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SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS. 
 
 THE DYCE AND FORSTER COLLECTIONS. 
 
This vohtme, forming one of the series of the South Kensington 
 Art Handbooks, and written by desire of the Lords of the Committee 
 of Council on Education, is intended not only to supply a brief 
 account of the Dyce and Forster Collections, but also some information 
 respecting the two donors to whose liberality the nation is indebted 
 for these important and valuable bequests. 
 
 As stated in the footnotes, the sketch of the life of Mr. Dyce is 
 abridged from that prefixed to the printed catalogue of his library j 
 and the Department owes its best thanks to Professor Henry Morley, 
 who kindly consented to write the biography of Mr. Forster. 
 
 Most sincere thanks are also due to Mr. R. F. Sketchley, in whose 
 
 charge the collections have been since their reception at the Museutn, 
 
 for his ever ready assistance at all times in the careful collation and 
 
 examination of very many of the books which are referred to. 
 
 W. M. 
 March i, 1880. 
 
HANDBOOK 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DYCE AND FORSTER 
 
 COLLECTIONS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM, 
 
 WITH ENGRAVINGS AND FACSIMILES. 
 
 Published for the Committee of Council on Eaucation, 
 
 BY 
 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited, 193, PICCADILLY. 
 
 S 
 
A 
 
 3od3 ; 
 
 CHARLES DJCKENS AND EVANS, 
 CK-iSTAL PALACE PRESS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGE 
 
 Biographical Sketch of Mr. Dyce i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Library 
 
 «3 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Paintings, Drawings, and Sketches .. 31 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Prints and Etchings: Rings, etc 46 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Biographical Sketch of Mr. Forster 53 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Library 74 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Autographs 84 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Paintings and Drawings 92 
 
 Appendix 1 95 
 
 Appendix II 100 
 
 Appendix III 104 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Portraits, etc. : 
 
 Portrait of Mr. Dyce ... 
 
 Roadside inn by T. Rowlandson 
 
 Portrait of Mr. Forster 
 
 Mr. Forster's Library 
 
 Sketch by D. Maclise, R.A., on playbill 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 ■ 44 
 
 • S3 
 
 ■ 74 
 
 • 92 
 
 Facsimiles of Autographs, etc. 
 
 Mrs. Siddons 
 
 Michael Drayton 
 
 Thomas Gray 
 
 Ben Jonson 
 
 Philip Massinger 
 
 Samuel Rogers 
 
 Sir Richard Steele 
 
 Inscription in " The Rivals " 
 
 Mr. Dyce ... 
 
 Richard Porson 
 
 Joseph Addison 
 
 John Locke 
 
 Dr. Johnson 
 
 Izaak Walton 
 
 John Keats... 
 
 W. C. Macready 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton , 
 
 Mr. Forster 
 
 David Garrick 
 
 17 
 19 
 20 
 20 
 21 
 22 
 
 23 
 23 
 30 
 30 
 75 
 76 
 
 77 
 78 
 78 
 
 79 
 81 
 
 83 
 84 
 
ILL USTRA TIONS. 
 
 Daniel De Foe 
 Henry Fielding 
 Oliver Goldsmith 
 Charles Lamb 
 Earl of Strafford (i 
 Sir Francis Drake 
 G. F. Handel 
 David Hume 
 Archbishop Abbot, 
 Lord Lytton 
 Dean Swift... 
 Charles Dickens 
 
 Lord Wentworth) . . . 
 
 Lord Chancellor Bacon, etc, 
 
 84 
 
 84 
 
 ^ 
 8s 
 
 8s 
 8s 
 86 
 86 
 88 
 91 
 
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 9* 
 
 
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 ErifftiiCtL fy CS JeeTis 
 
 
HANDBOOK 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DYCE AND FORSTER 
 COLLECTIONS. 
 
 ^ht Iga Coltoiort. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MR. DVCE. 
 
 Besides the general art library, containing nearly 50,000 volumes, 
 and the educational library, with another 40,000, there are two 
 special collections belonging to the South Kensington Museum 
 — the Dyce and the Forster — which are kept distinct and 
 separate. 
 
 There seems to be a particular fitness in including the two 
 collections in the same handbook. Mr. Dyce and Mr. Forster 
 were intimate friends, and Mr. Forster, the survivor of the two, 
 was (with Mr. William Macpherson) Mr. Dyce's executor ; taking 
 a warm interest in the acquisition of the Dyce bequest by the 
 South Kensington Museum, and contributing the biographical 
 sketch of his life which is prefixed to the catalogue of his library. 
 The Dyce and Forster bequests are at present arranged in rooms 
 distinct but side by side, and in the new galleries they will 
 occupy a similar position. One reading-room is used in common 
 by the visitors to the two libraries. 
 
 B 
 
2 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 The Rev. Alexander Dyce, who died in 1869, bequeathed to 
 the Museum more than 14,000 books, nearly 150 pictures and 
 miniatures, a large number of prints and drawings, with some 
 rings and a few other art-objects. In 1876 came the Forster 
 bequest, including 48 pictures, several hundred drawings and 
 sketches, and a valuable and important collection of engravings, 
 manuscripts, autographs, and printed and illustrated books; the 
 books numbering more than 18,000. 
 
 The portion of the Museum where these two collections are now 
 kept is but a place of temporary deposit : namely, three or four of 
 the rooms upstairs, formerly occupied by loans from the National 
 Gallery. Here it is intended that they shall remain until the gal- 
 leries which are specially designed for their reception (and which 
 have been just referred to) in a portion of the new buildings 
 now in course of erection shall be finished. 
 
 The Dyce and Forster libraries are open daily to the public. 
 One of these rooms serves as the reading-room, and readers are 
 admitted according to the rules which apply to the larger libraries 
 below. As in the British museum, students must fill up short 
 printed forms before any book can be supplied to them ; and 
 there are (of necessity) prohibitions which must be strictly 
 observed, against rough, careless, or idle usage, likely to injure 
 the books, prints, or drawings. 
 
 Alexander Dyce,* the eldest son of a general in the East 
 India Company's service, was born in George Street, Edinburgh, 
 on the 30th June, 1798. His mother was a sister of Sir Neil 
 Campbell, sometime British commissioner with Napoleon at Elba, 
 and afterwards governor of Sierra Leone. His father was as 
 nearly related to a very distinguished actor in Indian history, the 
 mother of the general being the " Miss Ochterlony, of Tillifrisky," 
 who took the Sir David of that name into her house at Aberdeen, 
 treated him as one of her own children, and equipped him for his 
 
 * From hence to page 12, is abridged from Mr. Forster's biographical 
 sketch. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MR. DYCE. 3 
 
 cadetship to India. Mr. Dyce's father and mother sailing for 
 India the year after his birth, he was left in charge of two of 
 his father's sisters at Aberdeen, the elder of whom had a house 
 called Rosebank, a mile from the Bridge of Dee, which he after- 
 wards inherited from her. Here was passed all his boyhood, 
 until he was ready for the Edinburgh high school. 
 
 Adam, the author of " Roman antiquities," was at this time, 
 it is believed, in the last year of his rectorship of the high 
 school. A gazetteer which Dyce kept to the last among his 
 grander books, and still in the library (No. 3983, " Brookes 
 and Walker improved ") with the inscription, " Alex'. Dyce 
 received this book as a premium at the High School, August, 
 181 1," and another prize book (No. 6071, Macpherson's 
 " Poetical Works ") in which is written " Puero ingenuo 
 Alexandro Dyce," etc., signed by "J. Pillans," the rector of 
 the school, tell us all we know of him in the famous academy ; 
 and it is possible that his scholastic achievements in Edinburgh 
 were somewhat eclipsed by his opportunity of indulgence in 
 dramatic tastes and enjoyments. 
 
 This came as part of the cordial welcome that awaited him 
 from an old lady — -Mrs. Smollett, widow of a nephew of the famous 
 novelist — who had been his mother's friend from her childhood, 
 a woman of character, and very attractive. Well acquainted with 
 the higher literature, she was chiefly remarkable by her fondness 
 for the theatre, where, not being ill or under any special engage- 
 ment, she went every night. Dyce often accompanied her ; and 
 on one occasion sat by the old lady's side to see John Kemble 
 in " Brutus." Mr. Walter Scott came into the box with his wife at 
 the end of the tragedy and said to Mrs. Smollett, on Kemble 
 being announced to play Sir Giles Overreach the next night, that 
 Sir Giles was a Richard the third in low Ufe. Dyce had made a 
 note of this before discovering something of the same remark in 
 one of Scott's later writings on the stage. Dyce also well 
 remembered Henry Mackenzie, the author of "The Man of 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 feeling," whose thin tall form he watched with intense interest as 
 he walked rapidly through the streets of Edinburgh in a scanty 
 brown wig, a plain black suit, with high gaiters, and supporting, 
 rather than supported by, a stout gold-headed cane. The last 
 touch of the picture recalls Dyce's own familiar presence at old 
 book-shops and sale-rooms in London streets half a century later ; 
 the stout walking-stick giving no support to the tall bent figure, 
 but borne always aloft before it. The face (which in these Edin- 
 burgh days, judging from the photograph of a miniature belonging 
 to his mother, must have been a very type of attractive boyhood 
 — animated, intelligent, and handsome) had borne well all the 
 long interval of years. In manners ever studiously courteous and 
 quiet, he was in the latter days still the " gentle giant " they had 
 called him in his youth; but he stooped very much, as men 
 above the average height are given to do, and his now massive 
 person had ceased to receive much advantage from the scrupulous 
 attention he had once paid to the superficials of dress. His 
 brother, the general, once thus described the amount of 
 Alexander's luggage on the occasion of a week's visit to himself 
 at Southampton : " he brought seven shirts and a Sophocles." 
 
 Dyce's father, whose promotion in the Madras army had been 
 very rapid, was extremely eager to secure to his eldest son the 
 advantages of the El Dorado which India in his day continued to 
 be ; but "Alick " steadily stood out against his father's plan, left 
 its profits to his brothers, and, on the general insisting as an 
 alternative that he should adopt the Church for a profession, he 
 -took orders ; though this had not been his intention on first 
 entering into residence at Exeter college, Oxford, in the winter 
 of 1815. Of course the passion for the stage as well as for 
 English poetry had accompanied him to Oxford ; and he was still 
 in statu fiipillari when he approached the " great John " 
 (Kemble) with a respectful written request to be informed which 
 was the particular night fixed for his farewell appearance. 
 Kemble's reply had the gravity and stateliness as of the utter- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MR. DYCE. 5 
 
 ance of a bishop, and was to the effect that he didn't know him- 
 self. It turned out, however, to be the 29th of June, 1817, and 
 Dyce was present. In the same month, two years later, Dyce saw 
 a greater performer act for the last time. Mrs. Siddons's first 
 farewell had been taken seven years before, and her fame had not 
 profited by subsequent appearances in aid of family benefits ; but 
 Dyce always spoke of portions of this particular performance of 
 Lady Randolph on that night as a- thing quite apart in his 
 memory. 
 
 To Edmund Kean, the brilliant histrionic genius who blazed 
 out upon the London stage as the elder Kembles quitted it, Dyce 
 was less strongly attracted. First impressions in these matters go 
 for much ; even the grief of Mrs. Siddons, to those who had given 
 allegiance to Mrs. Pritchard, seemed the grief of a cheesemonger's 
 wife ; and something of the same style of criticism was in Dyce's 
 description of Kean's duke of Gloster as a pot-house Richard. 
 
 Mr. Dyce took his bachelor's degree at Oxford in 18 19 ; after- 
 wards he closed the discussions between his father and himself 
 by entering into orders, and between 1822 and 1825, when his 
 London residence and literary life began, he served two curacies. 
 The first was that of Llanteglos, a small fishing village near Fowey 
 in Cornwall, to which his college, by its special connection with 
 the western counties, had probably helped him. The second was 
 that of Nayland in Suffolk, famous as the scene of the principal 
 labours of a distinguished English scholar and divine. Dyce here 
 collected many curious anecdotes of " Jones of Nayland " and 
 formed a high estimate of his writings and character; but while 
 thus engaged in clerical duties he made no sally of his own into 
 literature. Shortly before he took his degree he had edited, in 
 18 18, Jarvis's dictionary of the language of Shakespeare, and in 
 182 1 just before his ordination Parker, of Oxford, published for 
 him a small volume of translations from the Greek of Quintus 
 Smyrnseus. The selections were from the first five books of the 
 continuation of the " Iliad," and were executed in easy, well- 
 
6 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 modulated blank verse; the object being to show the greater 
 adaptability of that form over rhyme to the simple tone of 
 Grecian poetry. 
 
 Thomas Rodd, one of the best-informed dealers of this century 
 in old books and who rendered Dyce invaluable service in the 
 collection of editions, published for him in 1825 his " Specimens of 
 British poetesses," including some rare and some manuscript pieces, 
 its range being from Juliana Berners to Felicia Hemans. Two years 
 later an edition of the poems of Collins with Dyce's notes came out; 
 and with this began his connection with the elder Mr. Pickering, 
 a publisher famous for his accuracy and refinement of taste, and 
 for the luxury of his paper and print. When Dyce's reputation 
 was highest his payment for his labours would have paid only in 
 a small part for the rare editions which were the tools he worked 
 with ; but at the outset he had not even so much contribution to 
 his outlay ; and, in other circumstances than his own, the work he 
 did best could not have been done. So limited the sale for it, and 
 so exacting his necessary requirements in regard to printing and 
 other points of production, that it was a liberality merely to share 
 the venture ; and, but for Mr. Pickering's enterprise, Dyce would 
 have had no encouragement to continue the design he now began 
 of employing his critical powers and acquirements in the field of 
 early English dramatic poetry. 
 
 George Peele's works with memoir and notes appeared in 
 1828, and a second edition was pubhshed in 1829; the third or 
 supplementary volume not being added until 1839. With the 
 same care, and even more completeness, in i83r his memoir and 
 works of Robert Greene were issued ; and thus were restored the 
 two leading features of by far the most remarkable picture of the 
 earliest achievements of our English stage, until then so blurred 
 as to be without character. The edition of Greene was one of the 
 books that last interested Scott, who in a letter to Dyce published 
 byLockhart says he meant to review it in the "Quarterly;" but 
 the sad closing illness interposed. No such accurate illustration 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MR. DYCE. 7 
 
 of the condition of the English theatre and its writers at the 
 critical moment when Shakespeare was entering the scene will be 
 found anywhere as in these two books; and when Marlowe's 
 works were afterwards added the trilogy of our earliest drama 
 was complete. Without thorough study of it Shakespeare himself 
 can never be rightly understood. 
 
 Until the death of his mother in the year 1859, Dyce lived at 
 No. 9 Gray's Inn square. His brother, general Archibald Dyce, 
 then forced him out of the chambers where the books that lined 
 every wall had overflowed into all the nooks and crannies in the 
 passages. He removed to 33 Oxford terrace, where he resided 
 for the rest of his life. 
 
 Between Peele and Greene he had published, in 1830, four 
 volumes of Webster, to whose indisputable dramatic genius some- 
 thing of a just homage was thus first paid. Three years later he 
 completed the edition of James Shirley which Giiford had left un- 
 finished, adding some notes of special value and a biographical 
 preface. He had meanwhile taken much interest in Mr. Pickering's 
 " Aldine poets" to which, in 1831, 1832, and 1835, he contributed 
 editions and memoirs of Beattie, Pope, Akenside, and the poems 
 of Shakespeare. He edited also for Mr. Pickering a choice little 
 square volume of English sonnets ; and between this date and 
 1838, dropping for the time his labours in poetical literature, he 
 turned to a critical master in another field, to whom the success of 
 his own earliest self-discipline had been largely due, in the hope 
 of paying back something of his debt to Richard Bentley. " I 
 published three volumes of his works " he wrote to Mr. Forster, 
 "and originally intended to have greatly increased the col- 
 lection both from printed and from manuscript sources; but 
 the indifference of general readers to classical literature pre- 
 vented my carrying out the design." What he managed to do 
 was nevertheless worth doing. The book is the best edition 
 we have of the " Dissertations on Phalaris," and of the " Boyle 
 lectures;" and, if for no other reason, it would have claimed 
 
8 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 mention for its introduction to him of its printer, Mr. Charles 
 Robson, in whom he found a man of unusual taste and of 
 knowledge still more rare in his calling. 
 
 Two years after the Bentley, having meanwhile completed his 
 supplementary volume of Peele, he sent out an elaborate edition 
 of the plays of Middleton ; and between this and 1843, when he 
 began his Beaumont and Fletcher, the weightiest enterprise he 
 had yet attempted, he finished an admirable collection of the 
 poems of Skelton, and edited sundry pieces for the Percy, Camden, 
 and Shakespeare societies, which he had assisted in establishing. 
 These pieces are particularly named in a list, furnished by himself, 
 of the several subjects handled by him up to the date of the fifth 
 of his Beaumont and Fletcher volumes ; and this list, therefore, 
 although its more important information has in substance been 
 given, it may be interesting to add under his own hand. " The 
 following is, I believe, with the exception of a few scattered 
 things, a complete catalogue of my literary sins : I. Select 
 translations from Quintus Smyrnaeus, i2mo; II. Specimens of 
 British poetesses, 8vo ; III. Poetical works of Collins, 8vo ; 
 IV. Peele's works, 8vo, 3 vols. ; V. Greene's plays and poems, 
 8vo, 2 vols. ; VI. Webster's works, 8vo, 4 vols. ; VII. Shirley's 
 works, begun by Gifford, 8vo, 6 vols. ; VIII. Middleton's works, 
 8vo, 5 vols.; IX. Specimens of British sonnet-writers, i2mo; 
 X. Demetrius and Enanthe (i.e. Fletcher's Humorous Lieu- 
 tenant) from a MS., 8vo ; XI. Bentley's works, 8vo, 3 vols. J 
 XII., XIII., XIV., XV. (in the Aldine poets). Life and poems 
 of Shakespeare, Life and poems of Akenside, Life and poems 
 of Beattie, Life and poems of Pope, 3 vols., i2mo; XVI. 
 Kempe's Nine days' wonder (Camden society), 4to; XVII., 
 XVIII. Porter's Angry women of Abington, Drayton's Har- 
 mony of the Church (Percy society), i2mo; XX., XXI. The 
 Old tragedy of Timon, The tragedy of Sir Thomas More; 
 (Shakespeare society), 8vo; XXII. Skelton's works, 8vo, 2 vols. 
 XXIII. Beaumont and Fletcher's works, 8vo, To Be w vols." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MR. DYCE. 9 
 
 [It may be convenient to the reader to find here brought 
 together the rest of Mr. Dyce's pubHcations. They appear to 
 be as follows: Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's 
 editions of Shakespeare ; Poems of Sir H. Wotton, edited for the 
 Percy society; Marlowe's works, 3 vols., and another edition in 
 one volume ; A few notes on Shakespeare ; Recollections of the 
 Table-talk of Samuel Rogers, and Porsoniana; Strictures on 
 Mr. Collier's new edition of Shakespeare; Shakespeare's works, 
 9 vols., three editions, the last brought out after Mr. Dyce's 
 death under the editorship of Mr. Forster; Ford's works (Gilford's 
 edition revised and enlarged) 3 vols.] 
 
 The eleven volumes of Beaumont and Fletcher that were " to 
 be " he finished duly, and had a just pride in. He would say that 
 he had never bestowed so much labour on a very few pages as in 
 the memoir of Beaumont and his friend. " It cost me an 
 immense deal of pains " he wrote " for I tried to make it not 
 exactly what such biographies too often are, a mere string of dates 
 and extracts from registers. But it extinguished everything else 
 for me during the time. Of what has been passing lately I am 
 entirely ignorant. Indeed I don't believe I am fully acquainted 
 with anything that has happened later than the 29th of August, 
 1625, the day of Fletcher's burial." Nor did he ever lose his 
 liking for this book; although more than a year before its last 
 volume came out his mind was already set upon a higher task, to 
 which this, and indeed all those previous labours of which the list 
 is above set down by him, had been but as discipline or preparation. 
 " Remarks " on some recent editions of Shakespeare, published 
 at the close of 1844, were followed in the next few years by 
 similar " Notes " and " Strictures," until at last, on the 2Sth of 
 July 1853, he arranged with the late Mr. Moxon for an edition 
 by himself of the great poet. It appeared in 1857 ; and six years 
 later he made arrangement with Messrs. Chapman and Hall for 
 his more valuable second edition, adding to it a noble Glossary, 
 into which he poured the reading of his Ufe. This concluding 
 
16 THE DYCE collection. 
 
 volume appeared in 1867, but already he had resumed a critical 
 investigation of what seemed to him still doubtful passages in his 
 earlier volumes, and had laid the foundation of that third edition 
 which was to be indeed his last. Other work there had been in 
 the interval, to which we are indebted for an improvement of 
 Gifford's edition of Ford, and for our best edition (before named) 
 of a mightier master, Marlowe, beyond question the greatest 
 genius of the Elizabethan stage excepting Shakespeare, and to the 
 modulation and music of whose verse Milton had large obligation ; 
 but Dyce's labours to illustrate the poet confessedly greater than 
 them all were never again discontinued. They ceased only with his 
 life. Shakespeare was the subject of his first book and of his last. 
 At his death. The Times spoke of Dyce as a man who, during 
 a long life of study, united the patient learning of an antiquary 
 with a real yet chastened feeling for the beauties of our earlier 
 poets and dramatists. The remark fairly expresses the distinctive 
 merit in his critical method, which above every other qualified 
 him to deal successfully with Shakespeare's text. Thoroughly 
 practised in the language and customs of Shakespeare's day, with 
 his mind fixed on restoring and never upon amending his 
 original ; an excellent classic ; a master of phraseology now 
 obsolete, to whom the old orthography and prosody were familiar; 
 with a good ear and strong common sense; none of the commen- 
 tators have excelled Dyce and very few have equalled him in the 
 felicitous application, from a remarkably wide range of reading, 
 of identical or analogous phrases and words to the settlement of 
 lines in dispute. Conversant with Jonson and Massinger, with 
 Dekker, Cyril Tourneur, and Heywood, and having subjected to 
 his own special study each separate effort by Greene, Peele, 
 Marlowe, Webster, Middleton, Ford, Beaumont, and Fletcher, 
 Dyce altogether objected to placing Shakespeare only at the top 
 of the same list with these his brilliant contemporaries. Shake- 
 speare, said Dyce, was not only immeasurably superior to his 
 Elizabethan comrades in creative power, profound thought, and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MR. DYCE. xt 
 
 insight into the human heart, but stood quite distinctly apart from 
 the whole of them in his methods of delineating character, in 
 language, in versification, and in peculiarities of diction. 
 
 All through the years when thus he was busiest with the 
 work that pleased him most, he had been amusing his leisure 
 with a translation of Athenseus which he began (it is believed) 
 while engaged on Fletcher's plays. With this, to the very 
 close of life, he continued to indulge himself at odd intervals ; 
 and, not very far from completion, the manuscript has come with 
 his books to South Kensington, where, some day perhaps, an 
 enthusiast for the Deipnosophists may think it worth the pains of 
 unearthing. The writing is a little confused, and through era- 
 sures and interlineations not very legible ; but it may be also 
 worth mentioning that, wherever the Greek character is, that 
 trouble is not. Porson himself scarcely wrote Greek better than 
 Dyce. 
 
 His last letter to Mr. Forster before his final illness, dated the 
 close of June, 1868, told his friend that he felt, he was thankful 
 to say, " unusually well." 
 
 But the next letter, at the beginning of August, written from the 
 bedroom which he never quitted again, told the same friend that he 
 might be shown by way of contrast to the Yellow dwarf, having 
 become a Yellow giant. " Being free from pain, which Horace 
 Walpole defined to be the pleasure of old age, I ought to be satis- 
 fied ; but I nevertheless am ill, ill, ill, exhausted from inability to 
 sleep and to eat, my nights intolerable, my days wearisome because 
 I cannot read, and when or how it is to end seems uncertain." 
 It was an attack of jaundice, which ended in organic derange- 
 ment of the liver. "I am now," he wrote on the 4th of 
 December, 1868, " in the seventh month of my martyrdom, and 
 very little better on the whole. ... I suspect that I am very 
 gradually dying ; and if such is the case, I certainly have no 
 reason to make any childish lamentation, for I have lived a great 
 deal longer than most people who are born into this world, and I 
 
12 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 look back on my past existence without much disapprobation." 
 He hngered five more months, not without higher consolations 
 than may accompany even the retrospect of a blameless life, and 
 passed away very peacefully on the 15th of May 1869, within a 
 month of his seventy-first year. He left a great many friends to 
 deplore a loss which they could never replace, for all the qualities 
 that give charm to private intercourse were his in abundant 
 measure. 
 
