But let us attend to a more scientific illustration of this eighth symptom. 'Black-Letter, which is used in England, descends from the Gothic characters; and is therefore called Gothic by some, old English by others; but printers give it the name of Black-Letter, because its face taking in a larger compass than Roman or Italic of the same body, the full and spreading strokes thereof appear more black upon paper than common.' Smith's Printer's Grammar; edit. 1755, p. 18. The same definition is given in a recent similar work; with the addition that 'black-letter is more expensive than Roman or Italic, its broad face requiring an extraordinary quantity of ink, which always gives the best coloured paper a yellow cast, unless worked upon that of a superior quality. It has a good effect in a title-page, if disposed with taste.' Stower's Printer's Grammar; 1808, p. 41. To these authorities we may add, from Rowe Mores, that 'Wynkyn de Worde's letter was of The Square English or Black face, and has been the pattern for his successors in the art.' Of English Founders and Foundries; 1778, 8vo. p. 4, 5. 'The same black-letter printer,' says Palmer or Psalmanaazar, 'gave a greater scope to his fancy, and formed such a variety of sorts and sizes of letter that, for several years after him, none of his successors attempted to imitate him therein.' General History of Printing; p. 343. It is not necessary to collect, in formal array, the authorities of foreigners upon this important subject; although it may be as well to notice the strange manner in which Momoro, in his Traité elémentaire de L'Imprimerie, p. 185, refers us to an elucidation of the Gothic letter ('appelé du nom de certains peuples qui vinrent s'établir dans la Gothie, plus de quatre cens ans avant J.C.') in one of the plates of Fournier's Dictionnaire Typographique: vol. ii. p. 205—which, in truth, resembles anything but the Gothic type, as understood by modern readers.—Smith and Mr. Stower have the hardihood to rejoice at the present general extinction of the black-letter. They were not, probably, aware of Hearne's eulogy upon it—'As it is a reproach to us (says this renowned antiquary) that the Saxon language should be so forgot as to have but few (comparatively speaking) that are able to read it; so 'tis a greater reproach that the Black-Letter, which was the character so much in use in our grandfathers' days, should be now (as it were) disused and rejected; especially when we know the best editions of our English Bible and Common-Prayer (to say nothing of other books) are printed in it.' Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle: vol. i., p. lxxxv. I presume the editor and publisher of the forth-coming fac-simile re-impression of Juliana Barnes's Book of Hawking, Hunting, &c., are of the same opinion with Hearne: and are resolved upon eclipsing even the black-letter reputation of the afore-named Wynkyn De Worde.—A pleasant black-letter anecdote is told by Chevillier, of his having picked up, on a bookseller's stall, the first edition of the Speculum Salutis sive Humanæ Salvationis (one of the rarest volumes in the class of those printed in the middle of the fifteenth century) for the small sum of four livres! L'Origine de l'Imprimerie; p. 281. This extraordinary event soon spread abroad, and was circulated in every bibliographical journal. Schelhorn noticed it in his Amœnitates Literariæ: vol. iv. 295-6: and so did Maichelius in his Introd. ad Hist. Lit. et Præcip. Bibl. Paris, p. 122. Nor has it escaped the notice of a more recent foreign bibliographer. Ameilhon makes mention of Chevillier's good fortune; adding that the work was 'un de ces livres rares au premièr degré, qu' un bon Bibliomane ne peut voir sans trépigner de joie, si j'ose m'exprimer ainsi.' Mem. de l'Institut. vol. ii. 485-6. This very copy, which was in the Sorbonne, is now in the Imperial, library at Paris. Ibid. A similar, though less important, anecdote is here laid before the reader from a communication sent to me by Mr. Wm. Hamper of Birmingham. '"Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, black-letter, sewed," was valued at sixpence, in a catalogue of a small Collection of Books on the sale at the shop of Mr. William Adams, Loughborough, in the year 1804: and, after in vain suing the coy collector at this humble price, remained unsold to the present year, 1809, when (thanks to your Bibliomania!) it brought a Golden Guinea.'