Volume Iii Part 45 (2/2)
[339] He says in his advertis.e.m.e.nt, ”It will be difficult to ascertain whether he meant to give them to the public, or only to reserve them for his own amus.e.m.e.nt and the entertainment of his friends.” Many of these anecdotes are evidently mere loose scandal.
[340] Grose narrates his early history thus:--”His parents dying when he was very young, he soon squandered away his small patrimony, when he became, at first an attendant in Lord Oxford's library, and afterwards librarian; at whose death he was obliged to write for the booksellers for a subsistence.”
[341] Mr. John Taylor, the son of Oldys's intimate friend, has furnished me with this interesting anecdote. ”Oldys, as my father informed me, was many years in quiet obscurity in the Fleet prison, but at last was spirited up to make his situation known to the Duke of Norfolk of that time, who received Oldys's letter while he was at dinner with some friends. The duke immediately communicated the contents to the company, observing that he had long been anxious to know what had become of an old, though an humble friend, and was happy by that letter to find that he was alive. He then called for his _gentleman_ (a kind of humble friend whom n.o.blemen used to retain under that name in those days), and desired him to go immediately to the Fleet, to take money for the immediate need of Oldys, to procure an account of his debts, and discharge them. Oldys was soon after, either by the duke's gift or interest, appointed Norroy King of Arms; and I remember that his official regalia came into my father's hands at his death.”
In the ”Life of Oldys,” by Mr. A. Chalmers, the date of this promotion is not found. My accomplished friend, the Rev. J.
Dallaway, has obligingly examined the records of the college, by which it appears that Oldys had been _Norfolk herald extraordinary_, but not belonging to the college, was appointed _per saltum_ Norroy King of Arms by patent, May 5th, 1755.
Grose says--”The patronage of the duke occasioned a suspicion of his being a papist, though I think really without reason; this for a while r.e.t.a.r.ded his appointment: it was underhand propagated by the heralds, who were vexed at having a stranger put in upon them.”
[342] The beautiful simplicity of this Anacreontic has met the unusual fate of entirely losing its character, by an additional and incongruous stanza in the modern editions, by a gentleman who has put into practice the unallowable liberty of _altering_ the poetical and dramatic compositions of acknowledged genius to his own notion of what he deems ”morality;” but in works of genius whatever is dull ceases to be moral. ”The Fly” of Oldys may stand by ”The Fly” of Gray for melancholy tenderness of thought; it consisted only of these two stanzas:
Busy, curious, thirsty fly!
Drink with me, and drink as I!
Freely welcome to my cup, Couldst thou sip and sip it up: Make the most of life you may; Life is short and wears away!
Both alike are mine and thine, Hastening quick to their decline!
Thine's a summer, mine no more, Though repeated to threescore!
Threescore summers when they're gone, Will appear as short as one!
[343] This anecdote should be given in justice to both parties, and in Grose's words, who says:--”He was a man of great good-nature, honour, and integrity, particularly in his character of an historian. Nothing, I firmly believe, would ever have bia.s.sed him to insert any fact in his writings he did not believe, or to suppress any he did. Of this delicacy he gave an instance at a time when he was in great distress. After his publication of the 'Life of Sir Walter Raleigh,' some booksellers thinking his name would sell a piece they were publis.h.i.+ng, offered him a considerable sum to father it, which he rejected with the greatest indignation.”
[344] We have been taught to enjoy the two ages of Genius and of Taste. The literary public are deeply indebted to the editorial care, the taste, and the enthusiasm of Mr. Singer, for exquisite reprints of some valuable writers.
[345] Gibbon once meditated a life of Rawleigh, and for that purpose began some researches in that ”memorable era of our English annals.”
After reading Oldys's, he relinquished his design, from a conviction that ”he could add nothing new to the subject, except the uncertain merit of style and sentiment.”
[346] The British Museum is extremely deficient in our National Literature. The gift of George the Third's library has, however, probably supplied many deficiencies. [The recent bequest of the Grenville collection, and the constant search made of late years for these relics of early literature by the officers of our great national library, has greatly altered the state of the collection since the above was written _s--Ed_.]
[347] Grose says--”His mode of composing was somewhat singular: he had a number of small parchment bags, inscribed with the names of the persons whose lives he intended to write; into these bags he put every circ.u.mstance and anecdote he could collect, and from thence drew up his history.”
[348] At the Bodleian Library, I learnt by a letter with which I am favoured by the Rev. Dr. Bliss, that there is an interleaved ”Gildon's Lives and Characters of the Dramatic Poets,” with corrections, which once belonged to c.o.xeter, who appears to have intended a new edition. Whether c.o.xeter transcribed into his Gildon the notes of Oldys's _first_ ”Langbaine,” is worth inquiry.
c.o.xeter's conduct, though he had purchased Oldys's first ”Langbaine,” was that of an ungenerous miser, who will quarrel with a brother rather than share in any acquisition he can get into his own hands. To c.o.xeter we also owe much; he suggested Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, and the first tolerable edition of Ma.s.singer.
Oldys could not have been employed in Lord Oxford's library, as Mr.
Chalmers conjectures, about 1726; for here he mentions that he was in _Yorks.h.i.+re_ from 1724 to 1730. This period is a remarkable blank in Oldys's life. My learned friend, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, has supplied me with a note in the copy of Fuller in the Malone collection preserved at the Bodleian. Those years were pa.s.sed apparently in the household of the first Earl of Malton, who built Wentworth House. There all the collections of the antiquary Gascoigne, with ”seven great chests of ma.n.u.scripts,” some as ancient as the time of the Conquest, were condemned in one solemn sacrifice to Vulcan; the ruthless earl being impenetrable to the prayers and remonstrances of our votary to English History. Oldys left the earl with little satisfaction, as appears by some severe strictures from his gentle pen.
[349] This copy was lent by Dr. Birch to the late Bishop of Dromore, who with his own hand carefully transcribed the notes into an interleaved copy of ”Langbaine,” divided into four volumes, which, as I am informed, narrowly escaped the flames, and was injured by the water, at a fire at Northumberland House. His lords.h.i.+p, when he went to Ireland, left this copy with Mr. Nichols, for the use of the projected editions of the _Tatler_, the _Spectator_, and the _Guardian_, with notes and ill.u.s.trations; of which I think the _Tatler_ only has appeared, and to which his lords.h.i.+p contributed some valuable communications.
[350] I know that not only this lot of _Oldys's ma.n.u.scripts_, but a great quant.i.ty of _original contributions_ of whole lives, intended for the ”Biographia Britannica,” must lie together, unless they have been destroyed as waste paper. These biographical and literary curiosities were often supplied by the families or friends of eminent persons. Some may, perhaps, have been reclaimed by their owners. I am informed there was among them an interesting collection of the correspondence of Locke; and I could mention several lives which were prepared.
[351] This collection, and probably the other letters, have come down to us, no doubt, with the ma.n.u.scripts of this collector, purchased for the British Museum. The correspondence of Dr.
Davenant, the political writer, with his son, the envoy, turns on one perpetual topic, his son's and his own advancement in the state.
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