[Our correspondent will find some interesting notices of the early use of the carrier pigeon in Europe in the Penny Cyclopædia, vol. vii. p. 372., art. "Columbidæ;" and in the Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. vi. p. 176., art. "Carrier Pigeon.">[
Replies.
"PYLADES AND CORRINA."—PSALMANAZAR AND DEFOE.
(Vol. vii., pp. 206. 305. 435. 479.)
I had forwarded for insertion a short answer to the Query as to Pylades and Corinna before Dr. Maitland's communication was printed; but as it now appears more distinctly what was the object of the Query, I can address myself more directly to the point he has raised. And, in the first place, I cannot suppose that Defoe had anything to do with Pylades and Corinna, or the History of Formosa. In all Defoe's fictions there is at least some trace of the master workman, but in neither of these works is there any putting forth of his power, or any similitude to his manner or style. When the History of Formosa appeared (1704), he was ingrossed in politics, and was not, as far as any evidence has yet informed us, in the habit of translating or doing journeyman work for booksellers. Then the book itself is, in point of composition, far beneath Defoe, even in his most careless moods. As to Pylades and Corinna, Defoe died so soon after Mrs. Thomas—she died on the 3rd February, 1731, and he on the 24th April following, most probably worn out by illness—that time seems scarcely afforded for getting together and working up the materials of the two volumes published. The editor, who signs himself "Philalethes," dates his Dedication to the first volume, in which are contained the particulars about Psalmanazar, "St. John Baptist, 1731," which day would be after Defoe's death. Nor is there any ground for supposing that Defoe and Curll had much connexion as author and publisher. Curll only printed two works of Defoe, as far as I have been able to discover, the Memoirs of Dr. Williams (1718, 8vo.), and the Life of Duncan Campbell (1720, 8vo.), and for his doing so, in each case, a good reason may be given. As regards the genuineness of the correspondence in Pylades and Corinna, I do not see any reason to question it. Sir Edward Northey's certificate, and various little particulars in the letters themselves, entirely satisfy me that the correspondence is not a fictitious one. The anecdotes of Psalmanazar are quite in accordance with his own statements in his Life—(see particularly p. 183., Memoirs, 1765, 8vo.); and if they were pure fiction, is it not likely that, living in London at the time when they appeared, he would have contradicted them? In referring (Vol. vii., p. 436., "N. & Q.") to the Gentleman's Magazine for these anecdotes, I had not overlooked their having appeared in Pylades and Corinna, but had not then the latter book at hand to include it in the reference. Dr. Maitland considers Pylades and Corinna "a farrago of low rubbish, utterly beneath criticism." Is not this rather too severe and sweeping a character? Unquestionably the poetry is but so-so, and of the poem the greater part might have been dispensed with; but, like all Curll's collections, it contains some matter of interest and value to those who do not despise the minutiæ of literary investigation. The Autobiography of the unfortunate authoress (Mrs. Thomas), who was only exalted by Dryden's praise to be ignominiously degraded by Pope, and "whose whole life was but one continued scene of the utmost variety of human misery," has always appeared to me an interesting and rather affecting narrative; and, besides a great many occasional notices in the correspondence, which are not without their use, there are interspersed letters from Lady Chudleigh, Norris of Bemerton, and others, which are not to be elsewhere met with, and which are worth preserving.
For Psalmanazar's character, notwithstanding his early peccadilloes, I can assure Dr. Maitland that I have quite as high a respect as himself, even without the corroborative evidence of our great moralist, which on such a subject may be considered as perfectly conclusive.
James Crossley.