Sis&rC 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT
 
 THE 
 
 ESSENCE OF M ALONE, 
 
 OR, 
 
 The "BEAUTIES" 
 
 OF THAT 
 
 FASCINATING WRITER, 
 
 EXTRACTED 
 
 FROM HIS IMMORTAL WORK, 
 
 IN 
 
 Five Hundred, Sixty-nine Pages,. and a Quarter, 
 
 JUST PUBLISHED, 
 AND 
 
 (With his accuftoTned felicity) 
 
 ENTITLED, 
 
 *' Some Account of the Life and Writings of 
 
 John Dryden !!" 
 
 lUmtiost : 
 
 SOLD BY T. BECKET, PALL MALL. 
 Price 2s. 6d. 
 
 PRINTED EY J. SMEETON, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, 
 
 1800.
 
 $^DEDICATION. 
 
 -/ the celebrated author of " Coryatt'j Crudi* 
 ties," revived in his prefent Majejly's reign: 
 
 To all the Dutch Critics of all ages, particu- 
 larly to him, who wrote a folio volume 
 de particuld ye, et fatellitibus ejus : 
 
 To the late ingenious and ingenuous Editor, 
 Critic, and Man, George Steevens, Efq. 
 
 To all the other Editors in general, pajl, 
 prefent, and future, of that William 
 ** Shakfpeare," (as we muft fiowfpell the 
 name " ex adytis") whom their talents, 
 more than his own, will have immortalized : 
 
 Not forgetting the Society of Antiquaries- 
 the late facetious, though light moralijl, 
 James Bofwell, Efq. or thofe amiable 
 gojjips, Mr, Spence, Bimop Newton, 
 Mrs. Piozzi, and other blue- flocking 
 writers of Memoirs : 
 
 21? Dr. Burney, and the Concert of Ancient 
 Mufic: 
 
 To Heralds, Coach Painters, Bookfellers, and 
 other luminaries of Genius : 
 
 This " Fleur-de-Malone" is infcribed, with 
 enthufiafm, by his, and their pupil, as well 
 as idolator, 
 
 Minutius Felix.
 
 C * ] 
 
 may reform the obfolete practice of Thucydides, 
 Livy, and others, who are of the oldfchool. 
 
 An almoft prophetical type of this reform was 
 hinted in the M Calais Calqfium Cale/ium, &c." 
 of Sterne, who makes his traveller note the mea- 
 fure of fteeples with geometrical precifion, but 
 with a difdain of the <c mores bominum," which 
 an old fafhioned and Greek traveller, called 
 M Ulyffes/' was more anxious to delineate than 
 furfaces of inanimate, though curious art. 
 
 It was referved for this age to reverfe the 
 maxim " that no man was a hero to his valet de 
 chambre," by admitting no other heros into the 
 Temple of Genius and Fame. I remember that 
 Boffuet, a very admired panegyrift of the dead, 
 in the age of Louis XIV. reprefents, by a moft 
 animated collilion of incoherent images, the 
 celebrated Prince of Conde, as being equally the 
 hero in the day of battle with artillery thunder- 
 ing in his ears, and when he took a walk at 
 Cbantilly, amongft the fuperbes jets-d'eaux qui ne 
 fe-taifoient ni jours ni nuits. But we think it a 
 lofs irreparable to our luminaries, and confider 
 them as half " fhorn of their beams" unlefs we 
 can be as minute in their epitome, as the man was 
 in his, who faid, " Got up at half-part eight 
 M hands but not face." 
 
 The Homer of this minute feci is the elegant 
 refcarcher, whofe work is before me. 
 
 I have read it with avidity upon that account, 
 and feel the fame rapture in its charming de-. 
 tails that I felt when / heard Voltaire cough, though 
 
 I could
 
 C 3 ] 
 
 1 could not fee him, at Ferney Having a good 
 memory of expletives, I am fuch a matter of 
 this work, that I can ring the changes upon 
 every fubdivifion of it* which has the remoteft 
 analogy to the nominal fubjecl. I fay the nominal 
 fubjecl ; for I mould here obferve, that " apropos 
 de boites" is another principle of thefe writers* 
 For example, ** Dry den was Poet Laureat." " Was 
 " he fo ? Then I will give you (fays the enthu- 
 iiaft for his memory) " the account of all the 
 " Poet-Laureats from all time, and the nature 
 " of their inftitution, with its complete analylis, 
 " in eight pages." Cf He wrote a celebrated 
 <f Ode upon St. Cecilia'sDay." " Did he fo? then 
 ff bis life fhall have a parenthefis, or an epifode 
 " (or a " variation," perhaps, it would be called in 
 " MulicJ upon the Hi/lory of St. Cecilia, and of 
 " her Anniverfary Odesfor thirty pages !" 
 
 At prefent I will confine myfelf to one beau- 
 tiful fpecimen of minute circumjlances trivially 
 connected with a life made immortal by genius in 
 profe and verfe. 
 
 I cannot better announce it than by the note 
 or billet-doux of gratitude for the power to ac- 
 complifh the discovery in queftion. It is in the 
 advertifement, p. v. and vi. 
 
 <f The prefent Lady Dryden, alfo, great grand- 
 daughter of Erafmus Dryden, the poet's younger 
 brother, and widow of the late Sir John Turner 
 Dryden, Bart, will, I hope, allow me thus pub- 
 lickly to thank her for having taken the trouble 
 to infpecl: her family papers by which-^-THE 
 
 i B 2 PRECISE
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 PRECISE VALUE OF OUR AUTHOR'S NORTHAMP- 
 TONSHIRE ESTATE HAS BEEN ASCERTAINED!!! 
 
 " Zealous to contribute every aid in her power 
 to illustrate the hiftory of her great kinsman, 
 this lady entered with ardour on tne enquiry, 
 which I took the liberty to fugged to her, (viz. 
 into the value of this eft ate) and purfued it with 
 
 fuch DILIGENCE and SAGACITY as tO REMOVE ALL 
 
 doubt on a point of some importance (viz. the 
 value of this ejlate) which had eluded the fearch 
 of all his biographers." 
 
 Surely this compliment is at once elegant 
 and fublime. But now as to the detail and cir- 
 cumftances of" the discovery itself!" 
 
 " The eftate confifted of one hundred and 
 <f eighty-fix acres. Page 441. 
 
 " The whole eftate was then left at fixty 
 u pounds a year. Ibid. 
 
 " Confequently the two thirds of Dryden were 
 " forty pounds per Annum. Ibid. 
 
 N. B. For this conclufion there is no au- 
 thority cited, but it is not the lefs accurate. 
 
 20 
 20 
 20 
 
 60 
 
 " Thefe two-thirds were left by his father's will 
 exprefsly to him ; and the remaining third by 
 the fame will to his mother for the term of her 
 life." Page 440. 
 
 This
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
 This fa& is afcertained (in a moft ingenious 
 manner,) by the copied words of the gift, accom- 
 panied with apt references to the originals. Ibid. 
 
 If it was lett forfxty pounds a year, it is power- 
 fully inferred Cf that it was lett for fomething 
 " lefs than fix Jhillings and fixpence an acre." 
 Page 44 r. 
 
 Lady Eliz. Dryden's thirds are proved by en- 
 tries of account in 1712 to have been twenty 
 pounds per annum. Ibid. 
 
 She was Dryden's widow. 
 
 " When his mother died, he acquired the refi- 
 duary third in addition to his two-thirds, and fo 
 acquired an additional income of twenty pounds 
 per annum." Page 446. 
 
 *' Forty pounds a year were then equal to a hun- 
 dred and twenty pounds a year at this time." Page 
 441. 
 
 This procefs being very ample and fufficient 
 proof to fatiate the moft incredulous, he is not 
 fatisfied himfelf ; the ardour, the diligence, and 
 the Jagacity in him, which he commends with fo 
 much gallantry in his female contributor, ftimu- 
 late him to more invejiigations and more difcove- 
 ries. 
 
 Led by the Sybil he difcovers and vindicates 
 the " local habitation and the name" of this eftate. 
 
 " It was not in Tichmar/h that any part of it is 
 to be found, or even exifted." Page 21. 
 
 Before he tells us where, elfe, to find it, he 
 accounts for the error, by telling us that Anthony 
 Wood gives the defcription of Dryden's father as 
 " of Tichmar/h." Page 21-2. 
 
 B3 He
 
 C ] 
 
 He might have added, that his father's death 
 and burial there, which is a fact that he has laid 
 before us (page 21) gave countenance to the 
 error. 
 
 < But the eftate in fact was at Blakesley, about 
 four miles from Towc ester, and three from 
 Canon's -Ajhby" Page 440-1. 
 
 cc In the laft age it was called Blaxley, (juft as 
 the name of Sbakefpeare was called Shaxfpere).'* 
 Page 440. 
 
 " This BlahJIey, or Blaxley, was at firft called 
 Black-oof ely." Ibid. 
 
 <c It received that name becaufe the river Oofe 
 ran through it." Ibid. 
 
 It was in Dryden's age part of cc a common 
 field, or un-enclofed land." Page 441. 
 
 N. B. Mark this happy definition of a com- 
 mon fold!! 
 
 " It is now lett at a hundred and eighty 
 pounds twelve shillings perannum." Page 440. 
 
 " It is a cold foil!!" Ibid. 
 
 " Trees or hedges thrive ill upon it, and it is 
 belt for agriculture !!" Ibid. 
 
 Now then, a common reader of a common writer 
 would fay, n well, it's clear that Blakejley eftate 
 ct was 60. a year. We'll give you no more 
 
 " trouble." " Oh, but / will have more 
 
 tr trouble, (fays the uncommon writer , F. A. S.) 
 " for you Jball be told, that in the account of 
 ,c the widow's thirds, Lady has been fpelt U La- 
 * f day," p. 441. That all the receipts upon 
 " Lady E. Dryden's account are in Mr. Shaw's 
 " name. Ibid. That Mr. Shaw was clerk of the 
 
 " Poultry,
 
 c- 7 
 
 " Poultry, which is an office in the King's Kitchen, 
 *' belonging to the Board of Green Cloth, Ibid. 
 iC You fhall he told, that Mr. Shaw married Sir 
 <f Erafmus Dryden's daughter. Ibid. That her 
 Cf name was Mary; ibid, and that Mrs. Dryden, 
 " (the poet's mother) left her a Jofephus by her 
 " will, page 447, a legacy, which perhaps did 
 " not much gratify the legatee. Ibid. Toujhall 
 " be told, that Shaw received Lady Eliz. Dry- 
 f< ^'s thirds, page 441, and paid them for her 
 " ufe to her attendant. You fhall be told, that 
 " Stoker was that attendant's name. Ibid. To 
 " refume the eftate," you fhall be told, that one 
 ,f Harriotts now is the tenant of it, and that he is 
 t lineally defcended from another Harriotts, who 
 " was the tenant in Dryden's age, page 471. You 
 " fhall know, that Mrs. Dryden died 14th June 
 " 1656, and that fhe left her Son the poet a (ilver 
 t( tankard, and her wedding ring, page 446 ; that 
 " in the fame will fhe gave her bed pewter dimes, 
 " one crooked fpoon, and a red curtain ; two ewes 
 t( and lambs, 44.7. I confefs that being of 
 the old fchool, when I faw the ewes and the 
 lambs, I exclaimed at firft, 
 
 cf Jam die, Pojlhume, de tribus Capellis ! 
 
 but fince I was initiated in the Maloniana, I am 
 a convert, and perhaps the more zealous for 
 having been of the oppofite faith. 
 
 Minutius Felix. 
 
 B 4 PART
 
 C 8 ] 
 
 PART the SECOND. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL CANONS, 
 
 By Edmond Malon;, Esq.. 
 
 CANON. I. 
 
 J\. Biographer fhould not only be correct in 
 trifles , and copious in their details , but he fhould 
 reform his own frequent inaccuracies back- 
 wards and forwards, till the reader is left as 
 much in the dark as ever. 
 
 Example I, 
 
 Dryden's Life, page 64. 
 
 " The other Jpeaker (in the ficlitious dialogue, 
 or eflay, on dramatic poefy) is much more difficult 
 to be afcertained, and for a long time eluded all 
 my conjectures ! there being no name, antient or 
 modern, that has the molt remote affinity to 
 
 tf LlSIDEIUS." 
 
 ' Nor does etymology, in this inftance, afford 
 us the flighted afliftance. 
 
 " At length, however, it occured to me, that 
 Sir Charles Sidley," was probably the perfon 
 here meant ; and fuch, on examination, will be 
 found to be the cafe -/or " Lisideius" is only 
 the anagram of " Sidleius." 
 
 A note
 
 C 9 ] 
 
 A note is annexed, which (according to the 
 Malonian canon of " apropos de bottes") give* 
 in three pages the Hiftory of Lisideius thus 
 proved (by the argument ex anagr animate) to be 
 Sidley, the Baronet. 
 
 But alas ! when the dialogue itfelf is brought 
 forward in vol. I. part II. page 34, note 1, poor 
 dear Sir Charles defcends from his anagram by 
 force; and (as the King ufed to fay when he 
 difmifled a fervant) *' his name is not found in 
 the lift." 
 
 ** Crites and Lisideius perhaps were meant 
 to reprefent the Earl of Rofcommon and Sheffield, 
 afterwards Duke of Buckingham." 
 
 Here then Sidley is at once tranfmuted into 
 Sheffield^ and the anagram is thrown upon it's 
 back ; though for Sheffield no reafon is given 
 by this adept in logic ; whereas the anagram, 
 (though abjured in filence by the anagram- 
 matijl himfelf) is a reafon for the Baronet, and 
 a very ingenious one. 
 
 When I fhewed thefe two paflages to an ad- 
 mirer, and perfonal friend of Mr. Edmond Malone, 
 he told me " the notes upon the life muft have 
 been written after the notes upon the dialogue ; 
 (which the game of crofs-purpofes in " Cri- 
 tes," another Colloqutft, proves; ) that fecond 
 thoughts are beft, and that Sidley keeps his 
 ground." 
 
 He was prophetically fagacious in this remark ; 
 for I have difcovered " Lisideius" again, and 
 Lisideius the Baronet where do you think I 
 found him ? cc Je vous le donne en douze." I 
 found him in page 142 of the " Additions and 
 
 Emendations,"
 
 [ 10 ] 
 
 Emendations?' (which are entremets of the feaft, ) 
 where taking notice of his note upon the 
 EJfay, &c. he fays, that Crites" was unques- 
 tionably Howard-, and Lisideius was the Baronet l , 
 Q^E. D. But ftill upon the evidence of the 
 anagram alone, (which is, by the following pro- 
 cefs (Life, &c. page 64 ) 
 
 Sidley, 
 " Sidley-ius, 
 " Lyjideius 
 <f Sidleius, 
 " Lisideius'*. 
 
 Example II. 
 
 Crites is another " Colloquift" (as Malone 
 elegantly terms him.) But " who is Crites?" 
 we naturally alk; and rather long to know 
 (efpecially as Dry den has told us, that although 
 his Dialogue is feigned) his four Speakers are not 
 the lefs real. Well ! here's the key-finder, 
 E. Malone : let us now afk him ! 
 
 He tells us, page 62 of the Life, that Crites 
 was indifputably Sir Robert Howard, He adds in 
 a note upon this paflage, " that he once thought 
 " Lord Roscommon muft have been f* Jhadowed" 
 " under that name, but that hefaw and acknow- 
 " ledged his error." He then refers to a note, 
 page 1 1 7 of the next volume. 
 
 Thus far in the Life. 
 
 But in one of his notes upon the Dialogue 
 itfelf, page 34, note 1, Crites appears to be Lord 
 Roscommon again. 
 
 In
 
 C ] 
 
 In page 35, note 2, " Crites ought to be the 
 cf Earl ofDorfet, except that Prior faid the Earl 
 of Dorset was Eugenius, another " Colloquift" 
 
 In page 41, note 4, " fupport is given to 
 the conjecture that Crites reprefents Lord Ros- 
 common. 
 
 But in page 177, (the very paflage to which 
 the note firft mentioned, page 63, of the Life, 
 refers) Sir Robert Howard, is preferred, not how- 
 ever (as in that note) " indifputably." It is a 
 mere belief, and founded in arguments which 
 leave the Earl of Rofcommon, though not upon 
 very folid ground, yet unfhaken by Sir Robert. 
 
 Example III. 
 
 Vol. I, part II, page 342, note *. 
 
 He corrects an error of his own in the date 
 of the firft edition of the Mock-ajlrology, which 
 he fays was 1668, not 1671, as hz had thought 
 (pages 183 and 384). 
 
 But he afterwards corrects the correction 
 " (quis cujlodem cujlodiet ipfum ?") and leaves the 
 firft error to its fate. 
 
 " Additions, &c. page 144. (which, by the 
 way, ftand before the other note) " It was not pub- 
 lilhed in 1668 ; my informer was deceived." 
 
 It muft here be obferved with how much 
 local ingenuity, thefe crofs purpofes and games 
 at pufb-pin are affifted. 
 
 The Life comes firft, corrected often by its 
 own guide, the note. 
 
 Then
 
 C H ] 
 
 Then come the Letters , and their notes, which 
 look both ways, and correct what is to follow, 
 but with a little fly retrofpect now and then at 
 the firft volume. 
 
 Then come the Additions and Emendations 
 (which laft are many of them literal errata 
 (fuch as for cc Sapbo read Sappho). 1 * Thefe 
 occupy tzventy-Jix pages ; but as they are in the 
 way to the main work, they are not likely to be 
 read in that ftage, or perhaps at all, unlefs by 
 thofe who can lofe no drop of Malone t and can 
 tafte of no other cup, to which he does not give 
 precedency. A fhort receipt would have pre- 
 vented thefe embarraflments ; (but when I named 
 it amongft the Bookfellers who know the worlds 
 they fhook their heads.) It would have been 
 to have ftated either nothing upon the fubjecl, 
 (which is perfectly infignificant) or the final 
 folution which the editor approved. 
 
 Minutius Felix. 
 
 PART
 
 C '3 ] 
 
 PART the THIRD, 
 
 CANON II. 
 
 JL H E life of A mould be the lives of 
 B, C, D, &c. to the end of the alphabet ; for 
 which the reader is to pay in the additional fize 
 of the volume. 
 
 Example I. 
 
 " The Reverend Henry Pickering was 
 maternal grandfather of John Dry den. 
 
 [page 3 of the Life.~| 
 
 Was he indeed ! (a common reader would have 
 faid) well and good there let us leave this 
 '* Henry Pickering!" It's full enough. 
 
 But the " Philo-Malonius" or the " Maloni- 
 maniacus" whifpers to his hero now " Edmond'* 
 fhew your acutenefs ! do, tell us a little about 
 thefe cc Pickerings !" 
 
 The whifper is heard. 
 And page 3 of the Life, n. 4. 
 
 We are firft comforted (fie nos fervdffet 
 Apollo) in being told, that no mention is made 
 of this <c Henry Pickering" in the Vifitations of 
 Northampton/hire , and that his father is not af- 
 certained in the account of the Pickerings which 
 Collins and Bridges give. 
 
 But
 
 C H ] 
 
 But it is added, cc that he was a younger fon 
 " of Sir Gilbert, and confequently younger brother 
 " of Sir John Pickering;" who married Sufamiah, 
 daughter of Sir Erqfmus Dryden. 
 
 Then we have more details of this Henry 
 Pickering, but fhort, and meagre enough. 
 
 Atonement is, however, made with a venge- 
 ance (page 28), which commences a life of Sir 
 Gilbert, including elaborate notes ; which life, 
 &c. occupies five pages; and attracts to it 
 (pleafantly enough) the firft inftitution of baro- 
 nets, with all it's detail, familiar as one's garter, 
 and as generally known (to coachmakers, heralds, 
 &c.) as that baronets bear a hand fpread and gules 
 upon their coat of arms. 
 
 Example II. 
 