—I have myself been accused of 'an admiration to excess' of black-letter lore; and of recommending it in every shape, and by every means, directly and indirectly. Yet I have surely not said or done any thing half so decisive in recommendation of it as did our great moralist, Dr. Johnson: who thus introduces the subject in one of his periodical papers.—'The eldest and most venerable of this society, was Hirsutus: who, after the first civilities of my reception, found means to introduce the mention of his favourite studies, by a severe censure of those who want the due regard for their native country. He informed me that he had early withdrawn his attention from foreign trifles, and that since he begun to addict his mind to serious and manly studies, he had very carefully amassed all the English books that were printed in the Black-Letter. This search he had pursued so diligently that he was able to show the deficiencies of the best catalogues. He had long since completed his Caxton, had three sheets of Treveris, unknown to antiquaries, and wanted to a perfect [collection of] Pynson but two volumes: of which one was promised him as a legacy by its present possessor, and the other he was resolved to buy at whatever price, when Quisquilius' library should be sold. Hirsutus had no other reason for the valuing or slighting a book than that it was printed in the Roman or the Gothick letter, nor any ideas but such as his favourite volumes had supplied: when he was serious, he expatiated on the narratives of Johan de Trevisa, and, when he was merry, regaled us with a quotation from the Shippe of Fools.' Rambler, no. 177.—Nor was the Doctor himself quite easy and happy 'till he had sold, in the character of a bookseller, a few volumes—probably of black-letter celebrity. Mr. Boswell relates that 'During the last visit which the Doctor made to Litchfield, the friends, with whom he was staying missed him one morning at the breakfast table. On inquiring after him of the servants, they understood that he had set off from Litchfield at a very early hour, without mentioning to any of the family whither he was going. The day passed without the return of the illustrious guest, and the party began to be very uneasy on his account, when, just before the supper hour, the door opened, and the Doctor stalked into the room. A solemn silence of a few minutes ensued; nobody daring to enquire the cause of his absence, which was at length relieved by Johnson addressing the lady of the house as follows: "Madam, I beg your pardon for the abruptness of my departure this morning, but I was constrained to it by my conscience. Fifty years ago, Madam, on this day, I committed a breach of filial piety, which has ever since lain heavy on my mind, and has not until this day been expiated. My father, you recollect, was a bookseller, and had long been in the habit of attending Walsall Market; and opening a stall for the sale of his books during that day. Confined to his bed by indisposition, he requested of me, this time fifty years ago, to visit the market, and attend the stall in his place. But, Madam, my pride prevented me from doing my duty, and I gave my father a refusal. To do away the sin of this disobedience, I this day went in a post-chaise to Walsall, and going into the market at the time of high business, uncovered my head, and stood with it bare an hour before the stall which my father had formerly used, exposed to the sneers of the by-standers, and the inclemency of the weather: a penance, by which I have propitiated Heaven for this only instance, I believe, of contumacy towards my father."'—Is it not probable that Dr. Johnson himself might have sold for sixpence, a Tusser, which now would have brought a 'golden guinea?'
A perusal of these prices may probably not impress the reader with any lofty notions of the superiority of the black-letter; but this symptom of the Bibliomania is, nevertheless, not to be considered as incurable, or wholly unproductive of good. Under a proper spirit of modification, it has done, and will continue to do, essential service to the cause of English literature. It guided the taste, and strengthened the judgment, of Tyrwhitt in his researches after Chaucerian lore. It stimulated the studies of Farmer and Steevens, and enabled them to twine many a beauteous flower round the brow of their beloved Shakspeare.
It has since operated, to the same effect, in the labour of Mr. Douce,[455] the Porson of old English and French Literature; and in the editions of Milton and Spenser, by my amiable and excellent friend Mr. Todd, the public have had a specimen of what the Black-Letter may perform, when temperately and skilfully exercised.