 It had been Mr. Dyce's intention to bequeath his books to 
 the Bodleian ; but it was suggested that they ought rather to be 
 placed, with the rest of his collections, where they would be 
 within reach of a wider world of students. This appeared to 
 satisfy a wish he had himself strongly indulged — that they should 
 be kept together, not merely as a memorial of the employments 
 and enjoyments of his own life but as a means of helping others 
 engaged in like pursuits ; and the South Kensington Museum 
 was chosen to receive them. The bequest was drawn up on 
 the plan of Mr. Sheepshanks's gift of pictures to the same Museum. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE LIBRARY. 
 
 In giving a detailed, though necessarily brief, account of the 
 Dyce bequest we will take the library first. 
 
 The general condition of the books is unusually good. They 
 are, as a rule, well and carefully bound ; and some of the more 
 rare and important have been expensively bound by the best 
 London bookbinders. Where leaves have been injured, or torn, 
 or dirtied, they have been repaired and cleaned. Damages of 
 such a kind to old books, and more especially in the case of 
 pamphlets or plays of the seventeenth century, are what everyone 
 must expect to find when he is collecting them. 
 
 The Dyce library fails in two classes of English books which 
 are generally, or at least either the one or the other, found in 
 the private libraries of Englishmen, namely, modern history and 
 county history. Of the first of these there is, perhaps, sufficient 
 for general purposes, but of the other scarcely an example. 
 Topography, even relating to his own country, was not a subject 
 in which Mr. Dyce seems at any time to have taken much 
 interest. But if deficient in these respects, the library abounds in 
 the Greek and Latin classics ; in the works of the scholars and 
 critics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Casaubon 
 Heinsius, Salmasius, the Scaligers, Scioppius, and others; in 
 English poetry and the drama, from the Elizabethan era to the 
 present time ; and in Italian poems, plays, and romances. 
 
14 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 Mr. Dyce, as we have seen in Mr. Forster's memoir, was 
 ordained a clergyman of the Established Church, and for a short 
 time served in two parishes as a curate. His library not only shows 
 that he had studied the usual theological books which young 
 clergymen are supposed to read, but he possessed also good 
 editions of the most important works of the Latin and Greek 
 fathers. Thus, we not only find the works of Butler, Hooker, 
 Pearson, Taylor, Burgess, Warburton, and many other English 
 divines, but those of Chrysostom, Clement, Ignatius, Origen, 
 Lactantius, Gregory, etc. Nor, among the earlier theologians, 
 have we merely those which are the most common but others 
 who are less known and less frequently read, such as Nonnus 
 and Synesius. Again, taking these two as examples, it is clear 
 that Mr. Dyce was not contented with a small part of their works. 
 Of the paraphrase of the Gospel of St. John by Nonnus, or of 
 treatises connected with it, he had eight or nine editions ; and of 
 Synesius not only the folio printed at Paris in 1612, but several 
 separate copies of his homilies and other writings. 
 
 On the other hand, it seems equally clear that Mr. Dyce did 
 not take much, if any, interest in the numerous religious contro- 
 versies of the last thirty or forty years. There is scarcely a contro- 
 versial book or pamphlet bearing upon that period. Not only 
 nothing relating to the Catholic emancipation disputes of fifty 
 years ago, when he was a young man, but nothing with reference 
 to later controversies which have agitated the Anglican Church. 
 The same observation applies also to political matters. Mr. Dyce 
 seems to have kept himself ag free as possible from being mixed 
 up with either of these subjects at any time in any way. That he 
 was not well informed about either the one or other, or that he had 
 not very decided opinions about them, is scarcely probable ; but 
 he did not care to burthen his library with ephemeral publications 
 having no reference to the particular studies in which he was 
 engaged. 
 
 If we did not know from other sources that Mr. Dyce was a 
 
THE LIBRARY. 15 
 
 good classical scholar, his library would tell us. Taking some few 
 names alphabetically, we find numerous editions (several of them 
 the first) and early translations of the works of ^schylus, 
 Aristotle, Anacreon, Cicero, Euripides, Homer, Horace, Juvenal, 
 Livy, Lucan, Martial, Ovid, Pindar, Sophocles, Theocritus, Virgil, 
 and Xenophon. It may, indeed, be said that no good ancient 
 author, whether Greek or Latin, is absent from the collection ; 
 and, probably, hereafter one great use of the bequest will be 
 found to be derived from the completeness of this portion of it. 
 
 Nor is it enough to say that almost every great classic is to be 
 found here. Mr. Dyce was not satisfied with one edition, to be 
 picked up, as it were, by accident. He was a critical scholar, and 
 knew the value of comparisons of texts and of the information 
 which commentators and scholiasts could give him. 
 
 Take, almost by haphazard, the printed catalogue : six con- 
 secutive pages are occupied by Aristophanes and Aristotle ; of the 
 first there are forty or fifty different editions, either of the entire 
 works, or of single plays, or of translations and treatises con- 
 nected with them ; of the other, there are fourteen or fifteen 
 entries. Again, there are more than thirty editions of the works 
 or portions of the works of Cicero. Five pages of the catalogue 
 are filled with Homer and his poems (including translations by 
 Chapman and others) ; there are twenty or thirty editions of 
 Horace, besides translations; six or seven of Lucan j half-a- 
 dozen of Terence, and twelve of Virgil. It would be useless as 
 well as tedious to go through the names of the other great and 
 well-known writers of antiquity. They are to be found to the 
 same abundant extent. 
 
 But, more than this : Mr. Dyce was not, like many collectors, 
 contented to possess only the " great and well-known " authors. 
 Scarcely two pages of the catalogue can be examined without 
 coming across the name of some Latin or Greek writer, of whom 
 very few people know much more than the name. Thus, there 
 are two editions of Achilles Tatius, three or four of Lycophron, 
 
1 6 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 eight of Manilius, five of Nicander, and three ofValerius Flaccus. 
 It would be easy to add a dozen more such names ; among them 
 Marcian and Marcellus, Menander, Oppian and Philostratus, 
 Silius, and Quintus Smyrnasus. There can be no doubt that these 
 authors were carefully read by Mr. Dyce, and we have evidence of 
 the services which they supplied to him in his commonplace 
 books, and in his notes to the English dramatists whose plays he 
 edited. 
 
 We must not omit to notice that there were some learned 
 controversies in which Mr. Dyce appears to have taken especial 
 interest. For instance, those in which Bentley, whose works 
 he edited, was mixed up. There is not only a large collection 
 of tracts relating to the Epistles of Phalaris and other critical 
 publications, but a still larger collection of pamphlets, some 
 very rare, under the titles " Bentleiana " and " Cambridge.'' 
 
 Mr. Dyce was an excellent Italian and French scholar, and 
 his library contains ample evidence of his love for the literature 
 of both countries. Numerous editions of Tasso and Ariosto, 
 Boccaccio and Dante, of Molifere, Racine, Rabelais, and 
 Montaigne, besides rarer books of less-known authors, especially 
 Italian plays, poems, and romances, are at the service of the 
 tudent. 
 
 The manuscripts, which are few, are chiefly transcripts of 
 unique or rare poems, interludes, and plays, some made by 
 Mr. Dyce himself, others from the Roxburghe, Ritson, and 
 Mitford collections. Amongst the original MSS. are "The 
 Faithful Friends" by Beaumont and Fletcher from the Heber 
 library, and " The Parliament of Love " by Massinger, formerly 
 belonging to Malone, who believed that it was from the poet's 
 own hand. 
 
 It will be necessary to mention more particularly some of the 
 English books which give to this library especial value as of use 
 to students. Here, again, it may be well to take those which we 
 select as they follow, alphabetically, in the catalogue. 
 
THE LIBRARY. 17 
 
 Passing by the poetical works of Akenside (one of the poets 
 edited by Mr. Dyce), and Joanna Baillie, the first great names are 
 those of Beaumont and Fletcher. Mr. Dyce's admirable edition 
 of their works in eleven volumes is well known. We are there- 
 fore not surprised to find that an excellent copy of the earliest 
 collected edition of their plays, folio, London 1647 (once the 
 property of John Kemble), is in the library, or that he was careful 
 also to obtain other editions. Indeed, all together, there are 
 between forty and fifty copies of plays by those writers. Among 
 them are the first, second, and third editions of " The Faithfull 
 Shepheardesse," the first of "The Knight of the Burning 
 Pestle," 16 1 3, of " Cupid's Revenge," 1615, and of " The Scornful 
 Ladie," 16 16, the first and four others of "A King and No 
 King," of "The Maides Tragedy," and of " Phylaster," (the 
 edition of this last in 1620 being, says Mr. Dyce in a manuscript 
 note, "of the greatest rarity") the first of "The Beggars Bush," 
 and several others. 
 
 The rare editions of the plays of Mrs. Behn, 1702, 
 Mrs'. Centlivre, 1760, and the duke of Buckingham, 1775, 
 are in the library ; and the works of Robert Burns and of Lord 
 Byron, as a matter of course. The copy of Boaden's memoirs 
 of Mrs. Siddons is worth notice, because there is inserted in 
 the first volume a long autograph letter written by the great 
 actress to Mrs. Cockerell, dated from "Sir Ralph Milbanke's, 
 Richmond, 181 2." Mrs. Siddons's autograph letters are rare, 
 as she is believed to have usually employed an amanuensis. 
 On the opposite page is a facsimile of the last line and 
 signature. 
 
 Of George Chapman's books there is a complete collection of 
 his known works, with one or two exceptions. Among them are 
 the first editions of "The Shadow of Night," 1594, "Ovid's 
 Banquet of Sence," 1595, " The Blinde Begger of Alexandria,'' 
 1598, "An numerous Dayes Myrth," 1599, " Al Fooles," 1605, 
 "The Funerall Song of Henry, Prince of Wales," 161 2, and 
 
 C 
 
1 8 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 seventeen other first editions of other plays and poems, all in 
 quarto and not later than 1639. In one of these, "Eastward 
 Hoe," 1605, Mr. Dyce has a note, "The leaves E E2 containing 
 the obnoxious passage are inserted." 
 
 Of Chaucer there are four or five modern editions, but none 
 earlier than the folio in black letter of 1602. Among the copies 
 of Churchill's poems is one which belonged to Mr. Mitford, and 
 " contains a transcript (in Mitford's autograph) of Gray's MS. 
 notes on Churchill, from Gray's own copy." Of Gibber there are 
 not only editions of his plays but a collection of tracts and 
 books about him, and his quarrels with Pope and others, two or 
 three of which are rare. 
 
 There are large collections of the poems and plays of Collins, 
 one of the poets edited by Mr. Dyce, of Coleridge, of the two 
 Colmans, of William Combe (but one only of the Tours of 
 Dr. Syntax), of Congreve, Barry Cornwall, Cowley, Cowper, 
 Crowne, and Cumberland. To the last of these Mr. Dyce 
 appears to have given much attention ; there being several 
 editions of some of his plays. 
 
 The folio copy of the works of Samuel Daniel, London, 1602, 
 has the autographs of Sir H. Wotton and C. Killigrew. Besides 
 other works of the same author, there is a copy of " The Order 
 and Solemnitie of the Creation of the High and mightie Prince 
 Henrie . . . Prince of Wales ... As it was celebrated in the 
 Parliament House, on Munday the fourth of lunne last past. 
 Whereunto is annexed the Royall Maske, presented by the Queene 
 and her Ladies ..." quarto, 1610. Lowndes says this is not in 
 any edition of Daniel's collected works. 
 
 There are many of the original editions of the plays and poems of 
 Sir William D'Avenant, besides the folio collected " Works," 1673 ; 
 two editions of Davison's "Poetical Rhapsody" but not the early 
 ones, and the rare plays of John Day, including " The He of Gvls," 
 1606, " Humour out of Breath," 1608, and "Law Trickes," 1608, 
 all first editions. The library is rich also in the works of Thomas 
 
fyuts 
 
 ^^'^^'■'f^f^^^^^oi^ 
 
 ^u^ 
 
 yLi-^tV-H*^ 
 
 n7>i: 
 
 MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631) 
 
 Inscription,-, "The B,«,ne of A5i„cou«,"!6 
 
THE LIBRARY. 19 
 
 Dekker, possessing first editions of "Old Fortunatus," 1600, "Satiro- 
 mastix," 1602, "The WonderfuUe Yeare," 1603, "The Magni- 
 ficent Entertainment to King lames and Queene Anne, his wife," 
 1604, with ten or eleven others. In one, a tragi-comedy called 
 " Match Mee in London," 163 1, Mr. Dyce has this note : " This 
 is perhaps the largest copy of any old play in existence." It is 
 undoubtedly very fine in condition, uncut, with rough leaves ; 
 and we may wonder as we look at it what might possibly be the 
 value of a first quarto of one of Shakespeare's plays, or of the 
 "Venus and Adonis," to say nothing of the first folio of 1623, in 
 the same superb state. We must not omit to mention a good 
 copy of Dekker's " English Villanies ; a booke to make gentle- 
 men merry, citizens warie, countrymen carefull, fit for all justices 
 to reade over . . ."1632. The copy of " The Gull's Hornbook " 
 is a reprint. 
 
 Among De Foe's writings, although there is a considerable 
 collection, and several first editions, there is no copy of " Robinson 
 Crusoe" earlier than 1755. Naturally Mr. Dyce took more 
 interest in the tracts and pamphlets of and about John Dennis 
 " the renowned critick," as an anonymous author of his life calls 
 him, and the catalogue contains many of his books. The list of 
 Drayton's poems includes "The Battaile of Agincourt" and 
 other poems, 1627, a presentation copy to Sir Henry Willoughby 
 with inscription in Drayton's autograph. (See opposite page.) 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that there should be a good 
 collection of Dryden's works. The list of them and of Dryden- 
 iana occupies seven pages. Almost, if not quite, all the old 
 quarto copies of Tom D'Urfey's plays are in the library, as well as 
 a fine copy of the rare edition in 1719-20 of his "Pills to Purge 
 Melancholy." There are first editions of Fielding's "Tom 
 Jones " and " Amelia," a large number of separate editions of the 
 comedies of Foote and of Holcroft, as well as of early copies 
 of nearly all the plays (far more important) of John Ford and 
 Robert Greene, writers whose works were among those edited by 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 Mr. Dyce. Goldsmith and Gray are both well represented, and 
 below is a facsimile of Gray's autograph, on the title of a French 
 cookery book which belonged to him (No. 3154 in the catalogue). 
 
 ilevue> comg& &: augnventee par rAntcur. 
 
 jL.- TOME P RE MIE R. /'-y 
 
 Le pdx eft de fepc iLvies dix fols ieli&^ 
 
 Johnson and Johnsoniana fill three pages of the catalogue. The 
 collections of the original editions of the plays of Ben Jonson 
 and of Thomas Heywood are unusually complete. It may be well 
 to notice here that there are some separate playbills of the last 
 century in the library, besides a volume in which nearly four 
 hundred are kept together, "beginning from the year 1726. 
 
 It is not easy to say why Dyce took so great an interest 
 as it seems he did in the books of M. G. Lewis, the author of 
 " The Castle spectre," etc. Of this play there are four editions, 
 and copies, it is believed, of every other of Lewis's writings. 
 One of them, " Rugantino," has the author's autograph and a 
 note by Mr. Dyce : " Illustrated with drawings of the hero of 
 the piece (Henry Johnston) as Rugantino, as The Beggar, as 
 Flodoardo, and as The Prince of Milan." 
 
 We need scarcely say that copies of both editions of 
 Marlowe's works by Mr. Dyce are in the library ; but 
 there are also the first editions of his "Massacre at Paris" 
 and "Rich Jew of Malta," and a copy of the "Edward the 
 second," 1593. The last is an edition not mentioned by Mr. 
 Dyce or Lowndes, but the copy is not quite perfect, wanting the 
 title and A 2. 
 
 The first collected edition of Marston's plays, 1633, belonged 
 
 J A to Ben Jonson and has his autograph (of 
 
 jj E^' Ipy^^ ly which a facsimile is here given) upon the 
 
 T title. There are first editions also of this 
 
 dramatist's "Antonio and Mellida," 1602, "The Malcontent," 
 

 ^ 
 
 -^^^^-^ O^^^-^Twyj cx^^yrm^p^^ 
 
 fjitir- cUr- 
 
 '^ 
 
 MT^rufn 
 
 ^***v/n}^^ 
 
 y'9?^W^^ 
 
 PHILIP MASSINGER (I584-1640). 
 Verses addressed to Sir Francis Foljambe. 
 
THE LIBRARY. 21 
 
 1604, "What You Will," 1607, and several others. The collec- 
 tion is rich, as may be supposed, in early copies of Massinger's 
 plays (besides the two editions by Gifford) : among them " The 
 Virgin Martir," 1622 (which Mr. Dyce notes as "perhaps the 
 rarest of the old 4tos"), "The Duke of Millaine," 1623, and 
 ten or twelve others. Opposite the title page of one of the copies 
 of the Duke of Milan are some manuscript verses, signed Philip 
 Massinger ; and the play has some corrections believed to be also 
 in his handwriting. Massinger's autograph is excessively rare, 
 and we give a facsimile of the whole page. 
 
 There are several first editions of Middleton's plays, which 
 Mr. Dyce also edited in five volumes. Among them are " Blurt 
 Master-Constable," 1602, "The Familie of Love," 1608, ^' The 
 Roaring Girle," i6ri, the "Courtly Masque," 162O5 "Your Five 
 Gallants," no date, and the " Game at Chess." Of this last play 
 there are two copies of an undated early edition, in one of which 
 Mr. Dyce has the following note : " This is the celebrated copy 
 containing the old manuscript note." 
 
 The list of the poems and other works of Milton occupies 
 more than four pages of the catalogue, including the first editions 
 of his poems, 1645, of Lycidas, 1638, and of Comus, 1637, of 
 which last a copy lately sold for fifty pounds. Passing by Tom 
 Moore and Hannah More — and Mr. Dyce neglected the study 
 of neither the one nor the other of these, nearly complete collec- 
 tions of the writings of both being in the library, from "The 
 poetical works of Thomas Little" of the one to the "Sacred 
 dramas" of the other — we come to Alexander Pope. To go 
 through the list of the editions (many of them the first) and 
 separate pieces of this poet is uncalled for ; it must be suf- 
 ficient to say that nearly thirteen pages of the catalogue are filled 
 with his poems and publications connected with them : probably 
 few works are wanting which a reader would desire to refer to. 
 There are original or early editions of several of George Peek's 
 plays and poems, including " The Old Wives Tale" of 1595. 
 
i2 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 We have by no means exhausted the list of books by 
 eminent English writers which constitute the especial usefulness 
 and merit of the Dyce library; but we have space to mention 
 a few more only. 
 
 Quarles was a man with whose peculiar tone of mind Mr. 
 Dyce would almost certainly sympathise; we find, therefore, a 
 large proportion of his works and early editions of " Hadassa," 
 the "Sion's elegies," "Divine fancies," and " Emblemes." The 
 list of the writings of Elkanah Settle occupies three pages, 
 including controversial pamphlets connected with them. Among 
 them is the very curious first edition of " The Empress of 
 Morocco,'' 1673, with "sculptures," which are very important as a 
 record of the style and manner in which plays were at that time 
 put upon the stage ; and this, not only with regard to costume 
 but also to scenery. Of Walter Scott, not only are there various 
 editions of his poems but the first of several of his novels ; for 
 example, "Ivanhoe;" the "Pirate;" the "Fortunes of Nigel;" 
 and " Quentin Durward." A page of the catalogue is filled with 
 the poems of Samuel Rogers, whose " Table Talk " was edited by 
 Mr. Dyce. One of these volumes is a presentation copy to Lord 
 Byron, with this inscription — 
 
 c? 
 
 

 SIK RICHARD STEELE (1671-1729). 
 Verses addressed to Dr. Ellis. 
 
THE LIBRARY. 
 
 23 
 
 There are two or three very scarce pieces of Shelley ; for 
 example, the " Posthumous fragments of Margaret Nicholson" 
 and the "(Edipus Tyrannus; or, Swellfoot the Tyrant." The 
 collection of the poems, etc. of Taylor, the Water Poet, is 
 not only including a copy of the folio of 1630, but 
 " the old, old, very old man : or the age and long life of 
 Thomas Par," 1635, with the frontispiece. The pagination of 
 the rare first collected edition is very irregular, and Mr. Dyce 
 has written this note : "I collated the present copy, leaf by 
 leaf, with two other copies, and found the arrangement of the 
 pieces, pagination, etc., exactly the same in all three." Of Shirley 
 there are the first editions of almost all of his plays; and of 
 Webster of "The White Divel," "The Devils Law-Case," "The 
 Dutchesse of Malfy," "A Cure for a Cuckold," and " The Thracian 
 Wonder." The list of Wither's pieces fills seven pages, and 
 includes such rarities as " Exercises upon the first psalme," 1620, 
 and " The Protector," 1655. 
 
 Among the works of Sir Richard Steele is his "Christian 
 Hero," upon the fly-leaf of which are some verses in his 
 autograph, addressed to Dr. Ellis, head-master of the Charter 
 house, where Steele was at school. {See opposite page.) 
 
 Sheridan's plays include a presentation copy of " The 
 Rivals," with the following inscription on the fly-leaf^ 
 
 fP'-OCv^ 
 
 Having thus, in as brief a manner as possible, drawn attention 
 to some of the chief among the books, almost all poetical or 
 
24 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 dramatic, of the Dyce collection, we shall pass on to notice a few 
 which have a particular value as being very rare. And it still re- 
 mains for us to make some remarks upon a highly interesting and 
 valuable portion of the library, namely, the editions of Shake- 
 speare's plays. 
 
 At the head of these in the catalogue stands " the first folio,'' 
 printed at London in 1623. This is a fair copy of one of the 
 most valuable and important among English books, tolerably 
 large and sound in its condition. The preliminary verses, the 
 title, and the portrait are genuine ; but are inlaid and supplied, 
 probably, from another copy. The copy measures at p. 81 of 
 Measure for Measure, 12! inches by 8fV. Some few leaves have 
 been mended. 
 
 Of the second folio edition, London, 1632, the title and the 
 last leaf have been inlaid. This measures at p. 295, of the Winter's 
 Tale, 13 inches by 8f. The copy formerly belonged to W. Nanson 
 Lettsom, himself a Shakespearian scholar. It is not known that any 
 memorandum exists as to the price which Mr. Dyce gave for these 
 two volumes, nor from whom he bought them. 
 
 Eight or ten other editions of the collected plays are in the 
 library, not including that which was published with a revised text 
 by Mr. Dyce himself in nine volumes. Of this work there is a 
 copy with manuscript additions to the Glossary. 
 
 Besides these there are not a few of the very rare quarto 
 editions of separate plays ; these are all of sufficient importance 
 to be natned. 
 
 Hamlet : the third edition of 1611, and three copies of the 
 fifth, 1637. Interleaved with one of these last are manuscript 
 collations and notes by Theobald, to whom it once belonged. 
 Henry the Fourth : of this play there is nothing earlier than the 
 sixth edition, in 1622 ; but of Henry the Fifth there is the third, 
 of 1608. So, also, there are the second editions oi Loves Labours 
 Lost, 1631; and of the Merry Wives of Windsor, 1619. The 
 editions in quarto of Pericles, Richard the Second, and Richard 
 
THE LIBRARY. 25 
 
 the Third, are all later than the second. The fourth edition of 
 Pericles, 1630, has "the rare imprint." 
 
 But Mr. Dyce possessed the first editions of Much Ado about 
 Nothing, 1600; ol \hQ Merchant of Venice, 1600; oi Othello, 1622 
 (together with the second, 1630); and of Troilus and Cressida, 
 1609. So that it may very justly be said that the Dyce collection 
 is rich, above the usual average of private collections, in early 
 editions of the plays of Shakespeare. 
 
 With regard to the condition of the different copies, it is on 
 the whole good. The Hamlet of 16 ri is short; so also is the 
 Much Ado about Nothing, 1600. The rest are quite equal to the 
 copies which are anywhere to be found. As with the first folio, 
 so also as regards these quartos, it would be interesting to know 
 the sums which Mr. Dyce gave for them. Mr. Forster in his 
 sketch of Dyce's life says that for one, and that among the 
 rarest, he gave but a couple of shillings; but he does not say 
 which of the plays it was. Such luck was mere accident. Some 
 of the quarto plays have sold of late years for ;^20o and ^^300 
 and ;^4oo each. 
 
