ay and Dodsley:--Is the epithet _droning_, or _drony_, in
the first edition of the _Elegy_? and, as my copy of Dodsley's _Collection_
is dated 1748, and is said (on the half title, preceding the whole title)
to be "the _second_ edition," was there a _first_ edition in the same year,
or in an earlier year, or was there, in fact, no _first_ edition at all?
This question is important, because several poetical productions, of
undisputed excellence, originally made their appearance in Dodsley's
_Collection_.

Next, as to Dryden's _Absolom and Achitophel_: Is it known, or anywhere
stated, that it was printed early in the eighteenth century as a penny or
two-penny chap-book, and why was it so printed? Observe, too, that it was
unaccompanied by Tate's _Continuation_, which, as far as a lesson to the
lower orders is concerned, was of more consequence than Dryden's portion.
It is a circumstance I did not mention, but it is, nevertheless, worth a
Note, that in _The Key_ which follows the Address "to the Reader," in my
edition of 1708, the character of Zimri (which was given by Dryden himself
to the Duke of Buckingham) is assigned to Lord Gray, who was in truth the
Caleb of the performance. Is it to be taken that the publication of this
chap-book edition is merely a proof of the extreme popularity of Dryden's
half of the poem?

My third unanswered Query referred to the _Essay on Satire_, commonly
attributed to Lord Mulgrave and Dryden, but with which, as it seems to me,
for reasons there assigned, Lord Mulgrave could have nothing to do. As a
farther proof of Dryden's _sole authorship_, I may here add, what I have
since found, that the Addendum to the first volume of _State Poems_
consists of one thus entitled: "In opposition to Mr. Dryden's _Essay on
Satyr_," treating it as only his: it begins,

"Now the reformer of the court and stage,
The common beadle of this wilful age,
Has with impartial hand whipp'd sovereign sin,
In me it is but manners to begin."

It sounds drolly, in our day, to hear Dryden called "the reformer of the
court and stage," especially recollecting the attack upon him made just
afterwards by Jeremy Collier. Then, what are we to say to the subsequent
lines, attributed to Prior, which advert to the cudgelling Dryden received
in Rose Street for his attack upon Rochester. Prior calls his own
production _A Satire on the Modern Translators_, where he thus speaks of
Dryden under his name of Bayes:--

"But