"A substitute shines brightly as a kingUntil a king be by."
"A substitute shines brightly as a kingUntil a king be by."
"My library was dukedom large enough."—Shakespeare.
Mr. Burton resided at No. 174 Hudson Street, New York, and owned also a beautiful country-seat at Glen Cove, Long Island, now the property of Mr. S. L. M. Barlow. In a building adjoining his Hudson Street residence, and connected therewith by a conservatory gallery, were contained his magnificent library, treasures of art, and precious relics. Scholars, actors, and men of art and letters were frequent visitors there, and the owner took a laudable pride in displaying his matchless collection.
A very interesting story of the painter Elliot may be told in this connection. He was often a visitor, and the striking resemblance between the artist's head and the accepted bust of Shakespeare was a matter of common observation. On one occasion, on being shown byBurton a choice Shakespearian acquisition, he became intensely interested, and quietly seated himself in a study-chair the better to examine the prize. "Meantime," says our narrator, "Burton and myself were engaged in other parts of the house, and at last we came back to the library. Burton looked through the door, and placing one hand on his mouth, he put the other on my chest, and thus held me back. I shall never forget his singular look at the moment. There sat Elliot at the table, dressed in a suit of plain black, his hand supporting his cheek, and his eyes intent upon the book. The evening light from the ceiling fell softly upon his high and delicately formed forehead; just over him was an exact copy of the effigy which marks the great dramatist's grave. The resemblance, or the hallucination, for the moment was complete, and Burton, with eyes fairly dilating with admiration and astonishment, said: 'Shakespeare living again! Was there ever such a resemblance?'"
It has been thought appropriate to includein this volume a description of the library, from the pen of James Wynne, M.D., who in 1860 published an account of his visits to various private libraries in New York, and Mr. Burton's was among the number. At the time of Mr. Burton's death the collection was probably larger, Dr. Wynne's visit having been made at a much earlier date than the publication of his volume. Every lover of Shakespeare, we think, will thank us for enriching this book with a description of that matchless library.
WM. E. BURTON'S LIBRARY.
Mr. Burton's library contains nearly sixteen thousand volumes. Its proprietor had constructed for its accommodation and preservation a three-story fire-proof building, about thirty-five feet square, which is isolated from all other buildings, and is connected with his residence in Hudson Street by a conservatory gallery. The chief library room occupies the upper floor of this building, and is abouttwenty-five feet in height. Its ceiling presents a series of groined rafters, after the old English style, in the centre of which rises a dome sky-light of stained glass. The sides of the library are fitted up with thirty-six oak bookcases of a Gothic pattern, which entirely surround it, and are nine feet in height. The space between the ceiling and the bookcases is filled with paintings, for the most part of large size, and said to be of value. Specimens of armor and busts of distinguished authors decorate appropriate compartments, and in a prominent niche at the head of the apartment, stands a full-length statue of Shakespeare, executed by Thom, in the same style as the Tam O'Shanter and Old Mortality groups of this Scotch sculptor.
The great speciality of the library is its Shakespeare collection; but although very extensive and valuable, it by no means engrosses the entire library, which contains a large number of valuable works in several departments of literature.
The number of lexicons and dictionaries is large, and among the latter may be found all the rare old English works so valuable for reference. Three bookcases are devoted to serials, which contain many of the standard reviews and magazines. One case is appropriated to voyages and travels, in which are found many valuable ones. In another are upward of one hundred volumes of table-talk, and numerous works on the fine arts and bibliography. One bookcase is devoted to choice works on America, among which is Sebastian Munster's "Cosmographia Novum Orbis Regionum," published in folio at Basle in 1537, which contains full notes of Columbus, Vespucci, and other early voyagers. Another department contains a curious catalogue of authorities relating toCrime and Punishment; a liberal space is devoted toFacetiæanother to American Poetry, and also one to Natural and Moral Philosophy. The standard works of Fiction, Biography, Theology, and the Drama are all represented.
