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 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE AND PUBLICATIONS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ.^ 
 
 BY JOSEPH HASJ.EWOOD 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR ROBERT TRIPHOOK, 
 23, OLD BOND-STREET. 
 
 1824.
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BV S. AND R, BENTLEY, DORSET STREET.
 
 
 iAwj 
 
 AS A TESTIMONY OF RESPECT, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF MANY 
 LITERARY FAVOURS, 
 
 THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
 
 IS 
 
 INSCRIBED 
 
 TO 
 
 RICHARD HEBER, Esq. 
 
 7G4S01
 
 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LIFE AND PUBLICATIONS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 
 
 As the works of an Author become popular, 
 an inquiry is naturally excited respecting his 
 habits and manners ; and hence an interest 
 arises from a consideration of the character 
 before us, to trace the origin of that mode of 
 study, or excitement of research, which enabled 
 him to produce the many amusing and enlight- 
 ened volumes, that either appeared with his 
 name, or are attributed to his pen. But while 
 in the life of a traveller biography is collaterally 
 supplied with novelty and adventure, while in 
 that of a statesman it is rendered iuterestaig 
 
 B
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 by immediate connexion with political informa- 
 tion and national history, the domestic ha- 
 bitude of the recluse scholar will usually 
 be found sterile of incident, wanting in di- 
 versity, and seldom, if ever, varying suffi- 
 ciently to reward the venial inquisitiveness of 
 personal curiosity. The common routine of 
 a literary man, occupying for many years 
 Chambers in an Inn of Covu't, whose egress and 
 regress formed little more than visits to public 
 libraries or book-auctions, without any such 
 auxiliary assistance as is now commonly and 
 often injudiciously resorted to, of social conver- 
 sations, or private correspondence, can only 
 be expected to lead to a mere minute record 
 of his various publications. The biographical 
 notices of the late Joseph Ritson are of a com- 
 mon character, trite and few. He was descend- 
 ed from an antient respectable family residing 
 at Ilackthorpe, in the county of Westmoreland, 
 was born the 2d October, 1752, at Stockton- 
 upon-Tees, Durham, and bred to the profession
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESa. O 
 
 of the Law, under Ralph Bradley, Esq., a 
 distinguished Conveyancer at Stockton. He 
 commenced practice also as a Conveyancer ; 
 and after removing to the Metropolis entered 
 himself of Gray's Inn, the 6th of May, 1784, 
 and was called to the bar by that Society, the 
 20th May, 1 789. His abilities as attached to 
 his own branch of the profession were of the 
 highest promise, and obtained a well-founded 
 share of incipient reputation for acuteness of 
 judgment and soundness of opinion: though he 
 appears to have slighted an increase of pi'o- 
 fessional business, to pursue the more congenial 
 indulgence of literary research and critical dis- 
 quisition. Perhaps, in addition to his own neg- 
 lect upon the subject, some obstacles to his 
 success in business may, in a great degree, be 
 ascribed to his general habit of seclusion from 
 society, and to certain singular and eccentric 
 opinions* which he pertinaciously entertained, 
 
 * Of the wavering notions of Ritson upon the sub- 
 ject of the Christian religion, although he at one period 
 
 K 2
 
 4 THE LIFE OF 
 
 and without much reserve incautiously pro- 
 mulgated. 
 
 The monotony of chamber residence he com- 
 monly diversified by an excursion during the 
 summer months, to visit his family friends in 
 the North; and appears thence to have gleaned 
 copious materials which he connected with seve- 
 ral of his literary pursuits. In 1791 he went 
 to Paris, accompanied by Mr. Shield, the 
 celebrated musical composer ; but without, it is 
 believed, any particular object, beyond casual 
 amusement. 
 
 I. Before he left Stockton, which was so 
 early as his twentieth year, he commenced a 
 long career with the press, and published, in a 
 youthful fervour, some amatory Versees addressed 
 to the Ladies of Stockton, 1772*. 
 
 entertained and expressed himself thereon too freely, 
 let it suffice that a letter of his own was written to a 
 surviving correspondent, declaring his poignant regret, 
 even to tearfulness, that it had been his misfortune to 
 jive an unbeliever. 
 
 * First printed in the Newcastle Miscellany, 1772,
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 6 
 
 II. From his own avowal to an intimate 
 acquaintance, The Odes of Sir Charles Hanhirtf 
 Williams*^ the second edition, were edited by 
 
 him. His labour could not extend beyond 
 collating the proof-sheets. 
 
 III. His next production was a piece of 
 humour, now extremely rare, printed as By per- 
 mission of the Mayor. Vivat Rex. The St*ck- 
 t*n Jubilee, or Shakespeare in all his glory. 
 A choice Pageant for Christmas Holidays, 
 1781. Veluti in Speculum. •\ 
 
 IV. In the remote enquiry which com- 
 menced towards the close of the last century, 
 into what has been called the Augustan period 
 
 and afterwards at Newcastle, 12mo, n. d. This notice 
 is from the later printed copy, a gift of Mr. Ritson ; and 
 it appears certain that the orthography of Fersees was 
 not adopted by him so early as the year when the lines 
 were first printed. [^See the Appendix.'] He once inti- 
 mated a claim to another poetical effusion that ap- 
 'pearcd in the same Miscellany. 
 
   Printed by Coslett, 1780, 12mo. 
 
 f Newcastle, printed for the Managers, 12mo.
 
 O THE LIFE OF 
 
 of English literature, that of the Elizabethean 
 age, he strenuously joined ; with a mind ardent 
 for discovery, unwearied by labour, however long 
 and tedious the investigation, and with an un- 
 failing memory. He felt confidence in himself, 
 and entered the field fearless of contemporary 
 names, however worn in the toil, and of con- 
 firmed fame and notoriety ; while, as a critical 
 censor, he erected his banner of doughty de- 
 fiance, and fearlessly and imjilicitly expected 
 submissiveness from every fellow- student. His 
 warfare was entered upon with Observations 
 on the three first volumes of the History of 
 English Poetry*, addressed in a familiar letter 
 to the author, the Rev. Mr. Warton, arising, as 
 he described, from " restless enquiries." The 
 result of those " enquiries" produced a detec- 
 tion of some, not inconsequential, errors of the 
 historian, when they are considered as flaws de- 
 facing a National History ; but the corrections 
 
 * Printed for Stockdale and Faulder, 1782, 4to.
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 7 
 
 were given to the public in the language of a 
 despot, rather than with the urbanity of a Ube- 
 ral critic ; and certainly evidenced an unpro- 
 voked and most indefensible irascibility of 
 temper*. Of the uncandidness of this attack 
 he became afterwards convinced ; and the 
 reasoning of his frank friend Mr. Park drew 
 from him an acknowledgment of his own im- 
 propriety, and induced him, at a later period, 
 to buy up and destroy all the copies of the 
 work that could be obtained. 
 
 V. There also appeared in the same pee- 
 vish vein, in the following year. Remarks 
 critical and illustrative on the Text and Notes 
 
 *The Obsen'ations on Warton's H. E. P. excited 
 much controversy in the Gentleman's Magazine, in 
 which the principal parties were the Rev. Thomas 
 Russell, of New Coll. Oxon (author of Sonnets, &c.) ; the 
 Rev. J. Bowie, the Editor of a Spanish Don Quixote, 
 for which publication he experienced a similar attack 
 from Baretti, under the title of " Tolondron ;" John 
 Baynes, Esq. of Trin. Coll. Camb. (a member of Gray's 
 Inn) ; and Ritson himself.
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of the last edition of Shakspeare*. These 
 remarks were attacked in a short pithy letter 
 in the St. James"'s Chronicle of June 1783, 
 as explaining nothing "of any consequence 
 to Shakspeare's real merit and character," by 
 a writer under the signature of " Alciphron," 
 (forsan George Steevens,) and were defended, 
 as proving the last edition of Shakspeare's 
 works " an execrable bad one," by " Justice," 
 (Ritson himself.) 
 
