and drawn the
obvious conclusion that _Namby Pamby_, _Dumpling_ and the _Key_ were by
the same author.

We have already seen how closely _Dumpling_ and _Stage Tyrants_ can be
tied together; the reader can compare for himself that part of _Namby
Pamby_ containing "So the Nurses get by Heart / Namby Pamby's Little
Rhymes," with the passage from the _Key_: "It was here the D[ean] . . .
got together all his Namby Pamby . . . from the old Nurses thereabouts"
(_Key_, pp. 16-17).

There exists in the Bodleian an early copy of _Namby Pamby_ (1725?) "By
Capt. Gordon, Author of the Apology for Parson Alberony and the
Humorist." The joke here is surely in not only letting the Whig Gordon
attack the Whig Ambrose Phillips but then, also by association,
connecting Gordon's name with the attack on Walpole and Marlborough.
There is a parallel to this: Carey's "Lilliputian Ode on Their Majesties
Succession" appeared in _Poems_ (1729), separated from the pieces
previously mentioned by only one short patriotic stanza. Yet in the
Huntington Library there is an almost identical version (1727) which was
ostensibly published by Swift.

The first six editions of _Dumpling_ appeared in 1726 and both editions
of the _Key_ are dated 1727. Apart from the dates on the title page,
this can be verified externally by the initial entries in Wilford's
_Monthly Catalogue_ (1723-30) of February 1726 and April 1727
respectively. Swift's first return visit to England (in March 1726 after
twelve years) was subsequent to the publication of _Dumpling_; his
second visit was in the same month as the publication of the _Key_,
which assigns him _ex post facto_ the authorship "from Page 1. to Page
25." of _Dumpling_ (_Key_, p. ix).

Sir John Pudding and his Dumpling are manipulated throughout these
pamphlets to carry a multiplicity of meaning which brings them almost as
close to symbolism as they are to the allegory that Carey claims to be
writing (_Key_, pp. 18, 24 and 29). Collation of _Dumpling_ with its
_Key_ clearly reveals (with due allowance for satiric arabesque)
a series of allegories moving backwards and forwards through history. At
various stages, Sir John Pudding (ostensibly Brawn [or John Brand], the
famous cook of the Rummer in Queen Street who appears in Dr. King's _Art
of Cookery_ [1708]), becomes identifiable with King John, Sir John
Falstaff, Walpole, Marlborough, and even Queen Anne (for the change in
sexes see _Key_, p. 18). All of these en