More from the Gentleman's
Magazine: Graves, Mainwaring, Wren, Sterne, Pope, Bubb
Dodington, Goldsmith, Hill, Herrick, Cowper,
Chatterton
by
Arthur Sherbo
D.[avid] P.[arkes] (1763-1833), antiquary, frequent contributor to the
GM (often as ΔII.), was an admirer of William Shenstone
about whom and whose poetry he contributed several pieces to that
periodical. Parkes contributed a poem on Mr. Horne, a former owner of
Leasowes (Shenstone's home), "by a gentleman who was the intimate friend
of Mr. Shenstone" (1804. ii. 802-803). The poem begins, "Tho'
Shenstone's genius and poetic taste," is dated "June, 1779,"
and
is signed "R. G---s." "R. G---s." is, of course, Shenstone's very good
friend, Richard Graves; the poem was unknown to Graves's modern
biographer and to the editor of the Oxford Spiritual Quixote,
Grave's best-known work.
Arthur Mainwaring (?)
An anonymous correspondent to the GM (1785. ii.
1030-1031) wrote,
The following Poem, I doubt not, has been in print; but probably is
not now to be met with. I think it a pity it should perish, and therefore send
it you to be inserted in your Magazine. Who the author was I cannot tell;
but it has much the appearance of one of Swift's Grubs, as
he
used to call his ballads and penny-papers. Your readers, however, will
judge for themselves.
The index to the poetry section for this volume of the
GM
listed
the poem as "Ballad, a Grub one, probably by Swift." The poem, entitled
"The History and Fall of the Occasional Conformity Bill; Being an
Excellent New Song.
To the Tune of the Ladies Fall," is
listed
in Margaret Crum, ed.
First-line Index of English Poetry 1500-1800
in Manuscripts of the Bodleian Library (1969), G 242. There it is
said to be by Arthur Mainwaring on the authority of John Oldmixon, editor
of the
Life and Posthumous Works of Mainwaring (1715),
pp.
40-41, where only stanzas 10-16 and 35, eight out of the thirty-eight
four-line stanzas, are printed. Substantive differences between the two texts
are as follows, with the
GM reading first, i.e. stanza and
line:
10:3 will/he'll; 10:4 "Twill . . . plog
[1] He'll . . . clog; 13:1 a/no; 13:2
never/ever; 14:4 and/nor; 15:1 that God doth/our Lord can; 15:2 doth/does;
16:1 So/Sure; 16:1 say they/I say;
16:2 Whence ever/Where-ever; 16:3 and/For; 35:3 in time/at length. The
poem is printed in
Poems on Affairs of State, From
1640 to this present Year 1704; vol. III. (1704), pp. 425-431
and in
A New Collection of Poems Relating to State Affairs
(1705), pp. 557-561. The
GM text has forty-five substantive
differences from the other text, i.e. that of the three pieces already
mentioned, there being no substantive differences among the three. In six
places in the
GM text names are given where only initials
appear in the other: 25.3, Sir Edward Seymour, or John How; 28.1,
Harley; 30.4, Bishop Burnet's; 32.1, Nottingham; 32.3, Guernsey; 33.4,
his Grace of Buck. The whole matter may be of little import, but the
GM text is almost surely independent and possibly one of the
first printed texts to spell out the identifications. Mainwaring was an
important and influential person in his time, a political satirist, the text of
whose verse satires is of some interest. The poem has been edited by Frank
H. Ellis in volume 7 of
Poems on Affairs of State (1975), pp.
3-14 with
textual notes on pp. 627-628. There is no mention of the
GM
text and hence no discussion of its place in the descent of the text, eighteen
manuscripts of which are listed by Ellis. One other printed text of the
poem, in
Political Merriment, Or, Truths Told to Some Tune
(1715), also lacks identification of the names concealed by the initials.
Further of interest, the poem, besides being attributed to Swift, was
attributed to Congreve by Pope, while two other possible authors were
mentioned by Oldmixon, i.e. Lieutenant General Mordaunt and "Lord
H[alifax?]" (p. 40).
