ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

PREFACE.

BEFORE I advert, in some detail, to the character and contents of the ensuing volume, I wish to place in the hands of the reader the following Affidavit, sworn by me, and filed in the Court of Queen's Bench,* in answer to certain charges and insinuations contained in an anonymous tract, published towards the close of last year, entitled "Literary Cookery."

The affidavit (taken in connection with the prefaces to my two editions of "Notes and Emendations to the text of Shakespeare's Plays ") to a certain extent explains the whole matter, and renders it unnecessary to notice, in any other way, the particular expressions of a libel, which compelled me, with the utmost reluctance, to apply for a Criminal Information. That species of redress the forms and practice of the Court did not permit me to obtain; but the Lord Chief Justice took the opportunity of stating his conviction that I had cleared myself from all imputation, adding, in terms too flattering for repetition here, his opinion of me, whom his Lordship

* It was not filed until the beginning of May last, owing to a mistaken notion on the part of my legal friends, that the application founded upon the affidavit having been unsuccessful, it could not be placed upon record in the usual way.

b

happened to know, and of my labours in antiquarian literature, with which his Lordship was also acquainted.

AFFIDAVIT.

IN THE QUEEN'S BENCH.

I, John Payne Collier, of Maidenhead, in the County of Berks, Esquire, Barrister-at-law, and one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society of Antiquaries of London, make oath and say :

1. That in the years 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1844, I prepared for the press and published an edition of the works of Shakespeare:-that in the spring of the year 1849 I purchased of the late Mr. Rodd, of great Newport Street, bookseller, a copy of the second folio of Shakespeare's Plays, bearing the date of, and which I believe was published in the year 1632; and which copy contained, when I so purchased it, a great number of manuscript notes, purporting to be corrections, alterations, and emendations of the original text, made, as I believe, by the same person, and at a period nearly contemporaneous with the publication of the said folio itself.

2. In order that any person interested in the subject might have an opportunity of inspecting the said book, and examining the said manuscript notes, I exhibited the said book to and before the Shakespeare Society, and three times before the Society of Antiquaries, and it was inspected and examined by a great number of persons. The said folio has, since the publication of the volume next hereinafter mentioned, become, and is now, the property of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire.

3. In the year 1852 I published a volume containing some, but not all, of the said manuscript corrections, alterations, and emendations, and a facsimile of a part of one page of the said folio, with the manuscript emendations thereon; and an "Introduction," setting forth the circumstances under which I became possessed of the said folio edition, and which induced me to publish the said volume.

[ocr errors]

4. In the year 1853 I published a second edition of the said notes and emendations, containing, besides the said "Introduction," a statement, in the form of a Preface to the last-mentioned edition, of facts and circumstances which occurred subsequently to the publication of my first edition of the said "Notes and Emendations,”- -a copy of which second edition is

now shown to me and marked with the letter A. And I say, that all the statements in the said Preface and Introduction, relative to the discovery, contents, and authenticity of the said folio copy, and the manuscript notes, corrections, alterations, and emendations thereof are true; and that every note, correction, alteration, and emendation in each of the said two editions, and every word, figure, and sign therein, purporting or professing to be a note, correction, alteration, or emendation of the text, is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, a true and accurate copy of the original manuscript in the said folio copy of 1632; and that I have not, in either of the said editions, to the best of my knowledge and belief, inserted a single word, stop, sign, note, correction, alteration, or emendation of the said original text of Shakespeare, which is not a faithful copy of the said original manuscript, and which I do not believe to have been written, as aforesaid, not long after the publication of the said folio copy of the year 1632.

5. In the year 1811, I attended each of a course of fifteen lectures given by the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Shakespeare and Milton, and took, in pencil, short-hand notes of the same. These notes I laid aside, and was unable to find any of them until the year 1854, when I removed from Gey's House, Maidenhead, to my present residence at Riverside, Maidenhead. I then discovered the original notes of the first, second, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and twelfth lectures, and also transcripts in long-hand of some of the said notes; but the notes of the remaining lectures I have never been able to find. I also, about the same time, found the original Prospectus of the said lectures stitched to the fragments of a diary of mine, which is now shown to me, and marked B, and which is in the same state as when I so found it. I do not remember when I put the figures in pencil "1812" upon the said Prospectus, or the same figures in ink upon the said Diary; but the writing of the said figures on each of them is mine. Having discovered the said short-hand notes, I transcribed such of them as had not been before transcribed, for the purpose of sending, and afterwards sent articles thereon, and extracts therefrom, for publication in a periodical called "Notes and Queries," the numbers of which, containing my communications on the subject of the said lectures, are now shown to me, and marked respectively C., D., E., F.; and I say that the pieces therein purporting to bear my name were written by me, and that the statements therein are true.

