Books and Bookmen | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by David Price, email [email protected]
from the 1887 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition.

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Contents:
To the Viscountess Wolseley Preface Elzevirs Ballade of the Real and
Ideal Curiosities of Parish Registers The Rowfant Books To F. L. Some
Japanese Bogie-books Ghosts in the Library Literary Forgeries
Bibliomania in France Old French Title-pages A Bookman's Purgatory
Ballade of the Unattainable Lady Book-lovers

TO THE VISCOUNTESS WOLSELEY

Madame, it is no modish thing, The bookman's tribute that I bring; A
talk of antiquaries grey, Dust unto dust this many a day, Gossip of texts
and bindings old, Of faded type, and tarnish'd gold!
Can ladies care for this to-do With Payne, Derome, and Padeloup? Can
they resign the rout, the ball, For lonely joys of shelf and stall?
The critic thus, serenely wise; But you can read with other eyes, Whose
books and bindings treasured are 'Midst mingled spoils of peace and
war; Shields from the fights the Mahdi lost, And trinkets from the
Golden Coast, And many things divinely done By Chippendale and
Sheraton, And trophies of Egyptian deeds, And fans, and plates, and
Aggrey beads, Pomander boxes, assegais, And sword-hilts worn in
Marlbro's days.
In this pell-mell of old and new, Of war and peace, my essays, too, For
long in serials tempest-tost, Are landed now, and are not lost: Nay, on
your shelf secure they lie, As in the amber sleeps the fly. 'Tis true, they
are not "rich nor rare;" Enough, for me, that they are--there!
A. L

PREFACE

The essays in this volume have, for the most part, already appeared in
an American edition (Combes, New York, 1886). The Essays on 'Old

French Title-Pages' and 'Lady Book-Lovers' take the place of 'Book
Binding' and 'Bookmen at Rome;' 'Elzevirs' and 'Some Japanese Bogie-
Books' are reprinted, with permission of Messrs. Cassell, from the
Magazine of Art; 'Curiosities of Parish Registers' from the Guardian;
'Literary Forgeries' from the Contemporary Review; 'Lady
Book-Lovers' from the Fortnightly Review; 'A Bookman's Purgatory'
and two of the pieces of verse from Longman's Magazine--with the
courteous permission of the various editors. All the chapters have been
revised, and I have to thank Mr. H. Tedder for his kind care in reading
the proof sheets, and Mr. Charles Elton, M.P., for a similar service to
the Essay on 'Parish Registers.'

ELZEVIRS

The Countryman. "You know how much, for some time past, the
editions of the Elzevirs have been in demand. The fancy for them has
even penetrated into the country. I am acquainted with a man there who
denies himself necessaries, for the sake of collecting into a library
(where other books are scarce enough) as many little Elzevirs as he can
lay his hands upon. He is dying of hunger, and his consolation is to be