This gives one of the great interests to a collection of autographs,
it illustrates the Personal. Take Tennyson's. There is not one word
in a long letter to show that he was Poet Laureate. He begins with
"Trouble not yourself about the half-crown. I am very glad to pay my
debts, however small, tho' Milnes asserts that nothing under five
shillings should ever be refunded.... It is not all ladies who would
have tolerated my fumigation so mildly; forgive my seeming roughness
at parting; there is something in the farewell shake of hands that
often breaks me down and makes me seem other than I am." My letter from
Rudyard Kipling has in it the sentence, "_I_ was a chorister once, but
somehow they managed to agree to get on without me after a while."
Samuel Smiles, of _Self-Help_, etc., writes, 1891, "I think nothing the
less of you because you are a Dominie. You have a great mission for
training the intellects and hearts of the coming generation. I hope you
are kind to the children. My Dominie, he was a hard man, though he had
favourites; told me I was only fit 'to sweep the streets of my native
borough,' and threatened to 'dash my brains against the wall.' This
was his ordinary way of speaking of those who were not his favourites.
But I understand that he became better as he grew older. Still he left
a very bad taste in my mouth." Leigh Hunt writes a kind letter to a
budding poet with the postscript, "Send your sonnets by all means to
periodicals, but have no mercy in them on superfluous words." With
equal kindness Southey writes to Mr. Ragg in 1835, "I do not remember
to have seen a more beautiful little piece than 'Why Does the Sun Go
Down?' It ought to find its way into all popular selections." Southey
wrote out for Lady Sitwell, in 1813, "The March to Moscow." From these
kindly letters let us turn to Robert Lowe: "I am a candidate for the
Greek Professorship of Glasgow ... a most excellent appointment, and
one which above all I should be anxious to obtain.... My chance is
not a bad one, as there is no candidate with whom they are content,
and to me there is no objection except my politics, and they are, you
know, not very furious or indeed in any way practical principles to
me.... This is the fairest chance that has ever offered to me of making
myself independent and affluent for the rest of my life. It is one of
the few appointments I am able to fill." This was written in 1838. In
1851 he writes to the same person, "I am a candidate for the Chair
of Political Economy at Oxford. I have every hope of success as my
reception in Oxford has been very flattering.... The contest seems to
lie between me and Neate of Oriel, a very good man, I believe, but not
very popular." Another politician, John Bright, wrote in 1865, "I fear
it would not suit your object for any Englishman to interfere in the
course that may be taken in reference to Jeff Davis. I have privately
said all I can or ought to say, and from what I hear I incline to think
that he will escape the punishment which so many men have suffered for
crimes of infinitely less guilt. I am opposed to capital punishment for
political or social crimes." Autographs from Prime Ministers include
the Duke of Portland, "Your Parishioner named Bradley tried to usurp
one of my houses. I do not consider that an amiable weakness," and Lord
Salisbury, _La Donna e Mobile_, given to a lady during an important
conversation, when she asked for his autograph. Lord Rosebery heads
his letter "Waterloo Day." Mr. Gladstone shows his kindly feeling for
Sir Stafford Northcote, but from Melbourne onwards the Prime Ministers
content themselves with few words. So does Thackeray, "Dear Sir or
Madam--Where does Mr. Ritchie live with whom I dine in 2 hours. Please
tell." John Hay says "our visit to Eton will be for Helen and me one of
our pleasantest memories of England." Eton is again mentioned by Mr.
Justice Coleridge writing to his relation there, one of the masters,
"I should like very much to know whether there is any prospect of
the College making any movement towards changes." Eton does not like
changes; to parody Lord Curzon's motto, "Let Eton hold what Eton held,"
is as true now as in the past. I will conclude with a pathetic letter
from Matthew Arnold, "I lead such a bothered and hard-driven life
that I forget what I wrote in better days." I wonder if he remembered
writing in an autograph book:
Of little threads our life is spun,
And he spins ill who misses one.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND NEWS
_Correspondence from readers on all subjects of bibliographical
interest is invited. The Editor will, to the best of his ability,
answer all queries addressed to him._
GENERAL NOTES
The Christie-Miller sale at Messrs. Sotheby's, postponed from November
28th to December 16th, realised the enormous total of £110,356, thus
more than doubling the previous "record" for a single day's book-sale
achieved at the Yates-Thompson sale last summer, the total of which
was £52,000. The great majority of the items were acquired by Mr.
