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man of the Committee of Secrecy prefaced his motion for the impeach ment of the Poet †, and, on his fubfequent examination, the inhumanity and illegality with which he was treated by the interrogators, who certainly, in their eagerness to procure fome politive proof against the Earl of Oxford, afked him questions which, had he anfwered them to their wishes, would have implicated his life.

The querits (fays Dr. John fon) "behaved with the boisteroufnefs of men elated with recent authority." How a little recent "brief authority" fhould fo elate and make men, elevated in their stations, and still more elevated by their abilities; men to whom the world has given credit for general libe rality of fentiment; "play fuch fantaftic tricks before high heaven?" is only to be accounted for, by fuppofing them in a very eminent degree poffeffed by the mania of PARTY, which infection was pretty extensively diffused through the nation, and which, upon reflection, certainly affords another key for the explanation of the enigma refpecting the conduct of Wal pole which was quoted in the beginning of this article.

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It appears that the examination of Prior was upon oath, which (fays Dr. Johnson) was administered by Bof cawen, a Middlefex Juftice, who was at laft going to write his atteftation on the wrong fide of the paper !"

The Poet was, as has been obferved, ordered into the clofe cuftody of the Sergeant at Arms; a circumftance with which, notwithstanding the terrific feafoning of Lord Conningfby, he was fo little affected, that he wrote, during his feclufion, his very elegant and fprightly poem of Alma, and also a fong, which he taught to a relation of mine, who, from his being intimate with her father, a very eminent painter, used, when a child, occafionally to vifit him in his prifon houte. This fong I have often heard her repeat; but fo many years have fince elapfed, that, even with the affiftance of her daughter, I can only recollect a few verfes of it, and thofe perhaps not quite correct. Thefe are only valuable as they, like many pen and ink fketches of great mafters, give a few characteristical traits, and, while they glance at his peculiar propenfities, ferve to exhibit the gay turn of his mind in a season, as one fhould fuppofe, of peculiar diftress.

June 9, 1715, Mr. R. Walpole ftated, that he was commanded by the Committee of Secrecy to move, that a warrant may be iffued to apprehend certain perfons, and that no Member be permitted to leave the Houfe. The warrant being granted, and the doors locked, feveral perfons were named by the Speaker and Mr. W. particularly Matthew Prior and Mr. Thomas Harley, who were taken into cuftody by the Sergeant at Arms. On the 4th of September following, the Committee of Secrecy, having previously examined Mr. Prior's books and papers, had found that crimes of a very high nature ought to be imputed to him, and from a report of his having met and conferred with the Earl of Oxford, his relations, and dependents, and alio from his contempt of the authority of Parliament, and his prevarication, they thought it their duty to move that he be committed to clofe cuftody.-TINDAL's Continuation of Rapin.

June 10th, 1715, Mr. R. Walpole moved for an impeachment against Matthew Prior, Efq.

I have been much puzzled with this paffage. Does Dr. J. mean to fneer at the Magiftrate whom he inelegantly terms a Middlefex Juftice? Does he mean to quote this circumftance as an inftance of his ignorance, and endeavour to make us believe that he did not know on which fide of the paper to fign the jurat? In either point of view, it is fubject to thofe obfervations which might always have been made upon his works when he defcended from his literary altitude, and attempted to play with edge tools, at the management of which he was by no means dexterous.

It appears that the Gentleman whom he has defcribed by the above epithet was the Right Hon. Hugh Bofcawen, Comptroller of his Majesty's Houfhold, a Member of the Privy Council, and of the House of Commons (Vide Hiftorical Regitter, Vol. I. p. 340, and Vol. III. p. 110.); he fat in Parliament for Penryn, Cornwall, and was alfo in the Commiffion of the Peace for the County of Middlefex, &c. &c. It would be as abfurd to dwell longer upon this attempt at mifreprefentation as it would be to fuppole that this Gentleman did not know on which fide of the paper to write his name, to which, had he been ever fo ignorant, the fignature of the Examinant

would have directed him.

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Weybourn, Efq. Sergeant at Arms. His houfe was in Brownlow- / ftreet, Long-Acre, where, it should be recollected, at that period, a number of very genteel families retided.

*** Here a mental biatus occurs, of one or more verfes, defcriptive of his reception at the Sergeant's house, and probably of his meeting with Jack, so celebrated for his wit (to whom I am forry I cannot direct the reader's attention), and the rest of the family.