 Page 64 of Drydetfs Life, we have Sidley's 
 Memoirs, i. e. all the anecdotes of that eccentric 
 baronet, which are, and were perfectly known 
 to us. An epifode produced by the unquejlion- 
 able refult of a fuppofed anagram in the term 
 Li/ideius ! 
 
 Example III. 
 
 [Page 141 of the Life, &c] 
 
 A (hort account is given of Tate; but it is 
 
 not the Editor's fault ; and it is an excellent 
 
 fpecimen of tranfitions from one life to another. 
 
 " Tate, who was likely to be well informed, 
 
 relates, &c. 
 
 Note.
 
 C '5 3 
 
 Note. 
 " Of the early hiftory of this voluminous ver- 
 Hfier, who wore the laurel four-and-twenty years, 
 little is known." 
 
 The Editor then tells at leaft all he can find ; 
 and if it had filled 30 pages, he would not 
 have fpared us (reminding us of his friend 
 the watchman) " were I as tedious as a King, I 
 ft could find it in my heart to bellow it all 
 ** upon your worlhips !" 
 
 But the whole of the palTage gives a character- 
 ise portrait of this great biographer. 
 
 Tate, was "likely to be well informed, &c. 
 and he relates, &c. but he alfo wore the laurel. 
 Thefe are two connections with Dryden ! 
 
 It's true, that he was a dull, and very obfeure 
 man. " Why (then) tell us any thing about 
 him? (a peevifh man would fay) or why tell us 
 " nothing is to be told?" 
 
 But read this nothing ! and fee what a biographer 
 
 (who is an adept at his tools) can make of it! 
 
 It has been faid " Ex nihilo nihil jit-,* not 
 
 fuch is the Malonian edifice upon that interefting 
 
 fubjlratum. 
 
 Read ! and admire ! 
 <f fate was born in Dublin. 
 
 " He was born in 1652 
 " He was bred in Trinity College. 
 Then comes the Latin entry of his admiflion 
 The whole entry not a word omitted 
 It informs us, 
 
 " That he was educated 
 " under Mr. Savage, 
 " in Belfajl, 
 
 " That
 
 [ >6 ] 
 
 " That his tutor was Mr. George Walker, 
 " That he was 16 years of age." 
 
 which is written Sex-decim. 
 (that no part of the entry may be loft.) 
 But we find alfo, that his name was " Teat. 1 ' 
 Then comes this profound and fagacious re- 
 mark worth half the book for it's ingenuity 
 for it's weight, and for it's pertinent applica- 
 tion to John Dry den I 
 
 " Being called by the lefs polifhed of his country- 
 men Tate according to the ordinary Irijb pro- 
 nunciation he probably, when he came to Eng- 
 land, adopted the new fpelling of his name II" 
 
 Example IV. 
 
 Southerne was patronized by the famous Dryden. 
 
 The firft remark of E. Malone upon the 
 former is, " that ^o^miftakes his birth-place 
 that he was born in the county of Dublin, 
 1659." 
 
 Then comes a Latin regifter (as in the cafe 
 of Tate) at length proving, that he was admit- 
 ted ftudent there in his 17th year. 
 
 But who mall fay, that a point of fuch con- 
 fequence (as the birth-place of Southerne) can 
 be too much, or too well proved ? Ant: Wood's 
 falfe account is annexed after it had been ref.ited 
 And a letter of Southerne himfelf upon the L.^ic 
 of this very miftake to Dr. Rawlinfon. It 
 contains 27 lines, and the date of the letter, 
 with everv local circumftance of it, in detail ! 
 " from Mr. White's, Oilman, in Tothill Street, 
 * againft Dartmouth Street, &c. &c." 
 
 Example
 
 C i.7 3 
 
 Example V. 
 
 This, perhaps, is the moft extraordinary and 
 beautiful trait of an epifode-life-hunter that 
 <f apropos de bottes" ever exemplified. 
 
 * Pluturch's lives" are tranflated, it feems, 
 hyfome of Dryden's friends. 
 
 Dryden wrote the advertifement prefatory and 
 " Plutarch's life: 1 
 
 But leaft we mould not recollect who this 
 Plutarch was, the Laputian flapper adds, <f that 
 ,f amiable hiftorian, to whom we are more in- 
 <f debted for the characters of the moft celebrated 
 fr perfons of Greece and Rome, and a thoufand 
 " interefting circumftances relative to them, 
 ff than to all the ancients befides !!" 
 
 We are then told (with exquifite propriety; 
 that Plutarch's lives, thus tranflated by fome of 
 Dryden's friends, were entered in the Stationer's 
 books , by Jacob Tonfon, April 25, 1683 ! ! 
 
 But thefe Lives (who would have thought it!) 
 in 1758, came into the hands of Sa?nuel Dyer. 
 
 He wrote a work under a Roman fignature, 
 (Junius). 
 
 That work (Junius) after a veil of near thirty- 
 one years has been removed, will place him in a 
 high rank amongft Englilh writers, and will 
 tranfmit his name with diftinguifhed luftre to 
 pofterity ! 
 
 He revifed this tranjlation of Plutarch's Lives. 
 
 He compared it with it's Greek original, and, 
 correcled it ! 
 
 C Then
 
 C >8 3 
 
 Then follows a very elaborate vindication of 
 
 this Gentleman's moral character, in a note of 
 
 near five pages, with a newfpaper account of 
 his death ! 
 
 Example VI. 
 
 Congreve's Life is the next, in five or fix 
 pages ; and if Edmond had only told us of 
 important circumftances relating to that in- 
 genious author, (who was Dryden's friend) we 
 fhould have faid, vetus credidi, and thanked him 
 for this "flapper" to our memories. 
 
 But he has done more, and better. 
 
 He has enriched hiftory with two fails, which 
 are both of them " detections" into the bargain. 
 I need not fay, that " Ex pede Herculem" is here 
 (as upon every other occafion) his motto. The 
 lawyers (I wifli they had kept their word) have 
 told us, that law dc minimis non curat. The 
 biographer (of the Malon-ian fchool) for 
 minimis reads maximis. 
 
 i ft. Congreve had left it in doubt, whether he 
 was more than twenty-one when he firft brought 
 out the Old Bachelor. It is proved by Sir Ifaac 
 Malone, that he was twenty-one when he wrote 
 it ; but that when it was firfl performed he was 
 twenty-three: that when he produced his fourth 
 play, he was in his ** twenty-eighth" year not in 
 his " twenty -fifth." 
 
 2. It has been a vexata qu<e.Jlio whether he was 
 born in England, or in Ireland. It is proved by 
 Sir Ifaac, that he was born in IViltfhirc. We 
 
 have
 
 C '9 ] 
 
 have then of courfe the regifler (in hasc verba) 
 and the defcription of the village, of the houfe, 
 and of its two fuccejfive owners, (who, it feems, 
 were both of them Congreve's relations.) 
 
 1 have heard it whifpered, that in the feventh 
 or eighth edition (at the lateft) of Dry den* s 
 Life, a wooden cut is to give us the exact 
 appearance of this houfe in its prefent form. 
 
 There is often a folemn felicitation of the 
 reader upon difcoveries like thefe ; but uniting 
 the modefty of a man fo well bred as Edmond Ma- 
 lone, Efquire, to a kind of honefl egotifm and 
 pride, which his merits have acquired, Thus 
 he tells us, after what he confeiTes to be a " long 
 note" that he hopes " it will not be thought 
 either tedious or uninterejling, when it has pro- 
 duced thefe two difcoveries !" The doubt as to 
 the birth, " may now, (he tells us) be for ever at 
 rejl," and fo he thinks but I, who know his 
 fertility in the reform of his own corrections, 
 whifper, Cf Who knows but that hereafter both of 
 thefe difcoveries may be called flight inaccura^ 
 cies, and Congreve born in the ultima Thule of 
 the Orkneys, or in one of the Hebrides ? 
 
 Example VII. 
 
 But the ne plus ultra of epifode in profe is 
 now to come; and as we are flipping into 
 Mufic, I muft call it a " variation" though it is 
 a former image, for as Mr. M alone is prone to 
 repetition, I truft he will be generous enough 
 to forgive it in others. 
 
 2 C 2 St. O-
 
 C 20 3. 
 
 St. Cecilia* s Life takes up more than fifty 
 pages !! It includes the lives of Clarke, and of 
 other eminent mufical performers, not except- 
 ing Shore, the King's Trumpeter, Bills of Mufical 
 Fare, Accounts of Mufical Inftruments, &c. 
 
 If any perfon dropt upon thefe pafTages of the 
 work, he would fancy himfelf in Burney's de- 
 lightful Hi/lory ofMufic, efpecially as moft part of 
 it is copied from him. 
 
 I was told by a bookfeller, that it was in con- 
 templation to make the following words a part 
 of the title page, but that Mr. Malone rejected 
 them as puffs below his character. 
 
 " Including the lives of Shore, the King's 
 " Trumpeter, Matteis, Clayton, and others, in 
 " fifty pages." 
 
 M N.B. This part may be had feparately by 
 " the Subfcribers to the Ancient Concert." 
 
 Example VIII. 
 
 I faid the ne plus ultra but I am Edmond's 
 countryman ; fo that I hope he will forgive me, 
 if I fay that his ne plus ultras are for ever 
 proceeding to more. 
 
 Mrs. Thomas was a celebrated lyar; we have 
 all her lies in detail ; they are confuted in detail : 
 and the whole of this enquiry, (including, of 
 courfe, her life,) employs near^/y pages. They 
 point at the funeral of Dryden, and his pallion 
 for aftrology, which laft is admitted, but 
 foftened). The account of his funeral, though 
 falfe, and perfectly notorious, he gives at length. 
 
 Example
 
 C ] 
 
 Example IX. 
 
 Or neplus ultra the I aft but one. [Hibcrnice.] 
 
 Lockyer, Dean of Peterborough, tells an anec- 
 dote of Dryden. 
 
 Lockyer was himfelf a retailer and writer of 
 anecdotes. 
 
 This anecdote, however, pafTes from him 
 through Spence, another luminary of the fame 
 caft, who has alfo quoted Lockyer for other 
 purpofes, vide page 97-100-104. 
 
 Newton, the late BiJIoop, was a third: and his 
 friend, Pearce, (another Bifhop,) was perfonally 
 acquainted with Lockyer. 
 
 Here we have three great men affembled in 
 the fame bright path of glory; Lockyer, Spence, 
 and Bijhop Newton, 
 
 Malone himfelf is a fourth ; and as he mult 
 be fuperior to jealoufy, (where he is above com- 
 petition) it muft be a zeal for truth alone, which 
 compels him to accufe the anecdote-Bifhop at 
 once, of abfolute falsehood, for it cannot be a 
 miftake ; or, if it is, woe be to all anecdote cre- 
 dibility in future ! 
 
 The Bijhop tells us, that another Bifhop, Dr. 
 Pearce was intimate with Lockyer ; that at his 
 death, Lockyer left] him his library that it 
 was a good one that Lockyer was a good ftory 
 teller that he wrote in a large quarto book every 
 good ftory he ever heard that it lay in his 
 parlour, and amufed his vifitors (facetum fcabe- 
 
 C 3 mm
 
 C *2 ] 
 
 mus confulem!" his Chapter would have faid) 
 that fome one Hole it, cc that it never came 
 to Dr. Pearce's hands, and that he often re- 
 gretted THE LOSS OF IT. 
 
 Tremble ye names of Newton the Bijhop ! 
 It is now proved that Bijhop Pearce never did, 
 becaufe he never could, " lament the lofs'* to 
 which the other Bifliop alludes; one of their 
 Lordfhips muft therefore have lyed through an 
 inch board. 
 
 Pearce himfelf is adjured by the will of Lock- 
 yer to deftroy all the manufcripts as foon as 
 pqffible !! 
 
 Example X. 
 
 (Or ne plus ultra, the lajl) 
 
 Page 303 of Dryden's Life, 
 
 Ton/on' s Life is annexed, 
 
 Sixteen pages. 
 
 It includes the Hiftory of the Kit Kat, known 
 perfectly to half the readers : but it is added, 
 " that he was a left-legged man ; which perfonal 
 incident is traced by Mahne to his " corns 1 ' 
 and thefe " corns" (we are told) are what 
 he called by the name of " bunnians /' in which 
 name Rowe alludes to them in a poetical dialogue 
 printed at length ! 
 
 I fuppofe it's meant that he had corns upon 
 the right feet, elfe (as Paddy Malone's brethren 
 would fay) " he would have been left-legged in 
 " bath legs alike!" 
 
 I remember
 
 C y ] 
 
 I remember when Zoffiani's picture of the por- 
 ter, the hare, and the two fchool boys, was 
 exhibited, I afked that celebrated painted his 
 terms for the fale of it he anfwered with a fum 
 at an immeafurable diftance from that which I 
 had calculated ; I told him " it was too much 
 t( for me though not for him that I had brought 
 " with me ten pounds, which I had fuppofed 
 r< would have been his price, or near it" he 
 replied, " it's juft the fum that I charge for the 
 " dufl upon the Jboes of the porter,'* 
 
 If I were Chrijlie> and had the fale of Dry den's 
 Life by Edmond Malone to recommend, I mould 
 fay, Cf why, Gentlemen, the bookfeller's/^/ are 
 " worth half the money remember the corns I 
 " and the left-legged bookfeller ! a guinea more 
 " is bid ; in feveral places !" 
 
 Minutius Felix. 
 
 PART
 
 C 24 3 
 
 PART the FOURTH. 
 
 CANON III. 
 
 Biographer cannot be too minute in what 
 relates to his Hero. 
 
 Example I. 
 
 Dryden's name appears to have been Jpelt four 
 different ways 
 
 Driden, 
 Dryden, 
 Dreyden, 
 Dreydon. 
 See p. 3, 40, 322. 
 By the way, this hetero-graphy of cf Drey den" 
 with its Malon-ian key, is a moll beautiful ex- 
 ample of Canon the firft ; which is, in other 
 words, the art of differing with him/elf: polTcfled, 
 by the ingenious perfonage before us, to a degree 
 almoft unexampled in the annals of truth, we 
 mall therefore take that firft Canon in tow, with- 
 out prejudice to the rights of Canon the third , 
 which is more immediately our prefent object. 
 
 Page 3 of the Life, note 3, we are told, ft that 
 " y had been fubftituted by the poet in place of 
 * i, which belonged originally to his name. 
 
 " But
 
 [ *S ] 
 
 " But that in books of the laft age % it was inac- 
 " curat ely written Dreyden." 
 
 Yet, au coup de bague t the inaccuracy is changed, 
 (by the amiable caprice of this fanciful Proteus,) 
 into the poet's own manner of fpelling the name 
 in cold blood j as he infers > by a mode of de- 
 duction, very characteriftic of his acutenefs. 
 For he difcovers firft i that in the advertifement, 
 A. D. 1679, which offers a reward for the de- 
 tection of thofe who aflaulted him, the name 
 is written <c Dreyden." 
 
 " Ergo the poet then fpelt his name by choice 
 in that manner." 
 
 But why this alfo may not have been one of 
 thofe ct inaccuracies ," to which he had before 
 alluded (for a news-paper advertifement of the 
 laft age, one ihould think, might be as inaccurate 
 as a hook) is not explained. I fuppofe he was 
 above explaining it, as he was above noticing a 
 fact, which proves that others, and in- the newf- 
 paper too, rejected this novelty at the fame 
 period, though it is a fact, copied by himfelf 
 in the very next page for a different purpofe, 
 viz. the news-paper account of the aflault pub- 
 limed only ten days before the advertized offer 
 of the reward, and in which account the name is 
 written with no fuperfluous e t and fpelt as it is 
 now. 
 
 The fecond of his premifes, and which (ac- 
 cording to his Euclid) has demonjlrated the 
 wilful adoption of this e by the poet himfelf, is 
 a title-page in 1684, to the fecond edition of 
 the EJfay on Dramatic Voefy % which (the Effay, 
 
 I fuppofe,
 
 I fuppofe, not the title page) he corre&ed with 
 great care. 
 
 Ergo in 1684, it was Dryden's mode of fpel- 
 ling the name. 
 
 Upon thefc inferences he engrafts a third, (for 
 his corollaries are very Pindaric,) viz. that he 
 continued, from 1679, the date of the advertife- 
 ment up to 1684, this (ridiculous) mode of 
 fpelling his name. 
 
 Yet of the fact, which is pretty material, that 
 he ever fpelt the name m this manner at all, 
 between thofe periods, no proof is adduced. 
 
 But who would believe (that was not familiar 
 to the ample ftrides of this giant in logic), a 
 direct affertion, built upon the fuppofed adop- 
 tion of the new letter by choice, in 1679, tnat 
 an offence was then given by the poet upon 
 account of that very change to Sir Robert Driden^ 
 his firft coufjn? 
 
 Let us, however, fuppofe that all this rea- 
 foning is correct what becomes of the note, 
 flaring cc Drcydcn" as the inaccuracy of others, in 
 which the poet himfelf had no fhare ? 
 
 " Oh ! but (fays my old friend the book- 
 feller) cr this note, page 322, is a younger bro- 
 ther of the firft, and comes to the eftate upon the 
 death of the eldeft : In other words, it was inferted 
 when the other and prior iheet had been worked 
 off. Indeed this in part appears by the note 
 ltfelf, (and by logic almofl as good as the Ma- 
 tonian) for in the very note he fays, that he had 
 not feen the advertifement (before the Iheet had 
 been worked off,) in which the Rofe-Alley am- 
 
 bufcade
 
 C *7 ] 
 
 bufcade was mentioned. That meet is page 
 134; and if page 134 had been ftruck off, page 
 3 was probably in the fame condition, when this 
 wonder-working advertifement was difcovered. 
 But a new wonder is at hand, which baffles all the 
 miracles of page 322, and proves the inaccuracy 
 of Drey 'den , as imputed by note the firft. 
 
 His name written by the poet himfelf to his 
 own dedications, from 1679 t0 1684, (in this 
 very edition by the moft accurate of all editors) 
 appears to have been fpelt as it is now, Dryden. 
 See, for example, the fignature to the dedica- 
 tion, printed 1681, page 62, vol. 2. 
 
 What then would become of this biographer's 
 difcernment, according to vulgar notions of it, 
 when the title page of 1684, and the news-paper 
 advertifement of 1679, are adopted as proofs ', 
 that it was Dryden's choice to miflpell his 
 name, not only in thofe moments, but in the 
 whole of the interval between them, in oppo- 
 sition to his own previous remark, that it was 
 mere inaccuracy of the laft age, and in oppofi- 
 tion to the fignature by the poet himfelf, pro- 
 duced, during that interval, by the editor him- 
 felf, in the fecond volume of this work? 
 
 But Ma/one's difcernment is to abide no com- 
 mon rules or vulgar tribunals, 
 
 " Non hcec in fad era venit." 
 
 Example III. 
 
 <c The evidence that he (Dryden) was born 
 9 Aug. 1 63 1, is not fatisfadory." 
 
 4 " Pope
 
 [ rt ] 
 
 " Pope fays that he was born then, alluding 
 to his own infcription upon Dryden's tomb. 
 
 cc That very infcription confronts and refutes 
 him; (who will read a line of Pope after this?) 
 for it informs us, that he was born 1632." 
 
 From his preface to his " Fables," one mould 
 think he was born 1631. 
 
 From his Epilogue to the firft part of the Con- 
 queji of Granada, one mould think he was born 
 1632 or 1633. 
 
 If Congreve meant to be correct, when he faid 
 w near feventy," he was born 1630. 
 
 PP- 3> 4 5> and 6 - 
 N. B. I deprecate hoftility againft. a com- 
 petitor like Edmond, who is a giant in thefe 
 polemics, and would make no more of me than 
 a good-natured grenadier made of little >uarme, 
 who demanded fatisfadtion of him for prefling 
 againft him in a mob, which claim, the offender 
 anfwered by taking him up, then holding him, as 
 Rolla balances the child in Pizarro, carrying 
 him out of the mob, and placing him gently 
 upon the earth at the diftance of many hundred 
 yards from the fcene of action. 
 
