In June, 1930, while the “Selected” books from the Leeds library were being sold at Sotheby’s in London in a three-day sale (referred to hereafter as the Leeds Sale), the “remaining contents” of Hornby Castle were auctioned off by Knight, Frank, and Rutley at old Hornby Castle in Yorkshire in a seven-day sale (referred to hereafter as the Hornby Castle Sale). The books, which made only a minor part of the latter sale, were all auctioned off on the sixth day. These books were catalogued as Lots 1097 through 1294, with from 2 to 430 books in a single lot, making a total of about 7,475. Only a very small fraction of these were mentioned by title in the printed catalogue, and nothing was said about signatures on title pages. But among those mentioned appear twenty-one of the exact editions in Congreve’s list: Numbers 37, 71, 158, 161, 168, 172, 233, 270, 288, 343, 380, 467, 492, 493, 499, 500, 516, 533, 543, 620, 652. Among the “Selected” books catalogued for the Leeds Sale appear sixty-one of the exact editions in Congreve’s list: Numbers 4, 10, 42, 55, 76, 79 (or 80), 96, 97, 98, 152, 160, 178, 179, 182, 183, 184, 207, 208, 234, 257, 258, 262, 281, 283, 292, 342, 360, 367, 406, 413, 421, 423, 427, 441, 442, 444, 451, 455, 458, 460, 462, 463, 465, 502, 507, 518, 529, 534, 536, 542, 544, 553, 558, 566, 579, 592, 639, 641, 649, 651, 656.
Since Congreve’s books had been incorporated with the Leeds library in 1740, we can understand how eighty-two of the identical editions in the list could turn up in sales of Leeds books in 1930. Most of the eighty-two exact editions named (and many of the thousands of unnamed books) in these sales were probably once Congreve’s. The fact that Sotheby’s catalogue mentions the Congreve signature in only ten books suggests that he usually failed to write his name in his books. Sotheby lists most of the books for which Congreve is known to have subscribed, and yet no mention is made of a Congreve signature in any of them. Nor does any signature appear in the special edition of Rowe’s Shakespeare (Number 544 in the list) now in the Folger Shakespeare Library and almost certainly once Congreve’s.
But other books besides the ten mentioned by Sotheby’s were signed by Congreve. One example is Sotheby’s item Number 532 (Congreve’s Number 518), which was sold to McLeish and Sons and then to E. S. de Beer, Esq., before the unmistakable signature of the dramatist was noted. Another example is Congreve’s Number 501, which was in the Hornby Castle Sale and bears the true signature, “Wm: Congreve.” Especially significant is a letter to the editor dated August 20, 1949, from Her Grace Katherine, Duchess of the tenth Duke of Leeds, stating that many years ago she had herself “made a great hunt for any books at Hornby Castle bearing the signature of Congreve,” had found “numbers” of them, and had made a full catalogue with the aid of “Mr. Charles Whibley, the writer & bibliophile.” Unfortunately this catalogue has been lost. If it is ever found, it will be an interesting record of autographed Congreve books held together by one family for nearly two centuries. But the catalogue could not include all the items on the Congreve list since, as we have seen, the dramatist evidently owned many books in which he failed to write his name.
In the twenty-odd books known to have been autographed by the dramatist, the signature is commonly “Will: Congreve,” but the surname is sometimes preceded by “W,” “Wm,” “Willm,” “Gul,” “Gulielmi,” or “Gulielmus.” One of Congreve’s books (Number 236 in the list) preserved in the Yale Library uses both “W: Congreve” and “Gulielmus Congreve” in different signatures. None of the signatures should be accepted as that of the dramatist until the handwriting is verified, for “William” has long been a common Christian name in the Congreve family. In 1700 there were living no fewer than five Congreves bearing this name, all descended from the same grandfather. One of these was Colonel William Congreve (1671–1746) of Highgate, a cousin of the dramatist, whose papers have been confused with those of the dramatist in many sales as well as in many American libraries. The colonel usually signed “Will:” as did the dramatist, but the two cousins formed the “W” in strikingly different ways. The colonel rounded the first upper prong of this letter and brought the middle prong to only little more than half the height of the other prongs; the dramatist sharpened the first prong and brought the middle prong fully up to the height of the others.
