:
Poverty Peace:
Peace maketh Riches flow,
(Fate ne'er doth cease:)
Riches produceth pride,
Pride is War's ground,
War begets Poverty, &c.
(The World) goes round.
Beneath the figure and the rhyme is put:
Omnium rerum Vicissitudo: All things change.
In the right hand corner is another figure with another rhyme.
The contraction Ephem. in Swift's note stands for Ephemeris or Ephemerides, that is, almanack. The Opt. Edit. to which he refers, is, presumably, that for the current year.
It may be mentioned that a rhyme similar to that just given is to be found in FitzGerald's Polonius, under the heading War:
Peace Peace begets Riches—Fate will not cease
Riches beget Pride—Pride is War's ground
War begets Poverty—and so the world goes round.
Old Saw.
In his Essay on Poetry (T. iii. 438) Temple remarks that 'plenty begets wantonness and pride.'
With the general sentiment of the opening of the Battle one may compare the following from Gulliver's Travels, 'poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance' (S. viii.-255).
P. 2, l. 4. to speak in the phrase, &c., perhaps a reference to Hobbes, who, like other philosophers, occasionally refers to the animals for illustrations of human policy, e. g. Leviathan, Part II. Chap. 17.
P. 3, l. 16. somewhere or other. In the original editions a very large number of words and phrases are printed in italics, as well as the speeches of the Spider, the Bee, and the others: it would be contrary to modern usage to keep the italics in all these cases; but most editions italicise this phrase and the others so printed in this edition. The words were probably inserted that Swift might avoid saying in so many words whether he favoured the Ancients or the Moderns. (Cf. p. lxiv., ll. 10, 11.)
P. 4, l. 6. especially towards the East. According to Temple the Ancients obtained their knowledge from Eastern countries (cf. p. 55).
P. 4, l. 9. summity. (Lat. summitas), an obsolete form of summit. Sandys in his Relation of a Journey (1615) speaks of 'the summity of a hill.' (N.E.D.)
P. 5, last line, engine, contrivance.
P. 6, l. 3. engineer, the contriver of the engine.
Cf." . . . nor did he [Vulcan] escape
By all his engines, but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew, to build in Hell."
P.L. l. 749-51
"The dreadfull enginer of phrases insteede of thunderboltes."—G. Harvey. Pierce's Supererogation. (N.E.D.)
P. 6, l. 7. the Grecians after an engagement, &c. Cf. Thucydides l. 54 (Battle of Sybota), II. 92, &c. Swift was reading Hobbes' tr. of Thucydides about the time when he was writing the Battle (see Craik, I. 72).
P. 7, l. 6. In these books is wonderfully instilled, &c. Cf. "books . . . do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them" (Milton, Areopagitica, ed. Hales, p. 5).
P. 7, l. 8. to inform them, to animate them.
Cf."A fiery soul, which working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy body to decay
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay."
(Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, ll. 156-8.)
P. 7, l. 12. brutum hominis. The origin of this phrase is not known. A well-known Scholastic authority writes, 'It is evidently the expression of one who holds a plurality of formal principles in the essence of man. Thus the brutum hominis I should understand to mean practically anima belluina.' See also Craik's note on the phrase (Craik, p. 421).
P. 8, l. 3. Scotus (1265?-1308), the famous medieval theologian: his chief works are commentaries on the Bible, on Aristotle, and on the Sentences of Lombard. He was hostile to the teaching of Aristotle, but he is mentioned here as his pupil probably because of his use of the Aristotelian logic. Plato had been deposed by the theologians in favour of Aristotle long before the time of Duns Scotus.
P. 9, l. 10. the King's Library, see note on p. lxiv., l. 6..
P. 9, l. 15. the urgent importunity of my friends, &c. Swift is fond of ridiculing this sort of affectation. Cf. S. i. 90, " . . . my said several readings (which perhaps the world may one day see, if I can prevail on any friend to steal a copy, or on certain gentlemen of my admirers to be very importunate) . . . ". Both before and after Swift's time there was supposed to be something discreditable in publishing a book, particularly for profit: hence the excuses alleged in Prefaces and Dedications.
P. 9, l. 18. The guardian of the Regal Library, Dr Bentley (see pp. xx. and xxi.).
P. 9, l. 19. chiefly renowned for his humanity, a reference to the last paragraph but one of Boyle's Preface to his edition of Phalaris (see p. 94). Bentley himself translated humanitas as humanity (see pp. 115-6).
The following note appears in the 5th Edn: 'The Honourable Mr Boyle, in the Preface to his edition of Phalaris, says he was refused a Manuscript by the Library-keeper pro solita humanitate sua.'
P. 9, l. 22. two of the Ancient chiefs, Phalaris and Æsop (see pp. xxvii.-ix.).
P. 10, l. 17. there was a strange confusion, &c. Boyle wrote in the Examination (1698), p. 14: "Another [learned man] that was desirous to have a sight of the Alexandrian MS, and applied himself to Dr Bentley very earnestly for it, met with no other answer to his request but that the Library was not fit to be seen . . . "
To the latter part of this accusation Bentley replied in his Dissertation (1699), pp. lxv.-vi.: " . . . I will own that I have often said and lamented that the Library was not fit to be seen. . . . If the room be too mean and too little for the books; if it be much out of repair; if the situation be inconvenient; if the access to it be dishonourable; is the Library-keeper to answer for it?"
P. 11, l. 7. Descartes next to Aristotle: Descartes is mentioned because he was put forward by the advocates of the Moderns as a philosopher worthy to rank with the Ancients (see for example Fontenelle's Pluralité des Mondes, 1st dialogue, ed. 1686, pp. 23-4; Temple's Essay, p. 58 of this vol.; Wotton's Refections, Chapters XIV. and XXVII.).
P. 11, l. 8. Hobbes. For the mention of Hobbes compare Temple's Essay, p. 58 of this vol.
the Seven Wise Masters (for an account of the book see Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable). Swift probably mentions the Seven Wise Masters as a sort of modern equivalent to the Seven Sages of the Ancients (cf. T. iii. pp. 458, 494. Of course the Seven Wise Masters has nothing to do with the 'wise men of Gotham').
P. 11, ll. 9, 10. Vergil . . . Dryden . . . Withers. Vergil and Dryden are mentioned together on account of Dryden's tr. of Vergil's works (1697). George Wither (or Withers, as Swift spells the name: cf. Pope, Dunciad i. 296) (1588-1667), is now chiefly remembered for his Shepherd's Hunting, a pastoral. It is for this poem, probably, that he is mentioned with Vergil. Wither was regarded as a typically bad poet in Swift's time. Recently his reputation has revived, and a new edn. of his poetical works has been published by Mr F. Sidgwick.
P. 11, ll. 17, 18. light-horse, lyrical poets; at p. 23 of the Battle the heavy-armed foot are said to be mercenaries; they are the historians; the mercenaries should logically be those authors who write for gain, and this may be Swift's meaning. Craik suggests that they are writers 'who have little interest in the points of the struggle, but, from the accident of their date, fight on the side of the Moderns' (Craik, 423).
