Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/469

 Reviews and Notes 465 Burletta (1780), produced as late as 1855 by the Harvard Hasty Pudding Club with Phillips Brooks as Glumdalca. The introduction likewise includes an analysis of Fielding's burlesque of the heroic play through his treatment of character, situation, and diction, which is reinforced in the notes by an abundance of parallel passages culled from tragedies of the species. Fielding's satire on the critics Dennis, Theobald, Bentley, et al., because of their attempts to enforce a mechanical conformity to the rules and traditions of the Ancients, is pointed out, but perhaps is not sufficiently related to similar ridicule of pedantry and false taste running through Fielding's later work, or to the vogue of such satire at the time. The text of the play reprints the version of 1730, the first edition of Tom Thumb, with the preface, prologue, epilogue, and two bailiff scenes of the second edition inserted in their proper places; and presents a literal reprint of the first edition of 1731 of the Tragedy of Tragedies, collated with the later impression of 1731 and with the third, fourth, and fifth editions. The chief models Fielding observed in this burlesque Mr. Hillhouse says are The Rehearsal, The Dunciad, and an anony- mous pamphlet of the year 1711, A Comment upon the History of Tom Thumb a satire on Addison's criticism in the Spectator of the ballad of Chevy Chace. The authorship of this pamphlet, generally attributed to Dr. William Wagstaffe (1685-1725), has been the subject of considerable controversy. About the question Mr. Hillhouse experiences no unwholesome curiosity, but simply remarks in a note that "It has, however, been conjectured that the Comment came from the pen of Swift" (p. 7 n.). That fuller light may be thrown upon the grounds of this conjecture seems not impossible, light, moreover, which might serve to show new likenesses between Fielding and Swift. For example: the name "Wagstaff" was used by Swift not only in the pseudonym "Simon Wagstaff" in Polite Conversa- tion (1738), (which has been more than once pointed out,) but also in the contribution attributed to Swift 2 in No. 1 of the Harrison Tatter (1711), in a letter to Isaac Bickerstaff signed "Your . . . affectionate kinsman, 1 Humphry Wag- staff." The name "Wagstaff," moreover, was also used in the year 1710 in connection with the Tatler in Oldisworth's satire, Annotations on the "Tatler" written in French by Monsieur Bour- elle and translated into English by Walter Wagstaff. And again in the same year it was used in a pamphlet entitled Bickerstaff s Almanac. . . for the year 1710. . . By Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., which contains a testimonial of the death of Mr. Partridge, signed "Jeremy Wagstaff," and dated from Staff Hall in Staf- fordshire, September 3, 1709. 3 This work also has been attri- 2 Swift, Prose Works, ed. Temple Scott, (London, 1902) IX, 44.