Volume I Part 1 (1/2)
A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany.
Volume One.
by Thomas Frognall Dibdin.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
If I had chosen to introduce myself to the greatest possible advantage to the reader, in this Preface to a Second Edition of the ”_Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour_,” I could not have done better than have borrowed the language of those Foreigners, who, by a translation of the Work (however occasionally vituperative their criticisms) have, in fact, conferred an honour upon its Author. In the midst of censure, sometimes dictated by spite, and sometimes sharpened by acrimony of feeling, it were in my power to select pa.s.sages of commendation, which would not less surprise the Reader than they have done myself: while the history of this performance may be said to exhibit the singular phenomenon, of a traveller, usually lauding the countries through which he pa.s.ses, receiving in return the reluctant approbation of those whose inst.i.tutions, manners, and customs, have been praised by him. It is admitted, by the most sedulous and systematic of my opponents--M. c.r.a.pELET--that ”considering the quant.i.ty and quality of the ornaments and engravings of this Tour, one is surprised that its cost is so moderate.”[1]
”Few books (says the Bibliographer of Dijon) have been executed with greater luxury. It is said that the expenses of printing and engraving amounted to 6000 l.--to nearly 140,000 franks of our money. It must be admitted that England is the only country in which such an undertaking could be carried into effect. Who in France would dare to risk such a sum--especially for three, volumes in octavo? He would be ruined, if he did.”[2] I quote these pa.s.sages simply to shew under what extraordinary obliquity of feeling those gentlemen must have set down to the task of translation and abuse--of THAT VERY WORK, which is here admitted to contain such splendid representations of the ”bibliographical, antiquarian, and picturesque” beauties of their country.
A brief account of this foreign _travail_ may be acceptable to the curious in literary history. MONS. LICQUET, the successor of M. Gourdin, as Chief Librarian to the Public Library at Rouen, led the way in the work of warfare. He translated the ninth Letter relating to that Public Library; of which translation especial mention is made at p. 99, post. This version was printed in 1821, for private, distribution; and only 100 copies were struck off. M. c.r.a.pelet, in whose office it was printed, felt the embers of discontent rekindled in his bosom as it pa.s.sed through his press; and in the following year HE also stepped forward to discharge an arrow at the Traveller. Like his predecessor, he printed but a limited number; and as I have more particularly remarked upon the spirit of that version by way of ”Introduction” to the original letter, in vol. ii. 209, &c. I shall not waste the time of the Reader by any notice of it in the present place.
These two partial translators united their forces, about two years afterwards, and published the whole of the Tour, as it related to FRANCE, in four octavo volumes, in 1825. The ordinary copies were sold for 48 francs, the large paper for 112 francs per copy. The wood-cuts only were republished by them. Of this conjoint, and more enlarged production, presently.
Encouraged by the examples of Messrs. Licquet and c.r.a.pelet, a Bookbinder of the name of LESNe (whose poem upon his ”Craft,” published in 1820, had been copiously quoted and _commended_ by me in the previous edition) chose to plant his foot within this arena of controversy; and to address a letter to me; to which his model, M. c.r.a.pelet, was too happy to give circulation through the medium of his press.[3] To that letter the following metrical lines are prefixed; which the Reader would scarcely forgive me if I failed to amuse him by their introduction in this place. ”_Lesne, Relieur Francais, a Mons. T.F. Dibdin, Ministre de la Religion, &c._”
Avec un ris moqueur, je crois vous voir d'ici, Dedaigneus.e.m.e.nt dire: Eh, que veut celui-ci?
Qu'ai-je donc de commun avec un vil artiste?
Un ouvrier francais, un _Bibliopegiste_?
Ose-t-on ravaler un Ministre a ce point?
Que me veut ce _Lesne_? Je ne le connais point.
Je crois me souvenir qu'a mon voyage en France, Avec ses pauvres vers je nouai connaissance.
Mais c'est si peu de chose un poete a Paris!
Savez-vous bien, Monsieur, pourquoi je vous ecris?
C'est que je crois avoir le droit de vous ecrire.
Fussiez-vous cent fois plus qu'on ne saurait le dire, Je vois dans un Ministre un homme tel que moi; Devant Dieu je crois meme etre l'egal d'un roi.
The Letter however is in prose, with some very few exceptions; and it is just possible that the indulgent Reader may endure a specimen or two of the prose of M. Lesne, as readily as he has that of his poetry. These specimens are equally delectable, of their kind. Immediately after the preceding poetical burst, the French Bibliopegist continues thus:
D'apres cet exorde, vous pensez sans doute que, bien convaincu de ma dignite d'homme, je me crois en droit de vous dire franchement ma facon de penser; je vous la dirai, Monsieur. Si vous dirigiez un journal bibliographique; que vous fissiez, en un mot, le metier de journaliste, je serai peu surpris de voir dans votre Trentieme Lettre, une foule de choses hasardees, de mauvais calembourgs, de grossieretes, que nous ne rencontrons meme pas chez nos journalistes du dernier ordre, en ce qu'ils savent mieux leur monde, et que s'ils lancent une epigramme, fut-elle fausse, elle est au moins finement tournee. Mais vous etes ANGLAIS, et par cela seul dispense sans doute de cette politesse qui distingue si heureus.e.m.e.nt notre nation de la votre, et que vos compatriotes n'acquierent pour la plupart qu'apres un long sejour en France.” p. 6.
