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Rheims,  Sculpture  at    93 

Richard  Coeur  de  Lion     15  16  19  20  23 

24  27  51  81-86 
Richard  Coeur  dc  Lion    (Romance)     24 

27  81-86 
Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall     20 
Roald     24  31  2,7 
Robert,  Brother     26 
Rome,  Vatican  Library     12 
Runkelstein,  Castle     11 

Saddle     14 

Saga    26  27  28,  ct  passim 

St.  Ann's   Hill,  Chertsey     15 

St.  Floret.  Castle     10 

St.  Kehelm,  Worces.     16 

St.  Thomas,  J'ic  dc    23  37  40  67  82 

Saladin    20  82  83  94 

Salisbury   Cathedral     86 

Samson     82 

Shaw,   Henry     16  28  93 

Shurlock.  Dr.  M.     15   16  24  26  40  44  45 

60  66  67  72 
Sir  Tristrcm     26 

Tapestry     11  12  13 
Tavola  Ritoiida     51 
Torelha,  Guillem     14 
Trial  bv  Battle    86 


Tristram,  Versions  of  Romance  : 
Eilhart  von  Oberge     10 
Folic    Tristan,   Douce    MS.     60  68   94 
French   Prose     11 
German  Prose     11 
Gottfried  von  Strassburg     10  11  22  26 

50  60  77 
Saga     26  27  28,  et  passim 
Sir  Tristrem     26  51  60 
Tavola  Ritonda    51 
Thomas     10  14  19  26  27  28,  et  passim 

Usella     10 

Villard  de  Honnecourt     93 

Wager  of  Battle    86 

Walter,  Master    22 

Waterhouse,    C.    O.     28 

Waverly  Abbey     19 

Westminster     Abbey     Chapter     House, 

Tiles  at     19  20  22  31  37  67  76  93  94 
Westminster    Palace,    Painted    Chamber 

at     21  22 
Wheeler,  Miss  L.     17  20 
Wienhausen     10 
U'igalois     n 
William,   Master     22 
Windsor     20 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS 


(A  list  of  the  titles  of  the  figures 
be  found  on  pp.  7  and  8.) 
Armor     10  15  16  17  23  36  40  41  43 
Archery     31    39 

Bier     30 
Bringvain     29 

Chess-board    2 
Crossbow    40 

Dirge     30 
Dragon     24 

Gage,  Offering  of     25 
Gormon     18  26 

Hanap     27 
Harp     4  20  21 
Homage    6 
Horn     32 

Lsolt     21  28  29 


will       Kaherdin     29 
Kanelangres     i 

Letter     i 

Lion  Combat     35  41  42  43 

Mace     2>3 
Mark,   King    4  13 
Morgan,  Duke    89  10  19 
Morhaut     15  16  17 

Pilgrims     3 
Porter     5 

Richard  Coeur  de  Lion     35  36 

Saladin     37 
Sceptre    8 
Ships     2  20  28  29  34 
"Stake-gift"     3 

Wager  of  Battle    38 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  STUDIES 

IN 
LANGUAGE  AND  LITERATURE 

Vol.  II  August,    1916  No.   3 


Board  of  Editors 

George  T.  Flom  William  A.  Oldfather 

Stuart  P.  Sherman 


Published  by  the  University  of  Illinois 

Under  the  Auspices  of  the  Graduate  School 

Urbana,  Illinois 


Copyright,  1916 
By  the  University  of  Illinois 


JOSEPH  RITSON 
A  CRITICAL  BIOGRAPHY 


BY 
HENRY  ALFRED  BURD 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
1916 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter  I  Early  Years:  Life  At   Stockton-On-Tees ii 

Chapter  II  London  Life :  Business  And  Professional  Career 25 

Chapter  III  Literary  Beginnings:  The  Warton  Controversy 46 

Chapter  IV  Shakespeare    Criticisms    66 

Chapter  V  Editorial  Labors,  1783-1795  90 

Chapter  VI  Editorial  Labors  After   1795 121 

Chapter  VII  Prefatory  Dissertations  148 

Chapter  VIII  Revolutionary    Traits :    Death 172 

Chapter..    IX  Conclusion    195 

Appendix      A     Robert  Smith's  Narrative  Of  Ritson's  Last  Days  And  Death, 

And  Two  Letters  Of  H.  C.  Selby  To  Bishop  Percy 200 

Appendix       B     Passages  Cancelled  In  Ritson's  Ancient  Engleish  Metrical  Ro- 

iiiaiicecs  206 

Appendix       C     I.  A  Bibliography  Of  The  Published  Works  Of  Joseph  Ritson  209 
II.  The  Unpublished   Manuscripts  of  Joseph  Ritson 213 

Bibliography  215 

Index  222 


PREFACE 

Joseph  Ritson  is  a  luinor  figure  in  the  literary  history  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  But  he  was  one  of  the  chief  instruments 
in  bringing  about  the  changes  in  that  period  of  remarkable  transition. 
Although  a  potent  factor  in  reviving  the  interest  in  ballads  and  old 
poetry  and  in  hastening  the  acceptance  of  advanced  standards  of  editor- 
ship and  criticism,  he  has  been  largely  ignored  in  the  historical  appraise- 
ment of  the  romantic  movement.  This  neglect  was  not  altogether 
unnatural.  Ritson 's  method  of  criticism  was  so  invidiously  personal 
and  his  beliefs  and  habits  were  so  eccentric  that  attention  was  attracted 
primarily  to  his  peculiarities,  while  his  stable  qualities  were  overlooked 
by  the  majority.  As  a  consequence  of  the  silence  which  early  enshrouded 
his  name,  an  adequate  estimate  of  his  literary  place  has,  up  to  the 
present,  been  impossible. 

There  have  been  three  previous  biographical  treatments  of  Ritson. 
Joseph  Haslewood's  Life  and  Puhlications  of  Ritson  professes  to  be, 
and  is,  nothing  more  than  a  catalogue  of  the  publications.  The  Memoir 
by  Sir  Harris  Nicolas  is  primarily  a  personal  account  based  on  Ritson 's 
letters  and  the  reminiscences  of  his  nephew.  Whatever  critical  judg- 
ments are  essayed  are  colored  by  an  undisguised  endeavor  to  clear  from 
censure  the  name  of  "honest  Joseph  Ritson".  The  account  by  Sir 
Sidney  Lee  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  is  based  mainly 
upon  the  Memoir.  In  the  present  study  I  have  added  to  this  material  the 
contemporary  magazine  notices  and  critical  reviews,  eight  letters  of 
Ritson  hitherto  unnoticed,  and  frequent  comments  from  the  published 
and  unpublished  correspondence  of  other  literary  men  of  the  time,  espe- 
cially the  account  of  Ritson 's  death  prepared  for  Percy.  Several  minor 
corrections  of  fact  have  been  made,  and,  I  trust,  a  major  one  of 
emphasis.  For  I  have  endeavored,  without  overlooking  the  personal 
peculiarities,  to  bring  Ritson  into  proper  perspective  and  to  estimate 
his  importance  in  his  own  day  and  his  influence  upon  the  subsequent 
course  of  literature  and  criticism.  The  material  in  Chapter  IV  is  a  sub- 
stantial revision  and  enlargement  of  an  article  on  "Joseph  Ritson  and 
Some  Eighteenth  Century  Editors  of  Shakespeare",  published  in  Shake- 
speare Studies,  by  members  of  the  Department  of  English  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin,  Madison,  1916.  I  presented  before  the  Wisconsin 
Academy    of    Sciences,    Arts,    and    Letters,    a   paper   entitled,    "Eight 

9 


10  PREFACE  [344 

Unedited  Letters  of  Joseph  Ritson",  which  appears  in  the  Translations 
of  the  Society,  Vol.  XIX,  Part  1,  p.  1  ff. 

My  obligations  in  the  preparation  of  this  work  are  too  numerous 
for  detailed  notice.  Special  mention  must,  however,  be  made  of  my 
indebtedness  to  the  authorities  of  the  University  of  Illinois  and  the 
University  of  Wisconsin  libraries  for  many  courtesies;  to  the  librarians 
of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  the  Bodleian,  and  the  British  Museum 
libraries  for  the  use  of  unedited  manuscripts;  to  Sir  Sidney  Lee  for 
calling  my  attention  to  the  Selby  letters  and  to  Mr.  Charles  Davis  for 
permission  to  print  them  from  his  manuscript ;  to  Mr.  Marsden  J.  Perry 
for  opening  to  me  his  valuable  collection  of  Ritsoniana  and  to  Mr.  George 
Parker  Winship  for  unfailing  kindness  in  making  it  readily  available ;  to 
Professor  H.  S.  V.  Jones  for  helpful  criticisms ;  to  my  colleague  Mr. 
W.  E,  Alderman  for  reading  the  proof;  and  to  Professor  "W.  A.  Old- 
father  for  assistance  in  seeing  the  work  through  the  press.  My  greatest 
debt  is  to  Professor  S.  P.  Sherman,  who  suggested  the  subject  of  this 
study  and  who  has  followed  its  progress  with  stimulating  criticism. 

H.  A.  B. 

Madison,  Wisconsin. 


CHAPTER  I 
Early  Years  ;  Life  at  Stockton-on-Tees 

Birth — Father — Mother — Family  name — Home  life — Formal  education — Know- 
ledge of  languages — Legal  apprenticeship — Antiquarian  interests  aroused — Becomes 
vegetarian — Publication  of  Versees — Journey  to  Edinburgh — Early  friends  :  Cun- 
ningham, Shield,  Holcroft,  Brewster,  Allan — Settles  in  London. 

Joseph  Eitson,  son  of  Joseph  Ritson  and  Jane  Gibson,  was  born 
October  2,  1752,  at  Stockton-upon-Tees,  Durham.^  He  was  the  second  of 
a  family  of  nine  children,  only  five  of  whom  survived  infancy.  The 
oldest  child,  Christopher,-  and  John,  Sarah,  and  Elizabeth  all  died  young. 
Anne,  the  third  daughter,  married  Robert  Frank  of  Stockton.  Her  son 
Joseph,  named  for  his  uncle,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  became  the  critic's 
protege  and  heir ;  and  it  is  to  him  that  posterity  is  indebted  for  most  of 
the  facts  of  Ritson 's  life^  and  for  the  publication  of  many  of  his  manu- 
scripts. The  next  child,  Sarah,  curiously  bearing  the  name  of  a  de- 
ceased sister,  became  the  wife  of  Jonathan  Brown  of  Liverpool.  Jane 
married  one  Thomas   Thompson  of   Great  Strickland.     The  youngest 

^The  statements  by  Nichols,  Literary  Anecdotes  of  the  Eighteenth  Century, 
etc.,  VIII,  p.  133,  note,  that  Ritson  was  "a  native  of  Stockton  in  Yorkshire",  and 
Illustrations  of  the  Literary  History  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  etc.,  VIII,  p.  588, 
that  "Mr.  Ritson  was  born  at  Stockton,  ten  miles  from  York,  not  at  Stockton- 
upon-Tces",  are  evidently  erroneous.  Although  Ritson  did  not  employ  the  full 
appellation  "Stockton-upon-Tees"  in  his  correspondence,  there  is  ample  evidence 
that  Durham  and  not  York  was  his  native  county.  He  makes  frequent  mention  of 
other  towns  in  Durham  but  not  in  Yorkshire;  his  interest  in  local  antiquities  of 
various  sorts  was  centered  in  Durham  (cf.  MSS.  4,  6,  10,  Appendix  C,  II)  ;  he  is 
designated  in  the  Register  of  Gray's  Inn  as  the  "son  of  Joseph  R.  of  Stockton, 
Durham" ;  and  his  first  publication,  the  Versees,  links  the  Tees  with  Stockton 
(11.  II,  19). 

2A  Mrs.  Kirby,  a  life-long  friend  of  the  Ritson  family,  whose  remarks  are 
reported  by  H.  C.  Selby  in  a  letter  to  Bishop  Percy  (See  Appendix  A),  declares 
that  the  first  child  was  a  daughter  who  died  insane  about  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  If  this  unsupported  assertion  is  to  be  accredited,  the  family  register  must 
be  increased  to  ten.  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  gives  eight  children,  probably  omitting  the 
second  Sarah. 

3Frank  collected  and  edited  The  Letters  of  Josfeph  Ritson,  Esq.  London,  1833, 
and  supplied  most  of  the  material  for  the  Memoir  of  the  Author  prefixed  to  that 
collection  by  Sir  Harris  Nicolas. 

II 


12  JOSEPH   RITSON  [346 

daughter,  Mary,  seems  never  to  have  married.  Joseph's  extant  corre- 
spondence contains  only  the  meagerest  mention  of  any  of  his  sisters 
except  Anne,  but  he  seems  in  later  life  to  have  been  assiduous  in  visiting 
the  various  members  of  the  family  on  his  infrequent  journeys  to  the 
north  of  England. 

Joseph  Ritson  senior  was,  in  early  life,  a  menial  servant  to  a 
Stockton  tobacconist  and  at  the  time  of  his  marriage  served  one  Robin- 
son, a  prominent  corn  dealer  of  that  place.  Later  he  became  a  corn 
grower  and  as  such  continued  his  business  relations  with  Robinson.  He 
seems  to  have  owned  nothing  but  the  house  he  lived  in  and  to  have  been 
forced  to  a  hard  life  to  support  his  large  family.  The  general  discontent 
of  the  agriculturist  class  and  the  disregard  of  the  poor  farmer  by  the 
moneyed  merchant  are  reflected  in  his  life.  Although  he  had  little  or 
nothing  to  leave  his  family,  their  dark  outlook  was  rendered  still  more 
forbidding  by  Robinson's  refusal  of  a  final  business  settlement  during 
the  elder  Ritson 's  last  illness.  During  this  trying  period  the  son's 
letters  to  his  father  were  warm  with  filial  affection  and  expressed  an 
anxious  concern  for  the  whole  family.    On  one  occasion  he  wrote  : 

"Heaven  knows  how  much  I  have  all  along  pleased  myself  with  thinking  I 
should  be  able  in  a  few  years  to  render  you  some  assistance  towards  making  you 
easy  and  happy  in  your  old  age  in  return  for  the  education  and  indulgence  you  be- 
stowed on  me  in  my  youth I  am  sorry  to  hear  Mr.  Robinson  should 

refuse  the  small  comfort  of  having  your  affairs  in  some  degree  settled :  on  such 
an  occasion  as  this  his  behavior  is  unfeeling  and  inhuman  to  the  highest  degree. 
.  .  .  .  My  heart  bleeds  to  think  of  the  distressed  situation  the  whole  family 
is  in.  I  would  to  God  I  could  be  with  you  for  a  day — but  alas !  I  should  only  add 
to  your  confusion.  May  heaven  assist  you  with  patience  and  resignation  in  your 
afflictions.  I  crave  your  blessing  and  earnestly  commend  myself  to  your  remem- 
brance."* 

The  father  died,  at  no  very  advanced  age,  early  in  the  year  1778.  Joseph 
was  then  struggling  for  a  livelihood  in  London,  unable  in  any  material 
way  to  assist  the  family  at  Stockton. 

Jane  Gibson,  at  the  time  of  her  marriage,  was  a  servant  in  the 
family  of  Robinson,  in  whose  service  her  husband  was  also  engaged. 
It  is  not  probable  that  she  continued  long  as  a  bread-winner,  for  the 
burdens  of  her  own  family  and  home  must  soon  have  demanded  all  her 
attention.  An  uneducated  peasant  woman,  she  bestowed  upon  her  family 
the  simple  and  unaffected  devotion  characteristic  of  her  class.  The 
children  maintained  for  her  and  for  each  other  a  deep  and  permanent 
affection.  It  was  in  relation  to  his  mother  that  the  stolid  and  undemon- 
strative Joseph  betrayed  his  finer  sensibilities.    The  illness  which  termin- 

*Letters,  I,  pp.  4,  5. 


347]  EARLY  YEARS  13 

ated  in  her  death  began  in  the  spring  of  1780.  On  May  5th  of  that  year 
Joseph  wrote  to  her:  "I  have  so  few,  and  those  such  slender  connec- 
tions with  mankind,  that  if  we  lose  you  I  shall  not  be  very  uneasy  at 
anything  that  might  happen  to  me."  In  the  same  letter,  in  answer  to 
an  inquiry  from  her  as  to  what  disposal  she  should  make  of  her  small 
belongings,  he  generously  says:  "It  is  very  much  my  wish  that  you 
should  dispose  of  everything  you  have  to  leave  in  favor  of  Nanny  and 
her  child  [Anne  Frank  and  Joseph.]  "^  During  the  course  of  the  sum- 
mer he  attempted  to  regale  her  with  accounts  of  the  London  riots  and 
uprisings  among  the  lower  classes,  and  she  invariably  replied  with  solicit- 
ous concern  for  his  health  and  personal  safety.  In  November,  1780,  she 
died,  and  the  love  which  Joseph  had  bestowed  upon  her  seemed  almost 
immediately  to  be  diverted  to  his  sister  and  her  young  son,  for  whom 
he  had  an  affection  almost  paternal  throughout  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

The  Ritson  family  name  was,  according  to  Joseph,  a  corruption  of 
Richardson.  In  his  "Memoranda"  he  records  the  genesis  of  the  word 
thus:  "Richardson,  Richison,  Richson,  Ricson,  Ritson."  But  it  is 
highly  doubtful  if  there  is  any  other  authority  than  personal  fancy  for 
this  evolution.  The  name  was,  however,  of  considerable  antiquity  in 
"Westmoreland  and  Cumberland,  as  it  occurs  in  the  parish  register  of 
Lowther  at  its  commencement  in  1550.  But  even  with  this  assistance 
and  with  his  own  antiquarian  interests  Ritson  was  able  to  trace  his 
pedigree  with  certainty  only  as  far  back  as  a  great-grandfather  Chris- 
topher Ritson,  who  died  in  1703.  This  branch  of  the  family  belonged 
to  the  poor  but  respectable  yeomanry  of  the  north  of  England  where 
it  had  held  property  for  four  generations. 

From  what  is  known  of  Joseph's  immediate  family,  it  is  evident 
that  life  in  the  Ritson  home  must  have  been  simple  and  affectionate. 
The  necessity  for  the  daily  practice  of  economy  in  the  material  comforts 
of  life  in  no  way  decreased  but  rather  augmented  the  mutual  love  and 
sympathy  of  the  family.  Only  one  element,  the  religious  atmosphere 
characteristic  of  the  English  middle  and  lower  class  families,  seems  to 
have  been  lacking.  There  is  no  evidence  in  the  lives  of  the  children  so 
far  as  they  are  known,  nor  in  their  letters,  to  indicate  Christian  training. 
Neither  is  there  any  token  in  the  early  life  of  hostility  to  religious 
matters.  The  home  seems  only  to  have  been  non-religious,  not  irreligious. 
Joseph  Ritson,  reared  in  such  a  home,  was  no  unnatural  product  of  his 
environment.  That  there  was  a  distinctly  human  side  to  his  character, 
no  one  who  has  taken  the  trouble  to  look  into  his  correspondence  will 
deny.  Yet  the  oft  repeated  remarks  of  cynical  critics,  who  would  paint 
him  as  an  ogre  who  never  fed  on  the  milk  of  human  kindness,  make  it 

^Ibid.,  I,  pp.  12,  13. 


14  JOSEPH   RITSON  [348 

necessary  to  point  out  that,  however  virulent  and  sarcastic  he  may  have 
been  towards  certain  editorial  malefactors,  he  was,  to  his  friends  and 
family,  a  singularly  generous,  kind-hearted,  and  sympathetic  man. 

Ritson's  formal  education  was  quite  limited  but  was  no  doubt  the 
equal  of  that  of  most  lads  of  his  station  in  life.  His  only  schoolmaster 
was  the  Eeverend  John  Thompson  of  Stockton,  afterwards  vicar  of  War- 
den in  Northumberland.  It  is  reported  that  he  often  spoke  of  Ritson 
as  one  of  his  best  scholars  and  was  accustomed  to  relate  some  anecdotes 
indicative,  even  in  his  youth,  of  those  mental  eccentricities  for  which  he 
was  afterwards  so  noted.''  Elsewhere  he  has  been  described  as  "clever 
at  his  books  and  an  apt  scholar. "  As  a  lad  at  school  he  constantly  shun- 
ned the  company  of  other  boys.  He  endeavored  to  associate  with  the 
girls,  but  they  avoided  him  as  much  as  possible,  and  he  was  consequently 
a  half-voluntary  outcast.  Being  much  alone  he  grew  morose  and 
secretive  and  could  be  dislodged  from  his  meditations  by  only  one  or 
two  girls  whom  he  secretly  feared.'^ 

The  exact  studies  which  Ritson  pursued  at  Stockton  are  not  definitely 
known.  On  the  question  of  his  knowledge  of  languages  there  is  differ- 
ence of  opinion.  It  has  been  said  of  him  that  he  was  "totally  unac- 
quainted with  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages",^  and  again,  that  he 
was  "ignorant  of  Greek  and  self-taught  in  Latin ".^  He  knew  no  Greek 
and  seems  never  to  have  felt  his  ignorance  of  it  a  handicap  in  his 
work.^°  At  any  rate  he  was  very  emphatic  in  urging  his  nephew  not 
to  "waste  his  time"  in  studying  it.  His  estimate  of  the  comparative 
value  of  Greek  and  Latin  is  clearly  stated  in  a  letter  to  his  charge, 
June  4,  1785: 

"You  should  pay  all  possible  attention  to  Latin  and  writing.  I  do  not 
apprehend  Mr.  Pattison  can  put  you  into  Greek  this  summer,  but  if  he  should,  I 
desire  that  you  not  waste  your  time  in  acquiring  any  more  knowledge  of  that 
language,  than  consists  in  reading  it  with  facility  from  a  familiarity  with  the 
characters,  though  you  should  not  understand  a  word.  Latin  will  be  useful  to  you, 
not  Greek,  and  I  beg  you  will  pay  no  regard  to  any  one  who  tells  you  otherwise."^^ 

^Memoirs  of  Ritson,  in  Brewster's  History  of  Stockton,  1829,  p.  370. 

■^Mrs.  Kirby  claims  the  distinction  of  being  able  to  do  anything  she  pleased 
with  the  eccentric  youth,  "he  was  so  much  afraid  of  her". 

^Review  of  "Homer's  Hymn  to  Venus",  Gentleman's  Magaine,  Vol.  LXXHI, 
ii,  p.  1031. 

oDeQuincey's   Works,  ed.  Masson,  1896.     Vol.  VI,  p.  23,  note. 

loThe  only  remark  which  might  be  construed  as  expressing  remorse  at  his 
ignorance  of  the  classics  appears  in  a  letter  to  Robert  Harrison,  Aug.  22,  1795. 
He  is  lamenting  the  inefficiency  of  the  modern  writers  of  ancient  history :  "Did 
we  but  all  understand  Greek  and  Latin  as  well  as  you  do  ...  .  my  historian 
.    .     .     .     should  not  be  suffered  to  write  a  line."    Letters,  H,  p.  99. 

^^Ibid.,  I,  p.   102. 


349]  EARLY  YEARS  15 

But  Ritson  was  certainly  familiar  with  the  Latin  language.  Its  rudi- 
ments, at  least,  were  made  familiar  by  composition  and  construing  at 
Thompson's  parish  school.  Although  he  may  not  liave  been  critically 
skilled,  he  made  constant  use  of  it  in  his  literary  labors.  Many  of  his 
sources  exist  only  in  that  language,  and  his  quotations  from  the  Roman 
writers  are  apt  and  numerous.  His  knowledge  of  French,  Italian^  and 
Spanish  was  likewise  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  use  them  extensively. 
It  may  be  doubted,  however,  if  he  secured  much  acquaintance  with  any 
of  these  tongues — except  perhaps  French — at  school.  His  frequently 
acknowledged  ignorance  of  German  is  not  at  all  surprising. 

In  these  early  school  days  Ritson  evidently  began  to  cultivate  the 
interest  in  history,  old  plays,  songs  and  ballads,  which  later  became  his 
hobby  and  finally  the  absorbing  interest  of  his  life.  In  the  letters  to 
his  nephew,  whose  early  education  he  supervised  and  directed  by  corre- 
spondence from  London,  is  to  be  found  the  chief  expression  of  his  own 
preferences  as  a  child  and  a  confession  of  the  deficiencies  in  his  early 
training.  "Writing  in  1780  to  his  six  year  old  nephew  he  says :  "I  have 
sent  you  a  few  books,  &c,  such  as  I  was  most  entertained  with,  and  in- 
structed by,  when  I  was  at  your  own  age ;  and  I  hope  they  will  answer 
as  good  a  purpose,  if  not  a  better  to  yourself.  .  .  .  You  will  find 
some  few  plays,  and  other  things,  which  you  may  like  better,  perhaps, 
and  know  more  of  as  you  grow  bigger."^-  The  next  year  he  sends  him 
"a  history  of  England,  and  a  little  book  of  childish  songs",  and  com- 
mends him  for  ''getting  by  heart  so  excellent  a  poem  as  Chevij  Chase."^^ 
A  few  months  later  he  sends  a  collection  of  prints,  pencils,  and  paints. 
''The  prints  are  mostly  such  as  I  was  very  fond  of  when  I  was  rather 
older  than  you  are,"  he  writes;  "and  the  drawing  book  I  still  think  a 
very  pretty  one."  At  the  same  time  he  commends  Don  Quixote,  "which 
is  one  of  the  best  books  ever  written",  and  Mother  Goose's  Melody, 
which  is  "an  excellent  thing. "^*  By  the  time  Frank  is  seven  years  old 
Ritson  advises  him  to  write  verses  on  the  model  of  Mother  Goose,  adding 
significantly:  "I  regret  nothing  so  much  as  that  I  did  not  make  a  prac- 
tise of  committing  all  such  little  things  to  writing  the  moment  I  heard 
them."^^  His  early  education,  so  far  as  it  went,  was  thorough,  but 
advancement  was  due  largely  to  his  own  unaided  efforts.  In  later  years 
he  felt  keenly  the  lack  of  intelligent  and  sympathetic  guidance  in  his 
formative  period,  and  endeavored  to  supply  this  want  in  the  life  of  his 
young  nephew. 

^'Ibid.,  I,  p.  II. 

13/&I(i.,    I,   p.   20. 

^^Ibid.,  I,  pp.  28,  29. 

^'^Ihid.,  I,  p.  42.  .        ; 


16  JOSEPH   RITSON  [350 

Formal  education  beyond  that  to  be  obtained  in  the  local  school  was, 
of  course,  out  of  the  question  for  one  in  Ritson's  station.  There  was  a 
large  family  to  support,  and  economic  considerations  made  it  imperative 
for  the  oldest  son  to  contribute  as  early  as  possible  to  the  family  budget, 
or,  at  least,  not  to  make  any  considerable  drains  upon  it.  Accordingly 
Joseph  was  put  to  work  at  an  early  age.  It  was  perhaps  just  as  well 
that  he  remained  at  home.  As  a  youth  he  was  sensitive,  studious,  and 
inclined  to  be  secretive.  At  Stockton  he  had  opportunity  for  private 
reading,  and  intimate  daily  contact  with  his  fellows  served  as  an  anti- 
dote to  the  eccentric  tendencies  of  his  nature. 

Being  designed  for  the  law,  Joseph  was  at  first  apprenticed  to  a 
solicitor  Raisbeck  of  Stockton,  a  son-in-law  to  Robinson,  the  corn  merch- 
ant with  whom  his  father  dealt.  His  stay  with  Raisbeck  was  probably 
short,  and  he  was  subsequently  removed  to  the  office  of  Ralph  Bradley,^* 
a  distinguished  conveyancer  of  Stockton.  Here  he  remained  as  long  as 
he  was  a  resident  of  Stockton.  Bradley  knew  his  business  extremely 
well  and  kept  his  apprentices  close  at  their  tasks.  In  1772  Ritson  wrote 
to  John  Cunningham,  the  poet:  "I  have  never  had  a  day  nor  the  offer 
of  a  day  (except  Sunday)  from  my  master  since  I  entered  his  office." 
Ralph  Hoar  and  John  Crathorne,  apprentices  to  Bradley  together  with 
Ritson,  both  remainisd  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  him  during  life.  Joseph 
applied  himself  with  considerable  diligence  and  evidently  proved  an 
apt  student.  Bradley  is  reported  to  have  ''described  young  Ritson's 
abilities  as  too  great  to  be  wasted  in  such  a  place  as  Stockton 'V^  and  it 
may  be  conjectured  that  it  was  at  his  master's  suggestion  that  he  decided 
to  settle  in  London. 

During  his  apprenticeship  the  duties  of  the  office  occupied  a  large 
portion  of  his  time,  but  he  undoubtedly  found  more  or  less  leisure  for 
non-professional  reading  according  to  his  own  fancy.  Early  visitors 
to  Stockton  report  that  Ritson,  ''like  most  young  men  of  taste  and  tal- 
ents ' ',  was  more  fond  of  reading  poetry  and  ancient  history,  than  law.^^ 
That  these  early  marked  the  chief  lines  of  his  interest  is  evident  from  the 
degree  of  familiarity  with  them  exhibited  in  his  first  publications.  His 
concern  with  poetry  w^as  deep  and  permanent  and  not  long  after  his  de- 
parture from  Stockton  almost  completely  overshadowed  the  interest  in 
other  antiquities  which  was  taking  root  in  these  years. 

i°The  name  is  mistakenly  given  "Bindley",  in  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  The  exact  dates 
of  these  changes  are  not  known.  Mrs.  Kirby  says  Ritson  was  apprenticed  to 
Bradley  upon  quitting  the  Latin  school,  and  remained  with  him  some  year  or  two. 
See  Appendix  A. 

i^Nicolas,  Op.  cit.  p.  iii. 

i^See  Holcroft's  Memoirs,  London,  1852,  p.  93. 


351]  EARLY  YEARS  17 

Conditions  in  northern  England  at  the  end  of  the  third  quarter  of 
the  eighteenth  century  were  peculiarly  fit  for  the  making  of  an  anti- 
quarian. Durham  and  the  surrounding  counties  were  rich  in  British 
and  Roman  antiquities.  Northumberland  was  widely  known  for  its 
pre-Roman  antiquities  of  various  sorts.  Within  Eitson's  reach  were 
Hadrian's  great  wall,  the  Devil's  Causeway,  the  London  road,  and  var- 
ious camps  and  cairns.  At  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  where  he  had  many 
friends,  were  the  ancient  church  and  university  buildings,  and  there,  in 
1771,  excavations  brought  to  light  the  river  bridge  constructed  by  the 
emperor  Hadrian.  In  the  county  seat  of  Durham,  where  Ritson  must 
have  gone  occasionally  on  professional  business,  was  the  magnificent 
cathedral  founded  in  1093,  by  William  de  Carilepho,  in  which  lay  the 
remains  of  St.  Cuthburt,  brought  thither  from  Lindisfarne,  and  of 
Venerable  Bede,  removed  from  Jarrow.^^  All  of  these  relics  of  antiquity 
served  to  interest  Ritson  in  the  ancient  history  of  his  own  county,  and 
he  early  collected  sufficient  material  to  make  him  of  valuable  assistance 
to  George  Allan  in  his  projected  History  of  Durham,  and  to  Richard 
Gougli  in  the  1780  edition  of  his  British  Topography. -°  His  early  letters 
from  London  are  replete  with  references  to  the  antiquities  of  Durham, 
and  he  never  through  life  lost  interest  in  them. 

Among  the  books  which  Ritson  read  at  Stockton  was  one  which 
influenced  the  whole  of  his  subsequent  life.  Mandeville's  Fahle  of  the 
Bees,  which  formed  the  basis  of  one  of  the  influential  schools  of  thought 
of  the  early  eighteenth  century,  was  the  direct  cause  of  his  forswearing 
animal  food  at  the  age  of  nineteen.  It  was,  moreover,  the  source  of  his 
inspiration  in  other  ways  of  which  he  was  not  aware,  and  which  his 
biographers  have  overlooked.  In  his  Essay  on  Abstinence  from  Animal 
Food  as  a  Moral  Duty,  published  in  1802,  he  recounts  the  circumstances 
in  the  following  words : 

"The  compiler  himself,  induced  to  serious  reflection,  by  the  perusal  of 
Mandeville's  'Fable  of  the  Bees',  in  the  year,  1772,  being  the  nineteenth  year  of  his 
age,  has  ever  since,  to  the  revisal  of  this  sheet,  firmly  adhered  to  a  milk  and 
vegetable  diet,  having,  at  least,  never  tasted,  during  the  whole  course  of  those 
thirty  years,  a  morsel  of  flesh,  fish,  or  fowl,  or  anything  to  his  knowledge  prepared 
in  or  with  those  substances  or  any  extract  thereof,  unless  on  one  occasion,  when 
tempted  by  wet,  cold  and  hunger,  in  the  south  of  Scotland,  he  ventured  to  eat  a 
few  potatoes  dressed  under  the  roast;  nothing  less  repugnant  to  his  feelings  to  be 
had ;  or  except  by  ignorance  or  imposition ;  unless  it  may  be  in  eating  eggs,  which, 
however,  deprives  no  animal  of  life,  though  it  may  prevent  some  from  coming  into 
the  world  to  be  murdered  and  devoured  by  others."-^ 

iMn  Account  of  Durham,  &c,  Durham,  1804. 

20Ritson's  antiquarian  services  are  more  fully  discussed  in  Chapter  III. 

-''■Abstinence  from  Animal  Food,  pp.  201-2. 


18  JOSEPH  RITSON  [352 

The  determination  at  so  early  an  age  to  forswear  animal  food,  and 
the  adhering  to  that  determination  in  the  face  of  thirty  years  of  good- 
natured  ridicule  by  his  friends  and  of  bitter  satire  by  his  enemies,  is 
highly  characteristic  of  the  man.  After  his  death  his  Pythagorean  diet 
was  pointed  to  as  proof  of  the  contention  that  he  had  always  been  half- 
mad,  or,  at  least,  that  the  germs  of  insanity  had  been  ever  present.  That 
there  was  a  connection  between  the  meager  diet,  the  ill-nourished  body, 
and  the  alienated  mind  cannot  be  doubted,  but  as  we  shall  have  occasion 
later^^  to  examine  the  nature  of  this  connection  somewhat  more  fully,  it 
may  be  dismissed  for  the  present.  One  thing,  however,  should  be  borne 
in  mind.  Far  from  being  a  mere  fad,  Eitson's  vegetarian  resolution  was 
founded  on  deep  and  honest  conviction  and  arose  from  a  refined  sense  of 
humanity.  There  is  no  trait  of  the  gentler  side  of  his  nature — the  com- 
paratively unknown  facet  of  his  character — that  is  more  uniformly 
expressed  throughout  his  correspondence  than  his  love  for  the  animal 
creation. 

In  1772  appeared  Eitson's  earliest  known  publication  and  the  only 
extant  literary  work  of  his  Stockton  years.  This  was  a  poem  of  98  lines 
contributed  to  the  Newcastle  Miscellany  under  the  caption  Versees  Ad- 
dressed to  the  Ladies  of  Stockton.-^  The  first  30  lines  of  this  youthful 
production,  in  the  nature  of  a  general  introduction  to  the  individual 
"addresses",  suggest  the  sentiment  of  the  Deserted  Village  and  point 
clearly  to  Eitson's  interest  in  the  romantic  history  of  the  North. 

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  w^ith  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  loj'al  sons  rencwn'd ; 

22See  Chapter  VIII. 

-^Reprinted  at  Stockton,  n.  d.,  and  again  as  an  Appendix  to  Haslewood's  Life 
of  Ritson,  etc.,  1824. 


353]  EARLY  YEARS  19 

Far  fame'd  for  dames,  wise,  charitable,  chaste. 

And  first  in  Beauty's  annals  ever  place'd. 

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. 

The  remainder  of  the  poem  consists  of  eleven  stanzas  extolling  the 
virtues  of  as  many  of  the  "Ladies",  each  designated  by  a  name  rich  in 
literary  associations :    Titania,  Olivia,  Daphne,  Chloe,  Phillis,  etc. 

This  youthful,  amatory  poem,  without  intrinsic  merit,  has  a  three- 
fold interest  to  the  student  of  Ritson's  life.  It  marks  the  beginning  of 
a  thirt}'  years'  connection  with  the  press.  It  exhibits  the  earliest  speci- 
men of  Eritson's  peculiar  orthography.  In  this  private  system  as  now 
employed  the  first  personal  pronoun  is  written  with  a  small  letter,  and 
words  formed  with  suffixes  are  invariably  given  their  full  form.-*  From 
a  letter  written  to  Isaac  Reed,  to  whom  he  presented  the  copy  for  the 
Versees  from  which  the  above  quotation  is  taken,  it  does  not  appear  that 
he  had  then  any  intention  of  employing  his  system  of  orthography 
further.  "I  beg  your  acceptance  of  the  enclosed",  he  writes,  "as  the 
only  specimen  of  my  system  of  spelling  that  ever  was,  or,  perhaps,  ever 
vtdll  be  printed."-^  But  the  promise  here  held  out  was  not  lived  up  to, 
for  Ritson's  volumes  were  marred  with  eccentricities  of  spelling  up  to 
the  very  last.-^ 

Finally,  the  Versees  suggests  a  question  as  to  the  extent  and  per- 
manence of  Ritson's  interest  in  the  writing  of  poetry.     Several  years 


-*Ci.  versees,  hobbleing,  gentlely,  wonderous,  riseing,  etc. 

-^August  29,  1782.  Quoted  from  Haselwood,  Some  Account  of  the  Life  and 
Publications  of  the  late  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq.,  London,  1824,  Appendix.  Haselwood  is 
"certain  that  the  orthography  of  Versees  was  not  adopted  by  him  so  early  as  the 
year  when  the  lines  were  first  printed",  p.  5,  note. 

-^Ritson's  orthography  is  more  fully  discussed  later.  See  especially  Chapters 
IV  and  VIII. 


20  JOSEPH  RITSON  [354 

afterward  he  wrote  a  long  versified  epistle  to  his  friend  Ralph  Hoar, 
in  which  appear  these  lines: 

This  many  a  year  I  have  not  made 

Two  lines  of  verse,  though  once  my  trade 

You  know  it  was — No,  you  can't  tell. 

But  I  can  yet  remember  well. 

When  care  was  to  my  youth  unknown, 

My  fancy  free,  my  hours  my  own, 

I  lov'd  i'  th'  laureat  grove  to  stray, 

The  path  was  pleasant,  prospect  gay; 

But  now  my  genius  sinks,  nor  knows 

To  make  a  couplet  tink  i'  th'  close.-'' 
It  may,  of  course,  be  questioned  whether  Ritson's  reference  to  poetry 
as  "once  my  trade"  means  any  more  than  that  as  a  youth  he  wrote 
frequent  exercises  in  verse  such  as  every  boy  interested  in  literature 
attempts  at  some  time  or  another.  Such  an  interpretation  lends  color 
to  Haslewood's  otherwise  unsubstantiated  remark  that  Ritson  "once 
intimated  a  claim  to  another  poetical  effusion"  that  appeared  in  the 
Newcastle  Miscellany.  But  if  Ritson's  statement  is  to  be  taken  literally, 
there  is  no  need  to  lament  the  fact  that  he  forsook  the  Muses  for  criti- 
cism and  antiquarianism.  Scholarship  gained  much  thereby  and  Poetry 
lost  nothing. 

Toward  the  close  of  1773  Ritson  made  an  archaeological  trip  to 
Edinburgh.  His  diary  records  the  fact  that  he  went  on  foot,  subsisted 
on  a  vegetable  diet,  and  suffered  the  hardships  incident  to  his  mode  of 
travel.  It  was  at  this  time  that  he  began  his  acquaintance  with  the 
Advocates'  Library,  where  he  spent  many  delightful  hours.  His  anti- 
quarian zeal  led  him  to  spend  so  much  money  for  ancient  Scottish  books-^ 
that  he  was  unable  to  pay  for  his  lodging  until  a  fellow  traveller  became 
so  mucli  interested  in  his  discussion  on  the  Battle  of  Flodden  Field  that 
he  paid  his  reckoning  for  him.  The  concluding  entry  from  the  diary 
of  this  tour  is  one  of  the  few  intimate  personal  remains  of  the  man. 

"Friday,  got  my  shoe  mended ;  set  off  at  eight,  and  after  walking  twelve 
hours,  most  of  it  in  a  heavy  rain,  arrived  safe  at  home,  after  an  absence  of  twelve 
days.  The  length  of  time  I  had  been  absent,  the  distance  of  my  journey,  and  the 
vicissitudes  of  weather  and  pocket,  the  change  of  lodgings,  and  the  many  hardships 


27"New  Year's  Day,  1787",  Letters,  I,  p.  123. 

28The  line  of  his  interest  is  indicated  by  the  following  books  which  he  pur- 
chased, among  others,  on  this  trip:  Robert  of  Pitscottie's  Chronicles  of  Scotland, 
1436-1565,  Edinburgh,  1738;  Thomas  Ruddiman's  Dissertation  Concerning  the 
competition  for  the  croivn  of  Scotland,  1748;  and  David  Moyses's  Memoirs  of  the 
Affairs  of  Scotland,  1577-1603,  Edinburgh,  1755. 


355]  EARLY  YEARS  21 

I  had  experienced  in  my  little  tonr,  all  contribute  to  make  the  time  of  my  arrival 
at  home  the  happiest  moment  of  my  life."-^ 

Not  the  least  important  factors  of  Ritson's  early  years  were  the 
friendships  formed  at  Stockton  with  men  of  literary  talents  and  anti- 
quarian tastes.  His  first  known  letter  was  written  to  John  Cunningham 
(1729-1773),  itinerant  actor  and  small  poet,  who  spent  his  dissolute  life 
witli  strolling  companies  in  the  north  of  Britain  and  wrote  occasional 
prologues,  a  farce  or  two,  and  some  pastoral  poems  of  slight  merit. 
Cunningham  met  Ritson,  then  a  young  legal  apprentice  with  literary 
aspirations,  and  immediately  fell  heir  to  his  homage.  They  corresponded 
infrequently  during  the  period  of  Cunningham's  voluntary  retirement 
to  Newcastle  where  he  was  waiting  "till  my  health  either  seems  to 
return,  or  totally  abandons  me".  The  following  letter  from  Ritson  sup- 
plements the  two  from  Cunningham  given  by  Nicolas. "° 

Montagu  d.  15,  fol.  219,  219b. 

Stockton,  Friday 

.   th    Augt.    1772 
Dear  Sir 

The  pleasure  I  received  from  your  agreeable  favor  was  a  little  damped  by 
your  treating  as  Flattery  tlie  most  sincere  Expressions  my  pen  could  commit 
to  paper. 

I  can  have  small  hopes  of  enjoying  the  least  share  in  your  Thoughts  when 
you  will  not  believe  me  if  I  speak  Truth.  But  I  had  rather  that  you  should  tell  me 
I  h^e  than  a  1000  others  I  could  name  should  commend  me  for  speaking  Truth. 

As  to  your  Expectations  of  seeing  Lanc.^i  and  me  at  Durham  in  the  Race 
Week.  I  am  sorry  they  had  so  bad  a  foundation.  The  pleasure  I  would  have 
received  from  seeing  you  would  have  abundantly  compensated  for  any  trouble 
I  might  have  been  at  in  the  Journey.  But  as  I  have  never  had  a  Day  nor  the 
Offer  of  a  Day  (except  Sunday)  from  my  Master  since  I  entered  his  office,  I 
never  could  have  expected  to  succeed  had  I  asked  him.  I  believe  Lane,  is  much  in 
the  same  Situation.  Yet  I  hope  (as  it  is  likely  we  shall  have  Races)  I  shall 
enjoy  that  pleasure  before  Christmas — &  if  you  are  not  inrolled  in  the  List  of  ye 
Racing  performers   I  have  a   little   Expectation  of   seeing  you  at  Whitby  then. 

I  am  exceedingly  glad  your  Benefit  at  Darlington  turned  out  to  your  Satis- 
faction. You  say  "you  have  often  Experienced  the  friendship  of  Darl.^^  as 
well  as   Stock.'^" — long  very  long  may  you  continue  to  enjoy  the  Friendship  of 

-^Nicolas,  Op.  cit.  p.  v.  Ritson  later  exhibited  a  decided  antipathy  to  Scotch- 
men, but  there  is  no  indication  that  it  was  "acquired"  on  this  journey,  as  Sir  Sidney 
Lee  states  in  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.    Cf.  Chapter  VIL 

3°pp.  viii-ix.  Cunningham's  letters  are  dated  respectively  June  19,  1772  and 
July  23,  1773.    Ritson's  letter  is  evidently  in  reply  to  the  first  of  these. 

"iProbably  a  fellow  apprentice,  Lancaster. 

3-Darlington. 

33Stockton. 


22  JOSEPH   RITSON  [356 

both.     Tho'  jMerit  is  seldom  rewarded  so  well  as  it  should  be — Yet  the  Place  must 
be  a  damn'd  stupid  one  indeed  to  let  it  be  neglected. 

We  have  had  the  "famous  and  unparalleled"  Mr.  Jonas  the  Jugler  here — his 
Visit  indeed  was  only  short  but  as  he  performs  his  Part  much  better  than  any 
other  Pretender  to  the  Art — the  Spectators  are  as  much  pleased  as  astonished. 

There  is  not  the  least  Necessity  for  the  Letters  you  honor  me  with  "to  be  left 
at  Mrs.  Barkers"."*  Directed  to  J.  Ritson  at  Ra :  Bradley's  Esqr  Stockton  they 
will  be  much  sooner  received  as  I  seldom  know  there  is  a  Letter  till  three  or 
four  Days  afterwards. 

My  imagination's  so  shallow,  it  is  the  most  vain  Undertaking  possible,  for 
me  to  pretend  corresponding  with  you.  Yet  if  my  stupid  Letters  have  only  the 
good  fortune  to  procure  one  in  return— I  am  happier  than  if  I  were  the  Author 
of  Mr.  Pope's  Literary  Correspondence. 

I  am 

Dear  Sir 

With  the  greatest  Respect 
Your  most  humble  Servant 
J.    Ritson   Jun 

Ritson 's  interest  in  Cunningham  continued  for  some  years.  At  the 
time  of  the  poet's  death  he  collected  a  great  many  newspaper  clippings 
concerning  him,  and  from  these  and  his  personal  knowledge  wrote  a 
short  biographical  sketch.^^  He  printed  several  of  Cunningham's  songs 
in  his  edition  of  English  Songs,^^  and  in  the  "Historical  Essa}^  on  Na- 
tional Song"  which  precedes  that  collection,  included  this  unbiased 
estimate  of  his  poetic  ability  :^^ 

"Cunningham,  though  not  equal  to  his  countryman  [Goldsmith]  in  native 
genius,  and  still  less  so  in  learned  application,  possesses  a  pleasing  simplicity  which 
cannot  fail  to  recommend  him  to  a  reader  of  unadulterated  taste.  This  simplicity 
may,  perhaps,  in  some  of  his  compositions,  be  thought  too  great;  but  when  it  is 
known  that  they  were  necessarily  adapted  to  the  intellects  of  a  country  theatre, 
little  censure  can  be  justly  incurred  by  the  poet." 

During  tiie  early  days  of  his  acquaintance  with  Cunningham,  Eitson 
met  William  Shield  (1748-1829),  the  famous  nuisical  composer  whom 
Cunningham  had  been  instrumental  in  placing  in  an  advantageous  posi- 
tion as  a  director.    Ritson  remained  on  terms  of  comparative  intimacy 

3*Ritson's  landlady. 

35The  "Life"  was  printed  by  Nicolas,  Op.  cit.  p.  vii,  note.  "Cunningham's 
Poems,  with  an  account  of  him  in  manuscript  by  Mr.  Ritson,  and  extracts  from 
Newspapers  respecting  him",  formed  Lot  808  of  the  sale  of  Ritson's  library. 

3M  Select  Collection  of  English  Songs,  3  vols,  1783.  References  are  to 
second  edition,  1813,  I,  pp.  230,  236;  II,  p.  165.  Another  song  is  included  in  The 
Northumberland  Garland,  etc.,  1795,  p.  69. 

^'^English  Songs,  I,  pp.  xc-xci.  See  also  Letters,  I,  p.  144,  and  Walker's  His- 
torical Memoirs  of  the  Irish  Bards,  1786,  p.  85. 


357]  EARLY  YEARS  23 

with  Shield  until  death.  He  seems  to  have  written  at  least  one  song 
which  Shield  set  to  music  and  to  have  contributed  others.^^  The  notation 
of  the  music  for  his  collections  of  English  and  Scotish  Songs  was  done 
largely  hy  his  friend.  Nor  did  he  hesitate  to  call  upon  Shield  to  supple- 
ment his  deficient  musical  knowledge  when  he  was  endeavoring  to  take 
down  ballads  from  oral  tradition. ^^  It  was  in  company  with  Shield  that 
Ritson  made  his  only  continental  tour,  a  visit  to  France  in  1791.*° 

Thomas  Holcroft  (1744-1809),  afterward  famous  for  his  liberal 
views  on  politics  and  religion,  was  a  third  member  of  the  strolling 
theatrical  companies  Avhose  acquaintance  Ritson  made  at  Stockton.  The 
exact  date  of  their  meeting  is  not  known."*^  It  may  have  been  on  one  of 
Ritson 's  visits  to  Durham  or  Newcastle,  or  when  Holcroft 's  company 
played  at  Stockton ;  and  it  is  highly  probable  that  Cunningham,  Shield, 
and  Holcroft,  on  one  of  their  companionable  pedestrian  expeditions  to 
the  outlying  towns,  called  upon  Ritson  in  a  body.  Later,  after  both 
Ritson  and  Holcroft  had  settled  in  Loudon  and  a  similarity  of  views  had 
drawn  them  together,  their  friendship  was  kept  fresh  by  frequent  inter- 
course.*- 

Two  other  early  acquaintances  of  Ritson  deserve  mention  because 
of  their  part  in  arousing  and  advancing  his  antiquarian  interests.  John 
Brewster  (1753-1842),  a  native  of  Newcastle,  was  officially  connected 
with  the  church  at  Stockton  from  1776  to  1805.  His  life-long  interest 
in  the  antiquities  of  Stockton  and  his  later  reliance  on  Ritson  for  assist- 
ance in  his  publications,*"  seem  to  point  to  an  acquaintance,  however 
cursory,  before  the  critic  left  Stockton.  But  it  was  to  George  Allan 
(1736-1800)  the  famous  antiquary  of  Darlington,  that  Ritson  was  most 
deeply  indebted  for  his  interest  in  the  local  antiquities  of  Stockton.** 
His  friendship  with  Allan  was  long  and  their  correspondence  extensive. 
"While  at  Stockton  he  laid  himself  under  obligations  to  Allan  for  material 
and  for  valuable  suggestions  for  his  work,  and  when  he  went  to  London 

s'^Nicolas,  Op.  cit.  p.  vi.  The  information  comes  from  some  notes  of  Ritson 
to  Shield,  then  in  the  possession  of  Joseph  Frank  but  never  published. 

^^Letters,  II,  p.  221. 

40See  Chapter  VIII. 

■*iAccording  to  his  Memoirs,  pp.  92-3,  Holcroft  must  have  met  Ritson  some- 
time between  the  spring  of  1776  and  the  fall  of  1777,  but  this  is  obviously  impossi- 
ble. At  the  time  of  their  meeting  Ritson  is  described  as  "a  young  legal  apprentice 
of  that  place  [Stockton]",  but  he  was  settled  in  London  by  the  beginning  of  1776, 
probably  late  in  1775.  They  must  then  have  met  before  Holcroft  joined  Bates's 
company  which  included  Stockton  in  its  1776-7  tour. 

*-For  a  discussion  of  their  later  connection  see  Chapter  VIII. 

43See  Chapter  VI. 

4^See  Chapter  III. 


24  JOSEPH   RITSON  [358 

it  was  chiefly  through  the  instrumentality  of  Allan  that  he  was  early 
afforLled  the  opportunity  of  carrying  on  his  literary  researches  there. 

