490
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. DEC. 20, 1002.
here so much amiss? Does COL. PRIDEAUX
really think that I either could or should
have described as correct, without any quali-
fication whatsoever, a bibliographical tran-
script in which there are no fewer than five
typographical errors ? In this transcript a
semicolon is substituted for the original
colon, a comma is intruded, another comma
is substituted for the original full stop, and
two hyphens are omitted. Whether these
five errors, severally or collectively, are of
much or little intrinsic importance is not the
point. We are now dealing with biblio-
graphy, which, as everybody knows, is largely
concerned with such minutiae. COL. PRIDEAUX,
who, in his reply of 15 November (ante,
p. 389), is careful to note the omission of a
colon in H. T.'s copy of the title-page (p. 326 \
is displeased with me for having failed to do
so and for having described H. T.'s copy,
wanting the said colon, as "correct." 1
may say that I too had observed H. T.'s
omission ; but occurring as it did, not in a
formal bibliography, but in the course of a
query in this journal, I did not deem it
necessary to prolong my reply by calling
special attention to it. H. T. might not
have seen a proof ; the colon might have
been in his copy, and even in the proof,
but might have been squeezed out, as so
often happens with a point coming, as this
one would, at the very end of the line. Any-
how, I did not apply to H. T.'s copy the same
standard of accuracy which students, one
and all, would apply to the collations of a
bibliography ; and if in so doing 1 erred, I
cheerfully confess my fault. I characterized
H. T.'s copy of the title-page, which lacks one
colon, as "correct " ; and for this act, let us
say, of misplaced leniency COL. PRIDEAUX
jumps upon me, while at the same time he
complains because I have indicated the five
"errors of punctuation, &c.," in his transcript.
I have transgressed, that is, by noting, and
again I have transgressed by having failed
to note, certain minute inaccuracies of tran-
scription. I should have duly pointed out
H. T.'s one error, and have discreetly winked
at the ' Bibliography's' five errors, and then,
no doubt, all would have been well. Whether
these five errors are chargeable to COL.
PRIDEAUX or to the compositor is a question
which that stout scapegoat and the colonel
must settle between themselves. I bring no
charge against any man ; I simply observe
that in the collation of 'Christabel' five
errors occur in the transcript of the title-
page alone.
But, objects COL. PRIDEAUX, just because of these five minute errors MR. HUTCHINSON
condemns the whole bibliography ! Not so ;
I assert that the book is useless to the serious
student because it exhibits many errors " of
the kind most fatal in bibliography." COL.
PRIDEAUX'S attitude compels me to point out
one or two of these. Take, then, the section
headed 'Contributions in Prose and Verse
to the Courier' (p. 36). Not a syllable do
we find here about Coleridge's letters on
Maturin's tragedy of ' Bertram,' five in
number, which appeared, at short intervals,
from Thursday, 29 August, 1816, onwards,
in the columns of the Courier ! These
letters were, I may observe in passing,
reprinted in 1817 (with some omissions from
the first of the series) in 'Biographia
Literaria.' Again, take the statement on
p. 56: "An original poem of Coleridge's,
entitled ' Water-Ballad,' was contributed to
the Athenaeum in 1831." So far back as
3 June, 1893, I explained in the columns of
the Academy (see also Athenaeum, No. 3656,
20 Nov., 1897, p. 702) that the ' Water-Ballad '
is a translation of Francois Antoine Eugene de
Planard's ' Barcarolle de Marie,' an incidental
song in that writer's opera of ' Marie ' (set to
music by Herold). The 'Barcarolle' will be
found on p. 189 of Masson's 'La Lyre
Fran9aise.' Here, for the present, I must
stop. In a future note I hope (Editor
permitting) to deal with COL. PRIDEAUX'S
positions touching Hazlitt and the -Edinburgh
Jteview. THOMAS HUTCHINSON.
MR. T. HUTCHINSON merits our thanks for his account of the interesting textual varia- tion at 11 8-9 of ' Christabel.' However, his advice to H. T. to eschew Coleridge biblio- graphies and to consult Mr. J. D. Campbell's notes is rather inopportune in this con- nexion ; for some unapparent reason, Mr. Campbell's notes, usually precise and far- reaching, do not even allude to the important variation in the passage in question. In fact, Prof. W. M. Tweedie in Modern Language Notes, xii. p. 191, made an inquiry concern- ing the source of the reading adopted in Campbell's text without a word of explana- tion ; and apparently no response to the query was forthcoming at that time (1897). Moreover, MR. HUTCHINSON needlessly ques- tions the accuracy of the late Richard Herne Shepherd's citation of a third edition of 'Christabel' in 1816. There is now a copy of that edition in the British Museum, listed in the Supplementary Catalogue.
JOHN Louis HANEY.
Central High School, Philadelphia.
"BusiLLis" (9 th S. x. 384). The late Rev. G. G. Perry, Canon of Lincoln, &c., in his
