Mr. Bickerstaff does hereby give notice, that he has taken the two famous universities of this land under his immediate care, and does hereby promise all tutors and pupils, that he will hear what can be said of each side between them, and to correct them impartially, by placing them in orders and classes in the learned world, according to their merit.[326]

[Footnote 311:  See Nos. 25, 26, 28, 29.]

[Footnote 312:  Probably meant for Llanbadern Vawr, if not a name coined for the occasion.]

[Footnote 313:  Sir Anthony Fitzherbert’s book was published in 1514.]

[Footnote 314:  See Nos. 28, 134.]

[Footnote 315:  See Selden, “De Duello” (1610), p. 19.]

[Footnote 316:  A prize-fighter mentioned in Lansdowne’s epilogue to “The Jew of Venice.”]

[Footnote 317:  “AEneid,” v. 437 seq.]

[Footnote 318:  Suetonius, “Life of Nero,” chap. 12.]

[Footnote 319:  An allusion to the rubrics in Roman missals.]

[Footnote 320:  The fields at the back of Montague House, Bloomsbury, were a favourite place for duels in the first half of the eighteenth century.  Cf. Spectator, No. 91:  “I shall be glad to meet you immediately in Hyde Park or behind Montague House, or attend you to Barn Elms, or any other fashionable place that’s fit for a gentleman to die in.”]

[Footnote 321:  It has been suggested, with some probability, that this letter is by Swift.]

[Footnote 322:  See No. 4.]

[Footnote 323:  Borago was a plant formerly used as a cordial.]

[Footnote 324:  See No. 21.]

[Footnote 325:  Young Man’s Coffee-house at Charing Cross, had a back door into Spring Garden.  It seems to have been specially frequented by officers.]

[Footnote 326:  “Mr. Bickerstaff has received the advices from Clay Hill, which, with all intelligence from honest Mr. Sturdy and others, shall have their place in our future story” (folio).]

No. 32. [SWIFT AND STEELE.

From Tuesday, June 21, to Thursday, June 23, 1709.

* * * * *

White’s Chocolate-house, June 22.

An answer to the following letter being absolutely necessary to be despatched with all expedition, I must trespass upon all that come with horary questions into my ante-chamber, to give the gentlemen my opinion.

#"To Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.#

“June 18, 1709.

“SIR,

“I know not whether you ought to pity or laugh at me; for I am fallen desperately in love with a professed Platonne, the most unaccountable creature of her sex.  To hear her talk seraphics, and run over Norris,[327] and More,[328] and Milton,[329] and the whole set of intellectual triflers, torments me heartily; for to a lover who understands metaphors, all this pretty prattle of ideas gives very fine views of pleasure, which only the dear declaimer prevents,