The London Mercury, Vol. I, Nos. 1-6, November 1919 to April 1920Various
General
The London Mercury, Vol. I, Nos. 1-6, November 1919 to April 1920
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; London (England) -- Periodicals
SIR,--With regard to your query in No. 1, as to who was the author
of _Specimens of Macaronic Poetry_, I think I can supply the answer.
After reading your paragraph on the subject I took down the book from
its shelf and found that my father, the late Dr. Henry B. Wheatley,
had pencilled on the title-page the name of Sandys. I then turned
to Lowndes and found the book under the name of William Sandys. The
_Dictionary of National Biography_ states that the author was born in
1792 and died in 1874, and that he is best remembered for his share in
Sandys' and Forster's _History of the Violin_, 1864. The _Specimens_,
published in 1831, was his second venture in authorship. My father
evidently bought the book when he was engaged in writing his own first
book _Of Anagrams_, containing in the introduction (I quote from the
title-page) "numerous specimens of Macaronic poetry, Punning Mottoes,
Rhopalic, Shaped, Equivocal, Lyon, and Echo Verses, Alliteration,
Acrostics, Lipograms, Chronograms, Logograms, Palindromes, and Bouls'
Rimes." To any one interested in queer forms of verse this book is full
of entertainment. It was published in 1872, and is now out of print.
In the first of your Bibliographical Notes, in which you notice Mr.
Percy Simpson's edition of _Every Man in His Humour_, you say, "A new
edition of Ben Jonson's work is certainly needed: Gifford's, re-edited
by Cunningham, is sadly inadequate." I have not yet had the pleasure
of reading Mr. Simpson's book, but I would point out that Gifford's
edition was not the only predecessor. An edition of Ben Jonson's play
was edited, with an introduction and critical apparatus, by my father
in 1877, for the "London Series of English Classics," edited by J. W.
Hales, M.A., and J. S. Jerram, M.A., and published by Longmans, Green &
Co. The excellent introduction contains, besides the facts of Jonson's
life, a lucid explanation and examination of the Comedy of Humours,
together with a critical comparison of the various editions. The notes
are adequate, and placed at the end of the book. It was a labour of
love, and, although doubtless scholarship has advanced since it was
published, my filial partiality compels me to think that it still ranks
as a worthy edition of this classic of our literature.--Yours, etc.,
GEO. H. WHEATLEY.
83 Salisbury Road, Harrow.
VOLTAIRE'S CANDIDE
(_To the Editor of_ THE LONDON MERCURY)
SIR,--A Bibliographical Note in your first number makes reference to
"a charming little first edition of _Candide_ (1759)", and the writer
of the paragraph, commenting on the absence of the author's name and
of any particulars concerning the publisher and place of publication,
states that "it was often Voltaire's custom not to acknowledge his
publications till they were a success."
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