[338] His intention was to publish a general classified biography of
all the Italian authors.
[339] He says in his advertisement, "It will be difficult to ascertain
whether he meant to give them to the public, or only to reserve them
for his own amusement and the entertainment of his friends." Many of
these anecdotes are evidently mere loose scandal.
[340] Grose narrates his early history thus:--"His parents dying when
he was very young, he soon squandered away his small patrimony, when
he became, at first an attendant in Lord Oxford's library, and
afterwards librarian; at whose death he was obliged to write for the
booksellers for a subsistence."
[341] Mr. John Taylor, the son of Oldys's intimate friend, has
furnished me with this interesting anecdote. "Oldys, as my father
informed me, was many years in quiet obscurity in the Fleet prison,
but at last was spirited up to make his situation known to the Duke
of Norfolk of that time, who received Oldys's letter while he was at
dinner with some friends. The duke immediately communicated the
contents to the company, observing that he had long been anxious to
know what had become of an old, though an humble friend, and was
happy by that letter to find that he was alive. He then called for
his _gentleman_ (a kind of humble friend whom noblemen used to
retain under that name in those days), and desired him to go
immediately to the Fleet, to take money for the immediate need of
Oldys, to procure an account of his debts, and discharge them. Oldys
was soon after, either by the duke's gift or interest, appointed
Norroy King of Arms; and I remember that his official regalia came
into my father's hands at his death."
In the "Life of Oldys," by Mr. A. Chalmers, the date of this
promotion is not found. My accomplished friend, the Rev. J.
Dallaway, has obligingly examined the records of the college, by
which it appears that Oldys had been _Norfolk herald extraordinary_,
but not belonging to the college, was appointed _per saltum_ Norroy
King of Arms by patent, May 5th, 1755.
Grose says--"The patronage of the duke occasioned a suspicion of his
being a papist, though I think really without reason; this for a
while retarded his appointment: it was underhand propagated by the
heralds, who were vexed at having a stranger put in upon them."
[342] The beautiful simplicity of this Anacreontic has met the
unusual fate of entirely losing its character, by an additional and
incongruous stanza in the modern editions, by a gentleman who has
put into practice the unallowable liberty of _altering_ the poetical
and dramatic compositions of acknowledged genius to his own notion
of what he deems "morality;" but in works of genius whatever is dull
ceases to be moral. "The Fly" of Oldys may stand by "The Fly" of
Gray for melancholy tenderness of thought; it consisted only of
these two stanzas:
Busy, curious, thirsty fly!
Drink with me, and drink as I!
Freely welcome to my cup,
Couldst thou sip and sip it up:
Make the most of life you may;
Life is short and wears away!
Both alike are mine and thine,
Hastening quick to their decline!
Thine's a summer, mine no more,
Though repeated to threescore!
Threescore summers when they're gone,
Will appear as short as one!
[343] This anecdote should be given in justice to both parties, and
in Grose's words, who says:--"He was a man of great good-nature,
honour, and integrity, particularly in his character of an
historian. Nothing, I firmly believe, would ever have biassed him to
insert any fact in his writings he did not believe, or to suppress
any he did. Of this delicacy he gave an instance at a time when he
was in great distress. After his publication of the 'Life of Sir
Walter Raleigh,' some booksellers thinking his name would sell a
piece they were publishing, offered him a considerable sum to father
it, which he rejected with the greatest indignation."
[344] We have been taught to enjoy the two ages of Genius and of
Taste. The literary public are deeply indebted to the editorial
care, the taste, and the enthusiasm of Mr. Singer, for exquisite
reprints of some valuable writers.
[345] Gibbon once meditated a life of Rawleigh, and for that purpose
began some researches in that "memorable era of our English annals."
After reading Oldys's, he relinquished his design, from a conviction
that "he could add nothing new to the subject, except the uncertain
merit of style and sentiment."
[346] The British Museum is extremely deficient in our National
Literature. The gift of George the Third's library has, however,
probably supplied many deficiencies. [The recent bequest of the
Grenville collection, and the constant search made of late years for
these relics of early literature by the officers of our great
national library, has greatly altered the state of the collection
since the above was written _s--Ed_.]
[347] Grose says--"His mode of composing was somewhat singular: he
had a number of small parchment bags, inscribed with the names of
the persons whose lives he intended to write; into these bags he put
every circumstance and anecdote he could collect, and from thence
drew up his history."