Sir Christopher Wren
The running heads on pp. 114 and 115 of the March 1753
GM read, respectively, "Wren on the New River Water" and
"Sir Chr. Wren on regulating the New River Pipes," while a headnote
reads, "Thoughts of Sir Christopher Wren concerning the Distribution of
the New River Water; not published in his Works or elsewhere." The piece
begins, "Being desired by some persons of honour concerned in the New
River water, to give them my thoughts about the most profitable distribution
of the water; and particularly how the high parts about Soho
Square might be supplied; I have, as well as my age and the
continual avocations of publick business would permit, applied myself to
make the best enquiries I could, about the present state of the water." After
confessing that he can offer no good advice because of fundamental errors
"in laying down the contrivances," he proceeds to explain how "an able
mathematician" would have gone about the project. He concludes by stating
that he had been
lately to Soho square to test his theories, which actual practice demonstrated
to be accurate. Thirteen years later it was reported in the GM
(1766, p. 101) that "A thirty-sixth share of the King's moiety of the
New-River, sold this day at the Senegal
coffee-house for 4400l." The project was obviously a
profitable
one, hence the call upon Sir Christopher.
Laurence Sterne
The Historical Chronicle in the July 1769 GM, under
the
date of "Monday, 31," reported the following, the sort of tid-bit about
Sterne's artistry as opposed to his morality that should be more widely
known:
It is reported that the body of Mr Sterne, the ingenious author of
Triſtram Shandy, which was buried at Marybone, has been taken up and
anatomized by a
ſurgeon at Oxford. That gentleman, tho' happy in a fertile genius, does
not ſeem to have been happy thro' life. He lived during the firſt
period of his life in obſcurity and poverty; and in the latter part in a
ſtate of ſeperation from his wife, who choſe rather to retire to a
convent in France with her amiable daughter, than live in England under
the daily provocations of an unkind huſband. For tho' the Rev. Mr.
Sterne was a great wit, it cannot be ſaid that he was a deſirable
companion for a woman of delicacy.
Years later, one "J. M.," writing from Winchester and hence almost
surely identifiable as the Reverend Dr. John Milner (1752-1826), a prolific
writer on theological and archaeological subjects (see DNB),
declared that he had "always looked upon Sterne to be one of the most
dangerous writers of his time" because he associated real "sentiment and
religion" with "buffoonry and obscenity" (1794. ii. 593). However, as
further proof of Sterne's plagiarism, he referred readers to "'An Essay
towards the Theory of the Intelligible World, by Gabriel John,' supposed
to be Tom D'Urfy, published in the first year of the present century." He
continued by pointing out that in that work "we have a Preface in the
middle of the work, sections concerning weathercocks and button-holes, a
chapter which is announced to be the best in the book, and another which
the reader is desired not to look into." Milner had taken as his point of
departure an earlier contribution to the GM on the
subject of Sterne's plagiarism (1794. i. 406). While the earlier contribution
may be dismissed, Milner's suggestion about the work attributed to D'Urfey
merits attention. Four years after Milner's suggestion, John Ferriar, M.D.,
in the first extended examination of Sterne's sources or plagiarisms, the
Illustrations of Sterne, published in 1798, would not
presume to determine whether Sterne made any use of a whimsical
book, apparently published about the year 1748, (for it has no date) under
the title of, An Essay towards the Theory of the Intelligible World, by
Gabriel John. It is a pretty close copy of the Tale of a Tub in manner; some
appearances of imitation may, therefore, be supposed to result from the
common reference of both writers to Swift. If Sterne can be supposed to
have taken any thing from this book, it must be the hint of his marbled
pages. . . . The essay in question was professedly composed to satirize
Norris's Theory of the Ideal World (pp. 52-3).
