Can any of the contributors to your most useful "NOTES AND QUERIES"
favour me with the title of any work which gives an account of the
origin, office, emoluments, and privileges of Poet Laureate. Selden,
in his _Titles of Honour (Works_, vol. iii. p. 451.), shows the Counts
Palatine had the right of conferring the dignity claimed by the
German Emperors. The first payment I am aware of is to Master Henry
de Abrinces, the _Versifier_ (I suppose Poet Laureate), who received
6d. a day,--4l. 7s., as will be seen in the _Issue Roll_ of Thomas de
Brantingham, edited by Frederick Devon.
Warton (_History of English Poetry_, vol. ii. p. 129.) gives no
further information, and is the author generally quoted; but the
particular matter sought for is wanting.
The first patent, according to the _Encyclopædia Metropolitana_,
article "Laureate," is stated, as regards the existing office, to date
from 5th Charles I., 1630; and assigns as the annual gratuity 100l.,
and a tierce of Spanish Canary wine out of the royal cellars.
Prior to this, the emoluments appear uncertain, as will be seen by
Gifford's statement relative to the amount paid to B. Jonson, vol. i.
cxi.:--
"Hitherto the Laureateship appears to have been a mere trifle,
adopted at pleasure by those who were employed to write for
the court, but conveying no privileges, and establishing no
claim to a salary."
I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of the phrase "employed to write
for the court." Certain it is, the question I now raise was _pressed_
then, as it was to satisfy Ben Jonson's want of information Selden
wrote on the subject in his _Titles of Honour_.
These emoluments, rights, and privileges have been matters of
Laureate dispute, even to the days of Southey. In volume iv. of his
correspondence, many hints of this will be found; e.g., at page 310.,
with reference to Gifford's statement, and "my proper rights."
The Abbé Resnel says,--"L'illustre Dryden l'a porté comme _Poète du
Roy_," which rather reduces its academic dignity; and adds, "Le Sieur
Cyber, comédien de profession, est actuellement en possession du titre
de Poète Lauréate, et qu'il jouit en même tems de deux cens livres
sterling de pension, à la charge de présenter tous les ans, deux
pièces de vers à la famille royale."
I am afraid, however, the Abbé drew upon his imagination for the
amount of the salary; and that he would find the people were never so
hostile to the court as to sanction so heavy an infliction upon the
royal family, as they would have met with from the quit-rent ode, the
peppercorn of praise paid by Elkanah Settle, Cibber, or H.J. Pye.
The Abbé, however, is not so amusing in his mistake (if mistaken)
relative to this point, as I find another foreign author has been
upon two Poet Laureates, Dryden and Settle. Vincenzo Lancetti, in his
_Pseudonimia Milano_, 1836, tells us:--
"Anche la durezza di alcuni cognomi ha più volte consigliato
un raddolcimento, che li rendesse più facili a pronunziarsi.
Percio Macloughlin divenne Macklin; Machloch, Mallet; ed
Elkana Settle fu poi ---- John Dryden!"
--a metamorphose greater, I suspect, than any to be found in Ovid, and
a transmigration of soul far beyond those imagined by the philosophers
of the East.