Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/11

 10 s. vii. JAN. 5, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

3

DODSLEY'S FAMOUS COLLECTION

OF POETRY. (See 10 S.vi. 361, 402.)

VOL. I., ED. 1766, CONTENTS AND AUTHORS.

Pp. 3-21. On the prospect of peace. Addressed to the Lord Privy Seal, Dr. Robinson, then Bishop of Bristol. Gray (' Letters,' ed. Tovey, i. 182) says :

" This is not only a state-poem (my ancient aver- sion), but a state-poem on the peace of Utrecht

This is only a poor short-winded imitation of Addison, who had himself not above three or four notes in poetry, sweet enough indeed, like those of a German flute, but such as soon tire and satiate the ear with their frequent return. Tickell has added to this a great poverty of sense, and a string of transitions that hardly become a schoolboy. However, I forgive him for the sake of his ballad [' Colin and Lucy '], which I always thought the prettiest in the world."

This poem ' On the Prospect of Peace ' was highly lauded, by both Pope and Addi- son. It went through six editions.

22-6. To the Earl of Warwick, on the death of Mr. Addison.

26-30. Colin and Lucy.

30-33. On the prophecy of Kerens. Referring to the rebellion in 1715.

34-6. To Sir Godfrey Kneller at his country seat Whitton. In Twickenham. 1722.

36-7. On the death of the Earl of Cadogan.

38-41. Ode to the Earl of Sunderland at Windsor. Published 1720.

41-60. Kensington Garden.

61-8. Epistle from a lady in England to a gentle- man at Avignon.

The above are by Thomas Tickell (' D.N.B.'). The ' Epistle ' was published anonymously in 1717, and reached five editions. To the six lines beginning " To Rome then must the royal wand'rer go," and ending " The proffered purple and the hat may please," Horace Walpole in his copy wrote the com- ment : " This litter ally became the Lot of the last of the Family." Bramston says in his ' Art of Politics ' :

The Jacobites rediculous opinion

Is seen from Tickell's letter to Avignon.

69-81. The female reign, an ode by Mr. [Samuel] Cobb.-' D.N.B.'

Dr. Joseph Warton speaks of him (Nichols, ' Lit. Anecdotes of the 18th Cent.,' vi. 170) as " author of a very fine ode in Dodsley's Miscellanies " ; again, " his ode in Dodsley is most excellent."

82-104. Six town eclogues by the Right Hon. L. M. W. M. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu ('D.N.B.').

1. Monday. Roxana [the Duchess of Roxburgh], or the drawing-room. Coquetilla is the Duchess of Shrewsbury.

2. Tuesday. St. James's coffee house. Silliander [General Campbell] and Patch [Lord Hertford]. In 1. 3 H d is Howard.

3. Wednesday. The tete a tete. Dancinda.

4. Thursday. The bassette table. Smilinda [Lady Mary Wortley Montagu] and Cardelia [Countess of Bristol].

This is printed by Anderson among Pope's works. Sharper is Lord Stair ; Ombrelia is Mrs. Hanbury ; Betty Loveit is Mrs. South-, well. Corticelli's is described by Walpole as " a fashionable Indian warehouse at the upper end of Suffolk Street, and a rendezvous of galantry."

5. Friday. The Toilette. Lydia [Mrs. Coke, wife- of the Vice-Chamberlain].

This is printed by Anderson, with consider- able alterations, among Gay's works. Damon is Lord Berkeley. " Your wife " (two lines- afterwards) is Lady Louisa Lenox (sic). To 1. 15, "side boxes," Walpole puts the note- " ladies at that time sat in the front-boxes,, men in the side," and adds the line " When bows the side box from its inmost rows " ('Rape of the Lock').

6. Saturday. The Small-pox. Flavia [Lady Mary Wortley Montagu].

Mirmillio (1. 71) is usually said to be Dr. Gibbons ; Walpole says that it is Sir Hans Sloane. Machaon (1. 77) is Garth. Horace Walpole's note is :

"These eclogues Lady M. Wortley allowed me to- transcribe from a volume of her poems in MS. at Florence in 1740, and from my copy Dodsley printed them and the ' Epistle from A. Grey,' ' The Lover,' and the ' Epilogue ' ; and her Ladyship told me all the persons alluded to. Bp. Warburton has printed i the second eclogue as Pope's, who might correct or at least transcribe it ; but it [is evident] that all six are by the same hand and not like Pope." The words in brackets are much blurred. Gray (' Letters,' i. 187) wrote :

" The town is an owl if it don't like Lady Mary, and I am surprised at it ; we here [Cambridge] are owls enough to think her eclogues very bad; but that I did not wonder at." The ' Epistle from Arthur Grey the footman

to Mrs. [Griselda], afterwards Lady,

Murray ' was subsequently suppressed. She died 6 June, 1759.

105-7. The lover, a ballad, to Mr. [Richard] C [Chandler].

Eldest son of Dr. Chandler, Bishop of Durham. He married Elizabeth, the only daughter of Lord James Cavendish, whose name he took by Act of Parliament in 1752.

107. The lady's resolve, written extempore on a window.

108. The gentleman's answer.

108-11. An epistle to Lord B [Bathurst].

112-13. Epilogue to Mary, Queen of Scots [a tragedy begun by the Duke of Wharton], design'd to be spoken by Mrs. Oldfield.

114-15. A receipt to cure the vapours, written to* Lady J [Irwin, daughter of the Earl of Carlisle].