Much is amiss here: the
Essay was published in 1701, not
"about the year 1748," and therefore could not have been aping Swift's
Tale of a Tub, published in 1704, nor would it be satirizing
John Norris's work, published in 1701-04, some forty-five years after the
publication of that work. One can only assume, given the absence of
references to those features of the work attributed to D'Urfey which Sterne
imitated, that Ferriar did not know the
GM piece by Milner.
Mr. Kenneth Monkman kindly informs me that "Hillhouse, in his
The
Grub Street Journal, quotes a reference in that journal to a mad 'Mr
Gregory of Christ Church, Oxford,' who wrote under the pseudonym of
Gabriel John—the name pinned to the
Essay," and
that,
hence, D'Urfey may not be the author of the
Essay.
However,
the identity of the author of the
Essay is of less consequence
than the possibility that Sterne knew and borrowed from it.
An anonymous contributor to the February 1796 GM
(p.
151) wrote, "The following composition, there is every reason to believe,
was written by the celebrated Mr. Sterne. It is sufficient to observe, that he
is supposed to have written it on re-visiting, at an advanced period of his
life, the house of a gentleman to whose daughter, in his early days, he had
paid his addresses." The poem, in octosyllabic couplets, begins "O
CAROLINE, thy form recalls," is dated 1755, and bears the signature L.
S. In 1739, according to Sterne's modern biographer, Sterne wrote to the
Reverend John Dealtary about a lady he had fallen in love with and whose
identity he disguised as "Miss C---." Among other things, he wrote, "I am
convinced she is fixed in a resolution never to marry, and as the whole
summ of happiness I ever proposed was staked upon that single Point, I see
nothing left for me at present but a dreadful Scene of uneasiness &
Heartache."[2] The
authenticity of the poem as Sterne's gains from the existence of a Miss C---
with whom he fell in love as a young man and from the fact that it is a
somewhat extended verse rendering of the sentiments in the letter.
In a letter dated Jan. 26 which appeared in the March 1799
GM (pp. 196-197) S. A., writing from M. B., suggested that
Sterne had seen a pamphlet which he, S. A., supposed to be scarce. S. A.
is almost surely Samuel Asycough; M. B. is almost as surely a transposition
of B. M., i.e. the British Museum, where Ayscough was an assistant
librarian. Ayscough was a fairly frequent contributor to the
GM; his letters were headed B. M. In any event, the scarce
pamphlet is titled "Occasional Reflections in a Journey from London to
Norwich and Cambridge," and was "Printed and sold by A. Baldwin, near
the Oxford Arms, in Warwick-lane, 1711." While the few extracts given
are all of interest in the matter of the sources of A Sentimental
Journey, one in particular stands out, an account of an encounter
with
some beggars which bears marked similarities of tone with the parallel
account in the novel. So, too, with the extract having to do with the "horse
half-starved and
overloaded." Some year and half earlier "An Admirer of Sterne" had
anticipated Ayscough, writing in the October 1797 European
Magazine (pp. 240-241), that "The story [of the beggars in the
Journey] is taken from page 6 of a small pamphlet entitled
'Occasional Reflections in a Journey from London to Norwich and
Cambridge.' Printed by A. Baldwin, Warwick-Lane, MDCCXI." Sterne's
admirer claimed only that the Reflections was written in the
same style as Sterne's; he suggested no plagiarism. The Occasional
Reflections runs only to twenty-eight pages, but there is enough
matter for students of Sterne, steeped in the two novels, to ponder. The
unknown author, like Sterne, was not above coining words, and one will
look in vain in the OED for "Petycrain," in a context which
plainly means "little brain" (p. 8). It is unfortunate that the
Reflections was not known to Gardner D. Stout, Jr., editor
of
the definitive edition of A Sentimental Journey
Through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick (1967).
Alexander Pope
The April 1770 GM (pp. 159-160) printed some
"Anecdotes of Mr. Pope, Dr. Swift, Count Gyllenberg, the Swede,
&c."
