Aubrey sought and obtained an introduction to Anthony Wood in August 1667. He was keenly interested in antiquarian studies, and had the warmest love for Oxford; he had been a contemporary in Trinity College with Wood's brother, Edward; and so was drawn to Wood on hearing that he was busy with researches into the History of the University of Oxford.
Aubrey was one of those eminently good-natured men, who are very slothful in their own affairs, but spare no pains to work for a friend. He offered his help to Wood; and, when it was decided to include in Wood's book short notices of writers connected with Oxford, that help proved most valuable. Aubrey, through his family and family-connexions, and by reason of his restless goings-to-and-fro, had a wide circle of acquaintance among squires and parsons, lawyers and doctors, merchants and politicians, men of letters and persons of quality, both in town and country. He had been, until his estate was squandered, an extensive and curious buyer of books and MSS. And above all, being a good gossip, he had used to the utmost those opportunities of inquiry about men and things which had been afforded him by societies grave, like the Royal Society, and frivolous, as coffee-house gatherings and tavern clubs. The scanty excerpts, given in these volumes, from letters written by him between 1668 and 1673, supply a hint of how deeply Wood's Historia et Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis, published in 1674, was indebted to the multifarious memory and unwearying inquiries of the enthusiastic Aubrey.
Dean Fell's request that Wood should notice Oxford writers and bishops in his Historia had suggested to Wood the plan of, and set him to work upon, the larger and happier scheme of the Athenae Oxonienses, an 'exact history of all the writers and bishops that have had their education in ... Oxford' since 1500. He engaged his friend Aubrey to help him in his undertaking, by committing to writing in a more systematic way, for Wood's benefit, his multitudinous recollections of men and books. He was dexterous enough to supply the additional motive, that, after serving his friend's turn, Aubrey's collections might be gathered together, preserved for a while in some safe and secret place, and, when personal feelings were saved by lapse of time, be published and secure their writer a niche in the Temple of Fame.
It was now by no means easy for Aubrey to undertake any extensive, and especially any connected work. Being by this time bankrupt, and a hanger-on at the tables of kindred and acquaintances, he had to fall in with his patrons' habits, at the houses where he visited; to sit with them till they wearied of their carousings in the small hours of the morning; and to do his writing next forenoon, before they had slept off their wine.
Still, his interest in the subject, and his desire to help his friend prevailed; and we soon find him thanking Wood for setting him to work. March 27, 1680[1]:—''Twill be a pretty thing, and I am glad you putt me on it. I doe it playingly. This morning being up by 10, I writt two <lives>: one was Sir John Suckling[2], of whom I wrote a leafe and ½ in folio.' May 22, 1680[3]:—'My memoires of lives' <is now> 'a booke of 2 quires, close written: and after I had began it, I had such an impulse on my spirit that I could not be at quiet till I had donne it.' Sept. 8, 1680[4]:—'My booke of lives ... they will be in all about six-score, and I beleeve never any in England were delivered so faithfully and with so good authority.'
Aubrey, therefore, began these lives[5] on the suggestion of, and with a desire to help Anthony Wood.
Among the lives so written were several of mathematicians and men of science. And another friend of Aubrey's, Dr. Richard Blackburne, advised him to collect these by themselves, and add others to them, with a view to a biographical history of mathematical studies in England. To this suggestion Aubrey was predisposed through his pride at being 'Fellow of the Royal Society,' and for some time he busied himself in that direction[6].
In the same way, although the bulky life of Thomas Hobbes[7] was partly undertaken in fulfilment of a promise to Hobbes himself, an old personal friend, the motive which induced Aubrey to go on with it was a desire to supply Dr. Blackburne with material for a Latin biography, Vitae Hobbianae Auctarium, published in 1681.
These matters will be found more fully explained in the notices which Aubrey has prefixed to the several MSS. of his biographical collections, as described below.
II. Condition of the Text of the 'Lives.'
Few of the 'Lives' are found in a fair copy[8]. Again and again, in his letters to Anthony Wood, Aubrey makes confession of the deficiencies of his copy, but puts off the heavy task of reducing it to shape.
