A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 
patron for Spenser’s remains, than the 
earl of Essex, who, according to Cam- 
den’s authority, rendered them the last 
honours. To us, it ts clear, that Essex, 
and no other, is meant by the great Hart, 
_acommon way of'spelling heart, as is 
ebvious from the antithesis to head, and 
from the pathetic allusion to the disas- 
trous fate of the gallant earl. But al- 
though we notice these trivial inaccura- 
cies, they are such as must necessarily 
occur in a long treatise concerning a 
variety of obscure topics. 
We now and then observe. some spe- 
cimens of Mr. Ritson’s vein of satire, 
though the subject was sufficiently unfa- 
vourable for its display. Inhis aversion 
to churchmen, he descends to invective 
against poor Lydgate, whom he terms. a 
voluminows prosaic and drivelling monk, 
his works stupid and disgusting produc- 
tions, which by no means deserve the 
name of poetry, and himself a still more 
stupid and’ disgusting author, who. dis- 
graces the name and patronage of his 
master, Chaucer. Few Englishmen» of 
the old stamp, will relish Mr. Ritson’s 
character of queen Bess, and of her writ- 
ings, which he terms most abominable 
compositions, “ the muses having favour- 
ed her just as muchas Venus or Diana.” 
In a subsequent passage, the said vene- 
table and royal virgin is termed “ a 
green-eyed monster, the illegitimate 
spawn of a bloody and lustful tyrant, 
who not only imprisoned that most beau- 
tiful and accomplished princess, (to 
whom she had hypocritically and seduc- 
tively offered a refuge), for the eighteen 
best years of her life and reign, but upon 
939 
the falsest suggestions, and the grossest- 
forgeries, with a savage and malignant 
cruelty, unparalleled even in the furies 
or gorgons of antiquity, deprived of 
crown and kingdom, and deliberately. 
sled the sacred and precious blood of her 
nearest relation, and even the presump-. 
tive heir to her own realm, to which, in. 
fact, she had a better title than herself,” 
p. 306. What would an “old courtier of, 
the queen”’ have said to such blasphemy? 
We must not omit to notice that this. 
work is Written in a’ strange. perverts, 
ed kind of. orthography, which Mr. 
Ritson, for reasons best known to him- 
self, thought proper to adopt in his later 
publications... We can neither discoyer 
reason nor analogy. in the peculiarities, 
of writing mister for master, 1 for I, dou~ 
bling the e.in the termination ‘of so é 
words, and clipping off al from ne 
others, any .more than in making the 
small s face about and march before the 
large one, instead of following humbly, 
in the rear, as in. the usual mode of print, 
ing. But,we need, not exclaim against 
innovations, which in.all probability will 
die with their inventor. . 
Mr. Ritson had prepared for the press, | 
previous to his death, a catalogue of 
Scottish poets, intended as a companion 
to the Bibliographia Poetica; and we un- 
derstand there is.a design of giving it to 
the public. .. We how. take leave of the 
laborious Ritson. . With all his wayward 
humours and peculiarities, we venture te 
prophecy that the post which he held 
among our investigators of anh quis 
will neither be speedily nor easily filled. — 
Art. IL A Bibliographical Dictionary, containing a chronological * Account, alphabetically 
arranged, of the most scarce, curious, useful, and important Books in all Departments. of Li- 
terature, which have been published in Latin, Greek, Coptic, Hebrew, Samaritan, Fc. 
Vols. 2, 3, 4. 8vo. pp. 912. 
IN an advertisement prefixed to the 
fourth volume, the author appears to 
advert in terms of some dissatisfaction, 
to the account which was given in our 
last review (p. 537) of the former volumt 
of hiswork. We beg leave to assure him 
that no part of that article was intended 
‘to be offensive to his feelings, and that 
it isour wish, cautiously to abstain from 
“any expressions which can be justly ¢on- 
sidered as possessing that rendency, 
~ With reference to the writets “ de ‘te 
» rusticd,? we are still of opinion, that if it 
“was proper to mention three inférioredi- 
obs of the’ collection of those authors, 
it was proper to mention a greater num- 
ber; and that this arrangement would 
also haye been preferable to any other, 
for this obvious reason, that, if the wri- 
ters are classed separately, as they are 
usually printed together, the editions - 
must either be assigned arbitrarily, some 
to one author, and others to another, 
or must improperly, and inconveniently 
be repeated under different heads, But 
enough on a topic of but little moment. 
We would, however, recommend the 
editor, in future volumes of his work, to 
write Palladins, and not Palladio, ag 
it has hitherto appeared, 
We aresérry if we have under-rated 
the difficulties with which the editor has 