Since there is no entry for either Dr. Burton or Dr. Thompson in the index
to the Twickenham Pope and, as would naturally follow, no
mention in the Twickenham Minor Poems volume of either
the
couplet attributed to Pope or the epigram of uncertain authorship, I assume
the Pope anecdotes, which I now quote in their entirety, are generally
unknown. Both doctors are mentioned in Pope's letters, however.
During Mr. Pope's last illness, a squabble happened in his chamber
between his two physicians, Dr. Burton, and Dr. Thompson (both since
dead.) Dr. B. charging Dr. T. with hastening his death by the violent
purges he had prescribed, and the other retorting the charge, Mr. Pope at
length silenced them, saying, "Gentlemen, I only learn by your discourse,
that I am in a very dangerous way; therefore all I have now to ask, is, that
the following epigram may be added, after my death, to the new edition of
the Dunciad, by way of postscript:
Dunces, rejoice: Forgive all censures past
The greatest dunce has kill'd your foe at last.
Others say, that these lines were really written by Dr. Burton himself:
And the following epigram, by a friend of Dr. Thompson's, was occasioned
by the foregoing one:
As Physic and Verse both to Phoebus belong,
So the College oft dabble in potion and song;
Hence Burton, resolv'd his emetics shall hit,
When his recipes fail, gives a puke with his wit.
Mr. Pope, on his death-bed, was under an odd perplexity about
Extreme-Unction. If he did not receive it, it would disgust the Catholicks:
If he did, and should recover, his Protestant friends would rally him. He
probably thought of it as King Augustus of Poland did of his bead-roll,
C'est une bagatelle. Lord Lovat, in like manner, was doubtful
whether he should profess himself, when under sentence of death, a
Protestant or a Papist; and was determined to the latter, merely on account
of its being most consistent with his having espoused the cause of the
Pretender.
George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melbombe
The GM for August 1781 (pp. 383-384) prints a poem
to
Dodington with the following prefatory statement:
The late Lord Melcombe, when Mr. Dodington, having permitted a
certain writer of verſes to dedicate a volume of Poems to him, and put
the author to ſome expence by directing him to cancel the dedication,
when the whole impreſſion was printed off, and to draw up another
with certain compliments, the heads of which his Lordſhip was
pleaſed to furniſh; he took no farther notice of him, except that he
ſhewed him his houſe at Hammerſmith with great oſtentation.
The diſappointed Bard, to whoſe circumſtances, and very good
character, his Lordſship, was no ſtranger, ſent him the following
copy of verſes, which, being delivered to him by the hands of Lady
H___, produced a handſome preſent.
To the Right Honourable
George Bub Dodington.
Timothy Tagwell, Haberdaſher of Dedications,
and Dealer in Verſe and Proſe,
takes the Liberty to bring in his Bill—
and his Reaſons for ſo doing
The poem is quite clever, the poet itemizing Dodington's indebtedness
to him and concluding "that paper and print, / And stamping the whole in
poetical mint, / Have been very expensive—and yet not a cross / I've
receiv'd to the credit of profit and loss." I do not know who Timothy
Tagwell is. William Prideaux Courtney, writing on "George Bubb
Dodington and his Literary Circle,"[3]
names various of the writers associated with Dodington, and because the
date of Dodington's purchase of "the house at Hammersmith," given as
1740 by Courtney, rules out one possible candidate, George Stubbes, and
because Moses Browne, despite the fact that he had earlier (1729) dedicated
his "Piscatory Eclogue" to Dodington, did not publish "a volume of Poems"
between 1740 and 1762, the latter being the date of Dodington's death, he
too must be ruled out. Dodington would not have treated Christopher Pitt,
Edward Young, or James Thomson, the principal poets of his literary
circle, in the fashion described in the headnote.
Oliver Goldsmith
In this same year, in January 1781, the GM printed an
"Epitaph in Jamaica. By Dr. Goldsmith. Not printed in his
Works. On Zachary Bayly, Esq." (p. 39). The epitaph
gives no further clue to Bayly's identity, nor is his death listed in
Musgrave's Obituaries. The epitaph is not included or
mentioned in Arthur Friedman's definitive edition of Goldsmith's works,
and Bayly's name is not recorded in the indexes to biographies of
Goldsmith.
