Merlin is the wizard at the court of King Arthur.
155 news newspaper.
156 japanner shoe polisher.
158 chaise and one a light carriage drawn by a single
horse.
159 sculler oarsman.
162 band neckband.
164 linen worthy Lady Mary Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu was notoriously slovenly.
165 prelate’s lawn fine linen worn by bishops contrasted
with the hair shirt of the penitent.
173 Chancery to the law courts (Chancery) for legal
powers to act for a madman.
Hale a doctor at Bedlam.
177 guide, philosopher, and friend Compare An Essay on
Man, IV, 390.
181 Great without title Bolingbroke’s name was erased
from the roll of peers and he lost his estates in 1715.
184 the Tower He avoided the Tower, the place of
punishment for treachery, by fleeing into exile. His
fellow Tory, Oxford, was imprisoned there.
THE FIRST ODE OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF HORACE[‘To Venus’] (1737)
6 sober fifty Pope was 49 when the poem was
published.
10 Murray William Murray, later Lord Chief Justice, was
32 at the time. He lived at 5 King’s Bench Walk,
Temple, in London, on the banks of the Thames.
20 Chloe a classical name much used in romantic
contexts.
47 Cynthia the moon. Diana the moon goddess was born
on Mt Cynthus on the island of Delos.THE DUNCIADThe Dunciad was first published anonymously in 1728. Its
hero was Lewis Theobald who had published in 1726