(Vol. iii., p. 305.)
1. In answer to the communication of A COLLECTOR, allow me to remark,
that although Bruce did not publish his _Travels_ till about seventeen
years after his return to Great Britain, various details had got abroad;
and, as usually happens, the actual facts, as given by himself, were
either intentionally or accidentally misrepresented. Latterly, Bruce,
indignant at the persecution he suffered, held his tongue, and patiently
awaited the publication of his _Travels_ to silence his accusers.
Amongst other teasing occurrences, Paul Jodrell brought him on the stage
in a clever after-piece which was acted in the Haymarket in 1779, and
was published in 8vo. in 1780. A copy of this piece, which is called _A
Widow and no Widow_, is now before me: and Macfable, a Scotch travelling
impostor, was acted by Bannister; and the hits at Bruce cannot be
mistaken.
Further, Bruce himself understood that he was the party meant by
"Munchausen," and he complained of this and many other attacks to a
distant relative of mine, who died a few years since, and who mentioned
the circumstances to me; adding, that Bruce uniformly declared that the
publication of his work would, he had no doubt, afford a triumphant
answer to his calumniators.
Whilst on the subject of Munchausen, I may observe, that the story of
the frozen words is to be found in _Nugæ venales, or a Complaisant
Companion_, by Head, the author or compiler of the _English Rogue_. It
occurs among the lies, p. 133.:
"A soldier swore desperately that being in the wars between the
Russians and Polemen, there chanced to be a parley between the two
generals where a river parted them. At that time it froze so
excessive that the words were no sooner out of their mouths but
they were frozen, and could not be heard till _eleven_ days after,
that a thaw came, when the dissolved words themselves made them
audible to all."
As my copy has a MS. title, I should be obliged if any of your readers
could furnish me with a correct one.
2. There were _not_ "two James Grahame" cotemporaries. The author of
_Wallace_ was the author of _The Sabbath_, as well as of _Poems and
Tales, Scotch and English_, thin 8vo., Paisley, 1794: a copy of which,
as well as of _Mary Stewart_ and _Wallace_, is in my tolerably extensive
dramatic library. The latter is defective, ending at p. 88.; and was
saved some years ago from a lot of the drama about to be consigned to
the snuff-shop. Probably the same reasons which caused the suppression
of a political romance from the same pen, and of which I have reason to
believe the only existing copy is in my library, may have induced the
non-completion of _Wallace_. Grahame, like many other young men just
emerging at that particular time from the Scotch Universities, had
imbibed opinions which in after years his good sense repudiated. He
concealed his authorship of the Paisley poems (now very scarce), and the
secret only transpired after his death. From the intimacy that subsisted
between myself and his amiable nephew and namesake, whose untimely
death, in 1817, at the age of twenty, I have never ceased to lament, I
had the best means of learning many facts relative to the poet, who was,
according to all accounts, one of the most estimable and truly pious men
that ever lived. As to the crude opinions of early youth, can we forget
that the truly admirable Southey was the author of _Wat Tyler_?
Whether there were only six copies of _Wallace_ _completed_, I cannot
say; but this much I can assert, that there were a great many printed,
and that, as before mentioned, the greater part went to the snuff-shop;
probably, because people were not fond of purchasing a drama wanting the
title and end.
In concluding, I may mention, that the "Mary Stewart" in the 12mo.
edition of the _Poems of Grahame_, is quite altered from the one printed
in 8vo. in 1801.