Note 2 — JOHN TUTCHIN SELECTED POEMS

Tutchin's birth-year is variously given. The Van der Gucht engraving and the authentic Elegy of Tutchin's death state that he died "Aged 44"; but the mock Elegy, falsely claiming to be "Written by the Author of the Review," gives his age to be 47. In The Observator (Oct. 20-23, 1703), Tutchin implied that he was "Born some years after the Restoration of King Charles the 2d." His certificate of marriage to Elizabeth Hicks on Sept. 30, 1686 places his age then at twenty-five, and supports the birth-year 1661, as given in the DNB. See also The Observator, May 17-20, 1704; July 8-12, 1704; and July 24-28, 1703. One of Tutchin's enemies charged that he was born in the north of England (An Account of the Birth, Education, Life and Conversation of ... the Observator, 1705); and another, that his father was "a Scot, canting Presbyterian Sot" (The Picture of the Observator, 1704).