Critical and Historical Essays - Volume 1 by Thomas Babbington Macaulay (christmas read aloud .TXT) 📕

/> Chudleigh, Miss, maid of honour to the Princess of Wales (mother of George III.); the original of Beatrix in Thackeray's Esmond.

Churchill, John, the famous Duke of Marlborough.

Clootz, a French Revolutionary and one of the founders of the Worship of Reason; guillotined 1794.

Cocytus, one of the five rivers of Hades (see Milton's Paradise Lost, ii. 577ff).

Coleroon, the lower branch of the river Kaveri: it rises in Mysore and flows to the Bay of Bengal.

Colman, the Duke of York's confessor, in whose rooms were found papers held to support Oates's story.

Conde, a French general who, fighting for Spain, besieged Arras but had to abandon it after a defeat by Turenne.

Conjeveram, south-west from Madras and east from Arcot.

Conway, Marshal, cousin to Walpole; fought at Fontenoy and Culloden; moved the repeal of the Stamp Act (1766).

Corah, one hundred miles north-west from Allahabad, formerly a town of great importance, now much decayed.

Cornelia, a noble and virtuous Roman matron, daughter of Scipio Africanus and wife of Sempronius Graccus.

Cortes, conqueror of Mexico (1485-1547).

Cosmo di Medici, a great Florentine ruler, who, however, understood the use of assassination,

Cossimbuzar (see the description in the Essay on Hastings).

Court of Requests, instituted under Henry VII. for the recovery of small debts and superseded by the County Courts in 1847.

Covelong and Chingleput, between Madras and Pondicherry.

Craggs. Secretary of State: a man of ablity and character, probably innocent in the South Sea affair.

Crevelt, near Cleves, in West Prussia; Minden is in Westphalia.

Cumberland . . . single victory, at Culloden, over the young Pretender's forces, in 1745.

Cutler, St. John, a wealthy London merchant (1608?-1693) whose permanent avarice outshone his occasional benefactions (see Pope, Moral Essays, iii. 315).


DAGOBERTS . . . Charles Martel, nominal and real rulers of France in the seventh and eighth centuries.

D'Aguesseau, a famous French jurist, law reformer, and magistrate (1668-1751).

D'Alembert, a mathematician and philosopher who helped to sow the seeds of the French Revolution. Macaulay quite misrepresents Walpole's attitude to him (see letter of 6th Nov. 1768).

Damien, the attempted assassinator of Louis XV. in 1757.

Danby, Thomas Osborne, Esq. of, one of Charles II.'s courtiers, impeached for his share in the negotiations by which France was to pension Charles on condition of his refusal to assist the Dutch.

Danes, only had a few trading stations in India, which they sold to the British in 1845.

Demosthenes and Hyperides, the two great orators of Athens who were also contemporaries and friends.

De Pauw, Cornelius, a Dutch canon (1739-99), esteemed by Frederic the Great among others, as one of the freest speculators of his day.

Derby, James Stanley, Earl of, one of Charles I's supporters, captured at Worcester and beheaded in 1651.

Derwentwater . . . Cameron, Stuart adherents who suffered for their share in the attempts of 1715 and 1745.

Dido, Queen of Carthage, who after years of mourning for her first husband, vainly sought the love of Aeneas.

Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse (367-343 B.C.) who gathered to his court the foremost men of the time in literature and philosophy.

Dodd, Dr., a royal chaplain and fashion ablepreacher whose extravagance led him to forge a bond of Lord Chesterfield's, for which he was sentenced to death and duly executed (1729-77).

Dodington, George Bubb, a time-serving and unprincipled politician in the time of George II., afterwards Baron Melcombe.

Dubois, Cardinal, Prime Minister of France. An able statesman and a notorious debauchee (1656-1723).

Duke of Lancaster, Henry IV., the deposer and successor of Richard II.

Dumont, Pierre, a French writer who settled in England and became the translator and exponent of Bentham's works to Europe (1759- 1829).