[455] In the criticisms which have passed upon Mr. Douce's "Illustrations of Shakspeare and Ancient Manners," it has not, I think, been generally noticed that this work is distinguished for the singular diffidence and urbanity of criticism, as well as depth of learning, which it evinces; and for the happy illustrations of the subjects discussed by means of fac-simile wood-cuts.
I could bring to your recollection other instances; but your own memories will better furnish you with them. Let me not, however, omit remarking that the beautiful pages of the 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border' and 'Sir Tristrem' exhibit, in the notes, (now and then thickly studded with black-letter references) a proof that the author of 'The Lay,' 'Marmion,' and 'The Lady of the Lake,' has not disdained to enrich his stores with such intelligence as black-letter books impart. In short, although this be a strong and general symptom of the Bibliomania, it is certainly not attended with injurious effects when regulated by prudence and discretion. An undistinguishable voracious appetite to swallow every thing, because printed in the black-letter, must necessarily bring on an incurable disease, and, consequently, premature dissolution.
There is yet one other, and a somewhat generally prevailing, symptom, indicative of the prevalence of the Bibliomania; and this consists in a fondness for books which have been printed for Private Distribution[456] only, or at a private press. What is executed for a few, will be coveted by many; because the edge of curiosity is whetted, from a supposition that something very extraordinary, or very curious, or very uncommon, is propagated in this said book, so partially distributed. As to works printed at a Private Press, we have had a very recent testimony of the avidity with which certain volumes, executed in this manner, and of which the impression has been comparatively limited, have been sought after by book Cognoscenti.
[456] The reader may not object to be made acquainted with a few distinguished productions, printed for private distribution. The reader is indebted to Mr. Bulmer, at whose elegant press these works were printed, for the information which follows:—Museum Worsleyanum; by Sir Richard Worsley; 1798, 1802, Atlas Folio, 2 vols. The first volume of this work, of which 200 copies were printed, was finished in May, 1798, and circulated, with the plates only of vol. ii., amongst the chosen friends of Sir Richard Worsley, the author; who was, at that time, the diplomatic Resident at Venice from our Court. The second volume, with the letter-press complete, of which only 100 copies were printed, was finished in 1802. The entire expense attending this rare and sumptuous publication (of which a copy is in the library of the Royal Institution) amounted to the enormous sum of 27,000l. and from the irregularity of delivering the second volume of plates, in the first instance, without the letter-press, many of the copies are incomplete.——The Father's Revenge; by the Earl of Carlisle, K.G. &c., 1800, 4to. A limited impression of this very beautiful volume, decorated with engravings from the pencil of Westall, was circulated by the noble author among his friends. I saw a copy of it, bound in green morocco, with the original letter of the donor, in the library of Earl Spencer at Althorp.——Mount St. Gothard: By the late Duchess of Devonshire, folio. Only fifty copies of this brilliant volume were printed; to a few of which, it is said, Lady Diana Beauclerc lent the aid of her ornamental pencil, in some beautiful drawings of the wild and romantic scenery in the neighbourhood of Mount St. Gothard.——Dissertation on Etruscan Vases; by Mr. Christie. Imperial 4to. With elegant Engravings. Only 100 copies of this truly classical volume were printed. From the death of one or two of the parties, who became originally possessed of it, as a present from the author, it has fallen to the lot of Mr. Christie to become, professionally, the vender of a work which he himself never meant to be sold. A copy was very lately disposed of, in this manner, for 14l.——Bentleii Epistolæ; Edited by [the Rev.] Dr. Charles Burney: 1807, 4to. This is one of the most beautiful productions of the Shakspeare press; nor are the intrinsic merits of the volume inferior to its external splendour. The scarcer copies of it are those in medium quarto; of which only 50 were printed: of the imperial quarto, there were 150 executed.