Endnotes

1. Should this phrase appear farfetched in the person of Gil Blas, it may be recollected, that though not much of a student himself, he had waited on students; and might have sucked in, while standing behind their chairs, along with “fates and destinies, and such old sayings, the sisters three, and such branches of learning,” that exquisitely characteristic Greek metaphor, “a hedge of teeth.” —⁠Translator ↩

2. These wandering priests are at present known in Africa by the name of Marabut. The first gymnosophists of Ethiopia most probably were nothing more. —⁠Translator ↩

3. To have substituted, with a slight variation, these two stanzas from Cowley for a translation of the commonplace couplet in the original, will probably not be thought to require any apology. They necessarily involve a change in the consequent reflections of our hero. —⁠Translator ↩

4. The theatre. ↩

5. Members of parliament, and the ladies, will probably expect a translation of these hard words; but I refer the former to their dictionaries, to which they bade a long farewell on leaving Eton or Harrow, and the latter to an extended paraphrase of five acts in the tragedy of Cato. Those of the softer sex who may think the Stoic philosophy rude and uncouth, will feel their nerves vibrate in unison with the love scenes. —⁠Translator ↩

6. At length his sovereign frowns⁠—the train of state
   Mark the keen glance, and watch the sign to hate.

   —⁠Johnson’s Imitation of Juvenal’s Tenth Satire

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7. Behind him sneaks
   Another mortal, not unlike himself,
   Of jargon full, with terms obscure o’ercharged,
   Apothecary called, whose fetid hands
   With power mechanic, and with charms arcane,
   Apollo, god of medicine, has endued.

   —⁠Bramston

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