6. After I had completed the transcripts of the said lectures, I destroyed

the original short-hand notes thereof, as being of no value, except the two now produced to me, and marked G. and H., which are the original notes taken down by me, from the mouth of the said Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in the year 1811 as aforesaid.

7. Seeing the pencil date "1812" on the said Prospectus, and the same date also on my Diary, I assumed that that was the true date. I had no purpose, desire, motive, or intention to misrepresent the date when the said lectures were delivered, and I verily believed, when I sent the said communications for publication in "Notes and Queries," that 1812 was the year in which the said Prospectus was issued, and the said Lectures were delivered. And I say, that in the copy of the Prospectus which I sent for publication in the said "Notes and Queries," I inserted the date 1812 in brackets, for the purpose of indicating that the said date was not part of the Prospectus itself, but was added by me as the year when it was issued. I further say that I never read or saw "Gilman's Life of Coleridge," or De Morgan's Book of Almanacks, mentioned in the pamphlet hereinafter referred to, and marked K, and never referred to, or consulted, any book or authority whatever, upon the subject of the date of the said Lectures ;that I did not know, and had not to my recollection ever heard, when I sent the said communications to the said "Notes and Queries," that any other date than 1812 had been ascribed to the said lectures, or been supposed to be the year of their delivery ;-that my communications to "Notes and Queries " were gratuitous, and my motive for making the same is truly stated in the said communications bearing my name, and contained in the numbers of the said Periodical hereinbefore referred to.

8. The reference in page 58 of the said "Notes and Queries," No. 247, to the lecture therein called the third, was intended by me of the third in my possession, being the sixth of the said course of Lectures: and I say that the word "scientific" in the copy of the Prospectus of 1818, printed in the said "Notes and Queries," No. 245, page 22, is either an error in copying, or a misprint for the word "specific," but I cannot state which, as the original manuscript of the said article, sent by me to the Editor of the said "Notes and Queries," has, as I am informed and believe, been destroyed.

9. On the 21st day of November, 1855, I was first informed of, and first saw the pamphlet now shown to me, and marked K; and I say that the statements and imputations therein contained refer to me, and to my said Editions of the said "Notes and Emendations to the text of Shakespeare's

Plays," ," and my said notes and publications in the said "Notes and Queries " relating to the said Lectures, and that the said statements and imputations, except so far as relates to the mere inaccuracy of date, and of the words in the eighth paragraph of this my Affidavit mentioned, are wholly, and I believe maliciously, false.

[blocks in formation]

Sworn at the Judge's Chambers, Rolls Garden, Chancery
Lane, this eighth day of January, 1856, before me,
Wm. Clark, a Commissioner, &c.

As it is probable that few of my readers will have seen the pamphlet entitled "Literary Cookery," more especially as it was withdrawn from circulation, when it was known that it was about to be made the subject of a judicial proceeding, it may be fit for me to say something in farther explanation of portions of my affidavit. I will first advert to those paragraphs which particularly relate to Coleridge's seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton, and which fill about the first half of the succeeding sheets.

The Lectures are, as nearly as possible, transcripts of my own short-hand notes, taken at the close of the year 1811, and at the opening of the year 1812. My father taught me at an early age the use of abbreviated characters, and I hardly know any species of instruction that, in after-life, has stood me in greater stead. It has, it is true, made ordinary writing more wearisome; but, in as much as we have not yet arrived at the period when people will be sensible of the absurdity of persevering in the present dilatory and complicated method, I have been obliged to conform to the established practice. If printers could have decyphered my marks and symbols, as they really might have done (and as I learned them) by a very brief study, I should have been spared an infinity of labour in my time.

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »