So also does Pope:
"No silver saints by dying misers given,
Here brib'd the rage of ill-requited heaven."
"Acis and Galatea."—Is there any good evidence in support of the commonly received opinion that the words to Handel's Acis and Galatea were written by Gay? Hawkins merely states that they "are said to have been written by Mr. Gay." I have no copy of Burney at hand to refer to; but I find the same statement repeated by various other musical historians, without, however, any authority being given for it. The words in question are not to be found among the Poems on several Occasions, by Mr. John Gay, published in 1767 by Tonson and others. Have they ever been included in any collective edition of his works?
G. T.
Reading.
[In the musical catalogue of the British Museum, compiled by Thomas Oliphant, Esq., it is stated that the words to Acis and Galatea "are said to be written, but apparently partly compiled, by John Gay." This serenata is included among Gay's Poems in Dr. Johnson's edition of the English Poets, 1790, as well as in Chalmers's edition of 1810, and in the complete edition of British Poets, Edinburgh, 1794.]
Birm-bank.—The bank of a canal opposite to the towing-path is called the birm-bank. What is the derivation of this?
Uneda.
Philadelphia.