 But I muft, though with trembling humility, 
 affure Sir Ifaac Ma/one and the world, (fynoni- 
 mous terms, " ilium, et Regem fuum") that I 
 believe Dry den was born 1 629, though at fo late 
 a period in that year, that it may almoft be 
 confidered as a birth in 1630, which is Congrcve's 
 report, if he meant to be correal ; and why he 
 fhould not have fo meant, I cannot imagine : 
 though if he had fpoke of his own birth, I fhould 
 
 have
 
 [ 2 9 ] 
 
 have doubted him, as, being a male beauty , he 
 might wiih to be thought younger than he was. 
 
 The hour of his birth is not afcertained with 
 punctual accuracy, but I know it was pajl eleven, 
 March 25, 1628-9 '> anc * tne doubt is, whether 
 he came into the world before or after the hour 
 of twelve. There I am a little puzzled, but in- 
 cline to fome few minutes before twelve. The 
 reader will fee more of this in a work by itfelf, 
 in which I can venture to allure him before 
 hand, that all the authorities, notes, reafonings, 
 errata included, will not occupy more than a 
 hundred and four pages. 
 
 Example IV. 
 
 Dryden was born at Aldwinkle, in the County 
 of Northampton. 
 
 Fuller, the hijlorian, was born at the fame 
 place. 
 
 Who would think Aldwinkle a generic name, 
 with branches and varieties that are full of intri- 
 cacy 1 Yet we mail find the 
 
 " Dignum vindice nodum" 
 before we are much older. 
 
 " Tradition fays, that he was born at the par- 
 fonage Houfe of -Aldwinkle- All-Saints. 
 
 '* He (Dryden himfelf) has told us, that he 
 was .born in a village belonging to the Earl of 
 Exeter. 
 
 '* That village mull have been Aldwinkle, St. 
 Peter's." 
 
 " But
 
 [ 30 ] 
 
 " But Dryden might not have known it !!!" 
 
 cc i. e. might have thought it was the eftate 
 of Lord Exeter, when it was not." 
 
 We attribute here, to a celebrated poet, the 
 moft poetical confulion of local names, and the 
 fublimeft ignorance of local facts, refpecting his 
 own place of nativity, that perhaps the Mufes 
 ever produced, as living marks of their indif- 
 ference to hiftorical truth, where even the poet 
 they love, condefcends to deal with it, and affefls 
 compliance with it. The editor of a poet im- 
 bibes a little of that cup, and every fuppolition 
 of fuch a mijlake, though in profe, is poetical ; 
 He is himfelf the Jublime, that he delineates, 
 which is the character given, if I recollect, of 
 his lineal anceftor, Longinus. 
 
 " Tet Aldwinkle- All-Saints, has tradition for 
 it (belides the author's aflertion, which if he 
 had not been a poet would have had its weight.)" 
 
 " This tradition, however, may have arifen from 
 the fact, that Pickering, his maternal grandfather, 
 was Rector of that parifh ; but he did not obtain 
 his preferment till 16 years after Dryden** death." 
 
 He might, however, have been curate of Ald- 
 winkle- All-Saints, and perhaps rented the parfo- 
 nage houfe of the Rector. 
 
 What luminous doubts are thefe ! and how 
 they jump over (licks backwards and forwards ! 
 No certainty can equal the effect of fuch per- 
 hapfes, ?nays, and mights. 
 
 But let us refume the village. 
 
 " It is a village if indeed it fliould not rather 
 be called villages upper and lower." 
 
 It
 
 [ 3' J 
 
 ct It is on tlfe wejiern bank of the Nen.'* 
 
 cc It has two hundred families !" 
 
 " It comprehends a part of the two villages 
 of Aldwinkle St. Peter's, andAldwinkle All-Saints" 
 
 Mark the delightful intricacy of thefe branches 
 from the generic tree ! 
 
 " Aldwinkle the genus." 
 
 l ft. Species upper and lower Aldwinkle. 
 
 2d . Aldwinkle All-Saints Aldwinkle St. Peters, 
 
 i ft. Subdivision of the firft and 2d. branch. 
 
 The parts of All-Saints and St. Peter's, lying 
 in upper and lower Aldwinkle, 
 
 Subdivision 2d. 
 
 Parts of A. All Saints, and A. St. Peter's, not 
 in upper nor in lower Aldwinkle. II 
 
 <( It is about a mile and a half diftant from 
 Tichmarjh." 
 
 f< But near five miles from Oundle. Who 
 would now conceive that Malone doubted of 
 Dryden'% birth in fome one of thefe Aldwinkles. 
 
 But all of a fudden, like Bays, to " elevate and 
 furprize," the editor archly whifpers, that if it 
 was not inconfiftent with Dryden's own account, 
 (which as Malone affirms does not apply to 
 the village he names) ,c I (quoth Edmond) fhould 
 fuppofe him born in Tichmarjh." Mark the rea- 
 fons, and mew me the man who would or could 
 refift them ! 
 
 1 ft. Gilbert Pickering, his maternal great grand- 
 father, had a feat there !! 
 
 2. Sir Erafmus Dry den, his paternal grand- 
 father, lived there, pp. 3, 4, and 5. 
 
 Probatum eft. 
 
 5 Example
 
 r 32 ] 
 
 Example III. 
 
 The Family of Dryden had migrated from 
 Cumberland but not from the County of Hun- 
 tingdon as Dr. John/on had fuppofed, in which 
 he was probably mifled by Dr. Birch > who had 
 been mifled by Lord Lanfdozvn, 
 
 Example IV. 
 
 " The poet's grandfather, Sir Erafmus, was 
 batchelor of Arts at Oxford, June 17, 1577, 
 p. 11. 
 
 " Anth. Wood * is ignorant of the College. 
 
 " It is extraordinary that he was not B. A. 
 till he was near twenty-four years of age 1" 
 
 The fagacious Malone then begins to fufpeft 
 (which indeed is the habit of thofe who are 
 acute) " that he was bred at Cambridge //" a 
 fufpicion, for which no reafon is directly af- 
 ferted, nor obliquely infinuated. There is dig- 
 nity in fufpicions like thefe ! 
 
 " Sir Erafmus probably derived the name from 
 c< his uncle Sir Erafmus Cope ! to whom the ce- 
 M lebrated Erafmus was godfather!" 
 
 If I were a candidate (which I am advifed by 
 fome partial friends to be) for F. A. S. and 
 could fend this chain of the Eraftni to the Earl 
 
 * Edmund Smith took the fame degree, at the fame age, and 
 it the fame Univerfity, as Minutiolus, my fourth fon, informs me. 
 
 See Jobn/bri 's Life of Smith. 
 Of
 
 C 33 3 
 
 of Leicejler t (as my own) ; that accomplished 
 Herald (as well as Prefident of rujly pipkins) 
 would leap over the etiquette* produce the 
 chain as an ample teftimonial, (though deftitute 
 of its formal maturity), and call for the ballot. 
 
 Example V. 
 
 One of Dry den's ten lifters married Shermar- 
 dine a bookfeller in Little Britain. 
 
 The hufband of another was Jofeph Sandwell, 
 a tobacconift of Newgate Street ! 
 
 $g- I beg leave (but with no vanity that is 
 unbecoming) to announce a difcovery known 
 perhaps to none but me (in this age,) viz. Mr. 
 Shermandine's other name !!: 
 
 $3- It will be inferted in the next edition 
 of thefe Maloniana, 
 
 Example VI. 
 
 " From whatever caufe it proceeded he was 
 not a Fellow of Trinity College. 
 
 tf His cousin Jonathan was." 
 
 This reminds, me of a tale, which has always 
 diverted me for it's Epifode vivacity, and is much 
 in the (beft) manner of Malone. 
 
 " A gentleman vifited his friend, who had 
 " a miftrefs, that bore the name of " Col." (If I 
 * was like Edmond, in lefs than fifty pages you 
 * mould be told why ihe bore that name and 
 " whether it was endearment -ridicule or ab- 
 
 D I* breviation)
 
 C 34 ] 
 
 " breviation) fhe had a fifter who went (for fome 
 ' rcafon or another, which has eluded all refearch) 
 by the name of" Tit" 
 
 " Both were prefent, and the vifitor faid in 
 tf a whifper ; upon my word ! that's a very fine 
 cc creature! and very engaging in her man- 
 " ners !" to which in a loud voice his friend 
 replied, ' why yes " Col'* is a good girl 
 " Her fifter " Tit" (who was behind him, and at 
 cc whom he pointed with his reflected thumb) is 
 " a B ." 
 
 Example VII. 
 
 (p. 1 8) Dryden was not one of the contributors 
 to the Oliva Paris, in 1634, verfes in honor 
 of the Ufurper. 
 
 By the May, this produces another Canon, 
 which a Malonian writer of lives cannot fail to 
 adopt. He muft relate the negative aclions of 
 his hero, his negative exi/lence, and his negative 
 exprejfwns. 
 
 I remember Doffor John/on, in his very amu- 
 ling Cf Tour of the Hebrides" obferves (and with 
 perfection of mock-heroic humour) that one of 
 the inns prefented him with a " negative catalogue 
 cc of proviftons, extremely copious" " no eggs 
 no butter no cheefe, &c." We have heard of 
 " negative quantities" and in martial achieve- 
 ments, we have been metaphyfico-politically told 
 of tr negative fucce/s. ' ' 
 
 But
 
 [ 35 ] 
 
 But thefe are trifles to the negative hijlory of a 
 man's life, i. e. what he did not, was not, and 
 faid not, propofitions more ufeful to the caufe of 
 truth and the ufe of the example, than politive 
 incidents. 
 
 To refume the negative contribution w he was 
 ' probablynot a contributor, becaufe his father 
 <f died and left him forty pounds per annum V* 
 This unexplained, appears rather inadequate, as 
 a reafon : but "perhaps, 1 ' as well as if, is an 
 excellentpeace-maker of difficulties. "Perhaps 1 " 
 " as the father died in June, he was ill in May, 
 fC which is the time that gownfmen, who were 
 " Dryden's cotemporaries, began to build the 
 ,f lofty rhime. By the illnefs (thus computed 
 * r in " May") the author was probably carried 
 '5 away from Cambridge, at this critical period. 
 <f May we not prefume the incenfe delivered in 
 " Augufi or September before Dryden's return 
 " to college? The fettlement of his father's 
 tr affairs, mujl have occupied him from June 
 " till after the long vacation began ; and then, 
 ft all who can, leave the univerfity. Ergo, his 
 'l refio!ence conjectured in Tichmarjh (at which 
 * c place his father died) was protracted pro- 
 " bably to the following OtJober, when his gra- 
 " tulations would have been too late." 
 
 Example VIII. 
 
 cc Dryden's father was a juftice of peace." 
 " It appears that he ligned an order in the 
 " veftry-books, appointing a parifh officer." 
 6 D 2 He
 
 C 36 ] 
 
 " He was perhaps a Committee man, probably 
 a Prefbyterian." 
 
 N. B. Perhaps here is like the magic of thofe 
 petty words in parchment, " be it more or lefs" 
 for it leaves yes or no> the faff, or the reverfe of 
 it, in perfect equilibrium, if " perhaps , he was 
 a committee man" perhaps he was not, fo that 
 a merchant in this venture, may fucceed, and 
 cannot fail. j 
 
 Example IX. 
 
 " Dryden's, contract was, to give three plays 
 in one year." 
 
 Not as Colley Cibber aflerts, two 
 
 Not as John/on aflerts, -four. 
 
 But, N. B. John/on is again let eafily down 
 " he was milled by the Key to the Rehearfal !'* 
 
 Example X. 
 
 The undertaker's bill for Dryden's funeral came 
 to forty-nine pounds and feventeen fhillvtgs ! 
 
 The bill is given at length, and with all the 
 particular modes of fpelling ; in that bill j for 
 example. 
 
 " %f carves for 8 muficioners t 2. os. od." 
 
 Example XI. 
 
 There is a payment of 268. 15J. annexed 
 by the poet himfclf, to one of his receipts, and 
 the payment is noted as follows : 
 
 w A bag
 
 C 37 ] 
 
 
 
 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 " A bag injilver 
 
 - 
 
 IOO 
 
 
 
 
 
 " Infiher, belides 
 
 - 
 
 021 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 u 66 Louis d'ores, at i 
 
 7 s. 6d. 
 
 O57 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 rc 83 guy nee s at 1. 
 
 is. 6d. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 268 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 * * 
 
 
 3 1 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 300 
 
 
 
 
 
 Example XII. 
 
 
 
 
 His patent as poet laureat, in hac verba, and 
 without one particularity, occupies with its 
 notes, to fill the time -/even pages. 
 
 Example XIII. 
 
 His difpenfation for the degree of A. M. has 
 been found, and the original obtained for his 
 friend, Malone, by no lefs a perfonage than 
 Sir William Scott, &c. &c. &c. ! Was ever this 
 great and good man fo ufefully occupied ! 
 
 The difpenfation refers to a letter of Charles 
 thefecondy which letter cannot be found, 
 " {uis taliafando, 
 <c Temper et a lachrymis ?'l 
 
 9 
 
 Example XIV. 
 
 * Dryden'sfirft bookfeller was Henry Herringman** 
 D 3 Abet
 
 [ 38 ] 
 
 Abel Swalle, another bookfeller, advanced the 
 money to Jacob Ton/on, which enabled him (Ton- 
 Jon) to buy the copy of the firji play Dryden ever 
 publifhed ! 
 
 This anecdote, {{authenticated would be inter-' 
 efting beyond expreflion! but the cup of hope 
 does not reach the lip. We are fuddenly told 
 by the Jurveyor and controller of his own*profound 
 refearches, cc that he knows not what credit is due 
 " to this anecdote /" 
 
 Example XV. 
 
 " Dr. Lamoite was told by a per/on of credit, 
 tf acquainted with Dryden, <f that he ufed to 
 " purge, when about to engage in a confiderable 
 " work. An account, which is confirmed by a 
 <f letter to Jacob Ton/on, in which, the poet 
 <f writes that he defires a large provifion of Da- 
 " mafcenesl" page 520. 
 
 " I hope," faid a lady, in Devonjbire, to whom 
 I read this paffage, (a little foftened) " that I 
 am not going either to engage in a confidera- 
 " ble work, or to make this preparation for it ; 
 c but as fure as you are there, I made the fame 
 " riqueft three days ago, in a letter to a female 
 " coufin of mine, in London." 
 
 Example XVI. 
 
 M Dryden was fond of fifliing." 
 " He vifited Mr. Jones of Ram/bury, in Wtlt- 
 u Jhire, who liked filhing too." 
 
 Durfey
 
 [ 39 3 
 
 " Durfey too was fond of it." 
 c < Dryden held him cheap as a fijherman" page 
 520. 
 
 Example XVII. 
 
 , He wrote in a room, on a ground floor, 
 * near the ftreet." 
 
 " He lived in Gerard Street." 
 
 It was the j// <fo0r o /<? /<?/? &</, coming 
 " from Little Newport Street." 
 
 '* It is now Number 43." page 493 !!! 
 
 This reminds me of two verfes that have been 
 quoted, for inftances of fublimity inverted, or 
 bathos (for fo it is rudely called by the unini- 
 tiated) upon a Barrifter. 
 
 " Perfuafion tips his tongue whene'er he talks ; 
 " And he has chambers in the King's Bench Walks" 
 
 Example XVIII. 
 
 " He eat, with Madam Reeve, tarts, at the 
 w Mulberry Garden." 
 
 ,c Madam Reeve, was /aid to have been Dry- 
 " den's miflrefs." 
 
 ** In the Rehearfd, fhe acted Amaryllis" 
 
 We have then a moft lively picture of the 
 Mulberry Garden. " The company (it feems) 
 " affembled there in the evening." 
 
 7 D 4 " They
 
 C 40 ] 
 
 Cf They had cheefecake, 
 " Jyllabubs, 
 
 " and wine fwee tened with 
 " fugar; page 466, &c." 
 
 To this example we may add another of the 
 fame clafs, though it applies with many other 
 fuch examples to feveral Canons at once. 
 
 Here is a Malonian procefs. 
 
 ,c Dryden was much at Will's Coffee Houfe, and 
 " a kind of dictator there. 
 
 <c For at Ieaft half a century, authors, critics, 
 " beaux, and politicians, frequented it. 
 
 " Will" was William Urwin. 
 
 " The houfe was upon the north fide of Ruffell 
 " Street> at the end of Bow Street. 
 
 " It is occupied by a perfumer. 
 
 " It is number 23. 
 
 * Urwin was probably a corruption from Irwin. ' * 
 
 We have then, by way of note, verfes to " Will" 
 and (by way of note upon a note) i. e. in a note 
 upon the verfes, after a double parenthefis, re- 
 flecting negus , (firft, as not being known in 
 thofe days; next, as having been invented by 
 u Colonel Negus") we have this " Will's nut- 
 meg" explained in fo curious a manner by our 
 dab at a key (with his old friend "probably" 
 at his (elbow) that I beg leave to give it in his 
 own words, " nee illi detrahere aufim t &c." 
 " Will's Nutmeg was probably employed in ad- 
 d\ng flavour to punch. 
 
 <c Punch appears to have originally come from 
 India. 
 
 " So
 
 [ 41 ] 
 
 " So in an old poem, entitled, the Character 
 u ofa Coffee Houfe, in quarto, (mark the accu- 
 " racy!) 1665, 
 w Spiced Punch in bowls, the Indians quaff.'* 
 
 page 482, &c. &c 
 
 I have only to fay, that I cannot receive this 
 key with implicit confent, (though I feldom with- 
 hold it from the Malonian bunch ;) for I never 
 did hear of an Engli/hman who drank punch with 
 nutmeg. If I knew that it was really " Will's 
 f nutmeg" I would never drink this beverage 
 unfpiced in future." 
 
 $3- Permit a little egotifm here ! If I have any 
 wit, I afcribe it mod gratefully to the habit of 
 taking two rhubarb pills immediately before 
 dinner, as recommended by the late Earl of 
 Chejlerfield) who was the wittieft of peers and 
 of men. 
 
 Example XIX. 
 
 "If Rome had not been (Oct. 1799) in the 
 " hands of robbers, &c. he (Malone) would 
 n have got from thence (yes, and would have 
 inferted the whole at length) " a pedigree of 
 " Dryden*s family ', written in Latin by himfelf 
 <c and at his requeft, placed in the Vatican IV* 
 
 Cruel Sans-culottes! 
 I forgive you the humiliating chains and cage 
 of the amiable Pontiff, whom you banifhed from 
 that city, and made a ihow to the rabble in other 
 countries. I forgive you the rape of ftatues and 
 pictures : but I do not forgive you the lofs of 
 
 " Dtyden's
 
 C 42 ] 
 
 *' Dryden* s pedigree in La/in/' which the terrors 
 of your guillotine alone difabled our pilgrim to 
 
 redeem !! 
 
 Example XX. 
 
 " He wrote the firft lines of his Virgil with a 
 " diamond on a window at Chejlerton Houfe, the 
 " refidence of his kinfman John Dryden." 
 
 " He wrote the jirjl Georgic, and part of the 
 " Jaft jEneidat Denham Court, in Buckinghamfhire. 
 
 " The feventh jtEneid was written at Burleigh. 
 
 " This will endear thofe places to the vota- 
 " ries of the Mufes, and give them a celebrity, 
 " which neither the beauties of nature nor of art 
 ' could have bejlowed /" page 233. 
 
 f3* It will pleafe Mr. Malone to be informed, 
 that upon his information I went in a chaife and 
 four to Burleigh, which I had never feen before, 
 difcovered the room in which Dryden wrote 
 fell down andworfhipped gave a feven-fhilling 
 piece to the houfe-keeper and returned. She 
 told me " I could fee curious pictures of Queen 
 .' Elizabeth's time, and reminded me who Bur- 
 " leigh was ; defired me to look at the archi- 
 " tedhire," (which it feems is of that age,) I 
 made a bow, repeated the words above quoted 
 refpecting the 7th JEneid, and came back to 
 my lodgings up two pair of flairs in town. 
 As to the window I am in treaty for it ; and Ma- 
 lone fhall have two of the lines in a feparate 
 compartment, which an eminent glazier encou- 
 rages me to hope that he can fkilfully divide. 
 
