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At the sale of the Merly collection, 1813, a copy, wanting 11 leaves, and some plates, sold for 1267., and was purchased by Messrs. Arch, who were fortunate enough to complete what was wanting, and make some additions, and in its improved state they sold it to the Hon. T. Grenville for 2407. who has since rendered it, according to the Rev. T. F. Dibdin's account, the most complete copy in the world.

Colonel Stanley's copy, which was sold in 1813, contained duplicates of parts x. and xi. and a considerable number of duplicate plates; it was bound in 7 vols. folio, blue morocco, and sold for 5467., and I believe now is in the Duke of Devonshire's collection.

Mr. Beckford's copy sold at Fonthill, in 1823, for 200 guineas. I do not know whether Mr. Dibdin is correct in saying it was M. Paris's copy, and supposed to be perfect.

In the library of the Right Hon. T. Grenville is a complete set of these Voyages, very copiously described in Dibdin's Library Companion, p. 373, &c. containing also the English part of Virginia,* dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh by De Bry; it is prior to the Latin part, of the same date, Francof. 1590.This edition of this part is unnoticed by M. Camus. The following is its title :

A briefe and true report of the new found Land of Virginia, discovered by Sir Richard Greinvile, Knt. in 1585, translated into English by Thomas Hariot, at the charges of Sir Walter Raleigh, and som Pictures of the Pictes, which in the olde Tyme dyd habite one part of the Great Brettaine, found in a oold English Chronicle, plates by De Bry. Folio. Francof. 1590.

*This copy is said to have cost Harley Earl of Oxford 100 guineas, who, after many years' search, obtained it at Frankfort for that sum.

The copy of G. Nassau, Esq. sold, in 1824, for 1007. and in his Catalogue it is said that not more than four perfect copies of this part are known to exist,

Fraunce's (Abraham) Countesse of Pembroke's Ivy Church, conteining the affectionate Life and unfortunate Death of Phillis and Amyntas, that in a Pastoral, this in a Funeral. 4to. London. 1591.

Dodds, 47. 78.; Mason, 31. 138. 6d.; Roxburghe, 67. 168. 6d, Ditto, with Fraunce's Emanuel,* at Saunders', 1818, 137. 2s. 6d.; Bindley, 257. 4s., bought by Perry, at whose sale, in 1822, it sold for 217. 10s. 6d.

Lord Spencer is said to have given White 217. for his copy; White asked 25 guineas for it.

G. Nassau, Esq. 1824, 57, 18s.

Third Part of Ditto, entitled Amintas Dale, being Tales of the Heathen Gods, in English Hexameters. 4to. 1592.

A copy of this third part, which is very rare, with the Title and two leaves in MS. sold at Saunders', in 1818, for 157. 158.

This Author is classed amongst Dramatic Writers, but his production, says Beloe, can hardly be called a Play; it consists of a translation of Tasso's Aminta, which is interwoven in the body of a Pastoral, entitled Ivy Church. A specimen of this whimsical performance is given in Beloe's Anecdotes. Phillips, speaking of Fraunce, characterized him as "a versifier in Queen Elizabeth's time, who, imitating Latin measure in Eng-

* G. Nassau, (the Emanuel only), 1824, 17. 10s.

lish verse, wrote his Ivie Church, and some other things in Hexameter; some also in Hexameter and Pentameter; nor was he altogether singular in this way of writing; for Sir P. Sidney, in the Pastoral Interludes of his Arcadia, uses not only these but all other sorts of Latin measure, in which no wonder he is followed by so few, since they neither become the English, nor any other modern language."

How true Phillips's opinion on the subject is, has been evinced in our day, by the attempt and complete failure of a celebrated Poetical Luminary to tread in the steps of Abraham Fraunce.

A concise account of Fraunce, and some of his productions, may be found in the Theatrum Poetarum, 8vo. p. 108, 9; and also some particulars in Warton, vol. iv. 8vo. p. 230.

Hooker's (Richard) Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie. Folio. BEST EDITION.

1723.

There are various other folio and octavo editions of this Work.

"This," according to Neal, in his History of the Puritans, "is esteemed the most learned defence of the Church of England, wherein all that would be acquainted with its constitution (says a learned Prelate) may see upon what foundation it is built.

"Several champions appeared about this time (1594) for the cause of Episcopacy, but the most celebrated performance, and of the greatest note, was Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, in eight books; the four first of which were published this year,

and the fifth in 1597, and the three last not till many years after his death, for which reason some have suspected them to be interpolated, though they were deposited in the hands of Archbishop Abbot, from whose copy they were printed about the beginning of the Civil Wars."

Beloe, in his Anecdotes of Literature, says, "Neither Walton in his Life of Hooker, nor Bishop Gauden, nor many others that give an account of Hooker and his Writings, make any mention of the Books or Tracts which gave occasion to his writing The Ecclesiastical Polity. Whitgift had written an Answer to the Admonition to the Parliament, and thereby engaged in a controversy with Thomas Cartwright, the supposed Author of it. Hooker, in this his excellent Work, undertook the defence of our Ecclesiastical Establishment, against which Cartwright appears to have been the most powerful of all the opponents."*

Hooker was some time Master of the Temple, and afterwards Rector of Bishopsbourne in Kent. There is a Portrait of him, 12mo. Hollar sculp. from Sparrow's Rationale of the Common Prayer; and another in folio, Guil. Faithorne sculp. frontispiece to his Ecclesiastical Polity, and according to Granger the best impressions are to be found in the earliest editions of that work, containing only the five books.

Much surprise has been expressed at the Rev. T. F. Dibdin's omission of this work in his "Library Companion"t its re

* Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, vol. i. p. 22, 23, furnishes a detailed list of these controversial Writings.

There is an old folio Book, called "The Student's Library, selected from the Athenian Oracles," somewhat approximating to Mr. Dibdin's plan but a mere skeleton, both in bulk and matter, in comparison with the Rev. Gentleman's "sleeke and ryghte usefull" volume.

putation precludes all suspicion of any other cause than accident, and I doubt not that in a future edition the zealous Bibliomaniac, will bring this Ecclesiastical Canon into full play, and if his great gun fail in silencing such petty cavillers, I think he will be perfectly justified, as a true son of the Church Militant, in knocking his opponent down with the first folio edition of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Politie; but let him take care and not injure the Portrait!

Hall's (Jos.) Mundus alter et idem: sive Terra Australis ante hac semper incognita, &c. Authore Mercurio Britannico. 8vo. First edition, with frontispiece by Kip.

Sold at Brand's sale for 11. 7s.; at G. Nassau's, 1824, 17. 13s. Reprinted, with the Maps, in Pratt's edition of Hall's Works, 10 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1808.

Hall's (Jos.) Discovery of a New World, or a Description of South Indies, hitherto unknown, by an English Mercury. 8vo. No date. Imprinted for E. Blount.

Unknown to Ames or Herbert.

Brand's sale, 1807, 37. 78.; G. Nassau's, 1824, 27. 18.

The preceding Work by Hall, Bishop of Norwich, was the prototype whence Dean Swift borrowed the idea of Gulliver's Travels.* Mr. Campbell, speaking of this satirical fiction,

* It is also very probable that Swift derived some portion of his Voyage to Laputa from Bishop Godwin's " Man in the Moon, or a Discourse of a Voyage thither by Domingo Gonsales," 8vo. 1638. "In this Philosophical Romance, which was repeatedly printed, Domingo Gonsales, a diminutive Spaniard, is supposed to be shipwrecked on an uninhabited Island,

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