 Besides the undoubted plays there are two copies of the 
 first edition of Sir John Oldcastle, London, 1600 ; a first Lord 
 Cromwell, 16 13, which belonged to Warburton ; a copy of the 
 Yorkshire Tragedy, 1619 ; and the first edition of Arden of 
 Fever sham, 1592. 
 
 A very remarkable book is No. 8958, in two volumes, the 
 proof-sheets of a proposed edition of the works of Shakespeare, 
 by Lockhart. Another, and the only other copy believed 
 to exist of these proofs, is in Boston (United States) library. 
 " Shakespeariana " books are numerous. 
 
 There are not many black-letter books in the Dyce library, 
 but it contains some; and, together with these, not a few very 
 rare books which ought to be particularly noticed. 
 
 First among them, because of an autograph on the title-page 
 which claims to be Shakespeare's, a copy is to be mentioned of the 
 
26 THE DVCE COLLECTION. 
 
 second but first authorised edition of the first English tragedy, 
 Ferrex and Porrex. There is no date to this quarto, but being 
 printed by John Daye it is probably about the year 1570. As 
 for the autograph, there can be scarcely the remotest shadow of 
 ground to believe it to be genuine ; it is probably one of the 
 many forgeries common enough at the time of the Ireland 
 forgeries, about eighty years ago. We have no reason what- 
 ever to suppose that Mr. Dyce himself thought it to be of any 
 interest or value. 
 
 Lidgate's "Life and Death of Hector," folio, 1614, is a fair 
 copy. This has a remarkable peculiarity, of which very few 
 instances can be referred to in early printed books, namely, one 
 of the sheets (L) has nine leaves, as noted by Mr. Dyce. It is 
 not easy to account for this ; and it might lead people collating an 
 old book wrongly to conclude it to be imperfect. One other 
 instance may be named, in the case of one of the very rarest 
 of English books, the edition of Chaucer by Wynkyn de Worde, 
 of which (it is believed) only one perfect copy is known, and, 
 unluckily, not here. That book also has nine leaves in one of 
 the sheets. 
 
 The " Confessio amantis " by John Gower, " Imprinted at 
 London, in Flete Strete, by Thomas Berthelette," folio, 1554, is a 
 fair and sound copy of a book not often found in good condition. 
 This is also to be remarked upon as containing the longest series 
 in any book in the library of Dyce's notes of old English words 
 and phrases which he had been in the habit for many years 
 of gathering together, and which he afterwards very largely used 
 in compiling his glossary to Shakespeare. Very well worth 
 noticing, also, is the great care with which Dyce treated his 
 books. The references are always upon a fly-leaf, generally at the 
 end ; but the pages to which they refer are kept perfectly clean 
 and not even a pencil mark is made upon the margin to save 
 trouble in finding the particular line or word. Yet this, in the 
 case of folio pages full of close printing, must often have given 
 
THE LIBRARY. 27 
 
 very considerable additional trouble before the reference could 
 be verified. 
 
 There are three first editions of some of the poems of Edmund 
 Spenser : " Complaints. Containing sundrie small Poemes of 
 the "Worlds Vanitie," 1591 ; "Colin Clouts Come Home againe,'' 
 1595 ; and the "Fowre Hymnes," 1596. All these are quarto 
 and good copies. 
 
 One of the rarest of the foreign books is the " La Chasse et le 
 depart Damours, coposee par reuered pere en dieu messire 
 Octouie de saict gelaiz.euesq dagoulesme Et par noble h5me 
 Blaise dauriol." Paris, 4to, no date, but probably about 1533. 
 This volume has some very pretty woodcuts. 
 
 Mr. Dyce, as may be readily understood, was careful to 
 obtain the reprints (by the literary societies and others) of the 
 scarce and often unique stories, romances, ballads, and broad- 
 sides of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With these 
 reprints he appears to have contented himself j for the library has 
 scarcely an example of the chap-books, once so common but now 
 so rare, of that period or a little later. One very remarkable 
 little volume, however, is here ; a collection of fifty Italian chap- 
 books, all in verse and chiefly by Paolo Britti, printed at Venice 
 and other places, from about 1625 to 1644. Besides this we 
 can only name a copy in black letter, quarto, of " The Famous 
 History of the Seven Champions of Christendom;" both parts 
 in one volume. There is no date but it is probably about the year 
 1690. It must be remembered that many of these "reprints" 
 are very difficult to obtain, and will be of great use to students 
 and readers. To mention no others, the " Ballad Books '' 
 privately printed at Edinburgh, or some of the Collier, Laing, 
 Lee Priory and Strawberry Hill publications. 
 
 There is a fair copy of "The Workes of John Heiwood, 
 newlie imprinted," 4to, London, 1598, which formerly was in the 
 collection of Bindley who has written in it " very scarce." But 
 Mr. Dyce was fortunate enough to obtain a very much scarcer 
 
28 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 book, and this in an unusually good state and condition, 
 Heywood's "Spider and the Flie," black letter, 4to, 1556: it 
 came from the Heber library, and Mr. Dyce has made a note; 
 " This copy (which I have carefully compared with two other 
 copies) is quite complete." 
 
 "The Mirour for Magistrates," 4to, 1610; Wither's' " Abuses 
 Stript and Whipt," 8vo, 1613 ; " The Vision of Pierce Plowman," 
 4to, 1561, black letter ; Barnaby Googe's " Zodiake of Life," i6mo, 
 1565; and Barclay's "Ship of Fooles," foUo, 1570, are copies 
 which any library would be glad to possess. 
 
 Of the plays and other works of another Heywood, Thomas 
 Heywood, there is a large collection, including several early 
 editions : for example — " The First and Second Parts of Edward 
 the Fourth," 1605; "The Foure Prentises of London," 1615 ; 
 " A Funeral Elegie upon the Death of King James," 1625 ; " The 
 Iron Age," 1632, both parts; "London's Harbour of Health," 
 1635; and (to name no more) "The late Lancashire Witches," 
 1634. This last is very large and sound; in almost an uncut con- 
 dition. Nor must we omit to notice the first edition of Heywood's 
 " Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells," folio, London, 1635. 
 
 The " La Chasse," by Saint Gelais, is not the only volume of 
 rare early French poetry in the Dyce library. There are two 
 others of equal rarity : " Le Labirynth de fortune et Seiour des 
 trois nobles dames," printed at Poitiers "par Jaques bouchet," 4to, 
 1524, and the " Opusculles du trauerseur des voyes perilleuses," 
 by the same printer, 4to, at Poitiers, 1526. The "Opusculles" 
 include the Epistle of justice, the Chaplet of princes, the Moral 
 ballads, and the Lamentation of the Church. 
 
 The copy of Lidgate's " Fall of Prynces ; gathered by John 
 Bochas," folio, London, John Waylande, is large and sound, 
 with the exception of the title ; and there is a memorandum on 
 the fly-leaf, that it was " given by Henry Mordaunt, Earl of Peter- 
 borough, to the Benedictine Monastery at Lamspring." This 
 abbey, originally a nunnery founded in the ninth century, was 
 
THE LIBRARY. 29 
 
 given to the English congregation of the order in 1630, for nuns; 
 but some years afterwards the nuns were removed and replaced 
 by English Benedictine monks. Boccaccio's Genealogies, " Gene- 
 alogise deorum gentililium," folio, at Vicenza, 1487, a good copy, 
 is the earliest printed book in the Dyce library. 
 
 Of Lilly's plays there are several first editions ; of " Cam- 
 paspe," 1584, "Midas," 1592, "The Woman in the Moone," 
 1597, and others. All the copies of this author are remarkably 
 good. There are many other books which deserve especial 
 notice, but our space is limited. Yet we should mention an 
 uncut copy of " A most pleasant Comedie of Mucedorus, Very 
 delectable and full of mirth," 4to, 1606; Francesco de Lodovici's 
 "L'Antheo Gigante," 1524, called by Mr. Dyce "a romance 
 of the greatest rarity;" .^Emilia Lanyer's "Salve Deus Rex 
 ludaeorum," 161 1; Lodge's "Scillaes metamorphosis," 1589; 
 Elian's "Varise historise," 1662, with MS. notes by Person; 
 Preston's "Lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of plesant mirth, 
 containing the life of Cambises," 4to, printed by Edward Allde ; 
 "Pierce Pennilesse, his supplication to the Divell," 4to, 1595; 
 "Have with you to Saffron Walden," 4to, 1596; and "Summers 
 last Will and Testament," 4to, 1600. The three last are by 
 Thomas Nash, the controversialist against Gabriel Harvey. 
 
 The last which we can select are among the rarest in the 
 whole collection. Thomas Ingelend's "Pretie and mery new 
 enterlude, called the Disobedient Child. Imprinted at London 
 in Fletestrete, by Thomas Colwell," black letter, 4to, no date. 
 Colwell is a printer not noticed by Dibdin in his edition of Ames 
 and Herbert ; he uses the wellknown device of Robert Wyer, 
 which is placed at the end of the interlude. This particular copy 
 came from the Heber library. And by the same printer there is 
 also a good copy of the first edition of " A Ryght Pithy, Plea- 
 saunt, and merie Comedie, intytuled. Gammer gurtons Nedle," 
 4to, London, 1575, black letter. This also had belonged to 
 Heber, and before him to the duke of Roxburghe, 
 
30 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 Besides the many volumes enriched with Mr. Dyce's own 
 notes in his singularly neat and legible hand, of which we give 
 an example from a volume of Walpole's "Royal and Noble 
 Authors," the library contains a large number of books with 
 
 NOTE BY MR. DYCE IN WALPOLE'S " ROYAL AND NOBLE AUTHORS." 
 
 autographs and manuscript notes of eminent scholars and men 
 of letters : for example, among modern writers, Gray, Porson, 
 Bentley, Dr. Parr, Mitford, Heber, Horace Walpole, and many 
 others. The accompanying facsimile of a note by Porson, on a 
 fly-leaf of his edition of the Medea is interesting, not only as 
 an example of his clear writing in both English and Greek, but 
 as illustrating a famous simile in Byron's " English Bards and 
 Scotch Reviewers." 
 
 T.lp.c.ti.l.Zl.poft TTTefiofc adde : Idem ajilL,*.p.lZ,2I,49 = I3o3,7.jfai5x/ J6x- 
 ru nrcifoijij-t<»/j-ryi/jX^Yov(Toif/ voif e,aitT-cj/j '7rTe/>o7e 4x>.i(rjce.a-Bcu Tat 
 paXKajuAf^'X- ofi/necL-yOVrti) Hxiu oi Kavpot avrai tois booJtmv f/zcori oGff'- 
 f^vV-nu.!'Mzlatuholy is it to rifledt'J fays JMoraJ '&&jy"'tha.t the arrow. 
 TOhich hccsjiuek irv the eagtes wmg, is tipped tatih the ea^Us feather! 
 Captat^ni (Str'^hertJ'WiUons Campaign, t'fi- £ff<y/»f,p.6j. 
 
 RICHARD PORSON (1759-1808). 
 Note in the " Medea," 1801. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND SKETCHES. 
 
 A VERY careful catalogue of the large and important collection of 
 drawings, prints, and etchings, which were included by Mr. Dyce in 
 his bequest to the South Kensington Museum, was made in 1873 by 
 Mr. G. W. Reid (the keeper of the prints in the British museum), 
 and has been published by the Department of science and art. 
 A short list of the one hundred and forty-seven paintings and 
 miniatures which were also left by Mr. Dyce was prepared by the 
 late Mr. Samuel Redgrave, and precedes the catalogue of the 
 drawings. 
 
 Mr. Redgrave very justly remarks that "the strength of Mr. 
 Dyce's valuable bequest does not lie in the paintings, which are of 
 a very miscellaneous character. The collection was made appa- 
 rently as objects offered themselves, and without any special 
 design. Many of the paintings are probably by artists whose 
 works would not entitle them to posthumous repute, and their 
 names have been lost. To other paintings great names have been 
 given, which can hardly be accepted ; yet it is right to say that 
 there are several good works by painters of eminence, and some 
 which, on special grounds other than their art merit, are objects of 
 general interest." 
 
 Among the pictures by foreign artists it is unnecessary to 
 mention more than two or three. No. 3, an Incantation scene, 
 which is carefully painted and may reasonably be ascribed to 
 
32 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 Peter Breughel, who died in 1625. No. 8, a Landscape, with a 
 cathedral and distant village, said to be by Philip de Koningh, 
 about 1670. No. 5, a highly interesting portrait (attributed to 
 Cornelis Janssens who died in 1665) of the famous Dr. John 
 Donne, dean of St. Paul's. Janssens lived in England many 
 years and was much employed at the court of James the first. 
 An engraving from this portrait (which was formerly in the collec- 
 tion of Mr. S. W. Singer) is prefixed to Donne's poems, 1633, 
 No. 3149 in the catalogue of Mr. Dyce's books. 
 
 A few of the pictures by English artists may be named. There 
 is an interesting unfinished portrait of a lady by Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds, supposed to be Frances Reynolds, the painter's sister. 
 This lady was herself fond of painting, especially miniatures, and 
 copied some of her brother's pictures. As to her own works, 
 "Nothing" says Northcote "made Sir Joshua so mad as Miss 
 Reynolds's portraits, which were an exact imitation of all his 
 defects. He said, jestingly, they made other people laugh and 
 himself cry." No. i g is a portrait head of John Joshua Kirby, 
 author of the " Perspective of architecture," by his friend Gains- 
 borough. A picture by Samuel Scott (No. 20) shows the Thames, 
 the Strand shore, and Westminster bridge, about the year 1760. 
 Scott was a great friend of Hogarth and one of the party in the 
 well-known "Frolic "in 1732. No. 22 is a picture (perhaps a 
 portrait) by Romney called "Serena," and represents a young 
 lady reading at night in her bedroom Miss Burney's novel — so 
 popular at that time — " Evelina.'' The subject is suggested by a 
 passage in the " Triumphs of temper " by Hayley, the painter's 
 friend and biographer — 
 
 Sweet Evelina's fascinating power 
 Has first beguiled of sleep her midnight hour : 
 Possest by sympathy's enchanting sway, 
 She read, unconscious of the dawning day. 
 
 Canto I. 
 
 There are two landscapes by Morland (30 and 31), and another 
 landscape (No. 15) is by Richard Wilson, R.A. Two portraits, by 
 
PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND SKETCHES 33 
 
 unknown artists, are of importance. One (No. 63) has on the back, 
 written in an old hand, " John Milton, Esq. Done after the life, 
 1658, set. 50." The tradition attached to it is that it belonged to 
 the family of dean Bargrave ; but, on the other hand, that was a 
 family distinguished for loyalty to Charles the first. The other 
 (No. 64) is a portrait of Matthew Prior, the poet. 
 
 The collection of Mr. Dyce's pictures is chiefly of interest 
 because of many portraits which it contains of famous actors of 
 the last hundred years. For example, two of Garrick; one. 
 No. 14, as Tancred, by Worlidge; and. No. 70, as Don John, perhaps 
 by Loutherbourg. There are four portraits of John Kemble, 
 Nos. 71, 72, 73, 75 ; three of Mrs. Siddons, two of which, No. 24, 
 25, are in water-colour by W. Hamilton, and the third, No. 76, 
 is a head of much power, the painter unknown ; and two of 
 Edmund Kean, one as Sir Giles Overreach, No. 79, the other 
 (apparently the picture afterwards engraved as painted by J. J. 
 Halls), No. 78, as Richard the Third. We must not omit to 
 mention the portraits, by Samuel de Wilde, of Parsons in " The 
 village lawyer,'' Mrs. Davenport as Dame Ashfield, and Farren 
 as Lord Ogleby. Betterton, "Dicky" Suett, Mrs. Davison, Liston, 
 and Macready are also there ; in short, no ownership could be 
 more fit for such a collection than that of a man so distinguished 
 for his knowledge of dramatic literature as Mr. Dyce. 
 
 The number of the miniatures is large — rather more than sixty. 
 But at least forty of these are by unknown hands, chiefiy by 
 foreign artists, and of persons who have not been identified. An 
 exception worth noting is No. 103, a miniature in oil, of the 
 Cremona painter Sofonisba Anguisciola (who died in 1620), 
 probably by herself. Her works are very rare in England; an 
 admirable example (also her own portrait) is in the collection 
 lately lent by earl Spencer to the Kensington Museum, and now 
 at Althorp. 
 
 The miniatures by English artists, though less in number, 
 are more important. By Peter Oliver there is a portrait of a lady 
 
 P 
 
34 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 in the costume of the reign of James I., and in a case of the 
 time. There are five by Samuel Cooper, among them two of 
 himself and one of the earl of Sandwich. By Thomas Flatman 
 there is a good portrait of himself, signed and dated 1662. By 
 Cosway there is one miniature, but not of a lady : the portrait 
 of field-marshal Conway who died in 1795. 
 
 As in all large collections of drawings, whether public or 
 private, so in Mr. Dyce's, there are a few which are not 
 undoubtedly genuine ; in several examples the drawings are by 
 the hand of a pupil and not of the master. 
 
 One circumstance* which is very much in favour of the quality 
 of the drawings in this collection is the fact of so many of them 
 being impressed with the marks of celebrated collectors — such as 
 the earl of Arundel, Prosper Henri Lanckrinck, Sir Peter Lely, 
 the two Richardsons, Padre Rest^, Pierre Jean Mariette, J. A. 
 Crozat, earl Spencer, Francesco Algarotti, count Caylus, Richard 
 Cosway, William Esdaile, John Barnard, William Young Ottley, 
 Benjamin West, Ralph Willett, Robert Dumesnil, Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds, etc. 
 
 Commencing with the Florentine school, we find an interest- 
 ing drawing by Pollajuolo, without however any particular display 
 of his favourite study of anatomy, and some studies by Bandinelli, 
 with his fine telling stroke with the reed pen and bistre. There is 
 a leaf from one of the sketch books of Leonardo da Vinci, which has 
 unfortunately been tampered with; together with a good speci- 
 men or two of Vasari the writer as well as painter. But the most 
 interesting drawing is that by Finiguerra (specimens of whose 
 work are so rare) ; one of the allegories common at the time and 
 for years afterwards (as is fully exemplified by the number of them 
 engraved by Marc Antonio and other workers with the needle 
 and burin), but which no writer on art has been able to explain; 
 The design for an altar-piece by Bartolomeo fills a link in his 
 
 * From hence to page 52 is abridged from Mr. G. W. Reid's intro- 
 ductions to the printed catalogue. 
 
PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND SKETCHES 35 
 
 painstaking studies for his picture in the Uffizi, and the slight 
 sketch for a portion of the Medici tombs at Florence by Michel 
 Angelo, although unimportant itself, becomes of value when it is 
 understood that many other studies for the same monument are 
 in England. The spirited skirmish by Antonio Tempesta con- 
 cludes the notice of drawings worthy of note in this school. In 
 the next, that of Sienna, there is only one example ; by F. Vanni. 
 This is a fair specimen, and interesting from the fact of its 
 having been engraved. 
 
 The Roman school begins with Rafifaello's study, The finding 
 of Moses, with many marks of former eminent collectors — a 
 drawing which has escaped the notice of Passavant and other 
 writers on art, but is unquestionably by the master. The portrait 
 of the duke of Urbino is also fine, though not of the same quality 
 as the Moses. A very clever sketch with a pen is by Raffaello's 
 pupil Perino del Vaga. The engraver's drawing of The massacre 
 of the Innocents by Martino Rota is interesting, as giving an 
 instance of the usual painstaking method of preparing an elaborate 
 drawing for the engraver to work from. These are often so 
 skilfully executed as to be taken for the painter's own work ; a 
 mistake which is very excusable because, in many instances, the 
 masters did themselves make these copies. Rafiaello himself 
 found time to execute many, so much interest did he take in 
 seeing his designs properly translated by Marc Antonio. Vasari 
 indeed distinctly mentions that Raffaello sometimes even cor- 
 rected the outline on the copper, a statement fully borne out by 
 a careful examination of some of the engravings — such for instance 
 as the Judgment of Paris, where the corrections made with the 
 needle are easily detected by the aid of a lens. A fine drawing 
 by Cortona is next worthy of notice, representing a Roman 
 sacrifice : it has been engraved by Bartolozzi, whose too careful 
 manner, suitable for the small classical designs of Cipriani, fallen 
 to render the ideas of a painter of larger and more important 
 subjects. Two good sketches by Borgognone are very clever but 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 slight in execution. Then a fair Carlo Maratti, the head of the 
 Virgin, in red chalk ; and the last to be noticed is by Berrettoni, 
 Venus and the dead Adonis, in bistre. 
 
 Of the Venetian school we have a study by Titian in black 
 chalk, a study in pen by Battista Franco of the rape of Deianeira, 
 and a beautiful drawing of Men loading asses by the chaste 
 designer of landscapes, Domenico Campagnola ; also two clever 
 studies by Bassano and a number by Tintoretto, made for his 
 large picture of the Crucifixion, so finely engraved by Agostino 
 Caracci. There are fifteen of these slight spirited studies by 
 Tintoretto in black chalk on grey paper, probably all from the 
 Reynolds collection, and there are others elsewhere ; but the 
 number is easily accounted for when one considers the multitude 
 of figures in the picture and its richness of incident. Two 
 sketches by Farinato are bold and clever, as are one by Paolo 
 Caliari (Veronese), two by Jacob Palma of the Entombment and 
 Christ descending, and another by Sebastiano Ricci, entitled 
 Panis angelorura. A view of a tomb and chapel by Canaletto is 
 good, but the slight sketches by his pupil Guardi, though true 
 enough, are not of much importance. 
 
 The Mantuan school is dependent for its place here on a good 
 drawing by Bartolomeo Manfredi of a Holy Family, in pen and 
 bistre ; so that we must pass without delay to the Parmesan, which 
 begins well with three genuine works of Correggio. The first is 
 the recumbent figure of an angel, in red chalk heightened; the 
 next a study of a female playing upon the flute, a pure little piece 
 of poetry, with two heads on the same sheet ; and the third a 
 very fine study, in red and black chalk, of the academical figure 
 of a man seated. Then come some of the endless studies of Par- 
 migiano, who probably supplied his contemporaries with designs 
 to assist them in their efforts to express motion. Most notable 
 are a sketch in pen and bistre of a dancing Cupid, and a beautiful 
 design (probably copied from a Greek gem) of a winged female 
 figure holding a lifeless man by the arm, and on the same sheet 
 
PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND SKETCHES. 37 
 
 a second subject, Hercules struggling with Cerberus. Last among 
 what is worth noticing in this school may be mentioned a fine 
 sketch in black chalk for the Assumption, by Lanfranco. 
 
 The school of Bologna opens with a fair drawing by Tibaldi, 
 in black chalk washed with Indian ink, representing the birth of 
 the Virgin, and another in pen and sepia, washed, of St. Ar!,thony 
 of Padua, by Federigo Barocci. There are three creditable per- 
 formances by Guercino — the first, in red chalk, a saint about to be 
 decapitated ; the next, an allegorical drawing of a young female 
 seated in a car, in pen and bistre ; the third, a study of a youth 
 wearing a fur cap. It would be strange, indeed, to find a collec- 
 tion of drawings without a few by Guercino, because the examples 
 are innumerable and very few are studies for pictures : most of 
 them have evidently been executed in a rapid manner to multiply 
 the number for sale, for there must have been a large market for 
 them during the painter's life. A landscape, in pen and sepia, by 
 G. F. Bolognese is very fine, and another, a view of the church of 
 St. Lorenzo at Rome, signed by the artist. By Simon da Pesaro 
 is a beautiful study of Cupids seated on clouds, in red chalk. 
 This brings the school of Bologna to a close. 
 
 The remarks made above on Guercino apply equally to Luca 
 Cambiaso, of the school of Genoa, of whose meretricious per- 
 formances with pen and bistre we have here seventeen examples. 
 The best is a slight sketch for Leda and the swan, but two others 
 are perhaps worthy of remark ; namely. Angels grouped in the 
 clouds, bearing the implements of the Passion, and Venus dis- 
 suading Adonis from the chase. The very slight execution of the 
 Leda accounts for its attractiveness, for had it been more highly 
 finished it would have lost its delicacy. There are also two bold 
 studies in distemper colour by Castiglione ; the one representing 
 a nymph surprised by satyrs being the best of the two. The only 
 drawings of the Neapolitan school of any importance are a sheet 
 of studies by Salvator Rosa in pen and sepia, and a clever design 
 for a fountain in black chalk by Luca Giordano. Of the school 
 
3S THE D\CE COLLECTION. 
 
 of Fontainebleau there is a study, in black chalk, of two men 
 embracing, by F. Primaticcio. 
 
