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Some Neglected Bits and Pieces from
the European Magazine
by
Arthur Sherbo
Recently I recalled attention, in the pages of Studies in Bibliography (35 [1982], 297), to some minor pieces, gleaned from the Gentleman's Magazine, either previously unknown or buried in obscurity. Arthur Murphy's epitaph on John Ayton Thompson, I later discovered from a footnote in John Pike Emery's biography (1946), had appeared in Daniel Lyson's The Environs of London, 4 vols., 1795, II. 205. I had looked in the index to Emery's biography and failed to find an entry for Thompson, nor was there any headnote to the Index to alert readers to the fact that matter in footnotes was not indexed.[1] I came on the footnote while pursuing other game. Possibly one or more of the following bits and pieces in the European Magazine (hereafter EM) lurk in some obscure place; possibly some are known in their appearance elsewhere; some remain in manuscript. In this last category is Thomas Warton, the younger's, poem, "Ode On a New Plantation of flowering Shrubs in Trinity College Garden, at Oxford; the old Wilderness having been destroyed by the hard Frost 1740" (46.131-132), with a headnote, "The following Poem we have received from a friend. It is in the handwriting of its respectable Author, the late Poet Laureat, and is now printed for the first time." Thanks to the kindness of Dr. David Fairer of Leeds University I learn that the poem exists in manuscript "at Trinity College, Oxford, in the Warton MSS now on deposit in the Bodleian Library, and it was included by J. S. Cunningham in his unpublished B. Litt dissertation (Bodleian MS B.Litt d. 394-5) as poem 24." The EM version was unknown to both men.
David Garrick
"Letter from DAVID GARRICK, Esq. to Miss Younge, whilst at Bristol, on her return from Ireland in the Year 1771." From "Hampton July 4th [1771]." And "[Directed] Miss Younge, Belonging to the Theatre, King-street, Bristol" (31.236).
This is letter 637 in The Letters of David Garrick, ed. by David M. Little and George M. Kahrl (1963), 3 vols continuously paged, pp. 745-746. Little and Kahrl print from a MS. with a hole "affecting two pages." I shall give the line references on p. 746 and supply the correct reading from the EM
John Hawkesworth
"Lines addressed to Miss APPHIA WITTS, now the Widow of Thomas Lord Lyttleton, on her Departure for the East Indies, March 1769, by the late J. HAWKESWORTH, L.L.D." "Farewell, dear Maid, and gentle as thy soul." (18.408). Eighteen lines, heroic couplets. Lyttleton was married "on 26 June 1772 to Apphia, second daughter of Broome Witts of Chipping Norton, and widow of Joseph Peach, formerly governor of Calcutta" (DNB). Hawkesworth died in 1773.
James Hervey
From "Weston, June 28, 1746" to "Dear Mr. T----," submitted by a correspondent signing himself "W," who appends a paragraph in praise of Hervey, "a very worthy man, exemplary divine, and ingenious writer." (15.97-99). Also, from "Weston, Feb. 21, 1746" to "Dear Mr. W--" [the "W" who sent in the first letter?], submitted by "J. W.," who identifies himself as the "W" who submitted the first letter but not as the recipient of the second letter. (16.161-162). The first letter is described as "[Now First Published.]"; the second, like the first also, as an "original" letter. The recipient of the first letter probably resided "at Brynsworthy, that agreeable seat, where, three years ago, I passed several delightful weeks." Modern gazetteers describe Brysworthy as "ham.[let], N. Devon, 1½ m. S. of Barnstaple." Hervey was curate of Bideford, North Devon, for nearly three years, beginning in 1740 (DNB). Still in the first letter: Hervey inquires about Mr. T's last visit to the Abbey, identified in a footnote as "Stoke-Abbey, near Bideford, the seat of Paul Orchard, Esq. . .; to whom Mr. Hervey stood godfather, and dedicated the second volume of his Meditations." Hervey asks, "Is Mr. W--'s Abode in your parts," raising the suspicion that this Mr. W is the same "W" who submitted the letter. In any event, the whole letter is too long and touches on too many matters for a précis, although the recipient is identified as a clergyman with a daughter whose initials were C. I. The second letter contains far less news and is almost entirely given over to religious sentiments, largely about charity.
