APPENDIX I. SWIFT'S REMARKS ON DR GIBBS'S PARAPHRASE OF THE PSALMS.
NOTE.
"THE following manuscript was literally copied from the printed original found in the library of Dr. J. Swift, Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin, in the year 1745. The marginal notes and parodies were written by the Dean's own hand, except such as are distinguished with this mark [O/] with which I am only chargeable. Witness my hand, this 25th day of February, 1745. WILLIAM DUNKIN.
"N.B.—The original was by me presented to his excellency Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, lord lieutenant general and general governor of Ireland. W.D."
The manuscript to which Dr. Dunkin refers is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. The present text is taken from a transcript which is at the South Kensington Museum, and which appears to be the identical transcript used by Nichols for his reprint in the quarto edition, vol. xiv. At the end of this MS. is the following note:
"The above was written from the manuscript mentioned in the first page, now in the hands of Nicholas Coyne, Esq., being the only copy in the kingdom of Ireland; he having purchased the original, and afterwards generously given it to his friend Dr. Dunkin, finding the doctor extremely uneasy at the disappointment the Earl of Chesterfield was like to meet with, as he had promised the earl to attend the auction, and procure it for him at any price; and is now transcribed by Neale Molloy, of Dublin, Esq'r, by the favour of the said Nicholas Coyne, his brother-in-law; and sent by him to his kinsman, and dear friend, Charles Molloy, of London, Esq're.
"Dublin, 26th, of May, 1748."
The "Epistle Dedicatory" to Princess Anne, in Dr. Gibbs's volume, has also been annotated, chiefly by Dr. Dunkin; but as these are mostly too filthy to be published, I have omitted the few notes by Swift, which consist merely of marginalia corrections of words and a few satirical interpolations of no great consequence. I have corrected Dr. Gibbs's text by the original edition of his "Paraphrase" (1701). The corrections were necessary, since the transcript could not be absolutely relied on.
[T.S.]
On "The first Fifteen Psalms of David, translated into Lyric Verse: Proposed as an Essay, supplying the Perspicuity and Coherence according to the Modern Art of Poetry; not known to have been attempted before in any Language. With a Preface containing some Observations of the great and general Defectiveness of former Versions in Greek, Latin, and English. By Dr. [James] Gibbs. London: printed by J. Mathews, for John Hartley, over-against Gray's-Inn, in Holborn. MDCCI."