 Example
 
 [ 43 ] 
 
 Example XXI. 
 
 " Dryden's Ajlraa Redux was not entered at 
 ' Stationer's Hall 1 1" 
 
 Example XXII. 
 
 <f "Dryden's <f Mac Flecnoe" was reprinted by 
 him with flight alterations. 
 
 " To gratify curious readers , (i. e. curious after 
 flight alterations) they are (all) given below. 
 
 They occupy two pages, and are of the follow- 
 ing kind : 
 
 i edition -------- -paper, 
 
 i edition -------- papers. 
 
 i edition -------- to. 
 
 2 edition - - ----_-/. 
 
 i edition -------- poppey. 
 
 2 edition -------- poppey s. 
 
 To comprefs and epitomize the numerous 
 examples above ftated, of this interefting Canon, 
 is no eafy talk, yet I wifh to make the attempt. 
 
 - Dryden's name had been fpelt with an /. 
 
 - He was born at Aldw inkle, but it was not 
 the Aldwinkle, that he fuppofed. 
 
 His original flock was from Cumberland. 
 
 His great grandfather was perhaps called 
 *' Erafmus" from his maternal grandfather, 
 
 Erafmus
 
 C 44 ] 
 
 Erajmus Cope, who took the name from his 
 
 godfather, who was the celebrated Erajmus. 
 One of his ten fifters married a bookfeller ; 
 
 another a tobacconift. 
 > He was not a fellow of Trinity College / 
 
 His coufin Jonathan was. 
 
 " ' He was <?/ a contributor to verfes in Crom- 
 
 well's honor. 
 His father was a juftice of the peace ; 
 perhaps a committee-man ; 
 probably a prejbyterian. 
 
 His contract was to give three plays per 
 
 annum, not four, 
 nor two. 
 " " The bill for his funeral came to forty-four 
 pounds , and feventeen /hillings. 
 
 ' He gave Ton/on credit, on account, for a 
 
 payment of ^268. 15J. 
 " He had a patent as poet laureat. 
 
 " He had a difpenfation for the degree of 
 
 A. M. which (in the original) is obtained by 
 the favour of Sir William Scott, &c. &c. 
 &c. &c. 
 His firft bookfeller was Henry Herringman. 
 
 He purged before he undertook any confider- 
 able work. 
 
 He was fond of fi/hing. 
 
 He kept y"^' loo fe in his pocket. 
 
 He wrote in a room on a ground floor in 
 Gerard Street. 
 
 He eat at the Mulberry Garden tarts with 
 Madam Reeve. 
 
 He wrote the firft lines of his Virgil on a 
 window. 
 
 He did not enter astrjea Redux at Statio- 
 ners Hall, 
 
 And
 
 [ 45 ] 
 
 He reprihted Mac-Flecnoe with flight alter- 
 ations, which the curious reader would like to 
 
 fee!! 
 
 " Sic itur ad ajlra." 
 
 And fuch an hiftorian is a Ianthorn, hung at 
 the tail of the kite up they go together. 
 <c This it is" (in his own dignified language) 
 
 " TO DELINEATE THE MAN - tO Collect, from 
 
 ** fources hitherto unexplored, whatever con- 
 tributes to throw new lights upon his charac- 
 " ter, and illustrate the History of his 
 " Works!!! 
 
 Minutius Felix. 
 
 PART
 
 C 46 ] 
 PART the FIFTH. 
 
 CANON V. 
 
 Apropos de lottes ! 
 
 >EFORE I bring forward the examples of this 
 play-fully goflipping Canon, I would remind the 
 " curious reader" of a fimile, which I think 
 would be an excellent poetical motto for it. 
 
 As Elijah the prophet, by ravens was fed. 
 
 So, the wholefome clean air is my daily bread; 
 
 As Sampfon loji his flrength by cutting off his 
 
 hair, 
 So J recover mine, by going to Hampjlead, for the 
 
 benefit of the air. 
 
 The ritbm is irregular, but the turn of the 
 Jimile is uncommonly ingenious. 
 
 " Fluellin" had a little fmattering in this 
 figure of " By the way. 3 * <c There is a river at 
 " Macedon; there is another at Monmouth!" but 
 Aircajile in Footers comedy of the Cozeners, was 
 an adept in it, who leaves all competitors, except 
 our illuftrious biographer, leagues and leagues 
 behind him. He is very like him in fanciful 
 garrulities, except that he is grotefque, as well 
 
 as
 
 C 47 ] 
 
 as ridiculous; whereas Edmond feldom laughs 
 (tho* he excites mirth) except a little Jardonically 
 now and then, at the " idle Babbler" who wrote 
 the 1 Purfuits of Literature."* 
 
 Aircaftle. ** Did not I tell you what parfon 
 M Prunello faid? I remember Mrs. Lightfoot was 
 " by, Ihe had been brought to bed that day was 
 <f a month * of a very fine boy a bad birth ; 
 " for Doflor Seeton, who ferved his time with 
 cc Luke Lancet, of Guifes. There was a talk 
 c< about him and Nancy the daughter ; fhe after- 
 cf wards married Will. Whitlow, another ap- 
 M prentice, who had great expectations from an 
 (< old uncle, in the Grenades-, but he left all to a 
 " diftant relation, Kit Cable, a midfhipman 
 " aboard the Torbay ; fhe was loft coming home 
 *' in the channel; the captain was taken up by 
 " a coafter from Rye, loaded with cheefe." 
 
 Mrs. Aircaftle. " Mercy on me ! at what a 
 fC rate you run on! what has all this to do with 
 * c our coming to London !" 
 
 Example I. 
 
 ** Dryden was born at Aldwinkle. 
 i. By the way cf Fuller, thehijlorian, was born 
 at the fame village. 
 
 * I have been fortunate enough to pick up this play, with 
 ** Ed. Malone" upon the title page ; and what is more curious, 
 the following note, with his initials upon the word Month. 
 Qu. If a Lunar month, or 
 a Calendar one ? 
 
 E. M. 
 
 2. It
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 2. It was not the Aldwinkle, Dry den fuppofed 
 it was but another. 
 
 3. Spellman calls it " Oldwinkle." 
 
 This chain of jumping epifodes upon the 
 fubject of " Aldwinkle" (commencing at the in- 
 ftances I have quoted) pervades upwards of /even 
 pages, including many laboured notes ! 
 
 I could not help feeling afhamed of Dr. John- 
 fon's inferiority, when I read the Account of this 
 " Aldwinkle" in him. 
 
 cc John Dryden was born at Aldwinkle, near 
 * c Oundle, in the county of Northampton!'* 
 what a difference ! what a contraft ! 
 
 Example II. 
 
 " Dryden was educated at IVeJlminJier School, 
 page 12, that excellent feminary, of which Bujby 
 was the mailer. Bujby was elected 1638; he 
 was born 1607 ; fiudent ofChrift Church in Oxford, 
 1624; M. A. 1 63 1 ; and provifional mafter in 
 1638, in the room of Lambert Ojbolfton; he was 
 confirmed 1639 Ojboljion had been rejected by 
 Laud. Bujby died 1659, April the fixth, at the 
 age of eighty-eight (which is added, though we 
 might have been informed and proved it by the 
 date which he had given us). By the way, Locke 
 and South were Dryden' $ cotemporaries at Weft- 
 minfter School, page 13." 
 
 By the way too (mark how prolific this figure 
 is, or as Johnfon would have faid, how it pullu- 
 lates !) " Thofe two great men (Locke and South) 
 
 quarrelled
 
 t 49 ] 
 
 quarrelled with Bujby in 1659, and publifhed an 
 account of their differences with him. Ibid. 
 
 Example III. 
 
 He was educated May 11, 1659, in Trinity 
 College \ Cambridge t under the tuition of the Rev, 
 Mr. Templer. 
 
 N. B. Having been myfelf blefTed with no 
 Univerfity education, I took it for granted from 
 this paffage, that each youth had a feparate in- 
 ftruclor, which, of courfe, made the hiftory of 
 Templer interefting ; but a Cambridge man, 
 though of another college, told me that what is 
 called a tutor there, is like a vifking phyfician 
 at an hofpital, who (as Foote humours it) '* bleeds 
 " the north and purges the fouth-" that in other 
 words, he takes half the under graduates, or in 
 fome colleges, all of them, and enlightens 
 them by wholefale in public lectures, &c. He 
 gave me a technical phrafe for it, which does 
 not occur to me, but I will recover it before my 
 next edition ; which the bookfeller half injures to 
 me. 
 
 To refume the college tutor (non mijjura cutem, 
 &c.) <c Mr. Templer afterwards became a doc- 
 tor of divinity ! and publifhed a work (the 
 title at length) in oclavo the fize is material) 
 A. D. 1673; anot her 1684, in ottavo, and fer- 
 mons the date is not annexed. 
 
 But I have the date, and the Jize of the book. 
 The world fhall have them in my next edition, 
 for I will glean after fuch a reaper with pride. 
 
 8 E Example
 
 C 50 ] 
 
 Example IV. 
 
 " Dry den did not write in the Oliva Pads." 
 
 That was a collection of poems in honor of 
 the Ufurper. 
 
 i. By the way, (aerocajlriQ) c< Locke did write 
 in that collection." 
 
 Then after a hint of the political and religious 
 cholic which the difcovery had given to him, he 
 endangers the reader by the eight Latin verfes 
 of this moraliji unmajhed, adding (neatly as a coup 
 de grace ,) that he was near twenty-two years of 
 age when he wrote them ! It appears in the 
 verfes that he elevates Cromwell into a God, 
 and of courfe a pagan deity. Hence the alarm 
 to the believer! and the royalijl ! But as to the 
 " pain" with all deference, I rather doubt the 
 fact ; 
 
 i. Becaufe a writer of anecdotes (like a general 
 politician,) delights in whatever is new ; and I 
 give as little quarter to Malone's feelings upon this 
 topic, as I gave to thofe of Dalrymple, when he 
 defcribed the horror that he felt at the detection 
 (which lam ftill incredulous enough to refufe) 
 of Algernon Sydney, as the mercenary to Louis 
 theXWthll 
 
 2. Becaufe, if his "pain" had been fincere, his 
 philanthrophy would fave the reader from the 
 peril of fharing it. 
 
 " By the way, (fays Malone) though Dry den 
 did not contribute, others of his college did. 
 
 " Jojeph
 
 C si ] 
 
 cc Jf e ph Arrow/mi th t &c. &c. &c. four names 
 are given us ; one of the four (who would have 
 thought it !) was Ray the botanift, but " IVray" 
 as it was then fpelt, (which is very curious). 
 One fellow of the College gave only his two ini- 
 tials : here they are : I. V. " one under gradu- 
 u ate concealed himfelf under the fignature of 
 R. C." 
 
 ($3- But he has not concealed himfelf: Multa 
 renafcentur-y and in my office of gleaner to Malone, 
 I give notice, without parade, that I can fill up 
 thofe initials. The reader {hall be matter of 
 them in my third edition^ or perhaps in a little 
 work by itfelf. 
 
 Example V. 
 
 " Sir Gilbert Pickering was Dryden's maternal 
 great grandfather." 
 
 tr He was created a Scottijh baronet." 
 f{ By the way (this appears to me perfect 
 Aircajlle i and in his beft manner.) * This title 
 <c is frequently called (with fuperfluous precifion) 
 '* Baronet of Nova Scotia." The fact refpecling 
 the inftitution of baronets by James the Firjl, is 
 then told ; from which it appears that an Englifh 
 baronet may as well be called a baronet of Ulfler, 
 as the latter Scottijh baronet be called a baronet of 
 Nova Scotia :" and fo he may, and we knew it 
 before, but not fo well told. 
 
 " Hoc bene cum narras incipit efTe tuum." 
 
 E 2 Example
 
 Example VI. 
 
 Sir Gilbert Pickering fat in Cromwell's Houfe of 
 Lords. 
 
 By the way, " fhat houfe confifted offxty-two. 
 " But not more than forty -two of them fat !!" 
 
 Example VII. 
 
 " Dryden is faid to have been one of the Com- 
 mittees againft the Malignants. 
 
 (t By the way then we are told, very much in 
 detail, what thefe Committees are. 
 
 " Then, (after all) n that it is probable , his 
 "father, (not he,) was a. Committee man. 
 
 By the way, <( if he (the fon) was a Commit- 
 ct tee man, I am wilting to believe," fays 
 Edmondy (with a generous credulity) " that he 
 cc retrained and qualified the excefs of others 
 <c for he had much good nature and philan- 
 <r throphy." 
 
 Example VIII. 
 
 " He, probably, for fome time, lodged at the 
 houfe of Herringman the bookfeller. 
 
 By the way, this Herringman lived in, what 
 theH was called, the New Exchange ! 
 
 Example
 
 [ S3 1 
 
 ExAMPXE IX. 
 
 " At Charlton in Wiltjhire, he wrote his Effdy on 
 Dramatic Poejy." 
 
 By the way then we have all the Englijh 
 writers upon the Art of Criticifm before Dry- 
 den, with a fubdivided apropos, which is not 
 a little curious <f Bolton's Hypercritica (one of 
 thefe prior works) " could give no inftruc- 
 " tion to the poetical ftudent before Dryden's 
 <c work appeared" f' why not" " becaufe 
 ' though written in 1616, it was not published 
 before 1722 !! 
 
 If there ever exifted a home thruft in a logical 
 confequence, it is here. 
 
 Example X. 
 
 *' Dryden was Poet->Laureat :" agreed. 
 
 " By the way the name of Laureat" (" pho ! 
 f< what fignifies the name!'* fays my ill-natured 
 and fnarling friend) " the name I fay of 
 W Laureat (Malone proceeds, and the Cynic leaves 
 the room) i( fprung from degrees in the C7;- 
 '* verfities, where the laurel-wreath being pre- 
 W fented in ceremony to the new graduate in 
 " grammar, which included poetry, he was af- 
 f terwards called poet -laureat." 
 
 " By the way poets laureat in Strajburgh were 
 laureat ed as follows." 
 
 Then comes the form, word for word, 
 
 E 3 Then
 
 t 54 ) 
 
 Then we have the hiftory Cf of Henry de Avran- 
 ehes, the king's verfifier" 
 
 " This Henry had an annual ftipend of ten 
 pounds per annum, from Henry III." 
 
 " By the by, Chaucer " perhaps" was not 
 foet laureat.'* 
 
 Here we have an excellent key to the word 
 (t perhaps " a word, in general, too familiar to 
 the modeft humility of this profound and faga- 
 cious writer. 
 
 u It is acknowledged (he fays) that none of 
 the publilhed grants to Chaucer were made upon 
 account of his poetical talents and that Skel- 
 ton, defcribing him with great particularity, fays 
 " he wanted nothing but the laurel." ,( There- 
 
 fore (fays Edmond) I have laid "perhaps"- 
 
 which he gives in Italics." 
 
 Yet he adds, in a fubfequent page, that in 
 Dry den' & patent, Chaucer is defcribed as one of 
 his predeeeflbrs, which (as the patent bore date, 
 A. D. 1670, and we are now in A. D. 1800) feems 
 a good authority that a patent of Chaucer's ap- 
 pointment could then have been found (or proved 
 in fome other way) though it may have been 
 loft or miflaid between that period and this. 
 
 Malone proceeds. 
 
 * Andrew Bernard was poet laureat in the reign 
 of Henry VII." 
 
 w By the way, he was blind, and he had a 
 falary of ten marks." 
 
 N. B. Says one of my fons a very arch little 
 critic-i n-embrio " By theway, Papa! how came 
 
 " it
 
 L 5S ] 
 
 ,r it that Bernard mould have only ten marks, 
 x< when Henry de Avranches, who lived as far 
 ,f back as the reign of Henry the 'Third, had a 
 " falary of ten -pounds /" 
 
 This cavil (though it was rather fmart) I in- 
 troduce (as Malone feldom introduces other cavil- 
 lers) " ut exiret" I rebuked the boy's flippancy, 
 and fent him out of the room. 
 
 Apropos (to refume the negative hi/lory of lau- 
 reats) c< Churchyard was not poet laureat Daniel 
 was not (though ^W fays he was) Drayton was 
 not." This may be called (in Jobnfon's phrafe, 
 above commended) a negative Catalogue of Lau- 
 reats which is very interefting. 
 
 Example XI. 
 
 What is now coming is the only inftance of true 
 and perfect wit, that I ever faw in Malone; for 
 though a writer in profaic fancy almoft poetical, 
 he is not zfayer of good things. 
 
 But you will fee how arch he could be if he 
 chofe it Of his wit it may be faid, tc non d'ieft fed 
 abejl." 
 
 By the way tr when Dry den was made poet 
 fC laureat, Edmund Earl of Manchejfer, was Lord 
 * f Chamberlain. And whether he paid as much 
 ft attention to the Muses as to sublunary ladies 
 " (for he married five wives) I have not 
 f* been able to ascertain." 
 
 A witty companion of mine (who hates a good 
 $hirtg, if it is not his own) looked yellow when 
 
 E 4 J read
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
 I read him this^///VaIlufion, was evidently piqued 
 and vented a little fpleen upon it, by afking me 
 " what analogy there was between the conjugal 
 " duties of fuch a marrying earl and a poet's 
 " attention to the Mufes unlefs in the number 
 " of the wives !" <f I would therefore," faid he, 
 (and like many of Shakfpere's modern editors) 
 alter the paflage a little to make the wit 
 intelligible and would infert meo periculo 
 (amongft the emendations in the fecond part 
 of the firft volume) this erratum. 
 
 " Five wives." 
 
 *' For five read nine !" 
 
 " the number of the Mufes !" 
 
 Example XII. 
 
 Or the chef d' ceuvre of the apropos. 
 
 " Dryden wrote the celebrated Ode upon Saint 
 Cecilia's Day." 
 
 Mark ! what a dazzling blaze of hiftorical 
 fcience this one fpark will produce, and fcience 
 perfectly unconnected with Dryden's merit ! 
 
 " By the way Saint Cecilia, &c. &c. then 
 we have the legend of that faint in detail. 
 
 We are told " that it was the Golden Legend of 
 Jacobus Januenjis." 
 
 Next, <c that it was the foundation of Chaucer's 
 Nonne's Tale which by the bye, (fays Malone) 
 though Chaucer inferts it amongft his Canterbury 
 Tales, was originally intended for a dijlincl work. 
 
 I. It
 
 C 57 ] 
 
 <f i. It is mentioned by Chaucer in his " Legend 
 of good women" as the f< life of Seint Cecile." 
 
 " 2. It's introduction is that of a writer not 
 fpeaker." 
 
 " 3. In all the manufcripts (except one of 
 middling authority) that writer is called the 
 unworthy Son of Eve. Therefore not the Nun. 
 
 Q^E. D. 
 
 To refume Cecilia " her claim to the invention 
 of the organ is queftionable. 
 
 ic Dryden thought it clear of doubt. 
 
 ** So did Chaucer. 
 
 ft So did Congreve. 
 
 <r "So did Brady t Bifhop and Talden. 
 
 " DoftorBurney> however, cannot find of the or- 
 gan a more ancient proof, than Julian the Apof. 
 tate's Greek Epigram.'* 
 
 A. D. 364. 
 
 <f But the water-organ was invented thirty 
 ft years before Chrift. 
 
 f f The original idea was Plato's, who invented 
 ff a water clock, which told the hours by the 
 ? f found of flutes, modulated by water!!'* 
 
 $f- Put a nymph into the water, and I know a 
 Duke who would be at the expence of it. 
 
 " Powell (Potior Powell) fays, that fome affirm 
 V King David the inventor!" 
 
 Then we have another legend, importing " that 
 Cecilia invited an angel by the charms of her 
 rnulic.' ? 
 
 " That Hughes alludes to it, in eight verfes 
 P t (copied by Malone). 
 