 VI. " The Descent of the Croivn of Eng- 
 land;^ \7 S3. On a broadside. These tables of 
 Descent were adapted to the old Jacobite princi- 
 ples, then rapidly on the wane, and which Ritson 
 declared he " never dared to publish.'''' They 
 are extremely curious, compact, and useful, and 
 were constructed with his accustomed industry 
 and conclusive mode of research ; and, by those 
 who possess the same are greatly valued. 
 
 VII. Towards the end of the same year 
 
 * Printed for Johnson, 1783, 8vo.
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ, 9 
 
 appeared A select Collection of English Songs, 
 in three volumes*, with an incidental preface, 
 and an excellent " Historical Essay on the 
 Origin and Progress of National Song-j-." This 
 work was aptly announced as " designed for a 
 standing repository of the efforts of English 
 genius in melody and song," and remains un- 
 rivalled as a selection. His friend Mr. Shield 
 arranged the nuisic of several of the songs ; for 
 Ritson himself was wholly unacquainted with 
 that harmonizing science, and his taste for 
 melody never soared higher than in acknow- 
 
 * Printed for Johnson, 1783, 8vo. Second edition, with 
 additional Songs and Notes, by Thomas Park, F. S. A. 
 1813. 
 
 t In this Essay Mr. Ritson was materially assisted by 
 his friend John Baynes, Esq. of Gray's Inn, and particu- 
 larly in the elegant translations from Athenaeus, and the 
 lines from the French of Mary Queen of Scots. All the 
 embellishments were designed by Stothard, except the 
 frontispiece, which is by Fuseli. — At the close of the 
 Essay in the second edition, Mr. Park has added an enu- 
 meration of several succeeding collections of ballad lore, 
 with passing remarks on the selected intermixture of 
 the Rev. Mr. Plumptre, published in 1806-8.
 
 10 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ledging the pleasure he received at hearing any 
 one sing the well-known ballad of " Sally in our 
 alley;'* 
 
 VIII. A strong predilection for preserving 
 the northern provincial ballads is repeatedly 
 noticeable. He published sixteen of them col- 
 
 * The following letter, addressed to his friend Mr. 
 Shield, confirms the above remark. 
 
 Dear Shield, 
 
 On applying to you, some years ago, to time a 
 few old tunes, which had been prick'd down for me by 
 Edward Williams, the welsh bard, you say'd you could 
 not make anything of them ; but, if i would bring him 
 up to you, you could take them down from himself 3 
 this was, at that time, eilher inconvenient or neglected ; 
 and he has, ever since, been in Wales ; but, haveing 
 come to town for a few days, he is very ready to gratify 
 me, by dictateing the tunes to you, if your convenience, 
 and readyness to oblige, can be united. Wil you, 
 therefor, my worthy friend, have the goodness to ap- 
 point a time for us to wait upon you, for the above 
 purpose ? favouring me with a speedy answer by the 
 same conveyance. Your affectionate friend, 
 
 J. RiTSON. 
 
 Grays-inn, 
 \btli May, 1802.
 
 .TOSKPH UITSO-N, ESQ. 11 
 
 lectively, as The Bishopric Garland, or Durham 
 Minstrel; being a choice collection of excellent 
 songs, relating to the above county*. 
 
 IX. About the same period was printed 
 Gammer Gurton's Garland ; or the Nursery 
 Parnassus : a choice collection of pretty songs 
 and verses, for the amusement of all little good 
 children who can neither read nor runf. 
 
 X. He also printed another trifling work, of 
 not much higher reputation, as The Spartan 
 Manual, or Tablet of Morality; being a genuine 
 collection of the apoj?hthegms, maxims, and pre- 
 cepts, of the philosophers, heroes, and other great 
 and celebrated characters of antiquity, under 
 
 * Stockton, printed for R. Christopher, 1784. Again, 
 omitting six songs, at Newcastle, by Hall, 1792, 12mo. 
 The ballad of " Rookhope Ryde," and " Lamentation 
 on the Death of Sir Robert de Nevile," printed for 
 C. Rovvorth, Hudson's Court, Strand, n. d. were after- 
 wards added. The whole reprinted, with all the other 
 Garlands, for R. Triphook, 1809, 8vo. 
 
 f Printed at Stockton, by and for R. Christopher, 
 32mo. n. d. price two-pence. Again, with additions, 
 1909, 8vo.
 
 12 THE LIFE OE 
 
 proper heads : for the improvement of youth, and 
 the promoting of rcisdom and virtue *. 
 
 XI. Five years after publishing the Remarks 
 on our immortal Bard appeared The Quip Mo- 
 dest, a few words by way of Supplement to lie- 
 marks^ &iC.-\ which is acknowledged, by the ini- 
 tials of name and place of residence being affixed 
 at the end of the preface. This was occasioned 
 by a republication of the former edition of. 
 Shakspeare, principally, if not wholly, under 
 the superintendance of the late Mr. I. Reed J. 
 If there was too much of invective and bicker- 
 
 * Printed for C. Dilly, 1785, 8vo. In the same year 
 The Caledonian Muse was intended for publication. 
 
 f Printed for Johnson, 1788, 8vo. 
 
 X The design of The Quip Modest was in part to justify 
 some of the notes before given in the Critical Remarks, 
 which had been cited and commented upon in the new 
 edition by a writer using the signature of the editor; and 
 whom it did not serve the purpose of Ritson to believe 
 was Steevens. From a note in a cancelled leaf of the 
 Preface, he supposed his " anonymous friend," as he de- 
 signates him, to be the author of A familiar Address to 
 the Curious in English Poetry : more particularly to the
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 13 
 
 in^ coarsely applied in these tracts, still his 
 competency to the task of elucidating the text 
 of Shakspeare is amply admitted, by the sub- 
 sequent incorporation of all the material parts 
 of his observations, however communicated to 
 the pubUc, in the notes of the later editions 
 of that author. This was done by Mr. 
 Steevens. 
 
 ' XII. In the same year was printed another 
 selection of local rarity, called The Yorkshire 
 Garland: being a curious collection of old and 
 
 Readers of Shakspeare. By Thersites Literarius, 1784, 
 8vo. This tract was written in the first tense, attempt- 
 ing to create a belief of its being the production of 
 Ritson, and gave him great offence. That he had reason 
 to suspect this rather inconsequential production ori- 
 ginated with Steevens seems probable, as he remarks 
 " however little relation it may have to Shakspeare, the 
 author has had interest enough to procure it a place iu 
 the ' List of Detached Pieces of Criticism, &c.' " But, 
 after printing a violent and abusive note on the author, 
 it was cancelled to substitute one declaring " that the 
 candour, liberality, and politeness, which distinguish 
 Mr. Steevens, utterly exclude him from every impu- 
 tation."
 
 14 THE LIFE OK 
 
 new songs, concerning that famous county. Part 
 i. * It was never continued f. 
 
 XIII. After liis official appointment of High 
 Bailiff of the Duchy of Lancaster, a situation 
 obtained by purchase in 1785, he formed A 
 Digest of the Proceedings of the Court Leet of 
 the Manor and Liberty of the Savoy, parcel of 
 the Duchy of Lancaster, in the County of Mid- 
 dlesex; from the year 1682 to the present tim.e\. 
 
 * York, printed for Frobisher, 1788, 12mo. 
 
 f In 1788 was published Homer^s Hymn to Venus; 
 translated from the Greek, with notes, by I. Rittson, 4to ; 
 which has been mistakenly given to our author, as is 
 seen by the following note from his own copy : — 
 
 " This Isaac Rittson, a lame man, who walk'd with a 
 crutch, was, for some time, schoolmaster at Penrith ; 
 but ambition haveing induce'd him to study physick, 
 and adopting the principles and practice of doctor Tho- 
 mas Brown, he addicted hisself so much to that worthy 
 physicians universal specifick — a glass of brandy, that he 
 fel sick, went mad, and dye'd in the neighbourhood of 
 London. Poor Isaac! thou shouldst have remember'd 
 the fate of Old Cole's dog, which was determine'd to 
 take the wall of a waggon, and was crush'd to death for 
 his presumption. J. R." 
 
