"The forwardness of your CATALOGUE [of the public library at Oxford] is
very good tidings.... I would intreat you to meditate upon it, how it
may be performed to both our credits and contents."--_Sir Thomas_
BODLEY to _Tho. James_, c. 1604.
Habes, benigne lector, catalogum librorum, eo ordine dispositum, quo in
celeberrima Oxoniensi bibliotheca collocantur; opus diu multumque
desideratum, et jam tandem editum."--_Thomas_ JAMES, 1605.
"Quamprimum benignis academicorum suffragiis in bibliothecarium electus
essem, videremque justum bibliothecae publicae catalogum ab omnibus
desiderari, ego ut gratiis litatum irem, me protinus accinxi ad
conficiendum proprio marte novum catalogum."--_Thomas_ HYDE, 1674.
"The general use of catalogues of [of books], and the esteem they are
in at present, is so well known, that it were to waste paper to
expatiate on it."--_Gerard_ LANGBAINE, 1688.
"Quelles obligations la republique des lettres n'a-t-elle pas aux
Anglais, d'avoir donne les catalogues des livres que renferment leurs
bibliotheques! Celui d'Oxford est d'une utilite reconnue, par le grand
nombre de livres qu'il contient, et par l'ordre alphabetique qu'on leur
a donne."--JOURDAN, 1739.
Catalogues of books are of great use in literary pursuits.... We mean
not here to enter into all the conveniencies of a more improved
catalogue, for it would require a volume to display them."--_William_
OLDYS, 1745.
"Solebat [sc. Ruhnkenius] haud exiguam subsecivae operae partem tribuere
perlegendis catalogis librorum, sive per auctiones divendendorum, sive
in bibliothecis publicis servatorum; unde factum est, ut rariorum
cognitionem librorum, jam in Bergeri disciplina perceptam, continuo
augeret."--_Dan_. WYTTENBACH, 1799.
"Le premier besoin de l'homme de lettres qui entreprend un ouvrage, est
de connoitre les sources auxquelles il peut puiser, les livres qui ont
traite directement ou indirectement le sujet qui l'occupe."--_S_.
CHARDON _de la Rochette_, 1812.
"La bibliotheque [savoir, la bibliotheque royale etablie a Bruxelles]
aura deux catalogues: l'un alphabetique, l'autre systematique. Dans
l'interet de la science, le catalogue sera imprime, en tout ou en
partie."--LEOPOLD, _roi des Belges_, 1837.
"Le catalogue est l'inventaire en le veritable palladium d'une
bibliotheque. L'impression des catalogues est toujours une chose utile,
sinon indispensable.... La publicite est, en outre, le frein des abus,
des negligences, et des malversations, l'aiguillon du zele, et la
source de toute amelioration."--_L. A._ CONSTANTIN, 1839.
"La publication d'une nouvelle edition complete du catalogue de la
bibliotheque du roi [de France], serait, sans doute, le plus grand
service qu'on put jamais rendre a l'histoire litteraire; et nous ne
regardons pas cette entreprise comme impraticable."--_Jacques Charles_
BRUNET, 1842.
"M. Merlin pense avec moi, et c'est quelque chose, que les justes
plaintes formees contre l'administration de la bibliotheque royale [de
France] cesseront des l'instant ou l'on aura redige et publie le
catalogue general des livres imprimes."--_Paulin_ PARIS, 1847.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_The "Winter's Tale."_--As MR. PAYNE COLLIER is making inquiries as to the
origin of Shakspeare's _Winter's Tale_, perhaps he will allow me to call
his attention to an oversight he has committed in his edition of Greene's
_Pandosto_, in the series called _Shakspeare's Library_. In a note to the
introduction, p. ii., MR. COLLIER says,
"Some verbal resemblances and trifling obligations have been pointed
out by the commentators in their notes to the WINTER'S TALE. One of the
principal instances occurs in Act IV. Sc. 3., where Florizel says:
"'The gods themselves,
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beasts upon them: Jupiter
Became a bull and bellow'd; the green Neptune
A ram, and bleated; and the fire-rob'd god,
Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,
As I seem now. Their transformations
Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,
Nor in a way so chaste.'
"'This,' says Malone, 'is taken almost literally from the novel'--when,
in fact, the resemblance merely consists in the adoption by Shakspeare
of part of the mythological knowledge supplied by Greene. 'The gods
above disdaine not to love women beneath. Phoebus liked Daphne; Jupiter
Io; and why not I then Fawnia?' The resemblance is anything but
literal."
It would appear, however, that the passage cited by MR. COLLIER is not the
one referred to by Malone. MR. COLLIER's passage is at p. 34. of his
edition of the novel; the one Malone evidently had in view is at p. 40.,
and is as follows:--
"And yet, Dorastus, shame not at thy shepheard's weede: the heavenly
godes have sometime earthly thoughtes. Neptune became a ram, Jupiter a
bul, Apollo a shepheard: they Gods, and yet in love; and thou a man,
appointed to love."