An engraving of theEncyclopédiepresents us in the nick of time with a faithful reproduction of a shop of a furrier of the last century. Day penetrates through a large glass bow window; all round, on shelves, are ranged Muffs and different furs; two pleasing shopwomen offer their customers enormous Muffs of miniver, and a shop-boy beats with a rod one of those furred mantles which were sent “to be kept” during the summer, to preserve them from the mites. This engraving, a precious document which may be attributed to Cochin, recalls two charming little stories of Restif de la Bretonne in hisContemporaines du Commun: one entitledLa Jolie Fourreuse, the otherLa Jolie Pelletière. Professions passed out of sight!
“Furs”—MM. de Goncourt wrote in a note of much study to their bookLa Femme au XVIIIeSiècle—“were a great luxury of Parisian ladies, at the time when the fashion was to arrive at the opera wrapt in the most superb and rarest, and to take them off little by little with coquettish art.” The reputation of the sable, the ermine, the miniver, the lynx, the otter, is indicated in theÉtrennes Fourrées dédiées aux jolies Frileuses, Geneva, 1770. Muffs have quite a history, from those on which the furrier brought discredit, in causing one to be worn by the hangman on the execution day—these were probably Muffsà la Jésuite, muffs which were not of fur, and against which a pleasantry at the commencement of the century,A petition presented to the Pope by the master furriers, solicits excommunication—up to those of Angora goats’ hair, immense Muffs which reached to the ground, and to the little Muffs at the end of the century, baptizedlittle barrels, as the Palatine was calledcat. The fashion of sledges, then very widely spread, added to the fashion of furs. An etching of Caylus, after a drawing of Coypel, about the middle of the century, shows us in a sledge set on dolphins—one of those sledges which cost ten thousand crowns—a pretty woman dressed entirely in fur, her head-dress a small bonnet of fur with an egret, carried along in a sledge, which is driven by a coachman dressed like a Muscovite, and standing at the back.À proposof furs, thePalatineowes its fortune and its name to the Duchess of Orléans, mother of the Regent, known under the name of the Princess Palatine.
Palatines—which were made of fox, of marten, of miniver—were worn for a long time withPolonaisesandHongrelines. Roy, a French poet of the 18th century, who made acquaintance with the stick at different intervals—sent some bad verses to a lady on the subject of herblue palatine. TheAlmanach des Musesof 1772 has preserved them for us. Here they are:—
That charming colour wear,The colour of the summer sky above,The colour Venus sets on every Love,Which makes the fairest faces yet more fair,As Venus in her own sweet self can prove:But the white place where falls the tufted bowIs nought indeed but lovely nakedness;Why hide it then? The beauty which men blessGains on the whole by losing, don’t you know?
That charming colour wear,
The colour of the summer sky above,
The colour Venus sets on every Love,
Which makes the fairest faces yet more fair,
As Venus in her own sweet self can prove:
But the white place where falls the tufted bow
Is nought indeed but lovely nakedness;
Why hide it then? The beauty which men bless
Gains on the whole by losing, don’t you know?
Caraccioli remarks that people used Muffs in winter just as much for elegance as for need. “The form varies continually,” he says; “to-day (1768) men carry small Muffs lined with down, and trimmed with black or grey satin.”
In 1720, women’s Muffs were very narrow and long; the crossed hands filled it exactly; afterwards they became wider, like those we may see on the hands of the pretty skaters of Lancret. A typical Muff of the epoch was the ermine Muff, fearfully large, which we find carried by the Venetian masks of the delicious Pietro Longhi, who seems to have wished to illustrate by his pictures theMemoiresof Jacques Casanova of Seingalt. In the small engravings of the century relating to travelling, which show us the stoppages at the inn, or the packings in the public vehicles, we see everywhere the feminine Muff delicately pressed against their waists by the pretty adventuresses. Boucher’s skater, who passes like a gracious Parisian little figure over a background of a Dutch landscape, doubled up but valiant, appears to make a prow of her Muff, the better to cleave the sharp cold air. But in the intimacy of private life, in the eighteenth century as now, the Muff could lend a charm to genre paintings, and the manufacturers of prints might have composed manyLittle postsandNests for love-letters, interpreting by their drawing what the author of theDictionnaire des Amoureuxwished to express, when at the wordMuffhe gives this piquant definition:A Letter-box, lined with white satin.
The most celebrated and the most delicious picture in which a Muff figures is assuredly that adorable painting known by the name ofThe Young Girl with the Muff, by Joshua Reynolds, which formed part of the beautiful collection of the Marquis of Hertford. Nothing is more delicate than this painting. That young English-woman seems rather to walk through the picture than remain fixed in it, so great, one might say, was the quickness with which the painter has caught that image in its passage with its movement of walking—the body is inclined a little forward, the head on one side; the woman’s bust, which stops at the Muff, is so fresh in its composition, so fine in its tonality, so radiant in its originality of design, that it would be enough almost by itself to establish the immortal reputation of Reynolds, who has put into his work a very quintessence of femininity, as an ideal of the most exquisite English loveliness, and also as a type, delicate and never to be forgotten, of a chilly beauty.
