lines not rhyming, as they should. What is the matter with them? Has the rhyming word dropped off of the 3d line, or were both lines tranfcribed incorrectly? They were incorrectly transcribed, there can be no doubt, and should read in this fashion, or fomething like it: "Her beams (which fome dull men called hair) dividing, Part with her cheeks, part with her lips did sport; But thefe, as rude, her breath put by; ftill, gliding, Some wifelier downwards fought; but falling fhort," etc. "We e are at length arrived at that river, about the uneven running of which my friend, Mr. William Shakespeare, makes Henry Hotspur quarrel fo highly with his " fellow-rebels; and, for his fake, I have been fomething curious to confider the fcantlet of ground that angry Monfieur would have had in; but can not find it could deferve VIRORUM. Voltaire, in his fecond letter, addressed his choler," etc. In a note upon this to His Highness the Prince of Brunswick, 66 Sur Rabelais et sur d'autres d'avoir 66 calls paffage, the Rev. Alfred Suckling says: "It is worthy of remark, that Sir John mal parlé de la religion Chrétienne," cites Suckling calls Shakespeare his friend: this a paffage in the 28th Letter of the Epifis probably an expreffion arifing fimply tola Obfcurorum Virorum, from what he from his admiration of our immortal bard; an ancient tranflation" (of course yet he might have feen that writer, while into French) of thefe extraordinary letters. a boy, and, very probably, had been in his I fhall be very much obliged to any company." It is poffible, certainly, but of your readers, for any bibliographical fcarcely probable, Sir John being born in information regarding this "ancient tranf 1609, and "Mr. William" dying in 1616. lation" and, indeed, a notice of any anMr. Suckling alfo notices a portrait of Sir cient or modern verfion of these "Letters John, painted by Vandyke, and formerly of Obfcure Men" will be gratefully received by in the poffeffion of Lady Southcott, in which he is reprefented as holding a folio book of poetry in his left hand, and a few of its leaves with his right. On the edge of the book is a paper, on which is written, Shakspeare. But enough of this. PAULUS SILENTIARIUS. THE THREE WARNINGS. Can any of your readers tell me when and where "Death and the Rake," a poem by Nathaniel Cotton, was first printed? The collection in which I find it (“ Various Pieces in Verfe and Profe; by the A few words more, however, in reference late Nathaniel Cotton, M. D." 1791), to the poem with which I began. The published three years after his death, is the 4th stanza, as I have copied it, and as it only one of his works mentioned by reads in all the editions that I have seen, Lowndes; but Allibone, in his Dictionary, early as well as late, is, as the reader may speaks of a volume (so, at least, I take it to have noticed, imperfect, the 1ft and 3d be) of Fables, to which he prefixes the GARTH'S DISPENSARY. The dates 1751, '64, and in which the piece is likely to be found, if one may judge by the Can you tell me when, and by whom, place it occupies in the collection already the blanks were filled, and the allegorical mentioned. My reafon for the query names explained, in Garth's "Dispensary?" above is, that it (the poem, not the query) I have read his biographers to no purpose; bears a fingular refemblance to Three Warnings" of Mrs. Thrale, which the queftion does not feem to have occurred to them. I have, alfo, confulted was first published (I learn from Hayward's Lowndes in vain. He fays the poem recent life of Mrs. Piozzi) in 1766, in a paffed through many editions, (three, I volume of Miscellanies, got up by Dr. think, in the first year,) but that is all, Johnson for the benefit of Mrs. Williams, which is nothing to my purpose. My own one of his dependents or penfioners, as the opinion is that the blanks were fupplied, readers of Bofwell may remember. The and the names explained, by Dr. Johnson, leading idea of both poems is the fame; when he edited that bookfellers" fpeculathe measure, too, bating one or two irregu- tion-the collection of the poets-which lar lines, in " The Three Warnings," is has fince borne his name, and that he peridentical. Mrs. Thrale's verfion is incom- formed the work with his ufual carelessness. parably the best, her conception of the fub- That the tradition, (for I prefume there ject being clearer and more profound than was one,) which he followed in his interthe good Doctor's, and her handling of it more artistic. Whether it be original with pretation of the allegorical names, was not, in all cafes, to be depended on, admits of no doubt. Indeed, it could fcarcely be otherwife, fo infignificant muft have been fome of the perfons whom Dr. Garth fatirized, and fo little known beyond the narrow walks of their profeffion. Chalmers agrees with Johnfon in his interpretation of thefe names; in fact, follows him blindly. The editor of the Chifwick Edition