G. D. Smith, the American buyer, who seemed to have learnt to think
so imperially about book prices that very few English dealers or
collectors were able to compete with him. For the most part the bidding
resolved itself into a duel between Mr. Smith and Mr. Quaritch, Mr.
Smith being almost invariably the victor.
* * * * *
The highest price for a single lot--the highest price ever given for a
single book or manuscript--was £15,100, which was paid for the minute
vellum-bound volume containing _Venus and Adonis_, _The Passionate
Pilgrim_, and _Epigrammes and Elegies_, by J. D. (Sir John Davies) and
C. M. (Christopher Marlowe). The _Venus and Adonis_ is the only copy
known of the fourth edition of the poem; six copies of the first three
editions exist, all of which are in public libraries. _The Passionate
Pilgrim_ is one of the three known copies of the first edition (1599),
while only two or three copies are known to exist of the _Epigrammes
and Elegies_, published at Middleborough (? 1598).
* * * * *
Other Elizabethan books fetched very large prices. Greene's _Arbasto_
(1584), a unique copy, went for £820; _Gwydonius_ (1584) for £770;
_Morando_ (1584) for £680; _Planetomachia_ (1585) for £900; and the
unique copy of _A Quip for an Upstart Courtier_ (1592) for £1200. A
copy of Tottel's _Miscellany_, second edition, fetched £2400; Nash's
_Unfortunate Traveller_ (1594), £680; and the first edition of _The
Paradyse of Dainty Devises_, £1700. Copies of the _Arcadia_ (1590) and
of _Astrophel and Stella_ (_circa_ 1595) were sold for £1000 and £2700
respectively.
* * * * *
The other Shakespeare lots were sold at less astonishing figures. A
copy of the First Folio, slightly defective, sold for £2300; £2400 was
given for a fine copy of the Third Folio, _Much Ado About Nothing_, the
Quarto of 1600, sold for £2200; and _The True Tragedie of Richard the
Third_, the anonymous play used by Shakespeare in producing his own
_Richard III._, for £2000.
* * * * *
The Heber Collection of broadsheets and ballads was purchased by Mr.
Smith for £6400. This collection, comprising eighty-eight pieces, is
a portion of the great collection, a larger collection, half of which
passed, under the terms of Mr. Huth's will, to the British Museum. It
contains many pieces of remarkable beauty and interest.
* * * * *
Other interesting items in the sale were three minor works of the
"Laureate," John Skelton, printed by Pynson, the three bound together
in a single volume, which was bought for £1780; the _Amoretti and
Epithalamium_ of Spenser (1595), £1200; _The Shepheardes Calendar_
(1579), £1280; _Reynard the Fox_ (Caxton, 1481), £5900; _The Cordyale,
or the Four Last Things_ (Caxton, 1479), £1900; _Tullye of Old Age_
(Caxton, 1481), £1800; Gray's _Elegy_ (1751), £750; _Paradise Lost_
(1667), £460.
* * * * *
This sale marks the triumph and the reduction to the absurd of
book-collecting. The absurdity of picture-dealing is already manifest;
prices have long ceased to have the least relation to the merit of the
work purchased. It is out of mere _snobisme_ and not from any love of
art that people will give fifty thousand pounds for a picture by a
second-rate eighteenth-century artist. The same spirit has invaded the
book-collecting world. The amateur who collects books out of a genuine
love of literature had better retire as gracefully as he may. There is
no place for him in the topsy-turvy universe where fifteen thousand
pounds is paid for a little volume of poems. One left the sale with a
curious feeling of bewilderment and indignation, almost vowing that one
would never look at an old book again.