 The German school begins with a curious and early specimen 
 wrongly ascribed to Martin Schongauer, though of his time. It 
 is deficient in the beauty and sentiment of that master, though 
 equal to him in the general treatment of the composition and rich- 
 ness of incident. The unusual rendering of the subject is remark- 
 able : the angel presents a sealed paper instead of the accepted 
 offering, the lily, the emblem of purity. The fact of this having 
 been in many important collections adds not a little to its value — 
 more especially as it bears the mark of Sir Peter Lely. Next, 
 ignoring of course the so-called Diirers, is a design by Hans 
 Baldung Griin, for the subject of the Conversion of Saul, which he 
 afterwards engraved on wood : so Italian in feeling is this design, 
 that some excuse must be allowed for its having been formerly 
 erroneously ascribed to Titian. There are two specimens by 
 Hans Holbein, of the finest quality. The first is a portrait in 
 crayons on salmon-coloured paper, of a gentleman, so noble in 
 appearance that it would be interesting to identify if possible the 
 individual ; the second, the capture of a city, of which a com- 
 panion drawing is preserved in the print-room of the British 
 museum. The subject of either has not been made out. There 
 is a feeling about the last mentioned which probably might lead 
 to its being mistaken for the production of Urs Graf, but on 
 careful comparison with the productions of Hans Holbein, it will 
 be found to be identical in many respects with that master's 
 treatment, particularly in the manner of working and the details. 
 Melchior Lorch's design for one of his woodcuts displays the 
 firmness and power of outline which are characteristic of an artist 
 who is in the habit of drawing on wood. There is a clever design 
 for a draped figure of an angel, designed by Joachim Von Sandrart ; 
 and one of Hollar's delicately executed river scenes in pen. Two 
 of Sir Godfrey Kneller's portraits are in the collection ; one in 
 crayons, and the other in black chalk, the former a gentleman and 
 
PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND SKETCHES. 39 
 
 the latter a lady, both life size ; and a head of an elderly man in 
 crayons by Sir Peter Lely, signed. 
 
 In the Dutch school the drawings attributed to Lucas Van 
 Leyden are merely copies from his prints. The first works to be 
 especially noted are one by Octavio Van Veen, a bedroom with 
 numerous figures ; one of Heinrich Goltzius's highly finished pro- 
 ductions, signed, and dated, which was engraved by Saenredam 
 and another contemporary engraver ; an allegorical subject by 
 Abraham Bloemaert; some drawings in pen by Cornehus 
 Poelemburg, merely studies in landscape, only one of them 
 having a figure introduced ; and some careful and neatly finished 
 views in Holland, in black chalk, by Jan Van Goyen. Other 
 good landscapes are by Jan Pinas, Roeland Roghman, and 
 J. Stellingwerf. Those attributed to Rembrandt are all spurious : 
 — one, however, is by his scholar Jan Lievens. The drawing 
 ascribed to Adrian Ostade, the pig-killer and his family, 
 possesses some of the merit and feeling of that painter, but is 
 hardly good enough for his hand ; if by him, it must be an early 
 effort. The specimens by Antoni Waterloo are all genuine, and 
 the large one of a stream crossed by a slight wooden bridge, in 
 black chalk, is extremely fine. A street scene with trees shading 
 the thoroughfare, a pretty production in body colours by Philip 
 de Koningh, recalls, like many others of this school, Dutch life in 
 all its truthfulness ; a highly finished interior of a merchant's 
 office, with its staff in full activity, by G. Vanden Eckhout, is 
 interesting as having been engraved; a landscape with cattle 
 drinking in red chalk, by Nicholas Berchem, and a view on 
 the Rhine by Jan Almeloveen in pen, are fair examples of the 
 masters ; and one of the specimens by Paul Potter, executed at 
 the age of seventeen, is of some interest, as showing the early pro- 
 gress of one of the most famous masters of the school, but the 
 better of his drawings is a study of trees in black chalk : both 
 these are signed. The two Ruisdaels are good drawings, and also 
 the classical landscape by F. de Moucheron. Pieter de Molyn is 
 
40 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 well represented by six examples of his careful pretty little studies 
 of landscape, neatly executed in black chalk and washed slightly 
 with Indian ink. William Van de Velde, the younger, of course 
 is found here ; his sketches being so plentiful that a collector 
 still living used to boast of having as many as would pave Covent 
 Garden : the best is a fleet of men-of-war, unfurling their sails. 
 A little landscape in pen by Dirk Maas, and signed, is very 
 pretty and true ; so also is the view of Amsterdam by Gerard 
 Rademacker. Jan Van Huysum's classical landscape is curious 
 as a specimen of the master's work executed before he entirely 
 took to flower painting. The Avenue of trees on the bank of a 
 canal, a pretty Dutch view in distemper by a painter not much 
 known to fame although deserving of it, Paul Constantin La 
 Fargue, and a fair specimen by Hendrik Spilman, with two by 
 Hendrik Kobell, conclude what is noteworthy of this school, 
 which ranges from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the 
 close of the eighteenth. 
 
 The Flemish school begins with an anonymous but interesting 
 example of the latter end of the fifteenth century, in distemper, 
 which has been attributed to Cimabue. The next in chronological 
 order of any note is a landscape with banditti by Paul Bril in pen, 
 and signed ; another of a large size in pen and tinted by Peter 
 Breughel, is one of those subjects of festivity so dear to painters 
 of this school, whose efforts to crowd every phase of Flemish 
 life into one composition are incomprehensible, as regards the 
 amount of labour unsparingly bestowed ; the two drawings by Jan 
 Breughel of simple landscapes are very pretty. Three specimens 
 by the engraver Jacob de Gheyn the elder are good examples. 
 The first of the specimens of Peter Paul Rubens represents the 
 eternal Father, another, Lot and his daughters. Both are in 
 black chalk, as also is a remarkable study of arms from nature. 
 A fine landscape in pen by Lucas Van Uden, another by David 
 Teniers the younger, enlivened with figures, and a highly-finished 
 view on the Tiber by. Lievin Cruyl may be mentioned. We may 
 
PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND SKETCHES. 41 
 
 end our notice of this school with a master whose drawings are 
 more important for their rarity than for their beauty, Peter 
 Tillemans. 
 
 The French school opens with a couple of specimens by that 
 great master of design, Jacques Callot. One of them is a study 
 for his masterpiece, the temptation of St. Anthony, which, judging 
 by the number of careful studies that he made for this wonderful 
 production, he intended to be his chef-d'oeuvre. The grotesque 
 design of Jacques Bellange of the Virgin and saint is curious in 
 its way, as showing the laborious efforts of a rather clever man 
 painting evidently on commission. Had he been inspired with 
 enthusiasm he would probably have done better. The two draw- 
 ings by Nicolas Poussin of the same subject, Theseus discovering 
 the sword of his father, are both good ; the one executed in red 
 chalk being perhaps the better of the two. They are interesting 
 as showing the pains taken by the master in the arrangement of 
 the principal figures. Two Claudes are fine, particularly a grand 
 study, in pen and bistre, from the upper portion of a tree in full 
 foliage. The second is curious as being the same design as one 
 in the Liber veritatis of the duke of Devonshire, which was en- 
 graved by Richard Earlom. Gabriel Perelle, well known like 
 Callot to print collectors by his etchings, is here represented by a 
 drawing of a landscape with ruins. Van der Meulen, a painter 
 always claimed by France but still unmistakably Flemish, is repre- 
 sented by a Fight for Roman standards, in pen ; and by another 
 specimen of his more careful manner, probably executed before he 
 resided in Paris. There is a good example of Jean Jouvenet, a 
 kneeling figure with arms extended, which has in all probability 
 been engraved ; and La Fage's design for a frieze in pen is worthy 
 of a passing remark, as also are the drawings of Bernard Picart, 
 which have been mistaken for those by Le Clerc. The little 
 female head executed in red and black chalk by Watteau is 
 beautiful, and a drawing of the seated figure of a man in the same 
 materials by his scholar Nicolas Lancret is a fair specimen of 
 
42 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 that artist's ability. Of two drawings by Frangois Boucher one 
 is particularly fine, a study of Cupids in black chalk; a third 
 attributed to this master is merely a copy from a print, and not at 
 all a good one. Le Prince's drawings are not so well known as 
 the last painter's works, but they are in many instances deserving 
 of the close companionship in which they are found here : the 
 study of a young maiden in semi-oriental costume fully bearing 
 out the remark. A modern drawing by a well-known lithographic 
 draughtsman, Jean Victor Adam, finishes the list of noteworthy 
 French works in this collection. 
 
 In the Spanish school one of the most interesting drawings, 
 though more for its local and historical than for its artistic merits, 
 displays the incidents at a bull-fight in the Piazza di Madrid, 
 about the middle of the seventeenth century; illustrating the 
 manner in which such exhibitions were arranged, and showing the 
 spectators crowded even on the housetops. 
 
 Mr. Dyce did not fall into the error into which so many men 
 of high training were betrayed at the time when he began collect- 
 ing, namely, the assumption that his own countrymen were 
 inferior to their neighbours as painters, and that their works were 
 not worthy of foreign companionship. Taken altogether, the 
 English portion of his collection is the best. There is a fine study 
 in black chalk by William Dobson ; then we have Isaac Fuller's 
 spirited sketch for his own portrait which is now at Oxford, and is 
 engraved in the fourth edition of Walpole's Anecdotes of painting; 
 one of John Greenhill's portraits, that of George Digby earl of 
 Bristol, in crayons, and a supply of Sir James Thornhill's pen 
 and sepia sketches — two of them for the same subject, showing 
 much painstaking with poor results. The elder Richardson attracts 
 our attention by two heads, one in pen, and the other in red and 
 black chalk ; the first, of a man in a tie-wig and three-cornered 
 hat, is much the finer : both are dated by the painter. Hogarth 
 may be said to be a blank, for there appears only a copy of one of 
 his prints. A highly-finished study in red chalk is by the etcher 
 
PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND SKETCHES. 43 
 
 Thomas Worlidge, and a sketch for a portrait by Francis Cotes. 
 There are drawings by Alexander Cozens, by Johan Zoffany, and 
 by John Hamilton Mortimer. Two landscapes by the clever but 
 meretricious painter Zuccherelli, who was so well patronised in 
 this country and obtained the honours of the Royal Academy, may 
 be mentioned. 
 
 By Richard Wilson, the great painter of classical landscape, 
 who was so disgracefully neglected in his painful efforts to obtain 
 bread, there are no less than twenty-eight sketches ; most of them 
 (it is true) very slight, but still possessing the same refinement of 
 thought as his pictures. The most remarkable for poetic feeling 
 in the series is certainly the Lake of Nemi, 1753 : this is a gem of 
 the brightest water for a student whose art education is advanced 
 enough to comprehend it. The Landscape with effect of storm 
 is likewise very fine, and is of interest because the figure of 
 Amelia was introduced into one of his well-known pictures without 
 alteration. Castel Gandolfo and Baiae are also extremely 
 beautiful. Sir Joshua Reynolds's study in black and red chalk 
 for Puck on a toadstool is of interest to all lovers of the master's 
 work, as being the first idea for one of his favourite subjects ; we 
 have also the first sketch for the celebrated portrait of the 
 marchioness of Tavistock at Woburn, slightly rendered in black 
 chalk heightened with white ; and two other sketches for portraits. 
 Two of Giovanni Battista Cipriani's well-known and beautiful 
 designs are here, the best being the man conversing with two 
 females, in pen and sepia, washed. The second has a curious 
 note, with the date 1768, on the opening of the Royal Academy. 
 The collection is rich in examples of one of Reynolds's most 
 important rivals in portraiture, and the contemporary of Wilson 
 in landscape painting, Thomas Gainsborough. There are twenty- 
 six of his studies, many of them of the finest quality : truthful 
 studies from nature and full of the exquisite poetical feeling 
 which so distinguished this painter from all his contemporaries 
 except Wilson. Of his figure subjects and portraits are a first 
 
44 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 design for a picture, a shepherd boy standing, and the life-size 
 study of a head introduced in the composition from which 
 Richard Earlom engraved a plate. 
 
 John Cozens is called the father of EngUsh landscape painters 
 in water-colours. Be this as it may, his Italian education had 
 given him (as was the case with Wilson) that classical taste in the 
 treatment of his subjects which adds refinement to his more 
 simple compositions. The two most beautiful are the Lake scene 
 with mountainous distance, and the Coast scene with storm effect ; 
 but the most beautiful of all, although slight, is a View in 
 Switzerland ; this is charming indeed, but there are others which are 
 good, such as the Lake scene, the Valley with winding streams, 
 and the View of Geneva. Two of William Hamilton's drawings 
 owe their chief interest to the fact that they are portraits of 
 Mrs. Siddons. Two examples of Girtin, Landscape with a 
 winding river and Landscape view from a hill, are exceedingly 
 fine — one of them in fact as fine as anything he ever touched. 
 The Banqueting house, one of his very early and boyish attempts, 
 is curious as showing how rapid his progress was a few years 
 afterwards. There are four specimens by George Morland, all 
 good ; and several drawings by Paul Sandby. 
 
 Merely naming Henry William Bunbury, who presents us with 
 one of those popular subjects which pleased our ancestors at the 
 latter end of the last century — a college scene — P. J. de Louther- 
 bourg, Bartolozzi, James Northcote, Benjamin West, Henry Fuseli, 
 Thomas Rowlandson, by whose hand there are as many as thirty- 
 four drawings, some in his best style (see illustration), and James 
 Gillray — and the collection has examples of all these artists — John 
 Flaxman's Man in grief displays his power of design linked with a 
 pure feeling for a pathetic subject. Two of the youthful Lawrence's 
 careful studies from the antique precede some of Samuel de 
 Wilde's highly-finished portraits of actors and actresses. 
 
 We must notice the large number of eighty-Six sketches by 
 Thomas Stothard. Although most of them are very sHght, being 
 
00 
 
 I 
 
 O -a 
 ^ o 
 
 s 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND SKETCHES 45 
 
 hurriedly executed with pen or pencil on the first scrap of paper 
 that came to hand, still in most instances they are of importance, 
 being the first ideas for some of his most beautiful compositions. 
 Many of them have been identified while others still remain to be 
 made out : all are interesting as showing the method pursued in 
 sketching on until the design pleased the painter's eye, which 
 generally had beauty of form and an elegant flow of graceful lines 
 in view. Sir David Wilkie's twenty sketches are important as 
 being, in some instances, painstaking studies for some of his 
 pictures, such as Holyrood palace, the School, the First earring, 
 and News from the battle of Waterloo. Of the well-known 
 John Varley, the Lake scene and Coast scene are both good ; but 
 the finest by this artist is a Welsh view with cottage, which is 
 beautiful in treatment and charming in colour. The River scene, 
 however, by John Sell Cotman is enough to prove the latter to be 
 by far the greater man of the two, there being always a subtle 
 grandeur in the treatment of his slightest works. The Turners 
 are all (one is obliged to own) spurious. Two studies by John 
 Martin are important, one as being a sketch for his large picture 
 at Kingham, Durham : his drawings, moreover, are by no means 
 common. A mention of five views by Frederick Christian Lewis 
 in colours, and of a River scene by William Havell, must bring to 
 a close this brief summary of Mr. Dyce's important bequest of 
 drawings to the nation. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PRINTS AND ETCHINGS : RINGS, ETC. 
 
 Passing on to the collection of prints and etchings, anyone 
 who examines it, or looks through the printed catalogue, will 
 discern the main object which influenced Mr. Dyce in gathering 
 it together. 
 
 Though fully appreciating the merits of his own countryman, 
 William Hogarth, and naturally yielding to a predilection for 
 theatrical portraits, he has yet evidently been partial to three 
 great foreign masters. There is material enough to enable the 
 student to form a fair idea of the compositions of Michel Angelo 
 Buonarroti, Rafifaello Sanzio di Urbino, and Peter Paul Rubens. 
 
 But besides these we have first, in the Italian school, Andrea 
 Mantegna, both painter and engraver, who is represented by nearly 
 the whole of his more important works, the Flagellation of Christ 
 being the first of the series. Next, we may name a single print 
 by Ugo da Carpi, who brought chiaroscuro prints into notice 
 in Italy ; and then, the greatest of the early Italian engravers. 
 Marc Antonio Raimondi. He worked for a long time under the 
 supervision of Rafifaello, who took so much interest in what he 
 did as to prepare with his own hand working drawings for 
 Raimondi to engrave from and, as Vasari distinctly states, 
 sometimes corrected the outlines on the copper. There are 
 several fine specimens of his work here, namely, the two sons of 
 Noah, David and Goliath, the massacre of the Innocents (with 
 
PHINTS AND ETCHINGS: RINGS, ETC, 47 
 
 the chicot), La Vierge au bras nu, St. Paul preaching at Athens, 
 La Vierge lisant, the Madonna suckling the infant Jesus, the 
 martyrdom of St. Lawrence, Hercules strangling Antaeus, the 
 judgment of Paris, Galatea, and La Peste. All these prints, 
 we may add, are among the best of his efforts with the 
 burin. 
 
 Next come the scholars and followers of Marc Antonio — the 
 most eminent of whom, Agostino de Musis (Veneziano), is repre- 
 sented by a series of some dozen or more, the best of which are 
 The sacrifice of Abraham, Lycaon, the infant Hercules, and Les 
 Grimpeurs. As regards the last it might puzzle many people to 
 say why Mr. Dyce should possess six impressions of this work, 
 but the question is easily answered. The print was evidently a 
 favourite one and he went on buying it, improving on his pur- 
 chases as he bought until at last he succeeded in acquiring probably 
 the finest in the world. Of Marco Dente da Ravenna, the next 
 in eminence, we find the Dares and Entellus. 
 
 Caraglio's ^neas and Anchises and Alexander and Roxana, 
 are fair examples of the master ; but the works of le Maitre au d^ 
 are more difficult to obtain than any other of the school — that is, 
 if fine examples are sought for ; and here Mr. Dyce's collection is 
 particularly rich ; for besides the two well-known series, the 
 history of Apollo and Daphne and of Cupid and Psyche, there are 
 very fine impressions of his most important works, such as the 
 assumption of the Virgin and her coronation. We have also fine 
 specimens of the productions of Bonasone, such as Noah and 
 his family, the adoration of the shepherds, the holy Family, and 
 the Virgin and infant Jesus in the clouds. 
 
 Nicolas Beatrizet (claimed as a Frenchman by his countrymen 
 but in artistic education and in feeling thoroughly Italian) is 
 represented by Joseph explaining his dream, and the Ascension 
 of Christ, which are the best specimens here among a fair selection 
 from his works. Enea Vico's translation of a lost picture of Leda 
 by Michel Angelo is of sufficient importance to be noted, besides 
 
48 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 fine impressions of his Judith, the conversion of Saul, and the 
 battle of the Lapithae. 
 
 Works by the family of the Ghisi of Mantua are all here, by 
 Giovanni Battista, Adamo, Diana, and Giorgio. Of the first there 
 is a fine David and Goliath ; of Adamo there is the Flagellation, 
 very fine ; and of Diana, Christ delivering the keys to St. Peter, 
 and Horatius Codes. By Giorgio Ghisi there is a fine set of the 
 prophets and sibyls after Michel Angelo, and two or three other 
 works equally good. Of the etchings of the school of Caracci 
 there are some fair examples. Another worker in chiaroscuro 
 is Andrea Andreani, whose Triumph of Julius Caesar is here. 
 The engravers of a later school are fairly represented by Villamena, 
 Vanni, Bartoli, Mogalli : the last being one of the artists engaged 
 to engrave the plates from the gallery of the grand duke of 
 Tuscany, now very rare works, many of the impressions from 
 which are in the collection. Nor are the works of artists of the 
 eighteenth century wanting, such as Lorenzini, Zucchi, Frey, 
 Capellan, Lasinio, Cunego, Volpato, and a few of those of the 
 present century : Piranesi, Porporati, BetteUni, Longhi, and 
 Vendramini. One who flourished in Rome has, strange to say, 
 been omitted in all dictionaries of engravers — this is Antonio 
 Banzo. 
 
 Of the earlier men of the German school there is very little — 
 comparatively nothing, if we omit a single specimen of each of the 
 masters Griin, Binck, and Lorch. Jegher, of the next century, 
 entirely Flemish in feeling, is represented by his wonderful render- 
 ing of one of Rubens's bold designs. There are a few of Hollar's 
 productions j but as they are nearly all specimens of portraiture 
 (an art he did not well understand) their chief interest consists in 
 their being delineations of eminent men. Of the more modern 
 men of this school there are a few specimens by Miiller, Steinla, 
 and Felsing. 
 
 Of the Dutch school, we have merely a copy of one of Lucas 
 Van Leyden's prints to begin with, and some dozen prints by 
 
PRINTS AND ETCHINGS: RINGS, ETC. 49 
 
 Cornelius Cort to carry us to the seventeenth century, when we 
 find two or three good specimens of the highly-finished works of 
 the brothers Wierix ; then come Heinrich Goltzius and his com- 
 peers Jan Saenredam, Jacob Matham, and Jonas Suyderhoef. 
 followed by half-a-dozen good examples of the great Cornelius 
 Visscher and one by Abraham Blooteling. 
 
 A name rather interesting to Englishmen is that of Michael 
 Burghers, who was engaged to engrave the plates of the first 
 Uustrated edition of " Paradise Lost" from designs by Sir John 
 Baptist De Medina ; these will be found intact with the book, and 
 the original drawings are also in the collection. With the 
 exception of some few prints by Leeuw, Gunst, and Jacob 
 Houbraken, we need note no others of the Dutch school. 
 
 Far more important is the next school, the Flemish, were it 
 only from the fact that good translations of Rubens's compositions 
 were zealously sought for by Mr. Dyce. Of Vorsterman are 
 eleven specimens of his finer works ; of Peter de Jode the elder, 
 two ; of Paul Pontius, half-a-dozen. Then we may see examples 
 by Cornelius Galle, Jan Louis, Jan Witdoeck, Pieter Baillu, 
 Alexander Voet, Nicolaus Lauwers, Jakob Neefs, Adrian Melar, 
 Willem de Leeuw, Peeter Clouet, Boetius k Bolswert, and his more 
 famous brother Scheltius : of the two latter there are upwards of 
 fifty specimens, the most beautiful, probably, being the Ascension 
 of the Virgin and The Trinity, both very fine. There are also 
 some of the landscapes and hunting-pieces, particularly the Lion, 
 Boar, and Stag hunts, the landscapes with Jupiter and Mercury, 
 and with the rainbow and the milkmaid, the tempest of ^neas, 
 and the waggon in a rut. How James Ward studied these 
 works, or some of the pictures from which they are taken, may be 
 seen in his large picture of the fighting bulls, now in the gallery 
 of the South Kensington museum, the background being entirely 
 Rubens in feeling. The collection includes the heads of half-a- 
 dozen eminent Englishmen by Michael Vander Gucht, and the 
 illustrations to Shakespeare's works published in 1709, inclusive 
 
5° 
 
 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 of those which accompanied the spurious plays : these last are 
 from his own designs, and very meritorious they are. Other 
 prints of the Flemish school are by Van Orley, Coelemans, Pilsen, 
 Lonsing, etc. 
 
 Of the French school the only specimen of an early date is of 
 the school of Fontainebleau, and the series properly commences 
 with the works of some of the best engravers of the seventeenth 
 century ; by Philip Thomassin, Tournier, Gaultier, Vouillemont, 
 Biard, Masse, Corneille, Morin, Roullet, Vignon, Moncornet, 
 Boulogne, Chauveau, Lombart, Stella, Lommelin, Ragot, and 
 Chasteau. Of each of these there is just a single specimen, in 
 some instances two : of Gilles Rousselet there are seven, two of 
 which, the Virgin and child and the rape of Deianeira, are fine. 
 There are some fair Poillys, and specimens by Pitau, Claudine 
 Stella, and Pesne, and several by Gerard and Benoit Audran ; then 
 others by Simon Valde, Edelinck, Marietta, Farjat, Simonneau, 
 Chereau, Horthemels, and Simon Gribelin ; the last of whom 
 worked principally in London. The series of prints by Gribelin 
 from the royal galleries is here, but they are engraved on too 
 small a scale to be of any importance ; his best work, the apo- 
 theosis of James I., is also in the collection. Sir Nicholas Dorigny 
 is represented by the Transfiguration after Raffaello and the three 
 series of Cupid and Psyche, the planets, and the cartoons for- 
 merly at Hampton court, but now in the South Kensington 
 Museum. Some specimens of several eminent engravers up to 
 the present time, such as Tardieu, Beauvais, Cochin, Jean 
 Audran, Larmessin the younger, Duchange, Baron, and Gravelot 
 (the last two being artists who both worked in London), Cochin, 
 Lempereur (a proof of the Jardin d'amour), Beauvarlet, the 
 Massards, Le Ffevre, Desnoyers, and Richomme, are also in the 
 collection. 
 
