Mr. T. G. Law, Librarian, Signet Library; Mr. W. Black, Librarian, S.S.C. Library. The report of the meeting at Manchester, edited by Messrs. Tedder and Thomas, will shortly be in the hands of members. The delay in the production of the volume has been caused by the preparation of some interesting descriptions of the libraries visited by the Association on that occasion. JULY MONTHLY MEETING. THE ninth Monthly Meeting of the third year of the Association was held at the London Institution on Friday, July 2, 1880, at 8 p.m., Mr. R. HARRISON, Treasurer, in the chair. The minutes of the previous meeting having been read and confirmed, the Chairman called on the Secretary to read the following paper by Mr. W. E. AXON, entitled THE POETRY OF THE BIBLIOMANIA. Of Books I sing. Of all that greets the eye, DIBDIN. Love, love is the song which the Poet ever singeth, So sings Alexander Smith, but, like many other beautiful and poetical assertions, it requires to be taken cum grano salis, for the poets have sung almost of every subject beneath the sun. Not only have they sung of love but of war, of the glories and triumphs, the groans and agonies of the bloody battle-field. The same hand which wrote the "Economy of Love," indited also the "Art of Cookery." The American epic poet, Joel Barlow, not only celebrated his country's glories in the "Columbiad," but also sung the praise of hasty-pudding. Garth sang of the Dispensary, and Tusser of Husbandry; in short, poets have ransacked heaven and earth for the subjects of their rhymes, and have even ventured into the nethermost world. What wonder, then, that we should find men who have in song expressed the feelings which arise in the mind on entering the place where Old books and manuscripts the age command, What wonder that singers should have arisen to interpret the joys of the Bibliomania! The disease is a widespread one, and many of those who have wooed the muse, have been more or less infected * "Review of various Schemes of Happiness." By Thomas Cook. London: 1846. : with it. Scott and Southey were hard and eager book-hunters, and the enthusiasm of Jonathan Oldbuck in his antiquarian raids is only a good-humoured satire on one of the chief passions of the author of Waverley. Look at the noble Abbotsford Library; it is a model of book-hunting energy on many and very different hunting grounds here a black-letter romance, there a bundle of pedlar's ballads; here a "dapper Elzevir," there a folio of Aldus or Stephens. That Scott was not amenable to the vulgar reproach of not reading the books which he bought, may be seen from the curious and varied learning which he has thrown into the notes to his varied works. These notes alone, if reprinted, would form a very curious commonplace book. We mention these honoured names to show that the Book Disease is one which infects great minds; all literary men-De Quincey to the contrary notwithstanding-are more or less subject to it. Eyen Johnson, who was barbarously careless in his usage of books, fully estimated the importance of book-collecting. Un bibliophile après tout n'est qu'un homme perfectionné," and the poet who sublimates into song the joys and sorrows of those earnest students of bibliography, the Book-Hunters, may claim to stand at the head of the tribe. 66 "The Book-Hunter's Garland "would be a curious addition to our poetical anthologies, if it contained all worth preserving on the pleasures of collecting and possessing books; and it may afford a few moments' amusement to indicate some few articles that could not well be omitted from such a collection. We need not occupy' the time by quoting those passages from our great authors in which they have spoken of the value and beauty of the love of books, but will confine ourselves solely to the "Poetry of the Bibliomania." One of the first victims of that dread disease in its more modern form was Dr. John Ferriar, a worthy of whom the cotton metropolis may be justly proud. His learning and taste are very strikingly shown in his "Illus trations of Sterne"-a collection of interesting essays under a not very attractive title. Among other claims upon our gratitude, Dr. Ferriar is the author of a small pamphlet of fourteen quarto pages; the title is here transcribed "The Bibliomania, an epistle, to Richard Heber, Esq. by John Ferriar, M.D. Hic, inquis, veto quisquam faxit oletum. Pinge duos angues.