The  exact  date  of  Ritson's  departure  for  London  is  not  known.  It 
has  been  variously  stated  that  he  left  Stockton  ' '  as  early  as  his  twentieth 
year",*^  "in  his  twenty-second  year",**'  and  that  he  "settled  in  London 
in  1775".*^  However,  it  is  evident  from  a  letter  written  from  Stockton, 
April  19,  1775,**  that  he  had  not  yet  left  his  native  town  and  at  that 
time  saw  no  prospect  of  getting  farther  than  its  immediate  neighborhood. 
In  an  unpublished  letter  of  John  McLaren  to  Barnslie  Toleman,  dated 
"Stockton,  Nov.  5,  1775",  "Mr.  Joseph  Ritson,  a  young  gentleman  of 
this  place",  is  commissioned  with  a  small  errand.*'-*  The  earliest  extant 
letter  written  from  London  is  under  date  of  August  26,  1776."'°  It 
appears,  then,  that  it  was  not  earlier  than  the  end  of  1775  or  the  begin- 
ning of  1776  that  Ritson  took  his  leave  of  Stockton.  In  all  likelihood  he 
walked  the  250  miles  to  London,  and  his  baggage  was  probably  light,  for 
we  are  told  that  he  "used  to  take  his  journeys  on  foot,  with  a  couple  of 
shirts  in  his  pocket,  and  if  he  found  his  bundle  too  heavy,  he  would, 
without  hesitation,  throw  one  of  his  shirts  away".^^  With  neither 
impedimenta  nor  family  connections  lie  arrived  in  the  city,  ostensibly  to 
seek  a  larger  field  for  the  exercise  of  his  legal  talents,  but  with  a  strong 
desire  to  explore  the  treasures  of  the  libraries  and  museums. 

^^Haslewood,  Op.  cit.  p.  4. 

^^Encyc.  Brit.,  art.  "Ritson". 

^^Nicolas,  Op.  cit.  p.  x. 

48Ritson  to  Allan,  Lit.  Anec,  VIII,  p.  350,  note. 

"^MS.  Douce  d.  i.    Bodleian. 

soRitson  to  Allan,  Letters,  I,  p.  i. 

^^Mrs.  Kirby's  comment,  cited  by  Selby.     See  Appendix  A. 


CHAPTER  II 
London  Life  ;  Business  and  Professional  Career 

Takes  clerkship  with  Masterman  and  Lloyd — Sets  up  for  himself  as  con- 
ve3'ancer — Engages  permanent  chambers  in  Gray's  Inn — Considers  return  to  Stock- 
ton— Accepts  crown  appointment  as  High  Bailiff — Becomes  law  student — Receives 
call  to  the  bar — Practises  in  chambers — Stands  for  Durham  circuit — Attitude 
toward  profession — Legal  publications :  Digest  of  the  Court  Leet,  Jurisdiction  of  the 
Court  Leet,  Office  of  Constable,  Observations  on  a  Deed,  Office  of  Bailiff,  Unpub- 
lished ]\ISS. — Manages  sister's  affairs — Directs  nephew's  career — Method  of 
handling  money — Misunderstanding  with  Rowntree — Trouble  with  property — Dis- 
astrous speculations — Business  creed  and  professional  ethics. 

Ritson  went  up  to  London  as  a  young  man  interested  in  the  law 
and  concerned  with  securing  an  opportunity  to  use  and  develop  his 
abilities  in  gaining  a  livelihood  and  obtaining  advancement  in  his  pro- 
fession. To  the  men  with  whom  he  was  most  intimately  associated  there, 
he  appeared  as  a  man  of  eccentric  habits,  with  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  his  branch  of  the  law,  with  the  usual  interest  in  business  and  politics, 
and  with  an  unusual  interest  in  literary  antiquities.  His  biographers 
have  discoursed  at  greater  or  less  length  on  his  literary  activities,  but 
they  have  said  next  to  nothing  about  the  other  interests  of  his  life.  He 
was  by  profession  a  conveyancer,  not  a  literary  antiquary ;  and  his  osten- 
sible business  was  with  charters  and  deeds,  not  with  ancient  poetry  and 
romances.  Although  he  came  to  consider  literary  interests  of  first  import- 
ance, his  pursuit  of  them  was  made  possible  only  by  careful  attention  to 
the  law. 

Very  soon  after  his  arrival  in  London  Ritson  was  engaged  as  clerk 
in  the  conveyancing  department  of  Masterman  and  Lloyd,  attorneys 
of  Gray's  Inn.  He  settled  in  chambers  with  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Robinson^  and  began  his  London  apprenticeship  of  nearly  five  years 
on  an  annual  salary  of  £150.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  this 
period  of  service  was  equally  satisfactory  to  himself  and  his  employers. 
By  studious  attention  to  duties  he  widened  his  knowledge  of  convey- 
ancing, secured  a  limited  personal  acquaintance  among  frequenters  of 
the  Inns  of  Court,  and  gained  the  confidence  which  enabled  him  to  open 

^The  similarity  of  names  suggests  the  question  of  whether  Robinson  of 
Stockton,  the  employer  of  his  father  and  mother,  had  anything  to  do  with  securing 
Ritson's   position   in   London. 

25 


26  JOSEPH  RITSON  [360 

an  office  of  his  own.  Masterman,  who  was  a  member  of  Parliament,  took 
an  especial  interest  in  him  and  aided  him  in  a  pecuniary  way  by  allow- 
ing him  the  use  of  chambers  at  reduced  rates,  furnishing  him  with  gov- 
ernment franks  for  his  correspondence,  and  loaning  him  small  sums  at 
need.  This  benevolence  continued  even  after  Eitson  had  left  his  first 
position,  and  he  always  referred  to  Masterman  with  expressions  of  grat- 
itude and  esteem.- 

After  a  service  of  more  than  four  years  with  Masterman  and  Lloyd, 
Kitson  determined  to  set  up  for  himself  as  a  Conveyancer,  or  Special 
Pleader.^  Late  in  1780  he  accordingly  removed  to  No.  8  Holborn  Court, 
Gray's  Inn,*  where  he  occupied  chambers  uninterruptedly  till  his  death. 
Having  severed  his  connection  with  his  old  masters,  Ritson  began  his 
professional  career  without  the  prestige  of  either  name  or  wealth.  He 
had  thoroughly  mastered  the  details  of  conveyancing,  but  his  acquaint- 
ance in  London  was  not  extensive  and  his  clients  were  necessarily  drawn 
from  a  limited  circle.  His  salary  no  longer  available,  he  was  thrown 
entirely  upon  his  own  resources  and  at  times  almost  despaired  of  being 
able  to  make  his  own  way  in  the  metropolis.  During  these  anxious 
months  when  every  day  was  a  drain  on  his  small  saving  and  brought 

^The  following  amusing  reference  to  Masterman  is  from  Ritson's  versified 
letter  to  Hoar   {Letters,  I,  p.  120)  : 

My  old  friend  Masterman  is  gone, 
And  now  the  chambers  are  my  own : 
Not   gratis — that  you   must  not   think, 
For,  though  I   did  not  down  the  chink, 
A  bargain   still   a   bargain   is, 
And  I  did  for  them  pay,  I  wis. 

He  left  me  nothing  but  a  ring, 

Nor  did  I  look   for  any  thing, 

Knowing    his    mind    not    that    way    tended : 

Though  some  are  mightily  offended ; 

And  I,  who  ow'd  a  hundred  pound, 

Could  wish  he  had  released  the  bond. 

3"When  I  am  a  little  more  settled  (having  left  Mr.  Lloyd,  and  begun  a  little 
drawing  business  for  myself)  .  .  .  ."  Ritson  to  Allan,  Nov.  24,  1790,  in  Lit. 
Anec.  VIII,  p.  133.  This  would  indicate  that  the  change  was  a  very  recent  one. 
There  is  nothing  to  bear  out  the  suggestion  of  Nicolas,  Op.  cit.,  p.  xvi,  that  Ritson 
set  up  for  himself  before  1780. 

^Holborn  Court  is  now  known  as  South  Square.  No.  8  has  been  rebuilt  and  is 
at  present  occupied  by  the  library  and  offices. 


361]  LONDON  LIFE  27 

little  in  the  way  of  income,  his  thoughts  reverted  to  Stockton,  and  he 
considered  the  advisability  of  returning  there  to  practise  where  he  was 
well  known.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  make  inquiries  of  his  friend 
Matthew  Wadeson,  who  seems  not  to  have  encouraged  his  coming  because 
the  conveyancing  business  was  well  taken  care  of  by  the  long-established 
office  of  one  John  Reed.  But  with  perseverance  and  conscientious  appli- 
cation his  period  of  probation  was  not  long.  Shortly  the  times  began  to 
mend  and  within  two  years  he  felt  that  his  prospects  in  London  were  so 
good  that  he  could  ill  afford  to  abandon  what  he  had  so  hardly  gained 
and  begin  anew  in  a  different  location.  When  Reed  died,  in  1782,  Wade- 
son immediately  wrote  to  Ritson  and  suggested  that  if  he  was  still 
desirous  of  settling  in  Stockton,  a  favorable  opportunity  now  offered. 
Ritson  advised  his  young  friend.  Jack  Rowntree,  a  former  apprentice  to 
Reed,  to  take  the  place,  and  wrote  to  Wadeson : 

"I  well  know  that  your  friendship  and  good  wishes  prompted  you  to  think 
of  me  and  my  former  inquiries.  But  times  and  circumstances  are  so  much  changed 
since  I  made  them,  that  it  is  impossible  for  me,  now,  to  think  of  altering  my  situa- 
tion, as  Rowntree  is  every  way  qualified  to  prevent  Mr.  Reed's  loss,  as  a  profes- 
sional man,  from  being  felt  by  his  clients  and  the  public :  and  I  doubt  not  that 
the  prospect,  which  is  certainly  most  flattering,  will  every  day  become  more  satis- 
factory and  interesting."^ 

This,  of  course,  does  not  mean  that  Ritson  had  become  suddenly 
rich,  or  even  that  he  was  beyond  the  pinch  of  poverty,  but  simply  that  he 
had  reached  the  point  where  he  could  securely  look  forward  to  an  increas- 
ing business  that  would  eventually  render  him  independent.  Aside 
from  pecuniary  considerations  there  was  another  factor  that  undoubtedly 
weighed  heavily  in  his  decision  to  remain  at  London.  By  this  time  he 
had  been  reading  for  half  a  decade  in  the  British  Museum  and  Bodleian 
Libraries  and  was  so  deeply  interested  in  antiquarian  research  that  only 
the  most  unfavorable  combination  of  circumstances  could  have  induced 
him  to  retire  into  the  country  where  he  would  have  no  opportunity  of 
continuing  this  study. 

After  two  years  more  of  struggle  for  recognition  and  a  competence, 
Ritson  achieved  the  goal  of  many  a  young  English  professional  man — 
an  office  under  the  crown.  Through  the  generous  exertions  of  his  friend 
and  former  employer,  Masterman,  he  was  on  May  1,  1784,  appointed 
High  Bailiff  of  the  Liberty  of  the  Savoy.  His  chief  concern  was  that 
the  appointment  should  be  made  permanent,  and  this  hope  was  fulfilled 
on  January  25,  1786,  when  he  was  granted  the  patent  of  the  office  for 

^Letters,  I,  p.  52. 


28  JOSEPH  RITSON  [362 

life.  This  place  he  hoped  would  bring  him  in  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  a  year,  but  he  seems  actually  to  have  realized  less  than  one 
hundred  pounds  from  it.**  Even  though  the  salary  did  not  prove  to  be 
what  he  had  expected,  the  position  afforded  a  new  lease  of  life  to  Eitson. 
Once  more  he  was  assured  of  a  definite  annual  income.  This  removed 
the  uncertainty  as  to  his  means  of  livelihood  and,  because  the  duties  of 
the  office  were  not  onerous,  afforded  him  an  opportunity  to  devote  more 
time  to  his  literary  studies,  then  grown  to  quite  considerable  proportions. 

Although  pleased  with  his  appointment  as  Bailiff,  Ritson  did  not 
exaggerate  its  importance  and  replied  to  the  felicitations  of  friends  that 
he  considered  it  "far  too  poor  a  subject  for  congratulation".  He  was, 
however,  seriously  impressed  with  the  responsibilities  of  the  office.  He 
soon  discovered  that  to  perform  its  duties  well  required  a  more  extensive 
legal  knowledge  than  he  possessed,  and  his  determination  to  do  thor- 
oughly everything  he  undertook  caused  him  to  resolve  to  be  called  to 
the  bar.  Accordingly  he  was  admitted  to  Gray's  Inn  as  a  student.  May 
6,  1784,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Easter  term.'^  Having  kept  the  usual 
term  of  five  years  as  a  student,  and  having  satisfied  the  requirements  of 
the  Benchers,  he  was  called  to  the  bar.  May  20,  1789.  He  must,  there- 
fore have  taken  the  customary  oaths  of  Allegiance  and  Supremacy,  in 
spite  of  their  seeming  conflict  with  the  anti-religious  views  which  he 
probably  held  then  and  unblushingly  proclaimed  later  in  life.^ 

Beyond  this  stage  Ritson  did  not  advance  in  his  profession.  He 
was  never  raised  to  the  degree  of  Bencher,  and  he  did  not  practise  in  open 
court.  His  failure  to  achieve  preferment  in  his  own  Inn  was  in  large 
measure  the  result  of  his  peculiar  notions  and  his  eccentric  habits  of 
life.  Persistence  in  the  vegetarian  diet  begun  at  Stockton,  an  extremely 
economical  mode  of  living,  both  as  to  food  and  dress,  and  an  increasing 
emphasis  on  revolutionary  ideas  in  politics  and  religion  served  to  mark 
him  off  from  his  fellows.  These  peculiarities,  coupled  with  increasing 
constitutional  ailments,  made  him  seclusive  and  uncommunicative.  Just 
as  he  avoided  his  playmates  at  school,  so  as  a  man  he  had  few  intimates. 
He  confessed  to  only  a  limited  acquaintance  among  the  law  firms  of 
London.^    The  Benchers  of  his  Inn  he  considered  "a  parcel  of  foo>s", 

^"I  possess  a  place  which  brings  me  in  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  a  year." 
Ibid.,  II,  p.43. 

'The  entry  in  the  records  of  Gray's  Inn  on  this  occasion  is :  "Joseph  Ritson, 
son  of  Joseph  R.  of  Stockton,  Durham,  gent."  The  only  other  time  Ritson's 
name  appears  in  the  records  is  where  it  occurs  once  in  the  formal  record  of 
a  lease. 

^See  Chapter  VIII  and  Appendices  A  and  B. 

^Letters,  I,  p.  160. 


363]  LONDON  LIFE  29 

and  he  scarcely  knew  the  men  who  lived  nearest  to  him.  Robert  Smith 
says : 

"Mr.  Ritson  lived  in  the  same  staircase  with  me  in  Gray's  Inn  for  many 
years,  and  the  common  civilities  of  the  day  passed  between  us,  but  nothing  more — 
we  never  visited."i° 

As  a  natural  corollary  to  these  traits  of  character,  Ritson  limited  his 
practice  as  Conveyancer  and  Consulting  Barrister  to  chambers.  As 
Barrister-at-law  he  had  the  privilege  of  practising  before  the  superior 
courts  of  the  land,  but  only  once,  and  that  five  years  after  his  admission 
to  the  bar,  is  he  known  to  have  appeared  in  court  wearing  his  profes- 
sional costume,  and  then  he  was  merely  a  spectator,  not  an  advocate. 
This  was  on  the  occasion  of  Home  Tooke's  trial  for  high  treason.  When 
Ritson  found  that  speculators  were  selling  seats  in  the  court  room  at  a 
guinea  each,  he  shyly  donned  his  wig  and  gown  and  secured  free 
entrance.^^ 

Two  other  factors  operated  to  retard  Ritson 's  advancement  in  the 
profession.  The  first  was  his  antagonism  to  the  government  in  all  mat- 
ters of  politics.  In  the  preface  to  a  little  volume  of  Tables  shewing  the 
Descent  of  the  Crown  of  England,  which  he  printed  privately  in  1778 
because  he  said  he  "never  dared  to  publish  it",  he  declared  himself  a 
Jacobite  and  set  forth  his  political  beliefs  in  extremely  vigorous  lan- 
guage.^- But  despite  his  decided  opinions  he  manifested  only  a  pass- 
ing interest  in  politics,  and  when  he  expressed  himself  it  was  usually  to 
condemn  the  government.  Periods  of  upheaval  and  popular  excitement 
stimulated  him  to  comment  but  not  to  action.  Of  the  popular  disturb- 
ances in  London  in  June,  1780,  he  was  an  interested  spectator  though 
in  no  way  a  participant.  His  ardent  expression  of  sympathy  with  the 
purposes  of  the  Protestant  Society  and  his  condemnation  of  the  "scoun- 
drel ministry"  foreshadow  the  revolutionary  ardor  which  later  fired 
him.^^  When  the  much  maligned  War  Ministry  resigned  in  1782,  Ritson 
referred  to  the  event  as, 

"the  dismission  of  those  miscreant  blockheads  who  formed  the  late  infamous 
administration,  some  of  whom  it  is  to  be  hoped  will  yet  hop  headless".^'* 

Aside  from  these  instances  there  is  no  hint  of  Ritson 's  interest  in  political 

"See  Appendix  A. 

'^^Letters,  II,  p.  57. 

i-Haslewood,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  8.  The  Descent  of  the  Crozvn  is  discussed  in  the 
following  chapter. 

^^LettcrSj  I,  pp.  13-17-  See  also  Robert  Bisset,  The  History  of  the  Reign  of 
George  III,  2nd  edition,  London,  1820,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  21  fif. 

^*Letters,  I,  p.  44. 


30  JOSEPH  RITSON  [364 

events  in  London  during  the  early  years  of  his  residence  there.  He 
seemed  to  be  much  more  concerned  with  legal  and  political  conditions 
in  the  region  of  Stockton  than  in  his  immediate  environs.  Coupled 
with  his  revolutionary  tendencies  this  endeavor  to  follow  closely  and 
even  to  help  direct  the  politics  of  the  North  while  he  practised  his  pro- 
fession in  London  was  sufficiently  distracting  to  prevent  high  success 
in  either  direction.  Not  only  did  he  take  a  keen  interest  and  occasionally 
a  personal  share  in  the  various  elections  at  Stockton,  but  on  one  occasion 
he  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  friends  to  stand  for  the  Durham  circuit. 
He  went  into  the  North  for  the  campaign  but  was  defeated  in  the  elec- 
tion and  professed  no  reluctance  at  losing  the  position. ^^ 

The  second  factor  was  his  increasing  interest  in  literature.  His 
■preference  for  the  study  of  poetical  antiquities  was  so  marked  that  he 
constantly  assumed  a  sneering  attitude  toward  the  law.  He  had  a  great 
contempt  for  the  profession  in  general  and  for  attorneys  in  particular. 
The  law  he  treated  as  a  mere  bread-and-butter  profession  and  feel- 
ingly expressed  his  desire  to  do  what  he  knew  was  impossible  under  the 
circumstances — to  relinquish  it  altogther.  His  crown  appointment  he 
spoke  of  as  ''that  little  dirty  place  in  the  Savoy",  and  yet  he  was  forced 
to  hold  on  to  it  as  the  only  assured  source  of  regular  income.  He  never 
lost  an  opportunity  to  swinge  the  attorneys,  and  his  remarks  run  the 
gamut  from  humorous  jibes  to  serious  charges  of  dishonesty.  With 
satiric  facetiousness  he  thus  congratulates  Rowntree  on  his  progress  in 
the  profession : 

"I  hear  with  pleasure  the  increase  of  your  business.  To  establish  yourself 
at  Stockton  you  have  nothing  to  do  but,  by  dint  of  evidence,  &c,  to  gain  a  desperate 
cause  or  two,  ruin  two  or  three  honest,  and  hang  two  or  three  innocent  men,  and 
your  fortune  is  made."^^ 

Again  he  writes : 

"Apropos ;  have  you  got  a  sufficient  number  of  credible  witnesses?  There 
are  a  few  devilish  good  hands  in  that  line  hereabouts,  which  I  fancy  you  might 
have  pretty  reasonable.  N.  B.  I  assure  you  I  have  no  interest  in  this  proposal 
myself,  as  I  belong  to  a  quite  different  gang."i^ 

To  his  nephew,  who  is  thinking  of  becoming  one,  he  describes  attor- 
neys as, 

"not  only  the  most  ignorant  and  capricious,  but  the  most  insincere,  unprin- 
cipled, and  in  every  respect,  worthless  of  men,"^* 

^^Ibid.,  I,  pp.  171,  197,  and  passim. 
^^Ibid.,  I,  p.  72. 
^Ubid.,  I,  p.  80. 
^mid.,  II,  p.  23. 


365]  LONDON  LIFE  31 

and  then  threatens  him  with  absolute  worthlessness  if  he  does  not  immed- 
iately study  to  be  an  attorney. 

There  may  be  a  measure  of  personal  animus  back  of  these  violent 
outbursts,  but  there  is  something  more.  They  are  the  genuine  expres- 
sion of  Eitson  's  sincere  beliefs.  Not  only  did  he  feel  that  atttorneys  were, 
as  a  class,  dishonest,  but  that  they  were  useless  parasites  upon  society. 
He  would  do  away  with  the  existing  need  for  them  by  going  back  to 
elemental  principles.  The  innocent  man,  he  declared,  needs  no  defense 
at  the  bar  of  justice;  the  guilty  man  deserves  none.  Ergo,  justice  will 
be  done  without  the  expense  of  attorneys.  However  absurd  such  a 
theorj^  may  appear,  it  was  nevertheless  sincere.  Eitson  exemplified  his 
beliefs  in  his  own  conduct.  He  never  willingly  allowed  himself  to  be 
referred  to  as  an  attorney,^^  but  considered  the  epithet  opprobrious. 
To  Eowntree  he  once  declared  vehemently,  "I  would  not  act  the  part  of 
attorney  for  you  nor  any  man."-°     On  another  occasion  he  wrote: 

"You  need  not  have  been  under  the  least  apprehension  of  my  addressing  you 
by  so  odious  a  title  as  Attorney-at-law  ....  You  are  just  beginning  to  value 
a  childish  distinction  which  I  have  learned  to  be  ashamed  of."-^ 

But  with  all  his  sneering  and  contemptuousness  Eitson  yet  had  a 
real,  though  perhaps  a  forced,  interest  in  the  law.  He  was  conscientious 
enough  to  endeavor  to  do  well  whatever  he  undertook,  whether  he  liked 
it  or  not.  Consequently  he  applied  himself  assiduously  to  the  study  of 
his  profession,  especially  during  his  early  years  in  London.  When  he 
received  the  appointment  as  High  Bailiff  of  the  Savoy,  he  redoubled  his 
energy  with  the  result  that  he  not  only  was  admitted  to  the  bar  but  also 
published  three  volumes  dealing  with  his  office.  The  natural  antiquarian 
tendency  of  his  interests  gave  an  unmistakable  character  both  to  the 
legal  compilations  which  he  published  and  to  the  manuscripts  which  he 
prepared  but  did  not  put  to  press. 

In  the  same  year  with  his  call  to  the  bar,  1789,  Eitson  brought  out 
the  first"  of  his  publications  on  subjects  connected  with  his  profession. 

i9Ritson  was,  strictly  speaking,  a  barrister,  not  an  attorney,  and  he  protested 
against  the  tendency  of  his  day  to  slur  over  the  distinction.  As  a  barrister  he 
limited  his  practice  to  conveyancing,  a  branch  of  the  law  which,  however  dry  and 
uninteresting  it  may  appear  to  the  average  individual,  is  exempt  from  the  criticisms 
which  he  levelled  against  attorneys. 

-^Letters,  I,  p.  80. 

-^Ibid.,  I,  p.  173. 

22In  the  list  of  Ritson's  works  in  S.  A.  Allibone's  Critical  Dictionary  of 
English  Literature,  etc.,  Philadelphia  and  London,  1908,  is  included  The  Lord  High 
Steward  of  England;  or  an  Historical  Dissertation  on  the  Origin,  Antiquity,  and 
Functions    of    that    Officer.    .    .    .    with   Remarks   on    the   antient   and    modern 


32  JOSEPH  RITSON  [366 

This  was  A  Digest  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Court  Leet  of  the  Manor 
and  Liberty  of  Savoy,  parcel  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  in  the  county 
of  Middlesex:  from  the  year  1682  to  the  present  time.  This  is  the 
first  of  two  publications  on  the  Court  Leet.  It  is  the  natural  product 
of  five  years  of  study  since  his  appointment  as  High  Bailiff  of  the  Savoy 
and  is  a  minute  record  of  the  thoroughness  with  which  he  delved  into  the 
antiquities  of  the  office.  His  interest  in  the  Court  Leet  is  otherwise 
symptomatic.  The  most  ancient  court  in  the  land,  originating  in  the 
early  feudal  days  and  for  ages  the  most  authoritative  court  of  record 
in  existence,  it  had  sunk,  by  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  to  the 
place  of  least  authority  and  was  ultimately  entirely  superseded  by  the 
modern  courts  of  the  justices.  Only  an  antiquarian  would  find  pleasure 
in  delving  into  the  ancient  records  of  an  institution  whose  glory  was 
already  faded  and  whose  usefulness  was  practically  negligible. 

In  1791  appeared  The  Jurisdiction  of  the  Court  Leet:  Exemplified 
in  the  Articles  which  the  Jury  or  Inquest  for  the  King,  In  that  Court, 
is  Charged  and  Sworn,  a7id  by  Laiv  Enjoined  to  Inquire  of  and  Present. 

Modes  of  trying  Peers.  .  .  .  To  zvJiicji  is  added,  A  Catalogue  of  the  High 
Stezvards  of  England.  .  .  .  London,  1776.  There  are  plausible  reasons  for 
concluding  this  to  be  the  work  of  Ritson.  The  volume  was  published  anonymously, 
as  were  most  of  Ritson's.  The  subject  is  one  in  which  Ritson  was  undoubtedly 
interested,  especially  after  his  appointment  as  High  Bailiff,  for  his  superior  officer 
was  the  High  Steward.  The  general  treatment  of  the  subject  is  comparable  to 
that  in  his  acknowledged  law  works,  consisting  of  a  compilation  of  extracts  from 
ancient  authorities  and  citations  from  the  statutes,  with  little  or  no  authorial 
comment.  But  the  following  considerations  seem  to  prove  conclusively  that  the 
work  is  not  Ritson's.    i.  The  "Historical  Dissertation"  begins  with  these  sentences : 

"Having  been  employed  for  some  time  past  in  an  historical  research,  relative 
to  some  of  our  Norman  Princes,  I  had  occasion  to  inform  myself  of  the  nature 
of  the  great  offices,  which  were  hereditary  from  the  time  of  William  the  First.  Of 
these,  the  four  principal  were  the  Steward,  the  Chamberlain,  the  Constable  and  the 
Mareschal,  of  England." 

The  High  Stezvard  was  published  in  1776,  Ritson's  first  year  in  Lon- 
don. There  is  no  evidence  that  he  was  interested  in  this  subject  while  in 
Stockton.  Of  the  "four  principal  offices"  mentioned  here,  Ritson  wrote  on  the 
Constable,  but  there  is  no  hint  in  that  volume  that  he  had  been  previously 
concerned  with  this  or  allied  subjects.  2.  The  writer  of  the  High  Stezvard  makes 
constant  use  of  the  first  personal  pronoun  singular.  This  is  all  but  totally  unknown 
in  Ritson's  publications.  In  the  law  books  he  refers  to  himself  as  "the  compiler", 
"the  writer",  or  "the  editor",  never  as  "I".  3.  The  High  Stezi'ard  was  not  included 
in  Lazv  Tracts,  1794,  a  volume  published  by  Ritson  with  his  name  on  the  title  page 
and  including  his  legal  publications  prior  to  that  date. 


367]  LONDON  LIFE  33 

Together  with  Approved  Precedents.-^  Although  this  was  his  second 
publication  dealing  with  the  Court  Leet,  it  did  not  by  any  means  exhaust 
the  material  he  had  gathered  on  that  subject.  His  original  purpose  and 
the  reasons  for  its  partial  fulfilment  are  explained  in  the  "Advertise- 
ment": 

"It  was  originally  intended  that  the  compiler's  publication  on  the  subject  here 
treated  of  should  have  comprised  all  that,  to  his  knowledge,  had  been  said,  or,  in 
his  judgment,  could  be  said,  upon  it.  Large  collections  were  made  for  the  purpose, 
and  the  work  partially  proceeded  in :  but  the  bulk  of  the  volume  and  the  scanty 
sale  it  was  likely  to  experience  effectually  discouraged  him  from  proceeding 
with  that  plan,  and  produced  the  Introduction  and  Analysis  now  presented  to  the 
public." 

The  "Introduction"  treats  of  the  name  of  the  court,  its  antiquity, 
nature,  and  present  state.  It  is  wholly  antiquarian  and  impersonal  and 
affords  a  minute  and  accurate  history  of  the  subject.  The  "Analysis" 
consists  of  thirteen  chapters,  fully  annotated,  on  the  historical  develop- 
ment of  the  officers  and  functions  of  the  court,  and  a  small  body  of  pre- 
cedents of  presentments  and  judgments  in  Leet.  The  work  was  received 
with  great  favor  among  the  profession  as  a  valuable  contribution  to  the 
study  of  legal  antiquities.-* 

Ritson's  third  legal  publication,  and  the  second  to  appear  in  1791, 
was  The  Office  of  Constable:  being  an  entirely  New  Compendium  of  the 
Law  concerning  that  Ancient  Minister  for  the  conservation  of  the  peace. 
Care f idly  compiled  from  the  best  authorities.  With  a  Preface;  and  an 
Introduction,  containing  some  account  of  the  origin  and  antiquity  of  the 
office.-^  It  was  prompted  by  "a  sincere  wish  to  benefit  the  community, 
by  furnishing  its  most  ancient,  most  constitutional,  and  most  useful 
officer  with  a  compendious  system  or  manual  of  his  duty  or  powers".-^ 
This  work,  like  the  preceding  volumes,  is  a  "mere  epitome  of  the  original 
compilation",  for  a  pamphlet  of  fifty  pages,  at  a  moderate  price,  seemed 
more  likely  to  be  purchased  by  the  constables,  whom  it  was  designed  to 
benefit,  and  understood  when  read  than  a  more  expensive  and  less  concise 
volume. 

23A  second  edition  "with  great  additions"  was  published  from  Ritson's  an- 
notated manuscript  (Lot  978  of  his  library  sale)   in  1809,  and  a  third  in  1816. 

24See  Athenaeum,  Vol.  V,  p.  150. 

25The  second  edition,  enlarged  from  Ritson's  manuscript  (Lot  9/6  of  his 
library  sale),  was  published  in  1815.  In  1794  these  three  volumes  {Proceedings 
of  the  Court  Leet,  Jurisdiction  of  the  Court  Leet,  Office  of  Constable)  were 
reprinted  as  one,  with  the  title,  Law  Tracts,  by  Joseph  Ritson,  of  Gray's  Inn, 
Barrister. 

^^ Office  of  Constable,  Preface,  p.  iii. 


34  JOSEPH  RITSON  [368 

In  the  Preface  Ritson  takes  up  the  cudgels  in  defense  of  the  con- 
stable and  in  opposition  to  the  lawmakers.  With  the  vigorous  denuncia- 
tion and  the  sarcastic  ridicule  which  brought  him  notoriety  as  a  literary 
critic  and  antagonist  he  protests  against  the  continuous  making  of  new 
laws  without  purging  the  statutes  of  those  which  are  obsolete  and  use- 
less. There  are  many  laws  on  the  statute  books,  he  declares,  which  are 
not,  and  many  more  which  ought  not  to  be,  in  force.    In  fact, 

"every  little  dirty  parish  in  the  environs  of  London  must  have  a  law  for 
itself.  The  churchwardens  can  provide  the  money,  the  attorney  wants  a  job,  the 
justice  looks  forward  to  the  penalties,  and  the  'gemmen  of  the  westry'  like 
authority :  an  act  of  parliament  is  accordingly  obtained  and  being  an  admirable 
compound  of  ignorance  and  knavery,  cannot  fail  of  proving  exceedingly  beneficial 
to  the  community."-" 

The  result  is  that  the  officers  of  the  law,  especially  the  constables,  are 
ignorant  of  their  powers  and  duties.  It  was  Blackstone's  opinion  that, 
considering  the  type  of  men  who  were  elected  constables,  they  ought  to 
be  kept  in  ignorance  of  their  powers.  To  this  view  Ritson  takes  violent 
exception.  He  draws  upon  Shakespeare  for  a  satire  on  the  typical 
English  constable-^  and  then  proposes  a  number  of  radical  reforms  which 
he  has  the  perspicuity  to  see  are  too  constructive  and  progressive  to  be 
adopted. 

The  Introduction  and  body  of  the  work  are  of  the  same  type  as  the 
volumes  on  the  Court  Leet,  except  that  here  Ritson  occasionally  ventures 
far  enough  away  from  his  sources  to  give  a  personal  observation  in  a 
footnote.  Like  its  predecessors,  this  pamphlet  is  a  useful,  and  certainly 
a  learned  and  accurate  compilation. 

The  three  volumes  already  considered  were  the  only  legal  publica- 
tions to  appear  during  Ritson 's  life.  Yet  they  comprise  only  a  small 
part  of  the  material  actually  collected  and  arranged  as  a  result  of  his 
professional  interests.  At  least  eight  manuscripts  were  left  in  varying 
degrees  of  preparation  and  but  two  of  these  were  published  posthum- 
ously. Before  his  death  Ritson  had  revised  for  publication  the  manu- 
script of  Practical  Points,  or,  Maxims  in  Conveyancing,  by  his  old  mas- 
ter, Ralph  Bradley.  When  this  volume  was  published  in  1804,  Ritson 's 
thirty-four  page  pamphlet.  Critical  Observations  on  the  Various  and 
Essential  Parts  of  a  Deed,  was  appended  to  it.  In  this  little  work  the 
deed  is  taken  up  clause  by  clause  and  elucidated.  In  1811  Joseph  Frank 
published  Ritson 's  Office  of  a  Bailiff  of  a  Liberty,  which  he  says  was 

~~Ibid.,  p.  vi.  Ritson  is  here  only  voicing  a  protest  which  had  been  made  in 
England  for  many  generations.     See  his  footnotes. 

28Cf.  Elbow  in  Measure  for  Measiire,  Dull  in  Love's  Labors  Lost,  and  Dog- 
berry in  Much  Ado. 


369]  LONDON  LIFE  35 

compiled  about  the  same  period  as  the  three  tracts  published  during  the 
author's  lifetime,  and  which  it  very  closely  resembles  in  manner. 

In  addition  to  these  five  published  volumes  there  were  six  manu- 
script collections  of  a  legal  nature.-^  It  is  almost  certain  that  the  chief 
labor  on  all  these  compilations  was  done  before  1795,  for  ill  health  and 
an  absorbing  interest  in  literary  affairs  took  the  major  portion  of  his 
time  and  attention  after  that  date.  When  it  is  remembered  that  by  1795, 
in  addition  to  the  dozen  legal  works,  he  had  actually  published  twenty- 
six  volumes  and  fragments  of  three  others  (to  say  nothing  of  j)rojects 
in  hand),  the  mere  bulk  of  work  accomplished  is  astonishing.  But  more 
important  than  this  is  the  thoroughness  and  accuracy  with  which  all 
the  work  was  done.  Although  Ritson's  distaste  for  the  law  as  a  pro- 
fession must  have  made  part  of  the  labor  of  compiling  his  legal  publica- 
tions mere  task  work,  yet  the  fact  that  they  are  all  antiquarian  in  nature 
and  involve  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  the  type  of  work  in  which  he  took 
greatest  interest  in  the  realm  of  poetry  is  sufficient  evidence  that  he  did 
not  get  far  afield  from  his  vital  interests. 

Such  is  the  bare  skeleton  of  Ritson's  professional  career — his  office, 
his  attitude  toward  the  law,  his  legal  publications.  But  very  little  of  the 
intimate  personal  character  of  the  man  is  revealed  in  these.  That  phase 
of  his  character  is  to  be  seen  in  both  the  general  and  specific  conduct 
of  business  affairs.  It  is  most  intimately  and  most  favorably  exhibited 
in  the  care  and  attention  bestowed  upon  his  sister  and  nephew.  It 
shows  to  less  advantage  in  his  pecuniary  transactions  with  various  friends 
and  in  the  misunderstandings  and  disagreements  which  not  infrequently 
arose  therefrom.  It  is  again  seen  to  disadvantage  in  the  disastrous 
maladministration  of  his  own  property.  And  the  unfortunate  disparity 
between  theory  and  practise,  between  ideal  and  accomplishment,  is  clear 
from  a  knowledge  of  his  business  creed  and  professional  ethics. 

Upon  the  death  of  his  parents  Ritson  generously  assumed  the  man- 
agement of  his  sister's  affairs.  He  had  little  inclination  for  the  details 
of  business  and  was  quite  frank  in  acknowledging  his  weakness  in  this 
direction. ■•°  There  were  certain  general  principles  of  conduct  by  which 
he  was  guided  in  all  matters,  but  he  lacked  the  tact  to  adapt  them  to 
Tarious  specific  cases.     As  a  consequence  he   contented   himself  with 

=«Xos.  1-6,  Appendix  C,  II. 

'•"Ritson's  letters  contain  frequent  mention  of  his  business  incompetence : 
'However  as  you  are  a  much  better  judge  of  these  things  [the  value  of  a 
house]  than  I  can  pretend  to  be,  I  shall  readily  submit  to  your  opinion" ;  ".  .  .  It 
would  be  best  to  let  the  house,  till  at  least  as  great  a  fool  as  myself  wants  to  buy 
one" ;  "I  wish  you,  who  can  manage  everything  of  the  nature  of  business,  by 
familiar  methods  to  which  I  am  a  total  stranger,  would    .    .    .    .";  etc. 


36  JOSEPH  RITSON  [370 

knowing  that  his  sister  was  supplied  with  all  the  necessaries  for  an 
economical  but  comfortable  existence  and  left  the  details  to  Matthew 
Wadeson,  a  resident  of  Stockton,  in  whose  business  sagacity  he  had 
great  confidence.  In  this  indirect  manner  his  sister's  affairs  were 
undoubtedly  more  skilfully  conducted  than  if  he  had  attempted  to 
manage  them  entirely  alone. 

Ritson's  London  business  life  is  bound  up  closely  with  the  life  of 
his  nephew,  Joseph  Frank,  and  is  intimately  revealed  through  letters 
to  him.  He  undertook  the  entire  expense  of  Frank's  education,  cared 
for  him  when  he  came  to  London  to  enter  business,  and  followed  his 
subsequent  career  with  loving  interest,  being  his  adviser  in  every  impor- 
tant step  of  life.  We  have  already  seen  how  he  sent  him  books  and 
materials  for  his  Latin  school  days.  He  was  so  accustomed  to  sending 
useful  presents  that  he  felt  it  necessary  to  apologize  when  an  occasion 
passed  without  its  gift.    Early  in  January,  1782,  he  writes : 

"I  am  only  poor  at  present,  or  I  would  have  sent  you  a  New  Year's  gift :  but 
if  you  will  grow  wiser  and  better  behaved  than  j'ou  were  when  I  left  you,  I  won't 
forget  you  on  the  approach  of  better  times. "^^ 

Better  times  were  slow  in  coming,  and  often  in  the  struggle  against 
poverty  and  in  the  business  competition  of  the  great  city  Ritson  reflected 
on  the  wisdom  of  his  change  from  Stockton  to  London  and  regretted  the 
lack  of  experienced  counsel  in  his  youth.  As  a  consequence  he  sought 
constantly  to  give  his  nephew  the  advice  which  he  knew  from  experience 
would  be  helpful  to  a  young  man  in  his  situation.  At  an  early  age  both 
Frank  and  his  mother  became  anxious  for  him  to  "get  into  business" 
and  importuned  Ritson's  aid  in  placing  him  advantageously.  Feeling 
that  it  would  be  unwise  for  the  lad  to  curtail  his  education  in  order  to 
enter  professional  life,  Ritson  wrote  to  his  sister : 

"I  think  Joe  had  better  go  to  school  another  year,  and  we  shall  then  determine 
what  to  make  of  him.  He  will  be  only  fifteen,  and  you  know  I  was  much  more 
before  I  went  to  business."^- 

He  gave  the  same  counsel  to  his  nephew : 

"I  must  beg  leave  to  say  ....  that  it  will  be  much  better  for  you  to 
mind  your  book,  than  to  come  to  London.  You  will  see  it  soon  enough  in  all 
likelyhood  though  you  will  have  little  reason  to  lament  if  you  never  see  it  at  all."^^ 

But  they  were  insistent,  and  in  the  winter,  more  to  relieve  the  anxiety 
of  the  mother  than  to  satisfy  the  boy's  whim,  Ritson  promised  to  take 

^'^Letters,  I,  p.  40. 
32/fcid.,  I,  p.  90. 

33/fcld.,    I.    p.    91. 


371]  LONDON  LIFE  37 

Frank  to  London  the  next  summer  to  live  with  him  and  study  for  his 
profession.  Something  of  Ritson's  habits  of  life  may  be  gleaned  from  his 
advice  to  his  nephew  to  spend  the  last  days  at  home  in  learning  to  cook, 
sew  on  buttons,  and  mend  stockings.  The  only  explanation  he  offered 
the  astonished  youth  was  this : 

"You  will  think,  perhaps,  that  such  a  lesson  would  be  more  fit  for  one  who 
was  coming  into  a  Cook's  shop,  than  a  Conveyancer's  chambers — but  when  you  have 
been  here  a  year  or  two  you  will  probably  be  of  a  different  opinion."^* 

In  the  summer  of  1785  Frank  went  into  chambers  with  his  uncle 
in  order  to  learn  conveyancing  and  at  the  same  time  be  under  the 
immediate  care  of  his  guardian.  After  a  period  of  five  years  or  more 
he  returned  to  the  vicinity  of  Stockton  to  enter  upon  business  for  him- 
self. It  was  at  this  time  that,  like  Eitson  before  him,  he  felt  the  need 
of  further  legal  training,  and  asked  his  uncle's  advice  on  the  question 
of  studying  for  the  bar.  Ritson's  reply  is  curious.  There  is  something  in 
it  of  the  eccentricity  which  marked  his  views  on  politics,  religion,  and 
literature.  He  sneers  at  his  office,  berates  and  maligns  attorneys,  and 
at  the  same  time  vigorously  urges  his  nephew  to  become  an  attorney  and 
perhaps  seek  an  office  like  his  own.    He  writes : 

"Wolley's  reflection  on  your  proposal  of  drawing  imder  the  bar  is  certainly 
just:  'I  have  experience  of  it  myself:  and  can  assure  you  that  if  it  had  not  been 
for  that  little  dirty  place  in  the  Savoy,  I  should  most  probably  at  this  moment 
have  been  either  in  a  jail,  an  attorney's  office,  or  stationer's  shop :  and  it  would  be 
hard  to  say  which  of  these  situations  is  the  worst.  Five  years  are  nothing  in  com- 
petition with  the  prospect  you  will  have  of  establishing  yourself  in  a  useful  and 
lucrative  business  at  the  end  of  the  term :  whereas  you  might  be  drudging  whether 
under  or  above  the  bar  for  ten  times  that  long,  without  a  hope  of  ever  being  worth 
a  farthing.  ...  In  a  word  you  had  much  better  hang  yourself  at  once  than 
begin  to  draw  under  the  bar.  If  you  do  not  immediately  accept  Wolley's  offer 
[to  study  for  the  bar]  you  may  resign  yourself  to  everlasting  damnation,  as  there 
will  not  be  a  chance  left  for  your  doing  well."^^ 

Ritson  believed  in  and  insisted  upon  thorough  preparation  for  every 
task.  This  was  one  of  the  constantly  recurring  points  in  his  literary 
criticism,  and  he  placed  equal  emphasis  upon  it  in  business.  When 
Frank  determined  to  follow  the  advice  of  his  friends,  he  did  not  wish 
to  spend  the  full  five  years  in  terms;  so  he  submitted  to  his  uncle  his 
plans  for  "saving  two  years".  Ritson,  satisfied  that  there  was  no  royal 
road  to  the  bar,  addressed  him  thus : 

"The  ingenious  expedient  by  which  you  intend  to  save  two  years  is  perfectly 

^*Ibid.,  I,  p.  104. 
^'"Ibid.,  II,  p.  22. 


38  JOSEPH  RITSON  [372 

well  calculated  to  lose  fiv^e.  In  a  word,  your  time  would  be  thrown  away,  and 
yourself  (most  probably)  put  in  the  pillory.  Nothing  will  do  short  of  actual 
service  for  five  complete  years  under  articles.""^ 

Even  after  Frank  had  entered  upon  his  service  with  Wolley,  Ritson 
kept  a  watchful  eye  on  him.  The  young  man  had  interests  of  his  own 
aside  from  legal  study,  and  spent  much  time  and  thought  on  them. 
Ritson  had  no  respect  for  the  man  who  used  his  employer's  time  to 
further  his  own  private  ends,  however  laudable  they  might  be  in  them- 
selves. Just  as  he  had  no  sympathy  with  sinecurism  in  any  form,  so 
was  he  outspoken  against  the  individual  who  would  not  gain  a  livelihood 
by  honest  labor.  There  were  two  points  upon  which  he  placed  great 
emphasis  and  which  he  constantly  reiterated  to  Frank :  give  your  employ- 
ers full  satisfaction ;  acquire  a  competency.  In  •  the  following  extract 
they  are  expressed  with  characteristic  precision : 

"After  all,  I  would  recommend  it  to  you,  as  a  friend,  to  lay  your  politics  and 
philosophy  upon  the  shelf,  for  a  few  years  at  least;  their  temporary  absence  will 
do  you  no  harm,  and  their  perpetual  presence  can  do  you  no  good.  Your  first 
and  principal  (if  not  sole)  object  should  be,  by  a  sedulous  and  unremitting  atten- 
tion to  business,  to  do  justice  to  your  employers  and  acquire  the  means  of  an 
honest  independency."^^ 

Ritson  was  very  anxious  that  Frank  should  avoid  the  pitfalls  into 
which  he  himself  had  unwittingly  stumbled.  He  frequently  confessed 
his  own  faults  in  order  the  better  to  impress  his  advice  upon  his  nephew. 
He  realized  that  he  was  eccentric,  that  his  peculiarities  of  diet,  of  belief, 
of  manner,  hindered  his  progress.  But  Mobile  he  recognized  the  handicap 
under  which  his  eccentricities  placed  him,  he  seemed  utterly  impotent 
to  escape  from  it.  There  is  remarkable  self -revelation  in  this  admon- 
ition : 

"You  must  be  content,  for  the  present,  to  lay  most  of  your  peculiarities  upon 
the  shelf :  you  make  a  g  like  a  p  which  is  abominable.  Avoid  as  much  as  possible 
all  appearance  of  singularity  or  affectation,  and  while  you  are  a  man  of  business 
endeavor  to  be  nothing  else :  1  have  learned  the  value  of  this  piece  of  advice 
by  dear-bought  experience ;  and  experience  generally  both  costs  too  much  and 
comes  too  late  to  be  of  service  to  the  purchaser. "^^ 

With  Frank  and  with  other  friends,  especially  Rowntree  and  Wade- 
son,  Ritson  frequently  exchanged  opinions  on  matters  of  professional 
interest.  Being  in  London  he  was  often  asked  by  his  provincial  corre- 
spondents to  look  up  references  or  to  cite  the  law  in  cases  in  which  they 

s6/&irf.,  II,  p.  25. 
^Tlbid.,  II,  p.  40. 
38/&irf.,  II,  p.  167. 


373]  LONDON  LIFE  39 

were  interested.  These  errands  he  was  always  willing  to  do,  but  his 
liberality  was  imposed  upon,  and  he  was  often  asked  to  perform  for 
nothing  services  for  which  his  friends  were  paid  when  the  results  of  his 
labors  were  given  to  their  clients.  Ritsou  himself  never  hesitated  to  ask 
for  assistance  in  his  various  undertakings,  but  he  always  offered  and 
expected  to  pay  for  it,  either  in  cash  or  in  kind.  While  he  seldom  dis- 
played sufficient  resoluteness  of  spirit  to  refuse  a  favor  to  a  friend,  he 
occasionally  remonstrated  against  unfair  requests.  Rowntree  was  the 
most  frequent  object  of  his  sarcasm.    At  one  time  he  wrote: 

"I  shall  make  you  the  usual  charge  for  the  deeds  and  surrender,  as  I  take  your 
client  to  be  like  yourself — a  very  honest  man — who  could  not  wish  that  any  person 
should  give  up  his  time  and  trouble  for  nothing.  That  is  not  your  plan,  Master? 
No,  no.  You'll  take  care  to  do  very  well  for  yourself,  I  dare  say,  whatever  you 
do  for  your  clients."^^ 

Ritson's  utter  lack  of  business  ability  is  shown  in  his  woeful  incon- 
sistency in  pecuniary  transactions.  In  handling  another's  money  he  was 
scrupulously  exact  and  careful  in  the  smallest  detail.  Even  though  his 
record  of  accounts  was  purely  mental,  he  paid  to  it  that  attention 
requisite  to  insure  full  justice  to  his  client,  and  if  he  erred,  it  was  always 
on  the  side  of  generosity.  Besides  controlling  his  nephew's  annuity,  he 
frequently  had  the  task  of  administering  book  funds  for  his  friends. 
However  incompetent  he  may  have  been  in  other  business  transactions, 
he  knew  the  value  of  an  ancient  volume  and  prided  himself  on  his  ability 
to  drive  a  bargain  with  the  booksellers. 

But  when  the  money  was  his  own,  Ritson  was  careless  to  the  point  of 
indifference  and  generous  to  the  point  of  recklessness.  If  there  was  a 
purchase  to  be  made,  he  did  not  know  how  much  should  be  paid;  if  he 
had  something  to  sell,  he  depended  upon  the  judgment  of  friends  as  to 
its  value.  This  placed  him  at  the  mercy  of  less  scrupulous  men,  who  not 
infrequently  took  advantage  of  him  in  business  transactions.  Though  he 
occasionally  realized  that  he  was  being  cheated,  he  seldom  did  more 
than  enter  some  such  mild  protest  as  this : 

"It  ran  in  my  mind  that  I  was  to  pay  you  forty  pounds  for  the  whole  kitty: 
if,  however,  as  I  collect  from  your  letter,  the  sum  was  ten  pounds  more,  I  can  only 
say  that  I  have  brewed  a  pretty  kettle  of  fish,  and  brought  my  hogs  to  a  fair 
market.  As  writing  seems  to  be  attended  with  some  difficulty  if  not  uneasiness, 
j^ou  have  only  to  put  down  a  figure  of  4  or  5  before  a  cypher  to  satisfy  me  of 
the  verity  of  the  matter :  a  nod,  you  know,  is  as  good  as  a  wink  to  a  blind 
Iiorse."*° 

"^Ibid.,  I,  p.  114. 
"o/feiU,  II,  p.  ID. 


40  JOSEPH  RITSON  [374 

The  difficulty  was  that  Ritson  paid  too  much  attention  to  what  he 
owed  others,  and  others  too  little  attention  to  what  they  owed  him.  And 
because  he  knew  more  about  his  debts  to  others  than  their  obligations  to 
him,  he  never  possessed  a  clear  notion  of  his  pecuniary  status.  He  was 
continually  calling  upon  his  friends  for  statements  of  account  that  he 
might  know  where  he  stood.  In  1794  he  sent  this  pathetic  appeal  to 
Wadeson : 

"I  am  not  poorer  than  I  used  to  be,  but  my  money,  as  they  say,  is  neither 
here  nor  there.  Besides,  I  want  to  put  my  little  affairs  in  order  that  I  may  live, 
if  I  am  to  live,  or  at  least  die,  in  comfort. "*i 

He  frequently  resolved  to  be  systematic  in  his  business  affairs,  but  the 
resolve  never  became  more  than  a  good  intention.    He  wrote  to  Rowntree : 

"I  mean  in  future  to  pay  more  attention  to  the  arrangement  of  my  pecuniary 
matters  than  I  have  hitherto  done.  With  half  your  economy  I  might  at  this 
moment  have  had  a  thousand  pounds  in  the  funds."*- 

Such  loose  methods  led  inevitably  to  difficulties,  and  he  quarreled  over 
money  matters  with  old  friends,  with  publishers,  and  with  booksellers. 
Money  was  a  very  inconstant  factor  in  Ritson 's  life.  Aside  from  his 
small  salary,  he  had  as  income  only  the  proceeds  from  a  limited  busi- 
ness and  the  occasional  small  royalty  from  a  book.  His  living  expenses 
were  almost  negligible,  but  he  spent  large  sums  for  books  for  his  library, 
laid  out  considerable  amounts  in  printing  his  own  volumes,  made  clan- 
destine "loans"  to  needly  relatives,*^  and  obliged  impecunious  friends 
until  he  was  almost  constantly  in  want.  When  he  had  money  he  loaned 
it  to  any  one  who  asked  for  it,  and  expected,  in  his  turn,  to  be  able  to 
borrow  as  easily  when  in  need.  That  his  creditors  failed  to  meet  their 
obligations  and  that  his  friends  occasionally  refused  to  respond  to  his 
appeals  were  matters  of  surprise  to  no  one  but  himself.  The  greater 
caution  exercised  by  others  he  sometimes  misconstrued  as  antagonism 
to  his  interests.  He  was  almost  constantly  in  a  state  of  ill  health  and 
used  to  plead  his  bodily  infirmities  as  an  excuse  for  his  business  laxity. 
Nevertheless  he  was  frequently  involved  in  disagreeable  altercations  with 
his  most  intimate  friends,  some  of  which  led  to  serious  results.  The  out- 
standing example  is  his  misunderstanding  with  Rowntree,  a  life-long 
friend  with  whom  he  had  borrowed  and  loaned  promiscuously  for  many 
years  and  to  whom  he  once  said : 

"My  good  sir,  I  have  hitherto  had  no  account  to  keep  with  you  and  whether 

*^Ibid.,  II,  p.  6i. 
*-Ibid.,  I,  p.  157. 
*^Ibid.,  II,  p.  244. 