 Of the Spanish school there are only five prints in all ; the 
 single one of note being Selma's Christ bearing the cross, after 
 Raffaello's picture at Madrid, 
 
FHINTS AND ETCHINGS: RINGS, ETC. 51 
 
 In the English school is only one example of the greatest man 
 of the seventeenth century, William Faithorne, and that merely a 
 copy from a print by S. k Bolswert. There are half-a-dozen 
 portraits of eminent English men and women by Robert White, 
 besides portraits by Gerard Vander Gucht, and an etching by 
 Jonathan Richardson, and twenty prints by George Vertue, the 
 antiquary, engraver, and friend of Horace Walpole. Of William 
 Hogarth we find all the important works in fine state and condition, 
 justifying the remark that Mr. Dyce made him one of his four 
 favourites. 
 
 William Woollett, by far the first landscape engraver of his 
 time, is poorly represented; merely by ordinary impressions of the 
 Niobe and the Phaeton. The Solitude, begun by Woollett and 
 completed by Ellis, is also here, finished in this instance with a 
 smoothness which takes all the light out of it. There are two 
 specimens of William Ward's fine mezzotints, and eight of the 
 best works of Sir Robert Strange ; eight fine works by Richard 
 Earlom (six of them proofs, including the death of Hippolytus 
 from the picture by Rubens in the duke of Bedford's collec- 
 tion) ; a rich impression of the celebrated portrait by Reynolds of 
 Dr. Johnson, engraved by William Doughty, as well as the sleep- 
 ing child, after the same master; the death of Dido by Joseph 
 Grozer; one specimen by Moses Haughton, from a picture by 
 Fuseli ; other fine prints in mezzotint by John Raphael Smith and 
 Valentine Green ; three specimens by James Basire, one of them 
 executed for the Oxford almanack of 1806, from a design by 
 Turner ; and a dozen examples by one of our greatest men in 
 bold vigorous line, William Sharp, one of which is the print he 
 left unfinished — the Women at the sepulchre. An incomplete 
 set is here of Rowlandson's etchings after Bunbury's Picturesque 
 beauties of Boswell, of which some of the original drawings 
 are to be found in the collection. We must not omit finally to 
 mention two or three specimens by Abraham Raimbach, and 
 some productions of artists of our own day, namely, George 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE DYCE COLLECTION. 
 
 Cruikshank, George T. Doo, R.A., Samuel Cousins, R.A., and 
 Lumb Stocks, R.A. 
 
 Mr. Dyce's bequest of rings and a few miscellaneous objects 
 cannot be considered in the light of a seriously undertaken and 
 skilfully chosen collection, being nothing more than such an 
 assemblage as will often be found in the possession of many 
 lovers of art. 
 
 The engraved stones and pastes of antiquity (commonly 
 known by the technical term "gems") are so numerous, so 
 portable, and so highly interesting, that there are few amateurs 
 who do not treasure some favourite example out of the thousands 
 with which the soil of classic lands seems to have been sown 
 broadcast. A well-known writer on gems has proclaimed his 
 belief that of unset gems scarce one in a hundred is genuinely 
 antique. This doctrine, however, will not find favour with those 
 who have frequently purchased both hard stones and glass 
 pastes from the pouches of shepherds in remote spots where the 
 very small probability of a purchaser must render the trade in mock 
 antiques very unremunerative. The settings of many of Mr Dyce's 
 rings are modern, but the gems themselves may generally be 
 regarded as genuine ; and a large portion once formed part of the 
 well-known Hertz collection. Among the miscellaneous objects 
 will be found a set of two 'hundred casts from very fine gems, the 
 originals of which are in various celebrated European collections. 
 
 Of the few remaining unclassified objects, attention may be 
 called to a plaster bust of Mrs. Siddons, executed by herself, and 
 a graceful terracotta figure representing the sleeping Psyche sur 
 rounded by a serpent, seemingly typical of the immortality of 
 the soul. 
 
£rtj^7;xi'ei^. fry CJT-,^^a. 
 
 
"^hz g\otstzv Collection. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MR. TORSTER.* 
 
 John Forster, whose place was among the chiefs of English 
 literature in his time, as critic, historian, and biographer, died 
 on the ist of February, 1876. He left by his will, dated the 
 26th of February, 1874, his Hbrary, his collection of manuscripts 
 and autographs, paintings, drawings, and engravings, to his widow 
 during her life, and afterwards, for the use of the public, to the 
 Department of Science and Art at South Kensington. Mrs. Forster 
 at once generously surrendered her own rights, that she might 
 assist in promoting the complete fulfilment of her husband's wish. 
 John, son of Robert and Mary Forster, was born at Newcastle, 
 on the 2nd of April, 1812, each of his parents then being about 
 thirty-five years old. His father was son of a younger son of 
 John Forster of Corsenside, whose lands were left to be divided 
 between his two elder sons, Lionel and Thomas. Robert Forster 
 had a brother John, six years his senior, and more prosperous 
 than himself; his wife had a sister Anne, who was less 
 prosperous. She married a Mr. Gilmour, and became the mother 
 of eight children, while her husband's earnings were but a guinea 
 a week. Robert and Mary Forster had a family of four, two 
 sons and two daughters. The sons were John, who was named 
 
 * This chapter has been kindly contributed by Mr. Forster's friend, 
 Professor Henry Morley. 
 
S4 tbe forster collection. 
 
 after his uncle, and Christopher, named after his grandfather, 
 who became a shipbroker and died young. The daughters were 
 Jane and Elizabeth, who both died unmarried. Their uncle John 
 gave liberal aid to the education of these children. Although he 
 did not himself reach old age, John Forster lived to mourn the 
 death of every being who was related to him in blood, except one 
 cousin, who has since died. His father died in 1836, his mother 
 died in 1852, in 1853 his sister Jane, and Elizabeth in 1868. 
 He was a man of very warm affections, and felt every such loss 
 most acutely. After his own death the one relative who sur- 
 vived him — and survived but for two years— was a son of his 
 mother's sister Anne. This cousin recalled the days of boyhood at 
 Newcastle in terms that showed Forster's kindliness to have been 
 an inheritance. He said that the family of eight to which he had 
 belonged "could not have been reared without the constant 
 care of Mary Forster for her sister." Of his cousin the same 
 writer told, "How kind he was to me when we were boys 
 together. ' James,' he would say, ' I have a new suit of clothes 
 making, and my mother says you are to have these when I 
 get my new ones. Come with me to the tailor's, and we'll learn 
 when that will be.' " John Forster, like Samuel Johnson, had an 
 outward manner that might be misunderstood by strangers, but 
 he was like Johnson also in his power of turning acquaintances 
 into friends, and making all who really knew him feel that the 
 vigour of his intellect drew strength from the sincerity and 
 kindness of his nature. 
 
 At Newcastle, Forster went as a boy to the old grammar 
 school, where he was, in classics, a favourite pupil of the 
 Rev. Edward Moises, and was taught mathematics by Mr. 
 H. S. Atkinson. He became head boy of the school, as Eldon 
 and Collingwood had been before him ; but he outlived even the 
 old school-house, for the railway station now stands in its place. 
 As a schoolboy, the bent of his mind to literature was very plain. 
 He had a tale in print; he took pleasure in the theatre, and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 55 
 
 wrote a play for the benefit of one of the actors—" ' Charles at 
 Tunbridge, or the Cavalier of Wildinghurst,' written expressly for 
 the benefit of Mr. Thomas Stuart," that was really produced on the 
 Newcastle stage. When an intimate friend of his household, the 
 mother of a pleasant family of daughters, objected to John 
 Forster, that he carried her son Frank to the theatre too often, 
 and asked him to read a tract against playgoing, he not only read 
 the tract, but also replied to it with a carefully-planned essay, 
 which he sent to her as "A few thoughts in vindication of the 
 stage." This essay was written in June, 1827, when its author's age 
 was but two months over fifteen. It met the religious objection 
 with justification on religious grounds ; showed that the stage had 
 been encouraged by the wise and good, in Greece, Rome, France, 
 Italy, and England ; that plays had their source in religious 
 feeling, and that a right use of them quickened alike the moral 
 and intellectual life. A very short extract from it may serve 
 to show the activity and earnestness of Forster's thinking as 
 a schoolboy of fifteen : " He who first observed that religion was 
 the strongest pillar of the state, that laws divested of its support 
 were powerless, has probably, without knowledge or intention, 
 defended the theatre on its most advantageous side. That inde- 
 cisive property of laws which renders religion indispensable to the 
 state, requires also the whole influence of the stage. The laws, it 
 may be said, busy themselves only about negative duties ; religion 
 extends her succours to actual affairs. The laws restrain those 
 actions only which loosen the bonds of society. Religion com- 
 mands such as render them more efficacious. What a reinforce- 
 ment for religion and the laws when they enter into alliance with 
 the theatre, where the objects of contemplation are animated, 
 where virtue and vice, happiness and misery, folly and wisdom, 
 are exhibited in a thousand different forms j where Providence 
 expounds its enigmas and develops all its intricacies \ where the 
 human heart, upon the rack of the passions, confesses its slightest 
 movements ; where all masks, all disguises disappear, and truth, 
 
56 THE FORSTMR COLLECTION: 
 
 pure and incorruptible, shines in open day." The boy, who used 
 his mind and pen in this fashion, showing " noble appetite of 
 what is best," might well lead his family to the conviction that he 
 must be sent to college. With his uncle John's help he was sent 
 to Cambridge ; but as, at that time, the London University was 
 being estabUshed, he was at Cambridge only for a short time 
 before settling in London, as one of the first students in 
 what is now known as University College. Opened in 1828, 
 as a new University it was to teach and to confer degrees. But 
 the two functions were separated, and in November, 1836, charters 
 were granted on the same day to two separate institutions. One 
 was a TJniversity of London, which had only the power of 
 examining and granting degrees, open to all men without question 
 of religious faith. The other, which was the original University, 
 then first called University College, London, had, on the same 
 broad basis, only the power of teaching. Here John Forster 
 became in his seventeenth year one of the first students in the 
 class of English Law. His lodgings, for the first two or three 
 years of his study in London, were at 17, Penton Place, Penton- 
 ville. His most intimate friends at this time — they remained strong 
 friends for life — were two fellow-students, James Emerson, after- 
 wards Sir James Emerson Tennent, and James Whiteside, after- 
 wards Chief Justice of Ireland. Emerson was eight years, Whiteside 
 six years Forster's senior, and they had both graduated at Trinity 
 college, Dublin, before attending in London the law lectures at 
 which they made a friend of the young student from Newcastle. 
 James Emerson had also been to Greece and had published in 
 1826 two octavo volumes upon "Greece in 1825." At the end of 
 October, Emerson, not yet sure of the name of his new friend, 
 addressed him as " Dear Foster," was coming to spend an evening 
 with him, and subscribed himself " yours truly." By December 
 an equal friendship was established. There had been suppers at 
 Penton Place, nodes ceencgque Deorum, they were called, or nights 
 of " oysters, fog, and grog," the fog, tobacco smoke. In Novem- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 5.7 
 
 ber, 1829, when John Forster was in his eighteenth year, he was 
 bringing volumes of Gibbon to the law class to be thence carried 
 away by his friend James Emerson, as aids to work on his 
 "History of modern Greece," published in 1830. But in that 
 year, 1829, Emerson published two books: "Letters from the 
 ^gean," in two volumes, and the " Life of a midshipman." 
 Chief justice Whiteside, looking back from after-life, over years 
 of unbroken friendship, to those days of fellowship with young 
 John Forster, spoke of him and his student life with pride. 
 His intimate friends, he said, were men of culture, and he himself 
 was worthy of their love and friendship. His law professor, 
 Andrew Amos, was among his companions. Young as he was, 
 Forster won such friends among men by his generous warmth, his 
 eager intellect, bent always upon worthy work, his winning 
 sincerity, and the sound Judgment, already conspicuous, that 
 made him throughout his after years the chosen counsellor to 
 whom every friend desired to bring his most difficult problems of 
 life for solution. 
 
 In 1830 John Forster, eighteen years old, was writing for a 
 magazine in Newcastle, and for magazines in London. He was 
 beginning to supplement, and would soon be able to replace, 
 home supplies from his uncle John, by earnings of his own. 
 Books began to grow numerous about him in his rooms, and 
 worthy friends, with whom evenings were spent in intercourse of 
 jest and earnest. One may, in light-hearted phrase, be Obadiah 
 and another Jeremiah, but in such gatherings the young hopps 
 fly high, and the young lips are touched not seldom as by 
 the live coal from the altar. It was in 1830 that John Forster 
 began study in the chambers of a very eminent special pleader, 
 Thomas Chitty. Perhaps he followed his friend Whiteside, as 
 he was followed certainly by his friend Emerson, who wrote to 
 him in December, 1830, "You are in Chitty's office, I under- 
 stand. And, by-the-bye, I wish that you would do me a favour 
 about that same matter. Will you tell me fully your opinion of 
 
S8 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 that step. I think you had not read much law when you went 
 there, will you tell me how much ; and if you have found much 
 benefit from it ? I intend going into an office too, and I want 
 to know what I should do beforehand, and what you would 
 recommend." Following John Forster's advice, his friend, who 
 was to be called in the next Hilary term, became a fellow- 
 student under Thomas Chitty, and the three men, who were all 
 to become eminent in after days, were joined in loyal devotion 
 to a worthy chief. James Whiteside rose rapidly at the bar. 
 James Emerson married — taking John Forster alone into his 
 confidence before his marriage — and adopted afterwards the name 
 of his wife's family. As James Emerson Tennent, he held high 
 government offices, and was knighted when going to Ceylon as 
 civil secretary to the colonial government. Among his later 
 writings was a " Natural History of Ceylon," published in 1861. 
 John Forster, meanwhile, was drawn more and more to literature. 
 Mr. Chitty, with whom he formed a life-long friendship, looked 
 upon him as one of the most capable of his pupils, deputed to him 
 sometimes the conduct of business, and felt sure that he had 
 power to rise to the first rank in the law. He urged on him that 
 as a lawyer he might win what prize he pleased, if he would 
 pnly turn his face away from literature, which had few worldly 
 rewards to offer. Observing the intensity of Forster's interest 
 in the great political questions of the time before the passing of 
 the Reform Bill ; that he brought studies of past history to bear 
 on the interpretation of the present, and associated all his literary 
 energy with a broad interest in the realities of life ; Mr. Chitty 
 was of opinion that his best pupil was being drawn away to the 
 pursuit of literature by his interest in politics. But true literature 
 is concerned only with the essentials of life, and no man of 
 letters can dwell as he would in the memory of his country who 
 has worked only to serve himself. In literature the amusers 
 have their day, the helpers their eternity; and even though 
 they may live only in the fruits of their labour, themselves 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 59 
 
 unremembered, they have their reward. John Forster had the 
 artist's temperament conspicuous in many ways. That other 
 faculty of clear judgment, which caused his chief in a special 
 pleader's office to see in him an ornament of the bench lost to 
 his own profession, was not wasted, for it helped to give him 
 in after years a first place in dignity and usefulness among the 
 critics, and to fit him for his work as a biographer. 
 
 In 1 83 1 Forster was nineteen. He removed his lodgings to 
 4, Burton Street, Burton Crescent, and maintained in them the 
 old social traditions, his hospitalities advancing with the growing 
 dignity of his friends. On the back of a note from his friend 
 Emerson, announcing that he was to be soon in London and 
 would come to see him, is a scheme of a little dinner of fish, 
 cutlets, and omelette, with chablis, champagne, and curagoa, the 
 one name of Emerson being written underneath. This pleasure 
 in good cheer with the real companionship of friends, was 
 founded in the active kindliness of Forster's nature, and ran 
 through his life. Still hard at work under Mr. Chitty, he was in 
 his twentieth year increasing his work as a writer for newspapers 
 and magazines. He had already planned for himself, at the age 
 of eighteen, independent work as a biographer upon the history 
 of the times of Charles I. and the Commonwealth. The first 
 form of this plan was a resolve to write the life of Oliver 
 Cromwell. As early as March, 1830, his friend Emerson was 
 asking, " How goes on Cromwell ? Have you made a com- 
 mencement yet ? " It was in his nature to see history most 
 clearly through the lives of men. 
 
 The year 1832 was the year of the Reform Bill; and while 
 John Forster took the keenest interest in the political movements 
 of the time, he was extending his work as a journalist. Seceders 
 from " the Sun " newspaper set up in that year " the True Sun," 
 which was founded by Patrick Grant, with William Carpenter for 
 sub-editor. Laman Blanchard reviewed literature for this paper, 
 and John Forster the drama. Leigh Hunt and Douglas Jerrold 
 
6o THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 wrote for it occasionally. It was for " the True Sun " that Charles 
 Dickens made his first appearance in the reporters' gallery ; and 
 in fellowship of work over this paper began at once the life-long 
 friendship between Forster and Dickens. Here was a new 
 comrade for John Forster, of equal age, with strength and 
 earnestness of purpose, depths of human sympathy and heights 
 of aspiration, that gave a full rich answer to his own. And 
 Dickens also rested with confidence on the calm judgment in 
 which elder companions of Forster, themselves cool-headed men, 
 had learnt to put their trust. The Forster collection in the 
 South Kensington Museum is rich in memorials of the friendship 
 thus begun. Whilst this friend of friends was made for the future, 
 one of the finest minds of the passing generation was won also by 
 young Forster's kindly ardour, and his fine human sense of intel- 
 lectual delights. " If you have lost a 'little portion of my good 
 will," Charles Lamb wrote to him in 183 1, "it is that you do not 
 come and see me oftener.'' In December, 1832, John Forster 
 was answerable for the venture of a series of weekly essays called 
 " the Reflector." Only a few numbers of " the Reflector " made 
 their appearance. Charles Lamb, who died two years later, in 
 December, 1834, was among those who wrote for it. 
 
 In 1833 "the True Sun" got into an undeserved difficulty. 
 Henry Hunt, a prosperous manufacturer of blacking, and member 
 for Preston, had brought an action in the preceding year 
 against a country paper, " the Liverpool Journal," for an article 
 upon his conduct during a riot at Preston, and against a London 
 paper, "the Globe," for copying the article. In each case he 
 got damages. Then he brought an action against "the True 
 Sun '' for having inserted the article with one added word of 
 editorial comment — " Fudge ! " Witnesses were produced to 
 explain in divers manners to the jury what " fudge " meant ; and 
 although the prosecutor only obtained, in December, 1833, a 
 farthing damages, the newspaper's share of the costs compelled 
 change of proprietors. W. J. Fox then became editor, Forster 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 6i 
 
 still writing. He wrote also in " the Courier," edited by James 
 Stuart, son of the Rev. Dr. Charles Stuart. When James Stuart, 
 a steady whig, was made by Lord Melbourne an inspector of 
 factories, Laman Blanchard succeeded him as editor of " the 
 Courier." At this time also Forster was writing in " the 
 Athenaeum," and had begun to work for " the Examiner." 
 
 When " the Examiner " passed from the hands of its founders 
 — John and Leigh Hunt — it was purchased by a rich and public- 
 spirited man, the Rev. Dr. Robert Fellowes, who wished to aid 
 through it the advance of many reforms, and spread religious 
 toleration as a means of strengthening religious life. The circu- 
 lation of the paper was falling, when Dr. Fellowes resolved, in 
 September, 1830, to entrust its management wholly to Albany 
 Fonblanque. He was to be editor, with exclusive control over all 
 subordinate appointments and every detail of management. 
 Within three years the quick wit of Albany Fonblanque had 
 discovered in John Forster, who was by fifteen years the younger 
 man, his most efficient helper ; and again there was a friendship 
 established that time only deepened. The wit of Fonblanque as 
 a political writer, and the delightful union of sound judgment 
 with enthusiasm in Forster's criticism upon literature and the 
 drama helped, with the aid of kindred minds that such men drew 
 to themselves, to raise " the Examiner " to a first place among 
 the London weekly newspapers. It became conspicuous for a 
 literary tone maintained throughout with brilliancy and vigour, 
 and associated with the highest interests of daily active life. 
 
 Literature came rightly home to both Fonblanque and 
 Forster as an essential part of life, and keen relish of the wit 
 of the past quickened their powers of appreciating that which lay 
 about them. John Forster became the chief critic in "the 
 Examiner " of literature and the drama. Very soon the paper 
 was conspicuous, as it remained throughout all the years of his 
 management, for the swiftness and decision with which it called 
 attention to a new book, or a new play, or a new actor that 
 
62 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 gave signs, or more than signs, of a true power. In this way 
 many another strong friendship was formed. Again and again 
 the hearts of earnest men leapt out towards him who had been 
 the first to know the meaning of their utterance, and with bold 
 emphasis had been the first not only to call the world to listen, 
 but clearly to set forth the reason of his faith in what they said 
 or did. In 1834, at the age of 22, Forster removed his lodging 
 to the ground-floor at No. 58, Lincoln's Inn Fields, which was 
 thenceforth his home and place of work during all the years of 
 his connection with "the Examiner." In the following year 
 Robert Browning published the first poem that proved his power 
 to the world. John Forster was the first and ablest of its critics. 
 The manuscript of Paracelsus in the Forster collection at South 
 Kensington is one evidence of the trust and friendship that was 
 built so often upon his quick intellectual sympathy with all true 
 work. It has this inscription : " To John Forster, Esq. (my early 
 understander), with true thanks for his generous and seasonable 
 public Confession of Faith in me. R. B. Hatcham, Surrey, 
 1842." In 1863 Robert Browning prefixed these words to the 
 volumes of his collected works : " I dedicate these Volumes to my 
 Old Friend John Forster, glad and grateful that he who, from the 
 first publication of the various poems they include, has been 
 their promptest and staunchest helper, should seem even nearer 
 to me now than thirty years ago." 
 
 Work as a journalist was now being concentrated on "the 
 Examiner." Day after day from early morning until evening there 
 was intent study of books and labour of the pen. The con- 
 ception of a life of Cromwell had expanded. Not only of 
 Cromwell, but of all the leading statesmen of the Commonwealth 
 he had resolved to write the lives, and show, through the chief 
 men of a momentous period, history in action. When he turned 
 from such studies to hjs newspaper work, he brought to it a like 
 breadth of purpose, and saw also history in action while he 
 commented upon the work of hjs own day. When evening 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 63 
 
 came, there was frequent change from solitude to a keen enjoy- 
 ment of intellectual fellowship. A " Cabinet Cyclopaedia of 
 Original works on History, Biography, Natural Philosophy, 
 Natural History, Arts and Manufactures " had been designed 
 by Dr. Dionysius Lardner. This was issued by Messrs. Longman 
 in 132 volumes during the years from 1829 to 1846. The 
 series included "Brewster's Optics," "Henslow's Botany," 
 " Herschel's Astronomy," and " De Morgan on Probabilities ; " 
 "Sir Harris Nicolas's Chronology of History," "Sismondi's 
 History of the Italian Republics," " Bell's History of Russia," 
 "Crowe's History of France," "Moore's History of Ireland," 
 "Mackintosh's History of England," "Thirlwall's History of 
 Greece," "Southe/s Lives of British Admirals," and "Gleig's 
 Lives of British Military Commanders." In this series John 
 Forster produced at the age of twenty-four the first volume of 
 a series of " Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth." It 
 contained the lives of Sir John Eliot and of Thomas Wentworth, 
 earl of Strafford. Next year followed the second volume, which 
 contained the lives of Pym and Hampden. The historical 
 biographies in the third volume dealt with Vane and Marten. 
 Thus Forster led up to the work first planned in 1830, when he 
 was but eighteen years old, the life of Oliver Cromwell. This 
 occupied the last two of the five volumes of " the Statesmen of 
 the Commonwealth." The last volume appeared in 1839, and 
 in 1840 there was a new edition of the whole as an independent 
 work, with a dedication to Lord Holland, and a Preliminary 
 treatise on popular progress in English history. With this 
 work, completed at the age of twenty-seven, Forster first took 
 his place in English literature among the chief historians of 
 England under Charles I. and the Commonwealth. Continued 
 study of this period throughout all his after years forms, indeed, 
 a main feature of his own life as a writer. 
 
