THE LIBRARY

A QUARTERLY REV IEW OF B IBLIOGRAPHY

AND LIBRARY LORE

ED ITED BY J . Y . W . MACALISTER AND

ALFRED W . POLLARD

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CONTENTS .

B I B L IOGRAPH I CA L AND TEXTUAL PROB LEM S OF TH EENGL I SH M IRACLE P LAYS . By W . W . GREG

I,I 68

,2 80

, 3 65TH E B IRTH OF PR I NTING I N SOUTH AFR I CA . By

A . C. G. LLOYDTH E CHUR BREV IARY OR 1 490 AND ITS PR INTER ,

ADAM VON S PE I ER . By V. SCHOLDERER

A LAW SU IT AS TO AN EARLY ED ITION OF TH E P I LGR IM ’ S PROGRE SS . ’ By H EN RY R . P LOM ER

PR IVATE PR INTING PRESSE S IN SUSSEX . By A .

CEC I L P I PERR ECENT FORE IGN L ITERATURE . By E L IZABETH

LEE 80,1 5 5 , 2 66 400

TH E PAN IZZI CLU B . By AL FRED W . PO LLARD 9 5CO-OP ERATION AMONG GERMAN L I BRAR I E S BY

MUTUA L LOAN S AN D TH E I N FORMATION

PAC E

BUREAU . By ERN ST CROUS 1 1 3 , 3 3 7LE I BN ITz AS A L I BRAR IA N . By ARCH I BA LD L .

CLARKEHENRY CROSS GROV E

,JACOB ITE

,JOURNAL I ST AND

PR INTER . By J . B . W I LL IAM STH E ENQU IRY OF TH E DEATH OF R I CHARD HUNN E .By E . JEFFR I ES

AN EAR LY A P PREC IATION OF W I L L IAM BLAKE . ByK. A . E SDA I L E

NOTE S ON TH E INTRODUCTION OF PR INTING I NTOSUSSEX U P To TH E YEAR 1 8 50 , W ITH A CH RONOLOGY OF SU SSE X PR INTERS TO THAT DATE . ByA . CE C I L P I PER

S IXT U S R I ESS I NGER’

S F IRST PRESS AT ROM E . ByV . SC H OLDERER

V i CONTENTS .

PAGEON GETTI NG TO WORK : PART OF A PAP ER READ

BEFORE TH E PAN IZZI C LU B,24TH JUN E, 1 9 1 4 .

By A LFRED W . POL LARDSOM E ROGU ER IE S OF ROBERT WYER . By H . B .

LATH RO PTH E H ISTORY OF A H EBREW LEX I CON . BY STE PH EN

K. JON ESTH E NEED S OF SCOTTI SH LI BRAR IE S . By A . H .

M I LLARREV I EW S AN D NOTICE SINDEX

424

43 9

Th i rd S e r i e s,No . 1 7 , VOL. V. JANUARY, 1 9 14.

THE LIBRARY .

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND TEXTUAL

PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

MIRACLE CYCLES .

’

I .—INTRODUCTION : B IBLIOGRAPHY

AND LITERATURE .

HE importance of bibliography for thestudy of li terature i s somet imes forgot ten alike by the bibliographer andthe crit ic . The former immerses himself in subjeéts which , however interes t

ing in themselves,lead t o few developments beyond

the ir own horizon : the latter i s h abitually shy ofinvest igat ions in a region in which he feels he i snot at home . I t i s well therefore

,occasionally

,t o

insis t on the connexion between the two provinces,

and to Show how intimate i t is’ by attending tosome of the problems that lie along the border .

1 The four lefiures,of wh ich th is is the fi rst

,formed a course

del ivered as Sandars Reader in B ib l iography at Cambr idge,on 2 1

,

24, 2 8 , and 3 1 Oftober, 1 9 1 3 . They are here printed as or ig inal ly w r itten

,but references and notes have been added i n the hope

that these may prove ofuse to studen ts.

V B

2 PROBLEM S OF THE ENGLISH

This must be my excuse if I appear to havechosen as the subjeét of these leéIures one whichhas l i t tle to do with bibliography in the narrowersense . I t may be that I allow the term a somewhat generous extension , i t is certain that I shallh ave occasionally to deal with mat ters that cannotby any stretch be called bibliographical

,but I hope

before I have done to show how impossible i t i st o t reat at all adequately the li terary problems ofthe early drama without at every turn havingrecourse to what a friend of mine has recentlys tyled ‘ the higher bibli ography .

’

Thus my second leét ure will be devoted to thest riéI ly bibliographical problem of the relationshipamong a group of manuscripts

,those of the Ch ester

plays,and I shall endeavour to explain what light

the i r divergence throws on the history of the cycle .Next I shall consider

,in a single remarkable instance

,

that textual interdependence wh ich charaé’terizes

several of our great cycles ; a more li terary invest igat ion this , ye t one in which bibliograph ical cons iderations are constantly coming into play . Lastly

,

dealing with the Ludus Couentriae ,’ I Shall point

out that i t i s only by following two parallel pathsof b ibliographical and literary cri ticism that wecan hope to solve the problem of that mysteriouscompilat ion . I n to-day ’s introdufiory leéIure Ipropose to consider some more general aspeél s

of my subj eé’t , and will endeavour to make clear

how the peculiar conditions under which themiracle drama arose came to leave thei r mark onthe extan t manuscripts

,how therefore a biblio

graphical inves tigat ion of the lat ter may throw

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3

ligh t on th e l i terary evolution of the cycles,and

how a study of documents and records may cluci

d ate both .

Ne i ther time nor occasion will allow of anyth inglike a de tai led accoun t of the origins of th emedieval drama

,but I must remind you as briefly

as I can Of the s trange manner in which that dramasprang from a germ that lies

,i t h as been said

,even

beyond the bounds of articulate speech,and was

nourished in the bosom of that Church which hadshown itself the bit terest enemy of every form oftheatrical aét iv i ty . In tracing rapidly the outlineof this development I Shall do li t tle more thansummarize ce rtain chapters in Mr . Chambers’

admirable work on the M ediaeval S tage,

’ and I shallnot scruple at times to borrow h is very words . ‘Literary students have long since recognized th e

theatrical possibili t ies in the offices of the Church .

How essentially dramatic was the central mysteryof the Mass i tself must at all t imes have beenapparent

,and many other ri tuals were from an

early date inst inéI with mimet i c s ign ifican ce . Thel i turgical drama

,howeve r

,whatever incidental

influence such rites may have had upon its developm ent , took i ts rise at a d ifferent and unex

peéI ed point .About th e year 800, some two centuries after

the choral porti ons of the Mass had been fixed inthe Gregorian Antiphoner, a general tendency to

I Chicfly chapters xv i i i and X ix i n the second volume ; bu t the

fol lowing three chapters have also been freely used . I haveM r. Chambers’ courteous perm ission for the extensive use I havemade of h is work, but I need hardly say that he is i n no degreeresponsib le for any Shortcom ings ofmy summary.

4 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLI SH

elaboration of ri tual led to the insertion of newmelodies in the recognized services . These melodies were originally sung to vowel sounds only

,

but soon words came t o be written for them,and

before the end of the ninth century several d ist incftschools of composi t ion arose , represented by suchauthors as Adam of S t . V ié’ror and N otker ofS t . Gall . These texts, often closely based on scripture

,and known as ‘ tropes

,

’ were introduced atmany differen t poin ts of the office . I n particularthey attached themselves to the ‘ intro it

,

’ thechant sung by the choi r a t the beginning of Massas t he celebrant approaches the altar . Lendingthemselves to divis ion between the two halves ofthe choir

,they readily fell in to the form of

dialogue,and i t i s such a one, from the office for

Easter Day,that claims our immediate at tention .

Quem quaeri t is in sepulcro , o Christ icolae ? sangone semi- chorus

,i n the words of the angel at the

empty tomb .

‘ Iesum N azarenum crucifixum , ocoeli colae

,

’ replied the other for the mourningwomen . Non es t h ic

,surrexi t sicut praed ixerat .

I te,nunt iate quia surrexi t de sepulcro ,

’ resumesthe angelical voice

,and then the whole choir takes

up the in troit,

‘ R esurrexi e t adhuc tecum sum,

alleluia . ’ Here already we have some thing likean embryonic play, and if, as seems possible , i t was

chance more than anything else that made this,rather than various other dialogued tropes , thes tarting-point of the modern drama, at leas t thechance was a happy one .Dialogue of a sort had been achieved , i t remained

to introduce mimes i s . No doubt this crept in

MIRACLE CYCLES . 5

gradually,but i t cannot have been long before

individual voices took the responsive parts,or

before individual s ingers de tached themselves fromthe choir and enaé

’ted some sort of primit ive

drama . By the th ird quarter of the ten th centurythis drama had , even in England , become som eth ing more than primitive . On e performer seatsh imself by a prepared sepulchre, three Others ,making as th ough in search of some thing

,approach

him . The dialogue i s then chanted . The threepass on the t id ings to the full choi r . Then theone at the sepulchre invi tes the th ree to come andsee for themselves . They lift the cloths out of theempty grave and display them before the face ofthe people . Further elaboration both of theatri calbusiness and of text was inevi table and readilyfollowed

,but the greater the complexi ty of th e

drama enaéted , the less su itable i t became as aninciden t in the office of the Mass . In the Engli shuse just desc ribed it has already found a morefitt ing posi t ion immediately before th e ‘Te Deumin the thi rd noéturn at matins on Easter morning ,and this appears to have become i ts regular thoughnot invariable place . I t has also attached itself tothe widespread ceremony of the Easter sepulchre .On Good Friday a cross o r crucifix was solemnlylaid in a prepared tomb

,some times part of th e

high altar,somet im es a separate Sh rine

,where i t

remained t ill early on Easter morning , when , e i thersecre tly or with ceremony

,i t was taken from th e

sepulchre again and set up in a convenien t place .Th ere were the cloths in wh ich this

,and some times

a reserved Host as well,had been wrapped

,that the

6 PROBLEM S OF THE ENGLISH

performers d isplayed before the congregat Ion intoken of Christ ’s R esurreéI ion .

Both the date and place of origin of the Quemquaeri t is

’ are open to some quest ion,though the

lat ter seems most probably to have been Frankish ,and the former cannot have been far from the endof the ninth century . I n the same way the datesand locali t ies of i ts stages of growth are at bes tmatter of conjeéture , but the logical sequence i snot difficult to de termine . Textual elaborat iontook place through the incorporation of anthemsborrowed from other portions of the li turgy

,

notably the ‘ V iéI imae paschali ,’ composed by

W ipo of S t . Gall in the earlier part of the eleventhcentury . Corresponding dramatic elaboration soonextended the scheme of the li turgical drama whichwas now firmly established . Thus

,when two

further performers de t ached themselves from thechoir and followed the Maries t o the sepulchre

,

they stood for Pe ter and John,and another scene

was added to the miniature play . Later a ye tmore important addition was made

,according to

the uses of some churches,in the person of th e

ri sen Chris t h imself, who enaéted the ‘ H ortolanus’

scene w i th Mary Magdalen .

Separate from , bu t probably in imi tation of the‘ Quem quaeri t is,

’ there developed another Easterdrama , known as the Peregrini ,

’ dealing w i th theappearance of Chri st to the two disciples atEmmaus . This play

,which is not found before

the twelfth century,attached itself to th e ‘ Pro

cessio ad fon tes ,’ belonging to the office of Vespers

in Easter week , and appears to have been usually

MIRACLE CYCLES . 7

performed on the Monday . I t developed,as a

second scene,the Increduli ty of Thomas .

Th e next step was the coalescing of th e Quemquaeri t i s and the Peregrini into a single drama .

A long text of the twelfth or th irteenth cen turypresents a play st ill st ri ét ly attached to th e li turgy,which includes the following incidents . P i latese ts a watch before the t omb . An angel sendslightning and the soldiers fall as if dead . Thencome the Maries wi th They buyointment from an ‘

unguentarius.

’ There followsthe ‘ Quem quaeri t is,

’ after wh ich the soldiersannounce the R esurreé

’

t ion to P ilate . A planétus bythe Magdalen leads up to Christ ’s appearance to her .The Maries re turn to the disciples . Chri st appearsto the two pilgrims

,and afterwards to Thomas .

This was probably aét ed at Easter matins .The most V i tal of the accre t ions which th e

‘ Quem quaeri t is’ had so far gathered was the

lament technically known as the planétus.

’ Thisori gInally expressed the sorrow of the V i rgin andher companions round the cross . I t includedreminiscences of the sufferings of Christ , and ,once in troduced into the Easter drama

,inevi tably

suggested the representat ion of such inciden ts .True

,the li turgical drama of Easter remained essen

t ially a R esurrecftion drama , and cannot be shownto have advanced beyond a very rud imentary representat ion of the Pass ion . Nevertheless , such development as took place appears to have started fromthe germ of the planét us.

’ 1 One ‘ ludus breui terI Th is V iew has not passed unchal lenged . See G. C . Tay lor

on The Engl ish PlanétusMar iae,’ i n Modern Ph i lology,’ 1 906-7,

8 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

de Pass ione ’ serves for a prologue,as i t were , to

an elaborate Quem quaeri t is,’ and includes events

from the preparation of the Passover to the Burial .I t is for the most part in dumb show , but in i tthe plauétus of the V i rgin occupies a consp icuousplace .M eanwhile the Easter t rope had been imitated

for the Christmas offi ce : ‘Quem quaeri t is in praesepe

,pastores

,d ici te P Originally an introi t trope

for the magna was subsequently , like i tsprototype

,transferred to matins

,a posit ion in

which a dramatic ‘ OffIc ium Pastorum’

i s foundin at least one use . And just as the Easter playattached itself to the sepulchre

,so that of Chris tmas

attached itself to the ‘ praesepe ’ o r Aboy ‘ in s imilitudine angeli ’ perched ‘ in excelso ’

sang the good t id ings,others ‘ in uol t is ecclesiae ’

took up the Gloria in excels is . ’ Five of theclergy

,representing the shepherds, advanced to

iv . 62 3 note, 63 6-7 . A m inute investigat ion has also appeared byKarl Y oung

,Pub l ications of the Modern Language Assoc iat ion

of Amer ica,

’

1 9 1 0, XXV. 3 09 . Both wri ters,however, express

themselves very guardedly . Tay lor concludes : ‘W hatever thetruth may be in other languages as regards the orig in and development of the passion-plays

,when cons idered i n conneéi ion with

the Engl ish p lays as we have them,th is theory cannot be accepted

W i thou t at least certain qual ificat ions.’ Y oung sums up thus‘A l though i t may be true that the planctus prov ided the firsttang ible impu lse towards a d ramatisi ng of the Pass ion

,the true

pass ion-plays afiual ly written seem ,i n genera l

,to rest firm ly upon

the passio, and to use the planctus on ly inc identa lly .

’

Ne i ther ofthese cr i t ic isms seems to m e to touch the point. L ike a good dealofmodern

,particu larly American

,work they ignore the d ist iné’t ion

be tween the or ig in of a l i terary form and the sources of aCIual

texts. Y oung’s art icle is,however, of very great importance as

regards the d ialogued

MIRACLE CYCLES . 9

the praesepe singing . They were me t with th eQuem quaeri t is by two pries ts quasi obstetrices.

’

But the Chris tm as ‘ Quem quaeri t is’ i s not very

common as an independent play , and the dateof its origin i s uncertain . More important andperhaps earlier i s the ‘ S tella

,

’ a play that had fori ts material s tarting-poin t a star lit with candles,which at th e feast of the Epiphany was hung fromthe roof of the church . I n th e s imples t form ofthis play three performers

,representing the Magi ,

en te r th e choi r s inging and displaying the i r gifts .They see the s tar and follow i t to the h igh altar ,where t hey make the i r offertorium .

’ A boy ,dre ssed as an angel

,announces to them the B irth

of Christ,after wh i ch they ret ire . In more elabo

rate vers ions they,too

,are me t by the midwives

,

and a dialogue ensues . Further elaborat ion includesthe appearance of an angel t o th em in sleep

,and th e

warn ing to re turn another way,which in it s turn

natural ly leads to the introduél ion of a H erod scen eand the Massacre of the Innocen ts . There i s someevidence of an independent Rachel ’ play

,s o that

the appearance of the Massacre in the ‘ S tella ’ maybe due, not to natural expansion , but t o coales cence .Before long th e Pas tores and the S tella ’

themselves coalesced . A drama of considerabledimens ions resulted , especially when th e fl igh tinto Egypt and the deposit ion of Herod were likewise included . In some cases we find th e play performed before a rex

,

’ pre sumably none oth er thanthe ‘ rex fatuorum ,

’ and thi s ‘ rex ’ apparently aét ingthe part of Herod . Chambers makes th e in teresting suggest ion that herein we have the origin of the

I O PROBLEM S OF THE ENGLISH

rant which became a proverbial charaét erist ic ofthat pers onage . ‘One other liturgical play can be traced to an

independent starting-poin t in the offi ce,this t ime

not a c hant,but a ‘ leétio .

’ A highly rhetoricalpassage from the pseudo-Augustin ian sermon onthe prophecies of Christ , which figured in differentuses on a varie ty of occasion s during th e Adventand Christmas seasons , apparently came to bechan ted instead of read , and was later recast inmetrical d ialogue . Each prophe t i s summonedin turn and repeats h is prophecy of the comingof the M ess iah . Costumes and symbols appear

,

and the choir comments on the utterance of each .

Later B alaam was in troduced,and his dialogue with

the ass expanded in to a min iature drama . This was

almost certainly not,as has often been asserted , the

origin of the festum asinorum ,

’ or Feast of Fools,

but i s much more likely to have been a deliberateand ingenious attempt to turn the establishedpresence of an ass i n the church to the purposesof ed ificat ion . Anyhow

, in thi s processio prophe tarum we have an anticipat ion of the OldTestament plays of the later cycles .There were

,indeed

,other lI turgI cal plays—plays

that 1 3,designed for performance In church during

intervals of the serv ice . But while in the case ofthose we have been considering i t is possible t oI t Should be mentioned that a sem i-d ramat ic ceremony of the

descent ofa wh i te dove from the roof of the church attached i tse lfto the d ialogued gospe l for the feast of the Annunc iation, and thatlater

,as is not surpr ising, th is r i te came to be assoc i ated with the

festiv i t ies of Advent,and was thus absorbed in to the Christmas

dramatic cycle .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 I

t race pre t ty clearly the i r spontaneous growth ou tof the li turgy itself

,i n that of the others such

growth cannot be asserted , though nei ther, i n thepresent state of our knowledge , can i t be confidentlydenied . I refer to those plays founded on th elegends of saints or on i solated episodes of thebibli cal narrat ive

,which h ave the appearance of

be ing deliberate imitat ions of th e already developedli turgical dramas proper . Such are the three playsof the vagran t scholar Hilarius

,the pupil of

Abelard,dealing in mixed French and Latin with

S t . N icholas , Daniel, and Lazarus , which by the i rrubrics are explici tly if loosely conneé’ted with theoffices of th e Church . They belong to the firsth alf of the twelfth century . Through a fortunateaccident of fire we learn of a ‘ miracle ’ of S t .Catherine prepared by the sch olars of a schoolat Dunstable abou t 1 1 00 . Other plays seem tobe recorded on all the themes t reated by Hilarius

,

as l ikewise on I saac and Rebecca, Elisha, Salome ,and the conversion of S t . Paul . Finally

,we have

two importan t p ieces less closely conneéted withthe li turgy

,though st ill clearly intended to be aé’ted

in church and to take the i r places in the ri tualcycle of the year

.One of these i s the Sponsus,

’

a play , partly in French , based on the parable ofthe W i se and Fooli sh V i rgins

,which by i ts subjeé

’

t

is closely conneé’ted with the Advent or Chri stmas

season The o ther i s th e long and elaborateTegernsee ‘ Antichrist ,

’ a remarkable anti-papaland anti- cleri cal composi tion

,in troducing alle

gorical figures, which was probably writ ten about1 1 60, and is extant in a manuscript only some half

1 2 PROBLEM S OF THE ENGLISH

century later. This,t oo

,almost certainly belongs

to Advent .Wi th the comple tion of the Christmas and Easter

cycles the striétly l i turgical s tage in the evolut ionof the drama came to an end . So long as the twomaintained the i r connexion with the offices of thedifferent seasons

,amalgamation was clearly im

possible . But the t ie was weakening . Everyfresh elaboration rendered th e representat ion ofthe plays as part of the Church service more andmore difficult

,and at t imes unseemly ; every loosen

ing of the connexion offered fresh Opportuni ty fordramatic growth . Th e Nativity and R esurreé’t ionplays subsisted awhile parallel and independent

,

but the Prophe tae’ came to be prefixed as a pro

logue to e ither,and each was thus linked into i ts

fitt ing place in the history of the world , or, whati s more importan t

,in the great drama of the

Redemption . I t remained to place th e two Cyclestoge ther behind thei r common prophetic prologue

,

and the vast scheme was comple te . This step isknown to have been taken before the year 1 3 00 .

But both before and after that date considerableelaboration of materi al took place . As already said

,

the Passion proper never grew beyond an embryonics tage so long as drama was closely conneét ed w i thri tual . But the line of development was obvious,and i t was soon followed , when greater freedomand lati tude were gained by the severance of th eli turgical bond . The aé’tual R esurrecftion came t obe enaéI ed , Chri st s tepping out of th e tomb withthe ‘ labarum ’ or banner in h is hand

,and a new

scene was introduced in the Harrowing of H ell .

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x4 PROBLEM S OF THE ENGLISH

more dramatic t reatment . The chain of evolutionappears comple te .

I

The Old Testament seét ions of the miracle cyclesare

,of course

,not confined to the representations

of prophets,but they are governed by what may

be called the proph et ic principle . This is a poin tupon which I des ire to lay stress . They do notappear for the i r own sake

,but for the i r relat ion to

what follows : they are not themselves dramas,but

dramatic prologues . The Fall i s there as beingimplied by the Redemption , the Creation as thecounterpart of Doomsday . The necessary data forthe plot are given

,otherwise i t is for the i r prophet ic

s ignificance that episodes are in troduced . Some ofthe plays are aétual Prophe t plays , many more concern the so-called types of Chris t . This curiousprinciple of type and anti type

,most familiar to us

perhaps from the ‘ B iblia Pauperum ,

’ appears insome of the earlies t English church-decorat ion .

The Klosterneuburg altar enamels,which exhibi t

i t,date from 1 1 8 1 . I t is found in illuminati ons

of the thirteenth century , and i t is probablethat that century saw the evolut ion of the‘ B iblia P auperum

’ i tself,the earliest manuscripts

of which date from soon after 1 3 00 . Of course,

the prophet ic principle was not invariably applied .

1 Th is evolution again has been d ireét ly chal lenged in a recentarticle by Hard in Craig i n Modern Ph i lology

,

’

1 9 1 2-3 , x .

not,I th ink

,very successful ly . No doubt the development took

p lace under the influence of the ‘ leét iones’

for Septuagesima toLent

,which deal with O ld Testament subjetfts, part icu larly types

ofChrist ; but in the absence of any clear ind i cat ion of dramat icdeve lopment of these with in the aé’tual l i turgy, they cannot bethemselves regarded as a source .

MIRACLE CYCLES . I 5

O ccasionally Old Testament h istory as such was puton the s tage . A P rophetae at R iga included scenesfrom the wars of Gideon , David, and Herod . Anindependent play of the Old Testament was

performed at that dramatically anomalous place,

London . There i s th e French Mystere du V ielTes tament ’ But on the whole

,and more par

t icularly In England,i t is t rue that the Old

Tes tament seét ion remained essentially a prophet icprologue . Certainly the extant English miraclecycles are not theatrical epics of universal history,but striét ly dramas of the Redemption of man , andas such proclaim a legitimate descen t from the i rfar-away source in the words of the angel :

Quem quaerit is in sepulcro, o Christ icolae ?

So far,we are to th ink of the great Nativi ty and

PassiOn cycles, if not of the whole composite drama,as be ing performed in church . The next step was

from the church to the marke t-place,and the

growth that necessi tated or suggested i t likewiseled to the int roduét ion of lay performers . Theeffeét of these two changes was momentous .Roughly i t meant that the plays from be ingeccles ias t i cal became human

,from being Latin

became vernacular, from be ing cosmopolitanbecame national . The change of place naturallydid not occur at any definite date ; i t was a gradualSh ifting . The Dunstable school play was probablyas early as 1 1 00

,and plays were afied in the refec

tory at Augsburg about 1 1 2 3 . But th e shift intothe open air does not appear to have taken placet ill nearly a century later

,and the t ransit ional

1 6 PROBLEM S OF THE ENGLISH

period that ended with the complete secularizationof the plays did not come to an end before themiddle of the th irteenth century at earliest .We now come to what is

, I think, the mostobscure part of the development of the religiousdrama, namely i ts t ransference to the hands of theguilds

,i ts associat ion with the process ion of Corpus

Chris t i , and i ts consequen t elaborati on into th ehighly specialized form which we find more orles s perfeétly or imperfeét ly represented by theextan t English cycles . This form and th is mannerof representati on we re not universal . I n Francethe tendency was for the plays to be aéted

’

bysociet ies formed for the purpose . Someth ing ofthe same sort seems to have occurred in London .

But,so far as the extan t English cycles are con

cerned,there can be no doubt what was the

typical me thod of produét ion ,and ample evidence

exists in th e records of many towns for regardingi t as at any rate a very usual method in th iscountry .

How and at what date the rel igious plays fellin to the hands of the craft guilds i s uncertain .

But whether the guilds already h ad Charge of themwhen the Corpus Christ i feast became popular

,

or whe ther they assumed charge as be ing themselves as i t were branches of th e Corpus Christ iguild

,there i s no ques t ion of the importance of th e

fest ival itself, and consequently of the date 1 3 1 1 ,i n the his tory of the religious drama . I t wasnam ely through the procession , which appearsfrom the first to have been th e chief feature in theri tes of the new fest ival

,that the drama acquired

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 7

i ts processional charaét er . For the organizationof the lay elements of that procession a guild ofCorpus Christ i was formed in the more importanttowns

,and seems commonly to h ave included the

bulk of the civic populat ion . I t would thereforeembrace the craft or t rade guilds . Between procession and drama the associat ion i s clear in therecords . I t has some times been held that theprocessional drama aéI ually sprang from the procession

,taking i ts orIgIn In members of different

guilds appearing in the costumes of biblical Ch araéi ers, which is known in some places t o havebeen customary

,passing through a s tage of pro

cessional aCting,and ending in pageants or movable

s cenes giving performances at fixed stat ions . ThisView

,however

,assumes an evolution of the drama

afresh from d ist inét origins , and independent orlargely independent of th at wh ich had previouslytaken place out of the li turgy . Moreover

,we

know that the s tations of the process ion belongedoriginally not to the pageants but the Host . I tseems to me more reasonable t o suppose that prev iously exist ing plays somehow became attachedto th e procession , or that new ones were writtenon exist ing models to suit a new method of reproscu tation . We know that th e players somet imeswalked in costume in the procession before givinga performance at a different t ime and place

,and

the presence of costumes i n the procession a t placeswhere no performance followed may be explainedas deliberate imitat ion on the part of those townsh ips which were e i ther no t rich o r not energet icenough to support a regular dramatic cycle .V C

1 8 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

Of course , not all the plays aéted even in Englandwere of the same type . Some g reat processi onalcycles have survived

,and others are well known

from the records . Some fragmentary cycles areextan t . Some i solated plays that h ave come downto us are known to belong to recorded cycles

,as

in the case of the Norwich Fall,

’ or conjeéi uredt o belong to los t cycles

,as in those of two plays on

the Sacrifice of I saac .

’ Other cycles,however

,

were not divided into separate pageants at all,but

were intended, l ike those of Cornwall , for cont inuous performance on a fixed stage . Such wereprobably two cycles performed at Aberdeen

,and

such was certainly the intention of the reviser wholeft the Pass ion seét ion of th e Ludus Couent riaein i ts present form . Saints’ plays

,again

,are well

known from records , while a ‘ Convers ion of S t ’.Paul ’ and a vas t Magdalen drama are extant in latemanuscripts . I t is noticeable that no instanceof a S t . N icholas play has so far been recorded inEngland

,nor

,I believe

,has any sain t play for

which a tradi tional connexion w ith the li turgycan be claimed . Several plays of S t . George arement ioned

,apart from the popular mummings .

One curious drama of a miracle of the Host,

founded on an incident alleged to have happenedin Spain in 146 1 , i s preserved ; while a recentlydiscovered manuscrip t of a single aéI or

’

s part ou tof a very typical Miracle of Our Lady proves thatth i s s t range branch of the religious drama, so

I The so-cal led Dubl in play (MS . at T . C . which maybelong to Northampton

,and that i n the Brome Hal l manuscr ipt .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 9

prolific in France, was not unknown in th is countrye i ther.But normally the religious play in England con

sisted of a series of individual scenes from sacredhis tory or belief from Creation to Doomsday ,centring in the Redemption , aé’ted by the variouscity guilds on movable pageant s drawn in proces sion th rough the stree ts and halting at recognized stat ions . The management of these performances, which are represented some times as anasse t of the community

,and some t imes as a burden

on i ts resources , were usually under the d ireé’t orind ireét control of the corporat ion . At Le icesterand Beverley the ci ty seems to have owned someat least of the properties

,and this may originally

have been the case even at York . At Lincolnthe plays were managed by a guild of S t .Anne

,at Norwich by a guild of S t . Luke .

The relat ion between such guilds and the corporat ion,

and be tween th is and the guild ofCorpus Chris t i

,i s very obscure ; but i t is, I

think , s ignificant that at Ipswich , where theCorpus Chris t i guild had the whole conduCt ofthe plays , this was i tself a reorganization ofthe old guild-merchant

,and was praét ically iden

t ical with the corporati on . Anyhow,the con

nexion between th e plays and the feast of CorpusChrist i was t radi tional

,and is constantly insisted

on . At Chester the plays were aé’ted at Whi tsunt ide , but they are constantly spoken of as CorpusChrist i plays . A supplementary performance seemsto have been given on the feast day ; no doubt thatwas the original date . Even at York

,where i t

20 PROBLEM S OF THE ENGLI SH

remained the recognized season for the plays,they

were once at least afted on Whit Tue sday . Theclash of plays and process ion was always inconv enient , and would account for any shift ing . In1 426 i t was proposed at York that the plays shouldbe postponed to the Friday after the feast

,but

ultimately i t was the procession that gave way .

The c lose connexion between the p lays and th eCorpus Chris t i fest ival also appears when we consider the dates to which the former can be t racedback . The feas t was inst i tuted in 1 3 1 1 . A reasonab le tradition ass igns the origin of the Ches te rplays to I 3 28 . The guild of Corpus Christ i atCambridge performed plays about I 3 TheBeverley plays are recorded in 1 3 7 7 , and were an‘ antiqua consuetudo ’ in 1 3 90 ; those of York arerecorded in 1 3 7 8 , and were aéI ed in 1 3 94 atstat ions ‘

an t iqu i tus assignat is.

’ Th e Coventryplays

,in the i r day the most famous of all

,cannot

be traced back further than 1 3 92 . Most of thecycles came to an end in the las t quarter of thes ixteenth century . I t is possible that an abort iveat tempt was made to aft the Chester plays i n 1 600

,

and at Kendal a Corpus Christ i play is said to havel ingered well on in to the seventeenth century .

You will ask very properly what all this has todo w i th bibliography . I propose to spend the restof my hour in answering that quest ion .

Those who have s tudied the extant plays indetail w ill know how deeply the peculiar circum

A ‘ ludus F i l iorum Israel is ’

is mentioned . The posi t ion of

the sim i larly named play in the Bever ley l ist shows that aMas sacre of the Innocents ’

is i n tended .

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22 PROBLEM S OF THE ENGLI SH

earlier s tate i t was aéted by the Bowyers , Flet chers ,and I ronmongers

,who probably formed a flourish

ing company and when with these were associatedthe S tringers and Coopers

,the play

,which had

already outgrown its limits,split int o two . The

connexion be tween Bowyers and S t ringers i s obviousenough

,but it is not very easy to see how a

guild of Coopers should come t o bud off from thesame parent s tem . Ye t a similar th ing seems tohave h appened at Beverley . There

,in 14 1 1 , the

Bowyers and Fletche rs aé’ted both the Sacrifice ofI saac and the Fligh t into Egypt

,

’ while about ahundred years later the latter play was in the handsof the Coopers . But Coopers and Bowyers cont inued to elec‘l one alderman between them .

‘ H eret hen is an instance in which the growth of a cyclecan be traced in the extan t manuscripts and i llust rated by extant records . Again , at Beverley , in1 49 3 , the Drapers spli t off from the M ercers , w i ththe result that the Trial before H erod had to bedivided from that before Pilate . The process canalso be t raced at York . There

,in 14 1 5 , the cycle

consis ted of fifty-one pageants , somewhat later offifty

-seven . The extant manuscript contains fortyfiv e

,but at least three were omitted . Of these one

was subsequently suppl ied,and two others of later

date w ere also added . Th e two Magi plays seemto h ave arisen by spli t ting . On the other hand

,

several Chester p lays suggest fusi on . Substi tuti onalso took place . We have two vers ions of the

1 H istor ical MSS . Comm iss ion, ‘ Bever ley pp . 99, 69See M . L . Spencer

,

‘ Corpus Christ i Pageants in England,

pp . 3 6, 8o.

MIRACLE CYCLES . 2 3

‘ Fall ’ from the Norwich cycle , and the Wakefield or Towneley manuscript contains alternat iveShepherd plays .I pass to another point . A striking feature of

the York cycle i s the great difference in the lengthof the plays

,th e earlier ones being v ery short and

some of the later very long . Th e same featuremay also be observed elsewhere

,though in the

Ch ester cycle i t h as apparently been obscured byamalgamation . In a processional cycle th is wouldcause great inconvenience and can hardly havebeen deliberately des igned . I t may possibly be anaccidental result of subsequent revision

,but i t may

equally be a natural though undes igned consequenceof the manner of representation . For there i sevidence that in the Corpus Christ i process ion the

pagean ts originally preceded th e Host,and we

know that the place of greatest honour was thatneares t the latte r . Consequently

,the least im

portant crafts would come firs t,and the shortness

of the earlier plays may be due to th e small resourcesof the guilds undertaking them .

I n studying the texts of the miracle plays thathave come down to us

,we have to be very careful

to distinguish th e nature of the manuscripts inwhich they are extant . At York

,according to

the records,the ‘ originals ’ of the plays were i n

the hands of the ;various guilds ; when the corpo t at ion found it necessary to have copies fo r the i rown use they caused a ‘ register ’ t o be compiled

,

transcribing the separate plays in order in to avolume . A similar origin may reasonably bepostulated for th e Wakefield manuscript . At

24 PROBLEM S OF TH E ENGLISH

Chester,on the other hand

,the ‘ original ’ was a

complete manuscrip t in the possession of the corporat ion, the guilds h aving transcripts of thei rindividual plays . On one occasion the Smiths paidfor permission to peruse the ‘ original . ’ At Beverleythey were cop ies

,

‘ registra,

’ of the Pater Nosterplay that were given to the crafts , the ‘ original ’

be ing re tained by the corporation . I t would perh aps be unwise to insi s t much upon the use of thewords original ’ and register in the records

,bu t

the d ist inéfion i s corroborated by an examinationof the extan t manuscripts . That of the York cyclei s a manifest compilat ion

,blanks having been left

for th e insertion of plays wh ich were not at th emoment forthcoming . I n the Wakefield m anuscript blanks were not left

,but miss ing plays were

some times inserted later on out of the i r prope rorder . One separate m anuscrip t of a York playi s extan t . I t is made to fold in a wrapper for th epocke t

,and bears marks of hav ing been much

handled . On the cover is the name of theScriveners ’ guild . Inside i s a late transcript ofth at guild ’s pagean t

,the ‘ Doubting of Thomas

,

’

without t itle,number

,or heading of any kind .

I t is not a copy from the register,’ which

,th ough

younger,i t sometimes correé

’

ts, but is clearly i tselfan ‘ original ’ descended from a line of earlier‘ originals ’

now lost . Turning to the Che ste rplays

,we find no less than five colleé

’t iv e manu

scripts . All are late,the earlies t be ing dated

1 5 9 1 . A compari son of the text proves boththat a number more must have peri shed , and thatthe general feature s of the cycle are of some

MIRACLE CYCLES . 2 5

an tiquity . There i s no evidence th at th e manuscripts represent a compilat ion of separate texts .In th i s case l ikewise we are fortunate enough topossess an independent manuscrip t of a single play ,

and this h appens to be nearly a hundred yearsolder than the olde st colleé’t iv e manuscript . Likethe York Scriveners ’ book

,i t has been folded for

the pocke t,but it has lost i ts origin‘ al cover , so

th at we cannot tell whe ther i t ever bore the nameof the guild to wh ich i t belonged

,presumably the

Dyers . But at the head of the text appears bothth e subj ec’t of the play , the Coming of Antichri s t,and i ts numbe r in the comple te cycle . I t follow sth at i t must h ave been at some t ime transcribedfrom a colleé’t ive manuscrip t . W i th th is corroborat ion we shall

,I th ink

,be just ified in trusting

the records in the m at ter of ‘ original s ’ andregisters . ’

Th e d ist inéfion once grasped , explains ce rtaincurious differences be tween th e York and Chestercycles . The former i s clearly seen to be in th em ain a colleéi ion of separate plays which havegrown and developed individually wi thout rest raintand largely independent of one anothcir.

2 Where

At Coventry the recorded manuscripts are certa in ly the or ig inalcopies of the sixteenth century rev ise r

,Robert Crow

,and w e

know that in the m iddle of the fifteenth century the ‘or ig ina l ’

ofthe Sm i ths’ p lay was kept by the master of the company andhanded over to the pageant con traé’tor when Corpus Ch rist i dayapproached (T. Sharp

,

‘ Coventry Myster ies,

’ p . There isno ev idence that a colleéI ed reg iste r was ever comp i led atCoventry .

2 The re is no reason against postu lating a complete manuscr iptofthe cycle in its or ig inal form

,or even aga inst supposing that

26 PROBLEM S OF THE ENGLI SH

each guild was the ow ner of its particular play th isi s precisely what we should expeét , for it did whati t liked with i ts own in the absence of centralcontrol

,and there i s no evidence of any register

be ing compiled before abou t 147 The charaéterof the Chester plays i s qui te different . They forma whole far more homogenous than any of theother known cycles . Not bu t what there has beenplenty of alterati on . Plays have been amalgamatedand d ivided

,inserted

,and perhaps omit ted

,as well

as interpolated and revised . But the alterati onsare throughout of a kind that may quite well havebeen made in an official copy and incorporated inthe transcripts which must have been periodicallyneeded .

The cycles were elastic in another way . Notonly did the conten ts vary from time to t ime

,but

at no t ime possibly was i t quite ce rtain what a givencycle included . We know that the extant manuscrip ts of the Chester plays do not contain all thepageants that were some t imes performed as partof the cycle

,and it is doubtfu l whe ther any manu

script ever d id . For instance,we miss the ‘ As

sumption of the V i rgin,

’ a play of which we haverecord

,and the theory that i t was omitted from

our manuscripts out of Protestan t prejudice can ,I think

,he disproved . I t was presented , which

such a manuscrip t may have su rv ived in to late r t imes ; but i f i tsurv ived

,i t d id so as an an tiquar ian monument

,not as an author ized

standard for the text.I The ed i tor of the York P lays assigned the extan t MS . to

1 430-40, bu t th is is certa in ly too early . I do not th ink that any

competent cr i t ic to-day would p lace i t much before the m iddle of

the second hal f of the century .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 27

does not mean aéI ed , by ‘ the worsh ipfull wyues

of this towne,

’ and was also performed independent ly . I t was, therefore , one of those plays wh ichdid not belong to the regular guilds , but were givenby loosely attached companie s which somet imesassociated with them on these occasions . Th eAssumption was a favouri te subjeéi for such bodiest o choose . Both at Lincoln and at Beverley i t was

performed by the pries ts . At York,on the oth er

h and,i t was given by the Innkeepers , who w ere

reorganized for th is purpose in 1 48 3 , but neverbecame a regular guild

,and the text of the i r play

in the ‘ register ’

is a fragment added in a late rhand .

ll Perhaps it i s S ign ificant that in the ‘ LudusCouent riae

’ the Assumption play i s clearly of adifferen t origin from the rest of the cycle . Again

,

in 14 1 5 the Hospi tal of S t . Leonard at York tookcharge of the ‘ Purificati on ,

’ and the play is absen tfrom the extant manuscript . Also i t is recordedthat there was dis content at Beverley because th e‘ generos i ’ escaped the burden of a play

,and in

1 4 1 1 they were charged with the produéi ion ofone . But in thi s case the newcomers seem to havebeen allotted one of th e most fundamental plays ofthe cycle , for about a hundred years later we findthem giving th e ‘ Peregrini . ’ Thus we h ave t oassume that no t only w ere the regular guild playsconstantly changing and be ing altered and rev ised

,

but that round or th rough th is comparatively stableI They had, howeve r, produced a play on the same subjeéi

earl ier, the text ofwh ich is preserved i n the or igina l ‘ reg ister . ’Th ey are there cal led the Ost eleres

,

’ and a later hand has added‘ al ias Inholders ’ and also the word caret

,

’ ind i cat ing apparent lythat th is text had been cancel led in favour of the later version .

2 8 PROBLEM S OF THE ENGLISH

planetary system wandered or revolved a varie ty oferrant dramatic come t s which were never perm anent ly captured by the central at t raéfion of theCorpus Christ i fest ival .A ll t h is adaptat ion and revision naturally in

volved a great deal of rew ri ting and copying .

Perhaps we ought not to complain that we haveless informat ion concerning au thors and scribesthan we could desi re : the wonder i s that therecords have yielded as much as they have .

Hilarius,who wrote In French and Latin in the

twelfth century , may have been an Englishman .

The earliest name conneéfed w i th Engli sh miracleplays is that of Ranulf Higden

,author of the

‘ Polychronicon,

’ who is credited w i th havingw ri t ten the Chester plays in 1 3 2 8 . One ThomasBynham was paid for w ri t ing the ‘ banns ’

at

Beverley in 142 3 . At Coventry there were new

plays in 1 5 20 ,and the Weavers paid fiv e shillings

‘ for makyng of the play boke’

in 1 5 3 5 , the yearin which the extan t text of the i r pagean t was‘ newly translate ’ by Robert Crow . The Shearmen and Tailors ’ play was also newly correét by“him a few days later . At Bungay

,S tephen Prewet t

,

a priest of Norw ich,was paid fo r copying the play

in 1 5 26 , and in I 5 5 8 W illiam Ellis rece ived fourpence for th e in terlude and game book , and two

sh illings for w ri t ing out the parts . An extantMassacre and Purification play of 1 5 1 2 purportsto be written or copied by one John Parfre . Alate ‘ Convers ion of S t . Paul ’ bears the name of

Miles Blomefield,and the in i t ials M . B . occur

elsewhere . H e has,however

,been identified with

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3 0 PROBLEMS OF MIRACLE CYCLES .

I have attempted noth ing like a systematicaccount of the Engli sh miracle drama from thebibliographical point of View . My only objeé

’t has

been to put before you a few cases that illust ratethe bearing of bibliographical invest igation and theexamination of records upon the li terary h istoryof the religious drama . To several of the pointsmentioned I shall return in my later leétures.

W . W . GREG.

THE BIRTH OF PRINTING IN

SOUTH AFRICA .

N the year 1 7 84, probably towards thelat ter end of it

,there arrived in Cape

Town the man who was to introducethe art of print ing into South Africa .Born at Hof

,in the marquisate of

Beyreuth ,Johan Christ ian R i t ter came of a family

whose members were all employed in some branchof the bookselling or bookbinding trade ; twobrothers were in the booksell ing bus iness at Hof

,

and two of his three s is ters were married into thesame t rade . R i t ter h imself re tained an interes tin a firm engaged in the book- t rade in his nativel and unti l the day of h is death in 1 8 1 0 . Comingto an appointmen t as bookbinder In the service ofthe Dutch East I ndia Company

,R i t ter e i ther

brought with him , or rece ived shortly after h isarrival, a small print ing press , on which , as hes tates in a memorial addressed to S i r GeorgeYonge some s ixteen years later

,

‘ he praé’

t ised

printing such trifies as his small apparatus wouldallow .

’ These ‘tr ifles

’ were probably handbillsand advertisements ; but a more ambit ious undertaking was the issue during three years of SmallAlmanacs calculated after th e Meridian of th is

3 2 B IRTH OF PRINTING

place . ’ These almanacs are twice alluded to incontemporary l i terature . Barrow

,writing of the

one i ssued for the year 1 7 97 , remarks‘ that of the

current year has somewhat suffered in i ts reputat ion by having stated an ecl ipse of the moon tofall on the day preceding the full

,and to be

invisible,when

,unluckily for the almanac—maker

,

i t happened at i ts proper t ime,vis ible and nearly

total . ’ Lady Anne Barnard was no less unkind inh er reference to poor R i t ter’s experiment . Wri tingunder the date I st June

, 1 800,to Henry Dundas

,

sh e says :

This page is like a newspaper . That reminds me

the Gove r nor is resolved to have one he re . If it answe rsas the p rin t i ng of a n Almanac did in the Dutch t ime

,

'

it

will be d roll . The p rin te r made a fo r tune of two shillingsby it : each ofthe fou r d ist rict s took one at Sixpence ~—3 llthe inhabitants read or copied ou t of that one .

’

Of these early producfions the only one atpresent known to exist i s a fragmen t of the Almanacfor the year 1 7 9 6 preserved in the South AfricanPubl i c Library at Cape Town . Nothing issuedfrom R i t ter’s press during the firs t decade of i tsworking seems to h ave survived . Of the threealmanacs B arrow show s one to be for 1 7 97 , thefragment i s part of that for the previ ou s year

,and

Lady Anne ’s reference to the Dutch time provesthe remaining one to h ave been issued for 1 7 9 5 orearl ier .I t is now necessary to go back a few years to

examine the proposals of the Government at theCape to import prin ting materials from Holland .

IN SOUTH AFRICA . 3 3

I t appears from a despatch of the Governor Vande G raaff to the Seventeen in Amsterdam thatsome t ime prior to Decembe r

,1 7 8 3 , requisi t ion

had been made by h is predecessor for the supply ofa prin ting-press for the use of the colon ial government . The Governor ’s reques t was refused bythe Seventeen in the i r despatch of 5 th December,1 7 8 3 . Three years later requisit ion was againmade

,and again refused . Van de Graaff submitted

that w riting w ork had so much increased i nconsequence of the expansion of the Company ’sset tlement that i t could no longer be properlydone . He proposed that a press with a trainedprinter should be sent out , and that certain of theclerks be put to learning the t rad e of prin t ing .

The projeé’

t seems to have been revived in 1 7 9 3 ,for in that year the Council of Policy at the Caperesolved to establish a print ing press

,and had

promised the appointmen t as Superintendent t oJ . C . R it te r . Wri ting to the Council in March ,1 7 9 5 , R it ter s tates

‘ that the pe t it ioner does notknow if h is hope and expeéfat ion will ever befulfilled

,ye t it i s certain that the materials for the

said prin t ing establishment have not arrived here ,and thus also have not ye t been imported .

’ In ape ti t ion to S i r George Yonge

,dated 20th August ,

1 800 ,R i t ter avers that the Seventeen had at last in

1 7 9 5 authorised the Cape Government to importa press

,and had acceded to the i r recommendation

of h imself to be appointed as Managing Printer toGovernment . Before this arrangement could beeffeé’ted , the Cape was surrendered to the English ,and R i tter was again disappointed .

D

34 B IRTH OF PRINTING

In January, 1 7 9 9 , a master prin ter, in the personof Harry Harwood Smith

,arrived in the Colony .

H e was armed with a let ter of introduét ion toEarl Macartney

,se t ting forth h i s qualifications as

a printer,but was given an appointment as clerk

and examiner in the Office of the Secretary to theGovernment . In a memorial of a I st April

,1 800,

Smith states that Since h is appointment fifteenmonths before he had been assisting in the printingof all proclamations and papers required in theSecretary ’s office . H e had rece ived a great partof h is print ing materials

,and in a short t ime he

was expeét ing t o rece ive the remainder with acomple te prin ting press . He proposed to confineh imself to printing such public papers as wererequired by the departments of Governmentnotices and catalogues of sales

,and things of

'

a

s imilar and mercantile tendency . He prayed tobe allowed to follow h is profession as a prin ter .The Government replied that the applicat ionwould be considered

,but nothing was in the mean

t ime to .be printed nor the press t o be used exceptfor the service of Government .I t now becomes necessary to enquire on what

press Smith was assis t ing to prin t proclamationsand public papers in 1 7 9 9 . There i s no record of

the importat ion of any press but R i t ter’s prior t othis date . I n the Cape Arch ives there i s preserveda military proclamation in Dutch and Englishsigned by Maj or-General Dundas

,Commander- in

Ch ief at the Cape , and dated a6 th February, 1 799 .

I t would seem l ikely that th is proclamation was

printed on R i tter ’s press . From January , 1 800 ,

IN SOUTH AFR ICA . 3 5

onwards there are several dated proclamations , t oprint which Smith ’s materials may have been usedto eke out R it ter’s meagre s to re .While Ri t ter and Smith had been urging the

Governmen t to recognise the i r claims,a ri ch and

importan t firm of merchants had sent to Europefor a press and all necessary materials sufficient toundertake business on a far more ambitious scale .These merchants

,Messrs . Walker and Robertson ,

were men of many interests,who

,in addit ion to

be ing wholesale merchants on a large scale,were

slave-dealers dealing in as many as S ix hundredslaves in a S ingle consignment . The firm evenobtained let ters of marque for one of their vessels

,

which was sent out as a privateer t o prey on Frenchand Spanish shipping . Surely th is un ion of slavedealing

,privateering and print ing must be un

paralleled in the s tory of the making of books 'Mr . John Robertson spent six months in Londonseleé

’

t ing type and other materials , and engagedthree prin ters , w i th a Dutchman as t ranslator .By I st February , 1 800 , the press had been set upa t No . 3 5 Ple in S tree t , and work begun . On1 5 th July S i r George Yonge issued a proclamationstating that M essrs . Walker and Robertson had beenappointed sole printers to the Governmen t

,and

that the firm had his permission to publish aweekly newspaper . The sole right to undertakecommercial printing was gran ted to '

these monopolist s , and notice given that no one else would beallowed to prin t under a penalty of one thousandrix dollars and the confiscat ion of all printingmaterials .

3 6 B IRTH OF PRINTING

This proclamation was a source of much consternat ion to R i tter and Sm ith

,who immediately

memorialised the]

Governor . S ir George Yongepromised that the Government would purchase apress which R i t ter was then expecfing fromEurope

,and on 20th September Smith was com

pelled to deposit h is print ing materials under thecare of the S ecretary to th e Government .On 1 6 th August M essrs . Walker and RobertsonI ssued the firs t number of th ei r paper

,the Cape

Town Gazet te,and African Adverti ser

,

’ whichappeared in English and Dutch . Complain ts soonbegan t o arise about the price of the paper and thecharge made for adverti sements . Further

,the

Governmen t became uneasy as to the edit ing ofwhat was, t o all i n tents and purposes , an officialgaze tte be ing in private hands . I t soon becameknown that the Government intended to take allprinting into i t s own hands . Smith began tobombard Maj or-General Dundas with applicationsto be reinstated as Government printer, a si tuati onwhich he had never held . M essrs . Walker andRobertson were informed of the Government ’sintention

,and were asked to put in a claim for

compensati on . The firm sent in a detailed accountamounting to some rix dollars . Theamount to be paid for the press

,printing materials ,

and compensation was eventually compromised atrix dollars

,equivalent

,at the current rate

of exchange , to J£2 ,000 . On 1 0th Oé’cober aproclamation was issued se tt ing forth the reasonswhich had induced the Government to take thepress into i ts own h ands , and giving notice of a

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3 8 B IRTH OF PRINTING

This poem,

‘ D e Maan,

’ was issued In four partsduring the years 1 802- 3 . The undertaking wasno more profitable than was poor R it ter’s Almanac ,for Mr . B orcherd ’s son records in his ‘ M emoirs ’

that the sale of copies did not bring in sufficien tto defray the cost of the paper on w hich i t was

printed . I n 1 805 there appeared a sort of comb ined Crockford,

’ Army List and Civ il List,under

the t i tle of L ijst van alle de Collegien .

’ To th issucceeded in 1 807 the

‘ African Court Calendar,

’

which made i ts annual appearance under d ifferentt i tles until quite recent t imes . Th is ‘ Calendar ’

was quite the South African Wh itaker’s Almanac,’

and from th e year 1 8 1 0 onwards included a stree td ireétory within i ts scope of usefulness .Before leaving Cape Town printing

,i t may be

as w ell t o record that the firs t produéfions of apublic press were Th e South African CommercialAdverti ser

,

’ and a Latin Grammar of some ninetypages i s sued in 1 824. The las t-named was publ ished by George G rieg , but printed by Bridekirk ,the Government prin ter

,wh e ther on the Govern

men t press 1 3 uncertaIn .

Bethelsdorp,a set tlement of the London M is

sionary Socie ty in the d ist riét of U i tenhage, notfar from Port E l izabeth

,was the second place in

South Africa to possess a prin ting press . Thedate at which this press was se t up i s a matter ofgreat uncertain ty . Dr . Bleek catalogues an item‘ Tz i tz ika Thu ickwed i mika Khwekhwenama

’

Principles of th e Word of God for the Hottento tprinted at Be thelsdorp in 1 805 or 1 806 .

H e describes the work as a catechism in the

IN SOUTH AFRICA . 3 9

Hottentot language,by the Reverend Dr . van der

Kemp and J . Read , missionarie s of the LondonMissionary Socie ty . Dr . Bleck goes on to saythat S i r George Grey had not succeeded , up tothe t ime of publication of the catalogue, in findinga copy of this catechism

,although every effort

had been made,both in the Colony and in Europe ,

to ascertain if a copy was in exis tence . I t will beobserved that Dr . Bleek has no uncertainty as tothe t i tle ; he was living at a t ime when he couldhave had intercourse with those who may haveremembered the publicat ion . I m self have beentold by a Rhodesian colleé

’tor th at he knows of a

copy in private possess ion in England . I n spite ofall th is I am very sceptical as to the existence atany time of any such publicat ion , and st ill moredo I doubt the date and place of it s print ing .

Should the catech ism exist i t would be of extremeimportance to philologi st s as an example of theHottento t language before i t became vi t iated byoutside influences . As th is Tz i tz ika has been sooften spoken and written of

,i t may be as well to

de tail w i th some exaé’tness my reasons for doubt ingi ts exis tence . No mention i s made of the Catech isme i the r in the B iography of Van der Kemp

,or in

the report s of the London Missi onary Society .

This i s the more curious as the London Societyalw ays carefully recorded th e philological laboursof it s miss ionaries

,especially In the nature of trans

lat ions of th e B ible , hymns, or religious works .Some years earlier

,the Socie ty prin ted at length

in its report Dr . Van der Kemp ’s ‘ Specimens ofthe Caffre language . ’ So much for the wri ting of

40 B IRTH OF PRINTING

th e work . As to its being printed at Bethelsdorp,

if ever i t was written , an exam Inat Ion of theSociety ’s reports show s that no press was se t upat the set t lement until the year 1 8 1 6 . In the year1 80 5 the London Missionary Socie ty sent out apres s to Dr . Van der Kemp , but the vessel founderedbetween Cape Town and Algoa Bay

,the press

going to the bottom of the sea .

‘We lay ourhands upon our mouth and say

“the Lord hathgiven

,and the Lord has taken away

, was thecommen t of the D oé’tor . Lastly

,in the year 1 808 ,

h e sent to Holland to be printed a work on theEpistle t o the Romans and a treat ise on midwiferyfor the use of Bethelsdorp . I f a press had beenin h is possession , i t i s extremely unlikely thatDr . Van d er Kemp would have sent this treati se sofar away to be printed .

The next town to start print ing was GriquaTown

,which , according to the D ireéi ors of the

London Missionary Society,had a press in 1 8 2 1 .

H ere Mr . H elm printed some copies of a spellingbook in the ‘ Bootchuana

’ language . Th i s Statemen tagain presents some doubts and difficulties to themind

,in spite of i t s definite charaéter . I t mus t

be said at once that no copy of th is spelling bookis at present known . In 1 8 2 6 Robert Moffat was

stationed at Lat takoo or Kuruman,at no great

distance from Griqua Town . In that year he senthome to London a Sechuana Spelling Book whichh e had compiled

,and of which the London

Missionary Socie ty caused two thousand copies tobe prin ted and sent out . If there was already apress at Griqua Town which had previously issued

IN SOUTH AFR ICA . 4 1

a Sechuana spelling book i t would seem unnecessaryto send the manuscript so far. The post wouldhave to pass th rough Griqua Town on a journeyto Cape Town , wh ich at that date took somemonths to perform . A perus al of Dr . Moffat ’sl ife would lead one to suppose that when he se t

out to learn Sechuana no li terature exis ted to assis th im .

After the year 1 8 24 presses became numerousthroughout th e country

,and in the following li s t

I have only given th e earlies t known produét ofeach press .

(Ebotwe) .Handbills

,e tc.

Almanach voor het j aar 1 7 9 6 .

n 1 7 972 6 Feb . M ilitary p roclama tion .

Governmen t circula rs from Janua ry onwa rds .

1 6 Aug . Fi rst numbe r of Cape TownGazet te and Afr ican Adve r tise r appeared .

1 80 1 . Troostelijk gesprek tusschen d en Hee reJesus en d e Moedeloose Ziel .Bo rche rds (M n) Poem to Agricul tu ralSocietyBorcherds D e Maan .

We t ten va n he t Depa r tmen t der Maatschappy tot Nu t van he t Algemeen aan

Cabo d e Goede Hoop .

1 804 . Rynev eld (W . S . van) . Aanmerkingen ove rd e verbetering van het vee aan d e Kaapd e Goede Hoop .

L ij st van alle de Collegien .

Ordonnantie van d e Bu iten d istriéten .

1 806 . L ij st van alle d e Collegien .

42 BIRTH OF PR INTING

African Court Calendar [con tinued undervariou s titles for eigh ty years] .

Reglemen t voor d e Societeit d er Loge d eGoede Hoop .

1 808 . Halloran (L n) Se rmon on Dishonesty .

Red evoering [p reached on

board H .M . S .

‘ B ritannia ’

at sea after

bat tle ofTrafalgar] .Bethelsdo rp .

1 805 ( i) . Tz itz ika Thu ickwed i mika Khwekhwenama.

Griqua Town .

1 8 2 1 . Sechuana Spelling book .

Chumie .

1 8 24. Incwad i yokula ekutet ini gokwamaxosa.

Lovedale.

1 8 2 6 . Bennie A systematic vocabulary oftheKaffrarian language.

Kuruman (Lat takoo) .1 8 3 1 . Baka ea Pocho ea Tuto le Poluko t sa Yesu

Kereste . 2nd ed . I t is possible that‘ L ichuanelo tsa Molemo

’

was printed in1 8 3 0 .

Grahamstown (E rin i) .1 8 3 1 Grahamstown Journal .

P latberg .

1 8 3 2 . Archbell R i tapelo tsa Sabath .

Fort Peddie (Ennqushwa) .1 840 . Inncwad i yemebedescho.

Thabanchu .

1 840 . Kat ikisimi ia ba birioang Bawesliana Me

tod ita.

IN SOUTH AFRICA. 43

Umlazi . Natal .1 84 1 . Incuad i yokuqala yabafundayo .

Durban .

1 84 1 . Incuad i yesibini yabafundayo .

Pietermaritzbu rg .

1 84 1 . Ivangeli e li y incucli, e li bal iweyo G’

Umatu .

B loemfontein .

1 8 56 . O range Vrystaad A .B .C. spel en leesboek .

A . C . G . LLOYD .

THE CHUR BREV IARY OF 1 490

AND ITS PRINTER,ADAM

SPEIER .

HEN in the year 1 5 20 B ishop Paulusof Chur commissioned Georg Ratdol tof Augsburg to print an edition of theBreviary according to the use of thediocese

,b e contributed to R atdol t

’

s

handsome folio a preface containing some interesting statements as to an earlier edit ion which hadby that t ime nearly disappeared .

‘ The books ofthe Canonical Hours

,

’ he remarks,

‘ which w ereprinted at the instance of our predecessors

,hand

som ely and carefully enough according to th es tandard of that t ime

,are now disappearing

,partly

through wear and tear,partly through age (as does

every thing on this earth) , and but Very few copies,and even these few soiled or torn

,are procurable

to-day .

’ If this was the sad pligh t of the editioprinceps as early as 1 5 20 ,

i t need cause us l it tlesurprise to find that i t should have remainedpraé

’t ically a lost book until qui te recently , and

that even now only one copy,and that on ly com

prising the ‘ pars aest iual is,’ should be known to

survive . This copy,which appears from two

inscriptions to have belonged to the capitular

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46 THE CHUR BREVIARY OF 1490 .

Diocese,a chamois. The verso of the leaf contains the

B ishop ’s p reface,for which see below . Leaf[8 ] is m issing .

This prelimina ry qu ire was perhaps followed by two leavescontaining a table ofcon ten ts for the whole book .

2 . Ff. 9 sigs . a-d 8 [e‘ psalterium cum

hymnis,’

etc. Ofthis section a 1 - 8,b 1

,d 4-7 , and all after

e 2,is wanting, and the above collation is a guess based on

the matter of the 1 5 20 edition .

3 . Ff. 5 9- 1 54, sigs . Aa s

,Bb "

,Cc-Gg

s

, H h, I i6

, Kks

,

Ll ‘,Mm

,Nu

sz

‘ pars aest iualis de tempore . ’ Leaves 59and 1 54 are blank .

4 . Ff. 1 5 5-70 ,

sigs . j ,&8: a sec

‘tion headed ‘ Dominicap rima post ofiauas Corporis Christi

,

’ containing apparen tlythe lesson s, colleéts, etc.

,for the Su ndays after Corpus

Christi . This seét ion is not kept separate in the 1 5 20

edition .

5 . Ff. 1 7 1-

3 02, sigs . 006

,P p

-Tt s,Vv

,XX

6

, Yy, 22 ,aa, bb

8,cc

6, dd, cc 8 , ff, gg

w:

‘ pa rs aestiualis d e sanéi is,

’ towhich is appended the ‘Gaude Regina ’ and the office ‘ d e

translat ione s . Lucii regis ’

; these latter follow on thePsalter in the 1 5 20 edition . Leaf3 02 is blank .

6 . Ff. 3 03-

3 0,sigs . aa

s

,bb 6

, cc8

, dd6:

‘ communesanc’to rum .

’ Leaf3 3 0 (wan ting) blank .

7 . Ff. [3 3 1 -3 4] v igiliae mortuorum,cursus

These also follow on the Psal ter ’ in the 1 520 edition .

The complete volume seems thu s to have con tained3 3 4 leaves, or 3 3 6 ifa table ofconten ts be assumed .

B . Three types were employed in prin ting theBreviary—a t i tle type of about 1 80 mm . t o 20 lines

,

used only for the headings to the preface andcalendar

,and two text types of about 9 2 mm .

t o 20 l ines,differing in face

,but cas t on the same

body,as i s so often the case with founts designed

for li turgical work . The t i tle type and the heavierof the two text types appear to tally exaél ly with

THE CHUR BREVIARY OF 1490.

the types of an edi t ion of the Concordant iae

B ibl iae e t Canonum of Joannes N iuicellensis, com

ple ted at Basel on 3 I S t j anuary, 1 489 , and ascribedby Proct or (no. 7 57 7 ) to the press of Johann Amerbach (see the facsimile) . The lighter text type ,s imilarly

,appears to be indis t inguishable in face

from another Base l type, type I (8 3 mm .) of Furter ,excep t for some " natural admixture of sorts from it scompanion type .

C . Two woodcu t capitals occur in the book .

The firs t,found at the beginning of the B i shop ’s

preface on Ib,is an O

,measuring 3 0 by 2 9 mm . ,

the le tter being outlined in white on a blackground relieved with white ornamentat i on,

in as tyle very popular at B asel , and thence in troducedinto Augsburg and Besancon . The other capi tals tands at the head of the pars aest iual is de tempore

and . is a somewhat remarkable D ,i n the

Maiblumen style , measuring 3 2 by 3 3 mm . , and

forming one piece with an elaborate scrolled borderextending 1 7 0 mm . or more along the inne r marginof the page, the whole being printed in ink of anunusual pale mauve t int .

D . The preface of B ishop Ortlieb on the versoof the first leaf is dated 2 5 th January , 1 490,

and

se ts forth how, W i sh ing to put an end to the manifold confusions and i rregulari tie s in the conduct ofdivine service which had grown up in the variouschurches of h is diocese

, he had in the previousyear caused to be drawn up and distributed plura

breuiaria’ con tain ing rule s for prayer and song .

E

50 THE CHUR BREVIARY OF 1490

As,however, the discrepancies in the order of

service were of long standing, and had led to theintroduct i on of service books from other dioceses ,the clergy had found a - d ifli cul ty in conforming toth is book of rules , and he had therefore now hadprinted ‘ l ib ros horarum for all and sundry of thepriests and clerics under h is charge . These booksbeing now ob tainable of the episcopal officials atChur

,the clergy are enj oined under a penalty to

provide themselves wi th printed copies with in amon th of the insinuat ion of these presents . The

date of thi s preface proves incontestably that theBreviary was prin ted off and ready for c irculationa li ttle before the end ofJanuary

, 1490,and

,be ing

a large book, must therefore have been begun someconsiderable t ime before the close of the yearW e may also remark in passing that the dis t inct ionhere drawn between b reuiarium ,

’

in the sense of ashort abst ract , and ‘ l iber horarum

,

’

the Breviaryproper

,i s a somewhat unusual one ; but Latin

composit ion was evidently not Bi shop Ort l ieb’

s

forte , and i t would be unfair to press the poin ttoo far .

I I .THE Breviary con t ains no indicat i on e i ther of i tsprinter or i t s place of origin

,beyond what can be

inferred from the style of the types and the woodcut capitals

,but i t i s eviden t from the de scrip t i on of

these already given that the book can have been produced only in one city—namely

,Basel . I Among

1 D r. COpinger ascribed it to the Prin ter of the 1483 ‘

Jordanus’

at St rassburg,and D r. Re ichl ing has been conten t to take over th is

ascript ion unexam ined .

AND ITS PRINTER . 5 :

Basel incunabula those that are most nearly allied toi t typographically are the N iuicellensis

’

of

which has already been ment i oned,and an undated

Latin ‘Aesop ,’ wi th illustrations

,the text type of

which i s the heavy-faced type common to the

B reviary and the ‘ N iuicellensis,’

and which was ,l ike th is last , assigned by Proct or (nos . 7 57 7 , 7 62 9)to Amerbach . The black-ground capitals give no

further help , as they were used with very sl igh tv ariat ions by at leas t four prin ters in Basel a t thist ime . Proc

’

tor’s at t ribu t ion of the two books toAmerbach was no doubt made largely on generalgrounds

, for the heavy-faced type does not occurin this printer’s s igned work at all, but i t i s by nomeans unreasonable

,and we should thus acquiesce in

the Breviary being handed over to Amerbach also,were i t not for the information afforded by the‘ Reges ten ’ 2

ofDr . St ehlin . That invaluable s torehouse ofknowledge not only provides us with moredetail about the print ing and dis tributi on of the

Breviary than probably about any other bookment ioned in i t, but also , by t elling us that i tsprinter was a certain Adam von Spe ier

, enables usto assign a defini te rank and place t o one who hash itherto been li t tle more than a name . In viewof his newly recognized significance

,the following

brief sketch of his circumstance s and career,as

disclosed in the Regesten,

’

m ay be of interes t .At the t ime of his fi rst appearance in 147 3Adam von Spe ier was already a ci t izen of Basel

,

Regesten zur Geschich te des Buchdrucks im I 5 . Jahrhundert,

’

in ‘Archiv fur Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels’,vol . x ix.

