Notes and Queries, Number 25, April 20, 1850. Various
printer or editor solved the difficulty by turning it into "and all to break his skull." But in the Lieutenant of the Tower's marginal notes on an inventory of the Countess of Hertford's (Lady Katherine Grey) furniture, quoted by Mr. Craik from Lands. MS. 5. art. 41., he described the sparrer for the bed as "all to-broken, not worth ten pence." There seems, therefore, to have been a compound, "to-breck, to-brake, to-broken" (perfrango), of which the word in the "Book of Judges" is the preterite. I may be exposing my ignorance, when I say, that the quotation in the Romance of the Peerage is the only other instance of its use I ever met with.
Cloisters, Westminster
[The word "to-break," is not to be found in Nares.—Mr. Halliwell, in his Archaic Dictionary, has TO-BROKE, broken in pieces:
"The gates that Neptunus made
A thousand wynter theretofore,
They have anon to-broke and tore."
From the Gower MS. Soc. Ant. 134, f. 46.
The word occurs also in Chaucer (p. 549. ed. Urry):—
"To-broken ben the Statutes hie in heven;"
and also in the Vision of Piers Ploughman (p. 156. ed. Wright):
"The bagges and the bigirdles
He hath to-broke them all."
And Mr. Wright very properly remarks, that "to– prefixed in composition to verbs of Anglo-Saxon origin, has the same force as the German zu, giving to the word the idea of destruction or deterioration."]
NOTES UPON CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK FOR LONDON
Lambeth Wells.—A place of public entertainment, first opened in 1697. It was celebrated for its mineral water, which was sold at one penny per quart. At the beginning of the eighteenth century it was provided with a band of music, which played at intervals during the day, and the price of admission was threepence. A monthly concert, under the direction of Starling Goodwin, organist of St. Saviour's church, Southwark, was held here in 1727.
Hickford's Rooms, Panton Street, Haymarket.—These rooms, under the name of "Hickford's Dancing Rooms," were in existence as early as 1710. In 1738, they were opened as the "Musick-room." A contemporary account says:—
"The band was selected from the Opera House; but the singularity most attractive consisted of an organ combined with a harpsichord, played by clock-work, which exhibited the movements of an orrery and air-pump, besides solving astronomical and geographical problems on two globes, and showing the moon's age, with the Copernican system in motion."
In 1740, Mr. Galliard's benefit is announced to take place "at Mr. Hickford's Great Room in Brewer Street, Golden Square."—See the Daily Post of March 31. The "Great Room" is now known as "Willis's Dancing Academy."
The Music Room in Dean Street, Soho.—The Oratorio of Judas Maccabeus was performed here in great splendour in 1760. It was afterwards the auction room of the elder Christie; and is now "Caldwell's Dancing Academy." George III. frequently honoured this "musick-room" with his presence.
The Music Room in Charles Street, Covent Garden:—
"The Consort of Musick, lately in Bow Street, is removed next Bedford Gate, in Charles Street, Covent Garden, where a room is newly built for that purpose."—Lond. Gaz. Feb. 19. 1690.
"A Consort of Music, with several new voices, to be performed on the 10th instant, at the Vendu in Charles Street, Covent Garden."—Ibid. March 6. 1691.
In 1693 was published Thesaurus Musicus, being a Collection of the "Newest Songs performed at their Majesties' Theatres, and at the Consorts in Villier Street, in York Buildings, and in Charles Street, Covent Garden."
In the proposals for the establishment of a Royal Academy in 1720, the subscription books are advertised as being open, amongst other places, "at the Musick Room in Charles Street, Covent Garden."
Coleman's Music House.—A house of entertainment, with a large and well planted garden, known as "Coleman's Musick House," was offered for sale in 1682. It was situated near Lamb's Conduit, and was demolished upon the building of Ormond Street.
White Conduit House.—The old tavern of this name was erected in the reign of Charles I. The workmen are said to have been regaling themselves upon the completion of the building, at the instant the king was beheaded at Whitehall.
Goodman's Field Wells.—A place of entertainment established after the suppression of the theatre in this locality in 1735.
Bride Lane, St. Bride's.—The first meetings of the Madrigal Society (established in 1741) were held at a public-house in this lane, called "The Twelve Bells."
POPE'S REVISION OF SPENCE'S ESSAY ON THE ODYSSEY
Spence's almost idolatrous admiration of, and devotion to, Pope, is evident from the pains he took to preserve every little anecdote of him that he could elicit from conversation with him, or with those who knew him. Unfortunately, he had not Boswell's address and talent for recording gossip, or the Anecdotes would have been a much more racy book. Spence was certainly an amiable, but I think a very weak man; and it appears to me that his learning has been overrated. He might indeed have been well designated as "a fiddle-faddle bit of sterling."
I have the original MS. of the two last Dialogues of the Essay on the Odyssey as written by Spence, and on the first page is the following note:—"The two last Evenings corrected by Mr. Pope." On a blank page at the end, Spence has again written:—"MS. of the two last Evenings corrected with Mr. Pope's own hand, w'ch serv'd y'e Press, and is so mark'd as usual by Litchfield."
This will elucidate Malone's note in his copy of the book, which Mr. Bolton Corney has transcribed. I think the first three dialogues were published in a little volume before Spence became acquainted with Pope, and perhaps led to that acquaintance. Their intercourse afterwards might supply some capital illustrations for a new edition of Mr. Corney's curious chapter on Camaraderie Littéraire. The MS. copy of Spence's Essay bears frequent marks of Pope's correcting hand by erasure and interlineary correction, silently made. I transcribe the few passages where the poet's revision of his critic are accompanied by remarks.
In Evening the Fourth, Spence had written:—"It may be inquired, too, how far this translation may make a wrong use of terms borrowed from the arts and sciences, &c. [The instances are thus pointed out.] As where we read of a ship's crew, Od. 3. 548. The longitude, Od. 19. 350. Doubling the Cape, Od. 9. 90. Of Architraves, Colonnades, and the like, Od. 3. 516." Pope has erased this and the references, and says:—"These are great faults; pray don't point 'em out, but spare your servant."
At p. 16. Spence had written:—"Yellow is a proper epithet of fruit; but not of fruit that we say at the same time is ripening into gold." Upon which Pope observes:—"I think yellow may be s'd to ripen into gold, as gold is a deeper, fuller colour than yellow." Again: "What is proper in one language, may not be so in another. Were Homer to call the sea a thousand times by the title of [Greek: porphureos], 'purple deeps' would not sound well in English. The reason's evident: the word 'purple' among us is confined to one colour, and that not very applicable to the deep. Was any one to translate the purpureis oloribus of Horace, 'purple swans' would not be so literal as to miss the sense of the author entirely." Upon which Pope has remarked:—"The sea is actually of a deep purple in many places, and in many views."
Upon a passage in Spence's Criticism, at p. 45., Pope says:—"I think this too nice." And the couplet objected to by Spence—
"Deep in my soul the trust shall lodge secur'd,
With ribs of steel, and marble heart immur'd,"
he pronounced "very bad." And of some tumid metaphors he says, "All too forced and over-charged."
At