There is a fair collection of classical authors,many of which are of Aldine and Elzevir editions. Among the rarities in this department is a folio copy ofPlautus, printed at Venice in 1518, and illustrated with wood-cuts. The true name of this writer was T. Maccius Plautus. He was of humble origin, and is supposed to have once been a slave. He lived at Rome about one hundred and eighty years before the beginning of the Christian era, and wrote a number of plays which obtained great celebrity in the time of their author, and continued to be looked upon as models of this species of composition for many centuries after his decease. Twenty of his plays are extant, which are distinguished for the purity of their style and the exquisite humor of their characters, although Horace blames him for the coarseness of his wit. Gellius, who held him in much esteem, says that he was distinguished for his poetry upon the stage at the time that Cato was for his eloquence in the forum. The first edition of his works was printed at Venice, in 1472, by Merula. The edition of 1518,in this collection, is so rare as not to be mentioned by Brunet, De Bure, or Michael Mattaire. There is also a folio edition of Sallust, published at Venice in 1511, with wood-cuts; an excellent copy of Statius, published at Venice in 1498; and a translation from the Greek of Plutarch into Latin by Guarini, of Verona, surnamed Veronese, who was the first of a family celebrated for their literary attainments, and who is frequently confounded with Battista Guarini, the author of "Il Pastor Fido." Guarini Veronese was the grammarian of his day, and a strong advocate for the preservation of the Greek language in its purity. He was an assiduous student, and spent considerable time at Constantinople in copying the manuscripts of the best models in Grecian literature. Accompanied by his precious freight, he set sail for Italy, but was shipwrecked, and lost all of his laboriously acquired treasure, which produced such an effect upon him as to change his hair from a dark color to white in a single night. Theworld is indebted to him for the first edition of the "Commentaries" of Servius on Virgil, and likewise for the recovery of a number of manuscript poems of Catullus, which he found mouldering and almost obliterated in a garret. With the assistance of his father, he applied himself to the task of deciphering them, and, with the exception of a few verses, reproduced them entirely.
The collection is well supplied with editions of Virgil. In addition to Ogilby's folio, with Hollar and Fairthorne's plates, is a choice copy of the illustrated edition in three folio volumes, and the very rarefac-simileFlorentine edition of 1741 (Ex cod. Mediceo Laurentiano). This edition is now so scarce that a copy was recently sold in London for fifty pounds sterling.
The collection also contains a copy of the Vatican edition of Terence, in Latin and Italian, after the text of Heinsius, with numerous illustrations of ancient masks, etc., published at Rome in two folio volumes in1767; an excellent copy of the best edition of Suetonius, with commentaries by Baraldi, printed in Roman letter at Paris in 1512; "Titi Livii," published at Nuremberg in folio, in 1514, in its original wood binding; Livy's Roman History, published in 1600—the first English edition; "Diogenes Laërtius de Vitis et Dogmatibus Philosophorum," published at Amsterdam in 1692; a vellum black-letter copy of Eusebius, of the rare Venetian edition of 1483; Boëtius, published in 1570; the two original editions of the eminent critic, Justus Lipsius; the Antwerp edition of Seneca, published in 1570; the same work in folio, in 1613; and Stephen's edition of Sophocles, published in 1518, which is an admirable specimen of Greek typography.
Among the Italian poets is a copy of Dante, in folio, published in 1497, with most remarkable cuts; and the "Commentaries" of Landino, the most highly valued of all the old commentators upon this poet; also an excellent large-paper copy of Tasso, in the originaltext, with Morghen's exquisite line engravings, published in 1820, in two folio volumes.
Cervantes appears to have been quite a favorite with the possessor of this library, who has the excellent Spanish edition of 1738, with Van der Gucht's beautiful plates and many inserted illustrations, in four volumes; the quarto edition, published at La Hayé, in 1746, containing thirty-one plates from Coypel's designs; Smollett's quarto edition of 1755, in two volumes, with plates by Grignion after designs by Hayman; a folio edition by Shelton, with many curious engravings, published in 1652, besides several modern editions.
