COMPILED BY

HENRY W. KENT

THE GROLIER CLUB

OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

MCMIII

Copyright, 1903, by
The Grolier Club of the
City of New York

[pg vii]

PREFACE

AFTER the publication of the volume entitled One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature with Facsimiles of the Title-pages and an Introduction by George E. Woodberry, the books themselves were gathered from the collections of members of the Club for an exhibition at the Club-house. All of these volumes belonged to the first published editions, except where copies of the earliest editions were not obtainable, or, for some reason, were not desirable. In two cases, those of "Tottel's Miscellany" and Lyly's Euphues, copies of the first editions are unique, and, therefore, practically not obtainable. The second edition of A Myrrour For Magistrates contains the first issue of the poem called an Induction by the Earl of Dorset, and was, therefore, the edition which it was desirable to show. Notwithstanding the oft-repeated statement that copies of the second edition of Bacon's Essays are of [pg viii] greater rarity than those of the first, no copy of the first edition was forthcoming, and one of the later date was necessarily included in the collection. In one or two instances a second issue of a first edition was used where the extremely rare first issue was not owned by a member of the Club.

Arranged side by side, each volume open at its title-page, the individuality of these well-known works was brought out strikingly: taken collectively, they illustrated, clearly and interestingly, the development of the Book in England. Members of the Club were thus led to suggest the publication of a second, or supplementary volume, which should give the bibliographical facts connected with each book, and which should indicate, briefly, something of this development. The present volume was undertaken in response to this suggestion.

The relations of author with printer or publisher, the success or failure of the books, matters of illustration, and marked peculiarities of editions, issues or volumes—all these things are referred to at greater or less length. In some cases, the facts have been given with fullness; but in others, like that of the Shakespeare First Folio, about which so much has been written, it was thought unnecessary to enter into details. Many of the books in the list having been already the subjects of whole bibliographies, or, having been carefully collated in other works, full collations have not been thought desirable here. It should be noted, in this connection, that the collations of books printed before the eighteenth century are given by signatures, while of books published after 1700, the paginations are given. Works of more than two volumes have not been collated in detail.

1. [The Canterbury Tales. Printed at Westminster by William Caxton, about 1478.]

The text begins with the first line of the book, and there is no prefatory note or colophon, to give a clue to the name of the work, its place of publication, its printer, or the date of its production. The date and the name of the printer, however, are determined by the type, which is a font used by Caxton in books printed at Westminster between the years 1475 and 1481. This type, known as Type No. 2, because it was the second employed by him (the first used for printing books in England), is like the characters in manuscripts written in Bruges in the fifteenth century, and called "Gros Bâtarde." Colard Mansion, the earliest printer of Bruges, used a font of similar style, and Caxton probably formed his type on the same models, if, indeed, he did not procure it from Mansion himself, with whom he learned the new art of printing. But we may also identify our printer by means of his own statement made in the signed "Prohemye" to the second edition of the work, printed in 1484 (?), where, in speaking of the difficulty of obtaining a pure text, he makes an interesting criticism of this, the first edition. He says:

"For I fynde many of the sayd bookes, whyche wry- | ters haue abrydgyd it and many thynges left out, And in | soe place haue sette certayn versys, that he neuer made ne sette | in hys booke, of whyche bookes so incorrecte was one brought to me vj yere passyd, whyche I supposed had ben veray true & cor- | recte, And accordyne to the same I dyde do enprynte a certayn | nombre of them, whyche anon were sold to many and dyuerse | gentyl men, of whome one gentylman cam to me, and said that | this book was not accordyn in many places vnto the book that | Gefferey chaucer had made, To whom I answerd [pg 4] that I had ma-| de it accordyng to my copye, and by me was nothyng added ne | mynusshyd."

According to the arrangement of William Blades, this is the tenth work of England's first printer, and the fifth printed on English soil. It was printed after his return from Bruges, whither he had gone as a mercer, and where he turned printer and editor. Few of the books from his press exceed it in size and beauty. Nine copies are known; two are in the British Museum, one in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, one in Merton College, Oxford, and five in private libraries. Of all these only two are in perfect condition.

The volume has no signatures, folios or catchwords, and the lines are unevenly spaced. The rubrication of the initial letters was done by hand.

In the matter of purity of text this edition is inferior to the second, as Caxton himself thus early recognized; the manuscript from which it was printed, Tyrwhitt tells us, "happened unluckily to be one of the worst in all respects that [he] could possibly have met with." But however that may be, the Canterbury Tales is entitled to a chief place among English books as presenting the first printed text of Chaucer, who, "by hys labour enbelysshyd, ornated, and made faire our englisshe."

Folio.  Black letter.

Collation:  371 leaves; sixteen of which are in facsimile.

2. This book is intituled, confeſ- | ſio amantis / that is to saye | in englysshe the confeſſyon of | the louer maad and compyled by | Johan Gower squyer borne in walys | ... (Colophon) Enprynted at Westmestre by me | Willyam Caxton and fynyſſhed the ij | day of Septembre the fyrſt yere of the | regne of Kyng Richard the thyrd / the yere of our lord a thouſand / CCCC / | lxxxxiij / (a mistake for 1483).

The text is a composite one, being taken from at least three MSS. Manuscripts are extant in three versions: the earliest is dedicated to Richard II, and contains a panegyric on Chaucer; the second is dedicated to Henry of Lancaster, but the poets having quarreled, the panegyric is omitted; and the third is likewise addressed to Henry, but with certain differences in the work. With the exception of these variations, the text is alike in all.

The type of the printed work exhibits two variations of the same characters, and is called Type No. 4, and No. 4*. It is the smallest font employed by Caxton in any of his books, and the most used, thirty-one volumes having been printed between 1480 and 1487 in one or the other or in both variations.

The printer does not, as in the following work, write a special prologue or preface to the Confessio, but states all the facts he knows concerning it in the introductory paragraph, or title, at the beginning of the first column. The book has no catchwords or folios, and the signatures are irregularly printed. Seventeen copies were known to Blades: three in the British Museum; Cambridge, Pembroke College, Cambridge, Hereford Cathedral, Lambeth Palace Library, Queen's [pg 6] College, and All Souls, Oxford, each having one; while eight were in private libraries.

The copy whose title-page is here shown in facsimile is one of five copies that are perfect. We first hear of it in the library of Brian Fairfax, a Commissioner of Customs in the 18th century, who bequeathed it to his kinsman, Hon. Robert Fairfax, afterward seventh Lord Fairfax. Lord Fairfax intended to sell the collection at auction, but eventually sold it entire, in 1756, to his relative, Francis Child of Osterley Park, for two thousand pounds. In 1819 the Osterley Park library passed into the family of the Earl of Jersey, and, when finally dispersed, in 1885, brought thirteen thousand and seven pounds, nine shillings.

At the time of the intended auction, in 1756, a catalogue was printed, but afterward all but twenty copies of the edition were suppressed. One of these is marked with the valuation of each book, and shows the Confessio to have been held at three pounds. Eight hundred and ten pounds was the price it brought at the sale in 1885.

Folio.  Black letter.  12⅝ × 18¹⁵⁄16 inches

Collation:  222 leaves; four of which are blank.

3. (Colophon)    Thus endeth thys noble and Joyous book entytled le morte | Darthur / Notwythſtondyng it treateth of the byrth / lyf / and | actes of the ſayd kyng Arthur / of his noble knyghtes of the | rounde table / ... whiche book was re | duced in to englyſſhe by ſyr Thomas Malory knyght as afore | is ſayd / and by my deuyded in to xxj bookes chapytred and | enprynted / and fynyſſhed in thabbey westmestre the last day | of Juyl the yere of our lord / M / CCCC / lxxxv /    Caxton me fieri fecit.

The book begins with a prologue by Caxton wherein he tells how he came to print it, presents his reason for the belief that Arthur was an historical personage, and relates some facts with regard to the sources of the romance. He says:

"After that I had accomplysshed and fynysshed dyuers hystoryes as wel of contemplacyon as of other hyſtoryal and worldly actes of grete conquerours & prynces, and also certeyn bookes of ensaumples and doctryne, Many noble and dyuers gentylmen of thys royame of Englond camen and demaunded me many and oftymes, wherfore that I haue not do made & enprynte the noble hystorye of the saynt greal, and of the moost renomed crysten Kyng,... kyng Arthur....

Thēne al these thynges forsayd aledged J coude not wel denye, but that there was suche a noble kyng named arthur, and reputed one of the ix worthy, & fyrst & chyef of the crysten men, & many noble volumes be made of hym & of his noble knyztes in frensshe which I haue seen & redde beyonde the see, which been not had in our maternal [pg 8] tongue, but in walsshe ben many & also in frensshe, & Somme in englysshe but nowher nygh alle, wherfore such as haue late ben drawen oute bryefly in to englysshe, I haue after the symple connynge that god hath sente me, vnder the fauour and correctyon of al noble lordes and gentylmen enprysed to enprynte a book of the noble hystoryes of the sayd kynge Arthur, and of certeyn of his knyghtes after a copye vnto me delyuerd, whyche copys Syr Thomas Malorye dyd take oute of certayn bookes of frensshe and reduced it in to Englysshe, And I accordyng to my copye haue doon sette it in emprynte...."

The volume is printed without folios, head-lines, or catchwords, in the type known as No. 4, already referred to under the Confessio. The initial letters are printed from wood.

Only two copies are known; one perfect, from which the facsimile of the title-page was taken, the other an imperfect one, which belonged to Earl Spencer's collection. The British Museum possesses only a fragment. Our copy, like that of the Confessio, was one of the nine Caxtons belonging to the Fairfax library. In the list of 1756, it was valued at two pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence; in 1885 it sold for one thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds.

Folio.

Collation:  432 leaves, one of which is blank.

4. The | booke of the common praier | and adminiſtracion of the | Sacramentes, and | other rites and | ceremonies | of the | Churche: after the | uſe of the Churche of | Englande. | Londini, in officina Richardi Graftoni, | [Two lines] Anno Domini. M.D.XLIX | Menſe Martij. [Colophon] Excuſum Londini, in edibus Richardi Graftoni | Regij Impreſſoris. | Menſe Junij M.D.xlix. | Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum ſolum.

We know very little about the preparation of the book. An Act, dated January 22, 1549, entitled "An Act for uniformity of Service and Administration of the Sacraments throughout the Realm" speaks of the commissioners who had been appointed, and had first met at Windsor in May, 1548, as follows: "Whereof His Highness by the most prudent advice ... to the intent a uniform, quiet, and godly order should be had concerning the premisses, hath appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury, and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops, and other learned men of this realm to consider and ponder the premisses." The same Act goes on to say "the which at this time by the aid of the Holy Ghost, with one uniform agreement is of them concluded, set forth and delivered to his highness, to his great comfort and quietness of mind, in a book entituled,—

"The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after the Use of the Church of England."

Richard Grafton, the printer of our copy, was originally a prosperous London merchant. His zeal for religion led him to associate himself with Edward Whitchurch, another merchant, in causing Matthews's Bible to be translated and printed in 1537, in publishing the Coverdale Bible of 1535, and again in printing the Cranmer Bible of 1540. He turned printer eventually, and his books are counted among the best specimens of the book-making of the period. He and his friend, who also became a typographer, received a patent from Henry VIII [pg 10] in 1543 for printing "bookes of diuine service, that is to say, the masse booke, the graill, the antyphoner, the himptnell, the portous, and the prymer, both in Latyn and in Englyshe of Sarum use," all of which had formerly been printed abroad. In 1546, Grafton was appointed printer to Prince Edward, afterward Edward VI, and in 1547 printer to the King. When the Prayer Book came to be put to press there was therefore no question of who should be chosen to do the work.

Ames says that Grafton and Whitchurch continued friends and partners for many years, but it is a fact, as Dibdin points out, that while up to 1541 their names appear together upon title-pages, after that date there are usually two issues of each work, part having Grafton's name in the imprint, and part Whitchurch's. This is true of the Cranmer Bible, and the same thing is found in connection with the Prayer Book. It is not known whether the separation is due to some economic arrangement agreeable to both printers, or whether they may have quarreled. To the names of these two printers of the first edition, however, should be added another, that of John Oswen of Worcester, formerly of Ipswich, who by virtue of a license from Edward VI was printer of "every kind of book, or books, set forth by us, concerning the service to be used in churches, ministration of the sacraments, and instruction of our subjects of the Principality of Wales, and marches thereunto belonging ... for seven years, prohibiting all other persons whatsoever from printing the same."

All issues of this edition differ more or less in general style and appearance. The most marked dissimilarity in the volumes issued by the London printers lies in the special woodcut title-page used by each. Grafton's beautiful border (repeated for "A Table" and "Kalendar") shows, above a Doric frieze supported by pilasters, a view of the Council Chamber with King Edward, surrounded by his advisers, and at the bottom the printer's punning mark, on a shield upheld by two angels. It is as fine a piece of work as anything of the period. Grafton afterward used the same border for his edition of A Concordance of the Bible, printed in 1550. The Whitchurch copies have a woodcut border very similar in character to those in use twenty years later, which have the appearance of being related to some of the borders drawn for Plantin. This border consists of caryatids representing Roman soldiers with shields, supporting the royal coat-of-arms, and below, satyrs and loves with another coat-of-arms in a cartouche, and the initial E in a tablet on one side, and W on the other.

[pg 11]

The earliest known copy printed by Oswen, a quarto, has a colophon which reads:    At Worceter by    | Jhon Oſwen.    They be also to ſell at Shreweſburye. | (Imprinted the xxiiii. day of May. | Anno. M.D.XLIV. The title is framed by a border made up of five woodcut panels, carelessly arranged; and some of the initial letters are ornamented.

Another copy, dated July 30, is in folio. The title-page is here bordered with ten woodcuts, having between the inner and outer sets the rubricated text: "Let euerye soule submyt hym ſelfe unto the aucthorite of the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be, are ordained of God whoſoeuer therefore reſiſteth power: reſiſteth the ordinance of God. Rom. XIVI." A royal coat-of-arms, which in the quarto was placed before the order of Matins, here heads the title, printed in red. Every other line following is also rubricated. In Grafton's copy the "Te Deum Laudamus," "The Song of Zacharias," and "The Letany," occur at the end of the book but are not in the table of Contents.

The statement made in the Act that the work had been concluded, set forth, and delivered, must apply, it is thought, to the manuscript, since no printed copy is known dated earlier than March. A copy printed by Whitchurch has the date March 7, 1549, and another by Grafton is dated the eighth; other copies are dated in May, June and July. The book was used in the London churches on Easter Day, April 21, 1549, and was ordered, as we have seen, to be used in all churches after the Feast of Pentecost, which fell upon June 9 in 1549.

From the requirements of its use, we may infer that the edition must have been a large one. We are sure of the price of the volume from the following note, added at the end of the book: "The Kynges Maieſtie, by the aduyſe of his moſte deare vncle the Lorde Protector and other his highnes Counſell, ſtreightly chargeth and commaundeth, that no maner of perſon do ſell this preſent booke vnbounde, aboue the price of .ii. Shyllynges the piece. And the ſame bounde in paſte or in boordes, not aboue the price of three ſhylleynges and foure pence the piece. God ſaue the Kyng." The price differs in different volumes. A copy of Oswen's May 24th issue sets the price at two shillings and twopence for unbound copies, and three shillings eightpence for bound copies.

Folio.  Black letter and Roman.

Collation:  183 leaves, including title-page. Sig. A-Y, AA-f.

5. The Vision | of Pierce Plowman, now | fyrſte imprynted by Roberte | Crowley, dwellyngin Ely | rentes in Holburne. | Anno Domini | 1505. Cum priuilegio ad im | primendũ ſolum. [Colophon]    Imprinted at London by Roberte | Crowley, dwellyng in Elye rentes | in Holburne. The year of | Our Lord M.D.L.

Before appearing with this work as a publisher, Robert Crowley was by no means unknown to the reading world as a writer; nor was it probably a mere printer's venture that led him to select such a work as this for publication, but sympathy with the tendency of the book itself. He had been educated at Oxford, and received early the strong bent toward the doctrines of the Reformation which prompted the writing of his first three books, whose titles indicate something of his leaning in the religious controversies of the day: The Confutation of the miſhapen Aunſwer to the miſnamed, wicked Ballade, called the Abuſe of y^e bleſſed ſacramēt of the aultare ... that Myles Hoggard ... hath wreſted.... Compiled by Robert Crowley. Anno. 1548; The confutation of .xiii Articles, wherunto Nicolas Shaxton ... ſubſcribed and ... recanted ... at the burning of ... Anne Aſkue, in [1548] and An informacion and Peticion agaynſt the oppreſſours of the Pore Commons of this Realme, in [1548]. We may picture to ourselves with what relish so controversial and partisan a soul must have prepared for the press, and then watched through it, what Ellis calls "the keenest ridicule of the vices of all orders of men, and particularly of the religious."

Crowley's career as a printer was only an incident in a life devoted to championing the new doctrines of Protestantism. The three books mentioned were printed by Day and Sere; and Herbert thinks [pg 13] that it may have been in their office that our printer-writer learned the trade which he followed for three years only. Considering the fact that his press was situated in Ely Rents, where William Sere also dated his books in 1548, and thereabouts, this seems very probable. But from Crowley's use of the excellently designed and really charming woodcut border with Edward Whitechurch's cipher at the bottom and his symbol of the sun at the top, we may almost infer that he was on equally familiar relations with that printer, established at The Sun, over against the Conduit. We may add that William Copeland of The Rose Garland also used, at a later date, a similar compartment in several of his books.

One might expect Crowley, serious and scholarly in his tastes, to be a careful editor; and his researches to find his author's name, as revealed in "The Printer to the Reader," prove that he was such an one, even if, for some reason or other, he did not choose to place the name upon the title-page. He says:

"Beynge deſyerous to knowe the name of the Autoure of this moſt worthy worke, (gentle reader) and the tyme of the writynge of the ſame: I did not onely gather togyther ſuche aunciente copies as I could come by, but alſo conſult ſuch mē as I knew to be more exerciſed in the ſtudie of antiquities, than I myselfe haue ben. And by ſome of them I haue learned that the Autour was named Roberte langelande, a Shropshere man borne in Cleybirie, aboute .viii. myles from Maluerne hilles.... So that this I may be bold to reporte, that it was fyrſte made and wrytten after the yeare of our lord .M.iii.C.L. and before the yere ,M,iiiiC, and .ix which meane ſpaſe was .lix yeares. We may iuſtly cōiect therfore, y^t it was firſte written about two hundred yeres paſte, in the tyme of Kynge Edwarde the thyrde...."

The year after The Vision was published our printer was ordained a deacon, and, later, made vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate, where he preached and wrote until his death. He published no less than twenty-two volumes, eight of which he printed himself, thus taking his place, along with Caxton, at the head of the list of printer-authors which includes such names as Wolfe, Baldwin, Richardson and Morris.

Dibdin calls the vellum copy of The Vision which belonged to Earl Spencer unique, but the copy here collated would deprive it of that distinction, even if there were not another in the British Museum.

[pg 14]

A comparison of several copies of the book reveals the fact that in most of them the date on the title-page has been written in to correct the printer's error.

There were three other impressions issued during 1550, two of them said to be "nowe the ſeconde tyme imprinted," and the third with the printer's name spelled "Crowlye" on the title-page. Rev. W. W. Skeat in his edition of The Vision says:

"But all three impressions are much alike. The chief differences are, that the two later impressions have many more marginal notes, a few additional lines, and also 6 additional leaves between the printer's preface and the poem itself, containing a brief argument or abstract of the prologue and of each of the Passus. The first impression is the most correct; also the third impression is much less correct than the second, and considerably inferior to it."

Quarto.  Black letter.

Collation:   , two leaves; A-GgI, in fours. Folioed.

6. 1577. | The Firſte volume of the | Chronicles of England Scot | lande, and Irelande. | Conteyning, | The deſcription and Chronicles of England, from the | Firſte inhabiting vnto the conqueſt | [Six lines] Faithfully gathered and ſet forth, by | Raphaell Holinſhed. | At London, | Imprinted for George Biſhop. | God ſaue the Queene.

1577 | The | Laſte volume of the | Chronicles of England, Scot- | lande, and Irelande, with | their deſcriptions. | Conteyning, | The Chronicles of Englande from William Con- | querour vntill this preſent tyme. | Faithfully gathered and compiled | by Raphaell Holinſhed. | At London, | Imprinted for George | Biſhop. | [Printer's mark] God ſaue the Queene.

The first edition is known as the Shakespeare edition, because it was used by the great poet, in common with all the Elizabethan dramatists, in the preparation of his historical plays.

That Holinshed used the adjective faithfully in its true sense may be seen by a reference to the dedication of the book to Sir William Cecil, Baron of Burleigh, whose coat-of-arms appears on the back of the title-page. Here he gives an interesting account of the inception and fortunes of the work, with an incidental side-light upon the relations of printer and professional writer:

"Where as therefore, that worthie Citizen Reginald Wolfe late Printer to the Queenes Maiestie, a man well knowen and beholden to your Honour, meant in his life time to publiſh an vniuerſall Coſmographie [pg 16] of the whole worlde, and therewith alſo certaine perticular Histories of euery knowen nation, amongſt other whome he purpoſed to vſe for performance of his entent in that behalfe, he procured me to take in hande the collection of thoſe Histories, and hauing proceeded ſo far in the ſame, as little wanted to the accompliſhment of that long promiſed worke, it pleased God to call him to his mercie, after .xxv yeares trauell ſpent therein, so that by his vntimely deceaſſe, no hope remayned to ſee that performed, which we had so long trauayled aboute: thoſe yet whom he left in trust to diſpoſe his things after his departure hence, wiſhing to the benefite of others, that ſome fruite might follow of that whereabout he had imployed ſo long time, willed me to continue mine endeuour for their furtherance in the ſame, whiche although I was ready to do, ſo farre as mine abilitie would reach, and the rather to anſwere that trust which the deceaſſed repoſed in me, to ſee it brought to ſome perfection: yet when the volume grewe ſo great, as they that were to defray the charges for the Impreſsion, were not willing to go through with the whole, they reſolued first to publiſhe the Histories of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande, with their deſcriptions, whiche deſriptions, becauſe they were not in ſuch readineſſe, as thoſe of forreyn countreys, they were enforced to uſe the helpe of other better able to do it than I."

Reginald Wolfe, so well known and highly esteemed, was a German by birth, and trained in his craft in the office of the Strasburg master Conrad Neobarius, whose device of The Brazen Serpent he afterward adopted. Edward VI appointed Wolfe royal printer in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as bookseller and stationer, with an annuity of 26s. 8d.

We find the names of his executors and the chief promoters of the history in the entry on the Registers of the Stationers' Company, under date of July 1, 1578: "Receyued of master harrison and master Bisshop for the licensinge of Raphaels Hollingshedes cronycles XX^s and a copy," which, by the way, Mr. Arber remarks to be the largest fee he had met with. Some copies bear the imprint of one, some of the other; and there are still others with the names of John Harrison (there were four publishers of this name), Lucas Harrison and John Hunne, who were also probably among them "that were to defray the charges for the impression."

No printer's name appears in either volume, but the figure of a mermaid upon the title-pages, and a larger mark of two hands holding [pg 17] a serpent upon a crutch at the end of the first volume, show it to have been from the press of Reginald Wolfe's apprentice and successor, Henry Bynneman of The Mermaid, in Knight Rider Street. Boy and man knowing his master's hopes and fears for his Universal Cosmographie, acquainted with the long travail put upon it, and so properly desirous, like the rest, to see some fruit born of it, who could have done the work so well and faithfully as he?

In the preface to the second volume we are told that it was intended to bring out the histories of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with their descriptions, in one volume, and the descriptions and abridgements of the histories of other countries in another; but that the chronicles of England growing very voluminous it was deemed best to defer printing the histories of the other countries, and to divide the material on hand into two volumes. Here, however, a new difficulty presented itself; the history of England after the Conquest was found to equal in length all the other matter, and, if allowed to follow after the early history of the Island, in its proper order, would make the volumes very unequal in size; so it was given a volume by itself, with the pagination continuing that of the English history in the first volume. The other histories have separate title-pages, paginations, and indexes.

The book is illustrated with woodcuts in two distinct varieties, one, representing the heads of kings, the other, spirited scenes in the history. The last are of a better character than most of those of the period, and show very clearly the influence that Holbein, who had died in London twenty-four years before, had exerted upon English book-illustration. Some of the cuts are repeated. The elaborate woodcut border in the contemporary German style was used by the printer in several other books, before and after this date. A large, well-designed initial C, with a coat-of-arms in the center, printed from a separate block ("mortised"), begins the dedication to Lord Burleigh; and a large I, with a picture of the Creation, probably designed for the first page of a Bible, begins the preface, and The History of Scotland. This last is the largest initial letter, Mr. Pollard says, that he has found in an English book. It had previously been used by Wolfe, in 1563. An initial letter, representing an astronomer (Ptolemy?), is prefixed to The History of Ireland. It is signed with a C having a small I within it. Other initials of a similar character had been used before by John Day, in Cunningham's Cosmographical Years, published in 1559. [pg 18] A royal coat-of-arms begins the Chronicle of the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and in the second volume, at page 1868, is a folded woodcut of the "ſiege and wynning of Edinburg Caſtell. Anno. 1573." It is signed C  T Tyrell.

Folio.  Two volumes.  Black letter and Roman.  Double columns.  Woodcuts.

Collation:  ¶, six leaves; , two leaves; A-P, in eights; Q, six leaves; r, one leaf; a-s, in eights; t, one leaf; A and (*b*), two leaves each; *a* and *b*, six leaves each; A-Z and Aa-Ii, in eights; Kk, four leaves; Ll and Mm, six leaves each; one leaf;  , two leaves; A-C, in eights; D, four leaves; and A (repeated)-D, in eights; E, five leaves; F and G, eight leaves each; H, six leaves; I, two leaves.

Volume II: ¶, two leaves; t, seven leaves; u-z, A-Z, Aa-Zz, Aaa-Zzz, and Aaaa-Dddd, in eights; Eeee, nine leaves; Ffff-Yyyy, in eights; Zzzz, two leaves; A-M, in fours; N, two leaves; ( ), two leaves.

7. ¶ A Myrrour For | Magiſtrates. | Wherein maye be ſeen by | example of other, with howe gre- | uous plages vices are puniſhed ... [Five lines, Quotation] Anno 1563. | ¶ Imprinted at London in Fleteſtrete | nere to Saynct Dunſtans Churche | by Thomas Marſhe.

The Epistle "To the nobilitye and all other in office" is signed by William Baldwin, who was at one time a corrector of the press to Edward Whitechurch, and later something of a printer himself. He printed with his own hands, using Whitechurch's types and the Garland border, his work entitled    The Canticles or Balades of Salomon phraſelyke declared in Englyſh Metres. Imprinted at London by William Baldwin, ſeruant with Edwarde Whitechurche. It was he who edited and saw this work through the press. He says of it:

"The wurke was begun and parte of it prynted in Queene Maries tyme, but hyndered by the Lorde Chauncellour that then was, nevertheles, through the meanes of my lord Stafford, the fyrst parte was licenced, and imprynted the fyrſt yeare of the raygne of this our moſt noble and vertuous Queene, and dedicate then to your honours with this Preface. Since whych time, although I have bene called to an other trade of lyfe, yet my good Lorde Stafforde hath not ceaſſed to call upon me, to publyſhe ſo much as I had gottẽ at other mens hands, ſo that through his Lordſhyppes earneſt meanes, I have nowe alſo ſet [pg 20] furth an other parte, conteynyng as little of myne owne, as the fyrst part doth of other mens," and he expressed the hope that if these prove acceptable, encouragement may be given to "wurthy wittes to enterpryſe and performe the reſt."

After the abortive attempt of Wayland to print the book, under the title A memorial of suche Princes, as since the tyme of King Richarde the seconde, haue beene unfortunate in the Realme of England. In ædibus Johannis Waylandi: Londini [1555?], the first part referred to was printed by Marshe in 1559. It contained nineteen legends (although twenty are mentioned in the table of contents), fourteen of which were by Baldwin, and the others by Ferrers, Churchyard, Phaer, and Skelton. Of these helpers, Baldwin says in the Epistle: "Whan I firſt tooke it in hand, I had the helpe of many graunted, & offred of ſum, but of few perfourmed, skarſe of any: So that wher I entended to haue contriued it to Quene Maries time, I haue ben faine to end it much ſooner: yet ſo, that it may ſtande for a patarne, till the reſt be ready: which with Gods Grace—(if I may haue anye helpe) ſhall be ſhortly."

The idea of the work is usually said to have originated with Sackville, who, following Lydgate's Fall of Princes, planned it as a review of the illustrious and unfortunate characters in English history from the Conquest to the end of the fourteenth century. He is supposed to have turned the work over to Baldwin and the others, after writing an "Induction," and one legend, the life of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham; but no good reason is given for the omission of these poems from the volume when it came to be printed in 1559. Baldwin's reason, already quoted, seems likely enough, and Lord Stafford's urgent entreaty, referred to, no doubt had the effect of causing both poems to be added to the edition issued now, where they appear as The Seconde Parte of the volume of 1559. The title-pages of the two editions are alike, except for the date and the imprint; this in the earlier edition reads: Londini, In ædibus Thomæ Marſhe. No reference is made to the additional part except in the Epistle. The new part has a separate index.

This new part contains only one poem by Baldwin; the others, besides Sackville's two, are by Dolman, Francis Segar, Churchyard, Ferrers, and Cavyl, eight in all. Besides the poems, there is "A proſe to the Reader, continued betwene the tragedies from the beginning of the booke to the ende," just as in the first part.

[pg 21]

To the Earl of Dorset's legend "The complaynt of Henrye duke of Buckingham," is prefixed "The Induction," of which Baldwin speaks in the prose following Howe the Lord Hastynges was betrayed, as follows: "but fyrſt you shal heare his preface or Induction. Hath he made a preface ( one) what meaneth he thereby, ſeeing none hath uſed the like order. I wyl tell you the cauſe thereof ( I) which is thys: After that he underſtoode that some of the counſayle would not ſuffer the booke to be printed in ſuche order as we had agreed and determined, he propoſed with himſelfe to have gotten at my handes, al the tragedies that were before the duke of Buckinghams, Which he would have preſerued in one volume. And from that time backeward even to the time of William the conquerour, he determined to continue and perfect all the ſtory himſelfe, in ſuch order as Lydgate (folowing Bocchas) had already uſed. And therefore to make a meete induction into the matter, he deuiſed this poeſye:"

The woodcut border of four pieces with heads of Venus and Mars at the top had been used by John Byddell in Taverner's translation of the Bible in 1539, by James Nicholson of Southwark, in Coverdale's New Testament of 1538, and by Marsh for the edition of the Mirror in 1559. There are a few ornamental initial letters at the beginning of the book, notably one at the beginning of the Epistle, a large P, with figures of children. This belongs to a series of a children's alphabet attributed to Dürer, and first used by Cervicornus, a printer of Cologne.

Quarto.  The second edition.  Black letter.

Collation:    and A, four leaves each; B-N, in eights; O-U, in fours; X-Z and Aa-Bb, in eights; Cc, four leaves.

8. ¶ Songes And Sonettes | written by the right honorable | Lord Henry Haward late | Earle of Surrey, and | others. | Apud Richardum Tottell. | 1567. | Cum priuilegio. (Colophon) ¶ Imprinted At Lon- | Don In Fletestrete within Temple barre at the | ſigne of the hand and ſtarre, by | Richard Tottell, | Anno. 1567. | Cum priuilegio.

Richard Tottel was licensed to print law-books, and his publications of that nature exhibit his best work; but this book, though not attractive in appearance, was his most popular venture. It was called "Tottel's miscellany," and it is fitting that his name should always be connected with it as a testimony to his energy and intelligence in producing a work so greatly to the "honor of the English tongue." We learn something of his energy in his desire to establish a paper-mill in England to compete with the French paper, then in general use; and his intelligence is evinced in the following extract from his address "To the reader":

"That to haue wel written in verſe, yea and in ſmal parcelles, deſerueth greate praiſe, the woorkes of diuers Latins, Italians, and other, do proue ſufficiently, that our tong is able in that kinde to do as praiſe woorthelye as the reſte, the honorable ſtile of the Earle of Surreye, and the weightineſſe of the deepe wytted Syr Thomas Wyat the elders verſe, withe ſeueral graces in ſundrie good English writers, doe ſhewe abundantlye. It reſteth now (gentle Reader) that thou thinke it not euill done to publiſh to the honour of the Engliſhe tongue and for profit of the ſtudious of English eloquence, thoſe woorkes [pg 23] which the ungentle horders up of ſuche treaſure haue hertofore enuied thee."

His confidence in the gentle reader was not misplaced, and he had the satisfaction of issuing six editions between 1557 and 1574. The first was printed at The Hand and Star, June 5, 1557, and is represented by one copy which is in the Bodleian Library; the British Museum and the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, each owns a copy of a second edition, dated July 31, 1557; one copy exists of a third edition dated 1559; and there is a fourth edition dated 1565. The present edition agrees in its contents with the second, and is said to be the most correct of all.

This volume contains two hundred and eighty sonnets, of which the first forty-one (including one by an unknown author) are by Lord Howard. "S. T. VVyate the elder" is signed to the next group of ninety-six; and a collection of one hundred and thirty-three by "Vncertain auctours," follows. The collection ends with ten "Songs written by N. G." (Nicholas Grimald). Grimald had contributed forty to the first edition, which were cut down to the present number for the second edition.

Octavo.  The fifth edition.  Roman.

Collation:  A-P, in eights.

9. ¶The Tragidie of Ferrex | and Porrex, | ſet forth without addition or alte- | ration but altogether as the ſame was ſhewed | on ſtage before the Queenes Maieſtie, | about nine yeares paſt, vz. the | xviij. day of Ianuarie. 1561. | by the gentlemen of the | Inner Temple. Seen and allowed. &c. | Imprinted at London by | Iohn Daye, dwelling ouer | Alderſgate.

This play, drawn from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of Britain, and telling the story of King Gorboduc's efforts to divide his realm between his sons Ferrex and Porrex, was the first tragedy written in English. Before this authorized edition, one unauthorized by the writers, though regularly licensed by the Government, had appeared in an octavo volume of thirty-six leaves, printed in black letter, with a title-page which reads as follows:

The | tragedie of Gorboduc, | where of three Actes were wrytten by | Thomas Nortone, and the two laste by | Thomas Sackuyle. | Sette forthe as the same was shewed before the | Qvenes most excellent Maiestie, in her highnes | Court of Whitehall, the XViii day of January | Anno Domini, 1561. By the Gentlemen of Thynner Temple in London. | Imprynted at London | in Flete strete, at the Signe of the Faucon by William Griffith; and are | to be sold at his shop in Saincte | Dunstones Churchyarde in | the West of London. | Anno. 1565. Septemb. 22.

[pg 25]

Day, in his introductory note to the present volume, entitled "The P to the Reader," explains very satisfactorily the reason for the new edition, but lets us only infer why he dropped the authors' names from the title-page. He says:

"Where this Tragedie was for furniture of part of the grand Chriſtmaſſe in the Inner Temple firſt written about nine yeares agoe by the right honourable Thomas now Lorde Buckherſt, and by T. Norton, and after ſhewed before her Maieſtie, and never intended by the authors therof to be publiſhed: yet one W. G. getting a copie therof at ſome youngmans hand that lacked a little money and much diſcretion, in the last great plage. an. 1565. about V. yeares paſt, while the ſaid Lord was out of England, and T. Norton farre out of London, and neither of them both made priuie, put it forth exceedingly corrupted."

Then, the worthy printer goes on to say in a very allegorical vein, that being so dishonored, her parents, the authors, very much displeased, gave her into his hands to be sent forth honorably; and he hopes she will be well received, else he will wish that she had tarried at home with him "for ſhe did neuer put me to more charge, but this one poore black gowne linèd with white that I haue now geuen her to goe abroad among you withall."

Quarto.  The first authorized edition.  Roman.

Collation:  A-H3, in fours.

10. Euphues. | The Anatomy | of Wit. | [10 lines] By Iohn Lylie, Maiſter of Art. | Corrected and augmented. | At London | Printed for Gabriell Cawood, | dwelling in Paules Church-yard. [Colophon] ¶Imprinted at London by | Thomas Eaſt, for Gabrill Cawood, | dwelling in Paules Church- | yard 1581.

The work was licensed "under the hande of the bishopp of London" December 2, 1578, and was printed for Cawood by Thomas Eate, or East, the stationer, without a date, but probably in 1578. Many editions of the famous book have been issued; fifteen are known, dated between 1579 and 1636, but confusion exists chiefly over the first three.

Mr. C. Warwick Bond in his recent edition of The Complete Works of John Lyly, Oxford, 1902, brings forward evidence to prove that two undated copies of Euphues, one belonging to the British Museum and the other to Trinity College, Cambridge, are all that remain of the first edition, whose date of issue he sets at about Christmas time, 1578. A unique Trinity College copy without a date, he thinks was issued about midsummer of the next year; the famous Malone and Morley copies of 1579, he considers belong to a third edition, issued at Christmas; the edition dated 1580 would be fourth and the copy from which our facsimile was taken would belong to a fifth edition. Mr. Bond founds his supposition as to the seasons when the volumes appeared upon the following very interesting preface:

To the Gentlemen Readers.

[pg 27]

"I Was driuen into a quandarie Gentlemen," says Lyly, "whether I might ſend this my Pamphlet to the Printer or to the pedler, I thought it too bad for the preſſe, & to good for the packe.... We commonly ſee the booke that at Eaſter lyeth bounde on the Stacioners ſtall, at Chriſtmaſſe to be broken in the Haberdaſhers ſhop, which ſith it is the order of proceeding, I am content this Summer to haue my dooinges read for a toye, that in Winter they may be readye for traſh.... Gentlemen vſe bookes as Gentlewomen handle theyr flowres, who in the morning ſticke thẽ in their heads, and at night strawe them at their heeles. Cheries be fulſome when they be through ripe, becauſe they be plentie, and bookes be ſtale when they be printed in that they be common. In my minde Printers & Tailers are chiefely bound to pray for Gentlemen, the one hath ſo much fantaſies to print, the other ſuch diuers faſhions to make, that the preſſing yron of the one is neuer out of the fyre, nor the printing preſſe of the other any tyme lieth ſtill...."

The address "To my verie good friends the Gentlemen Scholers of Oxford" first appeared with the second edition, to which Lyly made other additions, beside thoroughly revising the text.

The title-page is bordered with a band of type-metal ornaments. Among the initial letters are several of a series, each letter of which represents a child at play. A large tail-piece is repeated several times, and East's mark of a black horse with a white crescent on his shoulder, and the motto Mieulx vault mourir en vertu que vivre en Honcte, is here used for the first time. Some copies dated 1581 have Rowland Hall's mark but no printer's name.

Mr. Henry R. Plomer says of the book in an interesting article on our printer: "The preliminary matter is printed in a very regular fount of Roman, the text in his ordinary fount of Black Letter, and the whole book is distinguished for its clear, regular, and clean appearance."