* * * * *
The centenary of George Eliot was celebrated at Messrs. Hodgsons'
by the sale of a first edition of _Scenes of Clerical Life_, a fine
uncut copy. It went for £17. The library of the late James Nicol Dunn
was disposed of at the same rooms. Mr. Dunn was a journalist whose
career included the editorship of the _Morning Post_ and that of the
_Johannesburg Star_. In earlier years--he always retained some flavour
of that association--he was Henley's assistant on the _National
Observer_. He was thus in a position to obtain books, manuscripts, and
autograph letters which have since become valuable. His Edinburgh set
of Stevenson (accompanied by a note from Charles Baxter, "Louis will
have nett complete about £5200 over this") went for £65, and a set of
the _Scots Observer_ and _National Observer_ for £47. An inscribed copy
of Whistler's _Gentle Art of Making Enemies_ sold for ten guineas, and
three first editions, with letters, of John Davidson £5--which suggests
that Davidson is at last getting a little notice from collectors.
* * * * *
Among the autographs were several corrected proofs and typescripts of
Mr. Kipling's. A freely corrected typescript of _Tomlinson_ fetched
£81, the MS. of _Fuzzy-Wuzzy_ £50. Three manuscript poems of Henley's,
with a letter from Mr. Yeats thrown in, brought only £6 10_s._ Still
more surprising was the sale of Mr. Yeats's MS. of _The Lake Isle of
Innisfree_, with another, for £5 15_s._ In a sale on the following day
a first edition of _The Shropshire Lad_ turned up: it was sold for £4.
* * * * *
The Arbury Library, a portion of which is to be sold at Sotheby's on
January 22nd, has an interest apart from the high rarity of many of
the books which are to be sold; for these found their way to Arbury,
not at the fancy of any individual collector of rare volumes--none
of the Newdigates have been great book-collectors in this modern
sense--but simply as current literature of the period in which they
were published. The First Folio Shakespeare, for instance, which is
described as "probably the largest available," has been at Arbury since
1660, when it belonged to Serjeant Newdegate, who was Chief Justice
under Cromwell and was made a Baronet at the Restoration; and it is
likely that it came into his possession or into that of the elder
brother whom he succeeded soon after its publication in 1623. Sir
Richard Newdegate's mother was Anne Fitton, sister to Mary Fitton,
Queen Elizabeth's frolicsome and wayward maid-of-honour, whom a modern
edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets has sought to identify with the Dark
Lady. Family papers at Arbury give no support to the late Mr. Tyler's
theory, and Mary Fitton's portraits there show her to have been fair
rather than dark. It is probable that some of the volumes which are to
be sold at Sotheby's were at Arbury when Mary Fitton found a home there
with her sister, Lady Newdigate, after her disgrace at Court. No one
whose interest in old books lies in their character, their history, and
their associations rather than in the price which they may fetch under
the hammer can fail to regret the fate by which these precious volumes
are at length taken from the home in which they have stood side by side
for some three centuries.
* * * * *
Sounds unheard are the sweetest, and the books that were never written
and the books that once existed and have been lost are by far the
world's best books. Those chapters on Chambermaids and Buttonholes
would have been the most amusing in _Tristram Shandy_; Milton's epic on
King Arthur, great and glorious in itself, would also have nipped _The
Idylls of the King_ in the bud, thus earning our gratitude as well as
our admiration. The lost books of the _Satyricon_ were the best things
Petronius ever wrote, and the vanished poems of Sappho--one dare not
think of them.
And now we have news of yet another little work that has joined the
great army of the lost. But not, we hope, for ever; for the volume can
hardly fail to turn up some time, sooner or later, in some bookseller's
shop or some collector's library. The history of this lost volume is
not uninteresting, and we propose to quote at some length from an
account of it furnished by the owner, Miss E. M. Green, of Modbury, Ivy
Bridge, South Devon:
"In 1913 a MS. book fell into my hands, thought first to be a
manuscript of Little Gidding, which proved, however, to be the work
of the Rev. Richard White, Chaplain to the English nuns of St. Monica
in Louvain from 1630 to 1687. This I published with Messrs. Longmans
under the title of _Celestial Fire_. This volume contains in the
preface an account of these Louvain Manuscripts, which are singularly
beautiful specimens of seventeenth-century script. Consequent on this
publication, the community of St. Augustine's Priory, Newton Abbot,
who fled to England during the French Revolution, sent me a similar
manuscript, _Cordial Prayer_, to be published also. It was a leather
volume, 4 inches by 2¾ inches, 1 inch in depth, bound in holland with
quaint brass clasps, and the top of the pages was a beautiful blue.
