Although my question regarding Gray and Dodsley's _Collection of Poems_ has
only been half answered, and my two Queries respecting Dryden's _Absolom
and Achitophel_ and _Essay on Satire_ not answered at all, I am not
discouraged from putting interrogatories on other matters, in the hope that
I may be more fortunate hereafter. On each of my former inquiries I have
still a word or two to say, and I do not know why I should not say them
now.
First, as to Gray and Dodsley:--Is the epithet _droning_, or _drony_, in
the first edition of the _Elegy_? and, as my copy of Dodsley's _Collection_
is dated 1748, and is said (on the half title, preceding the whole title)
to be "the _second_ edition," was there a _first_ edition in the same year,
or in an earlier year, or was there, in fact, no _first_ edition at all?
This question is important, because several poetical productions, of
undisputed excellence, originally made their appearance in Dodsley's
_Collection_.
Next, as to Dryden's _Absolom and Achitophel_: Is it known, or anywhere
stated, that it was printed early in the eighteenth century as a penny or
two-penny chap-book, and why was it so printed? Observe, too, that it was
unaccompanied by Tate's _Continuation_, which, as far as a lesson to the
lower orders is concerned, was of more consequence than Dryden's portion.
It is a circumstance I did not mention, but it is, nevertheless, worth a
Note, that 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 I never could find
more than these four, and I have been unable to meet with, or hear of, any
others like them. From the costume and other circumstances, I am inclined
to think that they belong to the period of the Civil War, or rather later;
and I remember, some years ago, to have been shown twenty or thirty cards
of the latter end of the seventeenth century, founded upon public events,
one of them relating to the celebrated "Virgins of Taunton Dean," another
to the Death of Monmouth, &c. I shall be personally obliged by any
information respecting the cards I have described; and, since a distinct
Query may be desirable, I beg leave to ask any of your readers, whether
they know of the existence of any other cards belonging to the same set?