But others will swear that this wise Undertaker By Trade's an At--ney, by Name is a B--r, Who rambles about with a Female Disguise on And lives upon Scandal, as Toads do on Poyson.[9] Perhaps it was this which, taken quite literally, produced the _Biographia Dramatica's_ canard as to Baker's effeminacy (see above). After grinding out a greater or less amount of this hack-work,[10] Baker gave up trying to write. His disappearance from the scene thereafter is accounted for by his appointment (1711) to a living in Bedfordshire, where he was Rector of Bolnhurst till his death, and (1716-31) Vicar of Ravensden. As the Bolnhurst school was founded upon a bequest from him in 1749,[11] he presumably died in that year--but not, I should guess, of _morbus pediculosus_. _John Harrington Smith University of California, Los Angeles_ NOTES TO INTRODUCTION [Footnote 1: The other was William Burnaby. His plays have been given a modern editing by F.E. Budd (Scholartis Press, 1931).] [Footnote 2: Nicoll, _Early Eighteenth Century Drama_, Handlist of Plays. For all subsequent statements as to dates of production I follow this source.] [Footnote 3: It was still too lively, however, to be acted outside London. The Harvard Theatre Collection has a copy once owned by Joe Haines with "cuts" designed to soften it for playing in the provinces. Such lines as, "The Godly never go to Taverns, but get drunk every Night at one another's Houses," "Citizens are as fond of their Wives, as their Wives are of other People," and "Virtue's an Impossibility ... every Citizen's Wife pretends to't," are carefully expunged.] [Footnote 4: E.g., Bloom to Mrs. Driver, "One moment into that Closet, if it be but to read the Practice of Piety" becomes "One Moment into that Closet, Dear, dear Creature; they say it's mighty prettily furnish'd," And in her aside, "I vow, I've a good mind; but Virtue--the Devil, I ne're was so put to't i' my Life," for the words "the Devil" are substituted the words "and Reputation."] [Footnote 5: No. 50, Sept. 14; No. 61, Oct. 26.] [Footnote 6: According to the impression I have of this "morbus" it was a skin-ailment particularly appropriated to beggars, who might contract it upon long exposure to filth and louse-bites. Even then, though there would doubtless be a certain amount "of discomfort about it, it would scarcely prove fatal.] [Footnote 7: This and subsequent vital statistics as to Baker's university and clerical career are from the account of him in J. and J.A. Venn, _Alumni Cantabrigienses_, 1922 _et sq_.] [Footnote 8: _British Apollo_, No. 49, Sept. 14, 1709.] [Footnote 9: _Ibid._]