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Although the anecdote about Dionysius the Elder resembles the one derived from Roger L'Estrange's Fables, used in TB No. 25, discussed below, it is, in fact, taken from the Cotton translation of Montaigne's Essays. Vol. 1, No. 8, “Sayings of Kings,” p. 168: “A Stranger having publickly said, that he could teach Dionysus the Tyrant of Syracusa an infallible way to find out [p. 169] and discover all the Conspiracies his Subjects should contrive against him, if he would give him a good Sum of Money for his Pains: Dionysus, hearing of it, caus'd the Man to be brought to him, that he might learn an Art so necessary to his Preservation; and having ask'd him by what Art he might make such Discoveries, the Fellow made Answer, That all the Art he knew, was That he should give him a Talent, and afterwards boast that he had obtained a singular Secret from him.” It is worth noting that besides omitting some phrases for greater concision, the writer of the True Briton substitutes “mighty” for “singular.” In C-H, of the 594 instances of “mighty,” 110 are in Richardson's novels. I am grateful to Bruce Swann, of the Classics Library at the University of Illinois Library, for pointing out to me the source of this anecdote from Plutarch's Moralia, 175f-176a, Loeb, trans. Frank Cole Babbitt (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1968; first printed 1931), 3:33.
This term may point to Richardson. Of the thirty matches altogether in C-H, three are in Pamela and two are in Clarissa (1st edn.).
Of the twenty-five occurrences of “general character” found in C-H, eighteen are in Richardson's novels, with thirteen in the third edition of Clarissa. Early in Clarissa, for example, Mr. Harlowe sides with his son, James, against Lovelace: “he was the more inclined to make his Son this compliment, as Mr. Lovelace's general character gave but too much ground for his Son's dislike of him” (Clarissa, 3rd edn., 1:14). Towards the end of the story, Clarissa depends on a good report to trust Belford: “Mrs. Lovick has taken pains to enquire after his general character; and hears a very good one of him, for justice and generosity in all his concerns of Meum and Tuum, as they are called” (Clarissa, 3rd edn., 7:48).
Although the word “bribe” in this same paragraph is much more commonplace, with 234 matches altogether in C-H, it is perhaps significant that Richardson's novels have a much higher concentration of uses, with fifty instances.
The terms “Death's Head” and “Memento Mori” at first glance may seem too commonplace to need investigation. But in C-H, whether spelled as “death's head” with five instances or as “death's-head” with only two matches, at least one of the former spelling appears in the third edition of Clarissa. Surprisingly enough, only five uses of Memento Mori occur in C-H, one of these in Richardson's Familiar Letters warning against the dangers to one's health from the abuse of alcohol among men.
“Hear-say” turns out to be relatively less frequent in C-H than one might expect, even taking into account the three basic forms of orthography. As “hear say,” we find only twelve instances altogether, with one instance in Pamela. As “hear-say,” we find ten altogether, with one in the first edition of Pamela. As “hearsay,” we find fourteen matches altogether, with four in the third edition of Clarissa and three in Grandison.
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