There are some e ighty entries in all relat ing to Adam von Speier.

5 2 THE CHUR BREVIARY OF 1490

but there i s no means of telling when he becameso or how old he m ay have been . H is originaloccupation was not that of a book-printer

,but of

a wood-engraver and illuminator ; h e i s variouslyreferred to as H e i l igendrucker,

’ Kartenmacher,

’

Kartenmaler ,’

Briefm alcr,

’

and Maler,’ and has

figured as such in monographs of Dr. We isbachand Dr . Schre iber . At the end of 5 he possessed2 50 guilders , which was temporarily increased byfifty guilders in the following year, paid a poll- t axon an es tablishment of seven persons

,and owned

two houses,

one of which was named ‘ zumParadies

,

’

in the We isse Gasse l n the parish of SS .

Alban and Ulrich . Evidently, therefore , his business must have been flourishing . Possibly someof his money came to h im by his wife M argaret

,

t he daughter of Bernhard Haller, ci tizen of Masmunster in Alsace

,from whom she inheri ted two

th irds of a house,bleach ing-ground and meadow in

that town . Adam’s career at Basel was temporarilyin terrupted at the end ofj uly , when both heand h is wife were expelled from the ci ty for someunspecified offence . Count Philip of Neuchatelinte rvened on behalf of the wife ‘ to procure herreadmiss ion t o the ci ty early in 147 9 , but theCouncil regre t ted that they could not see the i rway to grant ing hi s request, as her misdemeanours

Phil l ipp Grafzu N uwenburg und Herr zu Fontena’

(Stehl in,no. 1 The head of the house ofNeuchate l at this date was

Coun t Rudolph, who was not succeeded by Count Ph il ip un t il1487, bu t the reference can scarcely be to any other N euenburg. ’Fon tena

’

stands e ither for Fontaine André or more probably forFon taines

,about four miles north-west ofNeuchate l itself.

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54 TH E CHUR BREVIARY OF 1490

from Pe ter von We issenburg . We i ssenburg, we

are elsewhere told , was a Kramer,

’ and David andWinter appear to have been not infrequently takeninto financial partnership by the printers of the i rci ty . The presses were no doubt set up in one ofAdam ’s two houses in the We i sse Gasse

,but they

were under the superintendence of Jacob von

Pforzheim,whose experience had been acqu ired

during several years of associat i on wi th Amerbach ,and who probably brought h i s own plant wi thhim . I t i s a pi ty that the ‘ Regesten ’ give usvery li t tle informat i on about e i ther Adam or

Pforzhe im during the peri od immediat ely preceding

, so that we can say noth ing as t o a possibleconnect ion of the former with the 1489 N iuicel

lensis’ and the undated ‘ Aesop

,

’ which,as m en

t ioned above , are typographically akin to the

Breviary , and are now proved by the las t-namedto be the handiwork of Pforzhe im . In part icular,i t would be very gratifying to be able to assignthe numerous woodcut s of the Ae sop ’

to Adam ’sstudio

,but th is i s more than the evidence will

warran t,and we must res t content wi th possessing

at any rate two authentic example s of h is craftsmanship in the Breviary—the conventional heraldicfron t ispiece with it s background of three or fourunpre ten t ious tufts ofgrass and flowers , and the verytasteful combined capi tal and borde r which em

bellishes the beginning ofthe sect i on ‘ de tempore .

’

I The herbage on the front ispiece is drawn very much in the

same manner as that found in the woodcuts of L ienhart Y senhut,

who a lso issued an il lustrated German‘Aesop

’

in a sim ilar sty le tothat ofPforzhe im

’

s Lat in one,but the comparison cannot ofcourse

AND IT'

s PRINTER . 5 5

Four hundred copies of the Breviary were struck off,and the price of each was fixed at four guilders .They were put into ci rculat ion by the printerh imself

,according to the usual praétice of the t ime ;

Adam’s agent in thi s case was Bartholome Vellner,apparently one of h is j ourneymen, who travelledfrom parish to parish in the diocese of Chur

,

offering the books for sale .

I

The great venture , howeve r, like so many of i tskind at that t ime

,was far from being a financial

succes s . The books appear to have gone off

indifferently ; long credi t had to be given , andmoney was slow in coming in , while probablyalmost all Adam ’s available cap ital had been sunkin the print ing . I t was clear that he had ove rtaxed his resources , and his creditors graduallygrew uneasy . H e found i t necessary formally toempower Vellner to act as h is represen tative atlaw

,in case his ‘ i ll-wishers ’ should att emp t to

seize his books . Possibly these financi al t rouble shas tened hi s death , which took place only a fewmonths later

,probably in the early part of June

,

on the fourteenth day of which month h is widowwas officially required to provide herself wi th a

be carried very far. Pforzhe im printed a Dom in ican Brev iaryat the expense ofJacob von K ilchen in 1492 w ith d ifferen t types,but he was st il l in possession of the Chur Brev iary types in 1 501 ,when he re issued the ‘Aesop

’ ‘at his own expense

’w ith the same

text type containing an admixture of R from the smal ler-facedpe .

These details are taken from the ev idence of one Ve l t inHassler, who sued Vellner after Adam ’

s death for moneys due to

h im accord ing to an agreement . There seems no reason for

th inking Hassler’s statemenfs anything but correé’tn0. 774)

5 6 THE CHUR BREVIARY OF 1 490

guardian with in a fortnight ’s t ime . I t i s true thatthe ent ry in the ‘ Regesten ’

(no . 6 94) whichsupplies th is piece of informat ion specifie s the

widow of L ienhart Ysenhu t , not of Adam v on

Spe ier ; but that this is an error appears unequivocally from other passages in the Regesten themselves , which show that Ysenhut and his wifeAdelheid

,after bequeath ing to each other the i r

personalty (‘ ihre fahrende Habe ’

) in 1 486 , re

newed this mutual beques t at intervals , accordingto the terms of the original record ,

’ unt il 1 500 .

The widow lost no t ime in complying with the

order of the court , and on 26 th June Friedrichzum Rot tenfan the Friedrich H irsinger

already ment ioned—was formally appoin ted to theguardiansh ip of her and her children . Here againthere i s a diffi culty in the wording of the entry

(no . which speaks of the widow and childrenof Adam but i t i s scarcely likely th atthi s is anyth ing more than the previous error halfcorreéfed . Certainly i t would be pleasant to claimAdam v on Spe ier as the thi rd representative of aclan which already figures twice in the records ofearly print ing—once with L ienhart Ysenhu t , thewood-engraver and printer here mentioned

,and

again with Johann Eysenhu t , who produced ablock—book at Ratisbon in the

’seventies,to say

noth ing ofan obscurer He inrich , who worked, likeL ienhart , at Basel ; and i t might be urged in furtherj ust ification ofthe claim that Jacob von Pforzhe im ’st rue surname , Wolff, is only known from a singleincidental mention in a document of I 5O9 .

I Still,

I Regesten,

’no. 1 84 1 .

AND ITS PRINTER . 5 7

the undoub ted error in the earlier entry discountsthe reliabili ty ofthe later . At the same time , i t isnot quite easy to see how Ysenhut ’s name managedto get into the official record at all . PossiblyL ienhart , who was a near neighbour ofAdam

’s inthe We i sse Gasse, took neighbourly charge of h is

widow when she had to appear in court , and the

clerk confused the parties ’ names .Adam’s widow had her full share of the li t iga

t ion which in those days so often followed upona printer’s death . He inrich David , RuprechtWinter

,Pe ter v on We i ssenburg, and Jacob von

Pforzhe im all insistently urged the i r respeé’t iv e

claims,as did Velt in Hassler, ‘ der Buchfiihrer,

’

later on,and H i rsinger had much ado to sat isfy

them one by one by a serie s of composi t ions andfurthe r loans, which need not be followed out inde tail . On 5 th February , 1 492 , Velt in Gilgenste in

,who had meanwhile been appointed procurator

of Adam ’s children,was commissioned to go to

Chur and colleéf what was st ill outst anding in thediocese of the moneys realised by the sale of the

B reviaries . By z l st February he had re turnedwith a sum sufficient to sati sfy the claims ofDavidand W inte r , which took precedence of the rest ;but Jacob von Pforzheim and W ei ssenburg con

tinned to demand what was owing to them for thework they had done on the books . In M ay ,149 2 , Adam

’s widow and children came to an

agreement with We isse nburg,the terms of which

are unfortunately not st ated, as the entry was left

unfinished ; but whatever they were , the widowwas apparently unable to comply wi th them , for

5 8 THE CHUR BREVIARY OF 1490

in January, 149 3 , the two houses in the Wei sse

Gasse were seized by We i ssenburg and Pforzhe im .

In January , 1 494, the court decided that if Mei s te rJacob would swear that he had handed over to theS izer free from all flaws and defect s the bookswh ich h e had cont raéfed t o print for the defendants

,he should be paid the remainder ofwhat was

due to him . This apparently st ill refers to the

Breviaries , but if so i t i s most extraordinary thatwe should not have heard of these alleged shortcomings before . M e is te r Jacob

,after taking a

week to th ink the matte r ove r,seems to have

sworn the required oath,but Gi lgenste in succeeded

in put t ing off the day of settlement until the

beginning of November,when he was peremptorily

ordered to pay up within a week,on pain of a fine

of ten shillings . Things were now at a desperatepass

,for Jacob was about to drive his debtors ou t

of the i r t rade and deprive them of the i r livelihood altoge ther ; but Pe ter von We issenburg

,

generously enough considering his p revious ex

perience , advanced Gi lgenste in 1 5 0 fiorins in gold,and the s i tuat ion was saved . Gi lgenste in,

the

widow,and her son He inri ch gave the i r houses

and all the i r property as securi ty to We i ssenburg,and engaged to repay the debt in instalments of

5 0 fiorins at each of the next three Frankfortfairs . As no more i s heard of the mat ter, we maypresume that they succeeded in doing this , andl ived happily ever after .Adam ’s son He inri ch

,the only one of h is ch ildren

about whom any information is given ,appears to

have been s t ill under age when his fat her died , but

AND ITS PRINTER . 59

entered the Saffron Gui ld on h is qualification asthe son of a late member i n the very next month

,

and i s found carrying on the wood-engraving busines s in 149 3 . In 1 497 he was at the head of ahousehold of four persons

,and his name occurs in

the books of the Guild as late as 1 5 1 2 ,while his

mother was s t ill alive i n 1 500 .

V . SCHOLDERER .

A LAWSU IT AS TO AN EARLYEDITION OF THE ‘ P ILGRIM ’

S

PROGRESS .

’

OME interest ing documents dealingwith the publicat ion of Bunyan ’sPilgrim ’s Progress have j ust cometo l igh t at the Public Record Office .

They do not tell us who was the firs tcompositor to handle the manuscript , nor at whoseprinting office the firs t edit ion was worked off;but they concern the only printe r whose name hasever been associated with the book—v iz .

,Thomas

Braddyl— and supply a good deal of information on

other matters in conneét ion with i ts publicationabout which nothing has hi therto been known .

Few books, we imagine,present such a bewilder

ing bibliographical puzzle as the series of oéfavos

and duodecimos that repre sent the various edit ionsof the Pilgrim ’s Progress ’ before 1 7 00 . Aseveryone knows

,the author placed his manuscrip t

in the hands ofNathaniel Ponder,a publisher who

l ived at the sign of the Peacock in the Poultry ;but no printer’s name ever appeared in any of theediti ons , and i t i s Ponder himself who bringsBraddyl to our notice , as the printer of surrepti ti ou sand . unauthorized editions .That such editi on s were published there i s n oreason to doubt

,but putting the evidence contained

in these documents beside the very high charaéter

for hones ty and fai r dealing,given to Thomas

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62 A LAWSU IT AS TO THE

read , and such is the book i tself Whereas the t ruecop Ie I s prInted in a Le igable fair charac

’t er and

Brevier note s as i t alwaies has been . Theselas t words certainly imply, that the fi rst edit ion aswell as the res t had the side no tes in brevier

,while

further to emphasIze hi s s tatement Ponder gives atype specimen of two lines showing exaé

’

tly whathe meant by long primer and brevier . The copyin the B ri t ish Museum has the s ide notes in longprimer and not brevier . At the same t ime i t ispossible tha t Ponder may have meant his s tatementto refer to the duodecimo edi tion s only . The

second edi ti on,which appeared before the close of

the year 1 67 8 , answers in every way to Ponder’sdescript i on , being prin ted throughout in one foun tof type

,a clear and readable le tter, wi th the notes

i n brevier . The thi rd edi tion,which bears the

date 1 67 9 , also conforms to the tes t as regards thenotes

,though i t has several bibliograph ical features

that dist inguish i t from the second , such as be ingprinted on a different paper and having the fi rstlet ter of the text enclosed in a worn woodcu t frame ,as well as a line or headband of common prin ter’sornamen ts at the head of the firs t page of t ex t ,ins tead of a couple of rules . In these two las t ,however

,i t closely resembles the copy of the firs t

edit ion in the Bri ti sh Museum,which has a head

band of printe r ’s o rnaments at the head of the firs tpage of text

,and what appears to be the identical

woodcut frame for the ini t ial A . The fourthedi tion of the work came ou t in 1 6 80 ,

and i t wasduring the print ing of that edi t ion that Ponderadded on the back of the port rai t , for wan t of any

PILGRIM ’S PROGRESS .

’

6 3

other space , the Advert i semen t i n wh ich b e accusedBraddyl of being the printer of spurious copies .Two copies of thi s edi t i on are in the Bri t i shMuseum . In that without the advert i sement theplate of the portra i t I s In a very good state

,while

in the other I t has become so worn that i t has hadto be touched up in places . So that clearly the

advert isemen t was not added until the greater partof the edit ion,

and i t must have been a large one,

was printed off. This rece ives confirmation fromthe fact that in the copy without the advert isemen tthe cap i tal T,

beginning the line , ‘ The Manner ofh is Se tt ing out ,

’ on the t i tle-page, has dropped

slightly from i ts position,and in the copy with the

advert isement i t has dropped still further, t ill i t i son a level wi th the l ine below, which i t make s t oread TH is (instead of

“H i s ”

) dangerous Journey .

’

Again,in the later copy, pages 2 and 3 are numbered

2 8 and 2 5 , while page s 1 0 and I 1 are numbered 3 6and 3 3 , and in both copies there i s evidence thattheywere printed at more than one press . Further

,

the copy of this edit ion in the library of the lateMr . E . D . Church , ofN ew York , has the advert isement s igned in full, N . Ponder, while that in the

B ri t i sh Museum is signed with the ini t ials only .

This seems to leave no doubt that the work w as

distributed be tween several printers , and Ponderhad to supply each one with a copy of the adver

t isement . The fi rs t of these he signed au thori ta

t ively with h i s full name, while the res t b e merelyinitialed . In fact , i t i s quite evident that Ponderfound i t difficult t o keep pace with the ever-increasing demand for the book , and was get t ing i t printed

64 A LAWSUIT AS TO TH E

where and how he could , so that misprin t s crept inand were not rectified

,while the whole produfiion

s teadily de teriorated with every fresh edit ion .

Anyone would naturally suppose that afterPonder had held up Thomas Braddyl to the censu reof the world as a land—pirate ,

’ the re could have beenno possible business t ransaétions be tween the twom en

,but the documents j us t found at the Record

Office prove that this was not the case . They consi s t of Ponder’s B i ll of Complaint , Thomas Braddyl

’

s

reply , and the deposi t ions of three booksellerscalled on Ponder’s behalf in a sui t which he beganagains t Braddyl in the Court of Chancery in 1 697 .

Ponde r begins by saying that in the year 1 6 8 8,

be ing a freeman of the Company of Stat ioners,and

by h is rights as a freeman be ing the sole possessorof the copyrigh t in John Bunyan ’s Pilgrim ’sProgress ,

’ which was duly entered in the HallBook to his use , he employed Thomas Braddyl toprint an edit ion of ten thousand copies at the rateof four shillings and S ixpence a ream,

and to

account to him for the proceeds and profi ts ari singfrom it . H e declares that Braddyl took upon himself to prin t twenty thousand copies

,and never

paid h im any profi t or proceeds thereof. Furthe r,

Ponder declares that the printer,without any

authority from him,sold nine thousand five hundred

copies toAwnsham Churchill and Nicholas Bodd ington . In addi tion to this edit ion of the Pilgrim ’sProgress ,

’ Ponder further entrusted Braddyl withthe print ing of five thousand of the Second Part ofthat work at the same rate

,that be ing ‘

the usualand known rate then allowed to other printers,

’

PILGRIM ’S PROGRESS . 65

and accused the prin ter of selling five hundred of

t hem without authori ty to a bookseller namedPe te r Parke r. H e also gave Braddyl an order forfive thousand copies of Bunyan

’s Grace Abounding,

’ and declares that the prin ter printed seventhousand and never accoun ted for any of the profit s .Finally, he winds up h is indictmen t by accusingBraddyl of be ing the au thor and prin ter of the

Third Part of the Pilgrim’s Progress,’ which was

the j oint publicat i on ofJohn Back and John Blare,

two booksellers on London B ridge, and JonathanDeakin

,and ‘ by transport ing a great part of the

original work , especially the t i t les , h indered the

sale of the plain t iff’s copies .’

N ow for the other s ide of the pi éfure . ThomasBraddyl in his reply admitted that

‘ i t migh t bet rue ’ that he rece ived an order from Ponder toprint about ten thousand copies of the Pilgrim ’sPro

’

gress,

’ but excused himself from making a moredefinite s tatement on the ground that the t ransafiion had taken place so long ago that he couldnot remember wi th certainty the exac’t number

,

but he denied posi tive ly that the price was fixedat four shillings and S ixpence a ream . H e declaredthat i t was Ponder’s own des i re that the impre ssionshould be t aken up by Awnsham Church ill and

Nicholas Boddington,but that the se booksellers

insis ted upon Braddyl being j oined in the sale,as

Ponder was then a pri soner in the King ’s Benchfor debt . The printer further s tated that Ponderwas indebted to him in a sum of £ 1 4 for moneyand clothes supplied to his son ,

and in se t tlemen t ofan execution levied agains t Ponder by E . Horton .

6 6 A LAWSUIT AS TO THE

With regard to the five thousand copies of

Bunyan’s ‘ Grace Abounding ,’

Braddyl admittedprint ing these

,but maintained that Ponder had

ruined the market by pawning fifteen hundred ofa former impression to a goldsmith

,who put them

on sale at such a cheap rate that about two thousande igh t hundred copies of Braddyl

’

s impression re

mained unsold, and he had never been paid for thepaper and prin ting . H e denied having prin ted anygreater number of any of these books than Ponderh ad commissi oned him to print

,and wound up by

averring that he had noth ing whatever to dowith the pu t t ing forth of the Third Part of thePilgrim’s Progress . ’

The witnesses examined on Ponder’s accountwhose deposi t ion s are on record were AwnshamChurchill

,bookseller, of Pater Nos ter Row ; Peter

Parker,bookseller, of St . Michael , Cornhill ; and

Nicholas Boddington , bookseller, at the Sign of theGolden Ball in Duck Lane . The names of two

others,Nathaniel Rolls and Roger M eredi th

, appear on the deposi t ions , but the i r evidence i s no tg i ven .

These wi tnesses were asked if they knew the

plaint iff and defendant , and how long they hadknown them ; what impress ions the defendantBraddyl had made , what quant i ty of each he hadprinted

,what numbers he had sold and to whom

,

and at what price he sold them ,and whe ther the

knew that Braddyl was the prin ter of the ThirdPart of the ‘ Pilgrim’s Progress . ’ They werefurther invi ted to say what agreement was madebetween the parties, and to declare what they

PILGRIM ’S PROGRESS .

’

67

knew on the subjeéf, and whether a bill shewn tot hem ,

enti tled ‘ Mr . Ponde r h is B ill ,’

was or wasnot in Thomas Braddyl

’

s handwrit ing .

None of the witnesses at temp ted to answer thequestions as to Braddyl

’

s conneé’t ion with the

Third Part of the Pilgrim’s Progress,

’ or what theagreement was between the parties as to rate s andprices and quanti ties , perhaps for the bes t of

reasons , that they knew nothing about these point s .Awnsham Church ill, who gave his age as th irty

n ine or thereabouts , said he had known both the

plaint iff and defendan t for fifteen years , and thatabout seven years since about 1 690) he and

Nicholas Boddington bough t nine thousand fiv e

hundred of the First Part of the ‘ Pilgrim ’s Progress

,

’ and paid h im about threepence-halfpenny abook for them . H e bel ieved the bill shown toh im to be in Braddyl

’

s handwri ti ng,because i t was

not unlike some wri tings which he had seen ofBraddyl

’

s.

Pete r Parker was fifty- seven years of age at the

t ime of the taking of the deposi t ions,and had

known the plaint iff for twen ty years and the

defendant for about t en . To the bes t of his re

m emb rance i t was about five or si x years before1 69 1 or 1 69 2) that he bough t about three

thousand of the Second Part of the ‘ Pilgrim ’sProgress prin ted by Braddyl , and paid about threepence or threepence-halfpenny a piece for them

,

and paid the money in the presence of both the

plaint iff and defendant in a coffee-house in London,

but how they shared i t he could not say . Parkeralso admi t ted ‘ he might buy a quant i ty ’ of the

6 8 A LAWSUIT AS TO THE

books called ‘ Grace Abounding ’ of e i ther the

plaint iff or defendant , but of which of them he

could not certainly remember,nor the number nor

price,nor to whom he paid the money , but h e

bel ieved tha t they were both privy to the sale .

Nicholas Boddington , who gave his age as for tyfive ‘ or thereabout s ,

’ said he had known the par t iesto the sui t abou t fourteen or fifteen years

,and that

i t was in the year 1 692 and 1 69 3 that he boughtten thousand copies of the Firs t Part of the

Pilgrim’s Progress ’ of the plaint iff Ponder,and

paid the defendant Braddyl after the rate of fivesh illings per ream for them ,

although he hadagreed with the plaintiff that he was to have themat four Shillings and Sixpence a ream . As to theSecond Part of the ‘ Pilgrim ’s Progress ’ and the

book called Grace Abounding,

’

he knew no moret han that they we re the lawful copies of the

plaint iff. With regard to the bill shewn h im he

recognized i t as be ing in Braddyl’

s handwrit ing,

which he knew very well .Ponder ’s w i tnesses can hardly have helped him

very much . They said as li t tle as they could , andwhat lit tle they did say was rathe r in Braddyl

’

s

favour. Undoubtedly, the most interesting fact srevealed by these documents are the size of thelater edi t ions and the sum paid for print ing them—namely , four and S ixpence a ream,

which allowedthe prin ter t o sell them to the wholesale booksellers at threepence-halfpenny a volume . W e

cannot,of course

,argue from th is that this was

the sum paid for printing the firs t edition,as there

i s no likelihood that th is was printed in such large

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PRIVATE PRINTING PRESSES INSUSSEX .

OME years ago an art icle by Mr .H . R . Plomer on

‘ Some PrivatePresses of the Nineteenth Cen tu ry ’

appeared in THE LIBRARY ,in which

the author asked for information re

lat ing to other private presse s . The following notesabout some private presse s established in Sussexare

,therefore

,put forward as a small cont ribution

towards a future history of Engli sh private printing presses . The scantiness of information relat ingto these Sussex presses i s very surprising, hardlyany ment ion being made of them in the numerousworks relating to the county . These no tes are thussomewhat imperfecf, but all the available m ateri alh as been gathered together in order to place on

record what i s known regarding the private pressesof Sussex . In a great many instances one has torely

,in drawing conclusions

,upon purely ci rcum

stant ial evidence,which is not always sat isfaé’tory .

None of the Sussex presses can be considered offirst- rate importance . They cannot

,for i nstance ,

bear comparison with such famous private pressesas the Middle Hill

,Lee Pri ory

,and oth ers . The

workmanship is not of the best,being often quite

mediocre,and in some instance s bad . I t i s very

evident that these local presses were es tabli shed for

PRIVATE PRESSES IN SUSSEX . 7 1

purely personal reasons, and not because of anyparticular enthus i asm for emulating the work offamous prin ters

,or from any wish to assist in attain

ing the ideal that every book published Should bea ‘ book beau tiful . ’ Thei r produé

’t ions were also

very few ,being usually confined to the works

wri tten by those who es tablished the presses .

BI SHOPSToNE PRESS .The R ev . James Hurdi s

,Vicar of Bishopstone

,

near Newhaven,from 1 7 9 1

- 1 80 1,se t up a private

press at Bi shopstone during the last decade of thee igh teenth century . The earlies t book I can t raceas be ing printed there is dated 1 7 97 , and as Hurdisd ied in 1 80 1 , the press was not long in existence .

The owner evidently e stablished his pr ‘ess in orde rto prin t h is own works—mainly volume s of poet ry—as no othe r books were printed by him . The

first book he i ssued,as far as can be t raced , i s an

oé’tavo edi t ion of one of his poems , the t i tle-pageof which reads ° ‘ The Village Curate : a poem .

A new and improved editi on (being the fourth)prin ted at the author’s own press

,Bishopstone

,

Sussex . This work contains one hund redand thirty- six pages

, and was issued in paperwrappers . The next produéfion was his Lecture sShewing the several sources of that pleasure whichthe human mind rece ives from poetry . B i shopstone, Sussex : printed at the author’s own press .

That this work of three hundred and th irtypages was H urd is

’

s second producti on seems certain ,as w e find that at the end

, of‘The Village Curate

i s a two-paged advert i sement which states that

7 2 PRIVATE PRESSES IN SUSSEX .

On Saturday, February 1 8,1 79 7, will be published

(printed at the Author’s own press) Number 1 of Lec

tures pointing out the several sources of that pleasurewhich the human mind receives from poetry .

The t i tle , i t will be noticed , was sligh tly amendedon publication by the subst i tut ion of the wordShewing for pointing out .

’

The Leé’tures wasevidently intended at firs t to be issued complete ,but from the same adver ti sement we t ake the

following interest ing noticeThe Number of Subscribers to this work, not being

sufficient to indemnify the author in committing it all atonce to the press , he has taken the liberty of somewhatderanging his plan, that the d emands of those who havedone h im the honour to subscribe

,may no longer remain

unsatisfied . The Work will be published in Numbers,as

fast as they can with convenience be produced . Thesethe Subscriber will receive as soon as they are published,without any advance . To the Non-subscriber they willbear each the price of two shillings and Sixpence (beingsomewhat dearer than to the Subscriber) because hissupport is precarious.

N .B .-No one wil l be admitted as a Subscriber, after

the publication ofthe sixth Number.I have been unable to find out i n how many partsth is work was publi shed , or at what price i t wasissued to subscribers .In the same year , 1 7 97 , Hurdis probably printed

one of hi s sermons,ent i tled : ‘ A sermon on the

proper me thod of studying the Scriptures,preached

before the Un iversi ty of Oxford,on Act Sunday ,

1 7 97 . B i shopston e , Sussex . Printed at the

author ’s own ‘

press.

’ I t consists of ten pages , andi s not dated

,but the author would m ost likely

PRIVATE PRESSES IN SUSSEX . 7 3

prin t i t about the time he intended i t to be del ivered

,or possibly before , so that he migh t have

a prin ted copy from which to preach . I t i s safe ,therefore, to conside r 1 7 97 as t he year in whichthis sermon was p rinted . In 1 800 Hurdis i ssuedh is ‘ The favori te village : a poem . B ishops tone ,Sussex . 1 800 . Printed at the author’s own press . ’

This poem is a eulogy on his nat ive village ofBi shopstone, and comprises two hundred and t enpages . The ti tle—pages of the above four worksstate that they were printed at Bi shopstone . Therei s

,however

,one other work of James Hurdi s

which he i ssued anonymously,and which has

ne ithe r date nor place ofprint ing . The t i tle runs‘ A word or two in vindication of the Universrtyof Oxford

,and of Magdalen College , in particular,

from the posthumous aspers ions of Mr . Gibbon .

’

Accord ing to the Bri t i sh Museum Catalogue th isli t tle quarto publicat i on was wri t ten by Hurdi s

,

and privately printed , the date being given as1 800 (P) and in the Dic’t ionary of National B iography i t i s s tated that th i s work was

‘ certainlyprin ted at B i shopstone .

’ Considering these ci rcum stances i t i s j ustifiable to in clude th i s production among those privately prin ted at B i shopstone .

The press was , therefore , in exis tence about fouryears, and, as far as can be traced , only the abovemen t i oned fiv e books were printed there . Thesecannot be regarded as fine specimens of the printer ’sart , for they are prin ted on poor paper

,wi th

ordinary type , and the pages in a great number ofins tances have not been worked in anyth ing likeperfecf regis ter . But a certain amoun t of credi t

74 PRIVATE PRESSES IN SUSSEX .

is due to the R ev . James Hurdis,if

,as i s most

probable , he was h i s own composi tor and pressman . AS an amateur printer h is efforts wereundoubtedly successful

,and as such are to be

commended .

EASEBOURNE PRESS .Howard Dudley , a boy of fifteen

,had a small

press at Easebourne , near Midhurst , which he

afterwards removed to London . From this presswere i ssued two books on local hi story

, enti relywri tten

,prin ted

,and i llust rated by himself. Al

though the workmanship and illustrati on s are verycrude

, yet , taking into consideration that Dudleywas but a child

,these two works are very credit

able performances,e specially as he was his own

engraver,composi tor and pressman . The boy

must have found his work laborious , as he hadonly a small pre ss (which , i t i s in terest ing to note ,was made according to h is own instruéfions) , andhe printed one page only at a t ime . H i s fi rstbook was ‘ Juven ile Researches

,or a description of

some of the principal towns in the west of Sussexand the borders of Hants

,the whole be ing inter

spersed with piece s by a s ister . Easebourneprinted

,and composed by H . Dudley , aged 1 5 .

This li t tle volume (i t was but 44» ins. by

3 % in s .) of some one hundred and forty pages wasmuch sough t after

,and he i s sued a second edi tion

the same year . These edit ions , however, werevery small ; the second edit ion

,for example

,con

s i s ted of fifty copies only . In the following yearDudley issued ‘ The History and Antiquities of

PRIVATE PRESSES IN SUSSEX . 7 5

Horsham . By the Author ofJuveni le Researches .Illus trated by wood engravings and li thographi cviews . London,

I t i s a larger volumethan h i s previous effort , and consisted of eightys ix pages . I t will be not iced that the imprin t i sLondon ,

’

and at the end of the work i s the legend‘ Prin ted by Howard Dudley , Millbank Stree t .

’

The press must have been removed from Easebourne be tween the t imes of publi cat ion of the

two books . Some years before h is death , whichoccurred in 1 8 64, Dudley issued a prospeé

’rus of

another work,

‘ The History and Ant iqui t ies ofMidhurst and i t s vi cini ty ,

’ which was,however

,

never publi shed . W hether th i s prospeéfus wasprinted by Dudley i s not known , but m ost p robablyit was . The Bri ti sh Museum Catalogue gives thedate of the prospeé’rus as 1 8 3 6 (P) , but i t i s verypossible that i t was some years later, and thereseems now no hope of defin i tely se t tl ing the date .

Howeve r that may be , the history of th i s remarkable li t tle press i s very in teresting

, and certainlyworthy ofbe ing placed on record .

EASTBOURNE PREss.

Davies Gilbert , who was President of the RoyalSocie ty from 1 8 2 8- 3 1 , set up a small press in hishouse at Eastbourne i n the year 1 8 2 5 , which re

mained in use until h i s death in 1 8 3 9 . This presswas establi shed mainly as a h obby for the amusemen t of himself and h is friends

,and h is eldest

daughter , Cath erine, ac’

ted as composi tor . Histypes were obtained from a printer named B .

Nichols , of 2 5 Parliamen t S treet, as we learn from

7 6 PRIVATE PRESSES IN SUSSEX .

a let ter of Davies Gilbert t o Nichols wri t ten in1 82 5

-6,preserved in the Bodle ian Library , in which

he orders types for use at h is p rivate press . Noth ingof much consequence was printed , his produé

’t ions

be ing confined to short miscellaneous pieces,usually

on single shee ts . H e i s repu ted to have i ssued overtwo hundred such pieces , but there i s no record ofany book having been i ssued by him . An accountof these product i ons will be found in Boase

’

s

Collecfanea Cornub iensia .

’

The following anec

dote relat ing to thi s li t tle press i s in terest ingHawker

,the well-known Corn ish poe t

,publi shed

h is fine ballad ‘ And shall Trelawny d ie ? ’ anonymously in a Plymouth paper, where i t at traéfed the

attention of Davies Gilbert,who immediately re

printed i t at hi s own press , being under the avowedimpression that i t was the origin al ballad "

GLYNDE PRESS .

A private press was established,probably by

Lord Hampden,at that nobleman ’s seat at Glynde

,

near Lewes,about 1 7 70 . Nothing is now known

about th is press excep t that the Bodle i an Librarypossesses a portion of a work printed there in 1 770 .

This is the first Sheet of a poem , the t i tle-page of

which reads : ‘The Summer Day , a Descript ivePastoral . Glynd ,

HAYWARDS HEATH PRESS .

I have been told by two persons , ne i ther ofwhom

,however, can give any further information,

that a Bible was printed at a private press at Hay

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7 8 PRIVATE PRESSES IN SUSSEX .

poems . Now Lewis Way was the owner of Stans ted Park from 1 80 5

-

40 , which covers the periodat which thi s work was prin ted at the Stans tedPre ss . This shows that it must be the Stansted inSussex at wh ich the press was e stablished

,while

confirmation i s forthcoming in one of the poems,

that On visi ting Charlotte ’s Grave,

’ where ment ioni s made of S toughton Church

,which i s qui te close

to Stansted . I t i s very curious that there is not as ingle note or reference to th is press to be foundanywhere . A copy of th is l i t tle volume i s in the

Bri t ish Museum , but i t evidently has no autograph note

,as i t i s catalogued simply under

Poems . ’ There i s a third copy , which , however,i s not comple te , i n a private colleéfor

’

s hands inBoston

,U .S .A .

WORTHING PRESS .Albany Wallace

,a weal thy, but somewhat

eccent ric man , had a private pre ss at his house inWorth ing in the middle of the nine teenth century

,

and from this several books wri t ten or translatedby h imself were i ssued . H e firs t se t up his pressin London

,as the following entry from the Bri t i sh

Museum Catalogue under Wallace prove s : ‘ The

re igns of the Stuart s in England dramatized . 6

parts . Prin ted by the Author at h is private pressLondon

,1 8 3 5 H e must have removed his

press to Worthing some t ime before 1 8 5 0 ,s ince in

that year he printed there his ‘ Elfrida : a drama,

in five aé’ts.

’ I n 1 8 54 h e i ssued his translat ion ofVoltai re ’s ‘ Zaire

,in English rhymed verse ,

’ whilein 1 8 6 1 appeared ‘ Iph igenia

,an epic drama from

PRIVATE PRESSES IN SUSSEX . 7 9

Racine , turned int o English rhyme , by AlbanyWallace

,E sq . Worthing : printed by the author

at h is private press . N othing else seemsto have been printed at th is press , although Wallacewas the author of various o ther works , which ,however

,he published in the usual way .

A . CEC IL P IPER .

RECENT FORE IGN LITERATURE .

HERE still survive scattered over theworld a few cri tics -no longer young

,

alas -who cons ider that form in art isa thing of importance

,that the mat te r

life present s to any art, be i t poetry ,painting or music, must be t ransmi tted

, or indeedcan only be t ransmit ted to socie ty

,by means of

the form in which i t is cast . To these personsfuturism

,cubism and othe r barbarisms of moderni ty

have nothing to say . In th is place I have onlyto t reat of l i terature

,and I would draw attention

to the valuable service rendered to the cri ti cism ofl i terature as an art by F . Baldensperger in h is newbook

,La Littérature : créat ion , succes , durée .

’

H e

begins by point ing ou t th at language i s the materialin which the ‘ fai t li t téraire ’ i s expressed

,and that

the re are two tendencies , as the poles apart , in theway in which language i s employed by humanbeings : one has for objeét exprerrz

’

on,the other

The firs t t ries to reproduce a part icular aspecf of things in the bes t possible way,while the second seeks to interpre t ordinary ideasin the most convenient fash ion . I t i s these twotendencies

,expression and formulas

,that influence

and exist in l i terary forms , and the early chaptersof the book Show how they aét on each other, andhow they are both necessary to the art of li tera

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 8 1

ture . Other poin ts di scussed are the condi tions ofl iterary movements , how far li terature i s the ex

pre ssion of socie ty , and how far i t influences socialaét ion .

The influence of literature on socie ty is a deeplyinterest ing ques tion . I t has been declared thatmany persons would neve r have the idea of fallingin love if they had neve r read of love , or heard i tspoken about . I t is possible

,though i t cannot be

proved ; and, in the same way,li terature has prob

ably ind ireéfly helped m en and women to manifestin language desi res and hopes and ‘ é tats d ’ame

,

’

that without some knowledge,i n most case s un

suspeé’ted , of l i terary forms , would have perished

of inanit ion . But even of greater importance,

socially speaking, is the faéf t hat thanks to literature , and by v irtue of i ts forms, millions of m en

have gained some knowledge of ideas that wouldotherwise have remained a sealed book to them .

Buffon wisely declared that the form in which atru th i s s tated i s more useful to humani ty than thet ruth i tself. Through literature

l’

enthousiasme religieux comme le sens d e la justice,

le goat d e l’

hero’

Isme au tant que la misere d e l’ame

,la joie

de vivre aussi bien que l’

asp irat ion vers la mort, se sontmanifestés a des publics entiers .

’

The art of li terature, l ike the o ther ar ts , cannotbe reduced to a formula, bu t the close connect i onof great li terature with life , with society , shouldnever be los t S ight of by the s tudent ; to thataspecf of literature Baldensperger

’

s book forms anadmirable and suggest ive guide .

G

8 2 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

I t has often been remarked that French l i terature has produced few ,

if any , great li terary biograph I eS that would rank wi th Boswell

’s ‘Johnson ’

and Lockhart ’s ‘ Scott . ’ Big volume s containingthe Life and Le t ters of dist inguished m en and

women are almost unknown in France . Thereare a profusion of memoirs

,confess ions

,diaries of

all sorts , collecfions of le t ters , generally between orfrom lovers , short biographies in which cri ticismof the man’s work , whatever i t be , takes a largerplace than the events of h is life . Thus we havereason to be grateful to M . Louis Roche

,who in

h is book , ‘ La Vie de Jean d e la Fontaine,

’ hasgiven us a veri table biography

,the works only

figuring the re as illustrat ing the life,and as form

ing the chief part of ‘ La Fontaine ’s ’ ac’t ivi t ies .Roche does not lay claim to any new di scove ries

,

but contends that in his book his readers

‘ verront l ’homme,ils pourront s

’

approcher d e lui, le

suivre a travers les mondes les plus d ifferents , au cours

d’une existence qu i fut, en somme, assez d iverse .

’

W e follow La Fontaine th rough h is childhoodand boyhood at Chateau-Thierry, and h is e igh teenmonths’ experience as an oratorien,

’ which showedhim plainly that ‘ le se

’

rieux n’

e'

tai t pas son fai t . ’

Then cam e fiv e years Spent at home , reading,amusing himself

,observing nature and hi s ne igh

bours . Visits were , however, paid to Pari s , whe reLa Fontaine m e t some of the m en of le tters of theday . Roche gives an admirable p ié

’

ture of the

Paris of the t ime reconst ruéts i ts life in al l the

various quartiers,as indeed he does con temporary

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 8 3

provincial l ife as l ived at Chateau-Thierry and i ni ts ne ighbourhood . So far

,La Fontaine had done

noth ing, he was an ‘ am e vagabonde ,’ and his late

development was the fault of h is indolence : i l adormi sa j eunesse , mais i l songe .

’

At the age of twenty-Six he married a girl offourteen-and- a-half ; the union was scarcely asuccess . La Fontaine was not the kind of m an tobe t ied ; he grew weary of domes t ic and provinciallife

,and

,the opportunity offering , he en tered the

household of Fouquet , W h ere La Fontaine led apleasan t

,luxurious existence , mee t ing interesting

people l ike the young Racine , Lebrun the art ist ,Mme . de Sevigne, unt il h is patron

’s arres t . H e

next became a gentleman of the household of theDuchesse d e Bouillon at the Luxembourg

,and i t

was then that the meet ings be tween himself andhis three friends, Moliere , Racine and Boileau , tookplace ; the chapter describing the i r intercourseenti tled ‘ Les quatre amis ’ i s one of the bes t inthe book . La Fontaine also became familiar wi ththe salons of the t ime , especially that of Mm e .

de la Faye t te , where he would have m e t La Rochefoucauld , and wh ere he read aloud his ‘ Con tes ’ andFable s ’ to an admiring and appreciat ive audience .

His Conte s e t Nouvelles appeared in 1 66 5 , andhis Fables ’ i n 1 66 8 . In 1 67 2 he became a memberof the household ofMme . de la Sabliere

, the‘ Iri s

of his poems , and remained th ere for twenty years .I t was a happy, fruitful t ime ; he i ssued moreContes and more Fables

,

’

and became a memberof the Academy . La Fontaine cannot be summedup in a formula . I t may be said that he lounged

84 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

and idled through life,but who In th is case would

be without the frui ts ofh is idleness ? M . Roche’ssummat i on says all that need be said

‘ Sa v ie fut une v ie moyenne, qu’il eut la sagesse d e

prend re sans irritation et sans amertume,qu ’il eut le bon

heur d e ne point tremper de larmes vaines,et qu ’il vécut

avec une ame moyenne aussi, allégrement. Quand on songeque jusqu

’

a soixante et onze ans il a duré intact,resis

tant,joyeux, -on pense au chéne pour le corps, mais pour

l’

éme on pense au roseau . Une ame forte,en face d e la

v ie,

se bronze ou se brise une ame faible s’

ét iole ous’

écrase ; une ame legére plie et se releve, et plie encore

vivante jusqu’

au bout . C ’

est l ’histoire de La Fontaine‘ II a d es faiblesses (et de toute sorte) , mais il a da

coeur. On l’

appelait le Bonhomme : tout compté, laissonslui ce nom .

Quant a l ’oeuvre,demandons-nous seulement cc qui

nous manquerait si nous ne l ’avions pas . Quel sourired e moins en France .

’

M . Roche has done his work with great skilland ins ight

,and h is natural gift of humour

, of aquali ty akin to that of La Fontaine himself

,has

enabled h im to paint a sympathet ic and life- like

p iéfure not only of the man but of the society inwhich he l ived and moved .

A new German t ranslati on of Shakespeare ’ssonne ts by Ludwig Fulda, the t ranslator of Moliere,i s prefaced with an interest ing introduéfion by Dr .Alois Brandl

,who believes that the sonnets are the

key with which Shakespeare unlocked his heart .Indeed

,he concludes his analys is of the i r contents

with these words : Although they present only a

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8 6 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

Grabeskamm ern‘ let me not to the marriage of

true minds Admit impediment ’ by ‘ Dass j emalstreuer Seelen Bund entschwindet N ie werd ’ i chglauben or on the top of happy hours by im

Zeni t von goldnen Tagen ,’

we can scarcely helpfeel ing that the fine poeti cal flavour of the originalhas melted away in the process of transmu tat ion .

The most interes ting thing in Friedrich Mensel’

s

learned work ‘ Edmund Burke und d ie franzos

i sche Revolution . Zur Entstehung h istorischpoli tischen Denkens zumal in England ’ i s the

chapter ent itled Burke and He rder . I ts contentswill be new to English readers who are not conversant with Herde r’s achievements at fi rs t hand .

The l ikeness of view in the two m en i s remarkable , especially in aes thet ics and moral ph ilosophy .

That they d ifier in some importan t ques t ions mustbe admitted

,but h istorically and intellecfually they

belong toge th er . Burke,under many ofh is aspeéfs,

might well be called the English H erder .

Lamartine said of Petrarch ‘ pour les uns i l est

poe’ sie , pour les autres h i stoi re ; pour ceux- c iamour, pour ceux—la poli tique . Sa v ie est le

roman d ’une grande ame .

’ These words might beapplied to Lamart ine himself. In a volume byH enry Cochin,

ent itled Lamart ine e t la Flandre,

’

the polit ical side of Lamart ine’

s life i s brought ou t,

his dreams of the government of men. ThereLamartine

,ne i ther poe t nor lover

,was really d e

ligh tful and great , a count ry gentlem an of old

France . W e ge t a pleasing p iéfi i re of a somewhat

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 87

negleéfed aspec‘ft of Lamart ine

’

s career ( 1 82 2and of the countryside of France at the t ime .

W e are apt to think that the songs and tales ofmediaeval or earlier t imes must always be the re sultof spontaneous inspiration . Edmond Faral , in hi sRecherches sur les sources Latine s des con tes e tromans courtoi s du moyen age ,

’ shows how suchcomposi t ions are bound to a literary t radit ionwhich has many of i t s roots in a di stant past .They did not ari se from the vi rgin and nai veimagina t ion of ignorant ‘ conteurs . ’ They werematured by educated m en who uti lised the masterp ieces of the classical epoch and the puerile fablesof the decadence , and in that way prepared the

ground for the Renai ssance . The book i s a learnedcontribut ion to one aspeé

’t of li terary evolu ti on .

Books dealing wi th the s tage abound . H enryBordeaux ’s ‘ La v i e au theatre ’

(th i rd serie s,1 9 1 1

- 1 3 ) i s a chronological record of drama , ofcourse in France . H e draws attent ion t o whatthe st age at i t s bes t really i s

‘ Le vrai theatre,le grand theatre celui qui sert du

mouvement,de l

’

aét ion, pour atteind re les causes sou s

l’

accid ent, pour pénétrer le secret d es coeurs

, pour approfond ir les caracteres

, pour fixer l’

etat changeant des moeurs .

’

I t i s open to quest ion how many contemporaryplays accomplish this miss ion . M . Alfred Capus,himself a dist inguished dramati st

,has attempted in

Le Théfitre to find a reason for the generaldecadence of the drama at the present time . The

essays in the volume are deligh tful ; they go back

8 8 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

to pas t t imes , and he wri tes of Sardou and of

Henri Becque , whose play ‘ La Parisienne ’ s t illremains the bes t exponent of the three-corneredménage that has eVer been wri t ten . Capus

’

s conclusion is the old one that the subjec

’

t of a play i sof the least importance , there are always subj ec’tsto hand in abundance , but what i s lacking is the

ar t i st to t reat them .

The most in teres t ing essay is perhaps that onTartuffe

,

’

which in Capus’

s j udgment i s the playthat gives us all we seek at the theatre , all that we

have any right to demand‘une d istraét ion d ’une qualité supérieure ; la sensationdirecte de la vérité ; la v ie en mouvement et en action ;un accroissement

,S i petit, si infiniment petit qu

’il soit,de

notre connaissance d e l’homme .

’

Very few plays can give that sat isfac’t i on , for‘c’

est un des p61es d e notre theatre,e t chaque fois que

celui-ci retombe vers le faux,—cc qui lui arrive period i ue

ment,lorsqu

’

il a fait un grand effort,—que cc soit le

c

flaux

tragique,le faux sentiment ou le faux esprit, c

’

est versMoliere e t versTartuffe qu ’il faut regarder pour retrouvernotre route .

’

Das Burgthea ter Stat i s t i sche r Ruckblick,1 77 6

;

by O t to Rub,with an introduc’t i on by

Hugo Thimig , forms an in teresting record of theaéfiv i t ies of the great theatre of Vienna . I t i s

instrué’

t iv e to learn that German t ranslati ons of

plays by fifty-nine Engli sh dramat i s t s h ave beenplayed in those year s

,and that be tween 1 7 7 8 and

1 9 1 2 ,twenty- seven of the thi rty- seven plays of

Shakespeare were given in two thousand one hun

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 8 9

dred and seventy- seven representations . Hamle theads the list with three hundred and four teenperformances .Wi lhelm Kosch , in h is ‘ Theater und Drama

des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts,’ t reats of German

dramas from Iffiand t o Gerhart Hauptmann . H e

draws a very interesting and necessary dis t inc’tionbetween reali sm ,

taking Hebbel as i t s exponent ,and natural ism ,

of which Hauptmann i s i n Ger

many the greatest liv ing exponent . Bu t the authorcomes to the conclusion , as indeed do all thesewri ters on the st age , that progress in the theatredepends upon the plays composed and represented .

For the first time there i s appeari ng , under thecompe ten t editorsh ip of Ludwig Sch iedermair

,a

complete and accurate edi tion of Mozart ’s le t ters ,and those of his family addressed to or relat ing t ohim . Only passages from them ,

often mu t ilatedand inexaét , have before been publi shed . Schiedermair has gathered h is material from far and wide .

Volumes i and ii,now available

,contain Mozart ’s

let ters from boyhood to h is last days in chronological order ; volumes i i i and iv, to appear shortly ,will con t ain the le t ters of the family . The wholewill make a perfec

’

t biography of the great composer . A fifth volume will be a Mozar t- I conographie .

’ Mozart ’s le tters as here se t forth are

peculi arly interest ing . H e discusses problems of

l ife , thought and act ion,i n thei r most in timate

relations as they affeé’ted him and h is life . H e

expresses h i s v iews of th ings wi thout restraint,as

the le t ters were only in tended for the small circle

90 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

of his family and int imate friends,and so we have

a real p icfure of his personal i ty . Ligh t is incidentally thrown on the countries in which hesoj ourned or those he vis i ted

,ch iefly Austria

,

Germany,France

,and on earlie r or contemporary

musicians . W e are so apt t o lose the man in h ismusi c th at i t i s profitable to learn to know the

m an in the ordinary aspeéfs of life .

I n his ‘ His toi re de la Musique,

’ from the

beginning to the death of Bee thoven,M . Jules

Com barieu,the d i reéfor of the Revue Musicale

,

’

addresses,not only lovers of music

,but all who

are in teres ted in the gene ral h istory of civilis at ion .

The firs t volume take s us to the Renai ssance— thati s

,t o the end of the s ixteenth century . I t begins

with the incantat ions of magic,which were suc

ceeded by prayer, and what Combarieu callsrel igious lyrism . H e di scusses the religious lyrismof antiqui ty and the religious and profane lyri smof the Middle Ages . This was followed by theconquest of counterpoint that rendered possiblethe musical developments of the Renaissance .

Numerous musical texts are printed in the volume,

and they serve to i llust rate the author ’s technicaland aesthetic points of view . While the booknaturally appeals primarily to those in tere sted inmusic

,i t will be found useful and enlightening by

all s tudents of the general h i story of the arts .

A new volume of verse by Emile Verhaeren,

enti tled ‘ Les blés mouvants,

’ contains some charming poems, mostly on rural themes . Of the

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 9 1

Village Songs ,’ all charaéferi sed by the simplici ty

of great art and a haunting melody , the followingwill serve as an example

LES DEUX ENFANTS DE R01 .

l l était deux enfants d e roiQue séparaient les eaux profondes ;E t rien la-bas, qu

’

un pont de bois,La-bas, tres-loin, au bout du monde.

I ls s’

aimérent .—Sait-on pourquoiParce que, l

’

eau coulait profonde,E t qu ’il etait , le pont de bois,S i loin

,la-bas, au bout du monde .

’

A somewhat remarkable novel , ‘ D er Tunnel,

’

by Bernhard Kellermann,deserves ment ion here .

I t i s assumed that the Channel Tunnel wasfini shed and successfully working . I t occurred toMacAllan

,an American who had invented Allani te ,

a specially hard kind of steel,that a tunnel might

be made from America to Europe , using that steelfor the tubes

,and that trains migh t run th rough in

twen ty-four hours . The book relates the carryingout of the scheme through all i ts vicissi tude s,financial and other

,to i t s happy conclusion when

the firs t t rain from Ameri ca reaches Europe onlytwelve minu tes late . I happened to see some thingof the S implon tunnel while i t was i n course ofconstrué’t ion,

and allowing for the added d ifli cul tyof working under wate r

,i t seems to m e that

Kellermann has grasped in marvellous fash ion themain faéfs ofsuch an undert aking . These of coursecould have been se t for th in a technical t reat i se ,but I take i t Kellermann chiefly wished to Show

92 REC ENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

the fatal effeéts on human affairs of a too greatabsorpt ion in work . M acAllan negleéts h is wifeand child to such an extent that they are killed ina rio t due to a strike of the workmen engaged inthe construéfion ofthe tunnel following on a t erribleaccident

,the description of wh ich i s a fine piece of

reali s tic writ ing . From that moment things begint o go wrong, and the s i tuation is only re trievedby MacAllan

’

s marriage wi th the daughter of themillionai re who took over the financing of the

scheme . She require s a great deal ofat tention,and

ins ists on having i t . Thus Allan i s allowed nochance to become overworked and exhausted

,and

things go much bet ter . To accomplish great endsof any sor t

,effort

,concentrat ion , heavy toil are

absolu tely necessary, but the man who deliberatelyshuts ou t the human S ide of l ife and never re s tsfrom his work

,no matter what i t be , i s less likely

to succeed than he who i n terest s h imself in the

ordinary afl’airs of human life,and takes proper

peri ods of rest .

The following recently published books deserveat tenti on

Oesterreich ische Gesch ichte . Von RichardKral ik .

From the beg inning to the Balkan W ar Forms a necessarycomplement to the author

’

s h istory of V i enna. Memoirs are

large ly used as a basis.

Histoi re de Gand . Par Viéfor Fris .Froissart ment ioned Ghen t as the sovere ign town of Flanders

,

and as abound ing in every thing that coul d be desired in ‘une

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94 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

La ville ass iégée . Janina . Oétobre , 1 9 1 2

Mars, 1 9 1 3 . Par Guy Chantepleure .

‘Notes de guerre griffonnées sur l’impression d irefie des evenemen ts.

’

The book br ings home to one the horrors ofwar.

Les origines poli t iques des guerres de Religion .

P ar Lucien R om ier . Vol . i .Th is volume deals w ith Henri I I and Italy ( 1 547 I t isbased on unpubl ished documents

,and t reats the subj eé

’t more on

the moral and pol i t ical than on the ecclesiast ical side . The secondvolume w il l treat of la fin de la magn ificence extérieure . L ’

avenemen t pol it ique de la Réforme francaise ( 1 5 5 5

Les source s de l ’h istoire de France . XVI I " s iecle( 1 6 1 0 Par Emile Bourgeoi s e t LouisAndré .

Th is part of a most valuable work g ives a l ist w ith ample descript ion of book s of geography and general h istory usefu l for theperiod . Under the first head ing maps and t ravels are included .

Erns t von Wildenbruch . Von Berthold Litzmann .

The first volume ( 1 845-85) ofa most e laborate b iography .

ELIZABETH LEE .

THE PANIZZI CLUB .

HANKS to some excellent organizat ionon the part of Mr . Wyndham Hulme ,of the Library of the Patent Office,and Mr . M cKi llOp ,

late librari an of theLondon School of Economics , the

suggestion that co- operat ion between the d ifierent

educational and research libraries might bes t bepromoted by ge t ting the ‘ righ t people ’ toge the rin a room was carried out with much success at adinner held at the Imperial Res taurant on Thursday ,1 9 th January . About a score ofimpor tant librarieswere represented by seni or membe rs of the i r s taff,good wishes from as many more were read out byMr . McKillop ,

and promises of support,verbal or

wri tten,had been rece ived from so many others as

to just ify the hope that when a more formal s t art i smade no t merely some , but all, ofthe right people

’

will be found helping .

The chair was taken by M r. J. Y . W . MacAl ister,

who,as he recalled in h is opening speech

,twenty

two years ago,while H on . Secre tary of the Library

1 Adm iralty , Board of Educat ion, Brit ish Museum,Geological

Survey, Ind ia Office, Paten t Office ,Magdalene Col lege,Cambridge

,

Trin ity Col lege, Cambridge, Che l tenham Col lege for Lad ies, Bedford Col lege

,London

,Un iversity Col lege, London, London School

of Econom ics,Royal Society of Brit ish Architeéts

,Athenx um

Club,Royal Colonial Inst itute, Cen tral Conservat ive Organ izat ion,

Inst itute ofMechanica l Engineers,Brit ish Med ical Associat ion

,

Royal Society ofMed icine,Royal San itary Inst itute.

96 THE PANIZZI CLUB .

Association , took the firs t s tep In the formationof the Bibl iographical Society . The coincidenceseems to us a very auspicious one . B ibliograph icalwork was one of the objeéts of the Library Assoc iat ion,

and i s st ill the subjeé’t of an occasional paper

in i ts programmes , but the Association would haveneeded a separate income and a separate se t ofworkers to do what the B ibli ographical Society hasdone during the las t twen ty years . On the otherhand

,if a port ion of this work had been substi tuted

for the educational work of the L . A . (which hasadvanced far beyond i ts original programme) , bothlibrariansh ip and bibliography would have been thepoorer . I t may well be hoped that the new body ,l ike the B ibliographical Society

,will supplement

the work of the Association , and set free i t s energiesin much the same way .

In proposing the formation of the Club,Mr .

MacAl ister expressed his bel ief that among i tssupporters were included the three kinds of m en

who,when combined

,made for success the

dreamers,the organizers , and the dogged workers .

The dreamers had been dreaming of a state-supported ‘ London Library

,

’ which should one dayrival the Bri t i sh Museum , bu t now the next s tepwas with the organizers and workers , and thei rconcern with the laying of foundations . The

best foundation was the personal acquaintance of

librarians with one another, and with one anothe r’slibraries

,and if nothing else but this came of

Mr . McKi llop’

s labours they would not have beenwas ted . Co-operati on between li braries did notnecessarily involve a wholesale standardizing of the i r

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9 8 THE PAN Izz1 CLUB .

Mr . MacAl ister then formally moved the mainre solution :

‘ That a club composed of the seniorofficers of State , Universi ty , and ProfessionalLibraries be es tablished to promote good fellowsh ip and close r co-operation

,and that the club be

called the Panizzi Club .

’

Ext raéfs from le tters approving of the formationof a club were then read by Mr . McKillop fromMr . Edmund Gosse (House of Lords Library) ,Mr . Austin Smyth (House of Commons Library) ,Mr . Lyster (Nat ional Library of Ireland) , Mr .Dickson (Advocates

’ Library,Edinburgh) , Mr .

Minto (Signet Library , Edinburgh) , Mr . Palme r

(Nat ional Art Library,South Kens ington) , Mr .

Fulcher (Science Museum ,South Kensington) ,

Mr . H ead icar (London School of Economics) ,Mr . ViCtor P larr (Royal College ofSurgeons) , Mr .H udleston (War Office) , Dr. S tapf (Kew Gardens) , M r . Severn (Gray

’s Inn Library) , Mr .N ewbegin (Bri t ish Astronomical Association) ,Mr . Clifford (Chemical Socie ty) , and Si r EdwardBusk .

Commenting on these le t ters , Mr . WyndhamHulme said they Showed a general agreement thatthe exist ing want oforganization was a deplorable

,

but also a remediable faéf, and that the modestand slender scheme proposed was what was wanted .

As an old member of the Council of the LibraryAssociat ion he wished to say that if the Associat ion had failed to at tracft librarians of the researchl ibraries

,that was not the L . A .

’

s fault . I t hadgiven praé

’

t ical proofof i ts respeé’

t for these librari ansby taking every Opportuni ty of eleC’t ing them to i ts

THE PANIZZI CLUB . 9 9

Council . As to thei r own scheme in i ts construé’

tive

aspeét author catalogues were now at a discount ascompared wi th subjeé

’t and class catalogues , and he

thought that they should study the best me thodsof i ssu ing these on a system

,possibly a co- operative

system . The most urgent work of all was the

compilat ion ofa Union Lis t of Periodi cals , becauseperiodicals are the back-bone of specialis t collect ions . They must find out whe ther several librarieswere buying the same periodicals , while otherperiodicals , li t t le , i f at all, less good , were leftunrepresen ted . If information of this kind wereavailable

,i t would be possible to regulate purchases

somewhat more scientifically .

In further support of the mot ion,Mr . R . W .

Chambers (Universi ty College , London) spokechiefly on the development of the interchange of

books between different l ibraries . On a tour inGermany five or six years previously he had seenthe system in full working order

,and on h is re turn

had persuaded h is Commit tee to build a strongroom

,in which he now had the pleasure of

keeping numerous manuscripts and printed booksborrowed chiefly from fore ign l ibraries . Owingto the growth of local universi t ies all over Englandwe had now the same reasons for adop ting thissystem as the Germans had had all along . A goodworking library migh t be built up in a localuniversi ty with anything between and

volumes,but for real efli c iency th is must

be supplemented by the power of drawing occasionally on a colleéfion of t en t imes thi s s ize . The

B ri t ish Museum was not available for th is purpose,

1 00 THE PANIZZI CLUB .

because s tuden ts could not afford to sacrifice the

certainty that if they wen t there any book whichi t possessed would be ob tainable . If five hundredof i t s rari t ies were cons tantly in Germany thiscertainty would be dest royed . Universi ty librari ansmust

,therefore , increase the i r resources by co

operating wi th each other . Each library mustspeciali se and print catalogues of i ts spec ial colleet ions

,as Univers ity College had printed

,or was

engaged in prin ting , catalogues ofi ts Dante collec

t i on,i t s Celt ica

,and i ts scient ific periodicals . If

a central clearing house could be arranged for,

from which,as in Germany , information could be

obtained as to the location of any book wan ted,work would be much facili tated .

Speaking from h is experience of thi rteen cars

as Superintendent of t he Reading Room 0 the

Bri t i sh Museum ,Mr . Barwick cordially supported

the proposal for a Un ion List ofPeri odicals . Richas the Museum was in periodicals i t was constantlyunable to supply those wanted by readers

,and i t

would be an invaluable help if in such case s information could be given as to where the numberwanted could be found .

Mr . Stephen Gaselee (Magdalene College , Cambridge) expressed hi s confidence that in Cambridgethere would be alacri ty in helping the objeéfs ofthe club . They had no dead hand there to restrié

’

t

the lending of books . If reciprocal advantageswere obtained , the presen t lending system migh twell be extended to other libraries . The collegel ibraries al ready lent books , and even from the

Pepys colleéfion books could be lent on the securi ty

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1 0 2 THE PANIZZI CLUB .

t o lend i ts books , the resolution to form the Clubwas put from the Chair and carried unanimously .

Applicat ions for membersh ip were then s igned ,and a provisional committee was eleéted , consist ingofMr . Ballinger, Mr . Chambers , Mr . Clifford , Mr .Gaselee , Mr . Hulme , Miss Paterson,

Mr . Plarr,Mr . Pollard and Mr . Twentyman (Board of Educat ion) . M r . Hulme to acf as Hon . Secretary and

Mr . Twentyman as Treasurer .On the motion of Mr . Barwi ck a vote of thanks

was offered to the Chairman and the promo ters ofthe meet ing , and briefly acknowledged by Mr .M acAl ister and Mr . McKi llop.

A . W . P .

REVIEWS .

Bz'

é/iogmpfzie der orterrez’

c/zzkc/zen D rucée 46 : x1 ) . and

x'ur

'

. H eraurgegeéen‘DUIZ D r .

E duard Larger . I Band,1 . H e z

‘

. Trz'

ent

Wz

’

efl B earéeitez‘ ‘vonD r .Wa l t/zer

D ole/z. Mz

’

t ez’

nem An/zang ,fl u: a

’

er errten Zeiz‘

der PVz'

ener Bucfia’rucér, 12072 D r . Ignaz Sc/zwarz .

pp . v ii . it ) . 1 9 1 3 .

HI S i s the fi rs t instalment of a workintended to supply ‘ a systematic bibl iography of all the produé

’t ions of

Aust rian printers i n the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries

,

’

and comprises thepresses which ‘began work in Inner Austria before1 5 0 1 . That of Schrattenthal is included because ,although the only book known to belong to i t i sdated as late as March , 1 50 1 , the worn conditionof i ts woodcuts sugges ts they had been in use

previously . Each press i s dealt wi th under aseparate seé’t ion ,

i n wh ich a short general int roduéfion precedes the bibliography proper . The

descriptions of the books are modelled on those inthe Nachtrage zu Hain published by the GermanIncunabula Comm I SSIOn, and consi st of copioust ranscripts of the t i tle

,colophon

,e tc . ,

followed ina second paragraph by information as to size

,num

ber of leaves , columns, line s and types, woodcutcapi tals , headlines , foliation and watermarks ; afinal paragraph records the location ofone or m orecopies

,and gives refe rences t o Hain and other

handbooks . A full index of over twenty pages

1 9 4 REVIEWS .

and four plates of facsimiles of capitals and woodcuts are appended . Taken as a whole

, the workof Drs . Langer, Dolch and Schwarz has been Verywell and thoroughly done . I t cons t i tutes the firstcomprehensive accoun t of the Trent incunabulaever published , and for the early Viennese pressesent irely supersedes both the older h i s tory of Denisand the more modern and somewhat unhandyvolumes ofMayer, as the standard work on i ts sub

jeC’t , so that a reviewer can do no more than offer

a sugges t ion here and the re .

Nine books only are known to have been prin tedat Tren t in the fifteenth century, and of these noless than six are concerned with the ‘ ri tual murder ’

and subsequent beat ificat ion of the local ch ild- saintS imon . The earlies t t raéf, dated 6 th September,1 47 5 , was printed by Albert Kunne

,who reappears

some years later as a printer at M emmingen . The

second,the Historia completa ’

ofTuberinus,dated

9 th February , 1 476 , i s prin ted with the sameGothic type, bu t concludes with the words : ‘H er

manno schindeleyp auéfore ,’ on the strength of

which statement i t has hi therto been assumed to

be the work of Sch indeleyp . Dr. Dolch , however,denies that auétor

’ can here mean anythingexcep t the seller the publi she r—and re tainsthe book unde r the press ofKunne . But examplesof auc’tor used as a synonym of artifex may befound in Forcellini , so that there seems no reasonwhy the word should not here stand for im

pressor ’ ; or,if another meaning must be sough t

for i t , Schindeleyp may perhaps have been a privatepatron who was described as the ‘

auCtor’

of the

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1 06 REVIEWS .

1 480 . This i s not the place for a detai led d iscussion of the problem ,

e specially as Dr . Schwarzhas gone over the ground extremely thoroughly

,

but one point i s worth mentioning here . The

name Cassis is a Latinizat i on ,not of Helm

,

’ asDr . Schwarz assumes , but of ‘ Eysenhu t ,

’ whichoccurs together wi th Helm as the equivalen tof Cassi s in D iefenbach ’

s Glossarium,and Cassi s

i s t hus clearly identical wi th the Johann Eysenhutwho printed a block-book at Ratisbon in 147 1 .

