6 NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[294 S, No 1, Jaw. 5.36. 
Independent of the refutation of erroneous im- 
pressions, there seems to me something interest- 
ing in this last act of a pious and learned man, 
who was held in high estimation by some of the 
most distinguished men of his time. He was the 
friend of Isaac Vossius, and published his literary 
correspondence in folio, 1690. Fabricius gave a 
_ collection of his minor pieces, under the title of 
Pauli Colomesii Opera, Hamburgh, 1709, in 4to. 
Des Maiseaux printed several times his A/élanges 
Historiques, under the title of Colomesiana, and it 
is probable that the story of his secret marriage 
had its origin with him. La Monnoye gave an 
edition of his Bibliotheque Choisie, with notes ; 
and Vigneul Marville (7.e. Dom Noél d’ Argonne), 
in his Mélanges, says, — 
“On voit régner dans les écrits de Colomiés air d’un 
honnéte homme, qui fait justice & un chacun, sans avoir 
égard 4 la différence des religions. Les ouvrages que 
jai vu de lui sont remplis dune érudition curieuse, et de 
fort bon got.” 
S. W. Sincer. 
Mickleham. 
REPRINTS OF 
The late Mr. Edward Vernon Utterson, the 
editor of the two well-known volumes of Early 
Popular Poetry (8vo., 1817), had, as is also well 
known, a private press in his house of Beldornie, in 
the Isle of Wight ; by means of which he reprinted 
a variety of highly curious poetical tracts, of dates 
between about 1590 and 1620. Although he 
never struck off more than from twelve to twenty 
copies of each (registering the number in type, or 
in his own handwriting), he was kind enough to 
present, I believe, all of them to me, aware of 
the interest [ have taken in our early literature. 
They were either from unique, or from very rare 
eopies, in public or private libraries ; and, in some 
instances, I have not been able to collate my re- 
prints with the originals. It was my general rule 
todo so; and I am sorry to say that, the service 
Mr. Utterson thus rendered to the students of our 
old poetry, was in some degree neutralized by 
inaccuracies I discovered. The mistakes, I am 
aware, grew out of the circumstance, that he 
usually employed a scribe to copy the original; 
who (like most scribes with whom I have had to 
do) was not as accurate as he ought to have been, 
and Mr. Utterson trusted too much to his fidelity. 
Many allowances ought, in such cases, to be made: 
I have transcribed not a few MSS. and printed 
books with my own hand, in order, as I fancied, 
to be secure upon the point; and, in going over 
them afterwards, I have been astonished at my 
own blunders. Of course, the printer too was 
now and then in fault, and I do not think that 
Mr. Utterson engaged a very good compositor. 
‘hose are commonly the best compositors who have 
EARLY ENGLISH POETRY. 
most to do; and the person or persons who put 
together the letters for a private press, were not _ 
very likely to have enough work to keep them 
in constant employment. Hence they did not 
acquire a habit of accuracy. 
It may seem a little ungracious in me to point 
out errors of this kind: it is, as our proverb well 
expresses it, “ Looking a gift-horse in the mouth.” 
But as Mr. Utterson’s sole object was to benefit 
others by the communication of valuable ma- 
terials, within the reach of few, I am confident 
that his first wish would have been that defects of 
the kind should, as far as possible, be cured; and 
when I have formerly made him aware of their 
existence, he always expressed his obligation and 
his regret: adding a desire, that if I ever made 
any public use of his little volumes, I would take 
cave not to omit the correction of errors. In my 
intercourse with him, I always found him kind, 
liberal, and disinterested. 
I will begin with Richard Barnefield’s Cynthia ; 
with certaine Sonnets, and the Legend of Cas- 
sandra, which was originally published in 1595. 
The name of the author will be familiar to most 
of your readers, because poems by him were in- 
serted by W. Jaggard, in The Passionate Pilgrim, 
as the compositions of Shakspeare. Mr. Utterson 
printed from the copy in Malone’s Collection at 
Oxford ; and I was the more obliged to him for the 
reprint of Cynthia, because it contains the twenty 
sonnets, which were addressed by Barnefield to a 
person he calls Ganymede. Most of these are of 
a questionable character, and were cancelled by 
Mr. Utterson, after they had been composed by 
his printer ; so that, at least, twelve of the copies 
struck off were without them. Moreover, unusual 
mechanical care was evinced about them,—a cir- 
cumstance which may be attributed to the fact, 
that Mr. Utterson himself looked over the press, 
before he decided that he would not insert them. 
He sent them to me with a separate note, and 
wrote “ cancelled” upon them. 
We meet with a singular mistake on the thresh- 
old, where Barnefield's address to his readers, 
just after the mention of Spenser, is made to 
terminate thus : — 
“T leave you to the reading of that, which I so much 
desire may need your delight.” 
Here “need” ought, of course, to be breed; and 
it is only by mishearing on the part of the scribe, 
or the compositor, that we can account for the 
blunder. Again, in the body of the book (Sign. B. 
3. b.), we meet with this line : 
“ JT mixe disdaine with loves congealed & new.” 
This is evidently nonsense, and the emendation * 
is snow for “ & new”: 
“ J mixe disdaine with love’s congealed snow.” 
Here the letter s, in snow, must have been mis- 
