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LONDON, JANUARY 1, 1921.

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As at present arranged the first section
is a hotch-potch of some eighty pieces.
In it England jostles Ireland, and the
personal is submerged in the general. For
example The South Sea Project
close proximity to 'The Description of an
Irish Feast,' and the lines To Mr. Pope
while he was writing the Dunciad' are
followed by 'A Love Poem from a Phy-
sician.' Chronology is frequently ignored.
Helter-Skelter,' which was written in 1730,
A Love Song in
is followed by The Puppet Show,' which
was written in 1721, and

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the Modern Taste,' which was written in
1733, is followed by The Storm' which
was written in 1722.

The second and third sections comprise
England and France-Emerson's English Traits Dixon respectively pieces written during Lord
On what basis the

of Furness Fells-Admiral Benbow-Notes on the Early Carteret's viceroyalty and pieces addressed

de Redvers. 15-The Tragedy of New England-Mlle. to Stella and Vanessa.

Mercandotti-Friday Street-The Talbot Inn, Ashbourne,

16-Death of Queen Anne---Ancient History of Assam-pieces have been selected it is impossible to

Royal Arms in Churches - "Now then-!" - Domestic divine. The first of the sections is remark-
History of the Nineteenth Century. 17-London Post-able for omitting far more pieces of the
Walthamstow-Dr. Alexander Keith-Picture by Sir period than are in it, and for containing a
Leslie Ward-Missing Words Wanted-Authors of Quota-piece written in the time of Carteret's

NOTES ON BOOKS :- Shakespeare's Last Years in predecessor.

London. 1536-1592-A History of Scotland from the

Roman Evacuation to the Disruption, 1843'-' Leicester

Notices to Correspondents.

SWIFT's name is now generally associated

with his prose writings, but his powers ars

Where it

no less conspicuous in his verse.
his command of language more evident
than in 'Cadenus and Vanessa'? Where
is his irony more impressive than in 'Poetry,
a Rhapsody? Where is his intensity
more developed than in 'The Journal of a
Modern Lady'? Where is his peculiar
turn of thought more displayed than in
"The Petition of Mrs. Frances Harris'?
Where will greater versatility be found than
between the lines addressed to Stella on
her last birthday, and those 'On the Death
of Dr. Swift? But at present Swift's
Its arrange-

verse is in a state of chaos.

ment is neither according to subject nor

chronology, its meaning is hidden from all

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second of these sections there are several pieces relating to English politics, such as The Run upon the Bankers,' 'The Horrid Plot discovered by Harlequin, the Bishop of Rochester's Dog,' 'The Dog and Thief,' and Mr. Pulteney being put out of the Council.' No attention has been paid to chronology in placing the pieces written during the agitation against Wood's copper coinage and some of these pieces are separated by an interval of many pages from the others.

Finally, the last section is devoted to pieces which are designated Trifles, but presented as they are without method or comment they might more fitly be termed Nonsense. Pieces which have an important bearing on Swift's life are mixed with pieces of no value, and by the ingenuity of successive editors the battle of rime between Swift and Sheridan has been broken up until it is unintelligible.

No verse requires annotation more than that of Swift. In it the spirit of poetry has no part, and each piece has its origin in some public or private incident. What light is thrown on 'A Ballad on the Game of Traffic' and 'A Ballad to the Tune of the Cut-purse,' when it is known that they were written at the same time in the summer of 1702 after the famous Gloucestershire election in which Jack Howe was a protagonist, and that the scene was Berkeley Castle and not as one of the headings states Dublin Castle. What interest does it give to The Journal of a Modern Lady' and 'An Epistle to a Lady who desired the Author to make Verses on her in the Heroic Style,' when it is known that the lady was the wife of Lord Gosford's ancestor, Sir Arthur Acheson, and the only child of Philip Savage, one of the great men of Ireland in Swift's day. What light is thrown on 'The Progress of Marriage' when it is known. that the marriage in question was that of Dean Pratt, erstwhile Provost of Trinity College, to Lady Philippa Hamilton, and that the autograph is dated January, 1722, a few weeks after Pratt's death. Again what light is thrown on the 'Directions for making a Birthday Song' when it is known that the autograph is dated October, 1729, and that its recipient was the wily Matthew Pilkington who produced soon afterwards an ode for the birthday of George II.

The present collection of Swift's verse has been the work of many hands. The first collection was in the Miscellanies which were issued by John Morphew in 1711.