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In order to elucidate this verfe, it will be neceffary to observe, that this was the Lady whom Dr. Arbuthnot has to elegantiy defcribed by the epithet of "Brimftone Bitch," and whom the flattery of the Poet has made in beauty co-equal to Venus, e. g.

"When Chloe's picture was to Venus fhewn,

Surpris'd, the goddets took it for her own," &c. and upon whom he has bestowed a hundred other compliments equally hyperbolical, which have caused her to be much better known by the name of Prior's Chice thàn her own. That fuch a Ladv, or, according to Dr. Johnton, who has awkwardly imitated the coarfenefs of Arbuthnot, fuch a dirty drab," existed, and that, with refpect to the Poet,

"For real Kate he made the boddice,
"And not for an ideal goddess,"

is well known; but it is not quite fo well known, though equally certain, that the was, at the time of her first acquaintance with Prior, a married woman, the wife of a Coachman they had, I think, both been in fervice, and it was fuppofed the Bard furnished them with the means of opening a Punch house in Long-acre, to which, as Richardfon fates from information, he retired when his mind was

"ftrain'd to the height

"In that celestial coloquy fublime,'

which the company of Oxford, Bolingbroke, Swift, and Pope, afforded, and which fublime feast of reason, I have been assured, had one night nearly ended in a riot that might have conveyed them before Boscawen, or some other Middlesex Justice. This fracas arose from the circumftance of Chloe's rufhing into the room of a tavern in Covent Garden, where they were affembled, and running up to Prior, whofe wig fhe pulled off, which, to the attonithment of the company, the threw on the back of the fire, and, as foon as he had refcued it from the flames, inufted upon his leaving his celestial coloquy," and retiring with her.

With this termagant mistress, it is certain, when he had left more elegant and elevated company, he ufed frequently to spend, or rather to finish, his evenings, and probably met at her houie beings the very reverfe in manners, education, and habits of life, of thofe he had left; among these, it has been faid, he used to imoke his pipe; and it is not unlikely that he might confider the hours that he paffed in a houfe where he was truly esteemed to be the greatest man

that

Vide two extracts of original letters from Dr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Watkins, European Magazine, Vol. XIII. page 8.

Here light the candles, Hetty,
And, William, ftir the fire:
Your fervant, Mistress Betty:
I am yours, Mr. Prior !

Tho' a prifoner you must lie, muft lie;
Tho' a prifoner you must lie.

When I attempt to ope the bar,

My hat I humbly move.

But tell me, pretty neighbour,
At what o'clock you'll come?
"I cannot lose my labour,

"You'll be all day at home,"
Since a prisoner you must lie, muft lie
Since a prifoner you must lie.

This is as much of the fong as can now be recollected to which I have added fuch annotations as have been communicated to me in very early life

With fcorn fhe cries, "You come not by fome intimate friends of the Poet.

here

For money nor for love,"
Since a prifoner you must lie, muft lie;
Since a prifoner you must lie.

To make the bowl that cheers the heart
The choiceft drugs are chofen :
"Little lemons are moft tart,"

And eleven to the dozen!
Since a prifoner I must lie, muft lie;
Since a prifoner I must lie.

Come, Betty, fill another bowl.
"Lard, Sir! the watch is set !"
Nay

nay, I'll have it, by my foul !
I have not drank Nan yet † :
Since a prifoner I must lie, must lie;
Since a prifoner I must lie.

So now the reck'ning must be paid,
I must either tick or borrow.
"No matter, Sir," the Gypfey said,
"I'll call on you to morrow!
Since a prifoner you must lie, must lie;
Since a prifoner you must lie."

With respect to the beauty of this "type of Venus," I have been indeceafed, that her face was exquifitely formed by a Gentleman, long fince handfome, perhaps more fo than that of the Grecian ftatue of the goddess to whom her infatuated admirer was fo fond of comparing her, but her figure fo far from perfect, that "Friend Howard" might, without any violent ftretch of ingenuity, have eafily fancied a much more elegant form. As the advanced in life, he grew embonpoint; and a perfon who had occafion to fee her upon bufinefs, many years after the death of Prior, itated, that the had fo totally loft her attractions by her grief for that event, or concealed them in the clofenefs of her dress, that an eminent artist, who was alfo prefent, obferved, the was a far more correct representation of a witch than a god

defs.