Aaron Hill
The 1753-54, second edition of Hill's works contains window poems
(vol. 3, pp. 140, 163 and vol. 4, pp. 49, 120-124), a not uncommon
sub-genre, but two window poems attributed to him in the November 1740
GM (p. 567) are not included. They are titled "Written on a
Window at Montrose near Aberdeen, Scotland" and "Written on a Window
in another Inn, in Scotland." Hill was in Scotland in 1726 for several
months and again in 1728, also for a period of months.[4]
Robert Herrick
L. C. Martin, editor of The Poetical Works of Robert
Herrick (1956), writing about Herrick's reputation, and having
already traced the relatively few notices about him after his death in 1674,
noted that "Inquiry in the Gentleman's Magazine (May 1796)
had elicited some fresh information about him" (p. xix). What Martin and
others have overlooked is two prior notices of Herrick in the
GM, the first in 1773 when T. Herne enclosed two poems,
"The Invitation to Corinna" (now known as "Corinna's going a Maying")
and "The Captived Bee; or Little Filcher," prefacing them with the
statement that "The enclosed poems were copied from the leaves of an old
book brought from a chandler's shop. If you think them worth preserving,
perhaps some of your readers may direct to the author, who seems to have
been of the 15th or 16th century, and no contemptible poet" (p. 243).
Whoever Herne
was, he knew good poetry. Ten years later "J. B.," in the course of a letter
on Milton, quoted Herrick's "To M. Henry Lawes, the excellent Composer
of his Lyricks" and added that among Herrick's "pious pieces are the words
of a Christmas Caroll, sung to the King, as also the New Yeeres Gift, or
Circumcisions song, which were composed by him" (1783, p. 128). J. B.
described Herrick as "a Poet little known." And, as Martin and others have
noted, in the May 1796
GM, "W. F. I." wished "to procure
some information of the following old poets," among whom was Herrick
(p. 304). Replies were immediately forthcoming, a full account by John
Nichols, writing as Eugenio, one of his pseudonyms (pp. 461-462), and a
brief note by "Leviter Eruditus" (p. 463). Nichols printed three poems by
Herrick in June of the same year (pp. 509-510). "Leviter Eruditus" had
more to say in August (p. 645), while in September (p. 736) "O. D." added
a biographical snippet and repeated a tradition that
Herrick's poem on the river Dean-bourne was conveyed by oral tradition
from father to son. And that there was also the belief that Herrick wrote
Poor Robin's Almanac, usually attributed to William
Winstanley
and others (p. 736).
What is notable, besides full analysis of the GM pieces
and the reminder that Eugenio was John Nichols and knew whereof he
wrote, is that in the two poems submitted for printing in 1773 there are a
number of substantive differences from the received texts. For "Corinna's
going a Maying" I give the received text first: l. 6, Dew-be
spangling/dew—bespangled; l. 8, you not drest/you're still undrest;
l. 19
lacks the "spangled" of 1773; l. 24, on/in; l. 28, once we/we're to; l. 30
grove (2)/street (2); l. 34, a/or; l. 45, is/are. The most interesting
differences are in ll. 8, 19, and 30, especially the last. Readers will decide
their own preferences, remembering that the poems were "copied." "The
captiv'd Bee: or, The little Filcher" is sufficiently short so that I give the
received text with the 1773 differences in the margin, so that readers may
assess the nature of the differences more readily.
As Julia once a slumb'ring lay,
It chanc't a Bee did flie that way,
(After a dew, or dew-like shower)
To tipple freely in a flower.
For some rich flower, he took the lip
Of Julia, and began to sip;
But when he felt he suckt from thence
Hony, and in the quintessence:Honey in
He drank so much he scarce co'd stir;
So Julia took the Pilferer.
