Note 86 — Part IV
Reading edition
J.H. Blunt (Comm. on v. 27) makes an unaccountable mistake in supposing that the balls were put into the statue of Bel, not eaten by the Dragon. "The composition would not of itself burst the hollow statue either by chymical explosion or mechanical expansion." Almost as ridiculous is the abusive phrase "Offspring of Bel and the Dragon," which Congreve puts into the mouth of Fondlewife in his play of The Old Bachelor, Act IV. sc. 4.