ABSTRACT
Date and publication. The lines were first published in 1800 by Edmond Malone (I i 341–2; siglum: M1) from an MS ‘communicated’ to him by William Walcot, Mrs Creed’s great grandson. The lines were prefixed by the following headnote: ‘Conversation one day after dinner, at Mrs. Creed’s, running upon the or[igin of names], Mr. Dryden bowed to the good old lady, and spoke extempore the f[ollowing verses]’. Malone offered the following explanation: ‘These verses, as well as the introductory account of the occasion that gave rise to them, are copied from an original paper now before me, written in an elegant female hand (probably that of one of her daughters); which was found in the cabinet of Mrs. Mary Walcot, late wife of William Walcot, of Oundle, M.D. and grand-daughter to Mrs. Elizabeth Creed; being the daughter of John Creed, Esq., her brave son aforementioned, who died at Oundle, Nov. 21, 1751, in his seventy-third year.–Part of this paper having been worn away by time, I have supplied by conjecture the few words enclosed within crotchets [square brackets], which appear wanting. The word within crotchets in the third verse, or some other word of two syllables, seems to have been inadvertently omitted in the original transcript’. Later, another MS came into Malone’s hands and he entered corrections in the Bodleian copy (Malone E. 61) of his book (see John R. Sweney in PQ li (1971–2) 489–90). The present text is based on Malone’s corrected version (M2) with Malone’s original readings given in footnotes.