[348] At the Bodleian Library, I learnt by a letter with which I am
favoured by the Rev. Dr. Bliss, that there is an interleaved
"Gildon's Lives and Characters of the Dramatic Poets," with
corrections, which once belonged to Coxeter, who appears to have
intended a new edition. Whether Coxeter transcribed into his Gildon
the notes of Oldys's _first_ "Langbaine," is worth inquiry.
Coxeter's conduct, though he had purchased Oldys's first
"Langbaine," was that of an ungenerous miser, who will quarrel with
a brother rather than share in any acquisition he can get into his
own hands. To Coxeter we also owe much; he suggested Dodsley's
Collection of Old Plays, and the first tolerable edition of
Massinger.
Oldys could not have been employed in Lord Oxford's library, as Mr.
Chalmers conjectures, about 1726; for here he mentions that he was
in _Yorkshire_ from 1724 to 1730. This period is a remarkable blank
in Oldys's life. My learned friend, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, has
supplied me with a note in the copy of Fuller in the Malone
collection preserved at the Bodleian. Those years were passed
apparently in the household of the first Earl of Malton, who built
Wentworth House. There all the collections of the antiquary
Gascoigne, with "seven great chests of manuscripts," some as ancient
as the time of the Conquest, were condemned in one solemn sacrifice
to Vulcan; the ruthless earl being impenetrable to the prayers and
remonstrances of our votary to English History. Oldys left the earl
with little satisfaction, as appears by some severe strictures from
his gentle pen.
[349] This copy was lent by Dr. Birch to the late Bishop of Dromore,
who with his own hand carefully transcribed the notes into an
interleaved copy of "Langbaine," divided into four volumes, which,
as I am informed, narrowly escaped the flames, and was injured by
the water, at a fire at Northumberland House. His lordship, when he
went to Ireland, left this copy with Mr. Nichols, for the use of the
projected editions of the _Tatler_, the _Spectator_, and the
_Guardian_, with notes and illustrations; of which I think the
_Tatler_ only has appeared, and to which his lordship contributed
some valuable communications.
[350] I know that not only this lot of _Oldys's manuscripts_, but a
great quantity of _original contributions_ of whole lives, intended
for the "Biographia Britannica," must lie together, unless they have
been destroyed as waste paper. These biographical and literary
curiosities were often supplied by the families or friends of
eminent persons. Some may, perhaps, have been reclaimed by their
owners. I am informed there was among them an interesting collection
of the correspondence of Locke; and I could mention several lives
which were prepared.
[351] This collection, and probably the other letters, have come
down to us, no doubt, with the manuscripts of this collector,
purchased for the British Museum. The correspondence of Dr.
Davenant, the political writer, with his son, the envoy, turns on
one perpetual topic, his son's and his own advancement in the state.
[352] It is a stout octavo volume of 400 pages, containing a good
selection of specimens from the earliest era, concluding with Sam.
Daniel, in the reign of James I. Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper was the wife
of an auctioneer, who had been a chum of Oldys's in the Fleet
Prison, where he died a debtor; and it was to aid his widow that
Oldys edited this book.
[353] William Thompson, the poet of "Sickness," and other poems; a
warm lover of our elder bards, and no vulgar imitator of Spenser. He
was the revivor of Bishop Hall's Satires, in 1753, by an edition
which had been more fortunate if conducted by his friend Oldys, for
the text is unfaithful, though the edition followed was one borrowed
from Lord Oxford's library, probably by the aid of Oldys.
[354] Malone's Life of Dryden, p. 420.
[355] This is one of _Oldys's Manuscripts_; a thick folio of titles,
which has been made to do its duty, with small thanks from those who
did not care to praise the service which they derived from it. It
passed from Dr. Berkenhout to George Steevens, who lent it to Gough.
It was sold for five guineas. The useful work of ten years of
attention given to it! The antiquary Gough alludes to it with his
usual discernment. "Among these titles of books and pamphlets about
London are many _purely historical_, and many of _too low a kind_ to
rank under the head of topography and history." Thus the design of
Oldys, in forming this elaborate collection, is condemned by trying
it by the limited object of the topographer's view. This catalogue
remains a desideratum, were it printed entire as collected by Oldys,
not merely for the topography of the metropolis, but for its
relation to its manners, domestic annals, events, and persons
connected with its history.