Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/150

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

11. Ato. 20, t

dissatisfied with Dallaway's treatment of the MSS., which in many cases had not been strictly followed. But Lord Wharncliffe again presents ' The Basset Table 'the MS. of which was, presumably, before him as the work of his ancestress.

W. Moy Thomas in 1861, and again in 1893, re-edited Lord Wham cliffe's collection, "with additions and corrections from the original manuscripts." In his preface (p. iv) Mr. Thomas claims that "the writings of Lady Mary, of which the manuscripts are still existing among the Wortley papers, are now for the first time printed faithfully from the originals"; and (p. viii) he "acknowledges his obligations to the Earl of Harrowby* for affording him the opportunity of publishing an exact text of Lady Mary's writings, no less than for the facilities accorded him for ex- amining the large mass of the Wortley papers at Sandon." This editor again, without any limitation, presents ' The Basset Table ' as Lady Mary's composition. And if it were not so, it may here be asked, how could the MS. have been found by Dallaway, Lord Wharncliffe, and W. Moy Thomas with the other originals, and by them taken and pub- lished as her genuine work ?

Now what is the case for the authorship of Pope 1 It seems to rest entirely on the state- ment of Warburton in his collection of 'Pope's Works ' (1751), vol. vi. p. 56. Referring to 'The Basset Table,' he says : " Only this of all the ' Town Eclogues ' was Mr. Pope's, and is here presented from a copy corrected by his own hand." This opinion of the Rev. Wm. War- burton afterwards Bishop as the intimate friend of the poet during his later years of life (who bequeathed to him a considerable interest in his works), has naturally had weight. And if this " copy " were in Pope's handwriting (as well as the corrections thus represented), the fair deduction might be that the particular eclogue in question was his composition. But so much not being said, there is room for the surmise that the paper was literally " a copy " of Lady Mary's poem which had been in Pope's possession. This, too, is very probable, for it is known that Lady Mary's intimacy with Pope led her sometimes to submit her writings to him. Joseph Warton, in his edition of Pope (1797), has this note (ii. 332) :

" Lady M. W. Montagu would sometimes show a copy of her verses to Pope, and he would make some little alteration. ' No,' said she, ' Pope, no touching !

of the Countess of Bute who was daughter of Lady Ma~ry Wortley Montagu.
 * The present Earl of Harrowby is great-grandson

For then whatever is good for anything will pass for yours, and the rest for mine.' "

Thus Warburton's discovered copy of 'The Basset Table ' may well have been the lady's work amended by the master- hand ; the quest- :>n, however, might be set at rest were we assured of the handwriting of the "copy."*

The editors of Pope have been Dodsley (1748 and 1 782), t Warburton (1751), Dr. SamuelJohn- son (1779), Gilbert Wakefield (1794), Warton (1797), Bowles (1806), Gary (1853), Rossetti (1873), and Croker (Murray pub. 1882). Their acceptance of ' The Basset Table ' as his work seems to stand or fall on Warburton's con- clusion. And as, according to Dallaway, the six ' Town Eclogues ' were written by Lady Mary " as a parody on the pastorals of Pope," a clever imitation of the master may possioly have misled his editor Warburton.

A patient investigation inclines me to think it more probable that ' The Basset Table ' was written Iby Lady Mary than by Pope, whose fame, it may be thought, would suffer little by the absence of this "eclogue" from his collected works. W. L. RUTTON.

27, Elgin Avenue, W.

SIR WALTER SCOTT'S HEROINES.

I DO not know if the following curious cir- cumstance in connexion with Sir Walter Scott's writings has ever been pointed out. Scarcely any of his heroines, whether in his prose or verse romances, has a mother living. Including the works in which there may be said to be two heroines, e.g., 'Marmion,' 'Waverley,' 'Guy Mannering,' 'Ivanhoe,' 'The Pirate,' and, remembering dear Mysie Happer, I must add ' The Monastery,' Scott has altogether forty heroines or- thereabouts. Of these I cannot think of more than four whose mothers are living during the progress

refers in adulatory terms to her eclogues, " which lie enclosed in a monument of red Turkey, writte i in my fairest hand.' W. Moy Thomas in his edition (i. 432), quoting this letter, adds: "This copy in Pope's early print hand and bound in ' red Turkey ' is still existing among the Wortley manuscripts. T." It would assist our decision to know which of the eclogues if not the six are thus enshrined in "red Turkey." Certainly this witness to Pope's possession of Lady Mary s compositions strengthens the argu- ment above attempted.
 * Pope, in a letter (October, 1717) to Lady Mary,

t Dodsley's ' Collection of Poems ' includes Lady Mary s as well as Pope's ; and he has a note (1782 ed.') to the effect that of the ' Six Town Eclogues ' four were written by Lady Mary, one, viz., ' The Basset lable,' by Pope (here he quotes Warburton), and one, viz., 'The Toilet,' by Gay. This opinion was expressed prior to Dallaway's examination of Lady Marys papers.