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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
dung is complicated, erery thing is plain; and it is really astonishing that a mere human being, a part of humanity only, should so perfectly comprehend the whole; and that he should possess such exquisite art, that whilst every child shall feel the whole effect, his learned edi- tors and commentators should yet so very fre- quently mistake or seem ignorant of the cause. A sceptre or a straw are in his hands of equal efficacy; he needs no selection; he converts every thing into excellence; nothing is too great, nothing is too base. The chronicle, the novel, or the ballad; the king or the beggar, the hero, the madman, the sot, or the fool; it is all one; — nothing is worse, nothing is better; the same genius pervades, and is equally admirable in all. Or, is a character to be shown in progres- sive change, and the events of years to be com- prised within the hour: — with what a magic hand does he prepare and scatter his spells! The glancings of bis eye are from heaven to earth — from earth to heaven, we behold him breaking the barriers of imaginary method. In the same scene he descends from the meridian of noblest tragic sublimity to puns and quibbles, to the meanest merriment of a plebian force. In the midst of his dignity, he resembles his own Richard II. the skipping king, who sometimes discarding the state of a monarch
Mingled hi* royalty with carping fooli.
He seems not to have seen any impropriety in the most abrupt transactions from dukes to buf- foons — from senators to sailors — from council- lors to constables — ^and from kings to clowns. The laws of nature give way, and leave nothing in our minds but wildness and horror. No pause is allowed us for reflection : horrid senti- ment, furious guilt and compunction, air- drawn daggers, murders, ghosts, and enchantment, shake and possess us wholly, whilst we, the fools of amazement, are insensible to the shifting of place and the lapse of time, and till the curtain drops, never once wake to the truth of things, or recognize the laws of existence.*
1616, April 23. Died, Michael Cervantes, the author of the inimitable romance of Don Qmxote.f He was born at Alcala, Oct. 9, 1647, and died at Madrid on the same day that our Shakspeare breathed his last.
Dr. Johnson used to say, that there are few books of which one ever could possibly arrive at the last page; and that there never was any thing written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim't Progress. "After
- For Sbakspeare's plays, see 1623, pott.
t Cervanlet, El Ingenioto Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 2 vols. Madrid, iSos and I8is. A copy of this JInt edition of Don Quixote was sold at the tplendid sale of CSolonel Stanley, in April, 1813, for ^42.
Cermmtet, Et Ingenioto Hidalgo Don Quixote, 4to., lecond edition, remeed by Cemantex. Madrid, 1608. A copy at the above sale sold for j^ is 12s.
The coiioos bibliogtapber should possess both the first and second editions of Don Qnixote, on account of the •Iterations made by Csrvantea in the second.— Home.
Hornet's Illiad," he s^id, " the work of Cer- vantes was the greatest in the world, as a boo^ of entertainment; and when we consider that every other author's admirers are confined to his countrymen, and perhaps to Uie litemiy classes among them; while Don Quixote is a, sort of common proper^, a universal classic, equally enjoyed by tLe court and the cottage; equally applauded in France and England, as in Spain; quoted by every servant, the amuse- ment of every age, urom infancy to decrepitude; the first book you see in every shop where buoks are sold, through all the states of Italy; — who can refuse his consent to an avowal of the sa- periority of Cervantes to all modern writers? Shakspeare has, until within the last half cen- tury, been worshipped at home; while trans- lators and engravers live by the hero of La Mancha in every nation; and the walls of the miserable inns and the cottages, all over Eng- land, France, and Germany, are adorned with the exploits of Don Quixote.
1616. In this year was printed at MaiUe, or Mailly, a town of France, in La Vendee, an edition of the Universal history of the Sieur de Daubigni, in two volumes folio, with die im- print d Mailli par Jean Moussat imprimeur ordinaire du dit Sieur. This edition is very rare, having been burnt by the hands of the common hangman at Paris, on account of some indiscreet disclosures, from which later editions are free.
1617. Barnard Alsop dwelt in Garter Place, in Barbican, where he printed in this year, the following tragi-comedy, a copy of which is in the Garrick collection. A Looking Glass for London and England. Made by Thomas Lodge, Gent, and Robert Greene, In Artibus Magister,
Thomas Lodge was a physician and poet, who died in 1625. Besides the above, he wrote the Woundi of Civil War, a tragedy. He also assisted Robert Green in writing some of his works.
1617. L. Griffin printed the following work: Mischiefs mvsterie; or, Treason^s masterpiece; the Powder Plot, invented hy hellish malice; pre- vented by heavenly mercy; truly related, and from the Latin oft/ie learned and reverend Dr. Herring, translated and very much dilated by John Vicars. London, 1617. 4to.
1617. Pvramus de Candole, a well-inform- ed printer of the city of Geneva, taking disgust at his residence, quitted the city, and transported himself and his printing apparatus to Gverdun, or Iverdon, an ancient town of Switzerland, in the Pays de Vaud. A specimen of his printing is in the Bodleian. — Cotton.
1617, May 17. Died, Jacob Auodstus Db Thou, the celebrated bibliographer and historian of France. His collection of books was formed with the greatest care and unbounded expense, with the advice of Scaliger, Casaubon, the brothers Du Puys, Salmasius, Grotins, the brothers St. Martbe, and Sirmond. The binding alone, Quesnel and Morhof inform us, cost twenty thousand crowns. Anxious that posterity
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