375]  LONDON  LIFE  41 

I  keep  one  or  not — that  is  a  subject  upon  which  I  dare  venture  to  say  no  dispute 
will  ever  happen  between  you  and  me."^* 

But  the  dispute  came  and  with  it  the  disruption  of  a  long  friendship  and 
the  almost  total  severance  of  close  connections  with  Stockton. 

Early  in  1791  Ritson  asked  Rowntree  for  the  loan  of  one  hundred 
pounds,  and  receiving  no  answer  construed  the  silence  as  a  dislike  on 
his  friend's  part  to  accommodate  him.  When  Rowntree  explained  his 
failure  to  reply  as  due  to  other  causes,  Ritson  apologized  for  the  false 
interpretation  he  had  given  it.    His  apprehensions  he  describes  as, 

"false  appearances  which  a  gloomy  fretfulness  in  my  disposition  magnified 
into  clouds  that  threatened  the  sun  of  your  friendship  with  utter  darkness,  though 
the  sky  being  now  cleared,  I  find  it  to  burn  as  bright  as  ever."*^ 

But  this  did  not  satisfy  Rowntree,  who  played  the  role  of  "injured 
innocence"  and  represented  himself  as  deeply  wounded  by  Ritson 's 
lapse  of  faith.  To  this  one-sided  view  of  the  matter  Ritson  eloquently 
replied : 

"You  will  do  great  injustice  to  my  feelings  to  suppose  that  all  the  uneasiness 
experienced  upon  this  disagreeable  occasion  has  been  confined  to  yourself.  My 
mind  and  spirits  have  sustained  a  shock  of  which  it  will  not  be  easy  for  me  to  get 
the  better.  I  am  arrived  at  a  time  of  life  when  the  interruption  of  a  much 
shorter  acquaintance  than  ours  is  more  to  be  dreaded  than  any  friendship  is  to 
be  courted :  and  the  confidence  that  nothing  of  this  kind  would  ever  take  place 
between  us  has  rendered  the  disappointment  inexpressibly  severe.  What  can  I 
say?  I  shall  endeavor  to  forget  everything  that  has  passed,  and  to  regain  the 
favorable  opinion  I  entertained  of  your  friendship  on  the  31st  of  December, 
1790.  I  am  not  fond  of  professions  and  have  long  ceased  to  express  myself  with 
either  advantage  or  ease.  But  the  intimacy  of  a  dozen  years  must,  I  am  persuaded, 
have  convinced  you  of  the  esteem  and  sincerity  with  which  I  have  been  your  truly 
faithful  and  affectionate  friend."'*^ 

Again  Rowntree  refused  to  accept  Ritson 's  statements  at  their  face 
value  and  seemed  secretly  desirous  of  terminating  the  friendship.  They 
continued  an  intermittent  correspondence,  but  Ritson 's  letters  are  more 
formal  and  more  distant,  though  as  sincere  and  straightforward  as  of 
old.  Writing  to  Wadeson  some  months  later  he  dismissed  the  incident, 
and  gave  a  characteristic  interpretation  of  Rowntree 's  position. 

"You,  my  good  friend,  are  a  man  of  feeling:  as  to  my  part,  it  is  no  longer 
in  the  power  of  Elegy  to  make  me  cry,  or  (which  I  think  much  more  lamentable) 
of  Epigram  to  make  me  laugh.     I  should,  however,  without  consulting  Mr.  Shen- 

**/&iU,  I,  p.  158. 
«/btU,  I,  p.  183. 
*^Ibid.,  I,  p.  200. 


42  JOSEPH  RITSON  [376 

stone,  be  very  unhappy  to  lose  the  friendship  of  a  man  I  esteemed;  but  when 
esteem  is  once  destroyed,  what  is  the  value  of  either  the  friendship  or  the  man? 
Rowntree,  to  be  sure,  is  a  very  clever  as  well  as  a  very  useful  fellow,  and  was  not, 
perhaps,  to  blame  that  I  placed  more  confidence  in  his  sincerity  than  it  was  able 
to  bear.  One  should  have  some  sort  of  a  mental  thermometer  to  ascertain  the 
boiling  and  freezing  points  of  a  man's  friendship.  At  least  (to  change  my  meta- 
phor) it  would  be  very  important  to  know  'the  sticking  place'  of  the  machine,  lest 
by  screwing  too  high  you  break  it  in  pieces,  or  render  it  of  no  further  use.  My 
friend  Rowntree's  zeal  might  be  up  to  the  loan  of  fifty,  or  perhaps  sixty,  or  even 
seventy  pounds,  but  the  mention  of  a  hundred  extinguished  his  fires  and  converted 
his  hot  water  into  cold  ice.    I  am,  therefore  content  to  let  him  freeze."*'' 

In  addition  to  the  question  of  borrowing  and  lending  money,  there 
was  another  business  matter  which  harassed  Ritson  greatly ;  this  was  his 
property.  From  an  uncle  he  inherited  "two  or  three  small  old  houses" 
at  Hartlepool  and  a  little  property  in  Great  Strickland.  During  his 
early  years  in  London  he  sold  his  small  paternal  inheritance  in  Stockton 
and  purchased  at  auction  a  large  house  there.  He  seems  to  have  been 
unfortunate  in  the  character  of  his  tenants  for  all  these  houses  and  was 
under  the  additional  handicap  of  being  so  far  removed  from  them  as  to 
be  unable  to  give  them  any  personal  attention.  At  different  times  Rown- 
tree, Wadeson,  and  Ralph  Hoar,  all  Stockton  friends,  acted  as  his  agent, 
but  none  of  them  was  successful  in  collecting  rents.  At  first  Ritson  took 
their  failure  good-naturedly  and  made  facetious  reference  to  his  "hope- 
ful tenants"  and  to  the  stewardship  of  his  agent: 

"My  Hartlepool  estate,  I  fancy,  is  sunk  into  the  earth,  or  the  houses  are 
empty,  or  the  tenant  insolvent.  Render  up  an  account  of  thy  stewardship,  thou — 
just    steward."*® 

But  his  attitude  soon  changed.  The  constant  trouble  which  the  property 
gave  and  the  urgent  need  for  money  in  London  caused  him  to  resolve 
upon  selling  everything.  But  in  executing  this  wish  his  agents  were  no 
more  successful  than  in  gathering  rentals.  Failing  to  dispose  of  the 
property  for  what  he  had  been  led  to  believe  it  was  worth  and  being 
involved  more  and  more  in  pecuniary  straits,  he  finally  in  desperation 
commissioned  his  agents  to  sell  "for  anything  that  can  be  got".  But 
€ven  this  blanket  charge  was  not  effective.  The  property  was  never 
sold,  but  it  was  finally  swept  from  him. 

Incompetent  as  he  was  in  handling  money,  Ritson  occasionally 
dabbled  in  the  Stock  Exchange  whenever  his  funds  for  the  moment  per- 
mitted it.    He  always  depended  on  the  advice  of  friends,  and  he  nearly 

*'Jbid.,  I,  p.  211. 

48/fclU,    I,    p.    65. 


377]  LONDON  LIFE  4S 

always  made  bad  investments.  His  earliest  recorded  venture  on  'Change 
is  thus  explained  in  a  letter  to  Harrison : 

"As  you  allowed  me  to  suit  my  convenience  with  regard  to  the  payment  of 
your  draught,  I  shall  take  the  liberty  to  defer  it  till  I  leave  town,  having  turned 
stock-jobber  and  disabled  myself  by  buying  into  the  funds.  I  shall  be  a  loser  of 
ten  pounds  by  this  business ;  so  that  you  must  never  say  I  bargain  like  a 
tradesman."*^ 

His  last  move  was  totally  disastrous.  A  friend  in  whom  he  had  great 
confidence  induced  him  ''in  hope  and  flattery,  to  speculate  with  all  the 
money  I  had  or  was  able  to  get".  As  a  consequence  of  the  mismanage- 
ment of  his  friend  combined  with  the  sudden  peace  which  terminated  the 
French-English  difficulties  in  1803,  he  was  utterly  ruined,  his  loss  being 
''considerably  above  one  thousand  pounds".  All  his  property  and  a  part 
of  his  library  went  to  satisfy  his  creditors,  and  then  he  began  borrowing 
money  for  another  investment  in  which  he  hoped  to  retrieve  his  losses 
' '  when  the  price  of  consols  fall  to  nothing  in  consequence  of  the  expected 
French  invasion  ".^° 

As  a  business  man  Ritson  exhibited  the  proverbial  inability  of 
genius  to  meet  the  practical  requirements  of  a  work-a-day  world.  But 
with  all  his  imperfections  he  was  a  man  of  high  principles  and  good 
intentions.  His  business  creed,  as  expounded  in  suggestions  to  his 
nephew,  is  one  of  sound  integrity.  He  lacked  tact,  however,  in  executing 
it  and  too  frequently  exceeded  or  fell  short  of  the  requirements  of  the 
case.  His  code  of  professional  ethics  was  just  as  uncompromising.  He 
not  only  believed  that  the  guilty  man  should  have  no  hired  defense  at 
the  bar  of  justice,  but  he  felt  that  no  honest  man  would  go  to  court  with 
an  unjust  cause.    He  remarked  on  one  occasion : 

"I  do  not  think  that  man  honest  who  would  avail  himself  of  a  quirk  of  law 
to  obtain  what  in  reason  and  justice  he  can  possibly  have  no  right  to."^^ 

Thus  far  many  men  of  his  own  profession  would  agree  with  him,  at  least 
in  theory.  Ritson  did  not  stop  here ;  he  had  the  courage  of  his  convic- 
tions. In  all  his  professional  and  business  dealings  he  was  guided  by  one 
principle — that  of  honesty.     His  opinions  once  formed,  nothing  could 

'^^Ibid.,  II,  p.  i8.  Nicolas  commends  Ritson  for  "his  avowed  detestation  of 
every  species  of  gambling."  (Op.  Cit,  p.  Ixi)  But  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
so  circumspect  in  action  as  this  praise  would  lead  one  to  suppose  him. 

^'^Letters,  II,  p.  246.  This  investment  was  fortunately  never  made.  As  it  was, 
more  than  £500,  in  addition  to  his  books,  was  required  to  liquidate  Ritson's 
indebtedness. 

^^Ibid.,  I,  p.  71. 


44  JOSEPH  EITSON  [378 

induce  him  to  act  contrary  to  his  convictions.  He  was  always  willing 
to  hear  arguments  in  favor  of  a  different  line  of  conduct,  but  these  he 
invariably  referred  back  to  his  touchstone  of  honesty,  where,  if  they 
failed  in  the  test,  they  were  rejected. 

The  absurd  lengths  to  which  he  went  in  pursuance  of  his  policy  are 
illustrated  in  the  following  anecdotes  related  by  Surtees. 

"He  chose  to  exercise  his  judgment  and  his  sturdy  morality  on  questions 
which  a  less  scrupulous  lawyer  would  have  left  to  his  client  to  settle  with  his  own 
conscience.  For  instance,  having  made  up  his  mind  that  the  Duke  of  Athol  had 
already  been  sufficiently  remunerated  for  ceding  his  rights  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  he 
refused  all  the  solicitations  of  his  friend,  Frances  Russel,  Esq.,  Solicitor  to  the 
Board  of  Control,  to  induce  him  to  draw  the  draft  of  a  petition  to  Parliament,  for 
the  further  recompense  which  the  Duke  afterwards  received.  The  argument,  'if 
you  do  not,  another  will',  had  no  effect  on  Ritson,  nor  would  he  ever  set  cheerily 
to  work,  without  being  perfectly  satisfied  of  the  strict  propriety  of  the  business  in 
which  he  was  engaged.  As  a  somewhat  ludicrous  instance,  he  steadily  refused 
to  draw  the  draft  of  Jonas  Hanway's  Bill  for  the  Incorporation  of  the  Chimney- 
Sweepers."^- 

But  Eitson's  influence  was  not  wholly  negative  in  this  regard.  At 
least  one  instance  is  reported  of  his  having  successfully  exerted  himself 
to  drive  out  of  office  a  man  who  openly  defied  the  law.  As  High  Bailiff 
of  the  Savoy  Ritson  was  associated  with  Reeves,  the  notorious  leader  of 
the  association  for  encouragement  of  spies  and  informers,  and  for  the 
suppression  of  freedom  of  writing  and  speaking  upon  political  topics. 
Although  Reeves  was  High  Steward  of  the  Savoy,  and  as  such  his  superior 
officer,  Ritson  lost  no  opportunity  to  discredit  him  because  of  his 
political  conduct.  Wlien  Reeves  resigned  his  position,  it  was  Ritson 's 
belief  that  he,  by  his  continued  hostility,  had  driven  his  superior  from 
office.^^ 

But  with  all  his  peculiarities  of  habit  and  opinion  and  in  spite  of 
his  contempt  for  the  law,  Ritson  met  with  more  than  mediocre  success 
in  the  profession.  Had  he  devoted  himself  unreservedly  to  it,  his  talents, 
his  inflexible  integrity,  and  his  high  professional  character  must  have 
led  to  wealth  and  renown.  His  few  law  tracts  give  him  a  worthy  place 
among  the  respected  illustrators  of  legal  antiquities;  more  attention  to 
work  of  this  sort  would  have  been  deeply  appreciated  by  a  relatively 
small  but  select  group  of  his  colleagues.  He  was  content,  however,  to  use 
the  law  as  a  means  to  other  ends,  and  to  draw  his  business  from  such 
clients  as  came  to  him  unsolicited.    A  small  circle  of  friends  furnished 

5-Robert  Surtees,  The  History  and  Antiquities  of  the  County  Palatine  of  Dur- 
ham, London,  1816-40.    Vol.  Ill,  p.  193,  note  i. 

ssSee  "Memoir  of  Ritson"  in  Monthly  Magazine,  Nov.,  1803. 


379]  LONDON  LIFE  45 

sufficient  work  to  enable  him  to  eke  out  a  moderate  private  income,  and 
to  devote  the  bulk  of  his  time  to  studies  more  congenial  to  his  taste. 
Sir  Walter  Scott  is  reported  to  have  said  of  Ritson : 

"he  had  an  honesty  of  principle  about  him,  which,  if  it  went  to  ridiculous 
extremes,  was  still  respectable  from  the  soundness  of  the  foundation.  I  don't 
believe  the  world  could  have  made  Ritson  say  the  thing  he  did  not  think."^* 

The  fundamental  identity  of  Ritson  the  professional  man  with  Ritson 
the  critic  of  letters  is  apparent  when  it  is  recognized  that  Scott's  state- 
ment, made  with  the  literary  antiquarian  in  mind,  applies  with  equal 
force  to  the  Barrister-at-law. 

s^Robert  Chambers,  The  Book  of  Days,  London,  1869.    Vol.  II,  p.  406. 


CHAPTER   III 
Literary  Beginnings  ;  The  Warton  Controversy 

Reads  in  British  Museum  Library — Collects  material  for  Allan — Goes  to 
Oxford — Contributes  to  Cough's  British  Topography — Visits  Combridge — Meets 
Farmer — Has  part  in  the  revival  of  interest  in  antiquarianism — Publishes  Descent 
of  the  Crown — Prepares  a  number  of  manuscripts  of  local  antiquarian  interest — 
Turns  to  literature — Williams's  Ode^ — The  Stockton  Jubilee — Prospectus  of 
Fabularmii  Romanensium  Bibliotheca — Observations  on  the  History  of  English 
Poetry — Its  nature — Critical  reception — Effect  upon  Warton — Ritson's  later  attitude 
toward  Warton — General  estimate. 

Ritson's  first  concern  on  arriving  in  London  was  undoubtedly  to 
secure  a  place  in  a  law  firm  where  he  might  have  a  definite  if  meagre 
income  and  an  opportunity  to  exercise  his  legal  talents.  This  practical 
consideration  disposed  of  to  his  satisfaction,  his  attention  almost  immed- 
iately turned  to  seek  the  means  of  satisfying  his  interest  in  literature 
and  various  antiquities.  In  this  he  relied  upon  the  friendship  of  his 
Stockton  acquaintance,  George  Allan,  the  famous  antiquary.  Shortly 
after  his  arrival  in  town  he  was  introduced  to  the  British  Museum  by 
AUan^  and  was  soon  recognized  as  an  habitual  visitor  there.  During 
the  hours  that  could  be  spared  from  his  legal  duties  in  the  office  of 
I\Iasterman  and  Lloyd  he  was  usually  to  be  found  in  the  Museum  poring 
over  ancient  documents  and  literary  manuscripts  then  but  little  explored. 
He  seems  to  have  limited  his  recreation  to  the  daily  walk  to  and  from 
the  Museum,  and  this  routine  was  varied  so  little  that  the  slight  figure 
clad  in  customary  black  hurrying  along  with  uncertain  gait  soon  became 
a  familiar  sight  to  frequenters  of  his  line  of  travel.-  This  brief  daily 
walk  with  an  occasional  vacation  ramble  into  the  country  comprised  his 
relaxation  through  life.  His  habits  were  formed  early  and  rigidly 
adhered  to. 

Before  he  left  Stockton  Ritson's  interest  in  local  antiquities  was 
effectually  aroused,  and  he  began  a  collection  of  curious  papers  regard- 
ing his  native  town.  In  this  project  he  was  encouraged  and  materially 
aided  by  Allan,  whose  kindness  and  generosity  he  was  anxious  to  repay.^ 

^See  note  by  Allan's  son  in  Lit.  Anec,  VIII,  p.  350. 
^Robert  Surtees,  Op.  Cit,  III.  p.  195. 

3See  letter  of  Ritson  to  Allan,  dated  "Stockton,  April  19,  i775".  in  J^it-  Anec, 
VIII.  p.  350,  note. 

46 


381]  LITERARY   BEGINNINGS  47 

The  opportuuity  to  be  of  service  to  his  friend  came  when  lie  obtained 
access  to  the  antiquarian  stores  in  the  British  Mnsenui.  The  earliest 
of  Ritson's  collected  letters,  written  August  26,  1776,  reveals  him  as 
already  familiar  with  the  antiquarian  manuscripts  of  the  Museum  and 
as  concerned  chiefly  with  finding  material  relating  to  the  ancient  history 
of  the  county  of  Durham.  The  bits  of  information  which  he  presented 
to  Allan  in  this  first  letter  and  which  he  subsequently  supplemented 
quite  materially,  were  to  be  used  by  Allan  in  a  History  of  Durham  on 
which  he  was  then  engaged  but  which  he  later  relinquished  in  favor  of 
his  friend  William  Hutchinson.* 

Among  the  manuscripts,  mentioned  in  this  early  letter,  in  which 
Ritson  was  searching  for  material  concerning  Durham,  he  speaks  of  the 
"ancient  exemplar  of  the  Boldon  Buke"  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  which 
"may  contain  perhaps  many  other  articles  equally  valuable"  but  which 
he  had  not  yet  had  an  opportunity  of  consulting.     An  impelling  desire 
to  enlarge  his  acquaintance  with  antiquarian  sources  and  a  curiosity 
as  to  what  was  to  be  discovered  about  his  native  shire  led  him  to  visit 
the  Bodleian  and  other  libraries  at  Oxford  as  soon  as  opportunity  pre- 
sented.    Toward  the  latter  end  of   his  vacation   in   1779   he  made  a 
pedestrian  excursion  to  Oxford^'  and  spent  some  time  in  the  various 
libraries,  where  his  success,  he  says,  "though  not  altogether  equal  to  my 
expectations   was   pretty^  reasonable".*^      Besides    the    notes    from   the 
Bolden  Book,  of  which  he  had  already  spoken,  Ritson  sent  Allan  copies 
of   charters  and  registers   concerning  Durham   and   mentioned   others 
which  would  be  of  great  service  "not  only  in  stating  the  history  of 
property,  but  in  forming  and  correcting  the  descents  of  ancient  fam- 
ilies."'^    On  this  same  visit  he  extracted  from  the  original  register  of 

^Nicolas  erroneously  states  (Op.  Cit.,  p.  xi)  that  this  first  letter  "exhibits 
Ritson  as  ...  .  aiding  Mr.  Allan  in  collecting  materials  for  a  History  of 
Shcrburn  Hospital,  in  Durham."  This  volume  was  published  in  1771,  five  years 
before  the  letter  was  written.  The  material  there  mentioned  was  to  be  used  in  the 
History  of  Durham  instead.  Allan  later  abandoned  his  project  in  favor  of  William 
Hutchinson  (1732-1814)  who  at  his  suggestion  took  up  the  work  and  under  his 
direction  and  guidance  published  The  History  and  Antiquities  of  the  County 
Palatine  of  Durham,  Newcastle,  1785-94.  Allan  modestly  remarked  that  he  fur- 
nished Hutchinson  with  a  "variety  of  manuscripts  and  printed  collections  unar- 
ranged  and  undigested."    Lit.  Anec.,  VI,  p.  125. 

^The  diary  of  this  journey,  which  is  declared  to  be  "no  otherwise  curious 
than  as  presenting  the  first  evidence  of  his  sceptical  opinions"  (Nicolas,  Op.  Cit., 
p.  XV.),  like  that  of  the  earlier  trip  to  Edinburgh,  although  originally  in  the  pos- 
session of  Joseph  Frank,  is  now  unknown. 

'^Letters,  I,  p.  6. 

Hbid.,  I,  p.  7. 


48  JOSEPH  RITSON  [382 

Richard  de  Kelawe,  early  bishop  of  Durham,  two  indentures  in  French, 
dated  at  Stockton,  relating  to  the  appointment  of  governors  in  the 
Bishopric  of  Durham.  He  sent  an  account  of  these  entries  to  Richard 
Gough,  (1735-1809),  who  gladly  inserted  it  in  the  new  edition  of  his 
British  Topography,  then  preparing.^ 

Now  that  he  Avas  familiar,  through  five  years  intercourse,  with 
the  British  Museum,  and  had  been  made  acquainted  with  the  Bodleian, 
Ritson's  next  objective  was  Cambridge.  Through  the  generous  offices 
of  friends  he  had  been  enabled  to  borrow  books  and  manuscripts  from 
the  University  libraries  for  several  years  before  he  had  an  opportunity 
to  visit  them.''  On  July  20,  1780,  he  set  off  for  Cambridge,  intending  to 
spend  a  few  weeks  in  this  depository  of  ancient  learning  and  then  go 
further  into  the  country  for  the  remainder  of  the  vacation.  This  plan 
was  not  fully  carried  out,  for  "momentous"  business  recalled  him  to 
London  early  in  August.  It  was  not,  however,  until  after  he  had  accom- 
plished at  least  a  part  of  his  original  purpose  and  had  met  with  a 
singular  stroke  of  good  fortune  in  making  the  acquaintance  of  Richard 
Farmer,  of  whose  friendship  he  was  always  proud  to  speak.  He  sums 
up  the  results  of  his  visit  thus : 

"I  saw  a  great  many  curious  books,  made  a  great  many  important  discoveries : 
and  what  is  better  than  all,  became  intimately  acquainted  with  Dr.  Farmer,  whom 
I  found  a  most  sensible,  liberal,  benevolent  and  worthy  man."^° 

The  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  witnessed  a  remarkable 
revival  of  interest  in  antiquarian  studies  of  all  kinds.  Various  anti- 
quarian societies  were  founded  or  rehabilitated  during  that  period.  The 
reconstituted  Society  of  Antiquaries  of  London,  chartered  in  1751, 
was  granted  permanent  quarters  in  Somerset  House  by  George  III  in 
1780.  This  acknowledgment  that  after  years  of  probation  the  Society 
had  proved  its  right  to  a  place  among  the  recognized  British  institu- 
tions was  highly  gratifying  to  those  interested  in  furthering  the  study 
of  antiquities.  In  1780  also  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  of  Scotland  was 
formed  at  Edinburgh  to  do  for  the  north  of  Britain  what  the  London 
Society  was  doing  for  the  south.  Two  years  later  the  Royal  Irish 
Academy,  which  had  existed  intermittently  since  1683,  was  reconsti- 


sRichard  Gough,  British  Topography,  or  an  historical  account  of  zvhat  has  been 
done  for  illustrating  the  Topographical  Antiquities  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
2nd  edition,  London,  1780,  Vol.  I,  p.  337. 

^Surtees,  Op.  Cit.,  Ill,  p.  193. 

^^Letters,  I,  p.  57- 


383]  LITERARY   BEGINNINGS  49 

tilted."  These  were  but  the  organized  evidences  of  a  widespread  general 
interest  in  antiquities  which  was  further  revealed  in  various  and  increas- 
ingly numerous  publications.  Not  only  were  there  studies  in  coins, 
medals,  and  heraldry,  which  previously  had  engrossed  the  attention 
of  antiquaries,  but  there  was  now  searching  investigation  of  the  ancient 
historical  records  of  the  various  topographical  divisions  of  the  kingdom, 
and  of  its  ancient  families  and  old  institutions,  to  say  nothing  of  purely 
literary  researches. 

Prominent  among  the  members  of  the  London  Society  of  this  period 
were  the  two  men  whose  researches  in  non-literary  antiquities  Ritson 
was  instrumental  in  aiding.  George  Allan  published  a  number  of 
volumes  relating  to  Durham  and  Northumberland  and  was  extremely 
generous  and  helpful  to  fellow  antiquaries  by  printing  at  his  private 
press,  "The  Grange",  many  expensive  works,  by  throwing  open  his 
valuable  library  to  other  students,  and  by  bequeathing  to  the  Society 
of  Antiquaries  of  London  twenty-six  quarto  volumes  of  manuscript 
relating  chiefly  to  the  University  of  Oxford.^-  Richard  Gough,  described 
by  a  late  contemporary  as  the  Camden  of  modern  times,^^  produced  a 
very  valuable  work  in  his  British  Topography,  a  much  needed  supple- 
ment to  the  antedated  volumes  of  Rawlinson,^*  Nicolson,^^  and  Gibson,^*' 
Like  Allan  he  spared  no  time  or  expense  to  preserve  and  publish  the 
relics  of  antiquity.  He  presented  to  the  Bodleian  his  manuscripts  of 
topography  ' '  for  the  antiquaries '  closet ' ',  and  to  Oxford  his  antiquarian 
literary  collections  "for  the  use  of  the  Professor  of  Anglo-Saxon." 

Ritson 's  published  contribution  to  this  renascence  of  antiquarian 
interest  was  small.  He  made  valuable  and  highly  appreciated  additions 
to  the  collections  of  both  Allan  and  Gough.  But  the  only  volume  of  his 
own  which  indicates  this  type  of  study  is  a  pamphlet  of  Tables,  Shelving 

"The  continental  Societies  did  not  come  into  existence  till  much  later.  See 
H.  R.  Steeves,  Learned  Societies  and  English  Literary  Scholarship  in  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States,  New  York,  1913. 

i^The  date  of  Allan's  election  as  F.  S.  A.  in  the  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  should  be 
1774  instead  of  1744. 

i^Dibden  in  Nichols's  Typographical  Antiquities  of  Great  Britain. 

I'^Richard  Rawlinson,  The  English  Topographer,  .  .  .  by  an  impartial  hand, 
London,  1720. 

isWiiliam  Nicolson  published  The  English  Historial  Library  in  three  parts, 
1696-99;  The  Scottish  Historical  Library,  1702;  and  The  Irish  Historical  Library, 
1724. 

i^In  1605  Edmund  Gibson  published  an  English  translation  of  Camden's 
Britannia,  with  the  extensive  assistance  of  a  number  of  British  scholars  and  anti- 
quaries. The  three  foregoing  publications  represent  the  best  work  of  this  type  in 
the  century  preceding  Cough's  British  Topography. 


50  JOSEPH   RITSON  [384 

the  Descent  of  the  Crown  of  England,  only  fifty  copies  of  which  wore 
privately  printed  in  1778.^"  This  little  work  consists  of  three  parts: 
Table  I,  showing  "the  true  hereditary  succession  of  the  English  crown 
from  Egbert,  the  first  Saxon  monarch,  to  James  VI  of  Scotland";  Table 
II,  "the  true  hereditary  succession  from  William  the  Conqueror  (sup- 
posing a  title  in  him  by  conquest)  ";  Table  III,  "the  de  facto  succession 
from  Edward  Ironside."  Besides  their  showing  Kitson's  political 
leaning  at  this  time  in  his  career,  these  compact  and  accurate  tables 
reveal  an  early  interest  in  the  genealogical  side  of  British  history  and 
the  patience  necessary  to  explore  dry  and  dusty  records  of  antiquity  for 
the  sake  of  presenting  an  accurate  family  tree. 

Ritson's  published  antiquarian  work,  however,  is  but  a  small  portion 
of  the  material  collected  and  represents  but  a  fraction  of  the  time  and 
energy  expended  in  this  interesting  field.  Not  only  did  he  formulate 
Tables  of  the  Descent  of  the  Crown,  but  he  investigated  the  history  of 
the  ancient  Northern  families  of  Bailiol  and  Comyn  and  embodied  the 
results  in  a  manuscript  which  was  never  published.^®  Not  only  did  he 
furnish  Gough  with  valuable  additions  for  the  second  edition  of  his 
Topography,  but  he  continued  his  researches  after  that  edition  was  pub- 
lished and  made  numerous  additions  and  corrections  in  his  own  eopy.^^ 
Not  only  did  he  assist  Allan  quite  extensively  in  gathering  material 
about  Durham,  but  even  before  he  left  Stockton  the  atti'action  of  the 
work  proved  so  great  that  he  began  a  collection  of  his  OAvn.  Wlien  he 
began  to  explore  the  libraries  in  and  about  London,  he  made  so  many 
additions  to  his  stock  that  he  formed  a  definite  design  of  printing  a 
"Villare  of  the  County,  with  useful  appendixes".  On  February  13, 
1780,  he  acquainted  Allan  with  his  project  and  ventured  the  hope  that 
it  would  meet  with  his  approbation  and  gain  his  assistance.-*^  During 
the  next  two  years  Ritson  continued  to  amass  material  through  his  own 
investigations  and  by  the  help  of  Allan,  Harrison,  and  other  friends 
in  the  county  of  Durham,-^  but  he  published  none  of  it.    He  soon  came 

i''The  second  impression,  with  some  slight  alterations  in  phraseology,  was 
printed  in  1783.  The  tract  is  now  extremely  rare.  See  John  Martin,  Biblio- 
graphical Catalogue  of  Privately  Printed  Books,  2nd  edition,  London,  1854. 

i^Lot  967  of  Ritson  Library  sale :  "An  enquiry  into  the  connection  between 
the  families  of  Bailiol  and  Comyn  in  the  thirteenth  century." 

i^Lot  909  of  Ritson  Library  sale :  "Cough's  British  Topography,  with  MS. 
additions  and  corrections  by  Mr.  Ritson    ....    2  vols.,  London,  1780." 

-^Letters,  I,  p.  9.  Ritson's  project  became  generally  known  among  antiquaries. 
Gough  says  (Op.  Cit.,  I,  p.  340)  :  "Mr.  Joseph  Ritson  of  Stockton  has  a  small  MS. 
collection  relating  to  that  place.  He  is  likewise  preparing  materials  for  a  villare 
of  the  county." 

-^Letters,  I,  pp.  36,  56,  and  Lit.  Aiiec,  VIII,  p.  133. 


385]  LITERARY   BEGINNINGS  51 

to  have,  in  his  own  words,  "so  many  irons  in  the  fire  and  other  fish  to 
fry",  that  his  attention  was  diverted  from  this  particular  field  of  anti- 
quarian study  to  the  more  strictly  literary.  The  bulk  of  his  topograph- 
ical material  was  comprised  in  a  manuscript  "Villare  Dunelmense,  the 
names  of  all  the  towns,  villages,  hamlets,  castles,  sea-houses,  halls, 
granges,  and  other  houses  and  buildings,  having  any  appellation  within 
the  Bishop  ricks  or  county  palatine  of  Durham,"  In  addition  there  were 
tw^o  minor  manuscripts  which  must  have  been  prepared  at  this  time : 
"Topographical  Rines[sic]",  and  "A  list  of  river  names  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  with  a  few  etymological  notes  on  them."-- 

Some  of  the  "other  irons"  which  Ritson  had  in  the  fire  at  this 
time,  1780,  were  the  duties  of  his  new  office  as  High  Bailiff^,  the  problem 
of  gaining  a  livlihood  by  private  practice,  and,  most  absorbing  of  all, 
two  or  three  literary  projects.  Although  the  major  portion  of  his  time 
was  of  necessity  devoted  to  the  law,  his  great  desire  was  to  have  an 
abundance  of  leisure  for  literature,  and  especially  for  poetry-.  From  his 
earliest  years  he  was  more  interested  in  poetry  than  in  anything  else, 
but  he  was  not  yet  able  to  devote  himself  to  it  in  any  great  measure. 
His  concern  with  local  topographical  antiquities  was  preliminary  to  an 
absorbing  interest  in  poetical  antiquities.  His  non-professional  read- 
ing in  London  served  to  whet  his  appetite  to  such  a  degree  that  he 
soon  abandoned  all  interests  outside  the  requirements  of  his  profes- 
sion, except  poetry.  To  poetry  and  the  various  antiquarian  subjects 
growing  out  of  its  study  he  devoted  his  leisure  from  this  time  on.  It 
was  not  until  1782  that  he  produced  any  noteworthy  work  in  this  field, 
but  two  earlier  and  minor  publications  deserve  mention. 

Haslewood  states  that  in  1780  Ritson  edited  the  second  edition  of 
The  Odes  of  Sir  Charles  Hanhury  Williams.-^  He  gives  this  on  the 
authority  of  Ritson 's  "own  avowal  to  an  intimate  acquaintance"  and 
adds  that  "his  labor  could  not  extend  beyond  collating  the  proof- 
sheets."^*      But  Nicolas  declares  that  Ritson 's  connection  with  the  Odes 

22Now  MS.  Douce,  340,  Bodleian.  The  other  manuscripts  seem  to  have  been 
lost  or  destroyed  since  the  Ritson  sale  in  1803. 

23Sir  Charles  Hanbury  Williams  (1708-1759),  courtier,  diplomatist,  and  satirist, 
is  noted  for  the  licentiousness  of  his  published  works,  consisting  mostly  of  poetical 
satires,  coarse  ballads,  and  squibs.  The  original  edition  of  The  Odes  appeared  in 
1763  as  A  Collection  of  Poems.  Principally  consisting  of  the  most  Celebrated 
Pieces  of  Sir  Charles  Hanbury  Williams,  Kt.  of  the  Bath.  A  fairly  complete  edition 
of  Williams  appeared  in  three  volumes  in  1822  as  The  Works  of  the  Right  Hon- 
orable Sir  Charles  Hanbury  Willia)iis,  K.B.,  from  the  originals  in  the  possesison  of 
his  Grandson,  the  Right  Honorable  the  Earl  of  Essex,  zvith  notes  by  Horace 
Walpole,  Earl  of  Oxford. 

-*Haslewood,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  5. 


52  JOSEPH  RITSON  [386 

''is  denied  by  his  nephew  and  executor,  and  is  rendered  extremely 
unlikely  by  the  disgust  which  Ritson  always  expressed  at  licentious 
poetry. '  '^^  Despite  this  denial  by  the  person  who  is  in  the  best  position 
to  know  the  facts,  Sir  Sidney  Lee,  in  writing  the  life  of  Ritson  in  the 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  relies  upon  Haslewood  in  stating  that 
Ritson  "is  said  to  have  edited  a  second  edition  of  the  scurrilous  Odes 
of  Sir  Charles  Hanhury  Williams";  and  Thomas  Seccombe,  in  the  life 
of  Williams,  says  that  the  Odes  was  "edited  by  J.  Ritson  in  1775."-* 
There  would  seem,  then,  to  be  ground  for  difference  of  opinion  although 
no  facts  but  only  assertions  have  thus  far  been  given. 

There  is  no  internal  evidence  on  which  to  base  a  decision ;  the  little 
volume  comprising  the  second  edition  of  the  Odes  contains  no  preface 
or  introduction,  and  there  are  only  two  or  three  inconsequential  notes. 
In  the  complete  absence  of  editorial  matter  the  case  seems  to  resolve 
itself  into  a  question  of  the  word  of  Haslewood  and  the  unnamed  "inti- 
mate acquaintance"  against  that  of  Nicolas  and  the  "nephew  and 
executor",  with  a  slight  balance  in  favor  of  the  former  because  of  the 
statements  of  Lee  and  Seccombe.  But  a  more  exhaustive  study  of  the 
situation  reveals  a  preponderance  of  evidence  on  the  other  side. 

The  statement  of  Joseph  Frank  deserves  carefvil  consideration  from 
his  long  and  intimate  association  with  Ritson  and  consequent  knowledge 
of  his  various  activities.  Furthermore,  no  contemporary  mention  is 
made  of  Ritson 's  connection  with  the  Odes.-~  Nicolas 's  personal  reason 
for  denying  this  work  to  Ritson — his  aversion  to  licentious  poetry — 
though  based  on  Ritson 's  own  words,  should  not  be  given  too  great 
weight,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  moral  standards  vary  with 
different  periods  and  that  what  was  considered  "licentious"  in  1833 
might  not  have  been  so  viewed  half  a  century  earlier.  It  is  true  that 
Ritson  boasted  of  excluding  from  his  collection  of  English  Songs,  1783, 
every  verse  that  might  bring  a  blush  to  the  cheek  of  innocence-*  but  it 
is  equally  true  that  in  other  volumes  he  included  material  quite  as 
coarse  and  indecent  as  any  passage  in  the  Odes.^^     The  most  nearly  eon- 

^^Nicolas,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  xvi,  note. 

-''Seccombe  evidently  does  not  mean  that  the  volume  was  printed  in  1775, 
for  he  adds  in  parentheses  the  dates  of  publication:  "(London,  1780,  i2mo. ;  1784, 
12  mo.)".  If  he  means  that  Ritson's  "editing"  was  done  in  1775,  that  seems  highly 
improbable  from  the  early  date,  from  the  five  year  period  before  publication,  and 
from  the  fact  that  the  volume  contains  no  editorial  matter  whatever. 

-^In  itself  this  would,  of  course,  not  be  strong  evidence,  as  the  contemporary 
lists  of  Ritson's  works  are  frequently  inaccurate  or  incomplete. 

-^See  the  Preface. 

-^See  Observations  on  IVartoit,  etc.,  passim^  and  prefatory  essay  to  Ancient 
English  Metrical  Romances.     It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Odes  does  not 


387]  LITERARY   BEGINNINGS  53 

elusive  argument  against  Ritson's  editing  the  Odes  is  the  ignorance  of 
Williams  and  his  poems  which  he  exhibits — an  ignorance  quite  unex- 
pected in  an  editor  who,  everywhere  else,  insisted  upon  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  subject  in  hand  or  an  explicit  confession  of  imperfect 
acquaintance  with  it. 

In  1783  Ritson  printed  in  English  Songs  ''Martialis  Epigramma" 
as  "by  Sir  Charles  Hanbury  Williams?"^"  This  piece  is  included  in 
the  1780  edition  of  the  Odes  without  any  question  as  to  its  authenticity. 
Ten  years  later,  in  the  advertisement  to  the  first  volume  of  English 
Anthology,  Ritson  made  an  earnest  appeal  for  the  dates  of  the  birth  and 
death  of  a  number  of  poets — among  them  Sir  Charles  Hanbury  Williams 
— ,  "in  order  that  the  selections  from  those  poets  may  be  duly  arranged.'^ 
The  second  volume,  which  appeared  the  following  year,  contained  two 
of  Williams's  odes  ("On  the  death  of  Matzel"  and  "On  Miss  Harriet 
Hanbury"),  both  of  which  are  included  in  the  1780  edition  of  Odes; 
but  the  dates  of  Williams  had  not  yet  been  determined,  a  footnote  read- 
ing: "Born  1  .  .  .;  dyed  17  .  ."^^  These  examples  of  unfamiliarity 
with  Williams  and  his  verses,  taken  with  the  other  facts,  seem  sufficiently 
conclusive  evidence  that  Ritson  did  not  edit  the  Odes. 

In  December,  1781,  Ritson  published  anonymously  at  Newcastle,  a 
piece  of  satiric  humor  entitled.  The  Stockton  Jubilee,  or  Shakspeare  in 
all  his  Glory,  A  Choice  Pageant  for  Christmas  Holidays.^-  This  "unwar- 
rantable satire"  consisted  of  extracts  from  Shakespeare  applied  to  all 
the  principal  inhabitants  of  Stockton.  Frank  says  the  "characters 
were,  generally,  adapted  with  the  most  admirable  precision.  "^^  At 
any  rate  the  pamphlet  seems  to  have  aroused  a  storm  of  ill  feeling  in 
Stockton.  Ritson  attempted  to  conceal  from  most  of  his  friends  that  he 
was  its  author,  although  to  Ralph  Hoar  he  is  said  to  have  entrusted  the 
delivery  of  various  copies  to  the  Newcastle  post  office.^*  But  he  wrote 
to  Wadeson  an  implicit  acknowledgement  of  his  connection  with  the 

contain  the  worst  of  Williams.  Although  Carb'le  spoke  of  him  as  "deep  in  that 
slop-pail  or  scandal-department  of  an  extinct  generation"  (History  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  Centenary  edition,  London,  1898,  Vol.  V,  p.  246.),  and  the  Quarterly 
Reviezv  declared  his  Collected  Works  to  contain  "specimens  of  obscenity  and 
blasphemy  more  horrible  than  we  have  before  seen  collected  into  one  publication" 
(Vol.  XXVIII,  p.  47),  yet  these  sweeping  denunciations  apply  in  varying  degree  to 
not  more  than  half  a  dozen  of  the  thirty-eight  odes  in  the  second  edition. 

^^Eitglish  Songs,  I,  p.  238. 

^'^English  Anthology,  II.  p.  280. 

32As  early  as  1824  this  volume  was  "extremely  rare"  and  it  is  now  practically 
extinct.     There  is  no  copy  in  the  British  Museum.     See  Haslewood,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  5. 

"•^Letters,  I,  p.  38,  note. 

"^Nicolas,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  xvii. 


54  JOSEPH   RITSON  [388 

work.  He  speaks  of  having  heard  ' '  that  a  most  impudent  and  malicious 
rascal  has  been  libelling  the  all-accomplished  inhabitants  of  Stockton  in 
a  twelf penny  pamphlet",  refers  to  the  treatment  accorded  Wadeson  in 
it,  and  then  asks  if  it  is  true  that  the  scoundrel  has  been  apprehended 
' '  and  is  to  be  publicly  baited  at  the  bull-ring  ? ' '  But  it  ,\vas  useless  for 
him  to  attempt  concealment  in  this  fashion,  for  it  is  apparent  that  he 
was  already  suspected  by  many  of  his  victims.  In  a  postscript  to  this 
letter,  he  says,  apropos  of  a  possible  visit  to  his  friend : 

"But,  alas !  I  understand  that  my  reappearance  in  Stockton  Streets  would 
cost  me  my  life !  Gods  mercies !  My  good  friend,  you  see  what  'an'  infernal 
world  we  live  in."^^ 

Ritson's  reading  was,  from  the  very  first,  largely  in  early  printed 
books  and  old  manuscripts.  From  historical  antiquities  he  soon  turned 
to  poetry,  romances,  and  literary  origins.  By  the  time  he  began  to 
publish  the  results  of  his  researches  he  had  acquired  an  extensive 
acquaintance  with  the  material  of  a  little-known  period  in  the  history 
of  English  literature  and  had  accumulated  a  valuable  collection  of 
early  romances.  His  first  projected  work  of  importance  to  literary  anti- 
quarianism  was,  Fahularum  Romanensium  Bihliotheca:  a  general  cata- 
logue of  old  romances,  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  and  English,  to  be 
published  in  two  volumes.  A  specimen  of  two  sheets  of  the  work  to  be 
published  under  this  title  appeared  in  1782,  but  the  work  itself  was 
never  printed.  It  is  probable  that  Ritson  found  the  project  too  ambitious 
at  this  early  stage  in  his  work  with  romances,  or  it  may  be  that  the 
material  he  intended  to  put  into  these  volumes  was  absorbed  by  his 
other  publications.^'' 

At  this  time  Ritson  had  in  hand  another  work  to  which  he  was 
devoting  a  great  deal  of  painstaking  research  and  on  which  he  was 
bringing  to  bear  all  the  information  concerning  the  older  periods  of 
English  poetry  which  he  had  been  accumulating  during  his  years  of 
private  reading  and  investigating  in  London.  This  was  a  criticism  of 
Warton's  History  of  English  Poetry, ^"^  consisting  of  an  enumeration 
of  one  hundred  and  sixteen  errors  of  various  degrees  of  importance,  in 
that  justly  celebrated  work.     The  first  intimation  of  Ritson's  concern 

^'^Letters,  I.  p.  38. 

^®Since  no  manuscript  of  this  description  appeared  in  the  catalogue  of  his 
library  sale,  it  would  seem  that  Ritson  never  progressed  far  in  the  actual  prepara- 
tion of  this  material  for  the  press. 

3^Thomas  Warton,  History  of  English  Poetry  from  the  close  of  the  eleventh 
to  the  connncnceiucnt  of  the  eighteenth  century.     3  vols.,  Oxford,  1774-1781. 


389]  LITERARY   BEGINNINGS  55 

with  Warton  is  to  be  found  in  a  letter  to  Harrison,  written  August  6, 
1782.    He  says: 

"I  have  at  last  put  my  libel  upon  Warton  into  the  hands  of  a  bookseller.  It 
is  in  a  fair  way  of  seeing  the  light  by  Christmas. ""^ 

The  publisher's  speed  exceeded  his  expectations,  however,  and  within 
two  months  there  appeared  anonymously :  Observations  on  the  three 
first  volumes  of  the  History  of  English  Poetry.  In  a  familiar  letter  to 
the  author}^ 

When  Ritson  undertook  the  criticism  of  Warton  he  possessed  a 
wide  familiarity  Avith  first  sources  in  literature  and  history.  His  won- 
derfully retentive  mind  was  stored  with  dates  and  other  more  or  less 
isolated  bits  of  information  gleaned  from  neglected  and  forgotten 
books  and  manuscripts  dealing  with  early  poetry.  He  had  the  patience 
for  extremely  careful  and  accurate  research  after  little  things,  and  he 
had  come  to  place  so  much  importance  on  correctness  in  details  that  he 
unblushingly  demanded  absolute  accuracy  in  every  writer,  no  matter  how 
broad  his  subject.  The  volumes  of  Warton 's  History  he  found  to  abound 
in  errors  of  date  and  name  and  in  inaccuracies  of  statement,  all  of 
which  he  deemed  inexcusable.  The  Observations  is  a  catalogue  of  some 
of  these  errors,  noted  in  the  order  in  which  they  occur.  But  this  is  not 
all.  He  employed  the  most  personal,  and  what  in  his  hands  proved  the 
most  insolent,  means  possible  for  calling  them  to  the  attention  of  War- 
ton — a  "familiar  letter  to  the  author".  His  enthusiasm  for  precision 
led  him  into  grievous  excesses  of  language.  He  was  unable  to  restrain 
his  disgust  at  what  he  variously  designated  Warton 's  laxness,  careless- 
ness, ignorance,  or  dishonesty,  in  making  the  errors.  As  a  consequence 
the  volume  contains  an  overabundance  of  virulence  and  vituperation. 
He  exhibited  an  unexampled  irrascibility  of  temper  and  indulged  in 
personal  taunts  and  insulting  abuse  entirely  uncalled  for  and  absolutely 
indefensible.  He  missed  no  opportunity  to  sneer  at  Warton 's  religion, 
to  impeach  his  motives,  to  question  his  sincerity,  to  taunt  him  with 
"ignorance"  and  "incompetence".  There  is  a  constant  tendency  to 
exaggeration  and  an  inevitable  overshooting  of  the  mark.     Some  of  his 


^^Lcttcrs,  I,  p.  58.  On  October  8,  1782,  Ritson  again  wrote  to  Harrison : 
"What  say  you  to  my  scurrilous  libel  against  Tom  Warton?"    Ibid.,  I,  p.  60. 

^^Ritson  printed  the  Observations  "in  the  size  of  Mr.  Warton's  History"  as 
"extremely  proper  to  be  bound  up  with  that  celebrated  work,  to  which  they  will 
be  found  a  very  useful  appendix."  He  was  perfectly  sincere  in  this  statement, 
although  his  "afFrontery"  and  "grim  humor"  in  making  it  have  been  universally 
ridiculed. 


56  JOSEPH  RITSON  [390 

statements  are  more  indicative  of  the  schoolboy  than  the  serious  critic. 
Such  hyperboles  as  this  are  not  infrequent : 

"Cotgrave   undoubtedly  knew   a  thousand   million   times  more   on   the   matter 
than  you  can  do."*° 

It  is  Ritson's  manner  that  is  most  frequently  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  the  Observations,  and  it  has  brought  down  upon  him  a 
perfect  torrent  of  criticism,  most  of  it  justified.  But  his  exaggera- 
tions, his  spleen  and  ill-nature,  indefensible  as  these  are,  do  not  com- 
prise the  whole  of  his  w^ork.  Stripped  of  its  abusive  language  there  yet 
remains  in  the  Ohservations  a  substantial  body  of  criticism  which  is 
valuable  in  itself  and  for  the  wholesome  influence  which  it  exerted  on 
future  literary  study. 

After  a  prefatory  address  to  Warton,  in  which  he  confesses  that 
he  may  have  occasionallj^  indulged  in  too  great  warmth  of  expression  but 
disavows  personal  motives,  Ritson  passes  over  the  introductory^  Disserta- 
tions to  the  body  of  the  History.  His  most  frequent  mention  is  of 
erroneous  glosses  in  the  medieval  period.  In  this  particular  field  Ritson 
was  better  prepared  than  Warton.  He  was  at  this  time  laying  the 
foundation  which  enabled  him  later  to  publish  a  dozen  volumes  dealing 
with  the  poetry  of  the  period  and  to  furnish  them  with  glossaries  more 
accurate  than  had  previously  appeared.  As  a  result  of  this  study  almost 
all  of  his  emendations  of  Warton  are  correct.*^  The  few  instances  in 
which  he  is  at  fault*-  only  prove  the  necessit}^  of  allowing  for  human 
fallibility — a  necessity  which  he  refused  to  take  into  account  when 
dealing  with  the  works  of  others. 

Warton 's  errors  in  glossing,  Ritson  almost  always  ascribed  not  to 
misunderstanding  of  the  text  but  to  lack  of  understanding  of  it.  Upon 
"ignorance"  in  one  thing  and  another  he  harped  with  ungracious  con- 
stancy. He  charged  Warton  with  being  ignorant  of  Anglo-Saxon,*' 
of  Italian,**  of  the  early  romances,*^  of  English  history.*''  In  many 
cases  he  was  correct;  in  others  it  w^ould  have  been  charitable  to  allow 
for  typographical  errors,  for  faulty  information,  or  for  the  inevitability 
of  mistakes  in  so  large  a  publication.  But  Ritson  had  an  eye  single  to 
accuracy,  and  he  was  slow  to  admit  extenuating  circumstances  for  error. 
When  he  did  temper  the  violence  of  the  charge  it  was  usually  to  that 

^'^Observations,  p.  7. 

*^Ibid.,  pp.  6,  9,  II,  14,  16,  22,  23,  25,  30,  31,  etc. 

*-Ibid.,  pp.  7,  17,  31,  etc. 

43/fctrf.,  p.  2. 

**Ibid.,  pp.  25,  43. 

*'-Ibid.,  pp.  20,  35,  39,  42. 

^'^Ibid.,  pp.  17,  37. 


