Page 5, l. 1. 1695.—This date, and the previous “more than forty years past,” are of course adjusted to the date of the book’s appearance. See Introduction for its probable chronology.

Page 5, l. 18. For “because” I am half inclined to read “became”—a very likely misprint.

Page 6, ll. 4-10. “Twelve ... Sixteen.”—This would bring us to 1723, which may or may not mark the date of a version of the “Conversation.” The first “Twelve” would almost exactly coincide with the “Essay on Conversation” referred to above.

Page 12, l. 18. “Isaac the Dancing-Master.”—Called by Steele in “Tatler,” No. 34, “my namesake Isaac.” He is best known by Soame Jenyns’ couplet:—

He was, as became his profession, a Frenchman. Southey refers to him in “The Doctor.”

Page 16, l. 6. “Comedies and other fantastick Writings.”—Where they will be found, as the ingenious Mr. Wagstaff says, “strewed here and there.”

Pages 16, 17.—“Graham. D. of R. E. of E. Lord and Lady H.”—I do not know that attempts at identifying these shadowy personages would be very wise. But the date assigned to the Colonel is one of the marks of long incubation. “Towards the end” of Charles II.’s reign would be about 1684. A fine gentleman of that day might very well have been Mr. Wagstaff’s “companion” had the latter written in 1710—less well had he written a quarter of a century later.

Page 18, l. 24.—Swift, like a good Tory and Churchman, never forgave Burnet.

Page 21, l. 2. “Selling of Bargains” is the returning of a coarse answer to a question or other remark. So in Dorset’s charming poem about “This Bess of my heart, this Bess of my soul.”

Page 24, l. 26. “Great Ornaments of Style,” or, as it hath been put otherwise, “a grand set-off to conversation.”—Observe that in these passages as to Free-Thinking and Oaths, Swift maintains his invariable attitude as to profanity.

Page 25, last line. “Poet.”—I know him not, if he ever existed save as a maggot of Swift’s brain.

Page 26, l. 13. “Sir John Perrot.”—Deputy of Ireland and a stout soldier, but an unlucky politician. He died in the Tower, where he is not unlikely to have had leisure and reason to perfect himself in commination.

Page 31, l. 16. “Lilly.”—The Latin grammarian, of course, not the astrologer.

Page 32, l. 12. “e’n’t” I presume to be identical with ain’t.

Page 36, l. 21. It may seem strange that Mr. Wagstaff, who loves not books and scholars, should refer to a grave philosopher. But fine gentlemen in his youth had to know or seem to know their Hobbes.

Page 38, l. 26. “Please.”—sic in orig.

Page 41.—In this page Swift strikes in with his friends against the “dunces.” One may suspect that Tom Brown was in the first draught, and perhaps Dennis, Ward and Gildon being added later.

Page 42, l. 6.—Ozell, the translator of Rabelais. Stevens I do not know or have forgotten, and the “Dunciad” knows him not.

Page 44, l. 26. “The Craftsman.”—This must be one of the latest additions, the “Craftsman” being the organ of Pulteney and the Opposition in the great Walpolian battle.

Page 46, ll. 11, 17. “Another for Alexander!”

Page 50, l. 21. “Those of Sir Isaac.”—Mr. Craik and others have noticed that Swift’s grammar, especially in unrevised pieces, is not always impeccable. But this, like other things in this Introduction, is clearly writ in character, the character of the more polite than pedantic Wagstaff.

Page 56, l. 26. “Wit at Will.”—Readers of the minor and even of the greater writers of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries will remember the interminable jingles and plays on these two words wherever they could be introduced. The phrase “Wit at will” survived most of its companions as a catchword.

Page 58, l. 3. “Queen Elizabeth’s dead.”—A minute philosopher might be pleased with the inquiry when Queen Anne superseded her gracious predecessor in this phrase. Naturally that time had not come when the “Conversation” was first planned.

Page 59, l. 2. “Push-pin.”—Allusions to this old children’s game are very common in the seventeenth century; rare, I think, in the eighteenth.

