(Vol. ii., p. 519.; Vol. iii., p. 117.)
Is not your correspondent J. ME. in error when he says the original travels
of the Baron were written to ridicule Bruce? I think this will only apply
to the second volume, or "Sequel," seeing that there exists an edition of
_Gulliver Revived_, printed at Oxford, 1786, four years before Bruce
published. J. ME. further remarks, that there was at one time reason to
believe that James Graham was the author of the well-known book in
question, but that circumstances have come to his knowledge altogether
precluding the possibility that the author of _The Sabbath_ and _The
Travels of Baron Munchausen_ are identical.
To me it appears there were _two_ of these James Grahams, and that from
their being contemporaries, they are usually rolled into one. I have in my
library a volume containing _Wallace, a Tragedy_, Edinburgh, 1799; and
_Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, an Historical Drama_, Edinburgh, 1801, which
appears to have belonged to Mr. George Chalmers, upon the titles of which
that gentleman has written, "by James Graham, Advocate, Edinburgh, son of
T. Graham, a writer of reputation in Glasgow."
From this one would think Mr. Chalmers had the author of _The Sabbath_ in
his eye: a conclusion, however, difficult to come to in the face of a
critique which thus characterises the tragedy of _Wallace_:
"The play is not uninteresting, and the author has exhibited occasional
proofs of poetical genius; but there are some passages in the piece
that fall little short of blasphemy:"
--a charge which, of course, could never apply to this "lovable" and
subsequently _reverend_ author of _The Sabbath_, a poem breathing the
humblest piety, and published only five years after _Wallace_; consequently
here is, in the author of the tragedy of _Wallace_, another James Graham at
the service of J. ME., to whom, if his other proofs are strong, the Baron
may be assigned with more probability.
I may add, taking it for granted that Chalmers was right in claiming these
two plays for a James Graham, that there is the strongest corroborative
proof of there being two of the name in the existence of _Mary Stewart, a
Dramatic Poem_, the acknowledged performance of the author of _The Sabbath_
(see his _Poems_, 2 vols. 1809), a production differing in title, and
bearing no resemblance, I should think, to the first named.
While upon the subject, and presuming that the tragedy of _Wallace_ is
known to J. ME., I may take the opportunity to ask him, as he is _ayont the
Tweed_, whether there is really any authority for the assertion contained
in the Abbotsford Library Catalogue, and also in that of Constable's
Library, sold in 1817, that of this anonymous tragedy of _Wallace_ there
were _only six copies printed_? Upon the face of mine there is nothing to
indicate its rarity, it being an octavo, printed for A. Constable; but the
remarkable book may be some other: your correspondents will, however, I
dare say, be able to enlighten me.