On July 24, 1579, the stationer Cawood entered for license a second part of Euphues, which he had promised at the end of this volume in the following words:

"I Haue finiſhed the firſt part of Euphues whome now I lefte readye to croſſe the Seas to Englande, if the winde send him a ſhorte cutte you ſhall in the ſeconde part heare what newes he bringeth and I hope to haue him retourned within one Summer...."

The book appeared the next year with the title: ¶Euphues and his England. | Containing | his voyages and adventures, myxed with | ſundry [pg 28] pretie diſcourſes of honeſt Loue ... ¶ By Iohn Lyly, Maiſter | of Arte. | Commend it, or amend it. | By Imprinted at London for Gabriell Cawood, dwelling in | Paules Church-yard. | 1580.

Edward Blount, the stationer, who published Shakespeare's folio works, tells us in a preface to Lyly's Sixe Court Comedies, which he collected and William Stansby printed in 1632, of the sensation Euphues created when it appeared. "Our Nation," he wrote, "are in his (i.e. Lyly's) debt, for a new Engliſh which hee taught them. Euphues and his England began firſt, that language: All our Ladies were then his Scollers; And that Beautie in court, which could not Parley Euphueiſme, was as little regarded, as ſhee which, now there, ſpeakes not French."

Quarto.  Black letter and Roman.  The fifth edition.

Collation:  A-Z, in fours.

11. The | Countesse | Of Pembrokes | Arcadia, | Written By Sir Philippe | Sidnei. | [Coat-of-arms of the Sidney family] London | Printed for William Ponſonbie. | Anno Domini, 1590.

The Arcadia was begun in 1580, and when finished, probably before 1583, was circulated in manuscript copies amongst the author's friends. That he did not wish to have it printed is evident from his affectionate dedication to his sister, where he says:

"HEre now haue you (moſt deare, and moſt worthy to be moſt deare Lady) this idle worke of mine: which I fear (like the Spiders webbe) will be thought fitter to be ſwept away, than worn to any other purpoſe. For my part, in very trueth (as the cruell fathers among the Greekes, were woont to doo to the babes they would not foſter) I could well find in my harte, to caſt out in ſome deſert of forgetfulnes this child, which I am loath to father. But you deſired me to doo it, and your deſire, to my hart is an abſolute commandement. Now, it is done onelie for you, onely to you: if you keepe it to yourſelfe, or to ſuch friendes, who will weigh errors in the ballaunce of good will, I hope, for the fathers ſake, it will be pardoned, perchance made much of, though in itſelfe it haue deformities. For indeede, for ſeuerer eyes it is not, being but a trifle, and that triflinglie handled. Your deare ſelfe can best witnes the maner, being done in looſe ſheetes of paper, moſt of it in your preſence, the reſt, by ſheetes ſent vnto you, as faſt as they were done.... But his chiefe ſafetie ſhal be the not walking abroad; & his chiefe protection, the bearing the liuerye of your name; which (if much good will do not deceaue me) is worthy to be a ſanctuary for a greater offender."

And again later, when he lay dying, reflecting, as he did, that all things in his former life had "been vain, vain, vain," he requested [pg 30] that the Arcadia should be burned. But he counted without the public, who in the person of a publisher took steps to make it common property the very year of Sidney's death. We have this from a letter written to Sir Francis Walsingham, Sidney's father-in-law, by Sir Foulk Greville, first Lord Brooke, who in his self-written epitaph styled himself "servant to Queen Elizabeth, councillor to King James, and friend to Sir Philip Sidney":

"S^r, this day, one ponsonby, a booke-bynder in poles church-yard, came to me and told me that ther was one in hand to print S^r Philip Sydney's old arcadia, asking me yf it were done with your honors consent, or any other of his frendes? I told him, to my knowledge, no: then he aduysed me to give warninge of it, either to the archbishope or doctor Cosen, who haue, as he says, a copy to peruse to that end.

"S^r, I am loth to renew his memory unto you, but yeat in this I must presume; for I haue sent my lady, your daughter, at her request, a correction of that old one, don 4 or 5 years sinse, which he left in trust with me; wherof there is no more copies, and fitter to be reprinted than the first which is so common: notwithstanding, even that to how and why; so as in many respects, espetially the care of printing of it; so as to be don with more deliberation."

Ponsonby obtained a license to print the book, under the hand of the Archbishop of Canterbury, August 23, 1588, but not with the full consent and sympathy of the family, owing, we will hope, to a sentiment of proper respect for the poet's wishes. There was so much dissatisfaction with Ponsonby's "adventuring" that Collier thinks the book may have been called in or suppressed, a fact which would account for its great rarity. The hesitancy, however, seems to have been overcome in course of time, for the Countess herself edited the work for a later edition of Ponsonby's publishing.

No mark or name of a printer is given in our copy, and Collier, when he gave it as his opinion that Richard Field did the work, seemed to have been unaware of the existence of the variation in the imprint, which occurs in the copy belonging to Trinity College Library, Cambridge, London, Iohn Windet for william Ponsonbie. Probably several had a hand in the printing. Only a close examination of the few existing copies could show whether or not they were all issued at the same time. We shall never know by name the "overseer of the print," who assumed the responsibility of arranging the poem, as is told in a note on the verso of the title-page:

[pg 31]

"The diuiſion and ſumming up of the Chapters was not of Sir Philip Sidneis dooing, but aduentured by the ouerſeer of the print, for the more eaſe of the Readers. He therfore ſubmits himſelfe to their judgement, and if his labour anſwere not the worthines of the booke, deſireth pardon for it. As alſo if any defect be found in the Eclogues, which although they were of Sir Phillip Sidneis writing, yet were not peruſed by him, but left till the worke had bene finiſhed, that then choiſe ſhould haue bene made, which ſhould haue bene taken, and in what manner brought in. At this time they haue bene choſen and diſposed as the ouer-ſeer thought beſt."

Whoever the overseer may have been, whether in the employment of Ponsonby, Windet, or Field, and however unfortunate the result of his literary judgment, he produced a book which for beauty may take its place with the best of the period. The Roman type and excellent press-work distinguish it amongst the mass of inferior productions. Large ornamental initial letters, more or less related, are used at the beginning of all the Books, while Book I begins with an especially fine allegorical woodcut initial representing a crowned Tudor rose, Justice with her foot on Medusa's head, and Peace. Head- and tail-pieces, some of type metal and some woodcuts, are used at the beginning of the Books to give added effect. At the end of the sixteenth chapter of Book III is a panel made of type-metal ornaments, intended to hold the lines referred to in the words: "Vpon which, Baſilius himself cauſed this Epitaph to be written." These, however, owing to the printer's oversight, were never added.

In setting up the title-page, it may be that Ponsonby followed Sidney's hint, and so sought "the chief protection" of the name of the Countess, and, not content with the name alone, added the coat-of-arms of the Sidney family.

Quarto.  Roman.

Collation:  A-Zz, in eights.

12. The Faerie | Queene. | Diſpoſed into twelue books, | Faſhioning | XII. Morall vertues. | [Printer's mark] London | Printed for William Ponſonbie. |  1590.

On December 1, 1589, "Maſter Ponſonbye. Entered for his Copye, a booke intytuled the fayrye Queene dyspoſed into xij. bookes. &c. Aucthoryzed vnder thandes of the Archbishop of Canterbery, and bothe the wardens ... vj^d."

Spenser's name not being mentioned and not being printed on the title-page, it would almost seem as if he had wished his book to be anonymous; but that was probably not the case, because the dedication on the verso of the title, "To the Most Mightie And Magnificent Empresse Elizabeth ..." is signed by "Her moſt humble Seruant, Ed. Spenſer." The "Letter of the Authors Expounding his whole intention in the Courſe of the worke.... To the Right Noble, and Valorous Sir Walter Raleigh ..." is also signed "Ed. Spenſer," and the last two of his poems addressed to various personages are signed "E. S."

It will be observed that the license to print the book, as well as the title-page, refers to the whole work, only three books of which, treating of the virtues Holiness, Temperance, and Chastity, had been completed by the author at this time.

Ponsonby may be regarded as a fortunate man to have had the handling of the works of such authors as Greene, Sidney, and Spenser. If his attempts to exploit the first great English prose romance were not always successful, his relations with Spenser were more satisfactory, and this work finding "a favorable passage," no less than ten other of the poet's productions were issued over his imprint.

[pg 33]

The printer's name does not appear, but the device on the title-page is the mark of John Wolfe, son of Reyner Wolfe, a printer to the City of London, and one of the busiest members of the Stationers' Company. It was he who printed The Shepheard's Calendar, for John Harrison the younger, in 1586. His use of the Florentine lily is probably not without significance. The first Italian book printed in England (Petruccio Ubaldino La vita di Carlo Magno Imperadore, 1581), came from his press, as well as numerous translations of books in that tongue; and it is easy to believe that he may have received his idea for a mark of a fleur-de-lis "seeding," as Herbert calls it, from the Florentine lily of an Italian printer seen in some of the Italian books so numerous in England at this time.

A frame of printer's ornaments surrounds a verse at the beginning of each chapter, and there is a rather clumsy woodcut, representing Saint George and the Dragon, at the end of the first Book, but these are the chief ornaments in the volume. This book, like the Arcadia, is in the Roman type, and of remarkably good press-work.

The Second | Part Of The | Faerie Queene. | Containing | The Fourth, | Fifth, | And Sixth Bookes. | By Ed. Spenſer | [Printer's mark] Imprented at London for VVilliam | Ponſonby. 1596. was licensed January 20, 1595-6, and was published with a second edition of the first part, which it was meant to accompany. The remaining six books never appeared.

The device on the title-page of the second volume is that of Thomas Vautrollier, a foreigner settled in London, whose stock passed, at his death, to his son-in-law, Richard Field. It seems clear that Field printed the volume (Vautrollier did no work after 1588), although Herbert ascribes it to the master-printer Thomas Creed.

In some early copies of the first volume there are blank spaces on page 332, which had been left by the printer to be filled later with Welsh words and then forgotten. Other copies have this omission corrected.

Quarto.  Roman and Italic.

Collation:  A-Qq4, in eights.

13. Eſſaies. | Religious Me- | ditations. | Places of perſwaſion | and diſſwaſion. | Seene and allowed. | London | Printed for Humfrey Hooper | and are to bee ſolde at the blacke Beare in Chaun- | cery lane. 1598. [Colophon] Imprinted at London by John Windet for Humfrey Hooper.   1598.

This edition is thought by some to be rarer than the first, which was published by Hooper, in octavo, in the previous year. Some differences occur in the spelling, the table of contents here precedes "The Epistle Dedicatorie," the Meditationes Sacræ are done into English, and the ornaments used are quite different. Only ten Essays were included in these two issues, whereas the edition of 1612 has thirty-eight, and that of 1625, fifty-eight.

Hooper, of whose publications there are very few examples existing, is thought by Roberts to have been a young publisher whom Bacon wished to help. John Windet was the successor to John Wolfe as printer to the City of London; many books came from his press, but few of them of note.

Perhaps the most interesting peculiarity of the book is the word essay, in the sense of a composition of moderate length on a particular subject. With this work, the word makes its first appearance on the title-page of an English book. The first two books of Montaigne's Essais had appeared in 1580, and Bacon was no doubt familiar with them as a new style of writing, since his brother, to whom he addressed this volume, was a friend of Montaigne. He says in his volume of Essays dedicated to Prince Henry: "For Senacaes Epistles ... are but Essaies—that is dispersed Meditations ... Essays. The word is late, but the thing is auncient."

[pg 35]

Lord Bacon's reasons for printing his book, expressed in the signed preface which accompanied both editions, is interesting as showing that he was alive to the piracies of the book-sellers, and that he knew how to meet the difficulty in a sensible manner.

"To M. Anthony Bacon his deare brother.

Louing & beloued Brother, I doe nowe like ſome that haue an Orcharde ill neighbored, that gather their fruit before it is ripe, to preuent ſtealing. Theſe fragments of my conceites were going to print: To labour the ſtaie of them had bin troubleſome, and ſubiect to interpretation; to let them paſſe had beene to aduēture the wrong they might receyue by ontrue Coppies, or by ſome garniſhment, which it might pleaſe any that ſhould ſet them forth to beſtowe oppon them. Therefore I helde it beſt diſcretion to publiſh them myſelfe as they paſſed long agoe from my pen without any further diſgrace, then the weakneſſe of the Author...."

Duodecimo.  The second edition.

Collation:  A-E4, in twelves.

14. The | Principal Navi- | Gations, Voiages, | Traffiques And Disco- | ueries of the Engliſh Nation, made by Sea | or ouer-land, to the remote and fartheſt di- | ſtant quarters of the Earth, at any time within | the compaſſe of theſe 1500. yeeres: Deuided | into three ſeuerall Volumes, according to the | poſitions of the Regions, whereunto | they were directed. | [Thirteen lines] And laſtly, the memorable defeate of the Spaniſh huge | Armada, Anno 1588. and the famous victorie | atchieued at the citie of Cadiz, 1596. | are described. | By Richard Hakluyt Maſter of | Artes, and ſometime Student of Chriſt- | Church in Oxford. |  [Printer's ornament]    Imprinted at London by George | Bishop, Ralph Newberie | and Robert Barker. | 1598. [-1600].

The year 1589 had seen the publication of a small folio volume entitled:

The Principall | Navigations, Voia- | ges, And Discoveries Of The | Engliſh nation, made by Sea or ouer Land, | [Twenty-seven lines] By Richard Hakluyt Maſter of Artes, and Student ſometime | of Chriſt-church in Oxford. | [Printer's ornament] Imprinted at London by George Bishop | and Ralph Newberie, Deputies to | christopher Barker, Printer to the Queenes moſt excellent Maieſtie. | 1589.

The book presents a handsome appearance in the matter of type and ornament: the archer head-band appears, and there are two large pictorial initials at the beginning signed . It contains also "one of the beſt generall mappes of the world onely, untill the comming out of a very large and most exact terreſtrial Globe, collected and reformed according to the neweſt, ſecretest, and lateſt diſcoueries ... compoſed by M. Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, a [pg 37] rare gentleman in his profeſſion...." This map was a close copy of one engraved by Francis Hogenberg for Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published first in Antwerp in 1570. Like the original it is called Typus Orbis Terrarum, but Hogenberg's name is erased, and no other appears in its stead.

This volume is usually called the first edition of the amplified work in three volumes, here facsimiled, which Hakluyt began to issue nine years later. The British Librarian of William Oldys, that "oddest mortal that ever wrote," gives a full synopsis of the contents of the latter work, "this elaborate and excellent Collection, which redounds as much to the Glory of the Engliſh Nation, as any Book that ever was publiſhed in it." He says:

"Tho' the firſt Volume of this Collection does frequently appear, by the Date, in the Title Page to be printed in 1599. the Reader is not thence to conclude the ſaid Volume was then reprinted, but only the Title Page, as upon collating the Books we have obſerved; and further, that in the ſaid last printed Title Page, there is no mention made of the Cadiz Voyage; to omit which, might be one Reaſon of reprinting that Page: for it being one of the moſt proſperous and honorable Enterprizes that ever the Earl of Eſſex was ingaged in, and he falling into the Queen's unpardonable Displeaſure at this time, our Author, Mr. Hakluyt, might probably receive Command or Direction, even from one of the Patrons to whom theſe Voyages are dedicated, who was of the contrary Faction, not only to ſupreſs all Memorial of that Action in the Front of this Book, but even cancel the whole Narrative thereof at the End of it, in all the Copies (far the greateſt Part of the Impreſſion) which remained unpubliſhed. And in that caſtrated Manner the Volume has deſcended to Poſterity; not but if the Caſtration was intended to have been concealed from us, the laſt Leaf of the Preface would have been reprinted alſo, with the like Omiſſion of what is there mentioned concerning the Inſertion of this Voyage. But at laſt, about the middle of the late King's Reign, an uncaſtrated copy did ariſe, and the said Voyage, was reprinted from it; whereby many imperfect Books have been made complete."

The cancellation "in the Front" refers to the title-page. In the new page of the castrated edition the clause "And laſtly, the memorable defeate of the Spaniſh huge Armada, Anno 1588. and the famous victorie acheiued at the citie of Cadiz, 1596." is made to read: "As alſo the memorable defeat of the Spaniſh huge Armada, Anno 1588."; [pg 38] and the date is changed to 1599. But, as Oldys remarks, through oversight or indifference the reference in the preface still remains to show that the edition is doctored, and not a new one. It reads: "An excellent diſcourſe whereof, as likewiſe of the honourable expedition vnder two of the moſt noble and valiant peeres of this Realme, I meane, the renoumed Erle of Eſſex, and the right honorable the lord Charles Howard, lord high Admirall of England, made 1596, vnto the ſtrong citie of Cadiz, I haue set downe a double epiphonema to conclude this my firſt volume withall...." The reference also remains in "A Catalogue of the Voyages," "39 The honourable voyage to Cadiz, Anno 1596. [p.] 607." and at page 606 the catchword "A briefe" still bears witness to the curtailment of "A briefe and true report of the Honourable voyage vnto Cadiz, 1596." The original leaves ended on page 619, with a large woodcut representing two winged figures supporting a crown and rose. They have been twice reprinted, but both reprints are easily distinguishable from the early work.

The second volume was issued by the same printers in 1599, and the third in 1600. Hakluyt is characterized on the title-page of the first volume, as on that of the first edition, as "Master of Artes, and sometime Student of Christ-Church in Oxford," but in the second and third volumes he is called "Preacher, and sometime student of Christ-Church in Oxford." He had been made rector of Wetheringsett in Suffolk in 1590.

In its general make-up, the new work resembles the old one. The archer head-bands have not been used, and only one of the pictorial initials signed ,—that at the beginning of the Dedication,—is retained in volumes one and two. These pictorial initials belong to an alphabet illustrating stories from Greek mythology. Mr. Pollard, in a chapter on Pictorial and Heraldic Initials, states that the first appearance of any of the set known to him occurs in a proclamation printed by Berthelet, and dated 1546. He finds that a similar monogram was used by Anton Sylvius, who worked for Plantin from 1550 to 1573, but he is doubtful about ascribing these initials to that artist.

The first and third volumes have the "The" of the title in a long panel (made of type-metal ornament in the first case, and a woodcut cartouche in the last one); the printer's ornaments on the title-pages of the second and third volumes are alike, and are the same as that in the first edition. "A Table Alphabetical," printed at the end of the first edition, was not undertaken for the second; but a new, engraved [pg 39] map of the world, unsigned and without a title, is found in some copies of the third volume. It was used also in two states.

This map is exceedingly rare, and interest attaches to it for two reasons. It is the first map of the world engraved in England, on Wright's (Mercator) projection, having been published the year after Wright had explained the principles of the projection in his Certain Errors in Navigation. A legend in a cartouche on the engraving says: "Thou hast here gentle reader a true hydrographical description of ſo much of the world as hath beene hetherto diſcouered, and is comme to our knowledge: which we have in ſuch ſort performed, y^t all places herein ſet downe, haue the ſame poſitions and diſtances that they haue in the globe...." The second source of interest is this: the map is, without much doubt, the one Shakespeare referred to in Twelfth Night when he made Maria say of Malvolio, "he does ſmile his face into more lynes then is in the new Mappe, with the augmentation of the Indies."

A curious error has existed with regard to the map. The reference in the 1589 volume, already quoted, has been taken to mean that Hakluyt intended to issue a map by Molineux with that work, but, that map not being ready in time, he used the one from Ortelius. What more natural than that the new map in the 1598 edition should be supposed to be Molineux's, now at length finished? This was the conclusion jumped at, and the plate is usually called "Molineux's map." As a matter of fact, Hakluyt did not refer to Molineux as a map-maker, but as a globe-maker. He was a friend of that rare gentleman, and he knew that the mathematician was at work on a large terrestrial globe embodying all the very latest geographical information in the most exact way, according to Mercator's projection. He used the Ortelius map in his book only until the globe should be ready, when it could be easily adapted to the plane surface of a map by the engraver.

The globe, measuring two and a half feet in diameter, was issued in 1592, and is now preserved in the Library of the Middle Temple.

Folio.  Black letter.

Collation: Volume I, *, six leaves; **, six leaves; A-Fff₄, in sixes.

Volume II, *, eight leaves; A-Ccb, in sixes; Aaa-Rrrb, in sixes.

Volume III, (A), eight leaves; A-I, in sixes; K, eight leaves; L-Cccc, in sixes.

15. The | Whole Works | Of | Homer; | Prince Of Poetts | In his Iliads, and | Odyſses. | Translated according to the Greeke, | By | Geo: Chapman. | De Ili: et Odiſſ. | Omnia ab, his: et in his ſunt omnia | ſive beati | Te decor eloquij, | ſeu rerũ pondera | tangunt. Angel: Pol: | At London printed for Nathaniell Butter. | William Hole ſculp:

Though Butter was the publisher of Dekker's Belman of London, and, with John Busby, of Shakespeare's Lear, he is chiefly to be remembered for two things, for his success as a compiler and publisher of pamphlets of news,—a success which entitles him to the place of father of the London press—and for his connection with Chapman.

In 1609 (?) Samuel Macham brought out, in small folio form, Homer, Prince of Poetts, in Twelve Bookes of his Iliads, embellished with an engraved title-page by William Hole, who was one of the earliest English engravers on copper-plates. Inflated with his subject, the artist crowded the title into a small central panel the better to present his conception of Vulcan, Apollo, Achilles, Hector, and Homer, in a composition which, if topheavy, was more dignified and better drawn than many of the borders ascribed to him.

Under date of April 8, 1611, we find in the Stationers' Register that Butter "Entered for his Copy by consente of Samuell Masham, A Booke called Homers Iliads in English contayning 24 bookes." With his right to print, he also received the right to use the Hole frontispiece, which he had reëngraved on a larger scale for the new book. The date of issue is not given, but it could not have been later than November 6, 1612, the date of the death of the Prince of Wales, to [pg 41] whom the book is dedicated, and it was probably published soon after the date of copyright. The printer's name is also lacking; but reasons exist for thinking that more than one worked on the book, and that there were several issues. There are copies whose signatures agree with those of the volumes of our issue, but these are printed with different type, on poorer paper, and the initial letters and other ornaments are of a much cruder sort.

After Chapman had published his translation of the Iliad, he turned his attention to the Odyssey; and, as in the case of the Iliad, he went to press with half of it first, Butter being the publisher. The volume ends with the words "Finis duodecimi libri Hom. Odyſſ. Opus nouem dierum," and begins with one of the most charming and perfect title-pages of the period, the greater pity therefore that it is unsigned. Its composition shows the poet in the midst of a company of laurel-crowned spirits, whose ethereal forms are expressed in stipple, with legends which read: "Solus ſapit hic homo, Reliqui vero," and "Umbræ mouentur." Above, the title is supported by two cupids, and below are seated figures of Athena, and Ulysses with his dog. The whole plate was very delicately drawn.

The remaining twelve books having been finished, we find Butter entering the whole twenty-four for copyright, November 2, 1614; and, although the volume is not dated, it was probably issued soon afterward. The title reads: Homer's Odysses. Tranſlated according to y^e Greeke. By George Chapman At Miki q^d viuo detraxerit. Inuida Turba Post obitum duplici foenore reddet Honos. Imprinted at London by Rich: Field, for Nathaniell Butter.

The same engraved title-page was used, but its fine lines had now grown fainter, the stippled shades seeming to justify the statement in the inscription. The dedication to the Earl of Somerset, as it appeared with the first twelve books, was somewhat altered in the opening lines, necessitating the resetting of the first page and the consequent change of the head-band and initial letter; but the rest of the first half is precisely the same as in the first issue. The words "Finis," etc., were dropped from the end, in some copies, and a blank leaf marks the division of the first half from the last.

The present book is made up of the complete Iliad, and the complete Odyssey, sewn together. The enterprising Butter made the engraved title of the Iliads answer for the general title-page of this book also, only, of course, changing the wording in the central panel. [pg 42] Some copies have the engraved title of the Odyssey, but more lack it. Its omission was probably due to its having become too faint from continued use to be of service. Butter added one or two new features to some copies of the volume, and among them a fine large portrait of Chapman, which he printed in a very unusual place, on the verso of the title-page. It represents the head of the translator, surrounded by clouds, and bears on the circular frame the inscriptions: Haec est laurigeri facies diuina Georgi; Hic Phœbi Decus est; Phœbinumqz Deus; Georgius Chapmanus Homeri Metaphrastes. Æta: LVII. M.DC.XVI; Conscium Evasi Diem. The date of the inscription is usually given as the date of issue of the book. Below the frame are ten lines beginning with two quotations, one in Latin, and one in English, and followed by this interesting statement: Eruditorum Poetarum huius Æui, facile Principi, Dno Georgio Chapman; Homero (velit nolit Inuidia) Rediuiuo. I.M. Tessellam hanc χαριϛήριον. DD. It would be a gratifying thing to know the name of the friend who thus added so much to the embellishment and interest of the book. Could it have been John Marston?

The engraving is ascribed to Hole, though without any very good reason, except that he had made the title-page of the Iliad, some four years earlier. It seems hardly probable that his awkward hand could have drawn the title for the Odyssey, and, while the same holds true of the engraver of the portrait, a comparison of the three plates perhaps would show that Butter employed more than one engraver.

Besides the portrait, our publisher added after the title-page, on a separate leaf, an engraved dedication "To the Imortall Memorie, of the Incomparable Heroe, Henrye Prince of Wales," who died in 1612. Two columns labelled "Ilias" and "Odyssæa," bound with a band inscribed "Musar: Hercul: Colum:," have below them lines ending:

[pg 43]

This affecting tribute precedes the other dedication to the same prince, issued with the Iliad when it first appeared. Such constancy to the memory of a prince, now some years dead, and from whom no favors could be expected, argues well for Chapman's affections; but, on the other hand, one might see in it a reason for believing that the work was issued before 1616.

Folio.

Collation:  Title-page and dedication, 2 ll.; *2,*3, 2 ll.; A4-A6, A, 5 ll.; B-Z, in sixes; Aa-Ff, in sixes; Gg, 7 ll.; A3-O, in sixes; R, 7 ll.; S-Z, in sixes; Aa-Hh, in sixes; Ii, 7 ll.

16. The | Holy | Bible, [Two lines] ¶ Newly tranſlated out of | the Originall Tongues: and with | the former Tranſlations diligently | compared and reuiſed by his | Maieſties ſpeciall Com- | mandement. | ¶ Appointed to be read in Churches. | ¶ Imprinted | at London by Robert | Barker, Printer to the | Kings moſt excellent | Maieſtie. | Anno Dom. 1611.

Few books present greater difficulties to the bibliographer than this, the first "Authorized" or King James Version of the Bible. Many copies bearing the same date, and seemingly alike, have distinct differences in the text, in the ornamental head- and tail-pieces, and in the initial letters. But the most striking difference lies in two forms of the title-page. One of these, a copper-plate engraving, signed C. Boel fecit in Richmont, represents an architectural framework having large figures of Moses and Aaron in niches on either side of the border and seated figures of St. Luke and St. John, with their emblems, at the bottom: above are seated figures of St. Matthew and St. Mark, and St. Peter and St. Paul holding the Agnus Dei, while behind them are various saints and martyrs. The title reads:

The | Holy Bible, | Conteyning the Old Teſtament, | And The New. | Newly Tranſlated out of the Originall | tongues: & with the former Tranſlations diligently compared and reuiſed by his | Maiesties ſpeciall Cõmandement. | Appointed to be read in Churches | Imprinted at London by Robert | Barker, Printer to the Kings moſt Excellent Maiestie. Anno Dom. 1611.

The style of Boel's work is quite like that of the Sadelers, to whose school he belonged, and it resembles in its general effect some of the title-pages made by those artists for Plantin's famous Antwerp press.

The other title-page is seen in the facsimile. It is printed with a woodcut border which represents above, the Evangelists Matthew and [pg 45] Mark, the Adonai, Lamb, and Dove in cartouches, while below are found St. Luke and St. John, the Lamb on the altar, and the cherub's head, Barker's ornament. The tents and shields of the Twelve Tribes are represented in twelve round panels on the left side, and the Twelve Apostles, similarly framed, on the right. The signatures and are seen at the bottom of the title panel. This border, like the great primer black letter of the text, had been previously used by Christopher Barker, in an edition of the "Bishops Bible," published in 1585, and by Robert in 1602; afterward, in an edition of the New Testament (Royal Version) published in 1617, and also in other works. While more finished in execution, the design is similar in idea to one often used by Barker, notably in a Bible printed in 1593, and bears some resemblance to a border found in Plantin's "Great Bible."

The copper-plate title is sometimes found with what is called the first issue of the work, sometimes with the second, and sometimes with the editions of 1613 and 1617. It has been suggested that it was intended to be used with the woodcut border always found with the New Testament in both issues, and usually ascribed to the second, although "there is no ground for supposing that it was always issued with it." That Boel took the motive of the tents and shields of the Tribes for a minor detail in his border, is a point worthy of notice because this fact might, with some reason, be used to prove that inasmuch as his engraving was made some time after the unknown wood-engraver's border, it could hardly have appeared with the first issue.

We quote the following from W. I. Loftie's A Century of Bibles:

"Mr. Fry has compared together 70 copies of the Bible of 1611. By observing how many of them were exactly alike he was able to determine their order of publication. Twenty-three copies were found to present the same peculiarities. Two only varied from the 25 and from each other, in 8 leaves, 2 in one and 6 in the other. Of the remaining 45, 40 were mixed with leaves from other editions, but 38 contained leaves of the same edition. Mr. Fry's conclusions were as follows:—One issue is unmixed except 2 copies in 25: the other is made up (1) with reprints, (2) with parts of the first issue, (3) with preliminary leaves from 3 other editions: he therefore infers that the two issues were distinct and that the issue which presented the fewest instances of admixture was the first. His conclusions seem unassailable; it is therefore assumed to be proved in this list, that the issue [pg 46] of which he examined 25 copies so nearly alike, is the first, and is entitled to the honour of being called the Editio Princeps of the version."

The chief differences in the collation of what is called the second issue with the first are these: "The fifth leaf is Sig. B. in the preliminary matter: Kalendar C, C2, C3, and followers. In the first page of the Dedication OE is printed for OF and in the eighth line CHKIST for CHRIST. In the 'Names and order of the Bookes' there are three lines printed in red: I Chronicles, is misprinted I Corinthians, and II Chronicles, II Corinthians. The chief errors of the first issue are corrected, but the repetition in Ezra iii. 5, remains. Exodus ix. 13, Let my people goe that they may ſerve thee, for serve me. S. Matthew xxvi. 36, Then commeth Judas with them unto a place called Gethſemane, for Then cometh Jeſus. The initial P. in Psalm 112, contains a woodcut of Walsingham's crest."

Robert Barker's name calls for more than passing notice, since he it was who, more than any one else after the forty-seven translators, was responsible for the production of the Authorized Version. On January 3, 1599, the court of assistants of the Stationers' Company recognized the letter patent of Queen Elizabeth granting Robert Barker the reversion for life, after his father's death, of the office of Queen's Printer, with the right of printing English Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, statutes and proclamations. Christopher Barker, the father, who was also Queen's Printer, made an interesting report in December, 1582, on the printing patents which had been granted from 1558-1582, and in it he speaks of his own rights. Mr. Edward Arber, in quoting the report, calls it a masterly summary, whose importance and authority as a graphic history of English printing, it would be hardly possible to exaggerate. In "A note of the offices and other speciall licenses for printing, graunted by her maiestie to diuerse persons; with a coniecture of the valuation" he says: "Myne owne office of her Maiesties Printer of the English tongue gyven to Master Wilkes, (and which he had bought) is abbridged of the cheefest comodities belonging to the office, as shall hereafter appeare in the Patentes of Master Seres and Master Daye: but as it is I haue the printing of the olde and newe testament, the statutes of the Realme, Proclamations, and the booke of common prayer by name, and in generall wordes, all matters for the Churche."

If the monopoly of printing the Bible brought its gains it also brought its risks. Christopher Barker in his report goes on to speak of this:

[pg 47]

"The whole bible together requireth so great a somme of money to be employed, in the imprinting thereof; as Master Jugge kept the Realme twelve yere withoute, before he Durst adventure to print one impression: but I, considering the great somme I paide to Master Wilkes, Did (as some haue termed it since) gyve a Desperate adventure to imprint fouer sundry impressions for all ages, wherein I employed to the value of three thousande pounde in the term of one yere and a halfe, or thereaboute: in which tyme if I had died, my wife and children had ben vtterlie vndone, and many of my frendes greatlie hindered by disbursing round sommes of money for me, by suertiship and other meanes...."

Robert was not without a like experience. The King, it is claimed, never paid a penny towards the great work. Indeed, William Ball, writing in 1651, says: "I conceive the sole printing of the bible, and testament, with power of restraint in others, to be of right the propriety of one Matthew Barker, citizen and stationer of London, in regard that his father paid for the emended or corrected translation of the bible, 3,500 l.: by reason whereof the translated copy did of right belong to him and his assignes."

Whether the great expense connected with its production ruined him, or whether, as Mr. Plomer suggests, he had been living beyond his means, Barker's last days were involved in financial difficulties, and he died in the King's Bench prison.

Some of the ornament in the book, particularly that used with the coat-of-arms of the King, the genealogical tables, the map, and some few head-bands and initial letters, again recall the work done for Plantin, and lead us to think that that great printer's books had not been without their influence upon the Barkers. The Tudor rose, the thistle, harp and fleur-de-lis are combined in different ways in initials and head-bands; the head-band of the archers, which was afterward used in the folio edition of Shakespeare's works, and is found in many other books, appears; and a large number of unrelated and commonplace initials and type-metal head-bands bring to mind the fact that Barker had come into the possession of material formerly belonging to John Day and Henry Bynneman.

Folio.  Black letter.  Double columns.

Collation:  A, six leaves; B, two leaves; C, one leaf; A2-A6; D, four leaves; A-C, in sixes; two leaves without signatures; A-Ccccc6, in sixes; A-Aa6, in sixes.

17. The | Workes | Of | Beniamin Jonson | —neque me ut miretur turba | laboro: Contentus paucis lectoribus. | Imprinted at | London by | Will Stansby | An^o D. 1616.

This book, especially as we see it in the copies printed on large paper, is a handsome specimen of typography. It reflects great credit upon its printer, Stansby, who was an apprentice and then successor to John Windet, and himself a master printer. Such work entitles him to a front rank among the printers of the reign of James I.

Jonson is said to have prepared the plays for the press, himself, and one or two matters of editing, which seem unusually careful when compared with other folio collections, certainly appear to show the author's hand. At the end of each play, for instance, is a statement telling when it was first acted, and by whom, whether the king's or the queen's servants. The names of the actors are also given, as well as the "allowance". The volume embraces nine plays, and Epigrammes, The Forest, Entertaynements, Panegyre, Maſques and Barriers. There is no introductory note by the printer, and we are not told how Stansby came into the right to print those plays which had been previously issued by other printers or publishers.

In some copies all of the plays have separate printed titles, while in others there are one, two, or more wood-cut borders showing a lion and a unicorn, a lily, rose and thistle, and a grape-vine twined around columns at the side.

All of the works not included in the first were intended for a second volume, which, however, did not appear until after Jonson's death, in 1640, when it was printed for Richard Meighen, the bookseller, by Bernard Alsop and Thomas Fawcet. The title reads: The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The second Volume Containing These Playes, Viz. [pg 49] 1 Bartholomew Fayre. 2 The Staple of Newes. 3 The Divell is an Asse.... This title, it will be seen, mentions only three plays, which are thought to have been issued somewhat earlier than 1640, perhaps as a supplement to the first volume. The book, as it is usually bound, however, contains three more plays and a fragment of a fourth.

There are variations in the imprint of the first volume, some reading, London, Printed by William Stansby, and again others, London printed by W. Stansby, and are to be ſould by Rich: Meighen. The imprints of the large paper copies in the British Museum and Huth libraries both read like that of the copy facsimiled. The large paper copies, it should be noted, are on whiter and finer paper of an entirely different water-mark. The copies with Meighen's name show traces of the erasure of our form; a fact leading to the supposition that they are later in issue. This matter is complicated, however, by certain striking variations in the text itself. The last two pages of Meighen's copies, containing The Golden Age, show a transposition of parts affecting the whole literary value of the ending of the masque.

Mr. Walter Wilson Greg, in his List of English Plays, 1900, gives the Stansby-Meighen copies the place of the first issue, calling the Stansby copies a reissue, with the imprint reëngraved.

It seems reasonable to suppose, in view of the fact that he was the seller of the second volume also, that Meighen became connected with Stansby after the first copies of the first volume were published. The appearance of his name in the imprint of Volume I. would mark the beginning of such a partnership; and this partnership would naturally be continuous, and not interrupted, as it would appear to be if copies bearing Stansby's name alone came after the Stansby-Meighen imprint, and before the 1640 volume.

"Guliel Hole fecit" is signed to the elaborate title-page engraved on copper. This monumental structure, with its representations of Tragicomœdia, Satyr, Pastor, Tragœdia, Comœdia, Theatrum, Plaustrum, and Visorium, shows such a considerable knowledge of Roman antiquities that we are inclined to think that Jonson himself may have had something to do with the making of it. A similar thought arises in looking at the pages engraved by Hole for Chapman's Homer, and one would like to know how far that author, steeped in his Classics, influenced the engraver. It may be a fair speculation, how far Jonson and Chapman may have influenced the development of book illustration.

[pg 50]

It is a point worthy of notice that the execution of the figures in this engraving is decidedly inferior to that of the Chapman title.

Gerard Honthorst's portrait of Jonson, engraved by Robert Vaughan, whose frontispieces and portraits are found in many books of the period, is inserted in this copy. The engraving was probably issued, in its first state, as a separate print. In a second state it was prefixed to the second edition of the first volume, Printed by Richard Biſhop, and are to be ſold by Andrew Crooke, in 1640.

The famous lines,

follow eight lines of Latin, beneath the oval frame.

Folio.

Collation:  Portrait and title-page, 2 leaves; A-Qqqq4, in sixes.

18. The | Anatomy Of | Melancholy, | [Twelve lines]. By | Democritus Iunior. | With a Satyricall Preface, conducing to | the following Diſcourſe. | [Quotation] At Oxford, | Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames | Short, for Henry Cripps. | Anno Dom. 1621.

In the preface, the author tells why he used the pseudonym "Democritus Junior." Democritus, he says, as described by Hippocrates and Diogenes Laertius, was "a little wearyiſh olde man, very melancholy by nature, averſe from company in his latter times, and much giuen to ſolitarineſſe," who undertook to find the seat of melancholy. "Democritus Iunior is therefore bold to imitate, and becauſe he left it unperfect, to proſecute and finiſh, in this Treatiſe." In "The Concluſion of the Author to the Reader," three leaves at the end of the volume, signed "Robert Burton," and dated "From my Studie in Chriſt Church, Oxon, Decemb 5. 1620," he says:

"The laſt Section ſhall be mine, to cut the ſtrings of Democritus viſor, to vnmaſke and ſhew him as he is ... Democritus began as a Prologue to this Trage-comedie, but why doth the Author end, and act the Epilogue in his owne name? I intended at firſt to haue concealed my ſelfe, but ſecunde cogitationes &c. for ſome reaſons I haue altered mine intent, and am willing to ſubſcribe...."