In the historical department is a fine edition of Montfaucon's works in twenty folio volumes, including the "Monarchie Française"; the original edition of Dugdale's works, including the "Monasticon" with the old designs; Boissardus's "Romanæ Urbis Antiquitates," in three volumes, folio; and a large number of the old Chroniclers, in their earliest and rarest editions. Among these latterare two copies of the very scarce "Polychronicon," by Raulph Higden, the monk of Chester: the one in black-letter folio, printed in 1495, by Wynkyn de Worde, is wanting in the last page; the other, printed in 1527 by Peter Traveris, and ornamented with wood-cuts, is in perfect order. Both of these volumes have marginal notes, probably in the handwriting of the day.
The collection is particularly rich in copies of original editions of old English poetry, among which are the works of Samuel Daniel, 1602; Sandy's Ovid, published in 1626; Lucan, by Sir Arthur Gorges, published in 1614, noticed in Colin Clout, and personified as Alcyon in Spenser's "Daphnaida"; "Arte of Englysh Poesie," with a fine portrait of Queen Elizabeth, published in 1589; Quarle's works; Harrington's translation of "Orlando Furioso," folio, published in 1591, with plates in compartments; Sir W. Davenant's poems, published in quarto in 1651, with an original poem in the author's handwriting,never published; copies of the editions of 1613 and 1648 of George Wither's poems, and Chapman's "Seven Bookes of the Iliad of Homer," published in 1598.
This latter writer, who was born in Kent, in England, in 1559, was one of the coterie formed by Daniel, Marlowe, Spenser, Shakespeare, and others, and lived upon terms of great good-fellowship with England's greatest bard. He had no mean reputation as a dramatic writer, and was, besides, highly respected as a gentleman. His social position appears to have been an excellent one, and his urbanity of manner such as to endear him to all his friends. His intimate association with Shakespeare seems to establish the fact that in his own day the great poet occupied a prominent place in society, and was as duly appreciated in his own time, as Johnson and Pope in theirs. A monument was planned and erected over the remains of Chapman by his personal friend, Inigo Jones, on the south side of St. George's in the Fields;but in the changes which have disturbed the repose of those who were consigned to their last resting-place in that burial-ground, the monument has been destroyed.
This department possesses the black-letter folios of Chaucer in 1542 (the first complete edition), that of 1561, and that of 1598, all of which are now quite scarce; the folio editions of Milton of 1692 and 1695, possessing the old but characteristic engravings, as well as the quarto edition in two volumes, published at the expense of the Earl of Bath; Touson's edition of 1751, with plates; a large-paper copy of the edition of 1802, which contains Westall's plates; and Martin's edition of 1826, enriched by twenty-four original and beautiful engravings; likewise the first folio edition of Spenser's "Fairy Queen," published in 1609, and Fairfax's Tasso, published in 1624.
Besides the works already noticed, are Sylvester's "Du Bartus"; Warner's "Albion and England," published in 1586; "all the works of John Taylor, the water-poet, being sixty andthree in number," published in folio in 1630. This is a very rare work, and is said to have been sold for eighty guineas. A similar work to this is the "Shype of Fools of the Worlde," translated from Brandt, and published in black-letter folio, with many wood-cuts, in 1509. A perfect copy of this work is very rare. The one in the present collection is wanting in the title-page and two last leaves.[12]Its price in the catalogue Anglo-Poetica, is one hundred guineas. The copy of Taylor, in the collection, is a fine large one, and handsomely bound. The real value of these two last volumes, in a literary point of view, is perhaps not great, but still from their peculiar associations they are highly prized bybibliophiles. Southey says: "There is nothing in John Taylor which deserves preservation for its intrinsic merit alone, but in the collection of his pieces which I have perused there is a great deal to illustrate the manners of his age. If the water-poet had been in a higher grade of society, andbred to some regular profession, he would probably have been a much less distinguished person in his generation. No spoon could have suited his mouth so well as the wooden one to which he was born. Fortunately he came into the world at the right time, and lived at an age when kings and queens condescended to notice his verses, and archbishops admitted him to their tables, and mayors and corporations received him with civic honors."[13]
There is a department of curiosities in the shape of odd or rare books, which is quite interesting: among the works are the singular history of M. Ouflé; the "Encyclopædia of Man," printed in English after the manner of Hebrew publications, beginning at the close of the volume and reading to the left; "Anteros," by Baptista Fulgosius, in quarto, published in 1496. This work, "Contre l'Amour," is said to be of extraordinary rarity. Likewise the "Zodiacke of Life," published in
1588; a curious manuscript in not very good Latin, with illuminated letters, upon the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, by Hen. Custas, dated 1614; Memorable Accidents and Massacres in France, in folio, published in 1598; a singular black-letter Edict of Emperor Charles V., published in 1521; a very singular Siamese work on the laws of marriage; Petri Bembi, with a frontispiece by Hans Holbein, published in 1518; "Libri Exemplorum," by Ric Pafradius, published in 1481; the original edition of "The Rogue; or, Life of De Alfarache Guzman," folio, published in 1634, translated by James Mabbe, otherwise known as Don Diego Puedesur.