 While producing the volumes of his "Statesmen of the 
 Commonwealth," Forster was fascinated for a time by the poetical 
 
64 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 enthusiasm of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, who was known as a 
 writer of verse by her initials of L. E. L., and who wrote also three 
 novels. She was ten years his senior, and nothing came of the 
 goodwill between them. In June, 1838, Miss Landon married 
 Mr. George Maclean, went home with him to Cape Coast Castle, 
 of which he was governor, and died there in the following 
 October. John Forster, meanwhile, lived a laborious and happy 
 life in his rooms at 58, Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1842 and 1843 
 he edited " the Foreign Quarterly Review," and gave evidence 
 of his scholarship in articles written by him for that journal upon 
 the Greek philosophers. The best actors, painters, poets, 
 novelists, historians of his time were all his friends. They 
 found constantly in " the Examiner " a definite appreciation of 
 their work; prompt, hearty, and just appreciation, as dis- 
 tinguished from vague praise or commonplaces of reviewing. 
 When afterwards they met their critic, came under the influence 
 of his strong sympathy with all that was best in their aims, felt 
 the sincerity of his nature, and learnt to rely on the soundness 
 of his judgment, they were drawn inevitably into friendship. 
 Thomas Carlyle became his friend, and never failed to look 
 through any misfit in the outward dress to the true soul within. 
 There was an intensity of thought in Forster that made his voice, 
 always rich in tone, sometimes too eager and too loud for the ear 
 of a man strange to his nature. There was a direct sincerity 
 that might at times seem rude. There was a constitutional impa- 
 tience which took revenge upon him for the perfect discipline that 
 held it in subjection wherever it came near essentials of life, by 
 whimsical assertion of itself in matters of no consequence. 
 Examples are rare of a force of character that secures complete 
 control over all movements of the inner life, while leaving a con- 
 stitutional defect with only the outer trifles to exert itself upon. 
 
 Completely drawn aside from law to literature, Forster had 
 even neglected to secure his call to the bar till 1842, when he 
 thought it desirable to claim recognition of his early training, and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 65 
 
 became barrister of the Inner Temple. In 1845 he contributed 
 to " the Edinburgh Review " two of the articles afterwards repub- 
 lished. They were the essays upon Churchill and Defoe. In 
 the same year he aided his friend Douglas Jerrold by contributing 
 part of "A History for Young England" to his "Shilling Magazine." 
 
 In 1846, on the 21st of January, appeared the first number of 
 "the Daily News." Its liberal design was one among many 
 fruits of the energy of Charles Dickens, who edited the paper till 
 the 9th of February, then resigned the editor's chair to his friend 
 Forster, but continued to write in the paper for the next four 
 months. Forster added to all his other work the editorship of 
 " the Daily News " during the critical first months of its existence, 
 He was at the same time literary editor of " the Examiner," and 
 had begun his life of Goldsmith. The strain was excessive, and 
 at the end of October he withdrew from a daily call upon his 
 energy that interfered too seriously with the studies of his choice. 
 
 In the following year, 1847, Albany Fonblanque resigned 
 into Forster's hands his work as editor of " the Examiner," upon 
 being appointed chief of the statistical department of the Board 
 of Trade. From that date for the next nine years John Forster 
 had sole and absolute control over the paper, to which he helped 
 to give its influence among cultivated men. Albany Fonblanque 
 had acquired the chief rights of proprietorship, and remained a 
 regular contributor of the political writing in which he excelled. 
 
 In 1848 appeared the first edition of Forster's "Life of 
 Goldsmith." It had been framed with most fastidious care- 
 revised and rewritten a dozen times. It was printed with the 
 same minute attention to detail, and adorned with illustrations 
 happily adapted to the spirit of the text, by artists who were 
 among his warmest friends. Few friends were nearer to him in 
 those days than Daniel Maclise and Clarkson Stanfield, who 
 gave three of the designs. Three others came from John Leech 
 and Richard Doyle, the rest were by Mr. R. J. Hamerton. No 
 outward charm was wanting to the first edition of a book that at 
 
 F 
 
66 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 once took its place among the best biographies in English 
 literature. 
 
 The grace of its first proportions was affected, but its worth 
 to students was increased, when the continued study bent on the 
 perfecting of this work caused its growth into a second edition 
 of two octavo volumes, and a change of title from "Life and 
 Adventures" to "Life and Times." That appeared in 1854, and 
 became the Library edition. An abridgment of this, for popular 
 use, followed in 1855, restoring the pictures which had been 
 omitted from the second edition, and retaining all additional 
 matter that directly concerned Goldsmith himself In these 
 later forms the book retains its hold upon the public. There 
 was a fourth edition in 1863, a fifth in 187 1, a sixth in 1874. 
 
 In the year of the publication of his " Life of Goldsmith," a 
 year also — 1848 — that filled the head of every journalist with 
 busy thought, there were amateur performances at the Hay- 
 market theatre, in aid of a fund for endowing a perpetual 
 curator of Shakespeare's house, then purchased. That design 
 having been abandoned, the performances, repeated at several 
 theatres in the country, were for the benefit of Sheridan Knowles. 
 On the 15th of May the play was "The Merry Wives of Windsor," 
 in which Mark Lemon played Falstaff ; George Cruikshank, Pistol ; 
 Charles Dickens, Justice Shallow; John Leech, Slender; and 
 G. H. Lewes, Sir Hugh Evans. Mrs. Cowden Clarke was the 
 Dame Quickly, and Mr. Page and Mr. Ford were played by 
 Frank Stone and John Forster. A farce followed, in which Mark 
 Lemon, George Cruikshank, John Leech, and Charles Dickens 
 acted. On the following Wednesday, the same amateurs played 
 Ben Jonson's " Every Man in his Humour," when Charles Dickens 
 was Bobadil; Douglas Jerrold, Stephen; and Forster, Kitely. 
 " Every Man in his Humour " had been played before by the 
 amateurs, with Forster in the same part, at Miss Kelly's theatre, 
 on the 20th of September, 1845, and repeated that year at the 
 St. James's theatre for the Sanatorium. Before the close of 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 67 
 
 1845, they acted "the Elder Brother " for Miss Kelly's benefit. 
 " Every Man in his Humour " had been played also by the 
 amateurs at Manchester and Liverpool, on the 26th and 28th of 
 July, 1847, for the benefit of Leigh Hunt. John Forster also played 
 Hernani in Victor Hugo's drama, with another set of amateurs, 
 before the Queen and Prince Albert at the St. James's theatre, 
 for the benefit of the Irish famine relief fund. Beaumont and 
 Fletcher's— in fact Fletcher's— " Elder Brother," Forster had 
 adapted to the modern stage by skilful omission, and published, 
 in 1846, with a short introductory account of Fletcher's life, that 
 heralded his friend Dyce's edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's 
 works. Forster himself played the part of Charles, the hero of 
 the piece, a student who had to say of himself what was most 
 true of his impersonator : 
 
 The place that does contain 
 My books, the best companions, is to me 
 A glorious court, where hourly I converse 
 With the old sages and philosophers ; 
 And sometimes, for variety, I confer 
 With kings and emperors, and weigh their cotmsels ; 
 Calling their victories, if unjustly got. 
 Unto a strict account. 
 
 This Forster was doing, not only in the pages of "the 
 Examiner," but through that study of the events leading to the 
 Enghsh Commonwealth, and of the Commonwealth itself, which 
 was never suspended, and to which there was now added special 
 study of another period of history and literature, the reign of 
 Anne. Ten years before 1848 he had agreed to write the Life 
 and Times of queen Anne, but had withdrawn from that purpose, 
 though the interest that gave occasion to it remained strong. 
 His chambers were now walled with books. In a corner by one 
 of the windows of his study, he was planted all day long, day 
 after day, his massive head bent over his work. His features 
 when in repose were cast, by the habitual labour and severity of 
 purpose, into a fixed expression that might suggest severity of 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 character to one who did not know the man. There was not a 
 young man of letters labouring for recognition and deserving it 
 who could not find his way to the grasp of John Forster's strong 
 hand, be encouraged by his ready smile, and helped by his sound 
 counsel. He was intolerant of work with an unworthy aim, and 
 quickened in all who were his friends "the noble appetite for 
 what is best," that showed itself not only in his public writing 
 but also gave worth to his familiar conversation. In September, 
 1854, there was published in "the Quarterly Review," Forster's 
 essay on Samuel Foote, and in March, 1855, his essay on 
 Steele, of which Fonblanque wrote to him, " I read your 
 ' Steele ' with admiration, not so much for the scholarly writing 
 and fine criticism, but chiefly for the wise and, because wise, 
 tender humanity. Your office of righting wronged reputations is 
 a noble one; and from your scrupulous sense of justice, in restor- 
 ing what is due to one you never disparage another, as less 
 scrupulous writers might have been tempted to do in this very 
 instance of Steele and Addison." Some years before this time, 
 Forster had chosen one writer of queen Anne's reign — Swift — for 
 fullest study. All books, pamphlets, letters, and other manu- 
 scripts that bore upon Swift, were as diligently bought as the 
 writings illustrative of the history of the Commonwealth. A 
 laborious work of preparation for the life of Swift was thus in 
 progress, side by side with the writing of a detailed historical 
 essay upon the debates on the Grand Remonstrance in November 
 and December, 1641. An essay on the Civil Wars and Oliver 
 Cromwell, suggested by M. Guizot's histories of our Common- 
 wealth, was contributed by Forster to " the Edinburgh Review " 
 for January, 1856. 
 
 There were signs of fatigue and overstrain of a frame not so 
 robust as it seemed to be, but there was no abatement of toil. 
 But there was hope of an aid that would itself give rest. Friend- 
 ship of long growth led him now to a happy marriage. He 
 married Mrs. Colburn, and passed out of his Lincoln's Inn 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 69 
 
 chambers to the home life that enabled him to bear the trials of 
 his later years. His home was at 46, Montague Square, till 1862, 
 when the house was built for him at Palace Gate, Kensington, in 
 which he died. At the end of 1855, on the 28th December, John 
 Forster was appointed secretary to the Commissioners in lunacy, 
 on the resignation of Mr. R. W. S. Lutwidge, appointed a com- 
 missioner. He then withdrew from "the Examiner," and his old 
 friend, Albany Fonblanque, to whom, as proprietor, he announced 
 the close of their business relations, wrote to him, " I appre- 
 hended the nature of your communication, and opened your note 
 with misgivings. I cannot deny the wisdom of your determina- 
 tion, though all the other circumstances of it — the straight- 
 forwardness, the kindness, the frankness, make it only the more 
 unacceptable to me. Quamvis digressu veteris confusus amid, 
 laudo tamen. You may see by the erasures that my eyes and 
 hand are not very true and steady ; and, in truth, I write with a 
 heavy heart. The breaking of a tie at my time of life is a sad 
 thing. We have been connected now for twenty-three years, and 
 have never had a difference beyond opinion — seldom that — never 
 unfriendly. Be your successor who he may, he can never fill 
 your place. I feel that my moorings are lifted." Fonblanque 
 remained owner of the paper for another ten years, and during 
 all that time contributed to it every week as many political 
 articles as would make about four columns. The paper was 
 edited during those years (for the first year or two with a 
 colleague) by the writer of these notes, who had been since 1851 
 a contributor to its pages, working so often near a chief whom 
 he soon learned to love, that he has witnessed the course from 
 morning to evening of some hundreds of those patient days of 
 labour, in which the true aim of work was never allowed to pass 
 out of sight. Thus Forster retained a friend's interest in the 
 journal to which he had given a large part of his life and strength, 
 but he never wrote another line in it. As work for him, it wholly 
 passed out of his Hfe. His energy was given now to his new 
 
7o THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 duties, and all time they left him was devoted to hard work in 
 his own chosen fields of study. 
 
 In 1858 appeared two volumes of "Historical and Biographical 
 Essays." In one of them he republished his articles on Defoe, 
 Steele, Churchill, and Foote. In the other he first published 
 the historical essay " On the Debates, on the Grand Remon- 
 strance," with a shorter paper on our "Constitutional History 
 under the Plantagenets and Tudors." With these he reprinted 
 his article upon the " Civil Wars and Cromwell." In i860 
 followed a special study of another incident of the reign of 
 Charles I., "The Arrest of the Five Members." In 1861 he 
 resigned the office of secretary to the Lunacy commission, upon 
 being appointed one of the commissioners. 
 
 Still conspicuous for energy, though health was failing, Forster 
 was active in discharge of the duties of this office. The failure 
 of his health weighed visibly upon his spirits. But no physical 
 depression could weigh down the energies within. His desire was, 
 throughout life, to cause all work that he did to grow in power, as by 
 constant labour he himself advanced in knowledge. As he had 
 developed his "Life of Goldsmith," so he had determined to 
 develop, if he lived, his early work upon the " Statesmen of the 
 Commonwealth," and leave it level with the knowledge of his later 
 years. The first biography of the old series was that of Eliot. This 
 was first expanded, with the utmost care, into a noble book — the 
 " Life of Sir John Eliot," published in 1864. There was a second 
 edition in 1872. The next life in the old series was that of 
 Strafford, and in preparation of material for the new life of Strafford 
 much was done. Two works, in fact, Forster had then planned 
 to occupy the rest of his life as a writer. One was the recon- 
 struction of the whole series of his historical biographies illus- 
 trating the questions that touched English liberty under Charles I. 
 and the Commonwealth ; these biographies being all reproduced 
 on the scale indicated by the new proportions of the "Life of 
 Eliot." The other result of his ripest knowledge was to be the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. ii 
 
 life of Swift. If he had thought of himself only, he might have 
 carried out this purpose to the end. But in the year of the 
 publication of the " Life of Eliot," one of the warmest of John 
 Forster's friends died— Walter Savage Landor. His pen had 
 often added vigour to the pages of " the Examiner," in which it 
 may be remembered also that Mr. Tennyson's friendship for 
 Forster had caused "the Charge of the Light Brigade" first to 
 appear. Warmth of affection led John Forster, upon Landor's 
 death, to add to his labour the task of securing for after years a 
 just knowledge of the worth and power of his friend. He pre- 
 pared a library edition of Landor's works, and made it a labour 
 of love to be his biographer. The "Life of Walter Savage 
 Landor" appeared in two ample octavo volumes, in 1869, and 
 abounded in details of circumstance and critical suggestions of 
 great value to the student of our later literature. In the year 
 after the publication of the life of Landor, Forster lost the 
 dearest of his old comrades, Charles Dickens, who died in 1870, 
 on the 9th of June. Charmed in old days with the " Life of 
 Goldsmith," Dickens had always said that if he fell first he should 
 wish Forster to be his biographer. With one light more gone out 
 of his life, and health still drooping, the faithful friend again put 
 his own work aside. Failure of health, and the desire to give 
 what working hours remained to tasks with which his life was to 
 be closed, caused Forster, in 1872, to resign his office as a Lunacy 
 commissioner. In that year he published the first volume of his 
 "Life of Charles Dickens." The second volume followed in 
 1873, the third in 1874. His design was to show his friend to 
 the world as he himself had known him ; to give a true picture 
 from one point of view, and that the best conceivable. 
 
 In February of the year of the completion of his Life of 
 Dickens Forster made his will. He had for years been suffering 
 in body from asthmatic gout, and had withdrawn himself much 
 from society. Sustained hy home affection, he still battled on. 
 There was close labour on the life of Swift ; but a new task was 
 
'72 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 now imposed on him by his fidelity to those he loved. His old 
 friend Alexander Dyce had died in May, 1869 ; and Forster, in 
 the year after the completion of his life of Dickens, saw eight 
 volumes of a third edition of Dyce's Shakespeare through the 
 press, spending much time and care upon it. The last volume 
 followed in 1876, the revision having been completed — as well 
 as that of the last volume of Landor's works — in a kindred 
 spirit by another friend, the Rev. Whitwell Elwin. Mr. Elwin 
 had been editor of "the Quarterly Review" when Forster's 
 articles appeared in it, and was one of the three friends named 
 as his executors, the other two being Lord Lytton and Joseph 
 William Chitty. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1876, the first volume of 
 "the Life of Swift" appeared. On the 1st of February in 
 that year John Forster died. The biography to which students 
 had looked forward for years stands incomplete; but the life of 
 him who had so often entered with whole heart and mind into 
 the lives of others was completed worthily. Thomas Carlyle was 
 among those nearest friends who knew how true a spirit had 
 then passed from its work here, and Carlyle followed Forster to 
 the grave. Lord Lytton, to whom had been carried on from 
 early years the love borne to his father, when dedicating to John 
 Forster, in 1859, his volume called "the Wanderer," spoke for 
 more hearts than his own, when he told what he had found in 
 this generous friend of his youth : 
 
 For all youth seeks, all manhood needs, 
 
 All youth and manhood rarely find : 
 A strength more strong than codes or creeds, 
 In lofty thoughts and lovely deeds 
 
 Revealed to heart and mind ; 
 
 A staff to stay, a star to guide, 
 
 A spell to soothe, a power to raise, 
 A faith by fortune firmly tried, 
 A judgment resolute to preside 
 
 O'er days at strife with days. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 73 
 
 O large in love, in nature sound ! 
 
 O man to me, of all men, dear ! 
 All these in thine my life hath found. 
 And force to tread the rugged ground 
 
 Of daily toil, with cheer. 
 
 Such was the Hfe of earnest labour about which were gathered 
 the materials for work and records of friendship that will be found 
 in the Forster collection in the South Kensington Museum. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE LIBRARY. 
 
 The collection bequeathed by the late John Forster, Esq., 
 consists of upwards of eighteen thousand books, forty-eight oil 
 and a few water-colour paintings, a considerable number of 
 drawings and sketches, and a valuable series of autographs and 
 original letters of famous people, with other manuscripts. Through 
 the great kindness of Mrs. Forster in waiving her life-interest, 
 the collection came into the possession of the South Kensington 
 Museum not long after Mr. Forster's death. 
 
 It will be best, as with the Dyce collection, to take the 
 library first. 
 
 The two collections together are excellently adapted to the 
 purpose to which they are to be applied, and will carry out the 
 objects aimed at by those who have so liberally given them 
 to the nation. Mr. Dyce's library is singularly characteristic of 
 a man who, with one great literary design always before him, 
 chiefly limited himself to the gathering together of books relating 
 to that subject — English poetry and the drama — and of the works 
 of the great writers of old Greece and Rome, with the best Italian 
 and French poets. Mr. Forster's collection admirably comes in 
 to supply numerous deficiencies in the other, especially in 
 
f^ 
 
 a 
 
 '3 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 fL, 
 
THE LIBRARY. 75 
 
 English literature of the last hundred years. Students may refer 
 to most of the books which are usually in demand, and others 
 who may be in search of special information and of authorities 
 which bear upon some particular subject, will find much which 
 must be of value to them. The Forster books are, as a rule, 
 perfectly clean and in sound state ; but a large proportion are 
 still in boards. This, however, implies one merit : the books 
 have not been damaged by bad binders ; they are uncut, and in 
 the state which bibliomaniacs wish for, though rather more likely 
 to be injured by careless readers. 
 
 There are not very many single books which it would be of 
 importance especially to mention merely on account of their 
 rarity. In this particular the Forster differs greatly from the 
 Dyce collection. Nevertheless, there are some which are highly 
 interesting for other reasons. 
 
 A copy of Addison's travels in Italy is in the original binding, 
 and has an autograph inscription by Addison, 
 
 The "Songs and Ballads" by prince Albert, 1840, has many 
 corrections in the handwriting of the prince. There are numerous 
 
76 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 books on America; one of these belonged to John Locke, 
 
 and has his autograph. By the famous author of " Vathek " 
 "^ _ ^ there is a very rare book indeed, 8vo, 
 
 ' Qtlfl .JWV^ ^^23 ; a httle privately printed volume 
 ^^ of epitaphs. Our readers may be amused 
 
 by a couple of specimens ; but we offer no opinion as to their 
 
 genuineness : — 
 
 I went and listed in the Tenth Hussars, 
 
 And gallopped with them to the bloody wars — 
 
 " Die for your sovereign — for your country die ! " 
 
 To earn such glory feeling rather shy, 
 
 Snug I slipped home ; but Death soon sent me off. 
 
 After a struggle with the Hooping cough. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Here lies John Adams who received a thump 
 Right in the forehead from the parish pump. 
 Which gave him his quietus in the end. 
 For many doctors did his case attend. 
 
 The copy of the fourth edition of Byron's " English Bards and 
 Scotch Reviewers," 181 1, is that which was given by Lord Byron 
 to Leigh Hunt, and contains the poet's autograph and many 
 corrections. 
 
 Several of the works of Thomas Carlyle have the author's 
 autograph as presentation copies to Mr. Forster, who was one of 
 Carlyle's most intimate friends. Some of the books relating to the 
 first Bonaparte are not easily to be obtained ; and " The Prisoner 
 of Ham " by the late emperor has his autograph and was given 
 by him to Mr. Forster. Browning's works include the manu- 
 scripts of " Paracelsus," and " Christmas Eve and Easter Day." 
 The " Chief victories of the emperor Charles the fifth," 1870, 
 privately printed by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, is a presentation 
 copy from the editor. A copy at the sale of Baron Heath's 
 
BROOME. 
 
 makes worie; and he cannot be juftly 
 thought a mean man whom Pope choie 
 for an aflbciate^ coJL /JlAu i,»i/U|>l<iul 
 
 SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. (1709-1784). 
 Proof-sheet, "Lives of English poets," 
 
THE LIBRARY. 77 
 
 library, a short time ago, sold for £xi \os. Another rare 
 book is Cowley's "Poetical blossoms," the first edition, 1633, 
 with the portrait by R. Vaughan. Besides other publica- 
 tions of J. P. Collier there is nearly a complete collection of 
 his " Reprints," between eighty and ninety parts. Three small 
 autograph manuscript note-books of Leonardo da Vinci, with 
 drawings by him, ought to be particularly noticed. 
 
 Among De Foe's works is the first edition of Robinson 
 Crusoe. The edition of the Delphin classics by Valpy is 
 complete in 160 volumes — a set of books although not of high 
 authority yet extremely useful for reference, and for the large 
 extent of the different indexes. 
 
 The library is rich in dictionaries and works of that class ; 
 also in books relating to English history and early English 
 literature : among these last, are the publications of the Early 
 English Text society — more than one hundred — of the Ballad 
 society, and of the Camden, Chetham, Hakluyt, Holbein, 
 and Spenser societies, together with Mr. Arber's, Mr. Grosart's, 
 and Mr. Ashbee's reprints, and the Archseologia. The Quarterly 
 and Edinburgh reviews and " Notes and Queries " are complete 
 from the commencement. 
 
 Not the least curious books in the collection are four or five 
 volumes of chap-books and children's books of about a hundred 
 years ago. Everyone knows how scarce these little publications 
 are, and how they are important and interesting not only because 
 of the quaint woodcuts which they contain, but very often as 
 illustrating the manners and small literature of the time. There 
 are not only fairy tales among them, such as "The Sleeping 
 Beauty," or " Fortunatus," or "Valentine and Orson," but many 
 of an older time, " The Seven Wise Masters," " Jack the Piper," 
 " Friar Bacon," and the " Seven Champions." Three volumes of 
 farthing and halfpenny songs, each containing a hundred, are of 
 the same class. 
 
 The set of original editions of the works of Charles Dickens 
 
78 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 is nearly complete : many are presentation copies, with his 
 autograph. 
 
 We must not omit to mention Flatman's " Poems and songs," 
 
 1682, a presentation copy to Izaak Walton, with an inscription in 
 
 - . -. to Walton's autograph ; a remark- 
 
 fz^o.k ^ttM^r^f*^'^- able copy of Garth's " Dis- 
 
 W tMfc^ . ^ pensary," 1703, presented by 
 
 ^ *' him to Pope, who bequeathed 
 
 it to bishop Warburton (it contains Pope's autograph and manu- 
 script notes, and his full length pen-and-ink portrait by Hoare of 
 Bath, etc.) ; the first edition of Goldsmith's " Deserted village " 
 and some of his other works ; " Designs by R. Bentley for six 
 poems, by Gray " which belonged to the late princess EUzabeth, 
 with her autograph ; two copies of Horace, one with the autograph 
 of Gay and notes by him, the other with that of Shenstone ; and 
 some proof sheets of Dr. Johnson's Lives of the poets, corrected by 
 himself and bound in two volumes. (See facsimile facing p. 77.) 
 
