=Motto.= "(Her) features remain imprinted on (his) heart."--Virgil,
_Æneid_, iv. 4.
=105=: 1. =The perverse widow.= Ingenious commentators have thought to
identify the lady with a certain Mrs. Catherine Bovey, to whom Steele
dedicated the second volume of his _Ladies Library_; but it seems
altogether improbable that Steele and Addison would intend any of their
characters as actual portraits.
=108=: 20. =Such a desperate scholar that no country gentleman can
approach her.= It is probable that Sir Roger's estimate of the
scholarship of country gentlemen in his time does them no great
injustice. Macaulay says of the country squire at the end of the
seventeenth century: "If he went to school and to college, he generally
returned before he was twenty to the seclusion of the old hall, and
then, unless his mind was very happily constituted by nature, soon
forgot his academical pursuits in rural business and pleasures. His
chief serious employment was the care of his property.... His chief
pleasures were commonly derived from field sports and from unrefined
sensuality. His language and pronunciation were such as we should
now expect to hear only from the most ignorant clowns."--_History of
England_, Chap. iii.
=109=: 20. =Sphinx.= The sphinx was sent by Juno to devastate the
country of the Thebans, until some one could answer her riddle, "What
animal goes on four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three at
night?" Œdipus gave the right answer, "Man," and so saved his
countrymen.
=110=: 3. =Her tucker.= The tucker was an edging of muslin or lace at
the top of the dress, covering the neck and bosom.
=110=: 8. =Some tansy.= A kind of pudding flavored with tansy.
=110=: 24. =Dum tacet hanc loquitur.= Even when silent he is speaking
of her.
=110=: 25. =Epigram.= Martial, _Epigram_, I. lxviii. The last two lines
of the epigram are not quoted.