391]  LITERARY   BEGINNINGS  57 

of  carelessness,  and  on  this  score  he  had  ample  opportunity  to  censure 
the  historian.  Judged  by  Ritson's  standards  Warton  was  undoubtedly 
careless.  He  Avas  engaged  on  a  gigantic  undertaking,  and  it  was  not 
possible  for  him  to  devote  to  each  minute  point  the  personal  attention 
and  careful  research  which  Ritson  demanded.  In  the  case  of  inac- 
cessible manuscripts  and  rare  books  he  relied  on  catalogues  or  the  reports 
of  friends.  This  failure  to  investigate  original  sources  Ritson  attributed 
to  indolence,  and  in  pointing  out  the  anachronisms  and  inconsistencies 
into  which  "Warton  was  often  led  by  this  habit  he  did  much  to  correct 
the  History  of  English  Poetry.*' 

"Warton 's  failure  to  make  personal  investigation  of  all  phases  of  his 
subject  and  his  failure  to  keep  exact  notes  of  his  reading  caused  him 
often  to  make  vague  allusions  or  indefinite  references  to  books  and  manu- 
scripts. In  literary  matters  Ritson  was  a  pretty  thorough  skeptic.  He 
allowed  the  validity  of  no  inference  or  conjecture  until  it  had  been 
substantiated  by  documentary  evidence.  When  Warton  failed  of  pre- 
cision in  his  references,  Ritson  questioned  his  ever  having  seen  the  work 
alluded  to.  He  doubted  and  even  denied  the  existence  of  manuscripts 
which  he  had  not  himself  seen  and  continued  incredulous  until  con- 
vinced by  ocular  or  other  substantial  proof.  This  skepticism  sometimes 
placed  him  in  ridiculous  positions,  but  it  proved  to  be  not  wholly  a 
negative  quality  in  the  days  of  Chatterton,  Rowley,  Ireland,  and  their 
ilk;  and  Ritson  was  not  in  the  least  deceived  by  any  of  these  clever 
forgers. 

Ritson  questioned  Warton 's  sincerity  in  numerous  instances  in 
which  he  had  detected  errors  of  various  sorts,  but  the  most  emphatic 
impeachment  was  of  the  Historian's  motive  in  including  material  which 
to  him  seemed  superflous.  Warton  did  fall  easily  into  digression,  and 
his  side  excursions  were  usually  long.  But  there  was  no  reason  for 
deciding,  as  Ritson  hastily  did,  that  the  digressions  were  introduced 
merely  "to  enhance  the  bulk  and  price  of  his  writings".  The  critic  was 
extremely  vexed  at  the  long  dissertation,  of  ninety-seven  pages,  on  the 
"Gesta  Romanorum",  prefixed  to  the  third  volume.  This  he  called 
satirically,  a  "pretty  reasonable  assistant",  asserting  that  it  had  no 
particular  connection  with  the  history  of  English  poetry  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  but  was  inserted  because  "it  serves  to  fill  up  the  volume,  and 
that's  enough".*®  He  likewise  objected  to  the  inclusion  of  foreign  poets 
in  this  History,  asserting  that  the  digression  on  Dante*^  was  injected 
as  a  space-filler.    But  here  Ritson's  failure  to  appreciate  the  value  of 

*-'Ibid.,  pp.  8,  15,  28,  36. 

*»Ibid.,  p.  29. 

*^Ibid.,  p.  38.     See  also  pp.  12,  22- 


58  JOSEPH  RITSON  [392 

the  comparative  study  of  literature — which  he  came  afterward  to  under- 
stand and  to  apply  in  his  owti  criticisms^° —  led  him  into  the  grievous 
error  of  attributing  to  Warton  the  habits  of  the  meanest  hack-writer. 

Judging  from  the  criticism  it  has  aroused,  the  most  serious  of  all 
Ritson's  charges  against  Warton  is  that  of  plagiarism.  One  of  his 
critical  canons  was  that  every  literary  debt  must  be  specifically  acknowl- 
edged, and  he  was  scathing  in  denunciation  of  anyone  who  borrowed 
from  another  without  giving  due  credit.  He  frequently  detected  unac- 
knowledged borrowings  in  Warton  and  freely  charged  him  with  "steal- 
ing" and  "pilfering".  While  the  language  of  these  notes  is  not  in  the 
least  justifiable,  there  has  never  yet  been  a  successful  attempt  to  explain 
away  the  essence  of  Ritson's  criticism — that  Warton  was  guilty  of 
plagiarism,^^  And  herein  lies  perhaps  the  most  permanent  value  of  the 
Observations.  The  bare  corrections  contained  in  this  volume  might 
have  been  given  as  a  mere  table  of  Errata,  and  they  would  have  been 
given  sooner  or  later  and  in  much  more  gentlemanly  fashion.  But  the 
force  and  virulence  of  Riton's  manner — the  very  thing  that  has  been 
most  consistently  condemned — operated  to  place  him  in  an  advantageous 
position  to  enforce  the  principles  of  accuracy,  care,  and  honesty  which 
he  championed.  The  knowledge  that  there  was  a  keen  and  uncom- 
promising critic  ready  to  pounce  upon  editorial  laxity  and  castigate  the 
offender  had  a  not  inappreciable  share  in  hastening  the  day  of  ' '  modern ' ' 
editing.^- 

The  Ohservations  appeared  early  in  October,  1782,  and  was  almost 
immediately  reviewed  in  the  various  magazines.^^  The  comments  of  the 
reviewers  are  remarkably  similar  in  character.    All  the  writers  naturally 

soSee  Chapter  VII. 

^iRitson  charged  Warton  with  copj-ing  a  ballad  from  Percy's  Reliqucs  (Obser- 
vations, p.  5),  with  "pilfering"  Fawkes's  notes  to  Douglas's  Description  of  May 
{Ibid.,  p.  24),  and  with  taking  from  Steevens's  Shakspeare  an  explanation  of  the 
Hundred  Merry  Tales  as  the  Cent  Nouvelle^  Nouvelles  (Ibid.,  p.  43).  Mant 
explains  the  first  instance  by  saying  that  both  Warton  and  Percy  may  have 
received  their  copies  from  a  common  hand  (Richard  Mant,  The  Poetical  Works 
of  Thomas  Warton,  Oxford,  1802.  Vol.  II,  p.  Ixxviii.),  but  the  others  remain 
imexplained. 

■''-Instances  of  the  effect  of  Ritson's  criticism  in  insuring  greater  accuracy  in 
Percy,  Pinkerton,  and  others  will  appear  in  the  course  of  the  subsequent  discussion. 
Previous  to  Ritson  sporadic  protests  against  inaccuracy,  carelessness,  and  plagiarism 
had  been  made,  but  without  noticeable  effect.  See  H.  G.  Paul,  John  Dennis;  his 
life  and  criticism.  New  York,  191 1,  p.  72. 

^'•^Critica!  Review,  Vol.  LIV,  p.  272>'>  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  LII,  p.  532; 
Monthly  Rcvieiv,  Vol.  LXVIII,  p.  186;  London  Reviezv.  February,  1783;  European 
Magazine,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  126.  Although  the  work  was  anonymous,  there  was  little 
doubt  as  to  who  the  author  was. 


393]  LITERARY   BEGINNINGS  59 

devote  most  of  their  space  to  a  condemnation  of  Ritson's  ugly  manner 
and  say  relatively  little  about  the  value  of  the  material.  They  are 
unanimous  in  deprecating  the  ill  nature,  violence,  and  malignity  of  the 
"Observer".  His  abusive  language  is  variously  attributed  to  ignorance, 
malice,  and  insanity;  and  it  must  be  said  that  some  of  the  writers  are 
almost  as  virulent  with  the  critic  as  he  was  with  Warton.  But  with 
all  this  denunciation,  no  one  denies  the  extreme  accuracy  and  justness 
of  the  criticisms  when  stripped  of  their  violent  language.  In  fact, 
everywhere  it  is  admitted,  though  always  hurriedly  and  frequently 
grudgingly,  that  the  substance  of  the  work  is  good,  and  is  the  result  of 
the  minute  investigation  of  a  scholar.  And  yet,  it  is  sought  to  minimize 
this  admission  of  the  importance  of  the  critic's  contribution  by  saying 
that  his  productions  are  mere  "gleanings",  "the  effect  of  a  mind  anxious 
about  little  things",  and  "affect  the  value  of  the  History  of  English 
Poetry  little  if  at  all."  Here  undoubtedly  began  that  hatred  of  the 
Reviewers  as  a  class  which  Ritson  nursed  throughout  the  remainder  of 
his  life.  For  however  violent  the  language  of  his  own  works  might  be, 
he  never  seemed  to  understand  why  anyone  should  be  violent  with  him 
and  seemed  to  feel  that  there  was  always  justification  for  his  own 
intemperance  but  never  for  that  of  another. 

The  formal  reviews  did  not,  however,  mark  the  close  of  the  discus- 
sion of  Ritson  and  the  Observations.  The  critic's  strictures  against 
Warton  were  too  numerous  and  too  serious  to  be  left  without  an  attempt 
at  more  extended  refutation.  Such  an  attempt  was  early  undertaken 
and  received  its  initial  impulse  from  a  letter  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine 
for  November,  1782,  signed  "Verax",  and  very  plausibly  attributed  to 
Warton  himself.^*  This  communication  proved  to  be  the  beginning'^ 
of  an  epistolary  discussion  that  was  continued  in  the  columns  of  the 
Gentleman's  Magazine  during  the  whole  of  the  following  year.^*^  After 
a  dozen  letters  had  been  contributed,  the  editor  declared  that  he  "had 
sufficiently  shown  his  impartiality  in  the  controversy"  and  would  now 
"beg  leave  to  dismiss  it."  But  whereas  the  editor  may  have  been 
impartial,  the  Warton  adherents  among  the  contributors  very  greatly 
outnumbered  the  Ritson  allies,  only  three  of  the  letters  defending  the 

s*On  Nov.  3,  1782,  Warton  wrote  to  Nichols  asking  the  "very  singular  favor" 
of  the  insertion  of  an  enclosed  letter  "in  this  month's  Gentleman's  Magazine", 
urging  the  absolute  necessity  of  so  early  an  appearance,  and  enjoining  strict 
secrecy  in  the  whole  transaction.     See  Lit.  Lllust.,  IV,  p.  739. 

s^Warton's  most  recent  biographer  says  that  he  was  later  "drawn  into  the 
controversy  ....  and  probably  even  contributed  a  letter  himself".  Clarissa 
Rinaker,  Thomas  Warton;  a  biographical  and  critical  study.  University  of  Illinois, 
1916,  p.  113. 

^^See  Vol.  LII,  pp.  527-8,  571-5;  Vol.  LIII,  pp.  42-7,  126-7,  281-4,  416. 


60  JOSEPH  RITSON  [394 

critic.  It  was  literally  true,  as  one  of  the  correspondents  remarked,  that 
Warton  had  ''unkennelled  a  pack  of  literary  bloodhounds  that  seemed 
to  hunt  his  less-friended  antagonist  to  death."  Among  others  the  com- 
batants included,  on  Warton 's  side,  his  brother  Joseph,  the  Eev.  Thomas 
Russell  of  New  College,  Oxford,  and  the  Rev.  John  Bowie;  and  on 
Ritson's,  the  critic  himself,  and  his  friend  John  Baynes,^^  of  Gray's 
Inn. 

From  a  beginning  in  which  the  correspondents  seriously  tried  to 
reestablish  some  of  the  points  which  Ritson  had  attacked,  the  contro- 
versy soon  degenerated  into  personalities.  The  discussion  was  charac- 
terized by  a  good  deal  of  violence,  which  caused  the  writers  at  times  to 
lose  sight  of  their  subject  and  indulge  in  personal  taunts  and  abusive 
flings  at  one  another.  Most  of  the  correspondents  played  the  role  of 
advocates,  and,  holding  briefs  for  their  respective  clients,  they  were 
blinded,  wilfully  or  no,  to  whatever  virtues  the  opponent  might  possess. 
The  less  frenzied  of  the  controversialists  acknowledged  that  Warton 's 
errors  deserved  reprehension  and  admitted  that  Ritson  displayed  great 
learning  and  critical  acumen  in  detecting  them,  though  he  was  to  be 
censured  for  presenting  his  material  in  an  ungentlemanly  manner.  With 
these  men  the  dispute  centered  mainly  upon  particular  criticisms,  among 
which  the  most  prominent  were  Ritson's  challenge  to  Warton  to  prove 
his  statement  that  "anciently  in  England  ladies  were  sheriffs  of  coun- 
ties '  '^^  and  his  denial  of  the  existence  of  such  a  person  as  Messen  Jordi.^® 
These  and  similar  points  were  established  by  the  contestants  for  both 
sides  by  the  simple  and  obvious  expedient  of  placing  their  own  construc- 
tion upon  whatever  evidence  could  be  marshalled. 

But  Ritson's  critics  could  make  no  great  headway  at  answering  his 
strictures  against  Warton  and  took  up  the  easier  task  of  censuring  his 
method.  In  doing  this  they  frequently  indulged  in  language  as  intem- 
perate as  that  they  criticized.  The  logomachy  was  thus  marked  by  the 
intemperance  and  violence,  and  often  by  the  coarseness  and  scurrility, 
which  characterized  most  of  the  literary  controversies  of  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries.  Ritson  was  justly  censured,  on  the  grounds 
of  common  decency,  for  dragging  obscene  material*"'  into  his  work.  His 
eccentric  spelling  and  altered  grammatical  distinctions*'^  have  little  other 

^'■John  Baynes  (1758-1787),  special  pleader  of  Gray's  Inn,  was  a  miscellaneous 
writer  of  some  note.  At  his  death  he  bequeathed  to  Ritson  a  very  curious  collec- 
tion of  old  romances.    See  Lit.  Anec,  VIII,  pp.  113-115. 

^^Observations,  p.  10. 

^^Ibid.,  p.   30. 

^"Marlow's  tenets,  Observations,  p.  40;  Scoggin's  jest.  Ibid.,  p.  20,  note;  etc. 

^^Eccentricities  of  spelling  begun  in  the  early  Versees  are  enlarged  upon 
here.     The  outstanding  peculiarity  of  the  orthography  of  Observations  is  the  use 


395]  LITERARY   BEGINNINGS  61 

authority  to  support  them  than  personal  whim.  He  is  unwarrantably 
vicious  in  many  of  his  thrusts  at  Warton.  But  these  violations  of 
propriety  are  hardly  sufficient  justification  for  his  opponents'  falling  into 
the  very  errors  for  which  thej^  reproached  him.  Their  most  flagrant 
and  most  persistently  reiterated  abuse  is  that  of  imputing  to  him  motives 
of  personal  animosity.  It  is  equally  absurd  to  conjecture  that  he  was 
''angry  that  a  history  of  our  poetry  should  have  been  undertaken  by  a 
scholar  of  polite  taste  and  not  hy  a  "pedant"*^-  and  to  declare  that  the 
Observations  was  intended  ''to  depreciate  an  individual  and  not  benefit 
the  public.""^  Ritson  had  no  conceivable  reason  for  personal  enmity 
to  Warton  and  consistently  disavowed  any  such  motive.  It  is  only 
justice  to  take  at  their  face  value  these  words  in  the  opening  paragraph 
of  Observations  : 

"Personal  motives  I  cannot  possibly  have  been  influenced  by,  and  utterly 
disavow.  And  were  you  able  to  falsify  every  charge  I  have  here  brought  against 
you,  whatever  might  be  your  severity,  I  should  kiss  the  rod  with  resignation  and 
even  pleasure :  as,  I  assure  you,  the  satisfaction  I  should  have  experienced,  in 
finding  your  work  entirely  free  from  error,  would  have  been  infinitely  beyond  any 
I  can  be  supposed  to  feel,  in  thus  making  myself  the  public  instrument  of  its 
detection." 

The  reviewer  of  the  Observations  in  the  London  Review  expressed 
the  common  judgment  of  most  of  Warton 's  friends  when  he  said:  "Mr. 
Warton,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  for  the  honor  of  literature,  will  think  it 
infinitely  beneath  him  to  immortalize  such  a  critic,  even  with  a  damna- 
tion". In  effect  Warton  compiled  with  this  wish,  and  although  his  let- 
ter which  precipitated  the  long  discussion  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine 
was  a  virtual  reply  to  Ritson,  he  took  no  acknowledged  notice  of  the 
critic.  There  is,  however,  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  true  effect  of 
Ritson 's  attack  upon  Warton  himself.  Bishop  Percy  and  Thomas 
Caldecott  of  New  College,  both  friends  of  Warton,  were  of  the  opinion 
that  Ritson 's  pamphlet  caused  him  to  abandon  the  History  in  its  incom- 
plete stage  at  the  third  volume.*'*  Mant,  author  of  the  first  Memoir 
of  the  Historian,  declared  that  "an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Warton  has 
informed  me,  that  he  neither  allowed  the  justness,  nor  felt,  though  he 

of  "hisself",  "theirselves",  etc.,  for  "himself",  "themselves",  etc.  Robert  Lowth 
(1710-1787),  in  his  Short  Introduction  to  English  Grammar,  2nd  edition,  1786,  p. 
43,  admits  the  use  of  such  constructions,  but  nowhere  uses  them  himself. 

^-Critical  Review,  Vol,  LIV,  p.  373. 

63Ritson's  English  Songs,  ed.  Thos.  Park,  London,  1813.  Preface,  p.  xxxviii, 
note. 

6*Thomas  Caldecott  to  Thomas  Percy,  March  21,  1803 ;  and  Percy  to  Caldecott, 
August  17,  1803,  Lit.  Illust.,  VIII,  p.  372. 


62  JOSEPH   RITSON  [396 

might  lament,  the  keenness  of  the  censure.  "^^  Dr.  Rinaker,  Warton's 
latest  biographer,  suggests  the  distraction  of  his  interest  to  other  fields,"® 
as  the  most  plausible  explanation  of  his  neglect  of  the  work.  Warton's 
only  personal  remark  occurs  in  a  letter  to  George  Steevens,  who  had 
just  furnished  him  with  some  information  about  Ritson.  There  he 
declares  that  he  "could  disprove  most  of  his  [Ritson 's]  objections  were 
it  a  matter  of  any  consequence.  "^'^  That  he  felt  the  censure  more 
keenly  than  he  cared  to  admit  is  evinced  by  the  fact  that  this  statement 
was  written  five  days  after  he  had  dispatched  to  the  Gentleman's  Mag- 
azine the  pseudonymous  letter  already  cited,  in  which  he  attempted  to 
reestablish  many  of  the  points  Ritson  had  attacked. 

If  there  is  divided  opinion  as  to  the  effect  upon  Warton  of  the 
Observations  and  the  storm  it  aroused,  there  are  equally  divergent  judg- 
ments on  the  question  of  the  reaction  upon  Ritson.  Haslewood  asserts 
that  Ritson  afterwards  became  convinced  of  the  unjustness  of  his  attack 
on  Warton,  and  "the  reasoning  of  his  frank  friend,  Mr,  Park,  drew 
from  him  an  acknowledgement  of  his  own  impropriety,  and  induced  him, 
at  a  later  period,  to  buy  up  and  destroy  all  the  copies  of  the  work  that 
could  be  obtained."®*  Support  is  given  this  view  by  Ellis's  confession 
that  his  anger  at  Ritson 's  attack  on  the  Historian  was  mollified  by  the 
critic's  repentance®''  and  by  Anderson's  statement  that  he  had  heard 
Ritson  speak  of  Warton  "in  a  placable  and  penetential  way."""  Ritson 's 
nephew,  however,  denied  that  his  uncle  ever  repented,  and  Nicolas 
attributed  the  statement  to  "an  amiable  motive  to  extenuate  the  con- 
duct of  Ritson,  which,  nevertheless,  fails  because  it  happens  to  be  without 
foundation."'^  In  view  of  these  contradictions  and  in  the  want  of  evi- 
dence that  Ritson  ever  went  so  far  as  to  destroy  the  available  copies  of 
the  book,  the  only  opportunity  to  determine  how  sincere  his  repentence 
was — if  indeed  he  did  repent — lies  in  a  review  of  his  later  allusions 
to  Warton. 


65Mant,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  Ixxvii. 

660p.  Cit.,  p.  112. 

^ilbid. 

^^Haslewood,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  7. 

^^George  Ellis  to  Thomas  Park,  Sept.  27,  1799,  quoted  by  Haslewood,  Op. 
Cit.,  p.  27,  note. 

■'oAnderson  to  Percy,  May  21,  1803,  Lit.  Illust.,  VIII,  p.  113.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence to  support  the  view  set  forth  in  an  unsigned  article  in  the  Encyclopedia 
Brittanica  that  the  storm  of  anger  aroused  by  his  criticism  greatly  delighted  Rit- 
son.   See  art.  "Ritson". 

■^^Op.  Cit.,  p.  xxiii. 


397]  LITERARY   BEGINNINGS  63 

On  hearing  of  Warton's  death  Ritson  wrote  to  his  friend  Walker: 

"Well !  'T  war  not  with  the  dead',  and  shall  treat  his  ashes  with  the  reverence 
I  ought  possibly  to  have  bestowed  on  his  person.  Unfortunately  he  is  introduced, 
not  always  in  the  most  serious  or  respectful  manner,  in  a  work  which  has  been 
long  printed,  but  which  I  think  my  book-seller  does  not  choose  to  publish  till  both 
the  editor  and  all  his  friends  and  enemies  are  buried  in  oblivion."^- 

The  work  to  which  he  refers,  Ancietit  Songs,  from  the  time  of  King 
Henry  III  to  the  Revolution,  was  printed  in  two  volumes  in  1787,  but 
not  published  until  1792.'^^  The  material  for  these  volumes  was  amassed 
at  least  three  years  before  the  Historian's  death  and  at  a  time  when 
the  editor  could  have  had  no  thought  of  that  event.  Though  tardy,  the 
expression  of  regret  at  his  flippancy  and  disrespect  is  highly  creditable 
to  his  character.  Later  editors  of  the  Ancient  Songs,  evidently  guided 
by  Ritson 's  implied  wdsh,  have  omitted  the  allusions  to  Warton.'* 

In  the  preface  to  his  edition  of  Poems  .  .  .  .  hy  Laurence 
Minot,  published  in  1795,  Ritson  criticised  Warton's  handling  of  these 
poems  in  his  History,  and  pointed  out  some  errors  which  he  ascribed 
to  mis  judgment  and  ignorance.  The  language  employed  is  plain  and 
direct,  but  in  no  wise  meant  to  give  offense.  Although  Ritson  had  not 
given  over  his  antagonism  to  Warton's  faults,  his  comments  here  lack 
the  personal  direction  which  was  so  objectionable  in  his  earlier  work, 
and  he  exhibits  a  manner  w^hich,  compared  with  that  of  the  Observa- 
tions, may  without  the  least  danger  of  overpraise  be  characterized  as 
"softened  asperity  and  tempered  virulence. "^^ 

But  the  change  of  spirit  which  Ritson  had  manifested  in  his  remarks 
on  the  death  of  Warton,  in  the  preface  to  Minot 's  Poems,  and  in  com- 
ments to  friends,  is  not  evident  in  his  latest  publications.  After  a  period 
of  editorial  inactivity  comprising  seven  years  of  severe  illness  which  left 
his  faculties  impaired,  he  published  Ancient  English  Metrical  Romances 
and  Bihliographia  Poetica,  in  1802.  In  both  these  works  Ritson  displays 
an  acerbity  of  language  which  is  not  exceeded  in  the  Observations.  He 
devotes  several  pages  of  the  introductory  Essay  in  Metrical  Romances 

'''^Letters,  I,  p.  169. 

^^Ritson  has  several  comments  on  Warton  in  his  English  Songs  and  Remarks 

on   Shakspeare,  both  published   in   1783,  but  it  is   obvious   that  they 

will  throw  no  light  on  the  question  in  hand  because  those  works  were  in  preparation 
simultaneously  with  the  Observations  and  he  could  not  then  have  anticipated  the 
full  effect  of  that  publication. 

"*The  most  offensive  notes  occured  on  pp.  27  and  286  of  the  original  edition. 
The  only  reference  to  Warton  in  the  second  edition,   1829,   is  a  very  brief  and 
eminently  civil  allusion,  Vol.  II,  p.  233. 
"^Mant,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  Ixvii. 


64  JOSEPH  RITSON  [398 

to  a  refutation  of  Warton's  theory  of  the  origin  of  romance,  and  over- 
looks no  opening  for  a  vicious  personal  thrust  at  Warton  or  a  contemptu- 
ous sneer  at  the  church  which  he  served/*'  The  comments  on  Warton 
and  his  History  which  appear  in  Bihliographia  Poetica  are  much  tem- 
pered and  softened,  but  it  seems  that  the  want  of  extravagance  in  lan- 
guage was  not  the  result  of  voluntary  restraint  on  Ritson's  part.  The 
manuscript  of  this  work  was  presented  to  Thomas  Park  for  criticism, 
and  he  declares  that  he  blotted  out  a  "severe  sarcasm  against  Warton's 
mendacious  History  of  English  Poetry,  which  Ritson  forebore  to  rein- 
state."^^ Either  on  this  or  a  previous  occasion  Ritson  expressed  to  Park 
his  regret  for  his  disrespectful  treatment  of  Warton,  but  he  was  never 
able  wholly  to  give  over  his  contempt  for  the  Historian's  laxness  in 
handling  material.  It  appears,  then,  from  Ritson's  correspondence  and 
his  private  expressions  to  various  friends  that  he  realized  he  had  over- 
stepped the  bounds  of  propriety  in  some  of  the  notes  in  Observations 
and  that,  especiall}^  after  Warton's  death,  he  was  genuinely  repentant. 
For  a  time  he  sought  to  make  amends  in  a  negative  fashion  by  publishing 
nothing  virulent  about  Warton  and  even  by  commending  his  service  to 
literature  when  he  had  occasion  to  mention  the  History.  But  all  this 
is  largely  overbalanced  by  a  return  to  the  old  violence  and  extravagance 
of  statement  in  his  last  published  works.  The  almost  inevitable  con- 
clusion is  that  his  hatred  of  Warton  and  the  History  was  too  deep- 
seated  for  anj^  effective  and  thorough-going  repentance  to  have  been 
possible. 

The  great  amount  of  discussion  created  by  the  publication  of  Obser- 
vations is  ample  evidence  that  there  was  something  more  than  sound 
and  fury  to  that  indictment  of  Warton.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  every 
effort  was  made  to  discredit  Ritson  and  his  work  by  emphasizing  the 
indefensible  coarseness  of  his  manner  and  ignoring  the  kernel  of  his 
criticism,  it  was  impossible  to  obscure  the  fact  that  he  was  a  man  of 
wide  and  accurate  learning  in  the  older  periods  of  English  poetry,  a 
critic  of  keen  perception,  and  a  powerful  antagonist.  As  such  he 
became  almost  immediately  known ;  but  his  most  vulnerable  point  was 
always  his  vicious  manner  of  writing,  and  an  attack  upon  this  too  fre- 
quently diverted  attention  from  the  real  value  of  his  criticisms.  The 
editors  of  Warton  illustrate  this  fact. 

Thomas  Park  planned  to  include  the  body  of  Ritson's  notes  in  his 
edition  of  the  History  of  English  Poetry. "^^  Although  this  project  was 
never  carried  out,  it  appears  from  Park's  comments  on  Ritson  in  his 

''^Anc.  Eng.  Met.  Romances,  2nd  edition,  1884,  Vol.  I,  p.  2,  and  passim. 

^^Haselwood,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  27. 

^^See  announcement  of  this  projected  edition  in  Athenaeum,  Vol.  V,  p.  245. 


399]  LITERARY   BEGINNINGS  65 

edition  of  the  latter 's  English  Songs,  that  he  would  have  manifested  but 
little  charity  towards  him.  He  concludes  a  rather  severe  arraignment 
of  Ritsou  with  a  mention  of  his  proposed  edition  of  the  History  when 
*'as  an  editorial  advocate,  it  will  become  my  province  to  rebut  a  regular 
indictment,  comprising  seventeen  counts,  against  the  veracity  of  our 
poetical  historian."'^  Although  we  are  deprived  of  this  formal  attack 
upon  Ritson  by  Park 's  failure  to  edit  Warton,  there  is  an  equally  earnest 
attempt  to  discredit  the  critic  in  Richard  Price 's  edition  of  the  History. ^^ 
Price  used  more  than  half  of  Ritson 's  notes  in  his  edition,  but  this  did 
not  prevent  his  indulging  in  an  extremely  ill-natured  and  malicious 
attack  upon  the  antiquary,  in  which  he  conjured  up  all  his  personal 
faults  and  individual  foibles  against  him  and  said  next  to  nothing  of  the 
material  that  really  concerned  the  editor  and  student  of  Warton.^^  Fairer 
treatment  is  accorded  Ritson  in  the  1840  and  1874  editions  of  the 
History.  The  substantial  body  of  his  notes  is  included,  and  he  is  given 
credit  for  what  he  actually  contributed  toward  a  correct  History  of 
English  Poetry,  with  no  attempt  to  depreciate  its  importance  by  cat- 
aloguing the  private  sins  for  which  he  may  be  held  accountable. 

It  has  been  contended  that  Ritson  was  not  competent  to  judge  the 
History  of  English  Poetry  because  he  did  not  know  it  as  a  whole  but 
only  saw  it  as  so  many  separate  minutiae.  But  Ritson  did  not  attempt 
a  criticism  of  the  History  on  any  comprehensive  scale.  His  work  was 
avowedly  the  detecting  of  errors  of  commission  and  the  finding  of  faults, 
which,  though  minute,  detract  from  the  accuracy  of  a  work  and  hence 
diminish  its  value  for  the  careful  student  and  conscientious  reader.  That 
Ritson  succeeded  in  this  task  no  one  has  denied.  But  many  have  been 
ignorant  of,  or  have  ignored,  the  fact  that  this  and  not  something  more 
ambitious  was  what  he  set  out  to  accomplish.  It  is  not  the  greatest  type 
of  criticism,  perhaps  not  even  great,  but  such  as  it  is,  it  ought  to  be 
judged  on  its  merits.  It  is  task  work  that  must  be  done,  and  at  this 
particular  time  in  the  history  of  English  literature  it  needed  especially 
to  be  done. 

"^Advertisement  to  Park's  edition  of  English  Songs,  1813. 

^°The  History  of  English  poetry  .  ...  By  Thomas  Warton  .... 
A  new  edition  carefully  revised  with  numerous  additional  notes  by  the  late 
Mr.  Ritson.     .     .     .    and  by  the  Editor  [Richard  Price].     4  vols.     London.     1824. 

siThe  unjustness  of  Price's  treatment  of  Ritson  was  ably  exposed  by  a  writer 
in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  XCV,  pp.  486-8. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Shakespeare  Criticisms'- 

Undertakes  serious  critical  study  of  Shakespeare — His  place  in  the  changing 
attitude  toward  the  dramatist — Publishes  Remarks — Its  general  nature — Subsequent 
relations  of  Ritson  and  Steevens — Critical  reception  of  Remarks — Publishes  Quip 
Modest — Abuse  of  Reviewers  and  Steevens — Misunderstanding  with  Reed — ^Critical 
reception  of  Quip  Modest — Publishes  Cursory  Criticisms — ^X'^iolent  attack  on  Re- 
viewers and  Malone — Malone's  reply — Ritson's  later  attitude  toward  Malone — Gen- 
eral theories  of  editing — Specific  criticisms  of  Shakespeare — Appreciation  of  Hamlet 
— Plans  an  edition  of  the  plays  and  poems — Publishes  two  pages  of  Comedy  of 
Errors — The  lost  manuscripts — Conclusion. 

Eitson  's  early  years  in  London  were  filled  with  a  number  of  literary 
interests.  He  did  not  allow  his  concern  with  Warton's  History  or  with 
early  romances  to  consume  all  his  time.  The  earliest  of  his  letters  and 
all  his  publications  reveal  a  wide  familiarity  with  Shakespeare,  to  whose 
works  he  seems  to  have  devoted  a  great  deal  of  attention  from  the  very 
first.  The  Stockton  Jtitilee,  or  Shakspeare  in  all  his  Glory,  was  a  youth- 
ful display  of  Shakesperian  knowledge  for  the  edification  of  friends 
back  in  Stockton.  But  with  increased  maturity  of  thought  and  with  the 
stimulus  of  enlarged  reading  he  soon  turned  his  study  to  more  serious 
ends.  The  century  in  which  he  lived  is  replete  with  editors  and  critics 
of  Shakespeare.  The  increasing  volume  of  Shakespeare  literature  as  the 
century  advanced  represents  that  growing  interest  in  the  old  English 
writers  and  increasing  familiarity  with  their  works  which  we  are  told 
was  one  of  the  "beginnings  of  romanticism".  This  increasing  interest 
was  a  complex  growth.  There  are  the  bare  mathematical  facts  of  the 
increasing  number  of  Shakespeare  references  and  allusions  in  the  liter- 
ature and  in  the  private  correspondence  of  the  century;  the  increasing 
frequency  with  which  new  editions  appeared;  and  the  rapidly  growing 
army  of  annotators,  commentators,  and  essayists.  Then  there  is  the  less 
tangible  but  no  less  real  fact  of  the  changing  attitude  toward  Shake- 

^The  present  chapter  is  an  enlargement  and  revision  of  an  article  entitled, 
"Joseph  Ritson  and  Some  Eighteenth  Century  Editors  of  Shakespeare"  which  was 
published  in  Shakespeare  Studies,  By  members  of  the  Department  of  English  of 
the  University  of  Wisconsin,  Madison,  1916,  pp.  253-275.  The  material  is  here 
used  with  the  permission  of  the  Department  of  English. 

66 


401]  SHAKESPEARE    CRITICISMS  67 

speare ;  from  a  patronizing  view  of  the  dramatist  as  an  inspired  barbarian 
to  a  conception  of  him  as  the  transcendent  artist;  from  a  blind  and 
ignorant  worship  to  a  sane  and  serious  study;  from  a  heterogeneous 
hodge-podge  of  criticism  to  a  common  conception  of  the  duties  of  the 
editor  and  critic.  This  evolution  was  gradual,  but  it  was  more  rapid 
toward  the  close  of  the  century  than  at  the  beginning.  Some  of  the 
greatest  and  some  of  the  least  of  England 's  literary  men  helped  it  along. 
To  the  lesser,  oftentimes,  was  it  given  to  correct  the  greater  and  to  make 
straight  the  paths  for  feet  more  worthy  to  tread  them.  Among  these 
minor  agencies  Ritson  is  to  be  classed.  Although  his  chief  claim  to 
attention  in  the  history  of  English  letters  must  continue  to  rest  upon 
the  work  with  ballads  and  romances  which  is  to  be  discussed  in  the 
succeeding  chapters,  yet  he  deserves  more  recognition  than  he  has  thus 
far  received  as  a  critic  and  emendator  of  Shakespeare.  Unlike  many  of 
his  contemporaries,  he  had  a  profound  reverence  for  Shakespeare  and 
considered  him  the  great  universal  genius.  He  had  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  original  quartos  and  folios,  which  enabled  him  to  detect 
textual  mutilations  and  alterations.  Through  his  influence  these  first 
texts  received  a  more  ample  measure  of  the  consideration  due  them  at 
the  hands  of  Shakespeare's  editors.  Ritson  possessed  ideas  of  editorship 
and  a  conception  of  the  function  of  the  critic  which  were  in  advance  of 
his  day,  and  by  unremitting  insistence  upon  them  he  helped  to  establish 
standards  which  are  today  recognized  as  inviolable.  His  own  contri- 
butions to  Shakespearean  interpretation  are  by  no  means  to  be  ignored. 
Most  at  home  in  the  minutiae  of  textual  correction,  he  was  not  devoid 
of  an  appreciation  of  the  characters  and  the  plays  as  a  whole,  and  made 
many  sound  observations  upon  them. 

To  these  qualities  the  personal  equation  added  more  in  the  case  of 
Ritson  than  in  that  of  perhaps  any  one  of  his  contemporaries.  The 
personal  controversial  flavor  which  was  characteristic  of  the  Observations 
is  to  be  detected  in  almost  equal  degree  in  all  his  publications  on  Shake- 
speare. He  often  put  Shakespeare  in  the  background  while  he  lashed 
Steevens  or  Dr.  Johnson  or  Malone,  or  even  Reed  or  Farmer.  But  he 
respected  these  men,  and  in  his  less  heated  moments  invariably  repented 
of  his  harsh  treatment  of  them.  Such  conduct  again  brought  down  upon 
his  head  the  scorn  and  ridicule  of  the  reviewers.  The  Reviews  may  have 
killed  Keats ;  they  only  galvanized  Ritson  into  action  and  gave  us  one, 
and  perhaps  two,  Shakespeare  pamphlets  we  should  not  otherwise  have 
had.  Because  the  Shakespeare  publications  afforded  Ritson  a  means  of 
carrying  on  personal  warfare  and  seemed,  in  some  degree,  set  forth 
chiefly  for  that  purpose,  and  because  the  body  of  criticism  is  substantially 
the  same  through  all  the  volumes,  it  will  be  well  to  defer  the  consider- 


68  JOSEPH  RITSON  [402 

ation  of  his  contribution  to  Shakespearean  knowledge  until  the  chron- 
ology of  his  pamphlets  has  been  traced. 

Before  the  vigor  of  the  discussion  of  his  attack  upon  Warton  had 
begun  to  wane,  Ritson  issued  a  second  controversial  volume  entitled, 
Remarks,  Critical  and  Illustrative,  on  the  Text  and  Notes  of  the  Last 
Edition  of  Shakspeare.  It  was  directed  against  the  Johnson  and 
Steevens  Shakspeare  of  1778,-  especiallj^  against  Steevens,  and  the 
method  pursued  was  substantially  that  followed  in  the  Warton  tract. 
In  this  volume,  as  in  the  earlier  one,  Ritson  disavowed  any  personal 
motive  in  his  remarks.  He  declared  himself  enlisted  in  "the  cause  of 
Shakspeare  and  truth",  and  called  Shakespeare  the  God  of  his  idolatry. 
But  he  recognized  that  "to  controvert  the  opinions  or  disprove  the 
assertions"  of  such  men  as  Johnson,  Steevens,  Tyrwhitt,  and  Farmer,  he 
must  have  some  justification,  especially  where  an  undue  warmth  of 
expression  was  occasionally  to  be  detected.  In  this,  however,  he  con- 
sidered that  he  was  only  exercising  the  right  which  these  men  before  him 
had  practised,  and  which  it  was  the  privilege  of  every  man  to  exercise, — 
that  of  contradicting  the  opinions  of  his  predecessors  when  they  were 
thought  or  proved  to  be  erroneous.  But  at  the  same  time  he  was  anxious 
to  avoid  the  imputation  of  animus  or  of  mean  quibbling.  In  dealing  with 
other  men  he  declared  he  would  "not  be  found  to  have  expressed  him- 
self in  a  manner  inconsistent  with  a  due  sense  of  obligations  and  the 
profoundest  respect.  Such,  at  least,  was  his  intention,  such  has  been 
his  endeavor,  and  such  is  his  hope."^ 

Of  the  457  notes  in  the  Remarks  approximately  half  are  concerned 
with  textual  emendations,  the  remainder  with  errors  of  judgment  of 
Steevens  and  his  fellow  commentators.  It  was  in  notes  of  the  latter 
type  that  the  venom  of  Ritson 's  nature  was  exhibited.  He  frequently 
overstepped  the  bounds  of  literary  propriety  in  ridiculing  Steevens 's 
"blunders",  in  questioning  his  motives,  and  in  exposing  his  "ignor- 
ance". And  yet  there  was  underlying  all  this  unscholarly  manner  a 
vein  of  pertinent  criticism  which  struck  home  to  Steevens. 

Although  the  Remarks  was  published  anonymously,  Ritson  made  no 
effort  to  conceal  the  authoriship,*  and  Steevens  knew  almost  immediately 
who  was  the  author  of  the  book  and  spread  the  information  among  his 

'^The  Plays  of  William  Shakspeare,  zi'iili  the  corrections  and  illustrations  of 
various  commentators ;  to  which  are  added  notes  by  S.  Johnson  and  G.  Steevens. 
Second  edition  revised  and  augmented,  lo  vols.,  London,  1778. 

^Remarks,  etc.,  Preface,  p.  viii. 

*0n  going  to  press  Ritson  informed  Harrison,  who  seemed  to  be  a  sort  of 
Father  Confessor  for  his  literary  life,  of  the  nature  of  his  new  work  and  added 
boastfully,  "I  will  turn  the  world  upside  down."     Letters,  I,  p.  61. 


403]  SHAKESPEARE    CRITICISMS  69 

friends.-'  It  was  little  to  be  expected  that  Steevens,  wliose  insinuating 
abuse  had  already  disposed  of  a  brace  of  critical  opponents,  would  let 
pass  Avithout  some  effort  at  refutation,  a  charge  more  serious  against  his 
literary  reputation  and  more  ably  sustained  than  that  of  either  Collins 
or  Jennens.®  Under  the  signature  of  "Alciphron"  he  attacked  the 
Remarks  in  a  letter  to  the  St.  James's  Chronicle  for  June  5,  1783/  He 
dismissed  tlie  Remarks  as  trivial  and  insignificant,  as  treating  not  a 
single  "important  and  shining  passage  of  Shakspeare".  Signing  himself 
"Justice",  Ritson  replied  the  next  week  that  the  design  of  the  "Re- 
marker"  had  been  to  prove  the  late  edition  of  Shakespeare  "an  execrable 
bad  one ;  and  tliis,  I  say,  he  has  done ' '.®  Such  juvenile  assertion  and 
denial  did  nothing,  of  course,  to  establish  the  critical  status  of  Ritson 
or  his  book;  it  served  merely  as  means  of  escape  for  personal  animus. 
Wlien  the  edge  of  their  rancor  had  grown  dull,  Steevens  and  Ritson 
continued  on  friendly  terms.  The  editor  kept  the  critic  informed  of  his 
various  undertakings  and  was  from  time  to  time  supplied  by  him  with 
interesting  notes  on  Shakespeare.^ 

It  was  perhaps  largely  because  of  their  continued  correspondence  that 
Ritson  came  eventually  to  feel  that  his  published  attack  upon  Steevens 
was  quite  unworthy  of  himself.  More  than  a  decade  after  its  appearance 
he  wrote  to  his  nephew,  who  had  undertaken  to  make  some  corrections 
in  it: 

"In  behalf  of  the  Remarks  I  have  nothing  to  saj'.  Indeed,  I  should  think  you 
much   better   employed   in   putting   them   into   the    fire,   than   in   a   vain   attempt   to 

^See  the  following  letters :  George  Steevens  to  Thos.  Warton,  April  i6,  1783, 
in  John  Wooll's  Biographical  Memoirs  of  Joseph  Warton,  London,  1806,  p.  398; 
John  Bowie  to  Thos.  Warton,  May  18,  1783,  ibid.,  p.  402;  M.  Lort  to  Bishop  Percy, 
May  19,  1783,  Lit.  lilies.,  VIII,  p.  457. 

^'In  defense  of  Capell,  John  Collins  (1748-1797)  charged  Steevens  with  pla- 
giarism in  a  Letter  to  George  Hardingc,  Esq.  on  the  subject  of  a  passage  in  Mr. 
Steevens'  Preface  to  his  impression  of  Shakspeare.  London,  1777.  Steevens 
never  forgave  this  attack  and  let  slip  no  opportunity  to  hurl  violent  epithets  at 
Collins,  relating  disparaging  anecdotes  concerning  him,  and  fathering  upon  him  a 
number  of  highly  questionable  notes  in  the  1778  Shakspeare.  Charles  Jennens 
(1700-1773)  made  a  similar  accusation  against  Steevens,  and  the  editor,  not  without 
some  foundation,  sneered  at  him  unmercifully,  both  in  reviews  and  newspapers. 
See  Critical  Reviezv,  Vol.  XXXIV,  p.  475;  XXXV,  p.  230,  and  Public  Advertiser 
for  Jan.  26  and  Feb.  14,  1771. 

"Reprinted  in  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  LIII,  p.  594. 

^St.  James's  Chronicle,  June  10,  1783.  Reprinted  in  Gentleman's  Magazine, 
Vol.  LIII,  p.  595- 

°See  Letters,  II,  pp.  32,  123,  171,  193,  and  Advertisement  to  Bibliographia 
Poetic  a. 


TO  JOSEPH  RITSON  [404 

diminish  the  inaccuracies  of  such  a  mass  of  error,  both  typographical  and 
authorial."  1° 

Ritson's  final  estimate  of  Steevens  accords  well  with  the  judgment  of 
posterity.  As  a  commentator  he  recognized  his  rival  as  a  man  of 
acuteness  and  wit,  whose  arguments  were  "always  ingenious  and  plausi- 
ble, but  not  in  every  way  convincing",  but  as  an  editor  of  Shakespeare 
he  thought  him  deficient  in  true  poetical  feeling,  and  devoid  of  rever- 
ence for  his  author. 

The  Warton  controversy  had  brought  Ritson  into  a  prominence  not 
altogether  enviable  as  a  critic  and  antagonist,  and  the  reception  of  the 
Bemarks  by  the  Reviews  was  largely  influenced  by  the  opinion  previously 
formed  by  its  author.^  ^  The  minute  accuracy  in  textual  collations,  the 
extensive  learning  displayed,  the  contributions  to  Shakespeare  interpre- 
tation— all  these  were  damned  with  faint  praise  as  the  reviewers  hastened 
on  to  condemn  the  offensive  assurance,  the  unwonted  egotism,  and  the 
unparalleled  violence  of  the  author.^ ^  Using  the  methods  which  they 
condemned,  they  turned  Ritson's  own  weapons  upon  himself  and  accused 
him  of  plagiarizing  from  the  Supplements  of  Malone  and  Steevens^ ^ 
material  to  correct  their  own  faults.  To  the  arch-enemy  of  plagiarists 
and  editorial  defaulters,  this  was  a  serious  charge;  and  he  hastened  to 
enter  his  denial.  In  addition  to  Ritson's  assertion  that  he  "was  not 
aware  of  being  anticipated  in  more  than  a  single  instance",  it  appears 
from  chronology  that  plagiarism  was  all  but  impossible.  The  Remarks 
was  put  to  the  press  as  early  as  the  first  week  in  October,  1782,  and  was 
published  in  the  spring  of  1783.  Malone 's  Second  Supplement  appeared 
early  in  the  same  year,  antedating  Ritson's  volume  by  only  a  few  weeks 
at  best.  It  is  this  work  that  contains  the  most  of  the  "purloined"  notes 
(the  first  supplement  being  largely  taken  up  with  the  apocryphal  plays) 

^^Letters,  II,  p.  123.  Ritson  seems  never  to  have  been  wholly  satisfied  with  the 
accuracy  of  the  Remarks  and  found  it  necessary  to  publish  two  lists  of  Errata, 
mostly  typographical.  Yet  he  found  a  melancholy  sort  of  pleasure  in  the  con- 
viction that  his  pamphlet  was  less  inaccurate  than  the  edition  of  Shakespeare  which 
it  criticized. 

"While  the  reviewers  did  not  mention  Ritson,  since  the  volume  was  anonymous, 
yet  they  invariably  connected  this  work  with  the  Observations  as  the  production  of 
"Wartono  Mastix"  or  the  "modern  Zoilus". 

i2See  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  LIII,  pp.  593-5;  Critical  Rcviezv,  Vol.  LVI, 
pp.  81-9;  Monthly  Review,  Vol.  LXX,  pp.  334-8. 

^^Supl)lement  to  the  edition  of  Shakspeare's  plays  published  in  177S  .... 
containing  additional  observations  by  several  of  the  former  commentators  .... 
zvith  notes  by  the  editor  [Malone]  and  others.  London,  1780.  A  Second  Appendix 
to  Mr.  Malone's  Supplement  containing  additional  observations  by  the  editor  of  the 
Supplement.    London,  1783. 


405]  SHAKESPEARE    CRITICISMS  71 

and  it  is  obvious  that  Kitsoii  could  not  have  seen  it  in  time  to  make  any 
changes  in  his  own  publication.  The  logical  conclusion  is  that  the  notes 
in  question  occurred  simultaneously  to  Ritson  and  Malone  (or  Steevens), 
working  independently. 

While  his  own  books  were  little  praised  and  largely  censured,  Ritson 
frequently  saw  less  accurate  productions  accorded  unalloyed  praise. 
It  was  impossible  for  him  to  understand  why  of  two  works,  the  one 
moderately  correct  but  urbane  in  manner,  the  other  flawless  in  fact  but 
vituperative  in  tone,  the  less  perfect  should  be  the  more  highly  com- 
mended. Quick  to  detect  and  anxious  to  punish  any  personal  thrust 
at  himself,  he  refused  to  grant  to  others  the  same  privilege,  and  indeed 
seemed  not  to  know  when  he  had  spoken  so  sharply  as  to  give  offense. 
He  proclaimed  himself  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  truth,  and  in  her  service 
he  considered  everything  fair.  If  enthusiasm  for  his  goddess  some- 
times betrayed  him  into  ridiculous  excesses  and  violent  exaggerations, 
he  either  did  not  recognize  it,  or,  recognizing,  justified  the  means  by 
the  end.  But  his  critics  refused  to  take  this  view  and  largely  ignored 
the  truth  of  his  writings  while  they  condemned  his  manner.  The 
reviewers  seemed  even  to  go  out  of  their  way  to  censure  him.  From 
this  he  came  to  believe  that  they  were  in  league  to  destroy  his  literary 
character  and  grew  to  feel  that  he  had  a  personal  grievance  with  them. 

When  the  tardy  reviews  of  the  third  edition  of  the  Johnson  and 
Steevens  Shakspeare^*  appeared,  they  gave  high  praise  to  Reed,  the 
editor,  and  sneered  at  Ritson  as  an  "orthographic  mutineer"  and  as  a 
critic  relegated  him  to  the  ranks  of  the  "unimportant".^^  This  taunt 
of  the  reviewers  came  as  an  added  insult  to  Ritson.  Although  more  than 
two  hundred  notes  from  the  Remarks  had  been  adopted  in  Reed's  edition, 
yet  Ritson  chose  to  consider  himself  very  unjustly  treated  because  some 
of  his  notes  were  omitted  and  a  few  were  held  up  to  biting  and  sarcastic 
ridicule.  Being  extremely  sensitive  about  his  own  work,  guarding  it, 
as  he  said,  as  jealously  as  a  father  does  his  offspring,  he  felt  it  his  duty 
"to  defend  every  part  of  it  from  injury  and  misrepresentation",  and 
declared  that  he  knew  of  "no  difference  between  the  integrity  or  char- 
acter of  a  writer  and  that  of  any  other  individual,  nor  ought  an  unjust 
charge  against  the  former  to  remain  unrefuted,  any  more  than  one 
against  the  latter."^®    Thus  stung  to  action  he  took  up  the  notes  he  had 

^*The  Plays  of  William  Shakspcare,  in  ten  volumes.  .  .  .  to  which  are 
added  notes  by  S.  Johnson  and  G.  Steevens.  The  third  edition  revised  and  aug- 
mented by  the  editor  of  Dodsley's  Collection  of  Old  Plays  [Isaac  Reed]. 
London,  1785. 

^■'Critical  Reviezc.  Vol.  LXII,  pp.  321-9;  Vol.  LXXXVII,  pp.  19-25. 

'^^Quip  Modest,  Preface,  p.  v. 


r 


72  JOSEPH  RITSON  [406 

made  "in  turning  over  the  revised  edition  immediately  after  its  publica- 
tion, but  had  lain  aside  and  almost  forgotten",  and  put  them  to  press  as, 
The  Quip  Modest;  a  feiv  words  hy  way  of  Supplement  to  Remarks, 
Critical  and  Illustrative,  on  the  Text  and  Notes  of  the  Last  Edition  of 
Shakspeare;  occasioned  hy  a  republication  of  that  Edition,  Revised  and 
Augmented  hy  the  Editor  of  Dodsley's  Old  Plays.  As  its  title  suggests, 
the  substance  of  this  little  volume  consists  mainly  of  answers  to  the 
objections  which  had  been  made  to  the  Remarks.  The  dozen  new  notes 
are  about  equa*lly  divided  between  textual  emendations  and  corrected 
glosses. 

The  most  interesting  part  of  the  book,  however,  and  that  which 
attracted  immediate  notice,  is  the  Preface.  In  it  he  openly  attacked  the 
reviewers  and  Steevens,  and  by  inuendo  Keed  himself.  He  heaped  scorn 
and  invective  on  "those  very  good  Christians"  his  "liberal  and  candid 
friends",  the  reviewers.  He  accused  them  of  "passing  sentence  upon 
books  which  they  never  read,  and  on  the  character  of  writers  whom  they 
do  not  know."  In  short,  he  was  so  violent  in  his  strictures  as  to  obscure, 
for  his  immediate  readers  at  least,  almost  everything  except  the  points 
of  personal  controversy. 