Taking it from the inspection of the Keeper of MSS., British Museum,
and from the MSS. Room home with me, I found on entering an omnibus in
Sloane Street that I had lost it. It was tied in white paper with my
address on the outside."
All efforts have so far, Miss Green tells us, proved unavailing, and no
word can be heard of the lost volume. Perhaps some of our readers may
have seen or heard of this interesting little manuscript.
* * * * *
The hand-press and type used by the late Dr. Daniel in the production
of the well-known Daniel editions have been presented by Mrs. Daniel
to the Bodleian Library. The press has now been set up in the Picture
Gallery of the Library with the chase, containing the last pages set
up, still in place. A small collection of some of the more interesting
books printed on it has been arranged on an adjoining table.
* * * * *
We recently had the fortune to come across a copy of that very
interesting edition of Louise Labé's works, published at Lyons in
1824. Printed at the expense of a local literary society, the edition
was limited to 600 copies, a number of which were printed on coloured
paper. Our copy was one of the four "coquille rose." One copy exists in
which the colour of the paper varies at every sheet.
ITEMS FROM THE BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES
Collectors interested in the Restoration Drama will find much in
Messrs. Pickering and Chatto's catalogue to engage their attention.
Sir William Davenant is represented by First Editions of _The Siege
of Rhodes_ (1656), _The Cruell Brother_ (1630), _The Unfortunate
Lovers_ (1643). A copy of the first collected edition of Davenant's
Works (1673) is offered for sale by Mr. Francis Edwards. _Aureng-Zebe_
(1676), the opera _King Arthur_ (1691), and _The Duke of Guise_ (1683)
are all first editions of Dryden. Pordage's _Siege of Babylon_ (first
edition, 1678) is priced at £4 4_s._; Sir Charles Sedley's _Antony
and Cleopatra_ (1677) at £8 8_s._ Shadwell is well represented by his
_Virtuoso_ (first edition, 1676), a comedy that was regrettably not
included in the "Mermaid" series reprint of the dramatist's works, _The
Lancashire Witches_ (1682), and _Bury Fair_ (1689).
* * * * *
There are moments when one's literary sense gets the better of one's
purely bibliophilous instinct--moments when a profound irritation
seizes one that people should be so stupid as to collect books because
they are rare and not because they are worth reading. One wonders,
for instance, if human labour and ingenuity might not be expended in
some more profitable undertaking than the compilation of a catalogue
of about one hundred-and-fifty editions of _The Picture of Dorian
Gray_, bibliographically described. Collectors of the works of that
second-rate literary man who was the author of this _Dorian Gray_
may be interested to hear that this catalogue is at present being
prepared at "The Bungalow," 8 Abercorn Place, London, N.W.8, where they
will also find a number of Wilde's books, in every kind and shape of
edition, for sale.
* * * * *
A curiosity of 1890 literature, in the shape of _The Blue Calendar:
Praises of Twelve Saints_, written by John Gray, may also be seen at
"The Bungalow." This little book, by the author of _Silverpoints_, was
privately printed at 92 Mount Street in 1896, and may be bought for two
guineas.
A. L. H.
CORRESPONDENCE
SURTEES
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--In your admirable columns on _Bibliography_ A. L. H. writes
(November issue): "It is interesting to note what high prices the works
of Surtees can always command." They certainly do; but is it not Leech
rather than Surtees who gives them their value?
_Handley Cross_ is doubtless immortal because of the creation of
Jorrocks and James Pigg, the best portrait of the hard-riding,
reckless, witty Northumbrian since Shakespeare's _Hotspur_, but _Plain
or Ringlets_, _Ask Mamma_, and the rest are surely only valuable on
account of Leech's illustrations?
