1917] Authors' Dedications in the Seventeenth Century 19 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, February 16, 1917. 



The Right Hon. Lord Wrexbury, P.O., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



Very Rev. H. Hensley Hexsox, Dean of Durham. 

 Authors' Dedications in the Seventeenth Century. 



Dedications now mostly nothing more than personal compliments, 

 but once had a greater importance. In some cases they possess 

 considerable value, both historical and biographical. In seventeenth 

 century the " dedicatory epistle " often a concise statement of author's 

 argument, reasons for writing, and circumstances. Hardly excessive 

 to say that the introductory compositions are the only portions of 

 some famous books now known generally. Literary finish secured 

 by the desire to make a favourable impression. Reasons why 

 authors sought the patronage of prominent persons. Fuller's view 

 and practice. Financial policy latent in dedications explains much 

 of the adulation which impairs their credit and literary quality. 

 Dedications dictated by personal friendship have no taint of flattery 

 or self-seeking. Extraordinary dedications are the satirical (e.g., 

 George Withers and Lord Herbert), and polemical (e.g., Milton, 

 Heylyn, Hall). Herbert and Bunyan are examples of edifying 

 dedications, and stand by themselves Selden's dedication of " Titles 

 of Honour " to Mr. Edward Hey ward gives his opinion of conven- 

 tional dedications. The " Dedicatory Letter " prefixed to the 

 republication of this treatise is almost an essay on dedication. Selden, 

 like Fuller, divides authors' dedications into three classes — instruction, 

 censure, love and honour. We may accept a three-fold classification 

 — personal, official, financial. Selden was exceptional as a man 

 of comparative wealth, but he had experience in connexion with his 

 '' History of Tithes " of the risks of independence. His servile 

 description of James I. may stand beside Johnson's interview with 

 George. III. Choice of person to whom a book should be dedicated 

 was determined by a variety of considerations — personal inclination, 

 obvious fitness, official propriety, polemical effect, calculations of 

 prudence, financial interest. A dedication implied patronage, which 

 was indispensable in that age, when few authors made money by their 

 works. Hall " wrote books to buy books " ; Fuller boasted that 

 " no stationer had lost by him." Both were exceptionally successful 

 writers. Mostly the author depended on the patron's complimentary 



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