"Dieu aide les mal vestus."
SIWEL.
April 5. 1850.
Sterne's Koran (No. 14. p. 216.)—An inquiry respecting this work appeared in the Gent. Mag., vol. lxvii. pt. ii. p. 565.; and at p. 755. we are told by a writer under the signature of "Normanus," that in his edition of Sterne, printed at Dublin, 1775, 5 vols. 12mo., the Koran was placed at the end, the editor honestly confessing that it was not the production of Sterne, but of Mr. Richard Griffith (son of Mrs. Griffith, the Novellettist), then a gentleman of large fortune seated at Millecent, co. Kildare, and married to a daughter of the late Ld. C.B. Burgh.
I possess a copy of an indifferent edition of Sterne's works, in point of paper and type, "Printed for J. Mozley, Gainsbrough, 1795. 8 vols. 12mo." The Koran is in the sixth vol., termed "The Posthumous Works of L. Sterne," dedicated to the Earl of Charlemont by the editor, who, in his address to the reader, professes to have received the MS. from the hands of the author some time before his untimely death.
This I hope will answer the Query of "E.L.N.:" and at the same time I wish to express my regret, that we do not possess a really good and complete edition of Sterne's Works, with a Life and literary history of them, incorporating the amusing illustrations by Dr. Ferriar.
F.R.A.
April 12. 1850.
Lollius.—In answer to "J.M.B." (No. 19. p. 303.) as to who was the Lollius spoken of by Chaucer, I send you the following. Lollius was the real or fictitious name of the author or translator of many of our Gothic prose romances. D'Israeli, in his admirable Amenities of Literature, vol. i. p. 141., says:—
"In some colophons of the prose romances the names of real persons are assigned as the writers; but the same romance is equally ascribed to different persons, and works are given as translations which in fact are originals. Amid this prevailing confusion, and these contradictory statements, we must agree with the editor of Warton, that we cannot with any confidence name the author of any of these prose romances. Ritson has aptly treated these pseudonymous translators as 'men of straw.' We may say of them all, as the antiquary Douce, in the agony of his baffled researches after one of their favourite authorities, a Will o' the Wisp named LOLLIUS, exclaimed, somewhat gravely,—'Of Lollius it will become every one to speak with diffidence.'"