Later editions, and there were eight during Burton's lifetime, omit the conclusion, and show other alterations. The success of the book, as may be seen from this large number of editions, was great. Wood says that Cripps, the bookseller, made a fortune out of the sale of it, yet he received only a half share of the profits; the other half, belonging to the author, was made over by him in his will to members of the college and to various Oxford friends. "If anie bookes be [pg 52] lefte lett my executors dispose of them, with all such bookes as are written with my owne handes, and half my Melancholy copie, for Crips hath the other halfe."

In course of time the Anatomy was almost forgotten, and Lowndes tells us it owes its revival to Dr. Johnson, who observed that it "was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise."

Lichfield and Short were university printers whose press will be chiefly remembered in connection with the production of this masterpiece. The book is ornamented with a few type-metal head- and tail-pieces, and a large initial and a woodcut head-band at the beginning.

Quarto.

Collation:  a-f4, in eights; A-Ddd₄, in eights.

19. M^r. William | Shakespeares | Comedies, | Histories, & | Tragedies. | Publiſhed according to the True Originall Copies. | [Portrait] London | Printed by Iſaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount.  1623.

The bibliographical history of this most famous book has been written so completely by Mr. Sidney Lee that little remains to be said. The following notes aim only at recounting the facts suggested by a reading of the title-page.

Venus and Adonis, printed in 1593, and Lucrece, printed in 1594, were the only works of Shakespeare published during his lifetime with his consent and coöperation; but sixteen of his plays were printed in quarto size, by various publishers, without his permission.

The plays here collected, in folio form, are thirty-six in number, and include sixteen hitherto unpublished,—all the plays, in fact, except Pericles. John Heming and Henry Condell, friends and fellow-actors of the dramatist, were professedly responsible for the edition, as appears in their dedication to the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery:

"... that what delight is in them, may be euer your L.L. the reputation his, & the faults ours, if any be committed, by a payre ſo carefull to ſhew their gratitude both to the liuing, and the dead...." But the chief part of the real editorship is thought to have devolved upon the publisher, Edward Blount of The Bear, Paul's Churchyard, one of the firm pecuniarily responsible for the enterprise. His name and that of Isaac Jaggard, the printer, appear upon the title-page, as the licensed printers, but in the colophon we read that the book was [pg 54] "printed at the charges" of William Jaggard, printer to the City of London, and father to Isaac, Ed. Blount, "I. Smithweeke," or Smethwick, bookseller under the Dial, in St. Dunstan's Churchyard, and William Aspley, bookseller of The Parrots, Paul's Churchyard.

The "true originall copies" were probably found in the sixteen unauthorized quarto volumes, previously printed, the playhouse or prompt-copies, and in transcripts of plays in private hands. Heming and Condell touch on this matter in their address "To the great Variety of Readers": "It had bene a thing, we confeſſe, worthie to haue bene wiſhed, that the Author himſelfe had liu'd to haue ſet forth, and ouerſeen his owne writings; But ſince it hath bin ordain'd otherwiſe, and he by death departed from that right, we pray you do not envie his Friends, the office of their care, and paine, to haue collected & publiſh'd them; and ſo to haue publiſh'd them, as where (before) you were abus'd with diuerſe ſtolne, and ſurreptitious copies, maimed, and deformed by the frauds and ſtealthes of iniurious impoſtors, that expoſed them; even thoſe are now offer'd to your view cur'd, and perfect of their limbes; and all the reſt, abſolute in their numbers as he conceiued thẽ."

The edition, as published, is thought to have numbered five hundred copies. About two hundred are now known, but of these less than twenty are in perfect condition. The price of the volume when issued was one pound, and the highest price so far paid is seventeen hundred and twenty pounds.

The book is not a fine specimen of typography; it contains numerous errors of all kinds, and the printer's ornaments are all such as are frequently met with in books issued before and after this date. This is especially and strikingly true of the large head-band of the archers which we have already noticed in the Bible of 1611, and of the large tail-piece used after twenty-five of the plays. The other head-pieces and initial letters are of commonplace character, and show much wear. The portrait, too, by Martin Droeshout, a young Flemish artist,

as Jonson assures us in his famous verses "To the Reader," is, as might be expected, hard and stiff, but it was undoubtedly done from a painting that has more claims to be considered "from the life" [pg 55] than any other. With all its technical faults, it "is intrinsically the most valuable volume in the whole range of English literature."

Folio.

Collation:  One leaf without signature; A, eight leaves; A-Z, Aa-Cc2, in sixes; a, two leaves; Aa3-Aa6, b-g, in sixes; gg, eight leaves; h-x, in sixes; ¶, ¶¶, in sixes; ¶¶¶, one leaf; aa-ff, in sixes; gg, two leaves; gg-zz, aaa-bbb, in sixes.

20. The | Tragedy | Of The Dutchesse | Of Malfy. | As it was Preſented priuatly, at the Black- | Friers; and publiquely at the Globe, By the | Kings Maieſties Seruants. | The perfect and exact Coppy, with diuerſe | things Printed, that the length of the Play would | not beare in the Preſentment. | VVritten by John Webſter. | [Quotation] | London: | Printed by Nicholas Okes, for Iohn | Waterson, and are to be ſold at the | ſigne of the Crowne, in Paules | Church-yard, 1623.

The play was first acted about 1612.

A list of the actors' names is given on the verso of the title-page, and among them stands out that of Richard Burbage, who created the part of the Duke. The part of the Duchess was played by a boy named R. Sharpe.

It is the only play of Webster's presented on the modern stage. Miss Glyn played in it in 1851, and Miss May Rorke in 1892.

The first edition is called by Dyce, the most correct of the quartos.

Quarto.

Collation:  A-N, in fours.  Without pagination.

21. A New Way To Pay | Old Debts | A Comoedie | As it hath beene often acted at the Phœ- | nix in Drury-Lane, by the Queenes | Maieſties ſeruants. | The Author. | Philip Massinger. | [Printer's mark] London, | Printed by E. P. for Henry Seyle, dwelling in S. | Pauls Churchyard, at the ſigne of the | Tygers head. Anno. M.DC. | XXXIII.

This comedy retained its popularity longer than any other of Massinger's plays, and has often been revived upon the modern stage.

"E. P." was Elizabeth Purslowe, the widow of George Purslowe, who this year began to carry on "at the east end of Christ church" the business followed there by her husband since 1614. The printer's mark is the one used by the famous family of French printers, the Estiennes.

Seile, whose labors covered a period of twenty years, was one of the many publishers of Massinger's books.

Quarto.

Collation:  A-M2, in fours.  Without pagination.

22. The | Broken | Heart. | A Tragedy. | Acted | By the Kings Majeſties Seruants | at the priuate Houſe in the | Black-Friers. | Fide Honor. | [Printer's ornament] London: | Printed by I. B. for Hugh Beeston, and are to | be ſold at his Shop, neere the Caſtle in | Corne-hill 1633.

The words "Fide Honor" are an anagram of Ford's name. Entered on the Stationers' Register March 28, 1633.

Quarto

Collation:  A, three leaves; B-K, in fours.  Without pagination.

23. The Famous | Tragedy | Of | The Rich Ievv | Of Malta. | As It Was Playd | Before The King And | Queene, In His Majesties | Theatre at White-Hall, by her Majeſties | Servants at the Cock-pit. | Written by Christopher Marlo. | [Printer's ornament] London; | Printed by I. B. for Nicholas Vavaſour, and are to be ſold | at his Shop in the Inner-Temple, neere the | Church. 1633.

Marlowe probably wrote the play not earlier than 1588, because the line in the opening speech of Machevill, "And now the Guize is dead," refers to the Duc de Guise, the organizer of the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, who died in that year. The tragedy was acted many times before it was entered in the Stationers' Register by the two publishers, Nicholas Ling and Thomas Millington, in 1594; but for some reason it was not printed even then. When finally issued in the form shown here, it was under the editorship of Thomas Heywood, the dramatist, who explains his connection with the work in his dedication to Thomas Hammon:

"This Play, compoſed by ſo worthy an Authour as Mr. Marlo; and the part of the Jew preſented by ſo vnimitable an Actor as Mr. Allin, being in this later Age commended to the Stage: As I vſher'd it into the Court, and preſented it to the Cock-pit, with theſe Prologues and Epilogues here inſerted, ſo now being newly brought to the preſſe I was loth it ſhould be publiſhed without the ornament of an epistle...."

Quarto.

Collation:  A-K2, in fours.  Without pagination.

24. The | Temple. | [Four lines] By M^r. George Herbert. | [Quotation] Cambridge | Printed by Thom. Buck, | and Roger Daniel, printers | to the Univerſitie. | 1633.

Izaak Walton wrote the well-known account of the circumstances connected with the printing of The Temple. He tells how Herbert, upon his death-bed, received a visit from a Mr. Edmond Duncon, and how he confided to him the manuscript to be delivered to Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding. These are his words:

"... Having said this, he did, with so sweet a humility as seemed to exalt him, bow down to Mr. Duncon, and with a thoughtful and contented look, say to him, 'Sir, I pray deliver this little book to my dear brother Farrer [Ferrar], and tell him he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul ... desire him to read it; and then, if he can think it may turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul, let it be made publick; if not, let him burn it, for I and it are less than the least of God's mercies.' Thus meanly did this humble man think of this excellent book, which now bears the name of The Temple, or Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations...."

The small volume was entered for license soon after the poet's death, but was at first refused by the Vice-Chancellor. Izaak Walton is again our informant of the circumstance:

"And this ought to be noted, that when Mr. Farrer sent this book to Cambridge to be licensed for the press, the Vice-Chancellor would by no means allow the two so much-noted verses,

[pg 61]

to be printed; and Mr. Farrer would by no means allow the book to be printed and want them. But after some time and some arguments for and against their being made publick, the Vice-Chancellor said, 'I knew Mr. Herbert well, and know that he had many heavenly speculations, and was a divine poet; but I hope the world will not take him to be an inspired prophet, and therefore I license the whole book.' So that it came to be printed without the diminution or addition of a syllable since it was delivered into the hands of Mr. Duncon, save only that Mr. Farrer hath added that excellent preface that is printed before it."

There were two editions of the book in the same year, and beside these, two copies are known, like the first edition in every particular, except the title-page, which is not dated, and reads as follows:

The | Temple. | Sacred poems | And | Private Eja- | culations. | By M^r. George Herbert, late Oratour of the Univerſitie | at Cambridge. | Psal. 29. | In his Temple doth every | man speak of his honour. | Cambridge: | Printed by Thomas Buck | and Roger Daniel: | ¶ And are to be ſold by Francis | Green, ſtationer in | Cambridge.

Grosart thinks that the undated copies were limited to a very few, issued as gifts to intimate friends.

Thomas Buck appears to have held the office of printer to the University from 1625 for upward of forty years. During that period he had several partners besides Daniel, with all of whom he quarrelled. Daniel was appointed on July 24, 1632, and the next year, or the year when Herbert's book was published, entered into an agreement by which he received one-third of the profits of the office, while Buck received two-thirds.

Duodecimo.

Collation:   ¶, four leaves; A-I2, in twelves.

25. Poems, | By J. D. | With | Elegies | On The Authors | Death. | London.| Printed by M. F. for Iohn Marriot, | and are to be ſold at his ſhop in St. Dunſtans | Churchyard in Fleet-ſtreet. 1633.

An entry in the Registers of the Stationers' Company shows the book to have been regularly licensed, though somewhat delayed owing to the doubts of the censor concerning the Satires and certain of the Elegies.

"13^o Septembris 1632

"John Marriott. Entred for his Copy vnder the handes of Sir Henry Herbert and both the Wardens a booke of verses and Poems (the five satires, the first, second, Tenth, Eleaventh and Thirteenth Elegies being excepted) and these before excepted to be his, when he bringes lawfull authority ... vj^d.

"written by Doctor John Dunn."

But in 1637, after two editions had been published, the poet's son, who had a somewhat unsavory reputation, addressed a petition to the Archbishop of Canterbury stating that it had been put forth "withoute anie leaue or Authoritie," and, as a result, the Archbishop issued the following order, December 16, 1637.

"I require ye Parties whom this Petition concernes not to meddle any farther with ye Printing or Selling of any ye pretended workes of ye late Deane of St. Paules, saue onely such as shall be licensed by publike authority, and approued by the Petitioner, as they will answere ye contrary to theyr perill. And this I desire Mr. Deane of ye Arches to take care."

In view of this discussion, Marriot's note in "The Printer To The Understanders," which is not found in all copies, and which, since it [pg 63] is printed on two extra leaves, was evidently an afterthought for late issues, takes on an added interest. It would be difficult to say whether his apologies touching on all these matters were actuated by the noble spirit in which he claims he printed the book, or to ward off anticipated criticism. One is almost tempted to try and read between the lines when he exclaims:

"If you looke for an Epiſtle, as you haue before ordinary publications, I am ſory that I muſt deceive you; but you will not lay it to my charge, when you shall conſider that this is not ordinary ..., you may imagine (if it pleaſe you) that I could endeare it unto you, by ſaying, that importunity drew it on, that had it not beene preſented here, it would haue come to us beyond the Seas (which perhaps is true enough,) that my charge and paines in procuring of it hath beene ſuch, and ſuch. I could adde hereunto a promiſe of more correctneſſe, or enlargement in the next Edition, if you ſhall in the meane time content you with this....

"If any man (thinking I ſpeake this to enflame him for the vent of the Impreſſion) be of another opinion, I ſhall as willingly ſpare his money as his judgement. I cannot looſe ſo much by him as hee will by himſelfe. For I ſhall ſatiſfie my ſelfe with the conſcience of well doing, in making ſo much good common.

"Howſoeuer it may appeare to you, it ſhall ſuffice me to enforme you that it hath the beſt warrant that can bee, publique authority and private friends."

The younger Donne's petition is supported by the appearance of the book itself, which was edited in a very careless fashion, without any attempt at order or relation. But, on the other hand, as Mr. Edmund Gosse has pointed out, Marriott and his edition really do seem to have had the support of the best men among Donne's disciples and friends: King, Hyde, Thomas Browne, Richard Corbet, Henry Valentine, Izaak Walton, Thomas Carew, Jasper Mayne, Richard Brathwaite and Endymion Porter, all of whom, beside several others, combined to write the Elegies mentioned on the title-page.

The printer, "M. F.," was Miles Flesher, or Fletcher, successor to George Eld, and one of the twenty master printers who worked during this most troublous period, following the famous act of July 11, 1637. He also printed for Marriott the second edition of 1635 in octavo, and the third of 1639, which, in the matter of contents, is practically the same as the second.

[pg 64]

Marriott's first reference in the lines of the "Hexaſtichon Bibliopolæ" which follows "The Printer To The Understanders,"

refers to the portrait engraved by Martin Droeshout, issued with Death's Duell, in 1632. The whole verse seems to be an apology for the lack of a portrait in this volume. Donne was abundantly figured afterward. The Poems, printed in 1635, and again in 1639, contained his portrait at the age of eighteen, engraved by Marshall; Merian engraved him at the age of forty-two, for the Sermons of 1640; and Lombart produced the beautiful head for the Letters of 1651.

Quarto.

Collation:  Title, one leaf; A-Z, Aa-Zz, and Aaa-Fff3, in fours.

26. Religio, | Medici. | Printed for Andrew Crooke.  1642. Will: Marſhall. ſcu.

This is thought to be the earlier of two anonymous editions published in the same year, and without the author's sanction, as we learn from the third edition published in the following year, entitled A true and full coppy of that which was moſt | imperfectly and Surreptitiously printed before | under the name of: Religio Medici. In the preface Browne says over his signature: "... I have at preſent repreſented into the world a ful and intended copy of that Peece which was moſt imperfectly and surreptitiouſly publiſhed before." He repeats the complaint of surreptitious publication in a letter to Sir Kenelm Digby, in which he begs the latter to delay the publication of his "Animadversions upon ... the Religio Medici" which "the liberty of these times committed to the Press."

The chief points of difference between the two surreptitious editions have been pointed out by Mr. W. A. Greenhill in his facsimile edition of the book, printed in 1883. The form of some of the capital letters is occasionally different; the issue which he calls A, and to which our copy belongs, has pp. 190, the other, B, 159; A has 25 lines to a page—B, 26; and the lines in A are shorter than those in B. After comparing these with the authorized version, Mr. Greenhill says:

"It will appear from the above collection of various readings that the alterations made by the Author in the authorized edition consisted chiefly in the correction of positive blunders, made (as we know from an examination of the existing MSS.) quite as often by the copyist as by the printer. But he also took the opportunity of modifying various positive and strongly worded propositions by the substitution of less dogmatic expressions, or the insertion of the qualifying words, I think, [pg 66] as some will have it, in some sense, upon some grounds, and the like." "Upon the whole," Mr. Greenhill thinks Browne "had good reason to complain bitterly that the book was published, not only without his knowledge and consent, but also in a "depraved and 'imperfect' form."

The curious coincidence that all three editions, spurious and authorized, were issued by the same publisher, who used the engraved title-page by William Marshall for each, only changing the imprint, gave rise to the hypothesis that, if Sir Thomas did not authorize, he did not prevent the publication of the early editions. In fact, Dr. Johnson (though he professes to acquit him) favored the view "that Browne procured the anonymous publication of the treatise in order to try its success with the public before openly acknowledging the authorship."

The effect of the work certainly justified any fears the author may have had. It excited much controversy and was placed in the Index Expurgatorius of the Roman Church. But from the publisher's point of view, it was a great success. Eleven editions appeared during Browne's lifetime, it was reprinted over and over again, and it provoked over thirty imitations of its scope or title. It was translated into Latin, Dutch, French and German.

The emblematic fancy of Marshall has represented on the engraved title-page of this volume, a hand from the clouds catching a man to hinder his falling from a rock into the sea. The picture bears the legend "à coelo salus," which was afterward erased, not, we will hope, because of lack of faith in the sentiment expressed. The title was also rubbed out.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Engraved title, one leaf; A-M, in eights.

27. The | Workes | Of | Edmond VValler | Eſquire, | [Four lines] Imprimatur | Na. Brent. Decem. 30. 1644. | London, | Printed for Thomas Walkley | 1645.

The "Workes" of this poet "nursed in parliaments" consist of poems and speeches. The book was probably issued early in the year, having, as we see from the title-page, been licensed in December, 1644. There are copies identical in every other respect, that show a block of printer's ornament instead of the "Imprimatur," and still others with quite a new title-page, which reads: Poems,| &c. | Written By | Mr. Ed. Waller | of Beckonſfield, Eſquire; lately a | Member of the Honourable | House of Commons. | All the Lyrick Poems in this Booke | were ſet by Mr. Henry Lavves Gent. | of the Kings Chappell, and one of his | Majeſties Private Muſick. | Printed and Publiſhed according to Order. | London, | Printed by T. W. for Humphrey Moſley, at the | Princes Armes in Pauls Church- | yard.   1645.

New poems have been added to this last issue, and "The Table" of contents has been inserted between the poems and speeches. There is also an Epistle "To my Lady," and "An advertiſement to the Reader" wherein we read:

"This parcell of exquiſit poems, have paſſ'd up and downe through many hands amongſt perſons of the beſt quallity, in looſe imperfect Manuſcripts, and there is lately obtruded to the world an adulterate Copy, surruptitiouſly and illegally imprinted, to the derogation of the Author, and the abuſe of the Buyer. But in this booke they apeare in their pure originalls and true genuine colours."

We may with reasonableness see in the first variation a publisher's trick to make his book appear to have had a quick sale; while the second might indicate a transfer of the unsold sheets from Walkley to [pg 68] Moseley, who for some reason, perhaps an agreement arrived at with the poet, considered himself to be the authorized publisher.

Later in the same year, Moseley issued a reprint, which omitted the Speeches, and a new edition in octavo with a title-page which now reads:

Poems, &c. | Written By | Mr. Ed. Waller | [Three lines] And Printed by a Copy of | his own hand-writing. | [Four lines] Printed and Publiſhed according to Order. | London, | Printed by J. N. for Hu. Moſley, at the Princes | Armes in Pauls Church-yard, | 1645.

The volume has been entirely reprinted.

The Speeches appear again, but the rest of the contents remain as before. Mr. Beverly Chew, in an article on "The First Edition of Waller's Poems," says: "It is this edition that is generally called the 'first authorized edition,' but it is quite evident that all of the editions of this year stand about on the same level so far as the author is concerned." Not until the edition of 1664 do we read on the title-page, "Never till now Corrected and Published with the approbation of the Author."

Octavo.

Collation:  Title, one leaf, B-H, in eights.

28. Comedies | And | Tragedies | Written by | Francis Beaumont | And | Iohn Fletcher | Gentlemen. | Never printed before, | And now publiſhed by the Authours | Originall Copies. | [Quotation] London, | Printed for Humphrey Robinſon, at the three Pidgeons, and for | Humphrey Moſeley at the Princes Armes in S^t Pauls | Church-yard.   1647.

These two dramatists, between whom "there was a wonderfull consimility of phancy," and who shared everything in common, were inseparably connected in their writings. No collected edition of their plays appeared before this posthumous one, which is dedicated to Philip, Earl of Pembroke, by ten actors, and is introduced to the reader by James Shirley, the dramatist, who speaks of the volume as "without flattery the greatest Monument of the Scene that Time and Humanity have produced." This, too, notwithstanding the fact that Shakespeare's Works had appeared twenty-four years before.

This edition appears to have been due to Moseley's enterprise. He tells us in a frank address called "The Stationer to the Readers":

"'T were vaine to mention the Chargeableneſſe of this VVork; for thoſe who own'd the Manuſcripts, too well knew their value to make a cheap eſtimate of any of theſe Pieces, and though another joyn'd with [pg 70] me in the Purchaſe and Printing, yet the Care & Pains were wholly mine...."

Commenting upon the fact stated on the title-page that the plays had not been printed before, he says: "You have here a New Booke; I can ſpeake it clearely; for of all this large Uolume of Comedies and Tragedies, not one, till now, was ever printed before...." "And as here's nothing but what is genuine and Theirs, ſo you will find here are no Omiſſions; you have not onely All I could get, but all that you muſt ever expect. For (beſides thoſe which were formerly printed) there is not any Piece written by theſe Authours, either Joyntly or Severally, but what are now publiſhed to the VVorld in this Volume. One only Play I muſt except (for I meane to deale openly) 'tis a Comedy called the VVilde-gooſe-Chase, which hath beene long lost...."

Nothing which throws light upon the history of printing at this time is more interesting than the Postscript added at the end of the commendatory verses by Waller, Lovelace, Herrick, Ben Jonson and others, and immediately after a poem by Moseley himself ending, "If this Booke faile, 'tis time to quit the Trade." ...

"... After the Comedies and Tragedies were wrought off, we were forced (for expedition) to ſend the Gentlemens Verſes to ſeverall Printers, which was the occaſion of their different Character; but the Worke it ſelfe is one continued Letter, which (though very legible) is none of the biggeſt, becauſe (as much as poſſible) we would leſſen the Bulke of the Volume."

This matter of size seems to have been the cause of no little solicitude and care. Speaking of adding more plays to the volume, he says:

"And indeed it would have rendred the Booke ſo Voluminous, that Ladies and Gentlewomen would have found it ſcarce manageable, who in Workes of this nature muſt firſt be remembred."

There are thirty-six plays in the collection: as the stationer tells us in the preface to the reader quoted above, all those previously printed in quarto are included, except the Wild Goose Chase, which had been lost. It is added at the end of the volume with a separate title-page dated 1652.

The following epigram by Sir Aston Cockain, addressed to the publishers, the two Humphreys, is not without interest in this connection as showing that the difficulties arising from the joint authorship were early sources of perplexity:

[pg 71]

Moseley, in his address as stationer, says of the portrait of Fletcher by William Marshall, which bears the inscriptions, "Poetarum Ingeniosissimus Ioannes Fletcherus Anglus Episcopi Lond: Fili." "Obijt 1625 Ætat 49": "This figure of Mr. Fletcher was cut by ſeveral Originall Pieces, which his friends lent me; but withall they tell me, that his unimitable Soule did ſhine through his countenance in ſuch Ayre and Spirit, that the Painters confeſſed it, was not eaſie to expreſſe him." The nine lines of verse beneath the portrait are by Sir John Birkenhead. The portrait is found in two states, distinguishable by the size of the letters in Birkenhead's name. Although he was very ambitious to get a portrait of Master Beaumont, his search proved unavailing.

There are a few woodcut head-bands, varied with others made of type metal, in the front part of the book, but the last part is severely plain.

Folio.  The first collected edition.

Collation:  Portrait; A, four leaves; a-c, in fours; d-g, in twos; B-L2, in fours; Aa-Ss, in fours; Aaa-Xxx, in fours; 4A-4I, in fours; 5A-5X, in fours; 6A-6K, in fours; 6L, six leaves; 7A-7G, in fours; 8A-8C, in fours; *Dddddddd, two leaves; 8D-8F, in fours.

29. Hesperides: | Or, | The Works | Both | Humane & Divine | Of | Robert Herrick Eſq. [Quotation, Printer's mark] London, | Printed for John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, | and are to be ſold at the Crown and Marygold | in Saint Pauls Church-yard.   1648.

A volume entitled "The seuerall Poems written by Master Robert Herrick" was entered by Master Crooke for license April 29, 1640, but was not published. The Hesperides was the first work of the poet to be printed, except some occasional contributions to collections of poems. It is dedicated in a metrical epistle to the most illustrious and most hopeful Charles, Prince of Wales, afterward Charles II.

The book is divided into two parts, the second having a separate title-page which reads: His | Noble Numbers: | Or, | His Pious Pieces, | Wherein (amongſt other things) | he ſings the Birth of his Christ: | and ſighs for his Saviours ſuffe- | ring on the Croſſe.| [Quotation] London. | Printed for John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, 1647. |

This part was not issued, as far as is known, except with the Hesperides to which the author evidently intended it to be affixed, if we may judge by the lines toward the end of the first part: "Part of the work remains; one part is past."

The year of publication had seen Herrick dispossessed of his living at Dean Prior by the predominant Puritan party, and it has been suggested that he was glad to take this means of gaining an income. His use of the form, "Robert Herrick, Esquire," was, it is thought, a wise move on the part of the publishers, since a book by the "Reverend," or "Robert Herrick, Vicker" would have been less likely to meet with favor.

[pg 73]

Neither Williams nor Eglesfield was a bookseller of importance, and the printer is entirely unknown. He may have withheld his name for fear of the judgment suggested by Herrick at the head of his column of Errata:

Copies vary in the imprint, some reading London, Printed for John Williams and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be ſold by Tho. Hunt, Bookſeller in Exon, 1648; and several differences of spelling, capitalization and punctuation also occur. These variations have given rise to a discussion that aims to determine the sequence of issues; but thus far it serves only to prove that constant editorial tinkering took place at the press-side.

William Marshall, whose prolific graver (Strutt says he used only that tool) produced portraits, frontispieces, title-pages, and other decorations of a certain charm, even if dry and cramped in style, had in Herrick a subject of more than usual difficulty. As if conscious of his shortcomings he attempts to make atonement by the emblematic flattery of Pegasus winging his flight from Parnassus, the Spring of Helicon, loves and flowers, which he adds to lines signed I. H. C. and W. M.

Octavo.

Collation:  Four leaves (without signatures): B-Z and Aa-Cc, in eights, Aa-Ee, in eights.

30. The Rule | And | Exercises | Of | Holy Living. | [Eleven lines] London, | Printed for Francis Aſh, Book- | Seller in Worceſter. | MDCL. [Colophon] London, | Printed by R. Norton. | MDCL.

The remarkably well-designed title-page engraved by Robert Vaughan, which precedes the printed title, bears the imprint, London printed for R: Royſton | in Ivye lane. 1650. and some copies have the following imprint on the title-page: London, | Printed for Richard Royſton at the | Angel in Ivie-Lane. | MDCL. Royston was the royal bookseller, and publisher of Eikon Basilike, which ran through fifty editions in the single year 1649. Taylor's work was also a popular venture, and reached a fourteenth edition in 1686.

This edition contains "Prayers for our Rulers," which recalls the fact that these were stirring times when the book was published. Charles had been beheaded in January of the previous year, and Cromwell won his victory at Worcester, where Ash had his shop, in the year following. It was not without some worldly wisdom of living, then, that our author used the above heading, and later, when times were changed, altered it so as to make it read, "For the King."

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Frontispiece; ¶, twelve leaves; A-S4, in twelves.

31. The | Compleat Angler | [Six lines, Quotation.] London, Printed by T. Maxey for Rich. Marriot, in | S. Dunſtans Church-yard Fleetſtreet, 1653.

In the Perfect Diurnall, as well as in other broad-sheets, the following advertisement appeared from Monday, May 9, to Monday, May 16, 1653:

"The Compleat Angler or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, being a Diſcourſe of Fish and Fishing, not unworthy the peruſal of moſt Anglers, of 18 pence price. Written by Iz. Wa. Alſo the known Play of the Spaniſh Gipſee, never till now publiſhed. Both printed for Richard Marriot, to be ſold at his ſhop in St. Dunſtans Church-yard, Fleet Street." Walton could hardly have expected his work to be anonymous when his very distinctive initials appeared so plainly in the advertisement. And even though they are not printed on the title-page of the book, they are signed to the dedication to his most honoured friend, Mr. John Offley of Madeley Manor, and at the end of the address "To the Reader of this Discourse: but eſpecially To the honeſt Angler." The name was added to the title in the fifth or 1676 edition, called The Universal Angler.

Contemplative men did indeed find the work not unworthy their perusal, and Marriot, who seems to have been fortunate in the books he published, alone issued five editions during the life of the author. Between then and now we may count no less than one hundred and thirty different imprints. At Sotheby's, in 1895, a copy of this eighteen-pence book sold for four hundred and fifteen pounds, an earnest of its rarity and of the eagerness with which it is sought.

Concerning the engraved cartouche with the first part of the title, on the title-page, and the six illustrations of fish engraved in the text, [pg 76] the author says "To the Reader of this Discourse": "And let me adde this, that he that likes not the diſcourſe ſhould like the pictures of the Trout and other fiſh, which I may commend, becauſe they concern not myſelf." No name is given to show whose work they may be; they are sometimes ascribed to Pierre Lombart, a Frenchman resident in London, and employed by book-publishers to illustrate their books. But on the other hand we must not forget that Vaughan and Faithorne were both making illustrations for books at this time. There is reason for calling attention to the belief, formerly current, that the engravings were done on plates of silver, a notion which, as Thomas Westwood remarks, is sufficiently disproved by their repeated use in no less than five editions of The Compleat Angler, and the same number of Venable's Experienc'd Angler.

Henry Lawes, the musician, and the author of several works, wrote the music to "The Anglers' Song For two Voyces, Treble and Baſſe," which occupies pages 216 and 217. The right-hand page is printed upside down for the greater convenience of the singers, who could thus stand facing one another. Lawes used a similar arrangement in his Select Ayres and Dialogues, published the same year as the Angler.

Octavo.

Collation:  A-R3, in eights.

32. Hudibras. | The First Part, | Written in the time of the late Wars. | [Device] London, | Printed by J. G. for Richard Marriot, under Saint | Dunstan's Church in Fleetſtreet.  1663.

Although "written in the time of the late Wars," Hudibras was not licensed to be printed until November 11, 1662, two years after the reëstablishment of the monarchy, when a satire on Puritanism could no longer give offense to the ruling party. On the contrary, the satisfaction which it gave to the King and court had much to do with the great success it achieved. Butler himself records the royal favor:

Marriot, the successful publisher of Walton's Angler and some of Donne's books, issued the first part in three different forms, large octavo, like our copy, small octavo, and duodecimo; the last two sizes being sold for a lower price than the former, to meet the popular demand for the work. Besides these there is another edition, in three issues of the same date, which has no name of printer or publisher in the imprint, although, like Marriot's copies, it bears the license, "Imprimatur. Jo: Berkenhead, Novemb. 11, 1662." If it were not for this imprimatur, the following notice, which appeared in the Public Intelligencer for December 23, 1662, would make it seem certain that the nameless edition was really spurious:

"There is stolen abroad a most false imperfect copy of a poem called Hudibras, without name either of printer or bookseller, as fit for so lame and spurious an impression. The true and perfect edition [pg 78] printed by the author's original, is sold by Richard Marriot under St. Dunstan's church in Fleet Street; that other nameless is a cheat, and will not abuse the buyer as well as the author, whose poem deserves to have fallen into better hands." But the presence of the regular license brings us to the very probable theory that Marriot may have issued both editions; the first without his name because he was unwilling to allow it to appear until the fortune of the book seemed certain.

Singularly enough, Marriot did not issue The Second Part. By the Authour of the Firſt, which came out the next year in two sizes, octavo and small octavo, Printed by T. R. for John Martyn, and James Alleſtry, at the Bell in St. Pauls Church Yard. Ten years later we find the volume being issued by Martyn and also by Herringman.

The Third and laſt | Part. | Written by the Author | Of The | First and Second Parts. | London, | Printed for Simon Miller, at the Sign of the Star | at the Weſt End of St. Pauls, 1678. was only published in one size, the octavo. We get an idea of the great interest the book created, when, after a lapse of so many years, this last part ran into a second edition in a twelvemonth.*

Mr. Pepys is our authority for the cost of the spurious book. He says, in his Diary on Christmas Day, 1662: "Hither come Mr. Battersby; and we falling into a discourse of a new book of drollery in verse, called Hudebras, I would needs go find it out, and met with it at the Temple: it cost 2s. 6d. But when I came to read it, it is so silly an abuse of the Presbyter Knight going to the warrs, that I am ashamed of it; and by and by, meeting at Mr. Townsend's at dinner, I sold it to him for 18d." He afterward tried to read the second part, so we learn from his notes dated November 28, 1663; but which issue he used we shall never know. He says:

"... To Paul's Church Yarde, and there looked upon the second part of Hudibras, which I buy not, but borrow to read, to see if he be as good as the first, which the world do cry so mightily up, though it hath not a good liking in me...."

Octavo.

Collation:  Title; A-R,  in eights.

* It should be noted that some copies of the volume have the record of the license and some have none.

33. Paradiſe loft. | A | Poem | Written in | Ten Books | By John Milton. | Licenſed and Entred according | to Order. | London | Printed, and are to be ſold by Peter Parker | under Creed Church neer Aldgate; And by | Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Biſhopſgate-ſtreet; | And Matthias Walker, under St. Dunſtons Church | in Fleet-ſtreet, 1667.

Milton began his great epic in 1658, and is said to have finished it in 1663. It was licensed after some delay, occasioned by the hesitation of the deputy of the Archbishop of Canterbury over the lines:

He may, as Professor Masson has pointed out, have had difficulty in finding a publisher able and willing to venture upon the printing of a work by one "whose attacks on the Church and defenses of the execution of Charles I. were still fresh in the memory of all, and some of whose pamphlets had been publicly burnt by the hangman after the Restoration." Few probably of those whose shops had centered around Paul's Churchyard, the very heart of the book-trade, could have done so, for they were, if not ruined, certainly inconvenienced by the loss of their stock and shops in the Great Fire of the year before. It is small wonder that Simmons, to whom, through some [pg 80] agency or other, the poet did come, drove a hard bargain when the agreement for the copyright was entered into, April 27, 1667. The original of this agreement came into the possession of the Tonsons, the proprietors of the copyright, and was finally presented to the British Museum by Samuel Rogers, who acquired it from Pickering the publisher. "Milton was to receive 5 l. down, and 5 l. more upon the sale of each of the first three editions. The editions were to be accounted as ended when thirteen hundred copies of each were sold 'to particular reading customers,' and were not to exceed fifteen hundred copies apiece. Milton received the second 5 l. in April, 1669, that is 15 l. in all. His widow in 1680 settled all claims upon Simmons for 8 l. and Simmons became proprietor of the copyright, then understood to be perpetuated."

The book made its appearance at an unfortunate time. London had barely recovered from the Plague of 1665 (during which eighty printers had died, wherein is seen another reason for the difficulty in finding a publisher), and the great district devastated by the Fire was still only partly rebuilt. It was not surprising that the 1200 copies which are thought to have made the first edition did not have a brisk sale; these were not exhausted for at least eighteen months, and a second impression was not put out for four years.

The copies of the first printing may be divided into several classes, according to the title-pages they bear. These all differ from one another in several more or less important particulars, but the text of the work is identical in all cases, except for a few typographical errors. Two titles, supposed to be the earliest, were Licenſed and Entred according | to Order, and have the imprint:

London | Printed, and are to be ſold by Peter Parker | under Creed Church neer Aldgate; And by | Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Biſhopſgate-ſtreet; | And Matthias Walker, under St. Dunſtons Church | in Fleet-ſtreet, 1667.

On these the poem is seen to be by "John Milton," and the only difference between them lies in the type used for Milton's name, one being of a smaller size than the other. A third title-page, having a similar imprint but dated 1668, has "The Author J. M." A fourth has "The Author John Milton," the license has given place to a group of fleurs-de-lis, and the imprint reads:

London, | Printed by S. Simmons, and to be ſold by S. Thomſon at | the Biſhopſ-Head in Duck-lane, H. Mortlack, at the | White Hart in [pg 81] Weſtminſter Hall, M. Walker under | St. Dunſtans Church in Fleet-ſtreet, and R. Boulter at | the Turks-Head in Biſhopſgate ſtreet, 1668.

Two new title-pages were used in 1669, differing only in the type. The imprint reads:

London, | Printed by S. Simmons, and are to be ſold by | T. Helder at the Angel in Little Brittain. | 1669.

Beside these there are others. Early bibliographers claimed that eight or even nine variations existed, but later investigation has failed to verify more than six.

The chief point of interest in all these variations lies in the fact that Peter Parker, not Simmons, issued the first volumes. As we have pointed out above, the theory has been advanced that the owner of the copyright was timid about avowing his connection with the poet. A more natural reason would seem to be that he was unable to print the book at first, through losses, in the Fire perhaps, of presses and types. Such a theory would seem to derive weight from the fact that the issues of 1668 and 1669 which bear his name do not give an address, and it is not until the second edition of 1674 that we find him "next door to the Golden Lion in Aldersgate-ſtreet."

The original selling price of the volume was three shillings. The prices now vary according to the sequence of the title-pages. A copy of the first issue sold in New York in 1901 for eight hundred and thirty dollars.

The volume has no introductory matter, but begins at once with the lines "Of Mans Firſt Diſobedience"; Simmons added the following note to the second edition: "There was no Argument at firſt intended to the Book, but for the ſatisfaction of many that have deſired it, is procured." The printer adopted a very useful custom in numbering the lines of the poem. He set the figures down by tens in the margin, within the double lines that frame the text.

The first edition with the first title-page.

Collation:  Two leaves without signatures; A-Z, and Aa-Vv2, in fours.  Without pagination.

34. The | Pilgrims Progreſs | [Eleven lines] By John Bunyan. | Licenſed and Entered according to Order. | London, | Printed for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock | in the Poultrey near Cornhil, 1678.

