The Journal to Stella Part 57

35 A mistake, apparently, for "writing." The letter was begun on March 8.

36 Silly jade.

37 O Lord, what a clutter.

38 On the death of Dr. William Graham, Dean of Wells, it was reported that Swift was to be his successor. Dr. Brailsford, however, received the appointment.

39 Abel Roper (1665-1726), a Tory journalist, published, thrice weekly, the Postboy, to which Swift sometimes sent paragraphs. Boyer (Political State, 1711, p. 678) said that Roper was only the tool of a party; "there are men of figure and distinction behind the curtain, who furnish him with such scandalous reflections as they think proper to cast upon their antagonists."

40 Joe Beaumont.

41 Beg your pardon, Madams, I'm glad you like your ap.r.o.n (see Letter 41, note 18).

42 This word was smudged by Swift.

43 I cannot find Somers in contemporary lists of officials. Cf. Letter 30, note 16 and Letter 17, note 3.

44 Obliterated and doubtful.

45 Words obliterated and illegible. Forster reads, conjecturally, "Pray send Pdfr the ME account that I may have time to write to Parvisol."

LETTER 44.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Apr. 14."

2 "Is" (MS.).

3 The words after "yet" are partially obliterated.

4 See Letter 7, note 35.

5 John Cecil, sixth Earl of Exeter (died 1721).

6 See Letter 22, note 5.

7 Arbuthnot.

8 A resort of the Tories.

9 Deane Swift, a son of Swift's uncle G.o.dwin, was a merchant in Lisbon.

10 Winces. Lyly says, "Rubbe there no more, least I winch."

11 Probably William Whiston, who was deprived of the Lucasian professors.h.i.+p at Cambridge in 1710 for his heterodox views. Parliament having offered a reward for the discovery of means of finding the longitude, Whiston made several attempts (1714 and 1721).

12 Word obliterated.

13 Distilled water prepared with rosemary flowers. In Fielding's Joseph Andrews, a lady gives up to a highway robber, in her fright, a silver bottle which, the ruffian said, contained some of the best brandy he had ever tasted; this she "afterwards a.s.sured the company was a mistake of her maid, for that she had ordered her to fill the bottle with Hungary water."

14 As I hope to be saved.

15 Added on the fourth page, as the letter was folded.

Letter 45.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Johnson," etc. Endorsed "May 1st."

2 A kind of clover, used for soothing purposes.

LETTER 46.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "May 15."

2 Madam Ayris.

3 Simpleton.

4 Robert Benson (see Letter 6, note 36).

5 See Letter 41, note 35 and Letter 43, note 7.

6 The t.i.tle was, An Appendix to John Bull still in his Senses: or, Law is a Bottomless Pit.

7 Arbuthnot.

8 Enquiries by servants.

9 See Letter 17, note 5.

10 Sick.

11 Afterwards Rector of Letcombe, Berks. It was to his house that Swift repaired a few weeks before the Queen's death. On June 8, 1714, he wrote, "I am at a clergyman's house, whom I love very well, but he is such a melancholy, thoughtful man, partly from nature, and partly by a solitary life, that I shall soon catch the spleen from him. His wife has been this month twenty miles off at her father's, and will not return these ten days, and perhaps the house will be worse when she comes."

Swift spells the name "Geree"; later on in the Journal he mentions two of Mr. Gery's sisters, Betty (Mrs. Elwick) and Moll (Mrs. Wigmore); probably he made the acquaintance of the family when he was living with the Temples at Moor Park (see Letter 59, note 11).

12 Because she is a good girl in other things.

LETTER 47.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "June 5."