Notes and Queries, Number 70, March 1, 1851 | Page 3

weight, Rid by some lumpish minister of state."
In 1717, Mr. Tonson published Poems by the earl of Roscommon; and
added thereto the Essay on poetry, "with the leave and with the
corrections of the author." The lines shall now be given in their
amended state, as they appear in that volume, with the accompanying
notes:--
"The Laureat[2] here may justly claim our praise, Crown'd by
Mack-Fleckno[3] with immortal bays; Tho' prais'd and punish'd once
for other's[4] rhimes, His own deserve as great applause sometimes;
Yet Pegasus[5], of late, has born dead weight, Rid by some lumpish
ministers of state."

Next to Dryden and the earl of Mulgrave, as authorities on this question,
comes the elder Jacob Tonson. Both writers were contributors to his
Poetical miscellanies. In 1701 he published Poems on various
occasions, etc. By Mr. John Dryden. The volume has not the Essay on
satire. The same {163} Tonson, as we have just seen, gave currency to
the assertion that Dryden was "ignorant of the whole matter."
To this display of contemporary evidence must be added the
information derivable from the posthumous publications enumerated in
the former part of this article. The publication of 1723 was made by
direction of the duchess of Buckingham. The couplet, "Tho' prais'd,"
&c., and the appended note, were omitted. In 1726 Mr. alderman
Barber republished the volumes "with several additions, and without
any castrations," restoring the couplet and note as they were printed in
1717. In the Original poems of Dryden, as collectively published in
1743, the joint authorship is stated without a word of evidence in
support of it.
If we turn to the earlier writers on Dryden, we meet with no facts in
favour of his claim to the poem in question. Anthony à Wood says, "the
earl of Mulgrave was generally thought to be the author." This was
written about 1694. The reverend Thomas Birch, a man of vast
information, repeated this statement in 1736. Neither Congreve nor
Giles Jacob allude to the poem.
The witnesses on the other side are, 1. The publisher of the State poems.
2. Dean Lockier. And 3. The reverend Thomas Broughton.
The State poems, in which the essay is ascribed to Dryden, may be
called a surreptitious publication: it carries no authority. The testimony
of Lockier, which is to the same effect, was never published by himself.
It was a scrap of conversation held thirty years after the death of
Dryden, and reported by another from memory. The reverend Thomas
Broughton, who asserts the joint authorship of the poems, cites as his
authority the Original poems, &c. Now Kippis assures us that he edited
those volumes. On the question at issue, he could discover no authority
but himself!

Dryden may have revised the Essay on satire. Is that a sufficient reason
for incorporating it with his works? Do we tack to the works of Pope
the poems of Wycherly and Parnell? We have authority for stating that
Pope revised the Essay on poetry. Is it to be added to the works of Pope?
Be it as it may, the poem was published, in substance, six years before
Pope was born!
As the evidence is very brief, there can be no necessity for
recapitulation; and I shall only add, that if about to edit the poetical
works of Dryden, I should reject the Essay on satire.
BOLTON CORNEY.
[Footnote 2: Mr. Dryden.]
[Footnote 3: A famous satyrical poem of his.]
[Footnote 4: A copy of verses called, An essay on satyr, for which Mr
Dryden was both applauded and beaten, tho' not only innocent but
ignorant, of the whole matter.]
[Footnote 5: A poem call'd, The hind and panther.]
* * * * *
MACKLIN'S ORDINARY AND SCHOOL OF CRITICISM.
Mr. George Wingrove Cooke, in his valuable work, The History of
Party (vol. iii, p. 66.), gives an admirable sketch of the life of Edmund
Burke. Speaking of his early career, and of the various designs which
he formed for his future course, we are told that "at Macklin's Debating
Society he made the first essay of his powers of oratory."
Mr. Cunningham, in his Handbook for London, speaks of Macklin
delivering Lectures on Elocution at Pewterer's Hall (p. 394.), and of his
residence in Tavistock Row, Covent Garden (p. 484.); but he does not
mention Macklin's Debating Society. I imagine that by this "Debating
Society" is meant an Ordinary and School of Criticism, which that

eminent actor established in the year 1754, in the Piazza, Covent
Garden. Mr. W. Cooke, in his Life of Macklin, 1806, p. 199., says--
"What induced him [Macklin] to quit the stage in the full vigour of
fame and constitution, was one of those schemes which he had long
previously indulged himself in, of suddenly making his fortune by the
establishment