In 1672 Bunyan was released from the gaol, which, possibly with a brief interval, had been his "close and uncomfortable" home for twelve years; and Ponder, who, for his connection with his famous client, was called "Bunyan's Ponder," entered the imperishable story, written in "similitudes," at the Stationers' Hall, December 22, 1677. The customary fee of sixpence being duly paid, early in the following year the book was licensed, and soon after published at one shilling sixpence.

Its success was very great: the first year saw a second edition, and the year following a third, each with important additions.

Southey stated, in 1830, when he put out a new edition of the book, that there was no copy of the first edition known, but since then five have been unearthed, two of which are perfect.

The portrait of Bunyan engraved by Robert White makes our copy unique. It shows the author lying asleep over a lion's den, while above him Christian is represented on his journey. Until 1886, when this volume was brought to light, the third edition was supposed to be the first to have a picture of the author; but now it seems quite certain that other volumes of the first edition may, like this, have had the print. In the edition of 1679, the label of the city from which the Pilgrim was journeying, called "Vanity" here, was changed to "Destruction."

The price paid for this volume, when it was sold at auction in 1901, was fourteen hundred and seventy-five pounds.

[pg 83]

The second part of the Pilgrim's Progress appeared in 1684. It depends more upon reflected than intrinsic merit; but copies of the first edition are even rarer than those of the first edition of the first part.

Octavo.

Collation:  A-Q3, in eights.   Portrait.

35. Absalom | And | Achitophel. | A | Poem. | ... Si Propiùs ſtes | Te Capiet Magis.... | London, | Printed for J. T. and are to be Sold by W. Davis in | Amen-Corner, 1681.

The Earl of Shaftesbury, here typified as Achitophel for his share in the conspiracy to place the young Duke of Monmouth, Absalom, on the throne, was committed to the Tower in July, 1681; and this satire appeared in November, just before the Grand Jury acquitted him. Notwithstanding the lateness of the work, its success was unprecedented. We are told that Samuel Johnson's father, a bookseller of Litchfield, said that he could not remember a sale of equal rapidity, except that of the reports of the Sacheverell trial.

The author's name does not appear in the book; nor yet in the second edition, to which Tonson added two unsigned poems "To the unknown author."

Jacob Tonson, the publisher of the work, was one of the notable figures in the annals of book-publishing in England, and his name is inseparably connected with some of the most important literary ventures of the period: with those of Milton, Addison, Steele, Congreve, but above all with those of Dryden. Basil Kennett wrote in 1696: "Twill be as impossible to think of Virgil without Mr. Dryden, as of either without Mr. Tonson." He was so poor when he began business that he is said to have borrowed the twenty pounds necessary to the purchase of the first play of Dryden's that he published; but, thanks to his shrewdness, and to the success of his ventures, he died in affluent circumstances, having fully earned the title of "prince of [pg 85] booksellers." He was the founder of the famous Kit-Cat Club, and in spite of Dryden's ill-tempered lines,

he was not unliked by his clients and friends.

The only decoration in the book consists of a head-band preceding the poem, and an initial letter. In some copies the head-band is pieced out to the width of the type page with small ornaments.

Folio.

Collation:  Two leaves without signatures; B-I, in twos.

36. An | Essay | Concerning | Humane Understanding. | In Four Books. [Quotation, Group of Ornaments] London: | Printed by Eliz. Holt, for Thomas Baſſet, at the | George in Fleet-ſtreet, near St Dunſtan's | Church. MDCXC.

Locke's two previous works had been issued anonymously; but this book, while it has no name on the title-page, has the author's name signed at the foot of the dedication to Thomas, Earl of Pembroke; a dedication of such fulsome compliment that even Pope, who called Locke his philosophic master, is said to have thought he could never forgive it. In the first edition, that appeared early in the year, the dedication is not dated, but "Dorset Court, May 24, 1689," appears in all the following issues.

Basset paid thirty pounds for the copyright of the work, and later agreed to give six bound copies of every subsequent edition, and ten shillings for every sheet of additional matter.

Some copies of the first edition have the imprint: Printed for Tho. Baſſet, and ſold by Edw. Mory | at the Sign of the Three Bibles in St. Paul's Church-Yard. MDCXC. They probably belong to an earlier issue: the two ss in Essay, which were here printed upside down, were set right in the title-pages of the issue facsimiled; and the group of printer's ornaments, here placed irregularly, were straightened in our copy.

In August, 1692, Locke writes: "I am happy to tell you that a new edition of my book is called for, which, in the present turmoil of the protestant world, I consider very satisfactory." The month of September, 1694 brought the book again before the public, and by the year 1800 twenty different editions had been published.

[pg 87]

The first edition was full of faults that the second aimed to correct. "Beſides what is already mentioned, this Second Edition has the Summaries of the several § §. not only Printed, as before, in a Table by themſelves, but in the Margent too. And at the end there is now an Index added. Theſe two, with a great number of ſhort additions, amendments, and alterations, are advantages of this Edition, which the bookseller hopes will make it ſell. For as to the larger additions and alterations, I have obliged him, and he has promiſed me to print them by themſelves, ſo that the former Edition may not be wholly loſt to thoſe who have it, but by the inſerting in their proper places the paſſages that will be imprinted alone, to that purpoſe, the former Book may be made as little defective as poſſible."

The amendments and alterations were printed on separate slips of paper, which were given to purchasers of the first edition to be pasted into their copies; certainly an ingenious if not altogether satisfactory way of keeping abreast with the author's mind. It must have been considered useful, however, for the same plan was resorted to with the fourth edition.

"Our friend Dr. Locke, I am told, has made an addition to his excellent 'Essay,' which may be had without purchasing the whole book," said the thrifty Evelyn to the careful Pepys, who replied: "Dr. Locke has set a useful example to future reprinters. I hope it will be followed in books of value." A copy of the book in the Bodleian Library, which has its little slips all carefully pasted in, has a note on the fly-leaf, written by its owner:

"Here is observable the honesty of the great Mr. Locke in printing for the purchasers of this edition the improvements made in the second."

Folio.

Collation:  A, four leaves; [a], two leaves; B-Z, Aa-Zz, and Aaa-Ccc, in fours.

37. The | Way of the World, | A | Comedy. | As it is Acted | At The | Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, | By | His Majeſty's Servants. | Written by Mr. Congreve. | [Quotation] London: | Printed for Jacob Tonſon, within Gray's-Inn-Gate next | Gray's-Inn-Lane. 1700.

This was the last of Congreve's plays to be performed upon the stage. It was presented by Betterton's company, but was a failure. "The unkind Reception this excellent comedy met with," said Charles Wilson, "was truly the Cauſe of Mr. Congreve's juſt Reſentment; and upon which, I have often heard him declare, that he had form'd a ſtrong Reſolution never more to concern himſelf with Dramatic Writings."

Quarto.

Collation:  A, three leaves; a, two leaves; B-N2, in fours.

38. The | History | Of The | Rebellion and Civil Wars | In | England, | [Five lines] Written by the Right Honourable | Edward Earl of Clarendon, | [Two lines, Quotations] Volume The First. [Vignette] Oxford, | Printed at the Theater, An. Dom. MDCCII. [-MDCCIV].

Begun in April, 1641, and finished during the period of Clarendon's exile, which extended from 1667 until his death, the History was prepared for printing under the direction of Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, who received assistance from Dr. Henry Aldrich, Dean of Christ Church, and Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester. Rochester wrote the introduction and dedications.

On the verso of the title-page of the first volume we find "Imprimatur. Ro. Hander Vice-Can. Oxon. Apr. 29. 1702."; the second volume is signed "Guil Delaune Vice-Can, Oxon. Sept. 15, 1703," and the third, by Delaune, "Octob. 16, 1704."

There is no dedication to the first volume, which begins at once with the preface; but the second and third volumes are dedicated to the queen. In the last two volumes a proclamation by her Majesty, dated June 24, 1703, states that: "whereas Our Truſty and Wellbeloved William Delaune, Doctor in Divinity, and Vice-Chancellor of Our Univerſity of Oxford, has humbly preſented unto US, in the behalf of the ſaid Univerſity, that They have at Great Expence already Publiſhed One Volume of the late Earl of Clarendon's Hiſtory, and intend in a ſhort time to Publiſh the Second and Third Volumes for Compleating the Work; and the ſole Right of the Copy of the ſaid Work being Veſted in Our Univerſity of Oxford, and They having humbly beſought US to Grant Them Our Royal Priviledge and Licence for the ſole Printing and Publiſhing the ſame for the Term of Fourteen Years; ... do therefore hereby Give and Grant ... the same." This refers to the fact that Clarendon, who [pg 90] had been chancellor of the University from 1660 until he went into exile, provided in his will that the profits from the sale of copies of the History should belong to the University and should be expended in erecting a building for the exclusive use of the Press, founded in "1468."

Previously, and at the time of the printing of the book, the work of the University Press was done in the "Theatre," a view of which is given at the left of the figure of Minerva, in the vignette on the title-page. This was the Sheldonian Theatre, built from designs by Christopher Wren, at the expense of Archbishop Gilbert Sheldon, who succeeded Lord Clarendon as chancellor. It was opened in 1669, and was used for various academic purposes, as well as for the home of the Press. Clarendon's design was fulfilled in 1713; and the Clarendon Building, as it was called, was occupied until it was outgrown, and the Clarendon Press, for under this name it was now equally well known, was removed once more, in 1830, to its present quarters.

The vignette, with its interesting glimpse of the buildings near the Theatre, is signed "delin urg. ſculp. Univ. Ox.," in the first two volumes, and "delin urghers ſculpt, Univ. Ox. 1704," in the third, where the plate also shows other signs of having been gone over or reëngraved.* Beside these vignettes, the work is ornamented with ambitious copper-plate head- and tail-pieces, and initial letters, some unsigned, but probably all by Burg. A portrait of Clarendon occurs as a frontispiece in each of the three volumes. It is after the painting by Sir Peter Lely, and was engraved in 1700 by Robert White, a prolific producer of portraits framed with borders that, in most cases, were less tasteful than this one, with its mace, bag, and coat-of-arms. The inscription reads: "Edward Earle of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England, and Chancellor of the Univerſity of Oxford. An^o. Dñi 1667."

The plate for the third volume has been much worked over, if not entirely redrawn in a slavish copy. White's name is erased, and Burg's appears in its stead. Some copies of all three volumes of the first edition are dated 1704; while others show a confusion of dates, and the portraits do not follow the order here described.

Folio.  Large paper copy.

Collation:  Three volumes.   Three portraits.

* P. L. Lamborn used a similar idea for an ornament which he engraved for the Cambridge University Press about 1761.

39. The | Lucubrations | Of | Iſaac Bickerſtaff Eſq; | Vol. I. | [Quotation] London, | Printed: And ſold by John Morphew, near Stationers-Hall. MDCCX. [-MDCCXI.] Note. The Bookbinder is deſired to place the Index after [Tatler, No. 114] which ends the Firſt Volume in Folio.

The first number of the Lucubrations, a folio sheet headed with the title The Tatler, and ending with the imprint London: Printed for the Author, 1709, appeared on Tuesday, April 12. It was issued thereafter three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, "for the convenience of the post."

Public interest having displayed itself in a sufficiently emphatic manner, the "Author" evidently felt justified in engaging a permanent printer, and the imprint of the fifth number reads: "Sold by John Morphew near Stationers-Hall; where Advertiſements are taken in."

The first four numbers were distributed free as a kind of advertisement. Then, "Upon the humble Petition of the Running Stationers, &c.," they were sold at one penny. But a charge of halfpence was added after the twenty-sixth number, "Whereas Several Gentlemen have deſir'd this Paper, with a blank Leaf to write Buſineſs on, and for the convenience of the poſt."

"Quidquid agunt homines nostri farrago libelli" is the motto printed at the head of the first forty numbers, and "Celebrare domestica facta" on Nos. 41 and 42, but after that special mottoes were used. The single numbers usually bear the name of "Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq,, aged sixty-four, an old man, a philosopher, an humorist, an astrologer and a censor," but sometimes other members of his family appear in his stead, especially his half-sister Jenny Distaff, and her husband.

Number 271, dated January 2, 1711, omits Bickerstaff's name, and the whole paper, except for some advertisements at the end, is given to a letter signed by Steele, in which he says: "The Printer having [pg 92] informed me that there are as many of theſe Papers printed as will make Four Volumes, I am now come to the End of my Ambition in this Matter, and have nothing further to ſay to the World, under the Character of Iſaac Bickerſtaff. This Work has indeed for ſome time been diſagreeable to me, and the Purpoſe of it wholly loſt by my being ſo long underſtood as the Author.... All I can now do for the further Gratification of the Town, is to give them a faithful Index and Explication of Paſſages and Alluſions...." The index, called "A Faithful Index of the Dull as well as Ingenious Paſſages in the Tatlers," bears at the end the important note, "[The Price of theſe Two Sheets, Three Pence.]" The "Explication of paſſages" was made in "The Preface," which, in our copy, is bound after the dedications of the second volume. For, as it will thus be seen, Steele bethought himself to add further to the gratification of the public by printing two title-pages and four dedications, on folio sheets, for the benefit of those subscribers who might wish to bind their copies.

The title-page of the second volume is like the first, only it is dated 1711; and the foot-note reads: "Note, The Bookbinder is deſired to place the Index after [Tatler No. 271.] which ends the ſecond Volume in Folio." The index to the Tatlers of this volume has the note: "[The Price of theſe Three Sheets and a Half, Six Pence.]" The notes on the dedications, and the fact that while the folio sheets made only two volumes, four dedications were issued, shows us that the binding of the current sheets was an afterthought, and that the quarto edition in four volumes was relied upon to keep alive the lucubrations. Thus the quarto edition dedications were made to do double service.

In its present form the first volume is dedicated anonymously to Mr. Arthur Maynwaring, while the second has the other three dedications. One, to Edward Wortley Montague, signed Isaac Bickerstaff, has the note: "The Dedication foregoing belongs to the Second Volume of Tatlers in Octavo; which begins with N^o 51, and ends with N^o 114". One, to William, Lord Cowper, signed Richard Steele, has the note: "The foregoing Dedication belongs to the Third Volume of Tatlers in Octavo, which begins with N^o. 115, and ends with N^o. 189." The last one, dedicated to Charles, Lord Halifax, also signed by Steele, has a note which reads: "This Dedication belongs to the Fourth Volume of Tatlers in Octavo, which begins with N^o 190, and ends with N^o 271."

[pg 93]

Aitken tells us that, "Like other publications of the time, the successive numbers of the Tatler were reprinted in Dublin and Edinburgh, as they came out. The Dublin issue was in quarto form, the Edinburgh paper a folio sheet, rather smaller than the original, and with a fresh set of advertisements of interest to local readers."

In No. 102, our editor says of the octavo edition:

"Whereas I am informed, That there is a ſpurious and very incorrect Edition of theſe Papers printed in a ſmall Volume; Theſe are to give Notice, That there is in the Preſs, and will ſpeedily be publiſhed, a very neat Edition, fitted for the Pocket, on extraordinary good Paper, a new Brevier Letter, like the Elzevir Editions, and adorned with ſeveral Cuts by the beſt Artiſts. To which is added, a Preface, Index, and many Notes, for the better Explanation of theſe Lucubrations. By the Author. Who has reviſed, amended, and made many Additions to the Whole." In the last number he says again: "The Third Volume of theſe Lucubrations being juſt finiſh'd, on a large Letter in Octavo, ſuch as pleaſe to ſubſcribe for it on a Royal Paper, to keep up their Sets, are deſired to ſend their Names to Charles Lillie, Perfumer, at the Corner of Beauford-Buildings, in the Strand, or John Morphew near Stationers Hall, where the Firſt and Second Volumes are to be deliver'd."

The price of the corrected work in four quarto volumes, if bought of the printer, was £1 per volume on royal paper, and ten shillings on medium paper; and it is gratifying to learn that the work met with so great a success that there was hardly a name eminent at the time which was not subscribed.

A copy in the British Museum has for a frontispiece a portrait of "Isaac Bickerstaff Esq. Engraved and ſold by John Sturt in Golden-Lion Court in Alderſgate Street Price Six Pence. MDCCX." and signed B. L ens ſen^r delineavit.

Folio.

Collation:  Two volumes.  No signatures.  Volume I: iv pp. [114 ll.], iv pp.  Volume II: viii pp. [271 ll.], vi pp.

40. Numb. I | The Spectator | Non fumum ex fulgore, ſed ex fumo dare lucem | Cogitat ut ſpecioſa dehinc miracula promat. Hor. | To be continued every Day. | Thurſday, March 1. 1711. [At the end] London: Printed for Sam. Buckley, at the Dolphin in Little Britain; and sold by A. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane.

The last Tatler had appeared in the previous January: the new paper like its predecessor came out in single folio sheets, but, as may be seen above, its editors considered the demand sufficient to warrant its daily publication.

The first fifteen numbers bore the imprint here given, with the additional information, after the second number, "where Advertisements are taken in." Buckley paid Addison and Steele £575, on November 10, 1712, for a half-share in the copyright of the paper and in the numbers not yet published. On October 13, 1714, he transferred this assignment to Jacob Tonson, Jr., whose name appears October 2, 1712, in place of that of Baldwin's and of "Charles Lillie, Perfumer, at the Corner of Beaufort-Buildings in the Strand," who had sold the sheet from the sixteenth number, dated March 19, 1711, until that time.

On December 6, 1712, the following notice by Steele appeared, and as it sums up briefly the main points in the Spectator's successful career, it may be regarded as a text for the succeeding notes.

"I have nothing more to add, but having ſwelled this Work to Five hundred and fifty-five Papers, they will be diſpoſed into ſeven Volumes, four of which are already publiſh'd, and the three others in the Preſs. It will not be demanded of me why I now leave off, tho' I muſt own my ſelf obliged to give an Account to the Town of my Time hereafter, ſince I retire when their Partiality to me is ſo great, that an [pg 95] Edition of the former Volumes of Spectators of above Nine thouſand each Book is already ſold off, and the Tax on each half Sheet has brought into the Stamp-Office one Week with another above 20 l. a Week ariſing from this ſingle Paper, notwithſtanding it at first reduced it to leſs than half the number that was uſually Printed before this Tax was laid."

Volumes 1 and 2, printed in octavo, were bound up, and, dedicated to Lord Somers and Lord Halifax, were issued in 1712; volumes 3 and 4, with dedications to Henry Boyle and the Duke of Marlborough, came out the next year; and the remaining three, with dedications to the Marquis of Wharton, Earl of Sunderland, and Sir Paul Methuen, were also published in 1713. With the help of Eustace Budgell, Addison issued a continuation of the paper in 1714, which, when it made enough numbers for a volume, was issued with a dedication to Will Honeycomb, in 1715. An edition in duodecimo was also published. A few copies on large paper sold at one guinea a volume.

There is some difference of opinion as to the exact number of copies circulated, all founded on the facts given in the Spectator itself. In No. 10, Addison says that there were already 3000 copies distributed every day. "So that if I allow Twenty Readers to every Paper, which I look upon as a modeſt Computation, I may reckon about Threeſcore thouſand Diſciples in London and Weſtminster". On July 23, 1711, he wrote: "... my Bookſeller tells me, the Demand for theſe my Papers increaſes daily," and on December 31 he repeated, "I find that the Demand for my Papers has encreaſed every Month ſince their firſt appearance in the World." On the 1st of August, 1712, St. John's Stamp Act came into force, by which a halfpenny stamp was imposed upon all newspapers and periodical sheets. This attempt to suppress free expression of opinion succeeded to some extent; many of the papers of the day ceased to exist. The Spectator continued as before, but the price was raised from one penny to twopence. "... A payment of over £20. a week for stamp duty represents a daily circulation of more than 1,600 copies, or 10,000 a week, from the 1st August to the 6th December 1712, and the daily circulation before the 1st August would therefore be, according to Steele's statement, nearly 4000."

Two hundred and seventy-four of the 635 papers are attributed to Addison, and from 236 to 240 to Steele. Addison usually signed his [pg 96] essays with one of the letters of the name Clio, and Steele wrote over the initials T. and R. Besides the two principal writers, Budgell, Hughes, Parnell, Pope and Tickell are thought to have contributed papers, but considerable uncertainty exists with regard to their work.

Folio.

Collation:  In numbers.

41. The | Life | And | Strange Surprizing | Adventures | Of | Robinson Crusoe, | Of York, Mariner: | [Nine lines] Written by Himſelf. | London: | Printed for W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noſter- | Row. MDCCXIX.

The story is told of how Defoe's manuscript was refused by many of the London publishers before William Taylor, one of the most esteemed and successful of them, accepted it. The book came out April 25, and its success was immediate; a second edition was called for only seventeen days after the first; a third followed twenty-five days later, and a fourth on the 8th of August. The Farther | Adventures | Of Robinson Crusoe; | Being the Second and Laſt Part | Of His | Life ... To which is added a Map of the World ... was issued in August of the same year, and was followed on August 6, 1720, by a sequel called Serious Reflections | During | The | Life ... of Robinson Crusoe. Further evidence of the popularity of the work is furnished by the piracies, numerous imitations, and translations that appeared within a short time after its publication.

Lowndes and others repeat an error of Dibdin's in saying that Robinson Crusoe first appeared in the Original London Post, or Heathcot's Intelligence, from No. 125 to No. 289 inclusive, the latter dated October 7, 1719. The story was reprinted in that paper, "with a care to divert and entertain the reader," but beginning October 7, 1719, and ending with No. 289, dated October 19, 1720. The unsigned folding map was used in this last as well as in the fourth edition of the first part. An engraving representing the hero of the story is placed sometimes as a frontispiece. It is signed, like [pg 98] the map of the island, "Clark & Pine Sc.," and, while not remarkable for artistic merit, is certainly notable as having been the model of all future conceptions.

Defoe sold all his property in Robinson Crusoe to Taylor, who gained a very large fortune by it and its successors. When that worthy man died, only five years after the publication of the book, he was reputed to be worth between forty and fifty thousand pounds. He added an introduction to The Serious Reflections, in which he says:

"The ſucceſs the two former Parts have met with, has been known by the Envy it has brought upon the Editor, expreſs'd in a thouſand hard Words from the Men of Trade; the Effect of that Regret which they entertain'd at their having no Share in it: And I muſt do the Author the Justice to ſay that not a Dog has wag'd his Tongue at the Work itſelf, nor has a Word been ſaid to leſſen the Value of it, but which has been the viſible Effect of that Envy at the good Fortune of the Bookſeller."

A guarantee of this good fortune may be seen in the imprint of the book, which now reads: "At the Ship and Black-Swan in Pater-noſter Row," that last-named property having been purchased out of the proceeds of its sale. After Taylor's death, the business was sold to Thomas Longman, the founder of the firm of Longmans, Green & Co., for over three thousand pounds.

Octavo.

Collation:  3 l., pp. 364. [4 l.] pp. 373. [9 l.], pp. 270, 84 [2 l.]

42. Travels | Into Several | Remote Nations | Of The | World. | In Four Parts. | By Lemuel Gulliver, | Firſt a Surgeon, and then a Cap- | tain of ſeveral Ships. | Vol. I. | London: | Printed for Benj. Motte, at the | Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-ſtreet. | MDCCXXVI.

"I have employed my time, (beside ditching) in finishing, correcting, amending, and transcribing my travels in four parts complete, newly augmented and intended for the press, when the world shall deserve them, or rather when a printer shall be found brave enough to venture his ears." This is what Swift says in a letter written to Pope, and thus it will be seen that there could have been no real doubt among Swift's friends as to the authorship of the book, though for very obvious reasons it was found desirable to have it published anonymously. Even after it was issued, and had proved a success, the pretense of ignorance of the author's identity was kept up. Pope himself writes, November 16, 1726 (the work appeared October 28):

"I congratulate you first on what you call your cousin's wonderful book, which is publica trita manu at present, and I prophesy will hereafter be the admiration of all men...." "Motte," (the publisher who had been brave enough to risk his ears), "received the copy, he tells me, he knew not from whence, nor from whom, dropped at his house in the dark, from a hackney coach. By computating the time I found it was after you left England, so for my part, I suspend my judgement."

Swift was staying with Pope when the manuscript was so mysteriously left at Motte's door by Charles Ford, his intermediary, through whom, and Erasmus Lewis, all the business was conducted. Writing under the assumed name of Sympson, Swift demanded that Motte [pg 100] should give him £200, which the publisher agreed to do after six months if the success of the book would allow. The whole issue was exhausted within a week after its appearance, and a second edition speedily followed, making the payment, which we learn was promptly effected, an easy matter. We are told that Swift used to leave the profits of his writing to the booksellers; but Gulliver proved the exception to the rule. He says, in 1735, "I never got a farthing by anything I writ, except one about eight years ago, and that was by Mr. Pope's prudent arrangement for me." Motte, like Taylor with Robinson Crusoe, grew rich out of it; or, as Swift puts it to Knightley Chetwood in a letter dated February 14, 1726-7, in which he still keeps up the mystery of the authorship, "... in Engl^d I hear it hath made a bookseller almost rich enough to be an alderman."

Of its success, Arbuthnot says, November 8, 1726: "Gulliver's Travels, I believe, will have as great a run as John Bunyan. It is in everybody's hands...." Gay wrote a few days later: "The whole impression sold in a week. From the highest to the lowest it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery." "Here is a book come out," says Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, "that all our people of taste run mad about...."

It speaks well for Motte's sagacity that he should have been willing to undertake the publishing of so violent a book at all, and we are little surprised that he balked at certain passages, and that, to avoid offense, "he got those alterations and insertions made" which Swift afterward so bitterly resented. In the letter to Knightley Chetwood quoted above, Swift said: "In my Judgment I should think it hath been mangled in the press, for in some parts it doth not seem of a piece, but I shall hear more when I am in England." In a letter to Ford written more than six years later, we find him still recurring to the matter:

"Now you may please to remember how much I complained of Motte's suffering some friend of his (I suppose it was Mr. Tooke, a clergyman, now dead) not onely to blot out some things that he thought might give offence, but to insert a good deal contrary to the author's manner and style and intention. I think you had a Gulliver interleaved and set right in those mangled and murdered pages ... To say the truth I cannot with patience endure that mingled and mangled manner as it came from Motte's hands, and it will be extremely difficult for me to correct it by other means, with so ill a [pg 101] memory and so bad a state of health." Swift had good reason to complain about this matter as he did, personally and through Ford, who wrote to Motte blaming him for the printer's gross errors. "Besides the whole sting is absent out of several passages in order to soften them. Thus the style is debased, the humours quite lost, and the matter insipid," cries the enraged author. The interleaved copy was forthcoming, and the text as corrected was printed in Dublin in 1735.

The bibliography of the book is perplexing. There seem to have been four distinct issues, or, rather, editions, during the first year; while copies of the same edition show many variations. The edition to which the large paper copies belong is usually called the first. In it the four parts are paged separately, and the portrait of Gulliver, signed "Sturt et. Sheppard. Sc.," is found in two states. One of these states, evidently the first, has the inscription, "Captain Lemuel Gulliver, of Redriff Ætat. ſuæ 58.," in two lines below the oval. The other has the inscription around the oval, as follows: "Captain Lemuel Gulliver Of Redriff Ætat. Suæ LVIII.," and beneath, where the name was before, a quotation from Persius now appears.

The three other editions have distinct differences of type, setting and ornaments. The portrait in all of these is of the second state. Two of these editions have the parts paged separately, but one has a continuous pagination for each volume. One edition was reissued in 1727, with verses by Pope prefixed. On the title-page of the first volume it is called "second edition," and on that of the second volume, "second edition corrected." This edition was probably considered by the publisher to be the most correct, and was therefore, probably, the last issued in 1726.

Octavo.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I: 1 l., xvi, 148 pp.; 3 ll., 164 pp.  Volume II: 3 ll., 155 pp.; 4 ll., 199 pp.  Portrait, four maps.

43. An | Essay | On | Man | Addreſs'd to a Friend. | Part I. | [Printer's ornament] London: | Printed for J. Wilford, at the Three Flower-de-luces, be- | hind the Chapter-Houſe, St. Pauls. | [Price One Shilling.]

The friend to whom, under the name of Lælius, the four Epistles that make up the Essay were addressed, was Henry Saint John, first Viscount Bolingbroke, the object of Pope's reverence, and the inspirer of much of his poetry. It seems to be agreed that Bolingbroke's philosophical fragments gave the "philosophical stamina" to this work also.

The first part appeared in February, the second, about April, 1733; they were undated and anonymous, for fear of charges against the author's orthodoxy. Pope went to considerable lengths to mislead the public in this matter, but, as Dr. Crowley says, the applause received "took off all the alarm which the writer might have felt at his new experiment in the marriage of metaphysics with immortal verse." "The design of concealing myself," said our author, "was good, and had its full effect. I was thought a divine, a philosopher and what not? and my doctrine had a sanction I could not have given to it."

In "Epistle II," as the second part is called on the title-page, there is a note "To the Reader" which says: "The Author has been induced to publiſh theſe Epiſtles ſeparately for two Reaſons; The one, that he might not impoſe upon the Publick too much at once of what he thinks incorrect; The other, that by this Method he might profit of its Judgement on the Parts, in order to make the Whole leſs unworthy of it." At the end of "Epistle III," which came out the same year, is a note as follows: "N. B. The Reſt of this Work will be publiſhed the next Winter." And at the end of the fourth Epistle, issued [pg 103] about the middle of January, 1734: "Lately Publiſhed the three former Parts of An Essay on Man. In Epiſtles to a Friend. Sold by J. Wilford at the Three Flower-de-Luces, behind the Chapter-Houſe in St. Paul's Church-yard."

All four parts were issued in octavo and quarto, as well as in folio. The quarto edition bears the dates of publication. A second edition of the first part, called "Epistle I, corrected by the Author," contained a table of contents to the first three Epistles. The fourth Epistle was originally issued with such a table called, "The Contents, Of the Nature and State of Man, with reſpect to Happiness."

Pope intrusted the publication of the book to John Wilford, who was afterward summoned before the House of Lords for breach of privilege in publishing, with the bookseller, Edmund Curll, the names of the titled correspondents in the advertisement to the quasi-unauthorized Letters. Pope made the change from Bernard Lintot, his usual publisher, to Wilford in order to conceal his identity the more completely, and to add to the mystery of authorship.

The volume is handsome in appearance: it is ornamented with initial letters, and woodcut and type-metal head- and tail-pieces.

Folio.

Collation:  19 pp., 1 l., 18, 20 pp., 2 ll., 18 pp., 1 l.

44. The | Analogy | Of | Religion, | Natural and Revealed, | [Six lines] By | Joseph Butler, L.L.D. Rector of | Stanhope, in the Biſhoprick of Durham. | [Quotation] London: | Printed for James, John and Paul Knapton, at the | Crown in Ludgate Street. MDCCXXXVI.

The Analogy ran into edition after edition, and is reprinted even now. "Few productions of the human mind," Allibone tells us, "have elicited the labours of so many learned commentators as have employed their talents in the exposition of Butler's Analogy." He gives seventeen editions with commentaries, printed before 1858. In recent times no less a name than that of Gladstone may be counted among the number.

The Knaptons were the publishers of Butler's first printed volume, Fifteen Sermons, 1726.

Quarto

Collation:  5 ll., x, 11-320 pp.

45. Reliques | Of | Ancient English Poetry: | [Five lines] Volume The First. | [Vignette with the words] Durat Opus Vatum. | London: | Printed for J. Dodsley in Pall-Mall. | MDCCLXV.

Although his name does not appear upon the title-page, the author signed it to the dedication to Elizabeth, Countess of Northumberland. He offers the book, he says, with some hesitation, yet hopes that the names of so many men of learning and character among his patrons and subscribers will "ſerve as an amulet to guard him from every unfavourable cenſure for having beſtowed any attention on a parcel of Old Ballads."

The book came out in February, after four or five years of active preparation. Johnson criticised it, but in the main the work was received with the verdict, which has held ever since, that it marked an epoch. Dibdin says that when it appeared, the critics "roared aloud for a sight of the MS.!" especially Joseph Ritson, the antiquary, who denied its existence. Dibdin, however, saw the folio, and describes it at some length, besides quoting notes in the Bishop's handwriting, one of which is of especial interest:

"Memorandum. Northumberland House, Nov. 7, 1769. This very curious old Manuscript in its present mutilated state, but unbound and sadly torn, I rescued from destruction, and begged at the hands of my worthy friend Humphrey Pitt, Esq. then living at Shiffnal in Shropshire, afterwards of Prior Lee near that town; who died very lately [pg 106] at Bath: viz. in Summer, 1769. I saw it lying dirty on the Floor under a Bureau in ye Parlour: being used by the Maids to light the fire. It was afterwards sent most unfortunately to an ignorant Bookbinder, who pared the margin, when I put it into Boards in order to lend it to Dr. Johnson."

James Dodsley, the printer of our charming volumes, was the younger brother of Robert, with whom, as R. & J. Dodsley, he was for some time a partner, until, in 1759, he became the sole proprietor of the house. He lacked the elder man's energy, but he carried on an extensive and profitable business. He is said to have paid Percy 100 guineas for the first edition of the Reliques—not a very large sum for such a work. Pickford tells us, however, that "as the Reliques became popular, and as other editions were in request, so did the sums paid to Percy increase; and best of all, the book attracted the notice of those in a high class, in whose power it was to forward and promote the interests of the editor." Whatever the basis of his relations with Dodsley, we have his own word for it that when the third edition was published he "had no share in the property of the impression." Those "in a high class" promoted our author from one thing to another, until, as Granger had hoped he would do, "he found himself sung into a throne," a reward quite as much to his mind, no doubt, as anything Dodsley could have arranged.

It is only fair to say that few authors of the period were better served by their publisher than Percy was by his in the matter of typography. The ornament used is also especially good. A frontispiece to the first volume, surmounted by the inscription, "Non Omnis Moriar," and representing a harper delighting an audience, is signed by Samuel Wale, who was chiefly employed in designing vignettes and illustrations for books. He had studied with Francis Hayman, a printer and maker of illustrations, who, with N. Blakey, was employed by Messrs. Knapton and Dodsley to execute the first series of historical prints designed by Englishmen. The plate was engraved by Charles Grignion, or Grignon, a pupil of Gravelot and Le Bas, who, like Wale, was much employed by publishers. Together they illustrated a large number of books; but the charm of their work seems to be chiefly due to Grignion. The vignettes, with the motto "Durat Opus Vatum" on the title-pages and the head- and tail-pieces, though unsigned, were evidently designed and engraved by the same hands.

[pg 107]

There are three parts to each volume, and each part begins and ends with a copper-plate engraving illustrative of a ballad. The head-pieces refer to the first ballad in the book, but the tail-pieces have legends showing where the poem is found. On page 24 of the second volume, the following note is attached to the poem "For the Victory of Agincourt": "This ſong or hymn is given meerly as a curioſity, and is printed from a MS copy in the Pepys collection, vol. I. folio. It is there accompanied with the muſical notes, which are copied in a ſmall plate at the end of this volume."

A table of "Errata" for all three volumes, an "Advertisement," and a note "To the Binder" are found at the end of the first volume. The Advertisement reads: "The Editor's diſtance from the preſs has occaſioned ſome miſtakes and confuſion in the Numbers of the ſeveral Poems, and in the References from one Volume to another: the latter will be ſet right by the Table of Errata, and the former by the Tables of Contents. In the Second Volume, page 129 follows page 112: this was merely an overſight in the Printer; nothing is there omitted."

The binder finds this caution addressed to him: "The Binder is deſired to take Notice that the marginal Numbers of the 1ſt and 3^d Volumes are wrong: that the Sheets marked Vol. i. are to be bound up as Volume The Third: and that thoſe noted Vol. III. as Volume The First." Neither author nor printer thought to tell us of the addition of "George Barnwell" in eight leaves, at page 224 of Volume III; but perhaps the inclusion was decided upon too late for the crowding in of another note.

The notes are interesting, and are quoted here as showing that Percy made many changes in the work even after it was ready to be sewed, perhaps after some copies had been issued. For instance, there seems to be no reason to doubt that he changed the order of the volumes after they were all printed, making the first last, in order to bring the ballads of "Chevy Chase" and the Robin Hood cycle at the beginning. Two volumes of the Reliques without imprints, preserved in the Douce collection of the Bodleian Library, are interesting in this connection since they contain many pieces not in the published edition. A note by Furnivall, added to Rev. J. Pickford's Life of Percy which prefaced the Hales and Furnivall Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, 1867, gives the omission and changes in detail. We quote only the following: "... and the engraving at the end of Douce's volume ii., instead of being the published rustic sketch, is a [pg 108] coat of arms, with a lion and unicorn at the side with the Percy motto 'Esperance en Dieu.' This was wisely cancelled, no doubt, as the Countess of Northumberland might not then have appreciated the compliment of the grocer's son claiming kinship with her."

Octavo.

Collation: Three volumes.

46. Odes | On Several | Deſcriptive and Allegoric | Subjects. | By William Collins. | [Quotation, Vignette] London: | Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand. | M.DCC.XLVII. | (Price One Shilling.)

Collins and his friend Joseph Warton, the critic, both at the time unknown, proposed to issue a volume of poems together: "Collins met me in Surrey, at Guildford races, when I wrote out for him my odes, and he likewise communicated some of his to me; and being both in very high spirits, we took courage, and resolved to join our forces, and to publish them immediately." The plan, however, fell through and they finally published separately, though almost simultaneously. This work, though dated 1747, really appeared in December, 1746. Warton's Odes on various Subjects, London, 1746, reached a second edition, but Collins's book was not a success, and it is said that, in disgust, he burned the larger part of the unsold edition.

"Each," wrote Gray, "is the half of a considerable man, and one the counterpart of the other. The first [i.e. Warton] has but little invention, very poetical choice of expression, and a good ear. The second [i.e. Collins] a fine fancy, modelled upon the antique, a bad ear, great variety of words, and images with no choice at all. They both deserve to last some years, but will not." Time has set Collins right.

The vignette on the title-page, representing a pan-pipe and harp surrounded by a wreath of fruit, laurel, oak, and palm, with heads of Pan and Apollo at the top, is by Gerard (?) Van der Gucht. Thin woodcut head-bands at the beginning of some of the odes, and a tail-piece after the first one, furnish all the ornament for this pathetic volume.

Octavo.

Collation:  2 ll., 52 pp.

47. Clarissa. | Or, The | History | Of A | Young Lady: | [Six lines] Publiſhed by the Editor of Pamela. | Vol. I. | London: | Printed for S. Richardſon: | And Sold by A. Millar, over-againſt Catharine-ſtreet in the Strand: | J. and Ja. Rivington, in St. Paul's Church-yard: | John Osborn, in Pater-noſter Row; | And by J. Leake, at Bath. | M.DCC.XLVIII.

Pamela was written at the suggestion of two booksellers, Rivington and Osborne, who published it in four volumes in 1741-42; and as it proved a great success its "Editor" followed it with Clarissa. Only the last five volumes appeared in 1748, the first two having come out the previous year.

