146 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 69. 



marque du Sacerdoce; se portait ordinairement a la tete, et 

 guelquefois aux mains. Forme des mitres dans leur oriffine, 

 et dans les terns posterieurs," &c. 



This dissertation, which is illustrated by several 

 plates, will repay for the time spent in reading it. 

 I presume Inquirer is acquainted with Godwyn's 

 Hfo^es and Aaron., where he will find something. 



W. Dn. 



JSpiscopal Mitre. — The origin of the peculiar 

 form of the episcopal mitre is the cloven tongues 

 which descended on the Apostles on the day of 

 Pentecost, with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Of this 

 the mitre is an emblem. L. M. M. R. 



DRYDEN S ESSAY UPON SATIRE. 



(Vol. ii., pp. 422. 462.) 



The Quei-y proposed by your correspondent, 

 as to the authorship of the Essay on Satire, is 

 a very interesting one, and I am rather surprised 

 that it has not yet been replied to. In favour 

 of your correspondent's view, and I think it is 

 perhaps the strongest argument which can be al- 

 leged, is Dean Lockier's remark : — 



" Could anytliiiig be more impudent than his 

 (Sheffield's) publishing that satire, for writing which 

 Dryden was beaten in Rose Alley (and which was so 

 remarkably known by the name of the ' Kose Alley 

 Satire') as his own ? Indeed he made a few alterations 

 in it, but these were only verbal, and generally for the 

 worse." — Spence's Anecdotes, edit. Singer, p. 64. 



Dean Lockier, it must be observed, was well 

 acquainted with Dryden from 1685 to the time of 

 his death ; and appears to speak so positively that 

 he would seem to have acquired his knowledge 

 from Di'yden's own information. His first intro- 

 duction to that great poet arose from an observ- 

 ation made in Dryden's hearing about his Mac 

 Fleckno ; and it is therefore the more likely that 

 he would be correctly informed as to the author's 

 other satires. Dean Loekier was, it may be added, 

 a good critic ; and his opinions on literary subjects 

 are so just, that it is to be regretted we have only 

 vei'y few of them. 



I confess I do not attach much weight to the 

 argument arising from the lines on the Earl of 

 Mulgrave himself contained in the poem. To 

 transfer suspicion from himself, in so general a 

 satire, it was necessary to include his own name 

 amongst the rest ; but, though the lines are some- 

 what obscure, it is, after all, as respects him, com- 

 pared with the other persons mentioned, a very 

 gentle flagellation, and something like what chil- 

 dren call a make-believe. Indeed Rochester, in a 

 letter to his friend Henry Saville (21st Nov. 1679), 

 speaks of it as a panegyric. 



On the other hand, Mulgrave expressly denied 



Dryden's being the author, in the lines in his 

 Essay on Poetry, — 



" Tho' praised and punished for another's rhymes." 



and by inference claimed the poem, or at least 

 the lines on Rochester, as his own. Dryden, in 

 the Preface to his Virgil, praises the Essay on 

 Poetry in the highest terms ; but says not a word 

 to dispute Mulgrave's statement, though he might 

 then have safely claimed the Essay on Satire, if 

 his own ; and though he must have been aware 

 that, by his silence, he was virtually resigning his 

 sole claim to its authorship. It was subsequently 

 included in JMulgrave's works, and has ever since 

 gone under the joint names of himself and Dryden. 



On the question of internal evidence critics 

 difier. Your correspondent can see in it no hand 

 but Dryden's ; while Malone will scarcely allow 

 that Dryden made even a few verbal alterations 

 in it (Life, p. 130.) ; and Sir Walter Scott is not 

 inclined to admit any further participation on the 

 part of the great poet than " a few hints for revi- 

 sion," and denies its merit altogether — a position 

 in which I think very few, who carefully peruse it, 

 will agree with him. 



I am disposed to take a middle course between 

 your correspondent and Dryden's two biographers, 

 and submit that there is quite sufficient internal 

 evidence of joint ownership. I cannot think such 

 lines as — 



" I, who so wise and humble seem to be. 

 Now my own vanity and pride can't see ; " 



or, — 



" I, who have all this while been finding fault, 

 E'en with my master who first satire taught, 

 And did by that describe the task so hard, 

 It seems stupendious, and above reward." 



or,— 



" To tell men freely of their foulest faults, 



To laugh at their vain deeds and vainer thougVits : " 



would proceed from Dryden, while it is to be 

 noticed that the inharmonious rhymes " faults" 

 and "thoughts" were favourites of Mulgrave, and 

 occur twice in his Essay on Poetry. 



Neither can I doubt that the verses on Shaftes- 

 bury, — the four "will any dog;" the four "For 

 words and wit did anciently agree;" the four 

 " Mean in each action ;" the two " Each pleasure 

 has its price" — are Dryden's additions, with many 

 others, which a careful reader will instantly 

 rppropriate. 



I can find no sufficient authority for the state- 

 ment of Malone and Sir W. Scott, that Pope re- 

 vised the Essay on Satire. It is well known he 

 corrected that on Poetry. Jas. Crossley. 



Manchester, Feb. 10. 1851. 