Nor must we forget thePortrait of Mrs. Siddons, painted by Gainsborough, in the charm of her twenty-ninth year, in 1784. This picture, which was exhibited at Manchester in 1857, is now in theNational Gallery. The charming lady, dressed in a fresh striped blue and white robe, with a fawn-coloured shawl half falling from her shoulders, has on her head a large black felt hat, ornamented with feathers—one of those hats which have done more for the vulgarisation of the glory of Gainsborough than all his studies and portraits. Mrs. Siddons is seated, holding on her lap with her left hand a comfortable Muff of fox or Siberian wolf, of which she appears to caress the fur with her right hand, as if to show off the beauty and whiteness of her spindle-shaped fingers. The mistress of the works of a master who had, it is only right to say, the most ravishing face in the world to portray. But, without needing to have further recourse to the English school, have we not that luminous portrait of Madame Vigée Lebrun, in which the Muff, raised almost level with the head, spreads the shine of its hair of tawny gold like the head of a courtezan of Venice? That astonishing painting of the end of the eighteenth century appeared in its dazzling splendour, in the midst of the square saloon of the Museum of the Louvre, killing, by mere force of freshness and light, the magistral bituminous pictures of the beginning of the century, which are its near neighbours.
Under Louis XVI. the frenzy of the toilette reached its most acute crisis: fashions succeeded one another in a few years with so much rapidity that we can scarcely follow them; people sought to outstrip in everything rather than to refine, and the Muffs, carried by men and women alike, became enormous and exaggerated. Hurtaut, in hisDictionnaire de la Ville de Paris, articleModes, makes this strange remark in the year 1784, “A lady has been seen at the opera with aMuff of momentaneous agitation.”
The intellect loses itself in seeking the exact definition of this qualificative ofmomentaneous agitation!
In 1788 a fashion was Muffs of Siberian wolf. According to theMagasin des Modes Nouvelles Françaises et Anglaises, the young folks no longer carried their Muff after the peaceable and good citizen-like fashionà la papalevel with the bottom of the waistcoat; they used it, on the contrary, like a plaything or an opera hat; they held it in their hand while gesticulating in their promenades, or carried it under their arms like a portfolio strangled and crumpled between the elbow and the chest.
The little dogs, the Muff-toy-terriers, which had continued in favour since the Regency, were more in request now than ever; every woman of fashion had her pug and her King Charles’ pet, like those small dogs that now come from Havanna.
In the celebrated coloured engraving of Debucourt,La Galerie de Bois au Palais-Royal, in 1787, we see circulating in the midst of that strange crowd which was called the medley of the Palais-Royal, extravagant types, among them women holding in their hand beside their furred cloak those incredible Muffs of an immense size, which figure also under the arms of the masked gallants of the time, with a small bow of satin attached to the fur.
Under the Revolution and the Directory the fashion of Muffs was extremes, either broad as little barrels, or narrow and minuscular; in other respects the fashion varied infinitely, and we must come to the Restoration to find the first chinchilla Muffs which harmonised with the velvet witchouras. Absurd fashions to study! What Muff would the painter choose who wished, by way of allegory, to show a grasshopper shivering in the hoar frost and the snow, to whom charitable Love brings a downy Muff? A pretty subject for a concourse of an Academy which claimed to beprécieuseand refined.
In 1835, Muffs, boas, palatines, cloaks lined with marten or fox, affected odious and indescribable forms: they used to make for a time Glove-Muffs, a sort of mittens of marten, which were soldered on to one another where the hands crossed. The Muff, that accessory of the toilet, ought to be in harmony with the general tonality and style of costume. Therefore, to undertake to describe it at that epoch would be only possible in sketching a complete history of Fashion.
