13
The Duchess of Portsmouth, Charles II.'s favourite mistress; very unpopular at the time of the Popish Plot, as well from her religion as her country, being a Frenchwoman and a Catholic.
14
Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, the politician and intriguer of the period.
15
Such was the extravagance of Shaftesbury's eloquence.
16
Charles's principal mistress en titre. She was created Duchess of Portsmouth.
17
Shaftesbury himself is supposed to have said that he knew not who was the inventor of the Plot, but that he himself had all the advantage of the discovery.
18
Doctor, a cant name for false dice.
19
Elkana Settle, the unworthy scribbler whom the envy of Rochester and others tried to raise to public estimation, as a rival to Dryden; a circumstance which has been the means of elevating him to a very painful species of immortality.
20
Mary, daughter of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, was wedded to the Duke of Buckingham, whose versatility made him capable of rendering himself for a time as agreeable to his father-in-law, though a rigid Presbyterian, as to the gay Charles II.
21
The smart girls, who turn out to look at you.
22
See note, 'Fortunes of Nigel.'
23
The ill-usage of Sir John Coventry by some of the Life Guardsmen, in revenge of something said in Parliament concerning the King's theatrical amours, gave rise to what was called Coventry's Act, against cutting and maiming the person.
24
Then a noted actor.
25
A privateer.
26
