LXVI. Dryden's Dedication for the Music of the Prophetesse, 1691

Abstract

The manuscript Dedication for the music of Purcell's opera, The Prophetess, has curiously remained unprinted and apparently unobserved by the editors and biographers of Dryden since its first notice in a report of the Historical Manuscript Commission, 1881. Its almost unique interest to any treatment of the poet's literary relations, his canon, and technique is barely indicated by a contemporary notation at the bottom of the second folio: “This Epistle is the handwriting of John Dryden Esq Poet Laureat to Ch: 2, and James 2. it was the first draught of an Epistle Dedicatory to some Opera's of Mr. Purcell, and writ at his Request & for his use.” Of an accompanying manuscript, the original for an unsigned Advertisement to the printed score, it is added that: “The other is a letter from Jacob Tonson the Famous Bookseller in London.” Both pieces were published, though with extensive deletions in the case of the Dedication, in a folio volume of 1691. This work, whatever the authorship of its parts, with its Dedication and Advertisement, assumes therefore a new importance to bibliographers and students of the poet.