His method of composition was as follows. He had a folio MS. book, and wrote at the top of a page here and there the name of a poet, or statesman, or the like, whose life he thought of committing to paper. Then, selecting a page and a name, he wrote down hastily, without notes or books, his recollections of the man, his personal appearance, his friendships, his actions or his books. If a date, a name, a title of a book, did not occur to him on the spur of the moment, he just left a blank, or put a mark of omission (generally, ... or——), and went on. If the matter which came to him was too much for the page, he made an effort to get it in somehow, in the margins (top, bottom, or sides), between the paragraphs, or on the opposite page.
When he read over what he had written in the first glow of composition, he erased, wrote alternatives to words and phrases, marked words, sentences, and paragraphs for transposition, inserted queries: unsettled everything.
If later on, from books or persons, he got further information, he was reckless as to how he put in the new matter: sometimes he put it in the margin, sometimes at a wrong place in the text, or on a wrong leaf, or in the middle even of another life, and often, of course, in a different volume.
And there, as has been said, the copy was left. Very seldom was a revised copy made.
To the confusions unavoidable in composing after this fashion, must be added the unsteadiness consequent on writing in the midst of morning sickness after a night's debauch. One passage, in which he describes his difficulties in composing, explains, in a way nothing else could, the frequent erasures, repetitions, half-made or inconsistent corrections, and dropping of letters, syllables, and words, which abound in his MSS. March 19, 1680/1[9]; 'if I had but either one to come to me in a morning with a good scourge, or did not sitt-up till one or two with Mr. <Edmund> Wyld, I could doe a great deal of businesse.'
III. Aim of this Edition.
In presenting a text of Aubrey's 'Lives,' an editor, on more than one important point, has to decide between alternatives.
1. Shall all, or some only, of the lives be given?
It is plain, from a glance over the MSS., that many of the lives are of little interest; in some cases, because they contain more marks of omission than statements of fact; in other cases, because they give mainly excerpts from prefaces of books; and so on. A much more interesting, as well as handier, book would be produced, if the editor were to reject all lives in which Aubrey has nothing of intrinsic value to show.
2. In the lives selected, shall the whole, or parts only, of what Aubrey has written be given?
Many sentences occur, which declare only Aubrey's ignorance of a date, or a place, or the title of a book. In other cases, dull and imperfect catalogues of writings are given. The omission of these would be a service to the whole, like the cutting of dead branches out of a shrub.
3. In constituting the text, how much, or how little, notice is to be taken of the imperfections of Aubrey's copy?
The simplest, and, from some points of view, the most effective, course would be to treat Aubrey's rough draft as if it were one's own, rejecting (without comment) one or other of two alternatives, supplying (without mark) a missing word or date, omitting a second version (though having some minor peculiarities) of a statement, and so on. In this way, with a minimum of trouble to the editor, a smooth text would be produced, which would spare the reader much irritation.
4. How far is the text to be annotated, the editor supplying Aubrey's abundant omissions, and correcting his many mistakes?
In respect of all these questions, the aim of the present edition, and the reasons for the decision taken in each case, can be stated very briefly and decidedly.
1, and 2. This edition seeks to give in full all that Aubrey has written in his four chief MSS. of biographies, MSS. Aubrey 6, 7, 8, and 9.
The entire contents of these MSS. will thus be placed beyond that risk of perishing, to which they must have remained liable so long as they were found only in MS., and they will, for what they are worth, henceforth be accessible to all.
Some things in Aubrey's writing offend not merely against our present canons of good taste, but against good morals. The conversation of the people among whom Aubrey moved, although they were gentry both in position and in education, was often vulgar, and occasionally foul, as judged by us. I have dealt with these lives as historical documents, leaving them, with a very few excisions, to bear, unchecked, their testimony as to the manners and morals of Restoration England.