 X Printed 1789, without a publisljer's name, 8vo.
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 15 
 
 XIV. Ancient Songs, from the time of King 
 Henry the Third to the Revolution *, was, per- 
 haps, his most valua\)lc, curious, and interesting 
 publication. Elaborate research, antiquarian 
 erudition, faithfulness of transcript i", and accu- 
 racy of editorship, are eminently chsplayed, 
 while his ability and penetration as a critic 
 stand amply confirmed : nor did he, it may be 
 remarked, disdain to follow the plan of Dr. 
 Percy in his Reliques. He prefixed some very 
 recondite and compendious " Observations on 
 the ancient Enghsh Minstrels," and an apposite 
 " Dissertation on the Songs, Musick, and In- 
 strumental Performance of the ancient English." 
 
 * Printed for Johnson, 17D0, 8vo, but not published 
 untilJuly 1792- The six appropriate vignettes were de- 
 signed and etched by the taste and skill of Stothard, tht- 
 royal academician, and are therefore curiosities. 
 
 f One exception must be made to this general com- 
 mendation, as any reader will perceive who shall take the 
 trouble of comparing the Balet by Earl Rivers with the 
 Fairfax MS., liberally presented by Ritson to the British 
 Museum.
 
 16 THE LIFE OF 
 
 XV. His next work was Pieces of Ancient 
 
 Popular Poetry : from authentic manuscripts 
 and old printed copies*; and may be equally 
 commended for judiciousness of excerpt, rarity 
 of selection, and correctness of supervision ; and 
 repelling as obsolete language may occasionally 
 appear, it is in this work foregone by interest 
 of subjects. 
 
 XVI. Another legal tract set forth The Office 
 of Constable; being an entirely new Compendium 
 of the latv concerning that ancient minister for 
 the conservation of the peace, carefully com- 
 piled from the best authorities : ivith a preface 
 and an introduction, containing some account 
 of the origin and antiquity of the office "f: which 
 
 * Printed for Egerton, 1791, 8vo. — An Ode to Ritsou 
 written in 1791, on his intended descriptive revision of 
 the ancient ballad of Chevy Chace, may be found in the 
 Gentleman's Magazine for June 1811. Ritson did pub- 
 lish the ballad, from an early copy, in the " Northumber- 
 land Garland," which was entitled " The Hunting of the 
 Cheviat." 
 
 t Printed for Whieldon and Butterworth, 1791, 8vo.
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 17 
 
 combined as well the law and powers of the 
 appointment, as the historical and lucubrative 
 anecdotes attached thereto. 
 
 XVII. Another valuable compilation, to shew 
 The J urisdict ion of the Court Leet, exempli- 
 fied, &c.* formed a portion of a much larger 
 
 work, which he was discouraged from pro- 
 ceeding with, from " the scanty sale it was 
 likely to experience."" 
 
 XVIII. Cursory Criticisms on the edition of 
 Shakspeare published by Edmond Malonef, 
 proved a virulent philippic against that respect- 
 able editor and man J. 
 
 XIX. His provincial attachment was again 
 shown by The North-Country Chorister; an un- 
 
 * Printed for VVhieldon and Butterworth, 1791, 8vo. ; 
 Again for Clarke, I8O9. The three Law Tracts have 
 a collective title as Law Tracts, ly Joseph Ititson, of 
 Gray's Inn, Barrister. Et in Arcadia Ego. London : 
 MDCCXCIF. 
 
 t Printed for Hookham, 1792, 8vo. 
 
 J In the St. James's Chronicle, (the literary pin-basket 
 of the day), of 27th March, 1792 : is a letter in defence 
 of Mr. M alone, subscribed " Criticaster."
 
 18 THE LIFE OF 
 
 parelleled variety of excellent songs : collected 
 and published together, for general amusement, 
 by a Bishoprick Ballad-singer *. 
 
 XX. And also exhibited by The Northum- 
 berland Garland, or Newcastle Nightingale; a 
 matchless collection of famous songs f. 
 
 XXI. A long projected compilation, Intended 
 to contain nearly all the best productions of our 
 poets, appeared, it is believed, in single volumes, 
 as The Etiglish Anthology \. ; but did not extend 
 beyond three volumes ; and, although not want- 
 ing in merit, and elegantly printed, excited 
 very little, if any attention §. 
 
 * Durham : printed by Pennington, 1792 : again 
 1802, 12mo. This, Ritson said, had sold better than any 
 other of his various publications, by several of which 
 he was a great loser- It is lamentable to have authority 
 to state his own acknowledgment of having lost 500/. 
 by his editorial undertakings. The North-Country 
 Chorister was reprinted with the Garlands, I8O9. 
 
 f Newcastle: printed for Hall, 1793, 12mo. 
 
 X Printed for Egerton : vols. I, 2, 1793 5 vol. 3, 179*, 
 8vo. 
 
 § In this instance, Mr. Ritson evidently mistook his 
 
 N
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 19 
 
 XXII. In the preface to the " Enghsh 
 Songs," 1783, was announced an intention to 
 present the pubhc with " a much better and 
 more perfect collection of songs, entirely Scotish, 
 than any that had been hitherto attempted." 
 Such a compilation might be thought of con- 
 siderable ease in the formation ; and, therefore, 
 it may be remarked, that it exceeded a term of 
 ten years after the announcement, before the 
 compiler ventured to let the result of his re- 
 searches appear as Scotish Song, in two vo- 
 lumes*. Prefixed is an " Historical Essay," cri- 
 tically discussing the merits of several articles ; 
 and an elaborate enquiry as to the rightful 
 cl^Tis of the respective authors, with brief and 
 useful incidental notes throughout. 
 
 Ritson probably derived some advantage in 
 compihng the ' Scotish Song,"" from consulting 
 
 powers ; and it was reserved for the very superior tai^te 
 and judgment of that most amiable of men, the truly 
 accompHshed George EUis, Esq., to do ample justice to 
 the subject. 
 
 * Prhited for Johnson, 1794, 8vo. 
 
 c2
 
 20 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the public and other hbraries, during his oc- 
 casional rambles into Scotland. He certainly 
 collected, from provincial printers, historical, 
 romantic, and legendary songs and merriments 
 of the time, many which appeared wasted or 
 wasting, and others continually reprinted, as 
 popular, for the ballad-vendors. From such 
 sources he obtained a correct knowledge of the 
 local demand for our vocal ditties ; and also oc- 
 casionally rescued, from a neglected hoard, a once 
 favourite ballad sometimes cast by, not for want 
 of merit, but that it could no longer interest 
 ears enchanted with the newer notes of the 
 ballad-vending Autolycus. Certainly the re- 
 search for, and numerous explanatory remarks 
 on the materials of these volumes, with the rarity 
 of many of the articles, may naturally make us 
 conclude that, as a national collection, it will be 
 long ere our demi-borderer will be rivalled by a 
 " true-born Scot."* 
 
 • The Editor of The Scots Magazine printed a * List 
 of Desiderata in Scotish Song,' as from the pen of 
 Ritson, in Jan. 1802.
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 21 
 
 XXIII, The next publication was Poems on 
 interesting events in the reign of King Edward 
 III : written inthe yearMCCCLII.hy Laurence 
 Minot, with a preface, dissertations, notes, and 
 glossary *. The preface and dissertations are 
 full of curious and important historical research, 
 independent of notes enlarged from Froissart, 
 and other contemporary authorities. 
 
 XXIV. This was immediately followed by 
 that interesting and national work Robin Hood ; 
 a collection of all the ancient poems, songs, and 
 ballads now extant, relating to that celebrated 
 English outlaw ; to which are prefixed, historical 
 anecdotes of his life'V. A compilation that should 
 help to perpetuate the fame of the hero, whose 
 combats and successful exploits delighted our 
 juvenile years, and at the same time sift the 
 
 * Printed by Bensley, for Egerton, 179''. 8vo. ; and in 
 point of typography, the most elegant of all Ritson's pub- 
 lications. 
 
 t Printed for Egerton, 1795, 8vo. A letter from 
 Ritson describing " Rob Roy like our Robin Hood," 
 appeared in the European Mag. Jan. 1804.
 
 22 THK LIFE OF 
 
 fabulous incidents from what is received as 
 true history, had long been wanted. The 
 subject is " so ably and ingeniously treated, 
 (says that very competent judge Mr. Douce,) 
 and every fact that relates to him [Robin 
 Hood] so minutely developed, that it will be 
 long before any novelty shall be discovered of 
 sufficient importance to deserve attention.*" 
 
 XXV. For about six years our author ap- 
 pears to have neglected the press entirely ; 
 which probably arose from preparations he was 
 making for a publication, whereto Mi. George 
 EUis not only resigned his own better preten- 
 sions, but also procured Mr. George Nicol to 
 undertake the expence of putting the same 
 forth. This was the Ancient Engleish Metrical 
 Romance'es ;+ and in the advertisement he de- 
 clares the work had been " brought to an end 
 with much industry and more attention, in con- 
 
 * Illustrations of Shakespeare, by Francis Douce, 
 Esq. 1807. Vol. ii. 44.9. 
 
 t Printed for G. and W. Nicol, 1802, 3 vols. 8vo.
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ, 23 
 
 tinu'd state of il-health, and low spirits." He 
 was seriously afflicted at the time by an extreme 
 nervous debility, that considerably heightened 
 a natural morbid irritability. These unhappy 
 symptoms are manifested in several places of 
 the very learned and appropriate dissertation 
 prefixed to the work ; and many others of a far 
 more reprehensible nature would have appeared, 
 but for the kind and judicious interference of a 
 valuable friend, who prevailed on Ritson to 
 cancel several leaves. 
 
 XXVI. At nearly the same time appeared 
 the Bibliographia Poetica : a Catalogue of Eng- 
 kish Poets of the ]2th, 13^A, I4th, [5th, and 
 I6th Centuries: with a short account of their 
 works*. This volume was intended as a register 
 of every poetical writer, whether of celebrity, 
 or only known by a complimentary induction 
 poem, sheet ballad, or other promiscuous poeti- 
 cal effusion, to the close of the 16th century. 
 
 * Printed for G. and W, Nicol, 1802, 8vo.
 
 24 THE LIFE OF 
 
 The plan was too comprehensive to attain per- 
 fection in a first edition, notwithstanding the 
 very powerful assistance he obtained from some of 
 his literary friends. Respecting this assistance, 
 the following particulars have been communi- 
 cated by Mr. Park, upon express solicitation*, 
 and therefore are given in his own words : 
 
 [In a letter, dated Gray's Inn, 27th Sept. 
 1800, Ritson imparted thus to me, with his- 
 original MS. of the Bibl. Poet. : ' I avail my- 
 self of your obligeing permission to transmit 
 my very imperfect M.S. of English Poets : you 
 cannot possibly treat it with too much severity. 
 My chief objects, you will perceive, are names, 
 titles, and dates.'' — In another, dated 1st Oc- 
 tober, he wrote : ' I forgot to mention that you 
 
 * The request was the more urgently made as a 
 new edition of the Bibliographia Poeiica has been long 
 in preparation; and knowing such communication 
 would excite the aid of literary friends, which has 
 been liberally promised to the Editor, whenever the 
 public voice should apprar sufficiently encouraging to 
 cover the expence of putting the work again to press.
 
 JOSEI-H RITSON, ESQ. 25 
 
 were, in fact, the innocent cause of the defective 
 compilation before you ; and, consequently, 
 that whatever trouble you may have with it, 
 you have brought upon yourself. It was sug- 
 gested by a list of initials, which you had com- 
 municated to Mr. Steevens, and which obliged 
 me to hvuit through so many different books 
 that i was determined to have some sort of a 
 Dictionary to refer to once for all. Such was 
 the illegitimate conception of this literary 
 bantling.'' 
 
 I remember that Steevens told me, he should 
 present my memorandum to Ritson, with a sort 
 of defiance as to his power of appropriating the 
 initials, which I had extracted from several of 
 the poetical miscellanies printed in the reign 
 of Ehzabeth, and he put the paper into his 
 snuff-box for such purpose. 
 
 On returning Ritson's M.S. with my ad- 
 denda, he wrote thus, with a glowing excess of 
 thankfulness, in a letter dated Nov. 10, 1800 : 
 
 'A severe cold, aded to my habitual com-
 
 26 THE LIFE OF 
 
 plaints, deprives me of the pleasure of makeing 
 my personal acknowlegements for the inestima- 
 ble favour you have confered on me, by aug- 
 menting, illustrateing, correcting, and every way 
 improveing my little imperfect Catalogue, with 
 a knowlege, accuracy, and minuteness, peculiar 
 to yourself ; and which have given it a value 
 and importance to which it could otherwise 
 have had no sort of pretensions.** 
 
 The M.S. with such additions as were then 
 made, went into the amicable hands, and passed 
 under the careful and corrective eye of Mr. 
 Douce, who added (so far as is recollected at 
 this distance of time) about as much to the origi- 
 nal as I had done. Ritson expressed high and 
 just satisfaction at this valuable improvement of 
 his work, and sent the first draught of a prefa- 
 tory advertisement to me, which contained a joint 
 acknowledgment to Mr. Douce and myself for 
 our united assistance. In a note, which still 
 remains in my copy, dated Jan. 31st, 1801, 
 he said : ' Wil you have the goodness to run
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 27 
 
 your eye over my prefaces* (at which i am 
 a miserable hand), and make freely your ju- 
 dicious alterations and corrections.' 
 
 This I did, and blotted out with my pen 
 a severe sarcasm against Warton's mendacious 
 * History of English Poetry,' which Ritson 
 forbore to reinstatef. But very soon afterward, 
 having behaved with so much vmcourteousness 
 to Mr. Douce, as to occasion some discord- 
 ancy, that gentleman's name was suppressed 
 in the prefatory acknowledgment ; and I then 
 desired (if I recollect aright) that my own 
 should be omitted, which was accordingly done ; 
 though he chose to retain a personal compliment 
 more fitted for Mr. Douce than for myself. 
 
 * One of these prefaces was intended for the " Biblio- 
 theca Scotica," since obtained by Mr- George Chalmers. 
 
 t In a letter, dated Sept. 27, 1799, that elegant scho- 
 lar and excellent man, Mr. George Ellis, said, "I feel 
 very angry with Ritson for attacking our poetical Histo- 
 rian so grossly. As he repents, 1 am of course molli- 
 fied ; and even in the height of my anger, should 
 have been always disposed to do justice to Ritson's very 
 commendable accuracy." T. P.
 
 28 THE LIFE OV 
 
 In a MS. note before Ritson's own copy of 
 ' Bibliographia Poetica,' he there proposed : 
 ' If there shal be a second edition of this book, 
 instead of Mr. or Mister, shal be used Master, 
 as in former times ; and now recently adopted 
 in the black-letter Acts of Parliament, which is 
 a grand restoration.'' This mode of address he 
 afterwards used in a note to me, and it was 
 thought, very naturally, to have been designed 
 for my son, then a boy of ten years old. T. P.} 
 
 The defects and imperfections of this work 
 have been far too hypercritically animadverted 
 on, and without due reflection as to the ex- 
 treme difficulty of obtaining information on 
 subjects that are chiefly dependent on casual 
 discovery, and frequently altogether beyond the 
 attainment of the most diligent enquirer : but 
 it is far easier to perceive chasms in these and 
 similar researches, than to fill them up as 
 needed ; and of this Ritson was a much better 
 judge than any of his censurers. The com- 
 piler of this useful and elaborate work very
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 
 
 29 
 
 modestly and appropriately termed it "A Ca- 
 talogue of English Poets,'' while the critics seem 
 to have, either erringly or willingly, mistaken 
 bibhography for biography. 
 
 If the omissions appear to be many, they will 
 be found principally such as could only be 
 gradually supphed from the discoveries of later 
 research ; and the existing edition, while it 
 forms the nucleus of a standard one, will ever 
 sustain its character for correctness and utility*. 
 It remains to be remarked, that the pages of 
 the last two works were more than usually dis- 
 figured by an unpleasant affectation of ortho- 
 graphy, formed, as it is supposed, on a self- 
 originating system-f*. Occasional deviations 
 
 * Absurd slurs on the Bib. Poet, have occasionally 
 been made for not containing the name of some poet 
 that flourished in the 17th century, a period not in- 
 cluded. 
 
 f Ritson, to support his argument against Tyrwhitt, 
 admitted his position would need " the help of an entire 
 new system of spelling : which in fact (he adds) is the 
 very object 1 mean to contend for; or rather (or a system 
 of spelling, as I am perfectly confident we have none at
 
 30 THE LIFE OF 
 
 from common rules of spelling* arc to be 
 found in most of his volumes, which, as he 
 advanced in life, obtained stronger hold upon 
 his fancy, and so increased and multiplied, as 
 to threaten to render much of his text in ap- 
 pearance obsolete, if not unintelligible. The 
 magnitude of the task, joined with his own 
 unfortunate restlessness and irritable disposi- 
 tion, prevented (if it was ever worth pursuing) 
 any settled plan, or methodical arrangement : 
 nor, from his printed works, is any rule dis- 
 coverable, or any outline so defined, as to indi- 
 cate the extent of that plan when perfected -f*. 
 
 present, or at least I have never been able to find it." — 
 Quip Modest, p. 3. 
 
 * Some of these were ludicrously exposed in a fac- 
 titious letter to Caleb Williams, put together by Old 
 Nick, [Edward Dubois, Esq.] and inserted in the 
 Monthly Mirror for Aug. 1803. 
 
 f Such remarks cannot be made without the appear- 
 ance of some temerity, as Ritson left in MS. as well 
 •' Gleanings of Engleish Grammar, chiefly with a view 
 to illustrate and establish a just system of orthography, 
 upon etymological principles j" as " an English Die-
 
 JOSEPH EITSON, ESQ, 3 J 
 
 XXVII. In the same uncouth orthography 
 was pubhshed that singular work, An Essay on 
 Abstinencefrom Animal Food, as a moral duty *. 
 This was an exposition of the principles, and 
 probably with some expectation to obtain pro- 
 selytes, of one of his favourite systems, and 
 which he adopted at a period when the unsatu- 
 rated appetite commonly embraces every invita- 
 tion that taste and luxurious viands may sup- 
 ply .-|- Early as that period was, the resolution 
 
 tionary intended for publication." These bulky tomes 
 were purchased at the sale of his library by Mr. Heber. 
 
 * Printed for Phillips, 1802, 8vo. 
 
 f It will not diminish the fair fame of Ritson by 
 giving place to the following lampoon, from the St. 
 James's Chronicle (of 3d June, 1783) while it serves to 
 record the early publicity of his extraordinary determi- 
 nation of abstinence. 
 
 THE PYTHAGOREAN CRITICK. 
 
 By wise Pythagoras taught, young R — s — n's meals 
 
 With bloody Viands never are defil'd ; 
 For Quadruped, for Bird, for Fish he feels : 
 
 His board ne'er smoaks with roast meat, or with boil'd. 
 In this one instance pious, mild, and tame, 
 
 He 's surely in another a great sinner : 
 For Man, cries R — s — n, Man 's alone my game ! 
 
 On him I make a most delicious dinner.
 
 32 THE LIFE OF 
 
 once formed, it was persevered in with the same 
 inflexible determination which guided all his ac- 
 tions, and gave that decisiveness to his character, 
 which ever renders the possessor of more than 
 common influence and value as a member of 
 society. The origin and progress of this sin- 
 gular feature of his life, he thus describes : 
 " The compileer himself, induce'd to serious 
 reflection, by the perusal of Mandeville's Fable 
 of the bees, in the year 1772, being the 19th 
 year of his age, [desisted from animal food, 
 and] has ever since, to the revisal of this sheet, 
 firmly adhere'^d to a milk and vegetable diet, 
 haveing at least, never tasteed, dureing the 
 whole course of those thirty years, a morsel of 
 flesh, fish, or fowl, or any thing to his know- 
 lege prepare'd in or with those substancees 
 or any extract thereof, vmless on one occasion, 
 
 To Ven'son and to partridge I 've no Goiil ; 
 
 To W — rt — n Tom such dainties I resign : 
 Give me plump St — v — ns, and large J — hns — n too. 
 
 And iake, your turkey and your savoury chine.
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 33 
 
 when tempted, by wet, cold and hunger, in the 
 South of Scotland, he venture'd to eat a few 
 potatos, dress'd vmder the roast ; nothhig, less 
 repugnant to his feelings, being to be had ; or 
 except by ignorance or imposition; unless it 
 may be, in eating egs, which, however, deprives 
 no animal of life, though it may prevent some 
 from comeing into the world to be murderM 
 and devoured by others." p. 20 1 . 
 
 This was his last known publication ; and the 
 chronology of the press here pauses * to record, 
 
 * Pusthumous Pieces. 
 
 XXVIII. Criticnl Observations on the various and es- 
 sential parts of a Deed. Printed for Clarke, 1804. 8vo. 
 
 XXIX. The Office of Bailiff of a Lilerty. Edited 
 by the Author's Nephew, J. Frank, Esq. Printed for 
 Butterworth, 1811. 8vo. 
 
 XXX. The Caledonian Muse. This volume (pub- 
 lished by Triphook, 1821) was intended for publication 
 in 1785, but never completed. It has, like most of his 
 productions, very spirited vignettes, and was first an- 
 nounced in a note to the Advertisement before the 
 " English Anthology," 1793. Again referred to in the 
 Notes on the • Historical Essay,' in vol. I. of the 
 " Scotibh Songs," J 794, immediately after the writing 
 
 D
 
 34 THE LIFE OE 
 
 that to a morbid nervous affection of long 
 standing, there succeeded a fatal attack upon 
 
 which, probably, the whole impression was (erroneously) 
 supposed to be destroyed by fire. On the 5th of March, 
 17g4, he wrote to Mr. Laing, of Edinburgh, stating: 
 f* The impression of my 'Caledonian Muse,' which had 
 engaged the attention of so many years, and was just 
 ready for publication, has been lately destroyed by a fire, 
 which broke out in the printer's-house, so that I have 
 not, nor can I procure, a single copy." Nichols's Illus' 
 trations, vol. iii. p. 778. 
 
 XXXI. Select Scotish Poems. About 96 pages of this 
 work were printed, and might be intended to continue 
 the above. 
 
 XXXII. Ritson left many works in a state maturing 
 for the public eye. At the end of the Catalogue of 
 his library, occur no less than 36 lots in quarto and 
 folio, all classed as ' Manuscripts by Mr. Ritson.* Among 
 the number that he once assuredly intended for publica- 
 tion, one remains to be noticed which is not named in 
 the sale-catalogue, upon a subject of which few men 
 were enabled to supply such correct information as him- 
 selfj and trusting it was retained by his representative 
 and nephew Mr. Frank, I venture to announce the same, 
 with the hope it may yet appear posthumously. A spe- 
 cimen of the work alluded to was printed in 1782, 12mo. 
 with this title — Fahularum Romanensium Ubliotheca: a 
 general catalogue of old romances, French, Italian, Spanislt 
 and English, in two volumes. He had collected very con-
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 35 
 
 the mental faculties, under the influence of 
 which he expired, at the house of Sir Jonathan 
 Miles, at Hoxton, 23d Sept. 1803, in the fifty- 
 first year of his age.* 
 
 siderable materials for this general classed catalogue of 
 antient romances, which was suggested by the very im- 
 perfect compilation on this subject by Lenglet Dufresnoy ; 
 he also himself possessed a good collection of early 
 romances, the greater part of which were bequeathed 
 to him by his friend Mr. Baynes. 
 
 XXXIII. Bihliograpliia Scotica. This compilation 
 was prepared, and supposed as ready for the press, at the 
 time No. XXVI. was published. The MS. sold among 
 those appended to his library for forty-three guineas. 
 The purchaser, on the part of the booksellers, was Mr. 
 Rees; and it has since been transferred to that able 
 editor Mr. G. Chalmers, who, it is expected, will intro- 
 duce the same in the Caledonia, enriched with the 
 result of his own accumulated knowledge and extensive 
 research on the same subject. 
 
 * A well-drawn character of Ritson, attributed to Mr. 
 Godwin, appeared in the Monthly Magazine, for Nov. 
 1803, and was afterwards inserted in the Monthly Mir- 
 ror for May 1805, as a " Biographical Sketch of the 
 late Joseph Ritson, Esq." An uncalled for, but melan- 
 choly statement of the eflects of his malady, is appended 
 by Mr. Cromek to Vol. ]- of Select Scotish Songs, 1810. 
 And a spirited Memoir of him is given in the History of 
 
 d2
 
 36 THK LIFK OF 
 
 The bodily habits of this extraordinary man, 
 singular as they were, appear almost to have 
 influenced his literary pursuits. He considered 
 the neglected efforts of genius in our early 
 writers in the light of " a humble friend whose 
 attachment in adverse circumstances demands 
 the warm and grateful acknowledgments of 
 prosperity," and he entered with uncommon 
 ardour into a jiatronage of claims so adven- 
 titiously supported. 
 
 To him distance of place, decyphering the 
 pale and almost enigmatical characters of early 
 
 Durham by Mr. Surtees, Vol. III. — Before the title-page 
 of the ' Caledonian Muse' is a miniature shade that 
 has been considered as a strong likeness of our Author, 
 taken from a profile cut in pai)er by the late very in- 
 genious Mrs. Park. The portrait inserted in Nichols's 
 Illustrations is evidently a copy from the well-known pro- 
 duction of Mr. Sayer, published by Mrs. Humphrey 
 22d March, 1803. That published by Baldwyn, with 
 " Gillray inv'." is from the same source. The result of 
 an enquiry made some years since, was the presumption 
 that a portrait in oil colours existed in the possession of 
 an acquaintance.
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 
 
 37 
 
 scribes, and wearying labour of minute collation, 
 were the prominent and positive, if not recre- 
 ative duties of an editor. Hence his references 
 frequently are to collections widely dispersed 
 through England and Scotland ; while to detect 
 in him any wanton infringement on the text, 
 or a slovenly error in a quotation, beyond the 
 blurs and mischances of the press, would be a 
 difficult if not an abortive undertaking. 
 
 His constitutional irritabihty, and conscious- 
 ness of his own superiority, made him very 
 austere toward the periodical critics ; and when 
 he condescended to reply to their attacks, it 
 was so unguardedly, and in such a coarse 
 strain of invective, as could not be expected 
 to produce any suspension of their sharp tone 
 of censure.* 
 
 Yet, cold, austere, and reserved as were 
 
 * The common respect due to the new-formed grave 
 ought to have suppressed the fragment of hackneyed 
 criticism that appeared in the British Critic immediately 
 after his decease. It was an unprovoked and, under the 
 circumstances, brutal attack on the memory of Ritson.
 
 38 THE LIFE OF 
 
 his general manners, those most intimate with 
 him never found his habits unsocial, or his 
 opinions uncandid. The core of the heart was 
 warm, liberal, and sound — the feelings gene- 
 rous, kind, congenial, and beneficent ; and when 
 appearing otherwise, it may be attributed to 
 the corroding acrimony of temper, commonly 
 engendered and Avorked upon by a continual 
 habitude of seckision, and the painful belief, 
 arising therefrom, of chilling neglect and conse- 
 quent unimportance, too often the consequence 
 of not mixing actively in society. The man of 
 abstracted habits, who declines the invitations 
 of social friendship, must always expect to find 
 himself accused of an intolerant asperity of dis- 
 position, and (however unintentional) a repul- 
 sive negligence of the common rules of civility. 
 Even Ritson's wayward attack vipon Warton 
 and Percy * seems to have created a licence 
 
 * The Reli(jues of A?tcie?it English Poetry first appeared 
 in 17^5, long before the public taste was prepared to 
 expect, in such cases, the literce scriptcE to be given.
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 39 
 
 for any vagrant hand to strew a nettle on his 
 grave, however incapable of culling the flowers 
 and admiring the blossoms which he trans- 
 planted from their remote obscurity. 
 
 If we consider Ritson in the character either 
 of an editor or a critic, his sterling principle and 
 prevailing characteristic was undeniably truth, 
 which is too often rather equivocally treated in 
 the world of letters. No hurrying mandate 
 of a publisher, no pecuniary speculation or 
 sudden impulse, ever ushered his volumes into 
 the world, until he considered them fitted to 
 appear : and their lengthened progress through 
 the press, as well as various cancels, are suffi- 
 
 Had the publication been deferred to a later period, when 
 fac-simile reprints and a tenacious following of text were 
 judiciously encouraged, and critics became ' rigor,Dus as 
 Ritson himself,' (as the author of the Forlunes (jf Nigel 
 remarks,) it cannot be doubted but the learned Bishop 
 of Dromore would have changed his plan, and certainly 
 not have concluded that old manuscripts might be reno- 
 vated by a spirited patch-work of Mosaic texture, cal- 
 culated to puzzle any inquisitive antiquary disposed to 
 unravel the ornamental network of the learned Editor.
 
 40 THE LIFE OF 
 
 cient proofs of his zeal in labouring after correct- 
 ness. He was so determined a literalist, that 
 any attempt to impugn his text has not yet 
 been hazarded ; while the progressive rise of 
 price in his works, is sufficient evidence of the 
 increasing estimation in which his labours are 
 now held. That same redoubted truth made 
 him formidable as a giant in the arena of cri- 
 ticism, dwarf though he was in person. And 
 without defending, or excusing, the occasional 
 petulance of his remarks, it is enough to know, 
 that roughly as he treated his contemporaries, 
 his positions were mostly well founded, and he 
 never condemned for supposititious errors. It 
 was not simply that the place was vulnerable; 
 he proved that what he attacked was weak from 
 incompetence, or unquestionable negligence. 
 
 This system may be considered as realized in 
 the ' Remarks critical and illustrative,"' and 
 other of his critical pieces, where he unceremo- 
 niously confuted his contemporaries, who as- 
 sumed the pretension of giving to the public,
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 41 
 
 by a kind of editorial union, a correct edition 
 of Shakespeare, whose name formed an object 
 of his acknowledged idolatry *, 
 
 With the date of ' 18th April, 1783,' Ritson 
 announced — The genuine text of Shakspeare. 
 Preparing for the Press, an edition of the Plays 
 of William Shakspeare, irith Notesf. The out- 
 line of the edition projected is given in a note 
 below +. At that period, it may be recollected, 
 
 * Preface to the Remarks, p. vi. 
 
 t Appended to the Remarks. 
 
 X " This edition will be comprised [says the Prospec- 
 tus] in eight duodecimo volumes; and will be carefullv 
 and accurately printed from the onely copies of real autho- 
 rity, the two first folios. But although these editions 
 will be the standard of the intended work, such passages 
 in the old quartos as may appear to have been omitted 
 by accident, or with a view to shorten the representa- 
 tion, and every various reading, will be maturely con- 
 sidered, and, if worthy of insertion, be adopted, either 
 in the text or margin, as their importance or merit may 
 seem to rec|uire. No variation, however, will be made 
 from the standard editions without apprising the reader 
 of it, unless the difference should consist merely in a 
 slight typographical error. Nor is any difference be- 
 tween the various editions in other respects intended to
 
 4w TllK 1,1KK OK 
 
 the constellation of commentators possessed 
 the ear of the booksellers, if not the general 
 confidence of the public ; this left little pro- 
 bability for the stern, vmbending, independent 
 spirit of Ritson, (while he threw down the 
 gamitlet to the whole circle of critics, and 
 braved their combined acumen,) to find much 
 
 be otherwise than occasionally regarded. The ortho- 
 graphy will be reduced with the utmost care to a mo- 
 dern and uniform system, except where a change would 
 be injurious to the author's sense and meaning. Various 
 or doubtful readings will be settled from an attentive 
 examination of the sentiments of every commentator. 
 The notes, which will be very sparingly introduced, and 
 never but where they seem absolutely necessary, or pe- 
 culiarly proper, will be chiefly extracted, under the names 
 of their respective authors, from the editions of Theobald, 
 Warburton, Johnson, and Steevens; but not to the ex- 
 clusion of better, though, perhaps, anonymous, intelli- 
 gence, if it can be given. It is however no part of the 
 editor's design to fill his margin with a view of the 
 corruptions, or a refutation of the errors of preceding 
 commentators. 
 
 " The author's life with the usual documents, (parti- 
 cularly a more exact copy of his will than has been yet 
 published,) and the prefaces of the various editors, will 
 be prefixed to the work : which will, likewise, be at-
 
 JOSEPH KITSON, ESQ. 43 
 
 courtesy, countenance, or encouragement, from 
 such a phalanx ; or be able to struggle singly 
 and unsupported through such an undertaking : 
 but if he felt chilled in ardour, and repressed 
 in expectation, it is doubtful if he ever finally 
 abandoned the project. Two sheets of the 
 Comedy of Errors, with notes, were printed in 
 1787, 12mo. ; and in Februai-y 1788, he tells 
 the public, " I have neither laid aside all 
 thoughts of bringing it forward, nor can I 
 pledge myself to produce it in any given 
 time." ^ The last lot in the sale of his library 
 consisted of ' Shakespeare, by Johnson and 
 Steevens, 8 vols, containing a great number of' 
 
 tended with a new, copious, and accurate glossary. And, 
 in an additional volume, it is proposed to gi\e a com- 
 plete verbal index, adapted to tlie intended edition, 
 
 " This edition will, with regard to the correctness of 
 the text, be infinitely superior to any that has yet ap- 
 peared. It will possess all the advantages of every for- 
 mer edition, and be as little liable, it is hoped, as pos- 
 sible to the defects of any. 
 " 18th April, 1789." 
 
 * Preface to the Quip Modest, p. vii-
 
 44 THK LIFK OF 
 
 manuscript notes, corrections, S)C. SjC. ; together 
 with 3 voh. of manuscript notes, hy Mr. Ritson, 
 prepared bi/ him for the press, intending to pub- 
 lish it.' This article, which probably formed 
 a depository for his emendations and notes to 
 a late period of his Hfe, was purchased as long 
 since as the 8th December, 1 803, on account of 
 the trade; and such appears the singular apa- 
 thy or inconsistency of the bibhopohstical mo- 
 nopohzers, that to this day the copy and the 
 notes remain untouched and unknown.* 
 
 * If the 'accurate glossary' announced in the Pro- 
 spectus, by Rilson, is contained in the ' three volumes of 
 manuscript notes,' it ought long since to have been 
 published. To most of his publications were added 
 useful and needful glossaries, compiled with consider- 
 able industry and consummate skill ; and to any future 
 "eneral collection of our ancient words, (an important 
 work greatly wanted,) those compilations would afford 
 most valuable assistance. The other announcement of a 
 ' complete verbal index,' it is to be regretted, has never 
 been supplied to any edition : if we except the distinct 
 and high-priced work of Mr. Twiss. In 1821, the late 
 Mr. James Boswell added some useful tables of reference, 
 but upon too limited a scale for general purposes j and
 
 JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. 45 
 
 Useless were any enquiry into the manage- 
 ment of these matters, or any attempt to un- 
 draw the curtain to discover where the want of, 
 if not liberahty, lucrative discernment is to be 
 traced ; or where the strong bias, or peevish 
 jealousy, if any, can now exist. All the feeble 
 fancies that were irritated twenty years agone, 
 by the acute remarks of Ritson, ought, if they 
 are not, by this time to be tranquillized, and all 
 dissonant opinions long since extinguished. Yet 
 something of this kind must exist, or why has 
 there never been an edition of Shakespeare given, 
 with a tower of strength, the name of Ritson ? 
 What bold man, of equal critical ability, has 
 inspected the copy prepared by him for the 
 press, and ventured to consign it to oblivion ? 
 Such a work could not be objected to from 
 being posthumous ; for the host of booksellers, 
 who seem here to claim the title of becoming 
 
 memory remains taxed to index the text of Shakespeare, 
 with much thereunto belonging, or what endless refe- 
 rences there must be in the one-and-twenty volumes!
 
 46 
 
 THJ£ LIFK OF 
 
 arbiters for the public, as to the modern accre- 
 dited or standard editions of Shakespeare, have 
 not pubUshed any other for many years. The 
 late Mr. Malone personally designated the edi- 
 tion of 1 803, stated to be ' revised and aug- 
 mented by Isaac Reed,' as a jxjsthumous edition 
 of Steevens ; and no subsecpient one, of any 
 authority, can be otherwise described, even in- 
 cluding the last, the posthumous edition of the 
 same Edmond Malone.* 
 
 Had the work projected by Ritson ever been 
 completed by himself; from the copious stores 
 of his researches, his well-selected hbrary,-f- the 
 
 * Mr. Malone remarked to the late Mr. James Bos- 
 well, that he, Malone, had taken immediate care of his 
 father's Life of Dr. Johnson ; and therefore trusted he, 
 Boswell, would do the like with the corrected copy of 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 t Mr. Ritson from time to time disposed of his du- 
 plicate volumes, and such works as ap|)eared no longer 
 of material importance to his own future literary pursuits, 
 by auction. Of the mass of his hbrary, it is to be feared 
 that an acknowledged loss of above ^£■'1000 in an un- 
 fortunate speculation in the funds, occasioned rather a
 
 JOSEPH EITSON, ESQ. 47 
 
 integral powers of his mind, the minute accu- 
 racy of his text, and enthusiastic regard for the 
 subject, it is not more than justice to his me- 
 mory to believe the effort might have competed 
 with any production from the accumulated la- 
 bours of the previous commentators and editors. 
 It must be admitted, that this is claiming no 
 puny fame, when we recollect who those same 
 commentators and editors were, that flourished 
 during the lapse of a century — from the period 
 
 premature dispersion by several portions in his life-time. 
 A part was sold at Mr. King's auction-room, in King- 
 street, Covent-garden, in a miscellaneous sale some time 
 in 1802. A further part at the same place, in the third 
 day of the sale of Dr. Mitchell's books, 10th August, 
 1803. By Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby of York-street, 
 another portiou in an anonymous sale of six days, begin- 
 ning 4th May, 1803, described as the property of a 
 well-known collector, consisting of English History, old 
 English Poetry, Plays, Romances, &c. At the same 
 place, after his decease, were sold his law-books, with 
 those of John Topham, Esq. Treasurer of the Society 
 of Antiquaries, in November 1803; and the remainder, 
 as his * entire and curious library and manuscripts, on 
 Dec. 5, and three following days.' The latter sale pro- 
 duced £681. 5s. ()d.
 
