The words quoted by him from some sermon, now lost, prove
him no friend to the filchings and swindling of popery.
{111a} It is a pity that the old divines should have indulged, as
they often did, in such images as this. Some readers in search of
argumentative subtility, some in search of sound Christianity, some
in search of pure English undefiled, have gone through with them;
and their labours (however heavy) have been well repaid.
{124a} Tilley valley was the favourite adjuration of James the
Second. It appears in the comedies of Shakspeare.
{133a} Whoreson, if we may hazard a conjecture, means the son of a
woman of ill-repute. In this we are borne out by the context. It
appears to have escaped the commentators on Shakspeare.
Whoreson, a word of frequent occurrence in the comedies; more rarely
found in the tragedies. Although now obsolete, the expression
proves that there were (or were believed to be) such persons
formerly.
The Editor is indebted to two learned friends for these two remarks,
which appear no less just than ingenious.
{153a} Belly-ache, a disorder once not uncommon in England. Even
the name is now almost forgotten; yet the elder of us may remember
at least the report of it, and some, perhaps, even the complaint
itself, in our school-days.
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