3. This edition seeks to present faithfully Aubrey's text as he wrote it, neglecting only absolute minutiae.
(a) A plain text is given of what Aubrey wrote, taking, as seemed most convenient, sometimes his first version of a sentence or a word, sometimes his alternative version. The rejected alternatives are given in the textual notes, as 'duplicate with'; and occasionally the erasures, as 'substituted for.' Many of these notes are very trivial; but their presence, which after all gives little trouble, provides a complete view of the MS. text. I believe also that in this way I have preserved for the collector of words some quaint forms and expressions for which he will thank me, and provided the student of English style with some apt instances of the way in which terse native words have been replaced in our written language by feebler Latinisms.
(b) I have been careful to give, in every case, Aubrey's own spelling, with or without final or medial 'e,' with single or double letters, 'ie' or other diphthong where we write 'ei,' and the like. The English of Aubrey's age is so like our own that it is not unimportant to mark even its minor differences.
All merely artificial tricks of writing (wch for which, and the like) have been neglected.
(c) Where a date, a word, or a name has been inserted, the insertion is enclosed in angular brackets < >. Where it seemed requisite to mark that a word or phrase was added at a later date, or by another hand, square brackets have been used []. The use of these symbols, borrowed from Vahlen's edition of Aristotle's Poetics, has been censured as pedantic, but I know of no clearer or shorter way of making plain in a printed text just what is, and what is not, in the MS. text.
(d) Punctuation is generally absent in Aubrey's text, as might be expected, and where it is found, it is often misleading. The points and marks in this edition are therefore such as seemed to make the meaning clear to myself, and therefore, I hope, to others.
(e) As regards the order of the paragraphs, Aubrey's text has been given, where convenient, sentence by sentence, and page by page. But I have taken full liberty to bring into their proper place marginalia, interlinear notes, addenda on opposite pages, &c. In some cases, indeed, to give in print the MS. text sentence by sentence is to do it injustice. In the MS., the difference of inks between earlier and later notes, the difference of pen-strokes (on one day with a firm pen, on another with a scratchy quill), and similar nuances, impress the eye with a sequence of paragraphs which in print can be shown only by redistribution. For example, I claim that the life of Milton, in this edition, is, from its bolder treatment, truer to the MS., than the servile version in the old edition.
4. As regards notes and explanations. Aubrey's lives supply an inviting field for comment, correction, and addition. But, even so treated, they will never be a biographical dictionary. Their value lies not in statement of bibliographical or other facts, but in their remarkably vivid personal touches, in what Aubrey had seen himself and what his friends had told him. The notes therefore seek to supply no more than indications of outstanding features of the text, identifications of Aubrey's informants, or necessary parallels from his letters.
IV. Description of the MSS.
MS. Aubr. 6: a volume chiefly of folio leaves; written mostly in February 1679/80; now marked as containing 122 leaves (some pages blank), but having also a few unfoliated slips. Aubrey's own short title to it was:—
'S?ed??sata. Brief Lives, part i.,'
and, in his pagination, it contained eighty-six leaves. A rough index of its contents, by him, is found as foll. 8-10: and there he gives the names of several persons whose lives he intended to write, but has not included in this volume. Some of these are found elsewhere, especially in MS. Aubrey 8; but a few[10] are not discoverable in any MS. of his biographical collections—e.g., Richard Alcorne; <Samuel> Collins, D.D.; Richard Blackbourne, M.D.; <John> Flamsted[11]; Sir John Hoskins; James Rex; James, duke of Monmouth[12]; Peter Ramus; Benjamin Ruddier; captain <Edward> Sherburne; captaine Thomas Stump[13]; Richard White. Possibly Aubrey never wrote the missing lives; but it must be remembered (1) that he cut some leaves out of his MS. himself (see in a note to the life of Richard Boyle, earl of Cork); (2) that Anthony Wood cut out of MS. Aubr. 7 forty pages at least, containing matters 'to cut Aubrey's throat,' i.e. reflections on politics, where the lives of James R. and Monmouth may well have been.