 There are two copies of Granger's Biographical history of 
 England ; one set in seventeen and the other in fourteen folio 
 volumes. Together they contain between five and six thousand 
 portraits, many of which are extremely scarce. With the Granger 
 ought to be mentioned a set of Hogarth's prints, his own 
 plates, with duplicates showing various states in which they were 
 issued. 
 
 An interesting volume of Keats's poems is in the collection, 
 "Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and other poems," 1820, 
 presented to Bryan Waller Procter, with an autograph inscription ; 
 and a sonnet " On the grasshopper and the cricket," also in 
 the poet's handwriting, as attested by Procter. (See facsimile.) 
 Some other books are worthy of mention. For example : a pre- 
 sentation copy of Dr. King's poem, "The Toast," privately 
 printed ; a large, if not complete, collection of Charles Lamb's 
 books, among them the " Album verses," 1830; and "The last 
 essays of Elia," 1833— "a legacy from Elia" to Mr, Forster; the 
 
/&. iMtTaijULlJb LluA^iMZjirx^,^ jjdkcUauuiriojZjLi^ 
 iJ (j<. a. Un^K, lAhuU^ ^juA^i^i^i. lA/^ji^^^Tltii fp-^^ 
 
 JOHN KEATS (l7g6-l82l). 
 Sonnet " On the grasshopper and the cricket.' 
 
THE LIBRARY. 79 
 
 "Imaginary conversations" of Mr. W. S. Landor with manu- 
 script additions ; the late Lord Lytton's poems, plays, and novels, 
 forming a numerous list ; the " Six court comedies " of John 
 Lilly, 1632, with autographs of Walter Moyle and of William 
 Chetwood, the dramatic prompter, author, and bookseller; Locke's 
 Essay concerning human understanding, which once belonged 
 to Gray and has his autograph ; many acting copies of plays in 
 which Macready represented the principal character, including 
 " Virginius,'' with a letter to Mr. Forster from Macready, written 
 after he had acted that part for the last time (of which the conclu- 
 sion is here given in facsimile) ; Marvell's miscellaneous poems, 
 
 1681, with an autograph letter inserted; and two copies of the 
 poems of John Milton, one the first edition, 1645, the other 1673, 
 and both said to be bound by Roger Payne. 
 
 In naming these few books it must again be observed that 
 they are selected not so much to show the general character 
 of the library, or for their intrinsic value and rarity, but because 
 of some accidental circumstance which gives them, like other 
 books in the collection, a particular interest. The Forster library 
 is one which will be found eminently desirable for such a place 
 of education as is the South Kensington Museum, because 
 it is full of books of daily interest. The advantage which it will 
 give to students by enabling them to consult at once and on the 
 spot so many volumes of modern literature, so many books of 
 reference, so many authorities upon subjects of eveiy-day 
 
8o THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 occurrence, can scarcely be overrated. And all this is true, 
 not only in regard to the many students whose own book pos- 
 sessions may be small and scanty, but in regard also to those 
 who may have even considerable libraries themselves at home. 
 
 For example, once more, they will find here large collections 
 of books published in a series of years, or by various literary 
 societies, etc. Separately, often, some of these are in private 
 libraries, but few men have them complete. Such, for instance, 
 besides those already named, are the reprints of the Typo- 
 graphical society of Newcastle, spreading over forty years from 
 1817 to 1857 (many of them having cuts by Bewick), and the 
 publications of the Percy society, thirty volumes, and of the 
 Shakespeare society. 
 
 There is an interesting copy of the famous trial of J. 
 Peltier, for a libel on Napoleon, in 1803, presented to Dr. Parr 
 by Sir J. Mackintosh. The " New World of words," by 
 E. Phillips, 1696, a scarce book, may also be noticed. 
 
 The collection of plays runs to a large extent. There are 
 thirty volumes of original or early quarto editions of old plays, 
 ranging chiefly from about 1660 to 1726, and another set of 
 sixteen volumes octavo, which, with a third set in twelve volumes, 
 carries on the series to nearly the end of the century. The set of 
 sixteen volumes formerly belonged to the late princess Elizabeth, 
 and her autograph is in each of them. There are, besides these, the 
 continuation of Dodsley's collection of old plays in six volumes. 
 Bell's British Theatre in twenty-five, Mrs. Inchbald's in twenty- 
 five, and a very great number of more modern plays, of the last 
 forty or fifty years, bound in many volumes. There are also the 
 acting copies of plays represented in the series of amateur per- 
 formances in which Mr. Forster took part. In the same manner 
 as with plays, Mr. Forster made very considerable collections of 
 miscellaneous poems, many of them the original editions. 
 
 A few more books ought to be named. Among them, a copy 
 of the Dunciad, quarto, 1729, with this inscription: "Jonath; 
 
THE LIBRARY. 8i 
 
 Swift, 1729, amicissimi autoris donum." Again, the "Dramatic 
 scenes and other poems" of Barry Cornwall (B. W. Procter), 
 with the inscription " J. F. from his old friend," and also with 
 three pages of criticism in the handwriting of S. T. Coleridge ; 
 Samuel Rogers's " Ode to superstition " and " Pleasures of 
 memory," copies which he had kept for himself, with his 
 autograph ; Selden's book " On the Duello," with some manu- 
 script notes by Roger Twysden; a very extensive collection of 
 editions of Shakespeare's plays and poems, and of books and pam- 
 phlets relating to Shakespeare and his works ; Shaw's " Syncritical 
 grammar," 1687, printed for Michael Johnson (the father of 
 Dr. Johnson), and sold at his shop in Lichfield; Wheare's 
 "Method and order of reading histories," 1685, with the autograph, 
 it is supposed, of Isaac Newton ; Shenstone's " Schoolmistress," 
 a presentation copy from the 
 poet to " the aimiable {sic) 
 Mrs. Davies ;" two privately 
 printed books by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, besides other 
 works by him, which have now become scarce ; an extraordinary 
 collection of the writings of dean Swift, and of contemporary 
 pamphlets relating to him ; some pieces, unpublished, by Mr. 
 justice Talfourdj the Strawberry Hill edition of Horace 
 Walpole's " Fugitive pieces," a presentation copy to Gray ; and 
 (to name no others) a copy of Young's "Night Thoughts," 
 the first edition, as the books were published in succession : 
 in this is inserted Dr. Young's assignment to Andrew Millar 
 of the seventh, eighth, and ninth books, and of a paraphrase of 
 part of the Book of Job, together with an autograph letter of 
 the author about " some verses," with which the volume concludes. 
 What may be called rare books, rare, that is, because of their 
 early date, are scarcely more than two or three in number. There 
 is an edition of bishop Hooper's seven sermons " Upon the Holy 
 Prophete Jonas," i2mo, 1550; a fair copy but without the 
 colophon. Also, Sir Thomas More's works, folio, 1557, wanting 
 
 G 
 
82 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 the title but with the supernumerary leaf, often deficient, follow- 
 ing page 1138 ; a poor copy of Taverner's "Garden of Wysdome," 
 printed by William Copland; and the 1660 edition of "The 
 Testament of the xij. Patriarchs." Mr. Forster's library for- 
 tunately includes a copy of the first edition of Shakespeare, 1623; 
 in condition it is fair enough, but the title, the verses, the por- 
 trait, and all the introductory matter are a reprint. Besides this 
 first edition there are two copies of that of 1632, neither of which, 
 however, is perfect ; and at the beginning of one is a sonnet by 
 Barry Cornwall, addressed to Mr. Forster, in Barry Cornwall's 
 handwriting. 
 
 Two other books, or series of books, must be especially 
 mentioned. One, a volume from the library of the first Lord 
 Holland, containing about one hundred and fifty proclamations 
 and broadsides. These date from 1629 to 1660, with two of the 
 years 1678 and 1688. Among them are several of a class 
 seldom found in such collections, relating to the prices of 
 provisions and to regulations of dress. There are also the 
 proclamations for the levying of ship-money, 1640; about the 
 multitude of coaches, 1635 ; for suppressing two books by John 
 Milton, 1660 ; and the declaration of Charles the second as to 
 his marriage with Mrs. Walters, r678. 
 
 The other collection to be named is very large indeed : 
 about one thousand volumes of pamphlets, tracts, and similar 
 pieces, bound generally according to their dates, the total number 
 amounting probably to at least ten thousand separate publications. 
 Besides tracts, etc., upon various other subjects, there are numerous 
 volumes relating to Charles the first and the great rebellion. 
 It is needless to say that many of these pamphlets a^e of extreme 
 rarity, some of them unique. Ten volumes contain sermons 
 preached before the Long Parliament, and others more particu- 
 larly have reference to Oliver Cromwell, the earl of Essex, Sir 
 Thomas Fairfax, archbishop Laud, John Lilburne, the Houses of 
 Parliament during the civil war, the earl of Strafford, and the 
 
THE LIBRARY. 83 
 
 Scottish war. There are fourteen volumes of pamphlets collected 
 and arranged by Lord Macaulay, which were purchased at the 
 sale of his library ; these are chiefly concerned with the period 
 immediately subsequent to the Revolution. More to be con- 
 sidered even than some of these are fourteen volumes of historical 
 collections relating to Ireland from 1641 to 1701. The modern 
 pamphlets fill between five and six hundred volumes, upon almost 
 every conceivable subject. They include also articles from 
 magazines and reviews, and important catalogues of autograph 
 and book sales, etc. 
 
 A few of the books have manuscript notes by Mr. Forster ; 
 and (as in the case of Mr. Dyce) we give a facsimile of one of 
 them. 
 
 NOTE BY MR. FORSTER IN CHURCHILL'S "POETICAL WORKS." 
 
 U Z 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 AUTOGRAPHS. 
 
 The collection of autographs gathered together by Mr. Forster 
 is remarkable ; including those of many people very famous, some 
 for one thing and some for another, and of sovereigns and royal 
 personages. A few may be especially mentioned. . 
 
 There are five letters from the queen of Bohemia — Elizabeth, 
 daughter of James the first — to John King, bishop of London, 
 about the years 1617 to 1620J and two others, one to Lady 
 Hubbord, the year not named; the other to the queen's son 
 Charles, 1647. Of this prince Charles there are thirty letters 
 to his mother, ranging from 1636 to 1658. A warrant to deliver 
 up a fugitive, endorsed " 1570," has the signature of queen 
 Elizabeth. There are five letters of Charles the first, probably 
 all of them to prince Rupert, between 1644 and 1648 ; of Charles 
 the second two letters, both addressed also to prince Rupert ; 
 no dates, but one from " St. Germins," the other from " Whithall;" 
 of queen Henrietta Maria five letters ; and two of Henry the 
 fourth, king of France, in 1586 and 1594. Other sovereigns 
 whose documents may be referred to in Mr. Forster's collection, 
 either holograph or with signatures, are James the second, Louis 
 the fourteenth of France, and Napoleon the first. 
 
 The Garrick correspondence, consisting of letters to and from 
 Garrick, is contained in thirty-nine volumes, and numbers as 
 
f 
 
 S) 
 
 ■I 
 
 •-^*, 
 
^tl^-u^^ 
 
 4 
 

 OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1728-I774). 
 Letter to G. Colman, 19 July [1767]. 
 
 (Pool dhtevhimJ, 
 
 CHARLES LAMB (177S-1834). 
 Essays of " Elia" — " Poor relations," 
 
c4 'S, 
 
 s * 
 
 OS '-s 
 
 a a 
 
 H <-» 
 
 < ° 
 
 i i 
 
 S? 3 
 
 Q 
 Pi 
 O 
 1-4 
 
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AUTOGRAPHS. 
 
 8S 
 
 many as one thousand six hundred letters, many of which are 
 marked as " new." (For a facsimile of Garrick's autograph, see 
 opposite to p. 84.) 
 
 It is not possible to note every autograph (whether a signature 
 or a letter) of historical men, but we may name those of Oliver 
 Cromwell ; of Monk duke of Albemarle ; of James the first duke 
 of Ormond ; of Roger first earl of Orrery ; of Lord Shaftesbury> 
 the author of " Characteristics ; " and of Addison, Mrs. Browning, 
 Burke, Lord chancellor Clarendon, Coleridge (the original of 
 
 ■4^P^' 
 
 the "Friend"), De Foe, Sir Francis Drake, Fielding, Goldsmith 
 
 Hampden, Handel, Warren Hastings, Hume, Doctor Johnson 
 Keats, Charles Lamb, Lord Nelson, ^->. 
 Lord Peterborough, Sir Walter Scott, ^ ^^ /^um^) 
 Algernon Sidney, Lord Strafford (par- 
 ticularly a long letter dated " Yorke, 24th September, 1632," and 
 probably addressed to the earl of Carlisle, see appendix, p. 95), 
 Sir W. Temple, Voltaire, and Horace Walpole. (Facsimiles of 
 several of these are given.) 
 
 Ainong the " Warrants," of which there are Several, there is 
 one for " Payments verie pressing bfefore the fcihges Remove to 
 
86 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 Roiston," to which is appended rather a remarkable cluster of 
 signatures : — those (amongst others) of G. Abbot, archbishop of 
 Canterbury; Lord chancellor Bacon ("Verulam"); Lancelot 
 Andrewes, then bishop of Ely, but translated in this year (1618) 
 to Winchester; Sir Fulke .Greville (afterwards Lord Brooke) 
 chancellor of the Exchequer; Sir Robert Naunton, secretary of 
 State; Sir Julius Cffisar, master of the Rolls; and Sir Edward 
 Coke (see facsimile). 
 
 These few selections will show the high interest and importance 
 which are attached to this collection of autographs, even if there 
 were no special circumstances connected with it. 
 
 But these are very special and very remarkable. There are 
 the original drafts and manuscripts of the late Lord Lytton's 
 ' Duchess de la Valliere," " The Lady of Lyons," and " Not so 
 bad as we seem." We give a facsimile of Lord Lytton's auto- 
 graph, the beginning of a letter to Macready, in which is the first 
 sketch of " Richelieu : " the entire letter will be found in the 
 appendix, p. 100. The number of manuscripts and autographs 
 of dean Swift, Samuel Richardson, and Charles Dickens is extra- 
 ordinary. A few from each of these must be mentioned. 
 
 With regard to Swift we cannot do better than quote Mr. 
 Forster's own account from the preface to his unfinished Life of 
 Jonathan Swift, page 7. He says : 
 
 " At the dispersion of the library of Mr. Monck Mason, of 
 Dublin, I became the purchaser of Swift's note-books and books 
 of account; of his letters of ordination; of a large number of 
 unpublished pieces in prose and verse, interchanged between 
 himself and Sheridan ; of several important unprinted letters ; and 
 of a series of contemporary printed tracts for illustration of the 
 life in Ireland, which I was afterwards able to complete by the 
 whole of the now extremely rare Wood broadsides. 
 
 "At Mr. Mitford's sale there came into my possession the 
 Life by Hawkesworth which Malone had given to Lord 
 Sunderlin, enriched with those MS. notes by l3r. Lyon, who had 
 
« 
 
 PS 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 
 Pi 
 < 
 
 
 U u 
 
 3 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 

 o 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 3 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 1-9 
 
 Q 
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AUTOGRAPHS. 87 
 
 charge of Swift's person in his last illness, on which Nichols and 
 Malone, who partially used them, had placed the highest value. 
 By subsequent arrangement, much favoured by the courtesy of 
 Mr. Edmund Lenthal Swifte, transfer was made to me of the papers 
 given by Mrs. Whiteway to Mr. Deane Swift, altogether more 
 than thirty pieces of considerable interest, comprising several of 
 Swift's important writings in his own manuscript, and, among 
 transcripts of other pieces with corrections by himself, a copy of 
 the ' Directions to servants.' 
 
 "Afterwards I became the possessor of letters relating to 
 ' Gulliver,' of some to Stopford, and some to Arbuthnot of peculiar 
 value, and of an unpublished journal, also in Swift's handwriting, 
 singular in its character and of extraordinary interest, written on 
 his way back to Dublin amidst grave anxiety for Esther Johnson, 
 then dangerously ill. My friend, the Rev. Dr. Todd, late the 
 senior fellow of Dublin University, procured for me this 
 remarkable piece. 
 
 "The most rare of all my acquisitions, obtained from the late 
 Mr. Booth, the bookseller, by whom it had been purchased at 
 Malone's sale, remains to be mentioned. It is the large-paper 
 copy of the first edition of ' Gulliver,' which belonged to the friend 
 (Charles Ford) who carried Swift's manuscript with so much 
 mystery to Benjamin Motte, the publisher, interleaved for 
 alterations and additions by the author, and containing, besides 
 all the changes, erasures, and substitutions adopted in the latter 
 editions, several interesting passages, mostly in the Voyage to 
 Laputa, which have never yet been given to the world." 
 
 We give on the next page facsimiles of one of Swift's alterations 
 in his large-paper copy of the first edition of "Gulliver," and of 
 a few lines of the corrected text of the same book. 
 
 The " Correspondence " of Samuel Richardson, the famous 
 author of Sir Charles Grandison, Pamela, and Clarissa Harlowe, 
 was published in 1804 by Mrs. Barbauld, in six volumes. The 
 gift of Mr. Forster to the nation has not yet been sufficiently long 
 
88 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 at South Kensington to enable us to say how many of the letters 
 in this collection have been printed, and, if so, whether they have 
 
 ^ fti^ n^i f^oJ- o^ A*^^ '^ 
 
 fyvnn. offV ^• 
 
 JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-174S). 
 " Gulliver's travels," first edition, large paper, vol. ii. p. 90. 
 
 /, Th^re -a*e likewife afte*3ief Kind 
 of^i Princes in Europe, not able to 
 make War by themfelves, 
 
 been printed correctly. There are here more than 800 letters 
 in the Richardson correspondence ; between Richardson and 
 Mrs. Chapone, Thomas Edwards, Dr. Delany, Mrs. Delany, 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, Aaron Hill, W. Buncombe, and many 
 others. They refer principally to the novels. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that Mr. Forster should have 
 possessed many autograph letters and other memorials of his old 
 and dear friend Charles Dickens. But the South Kensington 
 Museum can boast of a series of manuscripts by the great novelist 
 which never can be rivalled. Some of these were given by Dickens 
 in his lifetime to Mr. Forster, and the rest came to Mr. Forster 
 under the authority of a clause in Dickens's will : "I also give to 
 
AUTOGRAPHS. 89 
 
 the said John Forster such manuscripts of my published works as 
 may be in my possession at the time of my decease." A few 
 simple words, conve3dng a gift which will ever have the highest 
 value and be regarded with the deepest interest by people of 
 every English-speaking nation as long as the English language 
 exists. Not only our own countrymen but travellers from every 
 country and colony into which Englishmen have spread may here 
 examine the original manuscripts of books which have been more 
 widely read than any other uninspired writings throughout the 
 world. Thousands, it cannot be doubted, who have been 
 indebted for many an hour of pleasure and enjoyment when in 
 health, for many an hour of solace when in weariness and pain, 
 to these novels, will be glad to look upon them, as each sheet was 
 sent at last to the printer full of innumerable corrections, from the 
 hand of Charles Dickens. 
 
 In the South Kensington Museum are the original manuscripts 
 of the following works, or parts of them : 
 
 1. " Oliver Twist ; " two volumes in quarto. This begins with 
 the twelfth chapter, and ends with the sixth chapter of the third 
 book, " Wherein is shewn how the Artful Dodger got into trouble." 
 In the second volume is also a " Preface to the Pickwick Papers," 
 with this direction at the head of the first page ; " Cancel original 
 preface to first edition altogether. Preface originally written for 
 cheap edition comes into this one presently." The preface is 
 dated " London, September, 1847." Then follow the " Preface to 
 the present edition, September, 1847," and " Mr. Pickwick, Sam 
 Weller, and Master Humphrey:" this last is headed "End of 
 No. 6. Further particulars of Master Humphrey's Visitor;" 
 "Master Humphrey's Clock, No. 7J" "No. 9;" and "Master 
 Humphrey from his Clockside in the Chimney-corner." 
 
 2. Sketches of Young Couples. At the end, written in the 
 year (Leap year) of the Queen's marriage, is "An urgent remon- 
 strance, etc. To the Gendemen of England (being bachelors or 
 widowers) the Remonstrance of their faithful fellow-subject." At 
 
90 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 the beginning, inlaid, is a " List of the Couples, and a list of 
 Contents." 
 
 3. " The Lamplighter, a Farce." A manuscript not in the 
 handwriting of Mr. Dickens. 
 
 4. " Old Curiosity Shop ;" two volumes. At the beginning are 
 a note from the author to Mr. Forster, 17 th January, 1841, and 
 hints for some chapters. Then follows " Master Humphrey's 
 Clock, No. IV. Master Humphrey from his clockside in the 
 Chimney-corner." 
 
 5. " Barnaby Rudge ; " two volumes. 
 
 6. "American Notes." 
 
 7. " Martin Chuzzlewit ; " two volumes. At the beginning of 
 the first volume are various title-pages, notes as to the names, 
 etc., the dedication to Miss Burdett Coutts, errata, and preface. 
 Mr. Forster, in his " Life of Dickens " (iii. 466), says : " His 
 greater pains and elaboration of writing become first very obvious 
 in the later parts of ' Martin Chuzzlewit.' " 
 
 8. " The Chimes." 
 
 9. " Dombey and Son j " two volumes. At the beginning of 
 the first volume, are the title-page, headings of chapters, and 
 memoranda for the subsequent numbers. 
 
 10. "David Copperfieldj" two volumes. Various title-pages 
 and a memorandum as to names are prefixed to the first volume. 
 
 11. "Bleak House;" two volumes ; also with suggestions for 
 title-pages, and other memoranda. The " preface " is placed at 
 the end of the second volume. 
 
 1 2. " Hard Times ; " with memoranda. 
 
 13. " Little Dorrit ; " two volumes. At the beginning of each 
 volume there are pages of memoranda for various numbers, and 
 at the end of the second, the dedication to Clarkson Stanfield, 
 and the preface. 
 
 14. "A Tale of Two Cities," with the dedication to Lord John 
 Russell and the preface. 
 
 15. "Edwin Drood;" unfinished at the time of Charles Dickens's 
 

AUTOGRAPHS. 91 
 
 death. This manuscript also has memoranda and headings for 
 chapters. About this book Mr. Forster tells us in his Life of 
 Dickens (iii. 465) "The last page of 'Edwin Drood' was 
 written in the Chalet, in the afternoon of his last day of 
 consciousness." 
 
 There are also a few other separate leaves and smaller col- 
 lections in the autograph of Charles Dickens, containing dedica- 
 tions, prefaces, and memoranda for his novels, and some articles 
 and travelling letters contributed to "the Examiner" and "the 
 Daily News." 
 
 But besides these autograph copies of the novels as they 
 were sent to the printer are some other volumes of scarcely less 
 interest ; the corrected proofs of " Dombey and Son," " David 
 Copperfield," "Bleak House," and "Little Dorrit." Some of 
 the corrections in " Dombey and Son " are in the handwriting of 
 Mr. Forster. There are portions of proofs of some of the other 
 works, among them a part of the " Pickwick Papers ; " and a 
 considerable number of letters and notes, nearly all written by 
 Dickens to Mr. Forster. Also the originals of the invitations to a 
 public dinner and public ball which Dickens received when at 
 New York in 1842. 
 
 We give a facsimile of Mr. Dickens's earlier handwriting from 
 "Oliver Twist," and of his later handwriting, and careful cor- 
 rections, from " Hard Times ; " also of a portion of one of the 
 corrected proofs of " David Copperfield," from which readers 
 may discover that king Charles the first was not always in 
 Mr. Dick's head. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS. 
 
 The paintings which are included in the Forster bequest 
 to the South Kensington Museum, although not many as re- 
 gards number, are of very considerable interest. The well-known 
 portrait of Charles Dickens, by W. P. Frith, R.A., is to be 
 named the first; it represents him when at the age of forty- 
 seven. With this may be mentioned Dolly Varden by the same 
 artist. Mr. Frith painted this subject more than once ; the 
 " Dolly Varden " which belonged to Mr. Dickens himself was 
 sold after his death at Christie and Manson's for a thousand 
 guineas. 
 
 A portrait of Walter Savage Landor by Sir William Boxall, 
 R.A., is interesting as an excellent likeness of a very old friend of 
 Mr. Forster. 
 
