ON CATALOGUES OF BOOKS.
A series of notes on the utility of printed catalogues of public libraries may seem to be a superfluity. It may be said, Who ever denied it? Relying on a official document, I can assert that it has been denied—in defiance of common sense, and the experience of two hundred and fifty years!
At such a time, it behoves every lover of literature to declare himself, and to furnish his quota of facts or arguments corrective of this upstart paradox. It is under the influence of that sentiment that I submit, for consideration in the proper quarter, some short extracts from my bibliographic portfolios.
Bolton Corney.
"The forwardness of your CATALOGUE [of the public library at Oxford] is very good tidings.... I would intreat you to meditate upon it, how it may be performed to both our credits and contents."—Sir Thomas Bodley to Tho. James, c. 1604.
Habes, benigne lector, catalogum librorum, eo ordine dispositum, quo in celeberrima Oxoniensi bibliothecâ collocantur; opus diu multumque desideratum, et jam tandem editum."—Thomas James, 1605.
"Quamprimum benignis academicorum suffragiis in bibliothecarium electus essem, viderémque justum bibliothecæ publicæ catalogum ab omnibus desiderari, ego ut gratiis litatum irem, me protinùs accinxi ad conficiendum proprio marte novum catalogum."—Thomas Hyde, 1674.
"The general use of catalogues of [of books], and the esteem they are in at present, is so well known, that it were to waste paper to expatiate on it."—Gerard Langbaine, 1688.
"Quelles obligations la république des lettres n'a-t-elle pas aux Anglais, d'avoir donné les catalogues des livres que renferment leurs bibliothèques! Celui d'Oxford est d'une utilité reconnue, par le grand nombre de livres qu'il contient, et par l'ordre alphabétique qu'on leur a donné."—Jourdan, 1739.
Catalogues of books are of great use in literary pursuits.... We mean not here to enter into all the conveniencies of a more improved catalogue, for it would require a volume to display them."—William Oldys, 1745.
"Solebat [sc. Ruhnkenius] haud exiguam subsecivæ operæ partem tribuere perlegendis catalogis librorum, sive per auctiones divendendorum, sive in bibliothecis publicis servatorum; unde factum est, ut rariorum cognitionem librorum, jam in Bergeri disciplina perceptam, continuo augeret."—Dan. Wyttenbach, 1799.
"Le premier besoin de l'homme de lettres qui entreprend un ouvrage, est de connoître les sources auxquelles il peut puiser, les livres qui ont traité directement ou indirectement le sujet qui l'occupe."—S. Chardon de la Rochette, 1812.
"La bibliothèque [savoir, la bibliothèque royale établie à Bruxelles] aura deux catalogues: l'un alphabétique, l'autre systématique. Dans l'intérêt de la science, le catalogue sera imprimé, en tout ou en partie."—Léopold, roi des Belges, 1837.
"Le catalogue est l'inventaire en le véritable palladium d'une bibliothèque. L'impression des catalogues est toujours une chose utile, sinon indispensable.... La publicité est, en outre, le frein des abus, des négligences, et des malversations, l'aiguillon du zèle, et la source de toute amélioration."—L. A. Constantin, 1839.
"La publication d'une nouvelle édition complète du catalogue de la bibliothèque du roi [de France], serait, sans doute, le plus grand service qu'on pût jamais rendre à l'histoire littéraire; et nous ne regardons pas cette entreprise comme impraticable."—Jacques Charles Brunet, 1842.
"M. Merlin pense avec moi, et c'est quelque chose, que les justes plaintes formées contre l'administration de la bibliothèque royale [de France] cesseront dès l'instant où l'on aura rédigé et publié le catalogue géneral des livres imprimés."—Paulin Paris, 1847.
Minor Notes.
The "Winter's Tale."—As Mr. Payne Collier is making inquiries as to the origin of Shakspeare's Winter's Tale, perhaps he will allow me to call his attention to an oversight he has committed in his edition of Greene's Pandosto, in the series called Shakspeare's Library. In a note to the introduction, p. ii., Mr. Collier says,
"Some verbal resemblances and trifling obligations have been pointed out by the commentators in their notes to the Winter's Tale. One of the principal instances occurs in Act IV. Sc. 3., where Florizel says:
"'The gods themselves,
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beasts upon them: Jupiter
Became a bull and bellow'd; the green Neptune
A ram, and bleated; and the fire-rob'd god,
Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,
As I seem now. Their transformations
Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,
Nor in a way so chaste.'
"'This,' says Malone, 'is taken almost literally from the novel'—when, in fact, the resemblance merely consists in the adoption by Shakspeare of part of the mythological knowledge supplied by Greene. 'The gods above disdaine not to love women beneath. Phœbus liked Daphne; Jupiter Io; and why not I then Fawnia?' The resemblance is anything but literal."
It would appear, however, that the passage cited by Mr. Collier is not the one referred to by Malone. Mr. Collier's passage is at p. 34. of his edition of the novel; the one Malone evidently had in view is at p. 40., and is as follows:—