Since the present Duke of Leeds reports that he no longer has books bearing Congreve’s signature, we may presume that they were largely, if not fully, disposed of in the two sales of 1930 and are now widely scattered. Books with Congreve’s signature are preserved at the Yale Library (Congreve’s Numbers 236, 262, 441), at the Library of the University of Tennessee (Numbers 119, 595), at the Morgan Library (Number 289), at the Boston Public Library (Number 192), at the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds (Number 541), and in the private libraries of E. S. de Beer, Esq., (Number 518) and the Reverend J. F. Gerrard (Number 371). The editor of this work will be grateful for information concerning the location of other volumes bearing the true signature of William Congreve (1670–1729). Such volumes will be doubly interesting if annotated in the dramatist’s handwriting. Some of the books were thus annotated, according to Jacob Tonson, in his letter of 27 January 1728/29 (a few days after Congreve’s death), to his nephew, Jacob Tonson, Junior: “His [Congreve’s] collection of Books were very genteel & well chosen. I wish you should think them worth your buying; I think there are in [these] books several notes of his own or corrections & everything from him will be very valuable.”
[ Editing and Printing the Book List]
The manuscript list consists of 659 entries arranged in rough alphabetical order on forty-four pages in a sort of journal approximately seven by eleven inches in size. The normal entry gives the name of the author (for perhaps three-fourths of the entries), the short title, the format, the place and date of publication, and sometimes the publisher. And finally, after most of the items appears the “Theca” or shelf number—one of 33 shelves on which Congreve arranged his books at his lodgings in Surrey Street, London.
The list is set down in three distinct hands. That no one of these is Congreve’s need not surprise us since Congreve had very defective eyesight during the last half of his life. An adequate income from government posts enabled him at this period to employ a secretary, perhaps the “young Amanuensis” that he speaks of in writing to Pope about 1726. That was the year, it seems, when the bulk of the list—587 of the 659 items—was made out. The year is indicated by the fact that this hand enters titles of books published through 1725 but none later. After each alphabetical group a space is left as if for additions, and into these spaces a distinctive second hand has made thirty-one entries, including some as late as 1727 but none later. Then follow forty-one entries by a third hand, including four for 1727 and fourteen for 1728 but none later. Entries by the third hand are probably for books added to the library during Congreve’s final illness. It is interesting to note that none of the entries in this last hand are followed by a “Theca” or shelf location, an omission indicating that by the time these titles were entered, the library had been moved from the original quarters in Surrey Street. Perhaps the young Duchess, owner of the books after Congreve’s death, had already moved them to her house in St. James’s—and possibly the hand is that of her secretary.
A small cross is marked before most of the 659 items—before all but fifty-eight (or thirty-seven, when allowance is made for duplicates). Perhaps these crosses were used in connection with an inventory taken in 1729 when the books were inherited by the young Duchess of Marlborough, or in 1740 when the books were incorporated by marriage settlement into the Leeds library. The thirty-seven items then missing (as indicated by the lack of a cross in Congreve’s list) were Numbers 27, 29, 54, 97, 109, 110, 127, 136, 169, 196, 217, 227, 246, 249, 275, 307, 350, 373, 393, 417, 432, 438, 439, 492, 494, 517, 520, 529, 530, 531, 532, 590, 591, 598, 605, 653, and 658. The two books that had been lent to “Ld. Hervy” (see Congreve’s Number 81) and to the Duchess of Marlborough (see Number 372) were in place at the time of the inventory, and each was duly acknowledged by a cross. An additional larger cross surrounded by four dots appears before eleven items (Numbers 36, 65, 120, 232, 256, 283, 298, 303, 462, 484, and 516) to indicate books sent—so the librarian says in a marginal note—to the Duchess of Leeds. These larger crosses could not have been made, of course, before 1740.
Congreve’s book list is here edited and printed for the first time. After the 659 numbers, which are supplied by the editor to facilitate cross references and indexing, the 659 items of the list are printed with spelling, capitalization, and punctuation as in the manuscript. Occasional raised letters, such as the “r” in “Mr.” and the “e” in “ye,” are brought down into the line. The great variety of dots and dashes used to indicate shortened titles are consistently eliminated. Underscored words are printed in italics. The line breaks in the manuscript are indicated by shilling marks (/). In the manuscript many of the “Theca” numbers have been written over older numbers (indicating, no doubt, a shifting of the books to different shelves). Most of the older numbers are illegible, and only the newer, more legible numbers are printed. The occasional use of brackets in the manuscript (as in Numbers 120, 121, 157, 166, 167, and 238) makes impractical the editorial expansion in brackets of such abbreviations as “p” in No. 9 (for “par”) and in No. 180 (for “per”). The thirty-one entries by the second hand and the forty-one by the third hand (Numbers 34, 35, 36, 70, etc.) are designated by the first line of the annotation.