SOLD BY DEIGHTON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE;--R. BLISS, OXFORD;--KNIGHT AND
DREDGE, WINDSOR;--E. WILLIAMS, AND T. INGALTON, ETON;--AND BY ALL
BOOKSELLERS.
The objects of this work may be better gathered from the following
extract of the Introductory Dedication, than from a formal Prospectus:--
“To the Lady Mary Vernon, the Mistress of all Harmony, the Queen of
all Wits, the Brightest of all Belles, we, the undersigned, send
greeting:
“We, the undersigned, are a knot of young men, of various forms
and features,--of more various talents and inclinations; agreeing
in nothing, save only two essential points--a warm liking for one
another, and a very profound devotion for your Ladyship.
“Some of us have no occupation.
“Some of us have no money.
“Some of us are desperately in love.
“Some of us are desperately in debt.
“Many of us are very clever, and wish to convince the Public of the
fact.
“Several of us have never written a line.
“Several of us have written a great many, and wish to write more.
“For all these reasons, we intend to write a book.
“We will not compile a lumbering quarto of Travels, to be bound in
Russia, and skimmed in the Quarterly, and bought by the country
book-clubs;--nor a biting Political Pamphlet, to be praised by
everybody on one side, and abused by everybody on the other, and
read by nobody at all;--nor a Philosophical Essay, to be marvelled
at by the few, and shuddered at by the many, and prosecuted by his
Majesty’s Attorney-General;--nor a little Epic Poem in twenty-four
books, to be loved by the milliners, and lauded in the Literary
Gazette, and burnt by your Ladyship.
“But a Book of some sort we are resolved to write. We will go forth
to the world once a quarter, in high spirits and handsome type, and a
modest dress of drab, with verse and prose, criticism and witticism,
fond love, and loud laughter. Every thing that is light, and warm,
and fantastic, and beautiful, shall be the offering we will bear;
while we will leave the nation to the care of the Parliament, and the
church to the Bishop of Peterborough. And to this end we will give up
to colder lips and duller souls their gross and terrestrial food: we
will not interfere with the saddle or the sirloin, the brandy-bottle
or the punch-bowl;--our food shall be of the spicy curry, and the
glistening Champagne;--our inspiration shall be the thanks of
pleasant voices, and the smiles of sparkling eyes. We grasp at no
renown--we pray for no immortality; but we trust that in the voyage
it shall be our destiny to run, we shall waken many glowing feelings,
and revive many agreeable recollections; we shall make many jokes,
and many friends; we shall enliven ourselves and the public together;
and when we meet round some merry hearth, to discuss the past and the
future, our projects and our success, we shall give a zest to our
bottle and our debate, by drinking a health to all who read us, and
three healths to all who praise.
“We have built up our temple, and installed the priests, and made
ready the offerings, and we are looking for the goddess of the
shrine. The President of our Club, and the Editor of our writings,
shall be no compiler of essays--no eater of oysters; no bald
and bearded gentleman, with a cold judgment and a flippant pen,
dreaming of pounds, shillings, and pence, and annihilating the young
hopes of an author in all the anonymous authority of the plural
number. We must have for our tutelar divinity a more amiable and
more interesting being, to whose authority we may pay a voluntary
submission, to whose eyes we may breathe our vows and scribble our
sonnets, beneath whose influence we may forget the tedium and the
toil of book-making, and scatter over our revel and our press the
magic charm of gallantry and romance.
“We kneel before your Ladyship’s ottoman.
“You are beautiful and very kind; a widow and very witty; with a
complexion a little flushed, and a nose a little aquiline, and all
necessary dignity in your clear high forehead, and all conceivable
merriment in your deep blue eye; and you wear white shoes and
diamond necklaces, and dress your long dark hair _à la Grecque_;
and you have a light step and a quick speech, and just sufficient
_embonpoint_ to recall our young sonnetteers from their dreams of
Dryads and of Naiads, and to compel them to muse for a few minutes
on something more lovely and less divine; and you paint flowers, and
draw caricatures; and you play the harp and _l’écarté_, and sing
delightfully; and you love Handel, and doat upon Shakspeare; and you
are twenty-five, and--‘Mary.’
“By all these signs you are manifestly pointed out as the idol before
whom we are to prostrate our hearts and our papers. You will not
refuse the homage we proffer. Among our gay and buoyant souls the
day of chivalry and of enthusiasm shall have another morning; you
shall be to us the queen of the joust; in your sight the bold and
adventurous are to break their first lance. Your smile is to be the
excitement;--your hand is to bestow the reward; a thousand poets
shall be your slaves;--a thousand quills shall leap from their desks
to avenge the look that threatens you with insult. Your image shall
animate, and your name shall protect us; censure shall kneel before
you, and criticism shall be dumb in your presence.
“We are your Ladyship’s very humble servants,
MARMADUKE VILLARS,
DAVENANT CECIL,
TRISTRAM MERTON,
IRVINE MONTAGU,
GERARD MONTGOMERY,
HENRY BALDWIN,
JOSEPH HALLER,
PETER ELLIS,
PATERSON AYMER,
EUSTACE HERON,
EDWARD HASELFOOT,
WILLIAM PAYNE,
ARCHIBALD FRAZER,
HAMILTON MURRAY,
CHARLES PENDRAGON,
LEWIS WILLOUGHBY,
JOHN TELL,
EDMUND BRUCE,
REGINALD HOLYOAKE,
RICHARD MILLS,
OLIVER MEDLEY,
PEREGRINE COURTENAY,
VYVYAN JOYEUSE,
MARTIN DANVERS HEAVISIDE,
&c. &c. &c.”
* * * * *