30 Matthew Prior, poet and diplomatist, had been deprived of his Commissionership of Trade by the Whigs, but was rewarded for his Tory principles in 1711 by a Commissionership of Customs.
31 "The twentieth parts are 12 pence in the pound paid annually out of all ecclesiastical benefices as they were valued at the Reformation.
They amount to about 500 pounds per annum; but are of little or no value to the Queen after the offices and other charges are paid, though of much trouble and vexation to the clergy" (Swift"s "Memorial to Mr.
Harley").
32 Charles Mordaunt, the brilliant but erratic Earl of Peterborough, had been engaged for two years, after the unsatisfactory inquiry into his conduct in Spain by the House of Lords in 1708, in preparing an account of the money he had received and expended. The change of Government brought him relief from his troubles; in November he was made Captain-General of Marines, and in December he was nominated Amba.s.sador Extraordinary to Vienna.
33 Tapped, nudged.
34 I.e., told only to you.
35 Sir Hew Dalrymple (1652-1737), Lord President of the Court of Session, and son of the first Viscount Stair.
36 Robert Benson, a moderate Tory, was made a Lord of the Treasury in August 1710, and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the following June, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Bingley in 1713. He died in 1731.
37 The Smyrna Coffee-house was on the north side of Pall Mall, opposite Marlborough House. In the Tatler (Nos. 10, 78) Steele laughed at the "cl.u.s.ter of wise heads" to be found every evening at the Smyrna; and Goldsmith says that Beau Nash would wait a whole day at a window at the Smyrna, in order to receive a bow from the Prince or the d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough, and would then look round upon the company for admiration and respect.
38 See Letter 4, note 14.
39 See Letter 5, note 17.
40 An Irish doctor, with whom Swift invested money.
41 Enoch Sterne, Collector of Wicklow and Clerk to the House of Lords in Ireland.
42 Claret.
43 Colonel Ambrose Edgworth, a famous dandy, who is supposed to have been referred to by Steele in No. 246 of the Tatler. Edgworth was the son of Sir John Edgworth, who was made Colonel of a Regiment of Foot in 1689 (Dalton, iii, 59). Ambrose Edgworth was a Captain in the same regiment, but father and son were shortly afterwards turned out of the regiment for dishonest conduct in connection with the soldiers"
clothing. Ambrose was, however, reappointed a Captain in General Eric"s Regiment of Foot in 1691. He served in Spain as Major in Brigadier Gorge"s regiment; was taken prisoner in 1706; and was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of Colonel Thomas Allen"s Regiment of Foot in 1707.
44 This volume of Miscellanies in Prose and Verse was published by Morphew in 1711.
45 Dr. Thomas Lindsay, afterwards Bishop of Raphoe.
Letter 7.
1 The first mention of the Vanhomrighs in the Journal. Swift had made their acquaintance when he was in London in 1708.
2 Lady Elizabeth and Lady Mary (see Letter 3, note 40 and below).
3 John, third Lord Ashburnham, and afterwards Earl of Ashburnham (1687-1737), married, on Oct. 21, 1710, Lady Mary Butler, younger daughter of the Duke of Ormond. She died on Jan. 2, 1712-3, in her twenty-third year. She was Swift"s "greatest favourite," and he was much moved at her death.
4 Edward Wortley Montagu, grandson of the first Earl of Sandwich, and M.P. for Huntingdon. He was a great friend of Addison"s, and the second volume of the Tatler was dedicated to him. In 1712 he married the famous Lady Mary Pierrepont, eldest daughter of the Duke of Kingston, and under George I. he became Amba.s.sador Extraordinary to the Porte. He died in 1761, aged eighty.
5 See Letter 5, note 27. No copy of these verses is known.
6 Henry Alexander, fifth Earl of Stirling, who died without issue in 1739. His sister, Lady Judith Alexander, married Sir William Trumbull, Pope"s friend.
