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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Among the P. A. Taylor papers in the British Museum, there is a small manuscript verse-book which contains poems written or collected by William Taylor “of South Weald.” In this book are a prologue and an epilogue for Tamerlane, ascribed to Sir Richard Steele. No comment is made in the manuscript as to the circumstances under which they were written; but it is clear that they were meant for a performance of Rowe's play by schoolboys. These poems are not to be found in the printed works of Steele. There is no allusion to them in his letters, and they are not mentioned in the Steele tradition as recorded by John Nichols, his eighteenth-century editor, or by G. A. Aitken, his biographer. But even in the absence of any direct evidence of their authenticity, we can be reasonably sure not only that they are from Steele's pen but that they were written, probably in the early 1720's, for use at Dr. Newcome's School in Clapton, Hackney. Circumstantial evidence leading to this conclusion is to be found in the contents of the verse-book and of other manuscripts among the Taylor papers; in the somewhat scanty information we have of William Taylor's interests and friends; and also, of course, in Steele's pursuits.
1 Add. MS. 37684. The P. A. Taylor papers are: Add. MSS. 37682–85.
2 A Collection of Poems (1758) v, 288–293 and vi, 125.
3 Some Account of the Taylor Family (1875), pp. 204–222.
4 Printed during the eighteenth century in various collections. It may be found in A Select Collection of Poems, ed. John Nichols (1780–82), vii, 218–219.
5 Add. MS. 37683: vol. ii of the Taylor papers.
6 Pp. 172 ff.
7 Henry Taylor's attendance at the Hackney school at this time is indicated by a letter to him from his father addressed to him there and dated July 22, 1724. The Taylor historian states that John Hoadly was also there at the same time—Some Account, p. 178. It is very likely that Henry Taylor was there earlier Henry was eleven in 1722. His father's prologue to Tamerlane begins:
8 This fact is stated in a letter to Dodsley from John Hoadly, dated October 18, 1757, See a Collection of Poems (1758), v, 102–103.
9 Labeled in the manuscript “as spoken by H. T. [Henry Taylor] taking the part of Caled.” In Some Account, p. 230, the information is added that the play was given at Dr. Newcome's School in Clapton, Hackney.
10 See “Memoirs of the Life of the Late Dr. John Hoadly,” Gentleman's Magazine (1776), pp. 164–166 and A Select Collection of Poems, ed. Nichols (1780–82), viii, 149 and 152. Hoadly's interest in this play forty years later is shown by a prologue which he wrote for a performance of the Siege, in its original form, at Dr. Newcome's School in 1764. There is among the Taylor papers (Add. MS. 37683), a copy of the original draft of the Siege, including the passages omitted or altered in the printed play.
11 Brief accounts of Dr. Newcome's School may be found in Daniel Lysons, The Environs of London (1792–96), ii, 477 and in Edward Walford, Old and New London, v, 521.
12 Epistolary Correspondence of Richard Steele, ed. John Nichols (2d ed., 1809), ii, 471–472 n and 508 n. See also A Select Collection of Poems, ed. Nichols, vii, 218.
13 Epistolary Correspondence, ii, 508.
14 Epistolary Correspondence, ii, 586.
15 Epistolary Correspondence, ii, 633 and Aitken, Life of Richard Steele (1889), ii, 296. See also Benjamin Victor, Original Letters (1776), i, 329–330.
16 Steele gave a full account of his Censorium in Town Talk, No. 4 (Jan. 6, 1716). He alluded to it in his letters from time to time during the next few years.
17 The Theatre, No. 15 (Feb. 20, 1720), Steele dedicated to the memory of Hughes, who died a few hours after the first performance on 17 February of The Siege of Damascus.
18 Nichols, Correspondence, ii, 578 and Aitken, op. cit., ii, 258.
19 “A Prologue Intended for All for Love Revived” in the Theatre, No. 10 (Feb. 2, 1720).
20 The verses are transcribed as they appear in the manuscript verse-book—Add. MS. 37684, pp. 11 and 12. To my knowledge, they have not been printed before.