464 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Dec. 15. 185o. 



whicli young genius always flounders till it learns 

 that it has wings. Voiture, if I mistake not, was 

 already a little out of fashion ; but Pope's associ- 

 ates (a consequence of the singularly early de- 

 velopment of his powers) were all much older 

 than himself. Cromwell and Wycherley, who 

 were men of King Charles's time, probably intro- 

 duced him to Voiture, to the no small damage, I 

 think, of his reputation. He learned afterwards 

 to despise his old favourite, to acknowledge that 

 his eai'ly imitations had too much of an "ambi- 

 tion of wit, and affectation of gayety," and to sneer 

 at French celebrities who " writ their letters for 

 the public eye : " but something of the early taste 

 of himself and his associates remained, giving to 

 the young poet, I foncy, even in his own time, a 

 slight but droll mixture of the antiquated beau. 



With regard to another of these anonymous 

 letters to ladies — beginning, " It is too much a 

 rule in this town" — Cur 11, in his Preface to a 

 later volume, says this is " I find a compliment 

 to our friend Parson Broome and Mrs. Betty 

 Marriot, of Sturston Hall, in Suffolk." I be- 

 lieve this is correct. In the early editions, before 

 " Mr. Pope made Cooper and Gilliver his cabinet 

 council," among other variations, the " Mrs. M.," 

 at the bottom of this letter, stood " Mrs. Betty 



M •" Instead of " your minister," we had, on 



two occasions, "Mr. B." [Broome?]. AVe have 

 also the information that the lady was "a hundred 

 miles off" from the gallant letter-writer. All this 

 accords with Curll's information : but who was 



Mrs. Betty M ? — the heroine of the " bonnet 



lined with green"? She appears, at the time of 

 jyriting the letter, to have been living with her 



mother, " Mrs. M ," at Broome's Rectory 



House, She could not have been the lady 

 whom Broome afterwards married, though her 

 name was Elizabeth ; for Mrs. Broome was " Wi- 

 dow Clarke" as early as 1716, when Broome mar- 

 ried her ; and there is, among Broome's Poems, 



some verses " To Mrs. Elizabeth M 1, on her 



Picture, 1716," with the words "O virgin," — 

 complimenting her for her beauty, &c. This, I 

 have no doubt, was Pope's lady. She was proba- 

 bly a relation of the " Thomas Marriot, F^sc^.," to 

 whom Broome's lines "On Death" are addressed. 

 Broome says, " I prefix your name," &c., " as a 

 monument of the long and sincere friendship" 

 &c. ; " you conferred obligations on me very early 

 in life — almost as soon as I was capable of re- 

 ceiving them." It is curious that Pope, in the 

 letter," speaks of "Mrs. M." (the mother) as an 

 old acquaintance : for Broome is said to have first 

 met Pope at Sir John Cottam's, at Madingley, 

 near Cambridge. When, does not appear ; but I 

 infer, a short time before beginning their joint 

 labours. Pope made various alterations in the 

 letter, the object of whicli appears to have been 

 to suppress Parson Broome, Miss Betty Marriot, 



No. 320.] 



and Sturston altogether ; perhaps because they 

 were not in a station to do great honour to his 

 noble list of correspondents ; but chiefly, no doubt, 

 because he had quarrelled with Broome, and 

 classed him in the " Bathos" with the parrots 

 " who repeat another's words in such a hoarse odd 

 voice, as makes them seem their own." Curll, it 

 is evident, did not know to whom the letter was 

 addressed when he first printed it. It is, therefore, 

 probable that Broome himself, seeing the tamper- 

 ings, managed to convey a hint to Curll, and thus 

 to' Curll's readers. W. M. T. 



MOTE ON SOME PECULIARITIES IN MR. DYCE S 

 EDITION OF MIDDLETOn's WORKS. 



(^Concluded from p. 445.) 



A Mad World, my Masters, Act I. Sc. 1, 

 p. 337. : 



" Mot. 'Tis nothing but a politic conveyance, 

 A sincere can-iage, a religious eyebrow. 

 That throw their charms over the worldling's senses." 

 (Altered from throwes of old eds.) 



Act II. Sc. 5., p. 357. : 



" Fol. The hone and he lie in litter together ; that's the 

 right fashion of your bonny footman." 



(Altered from lies of old eds.) 



Act IV. Sc. 1., p.387. : 



" Sue. When was place and season sweeter ? 



(Unaltered.) 



The Roaring Girl, Act 11. Sc. 1., p. 455. : 



"Miss G. Art and wit mahe a fool of suspicion." 



(Altered from makes of old ed.) 



The Honest Whore, Act IV. Sc. 4., vol. iii» 



p. 94. : 



"Ben that/Mnera?, 



Duke's tea7-s, the mourning, was all counterfeit." 



(Unaltered.) 



Act V. Sc. 2., p. 109. : 



" First Mad. Is this grey beard and head counterfeit, 

 that you cry ha, ha, ha ? " 



(Unaltered.) 



The Second Part of the Honest Whore, Act V. 

 Sc. 2., p. 224. : 



" First Mas. The sturdy beggar and the lazy lown, _ 



Gets here "hard hands or lac'd correction." 

 (Unaltei-ed.) 



By the way, the reader may glean from this 

 passage the significance of one of the allusions be- 

 longing to the epithet in the double entendre, 

 " laced mutton." 



The Witch, Act I. Sc. 2., p. 269. : 



" Hcc. Call me the horrid'st and unhallow'd things 

 That life and nature tremble at." 



(Altered from trembles of MS.) 



