Given the topical nature of _The Art of Politicks_, the best use of my remaining space is probably to annotate the poem. From what I have learned about its background--and many mysteries remain--I have tried to choose what seems most relevant. In the interests of saving space, and since full annotation is not possible anyway, I have kept documentation to a minimum, especially where the information comes from easily available sources like the DNB or, conversely, has been pieced together from several sources. Some works are occasionally referred to by abbreviation or author's name; the ones not mentioned in the Notes to the Introduction are the following:[O]
Cobbett: William Cobbett, _The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803_ (London: T. C. Hansard, 1806-20).
Ellis: Jonathan Swift, _A Discourse of the Contests and Dissentions between the Nobles and Commons in Athens and Rome_, ed. Frank H. Ellis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967).
Grey: Anchitel Grey, _Debates of the House of Commons from the Year 1667 to the Year 1694_ (London, 1763).
Thomas: Peter D. G. Thomas, _The House of Commons in the Eighteenth Century_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).
Realey: Charles B. Realey, _The Early Opposition to Sir Robert Walpole 1720-1727_ (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1931).
P. 1, line 1. Sir James: Sir James Thornhill (c. 1675-1734). As MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis (1722-34) and Serjeant Painter to the King (1720-32), he embodies the parallel between art and politics that underlies Bramston's poem. His best-known works were the dome of St. Paul's and the paintings in Greenwich Hospital. Hogarth married his daughter in 1729.
P. 2, line 4. Cf. Hervey's comment on Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, who "affected to conciliate in himself both characters of Whig and Tory, declaring himself always a Whig in the State and a Tory in the Church" (pp. 90-91). Gibson's attitude can be traced back at least as far as Swift's _Sentiments of a Church of England Man_ (1711).
line 11. Patriots: the self-awarded designation of the major group of Walpole's opponents.
P. 3, line 6. Parliament devoted considerable time to fixing turnpike tolls.
Fleury: André Hercule de (1653-1743). Created a cardinal in 1726, he was chief adviser to Louis XV of France from that date till his death, and therefore a person of great interest to England. His guiding principle was to keep France at peace with the rest of Europe.