PREFACE
exhaustless vocabulary of vituperation. Compared with this terrific invective, the earlier printed protest of Rossetti is almost in the nature of a compliment![1]
We have sometimes thought that the origin of Buchanan's attack might be assigned to a caustic handling of his young friend and protégé, David Gray,
- ↑ The Stealthy School of Criticism in the Athenæum for December 16, 1871. Reprinted in Rossetti's Collected Works, 2 vols., 8vo. (London, 1886.)
at foot. Inserted at the end is a slip with the following Errata:—
Page 32, last line but one—for monsieurs, read messieurs.
Page" 61, line 19—for Πολλὸς, read Πολὺς.
Page" 72, line 18—for Hugos, read Hugo's.
Page" 72," line 19—for Brownings, read Browning's.
Upon examining any copy of Under the Microscope it will be observed that Sig. d 5 (pp. 41-42) is a cancel-leaf. The original leaf was wisely suppressed, as certain of the expressions used in relation to the characters of Tennyson's Idylls of the King were unduly harsh. The following passage, describing "the courteous and loyal Gawain of the old romancers" as "the very vilest figure in all that cycle of strumpets and scoundrels, broken by, here and there, an imbecile, which Mr. Tennyson has set revolving round the figure of his central wittol," is unjust as well as severe. It is believed that only two copies of this cancelled leaf were preserved.
The manner in which the copies of Under the Microscope have been absorbed is remarkable. Five hundred copies were printed in 1872, and until quite recent years examples of these were readily obtainable at 5s. or 7s. 6d. each. Now copies occur at increasingly lengthened intervals, and find a prompt and ready sale at fifty shillings, and even three guineas each.—(Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century: Edited by W. Robertson Nicoll and Thomas J. Wise. London, 1896. Vol. II., p. 326.)
viii.