of the Poets (I forget who he was) differs occafionally from both. her, or with him, is a matter worth settling. My own opinion is, that "Thrale's gray widow" committed a larceny, felonioufly appropriating the literary goods of the aforefaid Dr. Cotton for her own purpofes. Or did both "convey" it from fome older original-a fable, or apologue of the good old monkish days? R. H. S. MISS POLLY BAKER, Abbé Raynal, in his Hiftory of the Indies, introduces the ftory of Mifs Polly Baker, and her fpeech before a Court of Judicature in the Colony of Connecticut, on her fifth profecution for having baftard children, "which influenced the Court to difpenfe with her punishment, and induced one of her judges to marry her the next day." The Abbé relates this occurrence as a matter of fact. I believe the authorship of this fpeech is ufually attributed to Dr. Franklin, but do not know on what authority. Can you give the date of its firft publication, and true name of the author? S. At I have an early copy of "The Difpenfary," (3d edition, 1699,) with the blanks filled in, and the allegorical names explained, in the handwriting of the time, I am inclined to think, by Garth himself. any rate, the writer, whoever he was, was very well pofted in the details of the fubject. Take the name of Colon, for inftance, the firft allegorical perfonage, if I remember rightly, in the poem. In Chalmers and Johnfon Colon is Dr. Lee; in the Chifwick edition, he is Birch, an apothecary. In my copy he is "Geftrop, an Apothecary in Hattengarden." Horoscope,a little further on, is Houghton, an apothe Please R. H. S. cary, according to the Chifwick edition; To conclude for the present. but Dr. Barnard, in Johnson and Chalmers. confider the query with which I opened, The latter were right, or nearly fo, for my as being put again, and another added to copy has on the margin, "Dr. Bernard it, viz.: What is the original of "The late aftronomy profeffor at Oxon." Who, Difpenfary?" I know what is faid of its fave the author, or fome of his intimate being an imitation of Boileu's "Lutrin." friends, could have fupplied the data, in the last half of the note, which fhows the appofiteness of the name, Horoscope? Southey dedicates THE DOCTOR to a Diafenna, in the 3d book, is Gilftrop, an myfterious perfonage, whom he calls The apothecary, (query, Geftrop?) in Johnson, Bhow Begum Kedora Niabarma. Can you Chalmers, and the Chifwick edition; in inform me the meaning of these strange my copy he is " Goddard, an Apothe- words? and alfo whether they refer to a cary.' real perfon, or are fimply a quiz? "Two Brothers, nam'd Afcarides, THE BEGUM. J. J. Y. UNPUBLISHED TRANSLATION BY DRYDEN. (?) The poem below, a translation from Dr. Henry More, the Platonift, is copied from the fecond edition of his "Philofophical Poems" (1647). The MS., which is written on a fly-leaf at the end of the volume, is in an old hand, not much later, I judge, than the volume itself; the last twelve lines were written when the hand, if it be the fame, which I doubt, had unAfter a are the Pearcis, apothecaries, in the three AN editions juft mentioned; according to my copy they are "Parrot an Apothecary & his partner." A few pages further we come to the "Younger Afkaris," (evidently the fingular of Afcarides,) who is Parrot, as in my copy. In the 4th Book occurs a blank RJohnfon and Chalmers, and, for aught I know, the Chiswick man, fill it up Rowe," and add, in a note at the bottom of the page, "Mr. Anthony Rowe." My copy has "Roe," under- dergone confiderable changes. neath of which is written "Clerk of ye careful examination of all the handwriting Kitchen." Celfus in the last book is Dr. of that period which I can procure (MS. Bateman, in the other editions; in my copy and fac-fimiles), I have come to the con"The Author," a perfon of fome confe- clufion that the tranflation was made by quence in a poem like "The Difpenfary," John Dryden, at, or near, the beginning of though Johnson and Chalmers did not feem to think fo, judging from the cool manner in which they robbed him of his role. Guiacum, a spirit whom Celfus meets in "The filent Region of the fleeting shades," is Dr. Morton in Johnson, Chalmers & Co.; according to my copy he is "Hobs a furgeon deceafed." The fact of Hobs having been a surgeon on earth explains the lines which the poet puts in his mouth: "Thofe Spectres feam'd with Scars that threaten there, The Victims of my late ill conduct are." his poetical career. I bafe this opinion on certain peculiarities in the formation of the capitals, particularly the M's; in the way of internal evidence I find an exceffive use of the verb "do" in its various conjugations (a weakness with glorious old John in his poetical youth), and an almost immediate repetition of fimilar rhymes. The volume belonged, in 1735, to one R. Palmer. R. H. S. Monocardia-fingle heartedness, New Triumphs do my foul upheave, Is darker than the fhade of Night; |