The picturesque Muff of 1830 to 1850, is assuredly the big Muff of the Parisian or provincial tradeswomen, those Muffs, larders and lumber-rooms, which we meet in the deobstruent tales of Paul de Kock, and see figuring in the primitive tilted spring-carts driven by the master, in which are packed the mistress and all the assistant clerks, with a view to exploring some suburban corner on Sunday, there to laugh with their muffs pressed before their mouths, and to act a thousand follies of a doubtful taste, and to banquet plentifully, and to sing during the dessert some free-and-easy ditty, very jovial, after the fashion of those pleasant couplets of Laujon onThe Muff, which I will quote here, with the more confidence, since they figure in theChansons de Paradescollected by that boon companion, who was at the same time member of the Caveau and of the Institute:—
See what it is to be too good!One morning, leaving the warm foldOf home, Simon I saw, who stoodAnd shivered in the nipping cold;He cried, “Come here, you little pearl,I feel so very cold, my girl!”Now warm yourself!Simon, good sir, ensconce yourself!I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!My dear!I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!“I feel so very cold, my girl!”Ay me! I had my new Muff on.My head was surely in a whirlTo lend it to the good Simon.That day my kindness cost me dear;My Muff is spoilt for all the year!Now warm yourself!I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!My dear!My Muff is spoilt for all the year,For Simon’s ways are rather rough;And he knows nought of doubt or fear,He quite destroyed my poor new Muff!Simon, you’ve ruffled all its fur,Made it too large, you careless sir!Now warm yourself!I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!My dear!Made it too large, you careless sir!See: it has been entirely spoiled,’Tis metamorphosed, I aver;And seems all rumpled up and soiled.’Tis like my aunt’s Muff, all agape,Quite out of countenance and shape!Now warm yourself!Simon, good sir, ensconce yourself!I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!My dear!I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
See what it is to be too good!
One morning, leaving the warm fold
Of home, Simon I saw, who stood
And shivered in the nipping cold;
He cried, “Come here, you little pearl,
I feel so very cold, my girl!”
Now warm yourself!
Simon, good sir, ensconce yourself!
I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
My dear!
I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
“I feel so very cold, my girl!”
Ay me! I had my new Muff on.
My head was surely in a whirl
To lend it to the good Simon.
That day my kindness cost me dear;
My Muff is spoilt for all the year!
Now warm yourself!
I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
My dear!
My Muff is spoilt for all the year,
For Simon’s ways are rather rough;
And he knows nought of doubt or fear,
He quite destroyed my poor new Muff!
Simon, you’ve ruffled all its fur,
Made it too large, you careless sir!
Now warm yourself!
I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
My dear!
Made it too large, you careless sir!
See: it has been entirely spoiled,
’Tis metamorphosed, I aver;
And seems all rumpled up and soiled.
’Tis like my aunt’s Muff, all agape,
Quite out of countenance and shape!
Now warm yourself!
Simon, good sir, ensconce yourself!
I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
My dear!
I’ll lend you, sir, my bran-new Muff!
What laughter, what shouts, what chokings, in those partiesà laPaul de Kock, when an artless maiden—at the time when pleasant digestion had set its bloom on all faces—sang, one by one, these ancient couplets, with an air at once of a whimpering girl and of a woman full of coquettish intelligence.
The Muff has not always brought tears of laughter to the eyes, and a physiologist might draw from it many a curious deduction; only to cite a single instance, in the middle of theScènes de la Vie de Bohème, in the episode of Francine’s Muff, which should remain in every reader’s memory—the tears come into all our eyes resultant from an emotion at once sincere and profound.
Francine has been condemned by her doctor, andhears with her eyesthe terrible sentence of the physician.
“Don’t listen to him,” says she to her love, “don’t listen to him, Jacques, he is telling stories; we will go out to-morrow, it is All Hallows Day, it will be cold, . . . go and buy me a Muff, . . . mind it is a good one, . . . and will last a long while; I am afraid of having chilblains this winter.”
Then, when Jacques has brought the Muff: “It is very pretty,” said Francine; “I will carry it in our walk.”
The morrow, All Hallows Day, about the time of the Angelus of noon, she was seized with the death-struggle, and all her body began to tremble. “My hands are cold, cold,” she murmured, “give me my Muff, dear”—and she plunged her poor little fingers into the fur.
“It is over,” said the doctor to Jacques, “give her a last kiss;” and Jacques glued his lips to those of his darling. At the last moment, they wished to take away her Muff, but her hands still clung to it.
“No, no,” she cried, “let it be—we are in winter, it is cold. Ah my poor Jacques!”
And so Francine dies, without quitting her Muff. A poignant and lugubrious story, like the work of Murger in general; theMuff of Francinewill perhaps be the most durable chapter in theVie de Bohème. We have not been able to set this realistic scene upon the stage, but a painter, M. Haquette, has displayed it after an admirable manner in one of his best pictures exhibited in one of the Paris annual Salons.
Truly the Muff calls up many sad thoughts for sentimental and charitable souls; this winter chattel reminds them of the sorrows of those who are without fire and home and comfortable clothing, and when the north wind blows without, and the snow falls softly in sombre silence, more than one dreaming girl, with her elbow leaning on the window-sill, lets her Muff fall while thinking of those unfortunates who suffer, of the careless grasshoppers and the laborious ants, of whom an adverse fortune has deceived the foresight.
The Muff, the mysterious Muff, hides many distresses: we see it at the present day on the hands of all the working girls and milliners, who set out early in the winter mornings from their homes for the distant workshops; and it is a load upon one’s heart to see all these miserable little Muffs made of rabbit or black cat, out of which peeps often the golden point of a penny roll and a greasy paper which envelops a chlorotic piece of pork or anArlequin(bits of broken meat) bought in the early market. The Muff which warms so many pretty hands brave and toiling, seems in winter to be the refuge of virtue, shivering but victorious.