There is also a copy of the "Opera Hrosvite Illustris Virginis," published in Nuremberg in 1501, in folio, bound in old wooden covers with brass clamps. This work, which contains some wood-engravings equal to etchings, probably the work of Durer, is fully described by Mengerand in his "Esprit des Journaux"; Pisoni's "Historia," with engravings of birds,animals, and fishes, that would excite the surprise of the naturalist of the present day; "Novus Marcellus Doctrina," published at Venice in 1476, on large paper, with colored initials; a curious folio, manuscript history of the "Starre Chamber"; and Lithgow's "Rare Adventures and Painful Peregrinationes," published in 1632, interlined with the author's manuscript emendations, and evidently intended for a new edition. This work is rare—the copy owned by King Charles brought £42 at Jadis's sale.
The collection has a large number of old Bibles, many thousand biblical illustrations, a large number of other illustrated works, and many books and prints especially devoted to the Cromwellian era of English life.
The Shakespeare department contains many separate editions of the works of the immortal bard, each of which is distinguished by some peculiarity. First among these stand the four folios published in 1623, 1632, 1664, and 1685, with a number of the original quartosof separate plays, illustrated copies, some of which belonged to able scholars, and are enriched by their manuscript notes.
Mr. Burton sought to possess every work that alludes to the early editions of Shakespeare, or which serves in any way to illustrate the text. Among these are to be found many of the original tracts, the scarce romances, the old histories, and the rare ballads, upon which he founded his wonderful plays, or which are alluded to in the text. The collection contains the book alluded to by the quaint and facetiousTouchstone, in "As You Like It," by which the gallants were said to quarrel with the various degrees of proof,—"the retort courteous, the countercheck quarrelsome, and the lie direct"; the "Book of Good Manners," the "Book of Sonnets" mentioned in the "Merry Wives of Windsor," the "Book of Compliments," and the "Hundred Merry Tales"; and Montaigne, translated by Florio, who is supposed by some to be the Holofernes in "Love's Labor's Lost"; the edition of Holinshed,so freely used by Shakespeare in his historical plays, with the lines quoted by him underscored with red ink.
Among the collected editions of Shakespeare is the first quarto, in seven volumes, edited by Pope, which, besides having the reputation of being the least reliable of any edition of Shakespeare's works, is defaced by an engraving of King James I. of England, which the publishers sought to palm upon the public as the likeness of the great dramatist. It is engraved by Vertue from an original painting in the Harleian collection, and does not possess the slightest resemblance to any of the various portraits of Shakespeare.
The collection contains a large-paper copy of Hanmer's beautiful quarto edition, published in 1744, with Gravelot's etchings, which is now quite rare; also, the reprint of the same work, made in 1770, and a fine copy of the quarto edition, known as Heath's, in six volumes, with proof plates after Stothard; a beautiful andundoubtedly unique copy of the Atlas folio edition in nine volumes, published by Boydell in 1802, elegantly bound and tooled with great richness of design. This copy was selected by Boydell, with great care, for Miss Mary Nicol, sister of George Nicol, printer to the king, and a relative of Boydell. It contains proof impressions of the engravings, and an extra volume of original etchings. This work was purchased at the sale of the Stowe library. The certificates of Nicol and the librarian of the Duke of Buckingham, testifying to the value and rarity of this picked specimen of typography and engraving, are bound in the first volume of the work. The collection contains Mr. Boydell's own private portfolio, with the original etchings, artist's proof, and proof before letter, of every engraving, with the portraits, now so difficult to meet with, of the large elephant folio plates, upward of one hundred in number.
