27 But David was not the Man…Throne: See 1 Kings 6.
28 the Bill against Occasional Conformity…Lords: Defoe suggests here that the Tories care more about settling domestic scores against their enemies than in supporting the military campaign in Europe. The Occasional Conformity Bill, an attempt by the Tories to outlaw the practice, was passed by the House of Commons in November 1702, but was turned down by the House of Lords soon after. Landau, a Bavarian town, was captured from the French by the Duke of Marlborough in September 1702, with the aid of troops hired out to him by Charles, Prince of Hesse-Cassel, the first European ruler to put a mercenary army at the disposal of foreign powers; Augsburg, also in Bavaria, was badly damaged during a siege by the Duke of Bavaria, who fought as an ally of France.
AN ESSAY ON THE LATE STORM
1 Limbus: In Catholic theology Limbo is the temporary place for souls awaiting Christ’s ascendancy into Heaven.
2 The Fatal Goodwin…Lyes: Goodwin Sands, off the Kent coast, where some 1,800 ships have been lost over the centuries.
3 But ’tis to save…not the Men: In The Storm, p. 134, Defoe records the actions of some of the people of Deal, who were too intent on salvaging goods from the storm-wrecked ships to assist in the saving of lives.
4 The Barbarous Hated Name of Deal…all the Land: Thomas Home, the new mayor of Deal, threatened Defoe with a libel action over his damning portrayal of the town.
5 Hie Jacent: ‘Here lie’, a phrase commonly used on tomb inscriptions.
6 the Nore: see note 18 to The Storm, Chapter IV, ‘Of the Extent of this Storm’.
7 Guilty H—: John Grubham How (1657-1722), Tory politician, who incurred Defoe’s lifelong enmity by making insulting remarks about William III’s policies in a notorious parliamentary speech.
8 But Asgil…Homage unto Death: The eccentric author John Asgill (1659-1738) published a much-mocked book in 1700 which argued that Christians might be ‘translated from hence, into eternal life, without passing through death’. Defoe published a refutation of AsgilPs thesis in November 1703.
9 Vile Blackbourn: John Blackbourne (1683-1741), non-juror, whose refusal to recognize the Act of Settlement earned him many enemies and harmed his early career.
10 And Satan’s Pandemonium… Seraphs wildly rov’d: ‘Pandemonium’ is Satan’s palace. The word was coined by Milton in Book I of Paradise Lost (1667). Seraphs are members of the highest order of angels, often depicted as winged childrens’ heads.
11 The Stagyrite: The Greek philosopher Aristotle (c. 384-322 BC), so called because he was born at Stagira, in Macedonia.
12 Liberty the Old Pretence: The deposed James II died in exile in September 1701, but Louis XIV gave encouragement to the Jacobites by recognizing James’s thirteen-year-old son, ‘James III and VIII’, as the Pretender to the British throne.
13 a High-Church Storm: An ironic opposition to the ‘Protestant Wind’ of 5 November 1688 which had assisted William of Orange’s triumphant landing at Torbay while keeping James IPs fleet stranded in the Thames.
14 Bothwel and Pentland Hills…nam’d: The battles of Bothwell Bridge (1679), Rullion Green (1666), which ended the Pentland Rising, and Killiecrankie (1689) were fought to decide the religious destiny of Scotland. Defoe writes later of ‘the BothwellBridge Rebellion, and several other little disturbances of the Whigs in those days; for Whigs then were all Presbyterians’, Tour, p. 617.
∗ Taken frequently for Britain.
Daniel Defoe, The Storm
(Series: # )
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