How much luxury is there, on the other hand, in the Muffs of the fine world during the last twenty years! They have been made very small, of sable tails, and very expensive; but there have been also some more modest, made with that marten of Australia which took the place of the Astrakhan, which passed out of fashion in 1860. They have been manufactured also in velvet plush or in cloth, with borders of fur or feathers, and a large bow of ribbons in the centre. Some became veritable scent-bags, perfumed with heliotrope, rose, gardenia, verbena, violet, or they were powdered inside with orris root orpoudre à la Maréchale.
An elegant and witty lady-correspondent of fashion, who signs with the wordÉtincellethe notes full of charming confusion in herCarnet d’un Mondain, lately gave the nomenclature of the Muffs of the day, painted in water-colours:
“The Nest-Muff, in satincoulissé, lined with black and white lace, with a whole company of little Indian birds and frightened paroquets hiding themselves in the satin folds.”
“The Flower-Muff, very small, of ivory plush, rouge cardinal or marine blue, with bunches of roses, marigolds, camellias, and violets blossoming in the midst of a great deal of lace.”
“The Watteau-Muff for the evening: a round of Loves painted on white satin. The Coppée-Muff: sparrows sunk in a sky of black satin. The Figaro-Muff, in black velvet, entirely covered with a net of black and gold chenille: three humming-birds in a nest of black lace. The Duchess Muff: all of Marabout, imitating fur, shaded with little bows of dead satin. The Castilian, in plush, covered with point noir: an orange parroquet in the middle standing out in relief on a fan of black lace. The Minerva, in skunk or sable, with a black satin bow and the head of a barn-door owl.”
All these fashions of to-day are already fashions of yesterday, so perpetual is the inconstancy ofla Mode! To-day the monkey, blue fox, beaver, swan, and ermine are metamorphosed into Muffs; to-morrow will come the furs of sable, of otter, of chinchilla, of squirrel, of marten, of wolf, &c. Women and furs change, and will change, soon and often.
Fashion is the everlasting Fairy; whether she take the Sunshade as a rod at the end of her gloved hand, or the Muff as a surprise-box or a cornucopia, she is never short of inventions, of prodigies, of follies, and of ruins; she seems to avenge herself on the moderns because the ancients gave her not divine honours, nor placed her upon the summit of their Olympus. Let, then, the head of this new and great goddess be adorned with a weathercock helmet, of which Love will furnish the magnetic arrow, and let a statue be raised to that great first French citizeness, who from Paris governs the world with so formidable a despotism, against whom none ever dreams of raising a revolt.
For us, who,à proposof the Sunshade, the Glove, and the Muff, have just cast a glance upon the museum of this female ruler, we are in a state of dread from the inconceivable variety of objects which were for an hour a woman’s pleasure, and, if we have not conducted our readers before all the glass cases of this national museum, great as the universe, or “the vastest in the world,” as all large milliners’ shops entitle themselves, it is because around the ornaments of women the fickle Loves will always dance their frenzied round, which only a madman can ever hope and wish to stop. It has been said that Fashion is woman’s only literature; if, however, our elegant ladies were condemned to study the special archæology of this literature, very soon—as in love—would they desert History for Romance.
APPENDIX
WE see sometimes appearing certain light little works connected either with literary history or ancient poetry, or manners and customs, which would be nothing but pretty and curious pamphlets, if the Appendix which follows them were not swelled out of all proportion with proofs and illustrations, annotated notes, documents with sidenotes, bibliographic bibliography, considerations and commentaries of all sorts, which put the reader to the torture. By this proceeding of an exaggerated literary conscience, an opuscule of thirty pages arrives sometimes at three hundred: it is in some sense a case of erudite exaltation, sometimes also a vain-glory of the investigator, who has a mind to climb up the pyramid of books he has examined, proudly there to set up his silhouette, as we plant a flag on a building as soon as it is complete.
As an epilogue to another volume of this series,The Fan, we published a sketch of documentary bibliography to indicate the principal works which we had searched for the little materials necessary for that monograph. You will find there six or eight pages of titles placed without order, and ending with this phrase of a man out of breath, and expressing extreme fatigue—et cœtera.
And in thiset cœterawe have set now a hundred library shelves in the shadow—sparing thus our most fastidious readers an extremely bitter pill, and sparing ourselves also the fatigues of an interminable catalogue of no great profit to any one, considering the nature of the work in question, and the fashion in which we have treated it.
