ел ducted to a Mr. Turner, who assisted me. I mean you shall at 17. "DEAR SIR, Carlisle, April 12, 1783. "You and Dr. Kippis will, I am sure, with great candour, excuse the delay of Cleiveland's article for the Biographica Britannica (the text of which has been finished some time, and the notes only remain to be completed) when you know the distress in which I and my family have been for near six weeks past involved, by the unhappy accounts I have received every post of my son's declining health, who now lies at the point of death at Marseilles, all hope of his recovery having long been lost. He received at first great benefit from his voyage to Italy; but the air at Leghorn and Pisa disagreed with him, and he removed to the south of France, when, alas! the disease had taken root too deep to be eradicated, and we hourly expect to hear of its fatal termination. This has almost reduced his poor mother and sisters here to the same state; and I have had my attention too much distracted to be able to pursue literary subjects. We are endeavouring to fortify ourselves to receive the last melancholy account with all possible resignation; and to submit, as we ought, to the will of God. "I cannot, however, delay my acknowledgement for your last obliging letter about the Spectators, &c. which mentions the satisfactory circumstance of your having at last brought the booksellers to a final agreement on the terms proposed some time since. Two preliminaries of which were, that they were to deliver up to you all the sheets of two former works, formerly projected by the late Jacob Tonson, viz. The Works of Villiers Duke of Buckingham, and the Works of Lord Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyat, &c. The delivery of all the sheets of both these publications, so far as they go, into your care, bona fide and without reservation, must be performed without delay; and by that time you are able to inform me that you have received them (mentioning the number of copies of each work, and how far in the alphabet the sheet of each work extend to), I hope I shall be able to collect my spirits sufficiently to give you all possible information about the plan, execution, materials, and assistances for completing the new edition of the Tatlers, Spectators, and Guardians, according to what is already executed in the second volume of the Spectator, which has been long ago printed off. "Had I consulted only my own interest (who was under no obligations at Mr. Tonson's death to carry on my scheme with these new proprietors), I might have paid back to his family what money had been advanced by Mr. Tonson, and begun myself a superb edition by private subscription; which my numerous friends and acquaintance, among people of rank, would have made extremely profitable to me and my family. But I have been content to forego this advantage, and to give it up to the booksellers, with no other reservation than their resigning the sheets of the two petty incomplete works above-mentioned; and therefore I hope they will be sensible of the value of my concession, and without delay deliver up all the sheets to you for my use, to be disposed of as I shall think proper. In your friendship and attachment to me, I place an implicit confidence; and therefore hope soon to hear that you have received them. "In the mean time, with what application I can bring my mind to give, I will proceed to finish the article of Cleiveland, and send it up to you as soon as finished. "We all join in kind respects to cousin Nichols and yourself; beseeching the Almighty that you may never like us experience the loss of an only son, when, with fondest hopes, we had seen him ripen into perfect manhood. "I remain, dear Sir, very truly yours, THO. DROMORE." 18. BISHOP PERCY to Mr. ALLEN *. "MY GOOD MR. ALLEN, Carlisle, April 26, 1783. "You will I know be much concerned to hear that a fatal consumptive complaint hath deprived me of my son, whom I sent last autumn to try the effect of a warmer climate, but in vain; for, after lingering through the winter, he deceased at Marseilles in the south of France about the beginning of this month, though we did not receive the account till lately. Our sorrow, though great, is alleviated by the assurance we have received from the clergyman that attended him, that his reflections in his last illness were proper and devout, and that he appeared deeply affected with those religious impressions which give us a comfortable hope that he has only been removed from youthful temptations to a blessed immortality. If you mention our loss to your good neighbours Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Williams, I know they will kindly sympathise with us. "Will you now allow me to trouble you to call in Serjeant'sinn, and pay my assurance for the last quarter, £.1. 5s. before the 3d of May. I have given a draught on the other side. The other 10s. be pleased to give to poor Mrs. Rolt at Mr. Townsend's, tallow-chandler, No. 396, facing Cecil-street, Strand, merely to remind her that I do not forget her (this small sum Dr. Johnson's neighbour, landlord, and "dear friend." See a notice of him in the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. IX. p. 417; but his name was Edmund not Edward. is a balance of an account with Messrs. Gosling, or I should make it more, as I shall hereafter). Tell her I received her letter, but am too full of trouble at present to write, and I have not the least acquaintance with Mr. Wallis, about whom she writes to me, or I would apply to him to pay her what is due for her attendance at the Opera-house. Perhaps if she relates her tale to you, you can put her in way to be paid, or perhaps Dr. Johnson would generously serve her in it; she is really a great object of compassion. Excuse all this trouble. Mrs. Percy joins in compliments, with, dear Mr. Allen, "Your obliged servant, THO. DROMORE." 