Martin's Borough Hall and Public
Library, on Charing Cross Road, near Trafalgar Square.]
[Footnote 21: Defoe (1661-1731): an English novelist and political
writer. On account of his political writings Defoe was sentenced
to stand in the pillory, and to be "imprisoned during the Queen's
pleasure." During this imprisonment he wrote many articles. Later in
life he wrote Robinson Crusoe, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll
Flanders, Journal of the Plague Year, and other books less well known.]
[Footnote 22: unholy cursing and crackling wit of the Rochesters and
Sedleys: John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, and Sir Charles
Sedley, were both friends of Charles II, and were noted for biting wit
and profligacy. Green, in his Short History of the English People, thus
describes them: "Lord Rochester was a fashionable poet, and the titles
of some of his poems are such as no pen of our day could copy. Sir
Charles Sedley was a fashionable wit, and the foulness of his words made
even the porters in the Covent Garden belt him from the balcony when he
ventured to address them."]
[Footnote 23: Laud: Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud was born in 1573, and
beheaded at London in 1645. He was throughout the reign of Charles I a
staunch supporter of the King. He was impeached by the Long Parliament
in 1640 and executed on Tower Hill, in 1645.
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