Though her husband died but a fhort time before Prior, it is correctly stated in Dr. Arbuthnot's letter, before

that ever entered its doors, as fome of the happiest of his life. Of this grovelling propensity of the human mind, Prior was not, in those times, the only inftance. The relaxations of many great men, and many great geniufes, appear, to the refined ideas of the prefent age, not over elegant. If Bolingbroke, for thirty years of his life, had always rifen with the head-ache, we may reasonably conclude that he did not lay the foundation of it in regular fober fociety. Erafmus Lewis, Efq. Secretary to Lord Oxford, it has been hinted, has fometimes left his houfe in Cleveland-row for the delights to be found in Betty Coxe's. Swift was not always to be traced to thofe high circles which he was, by his learning and wit, fo well calculated both to inform and adorn. Humorifts consider themselves at liberty to pursue their game from the caftle to the cottage; and I am of opinion (to come nearer our own times) it would have been impoffible for the late Henry Fielding or Dr. Smollet to correctly to have delineated the interior of the kitchens or common rooms at inns if they had not vifited many of them.

A verfe, or perhaps more, seems here again to have been dropped, as I conceive, according to the conftruction of the poem, the scene changes too fuddenly to the punch-house.

:

Hereby hangs a tale. The Poet had, while leaning upon the bar, obferved to Chloe, that the lemons were very small. She replied, that they were, on that account, more tart and juicy he therefore ordered a dozen to be fqueezed, which were charged; but he having had the precaution to count the peels, and finding only eleven had been used, gives her a hint of the trick that she had played him, t "To the pious memory of Queen Anne," his conftant toaft.

referred

referred to, that "the Bard had had an escape by dying," as he was actually upon the point of marrying her; indeed matters had proceeded fo far that her wedding-clothes were befpoken. It has been also stated, that afterwards her circumstances were fo affluent, that he was enabled to keep her coach, frequent the Theatre every night, and fup by berfelf at the taverns in the neighbourhood."Droffiana, European Magazine.

MACKLIN.

I think it was in or about the year 1778, when this veteran, then confiderably more than eighty years of age, performed at Covent Garden Theatre, and, as I have been informed, he often appeared much hurt at the little notice that was taken of his very extraordinary exertions, and mortified to obferve the fmall power of attraction which even the performance of his best characters feemed to poffefs. One evening that the MISER was announced, he was, when drefled for that part, previous to the beginning of the play, walking behind the curtain with that truly excellent Actress the late Mrs. Green, who was alfo dreffed for the part of Lappet. While thus engaged, he was lamenting the degenerate taste of the age with respect to scenic exhibitions, and the caprice which too frequently operated against once favourite Actors. In the course of thefe lamentations, he every now and then took a peep through the slit. The bell rang to clear the ftage. Macklin ftopped a moment to take a laft look, and obferving that he was likely to play to empty benches, he turned to Mrs. Green, and, in a manner moft emphatical, exclaimed, "Ah! Jenny Jenny ! when Mrs. Clive played Lappet, we did not use to draw up the curtain to fuch houfes as this! The Lady, piqued at his obfervation, took a peep in her turn, and, mimicking his folemnity of manner, retorted, "Ah! Charles! Charles! when Mr. Shuter played Lovegold, we did not ufe to draw up the curtain to fuch houfes as this!"" Humph!" growled the veteran, as he flowly Italked toward the Green-room.

This fhort trait, like the anecdote of the Archbishop of Grenada's homilies, may ferve to fhew how little we are fenfible of our own imbecility, and how ready to attribute the least hint

which we receive of the failure of our faculties to any cause rather than the real one.

DISPERSION OF ANCIENT RECORDS.

Among the many learned obfervations which I have heard in the Court of Exchequer; a Court in which, from the nature of the fubjects frequently difcuffed, it is neceflary both for the Judges and Advocates more particularly to advert to the ancient itate of the kingdom than, perhaps, in any other; I was once ftruck with fome obfervations upon the difperfion of manufcripts at the fall of the abbeys, which feemed to me, as I was then confidering the fubject, fo curious, that I retained them in my memory until I had an opportunity, which a crowded Court would not afford, of committing them to paper, and believe the quotation that follows is generally correct.

