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

(Commonplace Book.)

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

Description: Manuscript in ink on paper watermarked J. Kool & Comp (see below) in a single, neat, extraordinarily regular and legible sloping copper-plate hand, inner margins ruled in red, the play, and succeeding pieces, in double columns with a double red rule dividing them, one section with top outer corners sliced off, the paper in the latter part shorter at the outer margin, textblock nearly split at centre, pp. 90, [65], folio, contemporary, non-professional, half calf over canvas covered boards, some abrasions, text block edged a bit forward, detached from headbands but by no means loose, good

Publication Details: [?Holland: c. 1810]

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...moreCommonplace 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. HIDE