Anonymous

“ To start with, it is hard to see how a man of twenty-eight could refer, as the author does in both epistles, to his "want of years, and a necessary Experience in the Ages humour." Nor is it easy to reconcile Ward's fervent Catholicism with a satiric allusion in PC to non-preaching bishops—a favorite topic of Puritan polemic—or with a reference to the Pope as "Rome's great Idol." Ward is said in the Life to have been a Catholic before his departure, and writes movingly in England's Reformation of his friendship with the Yorkshire anchorite Father Posket, executed in March 1679. ”

“ For as this little Poem was written extempore, so it presumes to kiss your hand in its [Pg xii] Native unpolish'd shape, not having the least thought or word of it Corrected; for to Morrow being the time we design to take Shipping, I had not so much leisure as to Transcribe it.
I must Confess, it seems unnatural, that one who pretends to the Title of a Poet, should endeavour, as I have done, to disparage his own Profession. However, the Poets of this Age, whom it most concerns, I hope will not take it unkindly of me, since doing thus, I only follow the Example they have given me ”

“ My initial assumption that PC represents an early draft rather than a truncated copy of PdT has been reviewed with approval by my colleague David Bradley, using criteria developed during a study of analogous situations among Elizabethan dramatic texts. One of his most valuable observations is that the two versions are thematically distinct, PC being a satire on backbiting, attacking those who abuse poets and poetry, and PdT a more general study of the notion "Wit versus Wealth." ”

“ Shadwell's The Tory Poets, and Thomas Wood's Juvenalis Redivivus. It differs from these in its Hudibrastic meter, the richness of its biographical detail, and a relatively mild degree of animus against its victims, though there is quite a deal against poetry as art and trade.
In the two introductory epistles, we are asked to believe first that the poem is the work of a young writer driven into exile by his poverty and secondly that the manuscript was sent from Dover to a relative on 10 January 1681 in acknowledgment of a piece of gold. ”

“ The Art of Architecture, A Poem. In Imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry (1742) .
Publications of the first fifteen years of the Society (numbers 1-90) are available in paperbound units of six issues at $16.00 per unit, from the Kraus Reprint Company, 16 East 46th Street, New York, N.Y. 10017.
Publications in print are available at the regular membership rate of $8.00 yearly. Prices of single issues may be obtained upon request. Subsequent publications may be checked in the annual prospectus. ”

“ As the year 1679 is also within the stated date-range of Ward's departure, the existence of the broadsheet must count marginally against his being the author of PdT.
I can cast no further light on this mystery beyond proposing that if the story of the exiled poet is in fact a fabrication, the poem may have been the work of a younger (b. 1661) and Protestant "T.W." in the person of Thomas Wood, Anthony à Wood's nephew, later celebrated as a legal writer, poet, and controversialist and for his fondness for anonymous and pseudonymous publication. ”

“ The accusation that he knew no Latin was repeated by Dryden in The Vindication of the Duke of Guise (1683) and is denied with characteristic stridency by Shadwell in The Tenth Satyr of Juvenal (1687) . The accusation that his plays were partly written by others is made by Dryden in Mac Flecknoe ("But let no alien Sedley interpose") and is present by implication in Rochester's reference in "Timon" to "Shadwell's unassisted former Scenes...." Shadwell began his career as the collaborator of the aged Duke of Newcastle and acknowledges Sedley's help in his best comedy, A True Widow (1678) . ”

“ The man immediately grows dumb.
Then who sat next, if you would know it,
'Twas D. the brisk lack-latine Poet;
Who'll talk of Virgil and Horatius,
[Pg 24] Homer, Ovid, and Lucretius.
And by the help of I know who,
Sometimes presumes to quote 'em too.
He's the fam'd Comedian of the Town,}
Who near a dozen Plays does own, }
Tho' I dare swear he ne'r writ one: }
But he has good Acquaintance, thô,
I am inform'd, a Lord or two,
To whom he brings the lump; and they
Club to mould it to a Play.
And if my Author tells me right,
Epistles too themselves they write. ”

“ I am sure no particular Person can pretend to any distaste; and Satyr on general Subjects was ever Allowable, Religion and Government only excepted.
But I must Confess, that in the Third Part of this Poem, there were some Capital Letters which began the Names of certain Poets of this Age, but them I have so altered, lest any Offence should be given, that by them I am sure no Discovery can be made. I will no longer detain you from your better Divertisement in the following Poem ”

