Thomas Frognall Dibdin

“ And when the evening sun-beams throw a chequered light throughout the room, 'tis pleasant to observe how Orlando enjoys the opening of an Aldine Greek Classic—the ample-margined leaves of which receive a mellower tint from the soft lustre that pervades the library. Every book, whether opened or closed, is benefited by this due portion of light; so that the eye, in wandering over the numerous shelves, is neither hurt by morning glare nor evening gloom. ”

“ Happier far the veteran, who can remember how he braved the perils of the sale, in encountering the noble and heavy metalled competitors who flocked, from all parts of the realm, to partake of these Parisian spoils! Such a one casts an eye upon his well-loaded shelves, and while he sees here and there a yellow morocco Aldus, or a Russian leather Froben, he remembers how bravely he fought for each, and with what success his exertions were crowned! ”

“ In fifteen minutes, after a hearty shaking of hands, I was seated with them in the parlour; all of us admiring the unusual splendour of the evening sky, and, in consequence, partaking of the common topics of conversation with a greater flow of spirits.
"You are come, my friends," said I (in the course of conversation) , "to make some stay with me—indeed, I cannot suffer you to depart without keeping you at least a week; in order, amongst other things, to view the beauty of our neighbour Lorenzo's grounds, the general splendour of his house, and the magnificence of his Library." ”

“ Lysander, in particular, began to express the sentiments which such a scene excited in him.—"Yonder," says he, pointing to the church-yard, "is the bourne which terminates our earthly labours; and I marvel much how mortals can spend their time in cavilling at each other—in murdering, with their pens as well as their swords, all that is excellent and admirable in human nature—instead of curbing their passions, elevating their hopes, and tranquillizing their fears. Every evening, for at least one-third of the year, heaven has fixed in the sky yonder visible monitor to man. ”

“ Even yet he continues to gratify his favourite passion for book and print-collecting; although his library is at once choice and copious, and his collection of prints exquisitely fine. He yet enjoys, in the evening of life, all that unruffled temper and gentlemanly address which delighted so much in his younger days, and which will always render him, in his latter years, equally interesting and admired. Like Atticus, he is liberal in the loan of his treasures ”

“ It has often struck me my dear friends, continued Lysander— (in a balanced attitude, and seeming to bring quietly together all his scattered thoughts upon the subject) it has often struck me that few things have operated more unfavourably towards the encouragement of learning, and of book-collecting, than the universal passion for chivalry—which obtained towards the middle ages; while, on the other hand, a monastic life seems to have excited a love of retirement, meditation, and reading. ”

“ I have seen this splendid bijou in the charming collection of our friend ——. It is a small thick folio, highly illuminated; and displaying, as well in the paintings as in the calligraphy, the graphic powers of that age, which had not yet witnessed even the dry pencil of Perugino. More gorgeous, more beautifully elaborate, and more correctly graceful, missals may be in existence; but a more curious, interesting, and perfect specimen, of its kind, is no where to be seen: the portraits of the Duke and of his royal brother Henry V. being the best paintings known of the age. ”

“ Whatever of taste, beauty, and judgment in decoration—by means of portraits, landscapes, houses, and tombs—flowers, birds, insects, heraldic ornaments, and devices,—could dress our immortal bard in a yet more fascinating form, has been accomplished by the noble hand which undertook so Herculean a task—and with a truth, delicacy, and finish of execution, which have been rarely equalled! These magnificent volumes (being the folio edition printed by Bulmer) are at once beautiful and secured by green velvet binding, with embossed clasps and corners of solid silver, washed with gold. ”

“ The Library at Blenheim is one of the grandest rooms in Europe. The serpentine sheet of water, which flows at some little distance, between high banks of luxuriant and moss-woven grass, and is seen from the interior, with an overhanging dark wood of oaks, is sufficient to awaken the finest feelings that ever animated the breast of a bibliomaniac. ”

“ There were copies of the Catalogue of Steeven's books struck off on large paper, on bastard royal octavo, and in quarto.
It remains to say a few words of the celebrated collector of this very curious library. The wit, taste, and classical acquirements of George Steevens are every where recorded and acknowledged. As an editor of his beloved Shakspeare, he stands unrivalled; for he combined, with much recondite learning and indefatigable research, a polish of style, and vigour of expression, which are rarely found united in the same person. His definitions are sometimes both happy and singular ”