And thus surpriz'd (as Filchers use)Being thus
He thus began himselfe t'excuse:
Sweet Lady-Flower, I never brought
Hither the least one theeving thought:Hither to you
But taking those rare lips of yours
For some fresh, fragrant, luscious flowers:For gay,
fresh
I thought I might there take a taste,
Where so much sirrop ran at waste.sweetness ran
Besides, know this, I never sting
The flower that gives me nourishing:
But with a kisse, or thanks, doe pay repay
For Honie, that I beare away.The Honey
This said, he laid his little scrip
Of hony, 'fore her Ladiship:
And told her, (as some tears did fall)
That, that he took, and that was all.
that . . .that
At which she smil'd; and bade him goe
And take his bag; but thus much know,
When next he came a pilfring so,
He sho'd from her full lips derive,
Hony enough to fill his hive.to drown
There are,
me judice, too many and too extreme differences
to
warrant the suspicion of errors of transcription, and I must confess I prefer
"drown" to "fill" in the last line.
William Cowper
I find it curious that in the definitive bibliography of William
Cowper's work there is no mention in the section on Translations of his
translation of Dr. Jortin's Latin verses on the brevity of human life.[5] The translation, with Dr. Jortin's
Latin
and six lines of doggerel verse by Cowper, was reprinted in the February
1814 GM (p. 166) and bore the signature and date "W. C.,
Jan. 1801." Although the translation was written in 1784, it
was
first published, according to the Oxford edition, by William Hayley in
1804. Hayley prints six lines of doggerel, omitting Cowper's final two lines
as they appear in his letter to John Newton dated 25 January 1784, i.e. "for
the use of Mankind, both before and behind," arousing the suspicion that
his source was something other than Cowper's letter. The possible
explanation is that a version of the poem with only the first six lines of the
doggerel appeared in some periodical in January 1801. The
only substantive difference in the GM text is "globe" for
"glebe" in line 10. Also missing is the printing of all but the last six lines
of an inscription "On a Stone erected at the Planting of a Grove of Oaks at
Chillington, the Seat of T. Gifford, Esq., 1790" in the May 1815
GM (p. 387).[6] Two
epitaphs by Cowper were reprinted in the September 1815
GM
(p. 195); the first is titled "At New-port Pagnel, Buckinghamshire. On T.
A. Hamilton," the title in the Oxford edition being "Inscription for the
Tomb of Mr. Hamilton." The second appears as "On Mrs. Higgins, of
Weston-under-Edge, near Newport-Pagnel, Bucks." as opposed to the
Oxford edition's "Epitaph on Mrs. Higgins, of Weston." In this latter
poem, the only substantive difference is "those," in the last line in the
GM text, for "theirs." More interesting differences exist in
the
two versions of the epitaph on Hamilton, with the received text first in what
follows: l. 3,
Life's silent/Health's sounding; l. 4, Health/Life; l. 6, an heart/a heart; l.
7, ofttimes healthful and/healthful and oft-time. The appearances of these
poems and the textual variants have been noted.[7] The "J. C." who submitted the
epitaphs,
having
already submitted some in the previous volume (1815. i. 292), was Joseph
Cockfield of Upton.
[8]
Thomas Chatterton
Although the letter of the Reverend Mr. John Chapman to Dr.
Andrew Ducarel, dated Dec. 15, 1771, and that of William Barrett to the
same recipient, dated March 7, 1772, contributed to the GM
in
May and June 1786 (pp. 361-362, 460-461) by "Eugenio" (i.e. John
Nichols) are both known and are mentioned in E. H. W. Meyerstein's
biography of Chatterton,[9] no
attention has been paid to the text of some of Chatterton's poetry contained
therein. In the May number of the GM the Reverend Mr.
