Note 58a — JOURNAL TO STELLA (continued 2)

Forster suggests that Swift wrote “Frond” or “Frowde” and there is every reason to believe that this was the case. No Colonel Proud appears in Dalton’s Army Lists. A Colonel William Frowde, apparently third son of Sir Philip Frowde, Knight, by his third wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Ashburnham, was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in Colonel Farrington’s (see 59) Regiment of Foot in 1694. He resigned his commission on his appointment to the First Life Guards in 1702, and he was in this latter regiment in 1704. In November and December 1711 Swift wrote of Philip Frowde the elder (Colonel William Frowde’s brother) as “an old fool,” in monetary difficulties. It is probable that Swift’s Colonel Proud (? Frowde) was not Colonel William Frowde, but his nephew, Philip Frowde, junior, who was Addison’s friend at Oxford, and the author of two tragedies and various poems. Nothing seems known of Philip Frowde’s connection with the army, but he is certainly called “Colonel” by Swift, Addison, and Pope (see Forster’s Swift, 159; Addison’s Works, v. 324; Pope’s Works, v. 177, vi. 227). Swift wrote to Ambrose Philips in 1705, “Col. Frond is just as he was, very friendly and grand rêveur et distrait. He has brought his poems almost to perfection.” It will be observed that when Swift met Colonel “Proud” he was in company with Addison, as was also the case when he was with Colonel “Freind” (p. 11).