“ The only real clues to the authorship of the poem are the biographical details of the preface and the signature initials "T.W." following the author's epistle of PC—either or both of which may of course result from a conscious intention to deceive. Surprisingly, both seem to be relevant to the history of Thomas Ward, the author of the hudibrastic anti-protestant satire, England's Reformation (1719) , who is known to have left England at roughly the time suggested as that of the poem's composition. In the life of Ward prefixed to An Interesting Controversy with Mr. ”

“ Two of Wood's poems, Juvenalis Redivivus (published anonymously in 1683) and an elegy on the death of Oldham (included with Dryden's lines in the Remains of 1684) , are satires on the poets of a similar kind to PdT, while the second has a striking structural similarity to its opening canto. Neither PdT nor PC is included in Wood's list of his writings sent to his uncle in 1692 for inclusion in Athenae Oxonienses (Bodl. MS. Wood F.45, f.#229) , nor do they appear in A Catalogue of Part of the Library of the Reverend Dr. Wood (London, 1723) ”

“ PC and PdT. Collation shows that both texts are derived from a lost intermediary which was in close though not complete agreement with PC against PdT. This rules out any chance that this section of PC could be derived from the printer's copy of PdT, and suggests that the intermediary is more likely to have been the hypothetical commonplace book or the MS of PC than any four-canto text, though the second possibility cannot be dismissed on textual grounds alone. ”

“ William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library; George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles: Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles
Corresponding Secretary: Mrs. Edna C. Davis, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
The Society's purpose is to publish rare Restoration and eighteenth-century works (usually as facsimile reproductions) . All income of the Society is devoted to defraying costs of publication and mailing. ”

“ And 'till these Friends and Partners grow,
[Pg 9] Who can have Wit and Money too?
But if the World hath such a Creature,
He's Monstrous, and not made by Nature.
Poets are Chymists, who want skill
To perfect Metals as they will ”

“ In the Prologue to Theodosius; Or the Force of Love.
On Poets only no kind Star e're smil'd,
Curst Fate has damn'd 'em every Mothers Child.
Therefore he warns his Brothers of the Stage
To write no more to an ingrateful Age. ”

“ On the other hand, if the pamphlet, as is quite probable, was really the work of one of Shaftesbury's propagandists in London, there would have been excellent reasons for attaching the initials of a known Catholic exile. ”

“ These notes are of necessity selective and are chiefly concerned with the identification of persons. No attempt has been made to indicate the complex textual relationships of the two versions. Where detailed evidence for identifications is not given, the reader is referred to the article mentioned above.
Title-page. Parve ... quò-. Ovid, Tristia, I, i, 1-2.
A2v-A3v. The authors of the extracts are Dryden, Shadwell, Lacy, Lee, and Banks. The Banks extract is unlikely to have been in print for more than a few weeks at the time PdT was published. ”

“ It is possible that this is another of the "Ingenious Person's" additions. Indeed it would have to be as Wycherley's troubles did not begin until after the date given for the departure of the Poeta.
P. 10: 21. White-Fryers. The sanctuary area on the city side of the Temple: Shadwell's Alsatia.
P. 12: 1-2. half ... Temple-Bar. I.e., Whitefriars.
P. 12: 26. Being Tragedy, and writ in Rhimes. Dryden abandoned rhyme with All for Love (1677) . Cf. ”

“ Gerard Langbaine, Momus Triumphans: or, the Plagiaries of the English Stage [A New Catalogue of English Plays] , 1687. Introduction by David Rodes.
Members of the Society will receive copies of Clark Library seminar papers.
[Pg 43]
SPECIAL PUBLICATION FOR 1969-1970-1971
Gerard Langbaine, An Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) , Introduction by John Loftis. 2 Volumes. Approximately 600 pages. Price to members of the Society, $7.00 for the first copy (both volumes) , and $8.50 for additional copies. Price to non-members, $10.00. ”

“ This passage does not occur in PC and may be one of the "Ingenious Person's" additions to PdT.
P. 3: 28. Cris-cros-row. I.e., Christ-cross-row. The alphabet with a cross before it as represented in horn books.
P. 4: 4. Honourable stabs. Perhaps a reference to the attack on Dryden in Rose Alley on 16 December 1679, which was popularly attributed to various honorable persons satirized in Mulgrave's An Essay upon Satyr.
P. 4: 9-10. Tho' ... Bays. Cf. John Aubrey on the funeral of Samuel Butler on 27 September 1680:
[Pg 36]
About 25 of his old acquaintance at his Funerall. ”