P. 11, l. 20, their horses large, refers evidently to the light-horse.
P. 12, l. 11. the Moderns were much the more ancient of the two. Cf. Bacon, Advancement of Learning (ed. Pollard), p. 198, 'These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient ordine retrogrado, by a computation backward from ourselves': Fontenelle, Pluralité des Mondes ed. 1686, p. 350, 'les anciens étaient jeunes auprès de nous': and Perrault's Parallèles (1st dialogue), 'notre siècle est postérieur à tous les autres et par conséquent le plus ancien de tous.'
P. 13, l. 10. Temple, see pp. xiv. and foll, of Introduction: it was Temple who introduced the Ancient and Modern Learning Controversy into England.
P. 13, l. 19. Things were at this crisis, &c. The apologue of the Spider and the Bee is an expansion of one of Temple's arguments (see pp. 53-5 of Appendix).
P. 14, l. 3. all after the Modern way of fortification. The advocates of the Moderns claimed that in this art the Ancients had been excelled: cf. the fifth dialogue of Perrault's Parallèles.
P. 14, l. 22. Beelzebub, the god of flies.
P. 16, l. 18. opposite, opponent, Cf. Hamlet, V. ii. 60-2:
Between the pass and fell incensed points
Of mighty opposites.
P. 17, l. 6. to shew my improvements in the mathematics. Mathematics was a subject in which it was claimed that the Moderns had excelled the Ancients. Cf. Wotton's Reflections, Chap. XIV. and pp. 77-86 of Appendix to this vol. Improvements in fortification were supposed to be a result of increased mathematical knowledge. Cf. T. iii. 470, 1.
Swift hated mathematics and lost no opportunity of deriding mathematicians: see for example Gulliver's Travels, Part III. Chap. II.
P. 17, l. 8. the materials altogether extracted, &c. Cf. Descartes, Discours de la Méthode, end of first chapter.
P. 17, l. 9. I am glad, &c. The bee's answer bears some resemblance to the following passage in Temple's Essay on Poetry (T. iii. 417): "[Bees] must range through fields as well as gardens, choose such flowers as they please, and by properties and scents they only know and distinguish: they must work up their cells with admirable art, extract their honey with infinite labour, and sever it from the wax with such distinction and choice as belongs to none but themselves to perform or to judge."
P. 19, l. 8. Æsop. Bentley had shown that the Fables attributed to Æsop were spurious. Cf. p. xxix. of Introduction.
P. 19, l. 14. he tried all his arts, &c.. Cf. Georg. IV., 440-2.
P. 21, l. 6. For anything else of genuine. Cf. Temple's Essay, pp. 75-6 of Appendix.
P. 22, l. 6. consults, consultations. Cf. Paradise Lost, Book I., last line.
P. 22, l. II. the horse are the epic poets.
P. 22, l. 14. Cowley, author among other works of certain Pindaric Odes, which Swift in his youth admired and imitated. According to the well-known story (related in Johnson's Life of Swift) it was on reading one of Swift's Pindaric Odes that Dryden exclaimed "Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet!", whence arose, according to the same story, Swift's unending hatred of Dryden.
Despréaux, i.e. Boileau. As Boileau was one of the strongest supporters of the Ancients, it has been suggested that the name Despréaux is a mistake for Desportes. But it is more likely that Boileau is intended as he was put forward as a sort of Modern Horace. Cf. T. iii. 489: and Wotton's Reflections, Chapter IV.
P. 22, l. 14. the bowmen, the philosophers.
P. 22, l. 15. Gassendi, Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) was a French philosopher and mathematician, and an opponent of Descartes.
Descartes, Gassendi, and Hobbes are mentioned together in Wotton's Refections, Chapter XX.
P. 22, l. 18. like that of Evander. Swift is referring to the arrow of Acestes (Aen. v. 525-8).
P. 22, l. 19. Paracelsus, Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493-1541), was a philosopher, chemist, and physician. He is mentioned by Swift because of the changes which he introduced into medical science in opposition to the theories of Galen and other ancient physicians. Cf. T. iii. 515.
P. 22, l. 20. stink-pot-flingers, a reference to the chemical experiments of the Paracelsians.
P. 22, l. 2l. Rhaetia. Paracelsus was a native of Switzerland.
P. 22, l. 22. dragoons, writers on medical subjects.
P. 22, l. 23. Harvey (1578-1657), the discoverer of the circulation of the blood. Cf. Temple, p. 58 of Appendix, and Wotton's Reflections, Chap. XVIII.
Aga; an aga is a commander or chief officer in the Ottoman Empire. Cf. Robert Curzon, Monasteries in the Levant, 'He did not care for a monk, and not much for an agoumenos, but he felt small in the presence of a mighty Turkish aga.'
P. 23, l. 3. white powder. It was formerly believed that a white gunpowder existed, which exploded without noise.
P. 23, l. 5. heavy-armed foot, all mercenaries, these are the historians. Cf. note on p. 11, l. 18.
P. 23, l. 6. Guicciardini (1483-1540), an Italian historian, who wrote a history of Italy, and other works.
Davila (1576-1623), another Italian historian: he wrote a History of the Civil Wars in France, 1558-1598. For the mention of his name see Temple, p. 70 of Appendix, and Wotton's Reflections, Chap. III. ad. fin.
Polydore Vergil (1470-1555), an Italian who was sent to England by the Pope in 1501 as sub-collector of Peter's Pence. He became a naturalised Englishman in 1510, and wrote a History of England, (see pp. 152-6 of H. A. L. Fisher's History of England, 1485-1547 (1906)).
Buchanan (1506-1582), the great Scottish humanist: he is now chiefly known for his Latin paraphrase of the Psalms and his History of Scotland. He had a European reputation for his skill in Latin Verse. Cf. Temple, III. 467-8.
Mariana (1536-1624), a Spanish historian: he wrote in Latin a History of Spain and translated it into Spanish; and a book (De Rege et Regis Institutione) in which he defended tyrannicide.
Camden (1551-1623), the English antiquary and historian.
P. 23, l. 8. the engineers, are the mathematicians.
Regiomontatius, Johann Müller (1436-1476). Regiomontanus was the name given him from the name of his birthplace, Königsberg. He was a German mathematician and astronomer.
P. 23, l. 9. Wilkins, John (1614-1672), Bishop of Chester, an English mathematician and one of the founders of the Royal Society. He wrote The Discovery of a New World; or a Discourse tending to prove that 'tis probable there may be another Habitable World in the Moon (1638), with an addition in 1640 of a Discourse concerning the Possibility of a Passage thither. In 1668 he produced his Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, which contains a chapter on Phonetics. Both these books are referred to slightingly by Temple (T. iii. 475 and 517).
Aquinas (1226-1274), the greatest of the Schoolmen. His chief work is his Summa Theologiae.