All the part iculars given by Dr . Schwarz agreewith th is i dent ificat ion

,which seems worth follow

ing up systematically . I t seems a pi ty,by the way

tha t the t i tle,Drucke r der H istoric v on S . Rochus ,

has been given to the press in que st ion,s ince a

Drucker der R ochuslegende already figures inthe l i s t of Nuremberg printers

,and there i s some

risk of confusion between the two.

By far the largest part of the volume unde rreview i s naturally taken up with the bibliographyofJohann W interburger, and the authors are to becongratulated on the i r succe ss i n taking the sum

total ofh is recorded produéfions from ninety-nineto no fewer than one hundred and sixty-five . AsW interburger must undoubtedly have also printed amult i tude ofcalendars

,prognost ications

,and official

documents which are now entirely lost , h is to taloutput probably amounted to at leas t three hundreditems . H e firs t es tabli sh ed himself in Vienna asearly as 1492 , but i t was qui te ten years before hisbusiness really began to flour ish ; nearly all of thefifty

-nine incunabula enumerated by Dr . Dolch (asagainst only forty-two in Burger’s Index) are

REVIEWS . 1 9 7

somewhat insignifican t t raé’

ts of less than twen tyleaves . In 1 50 3 , however, he made h is mark witha large and handsome edit ion of the Passau Missal

,

and henceforward his posit ion as a li turgicalprinte r was assured . A long and notable seriesof service books con tinued to issue from his pressuntil hi s death in 1 5 1 9 , and in point of bulk faroutdistanced all the res t of hi s work put together .From about 1 5 1 2 , i ndeed , W interburger produced

praéfically noth ing that was not e ither li turgical orofficial in charaCter, the only importan t exceptionbe ing P eurbach ’

s‘ Tabula ecl ipsium ,

’ printed forthe Univers i ty ofVienna in 1 5 14 ; i t i s Significantthat al though this book only contains one hundredand th irty-four leaves , i t i s more than twice as largeas any other of h is non-li turgical t raé

’

ts. Besidesbe ing

,i n faéf if not in name

,offi cial prin ter to the

Emperor, he produced a certain number ofhumani st ic works conneCted with Celtes and the Socie tasDanubiana , and as he calls h imself in one place‘caraéterum sculpendorum ingeniosissimus

,

’ i twould appear that his types

,and very possibly

also his handsome and v aried woodcut capi tals,

were of his own designing . Altoge ther, he i s aremarkable figure i n the history of early typography

,

and the praise lavi shed upon him by Dr . Langerand Dr . Dolch is not undeserved . Dr . Dolch hassupplied a descript ive l i s t ofW int erburger

’

s types,

together with notes of the years in which theywere firs t in t roduced—a welcome innovation inmonograph s of this kind . Perh aps i t would havebeen as well to tabulate the sets of woodcut capi talsalso, as the secfions of the int roduéfion dealing wi th

1 08 REVIEWS .

these are somewhat difficul t to follow . The treatmen t of the undated books also leaves someth ing tobe desi red . In most cases no explanation i s givenof the conjeé

’tural dates ass igned to them ,

and i t isd ifli cul t to see why

,e .g .

,no . 1 1 8 , printed with

types 4 and 6 , should be marked ‘ kaum vor

whereas no . 1 2 6 , prin ted with the same type s andapparently much the same i n general appearance

,

i s allowed the very wide margin of ‘etwa 149 8

Two further points may also be mentionedhere : ( 1 ) The descript ion in the Bri t i sh MuseumCat alogue of no . 2 8 as conneé’ted with W ii rzburgi s suppor ted by the ment ion of S . Burchardus

,who

was peculi arly honoured in that diocese ; (2) theVocabularius (Proé

’

tor, no . 1 57 6) referred to onp . 1 3 2 i s not a Vocabularius ex quo,

and cannothave b een printed later than 1474 (see p . 3 2 1 ofthe E .M . Incunabula Catalogue) .St ill

,these are small blemishes , and studen t s of

early prin t ing will be grateful to the authors for thei rlabour

,and look forward to the second instalment .

V . SCHOLDERER .

B idliograp/zy of Road-making and Road : in t/ze United

Kingdom. By Dorot/zj/ Ba llen. Wit/z an Intro

duétzon éy Sir George Giéé, C/za irnzan of t/ze Road

Board . London : P . S . King 69’Son. 1 9 1 4.

pp . xv iii, 2 8 1 . One of the ‘ Stnd ier in E co

nomier and Pol itica l Science.

’

E dited by MeH on. IV. P eméer Reeves .)

In the opening sentence of h is preface to MissBallen’s work

,the Chairman of the Road Bo

’

ardcommits h imself to the assert ion that ‘

the prope r

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1 1 0 REVIEWS .

Miss Ballen migh t have gone a l i tt le furthe rand subs t ituted the class headings for at leas t onehundred and th irteen of the two h undred andtwenty- Si x running headlines now occupied byrepet i t ions of the t i tle ‘ B ibl iography of Roads . ’

I t would certainly have made i t easy to find one’sway about her book . For the general interes t ofthi s we are content to borrow the eulogy by Si rGeorge Gibb, who wri tes

A mere perusal of M iss Ballen’s bibliography and of

the dates and titles of the books written,taking due

notice of the dates when books were not written,is

sufficient to afford a good deal of enlightenment. I t i snot too much to say that the evolution of the road can betraced from the bibliography . The appearance on the

road of each new user heralded an outburst of literaryand legislative aét iv ity, and created a s ituation similar inprinciple to that which has been created by the motortraffic ofto-day . The literature of the past, like that ofto-day, embod ies a prevailing tone of d iscontent. I ts

classification would be among the lamentations. The

road u ser has always been an impatient and intolerantperson in speech, though pathetically tolerant and longsuffering in cond ué

’

t . Few writers come to praise eitherthe cond itions of the road s or their administration . Y e t

we hav e,and though chary ofsaying it, we know that we

hav e in Great B ritain a most adm irable , highly pract ical,and singularly complete system of roads . H ow d id we

get it ? W ho mad e it ? I t is d iffi cu lt to answer thesequestions . Our roads

,speaking generally, were not

mad e ; they grew. Hence this need of history for com

prehension and the value ofM iss Ballen’

s bibliography .

W e may note in passing that S ir George Gibboffers the following dates for the appearance of

REVIEWS . 1 1 1

diffe ren t class of vehicles on the road : privatecarriages, commenc ing as rare novelties , middle ofthe s ixteenth century ; long waggons , after 1 5 64 ;coaches in t owns , from 1 5 80 onwards ; hackneycoaches

,from the beginning of the seventeenth

century ; s tage coaches , from its middle . Thereare certainly , however, p iCIures of covered carriages or horse- li tters in m ed izeval manuscripts

,and

did not Lancelot once j ourney in a cart ?A . W . P .

Gabr iel H arvey’

s Marg ina lia . Correé'

t‘ed and Edited

éy G. C'

. Moore Snzit/z, P rof. of E ng . Lang . and

L it . in t/ze Uni v. of S/zefie/d . Snaéerpeare H ead

P rerr,Stra tford-npon-zi oon. 1 9 1 3 .

This book i s a seleél ion of the most importan tof Gabriel Harvey ’s marginal notes , and they doin truth , as Prof. Moore Smith claims , ‘ throw aflood of ligh t on the books he read

,and on the

thoughts he cherished in secre t . ’

On the whole they reveal Harvey as more wideminded and less of a pedant than he i s usuallyrepre sented , and w e can only regre t that his was

not a more at traéfiv e or admirable charaC’cer, forthese unconsciously int imate self- revelations makeus realise how much we would give for similarj ott ings from the pens of some of hi s great contemporaries . From a li terary point of V iew ,

the

note s on Spenser’s and S idney ’s verse in Harvey ’scopy of Gascoyne

’

s Note s of Instrué’t ion ’

are ofinterest , e specially Harvey

’s commendation of thefinal Alexandrine as a grace ’

in the s tanza of theFaerie Queene .

’

1 1 2 REVIEWS .

By far the most interest ing of the annotat i ons ,however, are those in Harvey ’s copy of Spegh t

’

s

‘ Chaucer ’

the book which belonged to

B i shop Percy, was seen by Malone and Steevens,

and was then supposed to have peri shed in a fire atNorthumberland H ouse .

Prof. Moore Smith , however, happily , j ustbefore the publicat ion of hi s book

,found i t in

the possession of B i shop Percy ’s great-granddaughter

,and in an Appendix he has prin ted

Harvey ’s notes , and he has included as well acollo type facs imile of the most interest ing pages

,

where a reference to the popularity of Shakespeare ’sVenus and Adonis ,

’ ‘ Lucrece ’

and ‘Hamle t ’ withvarious classes of readers i s immediately followedby a list of contemporary poet s , including Spenser,Constable

,Daniel and Shakespeare , who are char

aét erised as our florishing me t rician s .’

I f,as would appear likely

,thi s note was writ ten

before Spenser ’s death in January , 1 5 99 , i t followsthat the usually accepted date for the firs t performance of ‘ Hamle t ’ ( 1 602) must be at leas tfour years too late .

A study of Harvey,prefixed by Prof. Moore

Smith (pp . 4 sums up the main faéI s about h iscareer , his charaéfer and his ambit ions in the l ightof the new knowledge gained by the Marginalia,

’

and adds to the value of a book which will bewelcomed by all s tudents of Elizabethan li terature .

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1 14 CO-OPERATION AMONG

Gie ssen arrangements for lending books to one

another existed as early as 1 8 3 7 . The presen tPrussian ‘ Le ihverkehr ’

(loan service) has beenpreceded by a ‘

number of less comprehensivearrangements (S ince The informat ionbureau conneét ed with the Royal Library at Berlini s the offspring of the Pruss ian Cent ral Catalogue

,

and again the ‘ Supplement Catalogue ’

i s the off

spring of the informat ion-bureau . There i s atheore t ical point of view : l ibrarians and readersmay cri t icise the present system and form schemesfor modifying or extending i t ; they may e speciallyplead for linking up the informat ion-bureau and

the inter-library loan se rvi ce more closely . The

present wri te r can only approach the subjeét fromthe librarian ’s point of View ,

and m ust confineh imself to the aCtual s tate of affai rs and mutualhelp among libraries . H e must also pass over allmerely local co-operat ion (common catalogue s ofs ingle t owns ,Readers of the following pages will do well to

bear in mind some general features of the Germanlibraries . A great many of them belong to the

State (to one of the federated States , not t o the

Empire) immediately , or to a State inst i tut ion (aschool

,or at least to an ins ti tut ion under the

superintendence of the State . Many rece ive booksprinted or published in the i r S tate or a part of

the i r S tate under a Copyrigh t Aft, so that one

may expect t o find th is or that book in th is or

that library,only because i t i s prin ted or published

at this or that place . But as there i s no PublicLibraries Aét nor a Carnegie

,and as many old

GERMAN LIBRARIES . 1 1 5

State or Municipal libraries h ave undertaken todo the work of a modern ‘ public library

,

’

the

public l ibraries in the st riét English sense of theword do not hold so noteworthy a positi on amongthe l ibrarie s of the count ry as in Great Bri tain .

Secondly , i t i s as common for research libraries asfor public librarie s to lend books out of the building,but i t i s not very common for them to allow

the reader free access t o the catalogues , so that thereader i s praét ical ly nowhe re obliged to add the

press-mark on his orde r slip,and Special offi cial s

are employed to look out the book in the catalogues. Lastly , most of the libraries , or of the

insti tut ions the l ibraries belong t o , may send the i rle t ters and parcels ‘ On H is Majesty ’s Service ’

or

fre i durch AblOSung,

’

i . e . , they commute the fee sfor the le t ters and parcel s they send

,paying an

average sum which i s about one- thi rd smaller thanthe ordinary postage and carri age would be mostof them are further allowed to send the i r le t ters as‘

portopfl ich t ige Diens tsache ,’

so that the receiveris to pay the postage .

In Prussia,

eleven l ibraries,v iz . the Royal

Library at Berlin and the t en Un iversi ty Librariesat Berlin

,Bonn

,Breslau

,Got t ingen

,Greifswald ,

Halle , Kiel , Kon igsberg, Marburg, and M ii nster,

are in a part icularly Close conneétion . They are

under the superintendence of one department of

the same Ministry of Education and i t s ‘ Bei ratfii r Bibli otheksangelegenhe i ten

,

’ the i r officials are

I But as to parce ls, in general only those of 1 0 kg. or less are

perm i t ted to be sent in th is way .

1 1 6 CO-OPERATION AMONG

trained and paid in the same way and may bet ransferred from one of these l ibraries t o another .The i r author-catalogues are arranged subjeCt t othe same rules , the ti tles of the i r accessions (asfar as published in 1 8 92 or later) are printedfor the i r catalogues weekly in one publicat ion (the‘ Berl ine r and a central catalogue i sin course of compilat ion which

,when fini shed

,

will record all the i r books and copies (orientalia,universi ty and school publications

,

‘ maps,j uvenile

literature,reprin ts wi thout t itle-page

,e tc .

,ex

cep ted) . As to the purchasing of fore ign l i terature

,some of the Un iversi ty Librarie s are

expefted to special ise , so that each of these collect i ons i s a complement to the others In th i srespeét : Bonn e specially buys Romance and Dutchbooks

,Go t t ingen English and American works

,

K iel Scandinav ian publications , and Bre slau Sclavonian literature ; Gre ifswald has a special LowGerman department , whe reas the Royal Libraryprovide s books of all languages in a sui tableseleét ion .

The general plan for book informat ion and bookloans is as follows : If the research student , or eventhe general reader, wants a book , no copy ofwhichbelongs to the l ibrary he frequents ,2 he applie s tothe State or Univers ity l ibrary of his d ist riét (s tateor province) , and this , as a rule , by the help ofh is

1 Annual l ists of these are printed and publ ished by a Spec ialdepartm ent of the Royal L ibrary .

2 Not a copy ofwh ich be longs to the l ibrary, but is lent to

another person or inst itut ion.

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1 1 8 CO-OPERATION AMONG

some times by the borrowing library,some time s

partly by the one and partly by the other, somet imes partly by these or one of the se and partly bythe lending library or even the State ; in thi s respeétthe rule s of the different s tate s or libraries differ .As far as poss ible

, the figure s men t ioned refer tothe year from I st April, 1 9 1 2 ,

to 3 I st March ,1 9 1 3 .

THE INFORMATION -BUREAU ANDTHE COMMON CATALOGUE .

‘

THE earliest rule s of the ‘ Auskunftsbureau der

deutschen Bibliotheken ’

(Berl in N W 7 , KoniglicheB ibliothek) are prin ted in the ‘ Jahrbuch d er

Deutschen Biblio theken,herausgegeben vom Vere in

Deutsche r B iblio thekare ,’ Leipzig (Otto H arrasso

witz) , v ol . 4, 1 905 , pp . 1 2 3-

4. The presen t rule s,

slightly changed , are printed as a broadside and

will be sent on reque st . The purpose of the

Information-bureau is to discover if and wherethere i s a copy of a wanted book in a German (or

1 Cf. ‘D ie Zen tralstel le d er Deutschen B ibl iotheken,

’

von

R ichard Fick (Berl in) : ‘ Congres de Bruxe l les 1 9 1 0, Adtes

publ iés par ] . Cuvel ier e t L . S tain ie r,

’

Bruxe l les 1 9 1 2 , pp . 3 99-449 ,

and the annual reports in the ‘ Jahresberich t der KOn igl ichenB i bl iothek zu Berl in

,

’

Berl in N W 7, KOn igl iche B ibl iothek .D r. F ick also read a paper on the in ter- l ibrary loan serv ice to t he

Internat ional H istorica l Congress he l d at Berl in in 1 908 (beforet he presen t ru les of the Prussian loan serv ice were issued) ; cf. the

Zen tralblat t fIIr B ibl iothekswesen,

’ Le ipz ig (O t to Harrassow itz),2 5 , 1 908 , pp . 450-7 .

GERMAN LIBRARIES . 1 1 9

fore ign) library .

‘ Anyone seeking such informat ion must pay 1 0 Pfennige for -

each book he

requi re s (also postage , if outside Germany) ,2 vouch

that there i s no copy of these books in the

S tate or Univers i ty l ibrary of his d istri é’

t ,3 give

the t i tle as correct ly as possible , and name the

place where the book is referred to . H e maybe asked if the enquiry is for the purpose of

research . A lis t of the libraries support ing the

bureau is printed in the ‘ Jahrbuch,

’

9 , 1 9 1 1 , pp .

1 54- 8 . I t comprises : ( 1 ) The Royal Library at

Berlin and the 1 0 Prussian Un iversi ty Libraries ;(2) 57 Berlin l ibraries (most of them only available for Berl in readers) ; (3 ) 1 1 Prussi an S tateArchive s ; (4) 1 1 7 Pruss ian grammar schools ; (5 )24 l ibrarie s of socie t ie s not in Berl in ; (6) 1 2 1

othe r Ge rman l ibrarie s (am ong them the greatState

,Un ivers i ty and Mun ic ipal libraries

,as far

as not enumerated unde r ( 1 ) and (7 ) about

40 private l ibraries . A number of libraries inAustria - Hungary

,Swit zerland , Belgium , the

Netherlands,and the Royal Library at Copen

hagen are supporting the bureau too .

The Informat ion-bureau is closely conneét ed

with the Prussi an Central Cat alogue . They havethe same office and in part the same officials ; but

I I t does not set itself to d iscover wh ich books deal w ith a g ivensubjeét , nor where there are further copies ofa g iven book .

2 As the Prussian S tat e pays for the bureau,the bureau g ives

these fees to the Prussian Treasury (first calcu lated to y ie ld 1 50Mark ; in 1 9 1 2

- 1 3 , in faét , abou t Mark).3 The most common way is to add the order sl ip w ith the

negat ive answer ofthis l ibrary .

CO-OPERATION AMONG

in 1 9 1 2- 1 3 one

‘ B ibliothekar,

’

one clerk,three

(lady) assi stants , and one attendant had to dealexclus ively wi th t he informat ion work . Bo th are

also closely conneéted wi th the Royal Libraryand are housed in the new build ings of the

li brary . The salary for a Prussian B ibliothekarat Berlin is Mark . The other annualexpenses in 1 9 1 2

- 1 3 we re : Mark for theclerk and the assis tants , Mark for the

attendan t and the office expendi ture,

and 500

Mark for bibliographie s in course of publicat ion .

The office contains :

1 . The Prussian Central Catalogue on cards

(3 1 st March , 1 9 1 3 : about cards) .2 . The so-called Supplement Catalogue ’

(3 1 stMarch , 1 9 1 3 about cards) , which recordsall books no t to be found in any of the elevenlibraries . I t is ch iefly built up from the searchcards (see below) . By a special arrangement inconnect ion with the re- cataloguing of the Royaland Provincial Library at H anover (which i s doneby comparing the old Hanover t i tle en tries withthe more correét modern ones of the Cen t ral Catalogue)

I i t will moreover record all books whichare in this library , but in none of the eleven .

A small part of the Le ipsic Library Catalogue hasalso been compared with the Cent ral Catalogue .

Cards explaining d ifli cul t abbreviat ions of ti tles orcorreCting incomple te or wrong t i tle s in reference s

Cf. K . Kunze,

‘D ie Neukatalogisierung der Kdn igl ichenB ibl iothek Hannover ’

:‘Zen tralblat t

,

’

26, 1 909, p. 3 94-407 .

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1 2 2 CO-OPERATION AMONG

by means of a gelat ine plate . Such cards (the so

called search- cards in a cover are daily sent tothe t en Prussi an Un iversi ty Libraries , as far as theincomple te Cent ral Catalogue does not ye t affordthe desired informat ion ,

and also to a number of

other libraries likely to contain the requi red book ,e specially to the Munich Library . In the respec

t ive librarie s the cards are compared with the

catalogue s . In a non-Prussian Univers i ty libraryI happen to know that an offici al accus tomed to

spend seve ral hours daily in looking out the booksorde red by readers , spends three-quarters of an houror so daily on the search- cards . The PrussianUn ivers i ty Libraries re turn all cards with the i ranswer

,posi t ive or negative ; the othe r librarie s

only those asking for books wh ich they posse ss .The cards of the first description are re turned in acover

,and so the i r back may be used for a second

ques t ion . The othe r cards have t he printedaddres s of the bureau on t he i r back

,so that the

l ibrary which has a copy of the required book hasonly to add i ts own name

,i ts s tamp

,and i ts press

mark . In case s whe re these efforts do not succeed ,the t i tle s are combined to form search-lis t s . Each‘ Suchliste ’

enume rate s books of the same kind ,e .g . scient ific books , French books , e tc . Thesesearch-l is t s are sent to all the support ing librariesl ikely to contain the required books , and they are

also published in the ‘ Literari sches Zentralblat t . ’

When the researches have been finished—successfully or unsuccessfully —and the book is not ye t inthe Central Catalogue or the Supplement Catalogue ,one copy of the search-card reserved for th is pur

GERMAN LIBRARIES . 1 2 3

pose i s inserted in the Supplement Catalogue .

The le t ters seeking informat i on are pre se rved inthe arch ives of the bureau

,and a regi s ter of t he

inquirers with the date and d ay-book number of

the i r demands i s kept . If the re searches are suc

cessful,the bureau sends the original answe r of the

li brary to the inqui rer ; if not , i t writes h im wordafter the fi rst ci rcular enquiry and also afte r the failureof the search- lis t

,if he des i re s i t . In some cases he

i s asked before the t i tle i s entered in a search-li s t .The work done and the results yielded are

shown by the following figure s for 1 9 1 2—1 31 . I N TH E INFORMATION-BUREAU .

(a) Letters receivedBooks asked for 9]Books found

Manuscripts found : 1 42

6 7°

/o ofthe books found were found in the

elev en P russian libraries so often referred to, 3 0

°

/o[3 3

° in other German libraries only,in foreign libraries only .

(11) Calls of inquirers and verbal answers3 47 [ 1 909- 1 0 = 1 50]

(e) Books asked for byA order slips 3 [ 1 9 1 1 - 1 2 :

Books found 2 95 1 9 5]I The figures in square bracke ts are those of 1 906-7 ; business

has been t rebled in six years.

2 In general,manuscripts are no objeét of the informat ion

serv rce .

3 L ibraries part ic ipat ing in the Prussian Le ihverkehr (see be low)may add an A (i .e . Auskunftsbureau) on the ir order sl ips ask ingthe Royal L ibrary at Berl in for books ; then these books w il l belooked ou t in the Central and the Supplemen t Catalogue w ithou tfee

,if they are not in the Royal Library .

1 24 CO-OPERATION AMONG

2 . IN SOME OF TH E SUPPORT ING LIBRARIES .

Books asked for. Found .

Berlin Un iv . L ib .

BreslauGett ingen

KonigsbergMarburgS trassburg

on card sMun ichIn search-l i sts 1

Munich Library , 1 9 1 1

A particular feat ure of the work of the Aus

kunftsbureau i s that i t may be used for the fillingup of gaps in the supporting libraries . The

search-l i st s are forwarded to some second-handbooksellers . If these have one of the requiredbooks in Stock , they offer i t to the Royal Libraryat Berlin or any other library which may carefor i t . In th is way in 1 9 1 2

- 1 3 , as far as theBureau is informed, the Royal Library purchasedforty-nine works , other libraries the Univers i ty Library , the Library of the ZoologicalMuseum

,and the Library of the Merchants’

Guild in Berlin and the Library of the Techni calH igh School at D antzic) fiv e which were thusoffered them .

1 Among them 229 wh ich were in none of the e leven Prussianl ibraries.

2 Among them 1 26 which were in none of the e leven Prussianl ibrar ies.

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I 2 6 CO-OPERATION AMONG

ones . The thirteen libraries already named (theeleven with Braunsberg and Posen) apply to one

another as they like . The othe rs must apply firs tto the Un ive rsi ty library of the i r province (in the

province of Wes t Prussi a to Konigsberg,in the

province of Posen t o the Kaise r W i lhelm Bibliothek

,in the province ofB randenburg to the Royal

Library) , and only if th e required book i s not

the re,to the Royal Library or any other they

th ink fit .

I In th is case,they add the negative

answe r of the Univers i ty library of the i r provinceor the answer of the Auskunft sbureau . Manuscripts and very valuable printed books are not

brought int o the sys tem . In gene ral,the libraries

are not allowed to ask for books,if they possess a

copy of them which a frequenter has borrowed,

nor are they obliged to lend a book which i s indaily use at the i r own place or which i s not t ransportable by the i r own rules . Most books are lentfor three weeks

,

2 modern reviews,

e tc 3 and

volumes containing seve ral pamphlets 4 for one

week .

2 Prolongation m ay be permi tted by the

lending library . The borrowing library is re

sponsible for the borrowed book to the lending

Often after hav ing inqu ired of the Auskunftsbureau . Each

frequent er of each of t he l ibraries adm it ted to the Prussian

Le ihverkehr may ge t informat ion from the Cen t ra l and t he

Supplemen t Catalogue W i thout fee,if inqu iring by the a id Of the

Le ihverkehr (cf. note 3 , p.

2 In the Royal Library at Berl in : and four days for going toand fro.

3 In the Royal L ibrary at Berl in : those publ ished w ith in the

last ten years and a ll newspapers.

4 In the Royal L ibrary at Berl in : books not yet bound also.

GERMAN LIBRARIES . I 27

l ibrary . I t lends i t to i t s frequenter under thesame condi t ions as i t s own books

,but may be

forbidden by the lend ing library to lend it out of

i ts bui ld ing .

I The books are asked for by a specialform of order sl ip which bears the currentnumber of orders given by t he one l ibrary tothe other during the year . The t i tle must b eas correct as possible . As a rule, le t ters and parcelsare sent th rough the Imperial Mail : ‘ fre i durchAblOSung

’ by the S tate inst i t ut ions,post paid by

the others ; they are only insured if one of thel ibraries has special reasons for doing so . Allordinary expense s are paid by the library wherethey occur . The reader must pay 20 Pfennige foreach volume rece ived (only 1 0 Pfenn ige

,if he fre

quent s one of the e leven lib rarie s often ment ionedwhere he has to pay a semi- annual library fee of

2%Mark) . The borrowing library keeps 5 Pfennigeand gives 1 5 (or 5) Pfennige to the lending library

,

the accounts be ing balanced twice a year . Extraordinary expenses (if the re are despatch-goods

,

telegrams , extra-fee le tters,e tc . ) are paid by the

frequenter , who must declare before hand that hei s willing to do so.

2 . OTHER SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS .Be sides the Prussian Le i hverkehr , Special arrange

ments are made in Bavar ia (since 1 908 concerningthe H of und Staatsbibliothek at Muni ch on theone S ide

,the Universi ty Library and the Library

1 By the Royal L ibrary at Berl in : if it is a volume contain ingseveral pamph lets, a newspaper, a book prin ted prev ious to 1 600

,

or a book w ith etch ings,etc .

1 2 8 CO-OPERATION AMONG

of the Technical H igh School at Munich and the

University Libraries of Erlangen and W ii rzburg on

the other side) , in Wiir tenzéerg (since 1 902 withregard t o the Landesbibliothek at Stuttgart andthe Universi ty Library at Tii b ingen) , in Baden

(s ince 1 905 for the Hof und Landesbibliothek andthe Library of the Techn i cal High School atKarlsruhe and the Univers i ty Libraries at H e idelburg and Fre iburg im Brei sgau) , in e rre

,

I in

T/zur ing ia'

where since 1 904 the Univers i ty Libraryat Jena is more closely conneéted with the Grandducal Library at We imar and the Ducal Libraryat Gotha , in Meek/endi ng (since 1 907 as t o the

Government Library at Schwe rin and the University Library at Rostock) , be tween the TownLibrary of H améarg and the Town Library ofL iioeeé (since 1 904) and be tween the TownLibrary and the Kommerzb ibl iothek in Hamburgon the one hand and the Univers i ty Library ofRostock on the other hand (since In

B avaria , W urtem berg ,Baden

,He sse

,Thuringia

,

and M ecklenburg, the Universi ty lib raries are

linked up with the respeét ive State libraries .The inter- library loan service of Hamburg and

L i'

i beck and of Hamburg and Rostock i s also an

in ter-s tate service . As a rule , the frequente rof one of the conneéted libraries may use the

books of the other or others without any expenses .What i s to be paid

,i s paid by the l ib rary where

t he payment is t o be made . In Mecklenburg a l l

1 Cf. the remarks on Darmstadt and G iessen in the introduét ion

(p. I

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1 3 9 CO-OPERATION AMONG

rules have been accepted by the other Germangovernments or library board s.

I According tothese general regulat ions manuscripts and printedbooks

,as far as no spec ial regulation forbids the i r

loan,may be lent to S tate libraries or l ibraries

under the superintendence of the State in Germanyand abroad from library to library immediately

,i f

the applicant l ib rary declare s i tself willing torec iprocate subje ét t o the following condit ions .The books must be sent carefully packed

, and dulyinsured at the Cxpense and the ri sk ofthe borrowinglibrary . They must be kept carefully and re turnedequally we ll packed , and at least equally wellinsured

,again at the expense and the risk of the

borrowing l ibrary . If the lending library does notmake special condit ions , the l imi t for re tainingprinted books is six weeks , for re taining the manuscripts three months . The place for keeping and

using them is the borrowing library , but the lending l ib rary may grant leave to lend printed booksou t of the building , the borrowing library be ingresponsible for them . R eprodudt ion of more thanone leaf must be sanét ioned by the lending library .

For books damaged or lost , the borrowing librarymust pay what the l ibrari an of the lending libraryand h is authori t ie s th ink fi t , even if i t i s morethan the value insu red . Special faci l it ies— forinstance , the lending of manuscripts ou t of the

building—may be granted by the Mini ster ofEducat ion . Under these regulat ions the following

I The on ly except ion is the Ducal L ibrary atWolfenbut tel,the

spec ial regulat ions ofwhich are prin ted in the ‘Jahrbuch,

’

1,1 902,

pp. 1 3 1 -2 .

GERMAN LIBRARIES . 1 3 1

B ri t ish libraries are to my knowledge in conneét ion

with German libraries z—Cambridge : EmmanuelCollege , Gonville and Caius College , MagdaleneCollege , the Universi ty Lib rary ; Dublin : Trin i tyCollege ; Durham : t he Un iversity Library ; Edinburgh : the Un iversi ty Library ; Glasgow : the

Univers i ty Library ; London : the Jews ’ College ,India Offi ce , Royal Asiatic Society ; OxfordMerton College .

The rules of the individual libraries are in

general adapted to the i r regulat ions for lendingbooks to local borrowers or within the specialfederat ion already mentioned . Only the facili t iesare not so great and the precautions are greater .Most of the l ibrarie s will not send a book if thelarge library nearest to the applying library or

pe rson possesse s a copy of the book,nor will they

send books post free out of the i r S tate and pay thefee for the delivery of the returning parcel

,the

borrower must thus pay postage and carri age toand fro . Often a fee for packing

,though quite a

small one,must be paid also : to the Royal Library

at Berlin ,20 Pfennige for 1 kg. , 3 0 Pfennige

1 -5 kg . , 40 Pfennige for 5- 1 0 kg ., 50 Pfennige for

1 0- 20 kg . (not chargeable to persons who have alreadypaid the semi- annual lending fee of 2% Mark) ;t o the Muni ch Library , 20 Pfennige ( 1 0 of thesefor the Be stellgeld ’

of the re turning parcels) t othe Leipsic Library

,1 5 Pfennige for 1 - 5 kg .

, 20

Pfenn ige for more kg . As a rule, the books sent

are insured . The Royal Library at Berlin,for

instance , insure s all books sen t ou t of the PrussianLe ihverkehr : in general an ordinary volume for

1 3 2 CO-OPERATION AMONG

1 0 Mark,a periodical volume for 3 0 Mark

,a news

pape r volume or a seventeenth century volume for50 Mark , a s ixteenth cen tury volume for 1 00 Mark .

Some t imes even reference librarie s (for instance ,the Library of the Imperi al Patent Offi ce at Berlin)send books to othe r places and even abroad if theylearn from the Informat ion-bureau that these booksare nowhere else available .

I I I .

THE PRACTICE OF THE INTERLIBRARY LOAN SERVICE .

IN order t o Show how the inte r- library loan serviceworks in de tail

,I will se t out the praét ice of

borrowing chiefly as carried on in one of the

smaller non-Prussian Univers ity libraries a fewyears ago, and the praét ice of lending chiefly asnow carried on in the Royal Library at Be rlin,

as lending prevails he re and borrowing there .

I . THE PRACT ICE OF BORROW ING .

If a frequenter of the Un ive rs ity Library , say atJena

,wants a book wh ich i s not in the l ibrary

,and

will not be acquired by the library , he i s advi sedto apply to the Royal Library at Be rlin

,and fills in

the green Berlin order slip available at Jena . Twicea week

,a member of the Jena s taff examines these

order slips,and correéts them by the aid of biblio

graphies,as far as necessary or possible , stamps

them with the library stamp,and adds h i s signature .

H e fill s in a let ter form asking for the books namedin the order slips

, and s tat ing the number of the

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1 34 CO-OPERATION AMONG

number . If the frequenter desi re s an extensionthe Jena library sends an

‘ Erneuerungsschein

(renewal slip) t o the Royal Library .

“A note toth is efl’eét i s added to the card . When the frequen ter returns the book , the date of the returnalso is added . Twice a week

,all re turned books

are sent back to Berlin (‘ fre i durch

A let ter recording the number of parcels and booksand the insured value (e i the r 1 00 Mark for theparcel or the value pre scribed by the lendinglibrary) , and asking for re turning, or cancellingthe order slip s (as the case may be) , accompan ie sthe books . The date of the re turn t o Berl in i sals o added to the cards

,which are preserved for

some t ime . There i s , of course , a day-book of thele t ters and parcels rece ived and sent , and a cashbook for the fee s paid and rece ived . If t he

required book i s not available in the Royal Library,

i t i s asked for from other li braries in a similar way .

If there is no order slip of the respeét ive libraryavailable in Jena

,the Jena li brary uses i t s own

orde r slips ; in thi s case some t ime s the lendinglibrary sends i ts orde r slips with the required books

,

and t he slips must be filled in and re turned immed iately . As there i s not so much inte rcourse withother libraries as wi th the Berlin library

,the ex

pense s for the single book are often highe r , butthe frequen ter only pays the greater part of them ,

the Jena library paying the rest . If extension i sasked for

,i t i s rather common that the absence

of an answe r from the lending library implies thatthe extens ion i s gran ted . I t m ay be reckoned thatthe whole inter- library loan service (borrowing and

GERMAN LIBRARIES . 1 3 5

lending) takes about fifteen hours weekly of thet ime ofone ass istant , and an attendant will perhapsspend about twenty—four hours weekly for packing,unpacking , and posting .

In the Royal Library at Berlin,the frequenter

who wants a book from another library must produce the answer of the Auskunft sbureau , s tat ingwhich library contains a copy of the wanted book ,and declare that he is willing to pay the expense s .H e fills in an orde r slip , which remains in the

Royal Library as a rece ip t,and the Royal Library

it self fills in a second order slip , which is sent tothe lending library . Two day-books record the

several s teps of each loan . The day-book for thePrussian Le ihverkehr records in eleven columns

( 1 ) The curren t number of the books demandedby the Royal Library of othe r librarie s during theyear ; (2 ) the name of the lending library ; (3 ) thecurrent number of the books demanded by the

Royal Library of this library during the respeCt iv e

year ; (4) the t i t le of the required book ; (5 ) thedate of the orde r ; (6) the date of the arrival ; (7 )the number of volumes ; (8 ) the fees paid ; (9) thedate of the return ; ( 1 0) the name and the addre ssof the frequenter ; and ( 1 I ) remarks , if the bookswere and mus t be insured , e tc . The remainingpart of the page i s used for stat is t ics .

’

The daybook for the other loans has not the column 3 ofthe firs t day-book , as the current numbers are pres cribed only for the Pruss ian Le ihverkehr ; i t hasinstead a column for the t ime allowed for keepingthe book , as out of the Prussian Leihverkehr thet ime allowed varies .

1 3 9 CO-OPERATION AMONG

2 . THE PRACT ICE OF LEND ING .

In the Royal Library at Berl in,the let ters asking

for books to places ou t of Berlin are firs t examinedby the Vorstehe r der Leihs telle (the superintendentof the lending department) . H e is careful to add

the numbe r of demanded books,if this number is

want ing in the le t ter .

I Then the books are lookedout in the catalogues by the ofli cials charged withlooking out all books ordered withou t press-mark .

When the available books with the i r orde r slipsarrive from the shelves in the lending department ,books and order slips are compared to correctmistakes . Slips s tat ing the date for return ing thebooks

,

2and in certain cases that they may be used

only in the rooms of the borrowing library,are put

into the books,and these are arranged under the

names of the borrowing libraries or persons . As

s oon as all order Slips of one borrower wi th the

available books,or with a negative answer (

‘not

extant,

’ ‘non available

,

’ ‘ lent h ave arrived,3

the le t ter form is filled in,s tat ing the number

of the books sent , the t ime for using them ,

and , if so required,the insured value .

4 The

order sl ips wi th negat ive answe rs,in cert ain

2 In the Prussian Leihverkehr a let ter accompany ing the ordersl ips m ay be d ispensed w ith, if the name of the borrow ing l ibraryand t he number ofthe order sl ips is recorded on the cover.

2 In the Prussian Le ihverkehr on ly in the case of ‘verkfirz te

Le ihfrist (shor tened t ime for using the books) .3 In t he in t ercourse w ith a number of large l ibraries part ic i

pat ing in the Prussian Le ihverkehr : da ily .

4 Out of t he Prussian Le ihverkehr : and asking for return ingthem postage-free , and equal ly packed and insured .

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1 3 8 CO-OPERATION AMONG

Whenever books are asked for or lent , the dateand the numbe r of the order sl ips rece ived or thevolume s sent (column Bezahl t z paid forordinary demand , column ‘ Amtl . ’ Amtlichofficial for official demands wi thout fee) as well asin certain cases remarks about the borrower ’st icke t (only for private pe rsons) , unusual ways ofsending the books , fees for packing , e tc . , are

entered on this card . When the books are readyfor be ing sent away

,the order slips (chief part and

counterfoil) are s tamped with the date s tamp .

Then the chief part and the counterfoil of the

order sl ip are separated . The counterfoil i s addedto all othe r counterfoils arranged accord ing to thepress-marks , so that i t may be known at any t imewhere any given book is to be found . The chiefpart be ing the rece ip t of the borrower is put intothe borrower ’s regis ter before the respeft iv e

borrower ’s card . When the books have beenre turned , the condition of the book is examinedand book and rece ipt are compared . If the resulti s sat isfaét ory , the books are sent back to the

shelves , and the rece ipts are cancelled or (only on

demand) re turned to the borrower .As the in ter—library loan service and the local

service are not quite separated from each othe r,

it is diffi cult to s tate exaét ly how much t ime mustbe allotted to the former . The superintendent ofthe lending department , a B ibli othekar , has to dowith the loans ou t of Berlin for a varying part ofhis hours of duty . An assistant ’s work of aboutfour hours daily may be necessary to look out the

non- local orders in the catalogues . The volumes

GERMAN LIBRARIES . 1 3 9

have to be fe tched from the shelves and carried tothe lending department . Ten hours of two ass istant s have been allot ted for making ready the

parcels of the Prussian Le ihve rkehr, six hours ofanother (lady) assis tan t for doing the same as to thesending of books out of the Prussian Leihverkehr .The re are four attendant s for packing , and nu

packing,and post ing . To examine the re turned

books is the main duty of an additi onal (lady)ass i stant . The volumes are replaced with the

volumes re turned by local borrowers . The workat the regis te r of lent books and o ther work also isincreased by the inter-li brary loan se rvice . The

t ime used for ordering books from other librarie svarie s in accordance with the orders .In the Un ivers ity Library at Jena

,the non- local

borrowe r rece ive s the required books by parce lpos t . A le tter, on the back of which the regulati ons of the library are printed

,accompanie s the

books,asking for a fee of 1 5 Pfennige (for packing

and for the post fee for delivery of the re turningparcel) and for the borrowe r ’s signature on the

enclosed rece ip t slips for the books sent . Arece ipt-book is kept

,recording date

,borrower ’s

name and address , the t itles of the books,the

numbers of the rece ipt-slips, and the total of fees

demanded for packing,e tc . Account s are s truck

off as soon as se t tled . There are also necessaryen tries in the le t ter-book and cash-book

, e tc .

Some s tat is t i cs illus trat ing the subjeét of thi spaper will be printed in a subsequent number.

ERNST CROUS .

LE IBNITZ AS 1A LIBRARIAN .

W O great figure s in the world ofauthorship had Charge of the DucalLibrary at W olfenbuttel—Le i bn i tz andLe ss ing . Some years ago I made a

short commun ication to th is review,

ll

present ing such faét s as were obtainable that t e

fleét ed favourab ly on Less ing ’s official capaci ty .

If not very many,they ye t suffi ced t o prove that

he was fully alive to a sense of the dut ies of h ispost

,and that the aspersi ons of his j ealous con

temporaries and successors we re unj ust ified . I twas not

,however

,to be supposed that the ad

mini s trat ion of the l ibrary at W olfenb ii t tel woulden t i rely e scape the effeéts ofLessing ’s improvidenthabits and unme thodi cal course of life

,that were

a bane to himse lf and a source of trouble to h is

friends .With the subjeét of the present remarks the

case w as very diffe rent,as will shortly be shown .

Gottfried W i lhelm Le ibni tz was born in 1 646 ,at Le ipzig

,whe re his father was profe ssor of moral

philosophy at the Un ivers i ty . The fi rst twentyyears of his life were spent in his nat ive c i ty , andh e was educated firs t at the Nicolai School andafte rwards at the Unive rsi ty . H i s precoci ty was

remarkable , and from e arly youth he showed a

1 LIBRARY,1 90 1 , n .s. u

, p. 3 76 .

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1 42 LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRARIAN .

recorded in thi s interest ing essay were mainlyobtained from the voluminous corre spondenceLe ibni tz cont rived to carry on with his li teraryfriends and diplomatic and official associates .I t was at Nuremberg

,in 1 6 67 , when he was

only twenty-one years of age , that Le i bn i tz fi rs tm e t the Baron v on Boineburg, s tate sman and

scholar,who was the possessor of an excellent

library,and wasmuch interested in one of the earlies t

known works on praét ical l ibrarianship—Gabrie lN audé

’

s‘ Adv is pour dre sser une B ibliotheque

,

’

published in 1 6 27 .

I H e took Le ibni tz int o hisserv ice as secre tary , l i terary assi s tant and librarian ,

and they wen t to reside firs t at Mainz and afterwards at Frankfort . Le ibnitz appears rapidly tohave shown his apti tude for the work , as we verysoon hear of h im preparing a systematic subjeétcatalogue of h is books

,which he intended to be

an index to the content s of the whole l ibrary .

For the present , however , other intere sts demandedhis t ime and at tent ion . Baron von Boineburg wasprime mini s ter to the E leétor of Mainz . The

E leCtor took Le ibni tz under h is patronage and

sent h im on poli t ical missions to various ne ighbouring courts . His youth notwithstanding

,

Leibnit z was alre ady becoming a social force , andhe es tablished by degrees a sort of li terary comm onweal th among t he authors of his day—inother words , i t was he as much as anyone who

I For a résumé of Naudé’

s book see art icle by the writer,

LIBRARY,1 898 , x, pp . 3 8 7

-90, and for a general accoun t ofN audé

see art icle by George Sm ith, ‘ Library Assoc . Record,

’

1 899, i,

PP-423 1 48 3 ~

LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRARIAN . 143

broke down the wall of exclusiveness that hadhitherto existed between the wri ters of the Bri t i sh ,French and German nations .As early as the year 1 670 Leibni tz wrote h is

‘ Thoughts on Public Safe ty ,’ urging that the

States of Europe should aim at being at peace withone another

,and concentrate the i r forces against

the Mahomet ans— then st rong foes to the generalsafety of the continent . H e poin ted out the

advantages that would accrue to France by aconquest of Egypt , thus ante-dat ing NapoleonBonaparte ’s scheme by more than a hundred years .This proposal was backed up by v on Boineburg,

and Louis X IV was approached by both of them .

Le ibn itz was summoned to Pari s , but though the

French king professed to take an interes t in the

scheme,he would not see the young diplomatist .

The death of hi s patron von Boineburg was the

means ofcutting off Le ibni tz from any hope of d ist inc tion in th is d i reét ion for the t ime be ing . H e

,

therefore , whiled away his t ime in Pari s in company with Arnauld and other philosophers

,vis i ted

London in 1 67 3 , where he got into touch wi ththe group of en thusiasts who made the earlyhistory of the Royal Socie ty

, was e lect ed a Fellowof that body , and then returned to the Cont inent .Like many whose careers have been marked by

bri lli ancy and versatili ty,Leibni tz found a d iffi

culty in gett ing set tled employmen t in the earlyyears ofh is l ife . About the year

'

1 67 6 he becamehard pressed for a l iving and was compelled tolook out for a fresh patron . Accordingly he wroteto the Duke of Brunswick - Luneburg

,John

1 44 LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRARIAN .

Frederick, and explained h is difficult c ircumstances . The duke replied offering him t he pos tof councillor at h i s court , with leave to resideelsewhere as long as he l iked .

The roving spiri t was s t ill upon Le i bni tz,and

availing himself of th e permiss i on granted him , he

left France , revisi ted England , and crossed toHolland . From thence he passed on to Hanover

,

where the duke resided , to take up h is offi cialduties . Bes ides be ing councillor, an ofli ce that wasmainly a sinecure , he was appointed librarian to theduke and historiographe r to the ducal house . H e

now applied himself with energy to h is new dut ie s .One ofhis purchases was the class ified library ofthephysician and scholar, Mart in Vogel

,or Fogel ius.

For this colleét ion he paid thalers,and thus

saved it from dispersi on . H e also acquired the

li braries ofCount v on Wes tenholz .

Quite early in h is service under the duke we

hear of his be ing drawn into state affai rs in the

dispute be tween eleét oral and non-elect oral princesof the Empire as to the right of sending two

min i sters each (one as an ambassador) to the Con

ference of N imeguen His master wasamong the non- eleCtoral princes

,and in support of

his claims he wrote his De j ure suprematus ac legat ionis princ ipum Germ aniae

,

’ unde r the pseudonymC aesar inus Fuerstenerius published in the same year

,

1 677 . This work , which advocated the recogni t ionby European states of the Pope as spiri tual headand the Emperor as supreme temporal authority

,

was frankly Ultramontane in tendency,and was a

s trange product ion to come from a Protes tant

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149 LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRARIAN .

common bas is for Protestant s and Roman Cathol icsin the various de tails of the i r creed . The offer butnot the refusal may be paralleled from the case ofLe ibni tz ’s celebrated compatriot , Johann Joach imWinckelmann , who was born the year followingthat of Leibni tz’s death and who

,in aid

of his researches in class ical l i terature and art,

followed the same occupation . W inckelmann hadbeen l ibrarian to Coun t Henry von B ii nau

,but his

ardour in the s tudy of ancient li terature inducedh im to visi t Rome . Cardinal Passione i in 1 7 54appoin ted him his li brari an

,and Winckelmann

en tered the Church of Rome as a cond ition of hi sappointment .As stated , Le ibni tz returned to H anover laden

with all sorts of material in the shape of manuscripts

,books

,and pamphlets necessary for wri ting

the his tory of h is mas ter’s house ; and we now

come to the period of h is aét iv e labours on the

Library at Wolfenbuttel . There i s plen ty of ev idence adduced in Dr . Guhrauer

’

s account to Showthat Le ibn i tz was posse ssed of defini te powers ofadminist rat ion

,although much of his t ime was

occupied with h is duties as court leéturer andhis toriographer . His sub- l ibrarian was LorenzHe rtel (b . with whom he corresponded asto the needs of the li brary as occasi on required ,when called upon to be absent . The relat i onsbe tween Leibni tz and Hertel were in the mains at i sfact ory , but a le tter is extan t writ ten byLe ibni tz to h is subordinate , in which he chargesh im with having disloyally made an unfavourablereport t o the duke as to his chief ’s gene ral conduét .

LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRARIAN . 147

After Le ibni tz ’s death He rte l took h is place,and

pres ided over the library for some twenty years t illhis death in 1 7 3 7 .

In order to increase the funds of the l ibrary,

Le ibni tz in t roduced the use of ‘stamped

-paper ’

;

and anothe r plan of h is— a st range one accordingto our modern ideas—is worth recording . H e

advocated the plant ing and growing of mulbe rrytree s in the domain adj oin ing the l ibrary buildingsfor the rearing of s ilkworms . To th is end he

commenced operat ions at his own cost,but as h is

ducal master gave him no encouragemen t , the

scheme had to be dropped , and he fell back on the

le ss p iéturesque course of selling duplicates .During Le ibni tz ’s administrat ion the l ibrary was

rebuilt by Duke Anton Ulrich from between 1 706

and 1 7 1 0 . Le ibnitz said that a Spec ial need of thel ibrary was a separate room which could be heatedand li t wi thout endangering the build ing and i tscontent s . Bu t the duke could not be induced togive his consent t o this scheme , and i t consequentlylapsed . Much more than a century later , howeve r,in 1 8 3 5 , a room in the south-wes t corner of thebuilding was reserved for registrat ion and catalogu ing purposes , and here the heating arrangements were carried out .

I

The contents of a private l ibrary refleét the

t aste s of i t s owner and creator . To some extentthe same holds good of a publi c colleét ion ,

thoughless so now than formerly . The l ib rari an whobuilds i t up is in a degree bound to observe a

I Guhrauer,loc. C i t ., p . 23 .

1 48 LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRARIAN .

catholic taste in h is choice , but h is individualleanings must s tamp the charaéter of the books .This was specially the case with Le ibni tz ’s conduétof affairs at W olfenb ii t tel . The sub-l ibrar i an

,

Hertel, and he did not always agree as to the

choice of the purchases to be made . Hertelj udged books from the material standpoint

,where

as Le ibni tz ’s outlook as regards the i r conten t s wasthe intelleét ual ; e

’

ditionr de lnxe,scarce books

,and

masterpiece s of typography , (though by no meansunde rvalued by him

,occupied a second rank in his

est imation . I n 1 7 1 0 he bough t a colleét ion ofmanuscripts from the philologis t

,Marquard

Gud ius,for thalers

,a purchase in which his

own in terest in philology must have caused himto take a special pleasure .

One or two years earlier than the date m en

t ioned above— in 1 7 08—at a book auct i on of a

certain Count Lucius ’s library,he bought works to

the comparat ively low value of 1 57 thalers . This‘

purchase did not give sat isfaét ion to some smallminded people

,but Lei bni tz very properly replied

that he did not es t imate books by what they fetchedin the marke t

,but by what services the author had

rendered to the republic ofle tters .There i s a striking passage in h is ‘ Préceptes

pour l ’Avancement des Sciences,

’

in which he

speaks in seve re terms of the appalling multiplicat ion— even in his day— of trashy and ephemeralbooks . H e seems especially to have Obj ect ed topadding .

’ Much of the l i te rature in his ownprivate library i s said to have consi sted of dissertat ions and small pamphle t s (

‘ pieces

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1 5 9 LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRARIAN .

Le ibni tz’s sys tem of classificat ion was a curiousone , and was mapped ou t as followsz—I . Theology ;I I . Jurisprudence ; I I I . M edicine ; IV . Intelleétual

Philosophy ; V . Mathematics (Philosophia rerumimaginat ionis) ; VI . Physi cs (Philosophia rerumsensibilium) VI I . Philology (and Literature) (R es

l inguarum , but includ ing Poe try) ; V II I . CivilH istory ; IX . Literary History and B ibli ography ;X . Col leét ed works and miscellanea . This systemmuch more resembles what

3

are now known as

‘

praé’

t ical’ schemes of classificat ion—that i s , in

tended for divis ion of books in a library accordingto the i r classes upon a simple and convenien tme thod . I t makes no pre tensions to logicalsequence and relat ive arrangement like the schemesof Gesner, Savigny , Francis Bacon , Comte, andothers . When Le ibni tz got down to class ten he

showed h imself a wise man and experiencedlibrarian in the final divisi on h e made . Encyclo

paed ias, dict i onaries of knowledge, and boundvolumes of pamphle ts are hated by every enthu

siast ic classifier, and supply a capi tal instance ofform coming into collision wi th matter .Le ibn i tz wrote so much in Latin or French that

as a contributor t o German li te rature h is importance was relat ively small . His writings and

le tters in German we re col leéted and edited byhis admirer, Dr . Guhrauer ( 1 8 3 8-4O) ;

I theyamount to about a thousand page s in two oétavo

volumes bound toge ther,but a certain amount of

thi s i s from the pens of his correspondents .

Le ibn itz (G . Deu tsche Schriften,

’herausg. von G . C .

Guhrauer . 2 vols. 8vo. Berl in,1 83 8

-40.

LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRARIAN . 1 5 1

In h is ‘ Gesch ich te d er deutschen L i t teratur’

Dr . Wilhelm Scherer says of Leibni tz : ‘ Andalthough he wrote pri ncipally in Latin and Frenchin order not to lose his fore ign and dist inguishedpublic , the German tongue had a warm place inhis heart ; he was against the excessive use of

fore ign words,and accepted the j udicious pro

posals ofSchot t elius for a German d iét ionary ; h isown German prose has some thing of fre shness

,

intelleét , l ife , and gracefulness about i t , praise thatcannot be apportioned to many of his colleagues . "

Le ibnitz was one of the pioneers in the s tudy of

philology and e tymology : his devotion to the Studyhas already been ment ioned . His ‘ ColleCtanea

Etymologica,’

edi ted by his friend Eckhard , andpublished at Hanover the year following h is death

is a repertory for the derivat i on ofwordsin the Celt ic and Teutonic groups of languages .I t is principally wri t ten in Lat in ; but the essay

,

‘ Unvorgreiflfiche Gedencken be treffend d ie Aus

ubung und Verbesserung d er Teutschen Sprache,

’

i s in German throughout , and i ts s tyle fully con

firms DF. Scherer ’s praise , and at the same timeaccentuate s the loss German literature sustainedthrough hi s not writ ing more than he did in hi sown language .

There are j ust a few more faét s of in terest re

lating to Le ibni tz ’s works, the importance of

which i s bibli ograph ical . H is celebrated essay,

Hypothesis physica nova dc motu,

’ was wri ttenby him when quite a young man in 1 67 1 . The firs tI Scherer ‘ Gesch ichte der deu tschen L it teratur

,

’

9 te

Aufl . Berl in,1 902, p . 3 5 3 .

1 52 LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRARIAN .

part on concrete motion was dedicated to the

Royal Society,the second on abst raét motion to

the French Academy .

The book was printed by John Mar tyn , whowas appointed printer to the Royal Socie ty in1 664.

I Le ibni tz had made good friends wi th the

leading lights of the Royal Socie ty— th is was a

few years before the seeds of h is dispute with SirI saac Newton were sown— and

.

the influence of

these friends no doubt led to the book be ingbrough t out in London .

I t i s common knowledge that fore ign au thorsresiding in England , l ike Jean Paul Marat , or,when in exile

,l ike Voltaire

,have had the i r works

published in this country , but I do not know of

such being the case with one who was only on aflying Vi s i t l ike Le ibn itz .

The dispute abou t the priori ty of invent i on of

what S ir I saac Newton termed ‘ fluxions,’

and

Le ibnitz the ‘ different i al calculus ,’ upon which

perh aps the las t word w i ll’

never be said , concernsus from one point only, which is th is . Howeverund ignified from the e th ical standpoint the quarrelsof the learned may be , they have the advan tage ofcompell ing a bibliographical accuracy of s tatementas regards books , scient ific memoirs and correspondence . The advocate s of both sides , and theimpartial cri ti c of posteri ty

,whose intere s t in the

dispute i s academic , have all emulated one anothe rin turn ing the Newton-Le ibni tz que st i on insideou t , so that the dorrier i s as comple te and as correct

1 We ld : H istory ofthe Royal Society,’1 848 , i, p . 1 78 .

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1 54 LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRAR IAN .

here outside comment , but the index to the bookis a marvellous produét ion—compiled on a systemalmost scientific .Such is a brief record of only part of the life

work of one who , if he were living, would doubtless mildly wonder at that dimini shed energythat lack of grasp—so much in evidence in thesedays of over- specialisat ion in the world of affairs .

ARCHIBALD L . CLARKE .

RECENT FORE IGN LITERATURE .

ESPITE what seems to many of usthe growing materialism of the age ,French wri ters continue to busy themselves wi th crit ical speculat ion of greatinterest . In D ernieres Variati ons sur

m es V ieux themes ’ Paul S tapfer discusses what ismeant by literary reputat ion . H e declare s thatgreat works live , not so much by what they con

tain, as by the idea formed of them in the publi cmind . I t i s

,of course

,the t ranscendentali s t doc

trine that things have no reali ty in themselves,but are only what we apprehend them to be i nour minds . Life for a book then i s noth ingmore than ‘ le babil des hommes . ’ A work wellthough t and well wri t ten will not live by thatreason alone . FOF if i t i s not closely related tothe ideas

,dreams , needs , desi res and aspirations of

i ts contemporaries,how can they take any in teres t

in i t ? I t i s the colleét ive opini on of men thatmakes a book famous, individual opinion is of novalue . The t rue life of a book res ides in the

favour of the public in a prej udi ce in i ts

favour formed by the colleét iv e imaginati on . Bu t

i t is j ust here that the li terary c ri tic i s required ,for

‘ Le gros public n’

a aucune spotanéité dans ses jugements ; il est inerte

,ind ifferent , stupide, moutonnier,

1 5 6 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

aveugle e t sourd par definition ; si quelqu’

un ne lu i criepas, si mille voix au torisées ne lu i repetent pas d e concert :Voici un livre

,

”

comment e t pourquoi voulez-vous qu ’ils’

en avise

S tapfer gives the cri t ic a very high place i n the

h ie rarchy of let ters . H e must have the same kindof genius as the great archi teét s of li terature ; hemust be art i st , scholar , and philosopher in one

,for

in t reat ing a work ofart the cri tics

en dégagent l ’esprit, ils j ugent,ils généralisent

,ils

découvrent des lois, ils soignent amoureusement la forme,

ils creusent l ’idec profondement : ils font oeuvre d e poeteset oeuvre de penseurs .

’

In another essay S tapfer takes a gloomy View of

the future of li terature . The re ign of ‘ belle sle t t res i s over

,he complains

,and science succeeds

to the place i t has so long'

occupied . The

best brains take up the science s,and if they con

t ribute to the great discoveries of the t ime,i t

mat ters not how ill they wri te or speak . The

s tudy of literature no longer depends on tas te andimagination

,but on e rudit ion . Slow composit ion

is out of date ; s team and eleétrici ty have acceler

ated the circulation of thought , and there will beno more books long meditated , patiently maturedand then written with care : newspaper article s ,telegrams , and p iéture postcards are all the publicnow demands . But I wonder if at any period inthe world ’s his tory more than a few persons at onet ime have greatly cared for li terature

,and those

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1 5 8 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

familiar let ters find a ready welcome . Francoi sCoppée

’

s le t ters to h is mother and si ster,1 86 2

1 908 , published by Jean Monval , are pleasantreading , and prove that a man may

,on becoming

celebrated , remain simple and modes t and contentt o live ‘ dans sa famille ’ After the death of h isfather and the marriage of his younge r Si ster

,

Coppée cont inued to l ive with his mother,and

after her death with his s i s ter, whom he only surv ived a week . H e inhabi ted the same house forforty years . H e himself changed lit tle

,and at the

zeni th of his fame remained a mode st war offi ceoffi cial . H is health was deli cate

,and he often

wen t to the country and sometimes t ravelledabroad

,and i t was when away from home that he

wrote these let ters . Afte r the success of ‘ Le

Passant ’ ( 1 869) he was in troduced to the PrincesseMath ilde

,and went to s tay with her at Saint

Gratien,where he met Merimee

,Gautier

,Renan

,

Flaubert,Dumas fils

,Augier

,and the Goncourts,

and he gives a l ively descript ion of the vi si t . H e

t ravelled after the war in Germany,and in a real

Spi ri t of prophecy wri tes in one of his let ters‘ Un beau j our on sera tout surpri s en

Europe d ’

apprendre que la Prusse est devenue une

grande puissance navale .

’

The love affai r wh ichcaused him never to marry i s here related . H e

fell in love with a Scandinavian girl of seventeen ,but the mother, who was a widow,

thought hisatten ti ons were meant for her, and the s i tuat ionbecar ie so awkward and complicated that Coppéewas forced to withdraw . The outcome of the

c risi s,from the l i terary standpoint , was L

’

Exi lée

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 1 5 9

and Les Mois ’ ; the affair induced Coppée’

s

philosophy ofl ife , expre ssed in the two lineS °

Le seul bonheur que l’

homme ait peut-étre ici-bas :A voir le meme amour pendant toute la v ie .

’

The let ters possess an int imate charm and ShowCoppée in an at t raétiv e light .A colleC’t ion of Bl ii cher

’

s le tters edited byW . von Unger is full of interest . B lucher is oneof those great men who gain the more in t imatelythey are known . The lovableness of the man and

the keen polit ical ins ight of the sold ier are clearlyrevealed th rough the barbarous German , barbarousnotwi thstanding that the d ifli cul t ies of the pla tt

dentre/z have been as far as possible smoothed away .

All who came in con t act with him loved h imdevotedly .

The let ters of Adolph von Menzel,edi ted by

Hans Wolff,with an introduct ion by Oskar B ie ,

Show a m an sunk deeply in h is work . H e

describes hi s surroundings wi th humour,and often

accompanie s h is de scriptions with caricature drawi ngs . W e are th roughout a l i t t le reminded ofD ickens .And lastly, there is Lucien Foule t

’

s‘ Corre

spondance de Voltaire ( 1 7 26-29) La Bas t i lleL

’

Angleterre—Le retour en France

,

’ a carefulpiece of work induced by Churton Collins ’sBolingbroke , a h istorical Study ; and Voltaire inEngland .

’ Foulet has made researches for h imselfand found supplementary le t ters .The custom that prevails so largely on the

Cont inent of publi shing books about contemporary

1 60 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

wri ters i s not much followed in th i s count ry .

R . de R ivasso devotes a volume entitled L ’united ’une pensée . Essai sur l ’muvre de M . P aul Bourge tprécédé d ’une le t tre de M . Maurice Barres

,

’ to theconfutation of the idea (set down in Larousse) thatBourget est un l ibertin (freethinker) qui fini t parét t c touché de la grace ,

’

and to prove that from hisyouth Bourge t has been the convinced defender ofthe social order in rel igion and morals . So Dr .Theodor Re ik in ‘Arthur Schni tzler als Psycholog

’

t reats the charaét ers in Schni tzler ’s nove ls and

plays as obj ect s of psychological analys is j ust as ifthey were really l iving m en and women . Suchbooks seem scarcely needed . If a reader or spectator cannot enj oy the work of noveli s t or dramatis twithout such explanat ions , he might perhaps be tterle t i t alone .

A . Aulard ’s new book , Les grands orateurs d ela révolu t ion -Mirabeau—Vergn iaud

—DantonRobespierre ,

’ forms a deligh tful guide to the righ tway of enj oying the speeches of those

,or indeed of

any , great orators . I t must never be forgottenthat there i s some thing of the aétor in every greatorator

,for he must preserve a calm demeanour

while seeming to be moved by strong passion .

Aulard illust rates thi s from the faét that whileMirabeau was speaking , he used to rece ive li t tlenotes , read them ,

and int roduce the subjeéts ofthem into his Speech with the greates t ease . The

effect to those in the secre t—the gene ral audience,

of course,knew nothing of i t—was like a conj uror

who tears a piece of paper into fragment s , whichhe swallows in the presence of the audience , and

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1 62 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

Spenser’s sonne t s nearly as h igh as Shake speare ’

,s

and cons id ers that if Spenser’s sonnets were noteclipsed by Shakespeare ’s they would be regardedas the finest of the Elizabethan age .

A very interest ing study ofWilliam Godwinwill be found in Henri Roussin ’s Willi am Godwin

,

1 7 5 6 I t makes the French Revolution thecentral poin t of Godwin’s l ife

,and divides i t into

three peri ods—before , during, and after the Revolut ion . Roussin declares that without the Revolut ion Godwin would h ave been a j ournalist ofli t tle talent ; but thanks to i t , he was for someyears one of the l i terary glories of England

,and

his ‘ Poli t i cal Jus t i ce ’ will always hold a di st inguished place in the his tory of ideas . Godwindeveloped the democratic idea in logical fashion

,

for he asser ted that man,being endowed with a

reason infini tely wise and sovereign,ought never

to take counsel wi th anyone except himself.Obedience to an external authority abuts onanarch ism ,

and in an i lluminat ing passage Roussinpoints out how Godwin’s anarchist doCtrine i s en

marge de orthodox anarch ism :

L’

anarchisme moderne exalte l ’ind iv idu tout entier et

lache la bride 2tous ses inst inét s . L’

anarchisme godwinien

n’

exalte de l’

ind iv idu qu’nn fragment, son intelligence , saraison . L

’

anarchisme moderne d resse l ’ind iv idu contrela société . L

’

anarchisme godwinien dresse l’

ind iv idu

contre la société et contre soi-meme . Pour Godwin,l’homme doit, sans trév e

,lutter

, pour qu’

au sein d e sa

personnalité la raison ait constamment le pas sur les sentiments

,les désirs égoIstes et les inst infis . A pousser

l’

analyse, il apparalt que sa doctrine,loin d

’

étre une

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 1 6 3

doét rine d’

émancipat ion de toutes les chaines,est une

doétrine d’

absolue soumission au bien général . Alorsque les anarchistes modernes accordent a l ’ind iv idu tousles d roits

,Godwin les lu i retire tous

, pour lu i imposertous les d evoirs . Cette obligation d e se soumettre 2 laraison et de d évouer ses moindres aétes 2 la colleétiv ité

donne au godwinisme sa marque propre . C ’

est a sa

nature,impregnée d e rationalisme et d e puritanisme

calvinistes que Godwin doit d’

avoir construit une doétrineaussi severe . Mais cette moral est trop austere et trophostile a la V ie pou r plaire aux hommes . C ’

est pourquoinous pensons

que Godwin est destiné a d emeurer un

solitaire dans la am ille d es anarchistes .

’

Christ opher Ans tey and the N ew Bath Guideforms the subjeét of a useful s tudy , or as he callsi t

,

‘e in Be i trag zur Entwickelung d er englischen

Satire in 1 8 Jahrhundert ,’ by Walter Maier

,in the

‘ Anglis t ische Forschungen .

’

H e declares,and

quite righ t ly , that any h istory of the developmen tof sat i re in the e igh teenth century must deal notonly with the great accredi ted piece s of sat ire

,

but also with the lighte r and minor pieces not sodecis ively stamped as sati re . H e points ou t howthe ‘ N ew Bath Guide ’ reached its effeét s withsimple

,light , humorous , realisti c t ouches , and so

fell away from the classical sati re rooted in stereotyped custom

,and thus paved the way for the

work of such wri ters as P raed and Hood . MatthewPrior

,however

,may have gone for some th ing in

the i r making . Maier also shows how Smollet ti n Humphrey Clinker

,how Goldsmith

,Moore ,

iByron all owe some th ing to Anstey . The booki s

,in faét , an exhaust ive t reat i se of the subjcét

with which i t deals .

