Читать книгу Notes and Queries, Number 06, December 8, 1849 - Various - Страница 6

I am about to supply a deficiency in my last volume of Extracts from the Register of the Stationers' Company (printed for the Shakespeare Society, 1849), and thereby set an example that I hope will be followed, in order that various works, regarding which I could give no, or only incomplete, information, may be duly illustrated. It is impossible to expect that any one individual could thoroughly accomplish such an undertaking; and, by means of your excellent periodical, it will be easy for literary men, who possess scarce or unique books, mentioned in the Registers and in my quotations from them, to furnish such brief descriptions as will be highly curious and very useful.

A tract of this description has just fallen in my way, and it relates to the subsequent entry on p. 97. of vol. ii. of my Extracts: the date is 22nd September, 1579.

"H. Denham. Lycensed unto him, &c. A Paradox, provinge by reason and example that baldnes is much better than bushie heare. vj'd"

When I wrote the comment on this registration I was only acquainted with the clever MS. ballad in Defence of a Bald Head, which I quoted; but I hardly supposed it to be the production intended. It turns out that it was not, for I have that production now before me. My belief is that it is entirely unique; and the only reason for a contrary opinion, that I am acquainted with, is that there is an incorrect mention of it in Warton, H.E.P. iv. 229.; but there is not a hint of its existence in Ritson, although it ought to have found a place in his Bibliographia Poetica; neither do I find it noticed in later authorities; if it be, they have escaped my researches. You will not blame me, then, for indulging my usual wish to quote the title-page at length, which exactly agrees with the terms of the entry in the books of the Stationers' Company. It runs literatim thus:—

"A Paradoxe, proving by reason and example, that baldnesse is much better than bushie haire, &c. Written by that excellent philosopher Synesius, Bishop of Thebes, or (as some say) Cyren. A prettie pamphlet to pervse, and relenished with recreation.—Englished by Abraham Fleming.—Herevnto is annexed the pleasant tale of Hemetes the Heremite, pronounced before the Queenes Maiestie. Newly recognised both in Latin and Englishe, by the said A.F.—[Greek: hae taes sophias phalakra saemeion.]—The badge of wisdome is baldnesse.—Printed by H. Denham, 1579." 8vo. B.L.

If I am not greatly mistaken, your readers will look in vain for a notice of the book in any collected list of the many productions of Abraham Fleming; if I am not greatly mistaken, also, some of them will be disapppointed if I do not subjoin a few sentences describing more particularly the contents of the small volume, which (speaking as a bibliographer) extends to sign. F. iiij in eights.

At the back of the title-page is "The life of Synesius drawen out of Suydas his gatherings," in Greek and in English. Then comes "The Epistle Apologeticall to the lettered Reader," signed "Thine for thy pleasure and profite—Abraham Fleming," which, in excuse for taking up so slight a subject, contains a very singular notice of the celebrated John Heywood, the dramatist of the reign of Henry VIII., and of his remarkable poem The Spider and the Fly. The Pretie Paradoxe, by Synesius, next commences, and extends as far as sign. D. v. b. This portion of the tract is, of course, merely a translation, but it includes a passage or two from Homer, cleverly rendered into English verse. Here we come to the word Finis, and here, I take it, it was originally intended that the tract should end; but as it was thought that it would hardly be of sufficient bulk for the money (4d., or 6d. at the utmost), a sort of appendix was added, which, on some accounts, is the most interesting part of the work.

It is headed "The tale of Hemetes the Heremite, pronounced before the Queene's Maiestie," which Warton, who clearly never saw the book, calls the "Fable of Hermes." In fact, it is, with a few verbal changes, the tale of Hemetes, which George Gascoigne presented, in Latin, Italian, French, and English, to Queen Elizabeth, and of which the MS., with the portraits of the Queen and the author is among the Royal MSS. in the British Museum. Fleming tells us that he had "newly recognised" (whatever may be meant by the words) this tale in Latin and English, but he does not say a syllable whence he procured it. Gascoigne died two years before the date of the publication of this Paradoxe, &c. so that Fleming was quite sure the property could never be challenged by the true owner of it.