Bellarmine (1542-1621), a famous apologist for the Roman Catholic Church against the Protestants. In the Tale (S. i. 56) Swift names him as one of the Schoolmen, although in fact his work was quite different from theirs.
P. 23, l. 13. calones, camp-followers.
The following note appears in the 5th Edn.; 'These are pamphlets, which are not bound or covered.'
L'Estrange, Sir Roger (1616-1704), wrote a large number of pamphlets, chiefly against the Whigs and Dissenters, as well as translations and other works.
P. 23, l. 20. Hippocrates (fl. 400 B.C.), the famous Greek physician.
Vossius, John Gerard (1577-1649), the Dutch classical scholar and theologian.
P. 24, l. 10. Momus, 'named as the presiding deity of the Moderns, probably on account of the superiority claimed for them in works of humour.' (Scott.)
It seems more probable that Momus is named because he is the typical carping critic, and the Moderns were supposed to excel in criticism (cf. Section III. of the Tale of a Tub).
P. 25, l. 1. light nimble gods, menial servants to Jupiter, cf. Iliad viii. 19 (and see Leaf's note upon the passage).
P. 25, last line. At her right hand, &c. Cf. Temple (p. 51 of Appendix), 'sufficiency . . . the worst composition out of the pride and ignorance of mankind.' This phrase seems to have annoyed Wotton (Rejections, Chaps. I. and IV.). By making Criticism the child of Pride and Ignorance Swift turns the phrase against him, for Wotton and Bentley are regarded as typical critics.
In the Tale (S, i. 71) every true critic is said to be the descendant of Momus and Hybris (Folly and Insolence).
P. 26, l. 10. her eyes turned inward. The inhabitants of Laputa, (Gulliver's Travels, Part III. Chap. II.) had 'one of their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the zenith' (S. viii. 163).
P. 26, l. 21. who . . . will . . . sacrifice, &c. Cf. Verg. Aen, i. 48, 9.
P. 27, l. 3. Momus . . . stayed not for an answer. Cf. the opening of Bacon's Essay on Truth, "'What is truth,' said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer."
P. 27, l. 8. by me children grow wiser, &c. Cf. Temple, p. 69 of Appendix, 'A boy at fifteen,' &c. There does not seem to be any particular person aimed at in this remark, unless it is Wotton, who was only 28 when he ventured to criticise Temple. On the other hand Boyle was only 18 when he produced his Phalaris.
P. 28, l. 9. Gresham and Covent Garden. Gresham College (Gresham's house in Bishopsgate Street) was the meeting-place of the Royal Society until 1710: by Covent Garden is meant Wills' Coffee-house (1, Bow St., Covent Garden). For the mention of Gresham, cf. Temple, p. 69 of Appendix.
P. 28, l. 13. now desart, but once inhabited, &c. Presumably the virtuosoes were fighting for the Moderns. The word virtuoso was a term of contempt—see for example the Tatler, Nos. 216 and 236, particularly the first mentioned.
P. 28, l. 19. W-tt-n, Wotton, see p. xvii. of Introduction.
P. 29, l. 16. B-ntl-y, Bentley, see p. xxvii. of Introduction.
P. 30, l. 7. She vanished in a mist. Cf. Aen. i. 412.
P. 30, l. 11. I must . . . petition, &c. Cf. Iliad ii. 489, and Aen. vi. 625.
P, 30, ll. 16, 17. Paracelsus . . . Galen. The single combat between these authors is apparently suggested by the following passage in Temple's Thoughts upon Reviewing the Essay of Ancient and Modern Learning: '. . . till the new philosophy had gotten ground . . . there were but few that ever pretended to exceed or equal the ancients; those that did were only some physicians, as Paracelsus and his disciples, who introduced new notions in physic and new methods of practice, in opposition to the Galenical.' (T. iii. 488.)
P. 30, l. 20. 'The blank is left probably because Swift neither felt inclined nor qualified to discuss the relations between the different medical authorities of recent times' (Craik, p. 428).
P. 31, l. 1. the wounded Aga. Cf. note on p. 22, l. 23. Swift follows Temple (pp. 58-9 of Appendix) in his doubtful treatment of Harvey.
P. 31, l. 3. Aristotle . . . Bacon. Bacon was bitterly hostile to the later developments of the Aristotelian philosophy. Temple had named Bacon as one of the greatest of the Moderns (p. 74 of Appendix) and it is noticeable that he is not wounded. For the mention of Descartes, see note on p. II, l. 7.
P. 31, l. 11. into his own vortex, refers to Descartes' theory of vortices to explain the movements of the heavenly bodies.
P. 32, l. 3. Gondibert. With the exception of the Seven Wise Masters (see note on p. 11, l. 8), this is the only book named in the Battle. Temple said that under certain circumstances he would yield that Gondibert might have excelled Homer (p. 70 of Appendix). Swift very possibly took Gondibert for the name of an author.
Gondibert (1650) was written by Sir William D'Avenant.
P. 32, l. 6. his docility in kneeling. Cf. Hudibras, I. i. 437-40.
P. 32, l. 9. Madman, who had never once seen, &c. Presumably this means that D'Avenant had not read Homer—at least not in Greek.
P. 32, l. 13. Denham, Sir John (1615-1669), is best known as the author of Cooper's Hill, Swift evidently had some regard for his work.
The following note appears in the 5th Edn.: 'Sir John Denham's Poems are very unequal, extremely good, and very indifferent, so that his detractors said, he was not the real author of Cooper's Hill.'
P. 32, l. 18. W-sl-y, Samuel (1662-1735), the father of John and Charles Wesley, wrote some poems, which are now forgotten, on religious subjects.
P. 32, ll. 19, 20. Perrault . . . Fontenelle, see pp. xi.-xiv. of Introduction.
P. 32, l. 22. Vergil . . . Dryden. Dryden published his translation of Vergil in 1697.
P. 33, l. 6. upon a sorrel gelding, &c. Cf. Hudibras, Part I. 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:
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.
P. 35, l. 18. never advancing, &c., an allusion to the involved and difficult style of Pindar's Odes.
P. 35, l. 21. Cowley, Abraham, see note, p. 22, l. 14.
P. 36, l. 9. that scarce a dozen cavaliers, &c. Cf. Iliad v. 302-4.
P. 36, l. 14. the shield that had been given him, &c., refers to Cowley's love poems.
P. 37, l. 2. your carcass, &c. Cf. Iliad xxii. 335.
P. 37, l. 9. This Venus took. 'I do not approve the author's judgement in this, for I think Cowley's Pindarics are much preferable to his Mistress.' (Note in 5th Edn.)
P. 37. Episode of Bentley and Wotton, see p. xliii. of Introduction.
P. 38, l. 2. a thousand incoherent pieces. Bentley's critics sneered at his numerous quotations (which they said he got from Lexicons) and at his studies of the fragments of the Greek poets. Cf. Boyle's Examination, p. 145; the Preface to Anthony Alsop's edn. of Æsop's Fables which refers to Bentley as quendam Bentleium, virum in volvendis Lexicis satis diligentem; and p. 133, l. 10, of the Appendix to this vol.
