Note 259 — Chapter VII

In the introduction to this volume Motteux says that Sir Thomas Urquhart was "a learned physician." It is difficult to understand what could have given rise to such a statement. Sir Thomas had many projects for the benefit of the human race, but there is no evidence of his ever having cherished that of combating disease. One cannot help thinking of the magniloquent terms in which he would have extolled his remedies, if the fates had led him to the concoction of patent medicines. It is doubtful, however, whether he would have had what is technically known as "a good bed-side manner." It is quite possible that Motteux simply meant that Sir Thomas was well acquainted with medical science, and not that he was a physician by profession. Yet his words have often been understood as asserting the latter. Thus we find the erroneous statement in Granger's Biographical Dictionary, the Amsterdam (1741) edition of Rabelais, and Sir John Hawkins' Life of Johnson, p. 294.