It

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comprised thirteen pieces. That collection was followed by the one in the Miscellanies in which Swift and Pope joined in 1727. It added twenty-two pieces to the thirteen, which were reprinted in it. To these there were added in another volume of Swift and Pope's Miscellanies, published in 1732, ten more pieces. Then in 1735 the prince of Dublin printers as Swift called George Faulkner, issued as the second volume of his edition of Swift's Works a collection in which an addition of sixty pieces was made to the forty-five previously collected. To that collection Faulkner added further in the sixth, eighth and eleventh volumes of his edition of Swift's Works issued respectively in 1738, 1746, and 1762. Meantime in England Dr. Johnson's contemporary, John Hawkesworth, whose ambition was greater than his performance, took a part, and to him succeeded John Nichols, whose researches in relation to Swift have afforded vast material for subsequent editors and biographers. Finally, Vice-Provost Barrett, whose fame now rests more on his penurious habits than on his academic attainments, and Sir Walter Scott gave their aid.

The efforts of the later contributors to the collection have resulted in the addition not only of pieces of doubtful authenticity, but even of pieces actually known to be written by others. Amongst these are 'Jack Frenchman's Lamentation,' which as Prof. Firth kindly pointed out to me was written by Congreve; The Garden Plot,' which was written by Dr. William King; A Town Eclogue,' which was written by Jonathan Smedley, Leonard Welsted, and two others; John Dennis, the Sheltering Poet's Invitation to Richard Steele,'; 'A Parody on the Speech of the Provost of Trinity College to the Prince of Wales'; 'Dr. Delany's Villa,' which was written by Sheridan; To the Citizens'; 'A Young Lady's Complaint for the stay of Dean Swift in England'; 'The Logicians Refuted,' which is claimed as the work of Goldsmith A Vindication of the Libel,' which was written by William Dunkin; An Ode to Humphrey French,' and 'An Answer to a Friend's Question.' In addition John Forster has attributed to Swift An Answer to Lines from Mayfair,' which appears to have been written by Prior. On the other hand several pieces correctly attributed to Swift, by the earlier contributors to the collection have been rejected by their successors. Amongst these are 'The Life

;

6

To supply the deficiencies of existing editions of Swift's verse is not impossible. A small expenditure of time and labour has enabled me to date and trace the origin of almost every piece that Swift is known to have written, and to add some new pieces to the collection, and this work will, I hope, prove of assistance to the future editor of a worthy edition.

and Genuine Character of Dean Swift,' A there is an extract from The Weekly Register Christmas-box for Namby-Pamby,' 'Hard-referring to a speech of Pitt's on the Corn ing's Resurrection from Hell upon Earth,' Importation Bill in October, 1799. But and A Trip to Dunkirk.' perhaps the most interesting entry is a set of doggerel verses entitled "The New Fashion Shaver.' From a literary point of view there is of course little to be said for these verses, but they have a certain interest as representing a section of Radical opinion of the period. The reference to the siege of Toulon as taking place "last year dates the writing of the lines from 1794. Whether or not they are original I do not know. There is no mention of their being copied from a newspaper, and the spelling is faulty and punctuation entirely absent. In the following transcript I have corrected the one and supplied the other. The writer, whoever he may have been, was a clumsy rimester. In the last verse the reference is

F. ELRINGTON BALL.

A RADICAL WEAVER'S COMMON-
PLACE BOOK.

THE book from which the extracts given
below are taken is a small volume of sixty-
eight pages backed with stiff brown paper-
covered boards and measuring 7 in. by
5 in. The leaves are stitched and the
paper varies in quality, suggesting that the
volume had a domestic origin. The book
has been used from both ends, forty-five
pages in one direction and twenty-three
in the other, and here and there a leaf has
been torn out. Originally meant as a
weaver's Casting and Calculating Book
it came to be used by the owner also for
other purposes, and some twenty-six pages
are used, not for technical or business
entries, but as a kind of commonplace
book into which are copied paragraphs
from newspapers and books, epitaphs, arith-
metical problems, &c. There are also some
entries which may be original matter.

There is no owner's name on the first

clearly to some local incident.

THE NEW FASHION SHAVER.

1.

As Paddy was walking upon the highway,
He met his friend Dondle and to him did say:
Good-morrow, dear Dondle, come tell me I pray,-
Do you think it is true what the people do say?
After all their humming and drumming,
Some say that the French they are coming,
Without breeches and broogs they are running,
Believe me, dear Dondle, it's true.

2.

The French they are fighting for all the world dear,
This world of oppression they shortly will clear:
If they meet with a traitor they'll stop his career,
And cut his head off quite close to his car!
It's a terrible method of shaving!
A delicate new way of shaving!

I would not lie under the Razor
For anything under the sun!

have done,

3.

What would you do if the French they should

come?

drum?