Dundee, the persecutor of the Scottish Covenanters under Charles II

Dyer, John, author of some descriptive poems, e.g. Grongar Hill (1700-58).


ELDON, John Scott, Earl of, was in turn Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas and Lord Chancellor, and throughout a staunch Tory (1751-1838).

Empson and Dudley, ministers and tax-raisers under Henry VII, executed by Henry VIII.

Ensign Northerton (see Fielding's Tom Jones, VII. xii.-xv.).

Escobar, a Spanish Jesuit preacher and writer (1589-1669).

Escurial, the palace and monastery built by Philip II.

Essex, One of the Rye House Conspirators; he was found in the Tower with his throat cut, whether as the result of suicide or murder is not known.

Euston, a late Jacobean house (and park) 10 miles from Bury St. Edmunds.


Faithful Shepherdess, a pastoral by Fletcher which may have suggested the general plan and some of the details of Comus.

Farinata (see Dante's Inferno, canto 10).

Farmer-general, the tax-gatherers of France, prior to the Revolution: they contracted with the Government for the right to collect or "farm" the taxes.

Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Aragon, who, by marrying Isabella of Castile and taking Granada from the Moors, united Spain under one crown.

Filicaja, a Florentine poet (1642-1707); according to Macaulay ("Essay on Addison") "the greatest lyric poet of modern times,".

Filmer, Sir Robert, advocated the doctrine of absolute regal power in his Patriarcha, 1680.

Foigard, Father, a French refugee priest in Farquhar's Beaux Stratagem.

Fouche, Joseph, duke of Otranto. A member of the National Convention, who voted for the death of Louis XVI., and afterwards served under Napoleon (as Minister of Police) and Louis XVIII.

Fox, Henry F., father of Charles James Fox, and later Lord Holland.

Franche-Comte, that part of France which lies south of Lorraine and west of Switzerland.

French Memoirs, those of Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henry II. Of and wife of Henry (IV.) of Navarre.

Friar Dominic, a character in Dryden's Spanish Friar designed to ridicule priestly vices.

Fronde, a French party who opposed the power Of Mazarin and the Parliament of Paris during the minority of Louis XIV.


GRERIAH, c. seventy miles south from Bombay.

Ghizni, in Afghanistan, taken by Sir John Keane in 1839.

Gifford, John, the pseudonym of John Richards Green, a voluminous Tory pamphleteer (1758-1818).

Giudecca. In the ninth and lowest circle of the Inferno, the place of those who betray their benefactors,

Glover, a London merchant who wrote some poetry, including Admiral Hosier's Ghost.

Godfrey, Sir Edmund, this Protestant magistrate who took Titus Oates's depositions and was next morning found murdered near Primrose Hill.

Godolphin, Lord of the Treasury under Charles II., James II., and William III. Prime Minister 1702-10 when Harley ousted him (d. 1712)

Gooti, north from Mysore in the Bellary district, 589

Goree, near Cape Verde, west coast of Africa, Gaudaloupe, is in West Indies; Ticonderaga and Niagara, frontier forts in Canada.

Gowries, the, Alexander Ruthven and his brother, the Earl of Gowrie, who were killed in a scuffle during the visit of King James to their house in Perth (Aug. 1600).

Grammont, a French count whose Memoirs give a vivid picture of life at Charles II.'s court.

Grandison, Sir Charles . . . Miss Byron, the title character (and his lady-love) of one of Richardson's novels.

Granicus, Rocroi, Narva, won respectively by Alexander (aged 22) against the Persians, by Conde (aged 22) against the Spaniards, and by Charles XII. (aged 18) against the Russians.

Great Captain, the, Gonzalvo Hernandez di Cordova, who drove the Moors from Granada and the French from Italy (d. 1515).

Guarini, (see Pastor Fido).

Guicciardini, Florentian statesman and historian; disciple of Macchiavelli secured the restoration of the Medici, (1485-1540).

Guizot and Villemain, in 1829 upheld liberal opinions against Charles X., in 1844 took the part of monarchy and Louis Philippe. Genonde and Jaquelin made the reverse change.


