Oct. 28. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



345 



"ROBINSON Crusoe" — who wrote it? 



D'Israeli, in bis ever-charming Curiosities of 

 Literature, expresses boldly the opinion that — 



" No one had, or perhaps could have converted the 

 history of Selkirk into the wonderful story we possess but 

 J)e Foe himself." 



So have we all been accustomed to believe, from 

 those careless happy days of boyhood, when we 

 pored intently over the entrancing pages of Robin- 

 son Crusoe ; and wished that we also could have 

 a desert island, a summer bower, and a winter 

 cave-retreat, as well as he. But there is, alas ! 

 some slight ground at least for believing, that 

 De Foe did not write that immortal tale, or, at all 

 events, the better portion of it, viz. the first part 

 or volume of the work. In Sir H. Ellis's Letters 

 of Eminent Literary Men (Camden Soc. Pub., 

 1843, vol. xxiii.), p. 420., Letter cxxxiv. is from 

 *' Daniel De Foe to the Earl of Halifax, engaging 

 himself to his Lordship as a political Writer." In 

 a note by the editor, a curious anecdote is given, 

 quoted from " a volume of Memoranda in the 

 handwriting of Thomas Warton, the poet-laureate, 

 preserved in the British Museum," in relation to 

 the actual authorship of the Life and Adventures 

 of liohinson Crusoe. The extract is as follows : 



" Mem., Jul. 10, 1774. In the year 1759, I was told by 

 the Rev. Mr. Benjamin Holioway, Rector of Middleton, 

 Stoney, in Oxfordshire, then about seventy j'ears old, 

 and, in the early part of his life, domestic chaplain to 

 Lord Sunderland, tliat he had often heard Lord Sunder- 

 land say that Lord Oxford, while prisoner in the Tower 

 of London, wrote the first volume of the Histoi-y of Robinson 

 Crusoe, merely as an amusement under conlinement ; and 

 gave it to Daniel De Foe, who frequently visited Lord 

 Oxford in the Tower, and was one of his pamphlet writers. 

 That De Foe, by Lord Oxford's permission, printed it as 

 his own, and, encouraged by its extraordinary success, 

 added himself the second volume, the inferiority of which 

 is generally acknowledged. Mr. Holioway also told me, 

 from Lord Sunderland, that Lord Oxford dictated some parts 

 of the manuscript to De Foe. Mr. Holioway (Warton adds) 

 was a grave conscientious clergyman, not vain of telling 

 anecdotes, very learned, particularly a good orientalist, 

 author of some theological tracts, bred at Eaton School, 

 and a Master of Arts of St. John's College, Cambridge . . . 

 He used to say that liohinson Crusoe, at its first publi- 

 cation, and for some time afterwards, was universally re- 

 ceived and credited as a genuine history. A fictitious 

 narrative of this sort was then a new thing." 



Besides, it may be added, the real and somewhat 

 similar circumstances of Alexander Selkirk's soli- 

 tary abode of four years and four months on the 

 island of Juan Fernandez, had, only a few years 

 previously, been the subject of general conver- 

 sation, and had therefore prepared the public 

 mind for the possibility, if not the probability, of 

 such adventures. The Query I have to make 

 upon Warton's note is, Whether there are any 

 solid grounds for believing Lord Oxford to have 

 written the best part of Robinson Crusoe f I may 

 also ask, whether any correspondent or reader of 



" N. & Q." knows anything of, or has ever seen, 

 the chest and musket which Alexander Selkirk 

 had with him during his solitary abode on the 

 island ; and which a grand-nephew of his, John 

 Selkirk, weaver of Largo, Scotland, is said to have 

 had in his possession in 1792 ? James J. ScoXT. 

 Downshire Hill, Hampstead. 



Genealogies in Old Bibles. — Can any of your 

 readers give me any information relating to the 

 curious Genealogies of Christ by Speed, which are 

 so commonly found bound up with Bibles before 

 and after 1600, especially in the small quarto, both 

 Genevan and authorised ? When, and in what 

 shape, was the first edition? was it published 

 separately, or in a Bible; and, if in a Bible, in 

 what edition was it published ? Do you suppose 

 that all editions of a Bible were issued with the 

 genealogies, or that some were published with and 

 some without them of the same edition ? The 

 same information as to the Map, so often inserted 

 with genealogies in folio, quarto, and octavo. 



F. C. 



Old and New Books. — To whom are we in- 

 debted for the following maxim ? 



" Nine times out of ten it is more profitable, if not more 

 agreeable, to read an old book over again, than to read a 

 new one for the first time." 



Abhba. 



" Quintus Calaber.'"' — What English version is 

 there of this book ? Moss does not mention it in 

 his work. In Mr. Bohn's prefixed supplement to 

 the second edition as it is called, one edition, 

 that of Hegar, is named. Of course I am aware 

 of Mr. Elton's "specimen ;" but is there a complete 

 translation into English ? B. 



Pritchard's Ship, without Sail or Wind. — In the 

 Life of Ga?'rick, by Tom Davies, published in 

 1780, the author, alluding to a proposed establish- 

 ment of a theatrical fund, says : 



" Various plans have been formed : some of them per- 

 haps might have been reduced to practice, others were 

 nugatory or visionar^^ Mr. Pritchard, an honest good- 

 natured man, the husband of the great actress, had laid, 

 out a scheme to relieve infirm players. But little hopes 

 could be expected from a projector who proposed to build a 

 ship which i'ould move on the water without either sails or 

 wind." — Vol. ii. p. 305. 



What was this proposal ? Was it ever pub- 

 lished, and where to be found ? T. E. D. 



Taking off the Hat. — When first came into use 

 the salutation custom of taking off, raising, or 

 touching the hat, on meeting superiors, or those 

 to whom we wish to pay some outward mark of 

 respect ? I find a grave Scottish divine of 1629, 



