Notes and Queries, Number 84, June 7, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 84, June 7, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
Of this diminutive volume I never saw another copy. It was published by
J. M., who dates his dedication to his dear sister A. M., "from the
Englishe Charter House in Bridges (_sic_), the vigil of the Assumption
of Our Lady, 1576." It seems that the sister was resident in England,
and had, previously to her brother's departure for Bruges, requested him
to send her a translation of the _Rosary_, which having obtained, his
cousin and friend J. Noel procured it to be printed. J. M. willingly
confessing "for that I know there be many good women in Englande that
honour Our Lady, but good bookes to stirre vp deuotion in them are
scarse." Would not a list of English books printed abroad be an
interesting subject for some bibliographical antiquary, and an
acceptable addition to our literary antiquities?
P. B.
_Bunyan and the Visions of Heaven and Hell_ (Vol. iii., p. 89.).--MR.
OFFOR has very satisfactorily shown that Bunyan could not, from its
grandiloquent style, have been the author of the _Visions of Heaven and
Hell_, attributed to him in an edition of that work published in the
reign of George I., entitled, _The Visions of John Bunyan, being his
last Remains_.
This title must have been a surreptitious one, for, since MR. OFFOR made
the above communication, I have obtained a copy of this scarce book
published _in the previous reign_, under its legitimate title (as in the
Sunderland copy of 1771, mentioned at p. 70. _supra_), and said to be
"By G. L. φιλανθρωπο. London, printed for _John Gwillim_,
against _Crossby Square_ in Bishopsgate-street, 1711."
In his address "To the Reader" (also signed G. L.), the author even
makes the following direct allusion to Bunyan's allegory:
"And since the _Way_ to Heaven has been so taking under the
similitude of a _dream_, why should not the _Journey's End_ be as
acceptable under the similitude of a _vision_? Nay, why should it
not be more acceptable, since the end is preferable to the
_means_, and _Heaven_ to the _Way_ that brings us thither? _The
Pilgrim_ met with many difficulties; but here they are all over.
All storms and tempests here are hush'd in silence and serenity."
It will therefore, I think, be admitted that the name of Bunyan ought no
longer to be associated with this work, and that all inferences drawn
from the fallacy of his having been the author of it should henceforth
be disregarded.
It would, however, be desirable, if possible, to ascertain who G. L.
really was, and how the spurious title-page came to be affixed by
"Edward Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass upon London Bridge," to his
edition of this allegory?
N. H.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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