In connection with the mistaken idea, which has existed, that there were eight volumes in the first edition, Mr. Dobson, in his life of Richardson, gives us these quotations from the author himself:

"There were in fact, in the first edition, not eight volumes but seven. "I take the liberty to join the 4 Vols. you have of Clarissa, by two more," says Richardson to Hill in an unpublished letter of November 7, 1748. "The Whole will make Seven; that is, one more to attend these two. Eight crowded into Seven by a smaller Type. Ashamed as I am of the Prolixity, I thought I owed the Public Eight Vols. in Quantity for the Price of Seven"; and he adds a later footnote to explain that the 12mo book "was at first published in Seven Vols. [and] Afterwards by deferred Restorations made Eight as now."" Then Mr. Dobson goes on to add the following:

"Of the seven volumes constituting the first edition, two were issued in November, 1747; two more in April, 1748 (making "the 4 [pg 111] Vols. you have," above referred to); and the remaining three, which, according to Mr. Urban's advertisement, "compleats the whole," in December, 1748."

The second and succeeding volumes have the line, And Sold by John Osborn, in Pater-noſter-Row, added to the imprint, after Richardson's name.

Bishop Warburton presented the author with a preface in which he pointed out the variety of the characters in the book, and commended the moral tendency of the work. This, by the way, serves to remind us that he afterward quarrelled with Richardson because the novelist ventured to censure Pope's sentiment, "Every woman is at heart a rake."

In a catalogue like this, no name has more interest than that of Samuel Richardson, "The Father of the English Novel," and a printer and publisher of distinction. At the age of seventeen he chose the profession of printer, because he thought that in it he would be able to satisfy his craving for reading. After a diligent apprenticeship to John Wilde, whose daughter was his first wife, he gradually won his way until he became one of the leading printers of his time. He issued twenty-six volumes of Journals of the House of Commons, though he found the position more honorable than lucrative; he was the printer of the Daily Journal from 1736 to 1737, and of the Daily Gazetteer in 1738; he was chosen printer to an interesting Society for the Encouragement of Learning, for whom he printed and edited their first and only volume, The Negociations of Sir Thomas Roe in his Embassy to the Ottoman Porte from the year 1621 to 1628 inclusive. He also printed, among other books, an edition of Æsop's Fables, De Foe's Tour through Great Britain, Young's Night Thoughts, and the second volume of De Thou's Historia Sui Temporis, 1733. He became a member of the Stationers' Company in 1689, and its master in 1754.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Seven volumes.

48. The | History | Of | Tom Jones, | A | Foundling. | In Six Volumes | By Henry Fielding, Eſq; | [Quotation] London: | Printed for A. Millar, over-againſt | Catharine-ſtreet in the Strand. | MDCCXLIX.

The announcement of the appearance of the work in the General Advertizer for February 28, 1749, reads as follows:

"This day is published, in six vols., 12mo, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling.—Mores hominum multorum vidit. By Henry Fielding Esq.

"It being impossible to get sets bound fast enough to answer the demand for them, such Gentlemen and Ladies as please may have them served in Blue Paper and Boards, at the price of 16s. a set, of A. Millar, over against Catharine Street, in the Strand."

The sale was really enormous for those days, and Millar, the successful publisher, could afford to be generous to Fielding, as he had been to others, thus winning for himself the position of a patron as well as publisher. Johnson called him "the Mæcenas of literature." "I respect Millar, sir;" said he, "he has raised the price of literature."

Horace Walpole gives us an account of the dealing of this remarkable man in this case. He says, in a letter to George Montagu: "Millar, the bookseller, has done very generously by him [Fielding]; finding 'Tom Jones' for which he gave him £600. sell so greatly, he has since given him another £100."

A second edition in four volumes was issued the same year, and a third, also in four volumes, the year following. The book has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, and Swedish. [pg 113] It was frequently dramatized, and was also turned into a comic opera.

An original document in the possession of the owner of the book from which the facsimile was made shows that the value of Tom Jones had not decreased with successive editions, or else the various partners, whose well-known names are signed to it, would not have thought it worth their while to prosecute.

"Memorandum July, 24. 1770.

"At the Chapter Coffee-house, it is agreed by the Partners in Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones, to prosecute Alexander Donaldson, Bookseller in the Strand, for printing the above Books, in the Court of Chancery, and do agree to pay our respective Shares of the Expence of the Proscecution.

• Will: Strahan
• Tho^s. Longman
• W. Johnston
• Robert Horsfield
• Tho: Cadell
• T Becket
• Robinſon & Roberts
• Hawes, Clarke & Collins
• Stanley Crowdon
• Edm^d. & Ch^s Dilly
• Wm. & J. Richardſon
• Tho^s. Lowndes
• Thomas Caslon"

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Six volumes.

49. An | Elegy | Wrote In A | Country Church Yard | London: | Printed for R. Dodsley in Pall-mall; | And ſold by M. Cooper in Pater-noſter-Row.   1751. | [Price Six-pence.]

In 1750 Gray finished a poem which he had begun eight years before, and it was circulated freely, in manuscript, among his delighted friends. One of them, Horace Walpole, received the following communication from the author, dated at Cambridge, February 11, 1751:

"As you have brought me into a little sort of distress, you must assist me, I believe, to get out of it as well as I can.

"Yesterday I had the misfortune of receiving a letter from certain gentlemen (as their bookseller expresses it), who have taken the Magazine of Magazines into their hands. They tell me that an ingenious Poem, called reflections in a Country Church-yard has been communicated to them, which they are printing forthwith; that they are informed that the excellent author of it is I by name, and that they beg not only his indulgence, but the honour of his correspondence. As I am not at all disposed to be either so indulgent or so correspondent as they desire, I have but one bad way left to escape the honour they would inflict upon me; and therefore am obliged to desire you would make Dodsley print it immediately (which may be done in less than a week's time) from your copy, but without my name, in what form is most convenient for him, but on his best paper and character; he must correct the press himself, and print it without any interval between the stanzas, because the sense is in some places continued beyond them; and the title must be,—Elegy, written in a Country Church-yard. If he would add a line or two to say it came into his hands by accident, I should like it better. If you behold the Magazine [pg 115] of Magazines in the light that I do, you will not refuse to give yourself this trouble on my account, which you have taken of your own accord before now. If Dodsley do not do this immediately, he may as well let it alone."

"You have indeed, conducted with great decency my little misfortune:" (this was written to Walpole on Ash-Wednesday, after the book was published): "you have taken a paternal care of it, and expressed much more kindness than could have been expressed from so near a relation. But we are all frail; and I hope to do as much for you another time.

"Nurse Dodsley has given it a pinch or two in the cradle, that (I doubt) it will bear the marks of as long as it lives. But no matter: we have ourselves suffered under her hands before now; and besides it will only look the more careless and by accident as it were. I thank you for your advertisement [the preface, signed 'The Editor'], which saves my honour, and in a manner bien flatteuse pour moi, who should be put to it even to make myself a compliment in good English."

Dodsley's promptness was noteworthy; on February 16 the book was issued, having been six days, at most, in the printer's hands. The author, even if he had desired, could hardly have complained about the ornaments on the title-page, since he had given Dodsley a free hand. It would be pleasant to see in the woodcuts, with their death's-heads, spades, cross-bones, hour-glasses, pickaxes and crowns, an argument for a sense of decoration, or even of a sense of humour, rather than the evidences of a habit of the use of such things for funeral sermons.

Speaking of Nurse Dodsley's "pinches," the following extract from a letter to Walpole, dated March 3, 1751, proves of additional interest: "I do not expect any more editions; as I have appeared in more magazines than one. The chief errata were sacred bower for secret; hidden for kindred (in spite of dukes and classics); and "frowning as in scorn" for smiling. I humbly propose, for the benefit of Mr. Dodsley and his matrons, that take awake for a verb, that they should read asleep, and all will be right."

The two versions of the poem probably appeared on the same day.

The Magazine of Magazines Compiled from Original Pieces, With Extracts from the moſt celebrated Books And Periodical Compoſitions Publiſhed in Europe, was issued by William Owen, maker of mineral water, at Homer's Head, near Temple Bar. Owen's compositor, having had [pg 116] more time, avoided some of the errors of the printers of the book, but he fell into others of his own; and he completely frustrated Gray's desire to be anonymous. The poem is introduced, amidst a running fire of talk, in this way: "Gentlemen, ſaid Hilario, give me leave to ſooth my own melancholy, and amuſe you in a moſt noble manner, with a fine copy of verſes by the very ingenious Mr. Gray, of Peterhouſe, Cambridge.—They are—"Stanza's written in a Country Church-yard.""

The book proved immensely popular. Gray himself received no pecuniary reward from it, having given the copyright to Dodsley in accordance with a notion, very common in the preceding century but seeming quixotic now, that it was beneath a gentleman to receive money from a bookseller, a view in which, we are told, Dodsley warmly concurred. Later, Mason, Gray's friend, attempted to regain possession of the copyright by means of litigation.

We are indebted to our Author for the following bibliographical note: "Publish'd in Feb^ry, 1751, by Dodsley, & went thro' four editions, in two months; and afterwards a fifth, 6th, 7th, & 8th, 9th, & 10th, & 11th; printed also in 1753 with Mr. Bentley's Designs, of w^ch there is a 2d Edition, & again by Dodsley in his Miscellany, Vol. 7th & in a Scotch Collection call'd the Union; translated into Latin by Ch^r Anstey, Esq., and the Rev^d. Mr. Roberts, & published in 1762, & again in the same year by Rob. Lloyd, M.A."

Dodsley figures so prominently in the publication of the Elegy that we are reminded that he was himself a poet and also a dramatist. His epitaph in the churchyard of Durham cathedral lays stress on this point:

Quarto.

Collation:  11 pp.

50. A | Dictionary | Of The | English Language: | [Ten lines] By Samuel Johnson, A.M. | In Two Volumes | Vol. I. | [Quotation] London, | Printed by W. Strahan, | For J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; | A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley. | MDCCLV.

Robert Dodsley first suggested to Johnson that a dictionary of the English language would take well with the public; though Johnson afterward told Boswell that he had long thought of it himself. But it was Dodsley who, in accordance with the custom of the time of placing books under the patronage of an influential person, suggested the Earl of Chesterfield as patron for the work; and Johnson addressed him as such in The Plan Of A Dictionary Of The English Language; Addreſſed to the Right Honourable Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield: ... London, 1747, a pamphlet of thirty-four pages.

This step eventually led to the letter called by Carlyle "the far famed blast of doom proclaiming into the ears of Lord Chesterfield, and through him to the listening world, that patronage should be no more." For the Earl was tardy in acknowledging the inscription (his commendatory letters did not appear until the November and December issues of The World, 1754), and did little to encourage the enterprise; "Upon which," said the irritated author, "I wrote him a letter expressed in civil terms, but such as might show him that I did not mind what he said or wrote, and I had done with him." It was dated February 7, 1755, and ends with the famous words: "Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern upon a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help?"

[pg 118]

Johnson undertook his great work single-handed, expecting to finish it in three years; but the labor was enormous, and eight years were consumed (the work appeared on February 20, 1755), though not all of the time was spent upon the Dictionary, for he was editor of The Rambler, also, at this period. In this connection his own words written at the end of the Preface are: "I have protracted my work till moſt of thoſe whom I wiſhed to pleaſe have ſunk into the grave, and ſucceſs and miſcarriage are empty ſounds: I therefore diſmiſs it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from cenſure or from praiſe."

The A.M. after the author's name was procured for him at Oxford through the good offices of his friend, the poet-laureate, Thomas Warton, since it "was thought desirable that these letters should appear on the title-page of the dictionary for the credit both of himself and the university."

The publishers whose names are given in the imprint were joint proprietors of the work, having paid Johnson 1575l. for the copyright. "The payment included the whole work of preparing for the press; and Johnson lost 20l. on one occasion for a transcription of some leaves which had been written on both sides. He employed six amanuenses, five of whom, as Boswell is glad to record, were Scotsmen ... they received 23s. a week, which he agreed to raise to 2l. 2s., not, it is to be hoped, out of the 1,575l." Boswell would lead us to think that even if these extras did come out of Johnson's pocket, he was not dissatisfied. "I once said to him, "I am sorry, sir, you did not get more for your Dictionary." His answer was "I am sorry too. But it was very well. The booksellers are generous liberal-minded men.""

To Andrew Millar fell the responsibility of seeing the book through the press; and his patience, we are told, was sorely tried by Johnson's dilatoriness. When the last sheet was brought to him, he exclaimed: "Thank God I have done with him!" This was repeated to Johnson, who said, with a smile: "I am glad that he thanks God for anything."

Folio.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Without pagination.

51. Poor Richard improved: | Being An | Almanack | And | Ephemeris | [Eight lines] For The | Year of our Lord 1758: | [Ten lines] By Richard Saunders, Philom. | Philadelpeia: | Printed and Sold by B. Franklin; and D. Hall.  [1757.]

Franklin says in his Autobiography:

"In 1732 I first publish'd my Almanack, under the name of Richard Saunders; it was continu'd by me about twenty-five years, commonly call'd Poor Richard's Almanac. I endeavor'd to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand, that I reap'd considerable profit from it, vending annually near ten thousand...." The price was five pence. So great was its popularity that it was found necessary to issue three editions in the first month. In 1747 we are told in a note, "This Almanack us'd to contain but 24 Pages, and now has 36; yet the Price is very little advanc'd," and to fit the new conditions the title was changed to Poor Richard Improved.

The Almanac, whose title-page is here facsimiled, was the last of the series edited by Franklin. A collection of the proverbial sentences which had "filled all the little spaces that occur'd between the remarkable days in the calendar" in former issues, were collected into one speech, supposed to be delivered by an old man, named Father Abraham, to the people at an auction sale. "The bringing all these scatter'd counsells thus into a focus enabled them to make a greater impression." The discourse was quickly reprinted, and is famous now under various titles, The Speech of Father Abraham; The Way to Wealth, and La science du bonhomme Richard. It has been translated and reprinted oftener "than any other work from an American [pg 120] pen." "Seventy editions of it," says Mr. Paul L. Ford, "have been printed in English, fifty-six in French, eleven in German, and nine in Italian. It has been translated into Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish, Gaelic, Russian, Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, Chinese, Modern Greek and Phonetic writing. It has been printed at least four hundred times, and is to-day as popular as ever."

Franklin borrowed for his pseudonym the name of an English "philomath" of the seventeenth century, because, as he says, he knew "that his name would hardly give it [the Almanack] currency among readers who still looked upon it as dealing in magic, witchcraft and astrology."

In 1747 or 1748 our author-printer entered into partnership with David Hall, who took the sole management of the business until 1766, when the firm was dissolved.

Octavo.

Collation:  36 pp.

52. Commentaries | On The | Laws | Of | England. | Book The First. | By | William Blackstone, Esq. | [Three lines] Oxford, | Printed At The Clarendon Press. | M.DCC.LXV.  [—M.DCC.LXIX.]

The story of the publication of Blackstone's lectures, as Professor of Law at Oxford, reminds us of Bacon's "orchard ill-neighbored." The author relates the circumstances in his preface: "For the truth is, that the preſent publication is as much the effect of neceſſity, as it is of choice. The notes which were taken by his hearers, haue by ſome of them (too partial to his favour) been thought worth reuiſing and tranſcribing, and theſe tranſcripts haue been frequently lent to others. Hence copies haue been multiplied, in their nature imperfect, if not erroneous; ſome of which haue fallen into mercenary hands, and become the object of clandeſtine ſale. Having therefore ſo much reaſon to apprehend a ſurreptitious impreſſion, he choſe rather to ſubmit his own errors to the world, than to ſeem anſwerable for thoſe of other men."

The volumes were not all issued at once, but followed one another at different times during a period of four years. They were printed at the Clarendon Press, which Blackstone, when appointed a delegate in 1755, had "found languishing in a lazy obscurity," and whose quickening was in no small measure due to his "repeated conferences with the most eminent masters, in London and other places, with regard to the mechanical part of printing," his recommendations, and to his own examples of good typography supplied in the Magna Charta, published in 1759, and in this his magnum opus.

The wonderful success of the work is attested by the number of its editions. A second was issued in 1768, and six more appeared before [pg 122] the author's death. From then until now, it has been frequently reprinted. Blackstone is reputed to have received from the sale of the Commentaries, and from his lectures, about £14,000.

Quarto.

Collation:  Four volumes.

53. The | Vicar | Of | Wakefield: | A Tale. | Suppoſed to be written by Himself. | Sperate miſeri, cavete fœlices. | Vol. I. Salisbury: | Printed by B. Collins, | For F. Newbery, in Pater-Noſter-Row, London. | MDCCLXVI.

Boswell, Mrs. Piozzi, Sir John Hawkins and others have given slightly different versions of the well-known story of the sale of the manuscript of the Vicar; but aside from throwing light on the character of Goldsmith, none of them have helped us to a definite understanding of the transaction. The earliest account was written by Mrs. Piozzi in 1786, under the title of Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D., during the last Twenty Years of his Life. At pp. 119-120 she says:

"I have forgotten the year, but it could scarcely I think be later than 1765 or 1766, that he [Johnson] was called abruptly from our house after dinner, and returning in about three hours, ſaid, he had been with an enraged author, whose landlady pressed him for payment within doors, while the bailiffs beset him without; that he was drinking himself drunk with Madeira to drown care, and fretting over a novel which when finished was to be his whole fortune; but he could not get it done for distraction, nor could he step out of doors to offer it to sale. Mr. Johnson therefore set away the bottle, and went to the bookseller, recommending the performance, and desiring some immediate relief, which when he brought back to the writer, he called the woman of the house directly to partake of punch, and pass the time in merriment."

Boswell adds, in his account, that Johnson sold the novel for £60. There seems to be no evidence to prove this, nor yet to show who bought it. It has generally been supposed that the publisher, "F. [pg 124] Newbery," or his uncle, John Newbery, with whom he was inseparably connected, was the purchaser, until Mr. Charles Welsh made the discovery which he relates in his A Bookseller of the Last Century. He says:

"In a book marked 'Account of copies, their cost and value, 1764,' I find the following entry:—"'Vicar of Wakefield,' 2 vols. 12mo., ⅓ rd. B. Collins, Salisbury, bought of Dr. Goldsmith, the author, October 28, 1762, £21.""

From this entry of Collins, the Salisbury printer, we may conclude that the amount Johnson is said to have received for the distressed author (from Newbery, perhaps) was an advance on the unfinished story; and that Collins bought his third interest some time afterward. In 1785, when Collins sold out his interest, Mr. Strahan owned one third, and Carnan and Newbery the other third.

There are several circumstances, besides the date given by Collins, which show that the Vicar was sold, in whole or in part, at least four years before it was published, and not a few months before, as Mrs. Piozzi thought. The occasion for the delay has been explained in various ways. One explanation is that it was held back until the Traveller, which came out in 1765, should have increased the author's reputation. It may have been, as Johnson told Boswell, that the publishers were afraid that the book would not sell. Certainly the results would seem to bear them out in any doubts they may have had of its financial success. Mr. Welsh says:

"All the writers who have spoken of the "Vicar of Wakefield" have jumped to the conclusion that it brought a golden harvest to its publishers ... The first three editions ... resulted in a loss, and the fourth, which was not issued until eight years after the first, started with a balance against it of £2 16s. 6d., and it was not until the fourth edition had been sold that the balance came out on the right side."

After being three months in the press, the book appeared March 27, 1766. The advertisement in the Public Advertiser reads: "This Day is publiſhed, In two Volumes in Twelves, Price 6s. bound, or 5s. ſewed, The Vicar of Wakefield, A Tale. Supposed to be written by Himself. 'Seperate [ſic] miſere cavete fœlices.' Printed for F. Newbery, at the Crown in Pater-Noſter Row, of whom may be had, Price 1s. 6d. The Traveller, or, a Proſpect of Society, a Poem. By Dr. Goldsmith." The author's name was signed to the preface, or "Advertisement" [pg 125] of the book, so it was not really anonymous, as the title-page and newspaper advertisement would lead us to think. If it was not a financial success the tale seems to have met with popular favor. The second edition, bearing the imprint London: Printed for F. Newbery, in Pater-Noster-Row, MDCCLXVI., was issued May 31, and the third on August 29. Ninety-six editions were issued before 1886, and there are translations in every European language.

This Francis Newbery, as we have said, was nephew and successor to John Newbery. The elder man combined a successful business in the publishing of books with the sale of quack medicines,—not an unusual thing in those days. His list of nostrums contained over thirty medicines, among them being Dr. James's Fever Powder, Dr. Steer's Oil for Convulsions, Dr. Harper's Female Pills, and a certain Cordial Cephalic Snuff. His book-selling ventures demand more than passing mention, since he really introduced "the regular system of a Juvenile Library, and gave children books in a more permanent form than the popular chap-books of the period,"—delightful books of which more than one writer has spoken with affection. The general character of the stories, splendidly bound in flowered and gilt Dutch papers, may be gathered from a few of their titles: The History of Little Goody Two Shoes, The Renowned History of Giles Gingerbread, and Blossoms of Morality.

Newbery's publishing ventures were not confined to children's books, by any means; his name gains additional luster by appearing on the title-pages of several of Goldsmith's works. Francis was mostly a reflection of his enterprising uncle, but his connection with the Vicar of Wakefield will ever cause him to be remembered.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I: 2 ll., 214 pp.  Volume II: 1 l., 223 pp.

54. A | Sentimental Journey | Through | France And Italy. | By | Mr. Yorick. | Vol. I. | London: | Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, | in the Strand. MDCCLXVIII.

The real journey immortalized in the story was made in October, 1765; in December, 1767, two volumes were completed, and on February 27, the work was published at five shillings for the two volumes. On the eighteenth of March, Sterne died.

Yorick, in Tristram Shandy, was represented as an Englishman, descended from the Yorick of Shakespeare, "a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy." Sterne also used the pseudonym in his Sermons by Mr. Yorick, published in 1760, so that the authorship of this book was probably never in doubt. "The lively, witty, sensitive and heedless parson," was, as Sir Walter Scott says, "the well-known personification of Sterne himself."

Fitzgerald tells us in his biography of Sterne, that it was the author's first thought to have the volume a stately quarto with handsome margins, costing a half-guinea, but that he finally decided to use the Shandy size, which had become a favorite with the public. The book, which is without ornament, except for an engraving on copper of a coat of arms (Sterne's book-plate), in the second volume, is a good specimen of the best typography of the period. Large paper copies also were issued. The first volume begins with a long list of "Subscribers," the names starred being down for "Imperial Paper."

Thomas Becket lived to be ninety-three years old, long enough, as Charles Knight remarks, to see many revolutions in literary taste; long enough, in fact, to see Sterne, his most successful author, go out of fashion. He was an assistant to Andrew Millar, before he became [pg 127] De Hondt's partner. It was he who published the famous anonymous book, The Pursuits of Literature by Mathias, which had the distinction of running into fourteen editions.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I, xx, 203 pp.  Volume II, 2 ll., 208 pp.

55. The | Federalist: | A Collection | Of | Essays, | Written In Favour Of The | New Constitution, | As Agreed Upon By The Federal Convention, | September 17, 1787. | In Two Volumes | Vol. I. | New-York: | Printed And Sold By J. And A. M'Lean, | No. 41, Hanover-Square. | M,DCC,LXXXVIII.

"The papers under the title of "Federalist," and signature of "Publius," were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, in the latter part of the year 1787 and the former part of the year 1788. The immediate object of them was, to vindicate and recommend the new Constitution to the State of New York, whose ratification of the instrument was doubtful, as well as important. The undertaking was proposed by A. Hamilton (who had probably consulted Mr. Jay and others) to J. M., who agreed to take a part in it. The papers were originally addressed to the people of N. York, under the signature of a "Citizen of New York." This was changed for that of "Publius," the first name of Valerius Publicola. A reason for the change was, that one of the writers was not a Citizen of that State; another, that the publication had diffused itself among most of the other States. The papers were first published at New York in a newspaper printed by Francis Childs, at the rate, during great part of the time, at least, of four numbers a week; and notwithstanding this exertion, they were not compleated till a large proportion of the States had decided on the Constitution. They were edited as soon as possible in two small volumes, the preface to the first volume, drawn up by Mr. Hamilton, bearing date N. York, March, 1788...." This from Madison in a letter to Mr. Paulding at Washington, dated July 24, 1818.

[pg 129]

The first seven papers appeared under the title The Fœderalist. No. 1. To the People of the State of New York, in The Independent Journal, and many of the succeeding numbers first came out in that paper: some were issued in The New York Packet, two appeared in The Daily Advertiser, six appeared simultaneously in two or more papers, and nine were not published until the whole was collected in book form.

Mr. Paul Leicester Ford, in his Bibliotheca Hamiltoniana, gives Jay credit for five numbers; "Madison numbers 10, 14, 37 to 48 inclusive; numbers 18, 19 and 20 are the joint work of Madison and Hamilton; numbers 49 to 58, 62 and 63 are claimed by both Madison and Hamilton; the rest of the numbers are by Hamilton."

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I, vi, 227 pp.  Volume II, vi, 384 pp.

56. The | Expedition | Of | Humphry Clinker. | By the Author of | Roderick Random. | In Three Volumes. | Vol. I. | [Quotation] London, | Printed for W. Johnston, in Ludgate-Street: | and B. Collins, in Saliſbury. | MDCLXXI.

Roderick Random, Smollett's first book, had appeared in 1748. The greater part of Humphry Clinker was written in the autumn of 1770, when its author was dying. He "had the satisfaction of seeing his masterpiece, but not of hearing the chorus of praise that greeted it."

Some copies of the first volume have, as in this instance, an error in the date, 1671 being printed for 1771.

Collins, as we have seen, was associated with Francis Newbery in the publication of The Vicar of Wakefield, and he was also associated with nephew and uncle in the sale of Dr. James's Fever Powder, and the manufacture of the celebrated Cordial Cephalic Snuff. We are fortunate in having his orderly and well-kept account books, in one of which is the following entry, worthy of a place here, and at length:

From B. Collins' Publishing Book.
Account Of Books Printed, And Shares Therein.
No. 3. 1770 To 1785.
Humphrey Clinker: A Novel, 3 vols. 12mo.

Of which I have one moiety, in partnership with Mr. William Johnston, London.

[pg 131]

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Three volumes.

57. An | Inquiry | Into The | Nature and Cauſes | Of The | Wealth Of Nations. | By Adam Smith, LL.D. and F. R. S. | Formerly Profeſſor of Moral Philoſophy in the Univerſity of Glasgow. | In Two Volumes | Vol. I. | London: | Printed for W. Strahan; And T. Cadell, In The Strand. | MDCCLXXVI.

It is doubtful if any English book were ever longer in being put to press than this one. Mr. John Rae, in his life of Smith, says he took twelve years to write it, and that it was in contemplation twelve years before that. It was explicitly and publicly promised in the concluding paragraph of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which appeared in 1759.

Nothing definite is known of the terms on which the author parted with the work to his publishers, but it is thought to have been sold outright. It is estimated that Strahan paid five hundred pounds for the first edition, and that he published later editions at half profit. The selling price of the first edition was £1 16s. The edition was exhausted in six months, but the number of copies is unknown.

Beginning as a printer, in which capacity we have already seen him in connection with Dr. Johnson's Dictionary, Strahan rose rapidly to eminence as a publisher, figuring prominently in the ventures of Hume, Gibbon, Robertson, Blackstone, and Blair. He introduced into his dealings with his clients amenities unknown before. His pecuniary successes, as in this case, enabled him to set up the coach which Dr. Johnson said was a credit to literature.

Quarto.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I: 6 ll., 510 pp.  Volume II: 2 ll., 587 pp.

58. The | History | Of The | Decline And Fall | Of The | Roman Empire. | By Edward Gibbon, Eſq; | Volume The First. | [Quotation] London: | Printed For W. Strahan; And T. Cadell, In The Strand. | MDCCLXXVI. [—MDCCLXXXVIII]

We are fortunate in having an account of the publication of this work written by Gibbon himself. In June, 1775, he says:

"The volume of my history, which had been somewhat delayed by the novelty and tumult of a first session, was now ready for the press. After the perilous adventure had been declined by my timid friend Mr. Elmsley, I agreed, on very easy terms, with Mr. Thomas Cadell, a respectable bookseller, and Mr. William Strahan, an eminent printer; and they undertook the care and risk of the publication, which derived more credit from the name of the shop than from that of the author. The last revisal of the proofs was submitted to my vigilance; and many blemishes of style, which had been invisible in the manuscript, were discovered and corrected in the printed sheet. So moderate were our hopes, that the original impression had been stinted to five hundred, till the number was doubled by the prophetic taste of Mr. Strahan. During this awful interval I was neither elated by the ambition of fame, nor depressed by the apprehension of contempt. My diligence and accuracy were attested by my own conscience...."

It was on the 17th of February that the first volume of the great work finally "declined into the World," as the author expressed it. Its success was immediate. "I am at a loss how to describe the success of the work without betraying the vanity of the writer. The first impression was exhausted in a few days; a second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand, and the bookseller's property [pg 134] was twice invaded by the pyrates of Dublin. My book was on every table, and almost on every toilette...."

The second edition was called for in 1776. On May 20th Gibbon writes to J. B. Holroyd:

"In about a fortnight I again launch into the World in the shape of a quarto Volume. The dear Cadell assures me that he never remembered so eager and impatient a demand for a second Edition." And again in June he writes to the same: "The 1500 Copies are moving off with decent speed, and the obliging Cadell begins to mutter something of a third Edition for next year." This third edition did not, however, appear until 1782.

In June, 1780, we find our author busy revising and correcting for the press the second and third volumes of the first edition, both of which appeared the next year. Under date of April 13, 1781, he writes to his stepmother:

"The reception of these two volumes has been very unlike that of the first, and yet my vanity is so very dextrous, that I am not displeased with the difference. The effects of novelty could no longer operate, and the public was not surprised by the unexpected appearance of a new and unknown author. The progress of these two volumes has hitherto been quiet and silent. Almost everybody that reads has purchased, but few persons (comparatively) have read them; and I find that the greatest number, satisfied that they have acquired a valuable fund of entertainment, differ the perusal to the summer, the country, and a more quiet period. Yet I have reason to think, from the opinion of some judges, that my reputation has not suffered by this publication. The Clergy (such is the advantage of a total loss of character) commend my decency and moderation: but the patriots wish to down the work and the author."

The concluding volumes were delayed for various reasons as Gibbon said to Lord Sheffield in July, 1786: "A book takes more time in making than a pudding." In June, 1787, he says: "I am building a great book, which, besides the three stories already exposed to the public eye, will have three stories more before we reach the roof and battlement," and promises that, with the diligence and speed then exerted, he hopes to be able to have the work ready for the press in August, or perhaps July. In an earlier letter he says:

"About a month ago I had a voluntary, and not unpleasing Epistle from Cadell; he informs me that he is going to print a new octavo edition, the former being exhausted, and that the public expect with [pg 135] impatience the conclusion of the excellent work, whose reputation and sale increases every day, etc. I answered him by the return of the post, to inform him of the period and extent of my labours, and to express a reasonable hope that he would set the same value on the three last as he had done on the three former Volumes. Should we conclude in this easy manner a transaction as honourable to the author and bookseller, my way is clear and open before; in pecuniary matters I think I am assured for the rest of my life of never troubling my friends, or being troubled myself; a state to which I aspire, and which I indeed deserve, if not by my management, at least by moderation."

The publishers had allowed Gibbon two thirds of the profits for the first volume, which amounted on the first edition to £490. In a letter written in 1788, to his stepmother, he refers again to his relations with Cadell: "The public, where it costs them nothing, are extravagantly liberal; yet I will allow with Dr. Johnson 'that booksellers in this age are not the worst patrons of literature.'" Allibone tells us that the historians' "profit on the whole is stated to have been £6,000, whilst the booksellers netted the handsome sum of £60,000."

The sixth volume was finished June 27, 1787, and was published with the fourth and fifth in April, 1788. Gibbon says:

"The impression of the fourth volume had consumed three months; our common interest required that we should move with quicker pace, and Mr. Strahan fulfilled his engagement, which few printers could sustain, of delivering every week three thousand copies of nine sheets. The day of publication was, however, delayed, that it might coincide with the fifty-first anniversary of my own birthday: the double festival was celebrated by a cheerful literary dinner at Mr. Cadell's house, and I seemed to blush while they read an elegant compliment from Mr. Haley."

John Hall, historical engraver to George III, and one of the engravers of the plates for Alderman Boydell's collection, executed the portrait of Gibbon, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, which faces the title-page of our first volume. The plate was issued separately in 1780, Cadell having "strenuously urged the curiosity of the public" as a reason for its immediate publication. It was most appropriate to introduce, as he did, the vignettes emblematic of Rome.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Six volumes.

59. The | School | For | Scandal. | A | Comedy. | [Quotation] Dublin: | Printed for J. Ewling.

The first performance of the play occurred May 8, 1777, at the Drury Lane Theatre, which had been opened under Sheridan's management the previous year. A publisher immediately offered five hundred guineas for a corrected copy of the comedy, and Sheridan promised to prepare it for the press; but Mr. W. Fraser Rae tells us that when importuned for the revised manuscript Sheridan "always replied that he had never been able to satisfy himself as to the version which he wished to be published, and the comedy, with any of his final corrections, has not yet been given to the world."

The Ewling edition was printed from an acting copy which Sheridan had given to his sister, Mrs. LeFanu of Dublin, who, for one hundred guineas and free admission to the theater for herself and family, had let it go to Mr. Roger of the Theatre Royal. A dated edition appeared in Dublin in 1781.

The omission of the author's name from the title-page recalls the foolish statement made by Dr. Watkins on the authority of Isaac Reed, "that the play was written by a young lady, the daughter of a merchant in Thames Street [whose name and the number of whose house are judiciously withheld], that, at the beginning of the season when Mr. Sheridan commenced his management, the manuscript was put into his hands for judgment, soon after which the fair writer, who was then in a stage of decline, went to Bristol Hot Wells, where she died."

Duodecimo.

Collation:  vi, 93 pp., 1 l.

60. The | Task, | A | Poem, | In Six Books. | By William Cowper, | Of The Inner Temple, Esq. | Fit ſurculus arbor. | Anonym. | To which are added, | By The Same Author, | An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Eſq. Tirocinium, or a | Review of Schools, and the History of John Gilpin. | London: | Printed For J. Johnson, N^o 72, St. Paul's | Church-Yard: | 1785.

In October, 1784, William Cawthorne Unwin,

received from Cowper "four quires of verse" with the request that it might be read by him and, if approved, conveyed to Joseph Johnson, the publisher of Cowper's first volume.

"If, when you make the offer of my book [The Task], to Johnson, he should stroke his chin, and look up at the ceiling and cry 'Humph!', anticipate him, I beseech you, at once by saying 'that you know I should be sorry that he should undertake for me to his own disadvantage, or that my volume should be in any degree pressed upon him. I make him the offer merely because I think he would have reason to complain of me if I did not.' But, that punctilio once satisfied, it is a matter of indifference to me what publisher sends me forth." Johnson, however, accepted.

"My imagination tells me," says Cowper to Unwin, "(for I know you interest yourself in the success of my productions) that your heart fluttered when you approached his door, and that it felt itself discharged of a burthen when you came out again."

[pg 138]

The "Advertisement," or preface, accounting for The Task, is worth reprinting. It runs:

"The hiſtory of the following production is briefly this. A lady, fond of blank verſe, demanded a poem of that kind from the author, and gave him the Sofa for a ſubject. He obeyed; and having much leiſure, connected another ſubject with it; and purſuing the train of thought to which his ſituation and turn of mind led him, brought forth at length, inſtead of the trifle which he at firſt intended, a ſerious affair—a Volume."

The lady, who was Cowper's friend, Lady Austin, was also responsible for John Gilpin, for it was from her that the poet first heard the tale. It is said that he wrote the outline that night and sent it to The Public Advertiser, anonymously, the next morning; but, in fact, it appeared in November, 1782. It had a great success in the newspapers, and in pamphlet form, and Henderson, the actor, gave it further vogue by his recitations.

"I have not been without thoughts of adding 'John Gilpin' at the tail of all," wrote Cowper, while The Task was in press. "He has made a good deal of noise in the world; and perhaps it may not be amiss to show, that though I write generally with a serious intention, I know how to be occasionally merry."

There was some discussion between the poet and the publisher, as to the propriety of putting poems so different in character into the same volume. The poet says to Mr. Newton: "I should blame nobody, not even my intimate friends, and those who have the most favorable opinion of me, were they to charge the publication of John Gilpin, at the end of so much solemn and serious truth, to the score of the author's vanity; and to suspect that, however sober I may be upon proper occasions, I have yet that itch of popularity that would not suffer me to sink my title to a jest that had been so successful. But the case is not such. When I sent the copy of the Task to Johnson, I desired, indeed, Mr. Unwin to ask him the question, whether or not he would choose to make it a part of the volume. This I did merely with a view to promote the sale of it. Johnson answered, 'By all means.' Some months afterward, he enclosed a note to me in one of my packets, in which he expressed a change of mind, alleging, that to print John Gilpin would only be to print what had been hackneyed in every magazine, in every shop, and at the corner of every street. I answered, that I desired to be entirely governed by his opinion; and [pg 139] that if he chose to waive it, I should be better pleased with the omission. Nothing more passed between us on the subject, and I concluded that I should never have the immortal honor of being generally known as the author of John Gilpin. In the last packet, however, down came John, very fairly printed, and equipped for public appearance. The business having taken this turn, I concluded that Johnson had adopted my original thought, that it might prove advantageous to the sale; and as he had had the trouble and expense of printing it, I corrected the copy, and let it pass."

The half-title to John Gilpin in our copy reads: The Diverting | History | Of | John Gilpin, | Shewing How He Went Farther Than He | Intended And Came Safe Home Again.

The book appeared in June, having now grown into a volume of poems, containing, as the title-page shows, four works, paged continuously. It cost four shillings, in boards. The volume was a great success, and two issues were made in the same year. These show several variations, but chiefly in the arrangement of the pages. A half-title, found in some copies, and thought to belong only to late issues, reads: Poems, By William Cowper, Esq. Vol. II. Herein we may possibly see Johnson's afterthought to make the book a second volume to the collection of Poems issued in 1782, and referred to in the advertisement on the last page: "Lately publiſhed by the ſame Author, in one Volume of this Size. Price 4s. ſewed." It would have been a shrewd plan thus to make the successful later volume carry the unsuccessful earlier.

Cowper gave the copyright to Johnson, who afterward, when the work proved so successful, would have allowed him to take back his gift, but Cowper refused.

This Johnson was also the publisher of Horne Tooke, Fuseli, Bonnycastle, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Miss Edgeworth. He, as well as his successor, Rowland Hunter, was a dissenter, and the building which he occupied, we are told, was "plain and unadorned, befitting the head-quarters of the bookselling of Protestant Dissent." Charles Knight, in Shadows of the Old Booksellers, has a paragraph, which must be quoted in connection with the appearance of Johnson's books.

The publisher of Cowper was an exception to his brother publishers of that day, who are addressed in these lines. Aikin says of him, [pg 140] "It is proper to mention that his true regard for the interests of literature rendered him an enemy to that typographical luxury which, joined to the necessary increase of expense in printing, has so much enhanced the price of new books as to be a material obstacle to the indulgence of a laudable and reasonable curiosity to the reading public."

It is quite certain that in making the Task he did not sin against these principles of philanthropy, even if he sinned against many of the rules of good book-making.

