Of the great passion of Henry the Seventh for fine books, even before he
ascended the throne of England, there can be no doubt. I will not,
however, take upon me to say that the slumbers of this monarch were
disturbed in consequence of the extraordinary and frightful passages,
which, accompanied with bizarre cuts, were now introduced into almost
every work, both of ascetic divinity, and also of plain practical
morality. His predecessor, Richard, had in all probability been alarmed
by the images which the reading of these books had created; and I guess
that it was from such frightful objects, rather than from the ghosts of
his murdered brethren, that he was compelled to pass a sleepless night
before the memorable battle of Bosworth Field. If one of those artists
who used to design the horrible pictures which are engraved in many old
didactic volumes of the period, had ventured to take a peep into
Richard's tent, I question whether he would not have seen, lying upon an
oaken table, an early edition of some of those fearful works of which he
had himself aided in the embellishment, and of which Heinecken has given
us such curious facsimiles: and this, in my humble apprehension, is
quite sufficient to account for all the terrible workings in Richard
which Shakespeare has so vividly described.--T. F. DIBDIN.
_Bibliomania._