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ON AUTHORS AND BOOKS, NO. 5

As a writer of dedications, Samuel Johnson was the giant of his time. He once said to Boswell, the subject arising at a dinner-party, "Why, I have dedicated to the royal family all round,"—and the honest chronicler proves that he spoke advisedly.

Compositions of this nature admit much variety of character. A dedication may be the pure homage which we owe to merit, or the expression of gratitude for favours received, or a memorial of cherished friendship; and such dedications, in point of motive, are beyond the reach of censure—I may fairly assert, are very commendable. Nevertheless, Johnson left no compositions of either class: "the loftiness of his mind," as Boswell gravely states, "prevented him from ever dedicating in his own person."

A more equivocal sort of dedication also prevailed. A book was supposed to require the prefix of some eminent name as its patron, in order to ensure its success. Now the author, though very capable of writing with propriety on his chosen theme, might be unequal to the courtly style which dedicators were wont to display, and as the complement was to be returned substantially, he might be tempted to employ a superior artist on the occasion. It was chiefly under such circumstances that the powers of Johnson were called into action. By what arguments the stern moralist would have endeavoured to justify the deception, for it deserves no better name, is more than I can undertake to decide, and I submit the query to his enthusiastic admirers.

To the dedications enumerated by the faithful Boswell, and by his sharp-sighted editors, Malone and Croker, I have to announce on internal evidence, a gorgeous addition! It is the dedication to Edward Augustus, Duke of York, of An Introduction to Geometry, by William Payne, London: T. Payne, at the Mews Gate, 1767. 4º., 1768. 8º. I transcribe it literatim. It wants no comment:—

"TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF YORK.

"SIR,

"They who are permitted to prefix the names of princes to treatises of science generally enjoy the protection of a patron, without fearing the censure of a judge.

"The honour of approaching your royal highness has given me many opportunities of knowing, that the work which I now presume to offer will not partake of the usual security. For as the knowledge which your royal highness has already acquired of GEOMETRY extends beyond the limits of an introduction. I expect not to inform you; I shall be happy if I merit your approbation.

"An address to such a patron admits no recommendation of the science. It is superfluous to tell your royal highness that GEOMETRY is the primary and fundamental art of life; that its effects are extended through the principal operations of human skill; that it conducts the soldier in the field, and the seaman in the ocean; that it gives strength to the fortress, and elegance to the palace. To your royal highness all this is already known; GEOMETRY is secure of your regard, and your opinion of its usefulness and value has sufficiently appeared, by the condescension in which you have been pleased to honour one who has so little pretension to the notice of princes, as

"Sir,

"Your royal highnesses [sic]'

"Most obliged,

"Most obedient,

"And most humble servant,

"WILLIAM PAYNE."

A short preface follows, which bears marks of reparation. It may have received some touches from the same masterly hand.

The external evidence in favour of the ascription of the above piece to Johnson, if slight in itself, is not devoid of significance. He had dedicated a book for the same author, which book was also published by Mr. Thomas Payne, who was his brother, in 1756.

BOLTON CORNEY.

PLAGIARISMS, OR PARALLEL PASSAGES. No. 2

[Continued from No. 11. p. 163.]

"Dans les premières passions les femmes aiment l'amant; dans les autres elles aiment l'amour."—La Rouchefoucauld, Max. 494.

 
"In her first passions woman loves her lover,
In all the others all she loves is love,
Which grows a habit she can ne'er get over,
And fits her loosely—like an easy glove," etc.
 

Don Juan, canto iii. st. iii.

There is no note on this passage; but on the concluding lines of the very next stanza,

 
"Although, no doubt, her first of love affairs
Is that to which her heart is wholly granted;
Yet there are some, they say, who have had none,
But those who have ne'er end with only one,
 

we have the following editorial comment:—"These two lines are a versification of a saying of Montaigne." (!!!) The saying is not by Montaigne, but by La Rochefoucauld:—

"On peut trouver des femmes qui n'ont jamais eu de galanterie; mais il est rare d'en trouver qui n'en aient jamais eu qu'une."—Max. 73.

Byron borrows the same idea again:—

"Writing grows a habit, like a woman's gallantry. There are women who have had no intrigue, but few who have had but one only; so there are millions of men who have never written a book, but few who have written only one."—Observations upon an Article in Blackwood's Magazine; Byron's Works, vol. xv. p. 87, Moore's Edition, 17 vols duod. London, 1833.

Both the silence of the author, and the blunder of his editor, seem to me to prove that Les Maximes are not as generally known and studied as they deserve to be.

MELANION.

ST. ANTHOLIN'S

Your correspondent MR. RIMBAULT (No. 12.) has made rather a grave charge against my predecessors in office as churchwardens and overseers of this parish; and although, I regret to say, such accusations of unjust stewardship and dereliction of duty are frequently and with justice imputed to some parish officers, yet I am happy to be able, in this instance, to remove the stigma which would otherwise attach to those of St. Antholin. The churchwardens' accounts are in good preservation, and present (in an unbroken series) the parish expenditure for nearly three centuries.

Mr. Rimbault has doubtless been misled by some error in the description of the MSS. in Mr. Thorpe's catalogue (as advertised by him for sale), which were probably merely extracts from the original records.

