Note 430 — NOTES ON ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. PART II.
Reading edition
Elkanah had forfeited reputation for valour, by his conduct in a quarrel with Otway; as may be interred from the line,
Settle's a coward, because fool Otway fought him.
In an answer to "The Character of a Popish Successor," called, "A Character of the true-blue Protestant Poet," Settle is termed, "a fool, an arrant knave, a despicable coward, and a prophane atheist."