Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/255

 n s. XL MAR. 27, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

245

below is explained by this theory of separate issue and a later collecting into volumes The copies in the British Museum are stamped with the date of acquisition "4 March, 1852." The other title-page is :

" Price one shilling. The Traveller's Library. 16 Holcvoft's Memoirs, Written by himself, am continued to his death from his diary and othe: papers. New Edition. Part I. London : Long man, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852." [The title-page of Part II., No. 17, is the same. Octavo. I., 6 [titles, including pamphle cover] +2 + 7-156 ; II., 4 [titles, including pamphlet cover] + 157-315 pp.

In

" The Collected Works of William Hazlitt edited by A. R. Waller and Arnold Glover, with an Introduction by W. B. Henley. .. .1902 London : J. M. Dent & Co. McCIure, Phillips & Co.: New York," octavo, there was reprinted in vol. ii. (pp. vi-x-f 1-281) the 'Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft,' in the original form, and with many explanatory notes on the text.

1832. In this year appeared "A History of the American Theatre. By William Dunlap. New York. 1832." This contained two long letters previously unpublished, written by

TT.rxl^.--,f :,, i nr\/y j._ TTTin* TX __ -i / i j~,r

Holcroft in 1796, to William Dunlap (pp. 159- to Thomas Cooper (pp. 180-81)

160) and to respectively

There is an item which I have seen, and which, while scarcely deserving inclusion in my Holcroft Bibliography, seems to warrant mention here : " The Widow's Vow. A Fare -, in two acts, as

it is acted at the Theatre Royal, Hay-Market.

London : Printed for G. CK J. and J. Robinson

Pater-noster-Row. 1786." Octavo, 6 + 1-35 pp'

This play, acted at the Haymarket 20 June, 1786, printed as above, was undoubt- edly written by Mrs. Elizabeth Inchbald. On the third of the preliminary pages we find : " Prologue, | Written by Mr. Hol- croft. | Spoken by Mr. Bannister, jun.," with the Prologue following. Several libra- rians in charge of collections which I have used, finding no name on the title-page, have turned over the leaf and read : " Writ- ten by Mr. Holcroft." Their error needs correction. They must have immediately assumed it to be his without looking further, for, aside from the clear statement in James Boaden's ' Memoirs of Mrs. Inchbald ' (1: 235), the attribution is universally to Mrs. Inchbald.

Cf. British Museum Catalogue (643. i. 11 [1]), 46: 75 ; c Stage Encyclopaedia,' p. 485;

' BiographiaDramatica,' 1: 1, 389 and 3: 407 ; Oulton's ' History of the Theatres of London, 1: 151 ; Genest, 6: 410 ; Watt, ' Biblio- theca Britannica,' 1,2: 533; the ' Thespian Dictionary ' ; and Halkett and Laing's mous Literature.' I "have nowhere located any ascription of the play to Thomas Holcroft. Reference to the Bibliography above will show a reprinting of the Prologue alone.
 * Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudony-

I hope no other librarians will make the- same mistake.



Finally, in bringing this Bibliography to- a close I desire to thank the many persona who have submitted data, especially my very good friends Mr. E. Rimbault Dibdiii, Mr. Frederick Culman, Prof. W. P. Trent, and Mr. Ernest L. Gay ; to appeal to readers for further information concerning any additional bibliographical matter, especi- ally concerning the whereabouts of any Holcroft manuscript ; and to make a very* grateful acknowledgment for assistance ren- dered me by many librarians, particularly those at Columbia University, Yale University, Harvard University, the Boston Athenaeum, the Peabody Institute of Balti- more, the Library of Congress at Washington,. D.C., the New York Society Library, the Public Library of Brattleboro, Vermont, the Wallace Library of Fredericksburg, Virginia, the State Library, Richmond ,. Virginia (Mr. Eckenrode, Archivist), the- New York Public Library ; the Bibliotheque- Rationale at Paris ; the British Museum ; the Library of University College in Gower Street, W.C. ; Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington ; Trinity College Library, Dublin; Bodleian Library, Oxford ; theChet- "lam Library, Manchester ; the Mitchell Library, Glasgow ; and the Liverpool Li- brary, where the officials were very con- siderate and helpful. ELBBIDGE COLBY. Columbia University, New York City.

SIR PHILIP FRANCIS NOT JUNIUS. While- ' N. & Q.' cannot afford space for a revival of this old-world question, the statement nade by our kind contributor MR. F. T. ETiBGAME in the notice of the death of Mr. Philip Francis (ante, p. 240), that " Sir- Philip Francis is generally recognized as }he author of the ' Letters of Junius,' ' must not be allowed to go unchallenged n a paper which in its early years numbered mong its most valued contributors Charles Wentworth Dilke, who, as is well known,.