 That
 
 [ 5* ] 
 
 c< That Addifon altered the hiftory into that of a 
 lover, changed by Cecilia to a faint, in Jixteen 
 verfes, printed at length. 
 
 c< It is true that Raphael painted her, at Bologna,, 
 as playing on a regal or portable organ.'* 
 
 But now for a more ftriking proof, though, 
 " under ground !" 
 
 " Mifs Wren, daughter of Sir Chrijlopher, is 
 " reprefented upon her tomb, in a vault under 
 " St. Paul's, in the character of St. Cecilia : fhe 
 " is playing on an organ, with an angel holding 
 " (or as it is more elegantly exprerTed by M alone t 
 " Jufiaining) her book ! !" 
 
 By the way, Bede fays * that in the dedicated 
 ' church to her, at Rome, Velbrond, an Eng- 
 
 " LISHMAN, WAS ORDAINED BlSHOP OF FrIESLAND, 
 
 f* by Sergius the Pope, A.D. 696!!!!" 
 
 Example XIII. 
 
 ** Dry den was defired in Auguft, 1697, by the 
 Stewards of the Anniversary Mujicai Fejlival> 
 to write a fecond Ode, to be fung at the celebra- 
 tion of St. Cecilia's day." 
 
 <c By the bye,'' Mufic was in a \cry low flate, 
 fee." Then we have the general ftatc of mujic y 
 in England, in the middle of the reign of Charles 
 the lid. 
 
 In particular we have John Banister's humble 
 efforts, who was leader of the King's band, and 
 the firft Englishman who was famous upon the 
 
 violin!! 
 
 The
 
 [ 59 3 
 
 " The salary of John Banister was twenty 
 " pence a day! and he had fifteen pounds two 
 tf JJoillings andfixpence for his livery /" 
 
 *< Matthew Locke had the fame.'* 
 
 Cf John Banister had a concert." 
 
 " An account of it is annexed," 
 
 " A milling was the admiflion-payment." 
 
 ,c The audience called for what they pleas- 
 ed!!" 
 
 [Whether intellectual or animal food, is not 
 explained. J 
 
 In a note* we have " John Banister's adver* 
 tifements." 
 
 Then we have the account of Brutton's con- 
 certs! in fhort, the mufical hiftory of that pe- 
 riod ! " And why !" becaufe Dry den's Ode was 
 to be sung at the Anniverfary of St. Cecilia's 
 day!!!!! 
 
 The next branch of the fubdivifion is the Annt* 
 verfary day. 
 
 We are told of Cecilia's mufical champions, 
 who formed a fociety of gentlemen* 
 
 We have the hiftory of all her feftivals, includ- 
 ing that of taverns and public halls, and their 
 anniverfary dinners, perfectly unconnected with 
 mufic ! 
 
 We have the ufe of them, for lotieries t for 
 dancing , and funerals! 
 
 We have the mode of conducting fuch funerals, 
 accurately defcribed ! 
 
 Then we have St* Cecilia again, not only at 
 Stationers* Hall (which alone gave rife to the 
 digreflion) but elfewhere* 
 
 9 We
 
 C 60 ] 
 
 We have next the firft Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, 
 by another poet, and fet by Purcell. 
 
 We have the words at length, which are exe- 
 crable ; an account follows, of other poets, and 
 an ode by Tate, is copied only to be ridiculed. 
 
 We have a Lift of all the odes in fucceftion ; of 
 their authors and compofers ; not only before Dry- 
 den's age, but from thence to 1708, when Pope 
 wrote his Ode for the fame feftival. 
 
 Then we find that upon her day, other mufic 
 was performed. 
 
 We have a general epitome of all the Saint 
 Cecilia's Days, in Europe, given by Motteux, 
 Dry den's friend. 
 
 We are told in that epitome, " that whilft the 
 company were at the table, hautboys and trum- 
 pets played fucceffively. 
 
 Upon the hint of thefe trumpets we are intro- 
 duced (by the gentleman ufher of all great men) 
 to u Shore," with high compliments to him for 
 playing tunes that wereftat, with all the foftnefs 
 imaginable, upon that inftrument, though it 
 was defigned for ajharp key. 
 
 " Shore was Col ley Cider's father-in-law. His 
 <c daughter was inftxu&ed in mufic by Purcell. 
 She won Colley's heart by ringing and playing 
 " upon the harpfichord. 
 
 N. B. How very like Aircaftle's Epifode of 
 the intended marriage between Dr. Seeton and 
 Mifs Lancet ! 
 
 Refuming Saint Cecilia's day^ we have the 
 fermons and preachers in chronological procef- 
 fion. 
 
 We
 
 [ 6' 3 
 
 We have the names of the individual Stewards, 
 who officiated in regulating and conducting the 
 performance of Dryden's Ode. 
 
 We are told why Purcell did not refufe to 
 compofe the mufic, viz. because he was dead ! 
 
 It is then affirmed, in the text, that Purcell's 
 admired epitaph is Dryden's work. 
 
 But in the note we are afflicted by a remark, 
 " that Hawkins does not ground fatisfaclorily this 
 conjeclnre - y " which indeed, at length, and very 
 much at length, is refuted. 
 
 Another negative compofer of the Ode was 
 " Mattel's" and for the fame reafon that of 
 his death I 
 
 But it mull not be overlooked, that he com- 
 pofed the Ode of the former year, and was then 
 alive. This makes it neceffary to give a little 
 fketch of his life, and mufical eflimation. 
 
 Turner's life is added, becaufe he gave the 
 mufic to another Ode in 1685; therefore Malone 
 thought he might have compofed this Ode of 
 Dry den. 
 
 The Ode, in truth, was compofed by the 
 celebrated Clarke, whofe life and advertifements 
 of this very Ode are annexed, with an accurate 
 account of his talents and misfortunes, extracted 
 from Dr. Barney's entertaining book. 
 
 So that we have Clarke's life, becaufe he com- 
 pofed this very ode The memoirs of Nicola Mat- 
 teis, becaufe he compofed the Ode that preceded 
 this And the hi (lory of Turner, becaufe, though 
 
 he
 
 [ 62 ] 
 
 he did not compofe Dryden's Ode., Malone thought 
 he might have compofed it ! 
 
 This reminds me of Lardella's funeral. On 
 the rumour of her deceafe, the dead march is 
 diverfiried occafionally by the hope that fhe is 
 alive, in a jig, or by the doubt between her death 
 and life ; which produces a kind of fceptie move- 
 ment but the funeral proceeds, and thefe are 
 only its varieties !! 
 
 To refume the Saint. She was again fet to mulic 
 in Dryden's words by Gay ton, whofe advertise- 
 ments and character, as a bad muncian, are 
 annexed. 
 
 Then we come to Handel 1735 !! 
 
 All this in Dryden's life!! 
 
 It is the admiflion ticket of a milling at John 
 Banijler's concert, which enabled the company 
 
 " TO CALL FOR WHAT THEY PLEASED." 
 
 Minutius Felix. 
 
 PART
 
 C 63 ] 
 
 PART the SIXTH. 
 
 CANON V. 
 
 J\ Biographer mould refute errors, and efpe- 
 cially if they arc trivial. 
 
 In Malone's advertifement, this laji (but not 
 the leaft) of Dryden's hiftorians, declares, with 
 all due folemnity, " that on reviewing the re- 
 ft ceivcd accounts of the Life and the Writings, 
 " he found fo much inaccuracy, that he refolved 
 " Joon to take nothing upon trujt,'' but confider the 
 fubjecl: as new. He tells us <c that he has cleared 
 cc away error and confujion." 
 
 Unfortunately, this anathema upon all before 
 him, in the fame career (like that of the 
 new hair-drefler, who laments, with generous 
 pity, the mifconducl: of your head before you 
 fent for him) attaches itfelf, in part, upon the 
 celebrated writer of the fame life, Dr. John/on, 
 deceafed. But that he is **. deceafed," can alone 
 account for it; for I doubt whether Malone, 
 doughty as he is, would have written thefe com- 
 ments (like a wafp's tail in the nofe of a giant) 
 upon fo irritable a fuperior in literature. 
 
 It is curious, however, to fee with how much 
 urbanity and addrefs the cenfure (which is a 
 
 death's
 
 t 64 ] 
 
 death's blow to his credit) is infinuated and 
 foftened. 
 
 He firfl copies Johnfon's character of Dryden 
 word for word, in ten pages and a half! alledging, 
 u that he does it as an act of juftice to his 
 " author." This in the advertifement. 
 
 Then opening his own work, by which all 
 clouds are to be difperfed ! 
 
 (" quod optanti Divum promittere nemo 
 " auderet. ) 
 
 he tells us, ff that John/on, at an early period, 
 gave up the purfuit in defpair." 
 
 Then he bellows a lavifti encomium on that 
 great man, accompanied by a remark, for which 
 John/on, if living, would not have thanked him, 
 viz. that " he made no preparation for the work 
 " that he was not in the habit of extracting from 
 " books, and committing thofe facts to paper, 
 " upon which the accuracy of all hijiories depends." 
 
 " That he was even lefs inclined to examine 
 regifters in Offices of Record, or in the public 
 repositories of manufcripts, which he calls (with 
 an ardens verbum, not likely to conciliate thofe 
 who do the honors of them) " Sepulchres of Lite- 
 rature!" 
 
 " That he cntrufted himfelf to his own me- 
 mory, engrafted upon the dates and incidents of 
 preceding biographers, whofe accounts of Dry- 
 den's Life and Works, in fact, were nothing but 
 a tifTue of inaccuracy, error, and falfehood." 
 
 Then
 
 C 65 3 
 
 Then comes the " tanto promt/for biatu; and 
 gives you a bird's-eye view of the new fcene 
 that is to be formed or enlightened by him. 
 
 You fhall read his own gallant promife ; and mall 
 then, with me, exemplify it's due performance. 
 
 " By the aid of original and authentic docu- 
 *' ments, to rectify misfTatements to illuftrate 
 " the hi/lory to difpel the mijl in which it has 
 <f been involved" 
 
 We (hall find that he is no " idle babbler" (as 
 he calls one of his pitiful adverfaries (page 3.) 
 but that he is a man of his word. 
 
 Example I. 
 
 ' The fuppofit ion that he was born the 9th of 
 Aug. 1631, is not made out upon fatisfaclory 
 evidence." 
 
 He then confutes every thing, and fettles nothing 
 diruit non <edificat but he ends in confoling us 
 with his oracle, which is, <( that after all the 
 time of the birth mull remain in obfcurity." 
 
 So that a general obfcurity is here fubftituted in 
 place of an erroneous hypothefis ; which is clear 
 gain to the caufe : for though it is fumus ex 
 fulgere, yet fmoak is better than a falfe light. 
 
 Example
 
 C 66 ] 
 
 Example II. 
 
 u Dry den was not himfelf aware (but his bio- 
 grapher is) that Lord Exeter had no eftate, (though 
 Dry den faid that he bad,) in the village that 
 gave him birth." 
 
 " 'Tradition affigns the honor of his birth to 
 Aldwinkle All-Saints, in which Lord Exeter had 
 no eftate. In the neighboring village of Ald- 
 winkle St. Peter's he had an eftate." 
 
 He then gives the fuppofed grounds of this 
 traditional opinion, which do not appear to 
 fatisfy him ; and are, in truth, flimfy enough : 
 but he adopts the conclufion. 
 
 In the next breath he fays, " that but for the 
 poet's reference, (which he has in a material 
 branch of it himfelf refuted) " he fhould think 
 him born at another place, Tichmar//j, becaufe 
 his father had refided, and his maternal grand- 
 father had a feat there." 
 
 It reminds me of the poor client in Terence 
 '* lncertior quamfui." 
 
 Example III. 
 
 " Dryden"s family had migrated from Cumber- 
 land, but not from the county of Huntingdon, 
 as Dr. Johnjon had fuppofed." 
 
 He accounts for it, with curtefy and polite- 
 nefs, to the afhes of this " tremendous Companion," 
 
 (as
 
 C 67 3 
 
 fas George Garrick well defcribed him). He pulls 
 off his hat ail the time as I remember to have 
 heard that Sir Charles Haxbury Williams did, 
 when he pafTed the houfe of Pope, adding fear 
 to refpecT, in this humorous quotation from Sir 
 John Fa/flqff, by the lide of Hot/pur " I am 
 " afraid of that Gunpowder-Percy, though he be 
 " dead." In Malone, who may be entitled 
 " fans peur" it is the generous habit of deference 
 to a very inferior critic, but his perfonal favorite. 
 
 He tells us, that " John/on was probably milled 
 by Dr. Birch." 
 
 N. B. After fome other very hard blows, and 
 which take away all credit from his work, (if con- 
 fidered as an authentic hiftory of the Life it pro- 
 feffes to delineate) he is in proportion more civil 
 to him than before, he calls them "flight inaccu- 
 racies," and fays that fuch " trivial errors" di- 
 minish nothing from the value of his lives, and 
 are " specks, &c." in which he may be right, 
 ft but" (fays my Cynic to me, who will for ever 
 intrude) " he cannot blow hot and cold." If 
 they are specks in c< John/on," if they are tri- 
 ,c vial errors," and "flight inaccuracies," what 
 " becomes of your favorite, this Malone, whofe 
 " detections are idle and fuperfluous, if the errors 
 <r detected and reformed are infignificant ?" 
 
 cc Not idle, even if fuperfluous" was my imme- 
 diate anfwer " for the labor ineptiarum is un- 
 remitted Thefe nuga are difficiles, and the operose 
 nihil agens, has not a vacant hour any more 
 than Mr. Pitt or my Lord Grenville. 
 
 10 F 2 But
 
 [ 68 ] 
 
 But can it be fuperfluous to make the u curious 
 u reader'* happy, whom it gratifies, according 
 to the report of his caterer, to acquaint him, 
 that, in the firji edition of Mac Flecnoe, the 
 fatyrift had written the word " papers/' and 
 corrected it himfelf into the word "paper" in 
 the fecondl 
 
 Example IV. 
 
 c< Sir Erafmus Dryden (of whom we have 
 heard fo much) died May the thirteenth, 
 not May the twenty-second as /aid on his 
 <c tomb-jlone (in Italics) Hijiory of Northamp- 
 " ton/hire." 
 
 " He was Batchelor of Arts when he was near 
 twenty -four, at Oxford." 
 
 But the alert and vigilant fufpicion of ingenuity 
 is alarmed. 
 
 <f I suspect (quoth Malone) he was bred origi- 
 nally at Cambridge :*' without one reafon affigned, 
 or even infinuated, except that he was made 
 Batchelor of Arts, at Oxford, when he was near 
 twenty four ! 
 
 Example V. 
 
 Dryden was not the writer of the Epigram at 
 Wejlminjler School, which, it has by fome been 
 afTerted, that he wrote 
 
 c * Lympha pudica, &c. y> 
 
 Why
 
 f 69 ] 
 
 Why not " becaufe, when this epigram was 
 *' ( firft publiihed, little Mafter Dryden was but 
 <( three years of age." But as that circumftance 
 was not proof enough, he adds " that in that 
 very publication Dryden is excluded, becaufe 
 CraJJjdw is there made the writer of this identical 
 epigram. 
 
 Example VI. 
 
 cc It has been /aid that he took no degree in the 
 Univeriity of Cambridge. 
 
 c< That is not an accurate Jiatement he took the 
 degree of Batchelor at the regular time ; and in 
 
 1657 WAS MADE MASTER OF ARTS." 
 
 In the note upon this dire ft and very oracular 
 afTertion, we are told, <f that he is called <c Mafter 
 of Arts'" in the patent which creates him Poet 
 Laureat y and which bears date 1678 a title, 
 which it is (by found, and legitimate reafoningj 
 inferred) that he could not have affumed if it 
 had not been due to him as he would then 
 have been at once and with eafe confuted. 
 
 " But ftill, why at Cambridge ? and why in 
 " 1657 ? You admit, (as he does,) in the fequel 
 " of the note, that he is not in the Univerfity 
 fC Regifter, nor in the Oxford Fafti yet he 
 " is left, and by you, in full poflTeflion of A. M" 
 " conferred upon him at Cambridge, and in 
 f 1657!!" Thefe are not my words, but thofe 
 of the Cynic. 
 
 They are here prophetic \ for ill-nature will 
 fometimes be fagacious. 
 
 F3 In
 
 [ ] 
 
 In the note, page 553, upon Dry den's Patent, 
 <c he fays, that aftf.r the sheets were printed 
 off, he went on with refearches, where he en- 
 tertained any doubt." rt But you had no doubt 
 
 as to the Univerfity and the date" (replies 
 
 the Cynic.) w Yes, I had (fays Malone) ; for I 
 only reasoned from the defcription of the Patent 
 - {f why fo ? for it proves " neither place, nor 
 time." It is enough, replies Malone , that I did 
 form that inference, 
 
 ** It is now done away ; and it comes out, 
 " that he was not a Matter of Arts, made at 
 t Cambridge, or Oxford, at all, and confequently 
 " not in 1657 j tnat ^ e was create d A. M. by 
 cc difpenfation from an Archbifhop in 1669 !!!" 
 
 So that what he calls inaccuracy, and confutes 
 (by a pofitive ajfertion at firft, and then by a doubt,) 
 becomes perfeel accuracy, and is confirmed by 
 the deteclor himfelf. 
 
 But ftill he is of ufe to the caufe of truth, 
 and ftill he detecls. 
 
 For he may reafon thus with preceding bio- 
 graphers, who withheld the univerjity's degree. 
 
 " Tou had negative lejlimonies, before I took 
 it up, and gave you pofitive ones. Tou had 
 no reafon to believe yourfelves in the right." 
 
 " But you are in the right upon the weight 
 c< of arguments and of documents, which you 
 " never did, nor could have reached." 
 
 Example
 
 C 7' ] 
 
 Example VII. 
 
 " Dryden's property was not fituated in Tich- 
 marjh. It was in Blakefley> or Black Oofely, fo 
 called becaufe the river Oofe ran through it !" 
 
 Example VIII. 
 
 " He did not leave Cambridge from an appre- 
 henfion of being expelled. 
 
 c< It is a lampooner's afTertion. 
 
 But when a man's name is up, he may lie in 
 bed ; and this eminent writer may difpenfe with 
 
 his own rules ad libitum. Thus he gives to 
 
 his hero a fat and Jhort figure ," becaufe a lam- 
 pooner calls him (f Poet Squab /" j and he accredits 
 other lampoons when it fuits him. 
 
 This, vulgar and profane obfervers may call 
 verfatility and caprice : I call it the dignity of 
 a fuperior mind. 
 
 Example IX. 
 
 iK Sir Gilbert Pickering was not a military com- 
 mander. 
 
 "His younger brother, John Pickering t was. 
 He (John) was a little man t who died in Devon- 
 Jhire of the new difeafe^ as it was then called !! 
 
 F 4 Example
 
 C 72 J 
 
 Example X. 
 
 " Dry den is/aid to have been Clerk or Secretary 
 to Sir Gilbert Pickering, and a Committee-man." 
 
 This too comes from a lampooner, and feems 
 to be refuted ; for he adds, that Villiers, (another 
 lampooner), with Cf more probability," makes his 
 father a Committee man. 
 
 ft But if he was (which leaves the point in 
 doubt) he was a merciful one, becaufe he was 
 a good-natured man." 
 
 Example XI. 
 
 " He is /aid to have been fucceflively " for the 
 " Anabaptijls, and for the Independents." 
 
 The lampooner again ! 
 
 But Malone accredits him, and thinks it pro- 
 bable from his family connexions. 
 
 Example XII. 
 
 " Herringman entered three Poems 
 <f by Marvel, Dryden, and Spratt, 
 " at Stationers Hall." 
 Now for the detection ! 
 
 The work is publilhed (in quarto.) 
 
 " Not by Herringman, but Wilfon. 
 " Waller has a poem in it. 
 " Marvel has none ! 
 