 By H. Wallis there is a clever picture of the interior of 
 Shakespeare's house at Stratford-on-Avon, showing the stairs 
 which lead to the bedroom where Shakespeare was born. A dog, 
 admirably painted by Sir E. Landseer, R.A., is introduced looking 
 intently through the opening of a nearly closed door. 
 
 By D. Maclise, R.A., are three pictures. One, a scene from 
 Ben Jonson's " Every man in his humour," given as one of the 
 amateur dramatic performances, in which Mr. Forster is repre- 
 sented as Kitely. Some play-bills of these performances are in 
 the collection {see p. 104), and a facsimile of a sketch on one of 
 
PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS. 93 
 
 them will be found opposite p. 92. Another is Macready as 
 Werner, which has been engraved ; and the third the Girl at the 
 Cornish waterfall, painted in 1842 and bought from the artist by 
 Charles Dickens. At the sale of Mr. Dickens's effects at 
 Christie's Mr. Forster obtained it at the price of £(>i,o. 
 
 There is the portrait here of another great friend of Mr. Forster, 
 Thomas Carlyle, by G. F. Watts, R.A. 
 
 The collection includes examples of Sir Charles Eastlake, 
 P.R.A,, one, Trajan's forum, 1821; a bust-portrait of a lady by 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. ; the daughters of T. Gainsborough, 
 R.A., by the artist ; a small portrait of Sir Walter Scott by 
 G. S. Newton, R.A. ; Ancona and the Arch of Trajan, a large 
 picture by Clarkson Stanfield, R.A. ; two small views of Venice 
 by Guardi; and a landscape by Emile Lambinet. There are 
 three pictures by C. M. Webb, of Dusseldorf ; one of them is 
 remarkably clever and amusing — Checkmate, in which the con- 
 queror quietly smokes, enjoying his victory. It has very much 
 of the power and manner of David Wilkie. A replica of the 
 picture is in the national gallery at Melbourne. Besides these 
 may be noticed a good portrait of a man in a black dress, by 
 Van der Heist ; St. Michael's mount, in Normandy, by Bonington ; 
 and a small painting by Greuze, a girl seated on the side of a 
 bed with a birdcage. 
 
 Among the pencil and water-colour drawings are five illus- 
 trations by Stothard of "Tristram Shandy" and "The Senti- 
 mental journey " in one frame, evidently intended for engravings 
 in some edition of the works of Sterne ; and eleven sketches 
 and studies by Clarkson Stanfield. One of these last is full of 
 interest : the Logan rock with small figures introduced of the 
 artist himself, and of Dickens, Maclise, and Mr. Forster, who 
 were with him at the time. Stanfield gave the drawing to 
 Dickens and Mr. Forster bought it at the sale for £%i. 
 
 There are nearly thirty Uttle sketches and drawings by 
 Thackeray, thirteen of which are intended to illustrate Douglas 
 
94 THE FORSTER COLLECTION. 
 
 Jerrold's "Men of character;" a head of Keats, by the late 
 Joseph Severn; a sketch of Lord Byron, by count D'Orsay; a 
 drawing (a PuTuh illustration) by Leech ; two by Richard Dadd, 
 a clever artist but mad, still living, confined as a lunatic having 
 committed parricide ; a view of the leaning tower at Bologna, by 
 W. Callow; and a good drawing by Luke Fildes, A.R.A., of the 
 grave of Charles Dickens in Westminster abbey. 
 
 Lastly, there is a very large collection of drawings by Mr. 
 Forster's intimate friend, Maclise. Among these are many of 
 the famous sketches of the " Fraserians," which were published 
 first in Fraser's magazine, from about 1830 to 1838, and after- 
 wards in a volume. Also a very curious portrait of Sir Walter 
 Scott which Maclise sketched when a boy of fourteen, and which 
 was the first thing that brought him into notice. The drawing 
 was made in Ireland at a time when Walter Scott happened to be 
 in a shop, and it was afterwards either etched or lithographed. 
 This print must be excessively rare : a copy is in the Forster 
 collection. 
 
 Some idea may be formed of the extent of the collection of 
 drawings by Maclise from the fact that, besides those in albums, 
 there is a revolving stand of thirty frames filled with his sketches 
 and portraits. One of the most interesting is a pencil sketch 
 (frame No. 9), believed to be of J. M. W. Turner, R.A., sitting on 
 a high stool before a large easel. 
 
 The last object to be noticed is a Chinese model of a 
 Buddhist temple, with figures of men and animals. It is of wood 
 and gilt metal with foliage and fruit-trees lacquered in colours 
 and tipped with chalcedony, coral, and mother of pearl. The 
 dimensions are two feet eight inches by two feet, and two feet ten 
 inches in height. It was bequeathed to Mr. Forster by his friend 
 the late Lord Lytton. 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 LETTER OF LORD WENTWORTH 
 
 (Afterwards earl of Strafford), 34 September, 1632. 
 
 "My very good Lord 
 
 "As for many your other favours, soe am I infinitly much bownde 
 unto you for the honoure of your lines, soe multiplied and with soe highe 
 a hande as I have with one hold receaved three of them from you, thus 
 distant, and thus little able to serve you, answearable to ther meritt. 
 
 "I must ever acknowledge with all possible comfortt his Ma'y^ 
 goodnesse towardes me in this matter betwixt S' David Fowlis and 
 me, and humbly thanke your Ld? for the particular and authentike 
 relation I have therof from you ; which well weighing with myself I 
 have been bold to write the inclosed to his Ma'y= which will be much 
 graced, if you be pleased to presentt itt with my humble service to 
 his Ma«y. 
 
 "Nor should I have troubled your LdP hearin, but that you are 
 pleased to take sum small notice of the man ; therfore I beseech your 
 LdP lett me detaine you a while with a shortt accompte of this businesse, 
 and espetially what hath paste heare sine the gentlemans cumming 
 from London. 
 
 " S' Davide Fowlis, a person raysed by the favoure and bownty of 
 the Crowne to a faire and plentifull fortune, and one I had upon all 
 occasions given the best respectt unto I could, as promising myself 
 helpe and assistance from him, in his Ma"^ service ; it seemed to me 
 
g6 APPENDIX 1. 
 
 marvelouse strange to heare how ill and mutinousely affected he was to 
 his Ma'y's rights and government, soe as taking the reportte either to 
 be mistaken, or to be grownded upon sum personall mallice I gave noe 
 greate beleefe or regarde therunto : untill this late rioute of his brake 
 forth with such violence and virulence, as might not with my dutye be 
 longer silenced. The particulares would growe tediouse, but in the 
 word of truthe, I take them to be as highly criminall, being only civill, 
 as maybe, nor shall I need to say more for the presentt, saving that he 
 was as insolentt after he understoode the whole matter was knowen 
 unto me, as maliciouse and malevolentt before ; allbeit I confesse you 
 have sent him me downe humbled with a witnesse, a thing ordinary 
 indeed with thos meane natures to becum as low under the cudgill, 
 as penitentt \sic : q. impenitent ?] wheare they finde themselves upon 
 the advantadge grownde. 
 
 " The manner of his appearing and intertaiment heare was thus ; 
 the Counsell and myself sett upon the Commission for Recusantts, my 
 secretary cam to me and tells me S' Davide Fowlis was without, 
 desirouse to speake with me, which in good faithe at first I could not 
 beleeve, but being confermed it was soe, I sent to knowe wheather it was 
 any thing concerning his Ma's"^ service, or only concerning myself ; if 
 the former, I was ready to speake with him ; if the latter I desired to 
 be excused. His answeare was, it was both. Soe I caused him to be 
 brought inn, and being called to the borde, wee saluted him, and 
 desired him to sitt downe at the borde, as being one of the Kings 
 Counsell ; he cam up to me wheare I satt and gave me a very low 
 salute; I told him the borde was the kings, that he was very wellcum 
 and might sett downe. 
 
 " S' William Ellis letting him knowe we understood he had sum- 
 thing to acquaint us concerning the kings service, wished him to 
 relate what he had to say. 
 
 " S' Davide then professed he had nothing of that nature to imparte 
 unto us, and that he only cam to speake to me in sum things touching 
 our owne privats. 
 
 " Then I told him I was gladde when I hearde he had anything to 
 offer for the service of our Maister, as that which he had never seemed 
 to looke after, sine I had the honoure to serve in this place, allbeit 
 I had exspected and promised myself as much from him in that 
 nature as from any other : but seeing that it now all terminated in 
 particulares of our owne, the kings bord was noe fitt place for thos 
 discourses ; therfore I desired him to ejccuse me, the matters betwixt 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 97 
 
 him and me being of such a condition as should not be hearde betwixt 
 us privately in a chamber, but must passe the file of his Ma"»= Courtts 
 of Justice, and soe risse, went my way and left them. 
 
 " This I have been more induced to relate prescisly to your Lop, in 
 regarde the condition of the man is to mistake others as much as 
 himself, and to speake with that confidence as if he himself beleeved 
 he spake the truthe, and that, what ever the report be he shall make, 
 that this is squarly and really the truthe. 
 
 " My Lo. you best knowe how much the regall power is becummed 
 infirme by the easye way such have founde who with roughe hands 
 have laid hold upon the flowers of itt, and with unequall and stagger- 
 ing paces have trampled upon the rights of the crowne, and how 
 necessary examples are, (as well for the subject as the Sovveraigne) to 
 retaine licentiouse spiritts within the sober boundes of humility and 
 feare. And surely if in any other, then in the case of this man, who 
 hath the most wantonly, the most disdainefully demeaned himself 
 towards his Ma'^"' and his Ministers that is possible, soe as if he doe 
 not taste of the rodde, itt will be impossible to have his Ma''=^ Counsell 
 heare to be obayed, and should I say lesse wear but to bestray the trust 
 my maister hath honoured me with. I heare he cries out of oppression, 
 soe did my Lo. Fauconberge too, your Lop hearde with what reason or 
 truthe ; beleeve me, this man hath more witt, but his cause is soe much 
 worse, as he hath notwithstanding lesse to say for himself; in this 
 never the lesse they are tied by the tales togeither, that both of them 
 dared to strike the crowne upon my shoulders without being at all 
 concerned in my owne interest, or having any other partte to playe 
 then such as innocense and patience shall suggest unto me. And 
 truly give me leave to asseure your Lop I have much reason to carrye 
 my eyes along with me whear ever I goe, and to exspectt my actions 
 from the highest to the lowest, shall all be cast into the ballance, and 
 tried wheather heavye or lighte. Content in the name of God, lett 
 them take me up and cast me downe, if I doe not fall squaire, and (to 
 use a word of artte) paragon, in every pointe of my duty to my maister, 
 nay, if I doe not fully compile with that publicke and common pro- 
 tection which good kings afforde ther good people, let me perishe, 
 and let noe man pitty me. In the meane time none of thes clamours 
 or other apprehensions shall shake me, or cause me to decline my 
 maisters honoure and service, therby to please or soothe thes populare 
 frantike humoures, and if I miscarry this way, I shall not, even then, 
 be founde either soe indulgent to myself, or soe narrowly harted 
 
98 APPENDIX I. 
 
 towards my maister, as to thinke myself too good to die for him. El 
 deve bastar. 
 
 " I confesse indeed S' Davide shewed himself a wise man in applying 
 himself to yo' Lop as a mediator for him with me, being a noble freinde 
 who I am ambitiouse the world should see hath power as greate and 
 absolute as with any other servantt you have ; and myself, as little will 
 to denie any thing you ,shall move me unto, as is possible ; and therfore 
 am I much bownde to your tender respectt that are pleased only to 
 mention a reconsiliation, rather as a relation of what he would have 
 then as an injunction of your owne, for which I humbly thankeyou ; for 
 in truthe you had then putt me too a greate straite betwixt my will to 
 obay you, and my care of the kings service, and this government, w"^"" 
 I exspectt to finde now in the time of my absence much shaken or 
 much confermed, by the hande men shall observe to be held with this 
 gentleman in the prosecution of this cause, w* I purpose to beginn w* 
 him in that courtt, itt seemes (and w* good reason) he most feares, 
 having three weekes sine taken a subpena forth aganst him. Only 
 this I will protest to yo' Lop in the wordes of truthe, I have been 
 hethertoo knowen to this gentleman only by curtesyes ; that I beare 
 noe mallice to his person, or att all consider my owne interests in this 
 proceeding, (w* in truthe are none att all) but simply the honoure and 
 service of his Ma'y and the seasonable correcting an humoure and 
 libertye I finde raigne in thes partts, of observing a superiour com- 
 maunde noe farther then they like themselves, and of questioning any 
 profitt of the Crowne, called upon by his Ma"" ministers, w'^'' might 
 inable itt to subsiste of it self, without being necessitated to accepte 
 of such conditions, as others might vainly thinke to impose upon itt. 
 Tis true this way is displeasing for the presentt, layes me open to 
 calumnye and hatred, causeth me by sum ill disposed people, to be 
 it may be ill reported ; wheare as the contrary would make me passe 
 smothe and still along without noyse ; but I have not soe learnte 
 my maister, nor am I soe indulgent to my own ease, as to see his 
 affaires suffer shippwracke whilste I myself rest secure in harboure. 
 Noe,lett the tempest be never soe greate, I will much rather putt forth 
 to sea, worke forth the storme, or at leaste be founde deade with the 
 rudder in my handes. And all that I shall desire is that his Ma'y and 
 my other freinds should narrowly observe me, and see if ever I question 
 any man in my owne interests, but whear they are only interlaced as 
 accessoryes, his Ma''^^ service, and the just aspectte towards the 
 pubHcke and duty of my place, sett before them as principalis. 
 
 " But alas my lo. I weary you extreamly w"^*" you will please to. 
 
APPENDIX 1. 99 
 
 pardon, being entered a discourse upon a subjectte w* I attende next 
 the saving of a soule, more then all the world besides, and should I 
 lesse take it to hartte I weare of all others the most unthankfuU 
 wretche to soe gratiouse a maister. Craving then yo' pardon for 
 detaining you thus long, I will redeeme my faulte with as much speed 
 as I may, giving you this unfained testimony and asseurance of my 
 being 
 
 " Yo' LoP= 
 " most humble servantt and most faithfuU 
 
 "Wentworth. 
 " Yorke 24 Septemb. 
 " 1632." 
 
APPENDIX 11. 
 
 LETTER OF LORD LYTTON. 
 
 September, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready, 
 
 I have thought of a subject. The story full of incident and 
 interest. It is to this effect : "In the time of Louis XIII. The 
 Chevalier de Marillac is the wittiest and bravest gentleman, celebrated 
 for his extravagant valour and his enthusiasm for enjoyment, but in 
 his most mirthful moments a dark cloud comes over him at one name 
 — the name of Richelieu I He confides to his friend Cinq Mars, the 
 reason, viz. he had once entered into a conspiracy against Richelieu ; 
 Richelieu discovered and sent for him. ' Chevalier de Marillac,' said 
 he, ' I do not desire to shed your blood on the scaffold, but you must 
 die ; here is a command on the frontier, fall in battle.' He went to 
 the post, but met glory and not death. Richelieu, reviewing the troops, 
 found him still living, and said, ' Remember the sword is over your 
 head. I take your parole to appear before me once a quarter. You 
 can still find death. I will give you time for it.' Hence his ex- 
 travagant valour ; hence his desire to make the most of life. While 
 making this confidence to Cinq Mars he is sent for by Richeheu. He 
 goes as to death. Richelieu receives him sternly, reminds him of his 
 long delay, upbraids him for his profligate life, &c. Marillac answers 
 with mingled wit and nobleness ; and at last, instead of sentencing 
 him to death, Richelieu tells him that he has qualities that make him 
 wish to attach him to himself, and that he will marry him to a girl 
 with a great dowry, and give him high ofBce at Court. He must 
 marry directly. Marillac goes out enchanted. 
 
 " Now Richelieu's motive is this : Louis XIII. has fallen in love 
 with this girl, Louise de la Porte, and wishes to make her his mistress. 
 
APPENDIX II. loi 
 
 All the king's mistresses have hitherto opposed Richeheu. He is 
 resolved that the king shall have no more. He will have no rival 
 with the king. He therefore resolves to marry her to Marillac, whose 
 life is in his power, whom he can hold in command, whom he believes 
 to be too noble to suffer the adulterous connection. 
 
 "Marillac is then introduced, just married, with high appointments 
 and large dowry, the girl beautiful, when, on his wedding-day, Cinq 
 Mars tells him that the king loves his wife. His rage and despair — 
 conceives himself duped. Scene with the girl, in which he recoils 
 from her. Suddenly three knocks at the door. He is sent for by the 
 king, and despatched to a distance ; the bride, not wived, is summoned 
 to court. 
 
 " Marillac, all pride and wrath, and casting all upon Richelieu, 
 agrees to conspire against the Cardinal's life. The fortress where 
 Richelieu lodges is garrisoned with the friends of the conspirators. 
 Just as he has agreed, he received an anonymous letter telling him 
 that his wife is at Chantilly, that she will sleep in the chamber of the 
 Montmorencies, that Louis means to enter the room that night, that, 
 if he wishes to guard his honour, he can enter the palace by a secret 
 passage which opens in a picture of Hugo de Montmorenci the last 
 duke, who had been beheaded by Louis (an act for which the king 
 always felt remorse). This Montmorenci had been the most intimate 
 friend of Marillac, and had left him his armour as a present. A 
 thought strikes Marillac, and he goes off the stage. 
 
 " Louise alone in this vast room ; the picture of Montmorenci in 
 complete armour ; a bed at the end. She complains of her husband's 
 want of love and laments her hard fate ; dismisses her woman. The 
 king enters and locks the doors ; after supplication and resistance 
 on her part, he advances to seize her, when from Montmorenci's 
 picture comes a cry of ' Hold ! ' and the form descends from the panel 
 and interposes. The king, horror-struck and superstitious, flies ; 
 Louise faints ; the form is Marillac. While she is still insensible the 
 clock strikes ; it is the hour he is to meet the Conspirators. He 
 summons her woman and leaves her. 
 
 " Richelieu alone at night when Marillac enters to him, tells him 
 his life is in his power, upbraids him for his disgrace, &c. Richelieu 
 informs him that he had married him to Louise to prevent her 
 dishonour, that he had sent the anonymous letter, &c., and converts 
 Marillac into gratitude. ' But what is to be done, the Conspirators 
 have filled the fortress? They (Richelieu and Marillac) retire into 
 another room, and presently the Conspirators enter the one they had 
 
I02 APPENDIX II. 
 
 left, and Marillac joins them and tells them the Cardinal is dead, that 
 he will see to the funeral, &c., and they had better go at once and 
 announce it to the King ; that there are no marks of violence, that it 
 seems like a fit (being suffocation). 
 
 Scene in the Streets of Paris. 
 
 " The King, who always feared and hated Richelieu, hears the 
 news and is at first rejoiced, the courtiers delighted, Paris in a jubilee. 
 But suddenly comes news of commotion, riot — ^messengers announce 
 the defeat of the armies — the Spaniards have crossed the frontier — his 
 general de Feuguieres is slain — hubbub and uproar without, with 
 cries of ' Hurrah ! the old Cardinal is dead,' &c. — when there is a 
 counter cry of ' The Cardinal ! the Cardinal ! ' and a band of soldiers 
 appear followed by Richelieu himself in complete armour. At this 
 sight the confusion, the amaze, &c. — the mob changes humours, and 
 there is a cry of ' Long live the great Cardinal ! ' 
 
 Scene — the King's Chamber. 
 
 " The King, enraged at the trick played on him, and at his having 
 committed himself to joy at the Cardinal's death, hears that de Marillac 
 had announced the false report, orders him to the Bastile, tells the 
 Count de Charost to forbid Richelieu the Louvre, and declares hence- 
 forth he will reign alone. Joy of the anti-Cardinalists, when the 
 great doors are thrown open and Richelieu, pale, suffering, sick, in his 
 Cardinal's robes, leaning on his pages, enters, and calls on Charost 
 (the very man who is to forbid his entrance !) to give him his arm, 
 which Charost tremblingly does before the eyes of the King. Richelieu 
 and the King alone, Richelieu says he has come to tender his resigna- 
 tion, the King accepts it, and Richelieu summons six secretaries 
 groaning beneath sacks of public papers, all demanding immediate 
 attention. Richelieu retires to a distance, and appears almost dying. 
 The King desperately betakes himself to the papers, his perplexity, 
 bewilderment, and horror at the dangers round him. At last he 
 summons the Cardinal to his side and implores him to resume the 
 office. The Cardinal, with great seeming reluctance, says he only will 
 on one condition — complete power over foes and friends, Louis must 
 never again interfere with public business. He then makes him sign 
 various papers, and when all is done the old man throws off the dying 
 state, rises with lion-like energy, ' France is again France — to the 
 frontiers — 1 lead the armies,' &c. (a splendid burst). Louis, half 
 
APPENDIX II. 103 
 
 enfeebled, half ashamed, retires. Richelieu, alone, gives various 
 papers to the secretaries, and summons Marillac and his wife. He 
 asks her if she has been happy, she says ' No,' thinking her husband 
 hates her ; puts the same question to Marillac, vcho, thinking she 
 wishes to be separated, says the same. He then tells them as the 
 marriage has not been fulfilled they can be divorced. They wofuUy 
 agree — when turning to Marillac he shows him the King's order that 
 he should go to the Bastile, and then adds that in favour of his 
 service in saving his (R.'s) life, he has the power to soften his 
 sentence, but he must lose his offices at Court and go into exile. On 
 hearing this Louise turns round — her love breaks out — she will go 
 with him into banishment, &c., and the reconciliation is complete. 
 Richelieu, regarding them, then adds : ' Your sentence remains the 
 same— we banish you still — Ambassador to Austria.'" 
 
 [No signature.] 
 
APPENDIX III. 
 
 Strictly Private. 
 
 AMATEUR PERFORMANCE, 
 
 AT MISS KELLY'S THEATRE, 73, DEAN STREET, SOHO, 
 
 On Saturday Evening, September 20th, 1845, 
 
 WHEN WILL BE PERFORMED 
 BEN JONSON'S COMEDY OF 
 
 (tUx^ Jflan iit 3iis 3|ittnottr. 
 
 CHARACTERS. 
 
 Mr. May hew 
 F. Dickens . 
 Mark Lemon 
 D. Costello . 
 Mr. Thomjison 
 Mr. Forster . 
 
 C. Dickens . 
 
 D. Jerrold . 
 Mr. Leech . 
 Aug. Dickens 
 Mr. Leigh . 
 F. Stone 
 Mr. Evans . 
 Mr. ^Beckett 
 Jerrold, jun. 
 Miss Fortescue 
 Unknown 
 Unknown 
 
 [In the original the names of the performers are in manuscript.] 
 
 Knowell . 
 Edward Knowell , 
 Brainworm 
 George Downright. 
 Wellbred . 
 
 KiTELY 
 
 Captain Bobadil . 
 Master Stephen 
 Master Mathew . 
 ThomAs Cash . 
 Oliver Cob 
 Justice Clement 
 Roger Formal. 
 William . 
 James . . . . 
 Dame Kitely . 
 Mistress Bridget 
 Tib . . . , 
 
 An Old Gentleman. 
 
 His Son. 
 
 The Father's Man. 
 
 A plain Squire. 
 
 His half-brother. 
 
 A Merchant. 
 
 A Paul's man. 
 
 A Country Gull. 
 
 The Town Gull. 
 
 Kitely's Cashier. 
 
 A Water Bearer. 
 
 An old merry Magistrate. 
 
 His Clerk. 
 
 His Servant. 
 
 Wellbred's Servant. 
 
 Kitely's Wife. 
 
 His Sister. 
 
 Cob's Wife. 
 
APPENDIX 111. 105 
 
 TO CONCLUDE WITH THE FAUCE, IN ONE ACT, CALLED 
 
 % 6ooi) Right's Pest, 
 
 OR, TWO O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. 
 
 CHARACTERS. 
 
 Mr. Snobbington. The Stranger. 
 
 Previous to the Comedy . . The Overture to William Tell. 
 Previous to the Farce . . . The Overture to La Gazza Ladra. 
 
 J8S" The Cards of Invitation are presentable at the Theatre from Seven o'clock. 
 The performance will commence at Half-past Seven exactly : by which 
 time it is requested that the whole of the Company may be seated. 
 
 Evening Dress. 
 
 BRADBURY AND EVANS.] [PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. 
 
** n i, ^j ,th.i^, nunt ,i iHUU