1 64 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

Few works in France are concerned with the

history of the English language,and so Joseph

D elcourt’

s learned work,

‘ Essai sur la langue deSir Thomas More d ’apres ses (B uvres anglaises

,

’ isthe more welcome . The author comes t o the

conclusion that More ’ s English i s very modern .

All More ’s autograph English le t ters in the Bri t ishMuseum are printed in the appendix

,and the

book contains a complete bibliography of More ’sEnglish works .The scene of Sudermann ’s new play , ‘ D ie

Lobgesange des Claudian,

’ i s Milan and i ts ne ighbourhood and Ravenna

,at the beginning of the

fifth century . Am ong the charaét ers are Honorius ,rule r of the We stern Roman Empire , and Alaric ,King of the Goths . I t i s i n prose . Somehowthe se historical dramas are less interest ing thanthe domest ic subjeéts of Sudermann’s earlierplays .Gerhart Hauptmann

, in his new verse drama,D er Bogen d es Odysseus ,

’ has chosen the subjeétof the return of Ulysse s and the slay ing of the

sui tors . The treatment i s original , s ince Penelope ,though much spoken of, doe s not appear in person .

The s implic i ty,I had almost wri t ten the baldness ,

of the language i s extraordinary . Much , therefore

, of the success of the play would depend on

the aCt ing . The aét ion of the play is slow and

drags in part— at least,such is the impression

produced in reading i t— but i t is worth pursuingfor the sake of the ending , which reminds m e ofthat of some of the best modern French comedie s .W hen Ulysses has accomplished the death of h is

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1 66 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

among the poet s of France . Added to his feelingfor the anc ient legends and the natural beauty of h isnat ive d istriét ,was the des ire to restore the Provencallanguage selon ses t radi t ions e t caraéteres nat ionaux .

’ For this purpose he founded wi th others

(in 1 8 54) the socie ty known as the Félibrige .

Son of a prosperous farmer who married a womanof the people

,educated at a small school at

Avignon,and then a s tudent of law at Aix

,he

died where he was born,at Maillane

,not very far

from Arles . H e took a large part in founding theve ry in teres t ing Provengal Museum at Arles .

ale as ale ale at

The following recently published books deserveat ten t i on

W e issgrund ige Att ische Le thyken nach AdolfFurtwanglers Auswahl bearbe ite t v on Walte rR iezler mit Be i t r ’agen . Von Rudolf Hackl .

ROm ische Forschungen d er Biblio teca Hertziana .

D ie Port rai tdarstellungen desMichelangelo . Edi tedby Erns t S te inmann .

Geschich te der Gartenkunst von Marie LuiseGothe in . Vol . I . Von Agypten bi s zur Renaissance in I talien ,

Spanien und Portugal . Vol . I I . Von

der Renaissance in Frankre ich bis zur Gegenwart .Three sumptuous volumes ful ly il lustrated w ith fine examples

ofart ist ic reproduét ion . The first,wh ich is publ ished w ith the

assistance of the There ianos—S t iftung of the Royal BavarianAcademy ofSc iences

,is part icularly beaut ifu l .

Anthologie d e la Chanson francaise . Par PierreV rignaul t .

A de l ightful colleét ion from Bertrand de Born to Xav ier Privas.

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 1 67

L’

Année 1 8 1 4. Par Arthur Chuque t .Le t ters and memoirs giv ing new or l it t le known details ofthe

events ofthe year.

Les Conven t ionnels régicide s d ’apres des documents officiels e t inéd i ts . Par Pierre Bliard .

A record of the group of 3 8 7 conven t ionne ls who condemnedLouis XVI .Les ‘ Ci-devant nobles ’ e t la révolution . Florian

revolu t ionnaire—La carrosse armorié de MadameAnferrau t d c Tracy Les Vingt-deux année sd ’emigration de M . de Fontane . Par le ComteG . Mare schal d e B ievre .

S tud ies of three spec ial cases in wh ich ex-nobles became as

regards the assem bly which overturned the monarchy‘ des par

t isans simulés,des neu tres apeurés ou des adversaires irréduét ibles. ’

Madame de Souza e t sa famille . Les Marign

Les Flahauts—Auguste de Morny ( 1 7 6 1Par Baron André de Maricourt .The b iography ofa woman who l ived in the days of the ‘

ancien

rég ime,

’

of the t ragedy ofthe Revolu t ion,of the splendour of the

Empire, of the du lness of the Restorat ion,and the monarchy or

Ju ly, and so is a l iv ing l ink between the e ighteenth cen tury and

the second Empire .

Une Oubliée . Madame Cot t in d ’apres sa correspondance . Par Arnelle .

I t has been sa id of her works : ‘ Gen l is fait réfléchir,S tae‘ l

penser, Souza sourire,Got t in réver e t pleurer.

’

Un ami d e Machiavel . Francois Ve t tori sa V ie

e t ses (B uv res. 2 vols . Par Louis Passy .

The au thor has spen t many years in colleft ing h is material .The b iography is based on original documen ts

,and on the corre

spondence of Mach iave l l i,Ve t tori

,Strozz i

,e tc . The second

volume con tains nearly all the documen ts conneét ed w ith Ve t tori,

and a chapter on h is l iterary work.ELIZABETH LEE .

BIBLIOGRAPH ICAL AND TEXTUALPROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISHMIRACLE CYCLES .

I I . —THE COMING OF,ANTICHRI ST

RELATION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS OFTHE CHESTER CYCLE .

HE subjeét I propose to discuss in thi slec’ture i s the textual relation in whichthe manuscripts of the Ches ter playsstand to one anothe r. This problemis in i tself purely b ibli ographi cal

,but

we shall nevertheless find that‘

our i nvest igat ionswill include a number of points of more generalin ter es t in the history of the religi ous drama .The re is a legend as to the origin of the Chesterplays which has come down to us in a varie ty of

more or less di screpant versions . Mr . Chambers,

comparing these versions wi th one another andanalyzing them in the light of historical records

,

come s t o the conclus ion that the original t radi tionmust have repre sented the plays as written byRanulf H igden

,monk of St . W erburgh

’

s Abbey,

Ches te r,and author of the ‘ Polychronicon

,

’

in

1 3 2 8 , during the mayoralty of Richard H erneys,and the papal pardon for the speCtators as obtained,

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1 70 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

manuscript is known , while of i t w e have fiv e , theoldest of which did not come into exis tence t illseveral years after the plays themselve s had beenperformed for the las t t ime . N or are they t ranscrip t s of a single original, but , as w e shall see

,the

existence of at least four intermed i ate copies cancertainly be infe rred . This points to an ant iquarianinterest in the subjeét, for the last performance of

the cycle took place 1 5 7 5 , and there does not

appear to have been much dramatic ente rpriseafter that date . Alleged preparations for a performance in 1 600 re st on no cogent evidence .

I will now enumerate the known manuscriptsin chronological order . 1 I t i s perhaps a furtherI A l l are paper and in fol io. Bod ley ’

s is the on ly one that has

not been rebound . S ince no adequa te descript ion of these manu

scripts appears to ex ist, I give here amore de tailed account ofthem

than was possible in my leéture .

1 59 1 . D . In the l ibrary Of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth (i) . Measures 1 1 1) x 743 inches. Imperfeét at the beg inn ing,the first pageant suppl ied in a modern transcript from MS . K,

probably by J . P . Col l ier. The first leaf that surv ives is the

original fol io 6,on wh ich the second pageant beg ins. Writ ten

throughout in a very good and c lear,though somewhat curren t

,

Engl ish hand,w ithou t ornament . Speakers’ names centred .

Speeches d iv ided and stage d ireft ions marked off from the text bylong ru les ; quat rains or halfstanzas separated b short ru les fromthe left . There were orig inal ly 1 50 fol ios. he manuscript is

perfeét at the end,and be low the ‘Fin is ’

is the note :‘By me

Edward Gregorie schol le r at Bunbury the yeare ofour lord godI t is not certain whether this is in the sam e hand as the

t ext . Lower on the same page is the name R ichard Gregorie .

’

This manuscript was m issingwhen De im l ing prepared h is ed it ion .

1 592 . W. In the Brit ish Museum,MS . Add it . 1 03 05 .

Measures 1 1 x 7 inches. Mu t ilated at both ends,but the old

fol iat ion show s that no leaves are aétual ly m issing at the beg inn ing.There are 1 68 fol ios

,and 96 l ines of text

,wh ich would occupy

two leaves,are want ing at the end . This is the most ornamental

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 7 1

indicat ion of the i r ant iquarian origin tha t in eachcase the scribe has dated and signed h is work .

The earlie s t manuscrip t of the cycle i s one

dated 1 5 9 1 in the possession of the Duke ofDevonshire . I t i s wri tten in a very clear handwithout ornament . Five leaves are m i ss i ng at thestart

,the text beginning wi th the second pagent .

I call th i s manuscript D .

Next comes a manuscript at the B ri t i sh Museum ,

Addi tional 1 0 3 05 , dated 1 5 9 2 . Written in a careful hand

,wi th more ornament than any of the

other manuscripts . Mutilated at both ends ; no

as we l l as the smal lest of the manuscripts. Speakers’ names are

centred : these and the stage d ireC’t ions and Lat in quotat ions in the

text are in red . Speeches are d iv ided, and stage d ireét ions markedoffby treble rules w ith e laborate fin ials. A head-l ine g iv ing thename ofthe craft is en closed in ru les

,and more e laborate ornaments

decorate the head-t it les. Ru les surround each page . The stanzas

are in no way d iv ided, but the shorter l ines,normal ly the fourth

and e ighth,are somet imes fi l led out w ith stars. Writ ten through

ou t in a good Engl ish hand,c lear

,bu t more laboured than that of

D . At the end of each p lay is a signature : ‘ by me GeorgiBe l l in Th is manuscript was the one printed by Wrighthence the designat ion W .

1 600. K . In the Brit ish Museum,MS . Harley 20 1 Measures

1 1 11; x 743 inches. Perfeét

,con tain ing 205 fol ios. he rubrica

t ion is sim ilar to that ofW,and the ornamen t is also somewhat

sim ilar though much less e laborate . Moreover,ru les d iv ide the

quatrains or halfstanzas . There is a head-l ine,and stars are some

t imes used . At the end ofseveral of the plays occurs a signatureper me Georg i Be l l in Writ ten throughout in a goodEngl ish hand more flow ing than that ofW. At first sight thereappears l it t le resemblance be tween the two

,and one m igh t be

incl ined to suggest that Bel l in was the scribe ofthe origina l manu

script from wh ich both are copied . There are,however

,some

pecu l iar resemblances of de tail between them,and when we take

into accoun t the sim ilarity of ornamen t in the two cases,we shal l

perhaps conclude tha t the balance ofprobab il ity is in favour ofboth

1 7 2 PROBLEMS OF TH E ENGLISH

leave s aétually los t at the beginning,but two at

the end . Known as W .

The th i rd i s anothe r Brit ish Museum manuscript

,H arley 20 1 3 , which bears the date 1 600 .

In spite of cons iderable difference of appearance i ti s probably by the same s cribe as the preceding ;the ornament i s s imilar though less e laborate . I tis the olde st perfeét manuscript . I give i t thesymbol K .

Next comes an Oxford manuscript, Bodley 1 7 5 .

I ts date i s 1 604. I t i s perfeét ; i t i s the plaines tof the manuscripts

,and i s wri t ten in a very curren t

hand . I ts symbol i s B .

manuscripts be ing aét ually the work ofthe same scribe,and account

for the d ifferences in t he writ ing by the ev iden t ly intent ionalfreedom of sty le in the later example and by the lapse of e ightyears. W ho George Be l l in was we have no record

,but he must

pret ty certain ly have been a profess ional scribe . He can hardly beiden t ified w ith the George Bel l in who was

‘

put down from

brew ing or sel l ing ale at an inqu isit ion at Chester in 8 E l izabeth(i.e . 1 566, see MS . Harley 2 1 05 , fols. h is name is saidalso to occur in MS . Harley 1 92 7, but I have been unable to findit there), bu t he may have been ofthe same fam ily, and also ofthat

ofThomas Bel l in,who

,when Mayor of Chester in 1 578 , caused

the Shepherds’ play to be performed at the high cross in the

Roodee . De im l ing labe lled the presen t manuscr ipt‘ h

’

to d is

t inguish it from the more important H (Harley but an

exam inat ion of h is ed it ion shows that the symbols h and Hare too l iable to confusion

,and therefore I propose for the earl ier

manuscript the arb itrary symbol K .

’

1 604. B . In the Bodle ian L ibrary, MS . Bodley I 75 . Measures

1 1 3 x 7-3 inches. There are 1 76 fol ios in the original ve l lum

wrapper, and the manuscript is perfeé’t . The speakers’ names are

cent red as in all the above manuscripts ; there is, however,no rubrica

t ion and no ornamentat ion ofany kind . The Engl ish hand in wh ichthe scribe w rote is very curren t

,and though a good hand it often

leaves the precise read ing uncertain by reason of its hast e . The

manuscript is signed at the end : 1 604, per me gul ielmum Bedford .’

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1 74 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

manuscripts ment ioned above . Too li t tle of thetext i s preserv ed for i t s readings to have muchevident ial value . I t i s possible

,or perhaps prob

able,th at when complete i t contained a single

pageant only . In that case i ts date i s presumablybefore 1 5 7 5 .

The last manuscript to be described is one ofpeculiar intere st and importance , though it containsnothing but the pagean t of the Coming of Ant ichrist . I t belongs to the famous H engwrt-Peniarth

colleétion now in the National Library of Walesat Aberystwi th . I t i s writ ten on vellum and hasunfortunately lost i t s original wrapper . This mostlikely bore the name of the guild that performed

Engl ish in a careful im itat ion of black-let ter type . The re lat ionsh ip of the text of th is manuscript i s by no means clear

,but its

closest affi n ity seems to be w ith B .

‘ Ant ichrist ’on ly, e. 1 500. P . A Pen iarth manuscript now at

Aberystw ith . On vel lum,measuring 1 I i x 7}inches, two gather

ings,the

' first offour leaves,the second ofsix

,20 pages in all. I t

is enclosed in a vel lum wrapper consist ing ofa double leafofa fine lyw rit ten m issal probably of the th irteenth cen tury, much injured bydamp . But this is not original

,for the qu ires have been folded

down the m iddle,whereas the cover has not . The lat ter bears a

paper label marked : ‘ D ialogue I t is now proteé’ted by a

rough cardboard case wh ich bears certain notes : Hengwrt MS .‘229 Per my Fathers Catalogue .

’ ‘End of the 1 5th

cen tury .

G . F. Warner,Deputy Keeper ofMSS . Brit . Mus. 1 0 08 1. 1 895 .

F . J . The second of these presumabl refers to

W. W. E . Wynne ’s catalogue of the Pen iarth M S . in the

Archaeologia Cambrensis,’

1 86 1 -7 1 . There appears the en try

( 1 8 70, p .

‘Th is MS . is a d ialogue in Engl ish verse,of the

fifteen th century . I be l ieve it to be a port ion or fragmen t ofone

of the Mysteries of the m iddle ages. The modernpress

-mark is Pen iarth 3 99 . Man ly in his ed it ion remarks thatFurn ival l assigned the manuscript to 1475 or a l it t le later

,

’

Warner to the end of the fifteenth century .

’

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 7 5

the play—the Dyers,if we may argue from the

later records and manuscripts . At the head of the

text i s the t i tle , D e adven tu Ant ichrist i ,’

and the

number Pagina xxma

. The date of the writ ingmay be assumed to be the end of the fifteenthcent ury , it might be as late as 1 500 . The leave shave been folded down the middle with a V iew to

carrying the book in the pocke t,and the rubbed

and faded condi t ion of the text suggest s that i t hasbeen much handled . I refer to this manuscriptas P .

The d ifli cul ty ofdeciphering the writ ing of thismanuscript , though great , would not have beeninsuperable had no attempt been made to restore i t .But at some comparat ive ly recent date the text hasbeen largely re-written by an offi cious hand , whichhas gone over the l ine s of the old le tters

, so far asthey were distinguishable , with mode rn ink . The

result has been disas trous . The greater part of

the manuscrip t has been e i ther retouched or whollywritten over, and although in most place s i t i s s t illpossible to trace the original wri t ing

,and thus to

ge t behind the work of the modern res torer,in

some i t has wholly disappeared , and we havenoth ing but the superimposed writ ing to guide us .I t i s only fair to say that the restorer was a carefulworkman

,and that as a rule his readings may be

trusted . There were , howeve r , occasion s on whichhe fell into e rror . While working he had by h iss ide e i ther Wright

’s edit ion or else the manuscript

(W) on which i t was based, and when the original

became more than usually obscure he was inclinedto force the t races that remained into the semblance

1 7 6 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

of Wright ’s reading . In the course of a carefulcollat ion I have been able to deteét several suchsubstitutions, and I am not altogether confident ofhaving eliminated all spurious cases of agreementbetween manuscripts P and W . All suspiciousconcurrences have , however, been carefully ex

am ined , and if errors yet remain I do not thinkthey are likely to be of a kind to vitiate our results .I t may be said, in palliat ion perhaps of the aétion

of the modern retoucher, that he was not the firstt o tamper with the manuscript . Already in the

sixteenth century it had Shown S igns offading,and

some scribe not only repeated some doubtful wordsin the margin or between the lines

,but here and

there aét ually wrote over the original text exaCtlyas h is succe ssor did later . And in one passage the

modern re storer has written on the top of the

earlier restorat ions , so that i t i s possible to trace no

less than th ree superimposed layers ofwriting .

The Chester cycle was first edited by ThomasWright in 1 843 H e knew of the existence of

I Extraét s had appeared earl ier. The complete l ist ofed it ions,exclud ing a few popu lar reprints of ind iv idual plays, is, I bel ieve, asfol lows (see Chambers, Med iaeval Stage

,

’i i. 40

6)

1 8 1 8 . Chester Mysteries. De de luv io Noe,

e occisione inno

cent ium,together w ith the Banns

,i ed ited by J . H . Markland for

the Roxburghe Club . From K,w ith col lat ions ofH and B .

F ive M irac le P lays, ed ited by J . P . Col l ier. Includ ingAn t ichrist

,

’

from D .

1 83 8 . A Colleét ion of Engl ish M iracle-P lays or Mysteries,ed ited by W. Marriot t . Includ ing Noah and An t ichr ist

,

’

the

first from H ,the second from K.

1 843-7 . The Chester P lays, ed ited by Thomas Wright for the

Shakespeare Soc iety . Two volumes. From W,w ith the banns

from K.

1 890. Engl ish M iracle P lays, Moral it ies and Interludes, ed ited

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1 7 8 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

delayed owing to the death of the editor. Deimling Showed conclusive ly that H

,the youngest

manuscript , represents a different recension fromthe others , and he regarded this recension assuperior.The Peniarth ‘ Antich ris t ’ was first printed in

1 8 97 by Professor Manly . H e was assi sted in hisdifficult task by Furnivall . A few collat ions fromWright ’s text were added

,and the suggestion

hazarded that the new manuscript was most nearlyallied to H , but the que st ion of relat ion was not

pursued . I t i s a remarkable fac‘ft that in caseswhere the modern scribe has wrongly re stored thereadings of the manuscript

,Manly ’s text some

t imes follows the restorer’s,somet imes the original

reading .

l

D e im l ing’

s V iew as to the superiority of H hasbeen challenged by Dr . S . B . Hemingway of Yale

,

who took D as his text for the two Chester pageantswhich he included in his col leét ion of ‘ EnglishNativity Plays . H e regards th is manuscript asthe best representat ive of the better tradit ion ,arguing that those passages in which H hasobviously superior readings are in many cases duet o editorial emendations by the scribe .

2

The one thing that has clearly emerged from

I t is only fair to my friend Professor Man ly to say that no

suspicion whatever at taches to h im in connexion w ith the m isuse

which the manuscript has undergone .

2 H is preference for D appears, however,to be based upon a qu ite

arb it rary udgemen t as to superior read ings.

’ Moreover, thoughhe consulted D

,and I presume t ranscribed his plays from it

, Igather that h is col lat ions of the other manuscripts are taken from

D e iml ing’

s ed it ion .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 7 9

the discussions so far i s that the collect ive manuscripts fall into two main groups

,one of which is

represented by the youngest manuscript H alone .

I t is also clear that within the larger group a

specially close relation un ites W and K ,the two

manuscript s purporting to be by the same scribe .

The position of P has not been seriously discussed,and indeed the importance of th is , by far the

earliest text we possess,for the textual crit icism of

the cycle doe s not seem to have been recogn ized .

When De imling wrote i ts existence was not

generally known,but i t was aétually accessible to

Hemingway in a printed edition,and that he

should have ventured to form an opin ion upon the

relative merit s of the cyclic manuscripts withouttaking i t s evidence into consideration i s inexcusable .

In the five collecftiv e manuscripts we clearlyhave texts of the whole cycle as offi cially recogn ized . There i s nothing in any of them to suggestthat they were compiled, like the York ‘ register

,

’

by transcribing a number of separate play-books inthe hands of the various guilds . Where divergenc ies of tradit ion appear they seem to affeét the

whole cycle , not merely individual plays . Nowwe have already , in my previous leéture , seenreason to believe that the original ’ of the Cheste rcycle was an offi cial copy in the possession of thecorporat ion . That ‘ original ’ was presumably fromtime to t ime renewed , alte rati ons be ing incor

porat ed in a fre sh copy . From some such our

pre sent manuscripts must be descended . Bu t t he i rdifferences prove that they were not all t ranscribedfrom the same ‘ original

,

’ but that they represent

1 80 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

at least two presumab ly ofli c ial recensions . Wh i chof these i s t o be considered the more authori tat ivei s a ni ce point wh ich depends , not only upon the

textual evidence of the manuscrip t s,but also to

some extent at least upon the kind ofauthority we

look for .After what I said last t ime , you will have li t tle

diffi culty in recognizing in the Peniarth manuscript one of the prompt copie s in the hands ofthe various aét ing guilds . The colleCtive manuscripts and the records assign the Ant ichris tpagean t to the Dyers , and t hough both are laterthan P

,there i s no reason to suppose that any

change of guild had t aken place . You will alsoremember that we came to the conclusion thatthe present manuscript was not , like the YorkScrivene rs ’ play-book

,i t self an

‘ original,

’ but wasa copy

,e i ther d ireét or ind ireét , from an offi cial

manuscript of the whole cycle . The absence of

any evidence of compilat ion in the colleét ive

manuscripts , toge t he r with the fact that P bearsthe heading , Incipit pagina xxm a

,

’ seems to m e to

place th is beyond doubt . But if this i s so,i t

follows that P cannot be the paren t ofany portion of

any ofthe later manuscripts , but must be ultimate lydescended from some coll eétive manuscript whichis likewise an ancesto r of the younger group .

I t wi ll be well to consider for a moment whatligh t the general h istory of the cycle , as t raced int he records , may throw on the problem of the

manuscript tradit ion . Our informati on as to the

pageants and the guilds performing them comes ,apart from the texts themselves , chiefly from certain

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1 82 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

othe rs,that the disappearance of the Assumption

was a result of the Reformation . I t i s highly probable that the play did cease to be pe rformed

,as at

York,out ofProtes tantism . I t does not , however,

follow that that is the reason why i t i s not foundin the manuscripts . I will leave the questionthere for the moment .The discrepancy in connexion with the pageant

of the Passion reappears in the manuscripts ; H ,

the younges t of them,agree ing with the later

banns in making the play a single whole , whilethe rest , like the earlie r banns , divide i t into two .

This ce rtainly looks as though H preserved the

younge r and the group the older t rad i t ion . Curiously enough the inte rnal evidence points in prec isely the opposite d ireét ion . De imling, i t will beremembe red

,preferred H . H e was led to th is

conclusion chiefly by a cons iderat ion of the

numerous passages which appear in the manuscripts of the olde r group

,but are absent from H .

I t i s poss ible that in some instances the divergencem ay be due to omissi ons in H ,

but in a numbe r ofothers the addit ional passages di sturb the stanzaicarrangement of the text

,and i t i s evident that H

preserve s the more original version . N ow in Hthe Pass ion pageant is immensely long, extendingto no less than 892 lines . The next longest playis the Nativi ty ’ with 7 3 6 line s ; the shortes t the‘ Ascension ’ with 1 9 2 . Assuming H to be the

more original text,i t i s not diffi cult to conjeét ure

how th is came about,for the play bears t race s of

revision . I t contains name ly a variety of passagesin a different and shorte r measure than the rest .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 8 3

These occas ionally appear in terwoven with the

more normal portion s of the play , but ce rtain largesect ions remain which can easily be de tached fromthe i r context . They are lines 6 5 to 1 20, containing the buffe ting, lines 3 1 3 to 3 60 the Scourgingand crowning

,and lines 45 7 to 600 the crucifixion

and casting of lots . The re i s , indeed, nothingsurpris ing in a different me tre be ing used fo r the sepassage s

,but the i r subjeéts might well be repre

sented in dumb show,and the omission of the line s

ment ioned would reduce the play to the ve rymanageable length of 644 line s . On the othe rhand , if we assume the group of manuscripts torepresen t the earlie r t raditi on

,i t i s very d ifli cul t

indeed to imagine how two originally separateplays should ever have been combined into suchan unwieldly whole . The rubrics of the manuscrip ts, I think

,clinch the mat te r . Immediately

following the Trial and Condemnat ion all the manuscripts have e ight lines of the shorter measure ,after which H inserts the direct i on,

‘ Tunc ibuntversus montem Calvariae

,

’

and proceeds withou tbreak . At this point the group inse rt a shortscene of s ixteen line s only, containing Pe te r

’sdenial , at the end of which D has : Fin i s paginaedecime sextae . This storye i s finished in the

leaves follow inge .

’ The re are variant s in the o thermanuscripts . The group then proceeds : ‘ Incipi tpagina de

'

crucifixione Christi,

’

& c .,but the re i s

no fresh number,and when we come to th e end

D repeats : Fini s paginae d ecimae sextae .

’

The

other manuscripts of the group omit thi s , but inall the play that follows i s numbered seventeen,

1 84 PROBLEMS OF TH E ENGLISH

j ust as i t is in H . W e have here,I th ink

,proof

as absolute as the circumstance s admit that theprocess has been one of severance and not ofcoalescence , and that i t i s consequently the

younges t manuscript , H , which preserves the

earlier tradit ion .

The occasion ofthe division was the appearanceof two fresh guilds in the group already respons iblefor the performance of t he play . In H the aét ors

are the Bowyers , Fletchers, and I ronmonge rs . To

these B adds the name s of the all ied guilds of

Coopers and Stringers , but repeats the name of theI ronmonge rs at the head of the Crucifixion play .

The remaining manuscripts, D W K ,also give th is

pagean t to the Ironmonge rs , whose name , however,they correétly omit at the head of the precedingTrial play .

H ow then are we to explain the contrad iét ion

be tween the in te rnal and external evidence ? The

faét of the Pass ion appearing as a s ingle play in theyounger banns need not , I th ink , disturb us . However late they m ay be , there is , nothing improbablein supposing that the i r author had before him as

he wrote a manuscrip t of the earlier type , such asH

,in which the play was not divided . Or else he

m ay have been misled by t he erroneous numberingwhich persi sts in all the divided texts . The reald ifli cul ty in the way of regarding the undividedtext of H as original

,i s that the pre- reformat i on

banns represent the play as already divided at a

date when the Assumption play,which has d is

appeared from all extant manuscripts, was st ill

performed as part of the cycle .

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1 8 6 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

the ‘ Trial ’ and ‘ Crucifixion ’ cons t i tute twod i st inét pageants , the quatrains describing themwere not separated in the usual manne r

,but we re

written continuously as though for a s ingle pageant ,and in the margin the names of the performingguilds were originally all writ ten opposi te the fi rstquatrain . I t seems probable , therefore , that thescribe of the banns copied them from a text inwhich the de scription was not yet divided . Ifthe se banns are pre- reformat ion,

as Chambers holds,

and as certainly seems probable, i t follows that thedivergence of the tradit ion in the colleét iv e manuscripts (be tween H and the group) may well be asearly as the fifteenth century .

‘

The que st ion as to whethe r the Passion pageantwas originally one or two

‘

is also of intere st in con

nexion with the Peniarth manuscrip t of ‘ Ant ichris t . ’ Although all the colleét ive manuscriptsnumber the las t play, that of Doomsday

,twenty

four,in reality of course the number of

pageants in H is twenty-four and in the grouptwenty—five . N ow the play of Ant ichrist

,which

i s the last but one of the cycle , i s h eaded in the

separate manuscript , P , Incipi t pagina xxma

,

’ fromwhich i t follows that the colleé

’

t iv e manuscriptfrom which i t was copied contained only twentyone plays . Hence we are to infer a steady growthin the numbe r at leas t of separate pageant s fromtwenty-one to twen ty-four, and finally to twenty

Ifwe cou ld argue w ith certa inty that the banns contain ingthe ‘ Assumpt ion

’

aétually represent the performance of 1 477, it

woul d fol low that the t rad it ion represented by H was earl ier thanthat year.

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 87

five . A further inference i s possible . If the dive rgence of the textual tradit ion in the cyclic manuscripts goes back to the fifteenth century , the

t radit ion of P,or rathe r of i ts cyclic original ,

which contained twenty-one plays only , must beconsiderably older . In that case P itself, whichbelongs t o the very end of the fifteenth century ,cannot have been transcribed from a contemporaryoriginal ,

’ but is probably a copy of an older promptbook belonging to the guild . This would lead tothe conclusion that the common ances tor ofP andthe cyclic manuscripts m ay well be as early as 1 400 .

I n no othe r cycle will the textual tradi t ion take usback any t hing like as far as thi s . 1

There are two other instance s of a divergence i nthe t radi ti on which migh t throw light on the

general h is tory of the t ransmission of the text .I t must be borne in mind that the group B D W K

,

and the sub-group W K ,are well e s tablished by

general textual considerat ions . Now the two

earliest manuscripts , D and W,give a text of the

R esurreét ion play extending to 43 2 l ines , and fin ishi t off in the i r usual manne r . Clearly the i r prototype ended at that point ; but the play is incomple te ,and in the interval be tween 1 592 and 1 600 GeorgeBellin ,

the scribe ofW and K , discovered that therewas another tradi t ion, for h is later manuscript

1 I ought possibly to state that ow ing to the very faded cond it ionof the original w rit ing in MS . P

,it is impossible to be absolute]

certa in that the number in the heading is ‘xxm2 ’

and not

though the lat ter would be an exceed ingly unusual form . IfP’

s

original contained twenty-four pageants, it brings it very close

indeed to H ; on the other hand,the further inference as to the

ant iqu ity ofthe whole t rad it ion woul d col lapse .

1 8 8 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

carrie s on the text for another 9 5 l ines . The

scribe of B , writ ing in 1 604,likewise knew of the

fuller text , but apparently no manuscript containing i t was immediate ly available . H e ended evenearlier than D and W , namely at line 42 5 , bu t leftthe rest of that page and the whole of the nextblank . H e never supplied the deficiency . Manuscript H has the full text , and there i s no thing tosuggest that i t was not in the source which the

scribe followed el sewhere . W e hav e he re then aclear instance of conflat ion, the only one , I bel ieve ,that the se plays afford . The addi tional lines foundin K and H appear to be qui te neces sary , and Isuppose that the i r absence in the other manuscripts is due to the loss of a leaf in the arche typeof the e lde r group . I t follows that some at leastof the scribes of the elder manuscripts knew of theoriginal ofH

,and deliberately discarded it in favour

of some other, which though imp erfeét in th is part icular passage was known to embody more recentreformations .Another case of anomalous grouping is afforded

by the Banns . ’ As already explained, a copy ofthe later banns is included by Rogers in h is Bre

v iary of Chester,

’ but t ranscripts appear in certainof the cyclic manuscripts likewise . Ne i ther Wnor H ever had them . D is imperfeét , beginningwith the second pageant

,but the fiv e leaves missing

would exact ly contain the banns (in the version of

K) and the first play . K has the banns comple te ,

so far as int roduét ion and the description of the

pageants i s concerned , but omits the Conclusionof twenty-four lines preserved by Rogers. B also

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1 90 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLI SH

as well . Deimling made no attempt to prove h isscheme in th is manner . I do not know whethe rany of my audience have eve r attempted to do so

on the basis of D e im l ing’

s collat ions,but I do know

that if they tried they failed . The th ing cannotbe done , for D e im l ing

’

s collations are both incom

plete and , even so far as they go , often inaccurate .

I t doe s not seem to be always reali sed that when

you are recording the readings in which a numberofmanuscripts differ from o ne seleéted text , to beincomplete i s not merely to give informat ion thatis defeét iv e, but information that is aétually false .

I t has, therefore , been necessary to make a freshcollation with a view to determin ing the relat ionsh ip of the manuscripts

,and for th is purpose I

have naturally seleét ed the play of Antichri st,for

which we have a sixth independent text wherebyto check the readings of the rest . For th is play Ihave made a careful collat ion of all the manuscripts

,and though I cannot

,of course

,say that

no variant has escaped m e— to do so would be to

stamp myself a charlatan—I th ink i t i s unlikelythat I have overlooked any read ing occurring inmore than one manuscript , and I do claim withsome confidence what i s really the important thing,namely

,that wherever I have recorded any varian t

I have recorded all the manuscripts in which i toccurs . I f that confidence is j ust ified , then ,

and

only then , doe s my collation afford a sound basi sfor argument . Two classe s of variant s I haveexcluded from purview : those in s tage d i reét ions,and those which merely affect linguist ic forms suchas ‘

ye’

and ‘ you ,’ ‘ has

’

and ‘ hath ,’

65 C . Inspect i on

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 9 1

shows that each scribe generally pleased h is own

fancy in these matters , and consequently that t otake them into account i s only to obscure the

evidence . I may also state at once that I regardi t as proved that none of the cyclic manuscriptsare compilations , and consequently that P is not an

ances tor of any of the other texts .A few broad faéts soon emerge . All the col

leét iv e manuscripts be ing dated , the d ireét ion ofpossible copying is known . Further, each containsat least one omiss ion peculiar to i tself, whichproves that i t cannot be the parent of any of the

othe r texts , the possibili ty of insert ion be ing negat ived by the presence of the passage in P . Thusthe general nature of the relat ion be tween the

texts becomes apparent .To begin with , I will take a few of the more

st riking variants , and see to what detailed relat ionbetween the manuscripts they appear t o point .The only omissions common t o two texts are anumber which occur both in W and K . Thesemight point to omissi ons in the i r common original

,

which we will call F,but I am more inclined to

ascribe them to mutilations in that manuscrip t .I t i s noticeable that in the ne ighbourhood of the

common omissions there somet ime s occur furtheromissions peculiar to K ,

a faét most readily ex

plained by supposing a progressive deteriorat ionof the original be tween 1 5 92 and 1 600 . The

evidence of t ranspos i t i on confirms the existence of

F,but is of value ch iefly in establishing a common

ancestor for the cyclic manuscripts apart from P .

There are,name ly , four lines which appear i n P

1 9 2 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

in an earlier posi tion than in the other texts}[ Therimes prove that P ’s arrangement i s right

,while the

sen se not be ing affefted i t i s unl ike ly that th i s shouldhave been due t o emendat ion . That be ing so the

cyclic group must have a common ancestor in whichthe error occurred and which is not an ancestor ofP . This is further supported by the misplacement of a stage di rect ion near the end

,of the play

which occurs in the younger manuscripts,but not

in P .

2 Again, there i s a minor but ye t importantt ransposit ion in which P and H agree against there st . 3 The passage i s unfortunately corrupt in allmanuscript s

,but i t seems pre t ty clear that the

group B D W K have at tempted an emendat ionfrom which P and H are free . This point s t o acommon ancestor for the group apart from H and

P , and th is w e will call 18 . I ts existence i s supported by a passage in which P and H give to

Quartus R ex a speech assigned by the othermanuscripts t o Seueral is R ex,

’ whatever that mamean .

4 Anothe r speech is given by P , H ,and also

by B,to

‘ Tert ius Rex,

’ which D W K assign to

Primus R ex .

’5 This i s important as indicat ing a

common ances tor of D W K ,say 8

,apart from

P H B,but unfortunately there i s no obvious con

firmat ion of this arrangement . A clear case of

2 L ines 63 7-40. My references are to a paral lel text of P andD wh ich I made for my own use . The numbering does not

exaét ly agree w ith that of De im l ing,who was in the hab it of

count ing in non-existent l ines. I t does agree,however, w ith

Manly’

s text .

2 Line 702 .3 Lines 1 93

-4.

4 L ine 1 97 .5 Line 30 1 .

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1 94 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

the audience . AS his farewell shot the seconddelivers h imself of the line : ‘ In hell shall theydwell at theyre las t ende .

’ This common damnat ionseems to have Shocked the scribe

,who had maybe

a keener sense ofj ust ice than ofhumour . H e easedh is consc ience at the expense of the metre bywrit ing : ‘ All sinnfull Shall dwell in " hell at therlast ende .

’

So far, then ,the evidence points in the first

place to a common source for W and K,namely

F ; next we have found P and H agree ing togetheragainst the rest , while at the same t ime P has

apparently original readings where all the othermanuscripts are corrupt , whence i t follows that we

must assume a common source for B,D

,and F,

namely (3, and also a common source for [3 and H ,

which we will call 71. I t also seems likely that Dand F have a common source , 8, apart from B

,

though of this further evidence is desirable .

Lastly,s ince we have agreed on general grounds

that P is not an ancestor of any of the othermanuscripts P and 11 must have a common source ,which would be the the arche type

, H,of all the

known texts . Since,however

,there are evident

corrupt ions common to all six manuscripts,not

even a can be the original,which , therefore , we

shall have to move back into the mists of ant iquityat QB.

Our results are so far in ent ire agreement withthose of De imling, from which , indeed, they onlydiffer by the inclusion of P and D in the scheme .

Line 702 .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 9 5

MANU SCR IPTS OF THE CHESTER PLAYS .

P = Peniarth Manuscript : P lay ofAntichrist—t . 1 500.

D = Duke ofDevonshire ’

s Manuscript : Cycle—1 5 9 1 .

W = Brit ish Museum,M S . Addit. 1 03 05 : Cycle—1 5 92 .

K = Brit ish Museum,M S . Harley 20 1 3 Cycle—1 600 .

B = Bodleian Library, M S . Bodley 1 7 5 : Cycle—1 604 .

H = Brit ish Museum,M S . Harley 2 1 24 : Cycle—1 607 .

01 13 111 21

Archetype

e. 1 500

1 96 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

The table will Show at a glance the provisionalarrangement at which we have arrived .

’

Having now construéted a working hypothesisi t remains to see whether i t will work . Our schemefits the faéts so far as w e have observed them

,and

I believe i t alone will fit them . By the rules of

the game i t should account for all the variants inthe different texts ; unfortunately , th rough the perversity of aétual condit ions , i t doe s not in the leastfollow that it will . Let us see . .

On the present occasion I shall, of course, beable to treat the quest ion only in the most summary manner . All I can do is to give stat ist icalfigures of the read ings which support our scheme

,

and to consider briefly the most important of thosereadings which appear to cont rad iét i t .There are

,to begin with , in every manuscript a

number of readings In which it i s opposed by a consensus ofall others . The numbers of such readingsin the different manuscripts are : P 97 , H 3 8 , B 46 ,D 27 , W 5 3 , K 3 9 total 3 00 . There are also 1 7cases in which two or more manuscripts differfrom the res t wi thout agree ing among themselves .The to tal number ofvari ants recorded be ing 424,there remain 1 07 cases in which they fall intogroups

,and are therefore capable e i ther of con

firming or contradiét ing a scheme of relati onship .

2 The table must not be taken to imply that, for instance, e itherB or 3 is immed iately derived from D, but merely that they a re

derived from it,and that the intermed iate steps, ifthere were any,

are now lost . S im ilarly in the text,if I speak of errors or emen

dat ions int roduced by D, I mean, ofcourse, by D or some ancestor

ofD subsequent to 3 .

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1 9 8 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

of our scheme comes out very strongly when we

conside r the e igh t cases of agr eement be tweenP H B . Of these two at most can with anyplausibili ty be explained in the manner whichsatisfies the four cases j ust considered .

‘ Conse

quently of really cogent variants the group P H B

is supported by six or seven , the group P H D bynone , and the group B D by one only

,and that

doubtfully . This , i t must be admitted, i s fairlysat isfaétory confirmation . I t is a curious faét thatthere are three cases of agreement of P B agains tthe rest

,but of these two prove on examination to

be more apparent than real,while the th ird is

a pre tty obvious correét ion by B of a corruptionin n.

’ A case in which P B agree against D W K,

while H differs from and might be a corruptionof the reading of e ither group

,may be assumed

The instances ofP H B are

97 P Men buryed in graue as ye may see (DW K you) .1 1 2 P Crist tha t oure name has nomen (D W K our ) .143 P And ley it lou vndre the greet (DW K burye) .3 0 1 P Ter t ius rex (D W K P r imus) .3 7 1 P Oute on the wysa rde w ith thy wyl is (DW roysard

K defeét ive) .4 1 1 P That thowe shewyd to these kyngis (DW K vnto).625 P (& c ) Antecrist nowe ys comyn thy day (D W K this).

7 14 P (& c ) Conspyryd may be no way (DW K by m e).The instance in l ine 41 1 is not significant

,and that in l ine 7 14

only doubtful ly so.

2 The instances ofP B are

4 1 5 D So thy ioye now e yr raygnes (P B now e) .

448 D My cursse I gyne you to amend yourmeeles (P B mend ) .6 82 D Of soules that shou l d haue b ine saued in hel l be the

lydd (P B thie) .There are reasons for not at tachn we ight to the first and last ofthese .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 1 9 9

to be an instance of a disguised agreement of

P H B .

‘

Of other anomalous agreements there are several ,but of none do more than a couple of instancesoccur . They are : P H K ,

P B K,P W K , P K ,

H B,H D

,H W

,H K

,B K . The most curious

perhaps is P W K,for it turns ou t to be what I

may call a ghost . 2 Though W K is undoubtedlysupported by P according both to Manly ’s edit ionand to the apparent reading of the manuscript , thelatter on closer examination is seen to be the workof the modern restorer . The original reading ,though uncertain

,most probably supported the

group H B D . There is another similar case inwhich the restorer has made P support the groupB D W K

,though in faét i t almos t certainly origi

nally supported H .3 Another startling agreement

is P B K,but th is i s easily explained as an emenda

tion of a corruption in 11, made independently byB and K .

4 The agreements ofP K and P H K are

due to acc idental re turns of K to an original reading .

The agreements ofH D,H B

,H W

,and B K are

all capable of explanat ion . Two instance s of an

agreement ofH K are certainly puzzling .5 In the

l ine : ‘ These Lowlers the would fayne m e greeue’

(D) , both manuscripts omit the word‘ fayne

,

’

and

Line 3 1 5 D Nowe w ee be readye leeue you this (P Bbeen w e H we

2 Line 566 D But I must blesse yt ory t goe (WK I goe P3 Line 1 66 D God glorified crea ted of degree (H grea test

4

.

Line 247 P For we were neuyr so rych infay (D W Hin goodfaye) .

5 L ines 428 , 488 .

200 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

in the l ine That shall full soone make thee to flee

(D) , the word‘ full . ’ Both are presumably errors

and possibly mere Sl ips . Such coincidences mustnow and then be expect ed , and fortunately theseanomalous readings attack our scheme at i ts strongestpoint—namely , the grouping ofW K .

W e have now considered the objeétions to our

hypothesis as to the relat ions of the manuscripts,

and our scheme may be held to have stood the testsat isfaétorily . AS ye t , however, I have said nothingas to the relat ive value of the extant texts . For

anyth ing our scheme tells us to the contrary,W

may on the whole contain the most original and Hthe least original readings within the group of

cyclic manuscripts . Happily the independentposit ion of P affords a certain criterion for the

originality of the readings in the other text s . Sincethe main object of th is inquiry

.

is to ascertain therules that Should govern the edit ing of the Chesterplays

, we must now apply ourselves to this cri ticism,

remembering that anomalous groupings must firstbe reduced to the normal ones

,ofwhich they are

presumably obscured variants . ‘

After making these correét ions we arrive at thefollowing results . H has 47 readings which are

cer tainly unoriginal , in 3 8 ofwhich it is Opposedby a concensus ofall the other manuscripts . Thereare also six readings in which H is unsupported

,

For instance such a grouping as P H D BW K may be an

obscured instance of P H B W K D,D d iverging from its

own group B DW K and acc iden tal ly return ing to the originalread ing

,or e lse of P H D B W K

,B d iverging from its own

group P H B D and accidental ly mak ing the same change as F.

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202 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

been taken of the intrins ic meri t of the readings .If the scheme proposed is correét , or anyth ing likecorreét , then it is futile to argue that a readingfound say in D only , or even in D W K ,

if opposedby a concensusofP H B,

i s original,however plausible

i t may be . I t may be ‘correCt ,

’ i t may be whatthe author originally wrote , but , apart from con

flat ion,i t can only have got in to its place by emen

dat ion ,i t cannot have been the reading of the

arche type . Where the relation of the manuscriptsis uncertain we have

,of course

,to re ly upon the

general plausibil i ty ofthe ir readings for determiningthe i r value , but it i s always a precarious test .There are

,i t is true , in different cases various

degree s of improbability in supposing a scribe or

correétor to have been re sponsible for a givenreading, and some t imes the improbability is verygreat , but , logically at least , we are never j ust ified ,however st rongly we may fee l that -a certain readingis original , in assuming that it must have been thatof the arche type .

I may here state the result ofa critical cons ideration of the diffe rence s between P and n. In a

number ofcases P is certainly corrupt , but in mostof these the reading of n seems as like ly to be an

emendation as to be original . There remain,how

ever,two or three in which emendation appears

ve ry improbable,and which

,the refore

,confirm our

previous assumption that P is not the parent of thecyclic group .

The re i s one warn ing which should pe rhaps beborne in mind . Our re sult s st riétly apply to the

Ant ichri s t play alone . S ince we decided that the

MIRACLE CYCLES . 20 3

cyclic manuscripts were not formed by the colleet i on of a numbe r of different texts from separatesources

,i t is not very like ly that the re lat ion of t he

manuscripts should differ in differen t port ion s ofthe text . Still i t is conce ivable : for instance the

two scribes of MS . H might have used differentoriginals . This , in poin t of faét , they do not seemto have done

,for the divergence of H , like the close

relation of W K,evidently pe rs i st s throughout the

cycle . The only doubt i s as to the posit ions of Band D . I n the course ofan analys is of the readingsof the second pagean t based on D e im ling

’

s collat ions I found D apparently associat ing i tself moreclosely w i th H and B with W K .

‘ But,as I h ave

said, D e im l ing

’

s collat ions are ent i rely untrustworthy , and such a reve rsal of relat i on is in i tselfext remely impi

'

obable .

2

The procedure which an edi tor should adoptwith regard to the text of the Chester plays willnow be evident . Of the two t radi t ions repre

sen ted by H and the group B D W K respect ively ,Hem ingway appears to have found this too : see

‘ EngliShNat iv ity Plays,

’

p . v . But,as I have said before

,I suspeét h is

col lat ions ofhaving been borrowed from De im ling’

s ed it ion . Theapparent ly anomalous charafter ofthe read ings ofB as report ed byDeim l ing may be due to the rather d ifli cult hand of that manu

scrip t .2 I t is qu ite c lear that the two sc ribes of H fol low the same

t rad it ion and presumably transcribe from the same manuscript .

But,ofcourse

,it does not fol low that the ir work is equal ly accurate .

The importance of H as represen t ing the elder t rad it ion persists

throughout ; but , supposing the d ivergencies ofH from n to be due

d ireftly to the scribes ofH and not to a succession of intermed iatecop ies, the accuracy ofthe text ofH may vary great ly in d ifferen tparts. This

,ofcourse

,m ight be the case even were only one scribe

concerned . The Ant ichrist ’ was writ ten by the second scribe .

204 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

the former is clearly the earlier or more original,

while the lat ter presumably represents the formwhich the plays assumed in the lates t offi cialrevision . Which of the two an editor eleéts to

follow will depend upon the nature of the text hedes ires to produce . If, as is probable, he wishesto arrive at the m ost original text possible

, he will ,of course , follow the earlier version

,but he must

keep h is eyes open for possible edi tori al vagarie son the part of the scribe of H . The differencebetween the versions arise s through intentionaland intelligible alterations by the younge r . The

difference be tween the texts , in passages unaffeétedby such revision, arise s mainly th rough corrup t ion .

I t does not follow that the manuscript preservingthe earlies t recens ion will also offer the bes t text .With regard to th is , therefore , an editor ’s praéticemay be different . As a mat ter of fact , if he propose s to seleét for his text a single manuscript andto s t ick to i ts readings through thick and thin

,

then that manuscript must again be H ,for th is is in

i t self by far the most correét manuscript we possess .That was D e im ling

’

s plan , and h is Choice of H hasproved fully j ustified . Hemingway , while quiteright in supposing that certain readings ofH are

due to editorial in terference , was quite wrong inthe refore condemning his predecessor ’s seleét ion ,

and h is own pract ice offollowing D when opposedby a concensus of H B W K cannot possib ly bedefended . Nevertheless , i t must not be forgottenthat H has been found to contain more than twiceas many errors as B,

and that in general the readings of the lat te r can be res tored with certainty .

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HENRY CROSS GROVE,JACOBITE

,

JOURNALIST AND PRINTER .

HEN Mr . Pickwick made his celebrated excursion to attend the B atanswill eleét ion, he

‘ took the Norwichcoach ’

; and,apart from th is slight

indicat ion,Dickens did not assist hi s

readers by telling them in what county Eatanswillwas supposed to be si tuated . I t , however, seemsto be agreed that Sudbury

,in Suffolk

,was the

t own described,though I do not think that the

originals of the rival edi tors,Pott of the ‘ Gaze t te ,

’

and Slurk of the ‘ Independen t,

’ have ye t beeniden t ified . But if Dickens had seen John Chambers

’

s Gene ral History of Norfolk,

’ published in1 8 2 9 , e ight years before the ‘ Pickwick Papers

,

’

he must have gained a h int from it for his accountof the squabble s of the rival edi tors . The following newspaper quotat ion i s in the General History .

’

I t i s an attack on Henry Cross-Grove (ashe wrote h is name) , the wri ter and printer of the‘ Norwich Gaze t te

,

’ and was taken from the‘ Norwich Courant

,

’

a whig opposi tion j ournalwhich commenced in 1 7 14 ;

Dico D on Q uacko offers his serv ices to cure HenricoCross-Rogo ofhis wound s

,for h is just merit, glut iouslp

HENRY CROSS-GROVE , JACOB ITE . 207

managefl, and if the intermitting feaver should happento return

,the cortex is ready, alias a whip or rope : and

in a few days will be published , ‘ Memoirs of the

Infamous life and Inglorious aét ions of Mr . Scandal,alias Crossroge, with his flight from Redcross Alley, nearCripplegate, London ,

very d iverting and entertaining,printed on a neat elzevir letter in a pocket volume

,by a

gentl eman lately come from London .

What incident in Cross-Grove ’s l ife this refe rredto i s uncertain,

nor do the threatened M emoirsever seem to have been publi shed, but the passagei s qui te in the style of the amen i t ie s exchangedbe tween Pot t and Slurk , and the study of a nearlycomple te file of Cross-Grove

’

s Norwich Gaze t te ’

has brough t the conviétion that Dickens must , atsome t ime or othe r, have seen th is Jacobite j ournal .Cross-Grove was a m an of decided eccent rici ty

in charaéter—one who would at once have captured Dickens ’s in teres t .Apart from thi s there are two reason s why h is

biography Should be wri tten , the firs t and not the

least importan t be ing the faét that of all the earlyprovincial printer-editors he i s the only one whosecareer can be tb ld in de tail ; and the second be ingthat amongs t country editors he alone displayed aninte re st in contemporary li terature . H is ambi tionwas to write a magazine . H e never quite realisedit

, bu t the attempt to do so lifted his paper ou t of

the ordinary ruck .

At the t ime when Cross-Grove ’s career com

menced,Harley was a M ember of Parliament for

King ’s Lynn,and Norfolk was one of the great

208 HENRY CROSS-GROVE,JACOB ITE

,

whig count ies . Norfolk has a very anc ient con

nexion with the newspaper press . Nath an ielBut ter was born near

‘

King ’s Lynn (according tothe General and so was Dr . WilliamWat t s , th e Royalist clergyman who translatedmost ofButter’s later Corantos for him . Aboveall

,i f w e except the Oxford ‘ Aul icus

’

and‘ Gaze t te ’

(afterwards the‘ London for

which special c ircumstances accounted,Norwich

i tse lf was the fi rs t p rovincial town to possess anewspaper

,in the Shape of the ‘ Norwich Post

,

’

commenced in Septembe r, 1 7 00 ,by Franci s

Burges . ‘ Cross-Grove did not s tart h is Gazette ’

(as i t was at first S tyled) unt i l 1 7 06 , and his papermust have brought him into touch in later yearswi th the famous D r . Johnson,

through the celebrat ed Edward Cave , who founded the ‘ Gentleman’s Magazine ’

in 1 7 3 1 . When Cave died in1 7 54, Dr . Johnson , as h is ch ief contribu t or, wro tehis life . In this the Doct or says that while Cavewas

‘ bound prent i ce to Mr . Collins ,’

the deputyalderman and prin ter in London,

‘ he was sentwi thout any superintendant , to conduét a print inghouse at Norwich , and publi sh a weekly paper .In th i s he me t with some opposi t ion, which pro

There are two c laiman ts to an earl ier origin .

‘ Berrow’

s

Worcester Journal ’ asserts that it commenced in 1 690—it may

be able to t race its descent from the Jacob ite ‘Worcester Post

Man,

’

founded in 1 709, but it was cert ain ly not founded in 1 690-and the ‘ Lincoln Rut land and Stamford Mercury

’

c laims to

have commenced in 1 695 . This lat ter pape r commenced as the‘ Stamford Mercury as late as 1 73 2, and has no connexion evenw ith an earl ier ‘ Stamford Mercury,

’

commenced also in the

e ighteenth century .

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2 1 0 HENRY CROSS -GROVE,JACOB ITE

,

The Norwich Gaze tte ,’ with

,at fi rst

,the inside

t itle of the ‘ Loyal Packe t,

"and late r of ‘ Cross

Grove ’s News When Cave Started the Gentleman ’s Magazine ’

the inside t i tle soon became‘ Cross-Grove ’s Magazine .

’ I t was then a goodsized sheet offour pages .In the year 1 7 1 5 Strype and Cross-Grove

renewed thei r acquain tance and commenced an

interes ting correspondence . Cross-Grove adv er

t ised Strype’

s books for him gratu itously , tell inghim to give his uncle Gu t teridge at Ley ton the

shilling stamp dut ies , with an inj unct ion to drinkh is nephew ’s health wi th them . Cross-Grove ’slet ters give an amusing account of the petty persecut ion he endured on account of his Jacobi teprinciples .On 2nd December, 1 7 14, he wrote to S t rype

As to what you mention of ‘ Bp . W hitgift’

s Life,

’

I

will communicate it to all such as I think likely to subscribe

, will be myselfa subscriber and do what service Ican in it

,and will publish your proposals in my

”

news

paper, which spreads all over Norfolk and Suffolk, partofLincolnshire and Yorkshire . The city ofNorwich isat present distrac

‘ted with party rage—Whig and Tory ,High Church and Low Church ; or

,to give it in our

own d ialeét,Croakers and Tackers make the two con

tending parties . The Whigs are a strange compoundbody of false-churchmen

,P resbyterians, Independents,

Anabaptists, Antinomians and Quakers,each of which

have separatists from them,and all conventicles to

assemble in . These men think th ey have got the aseen

dant and threaten d estruétion to all who join not withtheir Republican notions of government

,and , as my

See Bibl iotheca Norfolciensis.’

JOURNALIST AND PRINTER . 2 1 1

business is publick, and my writings as well as principlescounter to theirs, I am continually bind ing over and prosecut ing by juries . And thus stand 1

,the Butt of

Faét ious Hate, but Immobile Saxum

This is rather like Pot t ’s declarat i on to Mr .Pickwick

The contest shall be prolonged so long as I have healthand strength and that portion of talent with which I amgifted . From that contest, sir, although it may unsettlemen

’

s mind s and excite their feelings and render themincapable for the discharge of the everyday duties of

ord inary life ; from that contest, S ir, I will never shrinktill I have set my foot upon the

‘Eatanswill Independent .’

Cross-Grove con t inues

I have sent you my last week’

s‘ Gazette

,

’ togetherwith one I printed on 2 9th January last [Charles I . wasbeheaded on 3 oth January , and Cross-Grove never forgotto celebrate the anniversary by a poem] , forwhich I stooda severe shock from our glorious B . [Bishop Trimnell],and , though I was then censured for writing on thatsubjeét, I believe I shall not spare them an inch nexttime ; for I am not yet certain whether ’

t is now a realcrime to be loyal .

Writ ing on 2 1 st March , 1 7 14- 1 5 , Cross-Grove

tells S t rype of an eleét ion not unlike that ofEatanswill

The church interest is strangely thrown here,for the

Whigs have carried their members,both for city and

county ; and at the elec°t ion of the latter they were so

outrageously insulting that they d rove the Church cand idates off the hill with brickbats and stones

,and had the

Copies ofthese let ters are in the Cole MSS ., vol . 5853 (Add ).

2 1 2 HENRY CROSS-GROVE,JACOB ITE

,

impudence to spit in S ir Thomas H anmer’

s face, who

head ed up the clergy to vote for S ir Ralph Hare and Sir

E rasmus Earle . W e are at present bu t in odd circumstances here

,for we have an artillery company raised

lately by commission from my Lord Townshend , whobeing all of the Oliverian Club , strangely insult and

d ragoon us,and steal gentlemen

’

s horses who are of a

contrary kidney to themselves . They have drawn up a

petition to the R . and Council for the Silencing my press,and it was, I hear, signed by the Mayor, several justicesofthe city , the High Sheriff of the County and our goodDean (Humphrey P rideaux) who all swim in the same

stream ; so that I am in expeétat ion ofbeeng taken in thecustody ofa messenger. But I am prepared for the stormand so but little heed it .

Mr . Pickwick’s advice to shout wi th the largestcrowd ’ i n an eleét ion contes t would not have foundfavour with Cross-Grove , and the consequence s ofs id ing with the weaker s ide in th is year well—nighresulted in the close of his career .

’

In a le tter to Strype,dated Trini ty Sunday

,

he wri te s

I cannot sufficiently rejoice to hear that such men are

in being as S ir Harry H ickes, who hav e both honourand courage enough to be loyal, and it will, I presume

,

not be unpleasant that We have persons here , and in

Norfolk too,and many of no mean station and circum

stances, who are real Englishmen and can never cease to

be so. George ’

s birthday was observed here as much as

I expected ; but on the Restauration day we had the

greatest rejoicings that ever were known .

On that anniversary the bells rang from two o ’clockon the Sunday morning till two O

’

clock the next day, andthe streets were all strewn with sand and flowers . But

,

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2 14 HENRY CROSS-GROVE , JACOB ITE,

never gained by the barter, so far your observation is

just. P assive Obedience and Non-Resistance is what Icontend for, as a shining doctrine of our church ; and

happy had it been for Britain if her members had prac

t ised as well as preached that doétrine ;’

t is the happinessof the subjeét and the safety of the sovereign ; but ifev er an Usurper should happen to be crowded into the

Throne by men of Latitud inarian principles (which Ihope will never happen here) I cannot see indeed thenwhat advantage S t . Paul’s a i 03 9 2 1 12011 9 1911 will be to the

Church ofEngland . But,

ne ultra crepidam .

’

The Assizes began here to-day ; so that my troublesare but commencing ; and I am told within this hourthat an ind iétment for High Treason will be preferredagainst me ; the substance whereof is (as I am told , for acopy is denied me) for endeavouring to raise men againstH is Maj esty and for promoting a rebellion, etc.

, ofall of

which I am as perfeétly innocent as the child unborn.

Bu t I have been too forward in expressing my approba

tion of Monarchy and Episcopacy and in lashing such as

I believe their enemies ; and , therefore, ‘ fas nefasv e’

[they] will rid me out of the world if they can . But’

t is

bu t tread ing in my father’

s steps, who lost his life at the

fatal (I mean happy) Revolution .

Now as to your business, I have got, S ir, only one

subscriber yet, notwithstanding I thrice advertised it inmy

‘ Gazette .

’

But you will see by the enclosed paper,which is printed here in opposition to mine, perhaps a

reason for it. The verses there entitled ‘The Toriesbeat,

’

85 C. is a Pamphlet of my own,which I wrote and

printed upon the Dissolution of the parliament that impeached D r . Sacheverell and then entitled it a ‘MockElegy on the Nev er to be Forgotten Earl ofAm inidab’

s

many head ed Beast, who vanished“in Fumo

”

anno’

Tis word for word as I then printed it, exceptin two or three places, where you will easily see theyhave retorted some names upon me .

JOURNALIST AND PRINTER . 2 1 5

On 29 th Augus t , 1 7 1 5 , he says

I have sent my last Gazette,’

where you will fi nd I amhonourably acquitted .

Cross—Grove published a great deal of very inferior poe t ry in h is paper, besides admitt ing correspond ence on a variety of subjeéts. H e madeverses h imself and profes sed an unbounded admirat i on for Pope

,in whose honour be prin ted a number

of elegie s , written by himself and his subscribers ,and even the full text of the poe t ’s will . Two smallvolumes ofpoe t ry and correspondence , coupled wi thh is own answe rs , were printed by h im in 1 708 ,ent i tled respect ively , ‘The Accurate Intelligencer ’

and Apollinaria.

’

In his later years he became town councillor forMancroft Ward ; and

,pe rhaps owing to th is the

following delightful elegy on the death ofAlderman Churchman (of the s ame ward) was the

result

Descend Calliope, celestial MaidAssist my labour and my numbers aid

Or rather,O ye Nine, my verse inspire

And grant me all a P oet’s sacred fi reSay , what could cause this R ich Display ofW oe ?

What taught this Breast to heave,these Tears to flow ?

Say, is there dead , whose Virtues all men knewExcell

’

d by None and Equall’

d but by Few.

Whose act ions Noble, gen

’

rous,unconfin

’

d

Bespoke the inward Candour ofhis M ind , & c.

This might have been wri tten by the younglady who ‘ did ’

the poet ry in the ‘ EatanswillGaze t te ,

’ and appeared as a Sultana at Mrs . Leo

2 1 9 HENRY CROSS -GROVE , JACOB ITE ,

Hunter ’s fete champét re .

’

But Cross-Grovecould write bet te r verse than this

,and occasionally

even indulged in Latin . H e had a great admiration for that swee t s inger S tephen Duck — the

farm labourer whom the Queen pensioned,some

what to Pope ’s d i sgust . Bu t his love for poe t ryd id not prevent h is selling quack medicines . ThatNoble Elixir of Daffey

’

s was puffed by him in

nearly every number of his paper,and the cures

repor ted by h im are incredible . Only second toD affey

’

s Elixi r ’ was a Sovere ign Salve ’ at zs. a

roll,also sold by him at h i s print ing office . Country

printers in those days could not make a living outof printing, and Cross-Grove

’s sol i tary importan tbook

,a new translat ion ofJosephus , does not seem

to have been a succes s . I t has not survived .

H e had a way of taking the subscribers to hispaper in to his confidence about hi s own affairswh ich is d ist inétly funny . On 14t h August , 1 7 3 1 ,he tells them

I have one piece more of drumstick news (as Ralphonce called it) namely , that as this is the Anniv ersa of

My Own Birthday, in which I enter the 49 th year 0 myAge, I intend to remember all my Honest-hearted Friend sand Customers over a Glass of the Best .

The glass of the be s t ’ was , as we know from hisown poems , nu t brown ale .

’

H e dete sted tea,which

,he says , was drunk

twice a d ay , at ten in the morning and four in theafternoon , and broke ou t into Lat in verse on the

subjeét

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2 1 8 HENRY CROSS-GROVE ,JACOB ITE ,

on,the more formidable ‘ Craftsman ’ appeared

(‘ that vile Republican paper,

’ Cross-Grove termedi t) , written by Nicholas Amhurst , with the

support of Bolingbroke and Pulteney . WhenFrancklin , the printer of this paper , was prosecu ted in 1 7 3 1 (under Walpole

’s administrat i on)and afterwards fined £ 1 00 and bound ove r forseven years , Cross-Grove del igh tedly recorded the

fadt ; but as a rule he recommended his readers toperuse the ‘ Occasional Historian ’ of the R ev .

Matth ias Earbery , j un ior, a Norfolk clergyman ,rather than the Craftsman’s professed newspaperopponent , ‘ The Hyp-Doct or . ’ This lat ter pape rwas

,pe rh aps

, too abusive for him .

On the 2 5 th September , 1 7 3 1 , Cross-Grove toldh is reade rs , with much approval, that in the finalnumbe r of his ‘ Occasional Historian

,

’

Earbery,mentioning the case of a man who had lost hisears for libell ing the consort -of Charle s I

,said

that Mr . Craftsman deserves the same applicat ionof Torture s (if torture they mus t be called) forabusing the Queen Consort of Jame s I I

,

’ and added ,‘ I think his Nose and Ears bear lit tle compe t i t ionwith the He inousness ofhis Crime .

’

At last , Cross-Grove himself died , and thoughthere was no one left to write his elegy , a welldeserved Obituary not ice appeared in h i s NorwichGazet te ’ for 8- 1 5 September, 1 744 :

On Wednesday last (November 1 2 th) d eparted thislife Mr . Henry Cross-Grove , aged 62 . P rinter of the‘Norwich Gazette and Magazine ’ upwards of 3 8 years .

H e was a man allowed by al l P ersons of Ingenuity and

Learning to be a Man of Learning,Sense and Spirit .

JOURNALIST AND PRINTER . 2 1 9

And as his paper d id always appear with the greatestSpirit, Integrity and Correc’tness of any paper yet extant,so we design (God willing) to continue it in the same

channel, and hope to give the same satisfaction to all our

good friends and customers,and return them our grateful

thanks for al l their goodness to the printer now deceased,and are incouraged to hope their goodness and futurefavour will be continued to us his widow and son- in-law

,

Mary Cross-Grove and Rob . Davy .

J . B . W ILLIAMS .

THE ENQUIRY OF THE DEATHOF RICHARD HUNNE .

EW among the many anonymouspamphle ts whi ch appeared during thereligious controvers ies of the s ixteenthcentury in England have been moreoften quoted or used as materi al by

h istori ans than that ent itled ‘ The enquirie andverdite of the que st panneld of the death of RichardHune wich was founde hanged in Lolars tower . ’

I ts text , wi thout the t i tle and preface , was reprintedin full

,though not quite accurately

,in Hall’s chro

n icle ; from this i t was t ranscribed by Foxe in to hi s‘Aéts and Monument s ’ and from Foxe or Hall arederived the numerous quotat ions in the works oflater wri ters dealing with the re ign ofHenry VI I I .The original seems to have remained almost un

known , though there i s a refe rence to i t in the

article on Hunne in the Dict ionary of NationalBiography .

’ Even the late Dr . Gairdner, in h is‘History of the Engli sh Church in the SixteenthCentury

,

’ i llustrate s by discrepancies occurring ini t a charge against Hall that h i s ‘ unfairness on

some part icular subjeét s goes the length ofposi tivedishones ty

,

’ not having discovered that Hall hadsimply embedded in his narrative one of the

pamphlet s by unknown writers which he mentionsin the l i s t of works from which his chronicle wascompiled .

