s."

[Illustration: Spire with Fiddle and case.]

[Footnote 1: Several explanations of this passage have been set forth
by Butler's commentators. Dr. Grey asks, "Why the north-east side? Do
Fiddlers always, or most generally, stand or sit according to the
points of the compass?" Dr. Nash suggests the poet may have had in
view "a conceit," which is in Brown's "Vulgar Errors," viz., that the
body of man is magnetical, and being placed in a boat will never rest
till the head respecteth the north. Dr. Nash remarks, "Now, the body
lying on its back with its head towards the north, or standing upright
with the face towards the east, the reader will find the place of the
Fiddle on the left breast to be due north-east."]

[Footnote 2: Dr. Nash says, "Souse is the pig's ear, and chitterlings
the pig's guts; the former alludes to Crowdero's ear, which lay on the
Fiddle; the latter to the strings of the Fiddle, which are made of
catgut."]

[Footnote 3: Black pudding and sausages are placed in skins of gut.]

[Footnote 4: This passage evidently refers to Violists meeting to make
division to a ground, namely, in the words of Christopher Simpson, "A
ground, subject, or bass (call it which you please) is prickt
(written) down in two several papers, one for him who is to play the
ground (upon an organ, harpsichord, or other instrument), the other
for him who plays upon the Viol, who having the said ground before his
eye (as his theme or subject) plays such variety of descant and
division thereupon as his skill and present invention do then suggest
to him." The poet's allusion to "Th' incendiary vile (Viol) that is
chief author and engineer of mischief" humorously points to the
popularity of the Viol. The poet's mention of persons meeting and
performing on their Viols, thus making

"... division between friends,
For profane and malignant ends,"

is evidently a most humorous allusion to the case of the Royalist, Sir
Roger L'Estrange, the friend of Butler, and to whom was given the
names of the real persons shadowed under fictitious characters in the
satire. Sir Roger, whilst in St. James's Park, heard an Organ being
played in the house of one Mr. Hickson. His intense love of music
prompted him to seek admittance. He found there a company of five or
six persons, and being himself a good Violist, was prevailed upon to
take a part. By-and-by Cromwell entered, without, Sir Roger explains
in a pamphlet ("Truth and Loyalty Vind