[9] It has been frequently reprinted, and recently in Germany, as a livre de luxe, illustrated with admirable designs by Kaulbach.—Ed.
[10] Weber. “Brit. Bib.,” vol. iv.—The German song of the Ladybird is beautifully versified in the preface to “German Popular Stories,” by the late Edgar Taylor.
[11] A calamity to which wits are incident is that of having their names prefixed to collections to give them currency. I do not know whether this has not happened to our author. “The Merry Tales of the Madmen of Gotham” are no doubt of great antiquity; they are characterised by a peculiar simplicity of silliness. “Scogin’s Jests,” of the sixty which we have, a very few tradition may have preserved, but they must have received in the course of time the addition of pointless jests, tales marred in the telling, and some things neither jest nor tale; and it is remarkable that these are always accompanied by an inane moralisation, while the more tolerable appear to be preserved in their original condition. Some future researcher may be so fortunate as to compare them with the first editions if they exist.
John Scogin was a gentleman of good descent, who was invited to court by Edward the Fourth for the pleasantry of his wit; he was a caustic Democritus, and gave rise to a proverbial phrase, “What says Scogin?” If he usually said two-thirds of what is ascribed to him in this volume, he had never given rise to a proverb. “The Merry Tales of the Madmen of Gotham” have been recently reprinted by Mr. Halliwell.
[12] Several of these pieces are preserved in Mr. Utterson’s “Select Pieces of Early Popular Poetry.” This attack on women proved not a theme less fertile among our neighbours; how briskly the skirmish was carried on the notice of a single writer will show:—“Alphabet de l’Imperfection et Malice des Femmes, par J. Olivier, licencier aux loix, et en droit-canon,” 1617; three editions of which appeared in the course of two years. This blow was repelled by “Defense des Femmes contre l’Alphabet de leur pretendue Malice,” by Vigoureux, 1617; the first author rejoined with a “Réponse aux Impertinences de l’Aposté Capitaine Vigoureux,” by Olivier, 1617. The fire was kept up by an ally of Olivier, in “Réplique à l’Anti-Malice du Sieur Vigoureux,” by De la Bruyere, 1617. At a period earlier than this conflict, the French had, as well as ourselves, many works on the subject.
THE DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED BY A PRIMITIVE AUTHOR.
Sir Thomas Elyot is the first English prose writer who avowedly attempted to cultivate the language of his country. We track the prints of the first weak footsteps in this new path; and we detect the aberrations of a mind intent on a great popular design, but still vague and uncertain, often opposed by contemporaries, yet cheered by the little world of his readers.
Elyot for us had been little more than a name, as have been many retired students, from the negligence of contemporaries, had he not been one of those interesting authors who have let us into the history of their own minds, and either prospectively have delighted to contemplate on their future enterprises, or retrospectively have exulted in their past labours.