I imagine that the original _Handley Cross_, in three volumes, 1843,
London, will not fetch as much as the later and expanded _Handley
Cross_, with Leech's illustrations, published London, 1854.
I have recently inherited a set of the five Surtees-cum-Leech issue
(usually styled first editions), and I am in doubt as to what to insure
them for in view of the present high prices.
Still more so in the case of other still greater treasures: early
Aldines, Jensons, first editions Jonson, Spencer, Milton, etc., but
above and beyond all in the case of a first folio Shakespeare, a
splendid copy and intact.
According to Sir Sidney Lee, out of 140 known copies twenty only are
"perfect" (with Shakespeare's portrait _printed_ on title-page), other
twenty are intact (with portrait _inlaid_), and the remaining 100 are
all deficient in one way or another.
Well, suppose by some dreadful dispensation my library was burned down
and this gem consumed, what would it cost to procure another?
My bookseller tells me to insure it for £1500, but would this procure
another?
I feel certain it would not. What, then, is the proper
insurance?--Yours, etc.,
A PURSUER OF BOOKS AND FOXES.
[We certainly think that figure far too low, but the prices of
first folios vary greatly. Perhaps some reader can give insurance
information.--EDITOR.]
* * * * *
AMERICAN POETRY
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--The writer of your "Letter from America," in the December number,
commits himself to the astonishing statement that "Mr. Nicholas Vachel
Lindsay is the one American writer of verse whose work shows signs of
genius." Such a statement should not pass unchallenged. It is as if
an American writer, visiting England, were to remark that Mr. Rudyard
Kipling is the only English writer of verse with signs of genius.
The parallel is quite exact. Lindsay has the same free-and-easy
facility, the same preference for ragtime rhythms, the same tone of
vulgar optimism, the same desire to preach a gospel, as the author of
_Mandalay_. The only difference is that Lindsay is rather more limited
in his range, if anything. He has never succeeded in doing but one
type of poem--the ragtime exhortation. To say that he and he alone in
America shows genius is preposterous.
What about Robert Frost, whose work and influence were paramount in the
development of Edward Thomas?--a fact admitted by a recent biographer.
What about Edwin Arlington Robinson, a poet who comes nearer to
Hardy than anyone in America? What about Conrad Aiken, Carl Sandburg,
Wallace Stevens, Alfred Kreymborg, Maxwell Bodenheim? All of these
authors have shown signs of genius, each in an entirely different
and quite individual way. They have not repeated themselves into
tedious stereotype as the magazine writers of _vers libre_, or as Mr.
Lindsay has. Without any desire to belittle Mr. Lindsay's clever but
superficial talent, I should respectfully suggest to "R. E. C." that
some of his remarks about the conventionality of American writers apply
very strongly to Lindsay. They do not apply to the men I have just
mentioned.--Yours, etc.,
JOHN GOULD FLETCHER.
37 Crystal Palace Park Road, Sydenham.
* * * * *
TAM HTAB
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--May I point out what seems to me a very curious literary
coincidence?
In No. 2 Mr. L. Pearsall Smith, in his delightful collection of
"Misadventures," describes "a cabalistic inscription written in letters
of large menace on my bath-room floor. TAM HTAB ... Like Belshazzar ...
my knees smote one against the other. It was ... BATH MAT, lying there
wrong side up."
In the second chapter of Forster's _Life of Dickens_, among some notes
on the hardships of Dickens' childhood, the novelist himself thus
describes a coffee shop in St. Martin's Lane: "In the door there was
an oval glass-plate, with COFFEE ROOM painted on it.... If I ever find
myself in a very different kind of coffee-room now, but where there is
such an inscription on glass, and read it backward on the wrong side
MOOR EEFFOC (as I often used to do then, in a dismal reverie), a shock
goes through my blood."--Yours, etc.,
J. J. BIGGS.
70 West Side, Clapham.
[These public inscriptions are responsible for much distress. There was
a woman named Jones who had her child christened Nosmo King, having
been taken by those names on two glass doors, which stood open. When
she passed again the doors were drawn together.--EDITOR.]
