322 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



t2»dS. VIII. Oct. 22.'o9. 



similarity to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, ex- 

 cepting that it is a dream. George Offob. 



, JOHN BUNYAN AND "THE PILGRIMS PROGRESS. 



I beg to hand you a cutting from the Dublin 

 Freeman of September 29. 



" An interesting literary discovery has just been 

 brought to light. It was asserted some time ago that 

 Bunyan, who wrote the Pilgrim's Progress, was an im- 

 postor, and that the whole story was made up from an 

 ancient manuscript. Several erudite members of the 

 Eeformed Church wrote letters to the newspapers, de- 

 nouncing the libel, and claiming for honest John Bunyan 

 the whole credit of having conceived and written the famous 

 Progress. Miss Catharine Isabella Gust has, however, 

 taken up the gauntlet thrown down b}' Dr. Gumming 

 and other admirers of Mr. Bunyan, and has shown, be- 

 yond all possibility of doubt, and on the most irrefragable 

 evidence, that Bunj'an, the ' star of Protestantism,' was 

 a mere duffer, and a shabbj', unprincipled duflFer into the 

 bargain. She has published (this day) a translation 

 from the French manuscript copy in the British Museum 

 of the Pylgremage of the Sowle, by Guillaume De Guile- 

 ville, a churchman who flourished in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury. The original work Avas translated in Eugland 70 

 3'ears before the Reformation, and was printed by Caxton 

 in 1483. The Bunj'an's Pilgrim's Progress is nearly a 

 verbatim copy of this rare work, with a few alterations 

 here and thei-e, to give it the tinge of originality ! I have 

 the work before me as I write, and when it reaches your 

 hands j'ou will be able to judge what measure of credit 

 John Bunyan is entitled to. The fact can no longer be 

 disputed that John Bunj'an, of pious memorj', was nothing 

 more nor less than a literary swindler, and that the sub- 

 lime sentiments enunciated in the Progress •vr&ra not those 

 of an inspired follower of the * reformed faith,' but of a 

 Catholic divine who lived and died long before John 

 Bunj-an saw the light — whose work was translated by 

 Catholic pens, and printed by Catholic hands, in the 

 little printing room called ' j-e presse closet,' within the 

 precincts of the abbey church of Westminster, on the 

 very spot where the new Victoria Hotel now stands, and 

 that John Bunyan had no more to do with its production 

 than you or I ! The saints will be savage to think that 

 for two centuries they have been lavishing so much 

 praise upon an imposition ; but facts are stubborn things, 

 and even the most incredulous must believe, when the 

 original Pylgremage of the Sowle is placed in their hands, 

 and compared with the modest and veracious publication 

 of Mr. John Bunyan, whom Heaven forgive for his un- 

 bscrupulous audacity." 



If the facts be as stated, I think they cannot 

 be too generally known : if, on the other hand, the 

 statement can be contradicted, or is susceptible of 

 qualification, some of your numerous correspon- 

 dents may be in a position to do so. G. P. 



[This is a most disgraceful piece of misrepresentation, 

 in which it is difficult to say whether religious bigotry 

 or unscrupulous mendacity has the preeminence. Miss 

 Cust did not " take up the gauntlet thrown down by Di-. 

 Gumming and other admirers of Mr. Bunj-an." The Pil- 

 grim's Progress, so far from being " nearl}' a verbatim 

 copy " of the Pilgrimage of the Soid, really contains only 

 such occasional resemblances as are almost inevitable 

 from the similarit3' of their subject, both De Guileville 

 and Bunj'an being indebted for the idea to the Apoca- 

 lypse. The late Mr. 'N'athaniel Hill, who had devoted 



many years to the study of the works to which he 

 thought Bunj'an had been indebted, speaking of De 

 Guileville's Pilgrimage of Man (which is really the 

 work which Pilgrim's Progress most resembles), says ex- 

 pressly, " that the allegory which becomes in the hands of 

 Bunj'an a fascinating narrative full of vitality and Chris- 

 tian doctrine, is in the work of De Guileville only a cold 

 and lifeless dialogue between abstract and unembodied 

 qualities : " and few, we think, who will take the trouble to 

 compare the two books (and the admirers of John Bun- 

 j'an can well afford to invite such comparison), will hesi- 

 tate in deciding that the epithets " shabbj-, unprincipled 

 duffer," and " literary swindler," do not apply to the 

 author of The Pilgrim's Progress, however correctly they 

 maj' describe the writer of false and scandalous charges. 

 As the correspondent of the Freeman's Journal professes 

 to have had Miss Gust's book before him when he penned 

 this tissue of untruths, we may fitly conclude in his own 

 words, " whom Heaven forgive for his unscrupulous au- 

 dacitj'."— Ed. « N. & Q."] 



De Guileville's ^^ Pilgrimage of the Soul" (2"'^ S. 

 viii. 268.) — Anon, wishes to know what became 

 of a MS. verse translation formerly possessed by 

 Mr. Gillies."^ There are several in the British 

 Museum, and Caxton's edition of 1483. Probably 

 one of these may be that now sought for. But 

 what makes Anon, dream that John Bunyan ever 

 saw that curious book, or had it in prison ? He 

 could not have read it ! Bunyan's Pilgrim's Pro- 

 gress is that of a man from his conviction of sin 

 until he dies. The Pilgrimage of the Soul com- 

 mences where Bunyan ends ! and shows the soul's 

 horrid state for thousands of years in purgatory, 

 until released on the intercession of the Virgin 

 Mary. A fair analysis of this book is in my in- 

 troduction to the Pilgrim. The Freeman's Jour- 

 nal has circulated a most unfounded slander in 

 saying that Bunyan copied Guileville. The two 

 books are open to the public, in the British 

 Museum, and give an utter denial to the asser- 

 tion. George Offob. 



PROBATION LISTS OF MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL. 

 NO. III. 



111. Robotham) ai^^™„„ fb. 1686. 



112. Thomas J '^'^^'^'^y 1 b. 1692. 



113. Moses Allington, b. 1666. 



(N"o doubt brother of Marmaduke A., M.P.) 



114. Edward Amhurst, b. 1698-9. 

 (Younger brother of Nicholas Amhurst.) 



115. Townsend Andrews, b. 1702. 



116. Timothy Archer, b. 1631. 



* Guileville wrote three treatises, called " Le Romant 

 des trois Pelerinages : le premier est de I'homme durant 

 qu'est en vie ; le second de I'ame seperee du corps ; le 

 tiers est de notre Seigneur Jesus," written 1330, printed 

 at Lj'ons, 1485. Never published together in English. 

 Caxton printed Tlie Pilgrimage of the Soul in 1483. 

 Fawkes printed the first, The Pilgrimage of 3fan, about 

 1505. So rare as to be unknown to Dibdin, there is a 

 copy at Oxford. Miss Cust used a MS. of this in the 

 Museum. 



