Notes and Queries, Number 25, April 20, 1850 | Page 4

III. frequently honoured this
"musick-room" with his presence.
_The Music Room in Charles Street, Covent Garden_:--
"The Consort of Musick, lately in Bow Street, is removed next Bedford
Gate, in _Charles Street, Covent Garden_, where a room is newly built
for that purpose."--_Lond. Gaz._ Feb. 19. 1690.
"A Consort of Music, with several new voices, to be performed on the
10th instant, at the Vendu in Charles Street, Covent Garden."--Ibid.
March 6. 1691.
In 1693 was published _Thesaurus Musicus_, being a Collection of the
"Newest Songs performed at their Majesties' Theatres, and at the
Consorts in Villier Street, in York Buildings, and in _Charles Street,
Covent Garden_."
In the proposals for the establishment of a Royal Academy in 1720, the
subscription books are advertised as being open, amongst other places,
"at the Musick Room in Charles Street, Covent Garden."
_Coleman's Music House._--A house of entertainment, with a large and
well planted garden, known as "Coleman's Musick House," was offered
for sale in 1682. It was situated near _Lamb's Conduit_, and was
demolished upon the building of Ormond Street.
_White Conduit House._--The old tavern of this name was erected in
the reign of Charles I. The workmen are said to have been regaling
themselves upon the completion of the building, at the instant the king
was beheaded at Whitehall. {396}
_Goodman's Field Wells._--A place of entertainment established after
the suppression of the theatre in this locality in 1735.
_Bride Lane, St. Bride's._--The first meetings of the Madrigal Society
(established in 1741) were held at a public-house in this lane, called
"The Twelve Bells."
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
* * * * *
POPE'S REVISION OF SPENCE'S ESSAY ON THE ODYSSEY.
Spence's almost idolatrous admiration of, and devotion to, Pope, is

evident from the pains he took to preserve every little anecdote of him
that he could elicit from conversation with him, or with those who
knew him. Unfortunately, he had not Boswell's address and talent for
recording gossip, or the Anecdotes would have been a much more racy
book. Spence was certainly an amiable, but I think a very weak man;
and it appears to me that his learning has been overrated. He might
indeed have been well designated as "a fiddle-faddle bit of sterling."
I have the original MS. of the two last Dialogues of the Essay on the
Odyssey as written by Spence, and on the first page is the following
note:--"The two last Evenings corrected by Mr. Pope." On a blank page
at the end, Spence has again written:--"MS. of the two last Evenings
corrected with Mr. Pope's own hand, w'ch serv'd y'e Press, and is so
mark'd as usual by Litchfield."
This will elucidate Malone's note in his copy of the book, which Mr.
Bolton Corney has transcribed. I think the first three dialogues were
published in a little volume before Spence became acquainted with
Pope, and perhaps led to that acquaintance. Their intercourse
afterwards might supply some capital illustrations for a new edition of
Mr. Corney's curious chapter on _Camaraderie Littéraire_. The MS.
copy of Spence's Essay bears frequent marks of Pope's correcting hand
by erasure and interlineary correction, silently made. I transcribe the
few passages where the poet's revision of his critic are accompanied by
remarks.
In Evening the Fourth, Spence had written:--"It may be inquired, too,
how far this translation may make a wrong use of terms borrowed from
the arts and sciences, &c. [The instances are thus pointed out.] As
where we read of a ship's crew, Od. 3. 548. The longitude, Od. 19. 350.
Doubling the Cape, Od. 9. 90. Of Architraves, Colonnades, and the like,
Od. 3. 516." Pope has erased this and the references, and
says:--"_These are great faults; pray don't point 'em out, but spare your
servant_."
At p. 16. Spence had written:--"Yellow is a proper epithet of fruit; but
not of fruit that we say at the same time is ripening into gold." Upon
which Pope observes:--"I think yellow may be s'd to ripen into gold, as
gold is a deeper, fuller colour than yellow." Again: "What is proper in
one language, may not be so in another. Were Homer to call the sea a
thousand times by the title of [Greek: porphureos], 'purple deeps' would

not sound well in English. The reason's evident: the word 'purple'
among us is confined to one colour, and that not very applicable to the
deep. Was any one to translate the purpureis oloribus of Horace,
'purple swans' would not be so literal as to miss the sense of the author
entirely." Upon which Pope has remarked:--"The sea is actually of a
deep purple in many places, and in many views."
Upon a passage in Spence's _Criticism_, at p. 45., Pope says:--"I think
this too nice." And the couplet objected to by Spence--
"Deep in