The first volume commences with the year 1574, and finishes in 1708; the accounts are all written at the time of their respective dates, and regularly signed by the auditors then and there present as correct.

I have made numerous extracts from these interesting documents, and notes thereon, which I shall at some future time be happy to lay before your readers, if you should consider them of sufficient importance.

As a voucher for what I have stated with regard to their existence, and to give some idea of their general character, I have selected (at random) a few items from the year 1580-1:—

"The Accompte of Henrie Jaye, Churchwarden of the Parishe of St. Antholyne, from the feaste of the Anunciacon of our Ladye in Anno 1580 unto the same feaste followinge in Anno 1581."

Among the "receaittes" we have—

 
"R^d of Mr. Thorowgoode for an olde font stone,
by the consente of a vestrie v^s iiij^d
 
 
"R^d for the clothe of bodkine¹¹ y^t Ser Roger
Marten hade before in keppinge, and now
sold by the consente of a vestry and our
mynnister iij^li vj^s viij^d
 

"The Payments as followithe:—

 
"P^d to the wife of John Bakone gwder of the
Lazer cotte at Myle End¹² in full of her due
for keppinge of Evan Redde y^t was Mr.
Hariots mane till his departtur and for his
Shete and Burialle as dothe apere xl^s viij^d
 
 
"P^d for makinge of the Longe pillowe & the
pulpit clothe ij^s
 
 
"P^d for a yard and a nale of fustane for the same
pillowe xvj^d
 
 
"P^d for silke to the same pillowe xvj^d
 
 
"P^d for xj^li of fethers for the same pillowe, at
v^d – - iiij^s vij^d
 
 
"P^d for brede and beer that day the quen cam
in xij^d
 
 
"P^d for candells and mendinge the baldrocke¹³ vj^d
 
 
"P^d for paynttinge y^e stafe of the survayer iij^d
 
 
"P^d for mendynge the lytell bell iij^s
 
 
"Pd to Mr. Sanders for the yearly rent of the
Laystall and skowringe the harnes¹⁴ for
his yer iij^s viij^d
 
 
"P^d to Mr. Wright for the makinge of the Cloke¹⁵
mor than he gatheride, agred one at the laste
vestrie xvij^s
 
 
"P^d to Peter Medcalfe for mending the Cloke
when it neade due at o^r Ladies Daye laste
past in Anno 1581 iij^s
 
 
"P^d for entringe this account xx^d."
 

W.C., JUNIOR,

Overseer of St. Antholin, 1850.

QUERIES

COLLEGE SALTING

Mr. Editor.—If your very valuable work had existed in October, 1847, when I published in the British Magazine a part of Archibishop Whitgift's accounts relative to his pupils while he was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, I should certainly have applied to you for assistance.

In several of the accounts there is a charge for the pupil's "salting;" and after consulting gentlemen more accurately informed with regard to the customs of the university than myself, I was obliged to append a note to the word, when it occurred for the first time in the account of Lord Edward Zouch, in which I said, "I must confess my inability to explain this word; and do not know whether it may be worth while to state that, on my mentioning it to a gentleman, once a fellow-commoner of the college, he told me, that when, as a freshman, he was getting his gown from the maker, he made some remark on the long strips of sleeve by which such gowns are distinguished, and was told that they were called 'salt-bags,' but he could not learn why; and an Oxford friend tells me, that going to the buttery to drink salt and water was part of the form of his admission.... This nobleman's (i.e. Lord Edward Zouch's) amounted to 4s., and that of the Earl of Cumberland to 3s. 4d., while in other cases it was as low as 8d." To this I added the suggestion that it was probably some fee, or expense, which varied according to the rank of the parties. It afterwards occurred to me that this "salting" was, perhaps, some entertainment given by the new-comer, from and after which he ceased to be "fresh;" and that while we seem to have lost the "salting" both really and nominally, we retain the word to which it has reference.

Be this as it may, my attention has just now been recalled to the question by my accidentally meeting with one of Owen's epigrams, which shows that in his time there was some sort of salting at Oxford, and also of peppering at Winchester. As I doubt not that you have readers well acquainted with the customs of both these seats of learning, perhaps some may be good enough to afford information. Owen was at Oxford not many years after Whitgift had been Master of Trinity at Cambridge, if (as Wood states) he took his bachelor's degree in 1590. The epigram is as follows:—

 
"Oxoniæ salsus (juvenis tum) more vetusto;
Wintoniæque (puer tum) piperatus eram.
Si quid inest nostro piperisve salisve libello,
Oxoniense sal est, Wintoniense piper."
 

It is No. 64 in that book of epigrams which Owen inscribed "Ad Carolum Eboracensem, fratrem Principis, filium Regis," p. 205, edit. Elz, 1628. 12mo. I give this full reference in order to express my most hearty sympathy with the righteous indignation of my highly respected friend, your correspondent "L.S." (No. 15 p. 230.), against imperfect references. I do not, however, agree with him in thinking it fortunate that he is not a "despotic monarch;" on the contrary, now that I have not to take up verses, or construe Greek to him, I should like it of all things; and I am sure the world would be much the better for it.

S.R. MAITLAND.

Gloucester, Feb. 18. 1850.