19. BISHOP PERCY to Mr. NICHOLS. "DEAR SIR, Carlisle, May 16, 1783. "I have duly received your obliging letters in succession, and shall now endeavour to give you a sketch of the original plan for the improved edition of the Spectators, &c. as settled between Mr. Tonson and myself, near twenty years ago, at least I think in 1764, but which my becoming Domestic Chaplain and Secretary to the present Duke of Northumberland prevented me from executing, as my time became appropriated, and his Grace's employment left me not sufficient leisure for so voluminous a piece of editorship. "Mr. Tonson's intention was not to exceed the original number of voluines. The Spectators were still to be confined to eight, the Tatlers to four, and the Guardians to two. For this reason the notes were to be short as possible, and to be confined merely to necessary explanation or illustration. It was intended that these should principally relate to manners and customs, give concealed names and characters, and point out hidden allusions and less obvious references. "How this was performed and executed you will see in those sheets of the second volume, 12mo, which were then printed, of this intended edition. There you will see a specimen of this work, the aim of which was to give, "1. A correct text, chiefly printed from the first octavo edition, which was published under Steele's own inspection, and received from his pen, or that of Addison, while it went through the press, innumerable alterations and improvements, as may be seen by comparing this octavo edition with the original papers; and among your materials you will find one 12mo copy, collated throughout, with the original papers; and you have also the said original papers bound up in volumes, as also complete copies of the octavo editions, which ought generally to be your text, except in such numbers of the Spectator, Tatler, and Guardian as were republished by Tickel in the four volumes of Addison's Works, 4to, where it may be supposed the latest improvements of Addison's pen are correctly given. These four volumes, therefore, will give you a standard text for all Addison's papers; and will clearly point out what parts of the Tatler were written by him, which otherwise would not have been so well ascertained. For all the other papers you should follow the first octavo edition, and where any oversight appears consult the original papers, and the next edition after the first octavo. 66 2. Notes; these I said were principally to illustrate and explain forgotten customs and manners, obscure references, and local and temporary or personal allusions. Among the notes sometimes it would be curious and entertaining to give some of the original passages as they stood in first fugitive publication in the separate papers, and to show how they were altered when they were collected into volumes. In one or two instances you will find the papers has been new written for the 8vo edition, and frequently paragraphs omitted or inserted; these may properly be thrown into the notes. The advertisements, &c. at the end of the original papers will frequently illustrate passages in the papers themselves, pointing out the reigning amusements, follies, and topics of conversation alluded to in the text. "3. To give the names of the concealed authors, wherever they can be recovered. Bishop Pearce wrote some numbers; so did Lord Chancellor Hardwicke and Mr. Hughes, besides several others, who were more or less occasional correspondents. Some of these are recovered, and perhaps others may be communicated to you for a subsequent edition when once the public hath seen the atteinpt. "4. To give more elegant translations of all the mottoes and classical quotations, from the latest and best versions of the classics. The common current editions give the mottoes as translated by Creech for Horace and Theocritus, those of Virgil from Dryden (which, though perhaps more elegant and spirited than that of Pitt, is frequently more remote from the original, and often gives quite a different idea from that alluded to in the Spectator,) &c. Of late years we have had all the classics re-translated; and most of them far better than they had been done when the mottoes were first published. Sometimes, however, no printed version will quite give the turn or peculiar phraseology which is alluded to; there a new translation should be attempted, or that of any printed version altered or adapted to the particular purpose. You will see some instances in the specimen given in the second volume. "5. A table of contents to each volume, in the manner of the Rambler, Adventurer, &c. giving, in a concise manner, the subject of each paper, and the name of the author, as for instance, "Volume I. No. 7. On Vulgar Superstition. Addison. "No. 8. On the Masquerade. Ditto (or, The same). "No. 19. On Envy. Steele. "No. 24. On Impertinence. Ditto. "If this is done properly to each volume, then one general Index will do for the whole. Where the author is not known, then say anonymous, and sometimes, various writers. "And here I think the original single letters should still be kept subscribed at the end of each paper as Addison and Steele fixed them in the Spectators, viz. CLIO for Addison and R. S. T. for Steele, except in the Tatlers, &c. where Addison's name may be given at length; but wherever in the Spectators any concealed occasional writers are recovered, there you may mention it in a note. "This is the general outline; and the specimen of the execution may be seen in the sheets of the second volume, which you must examine, as far as it goes. I know not also but there were some sheets of the third volume also printed. These sheets you must get and gather them into a volume; though when you re-print them you will probably much enlarge the notes if you increase the size and number of volumes. which, however, I question but you will injure the sale, as the former size will be the object of cheaper purchase, and probably occasion a preference to be given to printed editions. This at least was Mr. Tonson's opinion, and for this reason he meant to contract the notes, &c. as above-mentioned; however, all this I leave to you and the booksellers. In "I at first thought only of publishing the Spectators; then Mr. Tonson persuaded me to take in the Tatlers and Guardians also, and I made collections for them all, which you have in your possession. Being obliged to decline the work, Dr. Calder took it up; and he can give you further information, and assist you in executing it, I doubt not, sufficiently well. He had written in interleaved volumes notes, &c. which should, however, be carefully revised before they are committed to press. This revisal I should have performed myself for him last year if Mr. Rivington had readily closed with the business, but he made it so disagreeable, that I had no pleasure in thinking any more of the subject at that time, and I cannot be answerable for any part of the work but those sheets of the second volume, which near twenty years ago were printed under my own inspection. Ever since I have collected all the books and papers that I thought might be of use; and with their assistance and your own great fund of this sort of knowledge and happy skill at illustration and biographical commentary (as displayed in Dr. King's Works, your Supplement to Swift, and Life of Bowyer), you will, I am persuaded, give such an edition of the Tatlers, Spectators, and Guardians as will render those useful and entertaining volumes new favourites with the public, and renew the property to the booksellers. "Whether Dr. Calder has the interleaved volumes by him, or whether they are amidst the great mass of materials and collections delivered last year to you, you will soon see, and by apply |