P. 38, l. 5. Etesian wind, a north or north-east wind. The name is derived from ἔτος, a year, and was given because this wind blows every summer in the Mediterranean.
P. 38, l. 11. In his right hand. 'The person here spoken of is famous for letting fly at everybody without distinction, and using mean and foul scurrilities.' (Note in 5th Edn.)
P. 38, l. 18. his crooked leg. Cf. Homer's description of Thersites, Iliad ii. 217 and foll.
P. 39, l. 5. He humbly gave. This speech is a parody of Bentley's style in controversy,
P. 39, l. 13. beaten out of the field. The footnote refers to Iliad ii. 212-264: but Thersites does not make any such boast as that in the text.
P. 39, l. 19. Scaliger, Joseph Justus (1540-1609), the younger of the two great classical scholars of that name.
P. 40, l. 1. thy study of humanity. The word humanity is here used to mean classical literature.
P. 40, l. 13. With him . . . he took . . . Wotton, refers to the fact that Bentley's first Dissertation appeared in the second edition of Wotton's Refections, see pp. xxvii.-ix. of this vol.
P. 40, l. 19. Aldrovandus's tomb. Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) was an Italian naturalist who wrote an immense work on natural history. The tomb is, presumably, the book on which he spent his life and eyesight.
P. 41, l. 1. As when two mongrel curs, &c., a parody of the Epic style.
P. 41, l. 6. the conscious moon. The word conscious is used of inanimate things as though they were privy to, or witnesses of, human actions or secrets. (N.E.D.) Cf. Aen. iv. 519 and Denham's Coopers Hill.
p. 41, l. 22. Phalaris and Æsop, see pp. xxvii.-ix. of Introduction.
P. 42, l. 6. For Phalaris was . . . dreaming. 'This is according to Homer, who tells the dreams of those who were killed in their sleep.' (Note in 5th Edn.)
P. 42, l. 10. A wild ass broke loose. Boyle complained that Bentley had called him an ass (cf. Boyle's Examination, pp. 219. 220, and the note to p. 197, l. 3, below).
P. 42, l. 18. Helicon was a range of mountains, where sprung the fountains of the Muses, Aganippe and Hippocrene.
P. 43, l. 3. he drew up nothing but mud, &c. Cf, Horace, Satires, I. i. 60.
P. 43, l. 11. the one he could not distinguish, Charles Boyle.
P. 44, ll. 1, 2. Oh! mother, Wotton's mother was Criticism (p. 28, last line).
P. 44, l. 6. The first part of his prayer, that is, that he might strike Temple. Wotton's Reflections were published and thus this part of his prayer was answered. As Temple was not harmed by the book, the second part of his prayer was lost. Temple, in fact, was deeply hurt at Wotton's attack (cf. p. liii. of Introduction).
P. 44, l. 13. hizzing, hissing. Cf. Shakespeare, Lear III. vi. 17, 'to have a thousand with red burning spits Come hizzing in upon 'em' (Quarto, 1605).
P. 44, l. 21. in the shape of———, Atterbury.
P. 45, l. 2. Boyle, clad in a suit of armour, &c., refers to the help given to Boyle in preparing his answer to Bentley. Cf. E. Budgell, Memoirs of the . . . Boyles (1732), pp. 194-5.
P. 45, l. 14. Philomela, the nightingale.
P. 45, l. 16. W-tt-n heavy armed. Wotton was extremely learned, but dull.
P. 45, l. 21. Phalaris, his friend, refers to Boyle's edn. of the Epistles of Phalaris (1695).
P. 46, l. 3. And as a woman, &c. 'This is also after the manner of Homer; the woman's getting a painful livelihood by spinning, has nothing to do with the similitude, nor would be excusable without such an authority.' (Note in 5th Edn.)
P. 47, l. 2. W-tt-n . . . going to sustain his . . . friend, appears to refer to the fact that Bentley's Dissertation appeared in Wotton's Reflections, but see pp. xliii.-iv. of Introduction.
Temple's Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning
P. 49, l. 8. Juvat antiquos accedere fontes: slightly altered by the substitution of antiquos for integros from Lucretius. De Rer. Nat. I. 927 and IV. 2.
P. 49, l. 13. story, history.
P. 50, l. 11. one in English upon the Antediluvian world, Thomas Burnet's Sacred Theory of the Earth. There were four books of the Sacred Theory: Temple seems to refer to the first two, published, in English, in 1684. These deal with the Deluge and Paradise.
P. 50, l. 13. the Plurality of Worlds, Fontenelle's Entretiens sur la Pluralité des Mondes (1686), see p. xii. of Introduction.
P. 50, l. 20. a small piece concerning poesy, Fontenelle's Poésies Pastorales (1688), see p. xii. of Introduction.
P. 50, l. 23. could not end, &c., refers apparently to Chapter IX. of Book II. of the Sacred Theory.
P. 51, l. 3. the censure of the old poetry, in the Digression and Discours sur l'Eglogue.
P. 51, l. 17. the similitude of a dwarf's standing, &c. Rigault quotes this simile in his analysis of Fontenelle's Digression. It does not occur in any edition of the Digression which I have seen. In any case the idea is an old one (see Bartlett's Dictionary of Quotations). Newton is said to have compared himself to a dwarf standing on the shoulders of the ancients. Mr Bernard Shaw uses the simile in First Aid to Critics (Barbara's Return to the Colors).
P. 51, l. 19. as to wit or genius, Fontenelle, Digression, ed. 1698, p. 195. "Toute la question de la prééminence entre les Anciens et les Modernes étant une fois bien entendue, se réduit à savoir si les arbres, qui étaient autrefois dans nos campagnes, étaient plus grands que ceux d'aujourd'hui. En cas qu'ils l'aient été, Homère, Platon, Démosthène, ne peuvent être égalés dans ces derniers siècles, mais si nos arbres sont aussi grands que ceux d'autrefois, nous pouvons égaler Homère, Platon, et Démosthène."
P. 54, l. 13. Delphos. Temple always uses this spelling, see pp. 136, 137 and 205-8 of this vol.: and compare S. i. 112.
P. 55, l. 1. cotemporaries. Boyle used this form in his Examination (1698): see pp. 200-1 of the Appendix to this vol.
P. 55, l. 14. There is nothing more agreed, &c. Temple's idea that Greek learning came from the East is to be found in Burnet's Sacred Theory, Book II. p. 191, and IV. 103, 151 (ed. 1697), and in Fontenelle.
P. 55, ll. 22, 23. Orpheus, Musaeus, &c. Macaulay in his Essay on Sir William Temple ridicules Temple's lists of ancient philosophers and their voyages. Temple's work does not seem to have been much below the standard of his time. Burnet was at least the equal, in learning, of most of the scholars of his day; and he mentions all the names Temple puts forward, and speaks quite seriously of the travels of Orpheus and Pythagoras. (Sacred Theory, III. p. 10, ed. 1697).