HAFIZ and Ferdusi, famous Persian poets: the former flourished in the eleventh, the latter in the thirteenth century.

Hamilton, Count, friend of James II. and author of the Memoirs of the Count de Grammont, the best picture of the English court of the Restoration (1646-1720)

Hamilton's Bawn, a tumble-down house in the north of Ireland which inspired Swift to write an amusing Poem.

Hamilton, Gerard, M.P. for Petersfield, a man of somewhat despicable character. The nickname was "Single-speech Hamilton."

Hammond, Henry, Rector of Penshurst in Kent, and commentator on the New Testament, the Psalms, etc.

Hardwicke, Lord, the Lord Chancellor (1737-56), whose Marriage Act (1753) put an end to Fleet marriages.

Harte, Walter, poet, historian, and tutor to Lord Chesterfield's son (1709-74).

Hayley and Seward, inferior authors who were at one time very popular.

Hebert, Jacques Rene, editor of the violent revolutionary organ Pere Duchesne; for opposing his colleagues he was arrested and guillotined (1756-94).

Heliogabalus, made emperor of Rome by the army in 218; ruled moderately at first, but soon abandoned himself to excesses of all kinds, and was assassinated.

Helvetius, a French philosopher of the materialist school (1715- 71).

Henry the Fourth, the famous French king, "Henry of Navarre" (?1589-1610).

Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII., who waged war against the vices of society and the imperial tyranny over the Church.

Hilpa and Shalum, Chinese antediluvians (see Spectator, vol. viii.). Hilpa was a princess and Shalum her lover.

Hoadley, Benjamin, a prelate and keen controversialist on the side of civil and religious liberty (1676-1761).

Holkar, a Mahratta chief whose headquarters were at Indore.

Hosein, the son of Ali Hosein's mother was Fatima, the favourite daughter of Mahomet.

Houghton, Sir R. Walpole's Norfolk seat.

Hunt, Mr., a well-to-do Wiltshire farmer, who after many attempts entered Parliament in 1832.

Huntingdon, William, the S.S. "Sinner Save"; Huntingdon was one of those religious impostors who professed to be the recipient of divine visions and prophetic oracles.

Hydaspes, or Hytaspes, the Greek name for the river Jhelam in the Punjab.

Hyphasis, the Greek name for the river Beds in the Punjab.


ILDEFONSO, ST., a village in Old Castile containing a Spanish royal residence built by Philip V. on the model of Versailles.


JACOBINS, those holding extreme democratic principles. The name is derived from an extreme Party of French Revolutionists who used to meet in the ball of the Jacobin Friars.

Jaghires, landed estates.

Jauts, a fighting Hindoo race inhabiting the North-West Provinces.

Jefferson, Thomas, an American statesman, who took a prominent part in struggle for independence, and became President, 1801 to 1807.

Jenkinson, one of Bute's supporters, afterwards Earl of Liverpool.

Jomini, a celebrated Swiss military writer, who served in the French army as aide-de-camp to Marshal Ney (1779-1869).

Monsieur Jourdain, the honest but uneducated tradesman of Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, whose sudden wealth lands him in absurd attempts at aristocracy. 539

Justices in Eyre, i.e. in itinere, on circuit. In 1284 such were superseded by judges of assize.


KLOPSTOCK, author of the German epic Messiah, and one of the pioneers of modern German literature (1724-1803).

Knight of Malta, a play by Fletcher, Massinger, and another, produced before 1619.

Knipperdoling, one of the leading German Anabaptists, stadtholder of Munster, 1534-35, beheaded there in Jan. 1536.


LALLY, Baron de Tollendal, a distinguished French general in India who, however, could not work harmoniously with his brother officers or with his native troops, and was defeated by Eyre Coote at Wandewash in January 1760. He was imprisoned in the Bastille and executed (1766) on a charge of betraying French interests.

Las Casas, a Catholic bishop who laboured among the aborigines of South America, interposing himself between them and the cruelty of the Spaniards. Clarkson (ib.) was Wilberforce's fellow-worker