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door the jambs of the open space are formed of courses of stonework, with plain abaci and the cylindrical cusps so characteristic of the style. The tympanum comprises an outer border of plain masonry ten inches in width, forming a kind of second order to the shafted arch, with which it is concentric with this the masonry is again recessed, but very slightly; and here occurs the ornamental sculpture which has induced me to trouble you with this communication. It consists of a circular cross pattée encircled by a coil of the twisted-cable moulding, the ends of which are disposed of in a manner best explained by my accompanying sketch. The cross is supported by a narrow fillet rising from the plain strip of stone which forms the apparent lintel-bar to the doorway.

We have here, in an undoubted Norman work, an example of a cross, both in form and in its mode of treatment,

precisely identical with the crosses upon the monumental coffin-lids which we are in the habit of attributing to the Norman period. The correctness of this view appears thus to be conclusively established: and, at the same time, I think this may be considered as simply a Norman form of cross,* and that its presence on a gravestone does not in any way denote (as has recently been suggested) the memorial of a knight templar. Perhaps you may be disposed to place side by side with this tympanum some of the examples of Norman coffin - slabs from my "Christian Monuments in England and Wales:" I accordingly send you the woodcuts of the slabs at Cambridge, Enville, Watlington, and Burgate; and to these I have added a new cut from a similar fragment in excellent preservation at Southacre.

I am, &c. CHARLES BOUTELL. Downham, Norfolk, Sept. 30.

THE DUCHESS OF QUEENSBERRY'S PATRONAGE OF GAY.

FEW incidents in modern literary history are more interesting, or, to some of the parties concerned, more honourable, than the protection which was given by the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry to the poet Gay when he fell out of favour at court upon the production of his Beggar's Opera. Dr. Johnson, after stating the amount of profit which resulted to Gay from the performance of the Beggar's Opera and the publication of Polly, which latter the Lord Chamberlain prohibited to be played, continues thus:-"He received yet another recompense for this supposed hardship in the affectionate attention of the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, into whose house he was taken, and with whom he passed the remaining part of his life." (Lives of the Poets, art. Gay.) Pope somewhere speaks of the Duke's treatment of poor simple Gay, the Goldsmith of his time, in terms equally strong; and the Duchess, who was Prior's Kitty, was no less determined,

and perhaps even more spirited, in her defence of the poet than her husband: paying back, in this way, to literature and genius, some portion of the debt of fame which they have conferred upon her. King George II. was so annoyed by the support which Gay received from the Duchess of Queensberry, and probably also by her open way of condemning the " oppression' to which he was subjected, that his Majesty sent his commands to the Duchess that she should abstain from making her appearance at court.

The King's order was sent verbally by the Vice-Chamberlain. The spirit of "Kitty" was roused to the highest indignation. She returned a message to the King which probably the Chamberlain thought it better that he should receive in writing. The Duchess, nothing loth to let her sentiments be known, wrote down her caustic fiery sentences, and subscribing them with her hand, directed the ViceChamberlain to read them to his Ma

The same type is also apparent in the few Norman gable-crosses which yet remain.

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jesty. Copies of this message got abroad, but the one kept by the Duchess herself was presented a few years ago to the British Museum, by one of her descendants. It completes the history of the transaction, and as one of the most interesting memoranda connected with the literature of that period deserves to be printed from the original. If literature now seeks support in other circles than those which Kitty graced, it will be seen that it cannot find patrons more spirited or more geneThe following is a copy of the paper in question from Additional MS. 15,599:

rous.

"Feb. 27, 1728-9.

"That the Dutchess of Queensberry is surprised, and well pleas'd, that the King hath given her so agreeable a command as to stay from court, where she never came for diversion, but to bestow a great civility

upon the King and Queen. She hopes by such an unprecedented order as this, that the King will see as few as he wishes at his court, particularly such as dare to think or speak truth. I dare not do otherwise, and ought not, nor could not have imagin'd that it would not have been the very highest compliment that I could possibly pay the King, to endeavour to support truth and innocence in his house.

"C. QUEENSBERRY.

"Particularly when the King and Queen had both told me that they had not read Mr. Gay's play. I have certainly done right then to stand by my own word, rather

than his Grace of Grafton's,* who hath neither made use of truth, judgment, or honour through this whole affair, either for himself or his friends. The ViceChamberlain has been with me to let me know that the King desires I would refrain coming to court. I have given him this answer in writing to read to his Majesty. "C. QUEENSBERRY.'

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DRYDEN'S QUARREL WITH FLECKNOE.

I HAVE looked in vain, through the biographies of Dryden by Johnson, Malone, Sir Walter Scott, and Mitford -to the Quarrels of Authors, and every book in English literature likely to assist me, for even the slightest hint to show why Dryden when he wished to fix extreme contempt on Shadwell should, for any other reason than the undoubted dullness of his verse, call him the successor of Flecknoe, and designate his most perfect satire by the name of " Mac Flecknoe." The poet's secret reason I have I think discovered, and if I fail in my proof I shall at least, I am willing to believe, throw some light on a subject that merits explanation.

