ADDITIONAL NOTES

TO THE FIRST VOLUME of the TATLER,

TAT. No i. p. 9, note on Betterton.

There is likewife a fine picture of him, drawn by Mr. Pope, in the poffeffion of the Earl of MANSFIELD. See TATLER, No 71, N° 157, and N° 167 and notes.

Tar. N° 2. p. 15. note.

It is certain, from the preface to the fourth volume of the TATLER, that STEELE, when that preface was written, did not know to whom he was obliged for this tale.

TAT. N° 3. p. 26.

VANDERBANK, or as his father fometimes wrote his name VANDREBANC, was a fon, probably the second, of a PETER VANDERBANK, a Parilian, who came into England with Gafcar the painter, about the year 1674, and died at Bradfield in Hertford@hire, in the church of which he was buried in 1697. His father was admired for the foftness of his prints, and ftill more for the fize of them, fome of his heads being the largest that had then appeared in England; but by this very merit he was undone, for the prices he received by no means compenfated for the time. employed on his works. He was reduced to want, and died at the house of Mr. Forefter his brother-in-law, at the time above-mentioned. After his death, his widow fold his plates to one BROWN, a print-feller, who made great advantage of them, and left an eafy fortune.

His eldest fon, for he left three, had some share in the theatre at Dublin; the youngest, William, was a poor labourer, who gave the account of his father and the family, which WALPOLE has published, and from which this note is chiefly borrowed, to Mr. VERTUE.

The perfon mentioned in this paper was probably his father's name-ion, and might, be as WALPOLE conjectures, an engraver. Whatever concern the father might have had in any manufacture of tapestry, he could not be the perfon meant here; for at this time he had been dead above ten years. The suite of tapestry, in the Duke of Ancaster's fale, with VANDERBANK's name to it, mentioned by Mr. WALPOLE, must therefore he fuppofed to belong to the fon, who is faid, upon the authority of the French tranflator of the TATLER, to have reprefented nature very happily in works of tapestry, and to have been a man inimitable in this way. Whether this was the fame VANDERBANK who had his arm torn off in 1737, as related in the Phil. Tranfact. for 1738, the writer does not pretend to determine.

See WALPOLE'S "Anecdotes of Painting, &c." Vol. V. p. 166, & feqq. 8vo. 1782.

TAT. N° 4. P. 35.

John DENNIS, the son of a faddler, a citizen of London, where he was born in 1657, was first educated under Dr. Horn, at the school of Harrow on the Hill, from whence he went to Caius College Cambridge in 1675, where he was regularly admitted to the degree of Batchelor of Arts. He was expelled the college for literally attempting to ftab a perfon in the dark. He afterwards made the tour of Europe, in the course of which, he conceived a rooted deteftation of defpotifm, and was strongly confirmed in the Whig principles, which he had early imbibed. On this score he obtained the patronage of the Duke of Marlborough, who procured him a place in the Cuftoms, worth 1201. per ann. His pro

fufion,

66

fufion, or want of economy, obliged him to fell it, with the reservation of an annuity for a certain term of years, which he outlived, fo that in the latter part of his life he was reduced to extreme neceffity. His early acquaintance with Dryden, Wycherley, Congreve, and Southern, had inspired him with a paffion for poetry, and a contempt for every attainment that was not connected with Belles Lettres, which diverted him from the acquifition of any profitable art, or the exercise of any profeffion. He is defcribed here as a great critic," and he had certainly fome claim to the character, for he was undoubtedly poffeffed of much erudition, and fome judgement. But his felf-conceit, and ill-temper, which led him into a dictatorial, violent, and fcurrilous manner of writing, rendered him univerfally odious to his contemporaries, with whom he was continually fquabbling. The tenderness which his poverty excited, he counteracted by his indifcretion, and fell a facrifice to the arrogance and malignity which he manifested in his writings. For the wits of his time, in return for his illiberal attacks, his perional invectives, and the borf-play in his raillery, foufed him all over with ridicule, and reduced him, in the end, to a bitter dependence on their fervices, for a niggardly and precarious fubfiftence. He died, aged 77, in 1733.

The following abridged letter to SWIFT is given as a curious fpecimen of this man's manner of writing.

