another person entering the house. This,' said Dryden, is Tonson: you will take care not to depart before he goes away: for I have not completed the sheet which I promised him; and if you leave me unprotected, I shall suffer all the rudeness to which his resentment can prompt his tongue."

On another occasion, Tonson having refused to advance him a sum of money for a work on which he was employed, he sent a second messenger to the bookseller, with a very satirical triplet; adding, "Tell the dog, that he who wrote these lines, can write more." These descriptive verses, which had the desired effect, by some means got abroad in manuscript; and, not long after Dryden's death, were inserted in FACTION DISPLAYED, a satirical poem, supposed to have been written by William Shippen, (whom Pope has transmitted to posterity under the appellation of-downright Shippen,) which, from its virulent abuse of the opposite party, was extremely popular among the Tories. About the year 1700 was formed the KIT-KAT CLUB," which seems to have grown out of another

and soon afterwards he published a long Ode of little merit, entitled ALMAHIDE.

6 This Society is said to have first met at an obscure house in Shire-Lane, and consisted of thirty-nine distinguished noblemen and gentlemen, zealously attached to the protestant succession in the House of Hanover: among whom were the Dukes of Somerset, Richmond, Grafton, Devonshire, and Marlborough, and (after the

convivial society called THE KNIGHTS OF THE TOAST, of whom some account will be given in a subsequent page." Tonson being Secretary to the Kit-Kat Club, which was entirely composed of

accession of George I.) the Duke of Newcastle; the Earls of Dorset, Sunderland, Manchester, Wharton, and Kingston; Lords Halifax and Somers; Sir Robert Walpole, Vanbrugh, Congreve, Granville, Addison, Garth, Maynwaring, Stepney, and Walsh. The Club is supposed to have derived its name from Christopher Katt, a pastrycook, who kept the house where they dined, and excelled in making mutton-pyes, which always formed a part of their bill of fare. In the SPECTATOR, No. 9, they are said to have derived their title, not from the maker of the pye, but the pye itself. The fact is, that on account of its excellence, it was called a Kit-Kat, as we now say a Sandwich. So, in the Prologue to the REFORMED WIFE, a comedy, 1700:

Often, for change, the meanest things are good: "Thus, though the town all delicates afford, "A Kit-Kat is a supper for a lord."

}

The custom of toasting ladies in regular succession after dinner, had commenced not long before. On the toasting-glasses of this Club verses were inscribed, written in 1703, by Lord Halifax, Congreve, Granville, Addison, Garth, and other members, in praise of the most admired beauties of that day; many of which are preserved in Dryden's Miscellanies, (vol. v. edit. 1716.) and in other collections. This circumstance gave rise to an Epigram, the author of which, (perhaps Arbuthnot,) not having quite so much respect for the ladies thus celebrated as their panegyrists, rejected the etymology already mentioned, and that given by Edward Ward,-(that the So ciety derived its appellation from a person of the Christian

the most distinguished Whigs, could not escape the notice of a Tory Satirist, who gave vent to his spleen against him in the following lines; by which he has preserved a description that Dryden probably never intended to be transmitted to posterity:

"Now the Assembly to adjourn prepar'd,

"When BIBLIOPOLO from behind appear'd, "As well described by th' old satirick bard;

}

name of Christopher, who lived at the sign of the Cat and Fiddle,) and has chosen to suggest another origin, not less ludicrous than that furnished by the facetious historian of the Clubs of London:

"Whence deathless KIT-CAT took its name,
"Few criticks can unriddle;

"Some say, from pastry-cook it came,
"And some, from Cat and Fiddle.

"From no trim beaus its name it boasts,

66

Gray Statesmen, or green Wits;

"But from this pell-mell pack of Toasts

"Of old Cats and young Kits."

Dr. King, however, in his Art of Cookery, has this line: "Immortal made, as Kit Kat by his pyes ;"

and the younger Tonson, in his Will, mentioning this Club, writes it Kitt-Katt; which, as the learned Martinus Scriblerus observes in the sixth volume of his HALLU CINATIONES ETYMOLOGICE, strongly corroborates the more polite account of its origin given in the former part of this note. Martin, indeed, expresseth very serious doubts, whether libations were ever made to the healths of any ancient ladies, (here denominated old Cats,) in this symposium.

gay

See Dryden's Letter, dated Feb, 23, 1699-1700;

and the Note.

With leering looks, bull-faced, and freckled fair, "With two left legs, and Judas-colour'd hair, "And frowzy pores, that taint the ambient air.

66

Sweating and puffing for a while he stood, "And then broke forth in this insulting mood: "I am the touchstone of all modern wit; "Without my stamp in vain your poets write: "Those only purchase ever-living fame, "That in my MISCELLANY plant their name.

}

I suppose, by this epithet Dryden meant, that Tonson was as awkward in the movement of his legs, as he is, who accidentally uses his left hand instead of his right. So also Pope, in the late editions of the DUNCIAD:

"And left-legg'd Jacob seems to emulate."

On which line he has this singular note: "Milton of the motion of the swan ;

rows

His [Her] state with oary feet

and Dryden of another's [motion],—with two left legs." Who could suppose, that this other was the very person mentioned in Pope's text ?-But the fact is, that this passage received various changes in the different editions, and the epithet left-legg'd was not inserted till after old Jacob Tonson's death. In the original edition of 1728, without notes, the lines run thus:

"Swift as a bard the bailiff leaves behind,

"He left huge Lintot, and outstripp'd the wind. "As when a dab-chick waddles through the copse, "On legs and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops; "So lab'ring on with shoulders, hands, and head, "Wide as windmill all his figure spread, "With steps unequal Lintot urg'd the race, "And seem'd to emulate great Jacob's pace."

"Nor therefore think that I can bring no aid, "Because I follow a mechanick trade;

"I'll print your pamphlets, and your rumours spread.

In the edition of 1729, the last couplet is thus exhibited: "With legs expanded, Bernard urg'd the race, "And seem'd to emulate great Jacob's pace."

And so it stands in the Quarto Edition printed by the author, in 1735, with his other works. But Jacob Tonson, with whom Pope lived on friendly terms and corresponded, having died in 1736, in the edition of 1742, and all subsequent, the lines run thus :

"With arms expanded Bernard rows his state, "And left-legg'd Jacob seems to emulate."

If the various editions of Pope's works were carefully collated, similar alterations would be found in almost every page.

The unequal pace of our author's bookseller arose, perhaps, from a circumstance mentioned by Rowe in his Dialogue between Tonson and Congreve, in imitation of Horace's-Donec gratus eram, Lib. III. Ode ix. ; which, furnishes us with some other particularities of this celebrated modern Trypho:

TONSON. While at my house in Fleet-street once you

lay, How merrily, dear Sir, time pass'd away! y!

While I partook your wine, your wit, and mirth,

*

I was the happiest creature on GOD's yearth. CONGREVE. While in your early days of reputation, You for blue garters had not such a passion ;

While

yet you did not use, as now your trade is, To drink with noble lords, and toast their ladies,

Tonson (Sen.) his dialect.-Orig. Note.