United States or Norfolk Island ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Foxe the martyrologist, which he wished he could have finished, but most of his papers are in "characters"; his grandson is learning to decipher them. Under the dates of September 1st and 7th Oldys records that 'the Yelverton library is in the possession of the Earl of Sussex, wherein are many volumes of Sir Francis Walsingham's papers'; and a few days later, 'Dr.
'The manuscripts were not so many as might be expected from so indefatigable a writer'; it seems that Oldys had always been too generous with his gifts and loans. Among his notices of the London libraries we find an interesting account of the collection at Lambeth, then housed in the galleries above the cloisters.
Paul's Coffee-house, where formerly most of the celebrated libraries were sold. It was while Oldys was living in Yorkshire, under the patronage of Lord Malton, that he saw the end of the library of State Papers collected by Richard Gascoyne the antiquary. The noble owner of the MSS. had been advised to destroy the papers by a lawyer, Mr.
If he had twenty copies of a work he would always open his purse for 'a different edition, a fairer copy, a larger paper. His covetousness increased as the mass of his library was multiplied: and as he lived, said Oldys, so he died, among dust and cobwebs, 'in his bundles, piles, and bulwarks of paper. Upon Dr. Mead's death his place in the book-world was taken by Dr.
He had intended them for the use of his fellow Kings-at-Arms; but it was said that he had some pique against the Heralds' College, and so 'cut them off with a volume. The rest went to the auction-room: 'The Earl of Oxford, said Oldys, 'will have a sweep at it'; and we know that the cast was successful. As for John Bagford, the scourge of the book-world, we have little to say in his defence.
Secretary Pepys gave a great library to Magdalen College at Cambridge: but among the folios peeped out little black-letter ballads and 'penny merriments, penny witticisms, penny compliments, and penny godlinesses. 'Mr. Robert Samber, says Oldys, 'must need turn virtuoso too, and have his collection: which was of all the printed tobacco-papers he could anywhere light on.
I am recalling these details to show that the amusement was popular and cheap. The ordinary price paid for a new play was less than seven pounds; Oldys, on what authority is not known, says that Shakespeare received only five pounds for "Hamlet."
Oldys has a few notes upon curious collections which he thought might be diverting to a 'satirical genius. A certain Templar, he says, had a good library of astrology, witchcraft, and magic. Mr Britton, the small-coal man, had an excellent set of chemical books,'and a great parcel of music books, many of them pricked with his own hand. The famous Dryden, and Mr.
There is an unsupported statement by Oldys to the effect that Shakespeare received but five pounds for his tragedy of Hamlet, but whether from the company who first acted it or from the publisher is not mentioned. This is the only information that has reached us respecting the exact emolument received by Shakespeare for any of his writings, but it cannot be accepted merely on such an authority.
The most recent Lives are by Stebbing , and Hume . Works , with Lives by Oldys and Birch. Novelist, b. at Bury St. Edmunds, dau. of an English f. and a French mother. For many years she lived in London, but about 1874 she went to Italy, where she d. She wrote over 40 novels, which had considerable popularity.
Word Of The Day