Note 437 — Chapter LIV

Spenser’s View of the State of Ireland, 1596. Some of the poet’s words might suggest Swift’s savage outburst about the worthy divines appointed to Irish sees who were uniformly robbed and murdered on Hounslow Heath ‘by the highwaymen frequenting that common, who seize upon their robes and patents, come over to Ireland, and are consecrated bishops in their stead.’