Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 103.djvu/38

26 the known portraits of the same poet, and discriminating their several deserts; or when transcribing the title-pages of the first edition of "Hudibras," now scarce; or when tracing the penates of Dryden, from Salisbury-court to Long-acre, and from Long-acre to Gerard-street; or when drawing up a tabular account of copyright paid by booksellers, for remarkable plays, between 1682 and 1726; or when tracking the history of Addison's surviving relatives, describing his funeral, and criticising his portraits; or when recounting the pictures and busts of Mat Prior, who bought them, and for how much; or when giving a digest of the will of poor, persecuted, pertinaciously poetical Sir Richard Blackmore, and summing up the names of those who assailed him,—Dryden, for instance, once and again,—Wycherly, on his satire against wit,—Sedley, with characteristic license,—Garth, in a dose from the Dispensary,—Tom Brown, too, over and over again, and Smith, and Philips, and Gay, and Swift, and last and not least and oftenest of all, Alexander Pope. There is a passage in Johnson's Life of Dryden highly applicable to his present Editor's industry: "To adjust the minute events of literary history is tedious and troublesome: it requires, indeed, no great force of understanding, but often depends upon inquiries which there is no opportunity of making, or is to be fetched from books and pamphlets not always at hand." Mr. Cunningham has all and more than the Doctor's ideal "requires;" and instead of accounting it "tedious and troublesome," he evidently revels in active research among obsolete "tall copies" and forgotten pamphlets, and has no mere sneaking kindness for a "rummage" among MSS., such as "Lord Chamberlain's MS. Warrant Books," consulted for the date of a play; "Sir G. Etherege's MS. Letters," quoted for an opinion on the "Hind and Panther" émeute; Gray's MS. Journal, for a comment on Riley's Portrait of Dryden ["in a long wig—disagreeable face"]; a MS. Royal Warrant, prohibiting infringement of the copyright of Hudibras, &c., &c. If readers innocent of taste for what is curious and "somewhat musty" withal, fail to relish this department of the Editor's notes, then there are in copious supplies, and admirable variety, choice excerpts from a large round of authors, to illustrate the text—bits from that arrant gossip Pepys, and grave good John Evelyn, and small-talkative Aubrey, and slow and sure Aaron Hill, and vixenish Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and the irresistible Lady Mary, and quizzical sensitive Gentleman Gray, and pensive Dr. Beattie, and didactic Dr. Armstrong, and bustling Bozzy, and busy Malone, and sagacious Scott, and forcible Byron, and scholarly Soutney, and quaint Charles Lamb, and Wordsworth the profound, and Campbell the elegant, and Croker the ingenious, and Lord Mahon the discreet, and Leigh Hunt the sparkling, and Notes and Queries the nondescript add inexhaustible. Rare old Johnson! In his proudest, hopefullest moments he could as little have dreamt of an edition like this, as he did of the men and