Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/30

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. or s. uie.

LUCAN.

The Lucan Spa. By A. Heron. Dublin, 1818. The Lucan Spa. By G. L. B. Stoney. Dublin,

1885-7. The Lucan Spa. By T. M. Madden. Dublin,

1801. Article on Lucan Spa in Health Record. By

G. L. B. Stoney. Dublin, March, 1892. Lucania. By Rev. W. S. Donegan. Dublin,

1902. (Deals with Lucan and district.)

LUSK.

on Lusk. By Austin Cooper. Dublin, f783,

WILLIAM MACARTHUB. 79 Talbot Street, Dublin.

(To be continued.)

THOMAS HOLCROFT AND THE BIOGRAPHY OF NAPOLEON.

DID Thomas Holcroft write a Life of Na- poleon ? In the " Vollstandiges Biicher- Lexicon, von Christian Gottlob Kayser .... Leipzig, 1835 " (Teil iii. Seite 175), I find the entry :

" ~Holcroft, Thomas, Napoleon Bonaparte, nach dent Leben geschildert. Aus d. Engl. (v. J. A. Bergk). Sonnenstadt, 1814. (Joachim in Lcipz.) "

Unable to secure any confirmation at all of this item, I finally addressed a query to the Direktor of the Berlin Universitats- Bibliothek, and received the following very iull reply (translation) :

"In the local University Library there is a work in 8vo (16'5 cm.) with" the title : ' Napoleon Bonaparte nach dem Leben geschildert von Thomas Holcroft. Aus dem Englischen. Teutsch- land.' This writing, besides the title-page, consists of the supposed translation on pp. 1-82, with additional notes by the translator, and also on pp. 83-8, on the last three pages, a ' Zusatz des Ubersetzers,' entitled ' Napoleon. Ein Fragment,' where the note is made : ' Von einem Reisenden der vor kurzem erst Paris verlassen hat.' Another copy of this edition is in the posses- sion of the iocal Konigliche Bibliothek, and both of these above-mentioned libraries are the only Royal or University libraries in Prussia which, according to the information of the Prussian combined catalogue (' Gesamtkatalog '), possess the work.

' According to the statement of the ' Reper- torium ' by Emil Weller : ' Die falschen und fingirten Druckorte,' Leipzig (W. Engelmann), 186 1, Bd. I. S. 217, this work appeared in 181 4 from the house of Joachim in Leipzig, and was issued as translated by the Leipzig writer Jfohann] A[dam] Bergk. Prom the same source in the same year a new edition appeared with the town and year indicated as ' Ronnenstadt, 1814.' Of this edition, neither we nor the Konigl. Bibliothek own a copy. It is worthy of note that in the mention of this writing [Bergk'sJ which edition is not clear in the ' Neuer Nekrolog der

Deutschen,' 1834, Teil 2, Weimar (B. F. V..i-tK 1836, on p. 1257 is the note : ' Ward bereits L806 gedruckt, aber erst 1814 ausgegeben.'

" Now, concerning the Holcroft original of the assumed translation, it happens thai, with one exception, in none of the bibliographical material aids is there cited a writing by Holcroft which corresponds to the Bergk translation ; especially in the very accurate list in the Catalogue of the British Museum there is nothing similar under Holcroft. The only works which concern this matter are the ' Memoirs ' and the ' Travels ' : the former, which can be seen here in the original, does not enter into the question as the source of Bergk on account of the year of its appearance (1816) ; the latter, which we have in an authorized translation from Bergk of the stay in France (' Reise nach Paris. Von Th. Holcroft. Aus. d. Engl. iibers. v. J. A. Bergk,' Berlin, 1806), likewise yields nothing which could have given a source for the translation ' Napoleon Buonaparte.'

" Consequently, the assumption cannot be avoided that the Bergk translation has for a basis no real Holcroft original, and this assumption has a new confirmation in facts which may he gathered concerning the personality of the trans- lator. Bergk seems to have been an unesteemed scribbler ; and the above-mentioned ' Neuer Nekrolog d. Deutschen ' says (p. 1254) concerning the ' Lebensbeschreibung d. Generals Bonaparte," 1797, published by Bergk, which bears the note 'a.ns d. Franz.,' says expressly, ' dies ist nicht der Fall.' T.n this case also the translation was a fictitious one. The proposition that the same applies to the assumed Holcroft Napoleon would scarcely be opposed if there were not also u, bibliographical indication of an original. This is in the ' Bibliographie biographique universellc par Ed.-M. Oettinger.' T. 2, Bruxelles, 1854,' column 1270, in the following entry : ' Holcroft (Thomas). Life of Napoleon Buonaparte. Land. 1814. 8. Trad, en allem. (par Johann Adam Bergk). Sonnenstadt, s.d. (1814). 8.' There- fore it might have been a Life of Napoleon ap- pearing in London in 1814. In contradiction stands the idea that Holcroft died about 1809, and that Bergk's translation, according to the above-cited assertion in ' Neuer Nekrolog,' was already printed in 1806. Further, no one h.is mentioned such a posthumous work by Holcroft, who in his own time was not an unknown or insignificant writer. Btit in order to resolve the charge if here there really is a mistake of the bibliographer, who on the basis of the translation construed the original, there must be further research.

" It may be worthy of mention that in the local Kgl. Bibliothek is a book in 477 pp., ' Verzeichnis der aus 14165 Nummern bestehenden. . . .Biicher- sammlung des verstorbenen Hon. Dr. Joh. Adam Bergk,' which appeared for sale on Sept. 1, 1836. Should the original in question exist, it may be expected that it may be found by an examination of this list. But since the list has not been properly arranged, no examination has yet been made."

An examination of this list of volumes for sale may, as the Herr Direktor suggests, reveal an original, but I consider the event improbable. England is the place to find English originals. My researches into the