FOOTNOTES
[1] Properly Centrones, from a Greek word signifying patchwork.
[2] In which the various kinds of fish are introduced in mock heroic
verse. It dates from the fifth century B.C.
[3] About this time Addison and Bishop Attenbury first called attention
to the beauties of Milton.
[4] Ale-houses at Oxford.
[5] A game at cards.
[6] Haynes writes, "I have known a gentleman of another turn of humour,
who despises the name of author, never printed his works, but contracted
his talent, and by the help of a very fine diamond which he wore on his
little finger, was a considerable poet on glass." He had a very good
epigrammatic wit; and there was not a parlour or tavern window where he
visited or dined for some years, which did not receive some sketches or
memorials of it. It was his misfortune at last to lose his genius and
his ring to a sharper at play, and he has not attempted to make a verse
since.
[7] This seems taken from a Spanish story.
[8] Supposed to be Mrs. Manley, against whom Steele had a grudge.
[9] He was buried in Portugal Street graveyard, but was removed in 1853
on the erection of the new buildings of King's College Hospital.
[10] Smollett, of whom we shall speak in the next chapter, published
before Sterne, though a younger man.
[11] Dodsley was never averse from having a hit at the church, as in the
epigram:
"Cries Sylvia to a reverend dean
What reason can be given,
Since marriage is a holy thing,
That there are none in heaven?
"'There are no women,' he replied,
She quick returns the jest,
'Women there are, but I'm afraid
They cannot find a priest.
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