Sept^ 23. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



239 



Pope's death formed the nucleus of War"burton's 

 edition of 1751, in which he is said to have can- 

 celled so many sheets ; no doubt that he might 

 add his own personalities and literary nugcB to the 

 ample store accumulated at Twickenham. The 

 best way to determine this point would be to try 

 the plan adopted with regard to Goldsmith's 

 famous bloom -coloured coat. The tailor's ledyrer 

 verified Boswell's anecdote, and disjjlayed Goldy 

 in all the glory of his gay attire. Pope's printers' 

 books, if they still exist (Bowyer, Whitefriars, 

 was one of his latest printers), would disclose 

 some curious and interesting details. 



3. " The Dunciacl" — The question, whether 

 there was an edition of The Dunciad in 1727, has 

 been well discussed in " N. & Q." I quite agree 

 with Mr. Markland and E. T. D. that no such edi- 

 tion ever existed. The printed correspondence is 

 conclusive on this point; but there is another 

 authority which has hitherto been overlooked. 

 We have a case of Pope versus Pope, and within 

 the compass of the same volume. In the Poetical 

 Works, vol. ii. 4to., 1735, a very handsome spe- 

 cimen of typography by Wright, and published by 

 Gilliver — Pope, in a note to The Dunciad, states 

 as follows : 



" This poem was writ in 1727. In the next year an 

 imperfect edition was published at Dublin. . . . But 

 there was no perfect edition before that of London in 4to., 

 1728-9." 



In the small edition of his Works, published the 

 year foHowing (1736), Pope altered the figures, 

 and so they continue, substituting 1726 for 1727, 

 and 1728 for 1728-9. Why was the change made ? 

 Simply, I conclude, from that love of mystification 

 and trick (combined now and then with cautious 

 prudence) in which Pope revelled, and which, 

 indeed, was inseparable from his nature. And 

 with all his acuteness and finesse he often blun- 

 dered. In the same editions in which he states 

 that The Dunciad was written in 1726, he states 

 in another note that it was written half a year or 

 more after the publication of the Miscellanies, 

 which drew upon him and Swift the scurrility and 

 falsehood of a host of scribblers. " He had now 

 an opportunity," he said, " of dragging into light 

 ihosQ common enemies of mankind ;" and "this it 

 was that gave birth to The Dunciad,'' &c. We 

 turn to the Miscellanies, and find the preface 

 signed " Jonath. Swift, Alex. Pope," and dated 

 "Twickenham, May 27, 1727." It would have 

 puzzled the poet to explain how attacks published 

 half a year or more after May 27, 1727, could 

 have given birth to The Dunciad, said to be 

 written in 1726. Pope's quarrels with Aaron 

 Hill, Lady Mary, and The Dunces, supply similar 

 instances of inconsistency and mis-statement ; but 

 in truth his artifice and contrivances, from their 

 extent and dramatic accompaniments, are as 

 amusing as a comedy. He does it, as Mrs. 



Quickly says, " like one of the harlotry players." 

 Pope was never tired of pointing his brilliant 

 couplets, balancing his antitheses, and disposing 

 his imagery; but facts and dates were the "beg- 

 garly elements " of his poetical creed, which he 

 discarded or dealt with at pleasure. 



R. Carkutheks. 

 Inverness, Sept. 9. 



The Dublin Reprint of " The Dunciad." — I gave 

 it as my opinion (Vol. x., p. 199.) that the first 

 edition of The Dunciad printed in Dublin was the 

 "London printed" of George Faulkner, I now 

 submit a fact in corroboration. 



In the first perfect edition — the quarto — there 

 appears (B. 1. line 104.) the following note, omitted 

 in Warburton's and all subsequent editions : 



"This verse in the surreptitious editions stood thus: 



• And furious D foam,' &c., which, in that printed 



in Ireland, was unaccountably filled up with the great 

 name of Dryden." 



By the phrase " in that [edition] printed in 

 Ireland," the writer clearly refers to one edition, 

 all published or at least known to him ; he would 

 otherwise have said " in those," or " in one of 

 those." And the edition referred to is that of 

 George Faulkner, where we read : 



" And furious Dryden foam in Wharton's rage." 



This note suggests some curious speculations, 

 with which, however, I shall not trouble you, as 

 they are not connected with the immediate sub- 

 ject of inquiry. I must, however, observe that 

 Pope — assuming Pope to have been the writer of 

 the note — got rid of the offence of having so used 

 or abused "the great name of Dryden" by an 

 untruth. So far as I know and believe, there is 

 no surreptitious edition in which the line will be 

 found printed, as quoted by Pope, "furious 



D foam." On the contrary, in the first 



edition, as I consider it — the "A. Dodd, 1728" 

 — it is printed : 



" And furious D n foam in Wh 's rage." 



It is not therefore " unaccountable " that the 

 Dublin printer filled up the line with the names 

 of Dryden and Wharton. 



In " the second edition " of A. Dodd, which I 

 believe to have been a mere corrected copy of the 

 first, we read : 



" And furious D s foam." 



The Writer of the Articles, &c. 



Pope's Nurse. — The following inscription is, or 

 was, on a stone in Twickenham churchyard : 



" To the memory of Mary Beach, who died November 5, 

 1725, aged 78. Alex. Pope, whom she nursed in his in- 

 fancy, and constantly attended for thirty-eight years, in 

 gratitude to a faithful old servant, erected this stone." 



J.T. 