Lord John Hervey
"Verses, Written During a Fit of Sickness, by John, Lord, Hervey. (Now first published.)." "Each hour my spirits and my strength decay." Also "Epitaph On His Sister Lady Betty Mansel. By the Same. (Now first published.)." "Reader attend! and if thy eye let fall." (32.412). Hervey's health was delicate
Samuel Johnson
The "Literary Intelligence" section of the December 1783 EM concluded by reporting that "Dr. Johnson, we are happy to hear, is much better, and has sat down to put the last hand to the life of Spencer, which, with his other lives of the poets, we understand is the whole that he means to favour the literary world with" (p. 408). Hannah More wrote in her Memoirs, "Johnson told me he had been with the king that morning [in 1780], who enjoined him to add Spenser to his Lives of the Poets."[3] But Boswell, recording information given him by John Nichols, quoted the latter's saying that he rather wished that Johnson "would favour the world [so much like the EM, "favour the literary world"], and gratify his sovereign, by a Life of Spenser, (which he said he would readily have done, had he been able to obtain any new material for the purpose)" (Life, IV. 410). Nichols's wish and Johnson's answer are unfortunately undated; hence one is unable positively to contradict the statement in the EM.
In the second part of a series of "Atoms of Information" an anonymous correspondent wrote,
Dr. Johnson had planned a book on the model of Robinson Crusoe. Pomponius Gauricus, a learned Neapolitan, who had dabbled in Alchemy, Physiognomy, &c suddenly disappeared in the year 1530, and was heard of no more. The supposed life of this man the Doctor had resolved to write. "I will not (said he) shipwreck my hero on an uninhabited island, but will carry him up to the summit of San Pelegrini, the highest of the Appennines; where he shall be made his own biographer, passing his time among the Goat-herds, &c."
By Dr. Johnson's advice, the late Duke of Cumberland ordered a brass cannon to be fabricated on a new plan: Our artillery is usually complained of, on account of its weight, and size. The Doctor was willing to think these defects might in some degree be obviated; first, by casting every gun out of a less quantity of metal than usual, and afterwards by hammering it into solidity. The experiment was tried, but set aside on account of the expence attending it.
Gauricus, a Neapolitan humanist, was a sixteenth-century classical scholar who also wrote on sculpture. Johnson, according to Joseph Cradock, was once in the company of Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, and if Johnson advised him on cannon, it must have been on this occasion, but the EM account, in August 1787, refers to the Duke as "the late Duke of Cumberland," whereas Henry Frederick died in 1790.[4]
Lyttelton, Chesterfield, and Jean Marishall
"Letters from the Earl of Chesterfield and Lord Lyttelton to Mrs. Jane Marshall." (47.338-339). Mrs. Marshall, i.e. Jean Marishall, is identified in a footnote as "Author of 'Clarinda Cathcart,' 'Alicia Montague,' 'Sir Harry Gaylove, a Comedy,' and "A Series of Letters,' in 2 vols." She is given a bare mention in CBEL, NCBEL, Biographia Dramatica (1812), and in the catalogue of printed books of the British Library. What is of interest is that the letter by Chesterfield and the three by Lyttleton are apparently unknown, since they do not appear in the edited correspondence of either men nor in biographical works on them. Further, the references to David Garrick might lead one to assume some mention of Mrs. Marshall in his letters or in the recent (1979) full biography of him, but there is none. The letters are sufficiently interesting as to deserve full quotation. I assume the footnote appended to the fourth letter is an editorial one.
No. I.
You do me a great deal too much honour, in supposing me either a competent judge or an useful patron of polite literature. From an inordinate deafness, and various infirmities that attend old age, I have been out of the world these two and twenty years: I have almost forgot it, and am quite forgotten by it.
If the managers of our two theatres here had had half the pleasure in reading your comedy that it gave me, they would gladly have accepted and acted it: but they are to be considered as tradesmen, who deal in plays for profit, and who will purchase no goods but such as they think they can retail with advantage; of which they pretend to be, and perhaps are, the best judges, from long knowledge of the taste of the public; which taste is of late years so vitiated, that musical nonsense triumphs over dramatic sense. Whatever fate may attend your Comedy, you may justly have the satisfaction of knowing, that the dialogue, the sentiment, and the moral of it, do honour to a young and virgin muse.
