Ask Sir Peter Thompson if it were improper to try if Lord Effingham
Howard would procure the pedigrees in the Herald's office, to be seen
for Edmund Spenser's parentage or family? or how he was related to
Sir John Spenser of Althorpe, in Northamptonshire? to three of whose
daughters, who all married nobility, Spenser dedicates three of his
poems.
Of Mr. Vertue, to examine Stowe's memorandum-book. Look more
carefully for the year when Spenser's monument was raised, or between
which years the entry stands--1623 and 1626.
Sir Clement Cottrell's book about Spenser.
Captain Power, to know if he has heard from Capt. Spenser about my
letter of inquiries relating to Edward Spenser.
Of Whiston, to examine if my remarks on Spenser are complete as to
the press--Yes.
Remember, when I see Mr. W. Thompson, to inquire whether he has
printed in any of his works any other character of our old poets
than those of Spenser and Shakspeare;[353] and to get the liberty of
a visit at Kentish Town, to see his _Collection of Robert Greene's
Works_, in about _four large volumes quarto_. He commonly published a
pamphlet every term, as his acquaintance Tom Nash informs us.
Two or three other memorials may excite a smile at his peculiar habits
of study, and unceasing vigilance to draw from original sources of
information.
_Dryden's Dream_, at Lord Exeter's, at Burleigh, while he was
translating Virgil, as Signior Verrio, then painting there, related
it to the Yorkshire painter, of whom I had it, lies in _the parchment
book in quarto_, designed for his life.
At a subsequent period Oldys inserts, "Now entered therein." Malone
quotes this very memorandum, which he discovered in _Oldys's Langbaine_,
to show Dryden had some confidence in Oneirocriticism, and supposed that
future events were sometimes prognosticated by dreams. Malone adds,
"Where either the _loose_ prophetic _leaf_ or the _parchment book_ now
is, I know not."[354]
Unquestionably we have incurred a great loss in Oldys's collections for
Dryden's Life, which are very extensive; such a mass of literary history
cannot have perished unless by accident; and I suspect that many of
_Oldys's manuscripts_ are in the possession of individuals who are not
acquainted with his hand-writing, which may be easily verified.
To search the old papers in one of my large deal boxes for Dryden's
letter of thanks to my father, for some communication relating to
Plutarch, while they and others were publishing a translation of
Plutarch's Lives, in five volumes 8vo. 1683. It is copied in _the
yellow book for Dryden's Life_, in which there are about 150
transcriptions, in prose and verse, relating to the life, character,
and writings of Dryden.--Is England's Remembrancer extracted out of
my _obit._ (obituary) into my remarks on him in the _poetical bag_?
My extracts in the _parchment budget_ about Denham's seat and family
in Surrey.
My _white vellum pocket-book_, bordered with gold, for the extract
from "Groans of Great Britain" about Butler.
See my account of the great yews in Tankersley's park, while Sir R.
Fanshaw was prisoner in the lodge there; especially Talbot's yew,
which a man on horseback might turn about in, in my _botanical
budget_.
This Donald Lupton I have mentioned in my _catalogue_ of all the
books and pamphlets relative to London in folio, begun anno 1740, and
in which I have now, 1740, entered between 300 and 400 articles,
besides remarks, &c. Now, in June, 1748, between 400 and 500
articles. Now, in October, 1750, six hundred and thirty-six.[355]
There remains to be told an anecdote which shows that Pope greatly
regarded our literary antiquary. "Oldys," says my friend, "was one of
the librarians of the Earl of Oxford, and he used to tell a story of the
credit which he obtained as a scholar, by setting Pope right in a Latin
quotation which he made at the earl's table. He did not, however, as I
remember, boast of having been admitted as a guest at the table, but as
happening to be in the room." Why might not Oldys, however, have been
seated, at least below the salt? It would do no honour to either party
to suppose that Oldys stood among the menials. The truth is, there
appears to have existed a confidential intercourse between Pope and
Oldys; of this I shall give a remarkable proof. In those fragments of
Oldys, preserved as "additional anecdotes of Shakspeare," in Steevens's
and Malone's editions, Oldys mentions a story of Davenant, which, he
adds, "Mr. Pope told me at the Earl of Oxford's table!" And further
relates a conversation which passed between them. Nor is this all; for
in Oldys's Langbaine he put down this memorandum in the article of
_Shakspeare_--"Remember what I observed to my Lord Oxford for Mr. Pope's
use out of Cowley's preface." Malone appears to have discovered this
observation of Cowley's, which is curious enough, and very ungrateful to
that commentator's ideas: it is "to prune and lop away the old withered
branches" in the new editions of Shakspeare and other ancient poets!
"Pope adopted," says Malone, "this very unwarrantable idea; Oldys was
the person who suggested to Pope the singular course he pursued in his
edition of Shakspeare." Without touching on the felicity or the danger
of this new system of republishing Shakspeare, one may say that if many
passages were struck out, Shakspeare would not be injured, for many of
them were never composed by that great bard! There not only existed a
literary intimacy between Oldys and Pope, but our poet adopting his
suggestions on so important an occasion, evinces how highly he esteemed
his judgment; and unquestionably Pope had often been delighted by Oldys
with the history of his predecessors, and the curiosities of English
poetry.
I have now introduced the reader to Oldys sitting amidst his "poetical
bags," his "parchment biographical budgets," his "catalogues," and his
"diaries," often venting a solitary groan, or active in some fresh
inquiry. Such is the _Silhouette_ of this prodigy of literary curiosity!
The very existence of Oldys's manuscripts continues to be of an
ambiguous nature; referred to, quoted, and transcribed, we can but
seldom turn to the originals. These masses of curious knowledge,
dispersed or lost, have enriched an after-race, who have often picked up
the spoil and claimed the victory, but it was Oldys who had fought the
battle!
Oldys affords one more example how life is often closed amidst
discoveries and acquisitions. The literary antiquary, when he has
attempted to embody his multiplied inquiries, and to finish his
scattered designs, has found that the LABOR ABSQUE LABORE, "the labour
void of labour," as the inscription on the library of Florence finely
describes the researches of literature, has dissolved his days in the
voluptuousness of his curiosity; and that too often, like the hunter in
the heat of the chase, while he disdained the prey which lay before him,
he was still stretching onwards to catch the fugitive!
_Transvolat in medio posita, et fugientia captat._
At the close of every century, in this growing world of books, may an
Oldys be the reader for the nation! Should he be endowed with a
philosophical spirit, and combine the genius of his own times with that
of the preceding, he will hold in his hand the chain of human thoughts,
and, like another Bayle, become the historian of the human mind!