2nd s. No 44., Nov. 1. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



345 



first published by him in the supplemental volume. 

 Are any of these missing ? It would be of interest 

 to the curious, and might throw a light even on 

 questions by which Mr. Carruthers may have 

 been puzzled, if he would furnish you with a list, 

 by brief reference to all the letters still in the 

 possession of the Blount family, with dates, if they 

 have dates, or postmarks, if visible : even the 

 address on any of the letters would help to con- 

 clusions. T. P. B. 



Pope's ^^ Coriiina" and Dryden's Funeral (P' 

 S. xii. 278.) — I can hardly believe that Corinna 

 or Curll can have invented the story that Dry- 

 den's funeral was first countermanded by an 

 English peer (Lord Jeffries), and then celebrated 

 in a becoming manner at his expense. Whether 

 true or not, the story is found in the edition of 

 Ned Ward's London Spy, printed as early as 1703. 

 With your permission I will give you the extract, 

 from pp. 417-8., which communicates all the par- 

 ticulars, excepting the name of the peer. 



" Yet 'tis credibly reported the ingratitude of the age 

 is such, they had like to have let him pass in private to 

 his grave, without those funeral obsequies suitable to his 

 greatness, had it not been for that true British worthy, 

 who meeting with the venerable remains of the neglected 

 bard passing silently in a coach unregarded to his last 

 home, ordered the corps, by the consent of his few friends 

 that attended him, to be respited from so obscure an in- 

 terment ; and most generously undertook at his own ex- 

 pence, to revive his work in the minds of a forgetful 

 people, by bestowing on his peaceful duit a solemn fu- 

 neral answerable to his merit ; which memorable action 

 alone will eternalize his fame with the greatest heroes, 

 and add that lustre to his nobility which time can never 

 tarnish ; but will shine with equal glory in all ages, and 

 in the very teeth of envy bid defiance to oblivion. The 

 management of the funeral was left to Mrs. Russel, pur- 

 suant to the directions of that honourable great man 

 concern'd chiefly in the pious undertaking." 



He then devotes two pages to a minute descrip- 

 tion of the funeral obsequies, as finally celebrated. 

 Surely there must have been some foundation 

 for the story as above related, given so circum- 

 stantially as it is, and that within three years after 

 Dryden's death. In p. 420. his death is attri- 

 buted to mortification in the toe, caused by the 

 flesh growing over the toe-nail, the patient having 

 refused to submit to an amputation. 



Henry T. Rilet. 



Additions to Pope. — Mr. Bolton Cobney 

 (2'"' S. i. 8.) sent you some " Lines written by 

 Pope," which, he says, are neither in Warton nor 

 in the supplementary volume of 1807. Certainly 

 if they were in the one, they ought not to have 

 been in the other ; but it does happen that they 

 are in both. The " lines " were addressed to 

 Gay, on receiving his congratulations on finishing 

 his house and garden, and are to be found in 



Warton, ii. 369., and in Sup. Vol., p. 14. They 

 begin, — 



" Ah, friend ! 'tis true — this truth you lovers know — 

 In vain my structures rise, my gardens grow, 

 In vain fair Thames reflects the double scenes 

 Of hanging mountains, and of sloping greens ; 

 Joy lives not here, to happier seats it flies. 

 And only dwells where Wortley casts her eyes." 



Then came the quarrel with Lady Mary, and 

 these six lines were suppressed. Pope, however, 

 never threw away good verses, and the remainder, 

 with slight variations, were woven into a compli- 

 mentary paragraph, and forwarded to the lady 

 whose letters from Pope were published by 

 Dodsley in 1769 (p. 17.). A. T. P.' 



"iVo Lord's anointed;' S^^c. (1" S. xi. 65.; 2"'^ S. 

 ii, 41.) — It is not improbable that this line bears 

 reference to a traditional bon mot of Ben Jonson, 

 uttered by him on hearing that a pension had 

 been grained by Charles I. to Francis Quarles ; 

 and repeated by Dennis in the disgust which he 

 felt at seeing Blackmore receive the honour of 

 knighthood from King William. 



Quarles had been cupbearer to the unfortunate 

 Queen of Bohemia, and it was, not improbably, 

 about the period of his coronation that Charles 

 conferred a pension on him, as a faithful servant 

 to his aunt. Jonson, on hearing of this piece of 

 bad taste, as he considered it, may very possibly 

 have exclaimed, " Surely this is no Lord's anointed, 

 but only a man who has received unction from a 

 Russian bear ;" in other words, " not anointed with 

 sacred oil, but only rubbed with the grease of an 

 uncouth bear." Blackmore was knighted, pro- 

 bably, about the period of William's coronation ; 

 an opportunity being afforded thereby^ to the 

 envious Dennis to repeat the traditional joke. 



I have no doubt that bears' grease was well 

 known in England, as an unguent or ointment, in 

 the days of James I. and his son. Indeed itwas 

 in common use as an application for the hair in 

 the times of the Romans even. See Pliny's Nat. 

 Hist., xxi. 73. and xxviii. 46. ; and in the time of 

 James there was quite a mania for imitating the 

 recipes and nostrums of the ancients, however 

 absurd and nonsensical. 



I am aware that the interpretation to the line, 

 thus suggested, would require, in correct English, 

 the last word to be " bear's." Pope, however, in 

 his determination to preserve the story, may have 

 found himself obliged to sacrifice grammar to 

 rhyme ; or the line may possibly have originally 

 been — " No Lord-anointed," &c. 



Henry T. Riley. 



Pope's Letters to Wycherley, 1729. —No copies 

 of this publication having been found, and_ some 

 doubt having been expressed as to whether it was 