At the conclusion of the three unpretending pieces of chit-chat which we have just engaged in aboutThe Sunshade, the Glove, and the Muff, people may expect to see figuring here the lineaments or first matters of the canvas on which we embroidered our bold arabesques. People will be deceived. It will please us for this time to hide the innumerable instruments of our thefts; they are still there by our sides, making walls and barricades upon our tables and the seats round about us. But if, on the termination of a task, we love usually to put back regularly in order a library turned upside down by the fever of researches, happy in being nourished by the intellectual juice of old books, sometimes also we are prostrated by that intense discouragement which “dumfounds a man,” according to an every-day expression. In fact, the result has not answered so great a working up of material, a picture has been dreamed of too big for the frame, the artist has been obliged to reduce himself, to resign himself, and to put in nothing of his own essence; in short, the Mosaiclittérateurlooks at the Little Thing he has just finished beside the Great Matter which he had conceived.
In like conditions, themeâ culpâis the sole preventive parade that can be made in his retreat to questions which become twisted into a note of interrogation on the smiling lips of the reader.
To make an inventory of the books we have consulted would be a torture worse than that of Tantalus, for desire, far from looking forward with eagerness, would look sadly back, like an old man who sees again in memory the women of his twentieth year, whom he has let fly under the willows without profiting in their pursuit by the vigour of his legs.
These books—which we serve not up here—are full of documents which we have not been able to enshrine, and it seems that the crumbs which fall from the table make a larger volume than the repast which has just been taken.
For the rest, a truce to sadness and superfluous regrets! Who knows whether we are not odiously unjust to ourselves? Who knows whether the little schoolboy path which we have chosen is not the prettiest, the least rugged, the most unforeseen—that is to say, the least painful and the most verdant, and at the same time the shortest?
Every work, however small it may be, requires distance, a time of calm and oblivion. The eye of the painter wanders in distress before one and the same picture for entire days; the brain of an investigator becomes anchylosed and petrified by dreaming in one and the same atmosphere of small ideas which remain attached to dress.
When we shall have unfurnished our skull of those delicate things,the Sunshade, Glove, and Muff, to carry thither a current of more serious conceptions, we shall perhaps have leisure to read again our little work as strangers, and not as producers, and thus, doubtless, we shall reflect with a satisfied smile, that there was much more in us of wisdom than carelessness in not tarrying too long amongst such charming trifles!
LONDON,14, King William Street, Strand, W.C.May 1883.In Twelve Volumes, Crown 8vo, Parchment Boards or Cloth, per Volume, 7s. 6d.THEOLD SPANISH ROMANCESILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS.THE HISTORY OF DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA.Translated from the Spanish ofMiguel de Cervantes SaavedrabyMotteux. With copious Notes (including the Spanish Ballads), and an Essay on the Life and Writings ofCervantesbyJohn G. Lockhart. Preceded by a Short Notice of the Life and Works ofPeter Anthony MotteuxbyHenri Van Laun. Illustrated with Sixteen Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios. Four Volumes.LAZARILLO DE TORMES.ByDon Diego Mendoza. Translated byThomas Roscoe. AndGUZMAN D’ALFARACHE. ByMateo Aleman. Translated byBrady. Illustrated with Eight Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios. Two Volumes.ASMODEUS.ByLe Sage. Translated from the French. Illustrated with Four Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios.THE BACHELOR OF SALAMANCA.ByLe Sage. Translated from the French byJames Townsend. Illustrated with Four Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios.VANILLO GONZALES; or, The Merry Bachelor. ByLe Sage. Translated from the French. Illustrated with Four Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios.THE ADVENTURES OF GIL BLAS OF SANTILLANE.Translated from the French ofLe SagebyTobias Smollett. With Biographical and Critical Notice ofLe SagebyGeorge Saintsbury. New Edition, carefully revised. Illustrated with Twelve Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios. Three Volumes.In Twelve Volumes, Crown 8vo, Parchment Boards or Cloth, per Volume, 7s. 6d.OLD ENGLISH ROMANCESILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS.THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY,Gentleman. ByLaurence Sterne. In Two Vols. With Eight Etchings byDammanfrom Original Drawings byHarry Furniss.THE OLD ENGLISH BARON:A Gothic Story. ByClara Reeve.ALSOTHE CASTLE OF OTRANTO:A Gothic Story. ByHorace Walpole. In One Vol. With Two Portraits and Four Original Drawings byA. H. Tourrier, Etched byDamman.THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS.In Four Vols. Carefully Revised and Corrected from the Arabic byJonathan Scott, LL.D., Oxford. With Nineteen Original Etchings byAd. Lalauze.THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEK.ByWm. Beckford. With Notes, Critical and Explanatory.ALSORASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA.BySamuel Johnson. In One Vol. With Portrait ofBeckford, and Four Original Etchings, designed byA. H. Tourrier, and Etched byDamman.ROBINSON CRUSOE.ByDaniel Defoe. In Two Vols. With Biographical Memoir, Illustrative Notes, and Eight Etchings byM. Mouilleron, and Portrait byL. Flameng.GULLIVER’S TRAVELS.ByJonathan Swift. With Five Etchings and Portrait byAd. Lalauze.A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY.ByLaurence Sterne.ALSOA TALE OF A TUB.ByJonathan Swift. In One Vol. With Five Etchings and Portrait byEd. Hedouin.SOME PRESS NOTICES.Daily Telegraph.