“Here, five feet deep, lies on his back,
  A cobler, starmonger, and quack,
  Who to the stars in pure good will
  Does to his best look upward still: 
  Weep, all you customers that use
  His pills, his almanacks, or shoes.”

In No. 59 of “The Tatler,” his death is referred to in harmony with the tone of Swift’s fun:  “The late Partridge, who still denies his death.  I am informed indeed by several that he walks.” [T.S.]]

[Footnote 4:  The famous Dr. John Radcliffe (1650-1714) who refused the appointment of physician to King William III., and offended Anne by his churlish disregard of her requests to attend on her.  He fell in love with a Miss Tempest, one of Queen Anne’s maids of honour.  In the 44th number of “The Tatler” Steele ridicules this attachment by making him address his mistress in the following words:  “O fair! for thee I sit amidst a crowd of painted deities on my chariot, buttoned in gold, clasped in gold, without having any value for that beloved metal, but as it adorns the person and laces the hat of thy dying lover.”  Radcliffe attended Swift for his dizziness, but that did not prevent the latter from referring to him as “that puppy,” in writing to Stella, for neglecting to attend to Harley’s wound.  He seems to have had a high standing for skill as a physician, and probably on that account gave himself airs.  It is told of him that “during a long attendance in the family of a particular friend, he regularly refused the fee pressed upon him at each visit.  At length, when the cure was performed, and the doctor about to give up attendance, the convalescent patient again proffered him a purse containing the fees for every day’s visit.  The doctor eyed it some time in silence, and at length extended his hand, exclaiming, ’Singly, I could have refused them for ever; but altogether they are irresistible.’” Radcliffe died at Carshalton in 1714.  From his bequests were founded the Radcliffe Infirmary and Observatory at Oxford. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 5:  Scott omits, from his edition, the whole of this paragraph up to this point. [T.S.]]

THE TATLER, NUMB. 68.

FROM TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 13.  TO THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 15. 1709.

From my own Apartment, September 14.

The progress of our endeavours will of necessity be very much interrupted, except the learned world will please to send their lists to the Chamber of Fame with all expedition.  There is nothing can so much contribute to create a noble emulation in our youth, as the honourable mention of such whose actions have outlived the injuries of time, and recommended themselves so far to the world, that it is become learning to know the least circumstance of their affairs.  It is a great incentive to see, that some men have raised themselves so highly above their fellow-creatures; that the lives of ordinary men are spent in inquiries after the particular actions of the most illustrious.  True it is, that without this impulse to fame and reputation, our industry would stagnate, and that lively desire of pleasing each other die away.  This opinion was so established in the heathen world, that their sense of living appeared insipid, except their being was enlivened with a consciousness, that they were esteemed by the rest of the world.