[1] Sir Thomas North’s translation, published in 1579, was executed
through the medium of the French translation, by Jaques Amiot.
[2] Lord Howard, Sir Thomas Armstrong, Ford Lord Grey, and others among
the opposers of government, notorious for being libertines even beyond
the license of that age, seem to be here pointed at.
[3] These devices were impressed on the coin struck by the Commonwealth.
[4] Alluding to the Irish witnesses in the time of the Popish Plot; one
set of whom came over to England, on purpose to support by their evidence
that supposed conspiracy, but afterwards turned against their employer
Shaftesbury. See Vol. IX. p. 410.
[5] Fought A. U. C. 724.
[6] This sentence is ungrammatical, as has been observed by Mr Malone.
Perhaps we ought to read, “that he was invited thither; _and that_.”
[7] The authenticity of this letter has been doubted. Its dictatorial
tone certainly rather resembles the forgery of some pedant, assuming the
character of a great man, than that of a sage addressing a conquering
emperor.
[8] Plutarch is said to have died in the reign of Antoninus Pius, A. D.
140, aged ninety years.
[9] Mons. de St Evremont.