142

LAMPOON UPON THE IRISH COURT AND THE BAR.

The remainder of this poem, which is scarcely fit to publish at the present time, refers to a dispute which, it is said, took place between the wives of some of the judges and other high functionaries of the day. Except for its allusion to some of these circumstances connected with the domestic history of the country, it is of little value. It consists of sixteen verses. Lady Coningsby, whose husband was then Lord Justice of Ireland(a), having attacked Lady Shelburn (b), the poem proceeds:

For never Amazonian dame

Could greater courage show,

The second word that passed she thought

To follow with a blow.

But out there stepped a gallant squire,
Jack Poultney(c) was his name,

And said he would not have it told
To Henry(d), our chief, for shame,

That she should foul her own fair hands
To right her Lordship's wrongs;

Quoth he, the rogue's not worth the touch
Though with a pair of tongs.

I'll do the best that do I may,

I'll fight with heart and hand,
Though I am drunk as you or he,
And scarce can go or stand.

(a) Thomas Coningsby, created Baron of Clanbrazil by William III.; appointed Lord Justice of Ireland in 1690, and Lord Treasurer in 1692; created an Earl by George I.

(b) Charles, eldest son of Sir W. Petty, was created Baron of Shelborn after his father's death. His lady is the person, most likely, alluded to here. (c) Jack Pultney appears to have been one of the wits and fine gentlemen of the town at that time; he is mentioned in other poems of Swift's in this pocket-book.

(d) Probably Sir Henry Echlin, Justice of the King's Bench in 1692.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE DUBLIN STAGE.

143

The champion then 'bout to engage,

After those due respects,

Knight Levins(a) snatched him from his hands,

And the poor sott corrects.

The next poem in succession which we find in the Dean's Almanack, and in his handwriting, is headed" Mrs. Butler to Mrs. Bracegirdle." It is, probably, one of the earliest in the collection, and is a very severe lampoon upon the state of the Dublin stage, which at that time does not appear to have been in a very high condition. In it all the scandal and intrigue of the day are introduced. It consists of thirty-eight lines,

few of which are suited to modern taste.

Of Mrs. Anne Bracegirdle, one of the brightest ornaments of the British stage, it is unnecessary now to write at any length; but the circumstances connected with the drama here at the time this piece was written require some explanation. The original theatre in Werburgh-street, which was built by Mr. John Ogilby, Master of the Revels during the Lieutenancy of Strafford, in 1633, and for which Shirley's play of the “ Royal Master" was written, was closed during the ensuing rebellion, by order of the Lords Justices, and never re-opened. In 1662 Ogilby's patent was renewed, and the Irish nobility and gentry subscribed and built a new theatre in Smock-alley, then called Orange-street, and now Essex-street, West; it fell, however, in 1671, from which time the drama became, it is said, extinct in Dublin till 1689, when the citizens formed a company, and rebuilt the house in Smock-alley, and exhibited gratuitously. Here

(a) Sir Richard Levinge, Solicitor-General in 1690 and 1694, afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

144

THE WHIMSICAL MISCELLANY.

Wilkes and Estcourt first made their appearance, and also George Farquhar, the dramatist, in 1695. Ashbury having been appointed Master of the Revels by the Duke of Ormonde, invited over several actors and actresses from England, among whom was Mrs. Butler, then one of the most distinguished actresses of the day; of whose Constantia, says Colley Cibber(a), "If I should say I have never seen her exceeded, I might still do no wrong to the late Mrs. Oldfield's lively performance of the same character.” Mrs. Dillon appears to have been one of the principal actresses here at the time, and is thus described in this poem:

Dillon would be an angel, were her mind

Like to her face, so gloriously refined.

In the library of Trinity College are three volumes of poems, entitled the "Whimsical Miscellany," and usually known as the Lanesborough Manuscripts, consisting of all the curiosities of poetical literature, chiefly Irish, which were written about the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the last century. Some account of this manuscript has been given by Dr. Barrett, in his Essay on Swift, and several of the pieces in it have been proved to be the Dean's, and are now published in his collected works. In it we find a copy of that now under consideration (vol. i. p. 36), with this heading, "Mrs. Butler the Player, in Ireland, to Mrs. Bracegirdle, her Correspondent, in London." And at the end of both copies, "the rest you shall have next post. I am your's, B.”