One point about this MS. which deserves mention is that, in these lives, Aubrey, in his hope to supply data for crucial instances in astrology, is careful to give the exact nativity wherever he can. His rule is thus laid down by himself in MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 12v, in a note attached to the nativity of his friend Sir William Petty:—
'Italian proverb—
"E astrologia, ma non É Astrologo,"
i.e. we have not that science yet perfect; 'tis one of the desiderata. The way to make it perfect is to gett a supellex of true genitures; in order wherunto I have with much care collected these ensuing[14], which the astrologers may rely on, for I have sett doune none on randome, or doubtfull, information, but from their owne mouthes: quod N. B.'
Another point is, that Aubrey very frequently gives the coat of arms, in trick or colour. In some cases, no doubt, he did this from having seen the arms actually borne in some way by the person he is writing about; but in other cases he merely looked up the name in a 'Dictionary of Arms,' and took the coat from thence, thus nullifying his testimony as to the actual pretensions to arms of those he writes about. All coats he mentions have, however, been given in the text or notes.
Prefixed to the volume[15] are two notes in which Aubrey explains its origin and destination.
(A)—MS. Aubr. 6, fol.[16] 2:—
'Tanquam tabulata naufragii,
Sum Johannis Aubrii, R.S.S.
Febr. 24, 1679/80.
My will and humble desire is that these minutes, which I have hastily and scriblingly here sett downe, be delivered carefully to my deare and honoured friend Mr. Anthony À Wood, antiquary, of Oxford.—
Ita obnixe obtestor,
Jo. Aubrey.
Ascenscione Domini,
correptus lipothymiÂ, circiter 3 P.M.
1680.'
(B)—MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 12:—
'To my worthy friend Mr. ANTHONIE À WOOD,
Antiquarie of Oxford.
Sir!
I have, according to your desire, putt in writing these minutes of lives tumultuarily, as they occurr'd to my thoughts or as occasionally I had information of them. They may easily be reduced into order at your leisure by numbring them with red figures, according to time and place, &c. 'Tis a taske that I never thought to have undertaken till you imposed it upon me, sayeing that I was fitt for it by reason of my generall acquaintance, having now not only lived above halfe a centurie of yeares in the world, but have also been much tumbled up and downe in it which hath made me much[17] knowne; besides the moderne advantage of coffee-howses in this great citie, before which men knew not how to be acquainted, but with their owne relations, or societies. I might add that I come of a longaevous race, by which meanes I have imped some feathers of the wings of time, for severall generations; which does reach high. When I first began, I did not thinke I could have drawne it out to so long a thread.
I here lay-downe to you (out of the conjunct friendship[18] between us) the trueth, and, as neer as I can and that religiously as a poenitent to his confessor, nothing but the trueth: the naked and plaine trueth, which is here exposed so bare that the very pudenda are not covered[19], and affords many passages that would raise a blush in a young virgin's[20] cheeke. So that after your perusall, I must desire you to make a castration (as Raderus[21] to Martial) and to sowe-on some figge-leaves—i.e., to be my Index expurgatorius.
What uncertainty doe we find in printed histories? they either treading too neer on the heeles of trueth that they dare not speake plaine, or els for want of intelligence (things being antiquated) become too obscure and darke! I doe not here repeat any thing already published (to the best of my remembrance) and I fancy my selfe all along discourseing with you; alledgeing those of my relations and acquaintance (as either you knew or have heerd of) ad faciendam fidem: so that you make me to renew my acquaintance with my old and deceased friends, and to rejuvenescere (as it were) which is the pleasure of old men. 'Tis pitty that such minutes had not been taken 100 yeares since or more: for want wherof many worthy men's names and notions[22] are swallowd-up in oblivion; as much of these also would [have[23] been], had it not been through your instigation: and perhaps this is one of the usefullest pieces[24] that I have scribbeld.
I remember one sayeing of generall Lambert's, that "the best of men are but men at the best": of this, you will meet with divers examples in this rude and hastie collection. Now these arcana are not fitt to lett flie abroad, till about 30 yeares hence; for the author and the persons (like medlars) ought to be first rotten. But in whose hands must they be deposited in the mean time? advise me, who am,
Sir,
Your very affectionate friend
to serve you,
John Aubrey.
London,
June 15,
1680.'