Chapman wrote that he had asked George Catcott permission to copy the
whole of the "tragedy of Ellie," but all he could get was the enclosed
extract, which he described thus: "Bertha, his lady, is distressed by his
absence, and calls for music to soothe her melancholy. The minstrels
describe in their songs the four seasons. The first and third, Spring and
Autumn, are all the specimens I could procure." He further added, "The
tragedy is in the sole possession
of Mr. Catcott; the other pieces are betwixt them: but I believe the originals
are all with Mr. Barrett." In what follows I give the received reading in
Professor Donald S. Taylor's edition of Chatterton's works (1971, 2 vols.,
I. 185-186) first and then the GM reading, but without regard
to differences in punctuation. L. 278 atte/all; l. 279, sprenged/springedde;
l. 281, yonge/springe; l. 282, ynto . . . straughte/yntee . . . strayghte; l.
283, Whenn . . . to . . . whestlyng . . . brought/Whanne . . . the . . .
whestlynge . . . bryghte; l. 296, blake/blieke; l. 300, al/at; l. 301,
lemes/lennes; l. 304, When/Whanne; l. 307, steynced/steyned. The
Reverend Mr. Chapman may have made errors in his transcription and
printers have often proved fallible, but despite palpable errors in lines 278,
282 (yntee), 283 (the), 300, and 301, there are enough substantive variants
left to permit speculation as to the uniqueness of the text from which the
reverend gentleman made his
transcription. The GM readings in lines 282 (strayghte) and
307
(steyned) are the same as in the Cambridge manuscript, although in line 296
Cambridge has "Sun burnt" where both the received and GM
texts have "sonne brente." The GM reading in line 281
("springe" for "yonge") is not only unique but also makes sense. So, too,
with line 296, as the GM's "blieke" for the received "blake"
(i.e. naked) may be said to make better sense, although it is possibly less
Chattertonian. Thomas Tyrwhitt, considering the authenticity of the Rowley
poems, under his category of "words used by other writers, but in a
different sense," quoted two instances of the use of "blake," both from
Ælla, and wrote, "Blake, in old English,
may
signifie either black, or bleake. Chatterton, in
both
these passages [ll. 178, 407], renders it naked; and, in the
latter, some such signification seems absolutely necessary to make any
sense."[10] Finally, because it too has gone
unnoted and may be of some
slight interest, there is a footnote on page 362 keyed to the line "Whanne
at the hyls wy the
woddie* sede ys whyte," which reads
"
Wood, a plant much cultivated in the neighbourhood of
Bristol."
OED gives "A tree
Obs." as the first
definition of "wood," with illustrative quotations from
Beowulf
and Tindal, the latter dated 1526.
William Barrett wrote to Dr. Ducarel on March 7, 1772 and
concluded his letter by saying "I will subjoin an elegant little poem copied
verbatim et literatim [my emphasis] from Rowley's original
penes me" (GM, 1786. i. 460). The "elegant
little
poem" was "addressed to John Lydgate the poet; the subject in praise of
Ella, a Saxon governor of the castle of Bristol 'in daies of yore'." The
received text in Taylor's edition is at I. 61-62. There are thirty-six lines in
the poem and there are variants in all but lines 2, 17, and 18. Of the
thirty-three variants all but seven are of spelling and need not be listed, as
the GM is not rare. The first reading, as before, is from
Taylor's edition: l. 5, hayre/lockes; l. 10, There/Then; l. 11, by thy
burled/bie thie burlie; l. 22, hearste/ken'st; l. 26, Ifrayning/Yprauncynge;
l. 30, glare/glow; l. 32, Let Bristowe still/Stylle lette Bristowe.
GM shares "lockes" of line 5 and "Then" of line 10 with MS.
B6493;
except for the first word in each, "bie thie burlie" of line 11 with "with thie
burlye" with the Westminster Magazine (Jan. 1775) and the
1777a edition; "glow" of line 30 with B1a and the William Andrew Clarke
MS (B6493 and Westminster Magazine have "glow'st"); and
"Stylle lette Bristowe" of line 32 with the Clarke library MS. In two
readings, "ken'st" of line 22, and "Yprauncynge" of line 26,
GM agrees with all texts other than the BMB MS, copy-text
for
the poem.[11] These substantive
variants, coupled with the extensive differences in spelling, give pause.