I am, with the greatest esteem, Madam, your most obedient humble
servant,
July 16, 1770
CHESTERFIELD.
No II.
I should not have delayed so long to return you my thanks for the honour you have done me in letting me see your Play, if it had come to my hands as soon as the letter which informed me that I should be favoured with it from you; but I did not receive it till the end of last week.
As you desire me to give you my judgment upon it, I can very
sincerely tell you, that I think the plot interesting, the characters strongly
marked, and the dialogue lively and witty, though not without faults. But
experience has shown me, that to judge what will do for the stage, and
succeed well in the acting, Mr. Garrick's opinion is far superior to mine:
nor can I take on myself to recommend any play to him or Mr. Colman,
even if it were written by the best friend I have. Pardon me therefore,
Madam, for referring you to them, and particularly to Mr. Garrick; from
whose decisions in these matters there can, I think, be no appeal. If I
myself were to write a play, I would leave it entirely to his determination
whether it should be brought on the stage or not. Permit me to assure you
of my very grateful sense of the favourable opinion you do me the honour
to express of me, and of the high esteem and regard with which I am,
Madam, your most obedient humble servant,
Hagley, Sept. 20, 1770
LYTTELTION.
No. III.
I was at your door this morning, to express my concern at a letter I
wrote you on the 30th of January in answer to yours, and which should
have come to you by the penny post. Having miscarried, the contents of it
were to tell you that I have not the least acquaintance with Mr. Foote. I
cannot think of talking to him on the subject you mentioned, but take the
liberty to advise you, as the best part for your service, to leave him
perfectly master of your play; with this caution alone, that he shall put
nothing into it which it would be unbecoming your sex to write: and to
secure the performance of that necessary stipulation, let you see the
alterations he proposes to make before he brings it on. I have only to add,
that I am sorry for the uneasiness you have suffered by the unlucky
miscarriage of my answer to your letter; that I heartily wish you success;
and that I am, with the highest esteem, Madam your most obedient humble
servant,
Feb. 3, 1771
LYTTELTON.
No. IV.[*]
On considering the question you do me the honour to put to me, my answer is this: If you write for fame, go on; if for money, desist, unless the Dutchess of Northumberland or Lord Chesterfield will enable you to bear the expense of continuing the paper till it becomes so well known as to support itself. This they surely could do without any inconvenience to their opulent fortunes: and this I would do, if I were in their circumstances, with great pleasure.
Instead of sending you this letter, I would have waited upon you; but
some indisposition confines me at home this morning; and to-morrow I am
engaged to go out of town. I am, with sincere admiration of your talents
and sentiments, Madam, your most obedient and humble servant,
Hill-street, Jan. 13, 1771
LYTTELTON.
One would like to know more about Jean Marishall, but the only information given in Sir William Musgrave's Obituary Prior to 1800 (1899), sub. Marshall, Jane is that her name appeared in A Catalogue of Five Hundred Celebrated Authors of Great Britain Now Living (1788). Recourse to that Catalogue reveals nothing new; it is merely a bibliographical notice of her two novels, her unacted comedy, and her two volumes of letters. Nothing about the periodical paper, nothing about her possible patrons. But the four letters to her are of more than ordinary interest, exhibiting and corroborating as they do the tact and courtesy of both men.
