Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/283

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ii s. v. MAR. 23, i9i2.j NOTES AND QUERIES.


231


of the whereabouts of the missing one of three editions (if there were really three) of ' Teares on the Death of Moeliades ' falls to the ground, unless he can point, as I hope he may be able to do, to an edition of ' Mausoleum ' containing ' Teares on the Death of Moeliades.' I have not succeeded, I may say, in tracing any such edition in the British Museum, or in any other public or private library ; and I am bound to say that I do not think that any such edition of ' Mausoleum ' exists.

Incidentally, it may be remarked that the passage, quoted by* MR. SCOTT from Dr. David Irving's ' Lives of Scottish Writers,' on which is based his explanation, will hardly bear the interpretation that MB. SCOTT puts upon it ; Dr. Irving merely makes the statement (which statement, by the way, is not quite correct) that the two sonnets and the epitaph forming part of

  • Teares on the Death of Moeliades ' (1613)

were inserted in ' Mausoleum ' ; but he does not say that ' Teares on the Death of Mceliades ' itself was reproduced in ' Mau- soleum.'

In my opinion the absence of one of tliree editions of ' Teares on the Death of Mceliades' {it will be recalled that an edition, specific- ally called third edition, appeared in 1614) is accounted for by Drummond's practice of printing privately, before actual issue to the public, " some copies equalling the number of my friends and those to whom I am beholden, which are not, the world knows, many," as he says. This he did in the case of ' Flowres of Sion,' of which there are only two known editions, but of which there were more than two issues. In the same way, I take it, Drummond printed, for private circulation, a small edition of ' Teares,' probably (though not necessarily) before the 1613 edition, and thus very soon after the death of young Henry, which took place on 6 November, 1612. It is not unlikely that Drummond wished his lament to appear at the same time as, or even before, the ' Elegie on the Death of Prince Henrie ' of William Alexander of Menstrie, which was published before the close of the year of the heir-apparent's death.

This point leads naturally to the question, raised by MR. SCOTT, of priority of publica- tion as between ' Teares on the Death of | Moeliades ' and ' Mausoleum,' on which I should be much obliged for any further evidence pointing one way or the other. Practically all those who have busied them- selves with Drummond place ' Teares ' first, with the exception of the late Prof.


Masson, who assigns priority of publication to ' Mausoleum ' (' Drummond of Haw- thornden,' p. 37). MR. SCOTT shares his view, but from neither (any more than from the other side) is any evidence forthcoming. Corser, steering a middle course, thinks that ' Mausoleum ' was probably published at the same time with ' Teares on the Death of Mceliades,' though he, too, gives no reasons for his conclusion. Apart from what I have said above on the existence of a privately printed edition of ' Teares,' I am strongly inclined to place ' Mausoleum ' second, for the following reasons : ' Mau- soleum,' it can be shown, consists almost entirely of reprinted matter, and thus, in all probability, the two pieces by Drummond (the epitaph-sonnet and the pyramid-epi- taph) which figure both in 'Mausoleum' and in ' Teares on the Death of Mceliades ' (1613) had already appeared in the latter composition. The extended title of ' Mau- soleum ' - ' Mausoleum, or the choisest Flowres of the Epitaphs, written on the Death of the neuer-too-much lamented Prince Henrie ' points, I venture to think, distinctly in that direction. Moreover, of the three pieces (not one, as Prof. Masson states) contributed by Drummond to ' Mau- soleum,' one (' A Passing Glance,' &c.) does not reappear tiil the third edition of Teares on the Death of Mceliades ' ; it could not have appeared in the 1613 edition of ' Teares,' because (so I conclude) Drummond's share of ' Mausoleum ' was not yet penned.

3. Of ' The Entertainment of the High and Mighty Monarch Charles . . . . ' (Edin- burgh, 1633), I have so far found one copy only in the Advocates' Library. Edinburgh. There is no copy in the library of the Uni- versity of Edinburgh, nor does the book figure in the catalogue presented by Drum- mond, along with his gift of books, to his Alma Mater. This work does not bear Drummond's name, but its ascription to him has never been disputed, as far as I am aware.

4. " To the Exequies of the Honovrable Sr Antonye Alexander, Knight, &c. A pastorell Elegie. Edinburgh, printed in King James his College, by George Anderson. 1638,"

4to, has also invariably been attributed to Drummond. The apparently unique, but very imperfect copy of this work used by the editors of the Maitland Club edition of Drummond's poems (1832) was in the library of the University of Edinburgh till a few years ago, but appears to have gone astray. L. E. KASTXER.

University of Manchester.