Various points of hist orical intere s t which arise

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22 2 DEATH OF RICHARD HUNNE .

Bri t ish Museum (pressmark 649 5 a acquiredin 1 869 . I t i s described as incomple te in the‘ Catalogue of Early printed Books ’ andin H azl i t t

’

s‘ B i bliographical Colleét ions,

’

3 rd

Series,p . 29 5 but has since been made

comple te by the addit i on of the las t leaf from the

second copy at the Museum (pressmark 649 5 a

5 8) acquired in 1 905 . This lacks not only thatleaf but also the firs t four . Possibly these missingleaves form the fragment in the S t . Paul ’s Cathedral Library (see W . Sparrow Simpson ’s Cat alogue ,p . which was purchased in 1 87 8 from Mr .Russell Smith Notes and Queries,

’

5 th Series , X ,

who had bought i t at a sale held by Mess rs .Put t ick and Simpson

, on 1 2 th April , 1 87 6 (annotated ca talogue of th is sale now at the Bri t ishMuseum) . This, consis t ing only of the t i tle-pageand preface

,resemble s in all respeéts the corre

spond ing parts of the fi rs t copy . The remainingexample i s in the Library of Corpus Chris ti College, Cambridge . The Librarian

,who has kindly

compared i t wi th a description sen t to him of the

others,reports that i t seems exact ly the same , and

that H azl i t t’

s collat i on (op . ci t . 4th Series , p . 1 9 1 )i s wrong

,as i t

,like them , has only four leaves in

qui re b .

I n 1 8 6 2 a reques t for information about thet raét appeared in Notes and Queries (3 rd Series ,I,

S igned G . H . This may e ither indicatet he existence of a fifth copy

,or refer to the fi rst

one ment ioned above , afterwards acquired by theBri t i sh Museum .

E . JEFFRIES DAV IS .

REVIEWS .

B ibliotlzeca P epysiana . A D escr iptive Cata logueof’

tbe

L ibrary of Samuel P epys . P ar t I . Sea Manu

scr ipts . By j‘. R . Tanner , L itt .D . P ar t I I .

Genera l Introduction (F . Sidgwick) and Ear lyP r inted Boobs to 1 5 5 8 . By E . Gordon D iffLondon : Sidgwick 69

°

ffacbson, L td . 1 9 14.

7 s. 6d . net eaclzpar t .

AMUEL PEPYS is at once one of

the earlies t and one of the best ex

ample s of an English colleétor, as dist inguished on the one hand from the

student or miscellaneous book-buyer,

and on the other from the consci ous founders of

l ibraries . Pepys d ireét ed that h is collec’t ion shouldbe called ‘ Bibli otheca Pepysiana,

’ but his d ireét ionsthat no addit i ons should be made to i t except byhi s nephew, and that even these should be keptapart

,clearly mark it out as a colleét ion and not a

library . For a library needs perpetually to be keptup

- to-date , whereas a skilfully formed colleét ion i scomplete in i tself

,and instead ofbecoming obsole te

,

like a library , becomes continually more valuable .

This is certainly the case with the Pepys books,

some all told,which are an admirable monu

ment to h is j udgment . The two seétions of the

long proj ect ed Catalogue which Messrs . Sidgwickand Jackson are now publish ing embrace respec

2 24 REVIEWS .

t ively h is naval manuscripts and hi s early prin tedbooks . A good many of the former ought nevert o have been taken from the Admiralty

,but as they

have remained in safe keeping no harm has beendone . Documents comparing the cost of buildinga ship in the governmen t yard with the prices ofprivate cont ract ors , or calculat ing the numbe r ofworkmen needed to complete her in a twelvemonth Show that

,on however much smaller a

scale , the Admiralty in Pepys’

s day was faced bymany of the same problems as at present . Bes idesthe offi cial document s of h is own time which heappropriated

,Pepys brough t together many others

in View ofhis (unfulfilled) des i re to wri te a hi st oryof the Navy

,while ye t o thers are miscellaneous .

All have been summarily,but neatly

,catalogued

by Dr . Tanner . The books , mostly English ,pr i nted before 1 5 5 8 , described by Mr . GordonDuff

,make a more direct appeal to us . Many of

t hem ,e.g .

,one by Caxton (

‘ Reynard the Fox’

)three of the fifteenth century and two of the s ixt eenth ,

from the press of W ynkyn de Worde , andno fewer than six of the fifteenth century , withone of the sixteent h from that of Pynson,

are not

known t o exist elsewhere . Altogether the re are

seven Caxtons, ten incunables by D e Worde , ande i ght by Pynson . All these and the later booksare described by Mr . Gordon Duff with praétisedskill . In the same sect i on Mr . Sidgwick contributes an admi rable sketch of the hi story of the

collect ion . Both volumes are excellently printed ,and make us wish for the speedy comple t ion of

the se t .

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226 REVIEW S .

instance are these quoted as overlapping , althoughProétor also registered one of those in Hain and

one of Cop inger’

s. If twenty- six out of twentye ight copies are really unique i t i s indeed amazing

,

though the Conjurat i o I s the sort ofbook of whichedi tions easily tend to b e represented by very fewcopies . The record of the Divisi ones decemnat ionum tot ius ch rist ian i t at is, a book of whichthere i s no copy in the Brit i sh Museum and ofwhich we had never heard , i s very s imilar . H ereof twenty- th ree edit ions registered only one bearsplace or date , and of not more than three edit ionsi s more than a single copy known . Probab lysome of these ent ries are ghosts , a remark whichreminds us of our doubts whe ther there i s not

some thing wrong as to the ed itions of the Summa

angel ica at tributed to Veni ce 1 47 6 and 148 5 .

The author was abbot ofa monastery at Chivasso,

and from the date ofthe appearance of the Chivassoedi t ion of 1 486 there i s a s tream of reprint s , twoin each of the years 1 487 -9 1 , and as many as fiv ein 1 49 2 . The 1 48 5 edit ion i s vouched for by theGerman Commission ,

and a Venice publisher mayhave fores talled the fi rs t authorised text

,as a

Cologne publisher seems to have forestalled the

first authorised edit ion of the Fasciculus Temporum .

Bu t an edi tion of 1 47 5 seems incredible . I t i sgood

,howeve r

,to have all these references brough t

toge ther, and Mr . Peddie has done h is edi t ing ina very workmanl ike manner.

REVIEWS . 227

E inbla ttdrucke des xv . yabrbunder ts . E in bibl io

graplzisclzes Verzeic/znis berausgegeben von der

Kommission fz'

i r den Gesamtba talog der PViegen

drucke. H a l/e a . S . , Ver lag von E lzr lzard t

Karras . I 9 1 4. pp . xix. 5 5 3 .

This new additi on to the Sammlung b ibl iothekswissenschaftlicher Arbe i ten begun by Dr . D z iatko

and worthily cont inued by Professor H aebler , i s avolume of extraordinary in tere st . I t regis ters some

s ingle sheet s printed in the fifteenth cen

t ury,and i s full of valuable material

,not only for

bibliographers and students of prin ting,but also

for the polit ical and social h istorian . Nearly afourth of these S ingle Shee ts are pre served atMuni ch

,and the existence of the se

,and of a

smaller colleét ion of 1 2 8 , once the prope rty ofHerr Culem ann

,now in the Kestner Museum at

H anover , has long been known . The others havecome to light very largely through the re searche sof the Commission by whose members this catalogue has been edi ted with admirable precis ion .

More than half the en tries are concerned with two

subjeéts, the t rafli c in Indulgences accoun ting forno fewe r than 5 50 ent ries

,and that in Almanacs

for over 3 20 . German songs account for anothe rhundred , ofli cial documents by the Emperor Maximilian for about as many more

,and those of Pope

Sixtus IV for some sixty . Other important groupsare of prayers, piece s in honour of Christ , the

Holy Mother, and the Saints,cert ificate s of ad

mission to confratern i t ies,booksellers ’ advertise

ment s , and notices ofshoot ing compe tit ions . The

22 8 REVIEWS .

pr ovenance of the piece s i s not the i r least remarkable feature . Of the total of the place of

imprin t offorty-five i s as ye t unt raced'

(the smallnessof the number refleCting great credi t on the

edi tors) , nine are French,twenty- s ix Span i sh

,

twen ty—seven English,th irty-nine Low Count ry

,

forty- two I talian , and the remaining German .

Of course , some allowance must be made for thefaét that the Commission is more influent i al inGermany than elsewhere

,and it i s only in Ger

many that th orough search has as ye t been madein State and munic ipal arch ives ; neverthele ss , i tremains remarkable that of every eleven singlesheets as ye t found and identified no ‘ fewer thant en are German . Clearly what i s called ‘ j ob ’

print ing established i t self much earlier and muchmore thoroughly in Ge rmany than elsewhere ;clearly also the German appe t ite for i ndulgence sand almanacs (these lat te r large ly concerned withthe lucky days for le tt ing blood , e tc .) was muchgreater than that fe lt in any other country .

A . W . P .

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2 3 9 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

As a pionee r in B lake cri t icism Crabb Robinsonhas never rece ived h is due ; Gilchris t resents h issuggest ion that Blake was not ent i rely sane

,others

have repeated the reproach ; and no one hasthought to clear h is memory in that respedt byreprinting th at forgo t ten pape r which he wrote inthe winter of 1 809

- 1 0 to int roduce Blake t o thenotice of German students— a paper based on afirst-hand s tudy of all the p iCtures, poems and

engravings on which he could lay h is hands , andon such personal informat ion as he could gleanfrom friends . H e did not meet the poet-painterunt il many years late r , s o that his narrative , by farthe earl ies t long account of Blake and his work

,i s

uncoloured by personal feeling . When in the

year 1 8 6 3 Gilchris t in troduced William Blake,

Pidtor Ignotus , t o the general public,he began

his book with a lament over the ‘ scanty recogni t ion ’ accorded to B lake as poe t and art is t .The not ices in Cunningham ’s ‘ Lives of Bri t i shArtists ’

and Leslie ’s ‘ H andbook for YoungPainte rs ’

are alone menti oned by name, and B io

graphical D iCt ionaries are said to pass by hi s name‘ with inaccurate dispatch , as having had someconnexion with the Arts . ’ Y e t a closer study ofthe faé’ts will reveal a surpri s ing amount of con

temporary intere st in W i lliam Blake . Malkin ’s‘ A Father ’s M emoirs of h is Child ’

( 1 805 ) i s t heonly serious b iograph ical notice published duringhis life t ime— the only one , at least , hitherto re

garded . Bu t at h is death friendly notice s appearedin the Gentleman ’s Magazine

,

’

the ‘N ew MonthlyMagazine ,

’

and elsewhere , the first-named be ing, in

OF WILLIAM BLAKE . 2 3 1

part at least , worthy of the quo tat ion i t has not ye trece ived . At p . 3 77 ofvol . i i , 1 8 27 , we read

‘ Aug . 1 3 [ 1 2111

] Aged 6 8 Mr . William Blake,an

excellent, bu t eccentric artist . ’ After a list of h is works,

includ ing the ‘eight beautiful plates In the“Novelist’s

Magazine, the ‘ Gates of Paradise,’ ‘ Songs of Experi

ence,

’ Songs of Innocence ’

are omitted] ,‘ America

,

’

Europe,’

the Night Thoughts,’ Hayley

’

s‘ Ballad s,

’

the

Grave ,’

with the d esigns to which few persons of tasteare unacquainted ’

; the ‘ Descriptive Catalogue,’

the‘ Canterbury P ilgrimage ’

and ‘

Job,’

comes this interesting passage .

‘ Blake has been allowed to exist in a

penury which most artists—being necessarily ofa sensitivetemperament—would deem intolerable . P ent, with h isaffec‘t ionate wife, in a close back-room in one of the

S trand courts,his bed in one corner

,h is meagre dinner

in another,a rickety table holding his copperplates in

progress, his colours,books (among which his Bible, a

Sessi Velu tello’

s Dante,and Mr . Carey

’

s (sic) translation,were at the top) , h is large d rawings, sketches, and M S S . ;- his ancles frightfully swelled

,his chest d isord ered , old

age strid ing on,his wants increased

,but not his m iserable

means and appliances : even yet was h is eye undimm ed,

the fire of his imag ination unquenched,and the preter

natural, nev er-resting activity of his m ind unflagging .

H e had not merely a calmly resigned,bu t a cheerful and

m irthful countenance ; in short, he was a liv ing com

mentary on Jeremy Taylor’

s beautiful chapter on Con

tentedness. H e took no thought for his life,what he

should eat,or what he should d rink ; nor yet for his

body, what he should put on ; bu t had a fearless con

fid ence in that P rovidence which had given him the vastrange of the world for his recreation and delight . H e

was active in mind and body, passing from one occupationto another, withou t an intervening minute of repose .

Of an ard ent,affect ionate

,and grateful temper, he was

2 3 2 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

simple in manner and address,and displayed an inbred

courteousness of the most agreeable character. At the ageof sixty-six he commenced the study of I talian, for the sakeofread ing Dante in the original, which he accomplished "William Blake died as he had lived , piously cheerful "talking calmly, and finally resigning himselfto his eternalrest, like an infant to i ts Sleep . H is effeéts are nothing,except some pictures, copper-plates, and h is principalwork, a series of a hundred large Designs from Dante .

H is widow is left in a very forlorn cond i tion,Mr . Blake

himself having latterly been much indebted for succour

and consolation to his friend,Mr. Linnell

,the painter .

W e have no doubt bu t her cause will be taken up by the

distributors of those funds which are raised for the reliefof d istressed artists

,and also by the benevolence of

private individuals .

’

The year after Blake ’s death appeared J . T .

Smi th ’s very interes ting and importan t Memoir,

appended to the second volume of his ‘ Life ofNollekens

,

’

and in 1 8 3 0 the'

biography by AlanCunningham ,

the greater part ofwhich was translated into German in the th i rd volume of ‘ Ze i tgenossen,

’ published at Le ipsic in the same year,

which also refers t o the paper in the ‘ Vaterlandi sches Museum ,

’ but knows no other authori ty ;while in the firs t volume of Nagler ’s ‘ Kii nst ler

Lexicon ( 1 8 3 5) ove r three large oct avo pages aredevoted to Blake , more , in faét , than to Bellin i ,homage whi ch might satisfy the most exaét ingworsh ippe r . This outburst of Ge rman interest ,hitherto

,I believe

,unnoticed in England , i s with

out doubt due to the article by Henry CrabbRobinson

,who is referred to by Gilchri s t as ‘ a

gentleman whom,so long ago as 1 809 , we beheld

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2 3 4 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

exhibited by h is brother, a hosier in Carnaby Market .The entrance fee was 2 3 . 6d .

,catalogue included . I was

d eeply interested by the catalogue as well as the pictures .

I took four copies, telling the brother I hoped he wouldlet me come again . H e said ‘ Oh , as often as you

please .

’ Afterwards I became acquainted with Blake,

but will postpone what I have to relate of this extraord inary character .

The relat ion was put at the disposal of Mr . Gilchris t , and i s familiar to all s tudents of Blake inthe ‘ Life ,

’ or in Crabb Robinson ’s own ‘ Diary ’

and Reminiscences . "

Crabb Robinson,as w e have seen,

knew Malkin ’swork

,but h is crit ici sm is e ssent ially at first-hand

,

based on a warm personal interest in the arti s t ’swork

,bu t untempered by that sympathy which

personal contact with Blake generally produced .

Interes ted by the refe rence in Gilchris t , I sough tat the Bri t ish Museum for the ‘ Patrio t i scheAnnalen —whose real t itle i s the Vaterland isches

Museum —and found the translat i on published inFebruary

,1 8 1 0 ,

to be the last art icle in the las t ofthe s ix numbers of that sh ort- l ived publicat ion .

Careful examination of al l Crabb Robinson’s miscel laneous papers at Dr . Williams ’ Library , GordonSquare , led not , alas , to the discovery of any partof the original M S .

— the comple te copy must , ofcourse , have been sent to Germany in 1 809

—butto that of various notes on the subjeét , includingcopie s of s ixteen of Blake ’s poems

,extraéts from

The above passage is taken from the D iary as publ ished . Thequotat ions from Crabb Rob inson’

s own MSS . are prin ted in fu l lfor the first t ime by Mr. Arthur Symons in h is ‘Wil l iam B lake.

’

OF WILLIAM BLAKE . 2 3 5

the ‘ Europe ’

and ‘ Ameri ca ,’ a fragment of un

published prose,and a note of the address of the

Exhibit ion of 1 809 , all of which must be discussed in the i r proper place .

The German version of Crabb Robinson ’s paper,wh ich adds one or two small facfts to our knowledge of Blake

,proved to be of considerable

inte res t,and as the original MS . was missing , the

one course open was the re translat ion of the paperin the Vaterland isches Museum .

’ I cannot hopealways to have caught the precise Shade of the

author ’s meaning,but Crabb Robinson himself

approved of the German translation,beh ind which

one constantly feels the presence of an Engli shoriginal . As far as possible I have modelled myphrases on Crabb ~ Robinson s own in the variouspassages which he devotes to Blake in the

Remini scences . ’ One word of warning may begiven to the reader . A comparison of the paperhere given with the ‘ Remini scences ’ will Showhow much more favourable— in spite of occasionaloutbursts against his sani ty—was the author ’sopini on of Blake when he came to know him in

1 8 2 5 ; had his early paper ever been reprinted ,the censure would doubtless have been modified inaccordance with his bet ter knowledge of the poe tarti s t . As has been t ruly said by M e ssrs . Elli s andYeats (who likewise appear never to have seen the‘ Vat erland i sches Crabb Robinson’s‘ Remini scences ’ were ‘ writ ten by a man whothought [Blake] mad before he saw him ,

and neveraltoge ther got rid of the idea .

’

I t i s of considerable in teres t,therefore

,to find

2 3 6 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

an account of Blake published fifteen years beforehe had m e t the artist by the very man whose laterdescrip t ion

,based on personal knowledge

,has been

j ustly called ‘the best and most vivid portrai t of him

that has been left us from his own day .

’

(Ellis andYeats

,I,p . And herewith w e pass to

W ILLIAM BLAKE ,

ART IST , POET , AND RELIG IOUS MY ST IC .

‘

The lunatic,the lover

,and the poet

Arc ofimagination all compact .

SHAKESPEARE.

Of all the condi ti on s which arouse the interestof the psychologi s t , none assuredly is more attraet ive than the union of geni us and madness in S ingleremarkable minds , which , while on the one handthey compel our admirat ion by the i r great mentalpowers

, ye t on the other move our pi ty by the i rclaims to supernatural gifts . Of such i s the wholerace of ecstat i cs

,mystics

,seers of vi s ions and

dreamers of dreams,and to the i r lis t we have now

t o add another name, th at ofWilliam Blake .

This extraordinary man, who i s at this momentl iving in London , although more than fifty yearsof age , i s only now beginning to emerge from the

obscuri ty in wh ich the singular bent of his talent sand the eccentric i ty of h is personal CharaCter haveconfined him . W e know too li t tle of his h istoryto claim to give a complete account of h is l ife ,and can do no more than claim to have our

Cf. the first ent ry on B lake in Crabb Rob inson’

s‘Rem in is

cences,

’ ‘shal l I cal l Blake art ist

,gen ius

,myst ic, or madman ?

Probably he is all.’

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2 3 8 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

to the prevailing fash ion ofart in an age of art i sticdegradat ion . Moreover, as his religious conv ic

t ions had brough t on him the credi t of be ing anabsolute lunati c , i t is hardly to be wondered atthat

,while professional connoisseurs know no thing

of him ,his very well-wishers cannot forbear

be traying the i r compass ion,even while they Show

the i r admirat ion . One at tempt at in t roducingh im to the great Bri t ish publi c has indeedsucceeded

,his illustrat ions to B lai r’s ‘ Grave

,

’ arel igious poem very popular among the seri ous

,

which connoisseurs find remarkable alike for i tsbeauties and defeét s, blaming i ts want of taste and

del i cacy,while admiring the imaginative powers

of the poet . Blake,although properly speaking

an engraver, was not commissioned to engrave hisown drawings , the execution be ing ent rusted

, for

reasons which we shall soon hear,t o Sch iavonet t i ,

who executed h is task with great neatness,but

with such an admixture of dots and line s as musthave aroused the indignation of the artis t . ‘ Thiswork

,which be sides the twelve drawings contains

an excellent portrai t of Blake and the original text,

costs two and a half guineas . I t i s preceded bysome remarks of Fuseli ’s

,which we insert as a

proof of the meri ts of our arti s t,Since we cannot

That it did so we have the publ isher Cromek’

s word ; see the

let ter addressed by him to B lake on the subjeét of the engrav ingsin ‘ G ilchrist

,

’

chapter xxi i. B lake ’

s v iew of the dot and l ineschool may be found in the third chapter of G ilchrist . ‘Whatis cal led t he Engl ish sty le of engrav ing

,such as proceeded from

the toile t tes of W oolle t t and S t range (for the irs were Fribble ’stoile t tes) can never produce charaét er and expression . En

grav ing is draw ing on copper and noth ing else .

’

OF WILLIAM BLAKE . 2 3 9

give an aét ual reproduct i on of his work . Aftermentioning the ut ili ty of such a series of moralde signs in an age so frivolous as ours , before whichthe allegories of ant iqui ty fain t and fail , Fusel icont inues

,

‘the author of the moral series before

us has endeavoured to wake sensibili ty by touchingour sympathie s wi th nearer

,less ambiguous

,and

less ludic rous imagery,than that which mythology

,

Goth ic superst it ion,or symbols as far-fetched as

inadequate,could supply

,

’

[and so on,quoting the

res t of the kind but clumsy preface of the admirerwho found Blake ‘ damned good to s teal from .

’

Crabb Robinson cont inues —]One can see this isno

‘ damning wi th feigned praise , " for the faultsindicated by Fuscli are only too apparen t . In fact ,of all the arti s ts who ever lived

,even of those

perverted spiri ts described by Goe the in h is entertaining ‘ Sammler und d ie Se inigen ’

B . 2 . S t . 2 ) under the t i tle of poe ti sers , phantomhunters and the l ike

,none so comple tely be trays

h imself as our artist . W e shall re turn to thesedrawings later

,and will now proceed to speak of

the li ttle book on whi ch we have specially drawn,

a book,besides

,which is one of the most curious

ever published .

The i llustrat ions to the ‘ Grave,’ though only

perhaps admired by the few,were by these few

loudly and extravagantly praised . Blake,who had

become known by the i r praises,now resolved to

I must apologise for the pun in the above phrase, bu t the

original,Ke in Verdammen durch verste l l tes Lob

,

’

is in invertedcommas

,suggest ing a quotat ion

,and Pope

’

s phrase would infal l iblysuggest itselfto Crabb Rob inson in th is connexion .

240 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

come forward . Only last year he opened an ex

h ibi t ion of his frescoes , proclaiming that he hadrediscovered the lost art of fresco . H e demandedof those who had considered his works the slovenlydaubs of a madman , dest itu te alike of technicalskill and harmony of proportion , to examine themnow with greater attention .

‘ They will find,

’

he

adds,that if I taly is enriched and made great by

Raphael,if M ichael Angelo i s i ts supreme glory

,

if art i s the glory of the nation , if genius and inspirat ion are the great origin and bond of society

,

the d ist inét ion my works have obtained from thosewho bes t unders tand such th ings calls for myexhibi tion as the greate st ofdut ies t o my country .

’

[I cannot find th is passage in any known work of

Blake ’s, ye t i t bears the stamp ofauthent ici ty , and by

good fortune I am enabled to give i t in Blake ’s ownwords

, not i n a translation of Crabb Robinson only ,as the latter has copied the above sentence , toge therwith a doubtful date , which as we Shall see must bethat of May 1 5 , 1 809

—a day memorable for the

opening of the Exhibition in Golden Square—on

the back of a let ter preserved among h is papers i nDr . W illiams ’ Library . Jus t above i t i s wri t ten

,

and crossed out,part of a sentence

,apparen tly

from the same source,

‘ There cannot be morethan th ree great painters or poets in any age or

The probable origin of the passage smust be given later .] At the same time he

published a ‘Descript ive Catalogue ’

of these fre sco

p iétures, out of which we propose to give only afew unconneét ed passage s . The original consistsof a veri table olio of fragmentary utterances on art

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242 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

he continues H e does not conceal the groundof thi s preference [for Raphael and Michae lAngelo] , and the follow ing passage , while i t revealsthe artis t’s Views on the technique of his art

,con

tains a truth which cannot be d en ied , . and whichunderlies his whole doé

’

trine . The great and

golden rule of art, as well as of life , i s thi s : That

the more dis tinct , sharp and wiry the boundingline , the more pe rfect the work of art

’

[and so on

down to the end of the text ‘ to No . XV . of theDescript ive This passage i s sufficientto explain why our art is t was not permi t ted toengrave his own designs [for Blair

’s In

the same sp iri t he proclaims the guilt of the recentdist inct ion be tween a paint ing and a drawing .

‘ If los ing and obli terat ing the outline consti tutesa p iéture , Mr . B . will never be so foolish as to doone . The re i s no diffe rence be tween Raphael ’sCartoons and h is Frescoes or Pidtures, except thatthe Fre scos or Piét ures are more highly fini shed .

’

H e denies Titian,Rubens and Correggio all meri t

in colouring , and says , ‘ the i r men are like leatherand the i r women like chalk .

’ In h is own principal

p iéture his naked forms are almos t crimson . Theyare Anc ient B ritons , of whom he says

,

‘the flush

of health in fle sh, exposed to the open air, nourished

by the Spi rit s of forests and floods , in that ancienth appy pe riod which his tory has recorded

,cannot

be like the sickly daubs of Titian or Rubens . Asto modern man

,s tripped from his load of clothing

,

he i s l ike a dead corpse .

’

W e now pass from the technique of his art t othe meaning and poe t ical portions in which the

OF WILLIAM BLAKE . 243

peculiari t ies of our art i s t are s t ill more clearlyseen . His greates t enj oyment consists in givingbodily form to sp iri tual be ings . Thus in the‘ Grave ’

he has represented the re-union of souland body

,and to both he has given equal clearne ss

of form and outline . In one of h is best drawings,

the Death of the S t rong Wicked Man,

’

the bodylies in the death agony , and a broken vessel , whosecontents are e scaping

,indicates the momen t of

death , while the soul , ve iled in flame,rises from

the pillow . The soul i s a copy of the body, ye t

in altered guise , and flie s from the window with awell- rendered expression of horror . In other engravings the soul appears hovering over the body

,

which i t leaves unwillingly ; in o thers we havethe R e-union of both at the R esurreét ion and so

forth . These are about the most offensive of hisinventions .I n his Catalogue we find st ill further vindicat ion

of the reproache s brough t agains t h is earlie r work .

Shall paint ing be confined to the sordid drudgeryof facsimile representat i ons of me rely mortal andperishing substance s , and not be

,as poe try and

music are,elevated in to i ts own proper sphe re of

inventi on and visi onary concept ion ? ’

H e t henalleges that the statues of the Greek gods are so

many bodily repre sentat ions of Spiri tual be ings .‘ A Sp i r i t and a Vision are not

,as the modern

philosophy asserts,a cloudy vapour or a noth ing ;

they are organi sed and minutely art iculated beyondal l that the mortal and perish ing nature can produce .

Spi ri ts are organised m en .

’

In a certain sense every imag i nat i ve art ist must

244 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

main tain the same,but i t will always remain

doub tful in what sense our arti st uses these ex

press ions . ‘ For in his own description of h isallegorical p iéture of Pit t guiding Behemoth , andNelson Leviathan (p iCtures which the presentwriter

,although he has seen them

,dares not

describe) he says ,‘ these p ié

’

tures are similar to

those Apotheoses of Persian,H indoo

,and Egyp

t i an ant iquity,which are s t ill prese rved on rude

monuments . ’ [Other quota t i ons follow from the‘ Descriptive Catalogue ’ —Crabb Robinson re

sum es z] As this belief of our arti s t ’s in the inte rcourse which

,like Swedenborg , he enj oys with

the spiri tual world has more t han anything e lseinj ured his reputat ion ,

we subj oin another remarkable passage from h is Catalogue . His greates tand most perfeCt work is enti tled ‘ The AncientBri tons . ’ 2 I t is founded on that st range survival ofWelsh bardic lore which Owen give s thus underthe name ofTriads

In the last battle that Arthur fought, the most beautifulwas one

That returned , and the most strong another : with themalso returned

The most ugly ; and no other beside returned from the

bloody field .

S inne is the word in both clauses of the original sen tence .

2 This sen tence is interest ing,as confirm ing Mr. Seymour

Kirkup’

s judgmen t,who cal led i t the finest ofhis works

,as against

Southey’

s,who in the ‘ Doétor

’

cal led it ‘one of h is worst

p iétures, wh ich is say ing much .

’

(G ilc hrist I, pp. 2 76

Sw inburne t el ls us that Mr. K irkup never forgot ‘the fury and

splendour of energy these con t rasted w ith the serene ardour of

s imply beaut iful courage, the v iolent l ife of the designer, and the

fierce d istance offluftuat ing bat t le .

’

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249 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

passage s on page 240 come from the same source .

A comple te copy of the leafle t must therefore havefallen into the hands of Crabb Robinson

,and as

Gilchri st did not reprint i t entire, the quotations

add someth ing to our knowledge of a charact eris t icdocument . Blake ’s refe rence to

‘the d ist inét ion

my works have obtained from those who best und erstand such th ings ’ i s probably an allusion to thecomplimentary expressions of Fusel i and others int he preface to Bl ai r’s Grave ,

’ to which we therefore ind ireétly owe the Descript ive Cat alogue .

’

Elsewhere he says that Adam and Noah wereDruids

,and that he himself is an inhabitant of

Eden .

‘ B lake ’s religious conv iét ions appear to bethose of an orthodox Chris tian ; neverthele ss

,

pas sages concerning earlier mythologies occurwhich might cast a doubt on it . These passagesare to be found in h is Publi c Address on the

subj ect of th is p iCture of“Chaucer’s Pilgrims

,

certainly the most de tailed and accurate of hisworks since

,kept with in limit s by h is subjeCt , he

could not run ri o t in his imaginati on. [Blake’s

saying concern ing Chaucer ’s Pilgrims , that everyone i s an antique statue ,

’ with the ins tances hegive s

,some of whose names and t i tles are altered

by t ime,but the charaét ers themselves for ever

remain unalte red ,’

are then quoted . Crabb Robinson cont inues .] These passage s could be explainedas the diatribes of a fe rvid monothe is t agains tpolythe ism ; ye t , as our author elsewhere says

,

The ant iquities of eve ry nation under the Heavenare no less sacred than t hose of the Jews ,

’ hisDescript ive Catalogue,’ text to No. V.

OF WILLIAM BLAKE . 247

system remains more allied to the stoical en

durance ofAnt iquity than to the essential austeri tyofChris t iani ty .

These are the wildest and most extravagantpassages of the book , which lead to the cons ideration with which w e began th i s account . N0 one

can deny that , as even amid these abe rrat ionsgleams of reason and intelligence sh ine ou t , so ahost of express ions occur among them which one

would expeét from a German rathe r than an

Englishman . The Protes tant author of Herzenserg iessungen e ines Kunstliebenden Klosterbruders ’

[by W . G . W achenrod er, edited by Tieck , Berlin ,1 7 97 ] created the charaét er of a Catholic in whomReligion and love of Art were perfeét ly uni t ed, andth is ident ical person ,

s ingularly enough,has turned

up in Prote st ant England . Ye t Blake does not

belong by birth to the establi shed church,but to a

dissenting seCt ; although we do not bel ieve thathe goe s regularly to any Chris tian church .

‘ H e

was invited to j oin the Swedenborgians underProud

,

2 but declined,notwithst anding his h igh

opin ion of Swedenborg,of whom he says : ‘ The

works of thi s visionary are well worth the at ten tionof Painte rs and Poe ts ; they are foundations forgrand things . The reason they have not beenmore attended to is because corporal demons havegained a predominance .

’3 Our author lives , l ike

Th is faét,as we l l as the statemen t that B lake was defin ite ly

inv ited to join the Swedenborgians,appears not to be recorded

e lsewhere,t hough several writers state that Swedenborgian doc

t rines were free ly d iscussed in the home ofB lake ’s father.2 Joseph Proud ( 1 745 m in ister ofthe N ew Church .

3 Descript ive Catalogue,’ text to No. VIII .

248 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

Swedenborg, i n communion with the angels . H e

told a friend,from whose mouth we have the story

,

that once when he was carrying home a picturewhich he had done for a lady of rank

, and waswanting to rest in an inn

,the angel Gabriel

touched him on'

the Shoulder and said,

‘ Blake,

wherefore art thou here ? Go to , thou shouldstnot be t i red .

’

H e arose and went on unwearied .

This ve ry conv iét ion of supernatural suggest ionmake s h im deaf t o the voice of the connoisseur,s ince to any reproach d ireét ed agains t his workshe make s answe r, why i t cannot in the nature of

th ings be a failure .

‘ I know that it is as i t shouldbe

,s ince i t adequate ly reproduces what I saw in a

vis ion,and must therefore be beautiful . ’

I t is needless to enumerate all Blake ’s performances. The most famous w e have already m en

t ioned,and the res t are e i ther allegorical or works

of the pen . W e must , howeve r, ment ion one

other of his works before ceasing to discuss h imas an art is t . This is a most remarkable edit ion ofthe firs t four books of Young ’s N igh t Thoughts

,

’

which appeared in 1 7 97 , and i s no longe r to bebought

,so excess ive ly rare has i t become . In thi s

edit ion the text i s in the middle of the page ;above and below it are engravings by B lake afterh i s own drawings . They are of very unequalmeri t ; some time s the invent ions of the art ist rivalthose of the poe t

,but often they are only pre

posterons translat ions of them ,by reason of the

unfortunate idea peculi ar to Blake , that whatsoeve r

Th is story has not, as far as I am aware,been told e lsewhere .

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2 5 9 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

wildness and loftines s of imagination in ce rtaindramatic fragment s which te stifie s to genuinepoe tical feeling . An example m ay serve as a measureof the inspirat ion of the poe t at th is period .

To TH E MUSES.Whether on Ida’

s shady brow,

Or in the chambers ofthe East,

The Chambers ofthe Sun,that now

From ancient melody have ceased ;Whether in heaven ye wander fair,Or the green corners of the Earth,

Or the blue regions Of the air,

Where the melod ious wind s have birth ;Whether on Christal rocks ye rove

,

Beneath the bosom of the sea,

Wand’

ring in many a coral groveFair Nine

,forsaking Poetry "

H ow have you left the ancient love,

That bard s ofold enjoyed in you ?The languid strings do scarcely mov e

,

The sound is forced,the notes are few.

st ill more remarkable li t tle book of poems byour author exists

,which is only to be m et with in

the hands of colleftors. I t is a duodecimo entitledSongs of Innocence and Experience , Sh ewing thetwo contrary states of the human soul . The

Author and prin ter W . B lake .

’

Th e le ttersappear to be e tched

,and the book is printed in

yellow . Round and be tween the lines are all sortsof engravings ; some times they resemble the m on

s trous h ieroglyphs of the Egyptians , sometimesthey represent not ungraceful arabe sques . W hereve ran empty space is left after the print ing a p iéture

OF WILLIAM BLAKE . 2 5 1

i s inserted . The se min iature p iétures are of themost vivid colours , and often grotesque , so th at thebook presen ts a most singular appearance . I t isnot easy to form a comprehens ive opin ion of thetext

,since the poems deserve the highe st praise

and the gravest censure . Some are childlike songsof great beauty and simplici ty ; these are the Songsof Innocence , many of which

,nevertheless

,are

excess ively childish .

The Songs of Experience , on the other hand,

are me taphysical riddle s and mystical allegorie s .Among them are poe t ic p iétures of the highes tbeauty and sublimity ; and again there are poe ticalfancies which can scarcely be understood even bythe ini t iated . As we wish to make the knowledgeof our author as comple te as possible

, w e will givean example of e ithe r kind . The book has an

Int roduét ion from which we here insert the fi rs tand the two las t s tanzas (the fourth and fifth) .

P iping down the valleys wild ,P iping songs ofpleasant glee ,

On a cloud I saw a child,

And he laughing said to me

P iper, S it thee down and writeIn a book that all may read .

’

So he vanished from my Sight,And I plucked a hollow reed

,

And I made a rural pen ,

And I Stained the water clear,

And I wrote my happy songs,

Every child may joy to hear.

W e can only g i ve one more example of thesej oyous and deli cious songs

,that called ‘ Holy

2 5 2 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

Thursday,

’ which d escribes the procession ofchildren from all the chari ty schools to S t . Paul’sCathedral wh ich always takes place on this day .

’

Twas on a Holy Thursday ’ i s then quoted infull . Before giving Crabb Robinson’s concludingremarks

,i t may be well to say a word of the

German t ranslat ions of Blake ’s poems whichfollow the originals in Crabb Robinson’s paper .In most cases the original metre i s preserved , andthe i r power and charm is quite remarkable . Ishall

,therefore , quote the fi rst stanzas of the Intro

duCt ion and Holy Thursday , and a verse or two ofTiger

,Tige r

,

’ as translated by Dr . Lange

Pfeifend ging ich durch das Thal,

Pfeifend Lieder ohne Zahl ;Sah e in Kind v on Luft getragen

,

Hort’ es lachelnd zu m ir sagen,

Pfeifer,setz d ich hin und schreib

,

Dass dein Lied im S inne bleib .

’

So erklangs vor meinem Ohr,

Und ich schnitt ein hohles Rohr,Schnitz te eine Feder dran,

Macht’ au s Wasser Dinte dann,Schrieb d ie Lieder hin zur S tund ,Dass sie sing d er Kinder Mund .

E s war am grttnen Donnerstag, man sahe d ie Kinderz iehn

,

Sauber gewaschen, paarweis’

,gekleidet in roth und in

blau und in grt'

m.

Graukopfige Zuchtmeister m it schneeweissen Ruthenvoran

,

In S t. Paul’s hohen Dom wie derThemse Fluthen strOmen

sie dann.

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2 54 AN EARLY APPRECIATION

[Crabb Robinson’s beautiful and probable in ter

pre tat ion i s original , and as i t appears not to havebeen not iced by later wri ters is a real contributionto the unders tanding ofBlake ’s work . ]Beside s the se songs two other works of Blake ’s

Poe t ry and Paint ing have come under our notice ,of which , however, we must confess our inabili tyto give a sufli c ient account . These are two

quarto volume s which appeared in 1 7 94, printedand adorned like the Songs

,under th e t i tles of

Europe,a Prophecy , and Ameri ca, a Prophecy .

The very ‘ Prophecie s of Bakis ’ are not obscurer .‘ America ’ appears in part to give a poet icalaccoun t of the Revolution , since i t contains thenames of several party leaders . The aCtors in i tare a species of guardian angels . W e give only ashort example, nor can we decide whe ther i t i sintended to be in prose or verse .

On these vast shady hills between America’

s and

Albion’

s Shore,

Now barred out by the Atlantic Sea : called Atlanteanhills

,

Because from their bright summits you may pass to thegolden world,

An ancient palace, archetype ofm ighty emp irics,Rears its immortal summit

,bu ilt in the forests ofGod

,

By Ariston the King ofHeaven for his stolen bride .

The obscuri ty of these lines in such a poem bysuch a m an will be willingly ove rlooked .

Europe i s a similar mysterious and incomprehensible rhapsody

,which probably contains the

Amer ica’

in poin t of fai t appeared in 1 793 .

OF WILLIAM BLAKE . 2 5 5

arti s t ’s poli tical visions of the future , but is whollyinexplicable . I t appears to be in verse , and theseare the fi rs t four lines

I wrap my turban ofthick clouds around my lab’

ringhead

And fold the sheety waters as a mantle round mylimbs ;

Yet the red Sun and Moon,

And all the overflowing stars rain down prolific pains.

[This passage and the preceding are written byCrabb Robinson on the same old le tter thatcontains the prose passages already referred to .

Transcripts of Holy Thu rsday and the Introduét ion do not exis t among the Crabb Robins onpapers

,but the other poems quoted in th i s paper

exist in h is autograph,t oge ther wi th copies of

fourteen of Blake’ s other poems drawn from the

Poe tical Ske tches and the Songs,the Dedicat i on

from Blair’s Grave,and the Poison Tree .]

These Proph ecie s , like the Songs,appear never

to have come with in the ken of the wider public .W e have now given an account of all the works

of th i s extrord inary man that have come underour notice . W e have been lengthy , but our obj eéti s to draw the at tent i on of Germany to a m an inwhom all the elements of greatne ss are unquest ionably to be found , ev en th ough those e lements are di sproportionately mingled . Closer research than was

permitted us would perhaps shew that as an artis tBlake will never produce consummate and immortalwork

,as a poe t flawless poems ; but this assuredly

cannot lessen the interes t which all m en,Germans

2 56 WILLIAM BLAKE .

in a h igher degree even t han Englishmen,must

take in the contemplation of such a charact er .W e will only recall the phrase of a thoughtfulwri te r

,that those faces are the most at t raét ive in

which nature has se t someth ing of greatness whichShe has ye t left unfini shed ; the same may holdgood of the soul .

K . A . ESDA ILE .

NOTE—This paper was written some yearsbefore I came across Mr . Sampson’s edition of the‘ Poems of William Blake

,

’

in which several of

Dr . Julius’ versions are q uoted from the ‘ Vaterland isches Museum ’ with the praise they deserve .

The publication i s , however , ascribed to the year1 806 ; this must be a mistake for 1 8 1 1

, the

date on the B ri t ish Museum copy, as we knowfrom Crabb Robinson’s ‘ Diary ’ that the pape r inwhich they occur was writ ten in 1 8 1 0 .

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2 5 8 NOTES ON SUSSEX PRINTING .

int roduét ion of print ing into the various placesment ioned by the se writers have been added to theent ries for the purpose of compari son . The Bri t i shMuseum Catalogue has also been consulted . Whe rea local name appears in the imprint of a book thatwas not printed in the county , parti culars have beengiven when such imprint i s of earlie r date than the

earliest book printed in that place , in addit ion tothe part i culars of the lat ter . Tunbridge Wells hasbeen included , as i t i s partly in Sussex and partly inKent

,and i s often included in Sussex topographical

works .

ARUNDEL .1 8 3 6 The Report ofa Savings

’

Bank case . ArundelMason and C0 .

(Power

BATTLE .

1 8 2 1 A Lamp in the night, or a watchword for the

church . P rinted by T . Bayley .

(Cotton 1 8 2 1 P ower

B ISHOPSTONE .

1 7 97 Hurdis (James) . The Village Curate : a poem .

P rinted at the author ’s own press, Bishopstone,Sussex.

(Cotton 1 797 ; P ower

BOGNOR .1 8 1 5 Cotton and Power give 1 8 1 5 as the date of the

introduct ion of printing into Bognor, bu t I canfind no mention ofa press there before 1 8 50 .

e. 1 7 80

c. 1 8 50

NOTES ON SUSSEX PRINTING . 2 59

BR IGHTON .

A Description of Brighthelmstone . P rinted forJ . Bowen on the S teyne .

P rinted in London , and sold by Bowen whohad an establishment at 40 N ew Bond S treet ,London, aswell as one on the S teyne,Brighton .

Thimble ’

s flight from h is shop-board . Bright

helmstone : printed byW . and A . Lee .

(Allnutt c. 1 7 80 ; Cotton and P ower

CH ICH ESTER .Woodford (M n) Sermon upon the murder of

R ichard Dobell,late of Chichester. London,

for Webb,Chichester.

Accord ing to Negus’ List of printing-houses,there was one press at Chichester in this year .

Joel An easy introduét ion to Englishrammar. P rinted for the use of M r . T. Joel ’sSchool

,by W . Andrews .

(Al lnutt 1 724 ; Cotton 1 724 ; P ower

EASEBOURNE .

Dudley (Howard) . Juv enile researches. Easebourne : printed and composed by H . Dudley ,aged 1 5 .

EASTBOURNE .

A Description of East-Bourne and its environs .

P rinted for John Heatherly .

P rinted in London .

Dav ies Gilbert established a private press in hishouse at Eastbourne in this year.

According to Chambers’s Eastbourne memories,’

there was no printing press established at Eastbourne until about 1 8 50, when William Mott set

260

1 792

1 7 70

1 8 2 8

NOTES ON SUSSEX PRINTING .

up a press. Before that date most of the printingrequired by Eastbourne had been done at Hailshamby George Breads and the successive members of

that fam ilyEAST GR INSTEAD .

The Universal British Directory of trade, e tc for

1 7 92 gives Thomas Palmer as a printer at EastGrinstead .

(P ower 1 8

GLYNDE .

The Summer D ay, a descriptive pastoral . (P rivatepress . )

(Allnutt 1 7 70 ; Cotton

HA I LSHAM .

Hake (Mrs . Something new on m en and

manners . P rinted by G. Breads .

HAST INGS .The Hastin gu ide . London printed for I . S tell,at his Circu ating Library , Hasting .

Reed (T. Hastings : a rural d escriptivepoem . P rinted by H . Bayley .

(Allnutt 1 7 97 ; P ower 1 7 9 7 ; Cotton

HORSHAM .

Evers Journal from Bassora to Bagdad .

P rinted by Arthur Lee .

(Allnutt 1 7 84 ; Power

HURSTP IERPO INT .

Slight Sketch ofa piéture ofHurst. By a nativeof this village . Hurst-per-point : printed and

published by W . Rand ell.

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2 6 2 NOTES ON SUSSEX PRINTING .

published his Topographica Sussexiana in

the Sussex Archaeological Colleét ions,

’ Vols .

1 5- 1 8 , where the above entry occurs . I

cannot trace the printer, and there does notappear to be a copy in the British Museum .

STANSTED .W ay (Lewis) . Poems . S tansted : imprinted atthe private press.

TUNBRIDGE WELLS.Causton Tonbridgial ia ; or

, the pleasuresofTonbridge . Mount Sion : Tunbridge Wells .

WARTL ING .

Betts (GM) Seleét Bible anecdotes . Sussexprinted by J . Pursglove

,Windmill-Hill

,Wartling .

WORTH ING .

Original poetry ; by Viétor and Caz ire [i .e. P . B .

and Elizabeth Shell ey] . .P rinted by C . and W .

Phillips.

(Cotton 1 8 1 4 ; P ower

CHRONOLOGY OF SUS SEX P R INTER S .

1 8 3 6

1 845

1 8 2 1

1 8 3 0

I 7 97

ARUNDEL .Mason and Co . 1 847 F . Mason .

Thomas M itchell .

BATTLE .

T. Bayley .

Francis William Ticehurst .

B ISHOPSTONE .

Rev . James Hurdis (private press) .

NOTES ON SUSSEX PRINTING . 26 3

BOGNOR .

BRIGHTON .

William andArthur 1 8 3 3Lee . 1 8 3 5

H . RobinsonAt tree . 1 8 3 5Matthew P hillips .

R ichard S ickelmore . 1 8 3 7Thomas DentRuddock . 1 8 3 8

William Fleet . 1 8 3 9Bray . 1 8 3 9

John Forbes. I 8 3 9G . Sawyer. 1 840

Charles Wright . 1 84 1

William Leppard . 1 84 1

Edward HillCreasy . I 84 1W . Colbatch . 1 84 1

Jonathan W hit te 1 842

more . 1 842

J . Cummins . 1 843John Baker. 1 843Goffe . 1 843

C . S ickelmore . 1 843James Taylor . 1 844John Bruce . 1 845Elliott.

Charles Christo 1 845

pherson. 1 845Levy Emanuel 1 846

Cohen. 1 847T. H . Wright . 1 849Brunton and Cock 1 849Eng. 1 8 50

E . Burn or Burns .W . Carpenter.Christopher P ell

and LindWilliam HeavesSmithers .

Thomas Gardner .

P eter Gardner .

Charles P eay .

James Phillips .John Francis .

Henry S . King .

W . H . Mason .

W . P earce .

J . W icks .

C . Andrews .

Arthur Wallis .

Charles Fleet .Charles Gardner .

H . A . Philips .

R ichard Tickel .Frederick W igney .

John FrederickEyles.

J . F . Spencer.S trutt .

E . S . Leppard .

G . C . Spencer.

C . Ve’rrall .C . Wilmot .Curtis.

2 94 NOTES ON SUSSEX PRINTING .

1 7 241 7 70

I 7 741 7 841 7 90

1 79 2

1 770

1 8 2 8

1 8 241 8 2 51 8 2 6

1 8 2 7

1 7 841 8 3 9I 84S

1 8 2 6

CH ICHESTER.1 8 1 0 William Mason .

W. Andrews. 1 8 20 George P ullinger .

P . Humphry . 1 8 3 0 James Hackman .

C . Jaques . 1 8 3 5 William HayleyJ . Seagrave . Mason .

EASEBOURNE .

Howard Dudley (private press) .

EASTBOURNE .

Davies Gilbert (private press) .William Mott .

EAST GR INSTEAD .

Thomas Palmer.

GLYNDE .

(private press) .

HAILSHAM .

George Breads. 1 845 S tephen Breads .

H . Bayley .

Will iam Ransom .

G . W ooll .

R . L . Jones .

HORSHAM .

Arthur Lee . 1 845 Zechariah Kennett .C . Hunt . 1 845 William Laker.John Clarke .

HURSTP IERPO INT.

W . Randell .

HASTINGS .1 840

1 8451 8451 846

Henry Osborne .

E . Bowmer.

Henry Winter .

William Diplock .

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RECENT FORE IGN LITERATURE .

HERE is a custom,more honoured in

the breach than i n the observance,that

when a new wri ter t ake s for h is province some thing akin to that of agreat author who has at tained classical

honours , his critics immediately insti tute a com

parison or a contrast,generally to the de triment

of the last comer in the field . And so,wherever

I have heard or read anything about Marc LeGoupils ’ new book , ‘ Le Carrefour

,

’

the namesof Maupassant and Flaubert have been at onceint roduced . Bu t Le Goupils needs no such int roduct i on . His Normandy ske tche s m ay seek the

suffrages of the publi c on the i r own meri t alone .

The volume contains e ight short s torie s , mostlydealing with the charaét erist ics of the Normanpeasant . W e are shown hi s selfishness , meanness ,almost h is inhumani ty when i t i s a quest ion of

help ing fellow- creature s in distress who are t otallyunable to repay in kind any assistance that may berendered . The author describe s in masterly fash ionhow the poor tramp—a woman of S ixty—found ina dying condi tion at the cross-roads where fourpari she s mee t

,i s carted about in a wheelbarrow

from one parish to another,because

,wherever she

died , that ‘ commune ’ would have to bear the

expense of her burial,unti l she i s at last in the

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 297

pari sh of la Maladre rie,and adosse’ it un pilier, le

cadavre de la pauvre sse venue on ne sai t d ’

ou,d e

ses yeux grands ouverts , regardai t éperdumen t lesé toiles . ’ Again he tells how a poor fisherwoman i sprematurely confinedwhile ply ing her t radewith theman

,her year- long ami on a cold snowy December

afternoon,and unable to reach her home in t ime

,

t akes Shelter in the stable of a farm belonging to

the prosperous Vannier . H is wife,when she hears

of i t,leaves the mother to give birth to her ch ild in

the wretched barn,while offering, wi th all the airs

of benevolence,a lit tle hay

,a few rags of linen

,a

li t tle warm water,a dim burn ing lantern ,

and whenall 18 safely over

,some hot coffee with a dash of

cider brandy in i t,only deploring that the new

born infant could not take some also,not even

‘une demi- t asse ’

" and then turns them out in tothe n igh t t o reach thei r hom e as bes t they can .

The man and woman,howeve r, accept the si tua

t ion as a matter of course

E t , sa femme sur son dos,son nouveau-né sur le bras

,

au milieu d es aboiements des chiens, le Hollandais quittala Bergerie vers sept heures du soir

,e t s

’

enfonca dans la

neige e t dans la nu it.D e la barriere, Mme . Vannier les éclaira quelque

temps avec la lanterne,les encourageant de ses plus

charitables glapissements :‘Trois kilometres

,c’

est encore bien Vite fait,n

’

est-ccpas, mon cher monsieur ? La pauvre chere dame va etrebien contente d e dorm ir dans son lit . E t toute la petitefamille embrassera le petit frere . Au revoir

,mon

cher monsieur, ma chére dame "‘ E t la pauv re femme

,sur le dos d e son mari

,tandis

que la mer sourd ement mugissait dans les tenebres, d isait

268 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

Encore bien heureux que j’

ayons recontreca "A quoi le géant blond , peinant d

’

ahan dans la neigerépondait :

‘Mafe‘l vere. E t puis il ne fait pas aussi froid

comme on aurait cru .

’

In another sketch , ‘ Gens d e la Cote,

’

we are

shown the ‘ hospice ’ under the d i reétion of the‘ bonnes smurs ,

’ which i s the refuge of the fisher

m en and women when they are too old and feebleto work . I t is excellently contrived , and the ve inof Sly humour which is charaét eri st ic of the

author,and relieves the gloom and sordidness of

the atmosphere , i s used with admirable deftnessand efl’eét . Marie Godin, when first she comes tothe hospice , i s content with the life .

‘ P auv re femme du peuple , elle avait d e la religioncette religion, jusque- la irregu liére dans cette Vie de poissonniére qu i habitait acinq kilometres d e l

’

égl ise, se transforma en dévotion ferv ente

,quand Marie n

’

eu t plusau tre chose 2 faire que prier le bon Dieu .

’

But after a while she felt a lively regre t for herlost independence

,and on summe r evenings would

l i sten

aux cris aigus d es oiseaux d e mer qu i viennent, la nuit,chercher leur pfiture dans les marais d e l ’intérieur ; lessoirs d ’

au tomnes,aux appels d es bandes d e canards e t

d’

oies, qu i arriv ent dans la baie d es Veys . E lle lev ait la

téte quand la longue file passait au-de ssus d ’

elle ; ellefrémissait comme pour partir, et sa pensée descendait,bien avant le premier canard d e la bande

,sur les talus

d es galets,ou ,

sur les bancs d e v ase noir,au m ilieu d es

varechs . E lle voyait les sarabandes des immenses voliers

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270 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

The southern temperament of the nat ives of thevillage of Espélunque , not very far from Nimes ,with i ts tendency to exaggerate

,t o invent

,to

romance,i s d ep iét ed in wi tties t fash ion by one

who descri be s h imself as possessor of the mostParis ian of souls : ‘ i l n

’

en est pas au monde deplus pure .

’

H e mee ts Le Monarque,a type of

the gay,happy

,devil-may- care southerner

,and

recounts the episodes of h is life ; some of thesethe visi tor from the north witnessed

,others he

was t old by Le Monarque ’s historiographers,

commentators or disciples . The s tory of Le

Monarque ’s marriage i s most divert ing . H e m et

at Nimes,Madame Emma

,a young

,independent

and virtuous widow ,whose portion was a hundred

francs a quarter paid by her brothe r . Le Mon

arque possessed nothing at all except one magnifi

cent sui t of clothes , i n which he looked like asymphony in purple and gold ; but by din t of hi sskill in imagination he led the lady to believe thathe had vineyards and a house and a farm and landsand sheep and everything handsome about him .

As a matter of faét , his whole possessions were

un petit jardin, autour d’une masure

,et quand il a en

Vérité trop besoin d’argent,il se loue chez les riches .

Mais en général,autant que possible, il ne fait rien

,et

c’

est pour cette cau se qu ’

on l’appelle le Monarque,non

pour une au tre . Car la v ie est la v ie, va, elle est bonne "11 y a les noces, il y a les naissances

,il y a meme les

enterrements . l l y a la pluie, qu i retient les gens chezeux

,et i ls s

’

ennu ient , il leur faut quelqu’

un ; le soleil,

que les égaie , e t ils ont besoin qu ’on leur chante . 11 y a

la chasse,il y a la péche, et les vendanges, e t l

’

époque Ot‘

I

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 27 1

les Lyonnais viennent acheter les cocons. A l ’E spélunque,on ne peu t pas les conduire 2 l

’

opera, ceux a qu i on veutfaire politesse, alors, on leur délégue le Monarque . Il

est la joie,il est la lumiere, il est la musique .

’

What bet ter career can there be ? And evenwhen

,after the wedding at Nimes, he brings

Madame Emma home and She learns the truth,

she confesses that i t i s not poverty she fears— anything

,anywhere

,with h im— but what i s she to

say to her relat ives ? Greatly relieved , he said,"ce

n’

est que ca ? E st ce que je ne sai s pas blaguer ?and together they meditate another plot which inthe end i s

,with the help of friendly ne ighbours

,

carried through,and when her relatives pay a visi t

to E spélunque t hey find the Monarque ’ in the

posit ion of the landed proprietor they believe himto be . The ingenui ty with which he always get sout of a difficult posit i on i s delightful reading .

And i t i s good for a while to ge t away from the

seri ous and often very uncomfortable world of today in to an atmosphere ofgaie ty and l ight-heartedness , and the socie ty ofone who could s ing withconv iét ion

Tout n’

est dans ce bas mondeQ u

’

un jeu, qu’

nn jeu

Jule s Lemai t re,in h is ‘Vie illesse d ’

H élene : nouveaux contes en marge

,

’ writes with a pleasant wi tl i ttle tales th at have not been told

,to be placed in

the margins of some of the books of the world ’sgreat wri ters from Homer to Renan . Conclusionsunforeseen by them are drawn by Lemai t re withall h is mas tery of delicate i rony . For example,

27 2 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

Bossue t , at the end of h is life,in bad health

,in

enforced idleness , amuses himself by turn ing the

Song of Solomon into verse . His grand-nephew,

a boy of twelve,falls childishly in love with a

li t tle girl of fourteen ,and has a great desire to

write some ve rse s in her honour . H e i s,however

,

unable to accompli sh the task , and one day inBossuet

’

s room finds by chance on the table,while

his uncle i s Sleeping , some of his trans cr ipts basedon the Song of Songs . They j ust mee t h i s purpose

,and he present s them to the girl . She

,as

always,older in knowledge than the boy, i s alarmed

at the ardent words , and asks permissi on to confessto Bossue t , th inking herself the sinner in havinginspired such passionate verses . Bossue t is easilyable to reassure h er

,but he reali ses that there

may be some danger in versifying the Song of

Solomon .

In ‘ Les Comédies-ballets de MauricePellisson touche s a li ttle-heeded side of Moliere ’sgenius . Of h is comedies a th ird are neve r produced , and those seldom played are produced in an

incomple te fash ion,since th e music and dancing

mingled with them are always suppressed . In‘ Tartuffe ’

and ‘ Le Misanth rope ,’ Moliere is

,of

course,at h is best—on the he ights— but he j oined

grace to s trength , charming gifts to h is superiorqual i t ies

,the thinker to the poe t and art ist ; and so,

if we would know Moli ’e re wholly,we must get

acquain ted with the rhythmical p rose and blankverse of the ‘ Come

'dies-ballets ,’

and learn that,

beside s h is reali s tic comedie s , he wrote comediesexpressly sent imental and poetic . ‘ La Princesse

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274 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

charming fashion,and in so doing throws fresh

light on Marot and hi s work . I t ‘ne nous apporte

pas seulement la révé lat ion d’une figure de femmevraimen t exquise ; elle mon t re encore en Marotune fime infiniment délicate e t nuancée .

’ Whodoes not remember the del icious li t tle rondeau‘ Dedans Paris

,

’ which breathe s the spiri t of thelove and devotion Marot dedicated to Annethroughout his life

,even after her marriage to

M . de Bernay . Another e s say deals with the

earlies t French translat ions of Plato,and with

Platonism in France at the epoch of the R e

naissance . Another t reats of what we may callfeminism in the s ixteenth century, and proves thati t i s no new invent i on of the twent ie th . Forin the s ixteenth century ‘ la femme tendai t ’

a j ouerun rOle social d e plus en plus grand ; sa placen

’

étai t plus seulement au foyer ; elle n’

avai t pluspour un ique mission d e vagUer aux soins duménage ; e lle visai t 21 se rapprocher d e l ’homme

’

;

and there follow the name s of some thi rty eminentwomen

,among them Margueri te d

’

Angouléme,

Jeanne d’

Aragon,Viét oria Colonna and Louise

Labe. A great ‘ querelle des femmes ’ was con

neCted with the publicat ion of the th ird Book of

Rabelai s ’ Pantagruel .Fenelon i s known as a pious archbishop

,cheerful

,

amiable,a St . Franci s d e Sales , persecuted by the

Janseni s t p relate s,regre tfully condemned by a Pope

who loved while he chast i sed him ; or, as a humanit arian ph ilosopher

,as a v iét im of despotism because

he loved the people,detes ted abuses , and preached

tolerance . But there i s ye t a third Fenelon ,and i t

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 27 5

i s th is aspeét of the man that Ludovic N avatel

paints in h is interest ing volume , ‘ Fenelon—Laconfrérie secrete du pur amour . ’ From h is writ ingsand his ‘ le t t res spiri tuelles ,

’

we learn to knowFenelon ‘ d ’apres nature ’

; the real Fénelon was

the Fenelon ‘ inté rieur e t Occulte,

’

the head of ali t tle brotherhood of mystics in whom he cult ivat ed ‘ l

’

oraison d e quié tude e t de l ’amour pur . ’

The members of the li t tle ‘ confrérie ’

in whichMm e . de Guyon played no small part were the

Duchesse de Mortemard,the Comtesse d e Gramont ,

the Marquis de Se ignelay , the Duc d e Chevreuse ,the Duc d e Bourgogne , the Marqu is de Fenelona much-loved nephew—and the Comtesse de

Mon tberron. Bu t,no twithstanding that Fénelon

did everything for these friends and undertook thed ireé’t ion not only of the i r Spiritual affai rs

,bu t of

the i r worldly busine ss , the l i ttle socie ty fell top ieces at his death . H e had put h i s house

,his

table,his carriage s and horses

,his money

,all at

thei r d isposal , even, i t may be said , his person,for

he spent much t ime in wri t ing to them and invisi t ing them . H e found them sons and daughtersin—law,

and educated the i r children . But the aimof the ‘ confrérie ’ was too ideal

,too fragile

,and

lofty to endure . I t was too hard a task

etre continuellement occupé a rej eter hors de soi l ’amournaturel d e soi-meme et s

’

en trouver touj ours rempli .Quel proj et hardi d

’

entreprendre en ce monde d ’

éliminer

d e sa conscience son propre moi et de s’

unir sans interméd iaire £1 l

’

essence divine .

’

I ndeed , the disciple s were t hroughout only kept

27 6 RE CENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

up by the conv iCt ion that they loved God bet terthan others did, and by the i r affeCtion for the i rleade r .There i s much in Fénelon

’

s le tters to at t raét ,but perhaps the letter of condolence sent to the

D ue de Chevreuse when his son,a young m an at

the beginning of hi s career , was killed in bat tle,

i s one of the most charaé’

terist ic. The fatherdreads the boy ’s fate in the other world

,for he

fears ‘ that few d ie well who d ie in a battle .

’

Bu t Fenelon console s h im by assuring him thata young m an i s less culpable than he would mostlikely be when olde r, and he had learn t t o disguise certain vices as Vi rtues . God understandsthe clay ofwhich he has formed H is creatures , andwhen faith and religion merely sleep , they suddenlyawake in the moment of danger

,and the dying

man has no need d e temps ni de discours pour sefaire entendre e t senti r by God

,who requires but

an instant to accomplish everything .

A book that give s food for thought i s the Histoire générale de l ’influence francaise en Allemagne

,

’

by L . Reynaud . The volume i s really intended as

an int roduét ion t o the same author ’s Les originesde l

’

influence francaise en Allemagne .

’

The sub

jeét of the part played by French civilization in theworld at large has almost been ignored by Frenchhistorians

,and Reynaud claims to be the firs t to

t reat i t in a comprehens ive manner . "

H i s fi rs tvolume

,to which this forms the in t roduét ion only,

deals with the years 8 50- 1 1 50 . The author pointsout that until the present time

,when her influence

seems to be wan ing , France has been the ideali s t

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27 8 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE .

race or nation, but t o that which i s the mostlearned , the most industrious , and the most moral .The essay should be read and studied by student sof contemporary quest ions and emanat i ons .

i ls

The following recently published books dese rveat tention

Au courant de la v ie . Par Camille Saint-Saens .S l igh t pleasan t ly writ ten sket ches on music ians (Rameau

,

Gounod,Sarasate) and kindred subjeéts.

Nouvelles Fem ini tés. Par Marcel Prévost .Sketches connected w ith women and quest ions affeét ing them .

Bernhard C respel Goe the s Jugendfreund nachungedruckten B riefen und Urkunden aus demFrankfurter Goethekre ise . Von Wilhelm Hertz .

A find of unprinted documen ts,le t ters

,e tc .

,w ith draw ings by

Goet he . I t was C respe l who told Hoffmann the tales that formthe l ibret to ofOffenbach’

s opera Les Cou tes d ’

Hoffman .

’

Caroline Pichler, geborne Von Gre iner . Denkwti rd igke i ten aus me inen Leben 1 7 69

- 1 843 . 2

vols .A new,

e laborate,annotated ed it ion by Em il Karl Bltimm l of

memoirs that give an excel len t p iéture of l ife in old V ienna.

Danton . Par Louis Madelin .

A new b iography ofone of the most strik ing of the ‘ figures dupasseé.

’

L’

Am iral Coligny . Par A . Olive t .A briefrésumé

,by the pastor of the Church of Geneva, of the

larger b iographies of th is ‘ héros de la foi,’ intended more espe

c ially for younger readers.

RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE . 2 7 9

Dans les Palai s d es Rois . Réci ts d ’

h istoire

d ’apres d es documents inédits . Par Ernest Daude t .Deals ‘

en marge d’

h istoire’

w ith negleéted aspeéts of such

events as the murder of Paul I of Russia in 1 80 1,the assassina

t ion of Gustavus III of Sweden in 1 792, and the death of the

Duke ofOrleans in 1 842 .

Nicolas Poussin . Premie r pe int re du roi, 1 594

1 66 5 . Document s inédits , suivi d’

un cat alogueraisonné e t accompagné de la reproduétion de 1 45de ses tableaux e t dessins , et d e deux port rait sautographes .A most sumptuous volume w ith beau t ifu l il lustrat ions.

Un comédien d ’

aut refois 1 7 5 0- 1 8 22 . Par Jean

de Bourgogne .

The l ife and career of the aétor F leury, of the Coméd ieFrancaise.

H ohenzollernbriefe aus den Fre ihe i tskriegen1 8 1 3

- 1 5 . H erausgegeben v on Herman Granier .The original le t ters

,w rit ten by the two princes who were

afterwards K ings of Prussia,and the ir sister Charlot te

,afterwards

Empress of Russia, when the ir respeét ive ages were 1 742, 1 6 , and

1 3 5, are in the royal Prussian Hausarchiv, and are publ ished byperm ission ofthe Kaiser . They reveal an affeét ionate fam ily l ife,and refleét the opin ions on publ ic 3affairs that prevailed at the

Prussian Court of the t ime .

Historisch-polit ische Aufsatze und Reden . 2

vols . Von He rmann Oncken .