David Mallet
"The Transfiguration. In Imitation of Milton's Style." "Celestial Dove! the Muse heav'n-born inspire." (25.52). A footnote states that the poem "is not collected into Mallet's works." R.D. Havens, The Influence of Milton on English Poetry (1922), p. 638 gives 1721 as the date of composition and the 1794 EM (vol. 25) as the place of publication. The poem was unknown to
Moses Mendez
"Epistle to Mr. John Ellis . . . Now First Published. To the Well Conceited Maister John Ellis." "Where Ham, vain-glorious of her dusky wood." (21. 128-130). Prefaced by a short letter by "M[endez]" which refers to "two cantos of our well-beloved Poet and lately deceased friend Maister Edmund Spenser" which Mendez had "already addressed" to Ellis and which is identified in an editorial footnote as "'The Blatant Beast.' These have never been published, and are now in our possession." John Ellis (1648-1790), friend of Isaac Reed and of Moses Mendez, was a scrivener with literary interests. Mendez's Epistle follows the concluding section of Reed's account of Ellis. "The Blatant Beast; A Poem in Spenser's Style . . . (Now First Published.)." Befits that he who should reform mankind." (22.331-6, 417-422). The poem is a long one, with forty-two Spenserian stanzas in the first Canto; forty-six, in the second.
John Milton
"A certain "C-T-O" contributed "some Papers of Miscellaneous Observations" to the January 1787 EM (pp. 23-5), concluding with "Milton has a singular usage of the word bow'd. See Comus, 1015. Where the bow'd welkin slow doth tend. The same word applied to the same element occurs in the forgotten poetry of Henry More, edit. 1647. p. 305.
Return, or listen from the bowed skie,
To hear how well their learned lines do take.
Cupid's Conflict."
Christopher Pitt
"Lines, Written by Christopher Pitt, M. A. Translator of Virgil and Vida, On a Great Shoe being lent him in a Fit of the Gout by Mr. Muston the Grocer. Copied from the Original in his hand-writing." "Thou wide machine! the cripple's standing prop." (37.389). "Pitt suffered from an early age from a severe form of gout, which severely undermined his constitution" (DNB). See also "A Poetical Address from the Rev. Henry Pitt to his Brother
Alexander Pope
[Epitaph on Mrs. Grace Butler.] "Stript to the naked soul, escap'd from clay." (11.76). This is part of "An Account of Doctor Robert Bolton" (pp. 74-76, 162-165), a friend of Mrs. Butler and an acquaintance of Pope. Bolton wrote a "Character" of Mrs. Butler upon her death. Curiously enough, there is no index entry for either Dr. Bolton or Mrs. Butler in the index volume to the Twickenham Pope, nor is the poem mentioned in the doubtful or wrongly attributed pieces. Yet there is a footnote in the EM stating that the poem was printed in Owen Ruffhead's life of Pope, in Aaron Hill's Prompter, No. 8, "and in the works of Aaron Hill, vol. iv. p. 153 who by mistake attributes the character of Mrs. Butler to Mr. Pope" (pp. 75-76). The poem is included in William Warburton's Letters from a Late Eminent Prelate to One of his Friends [1808], p. 268, with two textual differences, both preferable to the EM text, "taste" for "task" in l. 11 and "loves" for "love" (an obvious error) in l. 14. Ruffhead's text also has "task" and "loves,' but the text in Hill's Works has "taste," surely the preferable reading, and "glooms of death" in l. 10, instead of "gloom of death" of the EM and Ruffhead. The title in Hill's Works is "A Letter from a Departed Spirit to the Author (Mr. Pope) of a Lady's Character, lately publish'd, in a Thursday's Journal," i.e. "the Grub-Street Journal of November 28, 1734" (EM, 11.74n.).
Edmund Spenser
"A Sonnet from a MS. in the British Museum, supposed to be written by Spencer." "When Venus did desend from heven above" (3.72-73). Five six-line stanzas, iambic pentamter, ababcc. I cannot find the poem listed in Samuel Ayscough's catalogue of manuscripts in the British Museum (1782), where, since the poem is in the January 1783 EM, I should expect it to be. Not in the Oxford Spenser.
George Steevens
"Memoir of Robert Levet, the Inmate of Dr. Johnson for near thirty Years. Written by the late George Steevens, Esq. the celebrated Commentator on Shakespeare. (Not published in Boswell's Memoirs of Johnson.)" (53.189-190). Volume 53 of the EM is for January to June, 1808; the account of Levet had appeared, anonymously, in the Gentleman's Magazine for January to June 1785. An editorial footnote in the Gentleman's states that the letter "originally appeared in the St. James's Chronicle, but with some mistakes which are here corrected; and an original letter of Dr. Johnson's is also added" (p. 101). Steevens wrote much for the St. James's Chronicle, and thanks to the EM reprinting of the Gentleman's account we now know the authority for the completest account of Robert Levet.
