Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/368

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. x. NOV. 7, me

Holland's ' Pliny,' his ' Suetonius ' and ' Plu tarch's Morals,' Ogilby's ' Iliad,' Stapylton' ' Juvenal,' and Eutropius's ' History,' trans lated by several hands, 1614, all figure in th< catalogue.

The foreign works make an extremely interesting collection, and deserve an article to themselves. One notes in passing the works of Dante (Venice, 1578), Tasso' ' Gierusalemme Liberata,' and Pineda's ' Monarchia Ecclesiastica,' 1620, in Spanish which Browne was reading in July, 1670. a There are books in German and Dutch, severa grammars, a French translation of the ' Decameron,' Amyot's ' Plutarch,' and a French ' Natural History of the Antilles. Browne seems to have been acquainted with six languages, to what extent one does not know ; but his letters to his sons contain some excellent advice on the best way of acquiring facility in foreign tongues.

Browne is not a writer who is much in touch with English imaginative literature. He seems to have read ' Hudibras ' when it appeared, but Part III. only is in the cata- logue. In a letter to his son he refers to a " prettie booke writ 1612 by Michael Dray- ton, a learned poet, in smooth verse " b ; but one is tempted to believe that it was " Mr. Selden's learned comment upon it " which attracted him. The book is in the catalogue. Spenser is there, and Milton, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Cowley ; also Walton and Cotton's ' Angler,' Herbert's ' Temple,' and Sam Darnell's ' Poetical Essays.' Shakespeare does not figure there- in. Evelyn, a correspondent of Browne's, is represented by his ' Sylva ; or, a Discourse of Forest Trees,' 1664, and 'A Parallel of Ancient Architecture,' as well as ' The History of the Three Late Famous Im- postors,' " Published by J. E. Esquire," 1669. c

I have looked carefully through the catalogue for any reference to works on witchcraft. Browne certainly believed in witches. It is in connexion with witch- craft and the trial of two women before Sir

11 Juan de Pineda, '30 Libros de la Monarchia Ecclesiastic, o Historico Universal del Mundo,' 5 torn, in 4 vols., Barcel., 1620. (See letter, Wilkin, i. 204). The foreign books number some 480 items, made up as follows : French books, 329; Italian and Spanish, 110 ; Libri Teutonice et Belgiee, 42.

b See letter, Wilkin, i. 315.

e Viz., Padre Ottomano, pretended son and heir to the late Grand Signior ; Mahomet Bei, a pretended Prince of the Ottoman family ; and Sebati Servi, the supposed Messiah of the Jews in the year 1666.

Matthew Hale in 1664 that we meet Browne'i name for the only time, perhaps, withoul pleasurable associations. I have tried tx show elsewhere* that the facts connected with this trial have been greatly misrepre sented, and that Browne had really ver\ little to do with the proceedings. It is interesting, then, to observe that the onlj work on witchcraft in the catalogue is ar unimportant tract by one R. T., " Price 10d." b One is glad to be able to believe that, after all, Browne did not take his witchcraft very seriously.

Here we must leave 'him and his books, though the subject is by no means exhausted. It would be interesting, for instance, to reprint the whole catalogue with notes and an index, and so make it accessible to some future editor of Browne. There are many references in Browne's letters to works which are in the catalogue, but which I have not been able to take notice of here. The books themselves have long since been dispersed, and have passed, with much of the old-world learning they enshrined, into the limbo of forgotten things. At one time they were the valued and familiar possessions of one of the most engaging personalities in English literature. This must be my excuse for bringing them again into the light of day. MALCOLM LETTS.

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS HOLCROFT.

See ante, pp. 1, 43, 83, 122, 163, 205, 244. 284, 323.)

1790. " The German Hotel ; a Comedy, as per- formed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. London : Printed for G. G. J. and J. Eobinson,. Paternoster How. M.DCC.XC." Octavo, x +2 + 1-72 pp.

Halkett and Laing's ' Dictionary ' gives i his work to "Marshall," and Cushmg's

Dictionary ' records " Marshall " as one 1

if the pseudonyms of Thomas Holcroft.

Oulton's ' History of the Theatres of London,' ippearing only six years later (1796), ascribes- his piece acted at Covent Garden, 1 1 Xov., i '790 to Mr. Marshall "as reported " ; the Thespian Dictionary,' in 1800, did not

ascribe it ; the ' Biographia Dramatica,' in

"N.Jk Q,'.ll S. v. 221. Norfolk Chronicle, 23 and 30 Dec., 1911.

b " The Opinion of Witchcraft vindicated in air Answer to a book Intituled the Question of Vitchcraft debated. Being a letter to a friend. By R. T, 1670." The tract is advertised in the Mercurius Libraries of 17 Feb, 1670. See Arber, 'Term Cat. ,'i. 27.