“ Most completely so, Philemon. This is the 'pars melior' of every book collector, and it is indeed the better part with Atticus. The learned and curious, whether rich or poor, have always free access to his library—
His books, therefore, are not a stagnant reservoir of unprofitable water, as are those of Pontevallo's; but like a thousand rills, which run down from the lake on Snowdon's summit, after a plentiful fall of rain, they serve to fertilize and adorn every thing to which they extend. ”

“ I take it, that good sense and judgment, attended with care and accuracy in making and sorting a collection, suits every one's palate: and that they must have none at all who are delighted with trifles and play things fit only for fools and children: such, for the most part, as Thomas Hearne dished out for his chaps, among whom I was so silly as to rank myself." Again, to the same person, he thus makes mention of Lord Oxford and Hearne: "I can truly say I never took ill any thing which you have written to me: but heartily wish you well to succeed in the execution of your projects. ”

“ It is with pain that I trace the ravages of the Book-Mania to a later period. Many a heart yet aches, and many a tear is yet shed, on a remembrance of the mortality of this frightful disease. After the purchasers of Ratcliffe's treasures had fully perused, and deposited in fit places within their libraries, some of the scarcest volumes in the collection, they were called upon to witness a yet more splendid victim to the Bibliomania: I mean, the Honourable Topham Beauclerk. ”

“ He must, as soon as the evening shades prevail, burn wax tapers—he must always have an Argand lamp lighted up before him, to throw a picturesque effect upon a dark wood painted by Hobbima—his pens must be made from the crow's wing—his wax must be green—his paper must be thick and hot-pressed; and he must have a portfolio of the choicest bits of ancient vellum that can be procured—his body must recline upon a chintz sofa—his foot must be perched upon an ottoman—in short he must have every thing for which no man of common sense would express the least concern. ”

“ He will, on the contrary, look upon Cecil as a lover of books, not for the sake of the numerous panegyrical dedications to himself, which he must have so satisfactorily perused, but for the sake of the good to be derived from useful and ingenious works. With one hand, this great man may be said to have wielded the courageous spirit, and political virtue, of his country—and with the other, to have directed the operations of science and literature. ”

“ Men seemed to forget that while the most shameless depredations were committed within the libraries of the Jesuits, the cause of learning, as well as of liberty, suffered,—and the spoils which have glittered before our eyes, as the precious relics of these collections, serve to afford a melancholy proof how little those men stick at any thing who, in raising the war-whoop of liberty and equality, tear open the very bowels of order, tranquillity, peace, and decorum! ”

“ Some there are who will not bid 'till Lepidus bids; and who surrender all discretion and opinion of their own to his universal book-knowledge. The consequence is that Lepidus can, with difficulty, make purchases for his own library; and a thousand dexterous and happy manœuvres are of necessity obliged to be practised by him, whenever a rare or curious book turns up. How many fine collections has this sagacious bibliomaniac seen disposed of! Like Nestor, who preaches about the fine fellows he remembered in his youth, Lepidus (although barely yet in his grand climacteric!) ”

“ If you publish, from time to time, additions to your book, you may have frequent opportunity of doing similar service to old English literature, by assembling catalogues of the works of scarce, and therefore almost forgotten, authors. By occasional effusions of this kind you will afford much gratification to literary antiquaries, and preserve a constant source of amusement to yourself: for in my opinion, no man is so unhappy as he who is at a loss for something to do. ”

“ We passed a row of orange trees, glittering with golden fruit; and, turning sharply to our right, discovered, on a gentle eminence, and skirted with a profusion of shrubs and delicately shaped trees, the wished-for Alcove.
We quickly descried Almansa busied in twining her favourite honey-suckles round the portico; while within Belinda was sitting soberly at work, as if waiting our arrival. The ladies saluted us as we approached; and Lorenzo, who till now had been unperceived, came quietly from the interior, with his favourite edition of Thomson [424] in his hand. ”

“ Men began to look sharply into their libraries, and to cast a distrustful eye upon those who came to consult and to copy: for the spirit of Cotton, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, was seen to walk, before cock-crow, along the galleries and balconies of great collections, and to bid the owners of them "remember and beware"!—But to return. The library of this distinguished bibliomaniac continued under sequestration some time after his death, and was preserved entire, with difficulty, during the shock of the civil wars. ”

“ But his walk in book-collecting is rather limited. He seldom rambles into the luxuriancy of old English black-letter literature; and cares still less for a variorum Latin classic, stamped in the neat mintage of the Elzevir press. Of a Greek Aldus, or an Italian Giunta, he has never yet had the luxury to dream:—'trahit sua quemque voluptas;' and let Quisquilius enjoy his hobby-horse, even to the riding of it to death! ”