"To the Examiner, upon his wife paper of the 10th "of Jan. 1710-11.

"It was upon the 4th of this inftant, Feb. that I "was perfuaded by fome of my acquaintance to peruse "thy paper of the 10th of Jan. in which, as they "told me, it was furmifed by feveral, that you pretended "to father on me the letter called, The Englishman's Thanks "to the Duke of Marlborough. It was the fecond of "thy papers that I ever read, though I have handled

feveral of them. Thou feemeft to have a great genius "for water language, and to be aiming at the post of

66 water

"water-orator, which thou wilt fill as worthily as Taylour "did that of water-poet. But tell me truly, what does "thy execrability mean? from whence this pride, this in"folence, this arrogance? what hast thou said, what hast "thou writ, what haft thou done, to give thee the least "fhadow of pretence to it? art thou fuch an ideot to be "of opinion that thou art the only foul-mouthed fellow " in England? is it so hard a matter, thinkest thou, to cry "blockhead, flupid head, the most infipid and contemptible of man"kind? is there any thought, any invention, any under"standing of thine requifite for making use of these "flowers of rhetorick? is not a joker in a long party. "coloured coat as capable of all this as a joker in a "long black coat? Thou say'st that I fhall die without knowing that I am the moft infipid, &c. Thou art in the right of it; I shall die without knowing any thing of this, "though I live to the age of Methufalem, if I hear it from "none but thee, and fuch scribling flaves as thou art. "But thou, before thou dieft, wilt know a great deal "worse than this of thyfelf. Before thou diest, thou wilt "know that thou art the most infipid, the vilest and most con * temptible, I will not fay of human creatures, for reason "thou never hadst, and humanity thou haft long disclaim

ed, but the vileft and moft contemptible of all dogs; for "though the reft of thy species bark like thee, at the wor "thiest of men who are strangers to them, and crouch "and fawn like thee, upon the vileft of men whom they *know; yet no dog but thyself did ever first fawn and

crouch, and afterwards bark and bite and betray; no, never any dog was fo vile before, as to fawn upon a mafter through two kingdoms, and afterwards to fly at his throat. Thus I have fhewn thee what thou art; and while thou art reading each period of this, thy confcience will be thy clerk, and will heartily cry amen to it. As for me, thou art not to be told, that I have the approbation, and applaufe, and efteem of thy matters;

"thy

thy mafters, who ufe thee like a common whore, abhor and deteft thee while they use thee, and will command their fervants to kick thee out of doors as "foon as the luft of their ambition is fatisfied. I thank "God, I am altogether a ftranger to thy perfon, but give me leave to fhew thee how infipid and contemptible thou art as an author. Infipid panegyrifts are they who praile with general compliments and thread-bare, commenda tions, which are equally applicable to all fubjects and to "ufe which, demandeth neither imagination nor judgment. Infipid libellers are they who ufe general injuries and Billinfgate defamations, which the arranteft fool may "speak of the most illustrious perfon, as easily as a dog can bark at the moon. Thou art one of thofe infipid libellers, by fo much more odious and more despicable than "an infipid panegyrist, by how much a biockhead with illnature is more hateful, and more contemptible than a fool with good-humour. The infipid reproaches which thou' ufeft, have been uttered a thousand times by thy"felf, of a thoufand different perfons. He calls him an impudent illiterate pedant, a turbulent hot-brained incendiary, with a cool heart, &c. &c, By thy wonderful charity, thou canst be nothing but a feandaloas priest, "hateful to God and deteftable to man, and agreeable to none but devils; who make it it thy business to foment divifions between, communities, and private perfons, in fpite of that charity which is the fundamental doctrine "of that religion which thou pretendeft to teach. How "amazing a reflection is it, that, in fpite of that divine "doctrine, the Chriftian world fhould be the only part of

the globe embroiled in endiefs divifions! From whence "can this proceed, but from priests like thee, who are the "peft of fociety and the bane of religion à But it is not "enough to lay thou art a priest; it is time to point out what priest thou art: thou art a priest who madest thy first "appearance in the world like a dry joker in controverfy, a "fpiritual buffoon, an ecclefiaftical jack pudding by pubVOL. I.

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