 The
 
 C 73 ] 
 
 The beauty of this detection is, that Malone him- 
 felf had fuppofed them printed feparately, and 
 therefore ajferted thefaft which he difproves in 
 the note, by diferediting the evidence. 
 
 Example XIII. 
 
 '* He has been reprefented as a mere drudge 
 under Herringman. 
 
 c< His property refutes the affertion but it is 
 probable > that he lodged at Herringman 's houfe ! ,? 
 
 Example XIV. 
 
 <c He was married, as Dr. John/on has obferved, 
 - <c with circumftances not very honorable to 
 either of the parties." 
 
 '* This charge, ariling from a lampoon oizfubfe- 
 quent period, ought to be configned to oblivion." 
 
 Here a lampooner's calumny fo offends him, 
 that he only alludes to it, and pafles on to the 
 order of the day not condefcending to refute, or 
 to particularize the imputation This, in fuch a 
 lover of difcufllon, is the amiable abftinence. 
 
 " parcentis viribus atque 
 
 " extenuantis eas confultb !" 
 
 In fhort, whatever Malone does ; or omits to 
 do, I mull compare him to the lady in Ovid. 
 
 Illam quicquid agit quoqub veftigia vertit. 
 Componit furtim fubfequiturque decor. 
 
 It
 
 [ 74 ] 
 
 It becomes him to adopt a calumny it becomes 
 him to defpife it it becomes him to be ftlent 
 it becomes him to be eloquent. 
 
 facit omnia belle. 
 
 Example XV. 
 
 Another blow at John/on (and blow inferred, 
 which is blow the heavier!.) 
 
 cc The whole ftory of the funeral is a fable, fo 
 far as relates to the fuppofed indignities, the 
 riot, and the conduct of Lord Jejf'eries." 
 
 This tale he deflroys over and over again, in 
 all its bydra-forms. 
 
 Comparifons are odious. But I muft here 
 (though it may feem invidious) contrail him 
 with Dr. John/on ; and 1 cannot (as Virgil often 
 does) compromife the wreath, but mull give it 
 exclufively to the generous Malone though I 
 know it will diftrefs him to rife at Jobnfon's, 
 expence. 
 
 Jobnfon relates the fubflance of the tale, but 
 only once, inftead of purfuing it, with Malone, 
 into all it's various editions. He then apologizes 
 for inferting it, when there is no credible autho- 
 rity for it. The apology is due; and the more, 
 as it is a very improbable tale at the bell. But 
 what is the apology ? Such an inflance of logic 
 balf afleep, that my daughter (I would not fo 
 degrade my Jon as to confult him) would play 
 
 with it. 
 
 He
 
 C 75 ] 
 
 He calls it " a wild ftory t at the end of Co- 
 greve's Life, by a writer of he knew not what 
 credit ; but he finds the account in a biographical 
 diclionary ! from which he copies it in four 
 pages and a half. 
 
 He then fays, " it appears with no great evi- 
 <f dence" but he can doubt iVs truth no longer ; 
 having been twice informed (he does not fay 
 by whom (that there is in the register of the 
 College of Physicians an order relating to 
 Dryden's funeral. What then? (fays Fanny, my 
 daughter, Cf does that prove the reft of the tale to 
 <f be fact fuch as the whim of Lord Jefferies, 
 c< and his rakifh companions the vilit of the 
 rc widow the oath at her bedfide, upon his knees 
 " the lady's fit her " no I no /" converted into 
 " g - S " Dv tnat infidious oral editor, the Peer 
 t the order for the embalment the apology 
 '* to the Bijhop for the attendance of the choir 
 <c with no corpfe to bury the fool-born jeft of 
 Cf the peer the undertaker's menaces and 
 ", Mr. Charles Dryden's challenge !!" 
 
 Half the lies of the world by Johnfon's rea- 
 foning would obtain credit, and the worft of them 
 would fucceed the beft, for they have generally 
 the better to deceive, fome infufion of truth. 
 It happens, that what is accredited by the repor- 
 ter from the college, not only is a mere part of the 
 tale, but a part which has not the leafl unifon 
 with any of the incredible and humiliating cir- 
 curnftances, but is of an oppofite nature and key. 
 
 ii How
 
 [ 76 ] 
 
 How fuperior is the conduct of Malone ! He 
 cuts off at once every head ; and with his club the 
 Hydra combats in vain. His only and glorious 
 fault is, that he kills her too well, and, like 
 Achilles, ties her to his car; or, like Alexander, 
 (for though I am not a poet, I love a fimile) 
 
 " When thrice he Jlew the Jlain." 
 
 Example XVI. 
 
 " John/on is mi/led by Langbaine in the order of 
 DryderCs plays. 
 
 " And how mifled?" 
 
 w He followed him, without obferving that 
 he had arranged them alphabetically! Was ever 
 dormitation of Homer like this ? 
 
 Example XVII. 
 
 " Dr. John/on does not feem to have known," 
 (where then muft his eyes have been ? fays my 
 Cynic, with ill-nature, and rudenefs united) "that 
 a lift of his plays in their juft order of time is 
 given by the author himfelf, and with a direct 
 advertifement announcing it." That lift is in 
 Dryden's works, known to Johnfon of courfe, 
 as well as to Malone ; yet, the latter alone an- 
 nexes it, and improves it, by additions. 
 
 Which is the fuperior biographer of the two ? 
 
 Example
 
 C 77 3 
 
 Example XVIII. 
 
 " His contract was to give three plays in one 
 year. 
 
 Not four, as Dr. John/on faid. 
 Nor two, as reported by Cibber. 
 The memorial proves it was three" 
 It is annexed, 
 
 with a hiftory of it, 
 
 and thanks to the communicator. 
 
 Example XIX. 
 
 u John/on fays (yes, and confidently too) " that 
 he publifhed Jix plays in one year. " It is cer- 
 " tain" are the words of John/on-, and he de- 
 duces a very marked inference from it, in 
 Dryden's honor. 
 
 This, Malone proves to be abfolutely falfe, 
 and without a colour of truth. 
 
 Example XX. 
 
 c * It has been fuppofed, that he fucceeded 
 his predecefTor Davenant immediately as Poet- 
 Laureat. 
 
 But it was in sixteen months afterwards! 
 though with all the arrears !" 
 
 Example
 
 C 78 3 
 
 Example XXI. 
 
 " He did not owe the laurel to Sheffield, as 
 " John/on conjectured mijled by Dr. Birch." 
 poor Johnjonl 
 
 Example XXII. 
 
 " John/on thought in Howard's quarrel- 
 
 there was a myftery, " fomething not eafily 
 '' explained." 
 
 " There is no difficulty at all" (fays Malone) ; 
 and cuts the knot with his accuftomed abilities. 
 
 Example XXII.* 
 
 Dr. Johnfon ridicules the application of the 
 Rehearfal to fome of Dryden's plays, becaufe 
 they were not publifhed at the time. I confefs, 
 that before I read Malone upon this topic, 
 I could not help feeling aftonimment at the 
 ridicule of Dr. Leviathan ; becaufe, the paf- 
 fages themfelves in thefe plays, and the obvious 
 derilion of them in the Rehearfal, proved the in- 
 tention of the Satyr, and pointed it's application. 
 A common reafoner (faid I to myfelf) fhould 
 have inverted the argument, and prefumed from 
 the internal evidence that fuch plays had been 
 publifhed. 
 
 But Malone, in his mafterly way, makes an 
 end of the doftor, and fets up me, by a demon- 
 jiration of two facts, which Leviathan over- 
 looked. Firjl, the later edition of the fame play ; 
 
 and
 
 C 79 3 
 
 and fecondly a miftake, as to the real date 
 of the other publications to which the doctor 
 alludes. 
 
 It may be faid, that I am here making a quar- 
 rel between two friends; and the more ungene- 
 rous, becaufe one of them is dead. I deny it ; 
 for I give Malone ample credit as the mod gen- 
 tlemanlike executioner I ever knew. His con- 
 quer! over his predecefibr is a perfect fpecimen 
 of urbanity, and may be annexed without lhame 
 to the Courtier by Cafiiglioni, or to the darfcing 
 mailer'* Graces of the immortal Cbejierfield. 
 
 Example XXIII. 
 
 <( Gildon fays inaccurately y that favourite poets in 
 thefe days had forty fhillings a week to keep them 
 in theatrical pay." 
 
 *' That (fays Malone) who is an excellent 
 arithmetician, would have been sixty pounds 
 per annum !" And fo it would ! 
 
 Whereas Dryden had three or four hundred. 
 As the memorial proves and fo it does 1 
 
 Example XXI V. 
 
 Milton's fervant-maid is called from the tomb, 
 and proved guilty of a miraculous falfehood, in 
 her depofition reflecting the day of Milton's 
 death. 
 
 " He died," faid the maid, "on a Sunday, abouta 
 month before the date of her depofition, which 
 
 carries
 
 C 80 ] 
 
 carries back his death to the 15//^ of November: 
 but ifr. he was buried the 12th (of itfelf a good 
 reafon againft the death upon the 15th !) and in 
 the next place he died upon the 8th !! 
 
 Example XXV. 
 
 Pray obferve this acme of logic ! 
 
 w It is not true tHat Sir John Denham brought 
 " a wet fheet of Milton's Paradife Loft into the 
 " Houfe of Commons, and was there lavifh in 
 " it's-praife; yet that with fuch a book Dry- 
 " den had no acquaintance, till two years after- 
 fC wards; and that almoft the. whole im predion 
 <f lay upon the bookfeller's hand." 
 
 As I confider the detetlion of this complicated 
 lie to be unrivalled and unparalleled, I conjure 
 the reader to be " all but his attention dead" 
 whilft he accompanies the dignified, the cor- 
 rect, and clofe argument of this Logician (which, 
 as Addifon well obferves, every Hiftorian ought 
 to be.) 
 
 " Firft from the nature of printing, Sir John 
 cf Denham could not have obtained poffeflion of 
 " the wet Jheet as he had no intimacy with 
 f< Milton ( cr perhaps, he knew his bookfeller, 
 fays my Cynic, but this does not merit an an- 
 fwer. Let us proceed.) 
 
 2. " In 1667, when the poem was probably 
 (too modcfl: a word in that place 'J Denham was 
 
 out of his mind !" 
 
 3. Sir
 
 C 81 ] 
 
 3. cc Sir John Denham was never in Parlia- 
 ment !! 
 
 4. " Dryden was Milton's friend. How then 
 could he be ignorant of his friend's book, though 
 Sir John Denham, who was not his friend, 
 brought it wet from the Houfe of Commons ? 
 
 5. (t Thirteen hundred copies were fold, 
 when, according to the anecdote, the imprejfion lay 
 upon the Jhelf." 
 
 After this incomparable fpecimen of detec- 
 tion, who is the man that will ever impofe 
 upon the world again, during Malone's life ? 
 (whom God prefer ve). The Irelands, father and 
 fon, may well tremble before him ; though, by 
 the way, he was too civil to them, and has made 
 them of too much importance. 
 
 Capell, whofe name, with exquifite humour 
 (and here again I difcern the wit, if provoked) 
 he has printed in the old hand, fleeps in the calm 
 oblivion that is due to him, though much of his 
 black-letter and pedantic diligence has found 
 it's way into the works of thofe editors, who 
 have laughed at him fo well but improved of 
 courfe by them, and (by their knowledge of the 
 world) refined into beauties of erudition, for 
 which, of courfe, he has no credit. 
 
 The fc Non-confortnijl Par/on," as (with equal 
 powers of fatyr, in a word) he denominates Dr. 
 Kippis, would be reprobated, if alive, by two or 
 three cuts at him in D ry den' s Life- 
 
 G And
 
 [ 8* J 
 
 And the idle babbler, who wrote the Purfuits 
 of Literature, finks in the fund of his charac- 
 ter as heavily as three per cents, would fall, 
 if news arrived, that Buonaparte was a mailer 
 of Italy, becaufe Malone threatens him with an 
 attack!! 
 
 Minatius Felix. 
 
 THE
 
 C 3 ] 
 
 THE 
 
 MALONIAN GLEANER'S 
 
 Emendations and Additions. 
 
 Theocr. 
 
 tjINCE the foregoing Jheets were printed off >y 
 (by Mr. Smeeton, of St. Martin's Lane) " I went 
 ft on (as the Reaper faid before me) with my 
 " refearcbes, when I entertained any doubt ;" and 
 my later difcoveries are the molt curious part 
 of this work. 
 
 CANON I. Example I. page 8. 
 
 " Lysideius" (in the jiff itious Dialogue upon 
 Dramatic Poetry) meant (or "Jhadowed") Sir 
 Charles Sidley- "Sidley, 
 
 " SlDLEYIUS, 
 <f LlSIDEIUS. 
 
 I have ftudied this anagram, with unremitted 
 afliduity, fince the other Jheets were printed off'-, 
 and flatter myfelf, that I can dethrone it, with- 
 out prejudice to my hero's fame perhaps, with 
 
 G 2 a new
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 a new fprig of laurel for him, upon account of 
 
 fuch a conceit, and fo defended. 
 
 " Cafar \ fJ f " 
 j. y could neer be wrong but with juft caufe." 
 
 To be ingenioufly mijlaken, ox acute in rmt-appre- 
 henfions is the exclufive talent of great and fupe- 
 rior minds. 
 
 The reader will not forget, that, upon the 
 difference between Sidley and Sedley, the life 
 and foul of the imputed anagram depend. That 
 Sidley is therefore moft commodioufly reprefented 
 as the original name ; and that it was not 
 changed into Sedley till after 1668; which is 
 the date of Li/ideius's birth in this fictitious 
 dialogue. 
 
 c No other " Colloquijl" of the four is made 
 out of his Englijb name into a Roman, by this 
 playful contrivance. 
 
 And there is no other inftance of the kind 
 affirmed, or conjectured in Dry den's works, 
 though he often makes ufe of a name in Latin 
 perfectly fictitious and fupported by no autho- 
 rities. 
 
 The partifan of Sidley, to fupport the con- 
 jecture of this anagram, has in a very ample note, 
 with matchlefs addrefs, made it his mode of 
 fpelling the name: though he admits, that it 
 was changed into Sedley afterwards ; or as Ed- 
 mond expreffes, cf he feems to have been called 
 '* Sedley at a later period of life." 
 
 This finclfe excited the importunate Cynic's 
 ill-natured fnecr, and his pique at my ingenu- 
 ous
 
 [ 85 3 
 
 ous praife of it. In the zeal of my compliments 
 to this pious fraud, I told him, that if Edmond 
 mould have occafion for this baronet again, 
 where the anagram would not be at flake, I had 
 no doubt, he would call him by his later name. 
 
 I was prophetic. In page 371, vol. 1. part 
 2. Edmond himfelf (not contemplating Li/ideius 
 there) talks of " Sir Charles Sedley, and gives 
 not a hint of an i as due to his name. 
 
 The difference is natural for in the text (up- 
 on which he has written the note) one of Dry den's 
 plays being dedicated by him to the Baronet, 
 Sedley, is the name, and this in 1673 fo that 
 in 1673 ** was ca H e dy as Edmond fays (or as 
 common men would fay written) SEDLEY. This 
 fact muft be remembered in the chain of reasoning 
 that is to come 
 
 " Edmond fays, that Lord Mulgrave, in his 
 Effay on Satyr 1682, reprefents Sir Charles 
 Sidley as a voluptuary." 
 
 It mould feem a little extraordinary that Sed- 
 ley, being the later name, and yet as early as 
 A. D. 1673, a writer in 1682, which is later 
 frill, mould refume, unlefs by mere inadvertence, 
 the original name Sidley. 
 
 In truth MuJgrave does no fuch thing. It is 
 the editor of that Peer, E. Malone ; it is not 
 the Peer himfelf who commits the anachronifm, 
 but commits it in fuch equivocal terms (which 
 conftitutes the beauty of the artifice) that he 
 does not in words quote the Peer as writing the 
 G 3 name.
 
 t *<> J 
 
 name thus, but writes it in that manner himfelf, 
 and then fpcaks of the Peer as giving a por- 
 trait of the character. 
 
 I muft, on the other hand, (with candour 
 emulating the Malonian) admit, that Mulgrave 
 does call him little Sid which, however, 
 being evidently a term of ridicule, cannot 
 prove, that his name was written Sidley in 
 1682, and much lefs in oppofition to other 
 proofs, that Sedley then was the name. 
 
 Edmond is, however, mone fortunate in Bur- 
 net's Hijiory of his own Times. For there (and it is 
 molt propitious for the anagram-builder) fpeaking 
 hiftorically of A. D. 1668, (the very date re- 
 quired) i. e. the identical year in which Lijideius 
 was made the colloquift) Burnet introduces the 
 baronet, and writes the name Sidley. 
 
 But this lucky hit, as it may be called, when 
 it is a little analyzed, proves nothing, becaufe it 
 proves too much. 
 
 It is true, that Burnet is noting the events, 
 and is even defcribing the Wits of that period 
 (of that year, if you will) amongft whom Sidley 
 or Sidly (as it is afterwards written) is pro- 
 duced, and is compared with two other Wits. 
 But the men all three of them Dorfet, Ro- 
 chejler, and Sidley, exifted long after that period, 
 and were known to the Bifhop. He would, 
 therefore, unlefs by mijlake, of courfe, write 
 the name as he found it recently and generally 
 written, when he wrote his book, or this part 
 
 of it. 
 
 He
 
 [ 87 ] 
 
 He Began to write this entertaining work in 
 1693, as we learn from himfelf; and the work 
 ends at 171 3; fo that unlefs he wrote it Sedley, 
 he wrote it erroneotifly : and one may account 
 for it from another fact afTerted by Malone him- 
 felf, that Lady Dorchcfter's name appears to 
 have been Sidley in 1685, the date of her pa- 
 tent, which, though it may have milled Burnet, 
 cannot prove that Sir Charles, the father, had 
 then adopted that mode of fpelling the name 
 again, after he laid it afidc, as far back at leaft, 
 as A. D. 1673. 
 
 But if the hiftorian's mode of fpelling the 
 name proves it fpelt in that manner at the pe- 
 riod he defcribes, viz. in 1668, becaufe he is 
 reprefenting facts and characters of that year 
 (which is Edmond's insinuated argument) I fhall 
 fct againft him an oppofite proof, on his own prin- 
 ciples, in the evidence of his brother Antiquarian, 
 Wood, who is more likely to be correct, in fuch 
 a punctilious nicety of a letter in a baronet's 
 name, than Burnet, who was an hiftorian of 
 another clafs, and lefs minute. 
 
 Before we introduce this great man, I rnuft 
 again (but honoris gratia) produce another, and 
 fimilar fineffe in Edmond's, allufion to Wood. 
 
 In the text he fays, cc It occured to me, that 
 " Sir Charles Sidley for fo his name was then 
 " written being a very intimate friend of 
 " Lord Buckhurji" &c. 
 
 In the note upon this text we are told, that 
 
 we are to fee " Wood's, account of their indecent 
 
 G 4 " behaviour
 
 [ 88 ] 
 
 " behaviour at a cook's houfe in Bow Street, 
 " Covent Garden , A. D. 1663. 
 
 Thcfe words are added : 
 
 " Sir Charles Sidley's portrait is in the Dorfet 
 " collection at Knowle." 
 
 Would not any reader, who was not familiar 
 to Edmond's addrefs, infer that Wood fpelt the 
 name Sidley ? efpecially as we had been pre- 
 vioufly told, that " Sedley" was an after thought, 
 which took place at a period later than 1668. 
 
 But it happens, that Wood, and where he de- 
 fer ; bes, not a general character, but a fact, of 
 A. D. 1663, in which the baronet was deeply 
 implicated, writes the name " Sedley." 
 
 If therefore Burnet's character of Sidley, as 
 being drawn when he is treating of A. D. 1668, 
 proves that mode of fpelling the name to have 
 been then correct, Wood, upon the fame principle, 
 deftroys the fact aflumed by carrying back thefub- 
 ftitutedf to a period earlier than 1668, and confe- 
 quently gives a death's blow to the anagram which 
 aflumes, that Sedley was a new mode of fpelling 
 the name introduced at a later period of the ba- 
 ronet's life. 
 