P. 58, l. 14. the new French author, Fontenelle (see above).
P. 58, l. 16. than by his own poems, see p. xii. of Introduction.
P. 59, l. 20. certain notes, &c. According to the story, a monk of Arezzo invented the staff notation, taking for the names of the notes the initial syllables of six lines of a hymn to St John the Baptist; Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La.
P. 60, l. 5. What have we remaining of Magic? Burnet treats Magic and the replies of the Oracles quite seriously (Sacred Theory, II. pp. 206-7, ed. 1697).
P. 61, l. 23. invention, discovery.
P. 62, l. 1. the loadstone, the compass.
P. 62, l. 14. surrounded, circumnavigated.
P. 64, l. 3. the lands of Yedso. Cf. 'In this manner I departed from Kamschatka, and passing the latitude of 52°52′, entered the channel of the Kurile Isles, commonly called Jedso.' (Rochon's Voyage to Madagascar, in Pinkerton, Vol. 16, p. 782.)
P. 64, l. 13. New Holland. Australia.
P. 68, l. 4. how the voice of man is framed, a reference to Part III. Chapter XIV. of Wilkins' Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (1668), in which he explains how speech-sounds are formed. Cf. note on p. 23, l. 10.
The rest of the paragraph refers to Copernicus, Newton, and other astronomers and philosophers.
P. 69, l. 20. Gresham College, the Royal Society, see note on p. 28, l. 9.
P. 70, l. 2. Strada (1572-1649), author of Prolusiones (see Guardian, Nos. 115, 119, 122) and Historia de Bello Belgico.
P. 70, l. 3. Sleyden, Johannes Sleidanus (1506-56), wrote a Latin history of Charles V.
p. 70, l. 9. the plays in Moorfields. Wrestling matches and other sports were held in Moorfields. There are several references to them in Pepys' Diary.
P. 70. l. 11, the pyramid in London. Temple refers to the Monument erected as a memorial of the Great Fire of London. Marvell's poem, Hodge's Vision from the Monument, begins:
The pyramid; . . . '
P. 71, l. 23. Politian, Angelo Ambrogini, called Politianus from his birth-place (Montepulciano), (1454-1494), a brilliant classical scholar.
P. 73, l. 12. the little treatise of Minutius Felix, the Octavius, a dialogue on Christianity (for an account of it see Mackail's Latin Literature, pp. 249-50).
P. 73, l. 20. The great wits. Macaulay has ridiculed Temple's list on the ground that it does not include Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, Tasso, Lope de Vega, Calderon, Pascal, Bossuet, Moliere, Corneille, Racine, Boileau, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, or Milton. Of these all but two (Pascal and Bossuet) are poets rather than prose writers: and Temple expressly omitted poetry (see p. 70): the other two are excluded as Temple 'mentions nothing of what is written upon the subject of divinity' (see p. 74).
P. 74, l. 7. Bussy's Amadis de Gaule Bussy-Rabutin (1618-1693) did not write Amadis de Gaule but the Histoire amoureuse des Gaules (1666).
Amadis de Gaule was translated into Spanish from a Portuguese original (now lost) at some time about 1508. A French version was made later.
P. 74, l. 11. doubt, fear. P. 75, l. 9. his last Portugal expedition: Alva's expedition against Portugal started in 1581, and Alva died in 1582.
P. 76, l. 18. Alphonsus, King of Arragon. Cf. Bacon's Apothegms, No. 97.
Wotton's Reflections (Chapter VIII)
P. 77, last line. Diogenes Laertius, who probably lived in the second century after Christ, wrote the Lives of the Philosophers.
P. 78, l. 2. Menagius' calculation. Giles Menage (1613-1692) produced an edition of Diogenes Laertius in 1663, and another improved edition in 1692.
P. 78, l. 11. Graecia mendax, Juvenal, Sat. X. 174.
P. 78, l. 16. Zaleucus, lived 160 years before Pythagoras, and gave laws to the Epizephyrian Locrians (see Bentley's Dissertation, 1699, pp.334-58)
Charondas, lawgiver of Catana, said by some to have been a disciple of Pythagoras (see Bentley's Dissertation, 1699, pp. 358-77).
P. 79, l. 22. Hermippus de Arisioxenus, two very considerable writers of Pythagoras his life [Wotton].
P. 79, l. 23. Porphry (233-305 or 6 A.D.), a Neoplatonist, and antagonist of Christianity. He wrote Lives of Pythagoras, Plotinus, &c.
Jamblichus (d. before 333 A.D.), a Neoplatonist, who wrote on the philosophy of Pythagoras.
P. 80, l. ii. Van Dalen (1638-1708), a Dutch scholar, wrote two Dissertations de Oraculis Ethnicorum (1683). Fontenelle translated and abridged Van Dalen's work in his Histoire des Oracles.
p. 80, l. 19. Samos, Polycrates. Polycrates (d. 522 B.C.) was tyrant of Samos.
P. 83, l. 14. Dr Barrow (1630-1677), preceded Newton as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge (1663-1669). He had before been Professor of Greek in the same University.
P. 83, l. 23. Censorinus, wrote De Die Natali (A.D. 238).
Aristides, Quintilianus, author of a treatise on music. The 3rd book deals with the numerical ratios which define musical intervals, and their connection with physical and moral science.
P. 84, l. 22. Dr Harvey's, in his Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium (1651).
P. 85, l. 19. who were so learned, &c. This passage is omitted from the selections given in this volume from Temple's Essay. It is to be found in T. iii. p. 459.
P. 86, l. 9. Euphorbus. Cf. 'That Thales improved . . . the Geometry which he learnt of the Egyptians with many propositions of his own, is confirmed by Laertius [I. i. 25], who saith that he much advanced those things, the invention whereof Callimachus in his Iambics ascribes to Euphorbus the Phrygian . . . ' (Stanley's History of Philosophy (1655), Vol. I. p. 16).
Nice, exact.
P. 87, l. 9. Aratus's Diosemeia. Aratus (fl. B.C. 270) wrote two astronomical poems, Phaenomena and Diosemeia, the latter an account of prognostics of weather, with an account of its effects on animals.
P. 88, l. 1. flea'd, flayed. Cf. Tom Jones, Book III. Chap. II. 'He was content to be flead rather than betray his friend.'
P. 88, l. 3. Etesian winds, see note on p. 38, l. 5.
Boyle's Phalaris
P. 90, l. 2. Thomas Fazellus, i.e. Fazelli (1490-1570), an Italian historian: author of De Rebus Siculis.
Jacques Cappel (1570-1624), a French Protestant theologian and classical scholar.
P. 90, l. 4. With the latter, &c. The passage which follows is a paraphrase of that printed at pp. 71-2 of this vol.
P. 90, l. 20. Politian, see note on p. 71, l. 23.
Lilio Giraldi (1479-1552), an Italian poet and scholar.
