Manuscript notebook containing tales, fables, and a play, in English.

Bookseller Notes

Commonplace Book is perhaps not entirely apposite in describing this intriguing volume. Rather, it would seem to be an exercise book for a Dutch person perfecting their English (the English is pretty good, good Regency English, but it sometimes goes awry). The paper is Dutch, J. Kool & Comp being paper makers not far from Amsterdam, who flourished 1774-1836; the handwriting might be from any date within the period, but the mid-point seems about right. People and places are usually introduced just with an initial, but the people often have a 'van' or 'van der' before the initial, and the places have Burgomasters. All this suggests a Dutch provenance, and though literarily and calligraphically accomplished, the 'primitive' binding lends the volume a rather charming domesticity.Contents:-"Squire van Roderycke or a Double Murder Discovered by the Title of a Comedy." Pages 1-27."The Blue Horseman and his Family or a Process of Singular Connexion Resolve by the Final Discovery of a Capital Crime." Pages 27-56."The Coach Man James or a Remarkable Instance of Possible Innocence Notwithstanding an Accumulation of Apparent Charges." Pages 56-72."The Enigmatical Stranger or Remarkable Discovery of a Committed Murderer after a Lapse of Eleven Years." Pages 73-90."Fables." Eight fables, with moral instructions; at least one, "The Dog and the Wolf," is from Aesop. The others are: "The Cock and the Precious Stone"; "The Lion and the Rat"; "The Fox and the Wolf"; "The Dog, the Cock and the Fox"; "A Countryman and His Children"; "The Animals"; and "The Two Foxes." Pages [91-97]."Tales." Eight instructive anecdotes and sketches: "The Released Galley Slave"; "Alphonsus, King of Naples and His Bufoon"; "Filial Love"; "The Innocent Treason"; "The Algerine Slave"; "The Discovery of the Island of Madeira"; "On Human Distresses"; and "Magnanimity and Gratitude." Pages [97-109]."The Mathematicians or the Eloped Lady." A play in double columns. Pages [111-128]."Peter, A German Tale." From the French of Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian. In double columns with the French and English versions side-by-side. Pages [129-140]. Not the translations published by T. Becket, 1786 (ESTC N25864: 1 copy in the UK, Bristol; and 4 in Noth America)."Sophronimus, a Grecian Tale." From the French of De Florian. In double columns with the French and English versions side-by-side. Pages [141-155].A curious mixture then of the improving, and the Gothic.