Of  Steevens 's  share  in  the  1785  Shakspeare  Ritson  had  little  definite 
information.  The  notes  in  which  he  considered  himself  disrespectfully 
treated  were  signed  with  the  editor's  initials,  but  he  did  not  choose  to 
think  they  came  from  Reed.  On  the  contrary,  he  held  that  they  were 
"furnished  by  some  obliging  friend,  who  had  desired  to  be  effectually 
concealed  under  the  sanction  of  the  editor's  signature".  That  he  believed 
this  "obliging  friend"  to  be  Steevens  is  clear  from  the  following  com- 
ment which  was  a  part  of  the  original  Preface : 

"This  worthy  gentleman  is  probably  the  infamous  scoundrel  who  published 
'An  address  to  the  curious  in  ancient  poetrj^/^^  as,  however  little  relation  it  may 
have  to  Shakspeare,  the  author  has  had  interest  enough  to  procure  it  a  place  in  the 
'List  of  Detached  Pieces  of  Criticism,  etc'  prefixed  to  the  revised  edition.  A 
congeniality  of  disposition  in  the  Critical  Reviewers  procured  this  fellow  a 
dififerent  reception  from  these  literary  hangmen,  from  that  which  he  may  one  day 
experience  from  a  well-known  practical  professor  of  the  same  mystery." 

After  a  few  copies  of  the  Qiiip  Modest  had  been  sold,  Ritson  came  to 
feel,  or  more  probably,  was  persuaded,  that  this  note  was  ' '  too  strong  for 
the  person  alluded  to",  and  he  stopped  the  sale  of  the  work  long  enough 

''■'A  familiar  address  to  the  curious  in  English  Poetry,  more  particularly  to  the 
readers  of  Shakspeare.  By  Thersites  Literarius,  London,  1784.  This  rather 
inconsequential  tract  was  written  in  the  first  person  as  though  it  came  from  Ritson, 
and  gave  him  great  offense. 


407]  SHAKESPEARE    CRITICISMS  73 

to  cancel  this  page  and  substitute  another  bearing  the  following — per- 
haps ironical — statement  :^® 

"Impressed  as  I  have  been  with  this  idea,  I  ought  in  common  justice  to 
acknowledge  that  I  suspect  no  one  in  particular  to  whom  I  am  thus  indebted. 
Above  all  I  wish  to  declare,  that  the  candor,  liberality,  and  politeness  which  dis- 
tinguish Mr.  Steevens,  utterly  exclude  him  from  every  imputation  of  this  nature." 

Besides  the  disrespectful  comments  which  he  attributed  to  Steevens, 
there  were  three  notes  in  the  1785  edition  of  Shakespeare  at  which 
Ritson  was  particularh^  offended,  in  which,  to  use  his  own  words,  "I 
found  or  imagined  I  was  treated  with  contempt ".^^  These  were:  (1)  In 
the  Remarks,  p.  12,  Eitson  had  expressed  the  belief  that  "King  Edward 
shovel  boards",  (Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  I.  i.  154)  referred  to  "broad 
shillings  of  Edward  III."  and  not  of  Edward  VI,  as  Farmer  had  stated. 
An  italicized  note  in  the  Reed  Shakspeare  castigated  him  for  "censur- 
ing" Farmer,  denied  his  assertion,  and  dismissed  the  note  as  ''not  worth 
consideration."-^  (2)  After  devoting  a  page  and  a  half  to  Ritson 's  note 
on  the  mortality  of  fairies,  {Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  II.  i.  101)  the 
editor  concluded  thus : 

"It  is  a  misfortune  as  well  to  the  commentators,  as  to  the  readers  of  Shak- 
speare, that  so  much  of  their  time  is  obliged  to  be  employed  in  explaining  and 
contradicting  conjectures  and  assertions.  ...  A  future  editor  of  our  author 
may  without  any  detriment  to  his  work  omit  this  note,  which  I  should  have  been 
better  pleased  to  have  had  no  occasion  to  incumber  the  page  with."-i 

(3)  Upon  Ritson 's  demanding  that  Dr.  Johnson  present  some  other 
proof  than  his  own  assertion  that  Shakespeare  was  guilty  of  an  anach- 
ronism in  introducing  rapier  into  Richard  II.,  IV.  i.  40,  the  editor 
remarked : 

"It  is  probable  that  Dr.  Johnson  did  not  see  the  necessity  of  citing  any 
authority  for  a  fact  so  well  known,  or  suspect  that  any  person  would  demand 
one."-- 

Upon  reading  these  notes  one  wonders  why  Ritson  should  have 
been  so  wrought  up  as  to  feel  that  he  had  a  personal  quarrel  with  the 
man  who  wrote  them.  It  is  certain  that  imagination  and  a  super-sensi- 
tive nature  played  a  rather  large  part  in  exciting  his  anger.     Outside 

^^Ritson    was   not   yet    far    enough    removed    from    his   original    quarrel    with 
Steevens  to  treat  him  with  the  candor  which  he  later  displayed. 
^^Letters,  I,  p.  105. 
20Reed's  Shakspeare,  I,  p.  253. 
21/fcirf.,  Ill,  p.  37- 
^-Ihid.,  V.  p.  227. 


74  JOSEPH  RITSON  [408 

of  the  two  letters  that  have  been  preserved,  the  only  explanation  of  his 
point  of  view  is  to  be  found  in  the  Quip  Modest.  There  he  admitted 
that  he  was  guilty  of  a  "gross  blunder"  about  "King  Edward  shovel 
boards",  but  he  resented  the  statement  that  he  had  censured  Farmer, 
for  whom  he  professed  the  highest  regard,  and  declared  that  he  had  only 
expressed  a  difference  of  opinion.  In  the  discussion  on  the  mortality 
of  fairies  Ritson  knew  he  was  in  the  right,  and  he  steadfastly  maintained 
his  ground.  It  was  the  insinuating  nature  of  this  note  to  which  he 
objected,  and  to  the  editor's  parting  fling  he  replied  in  his  richest  vein: 

"The  editor  might,  without  any  detriment  to  his  work,  have  omitted  the  above 
note ;  but  I  cannot  think  that  the  page  has  any  particular  reason  to  complain  of  the 
incumbrance,  as  it  would  be  no  difficult  matter  to  point  out  several  hundreds 
groaning  under  an  equal  burthen".-^ 

In  the  last  note  Ritson  was  incensed  at  the  notion  that  he  should  be 
criticized  for  insisting  upon  an  editor  or  commentator  performing  his 
proper  function — that  of  substantiating  opinion  with  fact  wherever 
possible. 

Ritson  immediately  made  known  his  dissatisfaction  with  these  notes. 
He  held  much  store  by  Reed's  friendship  and  professed  to  believe  that 
they  came  from  some  "friend  in  the  dark",  possibly  Steevens,  rather 
than  from  the  ostensible  editor.  Hearing  that  Ritson  had  taken  offense. 
Reed  wrote  him  a  very  cordial  letter  expressing  regret  that  anything  in 
his  work  should  tend  to  alienate  a  friend.  But  he  nowhere  denied  having 
written  the  notes  to  which  Ritson  objected,  and  the  general  tenor  of  his 
letter  implied  that  he  was  their  author.  Ritson  replied  that  he  had  no 
desire  to  cause  a  disagreement,  acknowledged  the  right  of  Reed  and  every 
other  man  to  dispute  his  statements  and  point  out  his  errors,  but,  he  said, 
in  homely  illustration  of  his  contention  that  there  was  a  difference  be- 
tween "information"  and  "attack",  that  while  he  would  thank  any  per- 
son for  acquainting  him  that  he  had  a  hole  in  his  stocking  or  some  dirt  on 
his  face,  he  would  not  feel  himself  obliged  if  that  person  "accompanied 
the  information  with  a  kick  on  the  shin  or  a  box  on  the  ear. ' '  At  Reed 's 
suggestion  that  a  common  friend  be  designated  to  act  as  arbitrator,  Rit- 
son turned  the  matter  over  to  John  Baynes  and  endeavored  to  dismiss 
it  from  his  mind: 

"I  shall  dwell  no  longer  on  a  subject  which  I  would  have  given  one  of  my 
fingers  had  never  existed,  and  which  for  my  own  sake  I  shall  endeavor  as  soon  as 
possible  to  forget."-* 


-^Quip  Modest,  p.  14. 
-^Letters,  I,  p.  107  ff. 


409]  SHAKESPEARE    CRITICISMS  75 

There  is  no  record  of  Baynes's  activity,  but  at  least  he  failed  to  bring 
the  men  to  a  mutual  understanding. 

When  the  Qidp  Modest  was  published  this  affair  was  in  status  qua 
ante.  In  the  Preface  Ritson  expressly  stated  that  he  did  not  hold  Reed 
responsible  for  the  most  offensive  notes  in  the  Shakespeare  edition  which 
"that  respectable  gentleman"  had  supervised,  but  added,  alluding  no 
doubt  to  the  three  notes  which  he  was  unable  to  forgive : 

"However,  I  doubt  not  there  are  many  things  in  the  following  pages  which  I 
might  have  been  allowed  to  say,  without  running  any  possible  risk  of  giving  offense 
to  him ;  alive  as  an  editor  is  on  such  occasions  said  to  feel  himself." 

Ritson  was  himself  more  "alive"  than  perhaps  any  other  editor  of  his 
day,  and  yet  he  seemed  utterly  incapable  of  conceiving  that  others  might 
take  offense  at  what  would  invariably  anger  him  if  turned  against  his 
work.  The  offense  given,  he  was  prompt  to  apologize  and  to  express 
regret  at  what  he  had  done.  But  he  did  this  on  every  occasion  and 
seemed  not  to  profit  by  the  experience.  Reed  wrote  immediately,  dis- 
claiming the  authorship  of  the  notes  which  had  displeased  Ritson  and 
voicing  his  surprise  that  their  friendship  had  not  been  proof  against 
such  a  misconception.  The  critic's  reasons  for  his  conclusions  and  his 
sincere  desire  to  avoid  a  break  with  his  friend  are  eloquently  set  forth 
in  the  following  letter  to  Reed: 

Dear  Sir, 

I  plainly  perceive  that  the  little  pamphlet  I  have  published  will  be  productive 
of  a  consequence  which  it  must  be  evident  I  have  sought  to  avoid,  &  for  which  I 
shall  be  very  sorry. 

That  I  have  often  thought  and  said  that  the  notes  at  which  I  have  taken 
oflfense  could  not  possibly  proceed  from  you  is  a  fact  well  known.  I  declared  my 
belief  of  it  to  yourself  in  the  letter  I  wrote  soon  after  the  publication  of  your 
Shakspeare;-^ — you  could  then,  I  thought,  so  easily  have  undeceived  me,  that  your 
silence  tended  to  authorize  &  confirm  my  belief.  I  cannot  however  doubt  the 
assertion  you  now  make — but  I  am  more  and  more  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the 
language  and  manner  of  your  notes  which  so  far  as  you  were  personally  concerned 
were  without  the  least  provocation  on  my  side  and  could  not  fail  to  give  the  most 
unfavorable  impression  of  my  character  to  every  one  who  knew  who  was  meant  by 
the  Author  of  the  Remarks.  It  would  surely  have  been  generous  and  friendly  at 
the  least  to  have  afforded  me  an  opportunity  of  defending  myself  against  the  charges 
you  thought  me  liable  to,  before  the  publication  of  the  book,  that  I  might  have 
had  a  chance  of  convincing  you  that  the  Remarks  objected  to  were  neither  so 
false  nor  so  foolish  as  they  were  represented.  You  adopted  a  mode  of  conduct 
which  it  would  have  been  perfectly  natural  for  me  to  expect  from  Mr.  Warton 
or  Mr.  Malone  but  certainly  not  from  you. 

-'^See  Ibid.,  I,  pp.  105-8. 


76  JOSEPH  RITSOX  [410 

I  have  no  intention  whatever  of  troubling  the  public  with  anything  more  upon 
the  subject.  My  only  wish  was  to  justify  myself  which  I  hope  I  have  done  to  the 
satisfaction  of  every  unprejudiced  person. 

You  will  do  me  the  justice  to  believe  that  I  never  entertained  the  most 
distant  suspicion  of  j^our  having  any  concern  in  the  scurrilous  libel  you  allude 
to-' — but  both  Baynes  &  I  were  very  much  surprised  to  see  it  noticed  in  your  list-" 
which  we  concluded  it  would  not  have  been  if  you  were  unacquainted  with  its 
contents,  &  which  it  was  equally  difficult  to  conceive  why  it  shod  have  been  if 
you  were  not. 

I  should  consider  myself  a  person  of  neither  honour  or  honesty  if  I  had  been 
actuated  in  this  publication  by  the  least  spark  of  resentment  against  you  &  I  beg 
leave  to  assure  you  that  notwithstanding  what  has  passed  I  shall  still  continue  to 
preserve  the  respect  and  esteem  to  which  your  personal  character  &  literary 
services  have  so  just  a  claim. 

I  am, 
Dear  Sir, 
Your  very  obliged  &  obed.  serv. 
J  Ritson. 
Grays  Inn, 
22d.  Feb.  1788.28 

If  Ritson  really  believed  that  his  slurs  would  cause  the  reviewers 
to  treat  him  with  less  familiarity,  he  was  a  poor  judge  of  human  nature. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  wilfuUy  provoking  them  to  further  assaults 
that  he  might  have  justification  for  a  counter  attack,  he  accomplished 
his  purpose.  By  the  critical  Reviews  the  work  was  treated  in  a  half 
humorous  manner  as  the  inconsequential  production  of  an  eccentric 
critic.^^  This  much  Ritson  might  have  expected,  and  it  is  possible  to 
conceive  that  he  might  not  have  felt  called  upon  to  reply  to  it.  But  the 
attitude  of  conscious  superiority  assumed  by  the  reviewers  added  insult 
to  injury.  This  he  might  have  expected  too.  It  was  what  he  had  before 
objected  to,  and  it  was  just  the  thing  that  harassed  him  most.  In  his 
view  it  was  beyond  the  pale  of  human  possibility  for  any  one  to  judge 
fairly,  after  only  a  casual  perusal,  a  book  which  had  been  months,  and 
perhaps  years,  in  preparation.  The  presumptuousness  of  the  reviewers 
in  doing  this  he  was  bound  to  expose.  His  opportunity  came  in  the 
publication  of  Malone  's  Shakspeare  in  1790.'^° 

After  two  years  of  preparation   and   delay,   Ritson   published   a 

^^A  familiar  Address,  etc.,  cited  above. 

27"A  list  of  detached  pieces  of  criticism",  Reed's  Shakspeare,  Vol.  I,  pp.  261-6. 

-8The  MS.  of  this  letter  is  in  the  library  of  Mr.  Marsden  J.  Perry,  Providence, 
Rhode  Island. 

^^Critical  Review,  Vol.  LXV,  p.  407;  Monthly  Review,  Vol.  LXXIX,  p.  275. 

^^The  Plays  and  Poems  of  William  Shakspeare  in  ten  volumes;  collated 
verbatim  with  the  most  authentic  copies,  etc.    London,  1790. 


411]  SHAKESPEARE    CRITICISMS  77 

pamphlet  of  one  hundred  and  four  pages,  entitled,  Cursory  Criticisms 
on  the  Edition  of  Shakspeare  published  hy  Edmond  Malone.  He  pre- 
fixed a  bitterly  acrimonious  letter  "To  the  Monthly  and  Critical 
Reviewers",  for  the  purpose,  he  says, 

"to  induce  you,  before  yon  pass  sentence  on  the  following  pages,  to  read  them 
through :  'Strike,  but  hear'."  "I  consider  you",  he  cries,  "as  two  formidable, 
and  iTiischievous  gangs  of  nocturnal  banditti,  or  invisible  footpads,  equally 
cowardly  and  malignant,  who  attack  where  there  can  be  no  defense,  and 
assassinate  or  destroy  where  you  cannot  plunder.  Shakspeare's  morality,  in  the 
hands  of  a  Reviewer,  is  to  be  read  backward,  like  a  witch's  prayer."-'^ 

With  the  gentle  Malone  himself,  Ritson  was  only  slightly  less 
severe  than  with  the  reviewers.  He  undertook  the  work  with  an  avowed 
purpose  "to  convict  Malone,  not  to  convince  him".  And  he  would  con- 
vict him  on  the  following  counts:  with  "a  total  want  of  ear  and  judg- 
ment"; with  "replacing  all  the  gross  and  palpable  blunders  of  the  first 
folio";  with  "deforming  the  text,  and  degrading  the  margin  with  inten- 
tional corruption,  flagrant  misrepresentation,  malignant  hypercriticism, 
and  unexampled  scurrility". 

Ritson  recognized  that  he  was  dealing  in  a  high-handed  manner 
with  a  worthy  writer  and  felt  the  necessity  of  finding  an  excuse  for  the 
violence  of  his  language.  Malone  had  treated  Ritson  with  scant  respect 
in  his  edition,  referring  to  him  as  a  "shallow  or  half -informed  remarker", 
and  alluding  to  his  "profound  ignorance"  and  "crude  notions".  This 
Ritson  considered  ample  justification  for  heaping  upon  the  editor  all 
manner  of  vilification  and  abuse — a  course  which  he  followed  with  more 
consistency  in  this  than  in  either  of  the  earlier  volumes.  Although 
this  pamphlet  was  directly  inscribed  to  the  reviewers,  it  was  almost 
neglected  by  them.  They  recognized  when  a  controversy  had  degen- 
erated beneath  the  dignity  of  gentlemen  and  dismissed  Ritson  and  his 
billingsgate  "without  feeling  one  spark  of  resentment ".^^  But  Malone 
had  more  at  stake  than  the  reviewers  and  was  not  willing  to  give  over  the 
contest  so  readily  as  they.  A  letter  in  the  8t.  James's  Chronicle  for 
March  27,  1792,  defending  Malone,  was  probably  written  by  himself. 
Magazine  warfare  had  proved  disastrous  to  Ritson,    from    the    mere 

"^Cf.  Dr.  John  Brown's  characterization  of  the  reviewers  as  "two  notorious 
gangs  of  monthly  and  critical  book-thieves  hackneyed  in  the  ways  of  wickedness, 
who,  in  the  rage  of  hunger  and  malice,  first  plunder,  and  then  abuse,  maim,  or 
murder,  every  honest  author  who  is  possessed  of  aught  worth  their  carrying  off; 
yet  by  skulking  among  other  vermin  in  cellars  and  garrets,  keep  their  persons 
tolerably  well  out  of  sight,  and  thus  escape  the  hands  of  literary  justice. "/in 
Estimate  of  the  Manners  and  Principles  of  the  Times.  London,  1758.  Vol.  II,  p.  75. 
^'^Critical  Review,  Ser.  2,  Vol.  IV,  p.  476;  Monthly  Revieiu,  Vol.  XCIII,  p.  iii. 


78  JOSEPH   RITSON  [412 

superiority  of  the  enemy's  numbers  if  for  no  other  reason,  and  he 
prudently  refrained  from  replying  to  the  letter.  This  article  did  not 
fully  satisfy  Malone's  purpose,  however,  and  the  next  month  he  pub- 
lished A  Letter  to  Richard  Farmer,  relative  to  the  edition  of  Shakspeare, 
puMished  in  1790,  and  some  Criticisms  on  that  work,  in  which  he  vindi- 
cated his  own  care  and  industry,  but  failed  to  establish  his  reputation 
for  metrical  judgment.^^ 

It  is  to  Ritson's  credit  that  he  made  no  public  reply  to  Malone's 
letters.  He  did,  however,  write  boastingly  to  his  friend  Robert  Har- 
rison, apropos  of  Cursory  Criticisms  and  Malone's  Letter: 

"I  flatter  myself  I  have  totally  demolished  the  great  Malone.  He  has  attempted 
to  answer  it   [Cursory  Criticisms]  by  the  most  contemptible  thing  in  nature."^* 

But  Ritson  did  not  condemn  everything  that  Malone  wrote,  nor  was  he 
always  so  sanguine  of  his  success  in  "demolishing"  him.  He  was  far 
from  insensible  to  Malone's  merit,  and  he  was  not  unwilling  to  give 
credit  where  credit  was  due.  As  in  many  other  instances,  when  the  heat 
of  the  contest  had  passed  over,  w^hen  his  anger  had  had  time  to  cool 
in  thoughtful  retrospection,  he  repented  his  rash  act  and  sought  in  some 
way  to  make  restitution.  To  his  nephew,  who  followed  blindly  and 
doggedly  in  his  footsteps,  he  wrote  in  1796 : 

"You  will  do  Mr.  Malone  a  great  injustice  if  you  suppose  him  to  be  in  all 
respects  what  I  may  have  endeavored  to  represent  him  in  some.  In  order  that  he 
may  recover  your  more  favorable  opinion,  let  me  recommend  to  your  perusal,  the 
discussion,  in  his  Prolegomena,  entitled  'Shakspeare,  Ford,  and  Johnson',  and  his 
'Dissertation  on  the  three  parts  of  King  Henry  Sixth'  (to  which  I  am  more 
indebted  for  an  acquaintance  with  the  manner  of  our  great  dramatic  poet  than  to 
any  thing  I  ever  read.)"^^ 

3'^See  James  Prior,  The  Life  of  Edmond  Malone,  London,  i860,  p.  185  flf. 

^^Letters,  I,  p.  215. 

^^Ibid.,  II,  p.  122.  In  this  same  letter  Ritson  praised  Malone's  exposure  of 
the  Ireland  forgeries  in  the  following  words :  "His  recent  enquiries  into  the  Shak- 
spearian  forgeries  evinces,  also,  considerable  industry  and  acuteness,  and  is  certainly 
worth  your  reading.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  was  any  difficulty  in  the 
subject;  but  it  has  certainly  derived  importance  from  the  ignorant  presumption  and 
Gullibility  of  certain  literary  aristocrats  who  have  considerable  influence  upon  what 
is  called  the  public."  From  the  very  first  Ritson  maintained  that  Ireland's  "dis- 
covery" was  a  forgery  concocted  since  the  publication  of  Malone's  Shakspeare 
by  some  person  "of  genius  and  talents  which  ought  to  have  been  better  employed." 
See  Letters,  II,  pp.  75,  91-93,  140,  143,  and  Lit.  Illust.,  VII,  p.  9.  Ritson  was  one  of 
the  earliest  visitors  to  the  exhibit  arranged  by  the  elder  Ireland  on  Norfolk  Street, 
and  the  impostor  himself  later  confessed  that  he  had  difficulty  in  maintaining  the 
counterfeit    during    the    interview.      He    writes :    "The    sharp    physiognomy,    the 


413]  SHAKESPEARE    CRITICISMS  79 

It  is  stated,  on  the  authority  of  Nicolas,'**'  that  Ritson  carried  out  his 
repentence  and  made  good  his  amend  by  buying  up  and  destroying  all 
the  copies  of  Cursory  Criticisms  that  remained  in  the  hands  of  his  pub- 
lishers, but  there  is  no  support  for  this  statement  other  than  the  extreme 
scarcity  of  the  volume. 

These  three  slight  volumes  constitute  Ritson 's  Shakespearean  pub- 
lications. They  are  all  very  much  alike.  Each  one  is  an  attack  upon 
an  editor  and  his  work;  the  author's  manner  is  almost  invariably  over- 
bearing if  not  insolent;  and  he  exhibits  more  critical  ability  than  good 
manners.  But  the  contributions  to  Shakespeare  knowledge  are  by  no 
means  inconsiderable.  Of  these  pamphlets  the  first  is  the  largest  and 
the  most  important.  The  Remarks  contains  practically  all  of  the  notes 
that  were  of  real  value.  Quip  Modest  and  Cursory  Criticisms  have  few 
new  notes  and  are  mainly  taken  up  with  a  reconsideration  of  fhose 
already  presented.  Some  of  them  were  decidedly  worth  defending; 
others  were  unhandsomely  revived  by  a  supersensitive  author  whose 
feelings  occasionally  overpowered  his  judgment. 

The  results  of  Ritson 's  Shakespeare  criticisms  fall  into  two  main 
divisions  comparable  to  the  double  effect  of  the  Observations.  In  the 
first  place,  there  is  the  direct  reaction  upon  the  theory  and  practice  of 
editing.  Ritson  insisted  upon  a  few  fundamental  principles,  and  he 
reiterated  them  so  vociferously  in  each  succeeding  publication  that  they 
were  more  carefully  heeded  by  future  editors.  Secondly,  there  is  in 
these  three  volumes  a  not  inconsiderable  body  of  valuable  contributions 
to  Shakespeare  knowledge.  These  two  divisions  will  be  taken  up  in 
order. 

In  the  Prefaces  to  these  volumes  is  to  be  found  the  first  explicit 
statement  of  some  of  the  canons  of  criticism  by  which  Ritson  was  always 
guided.  "The  chief  and  fundamental  business  of  an  editor",  he  declared 
at  the  outstart,  ' '  is  carefully  to  collate  the  original  and  authentic  editions 
of  his  author,  "^^  Although  all  the  editors  from  Rowe  to  Malone  pro- 
piercing  eye,  and  the  silent  scrutiny,  of  Mr.  Ritson,  filled  me  with  a  dread  I  had 
never  before  experienced.  His  questionings  were  laconic,  but  always  to  the 
purpose.  No  studied  flow  of  words  could  draw  him  from  his  purpose ;  he  was 
not  to  be  hoodwinked;  and  after  satisfying  his  curiosity,  he  departed  from 
Mr.  Samuel  Ireland's  house,  without  delivering  any  opinion,  or  committing  himself 
in  the  smallest  circumstance.  In  fine,  I  do  as  firmly  believe  that  Mr.  Ritson  went 
away  fully  assured  that  the  papers  were  spurious,  as  that  I  have  existence  at  this 
moment."  The  Confessions  of  William  Henry  Ireland,  etc.,  London,  1805,  p.  227. 
360p.  Cit,  p.  liii. 

^"'For   the   quotations   in   this   and   the   next   paragraph   see   the   Prefaces   to 
Remarks,  Quip  Modest,  and  Cursory  Criticisms. 


80  JOSEPH   RITSON  [414 

fessed  to  have  collated  the  old  editions,  Ritson  maintained  that  no  one 
of  them  had  even  compared  the  first  two  folios,  "books  indifferently  com- 
mon and  quoted  by  everybody".  Theobald  had  done  more  than  any 
one  else  toward  a  careful  collation  of  the  quartos  and  folios,  and  him 
Ritson  adjudged  the  best  of  the  editors.  He  quarreled  with  Steevens 
for  basing  his  text  on  the  quartos,  and  with  Malone  for  relying  on  the 
first  folio.  Some  choice  was  necessary,  he  admitted.  It  was  the  privilege 
and  the  dut.y  of  the  editor  to  choose  one  old  text  as  a  basis,  but  he  ought 
to  do  this  with  a  full  and  intimate  knowledge  of  all  the  others.  The 
folios,  he  maintained,  were  more  reliable  than  the  quartos,  and  of  the 
folios  the  second  was  superior  to  the  first.  He  went  to  great  pains  to 
assemble  parallel  passages  from  the  folios  to  prove  that  ]\Ialone  had, 
in  the  majority  of  cases,  chosen  the  inferior  reading.  This  point  he 
had  little  difficulty  in  sustaining.  But  if  Steevens  was  led  into  excesses 
and  error  by  too  close  reliance  on  the  quartos,  and  Malone  on  the  first 
folio,  Ritson,  in  his  turn,  exhibited  the  natural  editorial  tendency  by 
too  faithful  adherence  to  his  favorite  text,  the  second  folio.  But  Ritson 
knew  both  the  quartos  and  the  folios  better  than  most  of  his  contem- 
poraries and  from  his  wider  knowledge  was  able  to  trace  back  with 
remarkable  precision  variant  readings  to  their  ultimate  sources.  He  thus 
took  from  contemporary  editors  the  honor  for  many  "proposed  emenda- 
tions" and  exerted  a  wholesome  influence  toward  more  careful  textual 
collation.  This  influence  is  especially  noticeable  in  Malone,  although 
his  unreasoning  prejudice  against  the  second  folio  prevented  him  from 
making  his  text  as  reliable  as  it  might  have  been.^^ 

Eighteenth  century  editors  generally  had  no  exalted  conception  of 
the  sacredness  of  an  author's  text.  They  deleted,  altered,  or  enlarged 
wherever  they  thought  necessary  and  took  no  particular  pains  to  dis- 
tinguish their  own  work  from  the  original.  With  advanced  ideas  of 
editorship,  Ritson  declared  it  his  belief  that  an  author's  text  w'as  his 
own  property,  sacred  and  inviolable,  and  not  to  be  altered  in  the 
slightest  save  by  his  OAvn  hand.  The  question  was  never,  what  should 
an  author  have  written,  but  what  did  he  write?  An  editor  ought  never 
to  feel  under  the  necessity  of  apologizing  for  his  author ;  he  ought  simply 
to  give  the  text  as  he  found  it.  It  was  the  privilege  of  every  editor  to 
alter  the  text  where  he  deemed  it  necessary,  but  it  was  also  his  duty  to 
designate,  by  some  means  clearly  intelligible  to  the  reader,  his  alteration 
as  an  alteration.     On  this  score  Ritson  condemned  Warton,  the  editors 

38Malone  assumed  an  attitude  of  nonchalance  to  Ritson,  but  he  confessedly 
stood  in  awe  of  the  critic's  wrath,  and  he  took  special  care  to  let  it  be  known  that 
he  had  collated  diligently  the  100,000  lines  of  Shakespeare's  text.  See  the  letter 
in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  and  the  Letter  to  Farmer  cited  above. 


415]  SHAKESPEARE    CRITICISMS  81 

of  Shakespeare,  and,  most  of  all,  Bishop  Percy,  Although  his  personal 
opinions  colored  his  criticisms,  yet  he  stood  true  to  the  proper  function 
of  an  editor  in  textual  matters.  Here  again  he  exerted  a  salutary  influ- 
ence upon  his  century  and  hastened  the  day  of  "modern"  editing. 

These  were,  in  a  measure,  criticisms  of  Shakespeare's  editors,  but 
their  accuracy  reflects  the  solid  basis  of  most  of  the  notes  on  the  poet, 
especially  of  those  not  inspired  by  purely  personal  motives.  The  great 
majority  of  the  notes  were  acknowledged,  however  grudgingly,  by  late 
eighteenth  century  editors,  but  Ritson  has  been  all  but  lost  sight  of  by 
modern  editors,  and  the  credit  for  many  of  his  notes  has  gone  to  others.'^ 
From  the  citations  in  the  following  pages  can  be  gleaned  a  fairly  com- 
prehensive idea  of  the  nature  of  Ritson 's  criticisms  and  of  their  intrinsic 
value. 

The  problem  of  filling  out  the  metre  of  certain  of  Shakespeare's 
lines  was  a  troublesome  one  and  gave  rise  to  various  suggestions  by  the 
commentators.  To  the  theory  of  Tyrwhitt  and  Steevens  that  Shake- 
speare arbitrarily  lengthened  a  word  in  which  I  or  r  is  subjoined  to 
another  consonant,  and  to  that  of  Malone  that  any  "short"  line  may  be 
properly  filled  out  by  making  a  dissyllable  of  a  convenient  monosyllable, 
Ritson  was  equally  opposed.  He  immediately  diagnosed  Malone 's  case 
as  a  "total  want  of  ear",  and  unmercifully  castigated  him  for  tampering 
with  metre.  Tyrwhitt 's  theory  he  ridiculed  as  lacking  foundation  in 
grammar  and  orthography.  For  it  he  wished  to  substitute  a  pet 
orthographical  system  of  his  own — a  system  based  on  a  study  of  sixteenth 
century  grammars — which  he  fondly  believed  to  be  the  only  salvation 
for  our  present  "thoroughly  corrupted"  system  of  spelling.  "Every 
verb  in  the  English  language",  he  declared,  "gains  an  additional  syllable 
by  its  termination  in  est,  eth,  ed,  ing,  or  (when  formed  into  a  substan- 
tive) in  er."  The  fact  that  Shakespeare  did  not  seem  to  have  been 
guided  by  this  rule  was  sufficient  reason  for  its  rejection  by  all  save  its 
author.  Ritson  himself  made  an  accurate  forecast  of  its  reception  as  the 
mark  of  its  author's  eccentricity  when  he  said: 

"These  ideas  had  they  been  more  germane  to  the  object  of  these  sheets,  or 
more  likely  to  experience  a  favorable  reception,  might  have  been  much  expanded 
and  further  pursued ;  but,  indeed,  our  orthographical  system  is  so  thoroughly 
corrupted,  and  the  principles  and  formations  of  the  language  are,  even  by  those 
who  have  professedly  treated  the  subject,  so  little  investigated  or  understood,  that  a 
writer,  hardy  enough  to  attempt  a  reform,  will  naturally  expect  to  find  many  of  his 

39Reed,  1785,  included  half  the  notes  from  Remarks;  Malone,  1790,  utilized 
Reed's  selections  as  well  as  nearly  all  the  new  material  in  Quip  Modest;  Steevens, 
1793,  made  use  of  practically  everything  in  Cursory  Criticisms  in  addition  to  the 
notes  from  the  earlier  volumes  that  had  been  accepted  by  his  predecessors. 


82  JOSEPH  RITSON  [416 

clearest  axioms  considered  as  the  offspring  of  singularity,  affectation  and  caprice."*" 

The  knowledge  of  medieval  literature  which  stood  him  in  such  good 
stead  in  his  work  with  the  ballads  and  romances  Ritson  used  to  advantage 
in  criticisms  on  Shakespeare.  He  printed  for  the  first  time  a  pageant  of 
the  Nine  Worthies  from  MS.  Tanner,  407,  in  illustration  of  Love's  Labor 
Lost,  V.  ii.  486.  His  familiarity  with  folk-lore  enabled  him  to  correct 
current  misconceptions  about  "other  world"  creatures.  In  an  extended 
debate  on  the  mortality  of  fairies  (Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  II.  i. 
101)  Ritson  had  decidedly  the  better  of  his  opponents.  By  a  wealth  of 
allusion  to  Shakespeare  and  his  contemporaries  he  proved  that  fairies 
in  general,  and  Shakespeare's  fairies  in  particular,  are  immortal.^^  He 
likewise  corrected  Johnson's  misleading  note  on  "changeling"  (Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream,  II.  i.  23)  by  pointing  out  that  since  a  fairy  was 
speaking,  "changeling"  was  properly  used  for  the  child  taken  in 
exehange.^^ 

Ritson  was  a  close  and  accurate  student  of  the  early  forms  of 
language,  and  he  gave  correct  glosses  to  many  words  that  had  been  mis- 
understood by  previous  commentators.  In  the  following  examples,  culled 
at  random,  his  glosses  are  supported  by  the  New  English  Dictionary  but 
are  not  credited  to  him  in  the  New  Variorum  Shakespeare. 

L.  L.  L.  I.  i.  S.  "imp"  means  grafif,  slip,  scion ;  and,  by  metonomy,  a  boy  or 
child.*3 

Mac.  IV.  iii.  194.     "latch"^  catch,  from  A.  S.  laeccan.** 

Rich.  III.    II.  iv.  35.    "parlous",  a  corruption  of  perilous,  dangerous.*^ 

Ant.  and  Cleo.  III.  vi.  95.    "trull",  a  strumpet.*" 

Cymb.  V.  ii.  4.     "carl",  A.  S.  ceorl,  a  churl  or  husbandman.*'' 

*^Rcmarks,  pp.  6-8;  Quip  Modest,  pp.  1-6.  Ritson  praised  Shakespeare  for  the 
broad-mindedness  and  liberality  which  made  him  tolerant  of  all  parties  and  all 
creeds  and  enabled  him  to  transcend  the  petty  strife  and  turmoil  of  his  day — to  be 
not  for  an  age  but  for  all  time.  But  the  critic  was  unable  to  emulate  the  poet. 
Not  only  did  he  ride  an  orthographical  hobby,  but  he  could  not  avoid  expressing 
with  vigor  and  sometimes  with  virulence  his  personal  political  and  religious  views. 
See  Remarks,  pp.  66,  84,  104,  114,  124,  137,  173,  188,  and  Quip  Modest  and  Cursory 
Criticisms,  passim. 

^''■Remarks,  p.  43;  Quip  Modest,  pp.  11-14.  With  a  characteristic  display  of 
revengeful  abuse  Ritson  alluded  to  the  discomfiture  of  his  opponents  in  this  con- 
troversy in  the  "Dissertation  on  Fairies"  prefixed  to  Fairy  Tales.    See  Chapter  VI. 

^-Remarks,  p.  42. 

*^Ibid.,  p.  35. 

^*Ibid.,  p.  78. 

*5/&iU,  p.  133. 

*'^Ibid.,  p.  149. 

^''Ibid.,  p.  167. 


417]  SHAKESPEABE    CRITICISMS  83 

Ritson  honored  Dr.  Johnson  for  the  sturdy  common  sense  which 
enabled  him  to  brush  away  from  simple  passages  the  mass  of  difficult 
interpretations  which  more  artificial  thinkers  had  placed  upon  them.*^ 
And  this  saving  quality  was  not  wholly  lacking  in  his  own  criticisms. 
The  examples  which  follow  have  been  credited,  in  the  New  Variorum 
to  other  writers  from  Ritson 's  day  down  to  the  latter  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

il/.  A'.  D.  II.  i.  SI.  "aunt,  in  this  place  at  least,  certainly  means  no  other  than 
an  innocent  old  woman."^^ 

M.  of  V.  III.  iv.  "2.  Por.  I  could  not  do  withal.  "Could  a  lady  of  Portia's 
good  sense,  high  station,  and  elegant  manners,  speak  (or  even  think)  so  grossly? 
It  is  impossible.     There  is  no  hint  of  a  bawdy  or  immoral  meaning."-'*' 

Lear  IV.  ii.  83.  Gon.  One  way  I  like  this  well.  "Goneril  is  glad  to  hear  of 
Cornwall's  death,  because,  by  her  sisters,  now  rendered  less  difficult  to  compass, 
she  could  possess  the  whole  kingdom.''^! 

R.  and  J .  II.  vi.  14.  Fri.  L.  Too  swift  arrives  as  tardy  as  too  slow.  "Alluding 
to  the  vulgar  proverb :  The  more  haste  the  worse  speed."^- 

R.  and  J.     III.  ii.  113.     That  "banished",  that  one  word  "banished" 
Hath  slain  ten  thousand  Tybalts. 
"I  am  more  affected  by  Romeo's  banishment  than  I  should  be  by  the  death  of  ten 
thousand  such  relations  as  Tybalt."^- 

Hani.  II.  ii.  185.     Hatn.     Conception  is  a  blessing,  but  not  as  your  daughter 
may  conceive. 
"Conception     (understanding),    says    Hamlet,    is    a    blessing,    but    the    conception 
(pregnancy)  of  your  daughter  would  not  be  one."^^ 

It  must  be  recognized  that  Ritson 's  forte  was  in  the  minutiae  of 
criticism.  He  had  a  knowledge  of  details  and  an  acquaintance  with  the 
sources  of  Shakespeare  material  that  would  have  done  credit  to  any  com- 
mentator. He  was  not,  however,  devoid  of  a  sympathetic  appreciation 
of  Shakespeare's  characters  or  of  each  play  as  a  whole.    His  notes  are 

*^Although  Boswell  makes  no  mention  of  Ritson,  there  is  more  than  a  bare 
possibility  that  Johnson  had  met  him  personally.  According  to  Nicolas  (Op.  Cit, 
p.  xxx)  "a  note  exists  from  Davies,  the  bookseller  [1782-1835],  to  Ritson,  stating 
that  Johnson  would  be  glad  to  see  him  on  the  following  day,  or  on  the  ensuing 
Friday;  and  that  he,  Davies,  would  be  happy  to  wait  on  him  if  convenient,  prob- 
ably to  introduce  them."  The  note  is  not  dated.  Ritson's  natural  timidity  would 
make  it  improbable  that  he  sought  the  acquaintance  of  Johnson  while  he  was 
preparing  his  first  criticism  on  Shakespeare,  and  there  is  little  reason  to  suppose 
that  Johnson  would  have  desired  an  acquaintance  before  the  publication  of  Remarks. 

*^Remarks,  p.  42. 

•"•o/bid.,  p.  53- 

^^Ibid.,  p.  171. 

^-Ibtd.,  p.  181. 

^^Ibid.,  p.  197. 


84  JOSEPH   RITSON  [418 

interspersed  with  happy  bits  of  eritieism  which  reveal  a  soul  responsive 
to  the  appeal  of  poetr3^  Yet  it  was  unfortunate  that  he  seemed  to  require 
the  stimulus  of  a  judgment  with  which  he  did  not  agree  in  order  to 
produce  his  own  estimate.  As  a  result,  his  remarks  frequently  took  on 
the  nature  of  rebuttal,  and  because  of  their  controversial  flavor  their 
sincerity  was  often  questioned.  The  one  shining  example  of  Ritson's 
ability  in  the  larger  sweep  of  interpretation  is  his  review  of  Hamlet 
in  answer  to  the  irreverent  and  unappreciative  construction  given  by 
Steevens. 

Steevens,  in  analyzing  Hamlet,  advanced  the  theory  that  the  play 
was  a  study  in  immoral  conduct  and  its  dire  consequences  in  a  weak 
character.  He  argued  that  Hamlet  was  a  j^outh  whose  faculties  had  been 
impaired  by  the  death  of  his  father,  the  loss  of  an  expected  kingship, 
and  the  sense  of  shame  resulting  from  the  incestuous  marriage  of  his 
mother.  He  made  but  one  attempt  to  avenge  his  father, — when  he  mis- 
took Polonius  for  the  king.  He  deliberately  procured  the  death  of 
Rosencranz  and  Guildenstern.  He  was  responsible  for  the  distraction 
and  death  of  Ophelia  and  outraged  common  decency  by  interrupting  her 
funeral.  And  at  last  he  killed  the  king  to  revenge  himself  and  not  his 
father.  His  own  death  the  poet  meant  as  a  sacrifice  for  his  immoral 
conduct.  He  is  not  deserving  the  pity  of  the  reader  or  spectator  because 
of  the  iniquitous  means  by  which  he  finally  accomplished  his  purpose.^* 

Such  an  interpretation  was,  to  a  worshipper  of  Shakespeare,  noth- 
ing ^ess  than  sacrilege.  Ritson  decried  the  want  of  reverence  which 
Steevens  had  manifested  and  in  a  long  review  of  the  play  justified  Ham- 
let's conduct  and  contended  that  the  poet's  aim  was  to  excite  sympathy 
for  a  noble  character  prevented  by  circumstances  beyond  his  control 
from  accomplishing  his  single  and  unrelinquished  purpose ;  a  character 
deserving  the  pity  of  the  audience  because  of  his  virtue,  his  unparallelled 
misfortunes,  and  the  final  sacrifice  of  his  own  life  to  the  deed  he  set  out 
to  perform.    He  writes,  in  part,  as  follows : 

"Hamlet,  the  onely  child  of  the  late  king,  upon  whose  death  he  became  lawfully 
intitled  to  the  crown,  had,  it  seems,  ever  since  that  event,  been  in  a  state  of 
melancholj%  owing  to  excessive  grief  for  the  suddenness  with  which  it  had  taken 
place,  and  an  indignant  horror  at  his  mothers  speedy  and  incestuous  marriage.  The 
spirit  of  the  king  his  father  appears,  and  makes  him  acquainted  with  the  circum- 
stances of  his  untimely  fate,  which  he  excites  him  to  rci'ciigc  :  this  Hamlet  engages 
to  do :  an  engagement  it  does  not  appear  he  ever  forgot.  .  .  .  To  conceal,  and, 
at  a  convenient  time,  to  effect,  his  purpose,  he  counterfeits  madness.  .  .  .  He 
soon    after   espies   the    usurper   at   prayers,    but    resolves,    and   with    great    justice 

5*Johnson  and  Steevens,  Shakspcare,  1778,  Vol.  X,  p.  411   ff.     See  also  Helent 
Richter,  Gcschichte  dcr  Englxschcn  Romantik,  Halle,  191 1,  Vol.  I,  p.  99. 


419]  SHAKESPEARE    CRITICISMS  85 

resolves,  not  to  kill  him  in  the  very  moment  when  he  might  be  making  his  peace 
with  heaven,  inasmuch  as  a  death  so  timed  would  have  been  rather  a  happiness 
than  a  punishment,  and,  by  no  means,  a  proper  revenge  for  his  father's  murder. 
.  .  .  At  the  beginning  of  this  conference  [with  his  mother]  he  mistakes  Polonius, 
who  was  behind  the  arras,  and  about  to  alarm  the  household,  for  the  usurper,  and, 
under  that  apprehension,  stabs  him.  .  .  .  He  is,  immediately,  sent  off  to 
England  :  and,  in  his  passage,  discovers  the  treacherous  and  fatal  purpose  of  the 
commission  with  which  his  companion  and  pretended  friends  were  charged.  These 
men,  he  knew,  had  eagerly  solicited  and  even  thrust  theirselves  upon  his  employ- 
ment ;  and  he  had,  of  course,  sufficient  reason  to  conclude  that  they  were  well 
acquainted  with  the  nature  and  purport  of  their  fatal  packet.  .  .  .  His  own 
safety  depended  on  their  removal ;  and,  at  such  a  time,  and  under  such  circum- 
stances, he  would  have  been  fully  justified  in  using  any  means  to  procure  it.  .  .  . 
Walking  with  his  friend  Horatio  through  a  church  yard,  he  enters  into  conversation 
with  a  grave-digger;  but,  presently,  observing  the  approach  of  a  funeral  procession, 
he  says  to  Horatio,  to  whom  he  was  then  speaking: 

Soft,  soft,  aside.     Here  comes  the  King. 

The  queen,  the  courtiers;  Who  is  this  they  foUozv? 

And  zvith  such  maimed  rites*?    This  doth  betoken 

The  corse  they  follow,  did  with  desperate  hand 

Foredo  its  own  life.    'Twas  of  some  estate. 

Couch  we  a  while,  and  mark. 
.     .     .     .     Laertes  asking  what  ceremony  else?    Hamlet  observes  to  Horatio,  That 
is  Laertes;  a  very  noble  yoiitli.     Laertes   concluding  his  expostulation   about  the 
further  honors  with  the  following  beautiful  lines  : 

— lay  her  i'  the  earth  ; 

And  from  her  fair  and  unpolluted  flesh 

May  violets  spring ! — I  tell  thee,  churlish  priest, 

A  ministering  angel  shall  my  sister  be, 

When  thou  liest  howling; 
Hamlet  exclaims;    What!  the  fair  Ophelia?    ....     Laertes  bids 

— Treble  woe 

Fall  ten  times  treble  on  that  cursed  head, 

Whose  wicked  deed  thy  most  ingenious  sense 

Deprived  thee  of; 
an  execration  Hamlet  cannot  but  perceive  to  be  pointed  at  himself.  Having 
uttered  this  curse,  Laertes,  hastily,  and  in  direct  violation  of  all  decorum,  jumps 
into  the  grave,  where  he  'rants  and  mouths  it'  like  a  player.  This  outrageous  pro- 
ceeding seems  to  infect  Hamlet;  who,  forgetting  hisself,  as  he  afterward,  with 
sorrow,  owns  to  Horatio,  and,   by  the  'bravery'  of  the  others  grief  being  worked 

up  'into  a  towering  passion',  leaps  in  after  him 

"The  affection  Hamlet  now  boasts  for  Ophelia  was  genuine  and  violent;  we 
find  him  with  the  very  same  sentiments  in  the  beginning  of  the  play,  and  he  has 
never  once  disowned  it,  except  on  a  single  occasion,  when  the  sacrifice  was  required 
by  his  assumed  character ;  a  circumstance  which  cannot,  at  least  ought  not  to,  be 
imputed  to  him  as  a  crime. 


86  JOSEPH  RITSON  [420 

".  .  .  .  Hamlet,  in  a  trial  of  skill  with  Laertes,  receives  an  unexpected, 
a  treacherous,  and  mortal  wound.  Immediately  before  the  company  enter,  he 
appears  to  be  much  troubled  in  mind ;  his  spirits  foreboding  what  was  to  happen : 
'If  it  be  now',  says  he,  ''tis  not  to  come;  if  it  be  not  to  come,  it  will  be  now; 
if  it  be  not  now,  yet  it  will  come;  the  readyness  is  all.'  ....  Being  thus 
wounded,  and  on  the  threshold  of  futurity,  if  he  had  not  killed  the  usurper  imme- 
diately, the  villain  would  have  escaped  unpunished.  But  he  does  not  stab  him 
for  his  treachery  toward  hisself, — he  upbraids  him  with  his  crimes  of  incest  and 
murder, — and  consigns  him  to  the  infernal  regions. 

With  all  his  'rank  offences'   thick  upon  him. 

So  that  he  sufficiently  revenges  his  father,  his  mother  (who,  by  the  way,  dyes, 
if  not  deservedly,  at  least  unpityed),  and  hisself.  As  to  his  own  fall,  every  reader 
or  spectator  must  sympathise  with  Horatio,  for  the  untimely  loss  of  a  youthful  prince 
possessed  of  such  great  and  amiable  qualities,  rendered  miserable  by  such  unparal- 
leled misfortunes ; 

— For  he  was  likely,  had  he  been  put  on. 

To  have  prov'd  most  royally; 

and  who  falls  a  sacrifice  to  the  most  base  and  infernal  machinations.  His  death, 
however,  is  not  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  punishment ;  the  most  innocent,  as  Shake- 
speare well  knew,  are  frequently  confounded  with  the  most  guilty;  and  the  virtues 
of  Hamlet  were  to  be  rewarded  among  those  angels  which  his  friend  Horatio 
invokes  to  escort  him  to  everlasting  rest.''^^ 

This  quotation  is  given  because  it  reveals  a  phase  of  Ritson's  char- 
acter all  too  seldom  discovered  and  shows  the  eloquence  he  could  attain 
to  under  proper  stimulus.  With  more  writing  of  this  kind  to  his  credit 
it  would  be  unjust  to  say  he  was  a  man  "who  lived  on  syllables"  and 
who  was  devoid  of  the  finer  sensibilities  of  character. 

Although  Ritson's  published  volumes  place  him  among  Gray,  Col- 
lins, Farmer,  Tyrwhitt,  and  the  other  authors  of  detached  pieces  of 
criticism,  yet  he  hoped  to  be  ranked  with  Theobald,  Johnson,  Steevens, 
Reed,  and  Malone  as  an  editor  of  Shakespeare.  He  long  cherished  the 
ambition  to  leave  as  a  symbol  of  devotion  a  complete  edition  of  "the 
god  of  his  idolatry."  At  least  as  early  as  1782  he  had  formed  the 
design,^®  but  it  was  not  announced  to  the  public  until  April  18,  1783. 
At  that  time  there  appeared  on  the  last  page  of  the  Remarks  a  pros- 
pectus for  "An  edition  of  the  plays  of  William  Shakspeare,  with  notes, 
preparing  for  the  press."  The  edition  was  to  comprise  eight  duodecimo 
volumes;  the  text  was  to  be  "carefully  and  accurately  printed  from 

^^Reinarks,  pp.  217-224. 

58When  in  November,  1782,  Rowntree  asked  to  borrow  a  Shakespeare,  Ritsot 
replied  that  his  only  edition  was  not  fit  to  leave  the  chambers,  but  added,  alluding 
no  doubt  to  his  own  contemplated  work :  "twenty  years  hence  I  shall  probably  have 
it  in  my  power  to  give  you  an  edition  of  the  immortal  bard."     Letters,  I,  p.  6^. 


421]  SHAKESPEARE    CRITICISMS  87 

the  only  copies  of  real  authority,  the  two  first  folios,"  with  painstaking 
collation  of  the  old  quartos  and  an  accurate  statement  of  all  variations 
adopted ;  doubtful  readings  were  to  be  settled  ' '  from  an  attentive  exam- 
ination of  the  sentiments  of  every  commentator ' ' ;  notes  were  to  be  intro- 
duced only  where  they  seemed  absolutely  necessary;  the  author's  life 
and  the  prefaces  of  his  various  editors  were  to  be  prefixed  and  an 
accurate  glossary  added ;  and  an  extra  volume  was  to  contain  ' '  a  com- 
plete verbal  index".  This  edition  was  to  be,  with  regard  to  the  correct- 
ness of  the  text,  "infinitely  superior  to  any  that  has  yet  appeared";  it 
was  to  possess  all  "the  advantages  of  every  former  edition,  and  be  as 
little  liable  as  possible  to  the  defects  of  any". 

Coming  as  it  did  upon  the  heels  of  his  captious  attack  upon  John- 
son and  Steevens,  this  announcement  appeared  as  a  challenge  to  Shake- 
speare editors.  But  had  Ritson  had  the  hardihood  to  publish  at  this 
time,  he  could  not  have  met  with  success.  When  such  a  brilliant  galaxy 
of  commentators  and  editors  as  Johnson,  Steevens,  Tyrwhitt,  Farmer, 
Reed,  and  Malone  possessed  the  ear  of  the  booksellers  and  the  confidence 
of  the  public,  an  edition  of  Shakespeare  by  an  antiquary  who  was 
minutely  accurate  in  details,  who  held  advanced  notions  of  the  functions 
of  an  editor  and  critic,  who  was  uncompromising  in  praise  and  blame 
alike,  who  was,  above  all,  pugnacious  and  controversial — an  edition  by 
such  an  one  would  have  met  with  scant  approval  in  most  quarters  and 
with  open  rejection  in  many.  Ritson  sensed  the  situation  accurately. 
On  February  1,  1788,  in  the  preface  to  Quip  Modest,  he  replied  thus  to 
the  enquiries  that  had  been  made  concerning  his  edition: 

"In  truth,  the  attention  requisite  to  the  publication  of  so  voluminous  a  work, 
and  the  little  likelihood  there  is  of  its  being  productive  to  the  undertaker  of  any- 
thing but  trouble  and  expense,  together  with  other  causes  of.  less  consequence, 
have  hitherto  deterred  me  from  putting  it  to  press.  But  I  have  neither  laid  aside 
all  thoughts  of  bringing  it  forward,  nor  can  I  pledge  myself  to  produce  it  in  any 
given  time.  I  have  little  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Public  interests  itself  at  all 
in  the  matter,  and  therefore  think  myself  at  full  liberty  to  suit  my  own  inclination 
and  convenience." 

Following  this  pronunciameuto  he  made  enough  effort  to  put  two 
sheets  of  Comedy  of  Errors  to  the  press.  Here  the  matter  rested, 
although  it  is  certain  that  he  did  not  for  some  years  give  up  his  notion 
of  eventually  perfecting  his  edition  and  perhaps  never  entirely  relin- 
quished it.  To  the  indifference  of  the  public,  which  he  felt  keenly,  was 
soon  added  physical  illness  which  materially  lessened  the  amount  of  his 
literary  labor.  In  the  middle  of  1790  he  wrote  to  Joseph  Cooper  Walker, 
the  antiquary: 

"I  know  not  whether  I  shall  ever  have  resolution  enough  to  put  an   edition 


88  JOSEPH  RITSON  [422 

of  this  favorite  author  into  the  press,  as  the  public  will  for  some  time  be  completely 
glutted  with  editions  of  one  kind  or  another."^'^ 

Two  years  later  he  was  still  gathering  material  and  declared  that  he 
had  yet  "some  intention  of  printing  an  edition  of  Shakspeare."^^ 

Indeed  he  was,  throughout  life,  making  notes,  exchanging  sugges- 
tions with  friends,  and  amassing  material  for  an  edition  of  the  dramatist. 
Although  only  the  three  pamphlets  already  reviewed  were  published, 
yet  much  more  was  prepared.  The  catalogue  of  the  sale  of  Ritson's 
library  records  the  ten  volumes  of  the  Johnson  and  Steevens  Shakspeare 
and  the  four  volumes  of  Shakspeare' s  Twenty  Plays,  by  Steevens,  as 
"filled  with  MS.  notes  and  comments  by  Mr.  Ritson."  In  addition, 
there  were  three  volumes  of  manuscript  material  "prepared  by  Mr.  Rit- 
son for  the  press,  intending  to  publish  it. '  '''^ 

With  the  exception  of  twenty-three  pages  of  variant  readings,**** 
all  this  material — the  painstaking  accumulation  of  a  lifetime — has  disap- 
peared from  view.  Had  he  published  his  material  in  final  form,  Ritson 's 
edition  of  Shakespeare  would  undoubtedly  have  compared  favorably 
with  any  of  his  century.  He  had  a  knowledge  of  the  quartos  and  folios 
not  surpassed  by  any  of  his  contemporaries  and  a  capacity  for  taking 
pains  not  equalled  by  any.  He  had  a  better  ear  than  Malone,  more 
reverence  for  his  author  than  Steevens,  and  a  finer  critical  insight  than 
Reed.  He  would  have  laid  under  tribute  a  vast  knowledge  of  medieval 
literature  and  a  wide  acquaintance  with  the  English  language  in  its 
early  forms.  His  glossary  and  verbal  index  would  probably  have  been 
the  most  valuable  parts  of  his  edition,  for  he  long  complained  of 
Ayscough's  Index,  and  he  had  consistently  corrected  the  glosses  of 
previous  editions.  The  most  likely  fault  of  his  work  would  have  been 
the  outcropping  of  the  acidity  of  his  nature  in  personal  abuse  of  fellow 
editors. — But  this  is  speculation.     Unless  the  lost  manuscripts  are  by 

^^Ibid.,  I,  p.  i68. 

^^Ibid.,  I,  p.  215. 

59At  the  Ritson  sale  Longman  purchased  "for  the  trade"  the  annotated  Johnson 
and  Steevens  Shakspeare  and  the  three  volume  manuscript  of  Ritson's  notes.  It 
is  not  known  why  he  did  not  publish  the  material.  In  1824  Haslewood  waxed 
indignant  at  what  he  called  the  "singular  apathy  or  inconsistency  of  the  biblio- 
polistical  monopolizers"  and  professed  to  believe  that  a  conspiracy  to  defame  Ritson 
existed  even  after  his  death.  (Op.  Cit.,  p.  44.)  But  the  publishers  probably  acted 
on  purely  commercial  considerations.  This  material  was  disposed  of  at  Longman's 
sale  in  1842  and  has  not  been  located  since. 

«oThese  pages,  now  in  the  library  of  Mr.  Perry,  contain  159  parallel  passages 
from  the  two  first  folios  compiled  in  the  endeavor  to  convict  Malone  of  adopting 
all  the  "gross  and  palpable  errors  of  the  first  folio".  Seventeen  of  them  were 
printed  in  the  Introduction  to  Cursory  Criticisms. 


423]  SHAKESPEiVRE    CRITICISMS  89 

good  fortune  discovered,  Ritson's  fame  as  a  Shakespeare  commentator 
must  rest  upon  the  Remarks,  Quip  Modest,  and  Cursory  Criticisms. 
Making  due  allowance  for  an  unhappy  manner,  this  reputation  is  by 
no  means  the  least  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  V. 
Editorial  Labors,  1783-1795 

First  period  as  an  editor  and  collector — English  Songs — Makes  strong  appeal 
for  popular  favor — Emphasizes  editorial  accuracy — Manifests  interest  in  literary 
antiquities  of  Stockton  by  publishing  Bishoprick  Garland  and  Gammer  Gurton's 
Garland — Publishes  Spartan  Manual  for  nephew — Yorkshire  Garland — Corre- 
spondence with  Walker — Illness — Ancient  Songs — Its  general  character — Appeal 
to  critical  student — Glossary — Ancient  Popular  Poetry — Contents — Preface — Revises 
Reed's  Dido — North-Country  Chorister — Northumberland  Garland — English  An- 
thology— Plan — Appeal  for  public  favor — Abuse  of  reviewers — Transcribes  Hodg- 
son's Memoirs — Scotish  Songs — Labor  in  compiling — Contents — Critical  reception — 
Minot's  Poems — First  critical  edition — Date  of  MS. — Minot's  personality  and  liter- 
ary rank — Robin  Hood — The  Life — The  Poems — Critical  estimate. 

With  the  publication  of  the  Observations,  in  1782,  Ritson's  literary 
career  may  be  said  to  have  begun.  From  that  time  on  to  the  close  of  his 
life  he  was  known  to  his  contemporaries  as  an  editor  and  a  critic  rather 
than  as  a  conveyancer.  As  has  already  been  indicated,  he  continued  in 
his  profession  and  devoted  enough  attention  to  it  not  only  to  gain  a 
livelihood  but  also  to  publish  some  valuable  professional  books  of  an 
antiquarian  nature,  but  his  serious  concern  with  the  law  decreased  in 
proportion  as  his  purely  literary  interests  increased.  In  literature  his 
work  is  primarily  that  of  an  editor,  secondarily  that  of  a  critic.  His 
editorial  labors  fall  naturally  into  two  periods  determined  by  the  inse- 
cure state  of  his  health.  The  first  extends  to  1795  when  a  nervous  ailment 
became  so  severe  as  to  put  a  temporary  stop  to  his  work.  During  the 
years  1785  to  1795  he  saw  through  the  press  twenty  publications  totalling 
twenty-six  volumes.  Of  these,  six  titles  have  already  been  considered. 
The  others  remain  for  treatment  in  the  present  chapter.  With  three 
exceptions  these  volumes  consist  of  collections  of  poems,  ballads,  and 
songs  of  a  somewhat  popular  type.  Several  of  them  contain  introductory 
essays  of  an  historical  and  critical  nature.  For  the  most  part  this 
material  will  be  reserved  for  discussion  in  the  next  chapter  but  one. 
We  are  here  concerned  with  the  edited  matter  only. 

Besides  his  first  Shakespeare  pamphlet,  Ritsou  published  in  1783^ 
A  Select  Collection  of  English  Songs,  with  their  Original  Airs,  in  three 

lAUibone,  Op.  Cit.,  credits  Ritson  with  the  continuation  of  Ben  Jonson's  Sad 
Shepherd,  or  a  Tale  of  Robin  Hood,  published  anonymously  in  1783  under  the 
title,  An  atte}npt  to  continue  and  complete  the  justly  admired  Pastoral  of  the  Sad 

90 


425]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  91 

volumes.^  One  is  immediately  struck  with  the  typographical  elegance  of 
this  collection.  It  is  delightfully  printed.  There  is  an  excellent  frontis- 
piece by  the  Swiss  artist  Fuseli,^  and  scattered  throughout  the  volumes 
are  several  pleasing  vignettes  by  Stothard.*  Ritson  was  exceedingly 
vain  of  the  mechanical  appearance  of  his  publications  and  prided  him- 
self on  their  typographical  finish  almost  as  much  as  on  their  critical 
accuracy.  He  wrote  to  a  friend  that  his  books  were  "not  without  some 
merit  as  an  example  of  the  printer's  art",  and  he  was  always  pleased 
when  the  format  of  his  work  was  praised.  The  fact  that  he  went  to 
great  expense  in  illustrating  his  publications  and  in  printing  them  in 
superior  style  (a  part  of  several  editions  was  printed  "on  fine  paper") 
made  it  impossible  for  him  to  realize  anything  from  their  sale.  He 
frequently  complained  that  all  his  publications  except  the  little  Garlands 
were  a  drain  on  his  purse,  but  it  seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  him  that 
he  might  have  lost  less  money  on  his  publications  if  he  had  allowed 
the  printer  to  bring  them  forth  in  an  equally  substantial  but  less  elegant 
dress.  In  fact,  this  very  insistence  upon  superior  typography,  coupled 
with  his  haphazard  business  methods,  led  frequently  through  misunder- 
standings to  disrupted  friendships.^  In  English  Songs  the  use  of  musical 
type  added  to  the  difficulties  of  publication.  Musical  printing  did  not 
develop  as  rapidly  in  England  as  on  the  continent,^  and  at  that  time  there 
was  but  one  printer  in  the  kingdom  who  possessed  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  musical  type  for  this  work  and  those  were  all  of  equal  size  and 
character.^ 

Shepherd.  This  is  the  work  of  Francis  G.  Waldron  (1744-1818).  See  Ben  Jonson's 
Sad  Shepherd  ivith  Waldron's  Continuation,  edited  by  W.  W.  Greg  as  vol.  xi.  of 
Materialism  zur  Kunde  des  alteren  Englischen  Dramas,  Louvain,  1905. 

^References  are  to  the  second  edition  "with  additional  songs  and  occasional 
notes"  by  Thomas   Park,  3  vols.,  London,   1813. 

^Henry  Fuseli  (1741-1825),  Swiss  painter,  spent  practically  the  whole  of  his 
life  in  England.  As  an  artist  he  had  many  things  in  common  with  Reynolds  and 
Blake.  His  most  noteworthy  paintings  are  perhaps  his  Shakespeare  and  Milton 
productions.  It  was  through  his  intimacy  with  Joseph  Johnson,  bookseller  of 
St.  Paul's  Churchyard,  that  he  designed  the  frontispiece  for  Ritson's  English  Songs. 

^Thomas  Stothard  (1755-1834)  is  famous  chiefly  as  a  book-illustrator.  His 
long  friendship  with  Blake  was  terminated  as  a  result  of  Cromek's  clandestine 
dealings  concerning  the  painting  of  the  "Canterbury  Pilgrims." 

^In  this  regard  English  Songs  took  its  toll  in  the  friendship  of  Christopher, 
Ritson's  Stockton  bookseller.    See  Letters,  I,  pp.  111-113. 

^Cf.  Robert  Steele,  The  Earliest  English  Music  Printing,  London,  1903; 
Encyc.  Brit.,  art.  "Typography". 

"As  late  as  1813,  Park  says  it  was  necessary  to  cast  the  type  twice  for  musical 
notes,  and  even  then  the  second  font  was  quite  defective  in  blending  the  ligatures  of 
the  notes.    English  Songs,  I,  p.  xvii,  note. 


92  JOSEPH  RITSON  [426 

The  excellence  of  the  printer's  workmanship  is,  however,  quite  in 
keeping  with  the  editor's  ideals  in  forming  the  collection  of  English 
Songs.  In  the  Preface  Ritson  justifies  his  work  on  high  moral  grounds. 
Previous  song  collections  in  the  eighteenth  century  were  filled  with 
coarse  and  immoral  material.  D  'Urf ey  's  famous  and  popular  six  volume 
"singing  book"^  was  notoriously  vulgar  and  immodest,  and  although 
D'Urfey  intended  the  songs  to  be  sung  by  the  youth  of  both  sexes  he 
saw  no  necessity  for  apologizing  for  the  impudicity  of  the  pieces.  Col- 
lectors after  him,  from  Ramsay  to  Aikin,^  called  attention  to  the  chastity 
of  their  volumes,  and  while  the  collections  are  far  from  pure  when 
judged  by  present  day  standards,  the  men  were  justified  in  congratu- 
lating themselves  on  their  service  to  morality  when  they  remembered 
that  the  public  had  once  been  delighted  with  the  obscenity  which 
D'Urfey  had  foisted  upon  them.  But  of  all  these  men  Aikin  was  the 
only  one  who  approached  with  any  degree  of  proximity  the  id:^al  which 
they  exalted  in  their  prefaces.  Ritson  was  outspoken  in  his  disapproval 
on  moral  grounds  of  previous  song  collections,  and  he  aimed  rigidly  to 
correct  their  faults  on  this  score  by  excluding  from  his  own  collection 
"every  composition,  however  celebrated,  or  however  excellent,  of  which 
the  slightest  expression,  or  the  most  distant  allusion  could  have  tinged 
the  cheek  of  delicacy,  or  offended  the  purity  of  the  chastest  ear".^*'  In 
this  endeavor  Ritson  succeeded  better  than  any  of  his  predecessors  and 
for  his  achievement  received  the  unalloyed  praise  of  his  contemporaries. 
In  some  other  exclusions  he  was  not  so  fortunate.  These  strictures  were 
in  some  cases  the  result  of  purely  [personal  dislikes.  Such  is  the  exclus- 
ion of  songs  on  Freemasonry,  those  "absurd,  conceited,  enigmatic,  and 
unintelligible ' '  compositions  which  ' '  seemed  calculated  rather  to  disgrace 
than  to  embellish  the  collection."  Others  are  the  result  of  sweeping  and 
rather  hasty  generalizations ;  as  when  he  says  that  the  insertion  of  songs 
on  political  topics  has  been  studiously  avoided  because  "the  best  of 
these  pieces  are  not  only  too  temporary,  but  too  partial  to  gain  applause 
when  their  subjects  are  forgotten,  and  their  satire  has  lost  its  force.  "^^ 
This  criticism  would  apply  to  most  but  by  no  means  all  political  songs. 

Quite  different  from  the  point  of  view  in  his  earlier  publications, 
which  were  aimed  primarily  for  the  student  and  antiquary,  is  that  taken 

^Thomas  D'Urfey,  Wit  and  Mirth;  or  Pills  to  Purge  Melancholy,  London, 
1719-20. 

^Cf.  Allan  Ramsay,  Tea-table  Miscellany  and  The  Evergreen,  London,  1724; 
William  Thomson,  Orpheus  Caledonius,  172$;  Benjamin  Wakefield,  Warbling 
Muses,  1749;  Edward  Capell,  Prolusions,  1760;  John  Aikini  Essays  on  Song 
Writing,  1772  and  1774. 

^^English  Songs,  Preface,  p.  vii. 

^''Ibid.,  p.  X. 


427]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  93 

in  the  Preface  to  English  Songs.  There  he  makes  a  strong  bid  for 
popular  favor.  Like  all  preceding  collectors  he  apologizes  for  the  old 
popular  songs  which  he  feels  obliged  to  include,  and  flatters  the  refined 
taste  of  his  polished  age.  He  deferentially  explains  that  the  old  ballads 
which  form  the  last  section  of  his  collection  "would  by  no  means 
assimilate  or  mix  with  the  more  polished  contents  of  the  preceding  divis- 
ions" and  tells  the  reader  that  "he  must  be  content  to  take  them,  as  they 
were  probabl}'  written, — at  least,  as  they  have  come  down  to  us, — 'with  all 
their  imperfections  on  their  heads '."^- 

The  omissions  already  noted  were  a  part  of  his  appeal  for  public 
approval.  There  were  others.  Those  who  look  in  this  collection  for 
extracts  from  the  vast  manuscript  stores  with  which  Ritson  was  familiar 
will  be  disappointed.  While  he  professed  acquaintance  with  a  "prodi- 
gious quantity"  of  unpublished  lyric  poetry,  he  confidently  assured  his 
readers  that  every  piece  before  them  had  already  appeared  in  print. 
"The  editor",  he  writes,  "could  not,  consistently  wdth  his  respect  for 
the  public,  obtrude  upon  them  a  single  line,  which  had  not  been  already 
stamped  with  their  approbation,  or  on  the  merits  of  which  they  had  not 
had  an  opportunity  to  decide.  "^^ 

A  still  further  plea  for  general  approbation  was  made  by  playing 
upon  the  chord  of  patriotism,  by  appealing  to  the  national  spirit.  Ritson 
deprecated  the  "fashionable  rage  for  music"  which  caused  the  people 
of  his  day  to  forsake  the  old  songs  and  ancient  ballads  and  turn  to  the 
ephemeral  tunes  of  the  second-rate  play  houses.  In  this  he  was  seconding 
an  earlier  opinion  of  Dr.  Aikin,  who  characterized  the  tendency  of  the 
times  in  this  wise :  ' '  the  most  enchanting  tunes  are  suited  with  the 
most  flat  and  wretched  combinations  of  w^ords  that  ever  disgraced  the 
genius  of  a  nation ;  and  the  miserable  versifier  only  appears  as  the  hired 
underling  of  a  musical  composer."^*  As  an  antidote  to  this  "popular" 
music  Ritson  advocated  a  return  to  the  old  songs  whose  simple  melodies 
served  only  to  enhance  the  sentiment  of  the  words. ^^    This  was  his  chief 

^-Ibid.,  p.  xiii. 

^■'Ibid.,  p.  xi. 

i*John  Aikin,  Op.  Cit.,  2nd  edition,  Preface,  p.  vi. 

i^More  than  a  decade  earlier  (1769)  Benjamin  Franklin,  then  in  London,  had 
expressed  the  same  idea  in  a  letter  to  Peter  Franklin,  who  had  sent  him  a  song 
to  be  set  to  music  by  one  of  the  London  composers.  After  expressing  the  opinion 
that  some  Massachusetts  country  girl  who  had  heard  nothing  but  "Chevy  Chase" 
and  "The  Children  in  the  Woods"  and  had  naturally  a  good  ear  "might  more 
probably  have  made  a  pleasing  popular  tune  than  any  of  our  masters  here 
[London]",  he  adds  of  the  modern  composers :  "they  are  admirable  at  pleasing 
practised  ears,  and  know  how  to  delight  one  another ;  but,  in  composing  for  songs, 
the  reigning  taste  seems  to  be  quite  out  of  nature,  or  rather  the  reverse  of  nature, 


94  JOSEPH   RITSON  [428 

reason  for  adding  in  the  last  part  of  his  collection  the  old  ballads  which 
he  called  the  ' '  genuine  effusions  of  the  English  muse,  unadulterated  with 
the  sentimental  refinements  of  Italy  or  France."  He  professed  to  be 
rendering  a  distinctly  national  service  by  including  in  his  collection  the 
genuine  ancient  songs  of  the  English,  while  he  ignored  the  "mushroom 
growth  of  comic  operas"  which  the  recent  "fashionable  rage"  for 
French  and  Italian  music  had  caused  to  spring  up  in  England.^^ 

Ritson  sought  further  to  curry  popular  favor  by  the  simplicity  and 
naturalness  of  the  arrangement  of  the  songs.  One  of  his  chief  reasons  for 
venturing  to  add  another  to  the  already  numerous  collections  of  some- 
what similar  nature  was  that  he  would  present  on  an  improved  plan 
and  within  brief  compass  the  best  lyrics  in  the  English  language,  which 
otherwise  had  to  be  sought  through  a  large  number  of  volumes  and  mixed 
with  a  mass  of  other  material.  He  expressed  the  idea  in  characteristic- 
ally trenchant  language  thus: 

"For  who,  let  his  desires  and  his  convenience  be  what  they  may,  will  think  it 
worth  his  while  to  peruse,  much  less  to  purchase,  two  or  three  hundred  volumes, 
merely  because  each  of  them  may  happen  to  contain  a  couple  of  excellent  songs? 
Everyone  who  wishes  to  possess  a  pearl,  is  not  content  to  seek  it  in  an  ocean 
of  mud".i7 

The  pearls  being  now  brought  together,  the  question  was  to  arrange  them 
for  the  most  effective  display.  This  Ritson  considered  to  be  the  most 
natural  and  simple  from  the  reader's  point  of  view,  and  he  disclaimed 
any  desire  for  personal  commendation  for  an  "ingenious"  arrangement. 
As  classification  presupposes  definition,  Ritson 's  first  task  was  to 
define  song  and  distinguish  song  from  ballad. 

"Song,  in  its  most  general  acceptation,  is  defined  to  be  the  expression  of  a 
sentiment,  sensation  or  image,  the  description  of  an  action,  or  the  narrative  of  an 
event,  by  words  differently  measured,  and  attached  to  certain  sounds,  which  we  call 
melody  or  tune."^^ 

On  the  basis  of  this  general  definition  Ritson  made  a  division  into  ' '  songs 
strictly  and  properly  so  called"  and  "ballads  or  mere  narrative  compo- 

and  yet  like  a  torrent,  hurries  them  all  away  with  it;  one  or  two  perhaps  only 
excepted."  "The  Writings  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  ed.  A.  H.  Smyth,  New  York 
and  London,  1906.    Vol.  V,  p.  529. 

i^The  purely  English  character  of  the  collection  is  further  enhanced  by 
rejecting  almost  all  Irish  songs  and  by  rigidly  excluding  Scottish  productions. 
A  further  reason  for  the  last  omission  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  Ritson  was 
planning  a  separate  collection  of  "songs  entirely  Scotish." 

^~Eng.  Songs,  Pref.,  p.  ii.  Aikin  considered  the  business  of  classifying  a 
disagreeable  task,  but  Ritson  professes  to  take  pleasure  in  it. 

'^^Ibid.,  Historical  Essay,  p.  i. 


429]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  95 

sitions."  This  distinction  was  here  for  the  first  time  clearly  made,  and 
it  had  a  wholesome  effect  in  clarifying  later  discussions  on  the  whole 
ballad  and  song  question.  The  songs  in  the  confined  sense  form  the  first 
three  divisions  of  English  Songs,  ballads  the  fourth. 

The  first  and  principal  division,  "Love  Songs",  is  subdivided  into 
five  classes,  each  with  its  characteristic  theme.  This  part  of  the  work 
is  a  veritable  store-house  of  song.  It  comprises  pieces  from  authors 
ranging  in  time  from  Marlowe  and  Raleigh  to  Dr.  Johnson,  and  in  poetic 
merit  running  the  gamut  from  Barton  Booth  and  Sir  William  Yonge 
to  Shakespeare.  The  second  division  consists  of  half  a  hundred  pieces 
unfortunately  designated  "Drinking  Songs".  It  was  the  excess  of 
Bacchanalian  verses,  with  their  attendant  licentiousness,  freedom,  and 
immorality,  that  had  disgraced  previous  song  collections  in  Ritson's 
eyes.  In  making  his  own  selection  he  considered  that  he  had  performed 
a  commendable  service  for  his  generation,  for  he  had  carefully  excluded 
every  piece  that  might  give  offense  to  the  most  refined.  If  Ritson  erred 
here,  it  was  in  that  his  enthusiasm  for  morality  led  him  to  excessive 
strictures.  Into  a  third  division,  "Miscellaneous  Songs",  are  thrown 
all  those  pieces  of  poetic  merit  which  a  strict  observance  of  his  classi- 
fication had  excluded  from  the  foregoing  sections.  It  includes  some 
of  the  most  delightful  songs  in  the  whole  collection.  After  these  three 
groups  of  songs  follows  a  comparatively  small  number  of  old  popular 
ballads.  The  third  volume  of  the  collection  is  devoted  to  the  musical 
notation  of  the  songs  contained  in  the  other  two  volumes.  In  this  part 
of  the  work  Ritson  experienced  peculiar  difficulty,  for,  by  his  own 
confession,  his  knowledge  of  music  was  quite  limited.  This  handicap  was, 
however,  largely  overcome  through  the  generous  assistance  of  his  old 
Stockton  friend,  William  Shield.^^ 

In  the  preface  to  English  Songs  there  is  a  curious  mingling  of  two 
ideals  which  in  the  eighteenth  century  had  seemed  incompatible.  Not 
only  does  Ritson  make  a  strong  plea  for  the  favor  of  the  popular  reader, 
the  person  who  wishes  to  receive  a  little  instruction  and  more  amuse- 
ment, the  "man  of  taste",  but  he  places  much  emphasis  on  fidelity 
to  sources  and  accuracy  in  editing.  The  songs  are  all  published  from  the 
best  edition  of  the  author's  works  or  from  some  other  reliable  source 

i^Ritson  made  no  attempt  to  give  any  music  further  than  a  simple  treble.  He 
apologizes  to  "such  fair  readers  as  may  complain  of  the  want  of  a  bass  part  for 
their  harpsichords"  by  saying  that  it  was  impracticable  to  complicate  the  musical 
notation  to  such  a  degree.  An  amusing  side-light  on  this  explanation  is  afforded 
by  Park's  statement  that  he  once  heard  "a  lady  of  high  musical  repute  inquire 
whether  a  bass  had  been  printed  with  the  airs  of  his  English  Songs,  to  which  the 
editor  replied,  "A  bass!  what  would  you  have  a  bass  for? — to  spoil  the  treble?" 
English  Songs,  Pref.,  p.  xv,  and  note. 


96  JOSEPH  RITSON  [430 

and  corrected  by  a  careful  collation  of  all  available  authentic  copies. 
He  is  careful  to  point  out  that  all  variations  adopted  are  indicated  in 
the  notes.  It  is  in  the  last  section  of  the  work,  however,  that  Ritson 
has  most  to  say  about  this  point,  and  here  began  a  quarrel  with  Percy's 
editorial  methods  which  he  carried  on  with  increasing  vigor  for  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  In  this  part  of  the  preface  he  seems  to  have  for- 
gotten the  man  of  taste,  for  the  moment  at  least,  and  to  have  in  mind 
only  the  critical  student  and  the  antiquarian. 

Each  of  the  ballads  included  in  this  work  Ritson  saj^s  "has  been 
transcribed  from  some  old  copy,  generally  in  black  letter;  and  has, 
in  most  cases,  been  collated  with  various  others."  He  has  kept  closely 
to  his  originals,  varying  the  text  only  so  far  as  to  modernize  the 
spelling — a  slight  concession  to  the  man  of  taste — and  to  correct  obvious 
typographical  errors.  Half  of  the  twenty-eight  ballads  included  had 
been  previously  printed  by  Percy  in  the  Reliques,  a  work  which  Ritson 
commended  as  "beautiful,  elegant,  and  ingenious".  But  the  elegance  of 
the  publication  did  not  blind  him  to  Percy's  editorial  laxness,  nor  was  it 
sufficient  to  stop  up  the  vials  of  his  wrath,  which  had  not  been  emptied 
on  Warton,  Steevens,  et  al.  In  preparing  his  own  collection  Ritson 
had  had  frequent  recourse  to  the  originals  from  which  Percy  had  pro- 
fessedly printed  the  ballads,  "but  not  one",  he  says,  "has  upon  examin- 
ation, been  found  to  be  followed  with  either  fidelity  or  correctness, ' '  and 
they  who  look  into  the  Reliques  "to  be  acquainted  with  the  state  of 
ancient  poetry,  will  be  miserably  disappointed  or  fatally  misled."  And 
then,  led  on  by  his  animosity  to  editorial  carelessness  he  indulges  in  a 
bitter  personal  thrust  at  Percy. 

"Forgery  and  imposition  of  every  kind,  ought  to  be  universally  execrated,  and 
never  more  than  when  employed  by  persons  high  in  rank  or  character,  and  those 
very  circumstances  are  made  use  of  to  sanctify  the  deceit."-'' 

A  comparison  of  the  texts  printed  by  Percy  and  Ritson  with  those  given 
in  Child's  monumental  collection-^  proves  Ritson  to  be  far  superior  to 
his  celebrated  contemporary  in  accuracy  and  fidelity  to  originals.  Allow- 
ing, then,  for  a  warmth  of  expression  which  was  perfectly  natural  to 
Ritson,  his  judgment  that  "the  inaccurate  and  sophisticated  manner  in 
which  every  thing  that  liad  real  pretensions  to  antiquity,  has  been 
printed"  by  Percj^  "would  be  a  sufficient  apology  for  any  one  who  might 
undertake  to  publish,  more  faithful,  though,  haply,  less  elegant  copies", 

^'^Ibid.,  p.  xii,  note. 

-^F.  J.  Child,  The  English  and  Scottish  Popular  Ballads,  Boston,  1882.  Of^ 
the  fourteen  ballads  given  in  common  by  Percy  and  Ritson  ten  are  printed  by 
Child. 


431]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  97 

is  not  much  afield  so  far  as  the  strict  requirements  of  editorial  accur- 
acy go. 

These  same  rigid  canons  of  editorship  Ritson  carried  into  his  work 
with  the  music  of  the  songs.  He  insisted,  first  of  all,  upon  the  original 
air  for  each  song.  A  large  number  of  the  old  airs  had,  of  course,  been 
forgotten  and  were  irrevocably  lost.  Of  those  that  were  known,  many 
were  faulty  and  had  to  be  rearranged.  In  all  cases  there  was  the  problem 
of  harmonizing  the  words  and  music.  Here  it  was  Ritson 's  somewhat 
revolutionary  demand  that  the  music  should  be  made  to  fit  the  words  of 
the  song,  not  vice  versa.  Two  composers  who  incurred  his  condemnation 
for  the  opposite  practice  were  Dr.  Arne,--  "whose  own  professional  ex- 
cellence might  have  taught  him  the  respect  due  that  of  another",  and 
"William  Jackson  of  Exeter,-^  'Svho  has  gone  so  far  as  to  prefix  to  one  of 
his  publications  a  formal  defense  of  the  freedom  he  had  exercised  upon 
the  unfortunate  bards  who  have  fallen  into  his  clutches."  In  his  aver- 
sion to  altering  the  original  tunes  Ritson  was  fortunately  supported  by 
Shield,  who  wrote  to  him: 

"I  feel  very  differently  from  many  of  my  brother  professors,  for  although 
practise  must  improve  my  harmonical  knou^ledge,  it  does  not  lessen  the  value  of  a 
simple  national  melody,  which  I  hope  will  ever  be  admired  by  every  sensible  mind."-* 

Ritson 's  diverse  aims  in  collecting  and  publishing  English  Songs 
are  well  summarized  in  a  sentence  in  the  Preface : 

"Entirely  to  remove  every  objection  to  which  the  subject  is,  at  present,  open; 
to  exhibit  all  the  most  admired,  and  intrinsically  excellent  specimens  of  lyric  poetry 
in  the  English  language  at  one  view ;  to  promote  real  instructive  entertainment ;  to 
satisfy  the  critical  taste  of  the  judicious;  to  indulge  the  nobler  feelings  of  the 
pensive;  and  to  afford  innocent  mirth  to  the  gay;  has  been  the  complex  object  of 
the  present  publication.'"^ 

How  well  he  succeeded  in  the  accomplishment  of  this  manifold  object  is 
attested  by  the  almost  universal  commendation  with  w^hich  the  collection 
was  received.  Even  his  quondam  enemies,  the  reviewers,  took  but  passing 
notice  of  the  harsh  treatment  of  Percy  and  gave  unstinted  praise  to 
the  work  as  a  whole.-^    He  seems  to  have  succeeded  remarkably  well  in 

22Thomas  Augustine  Arne  (1710-1778),  musical  composer  and  teacher,  supplied 
the  music  for  Covent  Garden  and  Drury  Lane  for  many  years.  His  two  most 
notable  triumphs  are  "Rule  Brittania",  and  "Where  the  Bee  Sucks." 

23William  Jackson,  of  Exeter,  (1730-1803)  was  a  musical  composer,  and  author 
of  numerous  volumes  of  songs  and  many  musical  text  books. 

-^Quoted  by  Nicolas,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  xxxiv. 

^^English  Songs,  Pref.,  p.  ii. 

-®See  Critical  Review,  Vol.  LVIII,  pp.  300-4;  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  LIV, 
pp.  817-18;  Monthly  Review,  Vol.  LXXIII,  p.  234;   and   for  the   second  edition, 


98  JOSEPH  RITSON  [432 

pleasing  both  the  student  and  the  general  reader ;  and  he  was  fortunate 
in  striking  a  period  Avhen  the  public  was  much  interested  in  collections 
of  songs,  ballads,  poems,  and  romances.  This  interest  joined  Avith  Ritson's 
absorption  in  poetic  antiquities  to  keep  him  working  and  publishing  in 
this  field.  He  seldom  gave  up  working  on  a  book  when  it  had  been  issued 
from  the  press.  Instead  he  immediately  set  about  correcting  and  altering 
with  an  eye  to  a  new  edition.  The  suggestions  of  friends  were  always 
gratefully  received,  and  he  undoubtedly  profited  by  hostile  criticism 
although  he  made  anything  but  grateful  acknowledgment  of  it.  A  new 
edition  of  English  Songs  was  contemplated  and  some  progress  made  in 
its  execution,-^  but  the  press  of  other  work  caused  him  to  defer  its 
publication  until  too  late. 

Ritson's  immediate  interest  at  this  time  centered  for  the  moment 
in  the  literary  antiquities  of  Stockton  and  its  vicinity.  The  attention 
which  he  had  earlier  paid  to  the  topographical  antiquities  of  the  north 
was  diverted,  with  the  general  directing  of  his  aims  to  literature,  to  its 
poetical  remains.  It  may  be  merely  a  coincidence,  but  at  this  time  and 
at  each  future  period  when  he  published  poems  of  the  north  his  attention 
was  directed  there  by  some  special  development  in  his  non-literary 
interests.  Just  now  his  sister  was  in  the  illness  which  he  mistakenly 
judged  to  be  her  last,  and  he  was  especially  concerned  for  the  future  of 
her  son,  Joseph  Frank.  It  may  be  that  visits  to  Stockton  because  of 
family  matters  incited  him  to  publish  the  material  which  he  had  been 
for  some  time  collecting.  In  1784  he  published  at  Stockton,  The  Bishop- 
rick  Garland;  or  Durham  Minstrel:  a  Choice  Collection  of  Excellent 
Songs.  This  is  a  collection  of  sixteen  northern  provincial  ballads-^  of 
interest  mainly  to  residents  of  Durham  county  and  to  antiquaries.  About 
this  same  period  was  issued  at  Stockton  an  anthology  of  nursery  rhymes 
with  the  title.  Gammer  Gurton's  Garland,  or  The  Nursery  Parnassus.) 
Further  collections  of  similar  nature  appeared  at  infrequent  intervals. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  the  special  concern  which  Ritson  felt  for 
the  proper  guidance  of  his  youthful  nephew  led  him  to  publish,  in  1785,-^ 
The  Spartan  Manual,  or  Tablet  of  Morality:  being  a  genuine  Collection  of 

Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.   LXXXIII,   p.    223;    and   British   Critic,  Vol.    CLIII, 

pp.  153-9- 

-''Letters,  II,  p.  109. 

28Ritson  asked  Harrison  to  suggest  "alterations  or  remarks  for  the  improvement 
of  a  second  edition"  (Letters,  I,  p.  no)  which  appeared  in  1792  with  six  songs 
omitted.  Two  new  ones  were  later  added,  and  all  eighteen  were  printed  in  the 
next  edition. 

29In  1785  was  printed  The  Caledonian  Muse,  a  collection  of  Scottish  poetry, 
but  it  was  not  published  until  many  years  later.  It  will  be  considered  in  the 
next  chapter. 


433]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  99 

the  Apophthegms,  Maxims,  and  Precepts  of  the  Philosophers,  Heroes,  and 
other  great  and  celebrated  Characters  of  Antiquity:  under  proper  hpads. 
For  the  improvement  of  Youth,  and  the  promotion  of  Wisdom  and  Virtue. 
The  expression  in  the  title,  "for  the  improvement  of  youth",  his  anxiety 
to  supply  Frank  with  a  copy,^°  and  certain  comments  in  the  Preface^^ 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  collection  was  prepared  especially  for  his 
nephew.  But  if  this  is  true,  it  did  not  prevent  him  from  performing  his 
task  scientifically.  He  furnished  an  alphabetical  table  of  the  names, 
nationalities,  and  dates  of  the  men  whose  words  were  quoted  and  supplied 
each  quotation  with  the  name  of  the  author.  The  compilation  is  obviously 
designed  for  the  desultory  reader,  and  although  it  is  a  credit  to  the 
extent  and  care  of  the  editor's  reading  among  the  ancient  classics,  it 
could  not  be  expected  to  attract  wide  attention.^-  The  most  interesting 
thing  about  it  is  the  light  it  throws  on  Ritson's  commendable  desire  to 
inoculate  sound  morality  in  the  hearts  of  youth. 

Since  1784  Ritson  had  been  continuing  his  work  on  the  Garlands. 
During  this  period  nearly  all  of  his  summer  vacations  were  spent  in  the 
north  and  much  of  his  time  while  there  was  devoted  to  collecting  songs 
from  oral  tradition  and  from  literary  friends  interested  in  their  preser- 
vation.^^ His  third  collection.  The  Yorkshire  Garland;  'being  a  curious 
collection  of  old  and  new  songs  concerning  that  famous  county,  appeared 
in  1788.^*    This  is  a  small  pamphlet  containing  half  a  dozen  local  songs. 


^^Letters,  I,  p.  loi. 

^'^Spartan  Manual,  Pref.,  pp.  viii-ix. 

32The  reviews  were  brief  but  commendatory.  See  Montlily  Reviezv,  Vol. 
LXXII,  p.  235 ;  Critical  Review,  Vol.  LIX,  p.  398. 

^^Lettcrs,  I,  pp.  73-138,  passim. 

3*In  1788  also  appeared  Homer's  Hymn  to  Venus,  translated  from  the  Greek, 
with  notes  by  I.  Ritson.  The  Gentleman's  Magazine  attributed  this  work  to  Joseph 
Ritson  (Vol.  LIX,  p.  539)  and  included  it  in  the  list  of  his  publications  appended  to 
the  obituary  notice  (Vol.  LXXIII,  p.  987).  This  same  mistake  was  made  by 
Nichols  and  later  corrected  (Lit.  Anec.  VIII,  pp.  xii,  135,  note.)  The  real  trans- 
lator was  Isaac  Ritson  (1761-1789),  a  native  of  Scotland  who  supported  himself 
in  London  by  writing  medical  articles  for  the  Monthly  Review.  Joseph  Ritson  left 
the  following  note  in  his  copy  of  the  Hymn:  "This  Isaac  Ritson,  a  lame  man, 
who  walked  with  a  crutch,  was,  for  sometime  schoolmaster  at  Penrith ;  but  ambition 
haveing  induce'd  him  to  study  physick,  and  adopting  the  principles  and  practise  of 
Doctor  Thomas  Brown,  he  addicted  hisself  so  much  to  that  worthy  physician's 
universal  specifick — a  glass  of  brandy,  that  he  fel  sick,  went  mad,  and  dye'd  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  London.  Poor  Isaac !  thou  should'st  have  remember'd  the  fate 
of  Old  Cole's  dog,  which  was  determine'd  to  take  the  wall  of  a  wagon,  and  was 
crushed  to  death  for  his  presumption.  J.  R."  Quoted  by  Haslewood,  Op.  Cit, 
p.  14,  note. 


100  JOSEPH  EITSON  [434 

Ritson's  publications  of  songs  and  ballads,  and  especially  the  Gar- 
lands, served  to  attract  the  favorable  notice  of  the  Irish  antiquary,  Joseph 
Cooper  Walker,  who  made  commendatory  mention  of  his  work  in  the 
Memoirs  of  the  Irish  Bards.  Ritson  made  a  brief  stop  at  Dublin  on  his 
way  to  the  north  during  his  vacation  in  1789  for  the  purpose  of  picking 
up  native  songs  but  says  that  he  ' '  met  with  little  or  nothing  except  disap- 
pointment."^^ Shortly  after  this  began  a  correspondence  with  Walker 
which  was  continued  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Despite  Ritson's  disparaging 
note  on  the  Irish  in  English  Songs^^  and  his  unabating  scorn  of  the 
natives  of  the  island,  he  and  Walker  continued  in  a  friendly  may  to 
exchange  ideas  on  all  manner  of  antiquarian  topics.  Their  early  interest 
was  in  Irish  songs.  Walker  seemed  a  little  jealous  of  Ritson's  activity 
in  collecting  the  songs  but  was  appeased  when  informed  by  Ritson  that 
he  would  never  attempt  to  publish  them,  as  "it  would  be  the  extreme  of 
arrogance  in  me  to  attempt  a  work  for  which  no  one  can  be  less 
qualified. ' ' 

Collecting  Irish  songs  which  he  did  not  intend  to  publish  was  hardly 
more  than  a  diversion,  however.  Ritson  had  more  serious  projects  in 
hand,  and  they  soon  began  to  materialize  in  printed  form.  A  nervous 
illness  which  he  says  must  have  been  stealing  on  him  for  years  now 
became  so  distressing  as  to  hinder  his  work  and  to  find  a  place  in  most 
of  his  letters.  The  first  mention  of  it  occurs  in  a  letter  to  Harrison  in 
1790  when  he  says: 

"I  am  become  so  nervous,  as  they  call  it,  that  I  have  very  seldom  either 
resolution  or  capacity  to  write  the  shortest  note  on  the  most  trivial  occasion. 
Anything  beyond  a  mere  letter  of  business  is  attended  with  so  much  trouble  and 
difficulty  as  to  make  me  eagerly  lay  hold  of  any  trifling  pretext  to  put  it  off  till 
the  next  day."^"^ 

But  although  this  illness  constantly  increased  in  severity,  it  did  not 
effectively  cut  off  his  active  work  of  publication  for  half  a  decade,  and 
during  this  period  he  seemed  to  be  spurred  to  increased  efforts  by  the 
realization  that  his  work  would  soon  be  stopped. 

In  1787  he  had  completed  and  printed  a  collection  of  early  songs 
under  the  title,  Ancient  Songs,  from  the  time  of  King  Henry  III  to  the 
Revolvtion.  For  some  unaccountable  reason  the  publication  of  this 
volume  was  delayed  until  1792  when  it  appeared  bearing  on  the  title 
page  the  date  1790,  the  year  in  which  it  must  have  been  originally 
intended  to  be  published.     This  was  Ritson's  second  important  eontri- 

^^Letters,  I,  p.  151. 

^^English  Songs,  Pref.,  p.  ix,  note. 

^''Letters,  I,  p.  162. 


435]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  101 

biitiou  to  tlie  awakening  interest  in  early  and  modern  poetry  which  had 
received  its  signal  impetus  from  the  publication  of  Percy's  Rcliques 
and  which  was  constantly  fed  by  collections  of  songs  and  ballads,  editions 
of  the  poets  both  separate  and  collected,  and  researches  into  the  ancient 
literature  of  the  English  and  neighboring  peoples,  from  the  Ancient  and 
Modern  Songs  of  Herd  to  Ellis's  Specimens  of  the  Early  English  Poets. 

As  the  title  of  this  collection  indicates,  Ancient  Songs  covers  the 
period  from  the  reign  of  Henry  III  to  the  Revolution.  By  bringing 
together  the  best  songs  and  lyric  productions  of  this  period  Ritson  hoped 
to  illustrate  national  history  and  to  exhibit  to  his  own  generation  the 
idealized  manners  and  splendid  traditions  of  a  virile  though  perhaps  a 
crude  past.^®  In  order  the  better  to  accomplish  his  end  he  arranged 
the  songs  in  five  classes  on  chronological  considerations,  a  plan  previously 
approximated  in  the  Reliques  and  later  adopted  by  Ellis  and  Southey 
in  their  Specimens.^^  The  songs  consist  of  old  English  lyric  fragments 
like  "The  Cuckoo  Song",  stirring  battle  songs  like  "Flodden  Field", 
delightful  old  carols,  and  love  songs  from  the  recognized  poets  of  the 
later  periods.  It  was  not  until  the  second  edition,  1829,  that  the 
collection  became  rich  in  genuine  ballads ;  at  that  time  a  number  of 
pieces  were  added  to  Class  four  and  the  material  was  enlarged  to  two 
volumes. 

Ritson 's  object  in  compiling  Ancient  Songs  was  somewhat  different 
from  that  in  English  Songs.  Although  here  he  placed  more  emphasis 
on  the  appeal  to  the  critical  student,  yet  he  made  conscious  effort  to 
attract  the  general  reader.  This  is  seen  in  the  typographical  elegance  of 
the  work — scarcely  less  noticeable  than  in  English  Songs — and  in  the 
excellent  vignettes  by  Stothard  which  stand  at  the  beginning  and  end  of 
each  class.  To  offset  these  advantageous  qualities,  however,  was  an  unfor- 
tunate error  of  judgment  on  the  editor's  part  which  militated  against 
the  popularity  of  his  work.  Ritson 's  veneration  for  the  relics  of  antiquity 
and  his  desire  to  transmit  the  songs  exactlj^  as  he  found  them  induced 
him  to  print  the  earliest  pieces  with  Anglo-Saxon  characters  and  even 
the  later  ones  with  obsolete  spelling.  He  soon  came  to  feel  that  such 
scrupulous  fidelity  to  the  mechanical  form  of  his  originals  was  not  de- 

^^Ritson  was  always  interested  in  reconstructing  the  private  as  well  as  the 
national  life  of  the  past.  See  his  commendation  of  LeGrand's  J'ie  privee  des 
Francais,  and  his  suggestion  for  a  similar  treatment  of  the  ancient  Irish.  Letters, 
I,  P-  143. 

39\Yhen  Park  states  that  Ritson  meant  to  conform  his  Ancient  Songs  to  the 
Specimens  of  Ellis,  "in  the  hope  of  obtaining  for  it  poetic  popularity",  he  over- 
looks the  fact  that  Ritson's  work  was  printed  three  years  before  that  of  Ellis 
appeared.     See  English  Songs,  I,  p.  xcv. 


102  JOSEPH   RITSON  [436 

manded  by  even  the  most  rigid  canons  of  editorship,  and  he  saw  imme- 
diately that  the  sale  of  his  work  was  impeded  by  the  antique  air  which 
these  innovations  gave  to  it.  In  preparing  the  manuscript  for  a  new 
edition  he  discarded  both  these  disguises,  and  with  it  his  work  lost  much 
of  its  forbidding  aspect.**' 

That  Ritson  was  more  deeply  concerned  with  satisfying  the  critical 
reader  than  the  man  of  taste  is  evident  from  a  number  of  considerations. 
Here  as  everj^where  else  he  was  scrupulously  careful  in  textual  matters. 
Of  the  eighty-eight  pieces  in  the  first  edition,  fifty-four  had  previously 
appeared  in  print — some  of  them  in  black  letter  and  some  in  book  form. 
The  remaining  thirty-four  are  printed  for  the  first  time  and  are  here 
rescued  from  the  oblivion  of  manuscripts  in  various  public  libraries  and 
in  his  own  private  collection.  In  some  instances  Ritson  was  able  to 
correct  the  errors  of  former  editors  and  historians*^  and  in  others  to 
afford  more  exact  copies  than  had  previously  been  available.*^  He  did 
most  of  the  transcribing  himself  and  so  avoided  the  errors  which  nearly 
always  result  from  having  material  of  this  sort  pass  through  a  third 
hand.  His  only  deviation  from  this  rule  was  in  the  case  of  songs  in 
foreign  tongues.  In  transcribing  for  the  second  edition  the  Latin 
"Drinking  Ode"  of  Walter  Mapes,  and  the  French  ballads  "On  King 
Richard  I",  "On  the  death  of  Simon  de  Montfort",  and  "The  Recollec- 
tions of  Chatelain",  he  had  the  assistance  of  such  friends  as  Ellis 
and  Scott.*^' 

Prefixed  to  the  songs  are  two  critical  dissertations  which  are  a 
further  concession  to  the  antiquarian  reader.  Ritson  was  most  at  home 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  in  these  dissertations  "On  the  Ancient  English 
Minstrels"  and  "On  the  Songs,  Music,  and  Vocal  and  Instrumental 
Performance  of  the  Ancient  English"  his  critical  faculties  are  shown  to 
highest  advantage;  antiquarian  erudition,  elaborate  research,  and  inde- 
fatigable care  appear  on  every  hand.  Ritson  was  more  veracious  than 
Percy  and  more  industrious  than  Warton,  and  he  only  fell  short  of  the 

^"Park  saj's  that  the  manuscript  for  a  second  edition  of  Ancient  Songs  was 
"totally  destroyed  at  the  morbid  close  of  Ritson's  life''  (English  Songs,  I,  p.  xc, 
note;  II,  p.  380,  note.)  This  is  an  error.  The  second  edition  with  the  title  altered 
to  Ancient  Songs  and  Ballads,  front  the  reign  of  Henry  II  to  the  Revolution  was 
published  in  two  volumes,  London,  1829,  from  the  two  volume  manuscript  in  Ritson's 
hand  which  is  now  in  the  library  of  Mr.  Perry. 

**Sir  John  Hawkins,  History  of  Music,  London,  1776,  Vol.  II,  p.  93,  followed 
by  Burney  and  Warton,  dated  the  "Cuckoo  Song"  about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century.     Ritson  puts  the  MS.  "as  early  (at  least)  as  1250."    Ancient  Songs,  p.  2. 

*-Ibid.,  pp.  88,  137- 

•*^See  English  Songs^,  II,  p.  380  ff. ;  Letters,  II,  p.  231;  and  second  edition  of 
Ancient  Songs. 


437]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  103 

erudition  of  Tyrwhitt.  To  combine  these  elements  with  advanced  stand- 
ards of  editorship  was  as  unusual  in  the  eighteenth  century  as  it  was 
fortunate  for  the  next,  and  the  errors  into  which  Ritson  slipped  were  due 
to  the  limitations  under  which  every  literary  pioneer  labors. 

The  final  evidence  of  Ritson 's  endeavor  to  please  the  critical  student 
is  his  attempt  to  furnish  his  collection  with  a  glossary.  The  study  of 
Anglo-Saxon  was  then  in  its  infancy,  and  Ritson  had  at  his  disposal 
only  a  few  books  which  would  aid  him  in  glossing  these  early  poems. 
He  confessed  regret  at  his  inability  to  render  the  glossary  more  perfect 
and  in  the  second  edition  made  ample  reparation  for  any  shortcomings 
that  may  have  been  noticed  in  the  first. 

Ancient  Songs  is  undoubtedly  the  most  interesting  and  in  many  ways 
the  most  valuable  of  Ritson 's  publications.  It  received  immediate  com- 
mendation from  his  contemporaries**  and  has  been  continually  praised 
since. *^  Not  only  did  it  afford  ' '  innocent  amusement  to  the  gay ' ',  but  by 
presenting  the  valuable  songs  of  a  forgotten  age  it  furnished  future  poets 
and  historians  with  a  storehouse  of  fable  and  tradition  from  which  they 
might  draw  hints  for  their  own  writings. 