Bourdelot, i.e. Jean Bourdelot (d. 1638), produced editions of Lucian, and other classical writers.
P. 91, l. 1. two speeches of Lucian, two declamations on the subject of Phalaris, attributed very doubtfully to Lucian.
P. 93, l. 6. the destruction of Naxos. Naxos was destroyed (B.C. 403) by Dionysius the Elder (not the Younger). (See Bentley's second Dissertation (1699), p. 187.)
P. 93, l. 16 and foll. For the various editions of Phalaris see pp. 305-8 of this vol.
P. 97, last line. Siceliotae, Greek settlers in Sicily.
P. 98, l. 18. Paurolas, son of Phalaris and Erythia
Bentley's first Dissertation (1697)
P. 107, ll. 1, 2. the very matter and business. Cf. Temple, pp. 71-2 of Appendix.
P. 108, l. 10. sprinkles a little dust, Vergil, Georg. IV. 87.
P. 110, l. 9. Astypalaea. Bentley showed that Astypalaea was not a city in Crete, as Boyle's edn. stated (p. 157), but an island of the Sporades (see Bentley's first Dissertation (1697), pp. 44-5: and second Dissertation (1699), pp. 323-9).
P. 110, l. 16. putid, Lat. putidus, affected, disgusting.
P. 111, l. 15. asinus ad lyram, an ass at the lyre, a clumsy fellow.
P. 112, l. 21. our Sophist, the unknown rhetorician whom Bentley supposes to have written the Epistles.
P. 114, ll. 21-2. if a great person, Temple.
P. 114, l. 23. fardel. Cf. Winter's Tale, IV. iv. 728, and Hamlet, III. i. 76.
P. 116, l. 10. my friend, Wotton, see p. xxvii. of Introduction.
P. 117, l. 8. in the very College, Christ Church, Oxford.
P. 117, l. 23. in some private conversation, see pp. 194-5 of Appendix.
P. 118, ll. 1, 2. Hinc illae lacrimae, Terence, Andria, I. i. 99.
P. 118, ll. 12-3. that young gentleman, Charles Boyle.
Boyle's Examination
P. 119. It was said by Pope that 'Boyle wrote only the narrative of what passed between him and the Bookseller, which too was corrected for him; . . . ' (Letters from a Late Eminent Prelate [Warburton] to one of his Friends [Hurd], 2nd Edn, (1809), p. 11).
P. 122, l. 21. punctually, exactly.
P. 123, l. 14. Dr King of the Commons, William King (1663-1712), was educated at Westminster and Christ Church. He was admitted as an advocate in Doctors' Commons (for which see David Copperfield, Chaps. XXIII. and XXVI.) by Tillotson in 1692. He wrote Dialogues of the Dead (1699) against Bentley; A Journey to London (1698) (see the note upon p. 187, l. 2); and some other prose and poetical works.
P. 123, l. 19. presently, immediately.
P. 124, l. 23. to Westminster. Until he obtained apartments in St James's Palace (as he did at the beginning of 1696) Bentley lived in Park Street, Westminster, with Stillingfleet.
P. 129, l. 6. Rochefoucauld. The reference is apparently to the Maximes of la Rochefoucauld, 'Nous pardonnons souvent a ceux qui nous ennuient, mais nous ne pouvons pardonner a ceux que nous ennuyons' [Maximes, ed. 1666, No. CCCIV.).
P. 131, l. 1. correspondence with foreign professors, see p. 118.
P. 132, l. 6. I cannot but observe, &c. As Sir William Temple lamented the 'scorn of pedantry' (pp. 74-5 of Appendix), this attack upon Bentley is a little surprising.
P. 133, l. 8. my Lord Roscommon (1633-85) wrote a poetical Essay on Translated Verse, which was published in 1681.
P. 133, l. 10. Dr Bentley's scraps of Callimachus, see p. 203; and Jebb's Bentley, pp. 33-5.
P. 133, l. 15. Baralipton, one of the mnemonic vocables in the verses Barbara, Celarent, &c. to be found in the sections dealing with the Syllogism in any manual of Logic {e.g. Welton).
P. 134, footnotes. The references in the footnotes are to the pages of the first Dissertation (1697).
P. 135, last line. Solinus, C. Julius (fl. c. 238 A. D.), author of a geographical compendium. An edn. was published by Salmasius in 1689.
P. 136, l. 7. Delphos for Delphi. It is remarkable that neither Shakspere nor Milton is quoted for the use of the form Delphos. Shakspere uses it in the Winters Tale (e.g. II. i. 183), though in this he is merely following Greene's Dorastus and Fawnia (e.g. p. 17 of Prof. P. G. Thomas's edn.): Milton uses it in the Hymn on the Nativity (l. 178), and in Paradise Regained (I. 458).
P. 137, l. 16. perhaps in a third edition, Wotton retained the remark (p. 55 of 3rd Edn. of the Refections (1705)).
P. 138, l. 10. Dr Bentley's brisk censure, Bentl. Ep. ad Millium in fine Malalae, p. 26 [Boyle]: see Jebb's Bentley, p. 14.
P. 138, l. 14. if he had known it himself, Modeste et circumspecte de tantis viris pronuntiandum est, ne forte (quod plerisque accidit) damnent quae non intelligunt. Quint. [Boyle]. The reference is to Inst. Or. X. i. 26.
P. 138, l. 15. Castelvetro (1505-1571), an Italian critic. Denounced as a heretic by Annibale Caro, he fled to Switzerland in 1561 (see pp. 210-3 of Appendix).
P. 138, l. 16. Balzac, Jean Louis Guez de (1594-1654), is now remembered chiefly for his Lettres sur divers sujets.
P. 139, l. 6. de Méziriac, Claude-Gaspard Bachet (1581-1638), wrote a life of Æsop, and other works.
P. 139, l. 9. The 3rd Edn. has: the unknown authors Diodorus and Lucian transcribed.
P. 139, l. 18. a passage in Bruyère. The reference is to the passage in Chap. I. of la Bruyère's Caractères (1688), beginning, 'Il y a des esprits . . . inférieurs et subalternes. . . . '
P. 141, l. 21. The 3rd Edn. has: . . . Plutarch tells us, by the advice of the oracle, endeavoured. . . .
P. 142, ll. 13-15. In the 1st Edn. the quotation is given in Latin: in the 3rd it is translated. The present text here follows the 3rd Edn.
P. 143, l. 3. Cuperus, Gilbert (1644-1716), a Dutch classical scholar and archæologist. His Apotheosis seu consecratio Homeri, which is here referred to, appeared in 1683.
P. 145, ll. 17, 18. in another language. Bentley's antagonists appear to have felt aggrieved that he wrote his Dissertation in English (cf. p. xxviii. of Introduction).