 Another circumftance occurs in the evidence 
 of Anthony Wood, as arifing from it's local nature 
 and connexions. He took the name (one mould 
 imagine) as he found it academically written. 
 
 The baronet, we know, was entered at Ox- 
 ford 1655-6. 
 
 If the name by which he was entered was that 
 " of Sedley," it follows, that fuch a name was 
 
 prior
 
 [ 89 ] 
 
 prior even to 1663 (when this frolic happened, 
 which is related by Wood) and of courfe, prior 
 to 1668. Here let us leave Anthony for a mi- 
 nute or two, and refume Edmonds his rival an<- 
 tiquarian than whom (Argus alone excepted 
 with a hundred eyes, or Lynceus with two) 
 none have a fharper fight. He has overlooked 
 another, and cotemporary Peer, who has alfo 
 written verfe who has introduced the fame ba- 
 ronet, and with his name at length I mean the 
 Earl of Rochejier, who is the writer of that cele- 
 brated character, which is no lefs familiar to the 
 ladies than it is to the fine gentlemen of this age, 
 who fee themfelves in the mirror. 
 
 " Sedley has that prevailing art, 
 
 " That can with a refiftlefs charm impart, 
 
 *' The loofeft wifhes to the chaftefl heart." 
 
 \ 
 
 The poem in which this paflage is, was pub- 
 lifhed in 1680, juft after the Earl's death. But 
 the name Sedley, as written by him, when he 
 wrote the poem, was of courfe prior to 1680, 
 though in what precife year is not afcertained. 
 
 The fame Peer and poet fpeaks of him in the 
 fame poem again 
 
 I loath the rabble, it's enough to me, 
 That Sedley, &c. 
 
 Not having feen the Dedication of the Mul- 
 berry Garden figned by Sir Charles himfelf, 
 and figned in 1668, I can give no remark 
 upon it more than to fay (Malonice) that I fuf- 
 
 pett
 
 9 ] 
 
 pen it either a mi flake of Edmond, or of the 
 Baronet himfelf, or of his copyift. 
 
 As to the name Sidly, given to the Countefs of 
 Dorcbejler in her patent, A. D. 1685, if it is there, 
 as I have before obferved, it cannot prove that 
 Sir Charles then wrote his name in that manner 
 (when it is known that he did not, or any others 
 for him) but it may afford room to conjecture 
 that he, or fhe might choofe that variance be- 
 tween the refpective fignatures of each, on ac- 
 count of thofe peculiar merits which entitled the 
 daughter to her peerage. 
 
 Since the foregoing paffage was printed off, I 
 have feen now the Mulberry Garden, but not the 
 edition of 1668, (if it ever did exifl which I 
 Jufpecl it never did) and I obferve in Wood, a 
 query after 1668 qu. 1675. The edition which 
 I have feen is publifhed 1675, anc * nas every ap- 
 pearance of being xhefirft edition. 
 
 It is printed for " Herring?nan,'* (of whom we 
 have read fo much) Cf at the flgn of the Blew 
 t Anchor y New Exchange." 
 
 In the title page of this edition, and alfo in 
 the dedication, we have Sidley. 
 
 But this can be no proof, that in 1675 tne 
 name was generally fo written by others, and 
 lead: of all can it prove that it was then fo written 
 by John Dry den, who, in 1673, dedicates (and 
 1 appeal to Malone, who is accuracy itfelf) to 
 Sir Charles Sedley. 
 
 That in 1677 the name was written Sedley, we 
 have a Malonian proof, in the title page of Anthony 
 
 and
 
 C 91 ] 
 
 and Cleopatra, dated 1677, with a licence of April 
 24, in that year, and printed by Ton/on. In the 
 title page this work is faid to be written by Sir 
 Charles Sedley ! 
 
 But we have proofs to come, that are decifive 
 againft the anagram. 
 
 1. Sir Charles was entered at Oxford (as I had 
 fufpe&ed) by the name of Sedley, in Wadham 
 
 College. In the Bur/br's book of Admiffions and 
 Cautions is the following entry: " 1655, March 22, 
 ** Mr. Charles Sedley, Fellow Commoner, 5." 
 
 2. The Sedleian Lecture, founded by Sir Wil- 
 liam, who was grandfather to Sir Charles, was 
 the donation of " Sedley," by will, and rati- 
 fied by " John Sedley" the fon, A. D. 1622, 
 who defcribes himfelf in a deed, preferved at Ox- 
 ford, as the fon of Sir William Sedley the founder. 
 
 3. Before I produce what is now to come, 
 I muft quote the paiTage in the Poetical Hiftorian. 
 
 '* The grant of the title of Baronet in June 161 r, 
 was to Sir William Sidle y, Knight." 
 
 This is round, and full 1 
 
 I, on the other hand, aflert, " that in Sir 
 William's patent at the Rolls, are thefe words, 
 Wills. " Sedley" de Alisford in Com. Kane. 
 Miles llll 
 
 I muft therefore be of opinion, that Sidley is 
 not proved fufficiently to be the general mode of 
 fpelling the name in 166 3, for the purpofe of 
 this anagram. 
 
 *3 I have
 
 C 9* 1 
 
 I have confuted him in his own beft manner, 
 as far as I could hope to catch it, and with a 
 generous emulation. 
 
 He can bear to lofe fifty fuch anagrams as 
 thefe, and will not fhare the fate of the lover, 
 who loft his wits by the following cataftrophe. 
 
 Spef/ator, N. 60. 
 
 r< I have heard of a gentleman who when the 
 " Anagram was in fafhion, endeavoured to gain 
 * r his miftrefs's heart by it. She was known by 
 "' the name of the Lady Mary Boon." 
 
 tf The lover not being able to make any thing 
 *' of Mary ; by certain liberties indulged to 
 tc this kind of writing, converted it into Moll ; 
 U and after having fliut himfelf up half a year, 
 " produced his Anagram." 
 
 * On prefenting it, he was told, <f that he 
 r had miftaken the firname. It was not "Boon," 
 but Bon un !! 
 
 " Ibi omnis. 
 Effufas labor." 
 
 fp3- As I was reading aloud this diffufe and 
 laboured note, with a parent's keen -partiality 
 for his offspring, I looked at my auditor, the 
 Cynic, to imprefs the rhetoric, as well as logic, 
 upon his countenance to read the biftory of 
 it's effect in his ryes. 
 
 Alas ! they were clofed in a Baolianjlumber I 
 
 fhopk and waked him. " When (faidhe) will 
 
 * c this friend of yours wind himfelf up, take his 
 
 hat, and walk off?" 
 
 " Pho !
 
 [ 93 ] 
 
 u Pho ! (faid I) this was a little Jeu d'efprit 
 of my own, though in his manner. It is (at 
 leaft apparently) by way of critique upon " Ed- 
 mond." 
 
 " Egad (faid he) you are chips of the fame 
 block, and Mercuries of the fame wood : Never 
 feem to differ again ! 
 
 c< It will be taken at once for collufion depend 
 upon it; your Dutch competitor has taught you 
 to be (as like him) as two peas, or (to give the 
 fimilitude its true character) as a couple of blue 
 beans, &c 
 
 M If I were to be the V demon, who was to deter- 
 mine between fuch a Menalcas and fuch a Da- 
 m<etas, I fhould fay (as Virgil's Palemon faid) " Gen- 
 tlemen you arc, both of ye, worthy of the calf*" 
 or as they would have faid at Newmarket, I 
 cannot '* place you." 
 
 Hoc juvat et melli eft 
 
 Dreyden, &c. page 322-3 Life, &c. 
 
 " It was Dry den's "fancy" to write his name 
 " Dreyden in 1679, which he continued from 
 f that year to A. D. 1684 inclufive." 
 
 I havedifcovered, Jince the foregoing Jheets, Sec. 
 that Lady Elizabeth Dryden, the Poet's wife, 
 wrote a letter in 1682; confequently after 1679, 
 and before 1684. 
 
 * It is very obfervable, that fit-git's tranflator, Dryden, is 
 rather fhy of the " Calf" and fupprefles it (in a very Anti- 
 Mahnian way) by a periphrafis more poliflied, but lefs natural. 
 
 That
 
 [ 94 ] 
 
 That Malone hirnfelf has given us this letter 
 (p. 14, note 4, vol. 1, part 2d). 
 
 That at the end of this letter is her fignature. 
 
 E. Dryden. 
 
 A common friend of Edmond's and of mine has, 
 at my requeft, allured him of the fact, and of it's 
 confequences. 
 
 He has received the following anfwer. 
 
 Queen Ann Street , Eajl, 
 
 Cavendijh Square ', 
 
 ft Dear Sir, June 4, 1800; 7 0' 'Clock, P. M. 
 
 " I have faid it was Dry den* & fancy to write 
 " his name Dreyden, from 1679 t0 J 684 inclu- 
 " five." 
 
 <c His Lady was not the moft accommodating 
 <c of her fex ; and for the reafon (of all others) 
 c< that it was her hufband's "fancy** to change 
 ' the firft orthography, me would, of courfe, 
 cc preferve it whenever Jhe was to write her 
 " hufband's name." 
 
 " Indeed, this very facl of your ingenious 
 " friend proves the want of harmony between 
 " them. 
 
 " I beg you will prefent my bed compliments 
 " to your friend. He is too partial to me ; but 
 <f otherwife a very judicious critic. 
 
 Your's faithfully, 
 
 E. Malone.'* 
 
 Life,
 
 [ 95 ] 
 
 Life, &c. page 
 
 " Ifufpetl he was bred at Cambridge " with- 
 out any reafon afligned. 
 
 N.B. There is anotherfufpicion, which is equally 
 animated, of the fame literary inquifitor, in one 
 of his notes upon Shakfpere, as an editor of that 
 poet, and as an occafional corrector of Dr. 
 Leviathan. 
 
 The latter had faid, " that Shakfpere had ap- 
 parently revifed " Richard the Second.* 1 
 
 Edmond obferves as follows, in his neateft 
 manner : 
 
 <f This notion appears to me extremely doubt- 
 ful or to fpeak more plainly I do not believe 
 it. 
 
 Malone. 
 
 " Dryden corrected Mac Flecnoe t with flight va- 
 riations , which it would gratify the curious reader, 
 to fubjoin." They are fubjoined accordingly; 
 and are the minuteft of all errata. 
 
 Another fpecimen of this gratification to the 
 readers, and more beautifully difcufled, is at 
 hand. I cannot end my lucubrations better than 
 by inferting it verbatim. 
 
 " Between the firft and fecond edition of this 
 c< Eflay (on Dramatic Poefy) Jix teen years elapfed, 
 c < in which interval he appears to have corrected 
 ft it with great care many changes being made 
 c i chiefly in the language. 
 
 *4 c< As
 
 C 96 3 
 
 " As the PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENT of fo 
 
 " great a writer, may afford matter of curi- 
 cf osity, and of instruction to many readers, 
 cf I fubjoin the principal variations, between 
 c< the two copies !" 
 
 From thefe principal variations, I (Edmond's 
 Gleaner) take the liberty of pilfering three : 
 
 1668, Firji edition, " they perceived the air break. 
 1684, Second edition, " they perceived the air to break. 
 1668, Firji edition, " adding, we, &c. 
 1684, Second edition, " adding, that we, &c. 
 1668, Firji edition, ft this, my Lord, was, &c. 
 1684, Second edition, " this was, &c." 
 
 N. B. At the foot of thefe principal varia- 
 tions, he fays, 
 
 " That he has not thought it necelTary to 
 fet down minute variations." 
 
 Here my Cynic-friend exclaimed (in a very 
 illiberal manner,) " If thefe are principal va- 
 " nations, what are the minute ones ?" 
 
 " Delire your friend, Micromegas, to anfwer 
 me that queflion !" 
 
 Having thus done every juftice in my power 
 to the perfect biographer, who, (in imitation of 
 Browne's pity for the Thames, can exclaim, 
 Cf Plutarch! thou wilt never forgive me!") 
 I leave him, with all due refpect, homage, and 
 veneration ; affuring him that, in defiance of 
 the volume's protuberance, I have taken the 
 liberty of binding him up with Berkeley's Minute 
 Philosopher, Wanley's Wonders of the Little 
 World, and the Marquis de VHopital sur l'ana- 
 
 LYSE DES INFINIMENT PeTITS.
 
 C 97 ] 
 
 Directions to Mr. Smeeton, which that inge- 
 nious artift could not obey, " as the Jheets were 
 " printed off!" 
 
 After ^hat ha$ been ftated refpecting the pa- 
 tent of Sir William Sedley, add thefe words : 
 
 " Pictoribus atque Poetis 
 
 f* quidlibet audendi y $cc." 
 
 But I never, till the reign of " Edmond fans- 
 ^ peur t " dreamt of this privilege jn Histo- 
 rians ! 
 
 Upon the fubjecT: of Lisideius, I cannot be 
 too animated or diffufe-r 
 
 " Non ita certandi ciipidus, quam propter amorem 
 " quod te imitari aveo -" 
 
 (( Sidley, (according to MaloneJ is the true 
 tf name of this family, ar\dfucb was the orthogra- 
 <c phy t which they ufed for many generations. 
 
 " The grant of the title of baronet in 
 cr June 1611, was to Sir William Sidley, 
 t( Knight." 
 
 We have juft proved that Sir William Sedley 
 (not Sidley) was created a baronet, A. D. 161 1. 
 I have feen, hifce oculis, the enrollment of his 
 grant ; and if Sedley is not the name j'y 
 
 brule vies livres 
 
 H But
 
 C 9? ] 
 
 But I muft not part with Sir William Sedley, 
 for I have more ufe to make of him, and (as 
 Edmond often fays) deteftion is the word ; but I 
 fhall emulate his urbanity as well as logic and 
 refearch. 
 
 I have feen the will of that Sir William 
 Sedley ! the original will ! in a fr fepulchre of 
 " literature" called (by the Jub terraneous) the 
 Office of Prerogative ; and I do aver, that in that 
 will t the fignature by the teftator, is William 
 Sedley ! 
 
 It bears date A. D. 1618-19. 
 
 " So much for Buckingham !" 
 
 The lecture, which is called Sedleian, is 
 founded in that will, and is known at Oxford by 
 an extract from it. 
 
 Now for Sir John Sedley, the fon of Sir Wil- 
 liam and the father of Lisideius. 
 
 He was matriculated in the Univerfity of Ox- 
 ford, A. D. 1609, April 3. The entrance is in 
 his own hand writing, and he was then of Mag- 
 dalen College. 
 
 The following is a copy of the entrance ver- 
 bally and literally accurate. 
 
 April 3, 1609, Johannes Sedley, Londinen- 
 fis ; Militis filius, ann: nat: 12 e collegio Mag- 
 dalen :" 
 
 In a conveyance executed by Sir John Sedley, 
 as the heir of Sir William Sedley, which 
 bears date A. D. 1622, and is preferved at Ox- 
 ford, that fignature is continued by him. 
 
 But this John Sedley, in due courfe of time, 
 ,r flept with his fathers" and without fear of 
 
 Edmond,
 
 [ 99 ] 
 
 Edmond, he made a will under the name of Sed- 
 ley, which I have myfelf examined, with natural, 
 and with artificial eyes. 
 
 That is not all I have feen the original certi- 
 ficate of his funeral, by his widow Elizabeth. 
 
 It is in the College of Arms, and as it is very 
 curious, I give it word for word, as in the orignal, 
 with a fac fimile of the Lady's name, taken by a 
 gentleman of the Herald's Office when I was 
 prefent. 
 
 <c The Right Worfhipfull Sir John Sedley, 
 " Baronett, departed this mortall life at Mount 
 H Mafcall, in the parifh of Nortberay," in Kent, 
 ,f on Monday the 13th of Auguft, 1638. 
 
 He married Elizabeth, fole daughter and 
 ft heire of Sir Henry Savile, Knight (fecond 
 ft fonne of Henry Savile of Bradley, in the 
 <r County of York, Efq. and fometyme Provojl 
 !' of Eaton Coll edge, neare Windfor, and Warden 
 f* of Merton Colledge in Oxford, by whom he hath 
 f iflue two ibnnes and one daughter now living 
 <f at the tyme of his deceafe, viz. Henry, eldeft 
 (t fonne, aged 16 yeares ; William, 1 fonne, 8 
 * f yeares or thereabouts j Elizabeth, onely daugh- 
 f* ter, aged 17 years. 
 
 " The faid defunct was decently conveyed from 
 * ( Mount Mafcall aforefaid, on Friday following, 
 " to South Fleet, in the faid county, an auntient 
 ? f feat of his anceftors, where he lyeth interred 
 " in a vault on the fouth fide of that parifh 
 " church appropriated to his family. He was 
 f c attended by two officers of armes, and ac- 
 H 2 f cpmpanicd
 
 [ 100 ] 
 
 " companied with divers baronetts, Knts. Efqrs. 
 " and Gentlemen of the countey, who faw him 
 " interred as aforefaid, in token of their affec- 
 " tion and refpect to a gentleman of his worth 
 " and quality. 
 
 * The executors to the defunct were Sir Edw. 
 " Hales t Knt. and Baronett, Sir Antho. Weldon, 
 " Knt. Antho. Crofte, Efq. and Antho. Lankjlon, 
 " Gent, befyde Dame Eliza, his beloved wife, 
 w who is the executrix and cheif for the ma- 
 " naging the eftate. 
 
 " This certificate was taken by William Ryley, 
 " blew mantle, one of the officers of amies that 
 " attended at the faid funerall ; and is attefted 
 <f to be true by the fubfcription of Dame Eliza- 
 " beth t the lady relict to the defuncl:. " 
 Signed 
 
 u The overfeers of Sir Jo. Sedley's Will and 
 
 Teftam*. were y e Right Ho hle . and Mojl Reverend 
 
 Ffather in God the Lo. Arch-B. of Cant. His 
 
 Grace the Right Ho ble , the Lo. Keeper of the 
 
 Great Seale of England. The Right Ho ble . Sir 
 
 Tfrancis Wyndebank, one of His Ma. principall 
 
 Secretaryes." 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Antho. Weldon. 
 
 N. B. This
 
 [ ioi ] 
 
 N. B. This part of the certificate is written by- 
 Sir Anthony fVeldon* 
 
 Lady Sedley dyed A. D. 18 Oct. 1649. 
 
 I have feen the attefted copy of her will, and 
 Sedley is the name through four or five dif- 
 ferent fpectacles. 
 
 It appears by that will that her late hufband's 
 intended benefaction to Merton College, had 
 been difappointed for want of adequate funds 
 to make it available, and (he gives directions 
 concerning it. 
 
 The original will has been given to her execu- 
 tors, upon a receipt by them ; and an office-copy 
 has been regijiered in its place; not unufual in 
 thofe times : you fee, curious Reader, how deeply 
 I am plunged in the myjleries of St. Bennet's Hill, 
 " But what has this to do with Sir Charles 
 " Sidley in 1668 ? The Lady Elizabeth, to 
 ** whom you allude, is not his mother unlefs 
 " you can prove that Charles is either Henry or 
 tf William, who are the only " fonnes" defcribed 
 <f in the certificate?" Thus far Edmond's chal- 
 lenge 
 
 But I turn upon him, with a little change of 
 the death's blow, as Macduff 'upon Macbeth ; and 
 I tell him " that Sir Charles was her fan pojlhu- 
 " moujly born!" (which is a fact authenticated 
 by Sit Anthony Weldon at the College of Arms, in 
 a later certificate figned and written by him as 
 well as by his mother's will, who names him) 
 and that he furvived both of his eider brothers 
 
 H 3 You
 
 [ I02 ] 
 
 You muft know, courteous, and curious reader ; 
 that from Sir William Sedley, the baronet of x. 
 1611, two fetts of baronets were derived, and that 
 Sir Ifaac was one of them who was created a 
 baronet in 1621. He died in 1627. 
 
