Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

tion to the contrary-he went to the wars in Flanders, where he got a command, was wounded, and taken prisoner, and escaped twice by means of ladies of consideration, with whom it appears he ingratiated himself, So that returning home he sought again after a wife, and whether he took one in truth I cannot tell, nor how his life was spent after 1580."

Churchyard died poor, and is buried near Skelton in Saint Margaret's Church, Westminster. From the Parish Register it appears his burial was on the 4th of April, 1604,

In Dibdin's Library Companion, the productions of Churchyard's muse, in print, are said to consist of xvii pieces; and he there (p. 888) questions if ANY one possesses a perfect set of them?

Dee's (Dr. Jo.) General and Rare Memorials Pertayning to the perfect Arte of Navigation, Annexed to the Paradoxal Cumpas, in Playne. Now first published: 24 yeres after the first Invention thereof. Folio. 1577.

This Book, of which 100 copies only were printed, was considered by Mr. Isaac Reed as one of the scarcest in the English language. His copy sold for 37. 13s. 6d.

Beloe, in his Anecdotes of Literature, vol. ii. p. 263 to 293, has extracted the whole of Dee's Advertisement and Introduc tion from a copy in the British Museum, on account of the rarity of the book and the whimsicality of the thing itself.

See a list of Dr. Dee's Works in Chalmers's BiographicalDictionary, vol. xi. p. 387 and 388.

John Dee (says Granger) was a man of extensive learning,

particularly in the mathematics, in which he had few equals; but he was vain, credulous, and enthusiastic. He was deep in astrology, and strongly tinctured with the superstition of the Rosicrusians, whose dreams he listened to with eagerness, and became as great a dreamer himself as any of that fraternity. He appears to have been by turns a dupe and a cheat, but acquired prodigious reputation. He travelled over great part of Europe, and seems to have been highly esteemed by many persons of rank and eminence. He pretended that a black* stone or speculum, which he made great use of, was brought him by Angels, and that he was particularly intimate with Raphael and Gabriel.

Bassentinus's Free Will a Tragedy.

"A certayne Tragedie wrytten fyrste in Italian by F. N. B. (Franciscus Niger Bassentinus) entituled FREE-WYL; and translated into English by Henry Cheeke, wherein is set foorth, in manner of a Tragedie, the deuyilish deuise of the Popish Religion, &c." 4to. Black letter. No date (supposed about 1589).

This is one of the very old Moral Plays. A copy at the Roxburghe sale brought the sum of 51. 158. 6d.

This black stone into which Dee used to call his spirits was successively in the Collections of the Earls of Peterboro', Lady Eliz. Germaine, the Duke of Argyle, and Mr. Walpole. Upon examination it turns out to be nothing but a polished piece of canal coal. This is what Butler means when he says,

[ocr errors]

Kelly (Dee's Coadjutor) did all his feats upon
The Devil's Looking Glass, a stone."

Hudibras, part ii. canto iii. v. 631. 2.

E

According to Reed and Jones's Biographia Dramatica, the original Italian, entitled Tragedia del Libero Arbitrio, 4to. 1546, as also a Latin Version by the Author himself, 8vo. printed at Geneva, may be both found in the Public Library at Cambridge. See, in addition, what Warton, in his History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 185 to 192, 8vo. Lond. 1824, says on the subject of Moralities.

Spenser's (Edmond) Faerie Queene. First edition. 4to. 1599-6. Ireland, 1801, 31. 13s.; Townley, 127.; Sotheby, 1821, 27. 2s.; G. Nassau, 1824, 57. 58.; Thorpe, 1824, 31. 138. 6d. Ditto, 41. 14s. 6d. in russia.

The Poet supposes that the FAERIE QUEENE, according to an annual custom, held a magnificent feast, which continued twelve days; on each of which respectively, twelve several complaints are presented before her. Accordingly, in order to redress the injuries which were the occasion of these several complaints, she dispatches, with proper commissions, twelve different Knights, each of which, in the particular adventure allotted to him, proves an example of some particular virtue, as of Holiness, Temperance, Justice, Chastity; and has one complete book assigned to him, of which he is the Hero. But besides these twelve Knights, severally exemplifying twelve moral virtues, the Poet has constituted one principal Knight or general Hero, viz. PRINCE ARTHUR. This personage represents Magnificence; a virtue which is supposed to be the perfection of all the rest. He moreover assists in every Book, and the end of his actions is to discover and win Gloriana,* or

* The Poet intended Gloriana in praise of our Queen Elizabeth.

Glory. In a word, in this character the Poet professes to pourtray "The image of a brave Knight perfected in the twelve private moral virtues."

To the foregoing, which is a sketch of the Poem by Phillips, Milton's nephew, I shall here add Pope's opinion of the "Faerie Queene," given in 1743-4, only a year before his death, and printed in Spence's Anecdotes..

"After reading a Canto of Spenser two or three days ago to an old lady between 70 and 80 years of age, she said, “ that I had been showing her a Gallery of Pictures." I don't know how it is, but she said very right. There is something in Spenser that pleases one as strongly in one's old age as it did in one's youth. I read the Faerie Queene, when I was about twelve, with infinite delight; and I think it gave me as much when I read it over about a year or two ago."

The following are among the most esteemed editions of Spenser's Works. 6 vols. 12mo. by Hughes. Lond. 1715. Ditto, 3 vols. 4to. Lond. Brindley, 1751.

Ditto, by the Rev. H. J. Todd, 8 vols. 8vo. 1805.

Ditto, by Dr. Aikin, 6 vols. 8vo. 1806.

It might be thought remiss in me to amit, in a Bibliomaniac's Library, the mention of

Spenser's (Edmond) Complaints, containing sundrie small Poemes of the World's Varietie. 4to. 1591.

This includes the 1st editions of the Ruines of Time,

Tears of the Muses, Mother Hubberd's Tale, &c.

At the Alchorne sale, May, 1813, a copy sold to Mr. Bolland for 81. 8s.

E 2

At the Roxburghe sale " Spenser's Shepheard's Kalendar," 4to. 1586, sold for 217.

Ditto, 4to. 1597, G. Nassau, Esq. 1824, 47. 198.
Ditto, 4to. 1579, first edition.

Bry (Theodorus, Johannes-Theodorus, Israel de) et Mattheus Merian Collectioncs Peregrinationum in Indiam Orientalem et Indiam Occidentalem, xxv partibus comprehensa. Francofurti ad Mænum, 1590-1634. 25 parts in folio.

The above is the general title, under which the 25 parts of this important and rare work is known, and which, when complete, is of considerable value, as the copies I shall presently instance will testify. To give an exact and detailed description of the different parts and their variations, would, as Brunet says, occupy about 40 pages. I shall therefore only notice, at the foot of the page, where the details may be found,* and immediately proceed to a few more general remarks on the subject.

The denomination of "Grands et petits Voyages" has been occasioned by the thirteen separate parts which concern the West Indies being printed on a rather larger size than the twelve which relate to the East Indies.

The copy in the Paris sale, 1791, was knocked down at 2104 and bought in at that price.

* De Bure Bibliographia Instructive.

Camus Memoires sur la Collection de grands et petits Voyages, &c. 4to. Paris.

1802.

[blocks in formation]

Brunet Manuel du Libraire, tom. i. p. 291. Paris. 1821.

« ForrigeFortsett »