[10] It was noted at the time that Jerningham, who had the reputation of a literary magpie, was indebted for elements in his plot to John Home's 1760 drama, The Siege of Aquileia.

[11] The claim was also made later that Home had based the action of his play on the Berwick incident in the first place,[12] as Felicia Hemans was to do again in her Siege of Valencia (1823), equally dealing with a contemporary mediaeval conflict.

[13] The Siege of Berwick was performed on the back of a patriotic response to the War of the First Coalition[14] and The Times commented approvingly on the following day on the defiant spirit of its epilogue.

[15] There Mrs Pope answers criticism of the choice of a historical subject by pointing to its exemplary effect in the present: Ev'n here, as I the martial theme pursue, Full many a mother rises to my view, Whose ardent Sons domestic comforts fly, To seek th'advancing Foe with kindling eye.

But while the performance may then have been greeted with indulgence, following the argument that "the critics' function was no longer to assess new works objectively, but to proselytize on behalf of the national good",[16] no such quarter was given later in reviews of the printed text.