"When the leffer abbeys were dif folved, an event that happened in the 27th year of Henry the VIIIth, the Priests, who still retained hopes of better times, although they were commanded to fend their papers to the Augmentation Office, generally dif obeyed those orders, and endeavoured to fecure the mott valuable of their deeds and records, either by configning them to the care of private perfons, or by fending them to Rome, where they were depofited in the Vatican or in other places of fecurity. Of thofe that remained in the kingdom, many have been discovered in the archives of private families, and fome were reclaimed when better times for their owners did arrive. But the reign of Mary being too short a period for reftoring the establishments which had been fo violently overturned, the writings and records of monasteries have, like the eltates which they defcribed, conveyed or adapted to peculiar ules, to a confiderable degree remained in the hands of lay poffelfors, who feem, while they grafped them with. avidity, to have, with a more than religious tenacity, adhered to them. Thole that are preferved in the Vatican, or difperfed over Italy, are now of little ufe, and indeed, when found and referred to, are confidered only as ob. jects of curiofity."

HOGARTH.

I was informed by Dawes, the pupil of the late Mr. Hogarth, that while

this original genius had his Analyfis of Beauty in contemplation, he has, more than once, accompanied him to the Fleet Market, and Harp-alley adjacent, which were, in thofe times, the great marts, and indeed exhibitions, of figns, of various defcriptions, barbers'-blocks, poles, &c, &c. which were then more in request than they have been of late years. In thefe places it was the delight of Hogarth to contemplate thofe fpecimens of genius emanating from a fchool which he used emphatically to obferve was truly Englith, and frequently to compare with and prefer to the more expenfive productions of thofe geniufes whom he ufed to term the Black Mafters; and it was his delight to confider the blocks +, which used to be ranged in thofe fhops in great order one row above another, like the fpectators in the galleries of a theatre, in different points of view, and to remark upon the different characters which the workman had beltowed upon their countenances, to endeavour to guefs from their appearance at their dates, and thence deduce the effect which they would have if decorated with the va rious wigs which the fashion of their different periods might have clapped upon them-He thence, I have no doubt, frequently made a tranfition to the animated blocks of their wearers, and, like many ingenious authors, ar

ranged his particular obfervations under general beads.

In thefe excursions, I have been told that he was equally attentive to the abfurdities that were difplayed betwixt us and the Zenith, among which he probably difcovered constellations of monsters fufficient to have framed the figns of a hundred new Zodiacs; and I have often thought, that could Addison have heard his obfervations, they would have furnished him with hints for many papers replete with genuine humour.

What a fund of amusement would a genius like his have extracted from the remarks of Hogarth, could he have heard him defcant alfo upon the eccentricities which the wooden fculpture of this great city exhibited, in Highlanders, Black Boys, Golden Heads, Peftles and Mortars, Lions, Hogs, Dogs, Cats, Mermaids, Unicorns, and a hundred other monsters, chimeras, &c. which the artists of that age were in the habit of producing, and of which fome, though, alas! few, fpecimens are ftill to be seen.

Thefe, nay even the chalk figures fcrawled upon the walls as may be feen by his works, Hogarth was in the habit of contemplating with vaft satis faction; and I have heard, that the fign-painters' exhibition arofe from a hint which the Gentleman I have already quoted, and my ingenious

By this appellation this Fielding of the graphic art denominated those smoky pictures which were the fashion of the day, namely, bad copies of frequently bad originals of the Italian and Flemish fchools. Incredible numbers of thefe were annually fold by Langford and others, which, when exhibited, were generally fo obfcured by dirt, or fcambled down with afphaltum, &c. in order to accommodate them to the idea box of a connoiffeur," that it was many times impoffible, at leaft till they had been well sponged, to diftinguish even their fubjects. This falle tafte of the town (now happily eradicated), Hogarth took every opportunity, both with his tongue and pencil, to ridicule and expole. Nor did this deviation from common fenie pafs unnoticed by Garrick, who, in his Prologue to Talte, in the character of Peter Puff, animadverts upon it with much truth and fome humour.

It is a curious circumftance to obferve the great alteration that has taken place in the formation of these inftruments upon which wigs are moulded. In the frequently notelefs blocks of the old School we could difcern little to be admired, except their folidity: their fex was not then to be difcerned by their countenances, though as wigs, at that time, were only worn by one part of the human species, we might take it for granted they were male. We have them now, as I have with plea fure cbferved in thofe beautiful exhibitions which I think fome of the greatest ornaments of the City, of the malculine and feminine gender. We have this is a fubje&t of too much importance to be thrown into a note, I fhall referve fome obfervations that have occurred to me upon it for a feparate fpeculation.

-but as

The figure of the King of France, in the invafion print (England), has always ftruck me as a correctly humorous fpecimen of his attention to this branch of his

art.

friend,

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