2nd S.V. 121., April 24. '58.] NOTES AND QUEBIES. 



331 



Introduction to the volume of his edition which 

 contains them, again alludes to " this very rare 

 volume, a thin folio," and adds more fully, in the 

 following page, a remark as to the use he has 

 made of it, and its excessive rarity : — 



" The original folio has been entirely followed in the 

 present edition. Copies are now only to be purchased by 

 those who can indulge in the luxuries of literature, if 

 books of extreme rarity may be so called." — P. x. 



In no place that I have been able to find does 

 he speak of this race folio having been ever in- 

 corporated with the folios of the Iliad and Odys- 

 sey which preceded it, of which he gives such 

 a full and satisfactory account. The title, The 

 Whole Works of Horner^ Pi'ince of Poetts, ^"c, 

 which one would think should have included the 

 " Batrachomyomachia," &c., Mr. Hooper (Intro- 

 duction to Odyssey, p. xxviii.) limits to the transla- 

 tions of the Iliad and Odyssey which were collected 

 by Chapman into one volume, and published to- 

 gether in 1616. I have no doubt that Mr. Hooper 

 is quite correct in this ; but as I have had for 

 some years on my shelves (though not enabled to 

 indulge in many of " the luxuries of literature") 

 a very fine copy of Chapman's Homer, which has 

 this very rare volume added to the others which 

 are only less rare, I have thought I would be 

 adding something to our knowledge of these in- 

 teresting old editions by mentioning the cir- 

 cumstance. The volume, when it came into my 

 possession some years ago, was in very tattered 

 old binding, which had every appearance of being 

 of the same age as the printing. There was no- 

 thing to indicate that the folio containing the 

 "Batrachomyomachia" was added at any later 

 period than that at which the folio which con- 

 tained the Odyssey was united to the earlier one 

 of the Iliad — except perhaps the absence of the 

 engraved title by William Pass, which is the only 

 defect I have been able to discover in this very 

 fine copy. I have had the volume rebound in a 

 style more commensurate with its merits, and have 

 dated it (from information less correct than that 

 supplied by Mr. Hooper) 1614. According to him, 

 1614, 1616, and 1624, would be the correct re- 

 spective dates of the original folios of the Iliad, 

 the Odyssey and the "Batrachomyomachia," all 

 combined in this copy. I am anxious to know 

 whether the junction of the folio containing the 

 "Batrachomyomachia," &c., with the preceding 

 folios of the Iliad and Odyssey is of the rare oc- 

 currence I would infer it is from Mr. Hooper's 

 silence on the subject ; and whether any of the 

 public libraries in England contain a copy simi- 

 larly circumstanced. Should the volume have 

 been put together in the state I have it by John 

 Bill, the publisher of the "Hymns," &c., in 1624, 

 I think it has some bearing on the opinion of Mr. 

 Hooper, that the absence of William Hole's por- 

 trait of Chapman from the back of the engraved 



title-page of some copies of The Whole Works 

 arose probably from its " not having been finished 

 when the earlier impressions were struck off"." 

 Now it happens that my copy contains the en- 

 graved title-page without the portrait, which I 

 regret, notwithstanding Mr. Hooper's consoling 

 observation that " titles without the portrait are 

 far rarer that those with it." It also contains the 

 engraved title, " To the immortall Memorie of the 

 incomparable Heroe Prince Henry," as well as 

 the engraved title to the Odyssey, which Mr. 

 Hooper says is also " very rare." It has in addi- 

 tion the " printed title" which he mentions as being 

 given to " some copies." The first volume of Mr. 

 Hooper's edition of the Iliad having been bor- 

 rowed from me by a friend, I cannot at this mo- 

 ment say whether my copy contains what he calls 

 the first or second folios. It is the one which I 

 think he describes as being somewhat more darkly 

 printed than the other, and having oblong gothic 

 carvings at the commencement of each book, in- 

 stead of floral ornaments, as in the other. I may 

 be permitted to add, that the new edition so hap- 

 pily completed was very much wanted. When, 

 some years ago, my curiosity was excited about 

 Chapman and his translation by the prose of 

 Lamb and the poetry of Keats, I vainly searched 

 every public library in Dublin, including that of 

 Trinity College, for the volume or any of the 

 volumes of which this fine old work is made up. 

 Whether the deficiency has been remedied since, 

 I know not. The good taste and liberality of the 

 publisher who has given this careful and elegant 

 reprint to all who love the rich old poetry of 

 Shakspeare's contemporaries and friends, renders 

 it now a matter of less consequence. 



D. F. M'Cabtht. 

 Dalkey, co. Dublin. 



P.S. Since forwarding the preceding remarks 

 to " N. & Q.," I have read in the last Athenceum 

 (April 10, 1858,) an allusion to John Bill the 

 publisher of the " Batrachomyomachia," which 

 adds a slight additional probability to the sug- 

 gestion I have made above, as to the copy of 

 Chapman's Homer in my possession having been 

 put together by him. It is in the interesting and 

 affecting letter of Lady Raleigh relative to Sir 

 Walter's books, given in the Athenaunis review 

 of the new volume of Mrs. Green's Calendar of 

 State Papers, just published. Lady Raleigh, writ- 

 ing to Lady Carew in reference to these books, 

 says : — 



" I was promised them all againe, but I haue not re- 

 ceyued one back. If there were any of these bookes, God 

 forbid but Sir Thomas [Wilson] should haue them for his 

 Ma*'S if they were rare, and not to be hadd elsewhere ; but 

 they tell me that Syll, the bookbynder or stacioner, hath 

 the very same." 



From this it would seem that Bill was better 

 known as a bookbinder and stationer, than as a 