Jonathan Swift
In answer (50.112) to a query by A. B. C. (49.410) about the epithets attached to the days of the week in Swift's letter to Dr. Sheridan, dated Sept. 12, 1735, J. B. offered "the following attempt,"
"Sunday's a Pun day."
Meaning, I apprehend, a gay day, a holiday, a felongstival. The effect of punning well applied will julongstify this explanation. Another explanation of this epithet may be, that care being thrown longside for that day, people's longspirits are afloat, and they are apt to indulge in witticilongsms or puns. For inlongstance: A company longsitting down to dine, one of them oblongserves upon a roalongst turkey—here we have Turkey in Europe. Another, upon a dilongsh of fricalongseed rabbit—Here's Rabbit in A-fricalongsee. The longson longsays to his father, "I longsaw Lady Placid at church, who inquired after the family." The father oblongserves, that he never longsaw her out of temper; "and yet," replies the longson, "when longshe longspoke to me longshe was very much ruffled." Another longsaw Milongss Sparkle at church: "and," longsays he, "longshe looked like a fallen angel, longsor longshe was drelongslongsed in a Satanical habit; that is, longshe wore a longsatin gown."
"Monday's a Dun-day."
A dull day, when men go to work and children go to longschool. A. B. C., I prelongsume, has heard of black Monday.
"Tuelongsday's a News-day."
The news of the former week began to circulate in the country about this day.
"Wednelongsday's a Friends-day."
People invited a friend on Wednelongsday to a frelongsh joint, the Sunday's provilongsion having longserved Monday and Tuelongsday.
"Thurlongsday's a Curs'd-day."
If this is the reading, it mulongst mean, that there were longshort commons on Thurlongsday; but if the reading were Cur's-day, that the dogs were gratified with the bones after dinner.
"Friday's a Dry-day."
Every Friday in the year being, by the Rubric, appointed as a falongst, it is conlongsequently (if kept) dry of entertainment: but the epithet is longsufficiently correct, not-withlongstanding any non-conformity to the directions of the Church.
"Saturday's a Latter-day."
This, as your Correlongspondent oblongserves, explains itlongself.
Harold Williams, editor of Swift's correspondence, makes no attempt to explain the epithets (IV. 388-389). A. B. C. had offered some suggestions of his own, and they, too, deserve notice:
"Sunday's a Pun-day."
Why a Pun-day? He could not mean the practice of punning from the pulpit longso prevalent above a century before the date of the letter to which I have alluded, becaulongse in the time of Swift it had totally longsublongsided among the Clergy of the Elongstablilongshed Church: and when I mention the names of Sherlock, Hare, Giblongson, Secker, and Rundell, it will call to your recollection tholongse of many other divines wholongse longsermons, while they reflect the highelongst honour on the age in which they were promulgated, may longserve as models for every other. Yet if he did not mean that, what did he mean?
"Monday's a Dun-day."
This appellation, I prelongsume, arolongse from a culongstom longstill prevalent, of the land-lords of the poor collecting their weekly rents on Monday morning.
"Tuelongsday's a News-day."
This, probably, the publication of a weekly paper on this day will explain.
"Wednelongsday's a Friend's day."
This being in molongst cities one of the market-days, the Dean, it is likely, thought rendered people more liable to vilongsits from their friends, during the courlongse of it, than molongst of the others.
"Thurlongsday's a Curlongsed day."
"Friday's a Dry-day."
Thelongse appellations are to me wholly inexplicable.
"Saturday's the latter Day."
This longsufficiently explains itlongself. But if any of your ingenious Correlongspondents will longsolve my difficulties, and correct any milongstakes I may have made with relongspect to the other days, they will, Mr. Editor, while they elucidate one of tholongse parts of the works of the Dean that, I think, wants elucidation, at the longsame time, in all probability, longshow us, that he has not, even in his carelelongss moments, trifled without having in view longsome ulongseful, and conlongsequently moral, purpolongse.
