1. Written in 1800, ‘Hypochondriacus’ was printed at the end of the volume containing Lamb’s play John Woodvil, where it is called ‘A Conceipt of Diabolical Possession’ – from Curious Fragments from a Common-place Book of Robert Burton.

2. men-eaters, cannibals.

3. the spirits of the departed.

4. ‘those who dwell directly opposite to each other on the globe, so that the soles of their feet are as it were planted against each other’ (OED).

5. feigned evil spirits or demons ‘(originating in personified representations of the nightmare) supposed to descend upon persons in their sleep, and especially to seek carnal intercourse with women’ (OED).

6. destroyer, angel of the bottomless pit. Cf. Rev. ix. 11; and Milton in Paradise Regained.

7. the name of a devil. Cf. Lear, Act III, sc. iv, 149: ‘The Prince of Darknesse is a Gentleman. Modo he’s called and Mahu.’

8. ‘Jesus! Mary! deliver us from the dreadful temptations of our adversary the Devil.’