Not half so dreadful rises to the sight, Thro' the thick gloom of some tempestuous night, And o'er the feebler stars exerts its rays! Terrific glory, for his burning breath Taints the red air with Fevers, Plagues, and Death, Iliud, b. xxii. l. 73. Pope's transl. The same Orion is represented as following the same pursuits in hell which had employed him on earth. There huge Orion of portentous size, Odyssey, b. xi. l. 793. Pope's transl. Virgil expresses himself more pointedly on the same subject in saying, curæ non ipsa in morte relinquunt. Those soft consuming flames they felt alive, Pitt's translation. And after describing the employment of the ancestors of Eneas in Elysium, he adds quæ gratia eurrum, Armorumque fait vivis; quæ cura nitentes Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos, Eneid, b. vi. 653. Those pleasing cares the heroes felt alive, Pitt's translation. The Edwλo had also a power or capacity of subsisting independently of, and separately from, the x or immaterial part, and, when so separate, retained the same passions and desires which had pleased or interested the body during life. Thus Ulysses views the image or figure of Hercules in the infernal shades, apparently in the same character which he held on earth. Gloomy as night he stands, in act to throw ✪ exercised O exercised in grief, by arts refined, O taught to bear the wrongs of base mankind, But notwithstanding this appearance and this speech, both of them suitable to the character which Hercules supported here on earth, the poet is careful to tell us that it was not Hercules himself, but his Edwλor or image only, which Ulysses beheld. Now I the strength of Hercules behold, There is indeed a plausible objection to these opinions, which is, that the shades of the warriors are said still to wear the same garments or armour which they were accustomed to do upon earth, as appears from the poet's saying that the latter were stained with blood. "It is difficult to conceive," says Mr. Pope in his notes on the Odyssey," how these ghosts, which are only a subtile substance, not a gross body, should wear the same armour which the body wore in the other world. How was it conveyed to them in the infernal regions? "All that occurs to me in answer to this objection is, that the poet describes them suitably to the characters they bore in life; the warriors on earth are warriors in hell'; and that he adds these circumstances to denote the manner of their death, which was by battle and by the sword. No doubt but Homer represents a future state according to the notions his age entertained of it, and this sufficiently justifies him as a poet, who is not obliged to write severe truths, but according to fame and common opinions." I cannot here forbear to observe how closely our great poet Shakespeare has followed Homer, Virgil, and probably Euripides in all these respects. To instance in Hamlet. Marcellus. Is it not like the king? Horatio. As thou art to thyself, Such was the very armour he had on Again, in a succeeding scene. Horatio, addressing Hamlet. A figure like your father, Arm'd at all points, exactly cap-a-pee, Appears before them, and with solemn march, And in Macbeth, the ghost of Banquo rises with the wounds visible that had occasioned his death, nearly in the same manner as Deiphobus had appeared to Æneas in the infernal shades. It must be premised that the murderer had just before told Macbeth of Banquo, safe in a ditch he bides, With twenty trenched gashes on his head, When the ghost rises, Macbeth thus addresses it. Thou canst not say I did it, never shake Thy goary locks at me. To be continued. ACCOUNTS OF, AND EXTRACTS FROM, RARE AND CURIOUS BOOKS. "The first Part of the Catalogue of English printed Bookes. Which concerneth scuh mailers of Diuinilie as haue bin either wrillen in our owne Tongue, or translated out of anie other language: And haue bin published, to the glory of God, and edification of the Church of Christ in England. Gathered into Alphabet, and such method as it is, by Andrew Maunsell, Bookeseller. Vnumquodque propter. quid. London, Printed by John Windet for Andrew Maunsell, dwelling in Lothburie, 1595." Folio, pp. 123. dedications pp. 6. with the device of a pelican and its offspring rising from the flames, round which is," Pro Lege, Rege et Grege. Love kepyth the Lawe, obeyeth the Kynge, and is good to the Commonwelthe. We are unable to open our bibliographical department with greater propriety, than in noticing this catalogue, which is termed by the learned and laborious antiquary Hearne " a very scarce, and yet a very useful book." It will be found the first digested list of publications in the English language, and is curious on many accounts, particularly as it affords the titles of many works, and records the names of various authors long since lost and forgotten. Of Andrew Maunsell the compiler, nothing more is now known,' than that he was a bookseller of ability and eminence in Lothbury: he dedicates his labours to "The qveenes most sacred Maiestie;" to "The Reverend Diuines, and Louers of Diuine Bookes;" and to "The "The Worshipfull the Master, Wardens, and Assistants of the Companie of Stationers, and to all other Printers and Booke-sellers in generall." As the last affords some insight into the plan of the publication, and