 48 LIFE OF JOSF^l'H lllTSON, ESQ. 
 
 of snarling- Pope, to the termination of placid 
 Isaac Reed, Still shall not their high exceed- 
 ing smother a long entertained opinion of what 
 might have been the result, had chance, or the 
 protecting voice of the public, called into ac- 
 tion the integrity, talents, and perseverance, 
 of HONKST Joseph Ritson,
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 E
 
 Mr. Ritson presented a copy of the Versees, 
 reprinted from the Newcastle Miscellany, to 
 the late Mr. Isaac Reed, accompanied with the 
 following letter, from which he does not appear 
 then to have had any intention of extending 
 his system of orthography beyond a single 
 specimen : 
 
 D^ Sir, 
 
 I was considering what to present you 
 with in return for your Witch*, and, knowing 
 that you think the most trifleing literary whims 
 at least worthy of preservation, I beg your 
 acceptance of the inclosed, as the onely speci- 
 men of mt/ system of spelling that ever was, 
 or, perhaps, ever will be printed. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 G. I. 20th A. 82. 
 Mr. Reed.f 
 
 * Mr. Reed printed, to give to his friends, a hundred 
 copies of a tragi-coomodie called the Witch; hy Tho. 
 Middleton. 
 
 f " Given me by the author Joseph Ritson of Gray's 
 Inn, 20th Aug. 1782."— MS. note by Mr. Reed.
 
 V E R S E E S 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 LADIES OF STOCKTON. 
 
 FIRST PRINTED IN THB NEWCASTLE MISCELLANY, 
 MDCCLXXII. 
 
 PROGREDITUR NYMI'HARCM SPLENDIDUS ORDO, 
 
 ANTE ALIOS UNUS ARRIPUIT, TENUITOUE MORANTES, 
 ARDENTESQUE OCULOS. 
 
 y O
 
 The women came, as custom wills they pass'd. 
 On one (oh! that distinguish'd one!) i cast 
 The favourite glance : o yet my mind retains 
 This fond begining of my infant pains. 
 
 Prior.
 
 VERSEES, &c. 
 
 Accept, ye Fair, the tribute of my praise. 
 And deign a smile upon my humble lays ; 
 For your applause i strike the tuneless lyre. 
 And strive to raise within a poets fire : 
 In hobbleing verse your charms attempt to sing; 
 Your charms adorn'd with ever blooming spring. 
 
 Ye female critics, read, sans spleen, my song. 
 Nor deem it or too languid, or too long; 
 For Your applause i write, your Frowns i fear; 
 Hence, fellows! hence!* Your judgment 's nothing 
 
 here. 
 Let not harsh censure my poor rhimes asperse. 
 But with the Subject dignify the verse. 
 
 Where Tees in sweet meanders slowly glides. 
 And gentlely murmuring rolls his easy tides. 
 There stands a town, with peace and plenty crown'd. 
 For wit, for wealth, and loyal sons renown'd ; 
 Far fame'd for dames, wise, charitable, chaste, 
 And first in Beauty's annals ever place'd. 
 
 * Procul, oh pTocul esle, profani ! 
 e3
 
 VI AI'PENIJIX. 
 
 In every age has Stockton been revere'd. 
 Her sons have always been belove'd and fear'd. 
 When, 'gainst the hardy legions of the North, 
 Brave Percy led his youthful warriors forth. 
 Her valiant deeds let History proclaim. 
 And Cheviot hills record the fatal name. 
 Her nymphs, erst wont to trip the verdant groves, 
 Seem'd sisters to the Gracees and the Loves. 
 
 Leave these, my muse, and sing, in careless rhimes. 
 The special beauties of her modern times ; 
 Let them alone engage thy every care. 
 Speak but the truth, and paint them as they are. 
 
 With thee, Titania, ' does the muse advance. 
 The leader thou in this uncouple'd dance j 
 Thy prudent maxims, and thy manners sage. 
 To us seem wonderous, far abo\ e thine age ; 
 Thy infant buds, like bees about thee swarm. 
 Thyself their Empress, shielding them from harm : 
 Of treacherous man warn'd in each dayly task. 
 Though, spite of thee, he 'II soon be all they ask. 
 To thee the riseing generation bows. 
 Accept Our homage, nor our Praise refuse. 
 
 ' Miss Dixon. Titania is Queen of the Fairies in Sliak- 
 speare's Midsummer Night's Dream,
 
 APPENDIX. VU 
 
 From grandsire magistrates Olivia- springs; 
 How pleasantly she looks ! how sweet she sings ! 
 To her though Venus have not deign'd her aid, 
 Kor dp Her charms adorn the wity maid. 
 Yet with their want who cannot but dispense. 
 Where such goodnature joins with such good sense? 
 
 When unbecomeing wildness rules the fair. 
 Let her of Slanders evil tongue beware ; 
 Lost fame, says Prior, ne'er can be regain'd ; 
 A character that's once, is always, stain'd: 
 Mark, youthful Celia, •'' though that evil tongue 
 Have hardly yet had power to do thee wrong. 
 From light behaviour drawn, hints vile and dark 
 The pureest fame eternally may mark. 
 
 Fair Daphne! * Tears bedew the musees eyes, 
 And heaves of pity in her bosom rise ; 
 In sorrow silent, she but breathes thy name. 
 Nor good, nor ill, of thee commits to fame. 
 
 View haughty Chloe!^ sneaking even in state. 
 How few who love her! and how few who hate! — 
 
 * Miss Bunting. One of her ancestors was mayor in 
 1564, another in 1702, &c. 
 
 •^ Miss Do. Wilkinson. 4 Miss Peggy I/amb. 
 
 ' Miss Lamb.
 
 vm APPENDIX. 
 
 Beneath the last, from most : — long may she live, 
 Adorn'd with all the gracees pride can give. 
 Her affectation, spleen, ridic'lous ease. 
 Show what you can be, fair ones, when you please. 
 
 In malice laughing, of her laughter vain. 
 See cookmaid Phillis, 6 envious, spiteful, plain. 
 
 The LEARNED SiSTERsT next demand my lays; 
 Few outward charms they boast to speak their praise. 
 But by their mental they shall lovers thrall. 
 And, with goodnature, make them bless'd in all. 
 
 Let not THE Widows miss her share of fame. 
 Nor uninserted here let pass her name : 
 A Stockton toast, wit, critic, lo ! she stands ; 
 Beaus, bucks, and fribbles, press to kiss her hands; 
 To all at home ; — sh' 'as felt the marriage chain. 
 Nor would be grieve'd to have it on again. 
 
 Nor thee, fair Anna,9 shall the muse pass by. 
 Nor 'mongst these charmers thee a place deny; 
 
 fi Miss Betsy Lamb. 7 'fhe Miss Welbanks. 
 
 •^ Mrs. Cowley, from London. '•' ?*Iiss Consett.
 
 APPENDIX. IX 
 
 Remote from Stockton's hospitable doors. 
 Thou, like Elvira, pass'd'st thy natal hours; 
 And, honour'd by her friendship, e'er shalt share. 
 The utmost praise my suckleing muse can spare: 
 Goodnature, sense, and modesty are join'd, 
 Equally fair to make thy face and mind. 
 
 Though last in number, yet in beauty first. 
 Among Strenshelians,io happy people! nurse'd ; 
 Hail, my Elvira in graceful, debonair; 
 Among the fairest Thou alone art fair ; 
 In vain i bid the muse attempt thy praise ; 
 In vain the muse to sing thy charms essays ; 
 To sing Thy charms — alone the heavenly quires 
 Should raise their Halleluias, — strike their lyres ; 
 The theme but vi^orthy them : — yet gracious deign 
 To pardon my sincere, though lowly, strain ; 
 All i dare ask: — Adieu, my Fair, though thou 
 Nor grant a smile, nor an unclouded brow, — 
 Thy bard, thy slave i '11 be — and, with the thought. 
 My bosom cheer, although my chance be nought. 
 
 " The inhabitants of Whitby, anciently called Streone- 
 sheal. " Miss Ingham.
 
 LONDON : 
 i'KiNttU \i\ S). ANiJ R. BENTLEV, DOUSE! Si KEEP.
 
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