P. 147, l. 6. Bochart, Samuel (1599-1667), a French theologian and classical scholar.
P. 148, l. 7. I agree with the Doctor, &c. This is probably intended to suggest that Bentley would have met Boyle's wishes about the MS. of Phalaris, if a present had been offered him. Cf. p. 40 of Boyle's Examination, and p. 329 of Bentley's second Dissertation.
P. 148, ll. 19-23. This passage is apparently a sneer at Bentley as an upstart (cf. p. 223 of Boyle's Examination and pp. lxxviii.-ix, of Bentley's second Dissertation).
P. 150, l. 15. Dion Chrysostome, 30-117 A.D., a Greek orator and sophist.
P. 150, ll. 19, 20. The lines from the Birds are printed in Boyle's Examination as they are given here. They are ll. 217-8 of Rogers' edn.
P. 151, ll. 5, 6. See note on p. 150, ll. 19, 20. The lines quoted are 212-3 of Rogers' edn.
Bentley's second Dissertation (1699)
P. 158. which I did in these words, as will be seen by reference to the text printed at pp. 115-8, Bentley made some slight alterations (e.g. p. 160, l. 9. days for weeks) in copying out this part of his first Dissertation. Similar alterations are to be found in his reproduction of the other parts of the book.
P. 161, l. 12. the very same evening. In the Appendix to A Short Account of Dr Bentley's Humanity and Justice (see pp. xxxiii.-iv. of Introduction) the date of Bentley's letter is said to have been Jan. 26, 16945. Bentley evidently knew (see p. lxviii. of second Dissertation) that copies of the book had been distributed on New Year's day. He knew also that his letter to Boyle had been preserved (see p. 162 of this vol.).
P. 161, l. 22. ingenuity, candour.
P. 162, l. 8. which he has thus published, see p. 19 of Boyle's Examination.
P. 166, l. 6. one cannot but suspect see pp. liv.— vi. of Introduction.
P. 171, l. 2. the Patent Office, "one of the many offices through which letters patent under the Great Seal had to pass before the grant was complete. . . . Pepys mentions in his Diary a 'Patent Office in Chancery Lane' under date March 12, 1668-9" (Wheatley, London Past and Present (1891), Vol. III. pp. 36-7).
P. 171, l. 18. St James's School, in Westminster. See Walcott's Handbook for St James's, Westminster (1850), p. 53.
P. 171, l. 21. Mr Justell, see p. xix. of Introduction,
P. 175, l. 15. I have been informed, &c. In the Appendix to the Short Account (pp. 99-100), Bennet replied to Bentley '. . . there is not a single word, in my relation, that does in the least imply me to have thought the Doctor library-keeper, the whole time I asked him for the MS. I applied to him as a friend very conversant in these things, who lived not far from the Royal Library, had an interest there, and could procure the MS. for me; but whether or no I had so early heard the rumour of the Doctor's standing fair for that office (though it is probable I had) yet I cannot be positive in it: sure I am, that upon my application to him he promised readily, and as near as I can remember, in these very words, "that he would help me to it;" without intimating in the least that I asked him a thing which was out of his power.'
P. 182, l. 22. It had been more to the purpose, &c. Bennet replied in the Appendix to the Short Account (p. 126) that Gibson was 'corrector of a press, [who] could allow no part of his days from that laborious service; and which is more, Dr Bentley knew it too; for it was what I then urged to him to excuse the collator's delay, and to procure a further term; and it was so much insisted upon by me at that time, that I cannot think it possible for the Doctor to have forgotten it.'
P. 184, l. 6. for at that time I lived, see note on p. 124, l. 23.
P. 185, l. 21. a great person, Robert Boyle, founder of the Boyle Lectures. Cf. S. i. pp. 331-4.
P. 187, l. 2. his buffoonery upon the learned Dr Lister. King's Journey to London (see note on p. 123, l. 14) was a travesty upon Martin Lister's Journey to Paris in the year 1698.
P. 188, l. 12. To account, then, &c. Bennet's reply to the charge made here by Bentley is to be found in the Appendix to the Short Account (pp. 114-8). Bentley's reply to Bennet's defence is in Whateley's Answer to a late Book written against . . . Dr Bentley . . . 1699 (pp. 199-207).
P. 191, l. 3. prolling, proll is an older form of prowl. Cf. Chaucer: The Chanouns Yemannes Tale (859): 'Though ye prolle ay, ye shul it never finde.'
P. 191, l. 13. English Polyglot, the Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, was published in six vols, in 1657. The Alexandrian MS. was presented to Charles I. in 1628.
P. 192, l. 2. Humty Dumty, in a postcript to his Journey to London King gives a catalogue of liquors, "humtie-dumtie, three-threads, four-threads, old Pharaoh, knockdown, hugmetee," &c. (King's Works (1776), Vol. I. p. 207).
King never forgave Bentley's ridicule. (See Jebb's Bentley, p. 84.)
P. 194, l. 9. The bookseller once asked me, &c. Bennet replied that he had nothing to do with the printing of Boyle's Phalaris, and that he only had fifty copies to sell at first, and a few more some years after. He continues, 'if the reader can believe after this that I told Dr Bentley I had a concern in the impression, he must believe me to be out of my wits and that I love to tell lies to no manner of purpose, and where 'tis in everybody's power to trace me' (Appendix to the Short Account, pp. 119, 120). See also Whateley's Answer, pp. 192-5.
P. 194, l. 14. in . . . Essays, Temple's Essays. The name was omitted because Temple died in the January preceding the publication of Bentley's second Dissertation.
P. 195, l. 8. Si hoc peccare est, fateor, Terence, Andria, V. iii. 25.
P. 197, l. 3. Leucon and his ass, see pp. II, 94, 197, 219 of Boyle's Examination and p. lxxv. of Bentley's second Dissertation.
P. 197, l. 11. only here he says, Boyle quoted the phrase in the margin (p. 94 of Examination)
P. 200, l. 6. Sir Henry Spelman (1564?-1641), historian and antiquary, author of the History and Fate of Sacrilege (1598), and compiler of the Glossarium Archaeologicum, which was completed by his son and Dugdale.
P. 200, l. 12. who it was that distinguished his style, &c. Robert Boyle (see the article on ignore in the N.E.D.).
P. 201, l. 19. Sermons against Atheism, Bentley's Boyle Lectures of 1692 (see p. xx. of Introduction).
P. 203, l. I. Epistle about Jo. Antiochensis, Bentley's Letter to Mill (see p. xx. of Introduction).
The Notes on Callimachus appeared in Callimachi hymni . . . ex recensione Theodori J. G. F. Graevii. Accendunt . . . R. Bentleii . . . annotationes, &c., 1697.
P. 204, l. 10. one small mistake. Bentley mentioned in his first Dissertation (p. 52), as a proof of the late origin of the Epistle of Phalaris, the word "προδεδωκότα, having given before, never used by the ancients in that sense, but always for having betrayed." In Boyle's Examination (p. 62) instances of the use of προδίδωμι to mean to give before are quoted from St. Paul Rom. xi. 35], Xenophon, and Demosthenes.