MS. Aubr. 7: a folio volume of twenty-one leaves (several pages blank), of which two[25] only belong to the original MS.
The original title may be conjectured to have been:
'S?ed??sata. Brief Lives, part ii.,'
and it possibly contained some letters, like those in the preceding volume, which made Wood think it was given to him.
On fol. 1, is a note describing the make-up of the volume:—
'Aubrey's Lives: fragments of part ii.—These scattered fragments collected and arranged by E. M. Sep. 1792.' A note (in Dr. Philip Bliss's hand?) says that E. M. is Edmund Malone.
In this, as in the other Aubrey MSS., Dr. Bliss has made several slight notes, both in pencil and ink, with a view to his edition.
The mutilation of the MS. was the crime of Anthony Wood, to whom it had been sent. Two conjectures may be hazarded—either that Wood did this in order to paste the cuttings into his rough copy of his projected Athenae, and so save transcription; or, more probably, that he was so thoroughly alarmed by the threat of Lord Clarendon's prosecution of himself (Clark's Wood's Life and Times, iv. 1-46), that he destroyed the papers containing Aubrey's sharp reflections on various prominent personages[26]. But whatever the pretext, Aubrey was, naturally, very grieved at his unjustifiable conduct. In a letter to Wood, dated Sept. 2, 1694 (MS. Ballard 14, fol. 155), he writes:—
'You have cutt out a matter of 40 pages out of one of my volumnes, as also the index. Was ever any body so unkind?—And I remember you told me comeing from Hedington that there were some things in it that "would cutt my throat." I thought you so deare a friend that I might have entrusted my life in your hands and now your unkindnes doth almost break my heart.'
When Aubrey had the volume back in his own hands, he wrote in it[27] the following censure:—
'Ingratitude! This part the second Mr. Wood haz gelded from page 1 to page 44 and other pages[28] too are wanting wherein are contained trueths, but such as I entrusted nobody with the sight of but himselfe (whom I thought I might have entrusted with my life). There are severall papers that may cutt my throate. I find too late Memento diffidere was a saying worthy one of the sages. He hath also embezill'd the index of it—quod N. B. It was stitch't up when I sent it to him.
Novemb. 29, 1692.'
MS. Aubr. 8: a folio volume, containing 105 leaves: it contains two distinct MSS., bound together.
The first part of the MS. (foll. 1-68 in the present marking) might have been entitled:—
'S?ed??sata. Brief Lives, part iii.'
On fol. 1 and fol. 3, the short title actually written by Aubrey is:—
??
Pars iiitia
1681
i.e. the symbol for Saturn, the patron of antiquarian studies, and Aubrey's monogram. On fol. 4 Aubrey has a very elaborate title, showing the destination of the MS.:—
'Auctarium vitarum a collectarum, anno Domini 1681.
Tanquam tabulata naufragii.
John Aubrey, R.S.S.
Le mal est que la vive voix meurt en naissant et ne laisse rien qui reste apres elle, ni formant point de corps qui subsiste en l'air. Les paroles ont des aisles; vous scavez l'epithete[29] qu'HomÈre leur donne, et un poËte Syrien en a fait un espece parmy les oiseaux; de sorte que, si on n'arreste pas ces fugitives par l'ecriture, elles eschappent fort vistement À la memoire.
Les Oeuvres diverses du sieur de Balzac, page 43.
Ornari res ipsa nolit contenta doceri.—Horat
For Mr. Anthony Wood
at
Oxford.'
A slip by Anthony Wood, pasted here, shows that Aubrey recalled the MS., probably to make additions to it:—
'Mr. Aubrey,
I beseech you as you have been civill in giving this book to me at Oxon in Sept. 1681, so I hope when you have done with it you'l returne every part of it againe to your servant,
Ant. Wood.'
As originally made up, this 'Auctarium' contained four leaves at the beginning (for an index[30]), and leaves foliated 1-38 (of which 12 and 13 are now[31] missing).
The second part[32] of the MS. extends over foll. 69-103 in the present marking.
