Volume II Part 17 (1/2)

[156] He died on the 24th of May, 1828; on the completion of his 85th year.

See the next note but one.

[157] The reader may be amused with the following testy note of my vigilant translator, M. c.r.a.pelet: the very Sir Fretful Plagiary of the minor tribe of French critics! ”Cette phrase, qui n'est pas Francaise, est ainsi rapportee par l'auteur. M. l'Abbe Betencourt, aura dit a peu pres: ”Il mourra sans laisser d'eleve.” M. Dibdin qui parle et entend fort bien le Francais, EST IL EXCUSABLE DE FAIRE MAL PARLER UN ACADEMICIEN FRANcAIS, et surtout de rendre vicieuses presque toutes les phrases qu'il veut citer textuellement? L'exact.i.tude!

l'exact.i.tude! C'est la premiere vertu du bibliographe; on ne saurait trop le repeter a M. Dibdin.” c.r.a.pELET. vol. iv. 124. Quaere tamen?

Ought not M. c.r.a.pelet to have said ”il mourrira?” The sense implies the future tense: But ... how inexpiable the offence of making a French Academician speak bad French!!--as if every reader of common sense would not have given _me_, rather than the _Abbe Betencourt_, credit for this bad speaking?

[158] [In a short, and pleasing, memoir of him, in the _Revue Encyclopedique, 115th livraison, p. 277, &c._ it is well and pleasantly observed, that, ”such was his abstraction from all surrounding objects and pa.s.sing events, he could tell you who was Bishop of such a diocese, and who was Lord of such a fief, in the XIIth century, much more readily, and with greater chance of being correct, than he would, who was the living Minister of the Interior, or who was the then Prefect of the department of the Seine?” By the kindness of a common friend, I have it in my power to subjoin a fac-simile of the autograph of this venerable Departed:]

[Autograph]

[159] The _Thucydides_ was published first; in twelve volumes 8vo.

VOL. II. 1807; with various readings, for the first time, from thirteen MSS. not before submitted to the public eye. The French version, in four volumes, with the critical notes of the Editor, may be had separately. The VELLUM 4to. copy of the Thucydides consists of fourteen volumes; but as the volumes are less bulky than those of the Xenophon, they may be reduced to seven. The _Xenophon_ was published in 1809, in seven volumes, 4to. The Latin version is that of Leunclavius; the French version and critical notes are those of M.

Gail. The vellum copy, above alluded to, is divided into ten volumes; the tenth being an Atlas of fifty-four maps. Some of these volumes are very bulky from the thickness of the vellum.

Upon this unique copy, M. Gail submitted to me, in writing, the following remarks. ”Of the Xenophon, two vellum copies were printed; but of these, one was sent to the father of the present King of Spain, and received by him in an incomplete state--as the Spanish Amba.s.sador told M. Gail: only six volumes having reached the place of their destination. The Editor undertakes to give authenticated attestations of this fact.” ”If,” say M. Gail's written observations, ”one considers that each sheet of vellum, consisting of eight pages, cost five francs ten sous, and three more francs in working off--and that skins of vellum were frequently obliged to be had from foreign countries, owing to the dearth of them at Paris--whereby the most extravagant demands were sometimes obliged to be complied with--add to which, that fifteen years have pa.s.sed away since these sums were paid down in hard cash,--the amount of the original expenses is doubled.”

The volumes are in stout boards, and preserved in cases. In one of his letters to me, respecting the sale of his vellum copy--the worthy Professor thus pleasantly remarks: ”Je ne veux pas m'enricher avec ce livre qui, lorsque je serai cendres, aura un bien grand prix. Je n'ai que le desir de me debarra.s.ser d'une richesse qui m'est a charge, et ne convient nullement a un modeste et obscur particulier, comme moi.”

I subjoin the autograph of this worthy and learned Professor: hoping yet to shake the hand heartily which guided the pen.

[Autograph]

[160] M. Millin DIED about the middle of the following month, ere I had reached Vienna. His library was sold by auction in May 1819, under the superintendence of Messrs. Debure, who compiled the sale catalogue. It produced 53,626 francs. The catalogue contained 2556 articles or numbers; of which several were very long sets. One article alone, no.

866., consisted of 326 volumes in folio, quarto, and octavo. It is thus designated, ”RECUEIL DE PIECES SUR LES ARTS, LA LITTE'RATURE, LES ANTIQUITE'S, _en Latin, en Italien, et en Francois_. This article produced 4501 francs, and was purchased by the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Millin had brought up from boyhood, and rescued from poverty and obscurity, a lad of the name of _Mention_. This lad lived with him many years, in the capacity of a valet and private secretary. In his second and last voyage to Italy, Millin declined taking him with him, but left him at home, in his house, with a salary of fifty francs per month. Five months after his departure, in February, 1812, a great quant.i.ty of smoke was seen issuing from the windows of Millin's apartments. Several people rushed into the room. They found the drawings and loose papers taken from the portfolios, rolled up lightly, and the room on fire at the four corners! A lighted candle was placed in the middle of the room. Suspicion immediately fell upon Mention. They ran to his bed chamber: found the door fastened: burst it open--and saw the wretched valet weltering in his blood ... yet holding, in his-right hand, the razor with which he had cut his throat! He was entirely dead. Millin's collection of Letters from his numerous Correspondents perished in the flames.

