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*The physical decadence which Swift claims to have observed may have been a reality
at that date. He attributes it to syphilis, which was a new disease in Europe and may have been more
virulent than it is now. Distilled liquors, also, were a novelty in the seventeenth century and must
have led at first to a great increase in drunkenness [Orwell's footnote].
*Tower [Orwell's footnote].
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*At the end of the book, as typical specimens of human folly and viciousness, Swift
names "a Lawyer, a Pickpocket, a Colonel, a Fool, a Lord, a Gamester, a Politician, a Whore-master,
a Physician, an Evidence, a Suborner, an Attorney, a Traitor, or the like." One sees here the
irresponsible violence of the powerless. The list lumps together those who break the conventional
code, and those who keep it. For instance, if you automatically condemn a colonel, as such, on what
grounds do you condemn a traitor? Or again, if you want to suppress pickpockets, you must have
laws, which means that you must have lawyers. But the whole closing passage, in which the hatred is
so authentic, and the reason given for it so inadequate, is somehow unconvincing. One has the feeling
that personal animosity is at work [Orwell's footnote].
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*Shakespeare and the Drama. Written about 1903 as an introduction to another
pamphlet, Shakespeare and the Working Classes, by Ernest Crosby [Orwell's footnote].
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*The Story of my Experiments with Truth, by M. K. Gandhi. Translated from the
Gujarati by Mahadev Desai. Public Affairs Press, $5.00 [Orwell's footnote].
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