There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one,
Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on.--J. R. LOWELL.
P. 7. _Whittier._--The poet explains that the 'lettered magnate' was his
friend Fields (James Thomas, 1817-81), who edited the _Atlantic
Monthly_. Among Fields's friends were Leigh Hunt, Barry Cornwall, Miss
Mitford, and Dickens. Longfellow's 'Auf Wiedersehen' was written 'in
memory of J. T. F.', and Whittier himself wrote some elegiac verse after
his death.
It may be noted that Elzevir was the name of a famous family of Dutch
printers, whose books were chiefly issued between 1592 and 1681. Louis
Elzevir (? 1540-1617) was the first to make the name famous.
P. 9. _Roscoe._--The sale of Roscoe's library, necessary on account of
financial failure, took place in August and September 1816. This Roscoe
is the historian of the Medici.
Washington Irving quotes Roscoe's sonnet in his reference to the
incident.
P. 10. _Longfellow._--These valedictory lines were written in December
1881. In the following year Longfellow died.
P. 10. _Jonson._--Goodyer or Goodier (spelt Goodyere by Herrick) was the
friend of Donne and of many other literary men, and he wrote verses on
his own account. His father, Sir Henry Goodyer, was the patron of
Michael Drayton.
P. 11. _Sheridan._--Written to Dean Swift, then in London.
P. 12. _Tupper._--'Next to possessing a true, wise, and victorious
friend seated by your fireside, it is blessed to have the spirit of such
a friend embodied--for spirit can assume any embodiment--on your
bookshelves. But in the latter case the friendship is all on one side.
For full friendship your friend must love you, and know that you love
him.'--GEORGE MACDONALD.
Compare C. S. C.'s parody on page 135; and Goethe's statement that he
only hated parodies 'because they lower the beautiful, noble, and great'.
P. 13. _de Bury._--Richard de Bury was born near Bury St. Edmunds in
1287, his father being Sir Richard Aungervile. He had a distinguished
career at Oxford, and was the tutor of Edward III. Sent as ambassador to
the papal court at Avignon, he formed a friendship with Petrarch (see
pp. 1 and 369). While Bishop of Durham, he was for a short time Lord
Chancellor and also Treasurer of England. He finished the _Philobiblon_
less than three months before he died, in 1345. Thomas Fuller says that
he had more books than all the other English bishops in that age put
together. He had a library at each of his residences, and Mr. E. C.
Thomas tells us, on the authority of William de Chambre, that wherever
he was residing so many books lay about his bedchamber that it was
hardly possible to stand or move without treading upon them. All the
time he could spare from business was devoted either to religious
offices or to books, and daily at table he would have a book read to
him. The _Philobiblon_ was printed first at Cologne in 1473, then ten
years later at Spires, and in 1500 at Paris. The first edition printed
in England appeared in 1598, and it was a product of the Oxford Press.
It was not until 1832 that any English translation was published. This,
although the name was not divulged in the book, was the work of John
Bellingham Inglis. More than half a century passed before another
translation was made--that of Mr. Thomas, who personally examined or
collated twenty-eight MSS. Inglis's translation, according to his
successor, is a work of more spirit than accuracy, but it is the spirit
that quickeneth, and it is the 1832 volume which I have used.
P. 14. _Addison._--Ovid, _Met._ xv. 871:
--which nor dreads the rage
Of tempests, fire, or war, or wasting age.--WELSTED.
Fielding says in _Tom Jones_:--'I question not but the ingenious author
of the _Spectator_ was principally induced to prefix Greek and Latin
mottoes to every paper, from the same consideration of guarding against
the pursuit of those scribblers who, having no talents of a writer but
what is taught by the writing-master, are yet not more afraid nor
ashamed to assume the same titles with the greatest genius, than their
good brother in the fable was of braying in the lion's skin. By the
device, therefore, of his motto, it became impracticable for any man to
presume to imitate the _Spectators_, without understanding at least one
sentence in the learned languages.'
'No praise of Addison's style,' Lord Lytton declares, 'can exaggerate
its merits. Its art is perfectly marvellous. No change of time can
render the workmanship obsolete. His manner has that nameless urbanity
in which we recognize the perfection of manner--courteous, but not
courtier-like; so dignified, yet so kindly; so easy, yet so high-bred.
Its form of English is fixed--a safe and eternal model, of which all
imitation pleases--to which all approach is scholarship--like the Latin
of the Augustan age.'
So much for style. For the rest Hazlitt remarks that 'it is the
extremely moral and didactic tone of the _Spectator_ which makes us apt
to think of Addison (according to Mandeville's sarcasm) as "a parson in
a tie-wig"'. How often history repeats itself.
P. 15. _Dodd._--His _Beauties of Shakespeare_, published in 1752, is
still well known. Dodd was hanged for forgery, despite many efforts,
including those of Dr. Johnson, on his behalf.
P. 16. _Hunt._--The periods referred to by Leigh Hunt are 'the dark
ages, as they are called', and 'the gay town days of Charles II, or a
little afterwards'. In the first the essayist imagines 'an age of iron
warfare and energy, with solitary retreats, in which the monk or the
hooded scholar walks forth to meditate, his precious volume under his
arm. In the other, I have a triumphant example of the power of books and
wit to contest the victory with sensual pleasure:--Rochester staggering
home to pen a satire in the style of Monsieur Boileau; Butler, cramming
his jolly duodecimo with all the learning that he laughed at; and a new
race of book poets come up, who, in spite of their periwigs and
petit-maîtres, talk as romantically of "the bays" as if they were
priests of Delphos.'
In Chapman's translation of Homer occur the words: 'The fortresses of
thorniest queaches.' A queach is a thick bushy plot, or a quickset
hedge.
You will see Hunt--one of those happy souls
Which are the salt of the earth, and without whom
This world would smell like what it is--a tomb.