Aubrey, on fol. 69, writes the title:—
'An Apparatus for the lives
of our English mathematical writers
by
Mr. John Aubrey, R.S.S.
March 25, 1690.'
As originally made up, this treatise consisted of one leaf (for an index[33]) and pages marked 1-46 (of which pp. 31-38 are now missing).
The history of this treatise is fully set out by Aubrey in some notes in it and in the other MSS.:—
1. It was suggested by Richard Blackburne.
MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 8v:—'Dr. <Richard> Blackbourn would have me putt out in print the lives of our English mathematicians together.'
2. It had been partly anticipated by Selden and Sherburne.
MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 70:—'My purpose is, if God give me life, to make an apparatus, for[34] the lives of our English Mathematicians; which when I have ended, I would then desire Mr. Anthony Wood to find out one that is master of a good Latin stile, and to adde what is[35] already in his printed booke[36] to these following[37] minutes.
'I will not meddle with our own writers[38] in the mathematicks before the reigne of king Henry VIII, but prefix those excellent verses of Mr. John Selden (with a learned commentary to them) which are printed before a booke intituled <Arthur> Hopton's Concordance of yeares[39] scilicet:—'
MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 69:—'Sir Edward Shirbourn, somewhere in his translation and notes upon Manilius, has enumerated our English mathematicians, and hath given short touches of their lives—which see.'
3. The first step towards it would be to pick out the mathematicians from the lives already written by Aubrey.
MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 51v:—'I would have the lives of John Dee, Sir Henry Billingsley, the two Digges (father and sonne), Mr. Thomas Hariot, Mr. <Walter> Warner, Mr. <Henry> Brigges, and Dr. <John> Pell's, to be putt together.—As to the account of Mr. Hariot, Mr. Warner, and Mr. Brigges, I recieved it from Dr. Pell.'
MS. Aubr. 9: a folio, containing fifty-five leaves, and in addition several printed papers.
The title is found on fol. 28 (as now marked) of the MS.:—
'Supplementum vitae Thomae Hobbes,
Malmesburiensis,
1679/80
Hobbi[40] jucunda senectus,
Cujus erant mores qualis facundia, mite
Ingenium.—
Juvenal, Sat. IV. v. 81.
Extinctus amabitur.—
Horat. Epist. I. lib. 2.
I. A.'
I. A. = Aubrey's initials.
The reason for this title was that Aubrey intended his Collections to be a sort of commentary on Hobbes' short Latin autobiography, which was in the press in Febr. 1679/80, and was published in Nov. 1680 (Clark's Wood's Life and Times, ii. 480, 500).
But Anthony Wood (MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 28) objected:—'What need you say Supplimentum?' sic 'pray say the life of Thomas Hobbs.' And Aubrey, in obedience to this, changed the short title on fol. 30 (see the beginning of the life); and on the parchment cover of the MS. (now fol. 1) wrote:—
'The life of
Mr. Thomas Hobbes,
of Malmsbury,
by
Mr. John Aubrey,
Fellow of the Royall Societie,
1679/80.'
Aubrey set about this Life of Hobbes immediately after Hobbes' death, partly as a tribute of respect to his friend's memory, but apparently also in fulfilment of a promise to the deceased. The preface[41] is as follows:—
'Lectori.
'Tis religion to performe the will of the dead; which I here[42] dischardge, with my promise (1667) to my old friend Mr. T<homas> H<obbes>, in publishing[43] his life and performing the last office to my old[44] friend Mr. Thomas Hobbes, whom I have had the honour to know <from> my child-hood[45], being his countreyman and borne in Malmesbury hundred and taught my grammar by his schoolmaster[46].
Since nobody knew so many particulars of his life as myselfe, he was willing[47] that if I survived him, it should be handed to posterity by my hands, which I declare and avow to do ingenuously and impartially, to prevent misreports and undecieve those who are scandalized by....