This accident, which also deprived Millin of a fund of valuable materials that he was preparing for a _Dictionary of the Fine Arts_, and for a _Recueil de Pieces gravees Inedites_--might have also had an infinitely more fatal tendency: as it occurred _within_ the walls which contain the ROYAL LIBRARY! Millin received the news of this misfortune, in Italy, with uncommon fort.i.tude and resignation. But this second voyage, as has been already intimated, (see p. 260) hastened his dissolution. He planned and executed infinitely too much; and never thoroughly recovered the consequent state of exhaustion of body and mind. As he found his end approaching, he is reported to have said--”I should like to have lived longer, in order to have done more good--but G.o.d's will be done! I have lived fifty-nine years, the happiest of men--and should I not be ungrateful towards Providence, if I complained of its decrees?!” And when still nearer his latter moments--he exclaimed: ”I have always lived, and I die, a Frenchman: hating no one: complaining only of those who r.e.t.a.r.d the cause of reason and truth. I have never, intentionally, hurt a single creature.

If I have injured any one, I ask pardon of him for the error of my understanding.” He died on the 18th of August, and his body was interred in the churchyard of Pere la Chaise. His old friend and colleague, M. GAIL, p.r.o.nounced a funeral discourse over his grave--in which, as may be well supposed, his feelings were most acutely excited. I subjoin a facsimile of Millin's autograph: from the richly furnished collection of Mr. Upcott, of the London Inst.i.tution.

[Autograph: A.L. Millin]

[161] [Mons. Langles survived the above account between five and six years; dying January 28, 1824. His Library was sold by auction in March, 1825. It was copious and highly creditable to his memory. From the source whence the preceding autograph was derived, I subjoin the following autograph.

[Autograph: L Langles]

[162] Monsieur Millin had been before hand in his description of this day's festival, but his description was in prose. It appeared in the _Annales Encyclopediques_, for the ensuing month, July, 1818, and was preceded by a slight historical sketch of the Club, taken chiefly from the Bibliographical Decameron. His account of the festival may amuse some of my readers, who have not been accustomed to peruse _English toasts_ cloathed in French language. It is briefly thus:

”Pendant que les membres du Roxburghe Club celebroient le 17 juin 1818 la memoire des premiers imprimeurs de Boccace, a Venise et en Angleterre, sous la presidence de sa grace lord Spencer; M. Dibdin, vice-president, s'unissoit a ce banquet bibliographique par une repet.i.tion qu'il en faisoit a Paris. Il avoit appele a ce banquet M.

DENON, a qui la France doit encore une grande partie des ma.n.u.scrits et des editions rares dont elle s'est enrichie, et plusieurs conservateurs de la bibliotheque royale, MM. VANPRAET, LANGLE'S, GAIL, et MILLIN. On pense bien que l'histoire litteraire, la bibliographie, devinrent un inepuisable sujet pour la conversation. L'entretien offrit un melange de gate et de gravite qui convient aux banquets des muses; et selon l'adage antique, les convives etoient plus que trois et moins que neuf. M. Gail lut sur cette reunion des vers latins, dont les toasts bruyans ne permirent pas de savourer d'abord tout le sel et l'esprit. Ils doivent etre imprimes dans _l'Hermes Roma.n.u.s_.

”M.D., amphitryon et president du festin, porta, comme il convenoit, les premiers toasts:

1. A la sante de milord Spencer et des honorables membres du Roxburghe Club. 2. A la memoire de Christophe Valdarfer, inprimeur du Boccace de 1471; livre dont l'acquisition fait par le duc de Marlborough, fut l'occasion de la fondation du Roxburghe Club. 3. A la memoire immortelle de Guillaume Caxton, premier imprimeur anglois.

4. A la gloire de la France. 5. A l'union perpetuelle de la France et de l'Angleterre. 6. A la prosperite de la bibliotheque royale de France. 7. A la sante de ses dignes conservateurs, dont le savoir est inepuisable, et dont l'obligeance ne se la.s.se jamais. 8. A la propagation des sciences, des arts, des lettres, et de la bibliomanie.

9. Au desir de se revoir le meme jour chaque annee.

”Les convives ont rendu ces toasts par un autre qu'ils ont porte, avec les hurras et les trois fois d'usage en Angleterre, au vice-president du Roxburghe-Club, qui leur avoit fait l'honneur de les ra.s.sembler.

”La Seance a fini a l'heure ou le president du Roxburghe-Club leve celle de Londres; et le vice-president, M. Dibdin, a soigneus.e.m.e.nt reuni les bouchons, pour les porter en Angleterre comme un signe commemoratif de cet agreable banquet.”[E]

The verses of Monsieur Gail were as follow:--but I should premise that he recited them with zest and animation.