Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/14

6 Independent of the refutation of erroneous impressions, there seems to me something interesting in this last act of a pious and learned man, who was held in high estimation by some of the most distinguished men of his time. He was the friend of Isaac Vossius, and published his literary correspondence in folio, 1690. Fabricius gave a collection of his minor pieces, under the title of Pauli Colomesii Opera, Hamburgh, 1709, in 4to. Des Maiseaux printed several times his Mélanges Historiques, under the title of Colomesiana, and it is probable that the story of his secret marriage had its origin with him. La Monnoye gave an edition of his Bibliothèque Choisie, with notes; and Vigneul Marville (i.e. Dom Noël d'Argonne), in his Mélanges, says,&mdash;

"On voit régner dans les écrits de Colomiés l'air d'un honnête homme, qui fait justice à un chacun, sans avoir égard à la différence des religions. Les ouvrages que j'ai vu de lui sont remplis d'une érudition curieuse, et de fort bon goût."

Mickleham.

The late Mr. Edward Vernon Utterson, the editor of the two well-known volumes of Early Popular Poetry (8vo., 1817), had, as is also well known, a private press in his house of Beldornie, in the Isle of Wight; by means of which he reprinted a variety of highly curious poetical tracts, of dates between about 1590 and 1620. Although he never struck off more than from twelve to twenty copies of each (registering the number in type, or in his own handwriting), he was kind enough to present, I believe, all of them to me, aware of the interest I have taken in our early literature. They were either from unique, or from very rare copies, in public or private libraries; and, in some instances, I have not been able to collate my reprints with the originals. It was my general rule to do so; and I am sorry to say that, the service Mr. Utterson thus rendered to the students of our old poetry, was in some degree neutralized by inaccuracies I discovered. The mistakes, I am aware, grew out of the circumstance, that he usually employed a scribe to copy the original; who (like most scribes with whom I have had to do) was not as accurate as he ought to have been, and Mr. Utterson trusted too much to his fidelity. Many allowances ought, in such cases, to be made: I have transcribed not a few MSS. and printed books with my own hand, in order, as I fancied, to be secure upon the point; and, in going over them afterwards, I have been astonished at my own blunders. Of course, the printer too was now and then in fault, and I do not think that Mr. Utterson engaged a very good compositor. Those are commonly the best compositors who have most to do; and the person or persons who put together the letters for a private press, were not very likely to have enough work to keep them in constant employment. Hence they did not acquire a habit of accuracy.

It may seem a little ungracious in me to point out errors of this kind: it is, as our proverb well expresses it, "Looking a gift-horse in the mouth." But as Mr. Utterson's sole object was to benefit others by the communication of valuable materials, within the reach of few, I am confident that his first wish would have been that defects of the kind should, as far as possible, be cured; and when I have formerly made him aware of their existence, he always expressed his obligation and his regret: adding a desire, that if I ever made any public use of his little volumes, I would take care not to omit the correction of errors. In my intercourse with him, I always found him kind, liberal, and disinterested.

I will begin with Richard Barnefield's Cynthia; with certaine Sonnets, and the Legend of Cassandra, which was originally published in 1595. The name of the author will be familiar to most of your readers, because poems by him were inserted by W. Jaggard, in The Passionate Pilgrim, as the compositions of Shakspeare. Mr. Utterson printed from the copy in Malone's Collection at Oxford; and I was the more obliged to him for the reprint of Cynthia, because it contains the twenty sonnets, which were addressed by Barnefield to a person he calls Ganymede. Most of these are of a questionable character, and were cancelled by Mr. Utterson, after they had been composed by his printer; so that, at least, twelve of the copies struck off were without them. Moreover, unusual mechanical care was evinced about them,&mdash;a circumstance which may be attributed to the fact, that Mr. Utterson himself looked over the press, before he decided that he would not insert them. He sent them to me with a separate note, and wrote "cancelled" upon them.

We meet with a singular mistake on the threshold, where Barnefield's address to his readers, just after the mention of Spenser, is made to terminate thus:&mdash;

"I leave you to the reading of that, which I so much desire may need your delight."

Here "need" ought, of course, to be breed; and it is only by mishearing on the part of the scribe, or the compositor, that we can account for the blunder. Again, in the body of the book (Sign. B. 3. b.), we meet with this line:

"I mixe disdaine with loves congealed & new."

This is evidently nonsense, and the emendation is snow for "& new":

"I mixe disdaine with love's congealed snow."

Here the letter s, in snow, must have been mis-