NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL JAN. 5, 1907.
The above are also by Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu. An account of Lady Irwin is
printed in Walpole's 'Royal and Noble
Authors,' ed. Park, v. 155-7. She wrote
an answer to this " Receipt." Both pieces
are printed in the ' Additions to the Works
of Pope '(1776), i. 168-70.
116-46. The Spleen, an epistle to Mr. C J [i.e., Cuthbert Jackson]. By Mr. Matthew Green of the Custom-house.' D.N.B.' Gray says (' Letters,' ed. Tovey, i. 183) :
" All there is of M. Green here has been printed before ; there is a profusion of wit everywhere ; reading would have formed his judgment and harmonised his verse, for even his wood-notes often break out into strains of real poetry and music." Walpole says of ' The Spleen ' :
" This is as original a poem as ever was written. It has the wit of Butler with the ease of Prior with- . out imitating either, and tho' so poetic all the images are taken from the streets of London." He fills up the blanks g 1 p s as " gospel propagators," and to " such was of late a corporation" adds "the Charitable Cor- poration." When Goldsmith asserted that
- there was no poetry in his age, Dodsley
appealed to his own collection as a refuta- tion, and particularly mentioned ' The . Spleen.' Johnson's comment on this was : " I think Dodsley gave up the question . . 4 The Spleen ' is not poetry " (Boswell, 11 Apl., 1776). To the account of Green in the ' D.N.B.' it may be added that two letters by him are in the Political State for July, 1740, pp. 85-9.
146-7. An epigram on the Rev. Mr. Laurence Echard's and Bishop Gilbert Burnet's histories.
147-9. The sparrow and diamond, a song.
150-1. Jove and Semele.
152-3. The seeker.
153-7. On Barclay's apology for the Quakers. The above are also by Green, whose family were Quakers. He respected, but deserted, that creed.
158-72. Pre-existence, a poem in imitation of Milton.
Tt was published with a preface by J. B. in 1714, and reprinted in 1740 and 1800. Gray writes (' Letters,' i. 184) :
"Dr. Evans [Abel Evans: see 'D.N.B.'] is a furious madman ; and pre-existence is nonsense in all her altitudes."
172-80. Chiron to Achilles, a poem by Hildebrand Jacob, Esq.' D.N.B.'
This was first published in 1732, and was included in liis collected works (1735), pp. 133-44.
180-5. Know your self, by the late Dr. Arbuthnot. -' D.N.B.'
Pub. anon, in 1734, with an advertisement that it hod been written several years
before. This is the only manuscript of
Arbuthnot in existence, and Mr. Aitken in
his ' Life and Works of Arbuthnot,' pp. 436-
442, has printed it, " first as it was published,
and secondly, as it was originally written."
186-99. London, a poem in imitation of the third satire of Juvenal. By Mr. Samuel Johnson.
Writing to Horace Walpole, Gray says (' Letters,' i. 183) :
" I am sorry to differ from you, but ' London ' is to me one of those few imitations that have all the ease and all the spirit of an original. The .same man's verses on the opening of Garrick's theatre are far from bad."
To the words " whom pensions can incite To vote a patriot black, a courtier white," is the note by Walpl e : " This w d have suited Johnson himself latterly." H y's next page is Hervey's.
200-2. Prologue spoken by Garrick, at the opening of the theatre in Drury Lane, 1747. By Samuel Johnson.
203-13. Of active and retired life, an epistle to H. C., Esq. [Henry Coventry]. By William Melmoth the Younger (' D.N.B.') ; first printed in the year
214-19.^ Grongar Hill. By Mr. [John] Dyer.
Dyer, says Gray (' Letters,' i. 183), " has more of poetry in his imagination than almost any of our number, but rough and injudicious."
220-41. The ruins of Rome, a poem. By the same.
241-55. The school - mistress, a poem in imita- tion of Spenser. By William Shenstone, Esq. 'D.N.B.'
" Excellent in its kind and masterly," says Gray (' Letters,' i. 183). Shenstone (' Letters,' p. 174) complacently records under date of November, 1748, that he had borrowed " Dodsley's Miscellany of Lady Luxborough, in which are many good things."
256-85. The art of politics, in imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry.' By the Reverend Mr. [James] Bramston. 'D.N.B/
L. 1, "Sir James " is Thornhill, Sir Robert is of course Sir Robert Walpole. " New Bond Street and a newer square," i.e. Cavendish Square. "Let Sir Paul resign," Methuen. " Gibber's opera from Johnny Gay's " : the opera is ' Love in a Riddle,' the other piece * The Beggar's Opera.' " Th' arch-bishop and the Master of the Rolls," Wake and Sir Joseph Jekyll. Wyndham is Sir William Wyndham ; * ' Lord William's dead and gone," Lord William Poulet. Bramstone's poem contains many pointed lines.
