SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
569
His first three Toliunes ^freatly pleased : the rest are inferior. Plutarch, Seneca, and Pliny, were his favourite authors. He lived in philosophical medic trity; and in the last years of his life retired to his native country, where he died. In Boswell's Life of Johnson is this dialogue concerning the writer of the TttrAuA Spy. B. — Pray, sir, is the Turkish Spy a genuine hook? J, — No, sir, Mrs. Manley, in her Life says, that her father wrote the two first volumes; and in Dunton's Life and Errors, we find that the rest was written by one Sault, at two guineas a sheet, under the direction of Dr. Midgley.*
It is not known on what authority Mrs. Man- ley advances that her father was the author ; but this lady was never nice in detailing facts. Dun- ton, indeed, gives some information in a very loose manner. He tells us, p. 242, that it is probable, by reasons which he insinuates, that one Bradthaw,\ a hackney author, was the writer of the Turkish Spy. This man probably was en- gaged by Dr. Midgley to translate the volumes as they appeared, at the rate of 40s. per sheet On the whole, all this proves, at least, now little the author was known while the volumes were publishing, and that he is as little known at present by the extract from Boswell.
1686, IHed, Richard Royston, bookseller. He was master of the stationers' company in 1673 and 1674; and gave £5 to the poor. Two silver candlesticks, the gift of Mr. Richard Roy- ston, deceased, (57 ounces 15 dwts.) were pre- sented by his widow; to accompany which, a Fair of snuffers and a snuffer-box of silver 10 ozs. 13 dwts.) In the south aisle of Christ Church, Newgate-street, is this inscription : —
Kichard Roystoo, bookseller to tbree kings, died iSSSi in tbe SAtli year of his age.
EUzabetli, wife of Lake IMeredith, grand-daagliter of tlie above Ricbard, 1689.
Mary Chiswel, late wife of Richard Chiswel, bookseller, another daughter of the above Richard Royston, Ifigs.
1686. The first Historical Dictionary was the work of the learned and industrious Nicholas Lloyd, fellow of Wadham college, Oxford, who
- Dr. Midgley was a cotemporary writer with Mr. Fra-
ser, and had Ids deputation firom tbe bishop of London . His humoor was constantly Idnd and agreeable ; his aspect cheeifal and strangely obliging. He licensed fcir me Mr. Jay's tragedies of sir Barlow's TreatUe of Fortification, and other divine essays that were out of Mr. Fraser's province. He was a good physician, and very high for the church ; yet (to do Dr. Midgley justice,) censoriousness, and speaking unhandsomely of persons, or believing eaaUy any ill reports of those that dissented from him, were vices his soul abhorred. In a word, he was a man of shignlar modesty ; and living a pious life, when he lay on his death-bed, he expressed no conftrn to live, nor fear to die: he kept nothinj^ in reserve for ills last hours, and, being ripe for death could not be surprised ; and the same may De said of bis brother Ucenser.Mr. D. Poplar.— i>unton.
The following memorandum was taken from a copy of the original conveyance in the hands of the late Mr. diaries Bathnrst, bookseller, in London, in May 1767. " Dr. Robert Midgely, of the parish of St. Michael Bassi- shaw, London, conveys 37th Dec. I693, to Jos. Hindmarsh, Rd. Lane, and Henry Rhodes, all the copyright in the TiirMnk Spu, in eight volumes. He first says : tratutated, written^ and compoted by himtelf. Afterwards written ori- ginattp in Arabiekt translated into Italian, and from thenee into English, Last of all, he calls himself the sole author of these copies of books. He sold the copy for j^og lis. 9d.
t See Dunton's Life and Error*, vol. a.
spent thirty years in compiling it ; Oxford, folio, 1670 ; again with additions, at London, 1686. -
Some consider Gessner's work in this light, printed in 1545, and consequently abridgments of it; and othei's the Dictionary of Charles Stephens, from the materials collected by Robert Stephens, his father. But whoever considers and compares the work of Mr. Lloyd with these will see it is a very different thing, and built upon a much broader foundation.
We stand indebted for the scheme of an His. torieal Dictionary, in its utmost extent to a French ecclesiastic, Lewis Morreri, who formed it before he was twenty-five, and executed it before he was thirty. Lyons: 1674. folio, 1 vol.
1686. Died, John Leioh, treasurer to the company of stationers. He was appointed to that office in 1679.
1686, Dec. 1. Samdel Johnson, a divine of remarkable learning and steadiness in suffering for the principles of the revolution of 1688, pub- lished a pamphlet entitled, A Humbleand Hearty Address to all the Protestants in the present army; for this work he was sentenced in the court of king's bench to stand in the pillory, in Palace- yard, Westminster, Charing Cross, and the Old Exchange ; to pay a fine of 600 marks, and to be whipped from Newgate to Tyburn, after he had been degraded froni the pnesthood. This cruel and arbitrary sentence was put into execu- tion upon this day. " He came," says tlie writer, " with his cassock on to the pillory, (which had been omitted in the act of degradation, and therefore saved his living,) when Mr. Rouse, the under-sheriff tore it off, and put a frieze coat upon him." Samuel Johnson was born in the year 1649, and died in 1703.
1686, April 26. Hippocrates Ridens; or, Joco-serious Reflections on the Impudence and Mischief of Quacks, and Illiterate Pretenders to Physick, No. 1 ; licensed by Robert MidglCT.
1686, June 21 . An Account of the Proceedings (gainst Samuel Johnson, vj/to was tryed at the King's Bench Bar, Westminster.
1686, Observations on the Weekly Bill, from July 27 to August 3; icifA directions hoia to avmd the Diseases now prevalent; licensed by Robert Midgley, Aug. 9.
1687. An edition of Dry den's poems, the Hind and Panther, a quarto volume of 90 pages, appeared this year, with the imprint Holyrood- house, printed by J. Watson. Of this book Dr. Cotton could give no information, until he met with a work entitled A Description of the Anti- quities, ^-c. of Holyrood-house, 8vo. 1821, from which the following particulars are extracted: —
" During the reign of James VII. (our James II.) who manifested an unconstitutional par- tiality to Roman Catholics, Holyrood-house appears to have been destined by that bigotted prince as a nursery for superstition. Not satis- fied with securing to his popish subjects, within the precincts of his palace, the free exercise of
Sieir religion, at a time when the most limited egree ofthat reli^ous toleration now so liberally enjoyed by everv British subject wa* considered
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