NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2na s. N« 79., JuLT 4. '57. 



curiosity collector — may have retained this unique 

 copy, and it may have been sold with his collec- 

 tion, and be still in existence. 



That other copies of the poem were at the time, 

 or soon after, in existence, is beyond question ; and 

 the scoundrels who bribed the poor journeyman 

 to betray and rob his employer, were very likely 

 persons to take a copy before they delivered the 

 original to Lord Sandwich ; or copies may have 

 been taken, as Wilkes said, after Sandwich, hav- 

 ing blazoned forth his indignation, laid the poem 

 on the table that the clerks and others of the 

 House might take copies. 



It is more to my purpose to show, what is 

 equally indisputable, that there were spurious 

 copies soon after sold as genuine — some Avith a 

 few genuine passages, probably copied from the 

 Bill of Indictment, worked into them, and others 

 without one genuine line. Some of these are in our 

 public libraries ; but as they are more vile than 

 the original, I need not specifically refer to them. 

 Enough for me to show that it was one of these 

 to which probably my informant referred, cer- 

 tainly one without a genuine line in it, which Lord 

 Stanhope has mistaken for the original. 



I will now proceed to proof; and for this proof 

 I am indebted to " N. & Q." An intelligent cor- 

 respondent referred, some time since (2°'* S. iii. 

 308.), to works in his possession printed in red 

 letters, and mentioned incidentally the Essay on 

 Woman. Under very proper conditions, I was 

 permitted to see this unique volume ; and it 

 turned out to be the very copy, or a copy of the 

 very edition, seen and commented on by Lord 

 Stanhope, inscribed to Lord Sandwich, and be- 

 ginning, — " Awake, my Sandwich." 



How, it may be asked, under the circumstances 

 I have stated, can I be sure that this red-letter 

 copy is not genuine ? For many reasons. It 

 does not even pretend to be genuine. Instead of 

 being the work printed at Wilkes's press, and laid 

 on the table of the House of Lords in 1763, it is 

 declared on the title-page to be "Printed for 

 George Richards, mdcclxxii. ;" and it declares 

 this in type., whereas the genuine title-page was 

 "on copper curiously engraved." Again, there is 

 not one single note throughout, whereas, as the Par- 

 liamentary History shows, and my Lord Stanhope 

 admits, " burlesque notes were appended " to the 

 genuine edition " in the name of the Right Reve- 

 rend the Bishop of Gloucester," Farther and 

 conclusive, the indictment sets forth copious ex- 

 tracts both from the poem and the notes, and not 

 one line of these numerous paragraphs is to be 

 found in the copy printed for George Richards 

 and commented on by the historian. 



I will hereafter, with your permission, consider 

 the evidence as to Wilkes having "composed" or 

 written the poem. D. 



{To he continued.') 



THE FIRST SANSCRIT BOOK. 



I have often reflected on the circumstance 

 which prompts me to write this note. A lan- 

 guage which boasts of vast antiquity — a lan- 

 guage which, as affirms M. Eichhoff, "contient le 

 germe de toutes les langues et de toutes les litte- 

 ratures de I'Europe " — was first made patent 

 through the medium of the press at the close of 

 the eighteenth century. 



The work chosen on that memorable occasion 

 must be noticed in our best biographical and other 

 collections, and preserved in many public libraries : 

 such, at least, are the fair inferences. Inquiry 

 proves the reverse. 



The Seasons of Calidas, as edited in Sanscrit by 

 sir William Jones, are not noticed in the Nouveau 

 dictionnaire historique, nor in the Biographie uni- 

 verselle, nor in the General biographical dictionary. 

 The same censure applies to the Cyclopcedia of 

 Rees, to the Edinburgh cyclopcedia, to the Ency- 

 clopadia Americana, to the Penny cyclopcedia, to 

 the Encyclopcedia Britannica, and to the National 

 cyclopcedia ; also, to the bibliographical works of 

 Watt, and Lowndes, and Ebert, and Brunet, 



The precious volume is not in the British Mu- 

 seum, nor in the Bibliotheca Marsdeniana, nor in 

 the Bodleian Library, nor in the Bibliotheque 

 Imperiale at Paris ; nor does it appear to have 

 beeti in the private collections of Langles, De 

 Chezy, Haughton, Silvestre de Sacy, or Bournouf. 



I shall now describe it from a copy which came 

 into my possession on the sale of the library of sir 

 W^illiam Jones in 1831. It is entitled — 



" The SEASONS : a descriptive poem, by Calidas, 

 in the original Sanscrit. Calcutta : m.dccxcii." 



The volume is in royal octavo, and consists of 

 thirty-four leaves of wove paper of very firm 

 texture. An anonymous advertisement occupies 

 the recto of the second leaf, and bears the auto- 

 graph initials of the illustrious sir William Jones. 

 The text, as professor Horace Hayman Wilson 

 assures us, is in the Bengali character. The type- 

 founder is not named, nor even the printer. The 

 paper has the water-mark J. Whatman, and is in 

 spotless condition. 



The advertisement, though reprinted in the 

 works of its author, must not be omitted on this 

 occasion. 



" Ada'^rtisement. 



This book is the first ever printed in Saitscrit; and it 

 is by the press alone, that the ancient literature of India 

 can long be preserved : a learner of that most interesting 

 language, who had carefully perused one of the popular 

 grammars, could hardly begin his course of study with an 

 easier or more elegant work than the Rltusanhdra, or 

 Assemblage of seasons. Everj' line composed by CAudAs 

 is exquisitely polished, and every couplet in the following 

 poem exhibits an Indian landscape, alwaj-s beautiful, 

 sometimes highly coloured, but never beyond nature: 

 four copies of it have been diligently collated; and, 



