Chapter 1 of 1

Chapter 1

DE LIBRIS
PROSE & VERSE

BY AUSTIN DOBSON



Vt Mel Os, sic Cor Melos afficit, & reficit.
Deuteromelia.

A mixture of a Song doth ever adde Pleasure.
BACON (adapted).


Copyright 1908 by The Macmillan Company



PROLOGUE

LECTOR BENEVOLE!
--FOR SO

THEY USED TO CALL YOU, YEARS AGO,--

I CAN'T PRETEND TO MAKE YOU READ

THE PAGES THAT TO THIS SUCCEED;

NOR COULD I--IF I WOULD--EXCUSE

THE WAYWARD PROMPTINGS OF THE MUSE

AT WHOSE COMMAND I WROTE THEM DOWN.


I HAVE NO HOPE TO "PLEASE THE TOWN."

I DID BUT THINK SOME FRIENDLY SOUL

(NOT ILL-ADVISED, UPON THE WHOLE!)

MIGHT LIKE THEM; AND "TO INTERPOSE

A LITTLE EASE," BETWEEN THE PROSE,

SLIPPED IN THE SCRAPS OF VERSE, THAT THUS

THINGS MIGHT BE LESS MONOTONOUS.


THEN,
LECTOR
, BE
BENEVOLUS!



[The Author desires to express his thanks to Lord Northcliffe, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co., Mr. William Heinemann, and Messrs. Virtue and Co., for kind permission to reprint those pieces in this volume concerning which no specific arrangements were made on their first appearance in type.]



CONTENTS

Prologue

On Some Books And Their Associations

An Epistle To An Editor

Bramston's "Man Of Taste"

The Passionate Printer To His Love

M. Rouquet On The Arts

The Friend Of Humanity And The Rhymer

The Parent's Assistant

A Pleasant Invective Against Printing

Two Modern Book Illustrators--I. Kate Greenaway

A Song Of The Greenaway Child

Two Modern Book Illustrators--II. Mr. Hugh Thomson

Horatian Ode On The Tercentenary Of "Don Quixote"

The Books Of Samuel Rogers

Pepys' "Diary"

A French Critic On Bath

A Welcome From The "Johnson Club"

Thackeray's "Esmond"

A Miltonic Exercise

Fresh Facts About Fielding

The Happy Printer

Cross Readings--And Caleb Whitefoord

The Last Proof



ILLUSTRATIONS

*
THE OTTER HUNT IN THE "COMPLEAT ANGLER."

From an unpublished pen-drawing by Mr. Hugh Thomson
Frontispiece

*
GROUP OF CHILDREN.
From the original pen-drawing by Kate Greenaway for
The Library
, 1881

*
PENCIL-SKETCHES,
by the same (No. 1)

*
PENCIL-SKETCH,
by the same (No. 2)

*
PENCIL-SKETCHES,
by the same (No. 3)

*
PENCIL-SKETCH,
by the same (No. 4)

THE BROWN BOOK-PLATE.
From the original design by Mr. Hugh Thomson in the possession of Mr. Ernest Brown

*
SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY AT THE ASSIZES.
From a first rough pencil-sketch, by the same, for
Days with Sir Roger de Coverley
, 1886

PEN-SKETCHES,
by the same, on the Half-Title of the
Ballad of Beau Brocade
, 1892. From the originals in the possession of Mr. A. T.A. Dobson

*
PEN-SKETCH (TRIPLET)
, by the same, on a Flyleaf of
Peg Woffington
, 1899

EVELINA AND THE BRANGHTONS
, by the same. From the Cranford
Evelina
, 1903

LADY CASTLEWOOD AND HER SON
, by the same. From the Cranford
Esmond
, 1905

MERCERY LANE, CANTERBURY
, by the same. From the original pencil-drawing for
Highways and Byways in Kent
, 1907

The originals of the illustrations preceded by an asterisk are in the possession of the Author.




Chapter 1 of 1