But the crowning glory is a folio copy of Shakespeare, illustrated by the collector himself,with a prodigality of labor and expense that places it far above any similar work ever attempted. The letter-press of this great work is a choice specimen from Nicol's types, and each play occupies a separate portfolio. These are accompanied by costly engravings of landscapes, rare portraits, maps, elegantly colored plates of costumes, and water-color drawings, executed by some of the best artists of the day. Some of the plays have over two hundred folio illustrations, each of which is beautifully inlaid or mounted, and many of the engravings are very valuable. Some of the landscapes, selected from the oldest cosmographies known, illustrating the various places mentioned in the pages of Shakespeare, are exceedingly curious as well as valuable.
In the historical plays, when possible, every character is portrayed from authoritative sources, as old tapestries, monumental brasses, or illuminated works of the age in well-executed drawings or recognized engravings. There are in this work a vast number of illustrations,in addition to a very numerous collection of water-color drawings. In addition to the thirty-seven plays, are two volumes devoted to Shakespeare's life and times, one volume of portraits, one volume devoted to distinguished Shakespearians, one to poems, and two to disputed plays,—the whole embracing a series of forty-two folio volumes, and forming, perhaps, the most remarkable and costly monument in this shape ever attempted by a devout worshipper of the Bard of Avon.
The volume devoted to Shakespeare's portraits was purchased by Mr. Burton at the sale of a gentleman's library, who had spent many years in making the collection, and includes various "effigies" unknown to many laborious collectors. It contains upward of one hundred plates, for the most part proofs. The value of this collection may be estimated by the fact that a celebrated English collector recently offered its possessor £60 for this single volume.
In the reading-room, directly beneath the main library, are a number of portfolios of printsillustrative of the plays of Shakespeare, of a size too large to be included in the illustrated collection just noticed. There is likewise another copy of Shakespeare based upon Knight's pictorial royal octavo, copiously illustrated by the owner; but although the prints are numerous, they are neither as costly nor as rare as those contained in the large folio copy.
Among the curiosities of the Shakespeare collection are a number of copies of the disputed plays, printed during his lifetime, with the name of Shakespeare as their author. It is remarkable, if these plays were not at least revised by Shakespeare, that no record of a contradiction of their authorship should be found. It is not improbable that many plays written by others were given to Shakespeare to perform in his capacity as a theatrical manager, requiring certain alterations in order to adapt them to the use of the stage, which were arranged by his cunning and skilful hand, and that these plays afterward found their way into print with just sufficient of his emendations to allow hisauthorship of them, in the carelessness in which he held his literary fame, to pass uncontradicted by him.
There is a copy of an old play of the period, with manuscript annotations, and the name of Shakespeare written on the title-page. It is either the veritable signature of the poet or an admirably imitated forgery. Mr. Burton inclined to the opinion that the work once belonged to Shakespeare, and that the signature is genuine. If so, it is probably the only scrap of his handwriting on this continent. This work is not included in the list given of Ireland's library, the contents of which were brought into disrepute by the remarkable literary forgeries of the son, but stands forth peculiar and unique, and furnishes much room for curious speculation.
These forgeries form a curious feature in the Shakespeare history of the last century. They were executed by William Henry Ireland, the son of a gentleman of much literary taste, and a devoted admirer of Shakespeare. Young Ireland,who was apprenticed to an attorney, possessed the dangerous faculty of imitating the handwriting of another person with such perfection as to deceive the most careful critic. His occupation led him much among old records, by which means he acquired a knowledge of the phraseology used in them, and the general appearance imparted by age to the paper and ink, all of which he was enabled to imitate very closely.
His father's reverence for Shakespeare induced him to endeavor to palm off upon himself and friends, probably at first as a good joke, some originals of the great poet. One of these was a declaration of his faith in the Protestant church, which, when shown to Dr. Parr, drew from this great scholar the observation that, although there were many fine things in the church service, here was a man who distanced them all.
