Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/56

Hi INTRODUCTION ���at Blenheim is An Ode on Love, inscribed to the Honoura- ble Mrs. Finch. It is four and one-half pages long, and is apparently one of the earliest tributes to her work. Another example of "private homage from an unknown muse" is from the very modest pen of honest Will Shippen, a par- liamentary Jacobite and a poet on his own account. He bases his admiration of her "wondrous sweetness" and " manly strength " on the poems that appeared in Gildon's Miscellany in 1701, and on All is Vanity, which, though not published till 1713, was written before the death of Dryden in 1700. Shippen may have known all these poems in manuscript, but it seems probable that his eulogy was called forth by Mrs. Finch's first appearance in print in 1701. �A congratulatory poem from Mrs. Randolph and an even more congratulatory response from Mrs. Finch would, if interpreted as seriously as they were written, enthrone both ladies high in poetic realms. The description of Mrs. Finch as the Elisha on whom fell the mantle of Cowley, the recog- nition of her as the rightful heir of Orinda's fame, carried praise to dizzy heights. But the conventional extravagance of eulogy is so vague that we cannot determine just which poem Mrs. Finch had sent for Mrs. Randolph's inspection. The only one referred to is The Pastoral published by Gil- don. Of Mrs. Randolph's other work I find no trace except a commonplace poem, On the much lamented death of the Incomparable Lady, the Honorable Lady Oxenden. A Pindarique Ode. This Ode is preserved in a curious old scrap- book in the British Museum, a volume made up of clippings of verse by women, from newspapers, annuals, books, and with a few manuscript items. None of these early poems calls Mrs. Finch "Ardelia." This pen-name was not made public, it seems, till her fame was somewhat established. �In Prior's Miscellaneous Works published in 1740, is a little poem called Lines to Prior by a Lady Unknown. ��� �