When this pamphlet was undertaken, the Author had no thought of swelling it to it's present bulk; but communicating his design to his friends, they favoured him with various particulars of information. Some of these accommodated themselves to his original plan, if he can be supposed to have had any, but others were more intractable. Still aware of the value even of disjointed materials, which his profession would not afford him leisure to compact into a regular narrative, and conscious that these sheets, rude and imperfect as they are, may serve to promote a publication less unworthy of its subject, he dismisses his present work without any laboured apology for the errors that may be detected in it; claiming, indeed, some merit on account of intelligence, but not the least on the score of arrangement or composition. He takes the same opportunity to observe, that many curious anecdotes of extraordinary persons have been unfortunately lost, because the possessors of those fugitive particulars had not the power of communicating them in proper form, or polished language, and were unwilling to expose them in such a state as these are offered to the world.
May 9, 1781.
[The ingenious Mr. Crayen of Leipzig]
having translated the First Edition of these Anecdotes, &c. into the German Language, dispatched a copy of his work to J. N. attended by the obliging letter here subjoined:
SIR,
Though I have not the honour of being acquainted with you, I hope your goodness will excuse the liberty I take of sending you a German translation of the Biographical Anecdotes of Mr. Hogarth you published. Being convinced of the merits of your production, and its usefulness to such collectors of prints and connoisseurs in our country as don't understand the English language, I undertook this translation, and flatter myself you will be pleased to accept of it as a proof of my real esteem for you.
You will find, that I did not always adhere literally to the original, but made some abridgments, alterations, notes, &c. &c. But I hope you will do me the justice to consider, that I wrote for my countrymen, and therefore left out such passages, poems, anecdotes, &c. &c. as would have been entirely uninteresting to them, and have swelled the volume to no purpose.
As to the typographical performance, I think you will be tolerably satisfied of it. Though the noble art of printing is of German origin, your nation has improved and brought it to the highest pitch of perfection in point of neatness, elegance, and correctness.
I remain, with all possible esteem,
Sir,
Your most obedient
and most humble servant,
A. CRAYEN.
Leipzig in Saxony,
the 29th Jan. 1783.
The following are Translations, by a Friend,
from the Dedication and Preface to
Mr. Crayen's performance.
DEDICATION.
To Mr. Gottfried Winkler, in Leipzig;
Honoured and Worthy Friend,
Pardon my presumption in offering you the slender fruit of a few leisure hours. Receive it with your wonted kindness, and judge of it not by the trifling value of the work, but by the intention of its Author, whose most zealous wish has long been to find an opportunity of publickly offering you, however small, a memorial of his respect and friendship.
If my labour in adding a mite towards the diffusion of the knowledge of the Arts, is honoured with the approbation of so enlightened a Connoisseur, I shall feel myself completely rewarded.
Receive at the same time my sincerest thanks for the obliging communication of your Copy of Hogarth's prints, of which, in my translation, I have more than once availed myself.
Live, honoured Sir, many days; happy in the bosom of your worthy family, in the circle of your friends, and in the enjoyment of those treasures of the Arts you have collected with such distinguished taste. Remain also a friend of
Yours, &c.
The Translator.