Notes and Queries, Number 58, December 7, 1850 | Page 7

in The Key which follows the Address "to the
Reader," in my edition of 1708, the character of Zimri (which was
given by Dryden himself to the Duke of Buckingham) is assigned to
Lord Gray, who was in truth the Caleb of the performance. Is it to be
taken that the publication of this chap-book edition is merely a proof of
the extreme popularity of Dryden's half of the poem?
My third unanswered Query referred to the Essay on Satire, commonly
attributed to Lord Mulgrave and Dryden, but with which, as it seems to
me, for reasons there assigned, Lord Mulgrave could have nothing to

do. As a farther proof of Dryden's sole authorship, I may here add,
what I have since found, that the Addendum to the first volume of State
Poems consists of one thus entitled: "In opposition to Mr. Dryden's
Essay on Satyr," treating it as only his: it begins,
"Now the reformer of the court and stage, The common beadle of this
wilful age, Has with impartial hand whipp'd sovereign sin, In me it is
but manners to begin."
It sounds drolly, in our day, to hear Dryden called "the reformer of the
court and stage," especially recollecting the attack upon him made just
afterwards by Jeremy Collier. Then, what are we to say to the
subsequent lines, attributed to Prior, which advert to the cudgelling
Dryden received in Rose Street for his attack upon Rochester. Prior
calls his own production A Satire on the Modern Translators, where he
thus speaks of Dryden under his name of Bayes:--
"But what excuse, what preface can atone For crimes which guilty
Bayes has singly done-- Bayes, whose Rose Alley ambuscade enjoin'd
To be to vices, which he practised, kind?"
All the contemporary evidence, with which I am acquainted, tends to
establish that Lord Mulgrave, instead of being the author of a satire
which Dryden improved and polished, had nothing in the world to do
with it. Is there any evidence, not contemporary, which shows the
contrary? Surely this, and the two other matters to which I have above
adverted, are interesting literary Queries.
Now to a subject that I care less about, and upon which I am entitled,
from his published works, to appeal to your correspondent, MR. S. W.
SINGER. It is a mere trifle, but upon a curious point--the history of
playing cards, which may, however, attract more attention than topics
that relate only to such insignificant men as Thomas Gray and John
Dryden.
I have before me only four, out of what I presume originally consisted
of fifty-two playing cards, unlike any I have hitherto heard of. Each of
them illustrates a proverb, which is engraved at the bottom of a

pictorial representation of figures and objects, and the cards consist of
the ten of diamonds, the ace of hearts, the seven of hearts, and the eight
of spades: the number is in Roman figures at the left-hand corner, and
the subject, a diamond, heart, and spade, at the right-hand corner. I will
briefly describe them separately.
The proverb illustrated by the ten of diamonds is "Hee's in an ill case
y^t can finde no hole to creepe out at;" and the engraving (upon copper)
represents two men, with grey heads and in black gowns, in the pillory,
surrounded by soldiers armed with halberds, partisans, spears, &c., of
various shapes, and by a crowd of men in dresses of the seventeenth
century. The ace of hearts illustrates the proverb "Look before you
leap;" a man in a hat turned up at the sides is about to leap from a high
bank into the waters, wherein two others are already swimming: in the
background is a fifth man looking over the fence of a cottage. The
seven of hearts has engraved at the bottom of it, {463} "Patience on
force is a medicine for a mad horse;" and it represents the female
keeper of a brothel receiving whip-castigation at a cart's tail, a
punishment frequently inflicted of old upon women of that description,
as many authors testify: soldiers with halberds, &c., as before, march
on either side of the cart, which at the moment is passing a house with
the sign of the Half-moon hanging out from the wall by ornamented
iron-work. The eight of spades is upon the proverb, "Two of a trade can
never agree;" and in the engraving, a couple of fish-wives, who have
thrown down their baskets of plaise, flounders, &c., are fighting
furiously, while a man, behind, is obviously running away with
something he has stolen from them: the background consists of
gable-ended houses, part of a street.
These cards came to me from an old relative, who very likely once had
the whole pack, or deck, as it was formerly called; but