Among the printed libels on Dryden and on Pope which I have thought worthy of collection, I find a quarto pamphlet with the following title: "A Letter from a gentleman to the Honourable Ed. Howard, esq., occasioned by a Civiliz'd Epistle of Mr. Dryden's before his Second Edition of his Indian Emperour. In the Savoy, printed by Thomas Newcomb, 1668." Edward Howard, better known as

"Ned," was the brother-in-law of Dryden; the "Civiliz'd Epistle" was a caustic attack on Sir Robert Howard, another brother-in-law; and the letter is signed, "Sir, your faithful and humble servant, R. F." This R. F. I take to be Richard Flecknoe.

The pamphlet is not only interesting in itself but is additionally curious as the earliest printed attack on Dryden. It is wholly unreferred to by Malone or Scott, and I may therefore safely assume that it was altogether unknown to them. Indeed I have not as yet met with any gentleman curious in such matters who has ever seen or ever heard of it.

Before I make any extract from this letter, it will be necessary to relate as briefly as possible the occasion and history of the quarrel between Dryden and his brother-in-law.

There are few readers of English literature unacquainted with Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poesy. This admirable piece of English prose is written in the form of a dialogue, and Crites, the unsuccessful colloquist and combatant for blank verse, was, as is

* The Lord Chamberlain, who prohibited the performance of Gay's Polly.

well known, intended for Sir Robert Howard. Angry at the way in which his favourite form of verse for dramatic composition was vindicated in the Essay, Sir Robert undertook to speak for himself, and in an address to the reader before his tragedy of the Duke of Lerma, (produced for the first time on the 20th Feb. 1667-8, and printed shortly after,) urged his objections to plays in rhyme in answer to Dryden's Essay. Dryden replied, but in bad temper. "The question now is," he writes, "which of us two has mistaken it; and if it appears I have not, the world will suspect what gentleman that was who was allowed to speak twice in parliament, because he had not yet spoken to the question; and perhaps conclude it to be the same who, as it is reported, maintained a contradiction in terminis, in the face of three hundred persons." "For my own concernment of the controversy," he says in another place, "it is so small that I can easily be contented to be driven from a few notions of dramatic poesy, especially by one who has the reputation of understanding all things; and I might justly make that excuse for my yielding to him, which the philosopher made to the Emperor,-Why should I offer to contend with him who is master of more than twenty legions of arts and sciences." The reply is humorously sarcastic throughout, and must have been doubly galling, as at this very time Shadwell had brought the antagonist of Dryden on the stage in the character of Sir Positive At-All, in his Comedy of The Sullen Lovers. "I intend," says Sir Robert, in his an"not to trouble myself nor the world any more in such subjects, but take my leave of these my too long acquaintances, since that little fancy and liberty I once enjoyed is now fettered in business of more unpleasant natures." This to Dryden was irresistible. "But," says Dryden, "he has taken his last farewell of the Muses, and he has done it civilly by honouring them with the name of his long acquaintances, which is a compliment they have scarce deserved from him. For my own part I bear a share in the public loss, and, how emulous soever I may be of his fame and reputation, I cannot but give this testimony to his style,

swer,

that it is extreme poetical even in oratory; his thoughts elevated sometimes above common apprehension; his notions politic and grave, abundantly interlaced with variety of tropes and figures, which his critics have enviously branded with the name of obscurity and false grammar. Well, the Muses have lost him, but the Commonwealth gains by it; the corruption of a poet is the generation of a statesman." This personal and contemptuous reply Dryden afterwards suppressed. Howard remained silent, and it was not long before the brothers-in-law were again friends. But the silence of Sir Robert was not the silence which some of his friends thought altogether judicious, and R. F. came to his rescue in the letter which occasions this communication. Flecknoe (for by this name I shall call R. F. till I see reason to alter my opinion) twits his future satirist with assuming the title of an esquire on his plays; dubs him "squire" throughout the letter; "the squire is then pleased ”"the squire raised arguments"-taunts him with his "Billingsgate style"prints some of his obscure thoughts; and is the first to throw ridicule on the well-known line in the Astræa Redux :

An horrid stillness first invades the ear. Of which he says, "I have not heard of the like expression, unless in a tale of an officer, that commanded a sentinel not to stir a foot, but walk up and down and see what he could hear." But Johnson has defended Dryden for this very line with his usual display of masculine good sense, and the wit of Flecknoe will fail, I fancy, to revive the laugh.

Of Flecknoe's manner of reply take the following sample :

"The squire is then pleased to tell us of a gentleman who maintained a contradiction in the face of 300 persons. When he will vouchsafe to tell us the person and contradiction, the party I suppose will give an answer, which, by what I have heard, I believe none can be ignorant, that honourable person can as little as any be suspected to be the party; and yet I dare not say so much for him as the squire once ventured to say on his own behalf' to a lady of most eminent quality (equall'd with a great virtue and parts) when he was so bold as to tell her a gentleman could not

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