—I add two more similar examples, which were not printed at the Shakspeare press:—Lord Baltimore's Gaudia Poetica; Lat. Angl. et Gall. with plates. (No date). Large quarto. Only ten copies of this rare volume were printed, and those distributed among the author's friends: a copy of it was sold for 6l. 10s. at the sale of Mr. Reed's books: see Bibl. Reed, no. 6682. It was inserted for sale in the catalogue of Mr. Burnham, bookseller at Northampton, A.D. 1796—with a note of its rarity subjoined.——Views in Orkney and on the North-Eastern Coast of Scotland. Taken in 1805. Etched 1807. Folio. By the Marchioness of Stafford.—The letter-press consists of twenty-seven pages: the first of which bears this unassuming designation; "Some Account of the Orkney Islands, extracted from Dr. Barry's History, and Wallace's and Brand's Descriptions of Orkney." To this chapter or division is prefixed a vignette of Stroma; and the chapter ends at p. 5. Then follow four views of the Orkney Islands.—The next chapter is entitled "The Cathedral of Kirkwall," which at the beginning exhibits a vignette of the Cathedral of St. Magnus, and at the close, at p. 9, a vignette of a Tomb in the Cathedral. To these succeed two plates, presenting Views of the Inside of the Cathedral, and an Arch in the Cathedral.—The third chapter commences at p. 11, with "The Earl of Orkney's Palace," to which a vignette of a Street in Kirkwall is prefixed. It ends at p. 12, and is followed by a plate exhibiting a view of the Door-way of the Earl's Palace; by another of the Hall of the Earl's Palace; and by a third containing two Views, namely, the Inside of the Hall, and, upon a larger scale, the Chimney in the Hall.—"The Bay of the Frith" is the subject of the fourth chapter; which exhibits at the beginning a vignette of the Hills of Hoy. It closes at p. 14, with a vignette of The Dwarfy Stone. Then follow six plates, containing a view of the Bay of Frith, a View from Hoy, two views of the Eastern and Western Circles of the Stones of Stennis, and two views of Stromness.—The next chapter is entitled "Duncansbay or Dungsby-head," which bears in front a vignette of Wick, and at the end, in p. 16, a vignette of the Castle of Freswick. Three plates follow: the first presenting a view of Duncansbay-Head: the second, Views of the Stacks of Hemprigs and the Hills of Schrabiner or Schuraben; the third, a View of The Ord.—"The Castle of Helmsdale" is the title of the succeeding chapter, to which is prefixed a vignette of Helmsdale Castle. It ends at p. 19, with a vignette of the Bridge of Brora. Then follow two plates, presenting Views of Helmsdale Castle, and the Coast of Sutherland.—The subject of the next chapter is "Dunrobin Castle," (the ancient seat of her Ladyship's ancestors, and now a residence of her Ladyship,) which presents, at the beginning, a vignette of Dunrobin Castle, and after the close of the chapter, at p. 23, four plates; the first of which is a View of Dunrobin Castle and the surrounding scenery; the second, a smaller View of the Castle: the third, a View of Druid Stones, with another of Battle Stones in Strathflete: and the fourth, Dornoch, with the Thane's Cross.—The last chapter is entitled "The Chapel of Rosslyn," to which is prefixed a vignette of Rosslyn Chapel. It is followed by four plates; the first exhibiting a View of a Column in Rosslyn Chapel; the second, a Door-way in the Chapel; the third, the Tomb of Sir William St. Clair; and the fourth, Hawthornden, the residence of the elegant and plaintive Drummond; with whose beautiful Sonnet, to this his romantic habitation, the volume closes:
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"Dear wood! and you, sweet solitary place, Where I estranged from the vulgar live," &c. |
Of the volume which had been thus described, only 120 copies were printed. The Views were all drawn and etched by her Ladyship: and are executed with a spirit and correctness which would have done credit to the most successful disciple of Rembrandt. A copy of the work, which had been presented to the late Right Hon. C.F. Greville, produced, at the sale of his books, the sum of sixteen guineas.
Lis. You allude to the Strawberry Hill Press?[457]