7 "These words, notwithstanding their great obscurity at present, were very clear and intelligible to Mrs. Johnson: they referred to conversations, which pa.s.sed between her and Dr. Tisdall seven or eight years before; when the Doctor, who was not only a learned and faithful divine, but a zealous Church-Tory, frequently entertained her with Convocation disputes. This gentleman, in the year 1704, paid his addresses to Mrs. Johnson" (Deane Swift). The Rev. William Tisdall was made D.D. in 1707. Swift never forgave Tisdall"s proposal to marry Esther Johnson in 1704, and often gave expression to his contempt for him. In 1706 Tisdall married, and was appointed Vicar of Kerry and Ruavon; in 1712 he became Vicar of Belfast. He published several controversial pieces, directed against Presbyterians and other Dissenters.
8 No. 193 of the Tatler, for July 4, 1710, contained a letter from Downes the Prompter in ridicule of Harley"s newly formed Ministry.
This letter, the authorship of which Steele disavowed, was probably by Anthony Henley.
9 William Berkeley, fourth Baron Berkeley of Stratton, was sworn of the Privy Council in September 1710, and was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He married Frances, youngest daughter of Sir John Temple, of East Sheen, Surrey, and died in 1740.
10 Probably the widow of Sir William Temple"s son, John Temple (see Letter 2, note 13). She was Mary Duplessis, daughter of Duplessis Rambouillet, a Huguenot.
11 The Rev. James Sartre, who married Addison"s sister Dorothy, was Prebendary and Archdeacon of Westminster. He had formerly been French pastor at Montpelier. After his death in 1713 his widow married a Mr.
Combe, and lived until 1750.
12 William Congreve"s last play was produced in 1700. In 1710, when he was forty, he published a collected edition of his works. Swift and Congreve had been schoolfellows at Kilkenny, and they had both been pupils of St. George Ashe--afterwards Bishop of Clogher--at Trinity College, Dublin. On Congreve"s death, in 1729, Swift wrote, "I loved him from my youth."
13 See Letter 4, note 11.
14 Dean Sterne.
15 See Letter 6, note 19.
16 When he became Dean he withheld from Swift the living of St. Nicholas Without, promised in grat.i.tude for the aid rendered by Swift in his election.
17 Crowe was a Commissioner for Appeals from the Revenue Commissioners for a short time in 1706, and was Recorder of Blessington, Co. Wicklow.
In his Short Character of Thomas, Earl of Wharton, 1710, Swift speaks of Whartons "barbarous injustice to... poor Will Crowe."
18 See Letter 3, note 10.
19 See Letter 3, note 35.
20 See Letter 1, note 15.
21 Richard Tighe, M.P. for Belturbet, was a Whig, much disliked by Swift. He became a Privy Councillor under George I.
22 Dryden Leach, of the Old Bailey, formerly an actor, was son of Francis Leach. Swift recommended Harrison to employ Leach in printing the continuation of the Tatler; but Harrison discarded him. (See Journal, Jan. 16, 1710-11, and Timperley"s Literary Anecdotes, 600, 631).
23 The Postman, which appeared three days in the week, written by M.
Fonvive, a French Protestant, whom Dunton calls "the glory and mirror of news writers, a very grave, learned, orthodox man." Fonvive had a universal system of intelligence, at home and abroad, and "as his news is early and good, so his style is excellent."
24 Sir William Temple left Esther Johnson the lease of some property in Ireland.
25 See Letter 5, note 23.
26 An out-of-the-way or obscure house. So Pepys (Diary, Oct. 15, 1661) "To St. Paul"s Churchyard to a blind place where Mr. Goldsborough was to meet me."
27 Sir Richard Temple, Bart., of Stowe, a Lieutenant-General who saw much service in Flanders, was dismissed in 1713 owing to his Whig views, but on the accession of George I. was raised to the peerage, and was created Viscount Cobham in 1718. He died in 1749. Congreve wrote in praise of him, and he was the "brave Cobham" of Pope"s first Moral Essay.
28 Richard Estcourt, the actor, died in August 1712, when his abilities on the stage and as a talker were celebrated by Steele to No. 468 of the Spectator. See also Tatler, Aug. 6, 1709, and Spectator, May 5, 1712.
Estcourt was "providore" of the Beef-Steak Club, and a few months before his death opened the b.u.mper Tavern in James Street, Covent Garden.