One sayes[48] that when a learned man dyes, a great deal of learning dyes with him. He was 'flumen ingenii,' never dry. The recrementa[49] of so learned a person are[50] valueable[I.]. Amongst innumerable observables of him which had deserved to be sett downe, these few (that have not scap't[51] my memory) I humbly offer[52] to the present age and posterity, tanquam tabulam naufragii[II.], and as plankes and lighter things swimme, and are preserved, where the more weighty sinke and are lost. And[53] as with the light after sun-sett—at which time, clear[54]; by and by[55], comes the crepusculum; then, totall darkenes—in like manner is it with matters of antiquitie. Men thinke, because every body remembers a memorable accident shortly after 'tis donne, 'twill never be forgotten, which for want of registring[56], at last is drowned in oblivion. Which[57] reflection haz been a hint, that by my meanes many antiquities have been reskued[58], and preserved (I myselfe now inclining[59] to be ancient[60])—or els utterly lost and forgotten.
For that I am so minute, I declare I never intended it, but setting downe in my first[61] draught every particular[62], (with purpose, upon review, to retrench[63] what was superfluous and triviall), I shewed it to some friends of mine (who also were of Mr. Hobbes's acquaintance) whose judgments I much value, who gave their opinion: and 'twas clearly their judgement[64], to let all stand; for though to soome at present it might appeare too triviall; yet hereafter 'twould not be scorned[65] but passe[66] for antiquity.
And besides I have precedents of reverend writers to plead, who have in some lives[III.] recited things as triviall[67], nay, the sayings and actions of good woemen.
I am also to beg pardon of the reader for two long digressions, viz. Malmesbury and Gorambery; but this also was advised, as the only way to preserve them, and which I have donne for the sake of the lovers of antiquity. I hope its novelty and pleasantness will make compensation for its length.
Yours[68],
I. A.'
In MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 28v are two letters by Aubrey, asking advice in connexion with this life.
i. Aubrey to Anthony Wood.
'To his honoured friend Mr. Anthony À Wood, Master of Arts, at Merton College in Oxon.
Deare friend!
I have hastily writt this third draught, which I hope is legible: I have not time to read it over. Pray peruse it as soon as you can, for time drawes on. Dr. Blackburne and I will be diligent in it and will doe you all the right[69] your heart can wish. I thought together with this to have sent you the transcript of Mr. Hobbes' life revised by himselfe but am prevented by hast, and 'tis the last day of the terme. I will send it suddenly.
My service to Mr. Pigot. I am, Sir, your affectionate friend and servant,
Jo. Aubrey.
London Feb. 12,
1679/80.
Why might not his two sheetes Of heresie be bound up with this to preserve it and propagate trueth?
I know here be severall tautologies; but I putt them downe thus here, that upon reviewe I should judge where such or such a thing would most aptly stand.
Why should not Dr. Blackbourne in the life of Mr. H. written by him selfe quote that of A. Wood in the margent for a blindation, because there are in great part the very same words?'
ii. Aubrey to Richard Blackburne.
'Dr. Blackbourne!
Pray advise me whether 'twould not shew handsomest to begin with a description of Malmesbury, and then to place Mr. H. pedigre?
But, with all, should not
"Thomas Hobbes was borne at Malmesbury, Apr. ... 1588[70]"
be the initiall and, as it were, textuall, line?
Shall I in the first place putt Mr. H. life donne by himselfe? (If so, whether in Latin, or English, or both?) Or else, shall I intersperse it with these animadversions?
I could begin with a pleasant description of Malmesbury, etc., (all new and untoucht) 14 leaves in 8vo, which his verses will lead me to, and which Ant. Wood seemes to desire.
Pray be my Aristarchus, and correct and marke what you thinke fitt. First draughts[71] ought to be rude as those of paynters, for he that in his first essay will be curious in refining will certainly be unhappy in inventing.
Doctor, I am your affectionate and humble servant.
J. A.
I will speake to Fleetwood Shepherd to engage the earl of Dorset to write in the old gentleman's praise.
Should mine be in Latin or English or both? (And by whome the Latin, if so?) Is my English style well enough[72]?'
Other MSS. A few additional lives, and portions of lives, of persons mentioned in these four biographical volumes, have been brought in from letters by Aubrey in MS. Ballard 14 and in MS. Wood F 39 and F 49.