William Barrett wrote that he copied the poem "verbatim et literatim" from
the original in his possession ("penes me"). If this is indeed
true, and there seems no reason to doubt Barrett, especially since the
manuscript of the poem is known to have been in his possession,[12] the whole matter of copy-text
becomes
muddled. Professor Taylor very
understandingly uses BMB, a miscellany which has this poem as well as a
Chatterton letter and many notes in Barrett's hand, as his copy-text. Barrett,
in 1772, had "Rowley's original," i.e. Chatterton's holograph; fourteen
years later, the letter in which he included a copy of the poem, transcribed
word for word and letter for letter, was reprinted in the GM.
In the meantime, Tyrwhitt's edition of the Rowley poems had appeared,
two editions in 1777 and a third in 1778 with its Appendix in which
Tyrwhitt proved the poems were by Chatterton. The GM text
shares a number of spelling variants with the text in Tyrwhitt's third
edition, differs in a number of spellings, and shares no substantive variants
with it. Except for the possible slight errors of spelling in his transcription,
despite Barrett's claim of copying Rowley's original letter for letter, the
GM text of the Song to Ella must be taken into
consideration.
Murray Warren's Descriptive and Annotated Bibliography of
Thomas Chatterton (1977), under the rubric of "Literary Criticism,"
lists one contribution
to the
GM in 1782 and no other. In 1783, however, S. W.,
i.e.
the Reverend Steven Weston, wrote to the
GM (Feb., p. 123)
asking that somebody explicate lines 31-38 of
Battle of Hastings
I for him. He particularly wanted to know what lines 33 to 36
meant,
especially "to what historical occurrence the author has alluded in these
words.
Your lovyng wife, who erst dyd rid the londe / Of
Lurdanes." The answer came promptly in the next month's issue (p.
231); T. H. W., i.e. Thomas Holt White, brother of Gilbert White of
Selborne, offering the following:
Lode ſignifies a courſe; the word remains in
Lodeſtone (the magnet uſed in the compaſs); Lodeſtar is the
north pole, from Lœdan, Saxon, to lead.
Donde his welke, is an obvious metaphor, for 'before
the
ſetting ſun' or 'before he is fallen below the horizon.' Your loving
wife who erſt dyd rid the lende Of [*]
Lurdanes.
This paſſage alludes to the expulſion of the Danes, in which,
tradition ſays, for it does not appear on record, the women had a
principal hand.
Hocktide Games (ſee verſe 25) were inſtituted in
commemoration of this event, as the Fugalia were amongſt the Romans,
on the expulſion of their kings. This exploit is commented on by
Spelman in his Gloſſary, and Lye in his edition of Junius's
Etymologicum, but theſe accounts are all in Latin; Bayley in his
Dictionary mentions Hocktideτ, but takes no notice of the valour of the
Saxon women. How Chatterton came to a knowledge of this tradition let
thoſe engaged in the controverſy determine.
Yours, T. H. W.
Professor Taylor's note on the passage (ll. 33-38) reads: "Possible reading:
Before yon sun has set, you'll have set your course for good or evil
forever. The loving wife and the treasure of you who once rid the land of
Lurdanes (see glossary) will fall into the Norman robbers' hands unless,
etc. For another possible reading connecting this with the
Hocktide games, see 1871 [Skeat's ed.], ii. 337" (II. 828).
The
definitions of "lode" and of "Lurdanes" were available in N. Bailey's
Universal Etymological English Dictionary which had gone
through many editions by 1783. But Holt White was the first to comment
accurately upon both words as well as the more difficult "Donde his welke"
and he was the first, long before Skeat, to connect the passage with the
Hocktide Games. But Holt White, as I have shown elsewhere, was a man
of considerable erudition.[13]
Notes