University of Virginia Library

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 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:

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

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.

George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melbombe

The GM for August 1781 (pp. 383-384) prints a poem to Dodington with the following prefatory statement:

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.

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:

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