Ritson  continued  his  researches  in  the  poetry  of  antiquity  and 
perpetuated  his  fame  as  an  accurate  and  conscientious  editor  by  the 
publication,  in  1791,  of  Pieces  of  Ancient  Popular  Poetry ;  from  authentic 
manuscripts,  and  old  printed  copies.  This  volume,  like  its  forerunners, 
exhibits  a  high  grade  of  typography.  The  fifteen  woodcuts  by  Thomas 
and  John  Bewick,*''  which  illustrate  the  poems,  are  among  the  most 
pleasing  of  all  those  that  adorn  Ritson 's  publications.  The  collection  is 
small,  consisting  of  an  ingenious  preface,  seven  poems  with  brief  historical 
introductions,  and  a  glossary.  The  only  ballad  in  the  group,  "The  King 
and  the  Barker",  described  as  "the  undoubted  original  of  "King  Edward 

4*See  Monthly  Rcviezv,  Vol.  XCIII,  pp.  17S-82. 

*^See  Haslewood,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  15;  Nicolas,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  XLIV;  and  Lowndes, 
Bibliographer's  Manual.  An  article  in  Eraser's  Magazine,  Dec,  1833,  makes 
wholesale  condemnation  of  Ritson's  works.  With  regard  to  Ancient  Songs  there 
is  a  curious  inconsistency  which  shows  the  shifts  to  which  the  Reviewer  is  put  to 
avoid  giving  any  praise  to  Ritson.  In  the  first  place  he  ridicules  the  affectation 
of  quaintness  which  caused  Ritson  to  print  his  poems  with  Anglo-Saxon  char- 
acters, whereas  these  have  been  discarded  in  the  second  edition,  which  he  is 
admittedly  reviewing.  He  then  turns  to  the  book  at  his  elbow  to  lament  the  lack 
of  illustrations  to  make  the  pieces  '"grateful  either  to  the  eye  or  taste",  but  the 
first  edition  was  plentifully  supplied  with  charming  vignettes.  An  undivided 
attention  to  either  edition  of  the  book  would  destroy  one  or  other  of  his  objections. 

^"To  Thomas  Bewick  (1753-1828)  is  ascribed  the  restoration  of  wood  engraving 
as  an  art  in  England.  John  Bewick  (1760-95)  is  less  noted  as  an  engraver  than 
his  elder  brother. 


104  JOSEPH  RITSON  '  [438 

IV  and  the  Tanner  of  Tamwortli"  as  printed  by  Percy,  is  reproduced 
from  the  very  defective  copy  in  the  Cambridge  library.  Joseph  Frank, 
editor  of  the  second  edition  of  the  collection  says  of  it : 

"Mr.  Ritson  intended,  in  any  future  edition,  to  have  suppressed  this  piece, 
which  was  originally  printed  chiefly  with  a  view  to  bringing  to  light  some  more 
accurate  copy :  an  effect  which  has  not  been,  nor  is  now  likely  to  be,  produced."*^ 

"Adam  Bel"  is  given  from  Copland's  black  letter  copy,  but  there  is 
nothing  in  the  introduction  or  notes  to  indicate  that  it  was  republished 
for  the  "insignificant  purpose  of  immortalizing  the  true  readings"  of 
that  editor  in  preference  to  Percy's.**  Surely  the  editor  may  be  allowed 
to  disagree  with  two  of  the  Bishop's  etymologies  without  being  stigma- 
tized as  envious.  The  antiquity  and  popularity  of  the  piece  were  suf- 
ficient recommendations  for  its  insertion.  "The  Life  and  Death  of 
Tom  Thumbe",  a  delightful  account  of  the  marvelous  exploits  of  this 
doughty  hero  of  childhood;  "The  Friere  and  the  Boy",  evidently  of 
French  extraction;  "How  a  Merchande  dyd  hys  wyfe  Betray" ;  the  little 
moral  piece,  "How  the  Wise  Man  taught  his  son";  and  "The  Lover's 
Quarrel ' ',  are  all  given  from  authentic  old  copies,  mostly  in  black  letter. 
To  these  was  added  "Sir  Percy"  in  the  second  edition. 

The  preface  to  this  little  volume  is  quite  illuminating.  Although 
popular  interest  in  old  poetry  was  on  the  increase,  yet  Ritson  still  felt  it 
necessary  to  apologize  for  these  old  compositions,  "which  will  have  few 
charms  in  the  critical  eye  of  a  cultivated  age." 

"The  genius  which  has  been  successfully  exerted  in  contributing  to  the 
instruction  or  amusement  of  society  in  even  the  rudest  times",  he  says,  "is  a 
superannuated  domestic  whose  passed  services  entitled  his  old  age  to  a  comfortable 
provision  and  retreat ;  or  rather,  indeed,  a  humble  friend,  whose  attachment  in 
adverse  circumstances  demands  the  warm  and  grateful  acknowledgments  of 
prosperity."*^ 

It  was  to  the  humble  beginnings  of  these  "nameless  bards"  of  antiquity 
that  Ritson  thought  posterity  was  indebted  for  a  Homer  and  a  Chaucer. 
And  this  was  ample  reason  for  preserving  carefully  every  genuine 
relique  which  could  be  discovered.  The  poems  in  his  collection  he  attrib- 
uted to  the  minstrels — men 

"who  made  it  their  profession  to  chant  or  rehearse  them  up  and  down  the 
country  in  the  trophied  hall  or  before  the  gloomy  castle,  and  at  marriages,  wakes, 
and  other  festive  meetings,  and  who,  generally  accompanied  their  strains,  by  no 

^'Pieces  of  Ancient  Popular  Poetry,  2nd  edition.  London,  1833,  p.  59. 
♦^See  Monthly  Review,  Vol.  XCIII,  p.  ~3. 
^^Pieces  of  Anc.  Pop.  Poetry,  Pref.,  p.  v. 


439]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  105 

means  ruder  than  the  age  itself,  with  the  tinkling  of  a  harp,  or  sometimes,  it  is 
apprehended  with  the  graces  of  a  much  humbler  instrument/'^** 

Ritson  intended  this  little  volume  to  be  suggestive.  He  was  himself 
engaged  in  collecting  popular  poetry  for  future  publication  and  expressed 
the  hope  that  others  might  be  inspired  to  undertake  similar  tasks.  In 
addition  to  publishing  many  volumes  of  antiquarian  interest,  he  rendered 
a  distinct  service  to  the  study  of  medieval  poetry  by  constantly  reminding 
his  generation  of  the  richness  of  the  unworked  mine  of  antiquity.  He 
lost  no  opportunity  to  stimulate  research  after  the  scarcely  known  but 
excellent  old  songs  which  he  described  as  abounding  "with  a  harmony, 
spirit,  keenness,  and  natural  humor,  little  to  be  expected,  perhaps,  in 
compositions  of  so  remote  a  period." 

Ancient  Popular  Poetry  was  presented  to  the  world  Avith  a  degree 
of  candor  and  fidelity  as  remarkable  as  it  was  little  to  be  experienced 
in  similar  publications  of  the  period.  What  with  the  forgeries  of  Chat- 
terton,  Macpherson,  Evans,  and  Pinkerton,  and  the  surreptitious  addi- 
tions and  clandestine  alterations  of  Percy,  it  was  deserving  of  no  small 
honor  to  print  from  known  and  designated  authorities  and  to  notice  in 
the  margin  every  variation  from  the  original  which  a  ' '  disuse  of  contrac- 
tions and  a  systematization  of  punctuation"  rendered  necessary.  This 
was  Ritson 's  method.  As  an  example  of  its  successful  application,  he 
submitted  Ancient  Popular  Poetry  "to  the  patronage  of  the  liberal  and 
the  candid,  of  those  w^hom  the  artificial  refinements  of  modern  taste  have 
not  rendered  totally  insensible  to  the  humble  effusions  of  unpolished 
nature,  and  the  simplicity  of  old  times.  "^^ 

At  this  point  Ritson 's  work  with  popular  poetry  was  temporarily 
interrupted  by  his  editing  Dido;  A  Tragedy:  as  it  was  performed  at  the 
Theatre  Royal  in  Drury  Lane,  with  universal  applause,  by  Joseph  Reed, 

^^Ibid.,  pp.  vii-viii.  Ritson's  emphasis  here  on  the  character  of  the  minstrels  was 
a  continuation  of  the  theory  advanced  in  the  dissertation  on  that  subject  presented 
in  Ancient  Songs  in  opposition  to  Percy's  theory.     See  below,  Chapter  VII. 

^'^Pieces  of  Anc.  Pop.  Poetry,  Pref.,  p.  xiii.  Although  Ritson  would  by  no 
means  have  called  them  "liberal  and  candid"  beings,  the  reviewers  were  very 
generous  in  praise  of  his  execution  of  a  meretorious  service  in  publishing  these 
pieces.  See  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  LXI,  p.  561  ff.,  and  Monthly  Review, 
Vol.  XCII,  p.  ~2  ff.  The  writer  in  Fraser's  Magazine,  to  whom  reference  has 
already  been  made,  condemns  this,  as  he  does  all  Ritson's  work.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  basis  in  fact  for  his  assertion  that  "several  of  the  pieces  were  published 
originally  with  the  purpose  only  of  gratifying  Ritson's  malevolence."  This  volume 
came  to  a  second  edition  in  1833,  and  a  third  in  1884,  but  the  Reviewer  gives  it 
as  his  "sincere  opinion"  that  "Ritson  never  wrote  or  compiled  anything  worthy 
of  a  reprint."  His  peevish  chiding  at  the  public  for  admiring  books  which  he  had 
told  them  to  despise,  makes  him  a  ridiculous  figure. 


106  JOSEPH  RITSON  [440 

the  controversial  dramatist,  native  of  Stockton.  R^ed  left  Stockton  for 
London  in  1757 ;  so  Ritson  could  not  have  met  him  in  Stockton  excepting 
on  a  visit.  There  is  no  doubt  that  they  saw  more  or  less  of  each  other  in 
London  after  Ritson  had  gone  there.  Furthermore,  Reed's  son,  John, 
was  the  intimate  friend  of  John  Baynes,  one  of  Ritson 's  few  close 
acquaintances  in  the  Inn.  Ritson  respected  Reed's  talents  and  is  said  to 
have  contemplated  an  eight-volume  edition  of  his  "Miscellanies",  which 
he  was  prevented  by  death  from  preparing.  The  tragedy,  which  he  saw 
through  the  press  and  for  which  he  supplied  a  preface  and  some  notes, 
Avas  never  published.  It  was  printed  in  1792  but  not  formally  announced 
for  publication  till  1808.  At  this  time  nearly  the  whole  impression  was 
destroyed  by  fire.  The  few  copies  that  were  saved  were  purchased  by 
a  friend  of  Reed's  and  have  not  been  traced  since.^- 

In  1792  Ritson 's  sister  was  again  ill,  and  she  died  early  the  following 
year.  Ritson 's  connection  with  the  north  in  each  of  these  years  is 
evidenced  by  the  publication,  in  the  first  of  them,  of  The  Nortlh-Country 
Chorister;  an  unparalleled  variety  of  Excellent  Songs,  at  Durham;  and 
in  the  second,  of  The  Northumberland  Garland;  or,  Newcastle  Nightin- 
gale: a  matchless  collection  of  famous  songs,  at  Newcastle.  The  North- 
Country  Chorister  is  the  shortest  of  all  the  Garlands,  consisting  of  sis 
rather  brief  pieces  supposedly  the  work  of  a  Bishopric  ballad-singer. 
The  fifth  and  last  of  these  little  poetical  collections.  The  Northumberland 
Garland,  is  the  longest  and  in  some  respects  the  most  interesting  of  all. 
Of  the  sixteen  songs  which  it  contains — many  of  them  from  small  poets 
of  the  region,  but  some  genuine  border  ballads — especial  interest  attaches 
to  "The  Hunting  of  the  Cheviat".  Eight  years  after  Ritson 's  death 
there  appeared  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine''^  an  "Ode  to  Mr.  Ritson,  on 
his  intended  descriptive  revision  of  the  ancient  ballad  of  'Chevy  Chase', 
(written  near  the  spot)  in  1791."  It  is  accompanied  bj^  the  following 
explanatory  note : 

"The  purpose  Mr.  Ritson  once  entertained  of  publishing  the  above  ballad  with 
historical  and  topographical  observations,  was  revoked  soon  after  a  visit  he  made 
to  the  north,  one  of  the  objects  of  which  was  to  collect  materials." 

It  must  have  been  about  this  time  that  Ritson  had  in  mind  the  revision 
of  the  poem,  but  the  full  design  was  never  carried  out,  for  the  song 
printed  in  The  Northumberland  Garland  has  neither  introduction  nor 
notes.^*    How  much  superior  to  this  copy  would  have  been  the  product 

52See  Nichols,  Lit.  Anec,  IX,  p.  ii6  and  note;  Nicolas,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  liii. 

53Vol.  LXXXI,  p.  568. 

5*Child  unaccountably  overlooked  this  publication  of  the  A  version,  which 
antedates  by  three-quarters  of  a  century  the  copy  in  Skeat's  Specimens  (1873) 
which  he  gives  as  its  earliest  appearance  in  print.  Op.  Cit.,  Ill,  pp.  303-iS- 
(No.  162). 


441]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  107 

of  Eitsou's  original  design  may  be  judged  from  the  high  commendation 
of  Ritson  given  in  the  ' '  Ode ' '. 

4.  Wert  thou,  discerning  Ritson,  near, 
Thou  would'st  the  awful  scene  revere; 
A  scene  made  sacred  by  those  rhymes, 
Which  thou  may'st  deck  for  latest  times. 

5.  Thy  fancy,  from  her  store,  would  yield 
A  thousand  shades  to  throng  the  field : — 
And  sounds  create  of  trampling  steed, 
Or  arrow,  wing'd  with  deathful  speed. 

6.  Aluch  to  the  Mitred  Sage  [Percy]  is  due; 
Ritson,  the  liberal  task  pursue — 

And  Chevy  Chase,  the  pride  of  you, 
With  all  its  feudal  spoils,  restore. 

These  little  Garlands,  M'ithout  glossary  and  lacking  critical  notes^ 
are  today  of  interest  primarily  to  the  local  antiquary.  They  made  a 
wider  appeal  in  their  own  day,  however.  Put  up  in  the  form  of  the 
penny  histories  usually  sold  by  itinerant  hawkers,  they  met  with  a 
ready  sale  and  soon  became  quite  scarce.  Ritson  is  reported  to  have  said 
that  these  volumes  sold  better  than  any  other  of  his  various  publications,^^ 
and  although  he  had  his  customary  difficulties  with  the  publishers,  he 
did  not  lose  money  on  these  books.^*'  But  in  spite  of  their  quick  and  ready 
sale,  they  were  not  immediately  reprinted.  Ritson  made  corrections  and 
additions  whenever  the  necessity  was  brought  to  his  attention,  but  he  was 
constantly  bringing  out  new  books  and  the  frequent  misunderstandings 
with  his  publishers  prevented  out-of-print  books  from  going  automatically 
to  a  reprint  or  a  new  edition. 

In  1793  Ritson  printed  the  first,  and  the  next  year  the  second  and 
third,  volumes  of  The  English  Anthology,  a  compilation  which  he  had  put 
together  before  1785.  With  the  fact  of  its  early  composition  in  mind^ 
Ritson 's  statement  in  the  Advertisement  that  it  is  prepared  upon  "a  plan 
hitherto  unattempted"  can  be  understood.  Before  its  appearance  in 
print,  however,  The  Muse's  Library  and  Ellis's  Specimens  had  been 
published.  Ritson  ought,  then,  to  have  modified  his  claims  as  a  pioneer. 
He  professes  to  have  followed  a  foreign  model — the  French  anthology^'^ — 
but  he  could  have  got  nothing  there  but  the  bare  plan,  for  that  work  is 

•^5 Park  in  English   Songs,  I,  p.  xcv. 

^^For  trouble  over  The  Northumberland  Garland  see  Letters,  II,  p.  129  ff; 
and  for  North-Country  Chorister,  Ibid.,  II,  221  ff. 

•'"^ Anthologie  frangoise  ou  Chansons  choisies,  depiiis  le  xiii"  sicclc  jusqu' a 
present,  3  vols.,  1765. 


108  JOSEPH  RITSON  [442 

a  compilation  of  songs  and  music.  But  wherever  the  plan  was  derived, 
it  is  not  a  highly  advantageous  one  in  its  present  adaptation.  Although 
professedly  chronological,  the  poems  are  arranged  in  four  Parts  and  a 
supplement.  Part  1  gives  a  chronological  arrangement  from  Wyatt  to 
Cotton ;  Part  2  is  devoted  to  poems  by  women ;  Part  3,  to  extracts  from 
long  pieces;  and  the  Supplement  to  living  authors.  Wliile  the  arrange- 
ment within  the  Parts  is  fairly  chronological,  yet  the  division  into  Parts 
leads  to  such  confusion  that  without  the  ' '  Index  of  Authors ' '  one  would 
be  at  a  loss  to  find  any  given  selection.  Evidences  of  the  absurdity  of 
the  plan  are  the  beginning  of  the  first  volume  with  Wyatt,  the  second 
with  Dyer,  the  third  with  Chaucer,  and  the  placing  of  Mason's  "Isis"  at 
volume  III,  page  262,  and  Warton's  "Triumph  of  Isis",  which  is  an 
answer  to  it,  at  volume  II,  page  136.  Even  within  the  different  Parts  the 
chronology  is  based  on  the  date  of  the  poet's  birth.^^  But  it  is  the  date 
of  an  author's  poem,  and  not  of  his  birth  or  death,  that  should  be  the 
determining  factor  in  placing  it  in  a  collection  of  poetry. 

In  the  Advertisement  Ritson  indulges  in  rather  high  praise  of  his 
own  work.  He  is  justified  in  commending  it  as  an  elegant  and  accurate 
compilation.  The  engravings  by  Stothard  are  pleasing,  and  the  fidelity 
to  the  best  sources  in  printing  is  characteristic  of  Ritson 's  editorship. 
There  is  here  a  further  touch  of  the  apologetic  tone  which  has  been 
noticed  in  the  prefaces  to  all  his  collections  and  which  was  characteristic 
of  his  age.  Poetry  prior  to  the  sixteenth  century  was  denied  a  place  in 
his  volumes — "the  nicety  of  the  present  age  being  ill  disposed  to  make 
the  necessary  allowances  for  the  uncouth  diction  and  homely  sentiments 
of  former  times."  Ritson  was  again  making  an  avowed  appeal  for 
popular  favor,  but  this  Advertisement  is  marred  by  a  revival  of  his  iU- 
natured  abuse  of  the  reviewers.  His  editorial  labors  in  the  various  col- 
lections so  far  considered  had  been  generally  commended,  but  of  the 
historical  essays  which  accompanied  some  of  them  there  had  been  much 
adverse  criticism.  Ritson  failed  to  distinguish  between  the  commendation 
of  his  editorial  abilities  and  the  condemnation  of  his  controversial  asper- 
ity ;  or,  if  he  made  the  distinction,  he  considered  the  praise  as  mere  sop. 
Just  now  he  was  smarting  under  the  rather  contemptuous  dismissal  of 
his  third  Shakespeare  pamphlet,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  increasing 
severity  of  his  illness  made  him  more  sensitive  to  criticism  and  less  capable 
of  controlling  his  wrath.  These  circumstances  combined  to  produce  the 
following  splenetic  attack  upon  his  critics. 

ssRitson  omitted  from  the  first  volume  several  poets  vk^hose  dates  he  did  not 
know.  When  this  information  was  supplied  after  an  appeal  to  the  public  in  the 
Advertisement,  all  these  men  were  included  in  the  later  volumes — a  sufficient  test 
of   his   "chronological"   plan. 


443]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  109 

"Nor  will  any  person  be  found  to  rescue  such  things  [poems  before  1500] 
from  oblivion,  while  the  attempt  exposes  him  to  the  malignant  and  ruffian-like 
attacks  of  some  hackney  scribbler  or  personal  enemy,  through  the  medium  of  one 
or  other  of  two  periodical  publications,  in  which  the  most  illiberal  abuse  is  vented 
under  colour  of  impartial  criticism,  and  both  the  literary  and  moral  character  of 
every  man  who  wishes  to  make  his  peculiar  studies  contribute  to  the  information  or 
amusement  of  society  are  at  the  mercy  of  a  conceited  pedant,  or  dark  and  cowardly 
assassin.  The  editor,  at  the  same  time,  by  no  means,  flatters  himself,  that  either  the 
omission  of  what  is  obscure  and  unintelligible,  or  the  insertion  of  every  thing 
elegant  and  refined,  will  be  sufficient  to  protect  these  volumes  from  the  rancorous 
malice  and  envenomed  slander  of  the  reviewing  critic.  He  appeals,  however,  from 
the  partial  censures  of  a  mercenary  and  malevolent  individual,  to  the  judgment  and 
candour  of  a  generous  and  discerning  public,  whose  approbation  is  proposed  as  the 
sole  reward  of  his  disinterested  labours."^^ 

This  venomous  tirade  may  have  been  suggested  partially  by  a  feeling, 
which  all  his  proud  claims  for  the  work  were  not  able  wholly  to  repress, 
that  it  would  not  be  highly  successful.  The  '* discerning  public"  did  not 
call  for  the  second  edition  which  he  began  preparing,*'"  and  the  reviewers 
considered  it  as  only  one  more  book.^^  While  it  contains  a  wealth  of 
poetry,  the  pieces  are  not  skillfully  arranged  and  the  work  as  a  whole 
duplicates  individual  authors  in  many  cases  and  collections  in  others. 

By  this  time  K-itson's  nervous  derangement  had  become  so  serious 
as  to  interfere  vitally  with  his  literary  labors.  He  continued  to  publish 
material  which  he  had  been  working  on  for  years  and  had  nearly  ready 
for  the  press,  but  new  projects  were  not  undertaken  with  his  customary 
alacrity.  Some  time  in  1792  he  had  borrowed  from  Harrison  his  manu- 
script of  the  Memoirs  of  Captain  John  Hodgson  (d.  1684)  with  the  inten- 
tion of  transcribing  it  for  publication.  On  December  26  of  that  year  he 
wrote  to  Harrison : 

"I  must  with  shame  confess  that  I  have  not  yet  begun  the  transcript  of 
'Captain  Hodgson's  Memoirs',  and  that  it  is  owing  much  more  to  want  of  inclination 
than  to  want  of  leisure."^^ 

On  July  21,  1794,  he  returned  the  manuscript, 

"which  I  have  carefully  transcribed,  but  dare  not  yet  venture  to  put  to  press, 
being  already  in  advance,  one  way  or  another,  above  five  hundred  pounds ;  a  good 
part  of  which,  I  begin  to  fear,  will  never  find  its  way  back."^^ 

Just  how  much  editing  B-itson  had  done  or  intended  to  do  on  this  work 

^^Eng.  Anthology,  Advertisement,  pp.  v-vi. 
•^^See  Letters,  H,  p.  26. 

^^See  British  Critic,  Vol.  I,  pp.  95-7;  Critical  Review,  Vol.  X,  pp.  196-9;  Vol. 
Xn,  pp.  412-13;  Monthly  Reviezv,  Vol.  XCVI,  p.  125;  Vol.  XCVHI,  pp.  229-30. 
^-Letters,  II,  p.  26. 
^^Ibid.,  II,  p.  54. 


110  JOSEPH   RITSON  [444 

is  not  known.  Nothing  has  been  said  about  his  concern  with  it.  When 
Scott  published  the  Memoirs  with  those  of  Sir  Henry  Slingsby,  in 
1806/'*  he  included  Ritson's  Advertisement,  but  there  is  no  indication  that 
he  made  use  of  Ritson's  transcript.  In  the  Advertisement  Ritson  declared 
it  to  be  his  opinion  that  in  point  of  importance,  interest,  and  even 
pleasantry,  Hodgson's  narrative  was  infinitely  superior  to  Defoe's 
Memoirs  of  a  Cavalier,  although  other  critics  have  been  less  enthusiastic 
in  their  praise.^^ 

In  the  Preface  to  English  Songs  Ritson  justified  the  "careful  omis- 
sion" of  Scottish  songs  from  that  collection  by  the  promise  of  the 
publication  of  "a  much  better  and  more  perfect  collection  of  songs 
entirely  Scotish,  than  any  that  has  been  hitherto  attempted.  "®*'  Neither 
is  the  part  played  by  the  Scottish  muse  in  the  development  of  national 
song  mentioned  in  the  historical  dissertation,  for  "an  accurate  investi- 
gation and  ample  discussion  of  this  curious  and  important  subject  is 
intended  for  a  future  opportunit3\'"'"  The  collection  begun  thus  early 
received  the  intermittent  attention  of  years  and  was  the  slow  product 
of  long  labor. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  when  Ritson 's  interest  in  Scottish  history  and 
poetry  began.  Reared,  as  he  was,  in  the  extreme  north  of  England,  the 
influence  of  Scottish  tradition  must  have  been  felt  very  early.  On  his 
first  visit  to  Edinburgh,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  he  purchased  a  volume  of 
Scottish  poems  and  several  histories  and  from  that  time  on  seemed 
almost  equally  interested  in  Scottish  and  English  antiquities.  From 
London  his  annual  vacation  tours  to  Stockton  often  carried  him  over 
into  Scotland.  Especially  from  1786  to  1790  was  he  concerned  with 
the  history  of  the  northern  kingdom.  Besides  the  information  gathered 
on  his  own  expeditions  into  the  north,  he  acquired  valuable  material  from 
friends  more  advantageously  situated  than  himself.  These  men  he 
kept  constantly  informed  of  his  discoveries  and  of  the  general  progress 
of  his  book.  As  early  as  1788  it  was  commonly  known  that  he  was 
engaged  upon  this  collection,  and  it  seems  that  he  even  entertained  some 
hope  of  publishing  it  in  the  winter  of  that  year.^^  The  actual  printing 
of  the  work,  however,  was  not  begun  till  June,  1790,*^®  and  then  it  dragged 

^^Original  Memoirs  zvritten  during  the  great  Civil  War;  being  the  life  of  Sir 
H.  Slingsby,  and  memoirs  of  Capt.  Hodgson.  With  notes  &c.,  by  Sir  Walter  Scott. 
Edinburgh,  i8o6. 

6'-See  Nichols,  Lit.  Anec,  IX,  p.  686;  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  2; 
Carlyle's  Oliver  Cromwell,  Vol.  I,  p.  333. 

^^Eng.  Songs,  Pref.,  p.  viii. 

^~Ibid.,  Hist.  Essay,  p.  xciii. 

fi^Walker  to  Percy,  Lit.  Anec.,  VII,  p.  709. 

^^Letters,  T,  pp.  164-68. 


445]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  111 

on  so  slowly  that  Ritson  could  "form  no  possible  idea  of  its  being 
completed",  and  exclaimed  that  his  bookseller  was  born  to  plague  himJ" 
During  the  next  four  years,  while  a  part  of  the  material  was  at  the 
printer's,  he  continued  his  sometimes  futile  efforts  to  gather  more  songs 
and  to  verify  the  words  and  music  of  those  already  in  his  possession.  In 
this  endeavor  he  was  materially  aided  by  his  old  friends  Walker,  Harri- 
son, and  Shield,  who  corrected  much  of  the  music,  and  by  Herd^^  and 
Alexander  Campbell,'^-  whose  acquaintance  he  made  because  of  a  com- 
mon interest  in  Scottish  poetry.  His  stock  of  material  increased  so 
rapidly  that  in  1793  he  was  able  to  say  (without  exaggeration,  as  the 
catalogue  of  his  library  proves),  that  he  possessed  "almost  every  volume 
of  Scotish  poetry,  ancient  and  modern,  hitherto  printed",  and  was 
"nearly  as  perfect  in  Scotish  history"."  After  a  satisfactory  adjust- 
ment of  difficulties  with  his  engravers,  Ritson  hoped  for  the  publication 
of  his  collection  by  Christmas,  1793,  and  began  to  take  steps  for  its 
advance  sale.    The  following  letter  is  typical  of  his  interests  at  this  time. 

MS.  Laing  II.  124. 

No.  104  Case^* 

X435  Dissertatio''5 

603  Tristan^s 


809J  ^^""'" 

70/feid.,     I,    p.     187. 

'■iLaing  introduced  Ritson  and  Herd,  and  they  exchanged  ideas  about  Scottish 
poetry.    Ibid.,  II,  p.  142. 

''-Campbell  (1764-1824)  corrected  Ritson's  version  of  Lesly's  March.  Ibid., 
I,  p.  219. 

''^Ibid.,  II,  p.  2. 

74The  titles  and  numbers  which  stand  at  the  head  of  this  letter  have  evidently 
been  taken  from  the  bookseller's  catalogue,  and  it  is  impossible  to  trace  them  down 
with  absolute  certainty.  Only  one  of  the  entire  list  appears  in  the  catalogue  of  the 
sale  of  Ritson's  library;  so  it  would  seem  that  his  fear  that  most  of  them  were 
already  disposed  of  when  he  wrote  had  been  well  founded.  "Case"  probably 
refers  to  John  Case's  Angelical  Guide,  shewing  men  and  women  their  lott  or 
chance  in  this  elementary  life  in  IV  books,  1697,  in  which  Ritson  would  have  been 
interested  because  of  his  sceptical  philosophy. 

^^British  Museum  catalogue  lists  2,3  titles  beginning  with  Dissertatio  and 
antedating  this  letter.  The  most  of  them  deal  with  affairs  of  the  Church,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  determine  to  which  one,  if  to  any,  Ritson  alludes. 

^sprobably  one  of  the  versions  of  the  Tristan  saga:  by  Cast,  Paris,  1520, 
1533;  by  Mangin,  Lyon,  1577,  Paris,  1586;  or  by  Thessen,  Paris,  1781,  1787- 

"Ritson  left  annotated  copies  of  Sir  David  Dalrymple,  Lord  Hailes's  Annals 
of  Scotland  from  Malcolm  III  to  Robert  I,  and  from  Robert  I  to  the  House  of 
Stuart,  1776.    See  also  Letters,  II,  p.  47. 


112  JOSEPH   RITSON  [446 

903  A  proper  project'* 

X2413  Noble'^3 

X2619  Colville^o 

5655  Sibbaldisi 

Gray's  Inn,  20th  Novr.  1793. 
My  good  friend, 

I  have  purposed  writing  to  you  for  some  time,  but  as  you  would  have  got 
nothing  by  it,  you  will  think  it  just  as  well  perhaps  that  i  have  deferred  my  letter 
till  it  became  productive  of  some  little  advantage.  I  am  vexed,  at  the  same  time, 
that  i  could  not  write  yesterday,  as  most  likely  such  of  the  above  numbers  as  i  wish 
most  to  see  are  already  disposed  of.  I  dare  not  mention  Sibbald,  as  in  the  first 
place  i  suspect  it  7iot  to  be  complete,  and  secondly,  i  am  terrified  at  the  idea  of  your 
unexpressed  &  inconceivable  charge.  You  may  put  up  the  few  articles  you  send  me 
(if  not  too  late)  in  Egerton's^^  parcel;  &  i  will  pay  the  charge  into  your  account 
with  them.  I  will  also  pay  them  if  agreeable  to  you,  the  sum  of  ten  guineas  which 
you  will  be  so  good  as  to  pay  over  to  Mr.  Allan  to  whom  i  write  by  this  post.  My 
book  is  nearly  ready  for  publication,  &  will  certainly  appear  by  or  about  Christmas. 
I  have  not  taken  the  liberty  to  put  your  name  to  it,  for  which,  I  take  it,  on  a 
perusal  of  the  introduction,  you  will  think  yourself  not  a  little  obliged  to  me.^^ 
I  cannot  easyly  reconcile  your  assurance  of  the  sale  of  a  number  of  copies  with 
your  indetermination  to  take  one.     The  expense  of  sending  a  parcel  to  Edinburgh 

'''^This  may  allude  to  one  of  the  numerous  "Projects"  of  the  time. 

''■^Probably  either  the  Genealogical  History  of  the  Royal  Families  of  Europe, 
1781,  or  Memoirs  of  the  Protcctoral  House  of  Cromwell,  1784  and  1787,  or  both, 
by  Mark  Noble  (i 754-1827).  Ritson  was  interested  in  royal  genealogies  and  had 
himself  published  privately  a  Table  of  the  Descent  of  the  English  Crown,  177S. 
Furthermore,  both  editions  of  Noble's  second  work  had  been  severely  criticized 
by  Ritson's  friend,  Richard  Gough,  in  the  preface  to  his  Short  Genelogical  Viezv 
of  the  Family  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  1785,  and  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  June, 
1787,  p.  516.     See  Lit.  Anec,  VIII,  p.  133,  note. 

^°The  Poetical  Works  of  Robert  Colvill,  minor  Scottish  poet,  appeared  in  1789. 

s^Sir  Robert  Sibbald  (1641-1712),  chiefly  noted  for  his  History  of  Fife,  1710, 
wrote  a  great  number  of  treatises  on  antiquarian  subjects  for  the  Royal  Society. 
These  were  published  in  1739  as  A  Collection  of  Several  Treatises  in  folio,  con- 
cerning Scotland,  as  it  was  of  old,  and  also  in  later  times.  On  July  30,  1793, 
Ritson  wrote  to  Laing  for  a  copy  of  Sibbald's  Works,  which  was  to  be  purchased 
from  the  library  of  James  Cumyng.     See  Letters,  II,  p.  19. 

^-T.  and  J.  Egerton,  London  booksellers,  published  Ritson's  English  Anthology, 
and  Scotish  Songs. 

s^In  the  "Historical  Essay"  the  Scottish  literati  are  condemned  as  the  world's 
most  notorious  forgers.  Ritson  somehow  acquired,  or  was  possessed  of  an  inherent 
dislike  of  the  Scotch.  lie  always  questioned  their  integrity  and  on  one  occasion 
remarked,  "The  character  given  of  Scotish  men  by  old  surly  Johnson  was,  gener- 
ally speaking,  far  from  unjust.  They  prefer  anything  to  truth,  when  the  latter 
is  at  all  injurious  to  the  national  honour:  nor  are  they,  so  far  as  I  can  perceive, 
very  solicitous  about  it  on  any  occasion."    Letters,  I,  p.  191. 


447]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  113 

may  be  no  great  object,  but  to  have  it  returned  entire  is  what  i  should  not  like: 
so  if  you  will  answer  for  50  i  will  send  you  100,  if  25,  50,  if  10,  20,  if  5,  10, 
if  none,  not  one,  sat  verbum.^* 

I  am  much  obliged  to  Mr.  Brown, s''  &  request  whenever  you  meet  him  you 
will  exert  your  eloquence  in  remembering  my  friendship  &  respect.  I  am  much 
chagrined  at  the  fate  of  my  King  Charles  spurs,  which  were  really  curious,^*^  as 
well  as  at  the  loss  of  Mr.  Paton's  parcel.  Please  to  present  my  best  compliments 
to  that  worthy  man  &  say  that  i  mean  to  have  the  pleasure  of  writing  to  him  in  a 
little  time.  I  must  give  up,  i  find,  all  expectation  of  becoming  acquainted  with  the 
old  volume  which  has  given  all  of  us  so  much  trouble.  I  sometimes  think  of 
addressing  myself  directly  to  the  dean,  but  "the  insolence  of  office"  would  most 
probably  prevent  him  from  paying  any  attention  to  my  request.^" 

Pray  why  have  i  never  heard  anything  further  of  the  Edinburgh  catalogue?*^ 
It  would  be  of  great  use  to  me  in  a  work  i  am  now  amused  with ;  &  which  i 
mean  to  be  a  kind  of  a  sort  of  a  Scotish  library  of  historians  &  poets. ^^ 
In  this,  which  i  think  i  must  come  down  to  finish  &  print  in  Edinburgh,  you  would 
be  of  no  little  service.  Who  or  what  is  Robert  Colvelle?  Can  you  get  me  the 
two  (or  more)  poems  he  has  published? 

I  am, 
]\Ir.  Wm.  Laing,  Your  sincere  friend  & 

Bookseller,  well-wisher, 

Chessel's  Buildings  J.  Ritson. 

Canongate 

Edinburgh. 

^^Despite  this  ultimatum,  in  March,  1794,  Ritson  sent  Laing  50  copies  of  the 
work,  with  the  following  directions  as  to  their  disposal :  "Twelve  you  take  your- 
self ;  five  you  will  present,  with  the  Editor's  compliments,  to  Mr.  Eraser  Tytler, 
Mr.  Allan.  Mr.  Brown,  Mr.  Paton,  and  Mr.  Campbell — that  is  one  to  each ;  the 
rest  you  will  sell  on  my  account,  if  you  can.  The  expense  of  advertising  once  or 
twice  in  the  Edinburgh  papers  I  must  of  course  be  debited  with.  You  will 
scarcely  believe  that  the  publication  of  these  two  small  and  unfortunately  unequal 
volumes  stands  me  in  three  hundred  pounds.  I  make  up  my  mind  of  course,  to  a 
considerable  loss."    Letters,  II,  p.  47. 

s^Alexander  Brown,  librarian  of  the  Advocates'  Library.    See  Letters,  II,  p.  21. 

8*5Ritson  had  sent  to  James  Cumjmg,  Secretary  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries 
of  Edinburgh,  his  rare  King  Charles's  spurs,  as  a  gift  to  the  Society.  Upon 
Cumyng's  death,  early  in  1793,  his  entire  library  was  purchased  by  Laing.  After 
repeated  inquiry  Ritson  learned  that  the  spurs  had  been  lost  in  transferring  the 
property.     See  Letters,  II,  p.  21  ff. 

s'^This  refers  to  an  "old  volume  of  Tracts"  which  Tytler  had  drawn  from  the 
Advocates'  Library,  and  from  which  Ritson  wished  especially  a  transcript  of  the 
"six  first  lines  of  Robin  Hood".  See  Letters,  II,  pp.  4,  21 ;  Archibald  Constable 
and  his  Literary  Correspondents,  London,  1873,  Vol.  I,  pp.  505,  509. 

ssRitson  suggested  to  Laing,  who  was  noted  for  his  catalogues,  that  he  make  a 
complete  compilation  of  books  published  in  Scotland,  and  offered  his  own  ideas  as 
to  the  best  method  of  procedure.     See  Letters,  II,  pp.  38,  48. 


114  JOSEPH  RITSON  [448 

But  it  was  not  until  March,  1794,  that  the  long-delaj-ed  edition  of 
Scotish  Songs  appeared  in  two  volumes.  It  is  easily  perceived  to  be 
complementary  to  English  Songs.  There  is  a  prefatory  "Historical 
Essay  on  Scotish  Song"  in  which  Ritson  indulges  in  further  unseemly 
slurs  on  Percy  and  begins  a  systematic  attack  upon  Avhat  he  dubs 
Pinkerton's  "Scotish  system".  The  songs  are  arranged  in  four  classes: 
I.  Love ;  II.  Comic ;  III.  Historical,  Political,  and  Martial ;  IV.  Romantic 
and  Legandar}^,  or  Ballads.  As  Ritson  declared  it  his  belief,  with  Tytler, 
that  "the  words  and  melody  of  a  Scottish  song  should  be  ever  insepar- 
able",^" he  has  accompanied  the  verses  in  this  collection  with  the  musical 
notation  wherever  the  combined  ingenuity  and  labor  of  himself  and 
Shield  were  able  to  discover  or  to  reconstruct  it.  Wlien  the  music  was 
irreparably  lost,  the  bars  are  printed  so  that  the  notes  can  be  inserted 
with  a  pen  if  they  are  recovered.  The  critical  comments  evince  a  wide 
and  intimate  acquaintance  with  Scottish  history  and  reveal  interesting 
anecdotes  concerning  the  subjects  of  the  songs.  The  collection  itself  is 
rather  disappointing.  Nearly  all  the  songs  had  previously  appeared  in 
print,  and  many  of  them  were  so  easily  accessible  as  to  cause  surprise 
at  their  republication.^^  There  appears  here  some  ground  for  the  criti- 
cism frequently  levelled  against  Ritson  that  he  reprinted  many  pieces 
solely  in  order  to  expose  the  errors  of  previous  editors.  In  Scotish  Songs 
he  had  much  to  say  about  the  errors,  both  wilful  and  unconscious,  of  his 
predecessors.  He  was  frequently  vituperative  and  seldom  charitable. 
The  most  thoroughly  depreciative  article  appeared  in  the  Critical  Review 
for  January,  1795.  Ritson  is  there  declared  to  be  "immodest",  "inaccur- 
ate", and  "unscholarly".  He  is  ridiculed  for  attempting  to  give  serious 
consideration  to  such  inconsequental  things  as  ballads  and  is  accused  of 
sparing  no  pains  "to  reject  any  improvement,  and  to  restore  them  to 
error  and  imperfection."  "To  us  who  are  accustomed  to  treat  trifles  as 
trifles",  exclaims  the  Reviewer,  "what  must  appear  to  be  the  power  of 
that  mind  which  can  descant  with  such  dignity  on  the  ballad  ? ' '  Here  is 
the  poetic  judgment  of  Pre-Reliquan  days  opposing  itself  to  the  new  light 
of  Romanticism.    The  knowledge  that  Pinkerton  himself  was  the  author 


^^"Bibliographia  Scotica",  See  Chapter  VI. 

^^Scoitish  Songs,  Pref.,  p.  i.  See  William  Tytler's  Dissertation  on  the  Scottish 
Muik. 

9iForty-six  of  the  songs  are  taken  from  Ancient  and  Modern  Scottish  Songs, 
heroic  ballads,  etc.,  forty-two  from  Ramsay's  Teatable  Miscellany;  fourteen  from 
Johnson's  Scots  Musical  Museum;  six  from  Percy's  Reliques;  and  the  remainder 
from  ancient  manuscripts  and  editions  of  the  various  author's  poems. 


449]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  115 

of  this  Keview,^-  gives  it  less  the  character  of  a  reflection  of  the  critical 
spirit  of  the  age  and  more  that  of  a  defence  of  personal  conduct.  Both 
Percy  and  Pinkerton  felt  the  lash  of  Ritson's  denunciation  for  deceiving 
the  public  by  presenting  modern  compositions  in  the  guise  of  antiquity 
and  for  augmenting  ancient  sources  with  verses  of  their  own  without  com- 
plimenting the  reader's  intelligence  by  distinguishing  between  the  old 
and  the  new.  This  spirit  of  carping  criticism  and  fault-finding  was 
denounced  by  the  reviewers  as  it  had  been  in  the  earlier  volumes  on 
Shakespeare.  But  Pinkerton 's  attitude  was  not  wholly  representative  of 
the  times.^^  Ballads  were  not  universally  considered  as  inconsequental 
things.  If  the  spirit  of  the  age  had  been  so  opposed  to  pieces  of  ancient 
popular  poetry  and  so  prejudiced  in  favor  of  the  polished  poems  of 
modern  composers  as  the  apologetic  tone  of  the  prefaces  to  the  numerous 
editions  of  old  poems  would  lead  one  to  suspect,  those  very  editions  would 
not  have  been  so  numerous.  That  they  continued  to  be  produced  and  to 
be  received  with  favor  is  the  best  proof  of  the  real  feeling  of  the  time 
toward  them. 

Ritson  now  turned  his  attention  from  general  collections  of  poetry 
to  the  remains  of  an  unknown  poet  of  antiquity.  In  1795  he  issued 
"Poems  on  interesting  events  in  the  reign  of  King  Edward  III.  ivritten 
Anno  MCCCLII,  by  Laurence  Minot,  ivith  a  preface,  dissertations,  notes, 
and  glossary.  Prior  to  this  time  Minot  was  all  but  unknown.  He  is  not 
mentioned  by  Leland,  Bale,  Pits,  or  Tanner.  The  first  reference  to  him 
is  in  a  note  to  the  "Essay  on  the  learning  and  versification  of  Chaucer", 
in  which  Tyrwhitt  alludes  to  the  discovery  of  the  poems  of  one  Laurence 
Minot  in  MS.  Galba  E.  ix.  of  the  Cottonian  collection.^*  After  Minot 's 
name  was  brought  to  light  in  that  brief  notice  a  copy  of  the  poems  was 
transmitted  to  Warton  for  his  History  of  English  Poetry,  in  the  third 
volume  of  which  they  are  printed  with  neither  scrupulous  care  nor  unfail- 
ing accuracy.*'-''  It  remained  for  Ritson  to  edit  the  manuscript  with  a 
degree  of  faithfulness  and  care  worthy  the  student  of  Middle  English 
poetry. 

Although  he  was  pioneering  in  his  edition  of  Minot,  Ritson  went  at 
his  task  in  a  thoroughly  scholarly  fashion.     His  text  follows  the  manu- 

"-Ritson  suspected  the  authorship  from  the  first.  See  Letters,  11,  p.  67.  This 
article  is  reprinted  in  Letters  from  Joseph  Ritson  to  George  Raton,  Edinburgh, 
1829,  as  "A  critique  by  John  Pinkerton  upon  Ritson's  Scotish  Songs." 

''^See  the  favorable  review  in  British  Critic,  Vol.  V,  pp.  490-502. 

^^Thomas  Tyrwhitt,  The  Canterbury  Tales  of  Chaucer,  Oxford,  1775. 

95Although  some  of  the  errors  in  Warton's  edition  were  undoubtedly  due  to 
his  copyist,  Ritson  saw  fit  to  sneer  at  the  historian's  indolence  and  ignorance.  See 
Minot's  Poems,  Pref.,  p.  viii. 


116  JOSEPH  RITSON  [450 

script  closely  and  accurately  except  that  for  some  unexplained  reason  he 
omits  the  fourth  of  the  eleven  poems — the  only  one  of  the  group  which 
lacks  a  descriptive  couplet  heading.  The  second  edition  is  practically 
a  reprint,®''  and  modern  editors  have  found  few  errors  of  transcription. 
Ritson's  notes  are  mostly  historical  in  character  and  are  chiefly  taken 
from  Berner's  translation  of  Froissart  and  from  the  Chronicles  of  Fabin, 
Holinshed,  and  Stow.  They  are  not  mere  citations  or  clippings  from 
authority'  but  are  illustrated  with  his  own  vast  and  intimate  knowledge, 
which  serves  often  to  correct  and  to  supplement  the  ancient  writers. 
Upon  two  points  of  importance  he  enlarged  so  freely  that  the  material 
became  too  bulky  for  notes  and  was  transferred  to  the  beginning  of  the 
book  as  introductory  dissertations,  "On  the  Scottish  Wars  of  King  Ed- 
ward III.",  and  "On  the  title  of  King  Edward  III.  to  the  Crown  of 
France."  The  glossary  is  necessarily  incomplete,  as  many  words  were 
here  encountered  for  the  first  time  and  required  further  investigation. 
Of  his  inability  to  make  the  glossary  exhaustive  Ritson  remarked :  "  It 
seems  no  part  of  an  editor's  duty  to  save  his  reader  the  trouble  of 
guessing  at  the  meaning  of  expressions  for  which  they  cannot  possibly 
be  more  at  a  loss  than  he  is  himself. ' '®' 

On  points  of  interest  in  connection  Math  the  manuscript  and  with 
the  personality  of  Minot  himself  Ritson  passed  judgment  so  far  as  the 
meagreness  of  available  material  would  permit.  Warton  dated  the  unique 
manuscript  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.,  Ritson  in  that  of  Richard  II.,  but 
it  is  probably  not  older  than  the  early  years  of  the  fifteenth  century.®* 
From  obvious  internal  evidence  Ritson  placed  the  conclusion  of  the 
poems  in  1352  and  judged  that,  because  the  stirring  events  following 
that  date  are  not  celebrated,  the  poet  did  not  live  to  see  them.  The  later 
conjecture  that  Minot  continued  to  write  after  1352  but  that  his  poems 
have  been  lost  is  less  probable.  There  is  no  development  of  style  in  the 
poems  now  extant,  which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  Minot  was  mature 
when  he  wrote  them,  and  there  is  no  reason  for  premising  lost  poems  save 
perhaps  the  general  tendency  to  believe  that  the  medieval  poetry  which 
has  been  preserved  represents  only  a  small  fraction  of  what  was  actually 
written. 

^^Poems,  written  anno  MCCCLII  by  Laurence  Minot.  With  introductory 
dissertations  on  the  Scottish  Wars  of  Edzuard  III  and  on  liis  claim  to  the  throne  of 
France,  and  notes  and  glossary.     London,  1825.     References  are  to  this  edition. 

^^Minot's  Poems,  Pref.,  p.  xviii. 

^®See  Thomas  Wright,  Political  Poems,  London,  1859.  Vol.  I,  p.  58;  Joseph 
Hall,  The  Poems  of  Laurence  Minot,  Oxford,  1887,  p.  v ;  Morris  and  Skeat,  Sped- 
mens  of  Early  English,  Oxford,  1873,  Vol.  II,  p.  126;  Prof.  Herford's  life  of  Minot 
in  Did.  Nat.  Biog. 


451]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  117 

Of  Minot  himself  nothing  is  known  but  what  may  be  gleaned  from 
the  poems  he  has  left.  From  the  prevalence  of  Northern  dialect  forms 
Ritson  concluded  the  author  was  a  native  of  one  of  the  northern  counties. 
There  seems,  liowever,  to  be  a  sufficient  mingling  of  Midland  forms  to 
indicate  that  the  poet  was  familiar  with  both  dialects,  although  he  was 
unquestionably  a  Northerner. 

Theories  as  to  the  author's  profession  and  position  in  life  are  equally 
conjectural.  Without  pretending  to  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  matter 
to  pass  final  judgment,  Ritson  surmised  that  Minot  may  have  belonged 
to  one  of  the  monasteries  in  the  north.  This  opinion,  evidently  based 
on  the  religious  allusions  in  the  poems,  is  seconded  in  essence  by  Bier- 
baura,"''  who  called  Minot  a  priest.  The  lack  of  a  general  knowledge 
of  Middle  English  poetry,  with  the  perspective  which  it  would  have 
afforded,  prevented  Ritson  from  knowing  that  the  religious  references  in 
Minot  were  no  more  numerous  than  was  common  in  poetry  of  that  period. 
So  that  it  seems  more  probable  that  Minot  was  a  soldierly  minstrel  who 
wrote  and  sang  for  the  army  but  was  also  favored  by  the  court.^*^°  Ritson, 
indeed,  came  near  this  view  in  an  indirect  way  w^hen  he  pointed  out  that 
many  of  the  poems  are  written  in  the  manner  of  an  eye-witness  who 
celebrates  events  still  fresh  in  mind. 

Minot 's  literary  excellence  lies  mainly  in  his  versification.  His 
most  frequent  measure  is  the  popular  six  line  strophe,  but  he  employs 
other  forms  in  both  rhymed  and  alliterative  verse.  He  was  no  mean 
metricist,  but  he  scarcely  merits  the  exuberant  praise  bestowed  upon  him 
by  Ritson : 

"In  point  of  ease,  harmony,  and  variety  of  versification,  as  well  as  general 
perspicuity,  Laurence  Minot  is,  perhaps,  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  any  English  poet 
before  the  sixteenth,  or  even,  with  very  few  exceptions  before  the  seventeenth 
century."^  °^ 

In  facility  of  rhyming  and  choice  of  words  Ritson  gave  precedence 
only  to  Robert  of  Brunne  and  Thomas  Tusser ;  Chaucer  he  excepted  from 
all  such  comparisons.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  discoverer  is  reflected  in 
this  high  praise,  and  the  handicap  under  which  the  explorer  works  is 
seen  in  the  errors  which  Ritson  committed  in  the  work.  But  with  it 
all  his  edition  of  Minot  deserves  the  commendation  which  it  received 


^^Bierbaum,  Uebcr  Laurence  Minot  uiid  seine  Licdcr,  1876. 
I'X^Cf.  Herford,  Op.  Cit.,  and  B.  ten  Brink,  Geschichte  dcr  Englis\'hcn  Litter- 
atur.     Strassburg,  1899,  Vol.  I,  p.  375. 
'^^'^Minot's  Poems,  Pref.,  p.  xiv. 