P. 204, l. 14. in all those instances, &c As will be seen on reference to pp. 134-5 of this edn., Bentley makes Boyle refer to fourteen out of fifteen examples, when in fact he referred only to eight.
P. 205, l. 1. The learned Cluverius (1580-1623), a German geographer and antiquarian. He wrote especially on the ancient geography of Italy and Sicily.
P. 205, l. 10. to . . . against, as before (p. 194, l. 14) the dots represents the name of Temple.
P. 206, l. 5. Sir Richard Pace (1482?-1536). Bentley gives the Latin version in a footnote, as follows: Paceus: De fructu, qui ex doctrina percipitur. Basil. 1517. p. 80. Quidam indoctus Sacrificus Anglus per annos triginta Mumpsimus legere solitus est loco Sumpsimus; et quum moneretur a docto, ut errorem emendaret, respondit, Se nolle mutare suum antiquum Mumpsimus ipsius novo Sumpsimus.
P. 206, l. 19, Asson and Mileton, Act. Apost, xx. 14, 15.
P. 207, l. 8. exploded, hissed off.
P. 207, l. 12. the old translation of Vergil. Bentley refers to Phaer and Twyne's translation of 'The whole xiii books of the Aeneidos of Virgill' (1573). The 13th book was that added by Maphaeus Vegius Laudensis.
P. 20 8, l. 6. Bishop of Lichfield, Dr William Lloyd: see the Epistle to the Reader in Wilkins' Real Character (for which see note on p. 23, 1. 10).
P. 208. l. 12. Mr Stanley, Stanley's History of Philosophy (to which Bentley refers) was published 1655-61.
P. 209, l. 13. his Director. Boyle said in the Preface to his Examination, "I think myself . . . obliged to declare that whatever the faults of Phalaris are, they are mine; and I alone am answerable for them. There is a very deserving gentleman indeed who had a little before been the Director of my studies, and was then my particular friend, to whom I have acknowledgements to make on this occasion. I consulted him upon any difficulty, because I thought it not proper for one of my age to offer anything to the public without consulting somebody. I wish I had advised oftener with him, for then my book would have been much more correct." The Director to whom he refers was, apparently, John Freind (Jebb's Bentley, p. 60).
P. 209, ll. 14, 15. my brisk censure, see Boyle's Examination, pp. 158-60; and Bentley's second Dissertation, pp. 132-44.
P. 211, l. 5. Henricus Stephanus (1528-98), a great French classical scholar.
P. 211, l. 19. Annibal Caro (1507-66), an Italian poet (see Garnett's Italian Lit., pp. 192-3).
P. 212. last line. Defendit numerus, &c., Juvenal, Sat. II. 46.
P. 215, l. 20. occasionally, in passing.
P. 215, last line. Mr. Dodwell (1641-1711), Camden Professor of History at Oxford, 1688-91. (See also p. 304.)
P. 216, l. 12. Mr B.'s performance upon Æsop, see p. xxix. of Introduction.
P. 216, l. 19. διώκς, see p. 52 of Bentley's first Dissertation, and pp. 63-5 of Boyle's Examination. Bentley's slip was similar to that about προδίδωμι. (see note on p. 204, l. 10).
P. 216, l. 21. Babrius's Verses, see pp. 243-6 of Boyle's Examination.
P. 217, l. 1. Nevelettus . . . Camerarius, see pp. 247 and foll, of Boyle's Examination for the first, and p. 273 for the second of these charges.
P. 217, l. 3. Vizzanius, see pp. 54-60 of Boyle's Examination, pp. 383-9 of Bentley's second Dissertation, and pp. 9-11 of Warburton's Letters (referred to in note on p. 119).
P. 217, l. 4. grimace about Socrates, see pp. 279-82 of Boyle's Examination.
P. 217, l. 5. that Dr B. cannot be the author. One section of Boyle's Examination (pp. 184-201) was a burlesque upon Bentley's methods, in which it was shown, from considerations of style and matter, that the works attributed to him could not be genuine. This part of the Examination was said by Warburton to have been written by Dr King: and Bentley to judge by the reference to a tavern put it down to him (see note on p. 192, l. 2). But Smalridge is now generally credited with its authorship (see Jebb's Bentley, p. 60, and Monk's Bentley (1833), I. 105 (note)).
p. 219, l. 16. he assures the reader, &c., p. 33 of Boyle's Examination.
P. 220, l. 10. three-threads, &c., see note on p. 192, l. 2.
P. 220, l. 16. Sir Edward Sherburn, see pp. 15-16 of Boyle's Examination, pp. xliii.-lvi. and lx.-lxiii. of Bentley's second Dissertation (1699), pp. 27-28 and p. 134 of the Short Account, and p. 207 of Whateley's Answer.
P. 220, l. 21. In the imperious style of Festus. Acts xxv. 12.
P. 221, l. 14. throughly. Cf. Hamlet, IV. 5. 136.
P. 222, l. 10. a view of the Doctor's picture, see pp. 80 and 59 of Jebb's Bentley.
P. 223, l. 4. miseranda vel hosti, Ovid, Met. vi. 276.
P. 224, l. 23. Thomas Magister (fl. c. 1310) a rhetorician and grammarian. He appears to have been a native of Thessalonica and to have lived at the court of Andronicus Palaeologus I.
P. 228, l. 4. Gruter, Inscriptiones Antiquae totius orbis Romani (1602-3): edited by Gruter.
P. 229, l. 10. I would ask him, &c., see p. 144 of Boyle's Examination.
P. 230, l. 3. as I have proved already, see note on p. 110, l. 9.
P. 232, l. 16. Diogenianus, writer of a Greek Lexicon, of which part is still extant.
P. 232, l. 18. Polyaenus, author of a work, still extant, on Stratagems in War.
P. 232, l. 20. Diodorus Siculus, author of a universal history, of which a large part is still extant.
P. 235, l. 2. Zaleucus, see p. 338 of Bentley's second Dissertation (1699).
P. 237, l. 7. compliment to Queen Elizabeth, see p. 160 of Boyle's Examination.
P. 238, ll. 22-3. ἐνθάδε κ.τ.λ. Herod., Vita Homeri [Bentley].
P. 240, l. 15. ὅυποψ κ.τ.λ. Birds, l. 226.
P. 240, last line. κόσσυφοι κ.τ.λ. Theoc, Epig. v. 10.
P. 241, l. 2. ξουθᾰω κ.τ.λ. Anthol. P. vii. 192.
P. 241, ll. 4-5. ταῐς νύμφαισι κ.τ.λ. Moschus, Ia. iii. 107-8.
P. 241, ll. 9-10. ὕμνων κ.τ.λ. Birds, 679 and 684.
P. 241, l. 14. to confute my observation, see note on p. 209, ll. 14-15.
P. 246, l. 9. καὶ λογίοις κ.τ.λ. Pyth. i. 94
P. 246, ll. 13-15. εὐανθεῐ κ.τ.λ. Pyth. i. 89-91.