The two correspondents are in substantial agreement about Tuesday and Wednesday, but whatever their agreements or differences, theirs seems the earliest attempt to explicate Swift's lines.
Catherine Talbot
"Original Letters from the late ingenious Miss Talbot, to her Friends. [From a Manuscript in the British Museum.]" (2.111-112, 189-191, 271-272). The letters are listed in Ayscough's 1782 catalogue of MSS. in the British Museum, pp. 753, 805, but they have evidently never been printed. They range over a variety of topics, and no future account of Miss Talbot or her writings should fail to take notice of them. Years later, in April 1803, another original letter, undated and without the recipient's name, was printed in the EM (43.245), without any indication of source. It is addressed to a man, for it begins, "A twelvemonth ago, dear Mr.----, I left a letter and parcel for you; for who thought of your running away into Ireland?"
Edmund Waller
"The following letter is printed from the original in the hand-writing of the celebrated EDMUND WALLER, and is now first published. Agreeably to the directions of the possessor of it, we have preserved the original spelling, and all the peculiarities belonging to it. It is without date, but appears to have been written before the Restoration." (17.9-10). The letter was printed in 1948 by Paul H. Hardacre from the Huntington Library autograph manuscript (HM 22.641) in the Huntington Library Quarterly (11. 431-433), an extract having earlier appeared in a Maggs Brothers Catalogue. The EM printing is not mentioned. Some differences in spelling exist between the versions in the EM and the HLQ, and in one instance (HLQ, p. 433, ll. 8-9) where the later version has "to to [sic]" the earlier has "so to," which makes acceptable sense. An editorial footnote in the EM mistakenly identifies the publisher of Hobbes's works as William Crooke, rather than Andrew Crooke, but in the next two footnotes there is matter additional to the corresponding footnotes in the HLQ. Hardacre elected to spell out contractions and reduce capital letters; purists may wish to see the untampered-with text.
Walpole, Horatio, first Baron Walpole of Wolterton
"Original Letter from Horace Walpole, Esq. Brother of Sir Robert Walpole, and Afterwards Lord Walpole of Wolterton, To Mr. Dodington, Afterwards Lord Melcombe." (32.368) Dated from "Paris, May 19, 1726." The letter is D295 in The Complete Works of Voltaire, the Correspondence and Related Documents, ed. Theodore Besterman (Geneva, 1968), I. 301n., where the only text listed is in vol. X of the 1824 Works of Alexander Pope, ed. William Roscoe. Now William Lisle Bowles wrote the note in which the letter is quoted in his edition of The Works of Alexander Pope in Verse and Prose, 10 vols., 1806, IX. 152n., but he gives no source. His text, followed by Besterman, differs somewhat from that in the EM. I give line references to Besterman's text and his reading first: l. 1, pieces / verses; ll. 1-2, success here / success; l. 3, Henry IV / Henry the Fourth; l. 4, persecution / fanaticks; ll. 8-9, where more properly / better; l. 9, view and / view of; l. 10, 50 / om.; l. 11, truth and affection; [blank] and esteem; l. 12, obedient and most humble servant / obedt. & hble Servt. Horace Walpole's letter to the first Duke of Newcastle follows the letter to Dodington in Besterman; he signs himself "yr Grace's most faithful & most Obedt humble servant," hardly throwing much light on which of the two texts of the letter to Dodington is to be prefered, at least as far as the signature is concerned.
Notes
But the index had entries for matter in the notes for Arne, Bickerstaffe, Churchill, Colman, Foote, Francis, Goldsmith, Gray, Lloyd, James Osborn (the one index reference to a modern scholar), Sir Joshua Reynolds, Samuel Rogers, Shakespeare, Shebbeare, Sheridan, Voltaire, Woodward. Such indexes are the plague of users.
Robert Halsband, Lord Hervey, Eighteenth-Century Courtier (1973), p. 74. There is no reference to either poem in Halsband's biography.
In return to a letter wherein the Author asked his Lordship's advice, whether she should continue the publication of the periodical paper before mentioned, the sale not answering her expectations; and at the same time as she had been told that these publications seldom answered at first, she was unwilling to drop it, yet afraid to go on without farther advice?
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