The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell/Life/Appendix 2
APPENDIX II.
ADDITIONAL NOTES TO THE LIFE OF PARNELL.
Life, p. 5, Mistress.]Elizabeth bestowed the primacy upon Dr. Mathew Parker, though she liked not his marriage, as she contrived once humorously to tell his consort. The queen had been hospitably entertained at his house; she had thanked him—"and now," she said, turning to the lady, "what shall I say to you? Madam I may not call you, and Mistress I am ashamed to call you, so I know not what to call you, but yet I do thank you."
'It must be observed, that though Mrs. Saunderson was very young when married to Betterton, she retained the appellation of Mistress. Mademoiselle or Miss, though introduced among people of fashion in England, about the latter end of Charles the Second's reign, was not familiar to the middle class of people till a much later time, nor in use among the players till toward the latter end of King William's reign. Miss Cross was the first of the stage Misses. She is particularly noticed in Joe Haines's Epilogue to Farquhar's Love and a Bottle.—Miss was formerly understood to mean a woman of pleasure. So Dryden in his Epilogue to the Pilgrim, written in 1700:
'Misses there were, but modestly concealed.'
Davies's Dram. Misc. iii. p. 412.
Life, p. 54, Anacreontic]
'Gay Bacchus liking Estcourt's wine,' &c.
Dick Estcourt, the celebrated Comedian, about a year before his death, opened the Bumper Tavern in Covent-Garden. He was the companion of Addison, Steele, Parnell, and all the learned and choice spirits of the age, and was celebrated for ready wit, gay pleasantry, and a wonderful talent in mimickry. He acted Falstaff, Bayes, Serjeant Kite, in the Recruiting Officer, Pounce in the Tender Husband, the Spanish Friar. Downes called him 'Histrio natus.' Sir R. Steele has drawn an amiable picture of him in the Spectator, vol. vi. No. 468. Estcourt was a favourite of the great Duke of Marlborough, and providore of the Beef-steak Club. Secretary Craggs went with Estcourt to Sir G. Kneller, and told him that a gentleman in company would give such a representation of some great men his friends, as would surprise him. Estcourt mimicked Lord Somers, Lord Halifax, Godolphin and others, so very exactly, that Sir Godfrey was highly delighted, and laughed heartily at the joke. Craggs gave the wink, and Estcourt mimicked Kneller himself, who cried out immediately.—Nay! there you are out, man! by God, that is not me!
Life, p. 60, Hymn to Contentment.] My learned and excellent friend, Mr. Barker of Thetford, has kindly pointed out to me the following passage relating to Parnell's Hymn to Contentment:
"On the pursuit, and attainment of this heavenly tranquillity, the classical and pious reader will perhaps not be displeased to meet a beautiful Ode from the "Divina Psalmodia of Cardinal Bona," on which Parnell manifestly formed his exquisite Hymn to Contentment. The insertion will be more readily pardoned, as this imitation has escaped the notice of Dr. Johnson, and it is believed of all other critics and commentators."
"O Sincera parens beatitatis,
Cœli delicium, Deique proles,
Pax, terræ columen, decusque morum,
Pax cunctis potior ducum triumphis,
Quos mundi colis abditos recessus?
Hic te sollicito requrit æstro
Urbanos fugiens procul tumultus.
Hie inter scopulos, vagosque fluctus
Spumantis pelagi latere credit.
Hic deserta petit loca, et per antra
Te quærens, varias peragrat oras
Qua lucens oritur, caditque Titan.
Hic, ut te celer adsequatur, aurum
Congestum colit, atque dignitatum
Regalem sibi præparat decorem.
Hic demens juga scandit, et remotos
Perscrutatur agros; tamen supernæ
Hi pacis nequeant bonis potiri.
Cur sic ergo tuum, benigna, numen
Celans, implacidum relinquis orbem?
Pacem sic ego sciscitabar. Illa
Respondet.— Proprio imperare cordi
Si nosti, tibi cognitumque numen
Possessumque meum est; sinu receptam
Sic me perpetuo coles amore."
See Sermons on subjects chiefly practical, by J. Jebb, D. D. F. R. S. Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert, and Aghadoe, third ed. London, 1824, p. 94.
Ded. Ep. The orig. MS. after line 14, p. xix. ran thus:
Soft thoughts by day, and many a pensive dream
Beguiling night are mine; by wood, and stream
Lone wanderings, and when shadowy eve recalls
My vagrant footsteps to the household walls,
Trimm'd is the lamp anew,—and one day more
Of study, and of solitude is o'er.
ERRATUM.
Dedicatory Epistle, p. xiv, line 3, for "they" read "there."