[Our correspondent will find some interesting notices of the early use
of the carrier pigeon in Europe in the _Penny Cyclopaedia_, vol. vii. p.
372., art. "COLUMBIDAE;" and in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, vol. vi.
p. 176., art. "CARRIER PIGEON."]
* * * * *
Replies.
"PYLADES AND CORRINA."--PSALMANAZAR AND DEFOE.
(Vol. vii., pp. 206. 305. 435. 479.)
I had forwarded for insertion a short answer to the Query as to _Pylades
and Corinna_ before DR. MAITLAND'S communication was printed; but as it now
appears more distinctly what was the object of the Query, I can address
myself more directly to the point he has raised. And, in the first place, I
cannot suppose that Defoe had anything to do with _Pylades and Corinna_, or
the _History of Formosa_. In all Defoe's fictions there is at least some
trace of the master workman, but in neither of these works is there any
putting forth of his power, or any similitude to his manner or style. When
the _History of Formosa_ appeared (1704), he was ingrossed in politics, and
was not, as far as any evidence has yet informed us, in the habit of
translating or doing journeyman work for booksellers. Then the book itself
is, in point of composition, far beneath Defoe, even in his most careless
moods. As to _Pylades and Corinna_, Defoe died so soon after Mrs.
Thomas--she died on the 3rd February, 1731, and he on the 24th April
following, most probably worn out by illness--that time seems scarcely
afforded for getting together and working up the materials of the two
volumes published. The editor, who signs himself "Philalethes," dates his
Dedication to the first volume, in which are contained the particulars
about Psalmanazar, "St. John Baptist, 1731," which day would be after
Defoe's death. Nor is there any ground for supposing that Defoe and Curll
had much connexion as author and publisher. Curll only printed two works of
Defoe, as far as I have been able to discover, the _Memoirs of Dr.
Williams_ (1718, 8vo.), and the _Life of Duncan Campbell_ (1720, 8vo.), and
for his doing so, in each case, a good reason may be given. As regards the
genuineness of the correspondence in _Pylades and Corinna_, I do not see
any reason to question it. Sir Edward Northey's certificate, and various
little particulars in the letters themselves, entirely satisfy me that the
correspondence is not a fictitious one. The anecdotes of Psalmanazar are
quite in accordance with his own statements in his Life--(see particularly
p. 183., _Memoirs_, 1765, 8vo.); and if they were pure fiction, is it not
likely that, living in London at the time when they appeared, he would have
contradicted them? In referring (Vol. vii., p. 436., "N. & Q.") to the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for these anecdotes, I had not overlooked their
having appeared in _Pylades and Corinna_, but had not then the latter book
at hand to include it in the reference. DR. MAITLAND considers _Pylades and
Corinna_ "a farrago of low rubbish, utterly beneath criticism." Is not this
rather too severe and sweeping a character? Unquestionably the poetry is
but so-so, and of the poem the greater part might have been dispensed with;
but, like all Curll's collections, it contains some matter of interest and
value to those who do not despise the minutiae of literary investigation.
The Autobiography of the unfortunate authoress (Mrs. Thomas), who was only
exalted by Dryden's praise to be ignominiously degraded by Pope, and "whose
whole life was but one continued scene of the utmost variety of human
misery," has always appeared to me an interesting and rather affecting
narrative; and, besides a great many occasional notices in the
correspondence, which are not without their use, there are interspersed
letters from Lady Chudleigh, Norris of Bemerton, and others, which are not
to be elsewhere met with, and which are worth preserving.
For Psalmanazar's character, notwithstanding his early peccadilloes, I can
assure DR. MAITLAND that I have quite as high a respect as himself, even
without the corroborative evidence of our great moralist, which on such a
subject may be considered as perfectly conclusive.