P. 297. Arnold.—Wordsworth's opinion was that the prophetic and lyrical parts of the Bible formed 'the great storehouse of enthusiastic and meditative imagination'.
P. 297. Faber.—Professor Huxley wrote in the Contemporary Review, in his famous article on 'The School Boards':—'Consider the great historical fact that, for three centuries, this book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; that it has become the national epic of Britain, and is familiar to noble and simple, from John-o'-Groat's House to Land's End, as Dante and Tasso were once to the Italians; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of mere literary form; and, finally, that it forbids the veriest hind who never left his village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and other civilizations, and of a great past, stretching back to the furthest limits of the oldest nations in the world.'
P. 299. Eliot.—Maggie Tulliver, during the home troubles caused by her father's bankruptcy, receives a present of books, among which is the Imitation of Christ.
P. 304. Gaskell.—The essay by Mrs. Gaskell, first published in Household Words in 1854, was suggested by an article by Victor Cousin on Madame de Sablé in the Revue des Deux Mondes. Madame was a habitual guest at the Hôtel Rambouillet and friend of the Duchess de Longueville; her crowning accomplishment was the ability tenir un salon.
P. 311. Alcuin.—Born at York in 735, Alcuin was the adviser of Charlemagne, whose court, under the Englishman's direction became a centre of culture. After fifteen years of court life at Aix-la-Chapelle Alcuin retired to Tours, where he died in 804. His English name is given as Ealwhine.
The catalogue refers to the library of Egbert, Archbishop of York. The translator is D. McNicoll.
P. 311. King.—This is an extract from a poem of 1,500 lines preserved in vol. iii of Nichols's Poems, where it is said to be probably by Dr. W. King. It first appeared in 1712. See p. 252.
P. 313. Pope.—For the fate of the bonfire the reader is referred to the Dunciad itself. Pope explains that 'this library is divided into three parts; the first consists of those authors from whom he (the hero, i.e. Colley Cibber) stole, and whose works he mangled; the second, of such as fitted the shelves, or were gilded for show, or adorned with pictures; the third class our author calls solid learning, old Bodies of Divinity, old Commentaries, old English Printers, or old English Translations; all very voluminous, and fit to erect altars to Dulness'. Tibbald, or Theobald, wrote Shakespear Restored; Ogilby, poet and printer, is mentioned by Addison on p. 210; the Duchess of Newcastle was responsible for eight folios of poetical and philosophical works; Settle, the hero's brother Laureate 'for the city instead of the court'; Banks, his rival in tragedy; Broome, 'a serving man of Ben Jonson'; De Lyra or Harpsfield, whose five volumes of commentaries in folio were printed in 1472; Philemon Holland, 'the translator general of his age'; Cibber's Birthday Ode as Laureate.
William Caxton (1422-91), of course, printed, at Bruges, the first book printed in English—the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye—in 1474. His printing press in Westminster was set up two years later. Wynkyn de Worde, his servant and successor, started business on his own account in 1491.
P. 314. Sterne.—'Sterne has generally concealed the sources of his curious trains of investigation, and uncommon opinions, but in one instance he ventured to break through his restraint by mentioning Bouchet's Evening Conferences, among the treasures of Mr. Shandy's library.... I have great reason to believe that it was in the Skelton library some years ago, where I suspect Sterne found most of the authors of this class. I entertain little doubt, that from the perusal of this work, Sterne conceived the first precise idea of his Tristram, as far as anything can be called precise, in a desultory book, apparently written with great rapidity.'