“These editions are noteworthy as containing original etchings by artists of high repute. Thus nineteen exquisite plates by the French etcher, M. Lalauze, gives especial attractiveness to the ‘Thousand and One Nights;’ and the two fanciful histories of the Caliph Vathek and Prince Rasselas are illustrated by designs of Mr. A. H. Tourrier, etched by M. Damman. It is a pleasure to hold a ‘Robinson Crusoe’ or the ‘Tale of a Tub’ in one’s hands; it is a positive luxury to read those masterpieces in a luxurious shape, large print, on good paper, accompanied by exquisite illustrations.”The Scotsman.“These volumes will take rank, for beauty of typography and general excellence of appearance, with any books of the kind that have recently been published; while the etchings by M. Lalauze are among some of the finest of his productions. They are full of vigour and striking originality, and are what they profess to be—good illustrations of the story to which they relate. There are not many men of wholesome minds who do not find enjoyment in ‘Robinson Crusoe’ whenever they can lay hands on it; and assuredly there is no one possessing anything in the shape of a library who would not desire to have a good edition of the work among his books; in short, nothing but praise can be given to this edition of these books. No one can pretend to be acquainted with English literature who is ignorant of any of the works here published.”Glasgow Herald.“The merits of this new issue lie in exquisite clearness of type, completeness; notes and biographical notices, short and pithy, and a number of very fine etchings and portraits. The illustrations of Gulliver are particularly effective, such as the ‘Academy of Laputa’ and the ‘Visions of Glubbdubdrib.’”London Figaro.“We congratulate the publishers upon the issue of a capital series of Old English Romances. They will form a most delightful collection.”Magazine of Art.“The text of the new four volume edition of the ‘Thousand and One Nights’ is that revised by Jonathan Scott from the French of Galland. It is, in fact, the text in which the incomparable ‘Arabian Nights’ became in England the classic it is. The etchings are uncommonly skilful and finished work; they contain some charming figures; they constitute a true attraction. In another volume of this series Beckford’s wild and gloomy ‘Vathek’ appears side by side with Johnson’s admirable ‘Rasselas.’”The Literary World.“A publishers’ notice prefixed to each volume states that ‘one thousand copies of this edition have been printed and the type distributed. No more will be published.’ Although some of these works are now easily obtainable in a cheap form, good editions are rare and eagerly sought by those who make any pretence of making a library. Here is an opportunity of securing as choice an edition as can be desired at a comparatively low price, the value of which will be enhanced before long by its scarcity.”The Times.“Prettily printed and prettily illustrated, these attractive volumes deserve their welcome from all students of seventeenth century literature.”The Daily News.“The merit for modern readers of these old stories lies partly in their inexhaustible wit, their knowledge of human nature, which never grows stale, and partly in their pictures of the old reckless life of Spain. A typical example of these novels is the fictitious autobiography of Guzman d’Alfarache, the Spanish rogue, written by Matthew Aleman at the beginning of the seventeenth century.”Daily Telegraph.“A handy and beautiful edition, in twelve volumes, of the works of the Spanish masters of romance calls for a word of acknowledgment from all who desire to see the lights of foreign literature fitly presented to the notice of English readers. We may say of this edition of the immortal work of Cervantes, that it is most tastefully and admirably executed, and that it is embellished with a series of striking etchings from the pen of the Spanish artist, De Los Rios. . . . Those who have already made acquaintance with these masterpieces of exotic humour will need no encouragement to send them once again to a fountain from which such pure enjoyment is to be derived, and in so acceptable a shape as Messrs. Nimmo & Bain have provided.”The Scotsman.“What man of middle age is there, who has been a reader of books, who does not look back with pleasure to his first acquaintance with ‘Don Quixote’ or the ‘Adventures of Gil Blas’? If he has been a wise man of equal mind, he has gone further afield in these romances, and has made acquaintance with ‘Asmodeus,’ ‘The Bachelor of Salamanca,’ and other works of a like kind. They have been read by many thousands of British readers, and they will be read by many thousands more. . . . What the reading public have reason to congratulate themselves upon is, that so neat, compact, and well-arranged an edition of romances that can never die is put within their reach. The publishers have spared no pains with them. It has already been said that Mr. Saintsbury has written a prefatorial notice of Le Sage; a similar work has been done by other hands in the case of Cervantes. It is satisfactory to find publishers turning their attention to the reproduction, in worthy form, of classic fiction; and the hope may be entertained that in this case the enterprise will meet with merited reward.”Westminster Review.“We notice with warm welcome a new and very handsome illustrated edition of the original ‘Arabian Nights Entertainment,’ the ‘real Simon pure,’ and never have we seen the fascinating companion of our youth more ‘daintily dight.’ Type and paper are both of the finest quality, while M. Lalauze’s graceful and delicate etchings lend an additional charm to the text. ‘The Thousand and One Nights of Schéhérézade’ occupy four goodly volumes, and uniform with them is Beckford’s ‘Vathek’ and Dr. Johnson’s ‘Rasselas’ in one volume.”J. C. NIMMO & BAIN,14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.
