Microcosmography Part 34

The notes and ill.u.s.trations which Dr. Bliss did _not_ make use of in his edition are as follows.[EU]

Two are on the serving-man, 'In querpo.'

"I am borne sweet lady To a poore fortune that will keep myself And Footman, as you see, to bear my sword In Cuerpo after me."

--_Mayne's City Match, a Comedy, 4to, 1658._

"You shall see him in the morning in the gallery--first, at noon in the Bullion, in the evening in Quirpo."--Ma.s.singer's Fatal Dowry.

"Dr. Johnson explains querpo, which he says is corrupted from cuerpo (Spanish), as a dress close to the body. Dryden uses it."

On the same character he has a quotation from Religio Regis, 12mo, 1715: King James in his advice to his son Henry, Prince of Wales, says "hawking is not to be condemned, but nevertheless, give me leave to say, it is more uncertain than the others (hunting), and subject to mischances."

On the "She-precise Hypocrite" he has a note--on "Geneva."

Like a Geneva weaver in black, who left The loom and entered into the ministry For Conscience Sake.--_Mayne's City Match._

On 'door-posts' in 'The Aldermen' he quotes, "a pair of such brothers were fitter for posts without dore indeed, to make a shew at a new-chosen magistrate's gate."--_The Widow_, 4to, 1652.

Of 'Paul's Walk' there is yet one more ill.u.s.tration. "Walk in the middle Ile in Paul's, and gentlemen's teeth walk not faster at ordinaries than there a whole day togeather about inquirie after newes."--Theeves falling out true men come by their good, or the Belman wanted a clapper, _4to, Lond., 1615._

On the Pot-Poet he has a quotation from _Whimzies, a new cast of Characters_, 8vo, Lond., 1633, an ill.u.s.tration of the "_strange monster out of Germany_." "Nor comes his invention farre short of his imagination: for want of truer relations, for a neede he can find a Suss.e.x dragone, some sea or Inland monster, drawn out by some Shoe Lane man in a gorgon-like feature, to enforce more horror in the beholder."

At the end of the Characters there is an extract from a letter of Clarendon which mentions that the deanery of Westminster "was designed to a person of very known and confessed merit," (most probably Dr. John Earle) _written below_. He quotes Anthony Wood on the other side of this leaf for Earle's friends.h.i.+ps, with Henry Cary, first Earle of Monmouth--with George Morley, afterwards Bishop of Winchester. Morley and Earle lived together at Antwerp till they were called to attend on the Duke of York in France. Two pa.s.sages of Anthony Wood, which he does not quote, are worth recalling. Morley was sent by Charles II. to "thank Salmasius for his Apology for his Martyrd father, but not with a purse of gold as Joh. Milton, the impudent lyer, reported." Henry Cary was "well skill'd in the modern languages, and a general scholar"; and thus "was capacitated [by a forced retiredness in the troublesome times of Rebellion] to exercise himself in studies, while others of the n.o.bility were fain to truckle to their inferiors for company sake."

I have only given two t.i.tle-pages of editions in the year of publication.

A table of editions is given on the next page.

[_t.i.tle-page of first edition of 1628._]

Micro-cosmographie;

or,

A Peece of The World discovered; In Essayes and Characters.

[Here is inserted in MS.--"Written by John Earles of Merton Coll."]

_Newly composed for the Northerne parts of this Kingdome._

AT LONDON: PRINTED BY W. S., FOR ED. BLOUNT.

1628.

[_t.i.tle-page of 3rd edition of 1628._]

Micro-cosmographie;

or,

A Peece of

The World

discovered;

In Essayes and

Characters.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY WILLIAM STANSBURY, FOR ROBERT ALLOT, 1628.

[W. H. Allnutt, in a MS. note inserted in the Bodleian copy of Arber's Reprint of the Characters, states that Arber has mistaken the order of priority of the three 1628 edd. Arber places the ed. with the above t.i.tle-page second, and that of which the t.i.tle is copied on p. 330, third. The second ed., called by Arber the first, is not in the Bodleian.]

The last written page of the Durham MS. has by way of Colophon

Finis.

December anno Do This 14th mini day 1627.

"This little volume in calf binding, about 12mo size, is doubtless one of those referred to by Ed. Blount in his address to the Reader. The MS. is written in an exceedingly neat and small hand on the pages of the previously bound book, with margin lines ruled in red. At the top of the first page is written in a different hand, 'Edw. Blunt, Author.' The MS.

contains 46 Characters in all, and is free from some evident blunders in the first printed copies, as if they had been done from dictation."