Essays and speeches that even when they deal w ith the past

have a bearing on con temporary problems,and l ift them ou t of

the region of party pol it ics. There is an interest ing not ice of

Lord Haldane’

s pamph let ‘ H igher Nat ional ity,’ and from the

more l iterary point of v iew,the essays on the pol it ical side of

Frey tag’

swork and the sketch ofB ismarck’s friend,GrafAlexander

von Keyserl ing, are worth some study .

ELIZABETH LEE .

BIBLIOGRAPH ICAL AND TEXTUAL

PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

MIRACLE CYCLES .

I I I .—CHRIST AND THE DOCTORS

INTER-RELATION OF THE CYCLES .

HE comparative study of the Englishmiracle cycles may be said to date fromthe discovery of

.the manuscript of

the York plays and i t s publication byMiss Toulmin Smith in 1 8 8 5 . I t

then appeared that several of the plays contained inthat colleCt ion were substant ially the same as the

corresponding pieces pre served in the Towneleymanuscript ofwhat is now commonly regarded as theWakefield cycle . This naturally aroused curios ityas to the mutual relat ion of the two colleétions.

Further invest igation soon established that the

poin ts of s imilari ty were more numerous thanMiss Smith had supposed

,and also that they

differed curiously in the i r nature . Beside the

plays in which the texts are substanti ally or inlarge part ident ical

,are others which e i ther

,on

the one hand,contain close verbal parallels in

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2 82 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

related in this manne r to the ‘ Gospe l of N icodemus

,

" while the so- called ‘ Ludus Cov ent riae ’

See W. A. C raigie’

s art ic le in the Furn ival l Engl ish M iscellany,

’

p . 52 . The bearing of th is on the history of t he cyc le hasnever been ful ly worked out

,bu t I cannot understand how F.W.

Cady comes to state that ‘the Passion play in York has been

extensively ed ited by the insert ion of ep isodes from the northern

Gospel of N icodemus,

’

and moreover,to imply that th is is the

thesis of C r ie’

s art icle Modern Ph i lology,’

x . I t is,

indeed, perfe ly clear that Craigie imagined the plays to have

been original ly composed under the influence of t he Gospe l . He

c ites paral le ls to the Gospel from plays XXX, XXXIII, XXXVI, XXXVII,xxxv11 1 . Ofthese xxx and XXXIII are plays of the third period(see below, p. XXXVII of the first

,and XXXVIII possibly,

XXXVI certain ly, oft he second . I t wou ld therefore appear as thoughthe writers of each of the three periods of composit ion borrowedfrom the ‘ Gospe l . ’ Bu t Craig ie c ites but a single paral le l fromplay XXXVI , and here I venture to th ink he has gone ast ray . The

apparen t’

paralle l ism is due to the faft that the play and the‘ Gospel ’ fol low Mat t . XXVII . 54 and Mark XV. 3 9, whereas the

Lat in Evange l ium N icodem i fol lows Luke XXII . 47 . I t is

therefore not certa in whe ther the writers of the second period d iduse the ‘ Gospe l . ’ In play XXXVII, first period, the paralle ls are

above crit ic ism . They are no less c lear in the plays of the thirdperiod, xxx and XXXIII

,bu t here the inference that the w riter used

the Gospe l is not legit imate . For he was rewrit ing plays of anearl ier period, and he may have borrowed the passages in quest ionnot from the ‘Gospe l ’ d ireét ly, but from the earl ier p lays. Indeed,from such a passage as XXXIII . 1 1 3 -20, wh ich is hardly in the sty leofthe rest of the play, it rather looks as though this was just whatd id happen . Anyhow it is d ifli cul t to be certa in that any borrowing from the Gospe l ’ took place subsequen t to the original composit ion of the first period plays, though there would be noth ingimprobable in a number ofwriters us ing the same source . I havel it t le doub t that Cady’s remark is due to C . M . Gayley hav ingassumed

,in h is P lays of our Forefathers

,

’

p . 1 5 7, that the

borrow ings from the ‘ Gospe l ’ were all due to the dramat ist of

the th ird period, and hav ing therefore inferred that all the playsin wh ich they occur were e ither writ ten or rev ised by him . This

V iew seems to be unfounded (see below, p . 29 1 , note) . I supposeGay ley was influenced by a desire to throw back the date of the

MIRACLE CYCLES . 2 8 3

contains line s from the early fourteenth-century‘ débat ’ of the Harrowing of Hell ,

’

namely , thewell-known passage beginning

Harde gates have I gone .

‘

The most recently discovered are some ve ry inte res ting and important parallels be tween certain playsof the ’Wakefield cycle and the poem known as the

Northern Passion .

’2 I t is as ye t too early to say

with confidence wha t the sign ificance of these maybe

,but those at present published suggest a bearing

upon the development of the cycle which hasapparently e scaped the ir discoverer . 3 For whenwe have el iminated a number of alleged parallelswhich are not really parallel at all, what remain fallinto two quite d ist iné’t groups . There is .one pas

sage of several lines which is almos t word for wordthe same in the two works

,and there are a number

of scattered phrases which have the appearance

cycle, for he bel ieves the earl iest p lays to have been composedbefore 1 3 3 0 (p. whereas Craigie appears to h in t that a

dependence on the Gospe l wou ld imp ly a date not much before1 3 50. I very much doubt whe ther any relevant dates can be

establ ished sufli c ient ly precise ly to just ify our say ing e ither that

the p lays must be earl ier than 1 3 50 or t hat they cannot be as earlyas 1 30.

‘3Ludus Coven t riae

,

’

ed . Hal l iwe ll,Shakespeare Soc .

,1 841 ,

p . 3 46 ; Harrow ing ofHel l and Gospel ofN icodemus,

’

ed .W. H .

Hulme,

1 907, pp . 4 and 5 .

2 M iss F. A . Foster,in Modern Language Notes

,

’ June 1 9 1 1 ,xxv i. 1 69 . The t ext of the ‘ Passion

’has since been prin ted

by M iss Foster 145 , but her introduét ion has

not ye t appeared .

3 F. W. Cady has a footnote on the subjeét in his art ic le on

‘The Passion Group in Towneley,’

in ‘Modern Philology,’ April

1 9 1 3 : x. 594

2 84 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

of be ing rather more than accidental resemblances .The curious point is that these phrases all occur inportions of plays borrowed by the Wakefield fromthe York cycle , while the passage of several linesoccurs in what . is usually regarded as an insert ionby a late Wakefie ld editor . I leave you to drawour own conclus ions .Parallels be tween different miracle plays are

,of

course,also common . For instance

,in the scene

of the Betrayal,Pe ter ’s speech to the unlucky

MalchusGo pleyn thee to S ir CayphasAnd bid him do thee right

,

recurs almost verbally in the Ch este r and Wakefieldplays . ‘ Among ce rtain Shrewsbury fragments we

aé’

tually have part of a liturgical play,not only

composed in the same me tre as the corre spondingplay of the York cycle

,but h aving one stanza

praCtically ident ical with i t , a faét which has not ,I th ink

,rece ived quite the at tent ion i t deserves . ‘

Quite the most instruCt ive,however, of these

parallels is one which has been pointed out be tweenthe R esurreCtion plays ofthe Wakefield and Chestercycles . This is in the s t riking speech of the risenChris t beginning

Earthly man that I have wrought,Chester P lays,

’

ed . Wright,Shakespeare Soc .

,1 843

-

7, 11. 3 1

(bu t the first l ine is corrup t in MS . W) ; ‘Towneley Plays,’

ed .

England and Pol lard, p . 22 5 (XX .

2 The Shrew sbury fragments have been most recen t ly printedby Osborn Wat erhouse in ‘The N on-Cycle Mystery P lays,

’

1 909, p. 1 (see 11. 3 9 cf. ‘York P lays,’

ed . L . T .

Sm ith,1 885 , p . 1 22 (xv . 1 20

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2 86 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

without the cauda," but the ve rse s do not appearin that work. In rewrit ing the lyric the Wakefield author in troduced the common tag :

And alle for lufofthe,

which is also found modified as

And all is for his loue,

in the so-called Digby Burial and Resurreét ionplay , a curiou s composi tion which include s quite anumber of lyri cal fragmen t s

O myn harte , wher hast thou bee ?Com hom agayn and leve with me "

Quia amore lang'

ueo

W ho can not wcpc com lern at me .

2

The poin t then at which I have been aimingi s that when we find parallel s between two miracleplays we mus t not hast ily assume that the fa

'

dt

points to any d ireét connexion be tween them .

Where the resemblance be tween two plays liesin the general construCtion and the orde r of even t swe have to bear in mind the possibili ty that acommon source may have given ri se to a similarst ruéture . Where two or more plays are alikeclosely based upon the scriptural narrat ive , i t i sobvious that they will present l ikenesses which i t

a4 b3 a4 b3 a4 b3 a4 b 3,apparent ly not a very common stanza in

M iddle-Engl ish,bu t occurring

,rather irregularly, in the lat ter part

of Wakefie ld xxv111 . The ‘ Gospe l of N icodemus’

adds a tai lcdcd 3 .

2 ‘The D igby P lays,’

ed . Furn ivall,N ew Shakspere Soc .

,1 8 82

p . 1 7 1 : see II. 1 467, 1 495-6

,1462, 693 .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 2 87

i s unnecessary to refer to any othe r cause . Dr .Charles Davidson , after producing an extens ivelist of parallels from five plays of the Annunciat ion

,rightly conclude s that all such resemblances

are misleading when used to support a theory of

d ireét interdependence among the extan t plays . "

Nevertheless , two faéts remain and have to betaken int o cons iderat ion—namely

,that diffe ren t

cycles do agree in following the b ibl ical's tory moreclosely in some place s than in others , and thatsimilari t ies of treatment do occur which are not

to be explained by the words of scripture . I t i sevident that in s ome cases there was a generalt radi t ion as to how a story Should be t reated .

That tradi t ion must have had a basi s,and the

theory most popular among cri tics has been thatthe basis was the l i turgical drama . Of late

,indeed

,

the li turgical drama has become some th ing ofan

obsession with cri t ics . Even Hohlfeld , a sensibleman who wrote before the fash ion became gene ral ,went so far ast ray as to insi st on a li turgical basisfor the Assumpt ion play of the Ludus Coventriae ,

’ 2

which is in faC'

t a very close paraphrase from the‘ Legenda Aurea . ’ An American scholar has recent ly made an elaborate at tempt to de termine thecommon l i turgical cycle out ofwhich

,according

to h im,parts at least of those of York

,Wakefield

,

and Coventry all developed .3 Now

,while fi rmly

‘ Stud ies in the Engl ish Mystery P lays,’

1 892, p. 1 62 .

Angl ia,

’

1 8 89, xi . 2 74.

3 F. W . Cady in ‘ Publ icat ions of the Modern LanguageAssoc iat ion of America

,

’

1 909, xxiv . 14 1 9 ; see also ‘ Journal ofEngl ish and German ic Ph ilology,

’

1 9 1 1 , x. 5 73 , and 1 9 1 2, xi.

244, and Modern Philology,’

1 9 1 3 , x. 5 87 .

2 8 8 PROBLEMS OF TH E ENGLISH

holding that the miracle cycle as a li terary formdid grow out of the li turgical drama

,I doubt very

much whe ther i t i s correCt to say of any extantmiracle play whatever that i t had a li turgical playfor i ts source

,or was indeed in any individual

manne r conneéted with such .

‘ All that w e needpostulate t o explai n the observed resemblancesbe tween d ifferent cycles is

,as I have said

,a ce rtain

general t radi t ion . Such a t radit ion may havearisen

,and doubtless did arise

,in various ways .

The Cursor Mundi,

’

a poem whose influence on

the drama has been often asse rted and neve rproved

,

2 may have had i ts Share ; so may otherssuch as the ‘ Northern Passion .

’3 The influence

ofBonav entura’

s Med i tat iones,

’ whe ther d ireét orthrough the wri t ings of the Hampole school

,i s

already a suspect ed though a rather inde terminatefaétor .

4 That of Jacobus d e Voragine i s far more .

An except ion m ight be found in the Shrewsbury fragments

men t ioned above . A l itu rgical play in the vernacular is,however

,

in itse lfsuch an anomaly, and these part icu lar t exts are so late,that

a borrow ing from and not by the York cyc le seems the more

probable explanat ion .

2 See part icu larly H . Umgemach,D ie Quel len der fUnf ersten

Chester P lays,’

1 890, p . 1 9 5 , and cf. H . U tesch,

‘ D ie Quel lender Chester-Plays,

’

1 909, p . 6 .

3 See above, p . 2 83 .

4 The Med itat iones Bonaventurae de V ita Christ i ’ are printedin the colleC’ted ed it ion ofhis works

,Rome

,1 5 88-96, V i . 3 49 (and

Paris,1 868

,The t ranslat ion by N icholas Love, known as

‘The M irror of the blessed Life of Jesu Christ,

’

was not madet il l the fifteen th century . But there is an earl ier version of the

part re lat ing the passion (chap ters 73 to 92) wh ich, if not byR ichard Rol le of Hampole h imse lf

,is certain ly the work of an

immediate fol lower. I t is prin ted under the t it le of The Priv ityof the Passion,

’

by C . Horstmann,‘Yorksh ire Writers

,

’

1 895 ,

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290 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

purely literary cons iderations which point to an

orde r in the layers iden t ical wi th the one he proosed . The oldes t portions belong to a simpled idaét ic cycle carefully composed in elaboratestanzas and withal rathe r dull . The Sacrificeof I saac ,

’

the Exodus ,’ Chris t and the Doétors,

’

the Transfigurat ion ,’

the ‘Harrowing ofHell ’ aretypical plays of th i s pe ri od . I imagine the ir datet o be probably not late r than 1 3 and the resemblance be tween the different plays is suffi cient tosugge s t a s ingle authorsh ip ; they certainly belongto a single small school . The plays of the secondperiod are probably the work of m ore théin one

hand , and some of them cannot without diffi cultybe dist inguished from those of the original cycle .

The i r chief dis tinétion is that they include suchattempts at humour as the collect i on has to offerNoah and his wife

,and the offerings of the Shep

herds,the latte r containing the

‘ parallels with theShrewsbury l iturgical fragments and also the

work ofa wri ter who is dis t inguished as be ing theonly great me t ri st who devoted hi s t alents to theEnglish religious drama as we know it . H is con

tribu t ions include the Fall ofLucifer,’

the Deathof Christ

,

’ and also,I th ink

,

‘ Doomsday . The

work of the last period , like that of the firs t,

belongs presumabl y to a single author. W i th theexcept i on of the Last Supper,

’ an untouched playof the fi rs t period

, and the ‘ Remorse of Judas,

’

which probably contains port ions ofmore than one

If Craigie’

s date for the ‘Gospe l of N ichod emus ’

is to be

t rusted not earl ier e ither,bu t I am not al together sat isfied of th is.

See above, p. 282 , note, at end .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 2 9 1

second-period play worked over by him ,the whole

of the Pass ion series from the ‘ Conspiracy ’ t o the‘ Condemnation ’

is his original work . H e alsoprefixed a single s tanza to the ‘W ay to Calvary

’

nowhere else does h is hand appear . ‘ H e i s a ve ryrem arkable though uneven wri ter . A me t rist hecertainly is not he writes in powerful but loose andrugged alliterat i ve verse . H e also writes at greatlength and wi th much rhe toric and rant . But he is

a real dramatist,and h is port rai t ofPilate ismasterly .

I t is he who is re sponsible for the ‘trauersp ielele

mente ’ which Hohlfeld finds charaét erist ic of the

cycle .

2 H is additions can hardly be earlier than1400 .

The problems conneéted with the growth of the

Wakefield cycle , if not more diffi cult, are at anyrate more varied and complicated than those whichcentre round the York plays . Again i t is customaryto suppose three main laye rs of composi t i on : anoriginal s imply d idadtic cycle , which may or maynot have included fragments ofyet earl ier work ; aperi od of borrowing from

,or composit ion under

Gayley considers not only that he also remodel led the

Harrow ing of Hel l ’ and the Resurreét ion,

’

but that the Deathof Christ

,

’ ‘w ith its e labora te and un ique stanza,is an original

produét ion’

of his. Th is I cannot for a moment adm it . Evensupposing that the Death ’

d id quote from the Gospe l of

N icodemus,

’

which it probably does not,that would not prove it

to be by the author of the Passion series,for there is no ev idence

that that writer knew the ‘ Gospel ’ at first hand,and even if

there were it wou ld not fol low that all the plays in which it was

used must be by h im . The Death of Christ ’is as fine a work

metrical ly as the ‘ Accusat ion before P ilate ’

is dramat ical ly, butin sty le the two pieces are as d ifferent as possible .

2 ‘ Ang l ia,

’

x i. 2 83 .

292 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

the influence of,York ; and finally

, the addit ionsofa single remarkable writer . ‘

There is much that is uncertain about th is cycle .

I ts connexion with Wakefield and with the aét iv i

t ies of craft guilds is proved by note s in the manuscript itself, and supported by allus ions in at leastthe lates t layer of the work . That the guildswere those of Wakefield is matter of inference .

Curiously enough,there i s no record of the per

formance of any cycle at Wakefield,though at

least one player from Wakefield is known to haveperformed in the Corpus Christ i plays at York .

2 Atradit ion conneét ing the cycle with the August inian house of W idkirk or W oodkirk was at onet ime recorded and subsequently denied by Douce .

3

At most it would only imply that the manuscriptmay at some t ime have been preserved there ; i twould not j ustify any conjeCture as to the originalauthorsh ip

,or even as to the colleét ion or t ranscrip

t ion of the plays . The manuscrip t is mutilated,

possibly through Puritanical zeal ; but i t is also

But op inion is by no means unan imous. Dav idson’

s treat

men t (cf. chapters xx and XXII) is less ful l and less sat isfaétorythan in the case of York . On the other hand

,Pol lard ’s int ro

duét ion to the ed it ion is of first-rate importance . I t

fol low s in general the l ines laid down by Hohlfeld in ‘ Angl ia,

’

x i . 3 06 . Asmus Bunzen,in his ‘ Be itrag zur Krit ik der Wake

fielder Mysterien’

(1 903 , p . a t tempts an analysis rather too

elaborate to be a l together conv inc ing. Cady in the art icles alreadyc ited argues that the borrow ings from York are the latest add it ionto the cycle . But I do not see how such a play as Doomsdaycan be explained except as be ing in substance a York play workedover by the d ist inét ive Wakefie ld au thor.

2 See Hohlfeld,Angl ia

,

’

xi . 2 5 8 .

3 See Chambers, Med iaeval S tage,

’

ii. 4 1 5 .

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2 94 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

plays borrowed from York may have formed partof the Wakefield cycle from its inception . Bu t

those assigned t o the fi rs t Wakefield period seempre tty clearly earlier than the date at wh ich the

borrowing from York can have taken place : If,

therefore , they did not form part of an alreadyexist ing Wakefield cycle , they must have beenborrowed from elsewhere , say Beverley . This ispossible , but not altogether l ikely . In any case Ith ink that the York plays must have been editedand in part worked over at the t ime of the i r incorporation in the Wakefield cycle

,for I fancy i t

i s poss ible to d eteCt a progressive freedom in the

t reatment of the tex t of those plays which are

more or less bodily lifted , and furthermore we Shallpresently see that one of them appears to havereached Wakefield in an imperfeét S tate . Anyhowwe seem precluded from postulat ing an originalparent cycle common to Wak efield and Yorkwhich has been worked over differently at the two

places,for that would involve the supposi t ion tha t

at Wakefield plays of th is cycle were subsequentlydropped in favour of others of a more primitivetype borrowed from other places . Pre sumably ,therefore , w e are j ust ified in saying that at a givenperiod of i ts development the Wakefield cycleaétual ly borrowed and incorporated plays fromYork in the most li teral sense of the words .The extent of this borrowing is unc ertain , andwill probably never be exaét ly determined . Thereare fiv e plays in which large port ions of the textare praét ically the same in the two cycle s . The

Exodus ’ i s almos t ident ical,and in the only im

MIRACLE CYCLES . 2 9 5

portan t variati on i t i s uncertain which text is themore original . In Chri st and the D oét ors two

import ant passages have been rewri t ten in the

Wakefield cycle . The ‘ Harrowing of H ell ’ hasbeen recast with considerable freedom . Theseth ree plays belong to the fi rs t York period . Ofthe ‘ R esurreétion

’

the opening has been ent irelyrewrit ten , and subsequent passages t oo are t reatedfreely . Of ‘ Doomsday ’ portions only have beentaken . These two belong to the second Yorkperiod . I t is also praétically certa in that the‘ Conspiracy,

’

the firs t part of the twent iethWakefield pageant , was originally a first-periodYork play

,which has there been displaced by one

of the late s t addi tions ; while a subsequen t s tanzain the same Wakefield pageant may be a rel ic ofan original York play of Ge thsemene . Pollardh azards the same conject ure with regard to the

Emmaus and Judas plays of the Wakefield cycle,

‘

while Hohlfeld finds e i ther st ruétural or verbalparallels to the York plays in the ‘Annunciat ion

,

’

‘ Magi,

’ ‘ Flight int o Egypt,

’ ‘ Massacre of the

Innocen t s,

’ ‘ Conspiracy and Bet rayal,

’ Scourging,

’

‘ Crucifixion ,

’ and ‘Ascension .

’ 2 In t he case,how

eve r, of several of t hese, d i reét connexion be tweenthe plays in the i r present forms is praét ically out

of the ques t ion .

I t i s then qui te clear that the Wakefield cycleborrowed plays from York . W he ther the Yorkcycle exercised any influence ove r that ofWakefield apar t from such d ireét borrowing i s a far

Towneley Plays,’

p . xxv i. Angl ia,

’x i. 3 07 .

29 6 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

more diffi cult ques t i on,and one which I must

leave open . With regard t o substantial borrowingthere i s one further point I wish to not i ce . I thas been repeatedly stated or assumed that suchborrowing was oral . I believe i t t o be far tooclose and cons i stent t o j ustify such an hypothesi s .W e have no evidence whatever that aétors in

miracle plays learned more than thei r individualpart s and cues , and in any case a text obtainedfrom an aCtor would almost inevi tably betray i t sorigin by preserving some speeches be t te r thanothers . The remark ofa German crit ic

,

‘ th at thenumerou s verbal differences that occur in the texteven of the ‘ Exodus ’ are inexplicable on the

assumption of manuscript transmissi on , reveals apathet ic innocence of the capaci t ies

,or even the

normal habi t s , of medieval scribe s .So much for the York and

_W akefield cycles .

As far as my knowledge extends , there are, outside

those 3 cycles,only two instances in which plays

exhib it any subs t ant i al correspondence of text .One is in the play s of ‘ Chri st and the Doétors

’

from the Chester and t rue Coven try cycle s . Thisinvolves the York and Wakefield plays as well ,and I propose to consider i t in detail late r on .

The other instance is afforded by the plays of the‘ Sacrifice of I saac ’ from the Chester cycle and

the B rome Hall manuscript respeét ively , and ofthi s a few words must be said in passing . I t hasbeen usual , what ever V iew was taken of the re

speét ive meri ts of the two pieces, to suppose thatt he Che ster play , in Spite of i t s being in the same

Bunzen, Beitrag,’ p. 1 3 .

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2 9 8 PROBLEMS OF TH E ENGLISH

Y,W

,and C to indicate the extant texts of the

fi rs t three of these,and x to indicate the text of

the Chester play as i t may be restored by a comparison of the extan t manuscripts of that cycle .

For purposes of reference I shall also divide the

play as follows : Scene 1,Mary and Joseph ’s search

for the i r los t child ; scene 2 ,the Doctors ’ disputa

t ion in the Temple ; scene 3 , Je sus and the D oét ors

(th i s includes the passage on the Commandmentswhich , we shall see

,requires to be cons idered

apart from the rest) scene 4, the finding of Je susand h is departure wi th his parents . ‘

Some general account of the four plays must begiven . I t i s pre t ty clear that the York text preserves the play in i ts mos t original form . Thisappears from the regulari ty of the me t rical struct ure

,that text be ing wri t ten almost throughout 2

w il l be found in ‘York P lays,’

ed . L . T . Sm ith, p. 1 56 , where

the paral le l port ions of the Wakefie ld play are a lso prin ted ;‘Towneley P lays,’ ed . England and -Pol lard

, p . 1 86 ;‘Two

Covent ry Corpus Christ i P lays,’

ed . Hard in Craig,

1 902, p. 58 ;‘ Chester P lays,’ ed . H . De im l ing

, p . 2 1 2 . I have,

however, based my comparison upon a paral le l ed it ion of the four

texts wh ich I have prepared and hope some day to print, and

in this I have correéted certain errors of numbering in the‘Towneley

’

prin t . Prev ious comparisons of the four t exts havebeen made by Davidson, Stud ies,’ p. 1 64, and by Craig, as abovep . xxviii

,but ne ither is at all sat isfaétory . Hoh lfe ld, ‘Ang l ia

,

xi . 260,does not take accoun t ofthe Coven try play .

2 In Y sc . 1 = 11. 1 -48, se . 2 = 11. 49-72 , sc . 3 = 11. 73

-204

(Commandments 11. 1 69 se . 4 11. 205-8 8 .

2 A quatrain is om it ted after each of the fol low ing l ines, 224,

23 2 , 240. M iss Sm ith failed to not ice th is,and her numbering

of t he stanzas is consequen t l w rong. TheWakefie ld text makesno at tempt to Supply the de ciency .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 29 9

in twelve-line s tanzas riming a b a b a b a b c d c d , theoétave consist ing oflines offour accents , the quatrainof lines of three . I t is t rue th at the S imple quatrainsof the Ches t e r play are regular enough , bu t a verycasual inspeét ion will show that that vers ion cont ains no more than the fragmentary and some t imescorrupt remains of the others .The Wakefield play 1 3 one of those which repro

duce substant i ally the corresponding one s of theYork cycle . I t i s imperfeCt at the beginningowing to the mut ilat ion of the manuscrip t

,and

two important passage s have been wholly rewri tten .

Otherwise the Wakefield play may be regarded assupplying merely a second manuscrip t of the samework .

The two remaining plays differ far more widely,

and in each the D oCtors’

play const i tute s only aportion of the pageant in which i t occurs . AtCoventry the episode formed part of the Weavers ’

play , an extensive composi t ion which likewise included a sort of P rophetae and a Purificat ion .

’

Of th is the existing manuscript , s t ill in the pos

session of the original guild,

‘ was ‘newly t ranslate ’

—whatever that may mean —by Robert Croo orCrow in 1 5 34. In so far

,therefore , as i t was an

original composit ion at all,the play may have been

aétually written no earlier than th at year . If Crowwas no more than a transcriber or revise r

,the piece

Craig,to whom be longs the cred it of hav ing red iscovered this

manuscript, stated ( 1 902) that it was to be p laced among the

Corporat ion manuscripts, bu t this had not ye t been done when,through the k indness of the gent leman in whose custody it

remains,I exam ined it in the summer of 1 9 1 2 .

3 00 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

may have been Concofted in 1 520 , when Coventryrej oiced in ‘

new playe s at Corpus Christ i tyde ,which were greatly commended .

" There i s no

reason,howeve r

,t o suppose t hat the whole cycle

was renewed at that date , so that the play m aypossibly go back

,substant ially in the form in which

we have"

i t,to the fifteenth century . I t d ifl’ers

widely from the York vers ion , having been pract i cally rewritten in a different and very irregularme tre . Comparat ively few l ines have e scapedmore or less profound alterati on

,but there ye t

remain cons iderable seét ions in which the text i sin a general way parallel .At Chester the D oét ors

’ play formed the secondhalf of a pageant which also represented the Purificat ion of the Virgin . Bu t in th is case we havethe defini te amalgamat ion of two obviously d ist inftpieces . The Doétors

’ play is composed in adiffe rent s tanza from that used in the body ofthe cycle , to which the ‘ Purificat ion ’ conforms .Moreover, at the end of the pageant there appearsan epilogue of e igh t lines in the usual me t re

,which

clearly belongs , not t o the Doétors’ play

,which i t

ignores,but to the ‘ Purificat ion .

’

The text of thisPurification exhib i ts no parallels wi th any otherversion . I t i s therefore abundantly clear that theepisode of the Doétors i s a late insert ion . Howlate i t would be interes t ing to know . Now,

I t I S

on record that the Smiths of Che ster,the guild

respons ible for the produét ion of the pagean t inque sti on

,did in 1 57 5 submi t alternative plays to

Chambers,Med iaeval S tage

,

’

11. 3 5 8 .

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3 02 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

general i t may be said that the compile r of the

Ches ter text , or w e may fai rly say the author of

the Che ster play , while he t reats the original farmore freely than h is rival of Covent ry

,i s at the

Same t ime far less given to rewri ting what heborrows . This , no doubt , i s partly due to the

faét that the simple quatrains in which he wrotemade d ireét borrowing from the York s tanzaeas

Iymust explain exaét ly what I mean by parallel

passage s,and ask you to bear i t in mind in what

follows . I call seét ions of text parallel when not

only is the subjeét t reated the same,but i t is pos

sible to t race with some ce rtain ty a common underlying original . I s till call passages parallel althoughs ingle lines

,or even several l ines together

,may

have been so altered as to present no resemblance .

And I do not call passage s parallel merely becausethey contain verbal s imilari t ies , even though thesemay point t o an undoubted connexion . On a

separate leaf I give in parallel columns a typicalpassage as i t appears i n each of the four plays , thusi llust rat ing the nature of the variants between thetexts .When we come to place the texts of these plays

S ide by side,and t o compare them in detai l, certain

very curious faét s become apparent . In the firs tplace

,where Y and W diffe r ne i ther C nor X is

parallel wi th e i ther . C and X are indeed bothparallel wi th Y where W is d efeét ive, but there i snothing to sugges t that the missing port ion ofWwas not in part at least parallel wi th Y . In the

second place , j ust as C is nowhere parallel to Y,

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3 04 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

that forms what I may call the problem of the

Doétors’ play .

To solve i t we must turn to the texts themselves,

and to begin with le t us conside r rathe r closer therelat i on of the Wakefield play to that of York .

So far as W is extant i t present s only two passagesnot paralle l t o Y . Scene 1 and part of scene 2 are

lost . The remainder ofscene 2 i s in quatrains , andi s much fuller than in Y

,which it in no way

resemble s . The paralleli sm begins with scene 3and continue s to the end

,with the excepti on of the

passage dealing with the Commandm ents,where

again W rewrites the text in quatrains,expanding

considerably . Either, therefore , the redaCtor of Wde liberate ly departed from his copy

,or that copy

was d efeét ive . Anyhow , we may assume that hed id not work on our extant manuscript of the Yorkcycle . For one th ing,we have previously seen reasonto believe that the Wakefield borrowings took placeat a t ime before the lates t addit ions to the Yorkcycle had been made ; for another the Wakefieldmanuscrip t may possibly be i t self older than thatof York . Textual evidence, s o far as i t goes ,supports th is v iew . Line s 209 and 2 1 1 ofY bothcon tain small corruptions not found in W,

‘ and Woccas ionally prune s lines which in Y are metricallysomewhat redundant . The evidence i s not al together conclusive , but the probabili ty i s in favourofW having been copied from a close relat ive ofY ,

209 : Nowe haue [we] sought in ilke a stede22 1 : LO, where he S i t t is

, y [e] se hym noght (W is

probably right in read ing ‘se Also in l . 89 Y is al one in

read ing brandyng for bourdyng.

’

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 9 5

possibly the very ‘ original ’ in the hands of the

Spori ers and Lorimers of York, from which Y alsoderived

,more probably from a defeét iv e copy of the

same .

W,in those port ions where i t i s parallel to Y ,

appears to be somewhat the less correct copy of thetwo . I t be trays a tendency to corrupt the me t reby int roducing a fourth accen t in t o the l ines of thequatrain . The most interest i ng variant i s whereY allude s t o the passage i n the Psalms , ‘ Out of themouths of babes and sucklings ,

’

and W breaks thes tanza in order to int roduce ext rametrically the

Latin quotation (Y 1 1 4, W That the wordswe re intended to be spoken by the aét or seemsproved by a subse quent al terat ion .

The port i ons of W which are not paralle l to Yappear to have been writ ten in comple te ind ependence . As regards the extant port ion of scene 2 ,

certain supposed similari t ies have indeed beenpointed out . For instance , i t h as been suggested ‘

th at the l ine s in WMasters

, youre resons ar right goodAnd wonderfull to neuen

,

are a remini scence of those in YThat was wele saide

,so mot I the

,

Swilke notis to neven me thynke wer nede . 6 1 -2

W e could hardly,I think

,have st ronger evidence

of the independence of the two texts . In the

divergent passage containing the Commandmentsthere are no parallels except such as are due to thesubj ect matte r, unless we regard as such the use

Craig, ‘Two Coventry Plays,’

p. xxx.

3 06 PROBLEMS OF THE EN GLISH

of the form ‘slo

’

for ‘Sle

’

(i . e . Slay) , which ishowever more l ikely due to a common d ialeé’t . In

Y the Commandment s occupy two s tanzas, 24

lines . Of these the fi rst four and the las t twolines reappear in W ,

the last seven commandment sonly be ing different . The 1 8 lines pecu l iar to Yare replaced by 34 in W . S ince there i s no

apparen t reason for the change th i s looks like thefilling in ofan accidental lacuna .

Let us now conside r the relat ion ofthe Coventryplay to the preceding . When we examine the textclosely we find that i t has points of agreemen t bothwith Y and W . I will quote three instances ofeach ; fi rst those in which C supports Y

(i) Y : And ofther mouthes,be wa tefull wele

W : Ofthare mowthes,saytlzD auid wele

C : Ofchyldurs mothis, ye éno riglzt well

(11) Y : Als wyde in world als we haue wenteIn war/d as wyde as we haue went

C : Ase wyde in worlde asse eyner I went(X : 1 15 wyde in world as I haue wentY : They will take rewarde to you all wayW : Thay will take lzede to you alwayC : The haue reygard id you alwey

(iii)

next,those cases in which C supports W

(i) Y : Mysese had neuere man more

Sorow had neuer man mare

C : In sorrowasse there neyuer man more(ii) Y : Because ofelde

,this ware y e wele .

W : Because ofeld,this wote I weyll .

C : Because ofage, this watt I well .Y : W herto shulde ye seke me soo ?

W : W herto shuld ye, moder, seke me so ?

C : Modur, why did you seke me soo ?

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3 9 8 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

I think , be safely dismissed , and for the momentwe m ay t reat C and X as a single witness .Now since C (or X) some t ime s follows Y and

some time s W,i t i s clear that i t cannot be d ireétly

derived from e i ther . Two possibilit ies presen tthemselves : e i t her C is derived from an earlierform ofW ,

or else C and W are independentlyderived from an earlie r form of Y . In the latte rcase C will point to the original reading where Yand W differ

,in the former the agreemen t of C

and W is only of equal authori ty with Y . If,

therefore , i t can be shown that C and W agree inunoriginal readings

,i t will follow th at C does not

go back to an earlier Y,but only to an earlier W .

I t i s difficult if not impossible t o demonst rate t hiswith certainty , but I th ink the following instance sof agreement between W and C (and X) will befound s ignificant

(i) Y : Nowe herken yone barne with his brandyng,H e wenes he kens more than we knawes 8 9

-

90

W : Hark, yonder barn with his bowrdyng,

H e wenys he kens more then he knawys 6 5- 6

C : This besse bweye ofhis tongAl l secrett is surely he thynkith he knois . 902

-3

Harkes this childe in his bourd ing,H ewenes he kennesmore then he knowes 24 1

- 2

In the firs t line brandyng i s an error ofY . In

beginning of the l ine . In C,however

,the l ine is praét ically re

wr it ten, so that it s ev ident ial value is seriously impaired, and thefaét that it begins w ith the same word as Y may very we l l be an

acc iden t due to the general construét ion of the sen tence,wh ich in

a manner suggests it . Th is case is typ ical of the group . For t he

other instances see Y 1 3 4, 147, 1 97, 1 98, W 1 1 0, 1 23 , 1 89, 1 90,

C 954, 967, 1 005 , 1006, X 268, 2 79, 26 1 , 262 .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 9 9

the second ‘ we knawes ’ i s the only reading thatmake s sense ; W and X re tain the meaningles s heknawys,

’ while C ’

s alte rat i on i s clearly the resultof the same error in h is copy . I hardly think thatY ’s reading, we

,

’ i s likely to b e due to an emendation by the scribe who had j us t corrup tedbourd ing into brandyng .

’

(ii) Y : Thez are the biddingis ten 1 9 1

W : Thise ar the commaundment is ten 1 8 3C : H ow to kepe these commandementis ten. 1 000

X : They are my fathers commaundment . 3 00

Here the passages are not closely parallel, but theagreement goe s to Show that ‘ commandment s ’ andnot

‘ biddings ’ was in the original of C and WBu t biddings is requi red by the met re .

(iii) Y : Mysese had neuere man more 2 1 3

The variants have been quoted already (p .

The subst i tut ion of sorrow for misease in Wand C destroys the alliteration . O ther instancesmigh t be quoted , but I think I have said enought o establish a s t rong presumpt ion that W and Care not independent witnesses for the text of the

earlier Y . There i s j ust one passage which mightbe thought to reveal a met rical irregularity commonto Y and C , but not to W ; but there i s no d ifli cul tyin supposing that the earl ier W con tained

,l ike Y

,

a redundant vocative which has been pruned awayin the extant manuscrip t . ‘

So much for the passages in which C is parallelto W . Something must now be said about those

Y 245,W 23 7, C 1 053 ; but the case is a Very doubtful one.

V Y

3 1 0 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

where th i s i s not the case . To begin with,both

C and X are partly parallel to Y in scene 1 whereW i s defeét iv e . The faét that nowhere else are

they parallel t o Y except where W is also parallelmakes i t almost certain that if the missing leavesof the Towneley manuscrip t were t o be recoveredthey would be found to contain the first sceneof the play in a form parallel to Y . In scene 2 ,

Wi s not parallel to Y

,nor i s C parallel t o e i ther .

Neverthele ss, the re are a few (act ually five) l ines orphrases in C which appear remini scent of Y .

‘ Ido not think that they can be regarded as conclusive evidence that the compiler of C had aknowledge of the corresponding scene ofY

,but I

am willing to consider the possibili ty . The mostinterest ing is the expression ‘

clargy clere ,’ which

occurs in the second scene both of Y (54) and ofC for the latter int roduces i t again later onin the play , where we have :

Y : By clergy yit t to knowe oure lawes . 92

W : By clergy y it to know oure lawes. 6 8

C : Be clarge clere to kno oure lawis . 905

X : By clergie cleane to know our lawes . 244

The othe r passage in which W depart s from Y isthat cont aining the Commandments . C is againparallel to ne i the r, yet i t apparently containsremini scence s of both . These are so curious thatI will quote them in full

(i) W : Both wyfe, chyld , seruand and beest. 1 5 1

C : Thy selfe , t/zi serwande,and tby best . 9 80

The cases not men t ioned in the text w il l be found in Y 49,cf. 0 85 7 ; Y 64, cf. C 85 8 ; Y OS, cf. c 8 76 ; Y 6 7, cf. C 878 .

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3 1 2 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

Commandments , though in both cases th ere wassome indication of the matter that was want ing .

F was closely followed by the compiler of W,who

,

however,supplied the missing portions with

original composit ion in a d ifferent s tanza . F wasalso used by the compiler e i ther of C itself, or of anearlie r C ,

say‘

ic. I n respeét of scene 2 and the

Commandment s he was faced with the samed ifli cul ty as the compiler ofW

, and like him he

had recourse to his own invention . Bu t he seem snot t o have rel ied upon this alone . I f we may trustthe evidence , he attended the performances of theplay both at Wakefield and at York

,and gathered

therefrom not only thei r common matter,but like

wise a few scattered phrases of each .

And what of the Chester play ? I have drawnattent i on to the general evidence in favour of i tsderivat ion from C ,

or from some closely Similarsource

,and also to the paradox in which such

an assumption apparently involve s us. The de

rivat ion i s placed beyond possible doubt by amore de tailed examinat ion of the texts

,and

i t will be sufli c ient if I quote one remarkableinstance

Y : With men ofmyght can I not mell,

Than all my trauayle mon I tyne ,I can noght with them,

this wate thou Wele,They are so gay in furres fyne . 2 29

-3 2

W has substantially the same text (22 1C : Ey , Mare, wyff, ye kno ryght well 1 03 7

-40

As I haue tolde you many a tyme

With men ofmyght durst I neyuer mellLoo

,dame

,how the syt t in there furis fyn "

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 1 3

X : Mare, wife, thou wot tes right well

That I must all my trauayle teene,With men ofm ight I can not mellThat sit tes so gay in furres fyne .

Here C and X agree in a remarkable inversionand in various minor points . X i s far closer to theoriginal than i s C ; i t re tains thou wot tes whe reC has ‘ ye kno,

’

the whole of th e second line whichC alters

,

‘can not

’ where C has ‘ durst neyuer,’

praét ically the whole of the las t line . On the

other hand C preserves the order of mon I tyne

(corrupted as many a tyme which X alters , thatof can I ’

(as durst I’

) where X has‘ I can

,

’

and

the personal pronoun in the last line where X hasa relat ive . Obviously then X i s not derived fromC itself

,but from a somewhat more original source

,

12, the readings ofwhich can be pret ty confidentlyrestored thus :

Mary ,wife, thou wot tes right wellThat all my trauayle mon I tyne ,With men ofmight can I not mellThey sit so gay in furres fyne .

This passage well i llustrates the relat ions inwhich C and X stand to the Y-W text . Althoughon the whole X t akes from the original far lessthan C ,

and even t ranspose s mat ter,what i t take s

i t prese rves in a far less altered form . The historyof the texts has been discussed by Davidson and

others , and i t has been , I think, generally held that Xat least came In to being th rough oral borrowing .

See Craig, ‘Two Coventry P lays,’

pp. xxix,xxxiv . He

cred its Hoh lfe ld w ith this v iew Angl ia,

’

xi. 264 but this

3 1 4 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

Curiously enough thi s view has been supportedby pointing to a passage near the beginning ofthe play

,where a breakdown in the compiler ’s

memory is alleged to have caused the helplessrepe t it ion of one line .

‘ Those who have relied on

thi s argument h ave failed to notice that the repet it ion dest roys the s tanzaic regulari ty of the passage

,and must therefore be a sub sequent corruption

of the manuscripts , ofwhich the original compilerwas innocent . By no poss ibil ity can it throw anyl ight upon the conditi ons under which the playwas composed . For my own part I find some

diffi culty in believing that the theory of oral transm i ss i on will account sat isfaétori ly for the elaboratepatchwork which charaéterizes the Ches ter play.

Take,for example , the following stanza

This is nothing to my intent,Such speach to spend I red we spareAS wyde in world as I haue wentYet found I neuer so ferly a fare .

H ere the firs t two lines correspond to one portionOfY

Nay, nay, than wer we wrang,S uch speking wille we spare 20 1 -2

and the last two are from an earlier passage

As de in world als we haue wenteY it t ande we neuere swilke ferly fare 1 3 3

-4

seems to be an error,for the German crit ic expresses h imse lf very

guardedly concern ing verw irrung und verderbn iss,w ie w ir sie nur

be i sehr ungesch ickter oder irgend w ie erschwerter herti bernahme

aus e iner anderen fassung erklaren kOnnen .

’

2 Chester,11. 224, 228 .

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3 1 6 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

reducing the lat ter to e ight biddings only . The

mat ter i s developed at some length , and the incon

gru i ty i s not very apparen t . In C,however

,the

passage i s considerably compressed so that no one

could help noticing the unusual form of the ex

posit ion . I conjeét ure that the compres sion wasdue t o 1c

,and that the compiler of X disapproved of

what he found there . Anyhow he substi tutedwhat i s meant to be a vers ion of the ordinarydecalogue

,though i t i s true that he has .made a

sad mess of i t . That X borrows nothing from the

incidental expansions of C or from the lengthyappendix i s

,I conjeét ure , simply due to these be ing

addit ions of C not presen t in n. I t is t rue that

the appendix contains lines clearly suggested byphrases occurring earlier in W, but I imagine thatthese l ines appeared in 1c i n the i r original places ,and that i t was merely the compile r of C who

dropped them the re and worked them in to h isappendix .

‘

A curious point , which at first sight raises a rather serious

d ifficulty, occurs in X 229 . Th is is the first l ine of scene 3 , and

the passage is not paral le l to any of the other texts. Neverthelessthe l ine in quest ion,

Heare our reason right on row

seems rem iniscent oftwo l ines in Y :

And rede youre resouns right on rawes 50

To here oure reasouns redde by rawes 86

The first of these occurs in scene 2,which has nothing paral le l

e ither in W or C,the second in scene 3 where W has

To here oure sawes red by rawes 62

but where C is again d ivergen t . And ye t it is almost certain that

the compiler ofX must have known both l ines ofY,or e lse a l ine

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 1 7

W e may,therefore

,finish our s tory of the

vers ions by adding that F served as a source for x,

that K was largely rewri t ten and worked ove r,possibly more than once , t ill i t reached the s t ateknown t o us as C ; lastly , that 11 was also used asthe basi s for

,or rather supplied certain ma t ter to,

X. The author of X worked in an ecleft ic way ,t aking what he required and rearranging mat teraccording to his liking, without however alteringvery greatly the language ofwhat he borrowed .

The text F I imagine to have been obtainedexpressly for use at Wakefield, and to have servedimmediately for the compilation of W . That 1c

originated at,or was made for the use of

,Covent ry

seems to m e ve ry doubtful ; at any rate, i t appearsunnecessary to suppose so. I t might not be um

reasonable t o sugges t that 1: may have been the

Beverley play . Indeed,i t seems not unlike ly that

the manuscript reached Chester firs t and was passedon to Coven try afte r i t had served the purposeof the Che ster playwright . That a writer at

that comb ined thei r charaéterist ics. Now there is ev idence that

K was paral le l to l . 86 of Y (W’

s sawes’is c learly corrupt), for

in the non-paral le l l ines that C introduces at th is point the word‘reysun

’

occurs and ‘rawe

’

(in a d ifferent Sense) is aétually a

rime-word (C 895 , Moreover,we have already seen reason

to be l ieve that the compiler of it had some acquain tance oral ly w ithscene 2 of Y . W e may then conjeéture that a rem in iscence of

l . 50 led him to al ter l . 86To here oure reasouns redde by rawes

To here our reasouns right on rawes

and thus supply the compiler of X w ith the material for the l ineas it there appears.

3 1 8 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLI SH

Che ste r should draw mate ri al from Yorkshire neednot surprise uS

,nor need i t that a Coventry write r

should seek it at Ches ter, the headquarters of thediocese

,while on the other hand a plausible con

nexion be tween Covent ry and Yorksh ire wouldbe far harder to e stablish . Whethe r K was eve raCtually performed at Coventry we have no meansof knowing : i t may have been largely rewrit tenin the d ireCtion of C as soon as i t arrived . But i ti s tempting to bel ieve that e was the aétual playin troduced at Coventry i n 1 5 20 or earlier

,and that

the peculiari t ies of C are due solely to the l i te raryefforts of that diligent but clumsy l i térateur

,

Robert Crow .

The re is one i ncidental matter I should like tomention before I close . I t may have occurred tosome of you that the York,Wakefield , and Coventryplays we have been considering supply us with an

independent cri terion for j udging of the manuscripts of the Ches ter text , somewhat similar tothe P eniarth manuscript in the case of the Antichris t play . I cannot

,of course

,enter into the

matter at length , but may as well s tate the generalresults . The grouping of the manuscripts appearsto be the same as elsewhere

,though there i s not

much evidence regarding the posit ion of B and D .

There are several curious corre spondences , butnothing to upse t the result s at which we previouslyarrived . The re are also one or two remarkableinstances of an original form having survived in Wand K ,

while i t has been independently modern i sedin the other three manuscripts . Bu t the mostsubstant i al re sult is cert ainly the vindicat ion of the

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SIXTUS R IESSINGER’

S FIRST

PRESS AT ROME .

MONG the most notable problems ofearly I talian typography there has longfigured an editi on in two large volumesof the Epistles of S . Jerome

,printed

with a somewhat i rregular semi-Romantype and bearing no indicat ion of it s origin

,save

the le t ters ‘ IA . RV .

’ at the conclusion ofthe book

(Hain*8 5 Proct or in his Index (no . 6747 )

at firs t assigned i t t o an anonymous Pre ss atNaples , on the s trength of the close resemblanceof the type to the earlies t fount used by S ixtusR iessinger, the prototypographer of that c ity .

Delisle,however

,had a few years previously dis

covered in the Chan tilly copy a manuscript not ewri t ten by Johann H ynderbach , B i shop of Trent ,t o the effeét that the book was produced ‘ ab im

pressoribus l i t t erarum Romae ,’

and this discove ry ,of which P roCtor only learn t as the Index wasgoing through the press

,caused him to add a

footnote t ransferring the book to Rome . Thereremained the further problem of finding a printerfor i t there

,and P roCtor suggested Ulrich Han

,

R IESSINGER’

S PRESS AT ROME . 3 2 1

t o whose second accredited type the type of

the Jerome bears a very strong family likene ss .R iessinger he not unnaturally left out of accountaltoge ther, the more so as h e was qui te posi t ivethat the lat ter’s fi rst type was not identical withthe Jerome type extremely like , but not the

same,

’

he remarks,small diffe rence s abound , e .g .

85 (R iessinger double hyphen (none) , verysmall h (larger) , N reversed (right way) , no 3

(frequent) ; the dot of i d iffers .’ This statemen t

,

howeve r,though i t might be thought conclusive

when put forth by so high an authori ty as Proétor,is only partially correct . The credi t ofchallengingi t belongs to M . Fava and G . Bre sciano of Naples

,

who,in the i r recen tly issued volumes on Neapoli tan

incunabula,

‘ vehemently reassert the ident ity ofR iessinger

’

s type and that of the Jerome . A closeexaminat i on of the three examples of R iessinger

’

s

first'

type i n the Bri t i sh Museum has now Shownthat there are two states of i t—one exhibi t ing allthe d ist inétions noted by Proétor, while the othe r

(clearly earlie r) i s ident ical with the Jerome type .

As two of the three books in quest ion are Signedwith R iessinger

’

s name in full and the third withhis init i als , and as moreover no place-name i s foundin any of the e ight recorded books printed withthe type , we need have no further hesi t ati on inaffirming that R iessinger before he set tled down atNaples had for some t ime been aCtively engagedin print ing at Rome . A full discuss i on of the

La Stampa a Napol i nel xv . Secolo.

’

Two parts and an at lasof facsim iles. (Heft 3 2 and 3 3 of the ‘ Samm lung b ibl iotheksw issenschaft l icher

3 2 2 R IES SINGER’

S PRESS AT ROME .

whole matter, leading up to the same conclusion,

will be found on pp . 14- 1 8 of the firs t part of

Fava and Bresciano’

s work . The only fresh pointmade in the presen t no te i s the d ist inét ion betweenthe two states of the type , in which conneCtion

the following grouping of the e ight books concerned may be of in terest

1 . Reve rsed N N with diagonal runningupwards from left to right) , double hyphen , e tc .

‘ Hieronymus : epistolae .

’ Hain P roctor6 747 . 8 2 8 ff.

‘ Aurelius Victor,Sextus Rufus.

’ Hain 2 1 3 5?

P roétor 6672 . 42 ff.

Zabarella : lectura super Clementinas .

’ Fava 81Bresciano 8 . 3 44 ff.

2 . Intermediate . Normal N,double hyphens .

‘ P aulus I I : regulae .

’ Hain 1 248 8 . P roctor6 67 1 . 3 6 ff.

‘ Terent ius : comoed iae .

’ Fava Bresciano 7 .

1 3 4 ff.

3 . Normal N ,no hyphens .

‘ Lapus de Castelho : allegat iones .

’ Hain 457 8 .

P roctor 6674 . 1 20 ff.‘ Paulu s I I bulla anni iubilei P roctor

6670 . 6 ff.

D om . d e Sanéto Gem iniano : super sexto Decre

tal ium .

’ Hain 7 5 2 9 . P roctor 667 3 . 3 1 0 ff.

I t may be poin ted out by the way that the twooffi cial publicat ions of the Pope are very unlikelyto have been printed anywhere save at Rome .

The only defini te date at taching to any of the

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3 24 R IESSINGER’

S PRESS AT ROME .

of the book . H e seems to be o therwi se ent irelyunknown .

P restantissimo : ac floribus eloquent ie purpurato ViroDom ino Symeoni Lucensi

ETS I me Fortuna adeo egenum : ad eoque inopem pro

tulerit : ut summis merit is in me tuis opera : laboreindustria tot isque meis u iribus aliquo pacto m inime satisfacere valeam . Tamen ne immemor beneficiorum pen itu

‘

s

u idear : saltem paruum hoc munusculum (quum maiora

nequeam) D .V . transm it tendum curaui : non u t hac tam

paruula re exist imem maxim is merit is in me tuis satisfacere posse : sed ne beneficiorum immemoris nomen

subeam 8 : quoad possum abhorrendum nomen effugiam

ne ue id quod egestat i : uel pot ius inopie mee ascribendum

duco : ingratitud ini : e t animi mei malignitat i ascribatur .

Verum te unum hum iliter obsecro : u t non munusculum

ipsum : sed perfeét issimam munuscul um dant is inten

t ionem inspicias . L ibellum uero perfe& issimo iudiciotuo corrige : 8c emenda : neque enim inscius sum : quin8c corrigenda : 81: emendanda nonnulla inuenies : quenisi nunét iorum importunitas foret : id iuxta me i ingeniol i

tard itatem effecissem . Vale d ecus : 8r specimen lingueLatine : 8: me pietate qua soles compleét i m inime

d ed igneris obsecro .

Rome tertio Idus apriles .

Quantulus est Matthiasd e fannellis.

V . SCHOLDERER .

ON GETTING TO WORK PARTOF A PAPER READ BEFORE THEPANIZZI CLUB

, 24 JUNE ,1 9 1 4 .

CUSTOMER at a shop (not be ing anexpert shop- lifter) , before he can obtainthe service he desires from a tradesman,

has,as a rule

,t o pay in cash or pledge

h i s credit for the t radesman’s remunerat ion . And for the sake of that remunerati on thet radesman i s content t o be obsequious , even humble .

But there are j ust a few services which the t radesm an i s accustomed (no doubt with an underlyingconsciousness that i t is ult imately for h is own

advantage) t o rende r for noth ing . A Hatter asksno payment for brushing a S ilk hat which has h i§name inside i t ; an Umbrella-maker will sew on agratuitous button ; a Fountain-

pen-maker will adj ust

the point of a refraCtory nib,and the Assistant, as

he hands i t back,will smilingly inform you that

there i s No Charge . I t i s very amusing to notehow pleased wi th h imself the average shopman becomes on these occas ions . H e i s no longer humbleor obsequious , but a g en i al human be ing, and atleas t one Librarian

,whenever he i s the recipien t of

these small favours and notes the effeét on the Shopman ’s manner, i s always inclined to thank Heaventhat in our occupation there is at least no immediate

3 29 PAPER READ BEFORE

conneétion be tween service and cash,and that to a

very large extent we are in faét the willing servantsof anyone who want s our help .

The t ruth is t hat the more useful a librari an canmake his library to i ts frequenters

,the more amusing

and interest ing it become s to himself,and thi s seems

to be the psychological explanation of the readinessof the great maj ori ty of modern librarians to ini t i atereforms

,even at the cos t of increasing the pressure

ofthe i r own daily work . In our gloomier moment swe call th is course of conduCt Making Rods for ourown Backs , and if anyone asse rts that the PanizziClub is an organizati on d ireét ly or indirect ly des igned to thi s end , i t migh t be rathe r d ifli cul t

‘

todeny it . The best counterplea

,indeed

,would be to

point out that the Club i s also an organizati on forkeeping the rods as far as possible in our own hands .The wri ters of the art icle In the ContemporaryReview ,

’ to which ult imately we owe our existence,sugges ted that our l it tle world of librarians couldbest be improved by means of a Royal Commission .

There i s one th ing, and only one,certain to result

from a Royal Commissi on—the publicat ion ,in a

more or less hole-and- corne r manne r,of a number

of quires of unpleasant paper, unpleasantly printedand s t i tched toge ther in an unpleasant blue cover,the whole eminently cheap produét ion beingusually of a size which preclude s i t from standingupright in any ordinary bookcase , and ranges withno thing but o ther unpleasant volumes of the sameorigin . In B lue-books of thi s kind there havebeen buried during the last few years an ambitiousscheme for the re-afforestat ion of these i slands , and

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3 2s PAPER READ BEFORE

our members are m en,not only in authori ty

, bu t

under i t . So long as we keep to general principlesand exhortations , there will be no great h arm

,i f 119

great good , in our proceedings be ing printed . Bu t

i t m ay be hoped that we shall often find ourselve sdiscussing in specific de tail what we should like todo , and as soon as we come to details some degreeofprivacy and confident iali ty is ve ry valuable . W e

need not make the Panizzi Club in any sense asecre t socie ty, but it is essential that we should beable to talk of our libraries and our plans for themwith a reasonable degree offreedom ,

and th i s is incompatible with any full public report of our diseussions . A premature paragraph in a newspaper,with the element of dis t ort ion which newspaperparagraphs seem inevitably to develop , might easilyh inder an importan t l ibrary from coming into somescheme for co-operat ion for which it s librarian waspersonally enthusiasti c . I t will surely be easier tosecure the confiden tial atmosphere we need in anindependent Club than in a p iI blic body such as theLibrary Associat ion .

If the right of the Panizzi Club to have comeinto existence i s thus incont rovert ible , i t s right tocontinue to exist must be demons t rated by i tsmaking itself useful . I t seems be tter to use thisrather vague phrase ‘ by making i tself useful ’ thanto say

‘ by the work which i t does ,’ because i t i s

h ighly probable that we shall do as much or moret o help forward our ideals by acquaintancesh ip andinformal talk as by formal debates and publications .Friendly relations between libraries will be greatlyfacilitated if they are preceded by friendly relat ions

TH E PANIZZI CLUB . 3 29

between librarians . When we have all got to knoweach other, we may be able t o work up gradually tothe ideal of linking up the fortuitous collection ofindividual l ib rarie s in this or th at d ist riét in toSome thing like a co-ordinated system .

The advantage in respeét t o social intercourse ofbeginn ing with small groups or branches is fairlyobvious . The advantage s of the group or branch inre spect to work are equally great . The last th ing

,

I am sure,

i

wh ich your Executive desires i s thatyear afte r year i t Should pick ou t some piece of

corporate work,and that all the members should

obediently lay aside the ir own work , or even the i rown hobbie s , and co- operate in th i s prescribed task .

If w e can spli t ourselves up int o small Branches,

each with its own special intere st s , w e shall pro

port ionately multiply our originat ing power,and

the work will go forward with the en thusiasmwhich the possession of the righ t of independen tini t iat ive usually bege ts .In s ome instance s , in Univers i ty Towns for

instance , any group that i s formed will be naturallyhomogeneous . Because of this homogenei ty

,and

because of the personal intercourse,which is so

much eas ier in small c ities than in large ones,

some of our Bri tish University towns are alreadycarrying ou t in praét ice a good many things whichw e

,in what I shall make bold to call the London

group , are only j ust beginning to talk abou t as

desirable . Thus at Oxford and Cambridge,where

most College libraries are only kept open for a fewhours a week

,if an accredi ted studen t desi re s

fac il it ie s for continuous s tudy of a book or

3 3 0 PAPER READ BEFORE

manuscript , as a rule (there may be exceptions as towhich our Chairman or Mr . Madan can tell us)he can secure that i t shall be sent to the Un iversi tyl ibrary for his use . At Oxford also a fine schemei s be ing carried out by which seve ral Collegesh ave commissioned Dr . Henderson Aitken to catalogue all the early books they possess which are

not in the Bodle ian . The number of these thusb rought to ligh t far surpasses

,I bel ieve

,all the

expeétat ions of the promoters .‘ Le t us hope that

they may thus be encouraged to ex tend the i r workto the later books as well as the early ones

,and

thus link up the i r catalogue with the co-ordinatedpurchasing , which is already praét ised to someextent , one college specialis ing in Law,

ano ther inHistory

,and so on .

At Cambridge,as we have been told in our News

Shee t,

’ a co-operat ive l ist ofle arned periodicals hasbeen for some t ime an accompli shed faét , and hasalready , I believe ,

produced economies in buying .

Trini ty College,moreove r

,has taken the exci ting

decision t o print a new edit ion of i ts Catalogue on

cards,and the Panizzi-an imaginat ion leaps at once

to this example be ing followed by one college afteranothe r, until a co- operative card catalogue for allthe College l ibrarie s i s brought into existence .

2 At

I t was pointed ou t during the d iscussion t hat as the on lyavailable basis for comparison was a catalogue of the Bod lm n

L ibrary more than half a cen tury old, any figures that have beenquoted must be subjeét to a considerable d iscoun t for early booksacqu ired since the catalogue was prin ted . Even

,however

,when

the fu l lest al lowance is made for th is,the success of the enterprise

remains ind ispu table and conspicuous.

2 There seems some rea l ground for hope that thismay come about .

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3 3 2 PAPER READ BEFORE

for the addressee to attend must quickly create an

impression of the uselessness of the Socie ty wh ichsends them out

,and thi s does not make for pros

peri ty . Speaking of course only as an individualmembe r

,I ventu re therefore to Cxpress the hope

t hat as soon as a Group or Branch is formed anywhere else , we London members may ask to beformed into a Group also

,and so be left free to

concentrate ourselve s on making good some of ourlamentable Shortcomings .The absence of any kind of co-operative organ

izat ion among the learned Libraries of London is allthe more deplorable because although , relat ively tothe populati on

,the quanti ty of books in London

Librarie s i s p robably rather below than above the

average,posit ively i t i s very large indeed

,and if the

be st use were made of our re sources few seriousneeds would go unsati sfied . As regards the exist ingstock ofbooks anyone who is not already acquain tedwith that admirable handbook

,Mr . Reginald Rye ’s

The Librarie s of London,

’ will have hi s eyesopened

,after he has spent an hour in reading it

,to

the existence of resources of which he probablyneve r dreamed . Some of the libraries which Mr .Rye ment ions are , no doubt , cramped for fundsof others

,perhaps many others , i t may be said

with some confidence that addi t ional money wouldreadily be forthcoming in answer to evidence thatthe use made of these libraries was steadily increasing, and that if more books were bought and

more money spent in salaries the rate of progresswould be proport ionately increased . At presentevidence of this kind i s d ifli cul t to procure . Until

THE PANIZZI CLUB . 3 3 3

a l ibrary is pre t ty well built up in the matter of

s tock,i t i s d ifli cult to persuade pe ople that i t

possesses any books at all , and considerable sumsmay be spent on i t wi thout perceptibly increas ingi t s populari ty . I t needs enthusiasm and fai th to

build up a l ibrary under these condit ions , and the

fai th and enthusiasm must inspire not only the

librarian but those who hold the purse- s t rings . I tsh ould surely he lp to engender these quali t ies ifCommittee s could be educated to bel ieve that theLibrary which they control has i ts di st inct and

individual part to play in the l ibrary-economy of

London,and that to keep it efficien t for th is pur

pose will b ring an ample harve st of credi t .While i t must be our business t o promo te co

operat ion,i t is well to remember that the idea that

a library can exis t to be used by anyone exceptthose who d i reét ly or ind ireét ly pay to maintain i ti s one which needs to be put forward wi th greatcaution . The primary responsibili ty of everylibrary i s

,of course

,to i ts own parti cular body of

readers , and if the slightest colour is len t to'

the

idea that these may suffe r from the l ibrari an takinga wider V iew of his funét ions, plans for co-operat i onwill be very seriously checked . Here also i t is Veryessent ial , as we began by saying

,that we should

keep the rods in our own hands . The worst wayof ge t t ing to work will be for individual memberson the i r own re sponsibil ity to st ar t some enquiryby means of a printed form ,

and send this roundwithout any - regard to the number of hours ’ workwhich filling up the form m ay en tail in this orthat l ibrary, or how much free time the i r brother

3 3 4 PAPER READ BEFORE

librarians may have at the i r own disposal . The

working powers of this Club depend enti rely on

the goodwill of i ts individual members, and w e

must do our best to prevent anyone from deprivingus of this goodwill by making himself a nuisance .

Two results seem to follow from these cons iderati ons . The firs t i s that w e Shall make both quickerand sure r progress if, without over-organizing ourselves ou paper , librarians of libraries of the sameclass c an get together for informal talks . A few

Tea-Part ie s ought sure ly to have great re sults .There might be one for College Librarians

,anothe r

for librarians of the libraries of Department s ofState

,a th ird for librari ans of Learned Socie t ies .

There i s no need formally to organize such SubSeét ions under Deputy-Assis tant-Chairmen or anysuch offi cials . A li t tle private hospit ali ty will doall that i s needed by bringing togethe r a fewmembers who will h ave an inside knowledge of

what can be done and what canno t be done in anygiven class of library

,without flouri sh ing rods over

anyone else ’s back .

The second suggest ion is that i t might facilitateboth the avoidance of obstacle s and the increase offunds if we admitted to membership

,in reasonable

numbers,influent ial persons who are professionally

intere s ted in l ibraries wi thout themselves be inglibrarians . I t would be easy to suggest namessome

,in fact

,have already been put forward by

members to whom this idea has occurred— and

the i r inclusion would surely s trengthen us verycons iderably .

For convenience of discussion i t m ay be well

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3 3 6 THE PANIZZI CLUB .

only by help ing to make i ts applicants happy thatother libraries could be of use to the Museum .

Under the st ress of the immense increase in the

output of fore ign books the faéts as to what was

be ing bought in othe r London l ibraries , and the

extent to which these librarie s were open to the

public or (if not to the public) t o all seriousstudents

,would become of more and more impor

tance t o those responsible for the Museum’s purchases . On the other hand , if there were consciousco- operat ion on the part of the great speciali stl ibraries of London,

th ese also would be able toefl’eét economie s by each of them be ing able tokeep more closely to its special i ty , in the confidencethat the Museum could be trusted to look afterthe subjefts with which no other great library was

spec ially concerned . To perfeét such a system of

co-operat ion i t was obvious that some in terchangeof notes of Accessions would be , v ery useful, and

any scheme which was proposed to bring thisabout would be sure of sympathe t ic considerat i onon the par t of the B ri ti s h Museum .

ALFRED W . POLLARD .

CO OPERATION AMONG GERMANLIBRAR IES BY MUTUAL LOANSAND THE INFORMATION-BUREAU .

IV

THE general figures for 1 9 1 2- 1 3 (compare the

‘Jahrbuch,

’

1 2 ,1 9 14, pp . 1 9 8 , 1 99) are

BorrowedVolumes Libraries

Berlin Royal Library 102

B e r l i n UniversityLibrary

Bonn do.

Breslau do .

Gottingen do .

Greifswald do .

Halle do.

Kiel do .

Konigsberg do .

Marburg do .

Munster do .

