Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/69

 9> s. XIL JULY 25j

NOTES AND QUEEIES.

61

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY S5 t 1903.

CONTENTS. No. 291.

NOTES : Coleridge Marginalia, 61 Notes on Burkon's 'Anatomy,' 62 The United States and St. Margaret's, Westminster, 63 "Oracle" Fielding Formation of Clouds, 65 Old Rochester Row Inaccuracy in 'Barnaby Rudge ' "Prior to"=Before, 66 "A flea in the ear," 67.

QUERIES : Epitaph attributed to Milton, 67 Johnson's 'Lives of the Poets' "Wanted " v. " Wanting "Bell Inscription "The generations pass," &c. ' Cogers' Chronicle' Coffee made of Malt Bunyan's 'Solomon's Temple Spiritualized 'Eneas Silvius Breeches Bible- South Sea Scheme Zola's 'Rome,' 68 Legitimacy of Monmouth -Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh Black Cats- Premier Prudent Peculiars Advent of the Typewriter,

REPLIES :-"Kaimakam" U and V: W: Double-U Earliest English Newspaper, 70 "Cabinet" Single Tooth Clare Market, 71 Ancient Demesne, 72" I " with Small Letter Charles I. and the Episcopate, 73 Authors of Books Wanted " Welter " Shakespeare's Religion, 74 Ineen Dubh Hampden's Portrait Grotto at Margate" Penreth," 75 Napier and Field Sports Lushington, 76 Montagu Bell : Lindley : Perry Potatoes, Whisky, and Leprosy Kurish German, 77.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' Jewish Encyclopaedia,' Vol. IV. 'Burlington Magazine' Browne's 'Treatise of Reforma- tion without Tarying for Anie ' ' Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society ' Harris's 'Alfred the Great 'Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

gtaits*

COLERIDGE MARGINALIA. THERE are few writers whose smallest scraps are so well worth preserving as those of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This has, hap- pily, been recognized by the bibliographers. Coleridge, as Thomas De Quincey has told us,

"of ten spoiled abook ; but, in the course of doing this, he enriched that book with so many and so valuable notes, tossing about him, with such lavish pro- fusion, from such a cornucopia of discursive read- ing, and such a fusing intellect, commentaries so many - angled and so many - coloured, that I have envied many a man whose luck has placed him in the way of such injuries."

Mr. J. P. Anderson enumerated no fewer than sixty-six volumes containing precious mar- ginalia by S. T. Coleridge in the Library of the British Museum alone. Many other books so enriched are known to exist elsewhere, and some of them are mentioned in Shepherd and Prideaux's 'Bibliography.' Now Dr. John Louis Haney, of Philadelphia, is about to issue a Coleridge Bibliography, m which he gives references to 340 volumes contain- ing such marginalia. The poet's habit of annotation extended to the most diverse kinds of literature. Nothing came amiss. A dialogue on parliamentary reform, a funeral sermon for George IV., received attention, as

well as Descartes; and 'Robinson Crusoe' had its commentary no less than Donne's ' Poems.' The notes in the last named explain and justify Charles Lamb, who said :

" Reader, if haply thou art blessed with a moderate collection, be shy of showing it ; or, if thy heart overfloweth to lend them, lend thy books ; but let it be to such a one as S. T. C. ; he will return them (generally anticipating the time appointed) with usury, enriched with annotations

tripling their value. I have had experience I

counsel thee, shut not thy heart nor thy library against S. T. C."

Dr. Haney, in his recent essay on 'German Influences on Coleridge ' (Philadelphia, 1902, p. 43), observes that

"the story of Coleridge's intellectual development awaits the pen of a critic whose conclusions will stem the tide of biassed and superficial criticism.

Many of his letters are unpublished, the prose

works are for the most part badly edited, and he still lacks a biography to serve as a fitting memorial of his greatness."

And, whilst fully acknowledging the excel- lence of Dykes Campbell's work, he says : "It is this biography that we now await from the pen of the poet's grandson, Mr. Ernest Hartley Coleridge." ^ If the approach- ing completion of the edition of Byron's 'Poetical Works' give Mr. Coleridge the necessary leisure for such an enterprise it will be a matter of rejoicing. Meantime, it may be well to mention Mr. E. H. Cole- ridge's essay on S. T. C. as a Lake poet which appears in the latest issue of the Transac- tions of the Royal Society of Literature. It contains some hitherto unpublished memo- randa, and is followed by a bibliographical appendix differing apparently in some respects from Shepherd and Prideaux. Not the least interesting part of the essay is that which points out certain partial anticipations by Coleridge of one or two famous phrases in Wordsworth. Certainly a critical edition of Coleridge, accompanied by a biography also critical, and dealing with his philosophical and literary development as well as with the external incidents of his remarkable career, would be a boon ; and Dr. . Haney 's forth- coming bibliography the amplest yet made will be a great aid in such an undertaking.

Dr. Lloyd Roberts, of Manchester, is the fortunate possessor of two editions of Sir Thomas Browne's ' Religio Medici, ' that of 1658 and that of 1669, each with marginal notes by S. T. C. Mr. James Speirs of the Swedenbprg Society has also some Coleridge marginalia. I am not so lucky as to possess any books "spoiled" by him, but I have a relic from his library. It is said to be a very scarce work : " Smarra ; ou, les Demons de