This MS. in the Durham Cathedral Library is entered in the catalogue (of the Hunter MSS.) as "Characters by Edward Blunt," and dated "about 1636,"

the date _in the MS._ having been overlooked.

Dr. Fowler in _Notes and Queries_, Nov. 4th, 1871.

EARLE'S MICROCOSMOGRAPHY.

--------------------------------------+------+----------+-----+-------+-------- | | |Bliss| | |Bliss,| Bliss, |Sale,|British| EDITION. |1811 .| 1812-57. |1858.|Museum |Bodleian --------------------------------------+------+----------+-----+-------+-------- "W. Stansby for Edward Blount,"[EV] | | | | | 1628(_a_) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes "W. Stansby for Robert Allot," 1628 | | | | | (_b_)[EW] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No "W. S. for Ed. Blount," 1628 (_c_)[EX]| Yes | | Yes | Yes | Yes 4th | No | No | No | No | No 5th 1629 | Yes | | Yes | Yes | Yes 6th 1630 | No | No | No | Yes | No "6th" 1633 | Yes | | Yes | Yes | Yes 7th 1638 | Yes | | Yes | Yes | Yes (A reprint of one of the | | | | | first four) 1650 | Yes | | Yes | Yes | Yes (Very doubtful) 1659 | No |"Mr. | No | No | No | |Gilchrist"| | | | |told him | | | | |he possessed a | | | |copy by the same| | | |printers as in | | | |1669 but with | | | |"1659." | | | 8th 1664 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No 9th 1669 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (1669 edition, with new t.i.tle) 1676 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No (Reprint of 1633 edition) 1732 | Yes | | Yes | Yes | Yes (1732 edition, with new t.i.tle | | | | | and small changes) 1740 | Yes | | Yes | Yes | Yes (Reprint of 1650 edition) 1786 | Yes | | Yes | Yes | No (Bliss's edition) 1811 | | | Yes | Yes | Yes (Arber's edition) 1868 or 1869 | | | | Yes | Yes --------------------------------------+------+----------+-----+-------+--------

_British Museum._ _Bodleian._ _Bliss._ _As to the three 1628 editions_-- A is regarded as 1st 2nd 3rd B " " 2nd 3rd 2nd C " " 3rd 1st 1st

C has "Newly composed for the Northerne parts of this Kingdome."

F. MADAN, _Sub-Librarian Bodleian Library_, _February 11th, 1897._

This table was compiled for me most kindly by Mr. MADAN. It answers the question, what editions Bliss knew of at _various times_.

The following pa.s.sage from Evelyn's Diary adds one more testimony to Earle. _Nov. 30th, 1662._ "Invited by the Deane of Westminster (Dr. Earle) to his consecration dinner and ceremony on his being made Bishop of Worcester. Dr. Bolton preached in the Abbey Church--then followed the consecration.... After this was one of the most plentiful and magnificent dinners that in my life I ever saw. It cost neere 600.... Here were the Judges, n.o.bility, Clergy, and gentlemen innumerable, this Bishop being universally belov'd for his sweete and gentle disposition. He was author of those characters which go under the name of Blount. He translated his late Majesty's Icon into Latine, was Clerk of his Closet, Chaplaine, Deane of Westminster, and yet a most humble, meeke, but cheerful man, an _excellent scholar_,[EY] and rare preacher. I had the honour to be loved by him. He married me at Paris, during his Majesties and the Churches exile. When I tooke leave of him he brought me to the Cloysters in his episcopal habit." He elsewhere speaks of "going to St. Germans to desire of Dr. Earle," then in attendance at the Prince of Wales' Court, that he would marry him "at the chapel of his Majesty's Resident at the Court of France," June 10th, 1647. A sermon of Earle's, "my deare friend now Deane of Westminster" is mentioned on Christmas Day 1660. It was one "condoling the breache made in the public joy by the lamented death of the Princess of Orange." My attention was drawn to these pa.s.sages by a friend who claims descent from Bishop Earle--Mr. W. B. Alt, of New College, Oxford.

A testimony from another _hand_[EZ] is quoted in Bliss's annotated copy.

"How well he understood the world in his younger days appears by his smart characters; how little he valued it was seen in the careless indifference of his holy contemplative life."