CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, C. F. CLAY, MANAGER. London: AVE MARIA LANE, E.C. Glasgow: 50, WELLINGTON STREET. Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS. T HE first edition of the First Part of Samuel Butler's Hudibras was 'Printed by J. G. for Richard Marriot, under Saint Dunstan's Church in Fleet street. 1663.' It was published anonymously and carries the Imprimatur' of 'Jo: Berkenhead. Novemb. II. 1662.' The title runs thus: HUDIBRAS. THE FIRST PART. | Written in the time of the late Wars., followed by the design of a wreath. The book measures 4×7 ins., contains 268 pages, and a few errata are given at the foot of the last page. Though dated 1663, it was on sale soon after the date of the License, for Mr Pepys, who does not seem to have been greatly attracted to the poem at his first reading, records, under date December 26, 1662: To the Wardrobe. Hither come Mr Battersby; and we falling into discourse of a new book of drollery in use called Hudebras, I would needs go find it out, and met with it at the Temple: cost me 2s. 6d. But when I came to read it, it is so silly an abuse of the Presbyter Knight going to the warrs, that I am ashamed of it; and by and by meeting at Mr Townsend's at dinner, I sold it to him for 18d.' He appears, however, to have repented of this rash act, for six weeks later (February 6, 1662–3) he writes: ‘And so to a bookseller's in the Strand, and there bought Hudibras again, it being certainly some ill humour to be so against that which all the world cries up to be an example of wit; for which I am resolved once again to read him, and see whether I can find it or no.' (Ed. Wheatley, 1893.) The Second Part, 'By the Authour of the First,' was 'Printed by T. R. for John Martyn, and James Allestry at the Bell in St Pauls Church Yard, 1664.' A block on the title page contains the design of a bell and the publishers' initials M A' interlaced. The 'Imprimatur' is signed 'Roger L'Estrange. Novemb. 5th. 1663.' The book measures 4×7 ins., contains 216 pages and has a few errata noted at the foot of the last page. These first editions of Parts I. and II. do not contain either the Annotations' or 'An Heroical Epistle of Hudibras to Sidrophel,' which were added later. Both parts were 'corrected and amended, with several additions and annotations' in 1674. An issue of the year 1678 forms the basis of the present edition, and in the Appendix will be found the variations between the issues of 1678 and the first editions of 1663-4. 'The Third and last Part. Written by the Author of the First and Second Parts,' 'Printed for Simon Miller, at the sign of the Star at the West End of St Pauls,' (4 × 7 ins.) was published in 1678 and reprinted in 1679, from a copy of which later issue the present text has been printed. A few trifling variations between 1678 and 1679 will be found noted in the Appendix to the present edition, where also will be found a list of errors in the three parts deemed to be misprints and therefore altered in the present text. Of the numerous editions which appeared after the death of Butler, mention need only be made of the elaborately annotated two volume edition of Zachary Grey, LL.D., 'Adorn'd with a new Set of Cuts' (by Hogarth), published at Cambridge in 1744 and 'Printed NOTE by J. BENTHAM, Printer to the UNIVERSITY, for W. Innys, A. Ward, Mess. J. and P. Knapton, D. Browne, S. Birt, T. Longman, T. Woodward, C. Hitch, 7. Oswald, J. Shuckburgh, J. Hodges, E. Wicksteed, Mess. Ward and Chandler, G. Hawkins, Mess. J. and R. Tonson, M. Cooper, R. Wellington, and C. Bathurst, in LONDON.' Dr Grey gives the reading he prefers, when confronted with earlier and later readings, and in other respects his text is 'edited.' Its annotations are its great merit. The purchaser of early editions of Butler's Hudibras may be warned against the spurious or pirated issues that accompanied the first edition of Part I.; the particulars given above should suffice to identify the first genuine impression. The matter is further complicated by the existence of genuine texts in a smaller state, concerning which Lowndes (ed. H. G. Bohn, 1862) states When the legitimate "author's edition,' in small 8vo. came out in 1663, another smaller edition, the size of the spurious one, appears to have been published at the same time, and by the same publishers, probably to compete in cheapness with its rival.' I have taken the alternative readings of Parts I. and II. from the copy of the first genuine 8vo. state in the Cambridge University Library (Syn. 7, 66, 55). Of the various states of the first edition of Part III. particulars are given in an interesting correspondence in Notes and Queries, 6th ser., vi. pp. 108, 150, 276, 311, 370 and 454. The copies collated in the preparation of the present text are those in the British Museum (G. 11450 and 11623. c. 23. (2.)). A useful bibliography of illustrated editions of Hudibras, translations, spurious editions, imitations, etc., will be found in Mr R. B. Johnson's edition of the poetical works of Samuel Butler, Vol. 1., 1893, and some interesting states of the early issues of Parts I and II. are described in Messrs Pickering and Chatto's Book Lover's Leaflet, No. 137. The method adopted in the editing of the present text is the same as that adopted for the other volumes of the CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH CLASSICS. Evident misprints in punctuation have been corrected but all such cases are set forth in the Appendix at the end. In all other respects, what are now regarded as eccentricities of punctuation have been left as originally printed, just as inconsistencies of spelling have been left unedited.' Even to students who have only acquired a slight familiarity with the literature of two or three hundred years ago, the 'pointing' of those days is no more a stumbling-block than the spelling; it is no greater hindrance to appreciation and understanding; and it gives to the general reader an added sense of nearness to the actual form in which the author made his appearance. CAMBRIDGE, 16 December, 1904. A. R. WALLER. |