Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/9

 12 s. vin. JAN. i,i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 1 LONDON, JANUARY 1, 1921. CONTENTS. No. 142. NOTE .Swift's Verse, 1 A Radical Weaver's Common- Place Book, 3 Orders and Ordinances of the Hospitals, 1582. 5 An English Army List of 1740, 6 Lines by Tennyson The Identity of Francis Lovelace, Governor of New York. 7 " Romantique " Giles Capel Representa- tive County Libraries, Public and Private. 8. 'QUERIES : Was thre a Parsi Colony in the South Seas? 9 _Hook: Oxenbridge: Morton: Portraits Wanted G. Pye, Book -Plate Designer Collections Sold by Auction, London, 1714 Who was Johnson's "Pretty Voluminous Authour " ? J. E. Gordon The British in Corsica " Believe " Aliustrel Bronze Tables. 10 Mr. John Denton Scott of Essex Be verley Whising Broncivimont Beer Savery Family of Marlborough, Wilts 'The Western Miscellany ,'1775 and 1776 Hambly House, Streatham " Barons," 11 John Hughes of Liver- pool, A.D. 1706 Daniel Defoe in the Pillory Woodburn Collection Authors of Quotations Wanted, 12. REPLIES : Cruikshank and Westminster School, 12- John Thornton of Coventry Daniel Vinecombe Snipe in Belgrave Square Van der Plaes Early Railway Travelling, 13 London in the Fifties and Sixties : Police Uniforms The Legitimist Kalendar Pierre Frangois Gaillard Louis Napoleon : Poetical Works, 14 Arms of England and France Emerson's ' English Traits ' Dixon of Fnrness Fel's Admiral Benbow Notes on the Early de Redvere. 15 The Tragedy of New England Mile. Mercandotti Friday Street The Talhot Inn, Ashbourne. 16 Death of Queen Anne Ancient History of Assam Royal Arms in Churches " Now then ! " Domestic History of the Nineteenth Century. 17 London Post- marksFolk-Lore of the Elder Oxford (Orford) House, Waltharnstow Dr. Alexander Keith Picture by Sir Leslie Ward Missing Words Wanted Authors of Quota- tions Wanted. 18. TCOTES ON BOOKS : ' Shakespeare's Last Years in London. 1536-1592 'A History of Scotland from the Roman Evacuation to the Disruption, 1843 ' ' Leicester- ' shire.' Notices to Correspondents. SWIFT'S VERSE. SWIFT'S name is now generally associated with his prose writings, but his powers ars no less conspicuous in his verse. Where it his command of language more evident than in ' Cadenus and Vanessa ' ? Where is his irony more impressive than in * Poetry, a Rhapsody ' ? Where is his intensity more developed than in 'The Journal of a Modern Lady ' ? Where is his peculiar turn of thought more displayed than in ' The Petition of Mrs. Frances Harris ' ? Where will greater versatility be found than between the lines addressed to Stella on her last birthday, and those ' On the Death of Dr. Swift'? But at present Swift's verse is in a state of chaos. Its arrange- ment is neither according to subject nor chronology, its meaning is hidden from all but a few, and its extent is equally faulty in the inclusion of pieces that are supposi- titious and doubtful, and the exclusion of pieces which bear Swift's hall-mark. As at present arranged the first section is a hotch-potch of some eighty pieces. In it England jostles Ireland, and the personal is submerged in the general. For example 'The South Sea Project 'is in close proximity to ' The Description of an Irish Feast,' and the lines 'To Mr. Pope while he was -writing the Dunciad ' are followed by ' A Love Poem from a Phy- sician.' Chronology is frequently ignored. ' Helter- Skelter,' which was written in 1730, is followed by ' The Puppet Show, ' which was written in 1721, and 'A Love Song in the Modern Taste,' which was written in 1733, is followed by ' The Storm ' which was written in 1722. The second and third sections comprise respectively pieces written during Lord Carteret's viceroyalty and pieces addressed to Stella and Vanessa. On what basis the pieces have been selected it is impossible to divine. The first of the sections is remark- able for omitting far more pieces of the period than are in it, and for containing a piece written in the time of Carteret's predecessor. The second of the sections comprises pieces supposed to be written by Stella and Vanessa as well as pieces ad- dressed to them, and includes two pieces which treat of Mrs. Pilkington under the poetical name of Daphne. The fourth section comprises pieces com- posed at Market Hill. In it little attention is paid to chronology, and several pieces known to have been written at Market Hill are omitted, more particularly ' The Journal of a Modern Lady,' 'An Answer to Paulus ' and * The Answer to Ballyspellin. ' The fifth and sixth sections comprise respectively political pieces and pieces chiefly relating to Irish politics. In these sections the omissions include the notable pieces entitled ' Poetry, a Rhapsody, ' and 'An Epistle to a Lady who desired the Author to make Verses on her in the Heroic Style,' as well as 'The South Sea Project ' and ' Judas,' and the confusion becomes intensified. In the first of these sections there are found * Cortinna ' and ' In Sick- ness,' which have no relation to politics and two pieces which concern Irish politicfs, 'The Parody of the Recorder of Blessing- ton's Address ' and ' The Parody of the Recorder of Dublin's Speech.' In the