Would you fight for them, or would you run,
When you hear the sound of the trumpet and
By my faith, I would speak of their favour,
For fear of the new fashioned shaver!
I would not lie under their Razor
For anything under the sun!

page at either end or on the covers, and There's one thing I'll ask you and then I'll from among the numerous names of persons scattered among the pages of the book it would be difficult to decide which, if any, belonged to the writer of the extracts. That the book belonged to a hand-loom weaver living and working in the vicinity of Manchester is, however, perfectly clear. The period covered lies between the years 1793 and 1816, these being the earliest and latest dates that occur, and judging from the nature of the political entries the owner As for Billy Pitt I would have him to take care, seems to have been a man of very decided For the French they are conquering everywhere Radical opinions, of a type made familiar And all the whole chief they do solemnly swear later by Samuel Bamford and G. J. Holy- If they get hold of him they'll clip off his hair. oake. Some Questions and Answers rela-He's a hell of a fellow for vaunting, He's got such a fit of carranting, tive to the National Debt' are taken from I wish that the Devil may haunt him,

4.

5.

Come fill up your bumper and let us drink deep
Of whisky itself, it composes to sleep;

A toast we must have, and the French it must be,
For they never intended to hurt you or me.
But Justice they always commended,
And Mankind they always befriended,
And Friendship to us they intended,
To set poor old England free!

6.

Don't you remember, dear Dondle, last year,
They sent us to Toulon like sheep from the shear?
They bid us set down without dread or fear,
For the French were so frightened, they durst not

come near.

But they came running like bulls of a tedder,
And thrashed us as thick as tanned leather,
And drove us into ships altogether,
Like as many young pigs in a creel.

7.

Good morrow, dear Dondle, before that we part,
Let's drink to the memory of honest young heart,
Who died like a man although but a boy,
To think of his fate, how it sickened my joy.
For he died for the good of the Nation,
For which he has got a fine station,
A man may be sure of salvation
That dies for his Liberty's cause.

and entitled

Another entry, in the same handwriting; A Church and King Creed,' appears to belong to about the same period, but may be later than 1794, as the war taxes became very heavy only after 1796, when the outcry was general among all classes.

A CHURCH AND KING CREED.

"I believe in one Billy Fitt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, mighty Master of Lords and Commons and of all Court Intrigues visible and invisible; and in one Secretary Henry Dundas, beloved of Pitt before all women, Minister of Ministers, Head of Heads, Light of Lights, Very Man of Very Man, beloved not hated, being of one opinion with our Creator, by whom all Ministers are made; who for us men, and for our taxation came up from Scotland, and was incarnate by the Devil, and was made fit for Billy's purpose, and is now chief Controller of the East India Company: he descended into Scotland and was there burnt in effigy, and the third day he came again according to the Newspapers, and now sitteth at the right hand of Pitt, from whence he shall come to judge both the loyal and disloyal, till folly shall have an end. And I believe in old George, the giver of all places and pensions. who together with Pitt and Dundas is worshipped and glorified, who speaks by Proclamation. I believe in one system of corruption, and I believe that the remission of taxes will not take place till the Resurrection of the dead, and I look for a better Government in the world to come. Amen. At the other end of the book is a further set of verses entitled 'New Song, called The Rambling Boy,' the merit of which is about

equal to that of the 'New Fashion Shaver.' The neat writing suggests a copy, but there are some corrections, one or two words being struck out and others inserted, and the sixth and seventh verses are placed in wrong order. This occasions a footnote, which reads:

"Mr. Editor,-The 6th and 7th verses they are placed wrong, for the 6th is where the 7th should be and 7th where the 6th should be. I am, Yours, &c., Jas. Greaves."

From this it would appear that James Greaves was the writer or transcriber of the verses and that he contributed them to some local newspaper. Possibly Greaves was the owner of the book, but this is by no means certain. A loose sheet of paper preserved between the leaves, and setting is dated from forth a petition of weavers in the year 1758, Hollinwood, and

bears eighteen signatures the first of which is that of J. Greaves, who seems to have been the draftsman. Perhaps this Greaves was the father of the writer of the 'Rambling Boy.' Hollinwood lies between Oldham and Manformer town, with which it is now merged. chester, about two miles south-west of the But in the eighteenth century it was a selfcontained village.

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Oh, but if I was in Paris I would be a valiant man, I would fight for my Liberty, but never for the Train,

I would beat as many Train men as would stand in a row,

And I'd make them fly before me like an arrow from a bow.

These three extracts form the chief items of political interest in the book. The other entries call for no particular notice, but the following recipe for making porter is worth quoting for the sake of the prices. No date is given but it is opposite a sales item of 1801. INGREDIENTS FOR 6 GALLONS OF PORTER.

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