Aix-la-ChapelleTownLibrary 4 1 5 14

BerlinTechnicalHighSchool Library 200

Breslau Town LibraryBromberg do . 3 7 9Cologne do . 1

D antz ic do . 84D antz ic 8 2

DusseldorfTownL ib . 1,2 1 7

Fulda Landesbibliothek 1 3 7 1 0 492 1 3

4 1 9P

3 0 1

3 3 8 CO-OPERATION AMONG

Lent To Private To Borrowed FromVolumes Persons Libraries Volumes Librari es

Hanover RoyalLibrary 8 94 1 3 7 46 1,60 I 3 4

P osenKaiserWilhelmBibliothek 909 60 1 1 72 3 9S tettinTown Library 3 2 6 8 2 5 1 0

Munich UniversityLibrary 9 1 3 44 47 420 84

Dresden Royal L i brary 3 97 50

Leipsic UniversityLibrary 1

,0 8 5 2 1 6 84 92

S t u t tga r t Landesbibliothek 1 1 3 9TubingenUniversityLibrary 669 8 7

Karlsruhe H ofbi

bliothek 2 5 8

Darmstad t H ofbi

bliothek 93 5 40

Giessen UniversityLibrary 5 5MainzTownLibrary 27 1

Hamburg do . 7 9 6 5 6

Bremen do . 5 66 1 45 4 1 665 24Lubeck do . 6 1 1 92 9 6 5 5S trassburg UniversityL ibrary 79

Some details will illustrate the general figures .The R oyal Library at Berl in in 1 9 1 2

- 1 3 (the loansof the Commission for the General Catalogue of

Incunabula are not included) .

(a) In the P russian LeihverkehrSent 1 4 vols . to the P russian University libraries, and

received 5 6 8 .

Sent vols . to 3 5 S tate , P rovincial ,Town and publiclibraries

,and received 60 .

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349 CO-OPERATION AMONG

Library at Frankfurt am Main (Province of He sseNassau) , and the Landes und Stadtbibliothek atD ii sseldorf (Rhine province) : 208 vols . be ingsent

,2 7 3 rece ived . I t also sent 2 6 8 volumes to

8 Gymnasien,1 Realgymnasi um

, 4 Oberrealschulen,

1 Realschule,and 1 Theological College in i t s own

Province of Schleswig-Holste in . Beyond the

Prussian Le ihverkehr manuscripts and printedbooks were sent t o 6 State and Provincial lib raries

,

1 2 Unive rs i ty libraries , 2 Town l ib raries , 2 government ofli ces, 2 archives , 5 law courts , 1 academy

, 3bibliograph ical offi ces , 1 sc ient ific ins ti tution , 1 artgallery

, I lunat i c asylum, 1 school, 1 monastery

,

and 1 vicar : 1 0 in Schleswig-H olste in, 7 in the

re s t of Prussi a , 1 5 in the rest of Germany, 5 in

Austria - Hungary , 1 in Sweden,and I in the

Ne therlands . Manuscripts , records , and prin tedbooks were rece ived from 1 0 State and Provinciall ibraries

, 1 0 Univers i ty librarie s , 4 Town libraries ,1 government office

, 7 arch ives , 1 socie ty,and 2

othe r libraries : 2 in Schleswig-Holste in, 8 in the

re s t of Prussia, 1 9 in the res t of Germany, 4 in

Austria-Hungary,1 in Denmark , and 1 in Belg ium .

Passing to the local librarie s we may take the

teachers ’ l ibrary of the Gymnasium at Husum,

rece iving in 1 9 1 2- 1 3 2 3 volumes from the Un iver

si ty Library at Kiel and 4 from the Royal Libraryat Berlin .

Or to ins tance a public library : The S tad tbuch ere i at Elberfeld (Regierungsbezirk D ii sseldorf,Rhine province) in 1 9 1 2

- 1 3 sent 6 3 volumes to 8places in the Governmental department of D ii sseldorf

, to 4 place s in the re st of Prussi a, and to 3

GERMAN LIBRARIES . 34 1

place s in the re st of Germany ; and rece ived 20

vols . from 4 other Elberfeld libraries , 3 8 6 from the

University Library at Bonn, 2 2 5 from the RoyalLibrary at Berlin , 3 0 vols . from the Landes und

S tadtb ibliothek at D ii sseldorf, the Town Librarie sof Aix—la-Chapelle , Barmen

,and Cologne , the

Library of the Higher Commercial School atCologne

, and the Library of the Vere in fii r d ie

bergbaulichen In teressen at Essen (Rhine province) ;7 5 from the Universi ty Librarie s at M ii nster

,Mar

burg, GOt t ingen,Halle

,and B reslau , the Town

Library at Frankfort—ou - Main,the Gehe ime s

S taat sarchiv,and the Library of the Jew i sh Con

gregat ion at Berlin (the res t of Prussi a) ; 7 5from the State Libraries at Munich , Stuttgart ,Schwerin and Gotha

,the Unive rsi ty Libraries

at Jena and Strassburg, the Town Libraries of

Hamburg and Bremen, the Dist riét Archive s of

Speyer and the Comen ius Library at Le ipsic (therest of Germany) ; 2 from the Un ivers i ty Libraryat Graz in Austri a, and 1 from the Town Libraryof Bruges in Belgium .

As to the posi t ion of the borrowe rs , the Uni

versi ty Library at B onn for 1 9 1 2- 1 3 supplies thefollowing statemen t as to its readers and borrowers

In Bonn Out ofBonn

University teachers 1 3 1 2

Undergraduates 2,8 80 100

Clergymen 3 5 62

Lawyers and Government Funct ionaries

PhysiciansOfficials of scientific institutionsv

342 CO OPERATION AMONG

In Bonn Out ofBonn

Higher School teachers 7 6 42

E lementary School teachers 7 5 7Attendants

,etc. 2 3 5

Authors and artists 1 7 3Engineers

,farmers

,manufacturers

,

merchants 14

Military persons 6

Men without calling 1 2

Women 2 6 3 0

Authorities and i nstitutions (libraries) 2 6 1 5 8

The proportion ofworks asked for and rece ivedin 1 9 1 2

- 1 3 i s shown by the statement of the

Univers i ty Library at Got t ingenby llocal borrow

received not received , because ‘ lent ’

or‘not extant

9 5 97 50 1 4167 1 I Ii 3 07

[ 1 2 3 3 7 9]by non

-local borrowersI 7 .87 1 8 7 29 3 3 1 3 5 33 2 5 504

[48 84 [ 1 8 54 [29 8

The proport ion of the works asked for by theUnive rs i ty librarie s and rece ived from the RoyalLibrary at Berlin in

'

1 9 1 2- 1 3 i s shown by the

s tatement of the Royal and Univers i ty Library atBre slau : 4,5 5 3 works ( 1 9

°

7 of the works askedfor and not extant at the B reslau Library) we reasked for by the B reslau Library from the RoyalLibrary . The Breslau Library rece ived

were ‘ not available,

’

and (26 2° ‘

not

extant .

’

The Universi ty Library at Got tingen in 1 9 1 2- 1 3

or‘not transportable ’

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3 44 GERMAN LIBRARIES .

Neustreli tz ( I ) and at We imar the Government Library at Schwerin ( I ) , the Ducal Libraryat W olfenb ii t tel the Landesbiblio thek at Kassel

( I ) , the Unive rs i ty Libraries at Berlin BonnGott ingen ( I ) , H alle Jena Kiel (2)

and Marburg ( I ) , the Town Libraries ofAugsburg( I ) , Breslau ( I ) , Cologne ( I ) , Frankfort-on-Main

Hamburg Konigsberg (5) and Le ipsic ( I )and the Goethe Museum at Frankfort- on-Main

H e had to pay 2 5 Mark 80 Pfennige to theinformat ion- bureau

,and 7 2 Mark 40 Pfennige

for the sending and returning of the parcels . The

more volume s he rece ived from any given library ,

the less he had to pay for each . Thus he had onlyt o pay I 4 Mark 40 Pfennige for the 9 2 volume sfrom the Royal Library at Berlin about 1 5Pfenn ige for each volume

,whereas the highes t

expenses were 2 Mark for one s ingle pamphle t .ERNST CROUS .

REVIEW .

L ibrary of Congress . Cata logue of Opera L iorettos

pr inted aefore 1 800 . P repared by O. G. T.

Sonneck, C/zzigfof tne D ivision ofMusic. 2 vols .

Was/zington Government P r inting Ofiee. I 9 I 4.

T is only in recen t years that the importance of opera and oratori o libre t toshas been realised . In old days thel ibre tto quest ionwas dismissed off-handwith a repet i t ion of the often quoted

wittici sm that what i s too stupid to be spokenshould be sung . But nowadays we are beginningto discove r a good many things about li bre t toswhich our forefathers neve r suspected . No one

who has worked seri ously at the his tory of opera ororatorio can have failed to perce ive the enorm oush is torical value of libre t tos , which are often the

sole means of set tling the dates ofdiffe ren t vers i onsof the same work , and of reconst i tu t ing the i r re

spect ive text s . Had Dr . Ch rysander been able toconsult the l ibre t tos ofHandel ’s operas ,which wereoft en revised and rewrit ten , his edi t ion of thosel i t tle known and li t tle appreci ated works wouldhave been much more valuable t han i t actually is.

N or i s the purely artisti c s ide of the mat ter to beignored . The l i terary value of a great manylibret tos is no doubt not very h igh , but i t must be

346 REVIEW .

borne in mind that a libre tt o make s no pretence ofbe ing li terature pure and s imple . I t claims noexistence apart from the music for which i t i sdesigned , be ing as i t were a ske let on which i t isthe duty of the musician to clothe with flesh and

blood . I t has hardly as ye t been understood where inthe difference between a drama and a libret to l ie s ,though an e ssay by Mr . Robert Bridge s upon the

composi t ion of words for music,publi shed some

twenty years ago,threw a flood of light upon the

matter,and st ill deserve s to be read by all inte res ted

in the subject . The ord inary view of a libre t to isthat i t i s a drama which has gone wrong in the

baking, and i ts value is thought to l ie in the degreeto wh ich i t is independent of music . Thus that alibre t to can be performed as a play apart from allmusical se t t ing— a mons t rosi ty which aétuallyoccurred

,we bel ieve

,in the case of Wagner ’s

‘ Siegfried —is j udged to be the highest tributeth at can be paid to i ts excellence , and on all sideswe find plays t ransformed into Operas wi th but li t tleadaptation ,

while i t has s ome t ime s happened that amusician has se t to music the text of a play um

alte red and unabbrevi ated , as was the case withMascagni

’

s‘ Ratcliff ’

and Debussy ’s ‘ Pelleas e t

Meli sande .

’

So long as thi s confusi on of though twith regard to the essential feature of a libre ttoprevails , the subjeét cannot profitably be discussed,but i t may be hoped that a more reasonable era i sin prospeét , s ince we find that i t is poss ible to

produce such an elaborate work,and one showing

not nearly so much research , but so keen an interes tin the subject , as Mr . Oscar Sonneck

’

s catalogue of

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3 481 REVIEW .

The second volume includes a catalogue of the

authors of the l ib re t tos in the collect ion,anothe r

of the composers,and a th ird of the songs in

cidentally mentioned .

Mr . Sonneck has done his work exceedinglywell . H is system of arrangement i s lucid andbusines s-like

,and h i s annotat ions

,so far as we

have been able to check them,are as erudi te and

comprehensive as we should expect from a historianofhis repu t ation and abil ity . At some fu ture timeMr . Sonneck may see h is way to putting the worldofmusic sti ll more in his debt by best owing uponit an index of plots

,such as Riemann at tempted

on a much smaller scale in hi s Opernbuch .

’ Atpresent if one wishes , le t us say for instance to

t race t he operat ic h istory of the legend of the‘ Golden Fleece ,

’

one would have to search inMr . Sonneck’

s t itle-catalogue under a number of

different headings , ‘ L’

Argonauté in Colco,

’ ‘ I l

Vello d ’

Oro,

’ ‘ Giasone,

’ ‘ M edea,

’ ‘ Tcseo,

’

and,

for all we know , o thers as well . Bu t Mr . SOnneckhas given us so much that i t would be unj ust toblame h im for not giving us more . His cataloguewill be a priceless possess ion to s tudent s of the

h istory of Opera, and we t rust that the example of

the Library of Congress will spur other l ibrariespossessing fine collect ions of libret tos to emulation .

R . A . S .

Th i rd S e r i e s,

No . 20,VoL. V OCTOBER, 1 9 14.

THE LIBRARY .

SOME ROGUERIES OF

ROBERT WYER .

OBERT VVYER I i s important insocial h istory as almost the first of

Englishmen to make i t h i s ch ief business as a printer and publi sher to

purvey cheap books for the uneducated .

His dingy oétavos with the i r s tock woodcuts andworn type bring high prices now

,but when they

we re i s sued they were sold to those who could notafford the fairer volumes of Pynson or Grafton .

The substance of the books i s as charact eri st ic asthe form . Some offer the appearance of learn ingwithout i t s difficulty

,some appeal to current supe r

st i t ions , but most are pract ical books, contain ingrece ipts , especially medical formulas and direct ions ,and thus appealing to the desire of Everyman to

be his oWn physician and save a fee .

Early in h is career Wyer prin t ed ‘ The gouer

nauce of good b el the,by the moste excellent

I P lomer, Henry R .,

Robert Wyer, printer and bookse l lerB ibl iographical Soc iety 1 897 . Mr. P lomer gives an inter

est ing account of Wyer’

5 work,and a useful l ist of the books

printed or publ ished by h im .

V

3 5° SOME ROGUERIES OF

phyIOSOpher P lu tarche , the mostc eloquent Erasmus beynge int erpre toure .

" Plutarch ’s l i ttle essaywas appropri ate on such a book-lis t as W yer’s .At the moment , Plutarch

’s moral writ ings werein high repute for W i sdom as to the conduct oflife

,and some of them had been introduced to the

modern world by Erasmus and his group throughLatin t ranslat ions . Plut arch himself

,in his own

day,had been compelled to meet the arguments

of those who bel ieve that the ‘ philosopher ’ hadno business with medical topics, and begins h ises say by confuting the object ions of a certaint ruculen t Glaucus who despised philosophi c in termeddling . Sixteenth century physicians likewiseexpressed themselves wi th some sharpness whenthe i r mys teries were taken out of the learnedlanguages ; and Wye r or h is editor had reason forgiving a tang to the chapte r-heading : Of enuyousPhysicyans, that wolde not have any other to the

perfeét s tate of hel th e .

’ There were humour andforce in t aking weapons from the enemy ’s arsenaland calling Plutarch from antiqui ty as an authori tyon the s ide of amateur physic .The t ranslat ion,

as the t i tle declares,is from

Erasmus’s Lat in vers ion . In fact , so far is the

t ranslator from having Greek enough to deal withthe original , that h is l i t tle Latin i s inadequate to

The E .M. copy is No. 5 1 ofMr. Plomer’

s l ist ; the U .L .C .

copy No. 52 . As M iss Palmer (Palmer,Henriet ta R .

,L ist of

Engl ish ed it ions and t ranslat ions of Greek and Lat in classicsprinted before 1 641 . B ib l iograph ical Society, 1 9 1 1 ) ind icat es,t hey are of the same ed it ion ; to Mr. P lomer

’

s descript ion of the

RM . copy the ‘Cum priv ilegio ’

c lause,as in the U .L .C . copy,

should be added .

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3 5 2 SOME ROGUERIES OF

Plutarche (gentell reade r) abryged and for thy mostprofy t , deuyded into chapters .

’

The abridgementpromises t o b e exceedingly sligh t

,for as one reads

from page t o page,not a sentence i s omit ted or

condensed , though many appear in strange form .

But suddenly , in the fifth chapter, ‘ the readerfeels a more than commonly Violent j ol t . If he i sfollowing wi th the original

,he fumbles the page s

for a t ime,to perce ive at length that a leap has

been made ( 1 2 5 E med . t o 1 3 0 F of the Greek) ,and that with a few other shorter omissions thet ranslat ion goes on cont inuously to the end . The‘abrygem ent

’ i s achieved by s imply slash ing out

a th i rd of the original,withou t even making the

sentences comple te at e i ther end of the longes texcis ion .

But , one asks himself, may not an accident havehappened ? May not some pages have been lostin four hundred years ? In the Bri t ish Museumcopy the catchword at the bott om of fol . b ivverso i s thou ,

’

and the firs t word of the next pagei s ‘ Socrates . ’ Could a printer have neglefted t oobserve thi s discrepancy ? The signatures are com

plete and in orde r (A-D , in fours) , and the copyin the Universi ty Library at Cambridge i s likewisecomple te and contains the same error . In th e

Bodle ian copy , of another and a later edit ion ,2the

Between fol . b iv v erso and c i recto.

2 Not in Mr. Plomer’

s l ist . [T it le] The gouernafiejce ofgoodhelthe

,by the moste I excel len t phyIOSOpher Plu tarche, the most

e loquen t Erasmus beynge in terpretoure .

’

[Design ] 1I Thou

wyl t repen t that th is

7came not sooner to thy hande . I [S ig.]

a . [Colophon .] (I mpryn ted by me Robert Wyer. 1TCum

priuilegio regal i . I ad imprimendum solum . [8° in 45 . A-D .]

ROBERT WYER . 3 5 3

discrepancy i s correct ed , but wi thout giving co

herent meaning to the sentence which bridge s theaThe text W ill make the mat ter clear . All three

editions end the verso of fol . h iv with the s ame

fragment of a sentence :‘ Therfore as ofte as any

dayntye or gorgyous fare l s set te before v s, i t is

a great prayse to abstayne , than to taste thereofremembrynge the sayenge of Symonyd es, sayinge

that he dyd neuer repent to kepe scylence , butofte he was sorye that . ’ The Brit ish Museum and

Cambridge copies have the catchword ‘ t hou ’

and

proceed : ‘ Socrates dyd saye that a d aunser hadnede of a wyde howse .

’

The Bodle ian copy hasthe catchword ‘ thus

,

’

and goe s on with : ‘ thusordere th hymselfe shall neuer fele grefe of superfluyte . And after that yf thou have no space t owalke

, yet there shalbe no daunger, for naturehere in hath ouercom e all other

,as i t is not con

uenyent in a shyp or cOmon tauerne to cOmaunde

scylence, oncles you shuld be mocked,euen so i t i s

no shame at the table to moue d isputacion ,but i t

i s shame t o be afrayde of Maryners, to mocke the

Tapste rs or Hostele rs, to be a gamester or maker

of fraye s . But to teache or dispute,to be exer

cysed i n d isputacion ,to call t o remebraunce , by

honest thynges. Therfore Socrate s dyd saye thata daunser had nede of a wyde howse .

’ In otherwords, the sentence preceding the break is dealingwith temperance in eating ; that following the

break wi th S inging a nd argument as healthful exercise ; and the later editor has tried to smooth ove rthe interruption by s tart ing the second passage a

3 54 SOME ROGUERIES OF

l it tle further back in the e ssay so as to catch up asentence with a reference in it to superfluy te .

’

The second omission ( 1 3 5 E to 1 3 7 c of the

Greek text) i s in the midst of a page,and occurs

between comple te sentences .Plainly the se cuts must have been made from a

comple te t ranslat ion , for i t would have been im

possible for a translator to break off in one incom

ple te sentence and to begin again in another ; and

equally impossible for the later corrector to haveadded the new mat ter in the Bodle ian copy unles she had had i t before him . Moreover

,this t ransla

t ion must have been prin ted , for a prin ter sett ingup from manuscrip t would have had no morereason than a wri ter for leaving a sentence un

finished ; and if he had done so he would not havemistaken his catchword . Following the customof the day in reprint ing books of the same format

,

i t would have been easy for the compositor to takea ‘ thou ’ from the page before him

,and to skip

wi thout observing the discrepancy,perhaps upon

a hasty order from the foreman to cut out so manyleave s . In fine , the re was a crude Engli sh t ranslat ion ofErasmus ’s vers i on of Plutarch ’s D e tuenda

Sani tate,

’ printed before Wyer published ‘ The

Gouernaunce of Good Holthe ,’ and th is translation

Wyer ‘ abridged ’ for h is public in the rough and

ready fash ion indicated . Even under the lax moralcode govern ing the book-publishing of that t ime

,

to call a Plutarch so mangled an abridgement hasa ce rtain impudence not without charm . N ow apublisher doe s not do such th ings once . Indeed

,

for a publisher seeking catchpenny cheapness the

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3 5 6 SOME ROGUERIES OF

hand ; and a new book i s made with the mostt radesmanlike indifference to i ts quali ty .

A bolder and , if we m ay so,a more magnificent

and succes sful example of the same cynical business me thods is t o be found in the ‘ Compost of

P tholom eus.

’

The book was firs t printed by Wyer

(about was reprin ted by him 2

(about1 540 was licensed to I . Colwell in 1 5 6 3 and

was alive into the early seventeenth century,having

been li censed to Henry Gosson in The‘ Compost ’ has dece ived the world to this day

,

be ing catalogued in the B ri tish Museum as a translat ion of the ‘Quadripart i tum ,

’

and en tered by MissPalmer 4 i n a non-comm i tal way under the nameof Ptolemy with no indicat ion of i t s original .Now

,the ‘ Quad ripart i tum

’ i s a very systemat ic,

caut ious,and if such a th ing may be , scientific

book of j udic i al as trology . I t require s a gooddeal of astronomical know ledge even to be unders t ood

,demands exact obse rvation of the heavens

i n the carrying out of i t s d irect ions , and ins is tson a careful balancing of a multi tude of inferences 1 in the predict i ons of the future made unde ri t s guidance . Th e t i tle-page of the ‘ Compost ’

looks sui t able to the ‘

Q uad ripart i tum .

’ Ptolemyin kingly robes—he was t radi t ionally supposedto have been a royal Ptolemy— i s observing the

s tars wi th a quadrant,an armillary globe at h i s

s ide ; and a woman (d stronomye ? ) behind h im is

No. 7 in Mr. Plomer’

s l ist .2 No . 26 in Mr. Plomer

’

s l ist .3 ‘ S tat ioners’ Reg ister,’ ed . Arber, vol . v, p. 2 5 .

4PP~

ROBERT WYER . 3 57

pointing to the heavens and guiding him in hisobse rvat ions .Bu t when we turn to the in side of the book

diffi culties arise . Here and there are passagesquite close to the ‘

Q uadripart i tum’

; others are

vaguely reminiscent ; s t ill others seem to have no

counterparts in Ptolemy’s Greek or in any Lat int ranslation of i t . Moreover, Wyer

’s t i tle declare sh i s Compost ’ to be ‘ from the French ,

’ and therewas no French translat ion ofthe Quad ripart i tum

’

as ye t made in Wyer’s day . The Compos t as a

whole emphasizes the connect ion be tween the

aspects ofthe s tars and human heal th—under whats igns to le t blood , what is the proper regimen forspri ng—not

.

so Ptolemy . The P tolemy of the

Compost ’

i s a devout Chris tian,achieving a fai th

which would have done honour to the s tar-ledwisdom of the ‘

Quadripart i tum .

’

The Ptolemyof the ‘ Compost ’ give s rough-and- ready horoscope s ; the Ptolemy of the Quadripart i tum sugges ts so many modifying elemen t s that no definitepredict ion would ever seem poss ible under h iscautions . Most s triking of all

,the Ptolemy of the

Compost ’ i s not an impersonal savant,but a m em

ber of a great brotherhood,

‘ these astronom iers,’

who are widely spread and have a fixed regimenof life . By

-and-by a sense of puzzled familiari tymay ari se in one ’s mind

,and in an instant

,on

Iou la traduct ion des quatre l ivres

des iugements des astres. Paris,1 640. Quant a le met tre

en Francois personne n’

a paru iusques icy qu i l’

a it en trepris’

(preface) . No b ibl iographica l authority l ists a translat ion earl ierthan L

’

Uraine .

’

3 5 8 SOME ROGUERIES OF

placing side by side a passage from Wyer’s Compost and the t ranslat ion of the French Composte t Kalend rier d es Bergiers,

’ printed by JulianNotary in 1 5 1 8 , or by W ynkyn de Worde in 1 5 2 8 ,the familiari ty is explained and the puzzle disappears . ‘ A portion of the author ’s prologue willsufli ce .

FROM ‘TH B KALENDER or

SH E PH ERnas’

As here before iyme there

was a Sizep arde kepynge Slzepe

in the fe/a’

es/whiclze was no

clerke nobad novna’erstand ige

ofy‘ lettera ll sence nor of no

manor ofscripturenorwrytyngebut of bt

'

s natura l" wy tte es

vnderstad ige sayd . How be i t

y‘ lyuynge 85 dyenge be all at

y°

pleasure ofalmyghty god .

Ye t ma may lyue by y‘

course ofnatur . lxxii . yer

or more this was lzis reaso.

And he saith as moche tyme

as a man bath to growe inbeau te/ length brede th and

strength . So moche tyme

hath he to waxe olde and

feble to his ende : But the

terme to growe in beaute /hyghte and strengthe is

Differences are indicated by i talics

FROM P TOLEMY ’SCOM POST .

’

Pt/zolornens say t/ze thatlyuynge and dyeng is all

at the pleasure ofalmyghty

god . Yet lze say th tha t a

man may lyue by the course

ofnature lxxii yere or more .

And he say th a lso as moche

tyme/as aman hath to owe

in beau te length bred theand strengthe . So mochetyme bathe he to waxo oldeand feble to his ende . But

the terme to growe in beaute

hyghte and strength isD r. H . Oskar Sommer (

‘The Kalender of Shepherdes.London

,1 892) in h is reprint of the Paris 1 503 t ranslat ion and

Pynson’

s ed it ion I 506, includes Notary’

s prologue in the pro

legomena, pp . 3 8

-9, and I have depended on the text there given .

The text ofthe Compost is that ofWyer’

s earl ier ed it ion .

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3 60 SOME ROGUERIES OF

all the compost / more hendeth rully all the Com

for'

the a’ayes houres and post.

moments/and the'

newe nzoones

and the eclyps of the sonne

i f the moone and the sygnes

tha t the moone is in eu’

ery daye

this boke was made

for them that be no Gierkes

to brynge them to greatv nd erstandyngc . 1THe saydalso, y

tthe d esyre to lyue

longe was in h is soule /the which alwaye laste th /Wherfore he wolde that hisdesyre were accomplysshed

after h is deth as afore . H e

sayd syth the soule dyethnat in her is the d esyre

to lyue longe : it shu ld

be an infal lyble payne /nat to lyue after detheas afore for he thatlyueth nat after his cor

porall deth shall nat hauethat/that he hathe d esyred ;that is to wy t te to lyuelonge and shuld abyd e in

eternall payne if his d esyrewere nat accomplysshed . Soconcluded the sayd Shepardenecessary thinges for bym

and other to knowe and

do that which appertayned

to lyue after dethe as be

Therfore sayth this Sheparde

,I wyll lyue soberly

And thisp resent boke ismadefor them that be ofsma ll lernyngo to brynge them to greatvnderstandyng . Thus P tho

lomeus sayd also that the desyre to lyue longe was in hissoule the whiche alwayelaste th Wherfore he woldthat his d es rewere accom

plysshed afi'

er his deth as

before . H e saydo sy th the

soule dyeth nat/ana in i t isthe desyre to 1 no longe/itshuld be an infiillable payne(nat to lyue after dethas before) for he thatlyueth nat after his cor

porall deth shall nat hauethat/that he hath d esyred

(that is to wete) to lyuelonge 8c shuld abyde in

eternall payne/ifhis d esyrewere nat accomplysshed . SO

concluded the sayd P tholomens necessary thynges for

bym and other to knoweand to do that whiche appertayned to lyue after deth as

before

Therfore sayth this P tholomens I wyl lyue soberly

ROBERT WYER .

with these small temporallgoodd es that Ihesu hathlente me and euer to

exyle the desyre ofworld lyt yches and world lyworshyp.

For they that laboureth forit Sc haue loue to theirgoodes ; And vayne worshyppes Of it departethman fro the heuenly treasour . I t shet teth manes

herte that god may not

entre,and byldeth man a

place of no rests in the

lowe lande ofd erkenes .

3 6 1

with these small temporalgoodes that Ihesu hathlend e me : and euer to

exyle the d esyre ofworldlyryches and world ly wor

shyp. For they that labourfor it : 85 haue loue to

theyr good s 85 vayne wor

shyppes ofte it d epartethman from heuenly treasoure . I t shyt teth manes

herte that god may nat

entre . And buyldeth man a

place Of no rest in the

lowe lande ofd erkenesse .

In brief,The Compost of P tholom eus i s ‘The

Kalender ofShepheardes,’

the Shepard e,’

or thatShepard e

’ becoming and ‘ theseShepardes

’ ‘ these Astronom iers.

’

The book of

Wye r omits the table of con tents,the calendar

,the

t ree of Vi ces and the puni shment in hell,the means

by which a man may lead a vi rtuous life and the

garden of virtues, and contains only two of the

five main parts—namely , ‘ Physike with the

goue rnail of bel the ,’

and Astrology,with physi

ognomy and s im i lar subject s . From the partsre tained i t omits the decorat ive and charmingport ions—the woodcuts wi th the i r explanat i on s andthe ve rse . The alte rati ons made in order t o giveveri similitude t o the substi tu t ion of ast ronomersfor shepherds are few and sligh t indeed .

‘ In

prime tym e ,

’ for example,

‘ Shepardes kepe themselues metely well clothed

,not oue r cold e no ouer

hote,as with lynseywolsey , doub le t t es of fusti an

,

3 6 2 SOME ROGUERIES OF

and gownes of a m ee tely length furred with lombemost commonly .

" ‘ In prim etym e,P tholomeus

2

kopte him selfe l ikewise me tely well clothed,

’ andused lamb ’s wool to fur his gown ,

but was cladwi th thyn vestures

,dowblet s of silke .

’ In winter,

howeve r,l ike the shepherds

,3 as P tholomeus dyd

the Astronomyers4 nowe doth - they were clothed

‘ in thycke gownes of rough clothe .

’

In general the headings are made clearer inWyer’s ‘ Compost

,

’

and the text has been slightlymodified in the di rect ion of lucidi ty . There are

some bad guesse s—apparently efforts t o correct thetext ly ing before Wyer’s editor : [a man is illwhen he]

‘swe te th not often ’

(Pynson,1 506 ;

Sommer, p . 1 09 , 1. misprinted ‘ sheweth not

often ’

(Notary , 1 5 1 8 ; D e Worde,

correct ed to ‘

spueth ofte (fol . c i recto) .‘ I t prouffyte th

moche to fyxe and emoroides’

(Pynson ,1 506 ;

Sommer,p . 1 05 , l . 27 ; same in 1 5 1 8 and 1 5 2 8)

—i . e . to flyxe , fl ux—i s changed to‘ delay the

emoroyd es’

(fol . d 3 recto) . Ozyron,a m i spri nt

for oryzon [horizon] , and braunches for haunches,

are made consis tently incorrect in Wyer ; and

these,with othe r charact eristics , indicate that

his text fil iates from Notary’s 1 5 1 8 edi tion th roughD e Worde ’s of 1 5 2 8 .

’S

The Kalender of Shepardes’ was an attract ive

but costly book,and i t was natural for Wyer to

adapt i t after h is manner to h is public ; but whyshould the doorstep of Ptolemy have been chosen

Sommer, p. 1 1 2 . Compost,’ fol . e 4 v erso.

3 Sommer, p . 1 14.

4 fol . fI v erso.

5 The 1 528 D e Worde is in the Bodle ian Library .

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3 64 ROBERT WYER .

Wyer’s book , as has been said , was regarded as

saleable down t o 1 6 3 2 at leas t . The latest textextant , printed by M . P . for Henry Gosson

,n .d

but perhaps the work licensed to Gosson i n 1 6 3 2 ,

is the text of Wyer ’s second edition,with the

language modernized , and wi th the s tyle madeclearer and less redundant . A chapter on palmistryhas been added at the end , and geographical informat ion based on the discoveries of the century—Greenland, Virginia , the Cape ofGood Hopei s included in the book .

The elemen t of fraud in these publicat ions of

Wyer’s was observed by chance in a study not

primarily concerned with Wyer and his ways,and

in which these th ree books were almost the onlyone s from Wyer ’s prin ting-house cons idered . The

t ime at the pre sent wri ter’s command does n otpermit of an inve s t igat i on int o Wye r’s work as a

whole . Perhaps some s tudent more fortunatelysi tuated m ay be led t o ascertain whe ther i t was bthe hab i tual pract ice of such me thods of businessthat Wyer made his way to the re spectable posit ionofchurchwarden .

‘

H . B . LATHROP .

1 An expression Of thanks is due to the staffs of the Brit ish

Museum ,the Bodle ian L ibrary, and t he Un iversity L ibrary at

Cam bridge for courtesy shown to the writer. In add it ion,Mr.

A . Rogers,of the Un iversity L ibrary at Cambridge

,has la id h im

under spec ial obl igat ions by k ind and valuable assistance .

BIBLIOGRAPH ICAL AND TEXTUAL

PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISHMIRACLE CYCLES .

IV .—LUDUS COVENTR IAE .

HE cycle of miracle plays pre servedin a Cotton ian manuscript , and knowncommonly as the Ludus Cov ent riae ,

"

i s one of the chief puzzles ofour earlydramat ic literature The name under

which it passe s i s unfortunate,for one of the few

things concerning i t ofwhich we can feel t olerablycertain i s that i t has no connexion wi th Coventry .

Th e person responsible for the e rror is Cot ton ’sli brarian,

Richard James,who in the earlier part

of the seventeenth century wrote the followingdescription in the beginning of the manuscript :‘ Contenta Novi Tes tament i s cenico expressa e t

act i tata olim per m onachos s ive fratres mendicante svulgo d ic i tur hic l iber Ludus Coventriae , s ive ludusCorporis Christi : scrib i tur met ris Angl icanis.

’ I thas not unnaturally been supposed that James basedh is note upon some t rad iti on which reached himalong with the manuscript i tself. 2 There i s , how

Brit ish Museum,Cot ton ian MS .

,Vesp . D . V l l l . The best

account of the problem is that given by E . K . Chambers,

Med iaeva l S tage,

’

i i. 4 1 9, to wh ich I am much indebted .2 Presumably from Robert Hegge of Durham

,author of ‘The

Legend ofSt . Cu thbert,

’

who has left h is name in the manuscript ,and who

,l ike James

,was a member of Corpus Christ i Col lege,

Oxford . The cycle is consequent ly somet imes known by the not

very happy name of the Hegge Plays.

V CC

3 66 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLI SH

ever,no sufficient reason to suppose that this was

the case . The manuscript already bore , in an

Elizabethan hand , the t i t le,

‘ The'

plaie calledCorpus Christ i ,

’

and the Coventry miracle s we reby far the most famous Corpus Chris t i plays inEngland . I t will be noticed how James uses theterms ‘ Ludus Cov ent riae ’ and ‘ Ludus CorporisChrist i ’ as though they we re synonymous . Hisvalue as a wi tness i s not enhanced by his describingthe collecti on as confined to the N ew Test ament

,

a limi tation which applie s to the Coventry guildplays

,but not to the collect ion in quest ion . More

over,the Covent ry Greyfri ars ’ plays , which i t i s

clear James had in mind , are almost certainlyan invent ion of seventeenth century antiquaries .Lastly

,not only is the manuscrip t clearly the work

of an East—Anglian scribe , , but , as He rr Kramerhas shown

,the dialect ofthe plays themselve s bears

no relat ion to that of Coventry,being ofa much

more eas te rly type .

‘ W e must,therefore , give up

the Covent ry legend altoge ther . The only sugges t ion ofa locali ty in the plays themselves is thet antalis ing announcement in the prologue that

A Sunda next, yfthat we may,

A t six 0 the belle we gynne oure playIn N towne,

Max Kramer,

‘ Sprache und He imat des sogen . LudusCovent riae,

’

1 892 . H is conc lusions are on pp . 6 8-9 . He be l ievesin a rather problemat ical ‘ urhe imat im sfidl ichsten ostm it tellande,

’

possibly W iltsh ire, bu t agrees that in its present form the cycle‘ dem nOrdlichen ostm it tellande angehOre .

’He also th inks ‘ dass

d ie aufze ichnung im norden stat tgefunden hat,

’

which seem s

quest ionable .

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3 6 8 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

account of the cycle that has so far appeared ;but even th is i s not wholly sat i sfactory , s ince , as

Chambers himself observe s,i t i s obvious that con

siderable portions of the cycle we re not intendedfor divi sion at all .For the in ternal h istory of the plays we have

th ree main sources of informat ion : the make-upof the manuscript

,the indications of division

afforded by the sc ribe , and the comparison of theplays as we have them with the descript ions givenus in the Prologue . Of course

,beyond thi s there

are general guides afforded by internal connexionsbetween individual plays , resemblance s and differonce s of s tyle , and the evidence afforded by the

diffe rent me t re s used . Broadly, the fi rs t two

source s may be said to be bibliographical and the

res t l ite rary, and i t i s only by using both kinds tothe utmost that we can hope t o disentangle the

his tory of th i s very complex cycle . In whatfollows I shall say enough to make plain the

bearing of the bibliographical evidence , bu t I wishto s tate at once that the more minute bibliographical analysi s applie s ch iefly to mat ters theimportance of which i s only apparent when we

come to crit i cise the const ruction of the cycle infar greater de tail than is possible in a lecture suchas th is .As regards the subsidiary sources of information,

I shall repeatedly have occasion to refe r to correspond enc ies or contradict ions be tween differen tplays

,and shall attach a good deal of we igh t to the

evidence they afford . On the other hand, I shallsay very li t tle about s tyle , all j udgments thereon

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 69

being notoriously subject ive . The quest ion of

me tre will necessarily occupy our attention a gooddeal , since the evidence i t affords i s of the greates tpossible help . I may say at once that the mostimportant me trical forms employed in the cycleare three in number . The firs t is a stanza of

thi rteen l ines riming a b a b a b a b c d d d c Thisrime-form is of a well-known northe rn pattern ,

be ing that of the whole body of Scot ti sh s tanzai calli terat ive verse

,and also of t he dis t inct ive com

positions of the great W akefield playwright . Irefe r t o these s tanzas for short as ‘

th irteeners .

’

The second is a stanza of e ight lines riminga a a b a a a b or a a a b c c c b . In some passage sthe lines are much shorter than elsewhere

,and

some t imes the e ight l ines are cu t down to six .

These variat ions appear to be intent ional . Bothlonger and shorter forms are very familiar

,be ing

for instance the metre of the bulk of the Ches tercycle ; they are often known as romance e igh tsand sixes . I refer to them indifferently as romancestanzas . ’ The third me trical form is the e ight-lines tanza riming a b a b b c b c . Of this there are tworather well-marked variet ie s according as the line sare long or short . I call them ‘ long ’ and ‘ shortoctave s ’ respect ively . Certain other forms

,none

very elaborate , also appear, and will be describedin the i r pfoper place s . They are les s importan tthan the above

,and the to tal range i s far less

extended than in e i ther of the great northerncycle s .There i s one cri t ical principle that I wish to laydown as regards me tre . I t i s th is

,that

,although

3 7o PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

there i s no reason why more than one s tanza shouldnot have been used in the or i g i nal composi t ion ofa s ingle play, an author would not change from one

to another wi thout some rat ional cause . I t followsthat wherever a change of stanza occurs wi thoutdiscoverable reason we are j ust ified in supposingthat we have not got the play in i ts original form .

This canon has been commonly assumed by cri t ics,

and I do not think , if i t i s reasonably applied , thatanyone i s likely to quarrel wi th the results .W e will now see what s ort of evidence may be

expect ed from each of the three chief sources ofinformat ion which I mentioned before . The

manuscript i s wri t ten on paper— this happens tobe fortunate—and the s ize i s quarto .

‘ Almost allthe leaves have been detached and mounted on

guards,but a se t of late s ignatures , in conj uncti on

with the water-marks , enables us to reconstructthe original quire s with all bu t absolute certainty .

Wi th the exception of one play the whole originaltext is in a s ingle hand .

2 This is a good plainhand of the second half of the fifteenth century

,

showing marked East-Anglian peculiari ties ; nearthe middle of the manuscrip t occurs the date146 8 , and there i s no reason to doubt that th is isact ually the date of writ ing . The play of the

Assumption,which immediately precedes ‘ Dooms

day ,’

is in a different h and , the home of which isless clear . Halliwell (p . 4 1 8) assigned this hand to

That is to say, each leaf is one quarter ofa shee t . S trict lyspeaking, even a paper manuscript has no format .

2 There are a few inc idental add it ions which are not in the

same hand as the text .

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3 7 2 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

contained the i ncident ofMary Magdalen washingthe fee t of Chris t , an incident which , unlike the

Last Supper,really did take place at the house of

Symon . The catchword was ye t again alte red .

‘

The othe r most conspicuous dislocation is the

insert ion of the Assumption play W e havealready seen that th is i s wri t ten in a different handfrom the rest of the manuscript . I t is also wri ttenupon an independent quire of quite diffe rent paper,which i s inserted in the middle ofwhat is now the

last qui re of the codex . Previous to the insert ion,

Doomsday followed qui te regularly upon Pentecost . ’ The pre sen t arrangement

,however, dates

from the original make-up of the manuscript,for

the ‘Assumption ’

t akes i ts place in the consecut ivenumbering indi cated by the original scribe by meansof large red numerals placed in the margins .Before passing on I should like to conclude what

the re i s to be said about the ‘ Assumption .

’ I t i san independent insert ion wri tten in a differenthand . I may so far an t icipate as to say that therei s no mention of i t i n the Prologue . All th issuggests that i t may have had an origin differentfrom that of the other plays . After a carefulstudy I have not been able to detect any difference

The insert ions occur at p . 263 of Hal l iwe l l’s ed it ion,imme

d iately afte r the stage d irect ion (which is de le t ed in the manuscript) .Th is d irect ion was original ly immed iate ly fol lowed by the speech

of Judas,

‘ Now cowntyrfet ed,’

on p . 267 . The earl ier insert ionincludes from the speech of Jesus

,Myn herte is ryght sory,

’on

p . 265 to the end of the stage d irect ion on p . 267. Th is dupl icatest he passage on pp. 2 74

-5 . The subsequent insert ion inc ludes fromthe speech OfMary on p . 263 to the end of the stage d irect ion on

p. 265 .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 7 3

of dialect , and in any case , as we shall see later on,

the extremely complex origin of the cycle mustnecessarily de tract from the value of any evidencethat dialectal peculiari t ies migh t afford . There i s ,however

,one st riking characte ris t ic that must force

i tself upon the attention of anyone who studiesthe play in the original manuscript , though it iscomple tely obscured in the printed edition . Iallude to the me trical form which is peculi ar inthe extreme . The play i s wri t ten in thi rteeners

and octaves of rather long and clumsy lines,bu t

these st anzas are linked toge ther by means of intercalary lines usually repeating the fi rs t rime ofthe following stanza . The rubricat or thoroughlyunderstood the me trical structure in tended , for heprefixed a large paragraph to the firs t line of eachstanza

,and a small one to the first line of each

intercalary group . I may be exposing my ignorance

,but I do not remember to have met wi th

this device elsewhere . Nothing at all s imilaroccurs in the rest of the cycle . I t suggests thatthe play was written in imitation of the stanzaicforms found elsewhere in the cycle by one whosepowers of composi tion were inadequate t o the taskofforcing his matter int o so exact ing a metre .

The instances of dislocat ion I have de tailed willgive some idea of the nature if not of the extent ofthe bibli ographical puzzles that anyone who wishe sto make a serious s tudy of the N-town cycle willh ave to face . Over and above the combinationofdiffe ren t source s and the repeated revision of thetext before i t came in to th e hands of our scribe at

all, we have complications in troduced by the fact

PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

that h is act ual manuscript appears in parts to havebeen cut about and re- arranged like the pieces of apuzzle .

I pass now t o what I called our second mainsource of information ,

and as briefly as I can I willgive a general outline of the text as the scribe haswritten and divided i t . H e has split up the cyclein to a number of separate plays by means of largered arabic numerals placed in the margins of theleaves . Doomsday is numbe red 42 , but the number1 7 has accidentally been omitted , so that the numberofplays into which the scribe saw fi t to divide thecycle is act ually 4 1 . Halliwell makes 42 , Chambers

43 ; the Prologue records 40 . But while in partsthe act i on falls naturally into separate scenes , whichare wri tten as individual plays or pageants , in othe rsthe c omposi t i on and wri t ing are alike continuous ,and all divi sion and numera t i on purely arbi t rar

y.

For ins tance , the second play 1 8 made t o begin i n

the middle of a s tanza . In referring to the playsI use th roughout the numberin of the scribe .

‘

The firs t three pla S— I , the lfrst day ofCreationand the fall of Luc if

icr ; 2 ,from the second d ay to

the Expulsion ; 3 ,‘ Cain and Abel —are written

quite cont inuously . I t would appear to have beenthe original i ntent ion of the scribe to make play 4,

Noah,

’ cont inuous likewise,for he has placed the

Readers must be so good as to bear in m ind that ne ither the

numbering nor the d iv ision ofthe plays as I g ive them necessarilyagrees w ith Hal l iwel l ’s ed it ion . As a ru le

,the re lat ion w il l be

obv ious to anyone who fol lows the prin ted t ext , bu t in cases where

d ifficu l t ies arise I add footnotes giv ing the exact reference to

Hal l iwel l ’s text . The second play beginsw ith the speech ofDeusnear the foot ofp . 2 1 .

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3 7 6 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

stage directions , and to take place on “a number or

scaffolds disposed round an open space .

The same i s true of the next group . This openswith another prologue

,introducing a proce ss ion

,

and contains the Passion and Resurrect ion . Therei s an appearance of Contemplat io immediately following the prologue and beginn ing play 29 , andthe writing is con tinuous down to the end of the‘ H ortulanus

’ scene . This is a ve ry complex group,

and the insert ion of the numbers 2 9 t o 3 7 i s forthe most part quite arbi trary .

The las t group again consis ts of separate and

independent plays : 3 8 ,‘ Emmaus ’ ; 3 9 ,

‘ Ascons ion ’

; 40 ,

‘ Pen tecost ’ ; 4 1 ,‘ Assumption of the

Virgin 42 ,Doomsday .

’

The end i s lost .Now

,in the speech by Contemplat io,

whichforms a sort of second prologue or preface to the

Passion group,there occurs a remarkable reference

t o ‘the matere that we lefte the last yere .

’ Thishas been the subject of frequent comment

,and i t

i s clear that,in the form for which this preface

was des igned , the cycle , whateve r i t may havecompri sed, was intended for performance in yearlysect ions . I t has been le ss generally remarked thatthe preface clearly s tates that the matte r that ‘ lastyere we shewyd

’ began with the Entry—i n otherwords

,that i t comprised no more than the imme

d iat ely preceding group of plays . If,therefore

,

Contemplat io’

s prologue i s intended , as i t presumably i s, to apply to the cycle in i ts presentform

,we must suppose that this was mean t to be

acted in several, according to the above analys i s insix

,yearly sect ions .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 77

The th ird main guide in our invest igat ion i s thecomparison of the text as we find i t wi th the

descr ipti on of the individual pageants supplied bythe vexillatores of the Prologue . This i s by farthe most powerful instrument of crit i cism at ourd isposal

, and t o i t and to the me t rical and otheranalysi s of the plays themselves we must now turn .

I propose to go more or less sys tematically th roughthe cycle , and as I go I shall gather toge ther whatever evidence I can find for the unravelling of the

problems it pre sents . You will,of course

,under

stand that in such a lecture as this i t is imposs ibleto do more than brush the surface of a fascinat ingsubject and select a few of the more s triking pointsfor comment . Our survey must needs be cursory

,

and I must ask your indulgence if in the course ofi t I touch upon certain points the bearing of whichmay not be immediately apparent . I t must suffi ceif by the end of my allot ted hour I can producesufficien t points of evidence t o warrant the verygene ral and provisional inference s I propose to

draw .

The Prologue i s spoken by three ‘vexillatores

’

or standard beare rs,who reci te in turn the subj ect s

of the various pageants . I t is composed,l ike a

large portion of the cycle i tself,in thirt eeners.

As a rule one st anza describes one pageant,but

occasionally the descript i on fills two s tanzas,or one

s tanza describes two pageants . Two stanzas nearthe beginning are imperfect , cons is ting of fourlines each , space be ing left in the manuscript forthe i r comple tion . Towards the end four stanzasare dist inguished by the greater length of the i r

3 7 8 PROBLEMS OF TH E ENGLISH

lines,and have apparently been rewritten . The

fi rs t stanza is int roductory , the last valedictory .

The pageants as described in the Prologue are

numbered,but the numbering has been tampered

with by the original scribe . The first seven are

regular, we then proceed : x , x, xi , xii , xiv , xv ,xvi ; then j ump back to xv again and proceedregularly to xl . The i rregular numbers are allover erasures, the original nume ration from i to .

x1 having been perfect ly regular . What has happened is that the scribe has endeavoured to bringthe numbering of the Prologue into agreemen twi th that of the text . H e succeeded in doing th isall righ t as far as play 1 6

,but when he discovered

that h e had omitted the number 1 7 altoge therfrom his numerat ion of the text

,he appears to

h av e given up his at tempt in disgust . I refer to

th e pageants of the Prologue throughout by thei ror iginal

,not by the i r altered numbers . ‘

According to the Prologue the first play contains the Creat ion of H eaven and the Fall ofLucifer ; the second , the events from the SecondDay to the Expulsion from Paradise . This agreeswith the text . But w e have already remarkedthat the text, or rather the rubrication

,begins

play 2 in the middle of a s tanza . Such an arrangement i s clearly impossible , and we are forced tothe conclusion that in th is instance at least thePrologue was not wri tten for the text as i t stands .

Hal l iwe l l,ofcourse

, prints the al tered numbers in h is text of

t he Prologue . I also fol low the pract ice of the manuscript in

referring t o the p lays themse lves by arab ic numerals,to the

descript ions in the Prologue by roman .

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3 80 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

appearance ofthe Angel to Noah the me tre changest o oct ave s of long l ines , which cont inue to the end

of the pageant . In the lat ter porti on occursa very remarkable passage . The author namelyavails h imself of the in te rval of a hundred yearsthat elapse while Noah is absent building the

ark, to int roduce the apocryphal s tory of, thedeath of Cain at the hands of blind Lamech

, an

incident not elsewhere treated in the Englishdrama . Of th is there i s no hint in the Prologue

,

a fact which points to the play there describedbe ing the original th i rteener play , the openingof which is alone extant in the text

,though it

cannot be held to afford act ual proof that this i sso . I t should be Obse rved that the s tage direct ionsin the octave port ion—‘ Hic recedat Lam e th c t

s t at im int rat N oe cum navi cantantes,

’ ‘ E t sic

reced ant cum navi ’ -seem to imply a fixed openstage on t o which large proper tie s could be brought

,

not a movable pageant .The fifth play i s the ‘ Sacrifice of I saac .

’ I t i sa quite regular play in octaves , the line s of whichare

,however, ve ry much shorter than in the pre

ceding piece . Like all the plays in short oct aves ,th is of I saac is perfectly independent , and i t ismarked off from its ne ighbours by the heading‘ Int ro i tus Abrahe ’

and an‘ Explici t ’ at the end .

The descript ion in the Prologue i s couched in fartoo gene ral te rms to enable us to say whe ther i twas written for the extant play or not .The sixth play contains the Giving of the Law

to Mose s . I t i s again an independent play inshort octave s . The Prologue is in general agree

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 8 1

ment with the text , though i t i s t rue that i t doesnot expli ci tly menti on the Burn ing Bush as thescene of the Lawgiving " Considering , however,what an unusual subj ect for a play the inciden t i sin English drama, i t is difficult to re sis t the con

elusion t hat , in sp ite of the difference of met re ,the description in the Prologue was actually wri ttenfor the pageant we possess .The las t of the Old Te stamen t plays is a

P rophe tae ,’ another independen t pageant in short

octaves . Prophe t plays , of course , abound, and

there would be no reason t o suppose that the one

described in the Prologue was in fact the one now

found in the text , were i t not for the st ress whichboth Prologue and text lay upon the ‘ Radix Jesse .

’

W e now pass t o the second group ofplays , whatwe m ay call the Incarnat ion sect ion ,

and agreementwith the Prologue ceases abruptly . The separatepageants are l inked toge ther by speeche s of Cont emplat io . In a sort of preface th i s charact e rpromise s a representat ion of event s down to the

Visit to Elizabe th ‘and therw i th a conclusyon .

’

This promise i s fulfilled . But i t i s the first threeplays

,namely the ‘ Conception

,

’ ‘ Presentat ion,

’

and ‘ Marriage of the Virgin,

’ that are the mostintimately connected , there being appearances ofCont emplat io in the intervals be tween these plays

,

numbe rs 8, 9 , and 1 0 . The Annunciat ion

,

’ play1 1

,also begin s with a speech by Contemplat io,

but th is i s e i ther a mere blunde r on the part of

the scribe or else a ve ry clumsy piece of botchingon that of the reviser . For an exam i nat i on of thepassage in the manuscript prove s beyond all doub tV DD

3 8 2 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

tha t , of Contemplat io’

s four s tanzas,the first two

should be spoken by the Angels and the secondtwo by the Archangels . ‘ There i s no further ap

pearance of Contemplat io t i ll the end of the Visitto Elizabe th

,

’ play 1 3 , when he make s h is promisedconclusyon .

’

Speaking ve ry generally,and disregarding in

ser t ions and revision , we may say that the Con

cep t ion and Presentation ,’ plays 8 and 9 , together

with the Vis i t to Elizabeth,

’

1 3 , are in longoct aves , the ‘ Marriage ’

and ‘ Joseph ’s Trouble,

’

plays 1 0 and 1 2 ,in th irt eeners

,and the ‘Annuncia

t ion,

’

1 I,in sh ort oct aves . The speeches by Con

The passage is certain ly assigned to Cont emplat io by the

scribe,but at the top of t he page , above the first stanza (the re is,

of course,no head ing), there stands in the manuscript i .e .

Primus. Before the first l ine of the th ird stanza is the figureStanzas 5 and 6 are spoken by Virtutes, stanza 7 by Pater

God), after which the d iscussion is carried on by Veritas, M ise ricord ia

,Just ic ia

,and Pax . N ow

,e lsewhere Con templat io is an

expositor who takes no part in the act ion ofthe play . But in the

four stanzas assigned to him here the de ity is d irect ly addressed,

and the in tercession on man’

s behalfbegun, wh ich is carried on inthe speech of t he V irtues. I t is c lear then t hat the speaker or

speakers of these l ines (for the manuscr ipt c learly suggests that we

have to do w ith two Speeches, not one) must be characters of t heplay on a par w ith the V i rtues. W ho they are appears from t he

l ines in speech of the lat ter :Aungelys, archaungelys, we thre

,

That ben in t he fyrst ierarch ie,For man to th in hy mageste,Mercy, mercy, mercy we crye .

Ange ls,archange ls

,and v irtues do in fact form

,in ascend ing order,

the first or lowest hierarchy of heaven ly be ings. Bonaven tura,upon whose

‘Med itat iones’

the subsequen t ‘

parl iamen t ofheaven ’

is u l t imat e ly based, m ent ions the int ercession of the ‘ beat issim iSpiritus

’

in heaven,and there could be no point in the playwright

select ing the V irtues alone .

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3 84 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

temple , whereas the present play , like the Prologue ,make s her paren ts bring her to the temple

,in

response to the priest ’s summons,in her twelfth

year . Again ,the Prologue explici tly states that

at her departure the pries t provides her with threemaiden compani ons , whom the text duly introduce s by name , Susanne , Rebecca , and Sephor.

The play has been interpolated . Two passages inoctave s have been inserted after the present manuscript was wri tten,

a th i rd towards the end of theplay belongs to an earlier date . In thi s the linesare fairly short , though it can hardly be assignedto the short octav e group . As we have seen inthe previous play , the long oct ave writer couldcompose quite short line s when b e pleased

,and I

have no hes itat i on i n regarding this passage,which

deals with the Psalter, as an insert ion by the handthat wrote the Fifteen Degrees above . There i sno ment ion of i t in the very full de script ion in the

Prologue .

The Annunciat ion play , in short oct aves , is one

of the most remarkable in the cycle . I t beginswith what Contemplat io (in the link be tweenplays 9 and 1 0) calls the parlement of hefne ,

’

the

well-known contenti on of the four daughters ofGod

,and then proceeds to a Salutation s imple in

des ign ,but elaborat e and dist inct ly ecclesiast ical in

composi t ion . Now the stanza in t he Prologuedescribes a qui te simple Annunciat ion play of theusual type

,and canno t by any possibili ty have been

written for the play we have in the text . Observein part icular that the Prologue expres sly s tate sthat Mary ’ s three maidens hear the Angel ’s voice ,

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 8 5

but see no one , while the text makes no menti onof them whateve r . This connects the piecede scribed in the Prologue with the foregoingMarri age play , and there i s no temeri ty in the

conj ecture that the original p iece , displaced by thepresen t composi t ion in octaves , was l ike the

Marriage,

’ written in th irteeners.

The next play both in Prologue and t ext is the‘ Joseph .

’ Clearly i t was originally a th irteene rplay

,though but few fragment s in thi s me t re now

su rvive . For i t is connect ed with the Marriageand Annunciation plays of the Prologue by the

reappearance of Susanne and Sephor in th irteene rpassage s . The play aswe have i t i s , however, chieflywrit ten in a ten- line s tanza riming aa b a ab b c b c ,which we have not m et before . That the mixtureOfme t re s i s not original is proved by contradict ionin the text . As i t s tands , namely , the appearanceof the Angel to Joseph is in response to a prayerby Mary , wri tten in the ten- line stanza

,that God

would enlighten her husband,S ince She herself

would rathe r suffer shame than reveal the originof her condit ion . So at leas t I read the passage .

Bu t thi s she had already repeatedly done in the

earlie r thirteener port ion . This fact points ratherto borrowing from a differen t source than t orevision proper . Th ere i s no direct Cv i dencethat the combinat ion took place later than the

For I have levyr abyde respy t ,To kepe th i sone in priv ite,

Graun tyd by the Holy Spyry t ,Than t hat i t xulde be Opynd by me .

’

Hal l iwel l, p. 1 2 1 . But respy t should sure ly be despy t .’

3 86 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

composit ion of the prologue,though i t is, of course ,

natural to suppose so . The Visi t to Elizabe th,

’

which comple te s thi s group , is, as we have alreadyseen,

unrepresented in the Prologue .

The next group includes the Nativi ty and M issionary Life of Chris t . The plays comprised in i tare independent ofone anothe r . The firs t two havethe peculiarity that the s tanzas describing them inthe Prologue are imperfect . In e i ther case fourline s only are wri t ten ; these j us t ment ion the

subj ect of the play , and a blank is left in the manuscript for the complet ion of the stanza . That thisi s not due to accidental damage t o the copy thescribe was following is shown

,not only by each

quat rain be ing comple t e~ in i t self

,but also by the

fact that , as w e shall see i n a moment,the intro

duct ion of the second of these plays account s for adiscrepancy between the Prologue and the text inthe one that follows .The play numbered xii in the Prologue and 1 4

in the text is a remarkable composi t ion headedPagentum d e purgat ione Marie e t Joseph .

’

The

subj ect , unknown e lsewhere in English drama,i s

t reated in short oct aves wi th a good deal of rudeforce . A prologue , not originally contemplatedby the scri be , has been prefixed .

‘ I t i s in romancestanzas

,top ical and comic .

As original ly w rit ten,the p lay began w ith the stage d irect ion

,

Hal l iwel l, p . 1 3 2 . The scribe prov ided the fol low ing stanza

w ith a three- l ine in it ial,and pu t the p lay num ber

,1 4, in the

margin opposite to it . But when he d id th is he had not yet

fin ished w rit ing p lay 1 3 . He had got , I th ink, as far as the l ine‘He xal remedy it whan i t plesy th h is mercy

’

(p . wh ich was

the end Ofh is copy for that play, and he left nearly two and a half

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3 8 8 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

The thirteeners must be fragments of the originalplay

,the opening of which has been bodily cut

out as duplicating what went before,while the

remainder has been almost wholly rewritten . I tshould be observed that the half burlesque name sof the shepherds in thi s play serve to connect i twith the comic prologue to the ‘ Purgation ’

in the

same stanza.

Looking back for a moment, we shall now

perce ive t hat the original cycle described in the

Prologue began , so far as the N ew Testamen t playsare concerned , with the serie s : ‘ Marri age of theVirgin ’

(two plays) ,‘ Annunciat ion

,

’ ‘ Joseph,

’

Nat ivi ty and Shephe rds,and that all these were

writ ten i n thirteeners. Sub sequently a d ifferen tAnnunciat ion play was subst i tuted

,and Purgation

and Midwives ’ plays were added from a differentsource in short oct aves . The original Nativity andShepherds play was revised presumably at the same

t ime . The Prologue was amended so as to includethe two new plays , but no systematic attempt was

made to bring i t into accordance with the text .The Joseph play was also revi sed, but at an un

certain date .

The makc-up of the manuscrip t shows that theMagi play

,Prologue xv

,text 1 8 (should be

i s a ve ry compos i te affai r, but the details are

singularly obscure . There are fragments of a presumably original th irteener play, but most of thepiece i s in romance s tanzas , and five quatrains oflong line s have been prefixed by a revise r .The Prologue now immediately proceeds t o the

‘Massacre of the Innocents . ’ The text inte rpolates

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 89

a play on the Purificat ion . I t is a quite regularplay

, and i s ent i rely composed in the t en- linestanza already noticed in the ‘ Joseph .

’ I ts nonappearance i n the Prologue proves that the re

vision of the ‘ Joseph must have been subsequentt o the in troduct i on of the ‘ Purgat ion ’

and the‘ Midwives . ’

The ‘ Massacrc of the Innocent s ’ occupies twoplays in the Prologue (xvi , xvi i) , but only one inf

the text Dist inct ive points in the descriptionof the forme r are that the Knights bring in deadchildren to Show to Herod

,and that Death appears

and kills him and his kn ights,the Devil taking

thei r ‘ souls . Both points appear in the text , theforme r

,howeve r

,in a romance

,the lat te r in a

th irteener passage . In general , indeed , t he earlierportion of the play i s in the one

,t he latter in the

othe r s tanza . What seems to have happened i sthat an original play in th irt eeners was expandedin to two plays by the addition of romance mat ter,that the present s tanzas of the Prologue werewritten for this expanded play

,and that i t was

subsequently cut down again to i ts presen t d im en

s ions . I t should be noticed that th e in i tial s tagedirect i on , belonging to the romance portion‘ Tunc resp iciens senescallus vadyt ad H erodem

,

’

connects wi th the end of the Magi play,a fact of

in teres t alike as proving the Insertion of the‘ Purificati on ’ to be later than the work of the

romance revi ser,and also as i llustrating the tendency

of that writer to contemplate continuous repre

sentat i on .

‘ Chris t and the Doct ors ,’ Prologue xvii i

,text

f

3 90 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

2 1 , the‘ W oman in Adultery ,

’ xxi and 24,and

the Raising of Lazarus,

’ xxii and 2 5 , are regularshort octave plays , and agree wi th the Prologue

,

though it cannot be confidently asserted that thestanzas in th e lat te r must have been written for theextant plays . In part icular the remarkable and

lively drama of the Adulteress seems rather inade

quat ely described . The Baptism and Temp ta

t ion of Christ ,’ Prologue xix , xx , text 22 (not

2 3 , also agree with the Prologue, andare in th irteeners. This conclude s the th i rd sect ionof the cycle .

I t would be useless on th is occasion to make anydetailed analysi s of the Ent ry and Passion sect ions

,

since the problems they present are far too complicated to yield to any but the most minute inv est igat ion . A few very general remarks must therefore sufli ce . The most striking feature of thesesect i ons is the appearance of a s ource which hasnot so far been in evidence

,even if i t h as been

present at all . Considerable port ions of th i s partof the cycle are

,namely

,wri tten in a mixture

of quatrains , some of long , some of short lines , andof couplet s . To what extent the forme r m ay be

due to the breakdown under revision of earlieroctaves we need not inquire

,s ince th is can hardly

accoun t for all cases in which they appear . But

that considerable revision and rewriting has taken‘

place i s evident . The correspondence with the

Prologue,except in one important respect to be

The scribe cance l led two leaves at the beginn ing of this play,and in the ir place inserted one leafw ith the verso not qu ite fu l l .On th is inserted leafhe forgot to repeat the play number.

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3 9 2 PROBLEMS OF TH E ENGLISH

is substant ially in thi rteeners,which proves that

the cycle must have originally contained a play on

the real Suppe r at the House of Simon ofwhichthe Prologue has lost all t race .

The Passion sect ion i s in troduced by a processionof the Apostles in terpre ted in quatrains by twoDoctors . This is wri tten as an independen t Prologue , not forming part of any numbered play

, and

has several blank pages before and after i t . Bu t

the play immedi ately following opens wi th anotherprologue by Contemplat io which supplies us withthe famous clue as to the yearly sect ions . Throughthe Trial the correspondence between the text andthe Prologue vanishe s altoge ther . Bu t from im

mediately afte r the Condemnat ion four Prologueplays

,numbe rs xxx to xxxi ii

,agree in essent ials

with four plays,numbers 3 2 to 3 5 , as marked in

the text , ‘ and though the corre spondence i s notperfect i t i s clear that s t ill less i s i t fortui tous .Now these four s tanzas of the Prologue havelonger l ines than the rest

,and there can be no

reasonable doub t that they we re written after thetext had assumed approximately i ts presen t form .

They are,therefore , much later than the i r ne igh

bours . A good deal of the lat ter part of the

Passion,part icularly the Harrowing of Hell and

the Resurrect ion ,i s wri t ten in romance s tanzas ,

and the frequent changes of scene and the connecting direct ions sugges t that i t was actually wri ttenfor a polyscenic stage . The sect ion ends withwhat i s really an independen t short oct ave play on

the Appearance to Mary M agdalen,which agree s

‘1 Hal l iw el l

, p . 3 1 6, speech of‘Primus to p . 3 53 foot .

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 9 3

with the description in the Prologue (numbers 3 7and xxxv) .The last divi sion of the cycle opens with an

Emmaus play, number 3 8 . This i s duly describedin the Prologue as pagean t xxxvi , but whereas thelat te r contains the Peregrini episode only , the textincludes the return of the disciple s and the Incredul i ty of Thomas as well . Moreover

,the two

portions of the play are distinguished by be ing,

the fi rst in short, the second in long octaves .

Now,the Incredulity is the subject of play xxxvi i

of the Prologue,a distinct pageant, the de scription

of which,however

,i s included in one stanza with

pageant xxxvii i,the Ascension .

’ S ince the Aseens ion play of the text

,number 3 9 , i s in th irteeners

,

w e m ay infer that the Prologue‘ Increduli ty ’ was

probably in the same metre . I t follows that theoriginal play has been cut out and the loss made goodby an addition to the preceding Emmaus pageant .The Ascens ion play

,number 3 9 , or what is left

of it,i s

,I have said, in th irteeners. Bu t i t has

been severely cut down . Some four stanzas are allthat remain . Then comes a small blank in the

manuscrip t followed by three stanzas,lacking

speake r’s name,which describe the elect ion of

Mat th ias . Halliwell print ed these as though theywe re part of the foregoing speech of the Angel .They doubtless belong to Pe ter . There is no suggest ion of them in the description of pageant xxxvi i iof the Prologue . Presumably

,therefore

,they are the

remains of an originally independent play on th iss ubj ect which has been cut out of the Prologue l is t .The play of Pentecost

,number 40 ,

has been

3 94 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

even more cruelly cut down , three s tanzas aloneremaining , the first of which was strangely m isprinted by the editor. ‘ One word of warning Iought to add . Although what rema i ns of these two

plays i s in thi rteener stanzas , these are not of theusual type . The usual formula begins a b ab ab ab °

here we have a b a b b c b c . I t is,therefore

,possible

that the se pieces may not be original .The Assumption ,

’ play 4 1 , which follows next ,has been already sufficiently described ; 2 i t i s un

represented in the Prologue . The last of all,

‘ Doomsday,

’

number 42 , i s again a regular thirteener play , and agrees with pageant xl of the

Prologue so far as i t goes . But i t is imperfect owingto the loss of a quire at the end of the manuscript .N ow

,what conclusions are we to draw from the

fact s noticed ? A few I h ave ventured to suggest aswe went along , but i t remains t o formulate somesort of general theory as to the growth ofthe cycle .