“ The celebrated Ludovicus Vives has strung together a whole list of ancient popular romances, calling them "ungracious books." The following is his saucy philippic: "Which books but idle men wrote unlearned, and set all upon filth and viciousness; in whom I wonder what should delight men, but that vice pleaseth them so much. As for learning, none is to be looked for in those men, which saw never so much as a shadow of learning themselves. And when they tell ought, what delight can be in those things that be so plain and foolish lies? One killeth twenty by himself alone, another killeth thirty ”

“ Mr. Ratcliffe's, like one of those delicious pieces of scenery, touched by the pencil of Rysdael or Hobbima, exhibited to the beholder's eye a spot equally interesting, but less varied and extensive. The sweeping foliage and rich pasture of the former could not, perhaps, afford greater gratification than did the thatched cottage, abrupt declivities, and gushing streams of the latter. To change the metaphor—Mr. West's was a magnificent repository, Mr. Ratcliffe's a choice cabinet of gems. ”

“ To deprive such a man as Cotton of the ocular and manual comforts of his library—to suppose that he could be happy in the most splendid drawing room in Europe, without his books—is to suppose what our experience of virtuous bibliomaniacs will not permit us to accede to. ”

“ It is quite consolatory to find a gentleman of large fortune, of respectable ancestry, and of classical attainments, devoting a great portion of that leisure time which hangs like a leaden weight upon the generality of fashionable people, to the service of the Fine Arts, and in the patronage of merit and ingenuity. ”

“ To possess a series of well-executed portraits of illustrious men, at different periods of their lives, from blooming boyhood to phlegmatic old age, is sufficiently amusing; but to possess every portrait, bad, indifferent, and unlike, betrays such a dangerous and alarming symptom as to render the case almost incurable!
[434] Lysander would not have run on in this declamatory strain, if it had been his good fortune, as it has been mine, to witness the extraordinary copy of an illustrated Shakspeare in the possession of Earl Spencer ”

“ The scroll was of vellum; the title to the contents of it was penned in golden letters, and softly-painted bunches of roses graced each corner. It contained a sonnet to love, and another to friendship; but a principal mistake which struck us, on the very threshold of our critical examination, was that he had incorrectly entitled these sonnets. Friendship should have been called love, and love, friendship. We had no sooner made the discovery than Gonzalo returned, expecting to find us in like ecstacies with himself!—We gravely told him that we stumbled at the very threshold. ”

“ Hapless man!—for, to his astonishment, he saw Morte d'Arthur, printed by Caxton—Richard Cœur de Lyon, by W. de Worde—The Widow Edyth, by Pynson—and, towering above the rest, a large paper copy of the original edition of Prince's Worthies of Devon; while, lying transversely at top, reposed John Weever's Epigrams, "The spirit of Captain Cox is here revived"—exclaimed Ferdinand—while, on looking above, he saw a curious set of old plays, with Dido, Queen of Carthage, at the head of them! What should he do? ”

“ Let the midnight lamp be burnt to illuminate the stores of antiquity—whether they be romances, or chronicles, or legends, and whether they be printed by Aldus or Caxton—if a brighter lustre can thence be thrown upon the pages of modern learning! ”

“ Posterity will weigh, in even scales, your merits and demerits, when all present animosities and personal prejudices shall have subsided; and when the utility of our labours, whether in promoting wisdom or virtue, shall be unreservedly acknowledged. You may sleep in peace before this decision take place; but your children may live to witness it; and your name, in consequence, become a passport for them into circles of learning and worth. Let us now retreat; or, rather, walk round Lorenzo's grounds. ”

“ The lives of More and Erasmus are generally read and known; but of Dean Colet it may not be so generally known that his ardour for books and for classical literature was keen, and insatiable; that, in the foundation of St. Paul's School, he has left behind a name which entitles him to rank in the foremost of those who have fallen victims to the Bibliomania. How anxiously does he seem to have watched the progress, and pushed the sale, of his friend Erasmus's first edition of the Greek Testament! ”

“ In an age of general inquiry, like the present, when studies less interesting give place to the most laudable curiosity and thirst after investigating every particular relative to the history and literature of our own country, nothing less than an elaborate digest of this valuable library could be expected; and, as a supplement to the history of English literature, more desired. ”