Octavo.

Collation:  4 ll., 359 pp.

61. Poems, | Chiefly In The | Scottish Dialect, | By | Robert Burns. | [Quotation] Kilmarnock: | Printed By John Wilson. | M,DCC,LXXXVI.

One of Burns's warmest friends, Gavin Hamilton, advised him to publish his poems in order to get enough money to emigrate to Jamaica, where it was hoped he would escape from the complications incident upon his love affair with Jean Armour. In the preface Burns tells us that none of the poems was written with a view to publication, but as a counterpoise to the troubles of the world.

The Proposals For Publishing By Subscription, Scottish Poems, By Robert Burns, only one copy of which is known, appeared in 1786, and ran as follows: "The Work to be elegantly printed, in one volume octavo. Price, stitched, Three Shillings. As the Author has not the most distant mercenary view in publishing, as soon as so many subscribers appear as will defray the necessary expense, the work will be sent to Press." A stanza of a poem by Alan Ramsay was followed by the agreement: "We undersubscribers engage to take the above-mentioned work on the conditions specified." The book went to press in June, and appeared the last day of July. Six hundred and twelve copies were printed; three hundred and fifty were taken by the author's friends; and, by August 28, all but thirteen had been sold. Burns cleared about twenty pounds.

In October a new edition of a thousand copies was suggested by Burns, but the printer refused to proceed unless the author would advance twenty-seven pounds, the price of the paper, "But this, you know," says the luckless poet to Robert Aiken, "is out of my power; so farewell hopes of a second edition till I grow richer! an epocha, [pg 142] which, I think, will arrive at the payment of the British National Debt."

Unlike Messrs. Dunlop and Wilson of Glasgow, to whom Burns is said, without much authority, to have first offered the poem, Wilson, the printer of the little volume, was not a great or leading publisher; but he succeeded in making a volume that is very charming in appearance, and not without reminders of the French press-work of the period.

A copy of this book sold at the auction of the library of Mr. A. C. Lamb of Dundee, in February, 1898, for the sum of five hundred and seventy-two pounds, five shillings—"the most amazing price ever realized for a modern book."

Octavo.

Collation:  240 pp.

62. The | Natural History | And | Antiquities | Of | Selborne, | [Two lines] With | Engravings, And An Appendix. | [Quotations] London: | Printed by T. Bensley; | For B. White And Son, at Horace's Head, Fleet Street. | M,DCC,LXXXIX.

"B. White" was Benjamin, next older brother of Gilbert, and one of the chief publishers of books relating to natural history. His interest in this book, therefore, must have been more than usually great, an assumption justified by its typographical appearance. It may, perhaps, be truly said that, with the possible exceptions of Clarendon's History and Percy's Reliques, it is the only work in our series having special artistic merit.

Thomas Bensley was one of the first English printers to turn his attention to printing as a fine art; and he may be reckoned, with Bulmer, chief among the reformers of the art. As Dibdin says, in the Bibliographical Decameron, he "completed the establishment of a self working press, which prints on both sides of the sheet by one and the same operation—and throws off 900 copies in an hour! This really seems magical. It is certainly without precedent." It was, no doubt, with intent that Benjamin White gave the printing of this book into such hands, and something of the sumptuousness which afterward in Macklin's Bible and Hume's History of England made Bensley famous may be seen in this work.

Our chief interest in the volume, as a piece of bookmaking, centers in the illustrations, engraved by Peter Mazell and Daniel Lerpinière. These comprise a vignette on the title-page to The Natural History, with a line from White's own poem, "The Invitation to Selbourne"; seven plates, one, the large folding frontispiece, which is said to contain [pg 144] portraits of four of White's friends; and a vignette on the title-page of The Antiquities. They are all from drawings by a young Swiss artist named Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, who settled in London in 1778, and was much employed in topographical work.

White's references to him in various letters give us quite an insight into the details of making this delightful book. Writing to Rev. John White, August 12, 1775, he says:

"Mr. Grimm, the Swiss, is still in Derbyshire; and is to continue there and in Staffordshire 'til the end of the month. I have made all the inquiry I can concerning this artist, as it much behoves me to do. Mr. Tho. Mulso, and Brother Thomas, and Benjamin, and Mr. Lort have been to his lodgings to see his performances. They all agree that he is a man of genius; but the two former say that he does hardly seem to stick enough to nature; and that his trees are grotesque and strange. Brother Benjamin seems to approve of him. They all allow that he excels in grounds, water, and buildings. Friend Curtis recommends a Mr. Mullins, a worker in oil-colours. Grimm, it seems, has a way of staining his scapes with light water-colours, and seems disposed much in scapes for light sketchings; now I want strong lights and shades and good trees and foliage."

The inquiries seem, in the end, to have been satisfactory, and by May the fifth of the next year the young man had been engaged. An entry in The Naturalists' Journal, under date of July 8, 1776, records: "Mr. Grimm, my artist, came from London to take some of our finest views."

On August 9, 1776, he says:

"Mr. Grimm was with me just 28 days; 24 of which he worked very hard, and shewed good specimens of his genius, assiduity, and modest behaviour, much to my satisfaction. He finished for me 12 views. He first of all sketches his scapes with a lead-pencil; then he pens them all over, as he calls it, with india-ink, rubbing out the superfluous pencil-strokes; then he gives a charming shading with a brush dipped in indian-ink; and last he throws a light tinge of water-colours over the whole. The scapes, many of them at least, looked so lovely in their indian-ink shading, that it was with difficulty the artist could prevail on me to permit him to tinge them; as I feared those colours might puzzle the engravers; but he assured me to the contrary."

In a letter to Mr. Samuel Barker, November 1, 1776, we find:

"In 24 days Mr. Grimm finished for me 12 drawings; the most [pg 145] elegant of which are 1, a view of the village and hanger from the short Lithe [the large folding frontispiece]; 2, a view of the S. E. end of the hanger and its cottages, taken from the upper end of the street; 3, a side view of the old hermitage, with the hermit standing at the door, [the vignette on the title-page]: this piece he is to copy again for Uncle Harry; 4, a sweet view of the short Lithe and Dorton from the lane beyond Peasecod's house. He took also two views of the Church [opposite pp. 315, 323]; two views of my outlet; a view of the Temple-Farm [opposite p. 342]; a view of the village from the inside of the present hermitage; Hawkley hanger, which does not prove very engaging; and a grotesque and romantic drawing of the water-fall in the hollow bed of the stream in Silkwood's vale to the N. E. of Berriman's house. You need not wonder that the drawings you saw by Grimm did not please you; for they were 3s. 6d. pieces done for a little ready money; so there was no room for softening his trees, &c. He is a most elegant colourist; and what is more, the use of these fine natural stainings is altogether his own, yet his pieces were so engaging in India-ink that it was with regret that I submitted to have some of them coloured...." The plates bear the legend, "Published Nov^r. 1. 1788 as the Act directs, by B. White & Son."

The work appeared anonymously at the end of 1788, but it is dated the next year. It was sold for one guinea, in boards. Fifty copies were printed on large paper, with the plate on page 3 in colors. Although it seems to have sold well, it was the only edition issued during the author's lifetime. White wrote to a friend in 1789: "My book is still asked for in Fleet Street. A gent. came the other day, and said he understood that there was a Mr. White who had lately published two books, a good one and a bad one; the bad one was concerning Botany Bay ['A Voyage to New South Wales,' by John White (no relation), published in 1790], the better respecting some parish."

The index, which White described when he was making it as "an occupation full as entertaining as that of darning of stockings," was criticised for not being full enough, a criticism applicable to every edition issued since the first.

Quarto

Collation:  1 l., v., 468 pp., 7 ll.   Seven plates.

63. Reflections | On The | Revolution In France, | [Four lines] In A | Letter | Intended To Have Been Sent To A Gentleman | In Paris. | By The Right Honorable | Edmund Burke. | London: | Printed For J. Dodsley, in Pall Mall. | M.DCC.XC.

It was well known, long before the book appeared, that Burke was at work upon this subject. As early as October, 1789, he had written a letter expressing his opinion on the revolutionary movement in France, and in this volume he but gave in permanent form a more elaborate and careful presentation of the same subject. Interest in the new volume was in no way diminished, but rather increased by the delay; and when the little book made its appearance, November 1, in a modest unlettered wrapper of gray paper, selling for five shillings, it created a profound impression. The King called it "a good book, a very good book; every gentleman ought to read it," and it ran into eleven editions, or eighteen thousand copies, within a twelvemonth.

Our author and his publishers were well known to each other at this time: they had issued his A Vindication of Natural Society in 1756; and he had been the conductor and chief editor of the historical portion of their Annual Register for a number of years.

Octavo.

Collation:  iv, 356 pp.

64. Rights Of Man: | Being An | Answer To Mr. Burke's Attack | On The | French Revolution. | By | Thomas Paine, | Secretary For Foreign Affairs to Congress In The | American War, And | Author Of The Work Intitled Common Sense. | London: | Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard. | MDCCXCI.

"Mr. Burke's Attack," as we have seen, appeared in November, 1790, and Paine immediately replied with the first part of his "Answer." Joseph Johnson, who printed Cowper's Task, and published for Horne Tooke, Fuseli, Bonnycastle and Miss Edgeworth, began the work and issued a few copies, but he became frightened at the serious outlook and gave it up. It was then put into the hands of J. S. Jordan, of No. 166 Fleet Street, who reissued it March 13, 1791, under the superintendence of three of Paine's friends, Paine himself having in the meantime gone to Paris. There were a few corrections in the spelling of some words, some passages were softened, and a preface to the English edition, which Paine sent back from Europe, was added to the new edition.

The success of the book was enormous, and it ran into edition after edition. In a letter to Washington, to whom it was dedicated, Paine says, under date of July 21, 1791:

"... I took the liberty of addressing my late work 'Rights of Man', to you; but tho' I left it at that time to find its way to you, I now request your acceptance of fifty copies as a token of remembrance to yourself and my Friends. The work has had a run beyond anything that has been published in this Country on the subject of Government, and the demand continues. In Ireland it has had a much greater. A letter I received from Dublin, 10th of May, mentioned that the fourth [pg 148] edition was then on sale. I know not what number of copies were printed at each edition, except the second, which was ten thousand....

"I have printed sixteen thousand copies; when the whole are gone, of which there remain between three and four thousand, I shall then make a cheap edition, just sufficient to bring in the price of printing and paper as I did by Common Sense."

The earlier editions of the first part were made uniform with Burke's Reflections, and sold, so we learn from the half-title, for half a crown; the second edition sold for three shillings; and the cheap edition, which was Printed For H. D. Symonds, Paternoster Row, M,DCC,XCII., sold for sixpence.

The Gazetteer for January 25, contained the following announcement: "Mr Paine, it is known, is to produce another book this season. The composition of this is now past, and it was given a few weeks since to two printers, whose presses it was to go through as soon as possible. They printed about half of it, and then, being alarmed by some intimations, refused to go further. Some delay has thus occurred, but another printer has taken it, and in the course of the next month it will appear. Its title is to be a repetition of the former, 'The Rights of Man,' of which the words 'Part the Second,' will show that it is a continuation."

The title in full, runs as follows: Rights Of Man. | Part | The Second. | Combining | Principle And Practice. | By | Thomas Paine, | [Four lines] London: | Printed for J. S. Jordan, No. 166, Fleet-Street. | 1792.

The volume was the same size as the first part, and contained 178 pages, selling, as the half-title tells us, for three shillings. It was dedicated to Lafayette. This part was also issued by Symonds in a cheap edition, uniform with the first part, which sold for sixpence.

The printer alarmed by the "intimations" was Chapman. He had offered successively, at different stages of the publication, £100, £500, and £1000, for the work, but Paine preferred to keep it in his own hands, fearing, perhaps, that this was a government attempt to suppress the book. From a financial point of view he was wise, since, on July 4, he handed over to the Society for Constitutional Information, £1000, which he had already received from sales. After Chapman's withdrawal, Jordan took up the printing, but with the understanding that if questioned he should say that Paine was author and publisher, and would personally answer for the work.

[pg 149]

The fears of the printers proved anything but groundless. The persecution, by imprisonment or fines, of those who were connected with the publishing (printing and selling) of the book would "astonish you", as Dr. Currie writes in 1793, "and most of these are for offences committed many months ago. The printer of the Manchester Herald has had seven different indictments preferred against him for paragraphs in his paper; and six different indictments for selling or disposing of six different copies of Paine—all previous to the trial of Paine. The man was opulent, supposed worth 20,000 l.; but these different actions will ruin him, as they were intended to do."

Octavo.

Collation:  1 l., 162 pp.

65. The | Life | Of | Samuel Johnson, LL.D. | [Twelve lines] In Two Volumes. | By James Boswell, Esq. | [Quotation] Volume The First. | London: | Printed by Henry Baldwin, | For Charles Dilly, In the Poultry. | MDCCXCI.

Boswell had published, the year before, two specimens of his work: The Celebrated Letter from Samuel Johnson, LL.D., to Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, now first published, with notes by James Boswell, Esq., and A Conversation between His Most Sacred Majesty George III, and Samuel Johnson, LL.D., illustrated with observations by James Boswell, Esq. They were probably issued to secure the copyright, and sold for half a guinea apiece.

The whole matter of publication of the Life was a source of no small worry to our author. He was plunged, at that time, in pecuniary difficulties due to the purchase of an estate for £2500, and it seemed as if he might be obliged to accept the offer of Robinson, the publisher, of £1000 for the copyright of his beloved book. "But it would go to his heart," he said, "to accept such a sum, which he considered far too low", and he avoided the difficulty by borrowing the money. All of these things made him very low-spirited:

"I am at present," he says, "in such bad spirits that I have fear concerning it—that I may get no profit, nay, may lose—that the public may be disappointed, and think that I have done it poorly—that I may make many enemies, and even have quarrels. But perhaps the very reverse of all may happen."

He worked very hard over all the details connected with the making of the book. "I am within a short walk of Mr. Malone, who revises my 'Life of Johnson' with me. We have not yet gone over [pg 151] quite a half of it, but it is at last fairly in the press. I intended to have printed it upon what is called an English letter, which would have made it look better. I have therefore taken a smaller type, called Pica, and even upon that I am afraid its bulk will be very large." He gave much thought to the title-page, and we are told that it was a long time before he could be perfectly satisfied. This statement, we are compelled to assume, refers to the literary composition of the title, rather than to the construction of the page: upon the latter he might have worked much longer and still have been dissatisfied.

The work was at last delivered to the world May sixteenth (the "Advertisement" is dated April twentieth), and was sold for two guineas a copy. So successful was it that by August twenty-second, 1200 out of the edition of 1700 copies were disposed of, and the whole edition was exhausted before the end of the year. A supplement was issued in 1793, at one guinea; and a second edition with eight additional sheets appeared in July of the same year.

With all Boswell's fussiness many mistakes crept into the printing, and the book abounds in wrong paging, omission of pages, and other things "of which," says Fitzgerald, "the great exemplar is the first Shakespeare Folio." So bad were these errors, indeed, that it was found necessary to issue a small quarto volume of forty-two pages to correct them. This pamphlet is sometimes bound up with the second edition. It is entitled: The | Principal Corrections and Addition | To The First Edition Of | Mr. Boswell's Life | Of | Dr. Johnson. | London: | Printed by Henry Baldwin, | For Charles Dilly In The Poultry. | MDCCXCIII.| [Price Two Shillings and Sixpence.] "A Chronological Catalogue of the Prose Works of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D.," is printed at the end.

Charles Dilly, the bookseller, was well known in his day. Beloe speaks of him as "the queer little man ... characterized by a dryness of manner peculiarly his own." He and his elder brother, John, were famous not only for their successful publishing ventures, but for their dinners as well. Boswell speaks of "my worthy booksellers and friends, Messrs. Dilly, in the Poultry, at whose hospitable and well covered table I have seen a greater number of literary men than at any other, except that of Sir Joshua Reynolds."

The engraved portrait of Doctor Johnson by James Heath, after the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1756, which forms the frontispiece to the first volume, bears the inscription: "Samuel Johnson. From [pg 152] the original Picture in the Poſseſsion of James Boswell, Esq. Publiſh'd April 10, 1791, by C. Dilly." A plate of facsimiles of Dr. Johnson's handwriting, and another showing a "Round Robin, addreſsed to Samuel Johnson, L.L.D., with FacSimiles of the Signatures," add to the interest of the second volume. Both plates were engraved by H. Shepherd.

Quarto.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I: xii pp., 8 ll., 516 pp.  Volume II: 1 l., 588 pp.  Portrait.  Two plates.

66. Lyrical Ballads, | With | A Few Other Poems. | London: | Printed For J. & A. Arch, Gracechurch-Street. | 1798.

In Cottle, the Bristol bookseller and poet, Wordsworth and Coleridge found a friend whose appreciation of their genius took a practical form. As early as 1795 we learn from a letter of Coleridge to Thomas Poole that "Cottle has entered into an engagement to give me a guinea and a half for every hundred lines of poetry I write, which will be perfectly sufficient for my maintenance, I only amusing myself on mornings; and all my prose works he is eager to purchase." When the two poets planned to issue a book in which Coleridge should show "the dramatic treatment of supernatural incidents," while Wordsworth should try to give the charm of novelty to "things of ever[y] day," it was Cottle who bought it. He says: "A visit to Mr. Coleridge at Stowey has been the means of my introduction to Mr. Wordsworth, who read me many of his Lyrical Pieces, when I perceived in them a peculiar but decided merit. I advised him to publish them, expressing a belief that they would be well received. I further said that he should be at no risk; that I would give him the same sum which I had given Mr. Coleridge and Mr. Southey, and that it would be a gratifying circumstance to me to usher into the world, by becoming the publisher of, the first volumes of three such poets as Southey, Coleridge and Wordsworth—a distinction that might never again occur to a provincial publisher."

[pg 154]

He gave Wordsworth thirty guineas for the copyright, and issued the book with the following imprint: Bristol: Printed by Biggs and Cottle, for T. N. Longman, Paternoster Row, London, 1798. But this imprint did not remain upon the title-page of the whole edition, for Cottle tells us that the sale was so slow, and the severity of most of the reviews so great, that its progress to oblivion seemed ordained to be as rapid as it was certain. He parted with the largest proportion of the five hundred at a loss, to Mr. Arch, a London bookseller, who bound up his copies with a new title-page bearing his name. The copies of the earlier issue are very rare.

Shortly after the transfer, Cottle retired from business, selling all his copyrights to Longman and Rees, far-sighted publishers, both of whom were also Bristol men. In the transfer the copyright of the Lyrical Ballads was down in the bill as worth nothing, whereupon Cottle begged the receipt for the thirty guineas, and presented it to Wordsworth.

The work was entirely anonymous, with nothing to show that it was a joint production. Coleridge's poem, The Nightingale, inserted at the last minute, in place of Lewti, makes an extra leaf between pages 68 and 69. It is numbered 69 (the verso is blank), but no apparent confusion results since the original page 69 is not numbered, in accordance with the printer's scheme of numbering.

We catch an interesting glimpse of this poet-publisher in a letter of Coleridge's to Robert Southey, written under date of July 22, 1801:

"Poor Joseph! he has scribbled away both head and heart. What an affecting essay I could write on that man's character! Had he gone in his quiet way on a little pony, looking about him with a sheep's-eye cast now and then at a short poem, I do verily think from many parts of the "Malvern Hill," that he would at last have become a poet better than many who have had much fame, but he would be an Epic, and so

Duodecimo.

Collation:  viii, 68 pp., 1 l., 69-210 pp., 1 l.

67. A History | Of | New York, | From The Beginning Of The World To The | End Of The Dutch Dynasty. | [Eight lines] By Diedrich Knickerbocker. | [Quotation] In Two Volumes. | Vol. I. | Published By Inskeep & Bradford, New York; | Bradford & Inskeep, Philadelphia; Wm. M'Il- | Henny, Boston; Coale & Thomas, Baltimore; | And Morford, Willington, & Co. Charleston. | 1809.

Early in the year 1809 a notice in the newspapers, headed "Distressing," announced the disappearance from his lodgings of a "small elderly gentleman" named Knickerbocker; and another notice, signed Seth Handaside, landlord of the Independent Columbian Hotel, Mulberry Street, reads:

"Sir:—You have been good enough to publish in your paper a paragraph about Mr. Diedrich Knickerbocker, who was missing so strangely from his lodgings some time since. Nothing satisfactory has been heard of the old gentleman since; but a very curious kind of a written book has been found in his room in his own handwriting. Now I wish you to notice him, if he is still alive, that if he does not return and pay off his bill, for board and lodging, I shall have to dispose of his Book, to satisfy me for the same."

On December 6, 1809, the actual publication of the work is announced in the American Citizen:

"Is This Day Published,
By Inskeep And Bradford—No. 128 Broadway
A History Of New York.

In 2 vols. duodecimo—price 3 dollars.

[pg 156]

"Containing an account of its discovery and settlement, with its internal policy, manners, customs, wars, &c., &c., under the Dutch government, furnishing many curious and interesting particulars never before published, and which are gathered from various manuscripts and other authenticated sources, the whole being interspersed with philosophical speculations and moral precepts.

"This work was found in the chamber of Mr. Diedrich Knickerbocker, the old gentleman whose sudden and mysterious disappearance has been noticed. It is published in order to discharge certain debts he has left behind."

In this way Irving chose to introduce his satire to the world. The book was put to press in Philadelphia instead of in New York, in order the more easily to preserve its anonymous character.

The pretence that it was a serious history was carried even into the dedication "To the New York Historical Society," and the work may really be described as a practical joke in book form.

The volumes sold well, and, on the whole, were well received. Some members of the old Dutch families of the state saw in them a reflection upon their ancestors that they found it hard to overlook, and Irving himself describes their indignation against him. Mr. Pierre M. Irving tells us that he heard his uncle say that the avails of the first edition of The History amounted to about three thousand dollars.

A narrow folded plate, in the first volume, is entitled, "New Amsterdam (Now New-York) As it appeared about the year 1640, while under the Dutch Government". A legend beneath the engraving adds: "Copied from an ancient Etching of the same size, Published by Justus Danckers at Amsterdam". The view is often missing, being much sought after by print collectors.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I: xxiii, 268 pp.  Volume II: 1 l., 258 pp.  Folded plate.

68. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. | A Romaunt. | By | Lord Byron | [Quotation] London: | Printed For John Murray, 32, Fleet-Street; | William Blackwood, Edinburgh; And John Cumming, Dublin. | By Thomas Davison, White-Friars. | 1812.

Robert Charles Dallas, a "well-meaning, self-satisfied, dull, industrious man," Byron's friend, having read with enthusiasm "a new attempt in the Spenserian stanza," which Byron brought back from Italy with him, undertook to find a publisher for it. William Miller, who afterward sold out to John Murray, refused it on the ground that it contained "sceptical stanzas," and that it attacked Lord Elgin as a "plunderer." To this criticism Byron's reply is characteristic:

"Reddish's Hotel, July 30th, 1811.

"Sir: I am perfectly aware of the justice of your remarks, and am convinced that, if ever the poem is published, the same objections will be made in much stronger terms. But as it was intended to be a poem on Ariosto's plan, that is to say on no plan at all, and, as is usual in similar cases, having a predilection for the worst passages, I shall retain those parts, though I cannot venture to defend them. Under these circumstances I regret that you decline the publication, on my own account, as I think the book would have done better in your hands; the pecuniary part, you know, I have nothing to do with. But I can perfectly conceive, and indeed approve your reasons, and assure you my sensations are not Archiepiscopal* enough as yet to regard the rejection of my Homilies."

[pg 158]

Murray, to whom the manuscript was next carried, was more than willing to undertake the publication of the poem. He offered six hundred pounds for the copyright of the first two cantos; but Byron, refusing to keep the money himself, presented it to the needy Dallas. Dallas was the intermediary, at first, as we learn from Byron's letter to him dated August 21, 1811: "I do not think I shall return to London immediately, and shall therefore accept freely what is offered courteously—your mediation between me and Murray." Again, in a letter to Murray, August 23, 1811, he says: "My friend, Mr. Dallas, has placed in your hands a manuscript poem written by me in Greece, which he tells me you do not object to publishing."

The relations between Murray and Byron form one of the most interesting chapters in the history of bookselling, redounding equally to the credit of each. In a letter to the publisher, dated September 5, 1811, the poet says: "The time seems to be past when (as Dr. Johnson said) a man was certain to 'hear the truth from his bookseller,' for you have paid me so many compliments, that if I was not the veriest scribbler on earth, I should feel affronted." Murray in one letter asked him to "obviate" some expressions concerning Spain and Portugal, "and with them, perhaps, some religious feelings which may deprive me of some customers amongst the Orthodox," but Byron refused to change anything, saying: "As for the 'Orthodox' let us hope they will buy, on purpose to abuse—you will forgive the one if they do the other."

The following extracts give us an insight into our author's feelings about the appearance and make-up of his book. Speaking of its form, he says: "He [Murray] wants to have it in a quarto, which is a cursed unsaleable size; but it is pestilent long, and one must obey one's publisher." And to Murray himself he writes in answer to a very natural question: "... The printer may place the notes in his own way, or any way, so that they are not in my way. I care nothing about types or margins."

The use of the poet's name on the title-page caused some discussion, as we see from a letter to Dallas already quoted: "I don't think my name will answer the purpose, and you must be aware that my plaguey Satire will bring the north and south Grub Street down upon the Pilgrimage;—but, nevertheless, if Murray makes a point of it, and you coincide with him, I will do it daringly; so let it be entitled 'By the author of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers...." [pg 159] There was another reason why he did not want his name to appear: "Has Murray shown the work to any one? He may—but I will have no traps for applause ... I much wish to avoid identifying Childe Harold's character with mine, and that, in sooth, is my second objection to my name appearing in the title-page." Later, however, as we see, he gave way on this point.

We are indebted to Smiles, in his memoirs of John Murray, for a vivid picture of Byron as a book-maker.

"He afterwards looked in [at 32, Fleet Street] from time to time, while the sheets [of Childe Harold] were passing through the press, fresh from the fencing rooms of Angelo and Jackson. He used to amuse himself by renewing his practice of Carte et Tierce, with his walking-cane directed against the book-shelves, while Murray was reading passages from the poem with occasional ejaculations of admiration, on which Byron would say, 'You think that a good idea, do you, Murray?' Then he would fence and lunge with his walking stick at some special book which he had picked out on the shelves before him. As Murray afterwards said, 'I was often very glad to get rid of him!'"

The poem, that is, two Cantos of it, was published March 1, 1812, in an edition of five hundred copies, which were all sold in three days. We hear from Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire, that "the subject of conversation, of curiosity, of enthusiasm, almost, one might say, of the moment is not Spain, or Portugal, Warriors or Patriots, but Lord Byron!" "He returned," she continues, "sorry for the severity of some of his lines (in the English Bards), and with a new poem, Childe Harold, which he published. This poem is on every table, and himself courted, visited, flattered, and praised whenever he appears. He has a pale, sickly, but handsome countenance, a bad figure, and, in short, he is really the only topic almost of every conversation—the men jealous of him, the women of each other."

Thomas Davison, the printer of the book, was also responsible for many of the volumes of Campbell, Moore and Wordsworth, but he is known chiefly for his fine edition of Whitaker's History of Richmondshire, Rogers's Italy, and Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum. Timperley speaks of the singular beauty and correctness of his works, which brought about him a "connection" of the most respectable publishers of the day, and he adds: "By improvements which he made in printing ink, (a secret of which he had for a long time the exclusive possession) and other merits, he acquired great celebrity; [pg 160] and few indeed of his competitors, could approach the characters of what issued from his press."

"For equal accuracy and beauty, let the palm be extended to Davison and Moyes," cries Mr. Dibdin in The Bibliographical Decameron. In a note he adds: "Mr. Davison is both an excellent and an elegant printer. His Gil Blas, published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, and Co. is quite worthy of the beautiful engravings with which that edition is adorned: but his Arabian Nights, by Scott, 1811, in 6 octavo volumes, is, to my eye, a more exquisite performance."

Early in their intercourse Murray had said to Byron: "Could I flatter myself that these suggestions were not obtrusive, I would hazard another, in an earnest solicitation that your lordship would add the two promised Cantos, and complete the Poem." But the volume containing the third Canto was not issued until 1816, when Murray paid £2000 for it. The fourth Canto, in a much thicker volume, came out two years afterward, and for this £2100 were received by the poet. The second volume sold for 5s. 6d., and the last for 12s.

Byron must have carried his point about the size, for these last volumes were issued in octavo.

Quarto.

Collation:  vi pp., 1 l., 226 pp.   Facsimile.

* Alluding to Gil Blas and the Archbishop of Grenada.

69. Pride | And | Prejudice: | A Novel. | In Three Volumes. | By The | Author Of "Sense And Sensibility." | Vol. I. | London: | Printed For T. Egerton, | Military Library, Whitehall. | 1813.

Egerton published Sense and Sensibility in 1811, while Pride and Prejudice (originally named First Impressions), which had been finished in August, 1797, was first offered by Miss Austen's father to Cadell, the famous publisher, in the following letter:

"Sir,—I have in my possession a manuscript novel, comprising 3 vols., about the length of Miss Burney's 'Evelina.' As I am well aware of what consequence it is that a work of this sort sh^d make its first appearance under a respectable name, I apply to you. I shall be much obliged, therefore, if you will inform me whether you choose to be concerned in it, what will be the expense of publishing it at the author's risk, and what you will venture to advance for the property of it, if on perusal it is approved of. Should you give any encouragement, I will send you the work.

"Steventon, near Overton, Hants.

"1^st. Nov. 1797."

Cadell refused the book without reading it, and it was finally carried to Egerton, who accepted the story and made it into an attractive volume, although Gifford, who afterward read it for Murray with a view to publishing Emma, tells us that it was "—wretchedly printed, and so pointed as to be almost unintelligible."

Mansfield Park and Emma, like her two earlier novels, were issued anonymously during Miss Austen's lifetime. Though the author's [pg 162] name was an open secret, it did not appear in any of her books until the year after her death, when her brother, Henry Austen, announced it in a short biographical notice prefixed to Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

One hundred and fifty pounds were received from the sale of Sense and Sensibility, and less then seven hundred pounds from the sale of all four books issued before the two novels of 1818.

The work, "my own darling child," as Miss Austen called it, appeared in January, and she says of it: "There are a few typical errors; and a 'said he,' or a 'said she,' would sometimes make the dialogue more immediately clear; but 'I do not write for such dull elves' as have not a great deal of ingenuity themselves. The second volume is shorter than I could wish; but the difference is not so much in reality, as in look."

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Three volumes.

70. Christabel: | Kubla Khan, | A Vision; | The Pains Of Sleep. | By | S. T. Coleridge, Esq. | London: | Printed for John Murray, Albemarle-Street, | By William Bulmer And Co. Cleveland-Row, | St. James's. | 1816.

Coleridge, writing to his wife, April 4, 1803, says: "To-day I dine again with Sotheby. He had informed me that ten gentlemen who have met me at his house desired him to solicit me to finish the 'Christabel,' and to permit them to publish it for me; and they engaged that it should be in paper, printing, and decorations the most magnificent thing that had hitherto appeared. Of course I declined it. The lovely lady shan't come to that pass! Many times rather would I have it printed at Soulby's on the true ballad paper. However, it was civil, and Sotheby is very civil to me."

It was not until May 8, 1816, that the still unfinished poem of Christabel was offered to Murray, who, upon Byron's recommendation, so Lamb tells us, agreed to take it, paying seventy guineas for it, "until the other poems shall be completed, when the copyright shall revert to the author." Christabel is in two parts. The "three parts yet to come," and which Coleridge in the Preface said he hoped would be finished in the present year, never appeared. Kubla Khan; Or A Vision In A Dream is prefaced by a short introduction. The seventy guineas Coleridge turned over to a needy friend. Murray also gave "£20 for permission to publish the other fragment of a poem, Kubla Khan, but which the author should not be restricted from publishing in any other way that he pleased."

We may not pass over this book, modest as it is in appearance, without giving a quotation from the voluble Dibdin on the merits of its printer and his press, "The Shakespeare Press." "Trivial as the [pg 164] theme may appear," says he, "there are some very reasonable folks who would prefer an account of this eminent press to the 'History of the Seven Years War:' and I frankly own myself to be of that number. Nor is it—with due deference be it said to William Bulmer & Co.—from the least admiration of the exterior or interior of this printing-office that I take up my pen in behalf of it; but because it has effectually contributed to the promotion of belles-lettres, and national improvement in the matter of puncheon and matrix."

Dibdin might have said more, without exaggeration; some of the chief glories of English typography came from the hands of William Bulmer & Co., works like the edition of Shakespeare of Alderman Boydell; The Poetical Works of John Milton, in three volumes, with engravings after designs by R. Westall; Goldsmith's Traveller and Deserted Village, with engravings upon wood by Thomas Bewick; Somerville's Chase, with engravings by John and Thomas Bewick; Forster's edition of The Arabian Nights' Entertainments in five volumes, with illustrations after Smirke's designs; and last, but not least, Dibdin's own Bibliotheca Spenceriana. Specimens of printing such as these justify Bulmer's claim that great strides had been taken toward raising the art from the depths to which it had fallen.

One is tempted to wonder if the ten gentlemen friends of Sotheby, smitten by the mania for this new-found mode of expression in book-making, could have had it in mind to issue Christabel with designs by Bewick, or Westall, or Smirke.

Octavo.

Collation:  vii, 64 pp., 2 ll.

71. Ivanhoe; | A Romance. | By "The Author Of Waverley," &c. | [Quotation] In Three Volumes. | Vol. I. | Edinburgh: | Printed For Archibald Constable And Co. Edinburgh: | And Hurst, Robinson, And Co. 90, Cheapside, London. | 1820.

Constable offered "The Author of Waverley" £700 for its copyright; but was told that the sum was too little if the book succeeded, and too much if it failed. The success of the novel, when it appeared, July 7, 1814, was enormous. One thousand copies were sold in the first five weeks, and six editions were necessary within the year. The whole English-reading world waited for another book from the same pen. Ivanhoe appeared, December 18, 1819, and Mr. Leslie Stephen says that it was "Scott's culminating success in a book-selling sense, and marked the highest point both of his literary and social prosperity."

The "Waverley novels" had been issued in duodecimo, but this volume marked a change to a new size. The paper was finer than hitherto, and the press-work much better. The price, too, was raised from eight shillings the volume to ten. These changes were made, Lockhart tells us, to assist the impression, which it was thought best to create, that Ivanhoe was by a new hand; but "when the day of publication approached, [Constable] remonstrated against this experiment, and it was accordingly abandoned." The sale of the novel, in the early editions, amounted to 12,000 copies. Its popularity to-day is as great as ever.

Scott's persistence in keeping up his anonymity is well known. In [pg 166] agreements with Constable a clause was introduced making the publisher liable to a penalty of £2000 if the author's name were revealed.

A survey of Scott's publishing ventures would hardly be complete without a word concerning this publisher with whom his fortunes were so inseparably connected. Curwen says: "From 1790 to 1820 Edinburgh richly deserved the honorable title of 'Modern Athens.' Her University and her High School, directed by men preëminently fitted for their duties ... attracted and educated a set of young men, unrivalled, perhaps, in modern times for genius and energy, for wit and learning. Nothing, then, was wanting to their due encouragement but a liberal patron, and this position was speedily occupied by a publisher who, in his munificence and venturous spirit, soon outstripped his boldest English rival—whose one fault was, in fact, that of always being a Mæcenas, never a tradesman." By his liberality to writers, Constable transformed the publishing business, and practically put it upon a new basis. He made it possible for authors to do away with aristocratic patrons, and to stand upon their own merits. Scott had good reason to say, even after his disastrous participation in Constable and Co.'s failure, "Never did there exist so intelligent and so liberal an establishment."

Octavo.

Collation:  Three volumes.

72. Lamia, | Isabella, | The Eve Of St. Agnes, | And | Other Poems. | By John Keats, | Author Of Endymion. | London: | Printed For Taylor And Hessey, | Fleet-Street. | 1820.

The poems in this volume represent the labor of a little over a year and a half—that is, from March, 1818, to October, 1819,—and were all written after the publication of Endymion. The book was issued in the beginning of July, and was the third, and, as it proved, the last of the poet's works. "My book is coming out," said he, "with very low hopes, though not spirits, on my part. This shall be my last trial; not succeeding, I shall try what I can do in the apothecary line." It was not lack of success, however, that led him to discontinue the publishing line.

Among the "other poems" mentioned on the title-page is Hyperion. A Fragment. The publishers, who seem to have cordially appreciated Keats's genius, refer to it in a special "Advertisement" placed after the title-page, and dated Fleet-Street, June 26, 1820:

"If any apology be thought necessary for the appearance of the unfinished poem of Hyperion, the publishers beg to state that they alone are responsible, as it was printed at their particular request, and contrary to the wish of the author. The poem was intended to have been of equal length with Endymion, but the reception given to that work discouraged the author from proceeding."

The volume was issued in light brown paper-covered boards, at 7s. 6d., and our poet says in a letter to Charles A. Brown: "My book has had good success among the literary people, and I believe has a moderate sale." And again he writes on this subject to Mr. Brown, August, 1820: "The sale of my book is very slow, though it [pg 168] has been very highly rated. One of the causes, I understand from different quarters, of the unpopularity of this new book, is the offence the ladies take at me. On thinking that matter over, I am certain that I have said nothing in a spirit to displease any woman I would care to please; but still there is a tendency to class women in my books with roses and sweetmeats,—they never see themselves dominant."

On the verso of the title-page of some copies, and at the end of the book, we find London: Printed by Thomas Davison, Whitefriars, a guarantee for the excellence of the typography, the key-note of which is struck in the admirably arranged title-page.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  3 ll., 199 pp.

73. Adonais | An Elegy On The Death Of John Keats, | Author Of Endymion, Hyperion Etc. | By | Percy. B. Shelley | [Quotation] Pisa | With The Types Of Didot | MDCCCXXI.

Charles Ollier, the publisher, received the following interesting letter from Shelley, dated at Pisa, June 8, 1821:

"Dear Sir,—You may announce for publication a poem entitled "Adonais." It is a lament on the death of poor Keats, with some interposed stabs on the assassins of his peace and of his fame; and will be preceded by a criticism on "Hyperion," asserting the due claims which that fragment gives him to the rank which I have assigned him. My poem is finished, and consists of about forty Spenser stanzas. I shall send it you, either printed at Pisa, or transcribed in such a manner as it shall be difficult for the reviser to leave such errors as assist the obscurity of the "Prometheus." But in case I send it printed, it will be merely that mistakes may be avoided; [so] that I shall only have a few copies struck off in the cheapest manner."

The latter course was finally decided upon. The manuscript was sent to the printer at Pisa on June 16, 1821, and the first finished copy, in a blue, ornamented paper wrapper, was received July 13. This was not slow work, and the more remarkable when it is known that there are very few printer's errors in the book. This accuracy is due to the great pains Shelley took in revising the proofs.