* * * * *
SENSIBLE AT BOTTOM
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--May I point out a small inaccuracy in Mr. Shanks's exceedingly
interesting essay on Samuel Butler? Mr. Shanks writes, "It is possible
to remark of him (Butler), adapting the remark made of Dr. Johnson,
that he may have been very sensible at bottom." The passage in Boswell
referred to, I think, is a remark made _by_ Johnson of a "printer's
devil" who had married a "very respectable author."--Yours, etc.,
A. H. SCOTT.
Kelstone, Charterhouse, Godalming.
December 15th, 1919.
* * * * *
SOME CORRECTIONS
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--The LONDON MERCURY sets so refreshing a standard of English, by
precept, and still more by example, that it is with some temerity that
I venture (1) a correction, (2) a criticism, and (3) a query.
1. Major and minor Elizabethan and "Georgian" poets receive full and
correct designation. Could not the same be spared for Canon Ottley,
of Oxford, who on p. 128 appears as _Attley_? It might be granted in
recognition of his Chancellor's Prize for Latin Verse, the award of
which demands, I imagine, a certain measure of poetical feeling in
addition to the mathematically stressed rhythms of our schooldays.
2. There may be subtle and political humour intended in the word
_dignatories_ (p. 236), but with my last breath I would protest the
better (and only) spelling to be "dignitaries," take it derivatively or
euphonically as you will.
3. Is the sentence _considerable interest has been evinced at the large
majority_ (p. 235) English at all? Should it not be either:
"Considerable _interest_ has been evinced _in_ the ..." Or
"Considerable interest has been _evinced by_ the ..."?
But here, like Rosa Dartle, I merely ask for information--not being a
competent grammarian--and leave it to fair judgment.
Could you not follow up the article on "Particles" with one on "Split
Infinitives"? We were always taught that they were the unforgivable
sin. Yet I have just found two unblushing examples in one of Mr. Thomas
Hardy's novels. If he may use them, why may not the children in our
village school?--Yours, etc.,
C. A. TAIT.
Meopham, Kent.
December 13th, 1919.
[In answer to the first and second charges we plead guilty to
misprints; the third error was due to a slip of the pen.--EDITOR.]
* * * * *
JOHN THOMSON OF DUDDINGSTON
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--A material error occurs in the review of my book, _John Thomson
of Duddingston_, in your journal for December. The price is given as
42_s._, whereas the published price is 31_s._ 6_d._ net; edition de
luxe, £3 3_s._ net. The correct title of the book is: _John Thomson
of Duddingston, Landscape Painter; with some Remarks on the Practice,
Purpose, and Philosophy of Art_. Some reviewers express a high opinion
on the latter department of my book; the full title ought, therefore,
to be given--in justice to the volume.--Yours, etc.,
ROBERT W. NAPIER.
26 Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh.
* * * * *
THE MOON
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--I do not know whether the scope of your "Correspondence" pages
is intended to admit small criticisms of the original pieces of poetry
and imaginative prose which you publish. If it is, I would beg leave to
offer two perhaps niggling comments upon _The Moon_.
(1) In Stanza 22, "Emperor" is a fine word and perhaps inevitable: but
would it be merely pedantic to remind the poet that when Bonaparte was
in Egypt in 1798 he was not yet Emperor, nor even First Consul?
(2) In Stanza 30, eighth line, does not grammar require the reading
"but thee" instead of "but thou"? "But" here is a preposition, not a
conjunction--in spite of the "Boy on the Burning Deck." Burns (I think)
has a line somewhere that clearly shows the true usage:
"Live but thee I canna----"
_i.e._, "_without_ thee." I do not think "but" in such a phrase can
rightly be construed as merely equivalent to "and not."--Yours, etc.,
A. F. G.
December 12th, 1919.
BOOKS OF THE MONTH
POETRY
POEMS, 1916-1918. By FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG. Collins. 5_s._ net.