Page 64, l. 20. “Vardi.”—See Introduction, p. 32, where the form is “Verdi.”

Page 65, l. 28. “Lob’s pound” means an inextricable difficulty. In Dekker’s paraphrase of the “Quinze Joyes du Mariage,” it is used to render the French dans la nasse.

Page 72, l. 1. I do not understand “Map-sticks.”

Page 76, ll. 3, 4. “Cooking.”—I.e. (as I suppose), putting the bread-and-butter in the tea. I believe this atrocious practice is not absolutely obsolete yet.

Page 76, last line but one. “Head for the washing.”—I think this is quite dead in English; laver la tÊte is of course still excellent French for to scold or rate.

Page 79, l. 3. “A Lord.”—Lord Grimstone, whose production made the wits merry for a long time. He is Pope’s “booby Lord,” and this absurd play (which, however, he is said to have written at the age of 13), was reprinted in his despite by the Duchess of Marlborough, with whom he had an election quarrel. Lady Sparkish is in orig., but is probably a slip for Lady Answerall.

Page 82, l. 23. “The Lord of the Lord knows what.”—A peerage revived with slightly altered title by Peter Simple’s shipmates in favour of “the Lord Nozoo.”

Page 103, l. 4. “Ld. Smart.”—Erratum for “Ld. Sparkish.”

Page 103, l. 13. “Tantiny Pig.”—The pig usually assigned as companion to St. Anthony.

Page 105, l. 26. “Poles.”—St. Paul’s.

Page 109, l. 4. “Jommetry.”—See Introduction.

Page 110, l. 7.—I do not know the origin of Miss’s catchword. Julia, the heroine of Dryden’s “Amboyna,” had used it beforehand.

Page 111, l. 25. “Tansy” has two senses, a plant and a sort of custard. The reader may choose which suits the circumstances best for metaphorical explanation.

Page 112, l. 11. “Otomy,” for “anatomy,” “skeleton.”

Page 114, l. 17. “Ld. Smart” again for “Ld. Sparkish;” at the foot of the next page for “Lady Smart.”

Page 117, last line. “Smoke,” “look at;” later, “twig.”

Page 118, l. 13. “Lady Sparkish,” probably for “Lady Smart,” as being hostess.

Page 121, last line. “Inkle.”—Ribbon or tape.

Page 129, l. 8. Scott has borrowed this vigorous protest of Miss in one of his private letters.

Page 131, l. 7. “Ld. Sparkish” should evidently be “Ld. Smart.”

Page 135, l. 14. “Kept a Corner for a Venison Pasty.”—Which Dr. Goldsmith remembered in immortal verse.

Page 140, l. 12. I do not know whether this speech was meant for Lord Sparkish or Lady Answerall.

Page 143, ll. 1, 3. An unnecessary double entry, but right in the attribution.

Page 145, l. 9. “In my Tip,” “as I am drinking.”

Page 161, l. 4. “Weily rosten,” should probably be “brosten,” i.e., “well-nigh burst.”

Page 162, l. 9. Lord Smart might make this speech; but from the answer it would seem to be his Lady’s.

Page 165, l. 13.—I don’t know whether Swift, who never forgot his feud with “Cousin Dryden,” was indulging in a half-gird at “The corruption of a poet is the generation of a critic.”

Page 176, l. 8. “Concealer.”—A brilliant pun on “Counsellor.”

Page 181, l. 24. “A Bone in my Leg.”—This odd phrase for a peculiar cramp in the leg is not dead yet.

Page 183, l. 21. “Quare.”—David Q., died in 1724. He had invented repeaters, and throughout the eighteenth century was what Tompion was later among watchmakers, what Joe Manton was long among gunmakers, a name to conjure with and to quote.

Page 184, l. 24. “Box it about; ’twill come to my Father.”—The famous Jacobite cant-phrase for breeding disturbance in hopes of a fresh Revolution.

CHISWICK PRESS:—CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.,
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.