The volume, and especially the untrimmed copies measuring 10×7½ inches, are beautiful in appearance. There is a certain marked peculiarity in the typography, however, which is explained by Mr. [pg 170] Forman in this way: "The frequent dashes, which seem to have exactly the value usual with Shelley, are all double the usual length, except in two instances. The fact is that, in Shelley's bold writing, these dashes were very long: the English printers would understand this; but Didot's people seem to have followed them literally; and the book being boldly printed, this peculiarity would not be likely to strike Shelley in revising."

The name of the press at Pisa is not given; the fact that the "Types of Didot" were used does not of course necessarily mean that the Didots had an office there, as Mr. Forman would seem to imply.

In the preface Shelley speaks as if he had changed his mind about issuing the criticism of Hyperion with this volume, as he planned to do in the letter to Ollier. "It is my intention to subjoin to the London edition of this poem, a criticism upon the claims of its lamented object to be classed among the writers of the highest genius who have adorned our age." No London edition is known, however.

The poem was first printed in England in the columns of the Literary Chronicle for December 1, 1821, where it was appended to a review; but in this form stanzas XIX to XXIV were omitted. The earliest separate reprint bears the impress Cambridge: Printed by W. Metcalfe, and sold by Messrs. Gee & Bridges, Market-Hill. MDCCCXXIX.

Two quotations from an interesting unpublished letter, belonging to a member of the Grolier Club, show that Ollier, who had been the publisher of most of Shelley's works, had copies of the Pisa book for sale, shortly after it was issued; the letter is addressed to "Meſs^r. Ollier & Co., Booksellers Vere Street, Bond St., London, Angleterre," and reads:

"Bagni. July 27. 1821

"Dear Sir

"I send you the bill of lading of the box containing Adonais: and I send also a copy to yourself by M^r. Gisborne who probably will arrive before the Ship ... The work I send you, has been seen in print by M^r. Gisborne, & has excited, as it must in every one, the deepest interest.

"Dear Sir, Yours very truly

"P. B. Shelley."

Quarto.

Collation:  25 pp.

74. Elia. | Essays Which Have Appeared Under That Signature | In The | London Magazine. | London: | Printed For Taylor And Hessey, | Fleet-Street. | 1823.

"Poor Elia," says Lamb in a letter to the publisher, Taylor, under date of July 30, 1821, "Poor Elia, the real (for I am but a counterfeit), is dead. The fact is, a person of that name, an Italian, was a fellow-clerk of mine at the South Sea House thirty (not forty) years ago, when the characters I described there existed, but had left it like myself many years; and I, having a brother now there, and doubting how he might relish certain descriptions in it, I clapt down the name of Elia to it, which passed off pretty well, for Elia himself added the function of an author to that of a scrivener, like myself.

"I went the other day (not having seen him for a year) to laugh over with him at my usurpation of his name, and found him, alas! no more than a name, for he died of consumption eleven months ago, and I knew not of it.

"So the name has fairly devolved to me, I think, and 'tis all he has left me."

In this way our author himself accounts for the pseudonym, which, by the way, he says should be pronounced "Ellia."

The London Magazine, London: Printed for Baldwin, Cradock, And Joy, was established in January, 1820; but Taylor and Hessey did not become its proprietors until July of the following year, when Taylor, who was something of a writer himself, especially on monetary subjects, acted as editor, with Thomas Hood as sub-editor. John Scott, whom Byron described as "a man of very considerable talents and of great acquirements," had been called to the editorship when Lamb began his essays, and William Hazlitt was on the staff.

[pg 172]

The first of the series appeared in the August number, 1820, and the papers continued until October, 1822, when, twenty-seven having been issued, they, with one other called Valentine's Day, which had appeared in the Indicator for February, 1821, were collected to form this volume.

When the book was in press Lamb thought to use a dedication, which he wrote and sent to Taylor with the following note, dated December 7, 1822:

"Dear Sir—I should like the enclosed Dedication to be printed, unless you dislike it. I like it. It is in the olden style. But if you object to it, put forth the book as it is; only pray don't let the printer mistake the word curt for curst.

C. L.

"On better consideration, pray omit that Dedication. The Essays want no Preface: they are all Preface. A Preface is nothing but a talk with the reader; and they do nothing else. Pray omit it.

"There will be a sort of Preface in the next Magazine, which may act as an advertisement, but not proper for the volume.

"Let Elia come forth bare as he was born."

The label on the paper-covered boards gives the price of the volume as 9s. 6d., a fairish price for the neat, but in no way remarkable piece of book-making which Thomas Davison executed for the publishers.

Some copies of the first edition show a variation in the imprint: Messrs. Taylor and Hessey having opened a new shop at 13, Waterloo Place, this address was printed in a line below the old one. Occasion was also taken, at this time, to furnish the book with a half-title.

Octavo.

Collation:  iv, 341 pp.

75. Memoirs | Of | Samuel Pepys, Esq. F.R.S. | [Two lines] Comprising | His Diary | From 1659-1669, | Deciphered By The Rev. John Smith, A.B. Of St. John's College, Cambridge, | From The Original Short-Hand MS. In The Pepysian Library, | [Two lines] [Copy of one of Pepys's book-plates] Edited By | Richard, Lord Braybrooke. | In Two Volumes. | Vol. I. | London: | Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. | MDCCCXXV.

To the information given on the title-page, the noble editor adds some further facts in a preface. He says that the six volumes, closely written in short-hand by Pepys himself, had formed a part of the collection of books and prints bequeathed to Magdalen College, where they had remained unexamined (from the date of Pepys's death) until the appointment of Lord Braybrooke's brother, George Neville, afterwards called Grenville, as master of the College. Under Neville's auspices they were deciphered by Mr. Smith, whom his lordship had not the pleasure of knowing.

Pepys used short-hand for his notes because he often had things to say which he did not think fit for all the world to know; and Lord Braybrooke found it "absolutely necessary" to "curtail the MS. materially." The complete journal, all that it is possible to print, was not issued until 1893.

Colburn, the publisher, known for his successful ventures, and especially for the series called Colburn's Modern Standard Novelists and The Literary Gazette, containing works by Bulwer Lytton, Lady Morgan, Captain Marryat, and others, had been so fortunate with an [pg 174] issue of Evelyn's Diary that he was led into the present undertaking. With this edition, which sold at six pounds six shillings, and with two succeeding editions selling at five guineas, he is reputed to have made a handsome profit on the twenty-two hundred pounds paid for the copyright.

The large volumes with their broad margins are handsome specimens of the excellent typographical work of the Bentleys. They are embellished with two illustrations in the text, and thirteen engraved plates. A frontispiece portrait of the author, after the painting by Kneller, was engraved by T. Bragg, and a smaller portrait used as a head-piece to the Life is signed R. W. ſculp. This last is a copy of one of Pepys's book-plates; it has the motto "Mens cujusque is est Quisque" above the oval frame, and "Sam. Pepys. Car. Et. Iac. Angl. Regib. A. Secretis Admiraliæ" in two lines below. Another book-plate used by the Secretary is copied on the title-page. Of the remaining portraits, one was engraved by John Thomson, while five were the work of R. Cooper, who also engraved the "View of the Mole at Tangier" and the "View of Mr. Pepys' Library." The other plates, including one showing facsimiles of Pepys's short- and long-hand; two of pedigrees, and a folded map, are signed "Sid^y. Hall, Bury Str^t. Bloomsb^y."

Some copies of the book on fine paper, with beautiful impressions of the plates, are marked in red on the half-title page, "Presentation Copies."

Quarto

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I: 1 l., xlii, 498, xlix pp.  Volume II: 2 ll., 348, vii, 311 pp.  Seven portraits.   Six plates.

76. The Last | Of | The Mohicans; | A Narrative Of | 1757. | By The Author Of "The Pioneers." [Quotation] In Two Volumes. | Vol. I. | Philadelphia: | H. C. Carey & I. Lea—Chestnut-Street. | 1826.

The Pioneers was the first of The Leather Stocking Tales. It appeared in 1823, and was an immediate success; more than 3500 copies are said to have been sold before noon of the day of publication. This was reason enough for following the custom of the English novelists of putting on the title-page, not the name of the author, but the name of his first success. The Last of the Mohicans appeared February 4, 1826, and was also a prodigious success.

The surprising meagerness of bibliographical facts concerning Cooper's works is, Professor Lounsbury says in his life of the novelist, characteristic of a reticence and dislike of publicity which extended to all his dealings. "The size of the editions has never been given to the public. The sale of 'The Pioneers' on the morning of its publication has already been noticed, and there are contemporary newspaper statements to the effect that the first edition of 'The Red Rover' consisted of five thousand copies, and that this was exhausted in a few days. But it was only from incidental references of this kind, which can rarely be relied upon absolutely, that we, at this late day, are able to give any specific information whatever.

"He was unquestionably helped in the end, however, by what in the beginning threatened to be a serious if not insuperable obstacle. He was unable to get any one concerned in the book trade to assume the risk of bringing out 'The Spy.' That had to be taken by the author himself. In the case of this novel, we know positively that Cooper was not only the owner of the copyright, but of all the [pg 176] edition; that he gave directions as to the terms on which the work was to be furnished to the booksellers, while the publishers, Wiley & Halsted, had no direct interest in it, and received their reward by a commission. It is evident that under this arrangement his profits on the sale were far larger than would usually be the case. Whether he followed the same method in any of his later productions, there seems to be no method of ascertaining. Wiley, however, until his death, continued to be his publisher. 'The Last of the Mohicans' went into the hands of Carey & Lea of Philadelphia, and this firm, under various changes of name, continued to bring out the American edition of his novels until the year 1844."

Henry Charles Carey, son of Matthew Carey, was as celebrated for his writings on political economy as for his connection with this publishing house, which was one of the largest in the country.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I: 262 pp.  Volume II: 260 pp.

77. Pericles And Aspasia | By | Walter Savage Landor, Esq. | In Two Volumes. | Vol. I. | London | Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. | 1836.

These volumes were issued in three or more styles of binding: paper-covered boards, straight-grain dull green cloth, and half roan with brown glazed paper boards all with paper labels. The publishers' advertisements, two leaves at the end of Vol. II, are the same with each style of binding.

This work was written by Landor during his residence at Fiesole, but it was published after his return to England. His own choleric temperament and irascible manner unfitted him for personal dealings with publishers, as he had found from past experiences, and so the arrangements for this publication were intrusted to his friend Mr. G. P. R. James, the novelist, who sold the manuscript to Saunders and Otley for £100.

The following unpublished letter of Landor's, belonging to a member of the Grolier Club, is interesting as referring to this transaction.

"My dear Sir:

"When I offered my Pericles to MM. Saunders & Otley I did not suppose there was more than enough for one volume, the size of the Examination of Shakspeare. They told you it would form two volumes of that size. Knowing that I had material for thirty pages more, I said that if they would make the first vol: 300 pp. I would take care that the second should not fall short of it more than a dozen pages. Now I have sent them not thirty but a hundred—and they tell me to-day that there is not remaining, for the second volume, more than 175 pp. I have, you perceive, already sent above one third more [pg 178] than what I calculated the whole at, when you had the kindness to make the agreement for me.

"In reply to their letter I have said that, if they will give me fifty pounds more, I will send one hundred more pages, 50 within three weeks, 50 more in the three following; and if this does not appear equitable to them I leave it entirely to you. I shall then have given them 200 pp. for fifty pounds, when I offered them only 285 for a hundred. It will be my business to take care that the remainder shall fall as little short as possible of the preceding. I have furthermore stipulated for twenty copies. Many of these will take nothing from the profits, as more than a dozen will be given to people who certainly would not have bought them, and who are not likely to lend them.

"A friend has offered me some pheasants, which I have desired to be sent to you. I hope they will please the young lion with their plumage. The first of Feb. I set out for Clifton: an old favorite of mine for winter and spring. I have requested MM Saunders to favour me with two (I should be glad of three) copies of the first volume as my friend Ablett's birthday is on the 31 of this month, and mine on the 30, and I have three friends to whom it would delight me to give them before I leave Wales. With best compliments to Mrs. James, believe me ever,

"Yrs very sincerely

"W. S. Landor

"Llambedr, Jan. 18 [1836]

"I have seen the last sheet of Vol. I, but not the short Preface sent from London.

"How can you complain of your English. There is hardly a fault to be found in the 3 volumes. I have read them a second time.

G. P. R. James, Esq.

"1 Lloyds Buildings

"Blackheath

"London"

The work appeared during the early part of 1836, and though it was received with much praise by his friends, and had many favorable reviews, the sale dragged. In October of the same year, Landor, in one of his letters to Forster, refers to an unfavorable review which [pg 179] appeared in Blackwood: "... I am not informed how long this Scotchman has been at work about me, but my publisher has advised me, that he loses £150. by my Pericles. So that it is probable the Edinburgh Areopagites have condemned me to a fine in my absence; for I never can allow any man to be a loser by me, and am trying to economise to the amount of this indemnity to Saunders and Otley ..." The money was in fact paid back, and yet, curiously enough, as Forster relates, Landor not only forgot, three years later, that he had received a payment for the copyright, but even that he himself had sent back the money, and was making further remittances to satisfy the supposed loss. This was stopped by a statement from Mr. Saunders, to which Landor refers in a letter to Forster: "Never, in the course of my life, was I so surprised as at the verification of my account with Saunders; for such it is. Certain I am that no part of the money was ever spent by me, nor can I possibly bring to mind either the receiving or the returning of it ..."

The first American edition of Pericles and Aspasia, in two volumes, was published by Carey, Philadelphia, 1839, the second English edition in 1849, and there have been frequent editions since, both in England and in America.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  Two Volumes.  Volume I: viii, 299 pp.  Volume II: viii, 343 pp.

78. The | Posthumous Papers | Of | The Pickwick Club. | By Charles Dickens. | With | Forty-three illustrations by R. Seymour and | Phiz. | London: | Chapman and Hall, 186, Strand. | MDCCCXXXVII.

An advertisement in the Times for March 26, 1836, reads:

"THE PICKWICK PAPERS.—On the 31st of March will be published, to be continued monthly, price One Shilling, the first number of the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, containing a faithful record of the Perambulations, Perils, Travels, Adventures, and Sporting Transactions of the Corresponding Members. Edited by Boz. Each monthly Part embellished with four Illustrations by Seymour. Chapman & Hall, 186 Strand, and of all booksellers."

Robert Seymour, a caricaturist, and the illustrator of such works as The Odd Volume, The Looking Glass, and Humorous Sketches, had been employed by Chapman and Hall to illustrate a comic publication called The Squib Annual; and this led him to suggest that he should make a series of Cockney sporting plates which could be furnished with letter-press. Hall applied to Dickens, then an unknown newspaper man, for the text, a "something which should be a vehicle for certain plates to be executed by Mr. Seymour." Dickens says of this proposition: "I objected.... My views being deferred to, I thought of Mr. Pickwick, and wrote the first number; from the proof-sheets of which Mr. Seymour made his drawing of the Club and his happy portrait of its founder. I connected Mr. Pickwick with a club, because of the original suggestion; and I put in Mr. Winkle expressly for the use of Mr. Seymour."

[pg 181]

The work came out in twenty parts (parts nineteen and twenty were bound together), beginning in April, 1836, and ending with November, 1837. They were covered in light green paper bordered with a design by Seymour, and engraved by John Jackson, a pupil of Bewick and Hervey. The title reads, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club [Five lines] Edited by "Boz. With Illustrations ..."

The publication of the second number was delayed by the suicide of Seymour, whose mind gave way from overwork. This sad event was announced to the public in a note, and an apology was offered for the reduction of the number of plates from four to three. "When we state that they comprise Mr. Seymour's last efforts, and that on one of them, in particular (the embellishment of the Stroller's Tale), he was engaged up to a late hour of the night preceding his death, we feel confident that the excuse will be deemed a sufficient one."

The third and succeeding numbers contained two plates each. Those in the third part were originally executed by Robert Buss, who learned to etch in order to produce them. But he gave up the work, and his plates were replaced in later issues by others by Hablot K. Browne, or "Phiz," who did the remaining plates. The last or double part contained three plates and an engraved title-page. With it subscribers received also the printed title-page, dedication, preface, contents, Directions to the Binder and Table of Errata.

In the eighteenth number, dated September 29, 1837, the following important announcement appears:

"The subscribers to this work and the trade are respectfully informed that Nos. XIX. and XX. (with titles, contents, &c.) will be published together on 1^st of November; and that the complete volume, neatly bound in cloth, price one guinea, will be ready for delivery by the 14^th of that month, and for which country producers are requested to send early orders to their respective agents."

The venture was almost a failure at first, and it was not until the appearance of Sam Weller, with the fifth number, that the bookbinder, who had prepared four hundred copies of the first number, was obliged to increase the supply. From this time on, the demand grew until the enormous output of forty thousand was reached with the fifteenth number.

There are differences in the various accounts of the amount Dickens was to receive for his work. A letter from the publishers to him mentions their terms as nine guineas a sheet for each part consisting of a [pg 182] sheet and a half; fifteen guineas a number was the sum as stated by Mr. Edward Chapman to Mr. Forster; and Dickens himself, in a letter to Miss Hogarth, afterwards his wife, says, fourteen pounds a month. During publication, he received in checks from the publishers £3000. In 1837 Chapman & Hall agreed that after five years he should have a share in the copyright, on consideration that he write a similar book for which he was to receive £3000, besides having the whole copyright after five years. Forster thinks the author received, in all, £25,000, while the publishers' profits during the three years from 1836 to 1839 are said to have amounted to £14,000 on the sale of the work in numbers alone.

Chapman & Hall issued the book in volume form in 1837, at twenty-one shillings.

Mr. Frederic G. Kitton says:

"There are probably not more than a dozen copies of the first edition of "Pickwick" in existence. An examination of a number of impressions presumably of this edition results in the discovery of slight variations both in plates and text. These are especially noticeable in the illustrations, for, owing to the enormous demand, the plates were re-etched directly they showed signs of deterioration in the printing, and "Phiz," in reproducing his designs, sometimes altered them slightly. The earliest impressions of the work may be distinguished by the absence of engraved titles on the plates, and by their containing the original etchings by Seymour and Buss, not "Phiz's" replicas of them."

Octavo.

Collation:  xiv pp., 1 l., 609 pp.   Forty-five plates, including engraved title-page.

79. Sartor Resartus. | In Three Books. | Reprinted for Friends from Fraser's Magazine. | [Quotation] London: | James Fraser, 215 Regent Street. | M.DCCC.XXXIV.

Carlyle went up to London with Teufelsdröckh in his satchel, to find a publisher for it. He put much confidence in the help of his friend Francis Jeffrey, the lord advocate, who exerted himself chiefly to establish relations between the author and John Murray.

Mrs. Carlyle, at home in Craigenputtoch, received the following letter from her husband, August 11, 1831:

"... After a time by some movements, I got the company dispersed, and the Advocate by himself, and began to take counsel with him about 'Teufelsdröckh.' He thought Murray, in spite of the Radicalism, would be the better publisher; to him accordingly he gave me a line, saying that I was a genius and would likely become eminent;... I directly set off with this to Albemarle Street; found Murray out; returned afterwards and found him in, gave an outline of the book, at which the Arimaspian smiled, stated also that I had nothing else to do here but the getting of it published, and was above all anxious that his decision should be given soon...."

On the 22d he wrote again:

"On Saturday morning I set out for Albemarle Street. Murray, as usual, was not in; but an answer lay for me—my poor 'Teufelsdröckh,' wrapped in new paper, with a letter stuck under the packthread. I took it with a silent fury, and walked off. The letter said he regretted exceedingly, etc.; all his literary friends were out of town; he himself occupied with a sick family in the country; that he had conceived the finest hope, etc. In short, that 'Teufelsdröckh' [pg 184] had never been looked into; but that if I would let him keep it for a month, he would then be able to say a word, and by God's blessing a favorable one.

"I walked on through Regent Street and looked in upon James Fraser, the bookseller. We got to talk about 'Teufelsdröckh,' when, after much hithering and thithering about the black state of trade, &c., it turned out that honest James would publish the book for me on this principle: if I would give him a sum not exceeding 150 l. sterling! 'I think you had better wait a little,' said an Edinburgh advocate to me since, when he heard of this proposal. 'Yes,' I answered, 'it is my purpose to wait to the end of eternity for it.' 'But the public will not buy books.' 'The public has done the wisest thing it could, and ought never more to buy what they call books.'

"Spurning at destiny, yet in the mildest terms taking leave of Fraser, I strode through the street carrying 'Teufelsdröckh' openly in my hand ... Having rested a little, I set out again to the Longmans, to hear what they had to say."

The Longmans, "honest, rugged, punctual-looking people," said little to the point, however, and then, through Lord Jeffrey's efforts in his behalf, Murray offered as follows: "The short of it is this: Murray will print an edition (750 copies) of Dreck on the half-profit system (that is, I getting nothing, but also giving nothing); after which the sole copyright of the book is to be mine ..."

Carlyle then tried Colburn & Bentley, but with his mind made up "unless they say about 100 l. I will prefer Murray." These negotiations came to nothing, and back he went to Murray, whose offer "is not so bad: 750 copies for the task of publishing poor Dreck, and the rest of him our own." The terms were accepted, the manuscript was sent to the printer, and a page set up, when Murray repented his bargain, which had never pleased him, and, having heard that Carlyle had carried his MS. elsewhere, he seized the opportunity to send the author a note saying that since he had, unbeknown to him, carried his book to "the greatest publishers in London, who had declined to engage in it," he must ask to have it read by some literary friend, before he could in justice to himself engage in the printing of it. The upshot was that the manuscript was returned to its author.

"The printing of 'Teufelsdröckh,'" Carlyle says to his wife, "which I announced as commencing, and even sent you a specimen of, has altogether stopped, and Murray's bargain with me has burst into air. The man behaved like a pig, and was speared, but perhaps without [pg 185] art; Jack and I at least laughed that night à gorge déployée at the answer I wrote his base glare of a letter: he has written again in much politer style, and I shall answer him, as McLeod advised my grandfather's people, 'sharp but mannerly.' The truth of the matter is now clear enough; Dreck cannot be disposed of in London at this time. Whether he lie in my trunk or in a bookseller's coffer seems partly indifferent. Neither, on the whole, do I know whether it is not better that we have stopped for the present. Money I was to have none; author's vanity embarked on that bottom I have almost none; nay, some time or other that the book can be so disposed of it is certain enough."

Nearly two years later, in 1833, the unlucky Dreck was published "piecemeal," in ten parts of ten pages each, in Fraser's Magazine, beginning with November and running until August, 1834. With the shrewdness of his tribe, Fraser, fearing failure, paid only twelve guineas a sheet for the work, though he had been paying its author twenty guineas a sheet, five guineas more than he paid to any other contributor. It turned out, however, that he was wise, for the great essay was not a success, even in the magazine.

"'Magazine Fraser' writes that 'Teufelsdröckh' excites the most unqualified disapprobation—à la bonne heure," said Carlyle; and again: "—Literature still all a mystery; nothing 'paying;' 'Teufelsdröckh' beyond measure unpopular; an oldest subscriber came into him and said, 'If there is any more of that d——d stuff, I will,' &c., &c.; on the other hand an order from America (Boston or Philadelphia) to send a copy of the magazine 'so long as there was anything of Carlyle's in it.' 'One spake up and the other spake down.'"

After the work had run its course in the magazine, about fifty copies were struck off from the types and stitched together for distribution among friends.

It remained to the honor of America, to print the book in 1836, through the energetic efforts of Dr. LeBaron Russell. Emerson furnished the copy and a preface; and before the end of the year he was able to announce to Carlyle the sale of the whole edition. Another edition of over a thousand copies was sold before the first English edition, "a dingy, ill-managed edition" of a thousand copies, was published anonymously by Saunders and Otley in 1838.

Octavo.

Collation:  1 l., 107 pp.

80. Nature. | [Quotation] Boston: | James Munroe And Company. | MDCCCXXXVI.

"My little book is nearly done. Its title is 'Nature.' Its contents will not exceed in bulk Sampson Reed's 'Growth of the Mind.' My design is to follow it by another essay, 'Spirit,' and the two shall make a decent volume." Thus Emerson wrote to his brother William, from Concord, June 28, 1836.

Nature was, however, published alone in September by Metcalf, Torry and Ballou of the Cambridge Press. It received little attention except from "the representatives of orthodox opinion," who violently attacked it. Only a few hundred copies were sold, and it was twelve years before a second edition was called for.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  95 pp.

81. History | Of The | Conquest Of Peru, | [Three lines] By | William H. Prescott, | [Two lines] [Quotations] In Two Volumes. | Volume I. | New York: | Harper And Brothers, 82 Cliff Street. | MDCCCXLVII.

George Ticknor, in his life of Prescott, gives the story of the production of the History in the following words:

"The composition of the 'Conquest of Peru' was, therefore, finished within the time he had set for it a year previously, and the work being put to press without delay, the printing was completed in the latter part of March, 1847; about two years and nine months from the day when he first put pen to paper. It made just a thousand pages, exclusive of the Appendix, and was stereotyped under the careful correction and supervision of his friend Mr. Folsom of Cambridge.

"While it was passing through the press, or just as the stereotyping was fairly begun, he made a contract with the Messrs. Harper to pay for seven thousand five hundred copies on the day of publication at the rate of one dollar per copy, to be sold within two years, and to continue to publish at the same rate afterwards, or to surrender the contract to the author at his pleasure; terms, I suppose, more liberal than had ever been offered for a work of grave history on this side of the Atlantic. In London it was published by Mr. Bentley, who purchased the copyright for eight hundred pounds, under the kind auspices of Colonel Aspinwall; again a large sum, as it was already doubtful whether an exclusive privilege could be legally maintained in Great Britain by a foreigner."

[pg 188]

The demand for the book was large: in five months five thousand copies were sold in America, and an edition of half that number sold in England. By January 1, 1860, there had been sold of the American and English editions together, 16,965 copies. It was translated into Spanish, French, German, and Dutch.

Octavo.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I: xl, 527 pp.  Volume II: xix, 547 pp.

82. The Raven | And | Other Poems. | By | Edgar A. Poe. | New York: | Wiley And Putnam, 161 Broadway. | 1845.

The poem first appeared in print in the columns of the New York Evening Mirror for January 29, 1845, where N. P. Willis, its editor, says in a note: "We are permitted to copy, (in advance of publication,) from the second number of the American Review, the following remarkable poem by Edgar Poe." Willis issued the poem again in the weekly edition of the Mirror, dated February 8, and Charles F. Briggs, with whom Poe afterward became associated, also published it in the Broadway Journal of the same date, crediting it to "Edgar A. Poe." Both of these weeklies seem to have appeared before the American Review came out. We are not told the reason for Mr. George H. Colton's editorial courtesy in permitting this advance publication when the second, or February number of his paper, The American Review: A Whig Journal Of Politics, Literature, Art And Science, was so soon to appear. It is a curious circumstance that Willis and Briggs gave the author's name freely, while Colton's issue, as originally intended, appeared with the pseudonym of "—— Quarles."

The poem was an immense success, and was copied far and wide in all the newspapers of the country. Writing to F. W. Thomas, May 4, Poe says:

"'The Raven' has had a great run, Thomas—but I wrote it for the express purpose of running—just as I did the 'Gold Bug,' you know. The bird beat the bug, though, all hollow."

This popularity was the poet's greatest reward, for we learn that the actual money remuneration was only ten dollars. Poe makes us [pg 190] think of the early writers, like Bacon and Browne, whom we have seen take to printing their books to save them from the errors of the unlicensed publisher. In a preface to this volume he writes:

"These trifles are collected and republished chiefly with a view to their redemption from the many improvements to which they have been subjected while going at random 'the rounds of the press.' If what I have written is to circulate at all, I am naturally anxious that it should circulate as I wrote it...."

From the original straw-colored paper covers in which it appeared, about December, we learn that the book was issued as one of a series, Wiley And Putnam's Library Of American Books. No. VIII., and that its price was the unusual sum of thirty-one cents. Among the other volumes, its companions in the set, were Journal of an African Cruiser, edited by Nathaniel Hawthorne; Tales of Edgar A. Poe; Letters from Italy, by J. T. Headley; The Wigwam and the Cabin, by W. Gilmore Simms; and Big Abel, by Cornelius Mathews.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  4 ll., 91 pp.

83. Jane Eyre. | An Autobiography. | Edited By | Currer Bell. | In Three Volumes. | Vol. I. | London: | Smith, Elder, And Co., Cornhill. | 1847.

Under date of August 24, 1847, Miss Brontë wrote a letter to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., in which she said: "I now send you per rail a MS. entitled 'Jane Eyre,' a novel in three volumes, by Currer Bell." The novel was accepted, was printed and published by October sixteenth, and on the nineteenth the publishers received the following:

"Gentlemen,—The six copies of 'Jane Eyre' reached me this morning. You have given the work every advantage which good paper, clear type, and a seemly outside can supply;—if it fails, the fault will be with the author,—you are exempt. I now await the judgment of the press and the public. I am, Gentlemen, yours respectfully, C. Bell."

Their judgment was decisive, and the book was so great a success that a second edition, dedicated to Thackeray, was issued January 18, 1848.

Octavo.

Collation:  Three volumes.

84. Evangeline, | A | Tale Of Acadie. | By | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. | Boston: | William D. Ticknor & Company. | 1847.

Writing in his journal under date of October 2, 1847, Longfellow says: "Why does not Ticknor publish Evangeline? I am going to town to ask him that very question. And his answer was that he should do so without further delay." An entry, dated October 30, says, "Evangeline published." On November 8, he says: "Evangeline goes on bravely. I have received greater and warmer commendations than on any previous volume. The public takes more kindly to hexameters than I could have imagined." On November 13, a third thousand is recorded, and on April 8 of the following year we learn: "Next week Ticknor prints the sixth thousand of Evangeline, making one thousand a month since its publication."

In 1857 the following entry sums up the successful career of the poem:

"Allibone wants to get from the publishers the number of copies of my book sold up to date, the editions in this country only," and Evangeline is set down as 35,850 copies.

The poem was translated into German, Swedish, Danish, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, and French, and was made a school-book in Italy.

Sextodecimo.

Collation:  163 pp.

85. Sonnets. | By | E. B. B. | Reading: | [Not For Publication.] 1847.

This is the first appearance in print of the Sonnets from the Portuguese which were not published until 1850, when they were issued under the title Sonnets from the Portuguese, as a part of the Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Mr. Browning told the story of the Portuguese Sonnets to Mr. Edmund Gosse, who printed the account in Critical Kit-Kats, 1896:

"The Sonnets were intended for her husband's eyes alone; in the first instance, not even for his ... Fortunately for all those who love true poetry, Mr. Browning judged rightly of the obligation laid upon him by the possession of these poems. 'I dared not,' he said, 'reserve to myself the finest sonnets written in any language since Shakespeare's.' Accordingly he persuaded his wife to commit the printing of them to her friend Miss Mitford; and in the course of the year they appeared in a slender volume entitled 'Sonnets, by E. B. B.,' with the imprint 'Reading, 1847,' and marked 'Not for publication.'"

Duodecimo.

Collation:  47 pp.

86. Melibœus-Hipponax. | The | Biglow Papers, | Edited, | With An Introduction, Notes, Glossary, | And Copious Index, | By | Homer Wilbur, A.M., | [Three lines] [Quotations] Cambridge: | Published By George Nichols. | 1848.

Writing to Thomas Hughes on September 13, 1859, Lowell says: "I tried my first "Biglow Papers" in a newspaper, and found that it had a great run. So I wrote the others from time to time during the year which followed, always very rapidly, and sometimes (as "What Mr. Robinson thinks") at one sitting.

"When I came to collect them and publish them in a volume, I conceived my parson-editor with his pedantry and verbosity, his amiable vanity and superiority to the verses he was editing, as a fitting artistic background and foil."

The following extracts from letters show, in detail, the evolution of the work.

"You will find a squib of mine in this week's Courier," said he to Sidney H. Gay, on June 16, 1846, "I wish it to continue anonymous, for I wish Slavery to think it has as many enemies as possible. If I may judge from the number of persons who have asked me if I wrote it, I have struck the old hulk of the Public between wind and water...." On the last day of December, 1847, he says to C. F. Briggs:

"I am going to indulge all my fun in a volume of H. Biglow's verses which I am preparing, and which I shall edit under the character of the Rev. Mr. Wilbur ... I am going to include in the volume an essay of the reverend gentleman on the Yankee dialect, and on [pg 195] dialects in general, and on every thing else, and also an attempt at a complete natural history of the Humbug—which I think I shall write in Latin. The book will purport to be published at Jaalam (Mr. B's native place), and will be printed on brownish paper with those little head and tail-pieces which used to adorn our earlier publications—such as hives, scrolls, urns, and the like."

The latter part of 1848 found the poet busily engaged in getting out the book, and he wrote to Gay in September:

"This having to do with printers is dreadful business. There was a Mr. Melville who, I believe, enjoyed it, but, for my part, I am heartily sick of Typee."

In October he says:

"I should have sent you this yesterday, but it was not written, and I was working like a dog all day, preparing a glossary and an index. If I ever make another glossary or index—!" ...

"... Hosea is done with," he says in November, "and will soon be out. It made fifty pages more than I expected and so took longer." The volume appeared on the 10th, and on the 25th he again writes to Gay: "... The first edition of Hosea is nearly exhausted already."

The following retrospect, sent to the same friend on February 26, 1849, contains the lesson of experience:

"There were a great many alterations of spelling made in the plates of the "Biglow Papers," which added much to the expense. I ought not to have stereotyped at all. But we are never done with cutting eye-teeth."

George Nichols, who published the book, was at one time an owner of the University Book-store, and, later, one of the proprietors of the University Press. He was noted for his skill in proof-reading.

The printing was done by Metcalf and Company, printers to the University; and the little book came out from their hands innocent of hives, scrolls, urns, or any other ornament. Something changed the author's mind, too, regarding Jaalam as the purporting place of publication.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  12, xxxii, 163 pp.

87. Vanity Fair. | A Novel without a Hero. | By | William Makepeace Thackeray. | With Illustrations On Steel And Wood By The Author. | London: | Bradbury and Evans, 11, Bouverie Street. | 1848.

The name of the book, as we see it in the delightful and altogether characteristic drawing on the engraved title-page, reminds us of what Miss Kate Perry says in her reminiscences of Thackeray:

"He told me, some time afterward, that, after ransacking his brain for a name for his novel, it came upon him unawares, in the middle of the night, as if a voice had whispered, 'Vanity Fair.' He said, 'I jumped out of bed, and ran three times round my room, uttering as I went, 'Vanity Fair, Vanity Fair, Vanity Fair.'"

It has been repeated, more than once, that Vanity Fair was refused by Colburn's Magazine, and various other publishers, before Bradbury and Evans undertook it, but Vizetelly, in his Glances Back Through Seventy Years, thinks that this could not have been the case, since Thackeray did not finish the story until long after it had been accepted, and, in fact, was well along in the printer's hands. If refused, therefore, it was refused before it was finished. "I know perfectly well that after the publication commenced much of the remainder of the work was written under pressure for and from the printer, and not infrequently the first instalment of 'copy' needed to fill the customary thirty-two pages was penned while the printer's boy was waiting in the hall at Young Street."

Vizetelly also gives the following account of the final arrangements for the publication of the book:

[pg 197]

"One afternoon, when he called in Peterborough Court he had a small brown paper parcel with him, and opened it to show me his two careful drawings for the page plates to the first number of Vanity Fair. Tied up with them was the manuscript of the earlier part of the book, of which he had several times spoken to me, referring to the quaint character that Chiswick Mall—within a stone's throw of which I was then living—still retained. His present intention, he told me, was to see Bradbury & Evans, and offer the work to them ... In little more than half an hour Thackeray again made his appearance, and, with a beaming face, gleefully informed me that he had settled the business. 'Bradbury & Evans,' he said, 'accepted so readily that I am deuced sorry I didn't ask them for another tenner. I am certain they would have given it.' He then explained that he had named fifty guineas per part, including the two sheets of letterpress, a couple of etchings, and the initials at the commencement of the chapters. He reckoned the text, I remember, at no more than five-and-twenty shillings a page, the two etchings at six guineas each, while as for the few initials at the beginnings of the chapters, he threw those in."

Following the plan of Chapman and Hall, who issued Dickens's works in monthly parts in green covers, and of Charles James Lever's publishers, who brought him out in pink, Bradbury and Evans published Vanity Fair in yellow-covered numbers dated January, 1847, to July, 1848, and costing one shilling a part. The title on these paper covers ran: Vanity Fair: Pen And Pencil Sketches Of English Society. By W. M. Thackeray [Two lines] London: Published At The Punch Office, 85, Fleet Street. [One line] 1847., and there was a woodcut vignette.

There are numerous illustrations in the text, and each part has two plates, etchings, except the last, which has three and the engraved title-page. The last part as published contained the title-page, dedication, "Before the Curtain," a preface, table of contents, and list of plates.

The earliest issues contain, on page 336, a woodcut of the Marquis of Steyne, which was afterward suppressed, the type from pages 336 to 440 being shifted to fill the vacancy. In the first edition, too, the title at the head of Chapter I is in rustic type.

At first the novel did not sell well; it was even questioned whether it might not be best to stop its publication. But later in the year, [pg 198] owing to some cause, perhaps the eulogistic mention in Miss Brontë's preface to Jane Eyre, or, perhaps, a favorable review in the Edinburgh Review, its success became assured.

Mrs. Carlyle, writing to her husband, says: "Very good indeed, beats Dickens out of the World."

Octavo.

Collation:  xvi, 624 pp.  Forty plates, including the engraved title-page.

88. The | History Of England | From | The Accession Of James II. | By | Thomas Babington Macaulay. | Volume I. | London: | Printed For | Longman, Brown, Green, And Longmans, | Paternoster-Row. | 1849. [-1861].

Trevelyan, in his Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, tells us there was no end to the trouble that the author devoted to matters which most writers are glad to leave to their publishers. "He could not rest until the lines were level to a hair's breadth, and the punctuation correct to a comma; until every paragraph concluded with a telling sentence, and every sentence flowed like water."

In a footnote he adds this quotation from one of Macaulay's letters to Mr. Longman, which, while it referred to the edition of 1858, is also indicative of his attitude toward this, the first edition:

"I have no more corrections to make at present. I am inclined to hope that the book will be as nearly faultless, as to typographical execution, as any work of equal extent that is to be found in the world."

He was apprehensive concerning the success of the book. He writes, "I have armed myself with all my philosophy for the event of failure," but his fears were groundless.

"The people of the United States," says Trevelyan, "were even more eager than the people of the United Kingdom to read about their common ancestors; with the advantage that, from the absence of an international copyright, they were able to read about them for next to nothing. On the 4th of April, 1849, Messrs. Harper, of New York, wrote to Macaulay: 'We beg you to accept herewith a copy of our cheap [pg 200] edition of your work. There have been three other editions published by different houses, and another is now in preparation; so there will be six different editions in the market. We have already sold forty thousand copies, and we presume that over sixty thousand copies have been disposed of. Probably, within three months of this time, the sale will amount to two hundred thousand copies. No work, of any kind, has ever so completely taken our whole country by storm.' An indirect compliment to the celebrity of the book was afforded by a desperate, and almost internecine, controversy which raged throughout the American newspapers as to whether the Messrs. Harper were justified in having altered Macaulay's spelling to suit the orthographical canons laid down in Noah Webster's dictionary."