Theophilus Lord Newtown Butler, the compiler of the Miscellany, and his brother Brinsley, afterwards Viscount Lanesborough, entered the University in September, 1686, and would, very likely, have procured copies of these early poems

(a) See Colley Cibber's Apology, vol. i. p. 126, and p. 121; see also Hitchcock's Historical View of the Irish Stage, 1788; the Dublin Magazine for June, 1820; Ware's Writers of Ireland; and Mr. Walker's Historical Essay on the Irish Stage, in vol. ii. of Transactions R. I. A. Uniacke, Foulkes, Atkinson, and Jackson, are the names of the other actresses mentioned in Swift's poem.

THE DUEL BETWEEN TWO PHYSICIANS.

145

of Swift. The following poem, which refers to a dispute between two of our medical men, probably at a somewhat later period, is also copied into the "Whimsical Miscellany," and from it we are able to restore some portions which are obliterated in the original. The fact of these poems being found among the collection considerably strengthens the opinion ofDr. Barrett as to the authorship of the " Tripos" and other pieces which he has attributed to Swift.

THE DUEL BETWEEN TWO PHYSICIANS(a).

Yee High commissioners of death,

And fatall stoppers of our breath,

By Jove you make us wonder,

That you who ought, like birds of feather,
Most willingly to flock together,

Should now be riv'd asunder.

(a) We have not been able to determine who the medical men here referred to were, nor to discover the occasion to which this poem alludes. These verses, as we already stated, are preserved in a more correct form in the "Whimsical Miscellany," under the title of "The Duell betwixt two old Physitians," from which we have been able to revise the original, which is deficient in many places. The first "Physician to the State" was Sir Thomas Molyneux, Bart., appointed by patent in 1725; he was succeeded by Dr. Henry Cope, about the year 1730, and on the resignation of Dr. Cope, in 1742, Dr. Robert Robinson was appointed.

The earliest State medical appointments made in Ireland were those of Chirurgeons-General, the first of whom was James Fountaine, appointed 16th of March, 1660; and "Physicians-General to the Army," of whom Dr. William Currer, appointed 26th May, 1663, was the first. He was succeeded by Dan de Maziers des Fountaines, M. D., in 1668. "The office was discontinued for some time, until Sir Patrick Dun, M. D. [who was physician to the army in Ireland, in the war in 1688], having, in the year 1704, represented that there was an hospital in Dublin for the sick and infirm of the army, and that no physician had been appointed to attend them since the Queen's accession to the crown, he prayed a grant of the said office to him, with the usual salary of ten shillings a day, as was allowed since the Restoration. Accordingly the Queen appointed him Physician-General of the army, with the said fee from Lady Day, 1705."-Liber Munerum Publicorum Hiberniæ, vol. i. p. 101, part 2.

L

146

THE DUEL BETWEEN TWO PHYSICIANS.

What dev'lish motives did you feel,
Or was the Devill in the Deel,

To cause this dismall fray;

For sure his kingdom can't increase,
If you his agents ben't at peace,
And both in concord slay.

Charon for joy did shout so clear,
That you from Arctick might him hear,
To the Antarctic Polus.

If one of you by sword had fell
Few souls he'd ferryed o'er to hell
For want of mortall Bolus.

As for the motives, most men doubt
Why those two doctors did fall out;
Some say it was Ambition,

And that the one did undermine
The other's credit, with design
To be the State's Physitian.

According to my little sense,
It was an act of Providence,
In kindness to the nation.

For when knaves quarrell good men thrive,
Their mortal feuds keep us alive,

Their deaths our preservation.

Next for the manner of the fight,
If I conceive the matter right:

One gave the other worne ground,
But, (Jove be praised,) it so fell out,
That, though design'd a bloody bout,

Betwixt them pas'd not one wound.

Sir Patrick Dun was succeeded by John Friend, M. D., in 1713; Dr. Friend, by John Campbell, M. D.; the year following, upon the death of Dr. Campbell, in 1718, Sir Thomas Molyneux was appointed Physician-General to the army, a situation he resigned in favour of Dr. Upton Peacock, upon his being appointed State Physician, in 1725. The subsequent State medical appointments are already well known.