is besides applicable to the compilation of catalogues in general, we shall transcribe a part of it. 66 seeing (also) many singular Bookes, not only of Diuinitie, but of other excellent Arts, after the first Impression, so spent and gone, that they lie euen as it were buried in some few studies;--I haue thought good in my poor estate to vndertake this most tire-some businesse, hoping the Lord will send a blessing vpon my labours taken in my vocation; Thinking it as necessarie for the Bookeseller (considering the number and nature of them) to have a Catalogue of our English Bookes; As the Apothecarie his Dispensatorium, or the Schoole-master his Dictionarie.' "By meanes of which my poore trauails, I shall draw to your memories Books that you could not remember; And shew to the learned such Bookes as they would not thinke were in our owne tongue; Which I haue not sleighted vp the next way, but haue to my great paines drawn the writers of any special argument together, not following the order of the learned men that haue written Latine Catalogues, Gesner, Simler, and our countriman John Bale. They make their Alphabet by the Christian name, I by the Sirname: They mingle Diuinitie, Law, Phisicke, &c. together, I set Diuinitie by itselfe: They set downe Printed and not Printed, I onely Printed.-Concerning the Books which are without Author's names called Anonymi, I haue placed them either vpon the Titles they bee entituled by, or else vpon the matter they entreate of, and sometimes vpon both, for the easier finding of them." "Concerning the bookes that be translated, I haue observed, (if the translator doe set his name) the Author, the Matter, the Translator, the Printer, (or for whome it is Printed) the yeere and the volume: For example, Lambert Danæus, his treatise of Antichrist, translated by John Swan, Printed for John Potter and Thomas Gubbin 1589. in 4. The Author's Sirname which is Danaus; The matter of the Booke which is Antichrist; The translator's Sirname which is Swan; Are or should be in Italica letters, and none other, because they are the Alphabetical names obserued in this Booke: Turne to which of these three names you will, and they will direct you to the Booke." I shall not neede to make the like examples-they are plaine inough by one example. A. MAUNSELL." One specimen from the list shall conclude this article: p. 64, letter R. "And: Kingsmill, his comfortable treatise for all such as are any manner of way, either troubled in mind, or afflicted in bodie, also an an exhortation to suffer afflictions patiently. A conflict had with Sathan. Prin, by the assignment of Christopher Barker 1585. in 8. His view of man's estate, wherein the great mercie of God in man's justification is shewed, also is annexed a godly aduise touching marriadge. Printed by Georg Bishop and Tho. Woodcocke 1588. in 8.' The second part of this very curious and valuable Catalogue shall be noticed in No. II. Killing, no Murder. THE famous pamphlet, entitled, "Killing, no Murder," which is said to have struck such a terror into the mind of Cromwell as to render the concluding part of his life miserable, though well known by name, has probably been seen by few present readers of the history of those times. Some brief account of it may therefore be no unacceptable article for the bibliographical department of the Athenæum. The full title of this piece is, "Killing, no Murder: briefly discourst in Three Questions, fit for public view; to deter and prevent Single Persons and Councils from usurping Supreme Power. By William Allen." The real author, was Captain Silas Tilus, afterwards Colonel, and celebrated for his speech in parliament in favour of excluding the Duke of York from the throne. It was first printed clandestinely in 1657, and was reprinted in 1659 with some additions. There is prefixed to it an address," To his Highness Oliver Cromwell," in which the writer ironically displays to him the great honour he shall acquire in dying for the people, and the unspeakable consolation it will be to him in the last moments of his life, to consider" with how much benefit to the world he is likely to leave it." He also very plainly apprizes him of his own purpose by this writing, "of hastening this great good." After some introductory matter alluding to Sindercombe's late plot against the Protector, the author opens his subject with stating three questions: "I. Whether my Lord Protector be a Tyrant or not? II. If he be, whether it is lawful to do justice upon him without solemnity, that is, to kill him. III. If it be lawful, whether it is like to prove profitable or noxious to the commonwealth?" With respect to the first question, he commences with the twofold definition of a tyrant, made by the civil law; one who governs without right, and one who rules tyrannically. He then discusses what it is which constituted a rightful sovereign, which he limits to the two titles of God's immediate command, and the people's choice. "This being considered (says he) have not the People of England much reason to ask the Protector, Who made thee a Prince and Judge over us? If God made thee, make it manifest to us. If the People, where did we meet to do it? Who took our subscriptions? To whom deputed we our authority? and when and where did those deputies make the choice ?" |