Mr. Boaden, a gentleman of great taste, states that when he first saw these papers he looked upon them with the purest delight,and touched them with the greatest respect, as veritable and indisputable relics. A number of gentlemen met at Mr. Ireland's house, and after carefully inspecting the manuscripts, subscribed a paper vouching their authenticity. Among these were Dr. Parr, Dr. Valpy, Pye, the Poet-Laureate, Herbert Croft, and Boswell. It is said that when Boswell approached to sign the paper he reverentially fell upon his knees, thanked God that he had witnessed the discovery, and, in the language of Simeon, exclaimed: "Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, in pace."
It was now too late for young Ireland to retreat, if he ever intended to have done so, and the discovery of the imposture remained for Malone and Chalmers fully to develop. The disclosure is said to have brought the elder Mr. Ireland in sorrow to his grave, and to have bestowed upon the young scapegrace, who, either thoughtlessly, or with malice aforethought, had embittered the last years of the life of a tender parent, the epithet (whichclung to him ever afterward) of "Shakespeare Ireland."
The contemporaries of Shakespeare are quite numerous. In the cases devoted to the old English drama are the original and best editions of Chapman, Marston, Heywood, Dekker, Greene, Rowley, Massinger, Ford, Jonson, and Field. Besides the original quartos, the library contains most of the collected editions of the old dramatists, and in this department it is quite complete.
Three book-cases are devoted to works pertaining to the history of the stage, in every country and language, from the commencement of the art to the present time, and scarcely a work relating to the history, progress, or criticism of the stage can be named which is not to be found in the collection.
A full-length statue of Shakespeare in freestone, placed in a niche upon the northern side of the room, and surrounded by carved tracery of a Gothic design, has already been noticed. Upon the eastern side the Stratford bust isplaced on a bracket of the age of Elizabeth. The celebrated antiquary, Cottingham, devoted his personal attention to this work, and no other copy has been given to the world. This bust, the bracket upon which it rests, a curious old drinking-vessel of stone with a metal lid, all found in the garden of Shakespeare's house at New Place, a well-carved head of a Nubian girl, and the key-stone of an entrance arch of the theatre at Pompeii, were purchased by the owner of the present collection at the extensive sale of the personal effects of Mr. Cottingham.
There is also a beautifully carved tea-caddy, made from the wood of Shakespeare's mulberry-tree, which formerly belonged to Garrick, and a small copy of Roubilliac's statue of Shakespeare, which is the first specimen of china-ware executed at Chelsea, in England. This likewise belonged to Garrick. There are likewise two drinking-cups with silver rims, said to be made of the wood of a crab-tree under which Shakespeare slept during his celebrated frolic, formerly in the possession of Betterton.
Indepicting the career of William E. Burton as Actor, Author, and Manager, we are aware of the secondary value of his authorship, as compared with his dramatic achievements. Nevertheless, his pen was a ready and fertile one, and produced much that was meritorious, though belonging to an ephemeral order. His plays, however, continue in the list of present theatrical publications. Of his editorship it may be affirmed that his conduct of "The Gentleman's Magazine" and "Literary Souvenir" was marked by taste and discrimination; and nothing but unqualified praise can be bestowed upon his superintendence of the compilation of humorous literature known as Burton's "Cyclopædia of Wit and Humor." It is by far the most complete repository of mirthfulcomposition ever published in this country—or elsewhere, so far as we know,—and enjoys the peculiar advantage of being the only one in which the productions of American humor have any thing approaching an adequate representation. The selections throughout are indicative of great critical sagacity, and a keen perception and sympathetic appreciation, in the general arrangement, are everywhere suggested. As manager he certainly fulfilled all conditions, as we believe the relation of his successes in that sphere will sufficiently attest. But whatever his capacity in the vocations named, all is dwarfed by his transcendent powers as a comedian. He is remembered, and will be remembered, not as the author or manager, but as the great actor who swayed mankind with his supreme gift of humor. Many of the creations of his genius went away with him in death; and the traditions of his triumphs will long be distinguished in dramatic annals. Lastly, we have seen him a Shakespearian student and the possessor of a libraryperfectly glorious in its expression of devotion and homage to the great poet,—and linked with that proud association we leave his memory and his name.