Three lives, in fair copy, by Aubrey, are found in MS. Rawlinson D. 727, foll. 93-96, and have been given here. They were formerly in Anthony Wood's hands: see Clark's Wood's Life and Times, iv. 192, note.
MS. Aubr. 21, a volume made up in the Ashmolean library from siftings out of Aubrey MSS. and papers; MS. Aubr. 22, a collection of grammatical tracts, brought together by Aubrey with a view to a treatise on education; MS. Aubr. 23, a volume of 125 leaves, dated on fol. 8 as 'Collectio geniturarum, made London May 29, 1674,' but on the title as '1677: for the <Ashmolean> Musaeum'; MS. Aubr. 26,'Faber fortunae,' i.e. projects for retrieving Aubrey's fortunes——have yielded additional matter.
V. The Old Edition.
The pith of these lives was extracted by Anthony Wood, and incorporated in his Athenae, vol. i. in 1691, vol. ii. in 1692, and the 'appendix' left in MS. at his death (published in the second edition of the Athenae in 1721).
The MSS. of Aubrey's 'Lives' were placed in the library of the Ashmolean Museum, in the personal custody of the Keeper, Edward Lhwyd, in 1693. Aubrey, writing[73] to Thomas Tanner, intimates that his MSS. will show how greatly Wood's Athenae was indebted to his help, and makes a special request that Wood shall not know that they have been placed in the Museum.
Beginning[74] on Sept. 16, 1792, Edmund Malone made a transcript of 174 lives from the three MSS. (MS. Aubr. 6, 7, 8), with notes, with a view to publication. The first volume of this contained folios 1-152, forty-four lives of poets and sixty-eight of prose writers. It is now in the Bodleian, by the gift of C. E. Doble, Esq.; but mutilated, folios 126-152 having been torn off from the end of the volume. The second volume, containing folios 153-385, sixty-two lives, was MS. 9405 in Sir Thomas Phillipps' library, was mentioned in Notes and Queries (8 S. vii. 375), and has recently been bought by the Bodleian.
Some years later, James Caulfield, of London, publisher, arranged for the issue of a select number of biographies from Aubrey's MSS., illustrated by engravings from originals in the Ashmolean and elsewhere. They were to appear under the title of 'The Oxford Cabinet'; and one part, 32 pp., a very pretty book, was published at London in 1797. This part contains the lives of William Aubrey, Francis Bacon, John Barclay, and Francis Beaumont, with engravings (inter alia) of Aubrey's drawings of Verulam House, and Bacon's fishponds. At this point the Keeper of the Ashmolean, at Malone's instance, withdrew the permission which had been granted to Curtis to transcribe for Caulfield. The reason given was that Curtis had taken away papers and title-pages from Oxford libraries, and was not to be trusted in the Ashmolean—see Macray's Annals of the Bodleian, p. 273.
The dates, however, suggest that Malone's action may have been in part inspired by a wish to keep the course clear for his own project. The transcription made for Caulfield, although not always accurate in point of spelling, is by no means badly done: certainly it is much better than that which was made for the later issue.
In 1813 appeared 'Letters written by Eminent Persons ... and Lives of Eminent Men by John Aubrey, Esq. ... from the originals in the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum: in two volumes.' The editors are said to have been Dr. Philip Bliss and the Rev. John Walker, Fellow of New College.
The Lives by Aubrey occupy pp. 197-637 of Volume II.
Dr. Bliss's interests were bibliographical, and he was not careful[75] to collate with original MSS. either the printed text of earlier editions or transcripts made for himself. As a result, that issue of Aubrey's Lives, although making accessible the greater portion of what is interesting in the originals, is marred by many grave blunders and arbitrary omissions.
A comparison of a few pages of Dr. Bliss's edition with Aubrey's MS. copy suggests a troublesome question in English textual criticism. If two eminent Oxford scholars in the beginning of the nineteenth century could thus pervert their author's meaning, can we have trust in the earlier redaction of greater texts, such as Shakespeare?
