30 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«<« S. VIII. July 9. '59. 



prematur in annum," may have been in this in- 

 stance more than observed. For, so far back as the 

 year 18*29, the work was advertised by MiUiken, 

 the University bookseller, as being then " in the 

 press" (Mill'iken's Catalogue, p. 273., Dublin, 

 1829). Late in tlie year 1847, or early in 1848, 

 appeared the first volume, entitled : — 



" The Whole Works of the Most Reverend James 

 Ussher, D.D., Lord Archbishop of Armagh .... with a 

 Life of the Author, and an Account of his Writings. By 

 Charles Richanl Elrington, D.D., Regius Professor of 

 Divinity in the University of Dublin. In Sixteen 

 Volumes. Vol. I. Dublin .... mdcccxlvii. 8vo." 



The title is immediately followed by an " Ad- 

 vertisement," dated " Trinity College, Dublin, 

 Nov. 1, 1847 ;" in which "The Editor deeply re- 

 grets that he has been compelled to delay for so 

 long a period the publication of the Works of 

 Archbishop Ussher." Much professorial and other 

 public business, long and successive attacks of 

 illness, and consequent necessity for going abroad, 

 are adduced not unreasonably to account for the 

 delay, though they might have equally prompted 

 a resignation of the work to another editor. The 

 most important part of this "Advertisement" is 

 the following : — 



" In editing the works of Archbishop Ussher, the great 

 difficulty arose from the unusual number of quotations to 

 be found in them. The Editor has endeavoured to verify 

 all these quotations, and he has changed the references to 

 the more modern and more generally used editions. The 

 numerous quotations from the Fathers he has referred to 

 the Benedictine editions, whenever they existed, unless, 

 as it sometimes happened, the Archbishop quoted a pas- 

 sage from spurious writings, which they [t. e. the Bene- 

 dictine editors] rejected altogether. In other cases he 

 has named the edition in the place where the quotations 

 from an author first occurred." 



I regret that, so far as I have examined those 

 references, I have found little to commend. They 

 are by no means remarkable for minute accuracy, 

 and they give but trifling assistance towards trac- 

 ing the tlsserian citations. They should have 

 been carefully distinguished by being placed within 

 brackets, from those originally given by Ussher, 

 and the editions should have been carefully indi- 

 cated. Not infrequently are the citations better 

 marked in the old editions of the Brit. Eccles. 

 Antiquitates than in the new. Thus in Ussher's De- 

 dication to King Charles there occurs an adapted 

 quotation from St. Matthew (Matt. xiii. 47, 48.) 

 In the new edition it is marked as an exact cita- 

 tion, and the additional information given in the 

 improved reference consists of two syllables, which 

 any reader could have supplied (Matt. xiii. 47, 

 48.), and which would have been wholly unneces- 

 sary if only the Roman numerals had been used 

 to express the chapter. Again, in his Preface, 

 Ussher had cited two lines from the fifth Act of 

 the Helena of Euripides. The late editor strikes 

 out the reference to the Act, and substitutes one 

 to the number of the lines, which does not agree 



with the editions extant in Ussher's time, and is 

 not described as belonging to any of more recent 

 date. Even a cursory review of this edition of 

 Ussher would occupy more space than could be 

 afforded to such a subject in " N. & Q." I there- 

 fore abstain from here attempting it, only observ- 

 ing that the edition itself still remains incomplete. 



The first volume alone has a title page, and 

 the fourteenth volume has not yet appeared, 

 although this printed slip, without date or signa- 

 ture prefixed to the fifteenth volume, would lead 

 one to expect it : " The publication of the four- 

 teenth volume is unavoidably postponed." But 

 did that deserve the magnificent title of The 

 Whole Works, from which is excluded not only 

 The Body of Divinity, which Ussher did not de- 

 sire to have published, at least with his name ; 

 but also the Bibliotheca Theologica, " which had 

 (says Dr. Elrington) from an early period of his 

 life formed the great object of the Archbishop's 

 attention," yet is permitted by his editor still to 

 remain an unpublished manuscript ? At the be- 

 ginning of the thirteenth volume, "the Editor 

 feels considerable reluctance in publishing this 

 volume of Sermons, as if it contained the genuine 

 writings of Archbishop Ussher." 



In the fourth volume (pp. 235—381.) is "A 

 Discourse of the Religion anciently professed by 

 the Irish and British. First printed in 1631." 

 Yet notwithstanding this averment of a first pub- 

 lication in 1631, Dr. Elrington had already stated 

 (vol. i. p. 131.) that it "had appeared before, in 

 nearly the same form, appended to a Treatise of 

 Sir Christopher Sibthorpe," to whom " the new 

 edition is dedicated" by Ussher himself. The 

 first edition of that work was at Dublin, 1622, 

 the second, of London, 1631. 



The fifth and sixth volumes contain the Brit. 

 Eccles. Antiquitates, of which they form the third 

 and as yet the most convenient edition. Probably 

 the merit, like that of Combe's Horace, consists 

 much, if not altogether, in the paper and print. 

 To each volume is prefixed an incomplete copy of 

 the title of the first edition ; from which, and from 

 the date at the end of Ussher's Preface (vol. v. 

 p. 9), Lancastriensis, if I have not mistaken his 

 argument, intimates that I was wrong in sup- 

 posing Dr. Elrington's edition to have been re- 

 printed from that of 1687, which, however, I had 

 neither stated nor supposed. When I said that it 

 was at most but a reprint, I did not intend to assert 

 that it was even so much ; nor am I now able to 

 determine which of the preceding editions was 

 followed, or on what grounds a preference was 

 made. The date at end of Ussher's preface 

 throws no light on this difficulty, for it would 

 be preserved by every editor. But the title with 

 the date 1639 may fairly be presumed to indicate 

 a preference for that edition. Now, on compari- 

 son, I cannot find that Dr. Elrington has exactly 