This quotation refers to the first volume. The second volume came out in the same year, but the third and fourth did not appear until 1855. Volume five was edited by Macaulay's sister, Lady Trevelyan, in 1861. It continued the portion of the History which was fairly transcribed and revised by the author before his death.

The posthumous appearance of the last volume reminds us of what Mr. Alexander B. Grosart says in his life of Spenser, apropos of the promise on the title-page of the Fairy Queen that the work should be in twelve books fashioning twelve moral virtues:

"Than this splendid audacity I know nothing comparable, unless Lord Macaulay's opening of his History of England, wherein—without any saving clause, as Thomas Fuller would have said, of 'if the Lord will'—he pledges himself to write his great Story down to 'memories' of men 'still living.'"

Octavo.

Collation:  Five volumes.

89. In Memoriam. | London. | Edward Moxon, Dover Street. | 1850.

In May of the year 1850, In Memoriam was privately printed for the use of friends, and soon afterward was published in the present form, at six shillings. A second and third editions were issued in the same year. They are alike in all particulars except for the correction of two literal misprints. Though the book was anonymous, the authorship was never in doubt.

A circumstance connected with its publication, though not bibliographical in its bearing, demands a passing word. "If 'In Memoriam' were published," Hallam Tennyson says in his life of the laureate, "Moxon had promised a small yearly royalty on this and on the other poems, and so my father had decided that he could now honourably offer my mother a home. Accordingly after ten years of separation their engagement was renewed ... Moxon now advanced £300—so my uncle Charles told a friend,—at all events £300 were in my father's bank in his name." With this and their small incomes combined they decided to marry. The marriage took place June 13, the month that saw the publication of "In Memoriam."

Octavo.

Collation:  vii, 210 pp.

90. The | Scarlet Letter, | A Romance. | By | Nathaniel Hawthorne. | Boston: | Ticknor, Read, And Fields | MDCCCL.

James T. Fields, in his little life of Hawthorne, tells of a visit to Salem to see the author. He goes on to say:

"... I caught sight of a bureau or set of drawers near where we were sitting; and immediately it occurred to me that hidden away somewhere in that article of furniture was a story or stories by the author of the 'Twice-Told Tales,' and I became so positive of it that I charged him vehemently with the fact. He seemed surprised, I thought, but shook his head again; and I rose to take my leave ... I was hurrying down the stairs when he called after me from the chamber, asking me to stop a moment. Then quickly stepping into the entry with a roll of manuscript in his hands, he said: 'How in Heaven's name did you know the thing was there? As you have found me out, take what I have written, and tell me, after you get home and have time to read it, if it is good for anything ...' On my way up to Boston I read the germ of 'The Scarlet Letter'; before I slept that night I wrote him a note all aglow with admiration of the marvellous story he had put into my hands, and told him that I would come again to Salem the next day and arrange for its publication."

It was Hawthorne's first intention to make the romance one of a volume of several short stories, because, as he remarks to Mr. Fields:

"A hunter loads his gun with a bullet and several buckshot; and, following his sagacious example, it was my purpose to conjoin the one long story with half a dozen shorter ones, so that, failing to kill the public outright with my biggest and heaviest lump of lead, I [pg 203] might have other chances with the smaller bits, individually and in the aggregate." But this plan was finally changed and it was decided to publish the story alone. There was then some talk about a title for it. "In this latter event" (the event of publishing alone), "it appears to me that the only proper title for the book would be 'The Scarlet Letter,' for 'The Custom House' is merely introductory ..." And so it was decided.

"If 'The Scarlet Letter' is to be the title," he asked Mr. Fields, "would it not be well to print it on the title-page in red ink? I am not quite sure about the good taste of so doing, but it would certainly be piquant and appropriate, and, I think, attractive to the great gull whom we are endeavoring to circumvent." The reader might ask the bibliophile if the red title line, for it was printed in that way, really did have anything to do with the circumventing which eventually took place.

On February 4, 1850, Hawthorne wrote to Horatio Bridges:

"I finished my book yesterday, one end being in the press in Boston, while the other was in my head here in Salem; so that, as you see, the story is at least fourteen miles long."

The book appeared about March 16. As Mr. George Parsons Lathrop points out, there seems to have been no expectation of a very successful sale, in spite of Mr. Fields's enthusiasm; but to the surprise of all, the whole issue was exhausted in ten days. A second edition, with a preface dated March 30, was soon published, making, with the first, a total number of five thousand copies. All these were printed by Metcalf & Company of Cambridge. The third issue was entirely reset and electrotyped, and numbered 307 pages.

The second issue, beside the preface, shows numerous changes, especially in words. Among these the bookseller's favorite catch-word "reduplicate" (p. 21, l. 20) was changed to "repudiate." In late copies of the stereotyped form, this word was changed to "resuscitate."

Duodecimo.

Collation:  vi, 322 pp.

91. Uncle Tom's Cabin; | Or, | Life Among The Lowly. | By | Harriet Beecher Stowe. | [Vignette] Vol. I. | Boston: | John P. Jewett & Company. | Cleveland, Ohio: | Jewett, Proctor & Worthington. | 1852.

The first chapter of Uncle Tom appeared June, 1851, in The National Era of Washington, a magazine edited by Gamaliel Bailey, and one of the ablest mediums of opinion of the anti-slavery party. It was finished in April, 1852. Mrs. Stowe received $300 for her labor.

The interest which the story awakened led John Punchard Jewett, a member of the first anti-slavery society in New England, and himself a frequent contributor to the newspapers on anti-slavery topics, to offer to bring it out immediately in book form, giving the author ten per cent. on the sales. The proposition was accepted, and the book was published March 20, 1852. The very remarkable sale of three thousand copies the first day was only an earnest of what was to happen. Over 300,000 copies were sold within the year, and eight power-presses running day and night could hardly supply the demand.

There is a vignette on the title-pages signed by the engravers, Baker-Smith, and each volume contains three unsigned plates, evidently by the same artist, and engraved by the same hands as the vignette. The volumes were bound in black with the vignette of the title-page stamped on the covers, the front impression being in gold.

Octavo.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I: 312 pp.  Volume II: 322  pp. Six plates.

92. The | Stones of Venice. | Volume The First. | The Foundations. | By John Ruskin, | [Two lines] With Illustrations Drawn By The Author. | London: | Smith, Elder And Co., 65. Cornhill. | 1851. [-1853.]

These fine volumes, printed by Spottiswoode and Shaw, have a particularly clean and clear type-page, and are excellent in press-work. It is not the type, however, that demands our especial attention, but the illustrations with which the work is liberally furnished. These distinguish it from anything we have hitherto seen in our list of books. The plates and cuts, made by various processes, mezzo-tinting, lithography, line engraving and wood-cutting, mark most clearly the advance in bookmaking which had taken place within the half century. Hitherto we have had illustrations for their own sakes, or for the ornamentation of the books they are in, and depending for their existence solely upon the liberality and intelligence of the publisher; but here we have illustrations introduced into the book for the sake of the text, of which they are an integral part. Ruskin's own words about them, as found in the Preface, are instructive:

"It was of course inexpedient to reduce drawings of crowded details to the size of an octavo volume,—I do not say impossible, but inexpedient; requiring infinite pains on the part of the engraver, with no result except farther pain to the beholder. And as, on the other hand, folio books are not easy reading, I determined to separate the text and the unreduceable plates. I have given, with the principal text, all the illustrations absolutely necessary to the understanding of it, and, in the detached work, such additional text as had special reference to the larger illustrations.

"A considerable number of these larger plates were at first intended [pg 206] to be executed in tinted lithography; but, finding the result unsatisfactory, I have determined to prepare the principal subjects for mezzotinting,—a change of method requiring two new drawings to be made for every subject; one a carefully penned outline for the etcher, and then a finished drawing upon the etching ...

"For the illustrations of the body of the work itself, I have used any kind of engraving which seemed suited to the subjects—line and mezzotint, on steel, with mixed lithographs and woodcuts, at a considerable loss of uniformity in the appearance of the volume, but, I hope, with advantage, in rendering the character of the architecture it describes."

"The illustrations to the new book," Collingwood adds, "were a great advance upon the rough soft-ground etchings of the Seven Lamps. He secured the services of some of the finest engravers who ever handled the tools of their art. The English school of engravers was then in its last and most accomplished period. Photography had not yet begun to supersede it; and the demand for delicate work in book illustration had encouraged minuteness and precision of handling to the last degree. In this excessive refinement there were the symptoms of decline; but it was most fortunate for Mr. Ruskin that his drawings could be interpreted by such men as Armytage and Cousen, Cuff and Le Keux, Boys and Lupton ... The mere fact of their skill in translating a sketch from a note-book into a gem-like vignette, encouraged him to ask for more; so that some of the subjects which became the most elaborate were at first comparatively rough drawings, and were gradually worked up from successive retouchings of the proofs by the infinite patience of both parties. In other cases, working drawings were prepared by Mr. Ruskin, as refined as the plates."

"Like much else of his work, these plates for 'Stones of Venice' were in advance of the times. The publishers thought them 'caviare to the general,' so Mr. J. J. Ruskin told his son; but gave it as his own belief that 'some dealers in Ruskins and Turners in 1890 will get great prices for what at present will not sell.'"

An "Advertisement" in the second volume tells us, "It was originally intended that this Work should consist of two volumes only; the subject has extended to three. The second volume, however, will conclude the account of the ancient architecture of Venice. The third will embrace the Early, the Roman, and the Grotesque Renaissance; and an Index...."

[pg 207]

The first volume, called The Foundations, and having twenty-one plates, and the second, called The Sea-Stories, with twenty plates, each cost two guineas. The third volume, called The Fall, with twelve plates, cost a guinea and a half. They were bound in cloth, stamped in gold, with the "Lion of St. Mark" on the back. A few copies of both volumes one and two were issued in two parts. The first volume ran into a second edition in 1858, and the second and third were reissued in 1867.

Octavo.

Collation:  Three volumes.  Illustrations.  Fifty-three plates.

93. Men And Women. | By | Robert Browning. | In Two Volumes. | Vol. I. | London: | Chapman And Hall, 193, Piccadilly. | 1855.

This was the only edition of Men and Women published separately. The poems it contained were afterward incorporated in collected editions; with the exception of In a Balcony, they were distributed under the respective headings of Dramatic Lyrics, Dramatic Romances, and Men and Women.

The book was issued in a green cloth binding, at twelve shillings a copy.

Octavo.

Collation:  Two volumes.  Volume I: iv, 260 pp.  Volume II: iv, 241 pp.

94. The Rise | Of The | Dutch Republic. | A History. | By John Lothrop Motley. | In Three Volumes. | Vol. I. | New York: | Harper & Brothers, | 329 & 331 Pearl Street. | 1856.

Motley wrote a letter to his wife, dated at London, May 10, 1854, in which he says that he has had the matter of copyright looked up, and finds that the English law will protect him if he publish his book recently completed, first, by however small an interval, in England. He then carried the manuscript to Murray, who received him civilly, and professed interest in his subject, promising an answer in a fortnight. But the answer, when it came, was unfavorable, and, being of the mind that "if Murray declines ... I shall doubt very much whether anybody will accept, because history is very much in his line," he seems to have tried no farther, but to have arranged with Mr. John Chapman to publish the Dutch Republic himself.

Throughout the transaction Motley was very modest and not at all sanguine for the success of his venture.

"It cannot take in England," he says to his mother in 1855, "and moreover the war, Macaulay's new volumes, and Prescott's, will entirely absorb the public attention." And again to his father, May 13, 1856, he says:

"I have heard nothing from Chapman since the book was published, but I feel sure from the silence that very few copies have been sold. I shall be surprised if a hundred copies are sold at the end of a year."

In reality, the book, as Dr. Holmes said, was "a triumph." Seventeen thousand copies were sold in England alone during the first year, and in America, where it was issued by the Harpers, just long enough after the English edition to fulfill all the demands of the [pg 210] copyright law, it was equally popular. Mr. Murray afterward asked to be allowed to publish The History of the United Netherlands, and expressed his regret "at what he candidly called his mistake in the first instance." Prescott, Motley's friend and generous rival, wrote from Boston, April 18, 1856:

"You have good reason to be pleased with the reception the book has had from the English press, considering that you had no one particularly to stand godfather to your bantling, but that it tumbled into the world almost without the aid of a midwife. Under these circumstances success is a great triumph...."

Octavo.

Collation:  Three volumes.

95. Adam Bede | By | George Eliot | Author Of | "Scenes Of Clerical Life" | [Quotation] In Three Volumes | Vol. I. | William Blackwood And Sons | Edinburgh And London | MDCCCLIX | The Right of Translation is reserved.

Scenes from Clerical Life had appeared in the early part of January, 1858, and had proved an unexpected success, but the name of its author, concealed under a pseudonym, long proved a mystery.

"The first volume [of Adam Bede]," says Mrs. Cross, "was written at Richmond, and given to Blackwood in March. He expressed great admiration of its freshness and vividness, but seemed to hesitate about putting it in the Magazine, which was the form of publication he, as well as myself, had previously contemplated. He still wished to have it for the Magazine, but desired to know the course of the story. At present he saw nothing to prevent its reception in 'Maga,' but he would like to see more. I am uncertain whether his doubts rested solely on Hetty's relation to Arthur, or whether they were also directed towards the treatment of Methodism by the Church. I refused to tell my story beforehand, on the ground that I would not have it judged apart from my treatment, which alone determines the moral quality of art; and ultimately I proposed that the notion of publication in 'Maga' should be given up, and that the novel should be published in three volumes at Christmas, if possible. He assented."

"... When, on October 29, I had written to the end of the love-scene at the Farm between Adam and Dinah, I sent the MS. to Blackwood, since the remainder of the third volume could not affect the judgement passed on what had gone before. He wrote back in [pg 212] warm admiration, and offered me, on the part of the firm, £800 for four years' copyright. I accepted the offer ... The book would have been published at Christmas, or rather early in December, but that Bulwer's 'What will he do with it?' was to be published by Blackwood at that time, and it was thought that this novel might interfere with mine."

The book was published the first day of January with the still unpenetrated pseudonym on the title-page. It cost thirty one shillings and six pence. The advance subscriptions amounted to 730 copies, and the following note, written March 16, gives the history of its success:

"Blackwood writes to say I am 'a popular author as well as a great author.' They printed 2,090 of 'Adam Bede,' and have disposed of more than 1800, so that they are thinking of a second edition."

In May, Blackwood proposed to add, at the end of the year, £400 to the £800 originally given for the copyright. A fourth edition of 5000 volumes was issued in 1859, all of which were sold in a fortnight; a seventh was printed the same year, and in October Blackwood felt justified in proposing to pay £800 more at the beginning of the new year. The sale amounted to 16,000 volumes in one year.

Octavo.

Collation:  Three volumes.

96. On | The Origin Of Species | [Four lines] By Charles Darwin, M.A., [Three lines] London: | John Murray, Albemarle Street. | 1859. | The right of Translation is reserved.

The simplicity and honesty of Darwin's character are nowhere more clearly seen than in his correspondence over the production of this book, which, from its unorthodoxy, he feared might expose others as well as himself to censure. For example, he says in a letter of March 28, 1859, to Sir Charles Lyell, the famous geologist, who made the arrangements for the publication of the work:

"P.S. Would you advise me to tell Murray that my book is not more un-orthodox than the subject makes inevitable ... Or had I better say nothing to Murray, and assume that he cannot object to this much unorthodoxy, which in fact is not more than any Geological Treatise which runs slap counter to Genesis."

Afterward, in a letter to J. D. Hooker, under date of April 2, 1859, he says:

"... I wrote to him [Mr. Murray] and gave him the headings of the chapters, and told him he could not have the MSS. for ten days or so; and this morning I received a letter, offering me handsome terms, and agreeing to publish without seeing the MS.! So he is eager enough; I think I should have been cautious, anyhow, but, owing to your letter, I told him most explicitly that I accepted his offer solely on condition that, after he has seen part or all the MS., he has full power of retracting. You will think me presumptuous, but I think my book will be popular to a certain extent (enough to ensure [against] heavy loss) amongst scientific and semiscientific men.... [pg 214] Anyhow, Murray ought to be the best judge, and if he chooses to publish it, I think I may wash my hands of all responsibility...."

His views on the success of the book are worth recording. To Murray he writes, April 5, 1859: "It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original. If you think otherwise, I must repeat my request that you will freely reject my work; and though I shall be a little disappointed, I shall be in no way injured." And again to J. D. Hooker: "... Please do not say to any one that I thought my book on Species would be fairly popular, and have a fairly remunerative sale (which was the height of my ambition), for if it proves a dead failure, it would make me the more ridiculous."

After the book went to press he found it necessary to make many corrections involving no slight extra expense; without waiting for Murray to complain he took the initiative in setting the matter upon the proper footing in the following manner, in a letter written June 14, 1859:

"P.S. I have been looking at the corrections, and considering them. It seems to me that I shall put you to quite unfair expense. If you please I should like to enter into some such arrangement as the following:

"When work completed, you to allow in the account a fairly moderately heavy charge for corrections, and all excess over that to be deducted from my profits, or paid by me individually."

"... But you are really too generous about the, to me, scandalously heavy corrections. Are you not acting unfairly towards yourself? Would it not be better at least to share the £72 8s.? I shall be fully satisfied, for I had no business to send, though quite unintentionally and unexpectedly, such badly composed MS. to the printers."

The first edition, a child, Darwin calls it, in whose appearance he takes infinite pride and pleasure, was published November 24:

"It is no doubt the chief work of my life. It was from the first highly successful. The first small edition of 1250 copies was sold on the day of publication, and a second edition of 3000 copies soon afterward. Sixteen thousand copies have now (1876) been sold in England; and considering how stiff a book it is, this is a large sale. It has been translated into almost every European tongue, even into such languages as Spanish, Bohemian, Polish, and Russian. It has also, according to Miss Bird, been translated into Japanese [a mistake] and is there [pg 215] much studied. Even an essay in Hebrew has appeared on it, showing that the theory is contained in the Old Testament!"

The second edition of 3000 copies, only a reprint, yet with a few important corrections, was issued January 7, 1860. An edition of 2500 copies was issued in the United States, where it enjoyed great popularity. "I never dreamed," said he, "of my book being so successful with general readers; I believe I should have laughed at the idea of sending the sheets to America."

The sum of £180 was received by the author for the first edition, and £636 13s., for the second.

Duodecimo.

Collation:  ix, 502 pp.   Folded plate.

97. Rubáiyát | Of | Omar Khayyám, | The Astronomer-Poet Of Persia. | Translated into English Verse. | London: | Bernard Quaritch, | Castle Street, Leicester Square. | 1859.

Fitzgerald first offered his translation to the editor of Fraser's Magazine, who returned it after holding it a long time, apparently afraid to publish it. It was not until years afterward that the poet, having nearly doubled the number of the verses, issued it himself, anonymously, inserting in the imprint, without even asking permission, the name of Bernard Quaritch.

The little pamphlet in brown paper, with its eleven pages of biography, and five pages of notes, against sixteen pages of poem, was not attractive in appearance; and we are told that it was not advertised in any way except by entry among the Oriental numbers of Quaritch's catalogue. So it is really not to be greatly wondered at that its sale was slow, even though the price was set as low as five shillings. Two hundred copies remaining on his hands, Quaritch, who had consented to act as bookseller, finally resorted to the expedient of offering them at half-a-crown, then at a shilling, then at sixpence, until finally they were cleared out at a penny a volume.

Those who read it at this price acted as leaven, and nine years afterward, in 1868, a second edition was called for; a third was published in 1872, and a fourth in 1879. These were all issued by Quaritch at his own expense, and all without the translator's name. Quaritch paid Fitzgerald a small honorarium, which he promptly gave away in charity.

Octavo.

Collation:  xiii, 21 pp.

98. Apologia Pro Vita Sua: | Being | A Reply to a Pamphlet | Entitled | "What, Then, Does Dr. Newman Mean?" [Quotation] By John Henry Newman, D.D. | London: | Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, And Green. | 1864.

The pamphlet "What, Then, Does Dr. Newman Mean?" A Reply to a Pamphlet lately published by Dr. Newman. By the Rev. Charles Kingsley., was issued in March, 1864. Cardinal Newman's rejoinder took the form of a series of pamphlets. The first appeared on Thursday, April 21, and its brown paper cover bore the title given above, with the additional line, Pt. I. Mr. Kingsley's Method of Disputation. Thereafter, on successive Thursdays, until June 16, the following numbers appeared: Pt. II. True Mode Of Meeting Mr. Kingsley. Pt. III-VI. History Of My Religious Opinions. Pt. VII. General Answer To Mr. Kingsley. Appendix. Answer in Detail To Mr. Kingsley's Accusations.

A title-page and "Contents" were issued with the Appendix. Parts I, II, and III cost a shilling each, Parts IV, V, and VII, two shillings each, Part VI, and the Appendix, each two shillings sixpence.

The parts were issued afterward in a cloth binding. In later editions almost all of Parts I and II, and about half of the Appendix were omitted, while some new matter was added in the form of notes.

Octavo.

Collation:  iv, 430, 127 pp.

99. Essays In Criticism. | By | Matthew Arnold, | Professor Of Poetry In The University Of Oxford. | London and Cambridge: Macmillan And Co. | 1865.

The first edition contained a satirical and not altogether tasteful preface which, Arnold said in a letter to his mother before the book was out, "will make you laugh." But later, in a letter to Lady de Rothschild written February 11, 1865, he says of it: "I had read the Preface to a brother and sister of mine, and they received it in such solemn silence that I began to tremble...." The silence of his friends and the criticism of others produced their effect upon him, and he writes again, to Lady de Rothschild: "I think if I republish the book I shall leave out some of the preface and notes, as being too much of mere temporary matter ..."

The volume contained nine essays, afterward made ten.

Professor Saintsbury says, in reviewing the book:

"I am afraid it must be taken as only too strong a confirmation of Mr. Arnold's belief as to the indifference of the English people to criticism that no second edition of the book was called for till four years were past, no third for ten, and no fourth for nearly twenty."

We get an intimation of the terms on which the book was published from the following note to Miss Quillinan, dated March 8, 1865:

"The book is Macmillan's, not mine, as my Poems were, and I have had so few copies at my own disposal that they have not even sufficed to go the round of my own nearest relations, to whom I have always been accustomed to send what I write."

Octavo.

Collation:  xx, 302 pp.

100. Snow-Bound. | A Winter Idyl. | By | John Greenleaf Whittier. | [Vignette] Boston: | Ticknor And Fields. | 1866.

It was at first proposed to publish the poem with illustrations by Felix Octavius Darley, who so successfully illustrated Cooper, Irving, Longfellow, Lossing, and many others; but, for some reason, this idea was abandoned, and illustration of the work was reduced to a vignette showing "a view of the old farm house in a snow storm, copied from a photograph ..." It was drawn by Harry Fenn. We might regret that we are thus the losers of some characteristic work by Darley, but, on the other hand, we must agree with Whittier, who, when referring to the proposed illustrations of The Pageant, published later, said: "I know of no one who could do it, however, so well as Harry Fenn." The bit of work reproduced here is in its way quite as worthy of commendation as that drawn by this "Nestor of his guild," for Ballads of New England, 1869, and so appreciatively reviewed by Mr. William Dean Howells in The Atlantic for December.

The poet took an unusual interest in the make-up of his book. For example, he says of the vignette:

"In the picture of the old home, the rim of hemlocks, etc., at the foot of the high hill which rises abruptly to the left, is not seen. They would make a far better snow picture than the oaks which are in the view."

His remarks, too, about his portrait are particularly entertaining.

"I don't know about the portrait. At first thought, it strikes me that it would be rather out of place at the head of a new venture in rhyme. I don't want to run the risk of being laughed at. However, do as thee likes about it. Put thyself in the place of Mrs. Grundy, and see if it will be safe for any 'counterfeit presentment' to brave the old lady's criticism."

[pg 220]

Mr. Fields evidently dared to add the portrait. It is a steel engraving, and bears, besides the name, the following inscription: "Engraved By H. W. Smith. From a Photograph By Hawes." The book is further embellished by a woodcut head-piece and an initial letter, representing snow scenes.

From other letters we learn that Whittier liked the page and type of the volume, and in this he showed himself a good judge. His opinion is confirmed by those who see in the book an example worthy of its publishers, all of whose productions, issued at this period, are good, while some are beautiful in their simplicity and elegance. When the matter of paper was brought up, the author said, "Don't put the poem on tinted or fancy paper, let it be white as the snow it tells of." Fifty copies were printed on large paper, and were probably given by the poet only to his friends. These embodied all the corrections afterward incorporated in the regular editions.

Whittier's feeling for appropriateness is shown also in the following quotation:

"I wish it could come out in season for winter fireside reading—the very season for it.... I shall dedicate it to my brother, and shall occupy one page with quotations from Cor. Agrippa, and from Emerson's 'Snow Storm.' ..."

He changed his mind about the dedication, however, for the book is inscribed "To the memory of the household it describes."

Among the errors which crept into the poem, one, the phrase "Pindus-born Araxes," was afterward corrected to "Pindus-born Arachthus"; and another,

"The wedding knell and dirge of death,"

held its ground from 1866 until 1893.

Whittier's share in the profits of Snow-Bound, we are told, amounted to ten thousand dollars.

Collation:  52 pp.   Portrait.

[pg 224]
[pg 225]

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | V | W

• Absalom And Achitophel, 84, 85
• Adam Bede, 211, 212
• Addison (Joseph). The Spectator, 94-96
• Adonais, 169, 170
• Analogy (The) Of Religion, 104
• Anatomy (The) Of Melancholy, 51, 52
• Apologia Pro Vita Sua, 217
• Arcadia. The Countesse Of Pembrokes, 29-31
• Arnold (Matthew). Essays In Criticism, 218
• Austen (Jane). Pride And Prejudice, 161, 162
• B. (E. B.) Sonnets, 193
• Bacon (Francis), Baron Verulam. Essaies, 34, 35
• Baldwin (William), Thomas Sackville, and Others. A Myrrour For Magiſtrates, 19-21
• Beaumont (Francis) and John Fletcher. Comedies And Tragedies, 69-71
• Bell (Currer). Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. Edited by, 191
• Bible. The Holy, 44-47
• Biglow Papers (The), 194, 195
• Blackstone (Sir William). Commentaries, 121, 122
• Booke (The) of the common praier, 9-11
• Boswell (James). The Life Of Samuel Johnson, 150-152
• Braybrooke (Richard, Lord). See Pepys (Samuel). Memoirs, 173, 174
• Broken Heart (The), 58
• Brontë (Charlotte). Jane Eyre, 191
• Browne (Sir Thomas). Religio Medici, 65, 66
• Browning (Elizabeth Barrett). Sonnets, 193
• Browning (Robert). Men and Women, 208
• Bunyan (John). The Pilgrims Progreſs, 82, 83
• Burke (Edmund). Reflections On The Revolution In France, 146
• Burns (Robert). Poems, 141, 142
• Burton (Robert). The Anatomy Of Melancholy, 51, 52
• Butler (Joseph), Bishop of Durham. The Analogy Of Religion, 104
• Butler (Samuel), Hudibras. 77, 78
• Byron (George Gordon), Sixth Baron. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, 157-160
• Canterbury Tales (The), 3, 4
• Carlyle (Thomas). Sartor Resartus, 183-185.
• Chapman (George). The Whole Works Of Homer, 40-43.
• Chaucer (Geoffrey). The Canterbury Tales, 3, 4
• Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, 157-160
• Christabel: Kubla Khan ... The Pains Of Sleep, 163, 164
• Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande, 15-18
• Clarendon (Edward Hyde, First Earl of). The History Of The Rebellion, 89, 90
• Clarissa, 110, 111
• Coleridge (Samuel Taylor). Christabel, 163, 164
• Coleridge (Samuel Taylor) and William Wordsworth. Lyrical Ballads, 153, 154[pg 226]
• Collins (William). Odes, 109
• Comedies And Tragedies, 69-71
• Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, 53-55
• Commentaries On The Laws Of England, 121, 122
• Common praier. The booke of the, 9-11
• Compleat Angler (The), 75, 76
• Confeſſio amantis, 5, 6
• Congreve (William). The Way of the World, 88
• Conquest Of Peru. History Of The, 187, 188
• Cooper (James Fenimore). The Last Of The Mohicans, 175, 176
• Countesse Of Pembrokes Arcadia (The), 29-31
• Cowper (William). The Task, 137-140
• Cross (Mary Ann or Marian). Adam Bede Edited By George Eliot, 211, 212
• D. (J.). Poems by, 62-64
• Darwin (Charles Robert). On The Origin Of Species, 213-215
• Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire. The History Of The, 133-135
• Defoe (Daniel). The Life And Strange Surprizing Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe, 97, 98
• Democritus Iunior. See Burton (Robert).
• Dickens (Charles). The Posthumous Papers Of The Pickwick Club, 180-182
• Dictionary (A) Of The English Language, 117, 118
• Donne (John). Poems, 62-64
• Dorset (Thomas Sackville, First Earl of). See Thomas Sackville
• Dryden (John). Absalom And Achitophel, 84, 85
• Dutch Republic. The Rise Of The, 209, 210
• Dutchesse of Malfy. The Tragedy Of The, 56
• Elegy (An) Wrote In A Country Church Yard, 114-116
• Elia. Essays Which Have Appeared Under That Signature, 171, 172
• Emerson (Ralph Waldo). Nature, 186
• Essaies, Religious Meditationes, 34, 35
• Essay (An) Concerning Humane Understanding, 86, 87
• Essay (An) On Man, 102, 103
• Essays In Criticism, 218
• Euphues, 26-28
• Evangeline, 192
• Eve Of St. Agnes (The). Lamia, Isabella, 167, 168
• Expedition (The) Of Humphry Clinker, 130, 131
• Faerie Queene (The), 32, 33
• Famous Tragedy (The) Of The Rich Ievv Of Malta, 59
• Federalist (The), 128, 129
• Ferrex and Porrex. The Tragidie of, 24, 25
• Fielding (Henry). The History Of Tom Jones, 112, 113
• Fitzgerald (Edward). Rubáiyát Of Omar Khayyám, 216
• Fletcher (John) and Francis Beaumont. Comedies And Tragedies, 69-71
• Ford (John). The Broken Heart, 58
• Franklin (Benjamin). Poor Richard improved, 119, 120
• George Eliot. Adam Bede, 211, 212
• Gibbon (Edward). The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, 133-135
• Goldsmith (Oliver). The Vicar Of Wakefield, 123-125
• Gower (John). Confeſſio amantis, 5, 6
• Gray (Thomas). An Elegy Wrote In A Country Church Yard, 114-116
• Gulliver (Lemuel). Travels Into Several Remote Nations ... By, 99-101
• Hakluyt (Richard). The Principal Navigations, etc., 36-39[pg 227]
• Hawthorne (Nathaniel). The Scarlet Letter, 202, 203
• Herbert (George). The Temple, 60, 61
• Herrick (Robert). Hesperides, 72, 73
• Hesperides, 72, 73
• History (The) of England, 199, 200
• History (A) Of New York ... By Diedrich Knickerbocker, 155, 156
• History Of The Conquest Of Peru, 187, 188
• History (The) Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, 133-135
• History (The) Of The Rebellion, 89, 90
• History (The) Of Tom Jones, 112, 113
• Holinshed (Raphael). Chronicles, 15-18
• Holy Bible (The), 44-47
• Holy Living. The Rule And Exercises Of, 74
• Homer. The Whole Works Of, 40-43
• Howard (Henry), Earl of Surrey, and Others. Songes And Sonnettes, 22, 23
• Hudibras, 77, 78
• Humane Understanding. An Essay Concerning, 86, 87
• Humphry Clinker. The Expedition Of, 130, 131
• Hyde (Edward), First Earl of Clarendon. The History Of The Rebellion, 89, 90
• In Memoriam, 201
• Inquiry (An) Into The Nature and Cauſes Of The Wealth Of Nations, 132
• Irving (Washington). A History of New York, 155, 156
• Isabella, The Eve Of St. Agnes. Lamia, 167, 168
• Ivanhoe, 165, 166
• Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. Edited By Currer Bell, 191
• Johnson (Samuel). A Dictionary Of The English Language, 117, 118
• Johnson, The Life of Samuel, 150-152
• Jonson (Benjamin). The Workes, 48-50
• Keats (John). Lamia, Isabella, The Eve Of St. Agnes, 167, 168
• Knickerbocker (Diedrich). A History Of New York ... By, 155, 156
• Kubla Khan, A Vision; The Pains Of Sleep. Christabel, 163, 164
• Lamb (Charles). Elia, 171, 172
• Lamia, Isabella, The Eve Of St. Agnes, 167, 168
• Landor (Walter Savage). Pericles And Aspasia, 177-179
• Langland (William). The Vision of Pierce Plowman, 12-14
• Last Of The Mohicans (The), 175, 176
• Life (The) And Strange Surprizing Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe, 97, 98
• Life (The) Of Samuel Johnson, 150-152
• Locke (John). An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, 86, 87
• Longfellow (Henry Wadsworth). Evangeline, 192
• Lowell (James Russell). The Biglow Papers, 194, 195
• Lucubrations (The) Of Isaac Bickerſtaff Eſq., 91-93
• Lyly (John). Euphues, 26-28
• Lyrical Ballads, With A Few Other Poems, 153, 154
• Macaulay (Thomas Babington), First Baron Macaulay, The History Of England, 199, 200
• Malfy. The Tragedy Of The Dutchesse Of, 56
• Malory (Sir Thomas). Le Morte Darthur, 7, 8
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• Memoirs Of Samuel Pepys, Esq. F.R.S., 173, 174
• Men And Women, 208
• Milton (John). Paradiſe loſt, 79-81
• Morte Darthur. (Le), 7, 8
• Motley (John Lothrop). The Rise Of The Dutch Republic, 209, 210
• Myrrour For Magiſtrates (A), 19-21
• Natural History (The) And Antiquities Of Selborne, 143-145
• Nature, 186
• New Way (A) To Pay Old Debts, 57
• Newman (John Henry) Cardinal. Apologia Pro Vita Sua, 217
• Norton (Thomas) and Thomas Sackville. The Tragidie of Ferrex and Porrex, 24, 25
• Odes On Several Deſcriptive and Allegoric Subjects, 109
• Omar Khayyám. Rubáiyát Of, 216
• On The Origin Of Species, 213-215
• Paine (Thomas). Rights Of Man, 147-149
• Pains Of Sleep. Christabel: Kubla Khan ... 163, 164
• Paradiſe loſt, 79-81
• Pepys (Samuel). Memoirs, 173, 174
• Percy (Thomas), Bishop of Dromore. Reliques Of Ancient English Poetry, 105-108
• Pericles And Aspasia, 177-179
• Pickwick Club. The Posthumous Papers Of The, 180-182
• Pierce Plowman. The Vision of, 12-14
• Pilgrims Progreſs (The), 82, 83
• Poe (Edgar Allan). The Raven, 189, 190
• Poems, By J. D., 62-64
• Poems, Chiefly In The Scottish Dialect, 141, 142
• P=or Richard improved, 119, 120
• Pope (Alexander). An Essay On Man, 102, 103
• Posthumous Papers (The) Of The Pickwick Club, 180-182
• Prescott (William Hinckling). History Of The Conquest of Peru, 187, 188
• Pride And Prejudice, 161, 162
• Principal Navigations, (The) Voiages, Traffiques And Discoueries of the Engliſh Nation, 36-39
• Raven (The) And Other Poems, 189, 190
• Reflections On The Revolution In France, 146
• Religio Medici, 65, 66
• Reliques Of Ancient English Poetry, 105-108
• Revolution In France. Reflections On The, 146
• Richardson (Samuel). Clarissa, 110, 111
• Rich Ievv Of Malta. The Famous Tragedy Of The, 59
• Rights Of Man, 147-149
• Rise Of The Dutch Republic, 209, 210
• Robinson Crusoe. The Life And Strange Surprizing Adventures Of, 97, 98
• Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, 216
• Rule And Exercises Of Holy Living, 74
• Ruskin (John). The Stones of Venice, 205-207
• Sackville (Thomas), First Earl of Dorset, and Thomas Norton. The Tragidie of Ferrex and Porrex, 24, 25
• Sackville (Thomas), First Earl of Dorset, William Baldwin and others. A Myrrour For Magiſtrates, 19-21
• Sartor Resartus, 183-185
• Scarlet Letter (The), 202, 203[pg 229]
• School (The) For Scandal, 136
• Scott (Sir Walter). Ivanhoe, 165, 166
• Selborne. The Natural History And Antiquities Of, 143-145
• Sentimental Journey (A), 126, 127
• Shakespeare (William). Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, 53-55
• Shelley (Percy Bysshe). Adonais, 169, 170
• Sheridan (Richard Brinsley). The School For Scandal, 136
• Sidney (Sir Philip). The Countesse Of Pembrokes Arcadia, 29-31
• Smith (Adam). An Inquiry Into The Nature and Causes Of The Wealth Of Nations, 132
• Smollett (Tobias George). The Expedition Of Humphry Clinker, 130, 131
• Snow-Bound, 219, 220
• Songes And Sonnettes, 22, 23
• Sonnets. By E. B. B., 193
• Spectator (The), 94-96
• Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene, 32, 33
• Steele (Sir Richard). The Tatler, 91-93
• Sterne (Laurence). A Sentimental Journey, 126, 127
• Stones of Venice (The), 205-207
• Stowe (Harriet Beecher). Uncle Tom's Cabin, 204
• Surrey (Henry Howard), Earl of. Songes And Sonnettes, 22, 23
• Swift (Jonathan). Travels Into Several Remote Nations ... By Lemuel Gulliver, 99-101
• Task (The), 137-140
• Tatler (The), 91-93
• Taylor (Jeremy). The Rule And Exercises Of Holy Living, 74
• Temple (The), 60, 61
• Tennyson (Alfred), First Baron Tennyson. In Memoriam, 201
• Thackeray (William Makepeace). Vanity Fair, 196-198
• Tom Jones. The History Of, 112, 113
• Tragedy (The) Of The Dutchesse Of Malfy, 56
• Tragedy of The Rich Ievv Of Malta. The Famous, 59
• Tragidie (The) of Ferrex and Porrex, 24, 25
• Travels Into Several Remote Nations ... By Lemuel Gulliver, 99-101
• Uncle Tom's Cabin, 204
• Vanity Fair, 196-198
• Vicar Of Wakefield (The), 123-125
• Vision (The) of Pierce Plowman, 12-14
• Waller (Edmund). The Workes, 67, 68
• Walton (Izaak). The Compleat Angler, 75, 76
• Way of the World (The), 88
• Wealth Of Nations. An Inquiry Into The Nature and Cauſes Of The, 132
• Webster (John). The Tragedy Of The Dutchesse Of Malfy, 56
• White (Gilbert). The Natural History And Antiquities Of Selborne, 143-145
• Whittier (John Greenleaf). Snow-Bound, 219, 220
• Wilbur (Homer) ... The Biglow Papers, Edited ... by, 194, 195
• Wordsworth (William) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Lyrical Ballads, 153, 154.

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