LONDON,14, King William Street, Strand, W.C.May 1883.
LONDON,
14, King William Street, Strand, W.C.
May 1883.
In Twelve Volumes, Crown 8vo, Parchment Boards or Cloth, per Volume, 7s. 6d.
In Twelve Volumes, Crown 8vo, Parchment Boards or Cloth, per Volume, 7s. 6d.
THEOLD SPANISH ROMANCESILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS.
THE
ILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS.
THE HISTORY OF DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA.Translated from the Spanish ofMiguel de Cervantes SaavedrabyMotteux. With copious Notes (including the Spanish Ballads), and an Essay on the Life and Writings ofCervantesbyJohn G. Lockhart. Preceded by a Short Notice of the Life and Works ofPeter Anthony MotteuxbyHenri Van Laun. Illustrated with Sixteen Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios. Four Volumes.
LAZARILLO DE TORMES.ByDon Diego Mendoza. Translated byThomas Roscoe. AndGUZMAN D’ALFARACHE. ByMateo Aleman. Translated byBrady. Illustrated with Eight Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios. Two Volumes.
ASMODEUS.ByLe Sage. Translated from the French. Illustrated with Four Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios.
THE BACHELOR OF SALAMANCA.ByLe Sage. Translated from the French byJames Townsend. Illustrated with Four Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios.
VANILLO GONZALES; or, The Merry Bachelor. ByLe Sage. Translated from the French. Illustrated with Four Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios.
THE ADVENTURES OF GIL BLAS OF SANTILLANE.Translated from the French ofLe SagebyTobias Smollett. With Biographical and Critical Notice ofLe SagebyGeorge Saintsbury. New Edition, carefully revised. Illustrated with Twelve Original Etchings byR. de Los Rios. Three Volumes.
In Twelve Volumes, Crown 8vo, Parchment Boards or Cloth, per Volume, 7s. 6d.OLD ENGLISH ROMANCESILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS.
In Twelve Volumes, Crown 8vo, Parchment Boards or Cloth, per Volume, 7s. 6d.
ILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS.
THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY,Gentleman. ByLaurence Sterne. In Two Vols. With Eight Etchings byDammanfrom Original Drawings byHarry Furniss.
THE OLD ENGLISH BARON:A Gothic Story. ByClara Reeve.
ALSO
THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO:A Gothic Story. ByHorace Walpole. In One Vol. With Two Portraits and Four Original Drawings byA. H. Tourrier, Etched byDamman.
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS.In Four Vols. Carefully Revised and Corrected from the Arabic byJonathan Scott, LL.D., Oxford. With Nineteen Original Etchings byAd. Lalauze.
THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEK.ByWm. Beckford. With Notes, Critical and Explanatory.
ALSO
RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA.BySamuel Johnson. In One Vol. With Portrait ofBeckford, and Four Original Etchings, designed byA. H. Tourrier, and Etched byDamman.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.ByDaniel Defoe. In Two Vols. With Biographical Memoir, Illustrative Notes, and Eight Etchings byM. Mouilleron, and Portrait byL. Flameng.
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS.ByJonathan Swift. With Five Etchings and Portrait byAd. Lalauze.
A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY.ByLaurence Sterne.
ALSO
A TALE OF A TUB.ByJonathan Swift. In One Vol. With Five Etchings and Portrait byEd. Hedouin.
SOME PRESS NOTICES.
Daily Telegraph.
“These editions are noteworthy as containing original etchings by artists of high repute. Thus nineteen exquisite plates by the French etcher, M. Lalauze, gives especial attractiveness to the ‘Thousand and One Nights;’ and the two fanciful histories of the Caliph Vathek and Prince Rasselas are illustrated by designs of Mr. A. H. Tourrier, etched by M. Damman. It is a pleasure to hold a ‘Robinson Crusoe’ or the ‘Tale of a Tub’ in one’s hands; it is a positive luxury to read those masterpieces in a luxurious shape, large print, on good paper, accompanied by exquisite illustrations.”
The Scotsman.
