Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/302

 244 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.vm. MARCH 26, 1021. .and this may have induced him in Septem- ber, 1735, to come to town and renew the attack.* Walpole now denied that he had -promised him anything ('Short History,' pp. 26-28, 'Letters and Applications,' p. ii, 'Judgment Signed,' p. 21), and there may have been a scene ('Short History,' ibidem). Whatever the other results of the interviews and of Whatley's letter of
 * Sept. 8 asking for preferment ('Short

History,' pp. 32-35), they did not blossom into stalls, for strangers received the then Lincoln and Worcester vacancies (op. ciL, pp. 26 note, 27). Being again rebuffed early in the new year (op. cit., pp. 37-39), he made no further application until June 7, the day on which he left town. His letter to Wal- pole of that date (op. cit., pp. 3941) ex- plains his abstention : he had been com- piling his " case " presumably the nucleus of the ' Short History ' as against the minister. This he forwarded (letter of the same date, op. cit., p. 41) to his friend and intermediary, - ,| to show to Walpole (cf. autem 'Letters and Applications,' p. iii). At Christmas he would return for his answer : meanwhile the matter would remain " an absolute secret " (' Short History, 'p. 40). Early in January of the next year the suitor returned to town, lodging in St. James' Street (op. cit., p. 42), and on Jan. 9, 1737, wrote to, stating his readiness for the answer, but adding the threat that, if Walpole still refused, he would appeal to the public ( ' Short History,' pp. 42-46, ' Letters and Applications, ' p. iii) : the printers' chapel was to ruin the man who refused churches. Walpole still refused, Whatley printed his "Case"! and sent it all hot to the minister : this ultimatum was followed by an ex- change of letters lasting a year, during which time publication was suspended on the advice of a friend ( ' Letters and ' * Lodging in St. Martin's Lane. (' Short History,' pp. 32, 39). t The writer has not been able to identify this individual. It may have been Hardwicke. As a potential clue one may observe that he was apparently out of Town from about Saturday, Feb. 18, to Tuesday, Feb. 21, 1738 (' Letters and Applications,' pp. 26, 28), from an unspecified date [Saturday, Feb. 25 ?] to Tuesday, Feb. 28, 1738 (op. cit., p. 37) and again from about March 8 to March 18, 1738 (op. cit., p. 43). His place of residence is given as ". . . . Street " (op. cit., p. 31). t March 1737. The Advertisement is dated the 4th. Probably " ." Applications,' pp. iii, 22). Between Apr. 10 and 27 he had returned to Toft (Whatley to, Toft, Apr. 27, 1737, op. cit., p. 15) to look after his baker's dozen of inhabited houses, but between Jan. 4 and 17, 1738, he arrived in London " for the Residue of the Winter " (Whatley to , St. James' Street, London, Jan. 17, 1738, op. cit., p. 20). After letters to - and to the minister, extending over a month, brought word that " No answer would be an Answer ' : (op. cit., p. 28 note), and in March Whatley unchained the press. C. S. B. BlTCKLAND. (To be continued.) THE BEGINNING OF AESTHETIC CRITICISM IN ITALY. SFORZA PALLA VICING (1607-1667). THE seventeenth century in Italy, in addition to overthrowing to a great extent the criti- cism of the Renaissance with its involved commentary of Aristotle's ' Poetics ' and the ' Ars Poetica ' of Horace and rigid classification of literary types on the Alexan- drian model, strove to establish a definitely philosophical' interpretation of poetical creation in the mind and imagination, and thus led directly to the aesthetic criticism of the eighteenth century and the individual theory of the Romantics. The development can be quite clearly traced all through the century and comes to expression in in- numerable quasi-aesthetic treatises, poetics, pamphlets, literary disputes, academic dis- sertations and transactions of literary academies : in Boccalini, Ciampoli, Pelle- grini, Ettori,* and above all in Pallavicino, The faculties of the mind which go to the creation and formation of literature are variously examined, together with the inner definition of the function of poetry, and those elements which form the aesthetic qualities in critical appreciation. In the Seicento these remain disjointed or only casually symthetised, and the ultimate unity of spirit is only dimly suggested ; but the modern note rings through all that effort, the note of philosophic curiosity, of a scientific (Milano, Vallardi, 1915), chap. v. ; Biondollo : Poeti e critici (Palermo, 1909) for Pellegrini. The work of Ettori of prime importance is ' Camillo Ettori ' : II buon gusto ne'componi- menti rettorrici (opere, Bologna, 1696) and of Pellegrini ' Matteo Pellegrini ' : I fonti dell* ingegno ridotto ad arte (Bologna, 1650)
 * Cf. ' Ciro Trabalza ' : La critica letteraria