-Pers. Sat. 1.1. 108. London: Printed for T. Cadell, and W. Davies, in the Strand; by J. Haddock, Warrington. 1809." Our bibliomaniacal poet first paints the woes of the poor collector: What wild desires, what restless torments seize And Prudence quench the Spark by heaven assign'd! Fair Crystalline immur'd in lucid cell. The picture of destitution is rendered all the more terrible by a glowing description of the pleasures and advantages of the rich collector. Then follows this passage on one of the characteristics of the tribe : Or English books, neglected and forgot, Now cheaply bought for thrice their weight in gold. Some flow'rs "smell sweet and blossom in their dust." And Lovelace strikes, by fits, a note divine. Th' unequal gleams like midnight-lightnings play, And, if by this agency some works of merit are rescued from oblivion, if some figures which Time had overturned, are reinstated in their proper niches in the temple of literature, shall we not return due honour to those who have performed the kindly office? Here is another passage, in which the poet sings of the devastations of the cook and her assistants. It may be remarked that Ferriar speaks not of that bugbear of modern authors, the trunk maker : ts The menial train has proved the Scourge of wit, One more quotation from Dr. Ferriar will suffice. He preaches fatalism in this charming strain: 舍 1846. Like Poets, born, in vain Collectors strive To cross their Fate, and learn the art to thrive. Ev'n I, debarr'd of ease, and studious hours, While sweet as Springs, new-bubbling from the stone, Glides through the breast some pleasing theme unknown. The perusal of this brochure suggested to Dr. Dibdin the idea of his "Bibliomania," a book still dear to those who are engaged in the pursuit of books. Dibdin aspired to be not only the historian, but the poet of bibliography. In 1812 he printed a tract of twenty-four pages, containing 554 lines of verse on Bibliography. The edition was restricted to fifty copies. This is amongst the "books I have not seen," and also amongst the "books I should like to see." Let us now examine a brochure of four pages, and of a different character altogether, and as a sample of bibliomaniacal conviviality, I will reproduce this jovial ballad in full. RATIONAL MADNESS. A Song, for the Lovers of Curious and Rare Books: adapted to the popular tune of "Liberty Hall."—Only fifty printed for private circulation. I. Come, boys, fill your glasses, and fill to the brim, II. Strange songs have strange songsters, thus madness to praise, By our madness alone then, without more pretence, III. Those joys which the Bibliomania affords, Are felt and acknowledged by Dukes and by Lords! For an exemplar bound by the fam'd Roger Payne ! IV. To a proverb goes madness with love hand in hand, V. Though all ruled by one wish, and though beauty is rare, If we miss a tall copy, we find one that's fair; Our delight may this prove, and though often reprinted, VII. Thus our time may we pass with rare books and rare friends, And may those who delight not in black-letter lore, VIII. May some worthy brother his finger soon put May a soft "Pricke of Conscience" occur now and then! IX. Thus bless'd with possessions unrivalled on earth, J. M. These are the initials of John Major, the publisher of the most magnificent edition of Izaak Walton's "Complete Angler" ever issued from the press. Major was a man of exquisite taste in matters typographical, but the world did not smile on him, and though he bore a brave heart through it all, and wrote and sang jovial songs, of which the above is a specimen, he could not win the favour of Dame Fortune, and at last sought refuge from the storms of adverse fate in the Charter House, where he died on the 9th of January, 1849.* "The Bibliomaniac Ballad, by Cristofer Valdarfer," we learn from Mr. Olphar Hamst's Handbook of Fictitious Names, is a production of Joseph Haslewood. It is dedicated To the Roxburghe Club, by way of dedication, And all blackletter dogs who have passed initiation: These. My late good-natur'd Eame oft would preach long and sage, For he lov'd his old acres, old woods, and old rooks, Or statesman with devices e'er cramm'd so his head; Thus his heart was unbound, as love's Bower gave room, *Gentleman's Magazine, March, 1849, p. 322. |