 In his patent the name at the Rolls appears to 
 be Sidley : but with a fort of caprice which it 
 feems, diftinguifhed others of this race, he died a 
 ' Sedley," attefted by himfelf in April 3, 1627. 
 I have feen the will. 
 
 From this gentleman fprung Sir. John Sed- 
 ley, Baronet, who appeared at the head of the 
 petitioners from the County of Kent, Aug. 30, 
 A. D. 1648, was received into the Houfe and 
 favourably heard. 
 
 This fact and this orthography will be found 
 in the Journals of Parliament. 
 
 He died Nov. 1673. 
 
 Of the fame race were the Sedleys of Norfolk, 
 Martin Sedley at their head, who died 1609, 
 a Sedley upon his tomb in Morley Church,) and 
 John Sedley, their defcendant, who, A. D. 
 1664, figned his name John Sedley to an ori- 
 ginal vifitation of Norfolk, at the College of Arms. 
 
 In the fame year, 1664, a benefaction of the 
 other Sir John Sedley, firjl mentioned, and by 
 him deftined for Merton College, Oxford, was made 
 good by Sir Charles*, the fucceeding fon and 
 
 * See the Latin entry in Merton College, made at the time ! 
 It refers to indentures *' a D. Carolo " Sedley," &c. &c. 
 " per te(lam m . Johannis Sedley." 
 
 heir,
 
 heir, who then little thought he fhould be turned 
 into Lisideius in 1668, only four years after- 
 wards, on the facetioufly invented hypothefis, 
 that Sidley was the original name, though neither 
 his father, nor his mother, nor his grandfather^ 
 entertained that plealant whim, either when 
 they lived, or when they died nor he in 1664. 
 
 More directions to 
 
 Mr. Smeeton 
 
 (of St. Martin's Lane.) 
 
 My fon and heir, breathlefs with hafte and 
 felf-importance, has juft brought me word that 
 Sir John fpelt his name Sydley in the vifitation 
 of Kent, 1619 though it feems to derogate from 
 the authenticity of the fignature, that he has 
 left a chafm for his own wife's christian name. 
 
 But if he cbofe to write his name thus in 1619, 
 it is clear that he was a moll irreverent fon to 
 Sir William Sedley, who died that fame year 
 not like Beaufort the Cardinal, <c who died and 
 " made no fign" He figned his name, and wrote 
 it Sedley. 
 
 It is alfo clear from the certificate of his own wi- 
 dow in 1638, that he had become Sedley again 
 before his death, unlefs the wife is an incompetent 
 witnefs to the name of her hufband immediately 
 after his death, upon which point Edmond is pre- 
 paring to confult his oracle and friend Sir Wil- 
 liam Scott ! 
 
 By the way there is no pretence for the opi- 
 nion that fhe was a bad or unaccommodating 
 
 H 4 wife
 
 [ ">t ] 
 
 wife me is called loving in his will, and beloved 
 in the certificate. N. B. As to unaccommo- 
 dating wives ; qu. if fuch a phenomenon is to 
 be found in the conjugal world ? I never heard 
 of it but in Dryden's Life by Malone y and the 
 ladies will not thank him for intimating fuch 
 a diflionor to them ! 
 
 It is clear too that Sir John, <f the defunft" 
 has written Sedley in the will. But whether a 
 man's evidence can be taken for the accuracy of 
 his name when fpelt by himfelf in his will, and at 
 the foot of that inftrument, is a nice quefion, upon 
 which the opinion of great Civilians will betaken. 
 
 Sir William and Lady Sedley's elder fon Henry 
 died, A. D. 1641, in her life time. I have feen 
 his will, and there Sedley is the name. 
 
 He was followed in the title and eftate by 
 William i who died A. D. 1656, and whofe will 
 I have feen. If it is not Sedj. JY, I cannot read. 
 
 Waller has writ an epitaph upon their mother, 
 firft printed (if I miftake not) in 1692. There, 
 and in fomc later editions, the name is written 
 Sidley or Sydley. But how Waller's editors 
 chofe to write her name, is not very material, 
 when the lady hcrfelf, living in 1638, and by 
 her will 1642, has told us her opinion of the 
 correct fignature, by doing us the honour to 
 write it herfelf in a fair and legible hand " Eu- 
 " zabeth Sedley." 
 
 Richard Sedley of Dig/well in Herts, brother 
 to the founder of the leclure, died in May 1643. 
 
 He
 
 C M 3 
 
 He died a Sedley, if his name to his will fpeaks 
 truth. 
 
 It is true that, in Philpot's and Harris's Kent, 
 the name is generally written with an i or y, 
 though in Harris now and then with an e. 
 
 This proves the inaccuracy of thofe precious 
 volumes -, for the individuals themfelves, to whom 
 the name of Sidley is there attributed, have 
 difowned it under their hand. 
 
 I am now to beflow upon Edmond the delightful 
 intelligence, that over the porch of a Sidleiant 
 fchool at South Fleet in Kent, Sir John; his 
 daughter, Elizabeth ; and Sir Charles, the ba- 
 ronet, are fpelt with an i, and with a reference 
 to the fucceflive periods of 1637, 
 
 1639* 
 and 1657, 
 
 which lad was, perhaps, the date of the whole 
 
 infcription ; for after naming Sir Charles as the 
 
 poli/ber and maintainer of the work it adds, 
 
 " whom God long continue." 
 
 But how can this be a faithful account of the 
 name, when Sir John, who was the founder, 
 1637, died the next year, and with Sedley for 
 his name ? or how could his daughter Elizabeth 
 jump into Sidley in 1639, when her mother and 
 father were Sedleys in 1638 ? or how could Sir 
 Charles be a Sidley in 1657, when his mother 
 Lady Sedley died in 1649, w * tn a na rne Unadul- 
 terated by the dot of an /, and when he had en- 
 tered at College in that mother's name, A. D. 
 1655-6? 
 
 As to the names in Philpot, which carry the 
 reader back to a remote antiquity, I refute them 
 
 by
 
 [ '06 ] 
 
 by the regiftered copy of a will in 1 581 the tef- 
 tator a <f John Sedley" to all intents and pur- 
 pofes !* 
 
 From every intelligence that I have difcovcred 
 at Oxford^ it may be averred " that Sedley (with 
 fome few exceptions) u is not in their books" as 
 an eminent punster of that Univerfity has re- 
 ported I thanked him for his intelligence but 
 I envied him the pun. 
 
 More last words ! 
 
 \Baxterici. 
 
 Shadwell, in a dedication to Sir Charles him- 
 felf, dated Feb. A. D. 1672-3, calls him Sedley. 
 
 By the way he commends the " Mulberry 
 Garden," fo that my fufpicions againft an earlier 
 date of this comedy than 1675, are done away. 
 
 By the bye, I cannot but think Shadwell a 
 perfon of talents and wit, though my fear of the 
 ladies will difable one to laugh at him in detail 
 for his want of the Socratic wifdom, couched in 
 the two little Greek words. He affefts to be angry 
 with indecorum, (a neceflary of life in that 
 reign !} and yet 1 dare not copy (though Edmond 
 has given us Dryden's letter to Mrs. Honor!) I 
 dare not copy the two finifhing lines of his play> 
 called " the Virtuofo" 
 
 * This John was father to Sir William Sedley, the foun- 
 der of the Leflurc. 
 
 I have
 
 C *7 ] 
 
 I have not feen Sir Charles' sfirjl return as M. P. 
 if it was in the Long Parliament. The later ones 
 according to the lift in Chandler's Debates, com- 
 mencing after 1670, (but in what year I forget) 
 write the name Sedley with obdurate pertinacity ; 
 and his mother certainly gave to him the hint of 
 writing Sedley by writing it herfelf in 1649, 
 when fhe takes notice, and with much affection, 
 of the pofthumous Charles by name whofe bro- 
 ther William was then living. 
 
 More (till! 
 
 I cannot help taking notice of a fuppofed ana- 
 gram in the name of Rosalind, Spencer's fa- 
 vorite. 
 
 Kerke had faid " that Rosalind was a. feigned 
 Cf name, which, if " well ordered," would betray 
 <f the very true name of his love." 
 
 Upton fagacioufly thinks tf well ordered" im- 
 ports a dijfecled anagram but he cannot reach it. 
 Mr. Church's friend fuppofes that Rosalind 
 was Rose-Linde: having difcovered in Fuller's 
 Worthies, " that in the time of Hen 7. appeared 
 at Canterbury, the name of John Lynde !! 
 
 Happy age of 1800! in which the infpired 
 Ma lone has caught the mantle of Mr. Church's 
 friend ! 
 
 ERRATUM.
 
 T 108 1 
 
 ERRATUM. 
 
 Page 27. Example 3. It mould be Example 2> 
 not 3 : to note this erratum, gratifies curious 
 readers, and marks the improvement of Min. 
 Felix in arithmetic I 
 
 A POLITICAL ERRATUM. 
 
 Page 62, " as three per cents, would /tf// if news 
 cr arrived that Buonaparte was mafier of Italy V* 
 
 Well done ! fagacious prophet ! The news to 
 which M. F. alludes, did arrive fince he wrote 
 and three per cents, have rifen!" 
 
 George Rofe, M. P. 
 Father and Son, 
 
 Omission ! 
 
 Page 44. 
 
 <c He kept fnuff loofe in his pocket I" 
 
 This was overlooked as one of the Examples 
 
 under Canon 3 It will be found page 518 of the 
 
 Life, &c. 
 
 If
 
 C J 09 ] 
 
 If Edmond had given us no other example of 
 the fecond, third, and fourth Canon (for it unites 
 them all) it would have immortalized him. 
 
 Firft mark the text 1 and then mark the note ! 
 The Text, 
 
 t( He was fo great a taker of snuff, that, 
 cc as I have heard, from a very refpectable lady, 
 ** now living, whofe father, when a boy, has feen 
 " him no box, however capacious, could ferve 
 " him. He therefore carried a copious sup- 
 
 c * PLY OF SNUFF LOOSE IN HIS POCKET !" 
 
 In the Note are thefe emphatical words \ 
 " Prince Eugene is said to have carried his 
 " fnufF in the fame manner! But his pocket 
 * was lined with tin !!! 
 
 FINIS.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 IT is fit here to make an apology, which anti- 
 cipates an objection. 
 
 It may be infinuated, that I am a degenerate 
 Minutius Felix, who difown my anceftor's 
 name, which he wrote with a c Minucius. 
 
 I am aware of it ; but have taken the "fancy" 
 (with Dryden, Sir Charles, and Co.) to change 
 one letter of the family-name. Indeed, I have 
 fecn grants to my ingenious progenitor by a 
 Roman emperor (whofe name and period arc ob- 
 literated) and in which the word is Minutius, 
 with a /. 
 
 If the " curious reader" willies to know " Jome 
 " account of his life and writings" he will dp 
 me the honor to confult an edition of his works 
 by the erudite Gronovius the moft acute of all 
 editors and critics, one alone excepted, who (hall 
 be namelefs though a little ff fhadowed'* by the 
 bint, that he does not live a thoufand miles from 
 Cavendifh Square. 
 
 The Teftimonia concerning my anceftor, in- 
 tereft me the more, becaufe they are very Ma- 
 lonian ; that is, they are minute in the fubjeft^ 
 loofe in the refult, and fanciful in the detail. 
 
 He was born ox flour ifhcd (and confequcntly after, 
 his birth) in fome one or other ofthefe alter- 
 native periods, A. D. 160, or 180, or 220, or 
 235 : which thus divide him between the fecond 
 Antonine, Commodus, Pertinax, Julian, Septimius 
 
 Severn s.
 
 I m 3 
 
 Severus, Caracalla, Elagabalus, and Alexander 
 Severus. 
 
 If he was 'Tertullian's cotemporary, and prior 
 to Cyprian, as Labbe and Cave feem to think, we 
 muft give him to Alexander Severus's reign. 
 
 His dialogue is with Cacilius Natalis, and he 
 alludes to Cornelius Fronto as their common 
 friend. 
 
 The Cynic, who is fond of a pun who knows 
 my rage for genealogies, and thinks me not em- 
 barraffed with modejiy, could not help fmiling a 
 little fatyrically at the congenial fpirit of thofe 
 names to the character of Minucius's defen- 
 dant. 
 
 By the way Gronovius dedicates bis Minucius 
 Felix to the identical Burnet, then Bijhop of 
 Sarum, who abufes Dryden, (fee the life, &c. 
 page 195,) and who wrote Sidle y with an /, 
 (page 67) Is not that very curious? 
 
 I mould have added, that Burnet's three fons 
 are mentioned by the dedicator as having called 
 upon him jujju paterno It is dated 3=#yd&t^ 
 Jan. 1709. ^-yoiA-v 
 
 I have fent this apropos to Edmond, who is de- 
 lighted with it. 
 
 By the way too, Sir William Hamilton writes 
 me word, that amengft the inedited Herculanean 
 MSS. there is a love-letter of Minucius Felix, 
 (and his name fpelt Minutius,) in the pureft 
 Latinity, with a lock of his hair annexed (I need 
 not fay it was before he was converted from the 
 
 Pagan
 
 [ "2 ] 
 
 Pagan idoktries ) that in the P. S. of this let-* 
 ter, he fays <c the fourth lujlre has been clofcd " 
 " Unfortunately (Sir William adds) the date of 
 the letter is half obliterated, or crumbled away 
 into powder, fo as to leave the difference of two 
 centuries between the various readings of the 
 two or three letters that remain in this evanefcent 
 family regifter, which elfe would have been of 
 incalculable value." 
 
 Yet, though it afccrtains nothing but its own 
 obfcurity, it is a darknefs vifible , that will delight 
 " curious readers." 
 
 I have Sir William's leave to publifh it with 
 zfac-Jimile of the hair in my next edition. 
 
 In the mean time, thataccomplifhed Antiquary 
 and Virtuofot with his accufromed "ardour" and 
 f< fagacity"~-r-m which he is (" pace dixerim vidua- 
 rum illujlrum) a match for Edmonds dowager 
 circulated hand bills in Rome at my requeft 
 inviting the heirs or perfonal reprefentatives of 
 Cecilius and Fronto the Rhetorician y to fearch 
 their family papers which are /aid ', by the Neapo- 
 litan Dilettanti upon the faith of accredited 
 and refpectable traditions to contain hints, or 
 <c Jhadow" them (in Edmond's dialect) of two 
 or three unimportant and broken links in the , 
 chain of defcent, which fa i ' ma a part of the t<o 
 Minutian pedigree, formed by this great man 
 himfelf, (my anceftor) and by him dcpofited 
 in the Temple of Saturn!! as in a pofthu- 
 mous fragment of his, but written when he was 
 evidently a pagan, (which fragment is, or was^ 
 
 W
 
 [ m i 
 
 in the Vatican, appears, or (as Edmond better" 
 qualifies it) " Jeems to appear" 
 
 But that I am through Minutius Felix the 
 convert lineally and legitimately defcended from 
 the General of Horfe to Fabius Maximus> my 
 Lord Leicejler has not a doubt, from the papers 
 I have laid before him. 
 
 The Cynic often ridicules me for pride in a de- 
 fcent from that General; but I will give the 
 world my reafons for it* 
 
 A fact is recorded of him^ which proves him* 
 to my conceptions, the fublimeft Hero that ever 
 nature produced. 
 
 It is true, that as I am often reminded by 
 the Cynic (in both ears) he difobeyed the com- 
 mands of the dictator, his commanding officer, 
 though he atchieved a victory by this incoor- 
 dination. It is true, that he took part, either 
 direct or oblique, in a mutiny againft Fabius and 
 procured himfelf to be chofen Go-DicJator- t (in 
 which office, though his election was irregular 
 he was confirmed by Fabius himfelf.) It is 
 true, that he was firft outwitted by Hannibal t 
 
 and then defeated.- -It is true, that he would 
 
 then have been Cut off, had not Fabius relieved 
 and faved him. 
 
 But in what followed he was greater than if he 
 had never erred ^or, as Martial quaintly fays of 
 another hero, 
 
 " Si non efrafTet fecerat ille minus*" 
 
 I Me
 
 C 4 ] 
 
 He addrefled his troops in the following man- 
 ner ; and as moft of the Ladies now are adepts in 
 Greek, I fhall give the original for them before I 
 take tjie liberty of tranflating it "for the benefit 
 " of the Country Gentlemen.'* 
 
 uvoptg (rvg-oa,TtcoToii ; 
 
 to [tev oifJLctoTEZv ftydev 
 
 bv Tir^ocf^cx.^1 pefccXoig pz^ov y\ holt a,v9pu7rov l$i 
 
 to de ufiocarov r ex, xpygctgQou Tog TTTougfjLotgiv didxf- 
 
 fAotgi irpog to Xoi7Tov f uvooog ocyocQa koh vav e^ovTog 
 
 eyto f&ev ovv opoXoyct ^likdoc 
 
 TVjV TO'/rp [JLZfJLtyHV, 7TSpt fteifyv 00V B7T0ilVStV Ot yOCD OVK 
 
 ygdopctixpovov TogvTOV, yfAeoccg pepei [aikoco ne'srociotvy.oti, 
 yvovg tpocvTov ovx ocp^eiv btbouv dvvoifxevov, ctpvovTog 
 ereovv oeopevov, x.oci py (piXo^tfxaf^evov vmolv v(p av 
 viKOigdoci xaWiov. 
 
 'Tfx.iv obt &)v pev ccWuv eg-iv ctpytov o Am- 
 toltwq Tyg de itpog exeivav Bvxapig-iag otuTog yyepuit 
 sgopoti, irpuTOv epuvTov bvtth^ xou to xeXevopevov 
 
 TTOlVVTCt U7T BiCStVH TTOtoe^OfjCBVOg. 
 
 For the Country Gentlemen ! 
 
 " My Fellow Soldiers ! 
 
 To commit no faults in great enterprizes 
 would be more than human ; but that he who has 
 committed a fault fhould make the failure which 
 it has produced, a leflbn to him in future is the 
 conduct of a good and fenfible man. 
 
 " As
 
 C us 3 
 
 Cf As to me, I confefs that I have in little points 
 blamed fortune ; but that in greater occurrencies 
 I have blefied her influence. 
 
 " For example what I had not conceived for 
 fo long a time, I have learnt in the little fpace 
 of a day. I have difcovered that I have not the 
 power to command others, but that I want 
 the fupport of thofe who have that power. I 
 have been taught, never to be a competitor again 
 where to confefs inferiority is more becoming. 
 
 " Tour commander is the dictator, who is the 
 commander of others. 
 
 " I will be your leader in the example of grati- 
 tude, complacent humility, and implicit obe- 
 dience to him." 
 
 Fond as I am of Collins' s Peerage, let me a(k 
 with pride, if all the Courtenays, the Neviles 
 and the Howards, will find amongft their an- 
 ceftors a conduct fo elevated. 
 
 Malone truly fays of it, that it reminds him 
 of himfelf, in thofe frequent confeflions of his, 
 that he has been mi/informed ; or at later periods, 
 that his apology was thrown away, and is full 
 as incorrect as the error for which that apology 
 was made. 
 
 As to thtfecond Minutius, it would really give 
 me pain to injure him But there is too much 
 reafon to fear that he was a Lawyer f 
 
 He has, however, told us in five pithy words, 
 to whom we owe the worfhip of Cloacina! 
 
 " Tatius,
 
 C "6 ] 
 
 " 'Tatius Cloacinam invenit et coluit-^ and his 
 lively defcription of the Atoms would be an 
 excellent receipt for a modern biographer ! I 
 will not affront the ladies by an Englijl verfion 
 of it. Here it is in the original and pure 
 Latinity of my anceitor 
 
 <c Mundi (read Vit<e) ornatum non ratione 
 
 PERFECTUM VOLUNT fed FRUSTIS QUIBUSDAM 
 
 temerE coh^erentibus, conglobatum /" 
 
 Minutius Felix* 
 
 With helps from Edmond, and with his 
 mantle fpread over me. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Smeeton, Printer, 148, St. Martin's Lane.
 
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