“These volumes will take rank, for beauty of typography and general excellence of appearance, with any books of the kind that have recently been published; while the etchings by M. Lalauze are among some of the finest of his productions. They are full of vigour and striking originality, and are what they profess to be—good illustrations of the story to which they relate. There are not many men of wholesome minds who do not find enjoyment in ‘Robinson Crusoe’ whenever they can lay hands on it; and assuredly there is no one possessing anything in the shape of a library who would not desire to have a good edition of the work among his books; in short, nothing but praise can be given to this edition of these books. No one can pretend to be acquainted with English literature who is ignorant of any of the works here published.”
Glasgow Herald.
“The merits of this new issue lie in exquisite clearness of type, completeness; notes and biographical notices, short and pithy, and a number of very fine etchings and portraits. The illustrations of Gulliver are particularly effective, such as the ‘Academy of Laputa’ and the ‘Visions of Glubbdubdrib.’”
London Figaro.
“We congratulate the publishers upon the issue of a capital series of Old English Romances. They will form a most delightful collection.”
Magazine of Art.
“The text of the new four volume edition of the ‘Thousand and One Nights’ is that revised by Jonathan Scott from the French of Galland. It is, in fact, the text in which the incomparable ‘Arabian Nights’ became in England the classic it is. The etchings are uncommonly skilful and finished work; they contain some charming figures; they constitute a true attraction. In another volume of this series Beckford’s wild and gloomy ‘Vathek’ appears side by side with Johnson’s admirable ‘Rasselas.’”
The Literary World.
“A publishers’ notice prefixed to each volume states that ‘one thousand copies of this edition have been printed and the type distributed. No more will be published.’ Although some of these works are now easily obtainable in a cheap form, good editions are rare and eagerly sought by those who make any pretence of making a library. Here is an opportunity of securing as choice an edition as can be desired at a comparatively low price, the value of which will be enhanced before long by its scarcity.”
The Times.
“Prettily printed and prettily illustrated, these attractive volumes deserve their welcome from all students of seventeenth century literature.”
The Daily News.
“The merit for modern readers of these old stories lies partly in their inexhaustible wit, their knowledge of human nature, which never grows stale, and partly in their pictures of the old reckless life of Spain. A typical example of these novels is the fictitious autobiography of Guzman d’Alfarache, the Spanish rogue, written by Matthew Aleman at the beginning of the seventeenth century.”
Daily Telegraph.
“A handy and beautiful edition, in twelve volumes, of the works of the Spanish masters of romance calls for a word of acknowledgment from all who desire to see the lights of foreign literature fitly presented to the notice of English readers. We may say of this edition of the immortal work of Cervantes, that it is most tastefully and admirably executed, and that it is embellished with a series of striking etchings from the pen of the Spanish artist, De Los Rios. . . . Those who have already made acquaintance with these masterpieces of exotic humour will need no encouragement to send them once again to a fountain from which such pure enjoyment is to be derived, and in so acceptable a shape as Messrs. Nimmo & Bain have provided.”
The Scotsman.
“What man of middle age is there, who has been a reader of books, who does not look back with pleasure to his first acquaintance with ‘Don Quixote’ or the ‘Adventures of Gil Blas’? If he has been a wise man of equal mind, he has gone further afield in these romances, and has made acquaintance with ‘Asmodeus,’ ‘The Bachelor of Salamanca,’ and other works of a like kind. They have been read by many thousands of British readers, and they will be read by many thousands more. . . . What the reading public have reason to congratulate themselves upon is, that so neat, compact, and well-arranged an edition of romances that can never die is put within their reach. The publishers have spared no pains with them. It has already been said that Mr. Saintsbury has written a prefatorial notice of Le Sage; a similar work has been done by other hands in the case of Cervantes. It is satisfactory to find publishers turning their attention to the reproduction, in worthy form, of classic fiction; and the hope may be entertained that in this case the enterprise will meet with merited reward.”
Westminster Review.
“We notice with warm welcome a new and very handsome illustrated edition of the original ‘Arabian Nights Entertainment,’ the ‘real Simon pure,’ and never have we seen the fascinating companion of our youth more ‘daintily dight.’ Type and paper are both of the finest quality, while M. Lalauze’s graceful and delicate etchings lend an additional charm to the text. ‘The Thousand and One Nights of Schéhérézade’ occupy four goodly volumes, and uniform with them is Beckford’s ‘Vathek’ and Dr. Johnson’s ‘Rasselas’ in one volume.”
J. C. NIMMO & BAIN,14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTEOriginal printed spelling and punctuation variations are mostly retained. Since small caps are not well supported in mobile formats (e.g. epub), they have beenReinforced Thuswith an underline.Page 104: “villanously” changed to “villainously”.
Original printed spelling and punctuation variations are mostly retained. Since small caps are not well supported in mobile formats (e.g. epub), they have beenReinforced Thuswith an underline.
Page 104: “villanously” changed to “villainously”.