To begin with , the Prologue has been revised at

two different per iods and by two diffe rent b and s.

Four stanzas near the end have been rewritten afterthe Passion sect ion had assum ed more or less itspre sent very late form ,

and the rewri ting was doneby one who was unable to imitate the terse shortl ines of h is model . But the two imperfect stanzasinserted earlier prove that there had been a previousrevision by a writer whose work is not metri callyd istinguishable from that of t he original author .

The curious jumble that appears at the head of this p lay in theprint ed text real ly const itu t es t he fi rst four l ines of the first stanza

,

t he names be ing t hose of the speakers.2 See p . 3 72 above .

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3 96 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH

and short octave plays have been modified by theaddi tion of matte r in romance stanzas . Now the

t ask of the first revise r of the Prologue was,

we saw,precisely the combinati on of thirteener

and short oct ave sources ; and the Prologue take saccount of romance passage s . The conclusionseems inevi table that the comb iner of the two

sources,the firs t revi ser of the Prologue

, and the

romance author are one and the same .

Of the quatrain and couple t portions I do not

propose to speak . They seem to point most likelyto an independent source

,but the whole problem

ofthe Entry and Passion sect i ons i s too complicatedand obscure to be t reated on this occasion .

The insert ions in the Joseph play in a ten-l inestanza , and the whole of the ‘ Purificat iOn in thatme tre

,are almost certainly borrowings from an

independent source sub sequent to the first revisionof the Prologue . They are remarkable for the i rmore lyrical t one .

The re remain the thi rteener and short octaveport ions only . In the ‘Annunciation we found a

clear case of a play in short octaves be ing subst i

t u ted for an earlier one presumably in th irteeners,

and a s imilar process was traceable in the Nat ivi tygroup . I t is clear, therefore , that the sh ort oct aveplays are intruders . Did they come from an independen t source , or we re they writ ten expre ssly forinsert ion in the pre sent cycle ? If we are righ t inregarding the curious speech of the Bapti st in the

Ent ry sect ion as a fragment of a short octaveBaptism play

,th e former i s the correct alternat ive .

And , in any case , the absence of any work of a

MIRACLE CYCLES . 3 9 7

revisi onal nature in thi s stanza points st rongly tothat conclusion . Moreover, the plays in shortoctave s are the most sharply defined and indepen

dent of the whole cycle , and are,therefore , in

striking contrast t o the work of the m an respon

sible for thei r int roduction,whose original compo

si t iou favours cont inuous representat i on .

This brings us to the conclusion, which I regardas be ing as certain as anything in so complicated acase can be

,that the cycle consis ted in the first

instance of a homogeneous se ries of plays in the

thirteener stanza .Le t m e bring th is lecture , and wi th i t my course

as Sandars Reade r , to a close by resuming as

briefly as I can what seems to m e t o have beenthe h i s tory of this remarkable cycle . An originalseries of plays

, the extent of which cannot now becertainly as certained

,but must have been cons ider

able,composed throughout in a distinct ive stanza

of th irteen l ines , with a Prologue in the same

me t re, was modified and expanded by the subst i

tu t ion and insertion of other plays drawn fromanothe r cycle written ,

so far as w e know throughout , i n short- lined oct aves . The amalgamat ionwas effected by a reviser who himself worked overthe whole and made addi t ions in the romancestanza . I t was apparently this same reviser whowas re sponsi ble for working up two sect ions of thecycle , the Entry and the Passion

,int o continuous

wholes , and in the se he would seem to have drawnupon another source , which is, to say the least

,

not in evidence elsewhere . H e also revised the

Prologue somewhat perfunctorily , inserting stanzasEE

3 9 8 PROBLEMS OF THE EN GLISH

in the original me t re (but some t imes imperfect ) tocorre spond with the new plays he had introduced

,

but,in cases whe re he had substi tuted a new play

for an old , usually leaving the original stanza, evenif i t did not accurately descri be the new piece

,and

refraining from touching the descript ion of the

two sect i ons he had recas t .After he had fini shed h is work one whole play

and port ions of a second were introduced from yetanothe r source , dist inguished by i ts unusual t en- lines tanza as well as by stylist ic peculiari t ies of i ts own .

A different reviser wrote and inserted in the

cycle what pract i cally amounts to three wholeplays of the Incarnat ion group

,bes ides considerable

passages elsewhere,all in long- lined oct aves .

Lastly, ye t another reviser, i t would seem ,

wrotethe dist inct ive Contemplat io preface s and links ,and worked over various portions of the cycle tono small extent . H e imitated various met res

,t e

wrote four stanzas of the Prologue in the Passionsect ion to agree with

'

the text in i t s final form , andpossibly added the Assumption play as an originalcontribution .

I have spoken of these revisi ons as successive .

That is the natural way to regard them,bu t i t may

not be act ually t rue . The work of the last reviserw as clearly going on while the extant manuscriptwas be ing wri t ten . Bu t when the scribe wrotethe Purgation play he certainly had not before himthe first re

'

viser ’s int roduction to i t . Of course , thelas t reviser may have omitted to hand it to h im .

But i t is als o possible that there we re several revisersat work upon the cycle abou t the same t ime , circa

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RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE .

OR the moment,while battles hurtle

in the air,books are ne i the r writ ten

nor read . Doubtless,if the war

,as is

feared,be a protract ed one

,th ings will

in some measure righ t themse lves .In th is connect i on I may perhaps recall to myreaders the fact that we were engaged in a

European war,with a very short period of peace

,

from 1 7 9 3 t o 1 8 1 5 , and that some of our greatestmodern l iterature

,poet ry and prose

,appeared

during those years . To take only the great names,

Wordsworth and Coleridge prod uced thei r finestwork be tween those dates ; Walter Scott all h ispoems and the novel of Waverley ; Southey hi slong poems and the ‘ Life of Ne lson ’

; Campbellthe volume of ‘ Poems ’ containing the

fines t war songs in the English language ; Byronthe firs t two cantos of Childe Harold and JaneAusten ,

‘ Sense and Sensibili ty,

’ ‘ Pride and P re

j udice,

’

and N or thanger Abbey .

’

The list .mighteasily be extended

,but there i s sufficient mat ter to

afford hope for the pre sent and future .

People will presently begin once more t o read ,if only t o distract the i r minds from the terrors ofwar .Novels will probably be chiefly sought , but hi storymight be read with interest and profit . A me recursory study of history would prevent the state

RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE . 40 1

ment I saw the other day that the English love of

l iberty began with the French Revolution . The

writer had evidently forgotten such t rifles as the

s igning of the Great Charte r and the execution ofCharle s I .And while new books are t o seek

,we can read

over again some old one s , and as war is the subjectuppermost in our minds

, we might for a beginningmake our choice among the French literaturedealing wi th the Franco-Prussian War . I suggestfor repe rusal such books as ‘ Le s soire’e s de Médan

,

’

a collect ion of storie s of 1 870 ,containing one of

M aupassant’

s masterpieces,

‘ Boule d e Suif,’

and

Zola’s ‘Attaque du Moulin ’

; volumes of shorts torie s by Alphonse Daude t or Frangois Coppée ;Georges D arien

’

s‘ Bas les Cmurs,

1 870 and Birib i,

’ which de scribe the Frencharmy in no favourable l ight

,i t is t rue

,but with

realist ic touches and much vivaci ty, and where we

get a gl impse of the Prussians and the i r methodsofwarfare in 1 8 66 and 1 870 :

‘ d es Prussiens,des

v agabondes,'

des Cosaques manqués i ls saventvous t i rer dans le dos pendant que vous bourrezvot re pipe . C ’

est tout ’ ; the series of novels bythe brothers Margueri te ; Zola

’s ‘ Débacle,

’

and

those novels by René Bazin,Maurice B arrés

,and

Paul Acker,dealing with the wrongs of Alsace

Lorraine , or showing the virtues of a conscript army .

A few books of interes t were published,how

ever, before the outbreak ofwar.Ernes t Renan ’s ‘ Fragments int imes e t roman

esques’

m ay be regarded as a supplemen t to the

autobiography of h is youth . The most important

4o2 RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE .

of the fragment s , ‘ Patrice ,’ reprinted here , was

written at Rome in 1 849 . The descript ion of theRome of the Popes contained in i t adds an especialinterest to th e study of religious psychology thati t actually is .

There is also a fragment of a novel , the story oftwo young people , Ernest and Béat rix ,

who loveeach other, but who are des t ined for the rel igiouslife

,and are separated first by duty

,and then by

death in the midst of the Revolution .

The s ixteen let ters to (theAbbé) Liart , a boy friendof Renan,

give an interes t ing pict ure of the life oftheseminaries in the th i rd decade of the last century .

Liart d ied at Trégu ier at the end of March,1 845 .

Some of the later le t ters were published in part inRenan ’s Souven irs de Jeune sse .

’

Thegem of the book i s ‘ Les Confessions de

Fel icula,’ a perfect piece of prose wri tten about

1 8 80 .

'

The scene i s laid at Lyons in the secondcentury A .D . Renan always had a special likingfor Lyons

,and the myst ic spiri t

,fert ile in religious

manifestat ions, of th at ancien t c itadel of the Frenchrace . The tale opens thus

‘

Je naquis dans cette contrée montagneuse qui sépareles eaux du Rhone d e celles de la Loire

,et sert d e sicge

principal a la tribu gauloise d es Segusiav es on étaitalors sous le régne du pieux Antonin . Toutes les pensées,bonnes e t mauvaises

,se produ isaiert en toute liberté ;

c’

était un bonheur, une joie d e vivre . Ceux qu i n’

ont

pas vécu en cc temps ne peuvent se figurer comb ien on ya Vécu . Tou t était m is en d iscussion ; le coeur n

’

était

pas séparé d e l’

esprit . On passait les nuits 2 s’

entretenir

d es doctrines nouvelles qui naissaient d e toutes parts .

’

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404 RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE .

the sent imental cris is through which,i t i s said

,

most m en and women pass in middle l ife . Bourge tdeals with i t as i t affect s m en . Bu t i t i s morethan a study in sent iment , i t i s a study also of themodernism in the Roman Catholic Church agains twhich Bourge t i s fighting . H e defends him selffor making religious theses the subj ect of a novel ;he declares he is se tt ing before hi s readers a dramaof religious conscience , and as wi tness for the

defence , calls up Walter Scott in the followingdelightful passage

‘ Dans cc chef-d’oeuvre qu i s’

appelle en anglais“Old

Mortality,”

et , en francais, les P uritains d ’

E cosse ,Walter Scott, cc génial initiateur, nous a donné un modcle

accompli d e la maniére dont cc domaine peu t étre exploité,sans que l

’

art iste tombe u i dans le pamphlet, ni dans lad issertation théologique, ~ —égales erreurs des qu ’il composeun roman . Son Balfour d e Burley, le fanat i ue tentateurd

’

H enri Morton, qui cite l

’

E criture l’

épée a a main et se

liv re é d es méditations spirituelles entre deux ambuscad es,

demeure sa plus étonnante création peut-étre. E t cepen

dant,quel peuple d e figures inoubliables Scott a m is sur

pied e t avec quelle vigueur d e touche, quel pouvoir mer

veilleux e t créd ibilité " Je n’

ai certes pas la prétention ,

permise seul au Balzac, d e riv aliser d e prés ou d e loinavec le Grand Ecossais . S i j

’

ai rappelé son nom 51 la

premiére page d’

un livre ou est raconté un d rame d e con

science réligieuse, c’

est simplement pour bien prouver,par cc rappel, que les défauts d u Démon d e m idi ” ne

doivent étre reproché qu’

a l’

au teur et non au genre , e tque l

’

art du roman peut s’

at taquer légitimement,sans

se d énaturer, meme 3 ce t ordre d e suj ets . C ’

est aussipour rend re hommage une fois d e plus a cet ancétre tropméconnu chez nous aujourd ’

hui,a ce grand romantique

conservateur.

”

RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE . 4o 5

Louis Sav ignan as a young m an had been in

love with a gi rl who , t o save her parents fromruin ,

had been forced to marry a rich m an .

Sav ignan when the story opens h as become a

famous historian,and is the edi tor of a great t e

act ionary Catholic periodical , Le Ge rme .

’

H e i sa widowe r

, 42 years of age , and has one son . The

husband of h i s Old swee theart,who is ignorant

that h is wife and Sav ignan had eve r been ac

quaint ed , is the prime move r in a scheme to re turnSav ignan as deputy for the district . Thus Sav ignanmee t s h is old love again , his pass ion revive s , andthough until then he had lived virtuously

,he suc

cumbs and leads a double life,th inking one way ,

act ing in anothe r . H is son was in love with and

desi red to marry the daugh ter of a modern is t . Thegirl was

,however

,secre tly engaged to a modern i st

pries t,Fauchon

,whom she marries ; by a se rie s of

strange chances the love- let ters wri tten by Sav ignanto his mis t re ss fall into Fauchon’s hands

,and he

determines to publi sh them in a paper with whichhe is connected , and so Show up the wickedness ofthe rel igious conservat ive s . The fact come s to the

knowledge of young Sav ignan, and in endeavouring to force his fathe r

’s incriminating le t ters fromFauchon

,the young man is shot . And Bourge t

draws the moral ‘ i l faut vivre comme on pense,

s inon, té t ou tard , on fini t par penser comme on avécu .

’

The book is writ ten wi th great care , andwhichever s ide we t ake , moderni s t or react ionary ,w e must concede the absolute sinceri ty of the

author . As a piece of art,i t deserves to rank with

any ofBourget ’s best novels of an earlier period .

406 RE CENT FRENCH LITERATURE .

The lecture s del ivered by Maurice Donnay at

the Socié té des Conférence s on Alfred d e Musse thave been i ssued as a book

,and form an admirable

popular exposi t ion ofMusse t ’s achievement . The

chapter on the ‘ Confession d ’un enfant du siccle’

is parti cularly good . Donnay charact erises i t asone of the most romant ic books ever written . H e

regards the term romant icism as synonymous withindividualism

,and as the author ’s claim to interes t

u s in h is affairs . H e reminds us that every authorputs much of himself into hi s works . Racine as

Racine would not talk as Phcd re talks , but Phedrespeaks as Racine would speak in her place .

Moliere ’s Alceste i s a st rong individualis t . R o

mant ici sm is really nothing other than ‘ la franchisede l

’

ind iv idual isme .

’ W e could not,however

,

endure such frankness from everyone,but we gladly

welcome i t from De Musse t . H is confessions maynot be always accurate , but they are always sincere .

Donnay puts D e Musse t ’s prose above his poetry,

and finds in the prose of h is plays the most wonderful prose . in the French language , a prose withwings

,quelque chose d e doux comme le ven t

d’

ouest , de pale comme les rayons d e la lune .

’

H is

dramatic work,

‘un théat re d e l ’amour,

’ i s full ofCharm

,and the lovers express the ir feel ings in

marve llous language . Donnay has se t m e readingD e Musset over again , and in these days of stormand stres s i t i s good t o enter

,if only for a brief

space,in to such a region of romance and beauty .

In Le romantisme des réalistes : Gustave Flaubert

,

’ Ernes t Se illicre makes a most elaborateanalysis of the s tate of Flaubert ’s mind throughout

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408 RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE .

style grec, tout en lignes e t en corniches, y est souveraine

mente d éplacé .C ’

est un monstre sans pareil, un géant qui ne ressemblea rien, une immensité qu i vous écrase . P aris y danseraitcomme une coquille d e noix sur l

’

Océan . La Cité donnel’

idée d’

un mouvement sans analogue sur lo continent,

un mouvement d e grosses affaires et point bruyantes, touta fait extraord inaire . D es parcs sans nombre et

admirables, en pleine ville au m ilieu de tout cela,la

Tamise,grise

,large

,a moitié mer

,coulant sinistre et

chargée d e navires sous les V ieux ponts, entre des riv essans quai ; tout mon Walter Scott me remontait a latéte .

’

Ferry delighted in the sunsh ine and genialwarmth of Cannes in N ovember and December .The letters , always natural in tone , are some t ime senlivened by an amusing anecdote , such as Talleyrand ’s reply when he was asked why he had sucha s tupid wife : Parceque cela repose .

’

i t i t 9h i i?

The following recently published books dese rveat ten t ion

Les Visages de Brésil . Par Paul Adam .

An endeavour to describe the varie ty and rich colour of l ife inBraz il

,and the Lat in forces that have instal led the sp iri t of the

Mediterranean coun tries in the N ew World .

Louqsor sans les Pharaons . Légendes e t chansonspopulai res d e l a hauteEgypte

,recue illie s par Georges

Legrain .

The au thor,D irector of the works ofthe Serv ice des An t iqu ités

at Karnak,has col lected t he tales and songs from the nat ives.

They form de l ightfu l read ing, and are il lustrated by adm irablephotographs.

RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE . 409

Bonaparte e t l’Egypt e . Par Jehan d ’

Iv ray .

Describes the way in wh ich the ex istence Of the army and of its

young general was organ ised,from stud ies made in the coun t ry

itself.

Gérard de Nerval . Le poete— l ’homme d ’

aprés

d es manuscri ts e t document s inédits . Par Arist ideMarie .

The most valuable part ofthe book is the analysis ofD e N erval’

s

adm irable prose, sobre e t fraiche,sans recherche apparen te, mais

de d ist inct ion finemen t nuancée .

’

There is a usefu l b ibl iography .

ELIZABETH LEE .

THE H ISTORY OF A HEBREWLEXICON .

F the wri ters concerned in the curiousentanglement with which I propose t odeal

,the firs t in bo th logical and chrono

logical order is Valent ine Schindler,

somet ime Professor of Oriental Languages in the Un ivers i t ies of W i t tenberg andHelmstadt . Of him I know nothing beyond whatcan be learnt from the t i tle-page and prefaces tohis Lexicon pentaglot ton,

’ published posthumouslyat Hanover in 1 6 1 2 . As Sch indler ’s part in the

ensuing drama was afpur

e

lypassive one

, we neednot t rouble ourselve s urther about him

,

‘

except tonote that h is lexicon is t o be found in most of thelarger libraries

,and that i t was evidently recog

n i sed in i ts day as a s tandard authori ty in Englandas well as on the cont inent .Next come s William Alabaster

,Latin poet and

d ivine,born 1 5 67 , educated at We s tminster School

and Trin i ty College,Cambridge

,and known to

fame as the author of the Latin t ragedy " Roxana,

’

of which Dr . Johnson remarked that ‘ if we produced anyth ing [in Lat in verse] worthy of noti cebefore the elegie s of Milton i t was perhaps Alabaster’s As we shall see , Alabasteroccupied his later years in the pursui t of reconditestudies in prophe t ic divini ty . H e died in 1 640 .

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4 1 2 TH E HISTORY OF A

A further s tep was taken wh en Mr . Sayle, inthe catalogue of early English books in the Cambridge Univers i ty Lib rary , stated i n h is note s thatthe body of t h is work i s iden tical wi th that ofWilliam Alabaste r ’s undated SpiraculumTubarum .

’

I have lately been fortunate enough to trace thework two stages furth er

,and thereby to ge t near

to a solut ion of the problem which Mr . H addanand 'Mr. Sayle only raised .

The relat ion between Thorndike ’s ‘ Epitome ’

and Alabaster ’s ‘ Spi raculum ’ be ing once pointedout

,the next step was to compare the lat ter wi th

the same author’s ‘ Lexicon Pentaglot ton ,

’

1 6 3 7 ,and

,as was to be expect ed , the body of the work

was again found to be the same .

My next move was t o look up both Alabasterand Thorndike in London ’s Catalogue

,with a view

to see ing which,if any , of the i ssue s finally e stab

l ished i t self in the bookselling trade . I foundne i ther name

,but on the page opposi te that on

which I hoped t o find Thorndike ’s,the following

caugh t my eye :‘ Sh inld eri [sic] lexicon . Penta

glot ton ,

’

etc.

On turning to the work in ques t ion ,

‘ Schind leri

Lexicon pentaglot ton . In Epitomen redactum

a G . 1 6 3 5 , I was not surpri sed to find the

body of the work to be again the same .

W e are thus confronted with three i ssues dated1 6 3 5 , one dated 1 6 3 7 , and one undated , but whichfrom a reference in the preface can b e assigned tothe year 1 6 3 3 ; that i s to say with five i ssue swi thin as many years , giving four diffe rent t i tlesand three differen t authors . One point only is

HEBREW LEX ICON . 4 1 3

common to all . W illiam Jones has the unenviabledist inct i on of plac i ng h i s name as publisher on allfiv e i ssues

,thereby gaining credit for what i s pro

bably something of a record even in the history ofthe early seventeenth century book trade .

By the kindness of the Librarians of the Cambridge Univers i ty Library and of the Library of

Jesus College,Oxford

,I was able to have the two

Thorndike i ssues in London for comparison at theBri t i sh Museum with the Schindle r and Alabasterthere , and with the Spiraculum from Dr .W i ll iams

’

s Library . Mr . Esdaile and I thus hadthe opportuni ty of examining copies of all

‘

five

i ssues at the same t ime .

The five i ssues are as follows

a . SP IRACULUM | TUBARUM sine Fans sp iri tualinm

exp osi tionnm ex eegniuocis Pentaglotti significa tionibns IAuthore Guilielmo Alabastro d nglo Lond ini Ex

ofifcina Gail : Jones. Extant in cremeterio D . Pauli . ad

insigne P ap ee .

fol . pp . 1 8 Contents —p . [ 1 ] title en

graved and surrounded by geometrical design by T.

Linsted ; 1 - 1 8,sig . A-D in folios and E a single leaf

,

a mystical essay with running head-line Ecce Sponsus

venit, P roced ite ci obviam ’

1 8,catchword ‘ Litera N ’

;

[ 1 sig . A-Z,Aa—L l in fours , a pentaglot t lexicon,

arranged in double columns,numbered 1 to 5 5 9 , there

being sev eral errors in numeration ; [2 72] catchword‘ Rasche

’

; [2 7 3 sig . Mm in sixes,N u in fou rs

,

Rasche Theboth, sive abbrev iaturae H ebraeae . Ad

Lectorem Gualth . Keuchenius,

’

etc.

,arranged in double

columns,not numbered ; [2 9 1 ] ad fin .

5 1115135n’7nn’

[sic][i .e . Laus D eo meo] . Bodl . B . Th . Seld . U .L .C .

Sayle 505 7 ; D .W .L . 1 079 .Q . 8 .

FF

4 14 THE HISTORY OF A

b. SCH INDLERI LEX ICON IPENTAGLOTTON ,

H EBRAICVM,CHALDAICVM

,SYR IA—lCVM ,

TALMVD ICO RABBIN ICVM,ET ARAB I

CVM ; In Epitomen redactum 2 GA . Vna cunt

ABBREVIATVRIS H EBRJE IS . [line .] [DeviceMcKerrow

, [line .] LOND IN I, Excudebat

GVLI ELMVS ION Es,

1 63 5 . P roftant apud Cornelinm

Bee et L aurent ium Sadler in vico vulgo dicto L ittleBri ta inc.

fol . pp . Contents title ; sig J[ornament .] Lectori . Exhibeo tibi quinque l inguarum,

etc.,no catchword ; [4] blank ; [ 1 - 29 2 ] Lexicon and

Rasche Thebo th as before—the sheets re- issued .

B .M . 1 2 904. g . 1 . ; 8e Bodl . Mar. 9 .

c. EP ITOME LEKIC I H EBRAICI,

SYR IACI,

RABINICI,ET ARABICI . VNA GYM OBSER

VATION I EVS C IRCA L INGVAM H EBREAM |et Grecam Au thore H arberto Thornid icke Cantabrigienfi. [Dev ice McKerrow

, [line .] LOND IN I,’Typis Gulielm i [ ones 1 63 5 .

fol . pp . [2] Contents title,a cancel ;

No‘ Lectori

’

; [ 1 -2 9 2] Lexicon and Rasche Thebo thas before . U .L .C .

d . Exactly as c,

’

except for the alteration Of Thornid icke

to ‘Thorned ike,

’

and for some slight shiftings of the

type . These latter are just such as would easily occur

when the form e was loosened . The whole title-pagewas certainly not re—se t ; the same instances offoul caseOccur in the word Rabinici ,

’

for example . I do not

think it would be possible to assign priority to eitheron internal ev idence ; the slight d ifferences of spacingrequired by the d ifferent spellings Of the name mayjust as well be closing up or spacing out . The Cam

bridge copy, i t is true , shows some quad s which are not

present in the Jesus College copy, bu t this is mostprobably d ue to heavier inking . J.C .O . N. 5 . 5 .

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4 1 6 THE HISTORY OF A

I am inclined to th ink that ‘ Ecce sponsus veni t’

should be cons idered to be the motto of the wholeseries , and that the firs t part should be cataloguedas

‘ I [i .e . Prima] Tuba Pulchri tud inis,’

e tc . Thisi s ce rtainly supported by the general arrangemen tof the engraved t i tle-page , and by the fact that‘ Ecce sponsus veni t

’ appears in exact ly the sameway as the runn ing head- line to both parts .Coming now t o the second part—viz . the

lexicon—we find a clear statement of i t s originand object on page 1 3 of the essay .

Quia chm tota v is praed icat ionis meae,test imonij s verbi

Divini nitatur, in cujus exposit ione significat iones vocum

plures adhibeo, quam quae in Lexicis Hebra is reperiuntur :

poterit animum legent is subire dub itat io,ne varietas haec

significat ionum é cerebro meo excogitata sit sine fundaémento v eritat is, prze ter vocum naturam P ropterea

in testimonium v eritat is,quod omnia 2 me cand idé

,8:

syncerc agantu r, adjunxi Dict ionarium hoc 2 doct issimo

viro Va lentino Schind lero collect um,quod in epitomen

contractum,imprimendum curav i : quoniam exemplaria

priora non facilc ubique parari possint . E t quinque hasd ialect i tanquam vectes tabernaculi

,in una veritat is

compage, qu inquaginta tabulas totid em capitum primae

tubaameae confirmabunt .

There i s then,on the surface

,no mystery about

the ‘ Spiraculum Tubarum .

’ Nor can Alabasterand his publisher be blamed for d es i ring to t apthe purse s of the profane as well as those of the

ini t i ated by re- i ssuing,a couple of years later

,some

of the unsold shee t s of the second part as a lexiconpure and s imple

,with a fresh ti tle-page and in tro

ductory note . This lat ter contains , once more , "a

HEBREW LEX ICON . 4 1 7

plain and candid statement of the source of the

work

Lectori. Exhibeo tibi quinque linguarum ,v el pot ius

quinque d ialectorum sacrae linguae compendium , quarum

primit ia: in Hebraica 8c Chaldaica iam Olim a spiritu S .

consecratae sunt. Quod eO consilio feci,u t d isparent ibus

maiori s volum inis exemplis, haberent studiosi non solumtabulam vocum simplicium interpretandarum ,

ad au thores

intelligendos ; verum etiam uberrimum commentarium in

totam Scripturam .

Our indulgence i s strained perh aps,but not

s t rained beyond endurance,by the furthe r re—i s sue

in 1 6 3 7 of the same she ets wi th ye t a thi rd ti tlepage from which Sch indler ’s name disappears , andon which Alabas te r ’s now appears in full , and no

longe r as epitomiser , but masquerading as author .Bu t what " about the two Thorndike i ssues ?

What share,if any , did Thorndike have in the

compilat ion of the Epitome,and for what reason

did the two cancel t i tle-page s bearing h is namecome to be se t up ? Thorndike ’s b iographer

, eventhough he knew noth ing of the Alabaster and

Schindler issue s , was uneasy about the work , ofwhich he wri tes as follows ‘

The book itself hard ly answers to its title . I t is a

lexicon certainly of the specified languages, with the

add ition of the Chaldee,and arranged accord ing to the

Hebrew,the triliteral primitiv es being followed under

each letter by the few of more letters than three . But

the Observations on the Hebrew tongue are none at all ;and those on the Greek amount to less than forty Greekword s scat tei'ed throughout the Lexicon, mainly (although

loc. cit . p. 267.

4 1 8 THE H I STORY OF A

not wholly) such as mm,ouctpa ,

etc., where the Greek

happens to tally with the Hebrew.

In anothe r place he de scribe s i t as now forgottenand out of date ; and noticeable to a biographer ofThorndike principally for the pious ascript ion ofglory to the Most H igh , wi t h which i t concludes .

’

Unfortunately even the ‘ pious ascript ion,

’ whichis

,at bes t

,nothing more than the conventi onal

‘ Laus D eo,

’ turns out to be merely reprinted fromthe original Schindler ; and the same i s t rue of the

forty odd Greek words .The lexicon is, in fact , exact ly what i t sets out

to be in the Schindler issue— v iz ,an epi tome of

Valent ine Schindler ’s Lexicon pen taglot ton,

’ publ ished posthumously at Hanove r in 1 6 1 2 , the 1 992

columns of the latter be ing reduced to 5 59 by theomission of the examples and such abbreviat ionsas duo sign ificat for the original duo significata

habe t . ’ Beyond this I cannot find that one j o t ort i t tle has been added or altered .

The ‘ Rasche Theboth,

’

I ought to add,i s not

epit omized , but is reprinted in full from the originalSch indler . Mr . H addan

’

s suggest ion that ‘ Keu

chen ius would appear to have superintended the

prin t ing of the book in London i s, therefore ,

without foundation ,though the B rit ish Museum

Catalogue has lent colour to i t by noting the‘ Rasche Theboth ’ as appearing i n the Epitomeand in the later edi t ion of the comple te work , butmaking no ment ion of it s presence i n the originaledit i on Of 1 6 1 2 ,

where,however

,i t i s to be found .

Before at temp t ing to estimate Thorndike ’s sharein the work , we must go back to the supposed

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420 THE HISTORY OF A

bel ieve not been noticed before , that Nichols wasmaking use of the S ta tioners ’ Registers as long ago

as the beginning of las t century .

I t appears then that in 1 6 3 2 , the year in whichAlabaster tells us he firs t conce ived his schemeof prophe tic wri t ings , W illiam Jones , who publ ished Alabaster ’s Roxana ’

in t he same year,and

h is so- called Ecce sponsus ven i t in the followingyear

,entered under h i s name at Stat ioners ’ Hall a

Lexicon by Thorndike . That in the followingyear

, 1 6 3 3 , a propheti cal work wi th the t i tleSpiraculum Tubarum appeared under Alabaster ’sname

,with a lexicon appended . That two years

late r, in 1 6 3 5 , this appendix was t e- i s sued separately (a ) under a correct t itle with prefatory note,(b) twice under Thorndike 3 name with a t i tlebearing lit tle or no relat ion to the work i tself, butcorre sponding almost exact ly to the ent ry of 1 6 3 2 .

Three fairly plausible conjectures have occurredto m e as to Thorndike ’s share in the work .

( 1 ) Thorndike may have been engaged on alexicon and m ay have abandoned i t , or have handedover his material to Alabaster, when he found thatthe lat te r was hurrying through a s imilar work . inconnect ion with his prophe t ic wri t ings . The

main object ions to th is conj ecture are that Thorndike neve r on any previous or subsequent occasionpublished anything with W illi am Jones , so that i tis unlikely that he should have entered uponnegotiat ions with him independently of Alabaster,and further that , as I have shown above , there i sno s ign Of the incorporat ion of previous independent research in the has ti ly compiled Epitome .

HEBREW LEX ICON . 42 1

(2) Alabaster may have asked Thorndike in

1 6 32 to contribute some observat iones c ircal inguam H ebream et Grecam ,

’ while be ing himselfre spons ible for the main body of the Epitome .

The t i tle as given i s quite capable of this interpret at ion . The ent ries in the Stat i one rs ’ Registe rsare notoriously haphazard

,and the omission of the

names of both Schindler and Alabaste r is qui te inaccordance with the general s tandard of inaccuracy .

Thornd ike having apparently fai led to ge t h i scont ributi on ready t o t ime

,that '

port ion of the

ent ry would naturally be omit ted when the workcame to be published . Jone s m ay then be supposed to have issued a few copies with the registored t i tle in order to preserve °his copyright

,and

Thorndike must have obj ected to the spellingThornid icke ,

’

and have induced Jones to alter thespelling to that which he uses for his own Latinepitaph— v iz ,

Thorned ike .

’ I confess,howeve r

,

that i t requires some courage to argue that Thorndike demanded the rc- spelling of his name on

copies of a bogus i ssue of a work in wh ich he hadin reali ty no share .

(3 ) Alabaster, who was nearly seventy years ofage at th i s t ime , m ay have employed Thorndike,then a young Cambridge Fellow of thirty- three

,to

undertake the drudgery of compiling the Epitome,

while he himself was engaged upon the ‘ Spiraculum .

’

The express ion imprim endum curaviin Alabaster ’s essay does not preclude this . In th iscase Thorndike was apparently content to h ide hi slight under a bushel when the book was firs t publ ished as an appendix to the ‘ Spi raculum

,

’

and

42 2 THE HISTORY OF A

again when,in 1 6 3 7 , i t was re- i ssued as Alabaster’s

work, rousing h imself only in 1 6 3 5 t o protes tagainst the m is- spelling of h is name .

Even if we were certain as to Thorndike ’s sharein the work , i t would still be possible to sugges tmore than one theory as t o the order. of the threet i tle-page s of 1 6 3 5 .

So far I have rather taken for granted that theSch indle r is sue should take precedence

,as be ing

the one unde r which the book ‘

established itself inthe t rade ; that is t o say, that the .

book was neverin tended to be put upon the marke t in any largequanti t ie s with e i ther of the ‘ Thorndike ’ t i tlepagesBu t i t i s qui te possible that the i ssue of the

lexicon without the e ssay was an independentventure ofJones

’

s,taken without consultation with

e i ther Alabaster or Thorndike . In th is case,the

lexicon be ing without even a running head- line toguide him ,

Jones might naturally turn for a ti tleto the entry in the Stationers ’ Registers , therebycalling forth the wrath at once of Thorndike formut ilat ing h is name , and of Alabaste r for m isdescribing the work .

Whateve r point s may still be i n doubt , thi smuch is clear . Alabaster was respons ible for the

concept ion and general arrangement of the Spi raculum Tubarum ,

’ whe ther he actually did the

epitomizing ofthe lexicon or not ; Alabaster wrotethe int roductory note to the Schindler issue and

in all probabili ty drew up the t i tle-page whichWas printed with i t . Whatever share Thorndikehad in the work was wi thout doubt a subordinate

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THE NEEDS OF SCOTTISHLIBRARIES .

‘

HEN the Scott ish Library Associat ionwas founded in 1 907 i ts purpose wasdeclared to be ‘ to uni te all personsengaged in,

or interested in,Library

work throughout Scotland,by holding

M eet ings for the discussion of matters affect ingthe well—be ing of Scott i sh lib raries ; to promotewhateve r may tend to the improvement of libraryadmini st rat ion

,and of the qualificat ions and s tatus

of librarians in S cotland ; and to provide oppor

tuni t ies for soci al intercourse among the membe rsof the Associat ion .

’

The Associat ion was formedas a tentat ive project . The re was in existencethe Library Assoc iat ion

,with ‘ a membersh ip drawn

from all par t s of the three Kingdoms , and withcent ral ofli ces in London from which all the ramificat ions Of the B ri t i sh l ibrary world migh t becontrolled . The Library Association has done

,

and is doing, excellent work ; but the very magn itude of i t s scope makes i t extremely difficult foradequate at tent ion to be given to minor localdetails . Of the 3 02 librarie s in existence at thetime of the las t Parliamentary Re turn ( 1 9 1 2) there

Address de l ivered at the Annual Meet ing of the Scot t ishL ibrary Associat ion, at Mon t rose

,1 3 th June, 1 9 14, by D r. A . H .

M il lar,Ch ief-L ibrarian

,Dundee . (Abridged report .)

SCOTTISH LIBRARIES . 42 5

were 1 80 in England ; 5 6 in Scotland ; 2 6 in

I reland ; and 40 in Wales . In these C i rcumstancesEngland inevitably occupied much of the attentionof the Library Association . The si tuat i on

,indeed

,

was s imilar to that of the Bri t i sh Parliamen t .England was t he predominant partner

,

’

and therewas need for delegation of some kind so that localrequirement s might be cons idered , and the generalwelfare of the library world made more secure .

There was clamant necessi ty for some form ofH ome Rule

,so that authent i c informat ion migh t

be supplied as to the wants of special sect i ons oflibrary work ; and i t was to supply th is 'want thatthe Scot ti sh Library Associat ion was founded .

There was no thought of rivalling th e largerAssociation— indeed

,all the leading Scottish

librarians are members of both Associat ions—and

the two bodie s have always worked harmoniously .

N ow that the Scot tish Library Associat ion hasente red upon the seventh year of i ts existence

,i t

i s advisable to take s tock of the progress i t hasmade

,and to consider how i ts operat ions m ay

be j udiciously extended . From the Report for1 9 1 3

- 1 4 i t will be seen that i t began in 1 9 07 with6 3 members , and now there are 144 members ; alle i the r profe ssional librarians

,or direct ly interested

in library work . Glasgow naturally heads the listwi th 64 members

,Edinburgh follows wi th 2 1 ,

Dundee with 1 7 , and Aberdeen with 3 , making atotal of 1 0 5 for the four largest ci t ies . The s tatusof the Associati on has been amply acknowledgedby receptions given to the members by the TownCouncils and Univers i ty rulers in Edinburgh

,

426 THE NEEDS OF

Dunfermline , Pe rth , St . Andrews , and Glasgow ,

and now we are meet ing in Montrose, and haveinvitations from Dundee and Aberdeen . I t i sreasonable , therefore, to conclude that the ScottishLibrary Associat i on i s a recognized authori ty inlibrary mat ters .I t falls to us now t o consider how that posit ion

may be utilized to promote the progress of libraryaffairs in Scotland . And th is involves a statementof the present condit ion of library work in thiscount ry . During the fi rs t twenty years afte r theLibrary Act of 1 8 50 comparat ively few of the

English Burghs adop ted the Act ; indeed, the l ibrarymovemen t did not at t ain much force in Englandunt il about 1 8 87 . In Scotland, on the o the r hand

,

Airdrie adopted the Act in 1 8 5 3 , Dundee in 1 8 66 ,Paisley in 1 8 67 , other burghs following rapidlyduring the succeeding decade . An era in the

history of the Scottish libraries was introduced in1 8 80 ,

when Dunfermline adopted the Act s , and,

under the influence of Mr . Carnegie , the l ibrarymovement spread throughou t the land . In the i renthusiasm some of the smaller Scott i sh Burghsapplied for gifts of library buildings when theyhad not the means to maintain them adequately .

Thus w e find buildings admirably adapted in everyway for the purpose in view

,and suffi cient t o

supply the wants of coming generat i ons , deprivedof all chance of success because the penny- ratelimi t imposed by the Act s i s quite inadequate tosupport the l ibraries in certain districts . Take asan extreme instance the case of Thurso . The

library there was opened so far back as 1 8 3 5 , and

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42 8 THE NEEDS OF

western metropoli s in obtain ing the class icalequivalent of ‘

ninepence for fourpence .

’

Beforethe Act s were adopted in 1 866 , the Town Councilfeued a central s i te for the purpose of an AlbertMemorial, on the conditi on that space would beallot ted in the proposed building for a Free Library

,

Consequen tly,the Dundee Free Library was opened

in 1 8 69 without a s ingle penny of the rate havingbeen absorbed in buildings . In 1 87 2 ,

an extens ionof the original bu i lding was made for a Museumand Pict ure Gallery , and in

‘

1 89 2 ,the debt of

on this building was defrayed by a giftfrom . the late Mr . J . M . Ke iller. When i t wasdeemed expedient to found Branch Libraries inDundee the firs t of these was establi shed at Loehoe

,

by the Trustees of the late Mr . Thomas Cox, whobuilt the Library and gave £ 5 00 towards supplying books ; and the B ranch Library was ready foroccupancy without cost ing the ratepayers a s inglepenny . The gift of J£3 7 ,000 by Mr . Carnegieenabled the Free Library Committee to establishfive Branch Libraries in various parts of the city ;but before these could be erect ed sites had to befound by local donors , and these cost ‘

the TownCouncil and local donors no less a sum than

spread over t en years . This was ex

c lusive enti rely of the cost of si te and building ofthe Lochee Library . Hence there had only to beprovided , out of the penny rate , and later the twopenny rate made condit ional by Mr . Carnegie ,such sums as were nece ssary for the purchase ofbooks and periodicals , and for the working expensesof the cent ral lending and reference librarie s,

SCOTTISH LIBRARIES . 429

and the six b ranches . The picture galleries and

museums contain works of art and spec imensent i rely given by local donors , the value of thesedonations be ing over J£40 ,000 . Now it i s evidentt hat from a penny rate—or even from a twopennyrate—ir would have been qu i te impossible to havehad e i ther central or branch libraries , museums ,and picture galleries in Dundee , without havingincurred a wearisome load Of debt . And even as

i t i s,with al l these splendid gifts

,i t i s apparent

that Dundee would have had a very insuffiCientLibrary system . At present the twopenny rateproduces about of income

,and out of that

limited sum the Free Library Committee has tocarry on a cen tral lending library (recently doubledi n size at the expense ofthe Corporat ion) , a centralrefe rence library

,si x fully-equipped branch libraries

and reading-rooms,six picture galleries , two sculp

ture galle ries , and two extens ive museum s .In the admin is tration of library finance there

are only two items that may be curtailed—the

accoun t for books purchased,and the salarie s of

t he library staff. To limit the first of these wouldbe to nullify the purpose for which the l ibrary was

e stablished ; to arrange a low scale ofwage s wouldcondemn the important work of dis t ribut ion to beineffi ciently carried out . Clearly , then ,

unless theprogress of the library movemen t i s to be paralysed

,

some means must be devised for remedying thesedefects , and ave rting the dange r of

i '

the wholescheme of Public Librarie s proving abort ive . And

he re again Mr . Carnegie proffers aid . H e haslaid aside a munificent sum of money under the

43 9 THE NEEDS OF

des ignat ion ofthe United K ingdom Trust,leaving

i t to his Trustee s to apply the available proceeds i nsuch a manner as will carry ou t the philanthropicpurposes associat ed with h is name .

In considering the problem wh ich the Trusteeshave t o face i t will be seen that there are th reeclasse s of librarie s to be cons idered—City Librarie s

,

Burgh Librarie s , and Rural Libraries ; and thoughthere are part iculars that concern all these colleet ively , there are speci al condit ions which apply toeach class . First , as to City Libraries . Eachci ty has i t s own needs . Rules that would applyt o the Universi ty ci ty of St . Andrews would bequi te inapplicable to an industrial c i ty likeDundee . At St . Andrews

,books of a special class

would be des i rable purchases which would be ofonly limited use at Dundee , but a subsi dy for thepurchase of books equivalent to t he ascertainedneeds of the communi ty would easily balance th isdiscrepancy . As regards the e stablishment

‘ofBranch Libraries , we are faced wi th the fact thatthese have some t ime s been founded in such closeproximity to the cent ral library that the usefulnessof the lat ter has been curtailed . Above all , beforeb ranch librarie s are e s tablished i t should be ascer

t ained whe the r the l ibrary rate i s suffi cient (atpre sent or prospect ively) t o maintain such branchesefficiently . An incomple te and ineffectual branchlibrary is an expensive incumbrance .

Secondly,as to Burgh Librarie s—the same rule

as that laid down abou t branches applies here .

Burghs should not be ove rwe ighted with libraryapparatus in the form of elaborate buildings which

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43 2 TH E NEEDS OF

ofanother librarian who has the special knowledgerequired for all th ree departments . In anotherScott ish c i ty

,the l ibrarian has a salary equal to

the haples s t riune librarian ment ioned,while the

art curator has an equal salary, and no museum

work i s attached to e i ther of these two . In a

thi rd Scott ish ci ty , the salary of the chief librarianexactly coincides with that of the chief of the

Cleans ing department Scavengers ’ w e call themin Scotland—while in st ill another

,a t riplicate

Librarian, who has devoted a life- time to the

mastery of h is professi on, has exactly the same

salary as a cle rk in a municipal department,whose

princ ipal duty is to make up a weekly pay- shee t,

and allocate account s . The se are not fairy tales,

but actual fact s .Then as t o the staff : i t i s unfortunate that

female labour has been th rust into library work,

with the result that the supply of j uvenile labourin li brary work has be en much curtailed

,because

i t i s now regarded as a profess ion not worth adopting . So far as Dundee i s conce rned

,I think I may

say consc ient iously that I have done what I couldto rai se the s tandard wage s . W i thin six years Ihave arranged increases amount ing to £ 1 00 per

annum to the staff ; and by a new Graded Scale forremune rat ion and promotion t here will be £ 60 to

£ 70 per annum added to. the wages b ill . But it i sevident th at this increase cannot go on indefini telyu naided . I t may be sugges ted , the refore , to the

Uni t ed Kingdom Trustee s,that they should con

s ide r whether certain c i t ie s and burghs,after the

exam i nat i on of account s,should not have grant s

SCOTTISH LIBRARIES .

towards purchase of books , or increase of salarie s ,according to the needs of special cases laid beforethem . Poverty-s tricken libraries should e ither beendowed or swept enti rely away as derogatory tothe progress of the Library Movement . Above all

,

i t should be recognised that the Chief Librarian ina prospe rous burgh i s worthy of rank and salary at

least equal to that of the head-maste r of an urbanschool

,in view of the fact that h e has a vastly

larger range of scholars and knowledge-seekers todeal wi th as reade rs.

A . H . M ILLAR .

NOTICES .

D escr iptive Cata logue of the Char ter s, Rol ls , D eeds,

P ed igrees, P amphlets, N ewspaper s , Monumenta l

inscr iptions , maps , and miscel laneous papersforming the 7 achson Collect ion a t the Shqflield P ubl icReference L ibrary . Compiled by T. Wa l ter H a l l

and A . H ermann Thomas . Shcfield : 7 . WN or thend . pp . xv i . 4 1 9 .

HE librarians of provincial towns andcit ies are often urged to collect localrecords

,but i t is not often that so

fine an assortment as that here catalogued comes t o them by way of gift .

Sheffield’

s good fortune in th is respect is notundeserved , for Professor Henry Jackson tells usthat he was he si tat ing what to do with his brother ’scollect ion when the appearance of Mr . WalterHall ’s ‘ Catalogue of the Charters , Deeds , and

Manuscripts in the Public Reference Library ’

made i t clear that there were those in Sheffieldwho were intere sted in i ts history and prepared tospend time and t rouble upon i ts records ; so toShefli eld t he collect ion went . I t cons ists of thepapers acquired by members of the Jackson familyat various times in the course of a century

,and

more especially of two purchase s made by Mr .Alfred Jackson late in life

,the one of some of the

papers amassed by Joseph Hunter, t he historianof Hallamshire , the other those of a next-door

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43 6 NOTICES .

development Which that thought ran th roughfrom the fi rs t public u tte rances of the Fellowof Oriel t o the last words of the aged Pries t of theOratory .

’

The Index seems to us very ingeniouslyplanned and skilfully carried ou t

,and we have found

it ext raordinarily interest ing .

A . W . P .

H ardware. A N ovel infour boobs by Kineton P arhes .

T. Fisher Unwin, L ondon,1 9 14. 6s .

I t is not the habi t ofTHE L IBRARY to reviewcontemporary English fict i on,

but if eve r the ruleis to be broken

, we feel i t may be when a professional bookman make s an e s say in that branchof li terature , and therefore we are glad to noticeHardware ,

’ by Mr . Kineton Parkes,so well-known

t o many of our readers as a librarian unt il threeyears ago .

‘Hardware ’ i s the author ’s s ixth nove l,

and indicates , as did hi s previous books , that he isclearly of the school of Mr . Arnold Bennett andMr . H . G . We lls—the Saturat ion School ’ as Mr.Henry Jame s call s i t . The chapter arrangementand the style of ‘ Hardware ’ prepare us at oncefor the discovery that Mr . Parkes i s endeavouringto do for Bi rmingham what Mr . Benne tt d oe s forthe Potteries

,and th i s s tudy of the rise ofB irm ing

ham unde r Mr . Chamberlain— th inly disguised as

Mr . Richard Astbury—i s an interest ing bit of

civi c history .

In the consequent social and commercial upheaval are involved the fortunes of the hero

,

Thorpe Chatwin,and of Edward Sharp and h is

NOTICES . 43 7

family . The two m en are prophe t s of rival c reedsof busine ss morali ty . Sharp may be said to represen t the mammon of unrighteousness

,and Chatwin

is a lofty-minded but practical idealist . The

contest ends in a compromise due to Sharp ’s some

what melodramatic but none the less at t ract ivedaughte r He tt ie .

Thorpe himself is perhaps less in teres t ing thanh is mother and father

,both most at tract ive and

sympathe t ically drawn figures . As a study of the

fortune s of thi s family alone , the book is wellworth reading . The skilful way in which the i rs tory and that of the Sharps are welded into and

subordinated to the larger theme—the growth of agreat Ci ty—and the unobtrusive enforcing of thele sson that a c i ty can be great and honourableonly as her individual cit izens aim at greatness andhonour

,place Mr . Parkes’s work on a high art i st ic

level .W e can conscient iously recommend Hardware ’

to our readers both for the i r personal recreat ionand for a place in the i r libraries, and they may beinte rested to know that the author’s novels , ‘ The

Altar of Moloch,

’

and ‘ The Money-Hunt ,’

are

st ill obtainable from the publishers in the libraryedi tion , or bound in leather from Chive rs 85 Co .

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INDEX .

Adam von Spei er, pr inter at Basel ,44

-59 ; his surname possibly

Ysenhut, 56.

Aesop , prin ted by Adam von

Speier, 5 1 .

Alabaster, Wil l iam, provenance of

Hebrew Lexicon at tached to hisSpiraculum Tubarum,

’

4 1 0-2 3 .

Amerbach , Johann , books assignedto h is press t ransferred to Adamvon Spe ier, 5 1 19.

Anstey, Chr istopher, h is New Bath

Gu ide, 1 6 3 .

An t ichr ist,separate manuscr ipt of

the play of,from the Chester

cycle, 19 0 193 , 202 .

Assump t ion Play , dropped out of

Chester cycle, of wh ich i t d idnot form an in tegral part , 2 6 ry.,

1 8 1 ry. , 1 8 5 ; in manuscrip t of

Coven try cycle in later handand on d ifferen t paper, 3 70, 3 7 2 .

Austr ian incunabula, rev iew of

Bi bl iography of,103 sg.

Baldensperger, F . not ice of h is

La Li t térature,Ballen

,Dorothy, her Bibl iography

of Roadmaking and Roads in

the Uni t ed Kingdom rev iewed ,1 08 - 1 1 .

Banns or announcemen ts ofM iraclePlays, Chester cycle, 1 8 1 ry . ,

‘ Coven try ’cycle, 3 7 7

s o.

Barfi ard , Lady Anne, on the firstSouth Afr ican almanac, 3 2 .

Basel, Chur Brev iary of 1490

pr inted at , 50 .

aw

Bethelsdorp, print ing at , 3 8 say.

Bibl iograph ical and textual prohlems of the Engl ish m iraclecycles, art icles by W . W . Greg,1 -3 0, 1 6 8 -205 , 2 80-3 1 9 , 3 6 ;

99°

Bishopstone , pr ivate press at , 7 1 too.

Blair’s Grave,

’

Blake’s i llustrat ionsto, 2 3 8 sg.

Blake , Will iam, an early apprecia

t ion of, by H . Crabb Robinson ,

ep itomised by K. A . E sda ile,

2 29-56 not ice of, from Gen t le

man’

s Magazine,’ 2 3 1 .

Blue books, the ir unpleasantness,3 26 .

Bodd ington, Nicholas, cop ies of‘ P i lgrim’

s Progress ’ bought by64 ry. , 68 .

Boineburg, Baron von ,befriends

Leibnitz, 142 .

Borcheerds, Meen t , first author

pr in ted in South Africa, 3 7 .

Bourge t , P . ,his‘Le démon de mi d i ’

not iced” 403 sgg.

Bouvier, Emile, quoted, 1 57 .

Braddyl, Thomas, prin ter of early

ed it ions of the ‘ P ilgrim’

s Pro

gress,60-9 .

Brome play of Sacrifice of Isaacmore l i kely to be borrowed fromChester than vice versa, 29 7 .

Brunswick-Luneburg, Duke of,relat ions with Leibn i tz, 1 43sg

Bungan, John, H . R. Plomer on a

Lawsu i t as to an early ed it ionof the

‘ Pi lgr im’

s Progress, ’60-9 .

442

Cambridge, efforts at co-operat ionamong l ibraries at

, 3 29 5g.

Cape Town,early prin t ing at , 3 1

8, 4 1 1g.

Capus, Alfred, h is ‘ Le Theat re’

not iced, 8 7 19.

Carneg ie, Andrew, influence on

Scot t ish l i brar ies, 2 6 rgg. ; suggest ions to his Un i t ed KingdomTrustees

, 43 0 199.

Cave, Edward, possibly ed i ted the

Norwich Gazet te,’

208 .

Chambers, R . W . ,Speech at foun

dat ion ofPan izzi Club, 99 19.

Chester Cycle of M iracle Plays,textual relat ion of the ir manu

scripts, 1 6 8 -20 5 , relat ion to Brome play of Sacrificeof Isaac, 2 9 7 i ts play ofChr istand the Doctors, 3 0 1 ry.

Chr ist and the Doctors,m i racle

play, correspondences in d ifferen t cycles, 296 199 .

Christmas plays, developmen t of,8 199.

Chur Breviary of printed byAdam von Spe ier, 44my.Church i ll, Awnsham,

cop ies of

P i lgrim'

s Progress ’ bought by ,64my.

Clarke , A . L . , on Le ibn i tz as a

l ibrarian, - 1 5 7 .

C lassificat ion , Le i bn itz’s1 50 .

Coppée, Francois, his le t ters, 1 58 .

Copy ists ofmiracle plays, 2 8 .

Corpus Christ i plays, their relat ionto M iracle plays, 1 6 5g. , 1 9 19.

‘ Coven try ’ Plays, how acted , 1 8 ;borrow l ines from ‘ Harrow ingofHell,’ 2 8 3 ; cr i t ical exam inat ion of, 3 6 5

-99 .

Coventry Gui ld Plays, confined toN ew Testamen t

, 3 66 ; text of‘ Chr ist and the Doctors ’

p laypreserved, 299 .

system ,

INDEX .

Easebourne, private prin t ing at ,

744Eastbourne, private print ing at ,

Eatansw i ll newspaper, prototypes

at Norwich, 206 , 2 1 1 , 2 1 5 .

Cross-Grove, Henry, j acob i te ,journal ist and prin ter, by j . B.

W i ll i ams, 206- 1 9 .

Crous, E rnst , on Co-operat ionamong German Libraries bymutual loans and the Informat ion Bureau, 1 1 3 -3 9 , 3 3 7-44.

Dafi‘

ey’

s E l ixi r, advert isemen t of,2 1 6 .

Dav idson , Dr . Charles, his ‘ S tud i esin the Engl ish Mystery Plays ’

quoted, 2 8 7 , 2 8 9 , 29 2 71 .

Davis, E . Jefi'

ries, note on the en

quiry of the death of R ichardHunne , 2 20-2 .

Deiml ing, Hermann, h is ed i t ion of

the Chester Plays, 1 77 , 1 90,1 94, 20 3 W'

D ickens, Charles, possible acqua in tance w i th early Norw ich news

paper feuds, 206 , 2 1 1 .

Differen t ial Calculus, or fiuxions,r ival claim to the ir inven t ion ,

1 2 .

Dolch, Walther, review of his sec

t ion of a Bi bl iography of earlyAustr ian books, 10 3 .

Donnay, Maurice , leél ures on

Alfred de Musset not iced , 406 .

Duck, S tephen, p loughman poet ,2 1 6 .

Dudley , Howard, private press at

Easebourne, 74 5g.

Duff, E . Gordon , his catalogue of

early prin ted books in Pepysl ibrary , not iced , 2 2 3 3g.

Dundee , h istory of l i brary movement in , 42 7 39 .

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444

James, Richard, Cotton ’s l ibrarian ,

started wrong at tribut ion of

m iracle plays to Coven try, 3 6 5 .

Jefi'

ries, E . , on the Enqu iry ofthe

Death ofR . Hunne, 2 20-2 .

Jerome, St . , ed it ion of his le t ters

assigned to Riessinger’s first pressat Rome, 3 20-4.

Jones, S tephen K. ,on the H istory

ofa Hebrew Lexicon , 4 10-2 3 .

Kalendar of Shepherds, Wyer’sed it ion of Ptolemy’s Compostreally based on , 3 5 7 199 .

Kellermann , Bernhard , his ‘ Der

Tunnel ’ not iced , 9 1 19 .

Kirkup, Seymour, h is adm irat ionfor Blake’s ‘ Ancien t Britons,’

La Fontaine, Jean de, biographyby Louis Roche , not iced, 8 2 19.

Lamb,Charles, his copy of Blake’s

Descript ive Catalogue , 2 29 .

Lange , Dr . , his t ranslat ions fromBlake

,2 52 19.

Lathrop, H . B. , on some roguer iesofRobert Wyer, 349-64.

Lee, E lizabeth , art icles on Recen tForeign Li terature , 80-

94, 1 5 56 7. 266

-79 , 400

-9

Le Goup i ls, Marc, h is Le Carrefour

’

reviewed, 266 199.

Legenda Aurea, influence on m ir

acle plays, 2 8 7 , 2 8 9 .

Le ibni tz, Got tfr. Wi lhelm, as a

l ibrarian , art icle by A . L . Clarke ,140

-54.

Le ihverkehr, Prussian, 1 2 5 199.

Lemai tre, Jules, h is ‘ Vie illessed

’

Héléne’rev iewed

,2 7 1 19 .

Librar ians, no d ireét connect ionbe tween the ir services and pay ,

3 2 5 19 .

Librarianship, Le ibn i tz as a l ibrat ian , 140-

54.

INDEX .

N-town cycle, neutral name for‘ Coven try ’ Plays, 3 66 , 3 7 3 , 3 99 .

Navate l, Ludov ic, h is ‘ Fene lon ’

rev iewed , 2 74 19 .

Newman, Card inal, Index to his

works not iced, 43 5 .

Libraries, co-operat ion among Ger

man , by mutual loan and the

Informat ion Bureau, by E rnst.

Crous, 1 1 3 -3 9 , 3 3 7-

44.

L i brary of Congress, Wash ington,

catalogue ofOpera Libret tos at ,rev iewed , 345-8 .

Li turg ical drama, i ts developmen t

traced, 3 199 . later m iracle playsd id not take l i turg ical plays as

the ir source, 2 8 8 .

Lloyd, A. C . G ., on the Birth of

Pr in t ing in South Africa, 3 1 -4 1 .

London , need for co-operat ionamong libraries at , 3 3 1 19.

members of Pan izzi C lub in

should form a branch, 3 3 5 .

MacAl ist er, J . Y . W . , presides at

format ion of the Pan izzi Club,Me tres in m iracle plays, 3 693 9 5W?M i llar, A . H . , on the Needs of

Scot t ish Libraries, 424-3 3 .

M ille, Pierre , his Le Monarquerev iewed , 2 69 199.

M irabeau, h is oratory, 1 66 .

M iracle P lays, bibl iograph ical andt extual roblems of t he Engl ishcycles, Ey W . W . Greg, 1 -3 0,1 6 8 -205, 2 80

-

3 1 9 , 3 6 5-99 .

M istral, Frederic, t r i bute to, 1 6 5 19 .

Moore Sm i th , G . C . , his ed i t ionofGabr. Harvey’s Marg inal iarev iewed , 1 1 1 19 .

Musset , Alfred de, lectures on, by

Maurice Donnay, not iced, 406 .

INDEX .

N icodemus, Gospel of, borrow ingsfrom in York Plays, 2 8 1 19 .

Northern Pass1on, Wakefie ld Playsborrow from

,2 8 3 .

Norw ich, connexion w i th news

paper press, 208 .

Norw ich Couran t ,’Wh ig journal,206 .

Norw ich Gaze t te,’ Henry CrossGrove’s Jacob i te journal, 206

397 .

Old Testament plays rather d ra

mat ic prologues than dramas, 14.

Opera l i bre t tos, review of cata

logue of, 3 45-8 .

Oral transm ission of m iracle playsimprobable, 29 , 2 96 , 3 1 3 19.

Oxford, efforts at co-operat ionamong l ibrar ies at , 3 29 19 .

Palmer,Samuel, h istorian ofpr in t

1ng, 2 1 7 .

Pan izzi C lub, accoun t ofi t s format ion , 9 5- 1 02 ; paper ‘ On Get

t ing toWork read before, 3 2 5Parker, Pe ter, cop ies of P i lgrim’

s

Progress,’ Part 2 , bought by, 6 5,6 7 .

Parkes, Kine ton, not ice ofh is novelHardware,’ 43 6 .

Pedd ie , R . A. , Part 2 ofhis Con

speétns Incunabulorum’

not iced2 2 5 19.

Pell ison , Maurice, his ‘Les

Comed ies-ballet s d e Mol iere ’

rev iewed, 2 7 2 19.

Pepys L ibrary, rev iew of Parts Ian d 2 of descr ipt ive catalogue ,2 2 3 19.

Pforzhe im, Jacob von, superin

ended print ing ofChur Breviaryfor Adam von Spe ier, 54 ; h istrue surname, Wolff, 56 .

V

445

Quem quaeri t is in sepulcro, this

Easter ‘trope

’

the nucleus of

the miracle cycles, 4.

Recent Fore ign Li terature, art icleson , by E l izabeth Lee , 80-94,1 5 5-67 , 2 66

-

79 , 400-9 .

P i lgrim’

s Progress,

’ H . R . Plomer

on a lawsu i t as to an earlyed it ion of, 60-

9 .

P iper, A . Cec il, on Pr ivate Prin t i ngPresses in Sussex, 70

-

9 ; on

Sussex Pr int ing by, 2 5 7 -6 5 .

Planétus Mariae, i ts place in the

Easter drama, 7 .

P lomer, H . R . , on a lawsu i t as to

an early ed i t ion ofthe P i lgrim’

s

Progress,’ 60-

9 .

P lutarch, on the Governance of

Good Heal th, Wyer’s mangleded i t ion of, 349 199 .

Pollard ,A.W .,report ofthe forma

t ion of the Pan izzi C lub, 9 51 02 On Ge t t ing to Work, partof a paper read before the

Pan izzi Club, 3 2 5-3 6 ; rev iews,1 08 - 1 1 , 2 2 3

-8 , 3 34 19.

Ponder, Nathan iel , first publ isherof the ‘ P i lgrim’

s Progress,’ 60199.

Private Print ing Presses in Sussex,

art icle by A . C . P iper, 70-

9 .

Processio Prophetarum, dramat icorig in, 1 0 ; I ts developmen t , 1 31

Proyé’

tor, Robert , ed i t ion of S .Jerome

’

s le t ters assigned by to

Han , transferred to Riessinger’

s

first press at Rome, 3 20-

4.

Prussian Un iversi ty Libraries, cooperat ion be tween, 1 1 5 199 ,

1 1 9 .

P tolomaeus, Wyer’s ed i t ion of the

Compost (Quad ripart itum)real ly based on the Kalendar ofShepherds, 3 57 199.

446

Renan , Ernest , h is Fragmen ts in

t imes e t romanesques ’

not iced,40 1 WR ickaby , Joseph, h is Index to the

works of Card inal N ewman

not iced, 43 5 .

Riessinger , S ixtus, h i s first pressat Rome, by J . V. Scholderer,

3 20-4.

R i t ter,Johan Chr ist ian, first prin terin South Afr ica

, 3 1 199.

Rob inson, Henry Crabb, early ap

prec iat ion ofW i ll iam Blake by,ep i tom ized by K . A . E sdaile,2 29

-

56 .

Roussin ,Henr i , h is study ofW .

Godw in, 1 6 2 19 .

Sandars Leétures ( 1 9 1 3 ) on Bibl iograph ical and textual problems

of the Engl ish M iracle Cycles,1” Greg .Sch indler, Valen t ine, Eng l i sh ad

ven tures of h is Lexicon Pen taglot ton,

’

4 1 0-2 3 .

Scholderer, J . V . , on the ChurBreviary of 1490 and i t s pr in ter,Adam von Spe ier, 44- 59 ; on

S ixtus Riessinger’s first press at

Rome, 3 20

-

4 ; rev iew of Bib

l iograph ic d es osterre ichischen

Drucke des xv . u . xvi .

Heft 1 , 1 0 3-8 .

Scot t ish Librar ies, the needs of,

address by Dr . A . H . M i l lar,

Scot t ish Li brary Assoc iat ion , i tsh istory , 424 19 .

Sei ll iére,Ernest , his ‘ Le roman

t isme des réal istes not iced , 40619 .

Shakespeare, W . ,German vers ion

oft he Sonne ts no t iced, 84 199 .

Sheffield, Catalogue ofJackson Collect ion of Chart ers, e tc . , at ,

not iced, 434 19 .

INDEX .

Vaterland isches Museum, CrabbRobinson ’

s art icle on W i ll iamBlake in, ep i tom ized by K . A .

Esda ile, 2 3 3 199 .

V iennese incunabula, 1 05 199,

ShrewsburyM 1racle Playfragmen ts,

stanza in ,found also inYork Plays,

S idgw ick, F . ,his in troduct ion to

the Pepy ’

s Catalogue not iced ,2 2 3 .

Sm i th, Harry Harwood , pr1n ter inCape Colony , 3 4 199.

Sonneck, O . G . T . , h 1s Catalogueof Opera L i bret tos rev iewed,345

-8

Sou th Africa, the Birth ofPrin t ingin , art icle by A . C . G . Lloyd ,3 1

-4 1 .

Spurgeon, Carol ine , rev iew of

Moore Sm i th’s ed . of Gabr ie lHarvey’s Marg inal ia

,

’

1 1 1 19 .

Stansted, private prin t ing at , 7 7 .

S tapfer, Paul, quoted, 1 5 5 19.

S treatfe ild , R . A. , review of Son

neck’s Catalogue of Ope ra Libret tos, 345

-8 .

S trype, John , Cross-Grove ’s con

nexion w i th, 209 199 .

Sussex, Pr ivate Pr int ing Presses in,art icle by A. C . P iper, 70-

9 .

Sussex, notes on the introdua ion

ofprin t ing in to, 2 57 -6 5 .

Swedenborg ians, Blake asked to

jo in , 247 .

Tanner, J . R . , h is Catalogue of

Sea Manuscrip t s in the Pepy ’

s

Library not iced, 2 2 3 .

Thornd i ke, Herbert , h is Ep i tome

Lexici H ebraici ,’

4 1 1-2 3 .

Toulm in Sm i th, Lucy , her ed i t ionof the York Plays, 2 80 .

Trent incunabula, 1 04 19 .

Tropes, orig in of, 3 19 .

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