QUERIES PROPOSED, NO. 2.
When reflecting on my various pen-and-ink skirmishes, I have sometimes half-resolved to avoid controversy. The resolution would have been unwise; for silence, on many occasions, would be a dereliction of those duties which we owe to ourselves and the public.
The halcyon days, so much desired, may be far distant! I have to comment, elsewhere, on certain parts of the Report of the commissioners on the British Museum—which I hope to do firmly, yet respectfully; and on the evidence of Mr. Panizzi—in which task I must not disappoint his just expectations. I have also to propose a query on the blunder of Malone—to which I give precedence, as it relates to Shakspeare.
The query is—have I "mistaken the whole affair"? A few short paragraphs may enable others to decide.
1. The question at issue arose, I presume to say, out of the statement of Mr. Jebb. I never quoted the Irish edition. If C. can prove that Malone superintended it, he may fairly tax me with a violation of my new canon of criticism—not otherwise. What says Mr. James Boswell on that point? I must borrow his precise words: "The only edition for which Mr. Malone can be considered as responsible [is] his own in 1790." [Plays and poems of W.S. 1821, i. xxxiii.]
2. I am said to have "repeated what C. had already stated."—I consulted the Shakspere of Malone, and verified my recollections, when the query of "Mr. JEBB" appeared—but forbore to notice its misconceptions. Besides, one C., after an interval of two months, merely asserted that it was not a blunder of Malone; the other C. furnished, off-hand, his proofs and references.
3. To argue fairly, we must use the same words in the same sense. Now C. (No. 24. p. 386.) asserts the Malone had never seen the introductory fragment; and asks, who forged it? He uses the word fabrication in the sense of forgery.—The facts are produced (No. 25. p. 404.). He is informed that the audacious fabrication, which took place before 1770, was first published by Malone himself, in 1790—yet he expects me to apply the same terms to the blunder committed by another editor in 1794.
4. As an answer to my assertion that the Irish editor attempted to unite the two fragments, C. proceeds to prove that he did not unite them. The procedure is rather defective in point of logical exactness. It proves only what was not denied. Malone refers to the will of John Shakspere, found by Joseph Moseley, with sufficient clearness; and it is charitable to assume that the Irish editor intended to observe the instructions of his precursor. He failed, it seems—but why? It would be useless to go in search of the rationale of a blunder.
Have I "mistaken the whole affair"?—I entreat those readers of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" who may take up the affirmative side of the question to point out my errors, whether as to facts or inferences.
BOLTON CORNET.