No More Learning

'165 Atalantis': 'The New Atalantis',

a four-volume "cornucopia of scandal" involving almost every public
character of the day, was published by a Mrs. Manley in 1709. It was
very widely read. The Spectator found it, along with a key which
revealed the identities of its characters, in the lady's library already
mentioned ('Spectator', No. 37).


'166 the small pillow':

a richly decorated pillow which fashionable ladies used to prop them up
in bed when they received morning visits from gentlemen. Addison gives
an account of such a visit in the 'Spectator', No. 45.


'167 solemn days':

days of marriage or mourning, on which at this time formal calls were
paid.


'173 the labour of the gods':

the walls of Troy built by Apollo and Neptune for King Laomedon.


'178 unresisted':

irresistible.



CANTO IV

'8 Cynthia':

a fanciful name for any fashionable lady. No individual is meant.

'manteau':

a loose upper garment for women.


'16 Spleen':

the word is used here as a personification of melancholy, or low
spirits.
It was not an uncommon affectation in England at this time. A
letter to the 'Spectator', No. 53, calls it "the distemper of the great
and the polite. "


'17 the Gnome':

Umbriel, who in accordance with his nature now proceeds to stir up
trouble. Compare Canto I, ll. 63-64.


'20'

The bitter east wind which put every one into a bad humor was supposed
to be one of the main causes of the spleen.


'23 She':

the goddess of the spleen. Compare l. 79.


'84 Megrim':

headache.


'29 store':

a large supply.


'38 night-dress':

the modern dressing-gown. The line means that whenever a fashionable
beauty bought a new dressing-gown she pretended to be ill in order to
show her new possession to sympathetic friends who called on her.


'40 phantoms':

these are the visions, dreadful or delightful, of the disordered
imagination produced by spleen.


'43 snakes on rolling spires':

like the serpent which Milton describes in 'Paradise Lost', IX, 501-502,
"erect amidst his circling spires.