Towards the latter part of this most formidable ”Tentamen Critic.u.m,” the irritable author breaks out thus--”C'est une maladie Francaise de vouloir toujours imiter les Anglais; ceux-ci, a leur tour, commencent a en etre atteints.” p. 19. A little farther it is thus: ”Enfin c'est _en imitant_ qu'on reussit presque toujours mal; vous en etes encore, une preuve evidente. J'ai vu en beaucoup d'endroits de votre Lettre, que vous avez voulu imiter _Sterne_;[4] qu'est-il arrive? Vous etes reste au-dessous de lui, comme tous les Imitateurs de notre bon La Fontaine sont restes en deca de l'immortel Fabuliste.” p. 20. But most especially does the sensitive M.
Lesne betray his surprise and apprehension, on a gratuitous supposition--thrown out by me, by way of pleasantry--that ”Mr. Charles Lewis was going over to Paris, to establish there a modern School of Bookbinding.” M. Lesne thus wrathfully dilates upon this supposition:
”Je me garderai bien de pa.s.ser sous silence la derniere partie de votre Lettre; _un bruit a.s.sez etrange est venu jusqu'a vous_; et Charles Lewis doit vous quitter pour quelque temps pour etablir en France une ecole de reliure d'apres les principes du gout anglais; mais vous croyez, dites-vous, que ce projet est surement chimerique, ou que, si on le tentait, il serait de courte duree.
Pour cette fois, Monsieur, votre p.r.o.nostic serait tres juste; cette demarche serait une folie: il faudrait s'abuser sur l'engouement des amateurs francais, et ceux qui sont atteints de cette maladie ne sont pas en a.s.sez grand nombre pour soutenir un pareil etabliss.e.m.e.nt. Oui, l'on aime votre genre de reliure; mais on aime les reliures, facon anglaise, faites par les Francais. Pensez-vous done, ou Charles Lewis pense-t-il, qu'il n'y ait plus d'esprit national en France?
Allez, le sang Francaise coule encore dans nos veines; Nous pourrons eprouver des malheurs et des peines, Que nous devrons peut etre a vous autres Anglais; Mais nous voulons rester, nous resterons, Francais!
Ainsi, que Charles Lewis ne se derange pas; qu'il cesse, s'il les a commences, les preparatifs de sa descente; qu'il ne prive pas ses compatriotes d'un artiste soi-disant inimitable. Nous en avons ici qui le valent, et qui se feront un plaisir de perpeteur parmi nous le bon gout, l'elegance, et la n.o.ble simplicite. p. 25.[5]
So much for M. Lesne. I have briefly noticed M. Peignot, the Bibliographer of Dijon. That worthy wight has made the versions of my Ninth and Thirtieth Letters (First Edition) by M.M. Licquet and c.r.a.pelet, the substratum of his first brochure ent.i.tled _Varietes, Notices et Raretes Bibliographiques_, _Paris_, 1822: it being a supplement to his previous Work of _Curiosites Bibliographiques_.”[6] It is not always agreeable for an Author to have his Works reflected through the medium of a translation; especially where the Translator suffers a portion, however small, of his _own_ atrabiliousness, to be mixed up with the work translated: nor is it always safe for a third person to judge of the merits of the original through such a medium. Much allowance must therefore be made for M. Peignot; who, to say the truth, at the conclusion of his labours, seems to think that he has waded through a great deal of _dirt_ of some kind or other, which might have been better avoided; and that, in consequence, some general declaration, by way of _wiping, off_ a portion of the adhering mud, is due to the original Author.
Accordingly, at the end of his a.n.a.lysis of M. Licquet's version, (which forms the second Letter in the brochure) he does me the honour to devote seven pages to the notice of my humble lucubrations:--and he prefaces this ”_Notice des Ouvrages de M. Dibdin”_, by the following very handsome tribute to their worth:
Si, dans les deux Lettres ou nous avons rendu compte des traductions partielles du voyage de M.D., nous avons partage l'opinion des deux estimable traducteurs, sur quelques erreurs et quelques inconvenances echappees a l'auteur anglais, nous sommes bien eloigne d'envelopper dans le meme blame, tout ce qui est sorte de sa plume; car il y auroit injustice a lui refuser des connaissances tres etendues en histoire litteraire, et en bibliographie: nous le disons franchement, il faudroit fermer les yeux a la lumiere, ou etre d'une partialite revoltante, pour ne pas convenir que, juste appreciateur de tous les tresors bibliographiques qu'il a le bonheur d'avoir sous la main, M.
Dibdin en a fait connoitre en detail toute la richesse dans de nombreux d'ouvrages, ou tres souvent le luxe d'erudition se trouve en harmonie avec le luxe typographique qu'il y a etale.
At the risk of incurring the imputation of vanity, I annex the preceding extract; because I am persuaded that the candid Reader will appreciate it in its proper light. I might, had I chosen to do so, have lengthened the extract by a yet more complimentary pa.s.sage: but enough of M. Peignot--who, so far from suffering ill will or acerbity to predominate over a kind disposition, hath been pleased, since his publication, to write to me a very courteous Letter,[7] and to solicit a ”continuance of my favours.”