118  JOSEPH  RITSON  [452 

at  the  hands  of  his  contemporaries^"-  and  from  the  pens  of  later 
scholars.^"* 

It  was  naturally  to  be  expected  that  a  poetical  antiquary  who  con- 
cerned himself  particularly  with  songs  and  ballads  should  eventually 
take  up  the  subject  of  Robin  Hood.  One  should  expect  to  find  Robin 
Hood  ballads  in  every  volume  of  "Ancient  Popular  Poetry",  but  one 
looks  in  vain  for  any  material  concerning  the  border  outlaw  in  Ritson's 
collection  of  that  title.  Realizing  the  inconsistency  of  the  omission,  he 
justified  the  procedure  in  the  announcement  that  he  was  reserving  "the 
poems,  ballads,  and  historical  or  miscellaneous  matter  relating  to  this 
celebrated  outlaw",  for  separate  treatment.  This  promised  publication 
made  its  appearance  in  two  volumes,  1795,  as  Rohin  Hood:  a  collection 
of  all  the  ancient  poems,  songs,  and  hallads,  now  extant,  relative  to  that 
celehrated  English  Outlaw.  To  which  are  prefixed  Historical  Anecdotes 
of  his  Life.  It  is  a  monument  of  industry,  the  result  of  years  of  inves- 
tigation and  study,  and  brings  to  a  fitting  close  the  first  period  of  Ritson's 
editorial  activity. 

The  Life  of  Robin  Hood,  with  which  the  first  volume  opens,  does  not 
profess  to  be  historically  authentic.  Although  Ritson  considered  Robin 
Hood  as  an  historical  character,  he  was  unable  to  ground  his  biography 
on  unassailable  authorities.  He  had  recourse  to  the  Robin  Hood  legends, 
anecdotes,  and  allusions  in  the  manuscripts  and  printed  works  of  numer- 
ous ancient  and  modern  writers,  and  from  these  he  constructed  a  history 
"which,  though  it  may  fail  to  satisfy,  may  possibly  serve  to  amuse." 
The  Life  is  short,  covering  only  twelve  pages ;  but  there  are  a  hundred  and 
fifteen  pages  of  "Notes  and  Illustrations."  In  this  section  of  the  work 
are  to  be  found  valuable  contributions  to  the  store  of  Robin  Hood  infor- 
mation. Ritson  took  most  of  the  "facts"  of  the  Life  from  the  prose 
manuscript  in  the  Sloane  library  in  which  Robin  Hood  is  given  definite 
dates,  but  he  supplemented  this  by  frequent  quotations  from  other  early 
writers.  In  addition  he  has  constructed  a  chronology  from  1593  to  1784 
of  the  dramatic  exhibitions  in  which  Robin  Hood 's  exploits  are  recounted, 
has  listed  the  Robin  Hood  ballads  and  songs  and  tlie  collections  of  them 
from  the  fourteenth  century  to  the  Reliques,  and  has  given  a  number  of 
Robin  Hood  proverbs.  The  bringing  into  one  view  of  this  vast  store  of 
material  was  a  meritorious  service ;  and  in  spite  of  the  outcropping  of 
Ritson's  scurrility  in  disrespectful  allusions  to  Christianity  and  in  spite- 
ful reference  to  other  editors,  it  is  not  to  be  ignored  by  the  student  of 
Robin  Hood. 

lo^Cf.  Moutlily  Reviczv,  Vol.  CII,  p.  464;  British  Critic,  Vol.  IX,  p.  22;  Dibden's 
Director,  Vol.  I,  p.  88. 

^''^See  any  of  the  writers  cited  above. 


453]  EDITORIAL  LABORS,  1783-1795  119 

As  for  the  remainder  of  the  work,  the  first  volume  contains  five  songs 
and  the  second  twenty-eight,  each  with  a  brief  introduction  on  the  source 
of  the  text  and  the  copies  with  which  it  was  collated.  Although  twenty- 
six  of  the  ballads  had  appeared  in  Evans's  Old  Ballads^^*  in  the  order 
given  here,  Ritson  prints  them  from  older  sources,  usually  black  letter 
copies  in  the  collection  of  Anthony  a  Wood.  To  Ritson 's  collection  Child 
was  able  to  add  only  five  ballads.  Of  these  "The  Bold  Pedlar  and  Robin 
Hood"  was  known  by  Ritson  to  exist,  although  there  is  no  proof  that  he 
knew  it  before  his  collection  went  to  press.  It  is  probable  that  this  infor- 
mation was  furnished  by  Scott,  who  seems  to  have  promised  to  get  a  copy 
of  the  ballad  for  him.^°'^  In  the  introduction  to  the  first  edition  Ritson 
printed  a  fragment  of  "Robin  Hood  and  the  Monk"  and  expressed  his 
regret  that  the  whole  was  no  longer  extant.  The  ballad  was  given  in 
full  in  the  Appendix  to  the  second  edition,  1832,  the  editor  of  which  says 
its  existence  was  unknown  to  Ritson.  The  three  remaining  pieces, 
"Robin  Hood  and  the  Pedlars",  "Robin  Hood  and  the  Scotchman", 
*' Robin  Hood,  Will  Scarlet,  and  Little  John",  were  not  known  to  Ritson. 

Ritson  was  accused  of  allowing  his  antiquarian  zeal  to  overrun  his 
critical  acumen  because  he  included  in  his  collection  pieces  which  had 
little  but  their  antiquity  to  recommend  them.^"*'  Scott,  as  late  as  1830, 
took  him  to  task  for  encumbering  his  pages  with  such  ballads  as  "Robin 
Hood  and  the  Tinker",  "Robin  Hood  and  the  Butcher",  Robin  Hood 
and  the  Tanner",  which  were,  at  best,  scarcely  more  than  variations  on 
a  single  theme ;  and  he  said  that  this  collection  illustrated  at  once  the 
excellencies  and  the  defects  of  Ritson 's  editorial  system — the  excellencies 
in  care,  accuracy,  wide  research,  etc. ;  the  defects  in  including  whatever 
was  old.^°''  It  is  true  that  by  paying  attention  rather  to  the  age  of  his 
selections  than  to  their  poetic  merit  Ritson  missed  the  appeal  to  popular 
favor  which  had  been  a  large  element  in  the  success  of  the  Reliques 
and  was  later  to  play  a  considerable  part  in  the  popularity  of  the 
Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border.  But  while  he  may  be  open  to  the 
censure  of  those  who  seek  only  pleasant  reading,  Ritson  performed  a 
noteworthy  service  for  scholarship  by  gathering  together  all  the  scattered 
allusions  to  Robin  Hood  and  collecting  into  one  compass  the  various 
poems  relating  to  the  outlaw.^"^     The  standards  of  scholarly  editorship 

'^o^Thomas  Evans,  Old  Ballads,  historical 'and  narrative,  with  some  of  modern 
date.    2  vols.    London,  1777. 

^^^ Letters,  II,  pp.  220,  241. 

i°«See  British  Critic,  Vol.  IX,  pp.  16-22;  Fraser's  Magasine,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  717. 

'^'^'^ Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border,  ed.  Henderson,  Edinburgh  and  London, 
1902.     Vol.   I,  p.  46. 

lo^Later  editors  have  been  rather  chary  in  their  acknow^ledgment  of  indebted- 


120  JOSEPH    RITSON  [454 

which  he  set  up  for  himself  were  then  pointed  to  as  blemishes  on  an  other- 
wise excellent  production,  but  half  a  century  later  they  received  due 
praise  when  exemplified  by  the  labors  of  Child  in  the  ballad  field. 

ness  to  Ritson.  J.  M.  Gutch  declares  that  the  Historical  Essay  in  his  Lytell  Geste 
of  Robin  Hode,  2  vols.,  London,  1847,  is  "not  grounded  on  the  documents  used  by 
Ritson."  Yet,  despite  this  asseveration,  he  reprints  almost  the  whole  of  Ritson 
without  additions. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Editorial  Labors  after  1795 

Increasing  illness  halts  publication — Enhances  eccentricities — Essay  on  Abstin- 
ence from  Animal  Food — Letter  to  Chalmers — MS.  "Gleanings  of  Grammar''  and 
"Dictionary" — Supplies  material  for  Brewster's  History  of  Stockton — Forms  new 
friendships — Sir  Walter  Scott  seeks  his  aid — Their  correspondence — MS.  "Scotish 
Ballads" — Letter  on  "Sir  Tristrem" — Begins  again  to  publish — Bihliographia  Poctica — 
Assisted  by  Douce  and  Park — Comments  on  Lydgate  and  "Piers  Plowman" — MS. 
"Bihliographia  Scotica" — Metrical  Romancces — Contents — Reception  —  Caledonian 
Muse — Partly  printed  in  1785 — Its  subsequent  history — Triphook's  letter — MS. 
"Select  Scotish  Poems" — Life  of  King  Arthur — Purpose — Memoirs  of  the  Celts — 
Annals  of  the  Caledonians — Preparation  and  object — Nature — Fairy  Tales — Blem- 
ishes— Contents — ^Summary   of  editorial   labors. 

The  abrupt  cessation  of  Ritson's  publications  in  1795  was  undoubt- 
edly the  result  of  the  increasing  malignancy  of  the  illness  of  which  he 
had  first  complained  in  1790.  By  this  time  he  had  become  so  deranged 
nervously  that  writing  was  attended  with  great  difficulty.  He  neglected 
his  correspondence  and  pleaded  his  illness  as  an  excuse  which  ought 
to  make  him  the  object  of  the  commiseration  of  his  friends  rather  than 
of  their  resentment.  The  exact  nature  of  his  ailment  is  difficult  to 
determine.  It  was  not,  he  said,  a  fever  or  a  consumption.  To  all  outward 
appearances  he  was  as  healthy  as  ever.  But  he  complained  of  increasing 
forgetfulness  in  small  matters  and  feared  the  complete  loss  of  his  memory. 
Friends  suggested  various  remedies,  none  of  which  he  saw  fit  to  try. 
His  physician  advised  him  that  his  only  hope  for  anything  like  permanent 
relief  lay  in  a  complete  rest  in  unfamiliar  surroundings.  But  he  could 
not  persuade  himself  to  spare  the  time  and  undergo  the  expense  incident 
to  a  long  sojourn  in  the  country'  and  was  content  with  the  brief  outings 
afforded  by  his  annual  vacations.  The  temporary  diminution  of  his 
distress  which  these  vacations  induced  was  sufficient  to  enable  him  to 
prolong  his  mental  activity,  but  he  realized  that  he  was  losing  ground 
rapidly  and  in  1801  expressed  surprise  that  he  had  already  lived  so  long.^ 

The  neurological  character  of  Ritson's  illness  increased  his  sensi- 
tiveness, gave  him  an  exaggerated  conception  of  his  own  importance,  and 
caused  him  to  guard  jealously  the  eccentricities  which  set  him  off  from 
the  generality  of  mankind.-  The  revolutionary  ardor  in  politics  which 
was  greatly  stimulated  by  his  visit  to  France  in  1791  continued  with 

^Letters,  II,  p.  205. 

-These  characteristics  are  more  fully  discussed  in  Chapter  VIII. 

121 


122  JOSEPH  RITSON  [456 

unabated  fervor.  He  persisted  in  his  vegetarian  diet  and  became  so  en- 
thusiastic in  his  endeavors  to  secure  converts  to  his  theory  that  he  issued 
An  Essay  on  Abstinence  from  Animal  Food  as  a  Moral  Duty,  1802,  as 
conclusive  evidence  of  the  invulnerability  of  his  position.  The  eccentric 
theory  of  orthography  which  he  had  first  practised  in  the  Versees  and 
early  propounded  in  the  Shakespeare  pamphlets,  attracted  his  attention 
in  these  later  years.  Now  he  began  in  earnest  the  attempt  which  he  had 
earlier  suggested,  to  reform  the  whole  system  of  English  orthography. 
This  ambitious  undertaking  brought  no  fruit  in  the  form  of  published 
material,  but  he  seems  to  have  been  prevented  from  putting  it  to  press 
only  by  the  state  of  his  health  and  his  pocket.  His  work  took  shape  in 
three  manuscripts,  all  of  which  have  apparently  been  destroyed.  Some- 
thing of  the  nature  of  his  method  may  be  gained  from  the  following  letter 
to  Chalmers,  in  which  he  seeks  to  borrow  a  number  of  sixteenth  century 
grammars  and  orthographies.  However  eccentric  his  theories  may  have 
appeared  in  his  own  day,  he  sought  to  ground  them  on  authority,  and 
in  true  antiquarian  style  he  went  to  the  remote  past  for  that  authority. 
Montagu  d.  15,  fol.  216,  218. 

1.  Derickes  Image  of  Ireland,  1581.^ 

2.  Bellots  English  Schoolmaster,   1579.* 

3.  BuUokars   Orthographie,   1580.^ 

4.  Mulcasters  Elementarie,  1582.^ 

5.  Grammatica  Anglicana,  1594.  "^ 

2John  Derricke's  Image  of  Ireland,  in  two  parts,  written  in  1578,  published 
1581,  was  reprinted  with  notes  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  Somers  Tracts,  1809,  and  a 
limited  edition  was  put  out  by  John  Small  in  1883.  The  full  title  of  this  book, 
containing  153  words,  is  given  in  Ritson's  Bibliographia  Poetica,pp.  1S6-7.  See  also 
Letters,  II,  p.  148. 

*The  only  copy  known  to  exist  of  Jacques  Bellot's  The  Englishe  Schole- 
maister:  Conteyning  many  profitable  precepts  for  the  naturall  borne  French  men, 
and  other  straungers  that  have  their  French  tongue,  to  attayne  the  true  pronouncing 
of  the  Englishe  tongue,  London,  1580,  is  that  preserved  at  the  Hofbibliothek  in 
Darmstadt.  It  was  edited,  with  a  reproduction  of  the  original  title  page,  by  Theo. 
Spira  as  Vol.  VII  of  Neudrikke  friihneuenglischen  Gramniatiken,  Halle,  1912. 

sWilliam  Bullokar  published  in  1580  Bookc  at  Large  for  the  Amendment  of 
Orthographie  for  English  Speech.  This  was  followed  by  two  other  books  dealing 
with  similar  subjects.  All  three  were  published  by  Max  Plessow  in  Geschichte  der 
Fabcldictung  in  England  bis  su  John  Gay,  Berlin,  1906. 

•^Richard  Mulcaster,  First  Part  of  the  Elenicntairic,  zvliich  cntrcatcth  chefelie  of 
the  right  Writing  of  our  English  Tung,  1582.  No  second  part  is  known  to  have 
appeared ;  the  first  has  never  been  reprinted. 

''Graniniatica  Anglicana ,  praecipuc  quatenus  a  Latino  diffcrt,  ad  unicani  P.  Rami 
mcthodiini  concinnata,  etc.,  1594.  Hrsg.  von  M.  Rosier  und  R.  Brotanek.  An- 
nounced in  1905  for  publication  in  Neudrikke  friihneuenglischen  Granunatikcn,  but 
it  lias  not  yet  appeared. 


457]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  123 

6.  Spensers  Three  Letters,  1594.^ 

7.  Blages  Wise  conceytes,  1569.^ 
Dear  Sir, 

If  the  books  mentioned  in  the  inclosed  paper  be  in  your  own  library,  as  I  presume 
they  are,  I  shall  be  highly  gratifyed  by  the  perusal  of  such  of  them  as  you  can  con- 
veniently spare.     They  shal  be  treated  with  care,  &  returned  with  expedition. 

Yours  respectfully 

J  Ritson 
Monday,  6th  Feb. 

1797. 
George  Chalmers,  Esq. 

The  result  of  his  labors  through  a  great  many  years  with  these  and 
numerous  like  volumes  was  the  three  manuscripts  already  mentioned. 
The  "Dissertation  on  the  use  of  Self"  was  the  formulization  of  his 
ideas  regarding  the  use  of  "self"  as  a  substantive,  which  resulted  in 
his  own  frequent  use  of  ' '  hisself  ",  "  herself ' ',  etc.  ' '  Gleanings  of  English 
Grammar,  chiefly  with  a  view  to  illustrate  and  establish  a  just  system  of 
orthography,  upon  etymological  principles"  probably  took  the  nature 
of  a  dissertation  explanatory  of  the  more  elaborate  project  which  he 
described  as  an  "  orthographico-etymological  dictionary  of  the  English 
language."  Besides  the  formal  defense  of  his  own  theories  of  orthog- 
raphy there  are  several  references  in  his  letters  to  the  inadequacy  of 
existing  lexicographies.  Johnson's  dictionary  he  declared  to  contain  the 
"strangest  mixture  of  ignorance  and  idleness  that  was  ever  exhibited 
in  such  a  work".  He  ridiculed  Croft 's^**  pretentious  attempt  to  "correct 
all  Johnson 's  errors,  supply  all  his  defects,  and  produce  the  most  finished 
and  perfect  specimen  of  lexicography  that  has  ever  appeared  in  any 
language  or  in  any  country. '  '^^  As  early  as  1793  Ritson  began  the  prepar- 
ation of  his  own  dictionary  but  "for  want  of  vigor  of  mind  was  forced 
to  lay  it  aside."  He  recurred  to  it  in  his  later  years  but  did  not  com- 
plete it,  although  the  manuscript  was  described  in  his  sale  catalogue  as 
"intended  for  publication." 

During  this  non-productive  period  Ritson  was  devoting  as  much 
time  and  energy  to  his  favorite  pursuits  as  the  state  of  his  health  would 

^Edmund  Spenser,  Three  proper  and  wittie,  familiar  Letters:  lately  passed 
between  two  university  men:  touching  the  earthquake  in  April  last,  and  our  English 
reformed  versifying,  London,  1580. 

^Thomas  Blage,  Schole  of  Wise  Conceytes,  a  book  of  Aesopian  fables. 

i^Sir  Herbert  Croft  (1751-1816)  busied  himself  with  the  preparation  of  an 
English  dictionary  from  1786  or  1787  until  1793,  when  he  was  forced  to  abandon 
it  for  want  of  subscribers.  He  seems  to  have  had  no  clear  calling  to  the  task 
in  hand. 

^^Letters,  I,  p.  213. 


124  JOSEPH  RITSON  [458 

permit.  His  reputation  as  an  antiquary  and  as  a  student  of  the  older 
forms  of  poetry  caused  his  old  friends  to  call  upon  him  frequently  for 
assistance  in  their  various  undertakings  and  led  to  the  formation  of  new 
friendships  with  men  of  kindred  interests.  He  was  himself  constantly 
seeking  here  and  there  for  additional  material  for  the  projects  he  had  in 
hand  and  asking  verification  of  conclusions  on  the  meaning  of  words 
and  the  dates  of  pieces  of  poetry.  With  Paton,  Walker,  Harrison,  Chal- 
mers, and  others  he  continued  his  correspondence  on  literary  subjects, 
though  with  less  regularity  than  formerly.  Knowing  of  Ritson's  early 
concern  with  and  his  continued  interest  in  the  antiquities  of  his  native 
town,  John  Brewster,  clergyman  at  Stockton,  sought  his  aid  in  compiling 
material  for  his  Parochial  History  and  Antiquities  of  Stockton-upon- 
Tees,  published  in  1796.  Ritson  furnished  a  great  part  of  the  material 
for  this  volume  but  afterward  expressed  regret  that  he  had  done  so 
because  Brewster  had  handled  it  in  a  woefully  unintelligent  manner.^ - 

The  enlarging  of  the  circle  of  his  friendships  proved  very  beneficial 
to  Ritson.  With  David  Macpherson  (1746-1816)  he  exchanged  Scottish 
etymologies,  and  although  himself  in  keenly  distressing  circumstances  he 
offered  Macpherson  real  encouragement  in  the  latter 's  difficulties.^^  He 
received  valuable  assistance  in  translating  from  Robert  Surtees^*  and 
found  himself  indebted  to  William  Laing  for  repeated  aid  in  obtaining 
scarce  volumes.^^  The  greatest  boon,  however,  came  when  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Sir  Walter  Scott. 

In  1800,  or  thereabouts,^**  Scott  applied  to  Ritson  for  aid  in  com- 
piling materials  for  his  projected  Border  Minstrelsy.  He  had  previously 
appealed  to  Percy,  but  the  prelate  expressed  only  a  mild  interest  in 
the  undertaking.  After  a  period  of  hestitation  induced  by  Ritson's 
avowed  hatred  of  Scotchmen    and    the    known    virulence    of    his    lan- 


^-Ibid.,  II,  pp.  125,  127.  See  Henry  Heavisides,  Annals  of  Stockton-on-Tees; 
zvitli  biographical  notices,  Stockton-on-Tees,  1865,  for  curious  anecdotes  regarding 
Brewster's  ignorance  of  antiquities. 

It  was  probably  during  this  same  period  that  Ritson  made  some  progress 
toward  a  life  of  Wharton.  His  copy  of  The  Life  and  Writings  of  Philip  late 
Duke  of  Wharton,  2  vols.,  London,  1732,  which  included  the  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of 
his  Grace  Philip  late  Duke  of  Wharton,  By  an  Impartial  Hand,  London,  1731,  inter- 
leaved with  copious  manuscript  notes  and  supplied  with  transcripts  of  several  of 
the  Duke's  poems  furnished  with  notes,  is  in  Mr.  Perry's  collection. 

'^^Letters,  II,  p.  197. 

^^Ibid.,  II,  p.  241. 

^^Ibid.,  passim. 

i*^The  exact  date  is  unknown.  Lockhart  places  the  beginning  of  the  corre- 
spondence in  1800-01.    Life  of  Scott,  II,  p.  54. 


459]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  125 

guage  toward  those  he  disliked,  and  against  the  advice  of  Ellis,  Scott 
decided  to  seek  Ritson's  aid/'  Apparently  to  the  surprise  of  himself 
and  his  friends  he  met  with  "the  readiest,  kindest,  and  most  liberal  as- 
sistance."^"* His  suave  courtesy,  his  frank  praise  of  Ritson's  industry 
and  accuracy,  his  unfailing  tact  in  avoiding  everything  suggestive  of  a 
controversy  completel}^  disarmed  Ritson  and  led  him  to  communicate 
the  stores  of  his  valuable  learning  in  a  gracious  and  friendly  manner. 
The  correspondence  thus  begun  continued  uninterruptedly  throughout 
the  remaining  years  of  Ritson's  life  and  was  supplemented  by  at  least 
one  pleasant  personal  meeting.  In  the  autumn  of  1802  Ritson  visited 
Scott  at  Lasswade  cottage.  Dr.  John  Leyden,  the  crude  Scottish  poet, 
was  present  on  this  occasion  and  by  his  rudeness  of  manner  somewhat 
irritated  the  more  delicate  sensibilities  of  Ritson.  Despite  this  unpleas- 
ant circumstance,  Ritson  treasured  the  memory  of  the  visit  among  his 
most  delightful  recollections  and  hoped  constantly  for  an  opportunity 
to  repeat  it.  Lockhart's  ill-natured  abuse  of  Ritson  on  the  occasion  of 
this  visit  has  given  rise  to  a  misunderstanding  of  the  nature  of  the  rela- 
tionship between  him  and  his  two  Scottish  friends.^^  There  was  no 
permanent  breach  between  him  and  Leyden.  He  frequently  spoke  in 
praise  of  his  "inestimable  friend"  Leyden,  and  seems  to  have  forgotten 
entirely  their  early  unpleasantness.  Of  his  connection  wdth  Scott  there 
can  be  no  doubt.  Not  only  his  own  letters  but  Scott 's  frequently  repeated 
praise  prove  them  to  have  been  on  constantly  friendly  terms. 

The  extant  correspondence  proves  Scott  and  Ritson  to  have  been 
mutually  helpful  in  their  respective  compilations.  Despite  his  illness, 
Ritson  reveals  in  these  letters  an  unsubdued  zeal  for  his  work,  and  his 
manner  is  always  deferential  and  unassuming.  He  seems  to  feel  that 
he  has  at  last  met  his  superior  in  medieval  learning.  When  he  received 
a  copy  of  the  first  edition  of  the  Minstrelsy  he  thanked  Scott  in  glowing 
terms  for  "the  most  curious  and  valuable  literary  treasure  I  possess. 
Everything  is  excellent  throughout,  both  in  verse  and  prose,"  He 
declared  his  intention  of  reading  it  charily,  one  ballad  a  day,  thus  extend- 
ing his  "exquisite  gratification  to  the  most  distant  period. "-°  It  was 
with  obvious  hesitation  that  he  ventured  to  suggest  a  "few  trifling 
remarks,  in  contemplation  of  a  second  edition. ' '--    Had  the  Minstrelsy  con- 

^^Scott's  statement  quoted  by  Surtees,  Op.  Cit.,  Ill,  p.  194,  note  q. 

i^See  Lockhart,  Op.  Cit.,  I,  pp.  330,  358 ;  Encyc.  Brit.,  art.  "Ritson" ;  British 
Critic,  Vol.  LV,  pp.  581-93;  Constable  and  his  Literary  Correspondents,  I,  pp.  495-7- 

^^Letters,  II,  p.  222  ff. ;  Surtees,  Op.  Cit.,  Ill,  p.  194,  note  r. 

-^Although  everything  he  wrote  was  in  high  praise  of  the  Minstrelsy,  yet 
Ritson  felt  that  Scott  had  taken  unfair  advantage  of  him  by  printing  from  the 
Brown  MS.  several  ballads  which  he  had  himself  transcribed  with  the  full  knowl- 


126  JOSEPH  RITSON  [460 

tained  a  copy  of  "Sir  Tristrem",  as  Scott  originally  intended  it  should, 
Ritson  would  no  doubt  have  had  some  very  pertinent  remarks  to  make 
on  it.  For  it  appears  from  the  following  hitherto  unnoticed  letter  that, 
even  before  the  completion  of  the  Minstrelsy,  Ritson  had  discovered  the 
poem,  made  extracts  from  it,  estimated  its  age  and  origin,  propounded 
the  most  plausible  theory  yet  advanced  for  a  definite  authorship  of  it, 
and  supported  his  theory  by  all  the  available  internal  and  by  almost  all 
the  corroborative  external  evidence  which  the  subsequent  century  of 
scholarly  investigation  has  sufficed  to  unearth. 

To  the  question  of  the  authorship  of  "Sir  Tristrem"  there  has  not 
been,  and  probably  can  never  be,  a  definitive  answer.  The  theory  held 
by  Ritson  and  propounded  by  Scott  (in  his  edition  of  1804)  that  the 
"Thomas"  mentioned  in  the  first  lines  of  the  romance  was  in  all  prob- 
ability its  author,  was  too  simple  to  go  long  unchallenged.  In  their 
anxiety  to  prove  all  things  scholars  have  explored  the  hidden,  labyrinth- 
ian  paths  and  have  been  prone  to  ignore  the  plain  and  straight  ways, 
if  for  no  other  reason  than  because  they  were  obvious.  And  so,  after 
Scott's  declaration  that  "The  Romance  of  Sir  Tristrem  was  composed 
by  Thomas  of  Erceldoune,  called  the  Rhymer,  who  flourished  in  the 
thirteenth  century",  came  the  testimony  of  such  men  as  Price,  Wright, 
Paris,  Hazlitt,  Halliwell,  Garnett,  Murray,  Schofield,  and  Kolbing  to 
prove — not  that  some  other  person  was  the  author  of  the  poem,  but  sim- 
ply that  Thomas  was  not  its  composer.  In  McNeill,  the  latest  editor  of 
the  romance,  critical  judgment  seems  to  be  swinging  back  to  the  com- 
mon-sense position  taken  by  Ritson  and  Scott.  After  reviewing  carefully 
the  evidence  and  the  arguments  in  favor  of  an  unknown  author  other 
than  Thomas  of  Erceldoune,  McNeill  concludes  thus: 

"Broadly  viewed,  the  question  of  the  authorship  of  the  poem  is  one  which, 
from  the  nature  of  the  evidence,  must  be  answered  in  accordance  rather  with 
reasonable  probability  than  with  absolute  demonstration ;  and  the  reasonable  prob- 
ability is  that  Robert  Mannying  of  Brunne  was  right  when  he  ascribed  the  poem 
to  Thomas  of  Erceldoune."^^ 

How  ably  Ritson  had  analyzed  the  available  evidence  is  revealed  in 
the  following  letter,  and  how  thoroughly  he  had  anticipated  Scott's 

edge  and  consent  of  Thomas  Gordon.  See  manuscript  of  102  pp.  in  Ritson's  best 
hand,  comprising  fifteen  ballads  and  a  copy  of  a  letter  of  Thomas  Gordon  to 
Alexander  Fraser  Tytler  under  date  of  January  15,  1793.  To  the  Table  of  Contents 
Ritson  has  appended  the  following  note :  "Many  of  these  ballads  have  been  since 
publish'd,  from  the  same  manuscript,  in  'The  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish-border' ; 
whether  deserve'dly,  or  not,  i  shal  not  now  say."     MS.  in  Mr.  Perry's  library. 

--G.  P.  McNeill,  Sir  Tristrem,  Edinburgh  and  London,  1886,  for  the  Scottish 
Text  Society. 


461]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  127 

conclusions  is  seen  upon  comparison  of  the  letter  with  Scott's  Introduc- 
tion to  his  Sir  Tristrem.  Just  what  is  the  degree  of  Scott's  indebtedness 
to  Ritson  cannot  now  be  definitely  determined.  The  letter  unfortunately 
bears  no  address.  It  was  no  doubt  written  to  one  who  could  and  prob- 
ably did  communicate  its  contents  to  Scott  prior  to  the  appearance  of  his 
Sir  Tristrem  in  1804.  But  even  though  Scott  knew  nothing  of  Ritson's 
letter  on  the  romance,  the  fact  remains  that  Ritson  antedated  Scott's 
conclusions  by  nearly  three  years. 

Laing  II,  589. 
Dear  Sir, 

The  romance  of  Sir  Tristrem,  if  admited  to  be  the  production  of  Thomas  of 
Ercildon,  i  may  be  well  enough  said  to  have  discovered,  as  i  know  of  none  who 
had  anticipated  my  conjecture  though  i  have  not  been  permited  to  announce  that 
discovery  myself.-^  It  is  extant  in  a  most  valuable,  but  shockingly  mutilated,  MS. 
in  the  library  of  the  faculty  of  advocates  at  Edinburg,  marked  W.4.1.  and  presented 
by  the  late  lord  Auchinleck,  in  1744;  its  age,  to  the  best  of  my  judgment  being 
about  the  year  1400,^^  and,  evidently  compiled  and  written  in  England.^^  The 
reasons  from  which  i  infer  this  imperfect  romance  to  be  the  work  of  the  ancient 
Scotish  bard  already  mentioned  are  these :  Robert  of  Brunne,  in  the  prologue 
to  his  metrical  version  of  Peter  Langetoft,  says,-® 

"I  see  in  song  in   sedgeyng  tale 
Of  Erceldoun,  &  of  Kendale, 
Non  tham  says  as  thai  tham  wroght, 
&  in  ther  saying  it  seems  noght. 
That  may  thou  here  in  Sir  Tristrem, 
Over  gestes  it  has  the  steem, 
Over  all  that  is  or  was, 
If  men  it  sayd  as  made  Thomas. 

But  I  here  it  no  inan  so  say. 
That  of  some  copple  is  away. 
So  tharefare  saying  here  beforne. 


-^Probably  because  of  ill  health  holding  back  his  publications. 

24]viodern  critical  opinion  places  the  MS.  at  an  earlier  date.  Most  students  go 
with  McNeill  in  placing  it  at  the  beginning  of  the  14th  century;  some  agree  with 
Murray  in  setting  it  at  the  middle  of  the  century.  Scott  refers  it  to  "the  earlier 
part  of  the  fourteenth  century". 

-^On  this  point  there  is  no  difference  of  opinion.  On  the  question  of  the  origin 
of  the  romance,  Ritson  would,  of  course,  agree  with  the  theory  that  the  English 
version  is  from  a  Norman  or  Anglo-Norman  source.  He  frequently  contended,  as 
did  Tyrwhitt  and  Warton,  that  there  exists  no  English  romance  which  is  not 
derived,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  a  French  original. 

-611,  93-104,  iog-ii2.    Scott  quotes  these  lines. 


128  JOSEPH  RITSON  [462 

Thai  says  in  so  quaynte  Inglis, 
That  many  one  wate  not  what  is, 
Therfore  heuyed  wele  the  more 
In  strange  rynie  to  travayle  sore." 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  gratify  your  curiosity,  by  a  transcript  of  the  first 
stanza,  which  will  serve  at  the  same  time,  to  illustrate  the  censure  of  the  English 
'^rkick,  and  to  ascertain  the  title  of  the  Scotch  poet.     It  runs  thus : 

"I   was   at   Ercildoun    (To    supply   by   conjecture,   what   is 
illegible.) 
With  Thomas  spak  y  thare, 
Ther  herd  y  rede  in  roune. 
Who  Tristrem  gat  &  bare, 
Who  was  king  with  croun, 

And  who  him  fostered  zare, 
And  who  was  bold  baroun. 
As  thair  elders  ware 
Bi  zere; 
Tomas  telles  in  toun 

this  aventours  as  thai  were." 

This  is  a  specimen  of  such  "quaynte  Inglis".  and  such  "strange  ryme",  as 
there  is  no  other  instance  of ;  and,  with  the  other  extracts  i  have  made  from  this 
venerable  relique-^  (which,  by  the  way,  i  had  neither  time  nor  convenience  to 
transcribe  at  length),  sufficiently  proves,  at  least  to  my  own  conviction,  that  this  is 
the  identical  poem  alluded  to  in  the  above  passage  of  Robert  Mannyng.  In  further 
support  of  the  authorship,  i  can  also  cite  the  fragment  of  an  ancient  romance  in 
French  metre  upon  the  same  subject,  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Douce,  in  which  the 
Scoto-English  performance  is  apparently  criticized  under  the  name  of  Thomas.-^ 
The  objection  made,  by  some,  against  this  opinion,  is,  that  the  poem  speaks  of 
Thomas,  in  the  tliird  person,  as  one  from  whom  he  states  himself  to  have  received 
his  materials:  but  for  this  singularity  (if  it  be  one),  the  authors  caprice  must  be 
responsible.  It  seems,  in  fact,-  to  have  been,  if  not  the  peculiar,  at  least  the 
notorious  practise,  of  this  popular  rimer :  as  in  two  more  modern  poems,  always 
ascribed  to,  but  not,  i  believe,  actually  written  by  him,  he  is  introduced  in  the  same 
manner :  one  of  these  mentioned  by  Lord  Hailes,  you  most  probably  have  in  the 
Scotish  prophecys,  the  other,  an  imperfect  MS.  in  the  Cotton  library,  &  Lincoln 
cathedral,  has  not  been  printed.-''     Besides,  Maistre  Wace,  more  than  once,  speaks 

-'They  appear  not  to  have  been  made  use  of. 

28The  Douce  fragments  were  edited  by  Francisque  Michel,  Tristan:  Rccucil  de 
ce  qui  reste  dcs  pocincs  relatifs  a  ses  aventures  composes  en  Frangois  en  Anglo- 
Normand  ct  en  Grec  dans  Ics  xii^  ct  xiii^  siecles\,  London,  1835,  and  described  by 
A.  E.  Curdy,  La  Folic  Tristran,  an  Anglo-Norman  Poem,  Baltimore,  1902.  Scott 
cited  extracts  from  the  fragments  (Introd.,  pp.  42-4)  in  support  of  the  point  Ritson 
makes  here. 

29It  was  printed  by  Laing  as  "Thomas  of  Ersseldoune",  in  Ancient  Popular 
Poetry  of  Scotland.     Second  edition  revised  by  W.  C.  Hazlitt,  1895,  pp.  81-111. 


463]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  129 

of  himself  in  the  same  manner,  tho'  at  other  times  in  the  first  person;  and  this 
identical  objection  is  alleged,  by  Bishop  Watson,  against  the  cavils  of  Thomas 
Paine,  as  a  strong  argument  in  favour  of  the  four  evangelists,  after  the  example  of 
Caesar,  Xenophon,  and  other  ancient  historians  -.^^  which  is  all  i  have  at  present  to 
say  upon  the  subject.  I  understand,  however,  that  some  gentlemen,  at  Edinburgh, 
have  transcribed  the  entire  poem  for  the  purpose  of  publication,  which  i  should, 
in  fact,  have  done  myself,  tho'  without  the  like  advantages,  had  it  not  been 
mutilated  and  imperfect.^^ 

I  put  into  your  hands  a  few  years  ago  an  alphabetical  list  of  the  names  of 
British  rivers,  which,  if  it  would  be  of  any  service  to  you,  and  has  already  performed 
it,  i  should  be  obliged  to  you  to  leave  for  me  at  Egertons  any  time  it  may  be 
convenient. 32 

I  am, 

Dear  sir, 

Very  respectfully  &  sincerely  yours 
J.  Ritson. 
Gray's  inn, 
26th  June  1801. 

When  one  recalls  that  Scott's  views  on  the  subject  of  ballad  decep- 
tion were,  like  those  of  his  age,  lax,  and  his  practise  even  more  remiss, 
one  wonders  what  has  become  of  the  Ritson  whose  main  object  in  life 
seemed  to  be  to  expose  and  to  ridicule  the  liberties  taken  by  editors  of 
medieval  poetry.  That  Ritson  had  not,  at  this  period  of  life,  given  over 
his  enmity  to  editorial  laxity  is  evinced  by  his  latest  publications,  Scott 
alone  of  all  the  collectors  of  ballads  wholly  escaped  his  ire.  The  poet's 
good  fortune  was  undoubtedly  due  in  large  measure  to  the  bland  manner 
in  which  he  treated  Ritson.  Scott  himself,  perhaps  disturbed  by  an 
accusing  conscience,  was  fearful  lest  Ritson  should  discover  the  extent 
to  which  he  had  indulged  in  textual  liberties  and  attack  him  with  his 
customary  violence.    In  1802  he  wrote  to  Ellis : 

"As  for  Mr.  Ritson,  he  and  I  still  continue  on  decent  terms ;  and,  in  truth, 
he  makes  l^atte  de  velours:  but  I  dread  I  shall  see  'a  whisker  and  then  a  claw' 
stretched  out  against  my  unfortunate  lucubrations. "^^ 

^oRichard  Watson,  Apology  for  the  Bible  .  .  .  Letters  to  Thomas  Paine, 
1796,  directed  against  Paine's  "Second  Part". 

3iThis  no  doubt  alludes  to  the  copy  which  formed  the  basis  of  Scott's  edition. 
Ritson's  veneration  for  Scott  probably  led  him  here  to  underestimate  his  own 
ability  as  a  transcriber.  Had  he  copied  the  whole  poem  for  publication  it  would 
certainly  not  have  been  less  perfect  than  Scott's  version,  which,  according  to  Kobling, 
swarms  with  errors.  Die  nordische  und  die  englische  version  der  Tristan-saga , 
Heilbronn,  1878-92. 

32This  unpublished  MS.  is  now  Douce  340,  in  the  Bodleian  Library :  "A  list  of 
river  names  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  with  a  few  etymological  notes  on  them". 

s3Lockhart,  Op.  Git.,  II,  p.  87.' 


130  JOSEPH  RITSON  [464 

The  stimulus  which  came  from  his  correspondence  with  men  actively 
engaged  in  literary  pursuits  no  doubt  operated  to  revive  Ritson  's  waning 
interest  to  the  point  where  he  began  again  to  publish.  Despite  steadily 
declining  health  he  managed,  with  great  suffering,  to  see  three  books 
through  the  press  in  1802  and  to  bring  several  others  to  completion. 
Each  one  of  them  is  disfigured  by  his  peculiar  orthography,  and  all  are 
marred  by  extravagances  in  idea  and  statement.  The  condition  of  his 
mind  serves  in  large  measure  to  explain  if  not  to  excuse  the  extreme 
violence  which  characterizes  much  of  the  language  of  these  volumes. 
All  the  dislikes  which  he  had  earlier  expressed,  all  the  eccentricities 
which  he  had  formerly  exhibited,  are  here  reiterated  with  the  cocksure- 
ness  of  conceit  and  egotism  run  riot.  The  Essay  on  Abstinence  from 
Animal  Food  has  already  been  mentioned  and  will  be  treated  later ;  the 
other  two  works  appeared  simultaneously. 

Bihliographia  Poetica;  a  catalogue  of  English  poets  of  the  tivelfth, 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  century s,  with  a  short 
account  of  their  works,  was  the  product  of  several  years  of  labor.  It  was 
originally  undertaken  at  the  suggestion  of  Steevens,  who  was  unable  to 
fill  out  a  list  of  authors'  initials  submitted  by  Thomas  Park.  "With  the 
assistance  of  "the  bibliographical  labors  of  Leland,  Bale,  Pits,  Wood,  and 
Tanner",  the  ''ingenious  though  too  frequently  inaccurate  History  of 
English  Poetry",  Herbert's  enlarged  and  improved  edition  of  Ames's 
Typographical  Antiquities,  and  his  own  transcript  of  the  registers  of  the 
Stationers'    company,    "obligingly   furnished    by    mister    Chalmers",^* 


34The  following  letters  concern  the  borrowing  of  the  transcript. 

Add.  j\ISS.  22900,  f.  404. 

Dear  Sir, 

Understanding  that  you  have  purchased  Mr.  Herbert's  transcript  of  the 
Stationers-books,  I  presume  upon  your  experienced  liberality  to  solicit  the  loan,  for 
a  few  days,  of  the  first  volume,  either  now  or  when  you  can  better  spare  it;  with 
liberty,  if  you  please,  to  extract  such  entries  of  ballads  as  Herbert  has  not  already 
printed. 

I  am.  Dear  sir, 

Very  respectfully  &  sincerely  yours 
J.  Ritson. 

Gray's-inn, 
iSth.  Dec.  98. 
George  Chalmers  esquire, 
Green-street. 


465]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  131 

together  with  numerous  books  and  titles  from  the  libraries  of  his 
friends,^^  and  especially  with  critical  suggestions  from  Douce  and  Park, 
Ritson  worked  out  a  catalogue  surprisingly  full  and  accurate  for  that 
day. 

It  would  seem  that  Ritson  entered  upon  the  preparation  of  this 
volume  in  collaboration  with  Douce  but  completed  it  alone,  using  exten- 
sively the  material  collected  by  his  friend.  A  manuscript  of  "Materials 
for  a  biography  of  English  poets  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
collected  by  J.  R.  and  F.  D."  now  in  the  Bodleian,  is  entirely  in  Donee's 
hand.^''    Its  plan  is  the  same  as  that  of  Bibliographia  Poetica-'  the  authors 

Montagu  d.  15,  f.  220. 

Gray's-inn,  20th  Decern.  1798. 
Dear  Sir, 

I  return  your  first  volume,  with  a  thousand  thanks;  and  flatter  myself  it  has 
not  been  detained  beyond  your  expectation.  As  you  appear  not  to  have  finished 
your  examination  of  the  second,  perhaps  you  could  part  with  it  more  conveniently 
at  a  future  time,  for  which  I  should  wait  with  pleasure.  If,  however,  the  present 
be  equally  agreeable,  you  may  rely  on  the  utmost  dispatch  from, 

Dear  Sir, 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

J.  Ritson 

P.   S.     "The  Clarkes  booke",  I  perceive,  wch  contained  the  entrys  from  22d  July 
1571  to  1576  is  still  missing;  nor  now  likely,  I  conclude,  ever  to  be  found.    Another 
book,  with  a  white  cover,  occasionally  refer'd  to,   is,  doubtless,   in  the  same  pre- 
dicament. 
George  Chalmers  esquire,  Green-street. 

Add.  MSS.  22901,  f.  13. 
Dear  Sir, 

I  return  you  the  concluding  volumes  of  Mr.  Herberts  transcript,  &  shall  ever 
retain  the  most  grateful  sense  of  so  considerable  a  favor. 

Upon  Mr.  Steevens's  application  to  I  know  not  what  members  of  the  stationers 
company,  they  agreed  to  let  me  have  the  use  of  these  books  in  their  own  hall,  but 
had  determined,  it  seems,  that  they  should  no  more  go  abroad  into  private  hands. 
As  the  terms  were  inconvenient,  I  did  not  accept  the  ofifer ;  &  have  thereby  had 
an  opportunity  of  being  much  more  pleaseingly  indebted  to  your  superior  liberality. 

I  remain,  Dear  sir, 
Your  most  obliged  &  respectful 
humble  servant, 

J.  Ritson. 
Grays-inn, 
29th  Jany.  1799. 

3^See  S.  E.  Brydges,  Censura  Literaria,  London,  1805-9,  I,  P-  54- 
3'*MS.  Douce,  e,  5. 


132  JOSEPH   RITSON  [466 

are  arranged  alphabetically  by  centuries,  and  there  is  a  list  of  English 
translators  and  a  supplement.  Presumably  Douce  undertook  to  arrange 
his  own  and  Ritson's  notes  in  this  volume,  and  after  their  estrangement 
Ritson  enlarged  and  altered  Douce 's  material  for  his  own  published 
book.  Apropos  of  the  disruption  of  his  friendship  with  Ritson,  which 
resulted  in  breaking  their  collaboration  on  this  volume,  Douce  wrote 
to  Ellis : 

"We  have  taken  a  formal  leave  of  each  other — under  our  hands  and  seals, 
probably  forever.  We  complained  of  each  other's  cavilling  and  contradictory  tem- 
pers, which  accidently  colliding  with  no  common  violence  produced  the  irre- 
parable breach."^'' 

Ritson  allowed  this  misunderstanding  to  prevent  his  openly  acknowledg- 
ing his  obligations  to  Douce.  There  is,  however,  in  the  Advertisement  to 
Bibliographia  Poctica  a  veiled  compliment  of  which  Douce  considers 
himself  the  subject.    It  reads : 

"That  the  compilation  is  more  extensive,  accurate  and  minute  than  it  other- 
wise could  have  been,  is  owing  to  the  kind  attention,  and  literary  exertions,  of  a 
very  learned  and  ingenious  friend,  to  whom  the  public  is  not  less  indebted  than 
the  editor." 

To  this  sentence,  Douce,  in  his  copy  of  the  printed  work,  added :  ' '  Orig- 
inally F.  D.[ouce]  but  he  [i.  e.  Ritson]  afterwards  concelled  the  name 
from  a  bit  of  spite," 

Throughout  the  course  of  Bibliographia  Poctica  there  are  many 
references  to  Douce,  but  Ritson  was  probably  only  slightly  less  indebted 
to  Thomas  Park,  many  of  whose  notes,  signed  "T.  P.",  are  included. 
Park  corrected  Ritson's  manuscripts  twice  and  added  so  much  valuable 
material  that  Ritson  volunteered  to  divide  the  profits  of  the  sale  with 
him.^^  The  first  draft  of  the  Preface  contained  a  joint  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  assistance  rendered  by  Douce  and  Park,  but  when  Ritson 's 
altercation  with  Douce  caused  the  latter 's  name  to  be  stricken  out.  Park 
asked  that  his  be  omitted  also.  This  was  accordingly  done,  and  in  his 
ingratitude  Ritson  neglected  even  to  send  Park  a  copy  of  the  printed 
work.'^^ 


3^ Add.  MSS.  28099,  f-  47-  This  letter  bears  no  date  beyond  "Monday  eve". 
That  it  was  written  later  than  Feb.  i,  1801,  is  proved  by  another  letter  of  Douce  to 
Ellis  in  the  same  MS.,  f.  30,  which  bears  that  date  and  in  which  Douce  expresses 
his  interest  in  procuring  Nicol  as  publisher  for  Ritson's  book. 

sspark  to  Percy,  Nov.  5,  1803,  Nichols,  Lit.  Illust.,  VIII,  p.  376. 

39For  Park's  version  of  his  connection  with  Bibliographia  Poctica  see  Hasle- 
wood,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  23  ff. 


467]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  133 

Bihliographia  Poetica  was  intended  as  a  register  of  every  poetical 
Avriter  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Ritson  endeavored  to  list 
every  poet,  whether  of  renown,  as  Chaucer  and  Spenser,  or  whether 
known  only  for  a  translation  in  Englisli  verse  of  a  Latin  poem,  or  for  a 
single  ballad  sheet  or  other  promiscuous  verse ;  dramatic  pieces  were 
excluded  in  order  not  to  encroach  upon  the  field  occupied  by  Baker's 
Biographia  Dramatica.  His  avowed  concern  was  with  names,  titles,  an<i 
dates.  He  gave  the  outstanding  facts  of  an  author's  life,  where  such  were 
knoAvn,  but  made  no  attempt  to  write  biography.  Neither  did  he  under- 
take the  role  of  critic,  but  he  frequently  called  attention  to  the  errors 
of  previous  historians  of  the  period  and  occasionally  dropped  casual 
comments  ou  an  author  or  his  work.  These  remarks  bear  always  the 
stamp  of  Ritson 's  individuality  and  usually  reveal  keen  judgment. 
His  estimate  of  Lydgate  and  his  voluminous  productions  is  characteristic. 

"But,  in  truth,  and  fact,  these  stupid  and  fatiguing  productions  which  by  no 
means  deserve  the  name  of  poetry,  and  their  still  more  stupid  and  disgusting  author, 
who  disgraces  the  name  and  patronage  of  his  master  Chaucer,  are  neither  worth 
.  .  .  .  collecting  nor  even  worthy  of  preservation."  In  his  "elaborate  drawlings 
there  are  scarcely  three  lines  together  of  pure  and  accurate  meter.""*" 

This  condemnation  comes  at  the  end  of  twenty-four  pages  devoted  to 
Lydgate,  in  which  251  titles  are  listed.  Ritson  is  by  no  means  certain 
that  his  list  is  exhaustive  or  that  it  does  not  contain  works  wrongly 
attributed,  but  he  is  justified  in  proclaiming  it  to  be  "the  completest 
list  tliat  can  be  formed,  without  access  at  least,  to  every  manuscript 
library  in  the  kingdom."'*^  His  own  estimate  of  his  work  has  been 
substantiated  by  time.  The  Lydgate  list  contains  many  works  of 
Chaucer  and  other  contemporaries,  and  a  single  work  is  occasionally 
multiplied  by  two,  three,  or  even  four,  by  means  of  the  repetition  of 
varying  titles.  But,  "with  all  its  imperfections  on  its  head",  it  remains 
a  monument  of  industry.  Necessarily  faulty  to  a  degree,  it  was  a  mar- 
velous achievement  for  its  day,  and  while  modern  scholars  have  done 
much  toward  perfecting  the  list  of  Lydgate 's  works,  they  have  not  yet 
made  it  definitive.^-  To  the  dry  and  thankless  task  of  chronicling  names 
and  titles  Ritson  brought  a  breadth  of  knowledge  and  a  thoroughness  of 
method  which  made  his  work  as  little  liable  to  error  as  it  is  possible  for 
that  of  any  pioneer  to  be. 

^'^Bibliographia  Poetica,  p.  88. 

"/frid.,  p.  87. 

■*2H.  M.  AlacCracken,  The  Lydgate  Canon,  London,  1908,  corrected  Schick's 
chronology  in  Lydgate  s  Temple  of  Glass,  London,  1891,  but  does  not  consider  his 
own  catalogue  exhaustive. 


134  JOSEPH   RITSON  [468 

Eitson's  outburst  against  the  "drivelling"  Monk  of  Bury-St.  Ed- 
raond  is  given  with  his  usual  exaggeration,  but  his  judgment  of  Lydgate's 
poetic  ability  persists  well  into  the  present  day.*^  Despite  the  marvelous 
advance  of  interest  in  ancient  English  poetry,  Lydgate  was  pretty  gen- 
erally neglected  during  the  first  three-quarters  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, and  Ritson's  pronunciamento  undoubtedly  had  its  influence  in 
perpetuating  this  neglect.  The  effect  of  his  words  concerning  "Piers 
Plowman"  was  likewise  noticeable. 

Up  to  the  publication  of  Bihliographia  Poetica  "Piers  Plowman" 
had  been  known  in  only  one  form — that  now  known  as  the  B-text.**  In 
investigating  the  numerous  manuscripts  of  this  poem,  Ritson  was  struck 
with  the  degree  in  which  some  of  them  differed  from  the  printed  copies. 
"In  order  to  enable  any  curious  person  to  distinguish  at  first  sight  to 
which  of  the  two  editions  (as  one  may  call  them)  any  new  manuscripts 
he  may  happen  to  meet  with  belongs",  Ritson  quotes  the  opening  lines 
of  the  B-  and  C-texts.  The  variations,  he  thinks,  may  be  due  to  the  fact 
that  at  some  time  the  author  revised  his  original  work,  "giving  as  it 
were  a  new  edition."  Without  attempting  any  statement  of  priority, 
he  conceives  that  "it  may  be  possible  for  a  good  judge  of  ancient  poetry, 
possessed  of  a  sufficient  stock  of  critical  acumen,  to  determine  which  was 
the  first  and  which  was  the  second."*^  Manuscripts  of  "Piers  Plowman" 
were  so  numerous  (there  are  not  less  than  forty-five  extant  today)  that 
it  is  not  surprising  that  even  Ritson  failed  to  collate  all  of  them  from 
beginning  to  end.  This  probably  accounts  for  his  failure  to  discover 
that  the  poem  exists  in  three  distinct  forms  instead  of  two.  He  perhaps 
compared  A-text  manuscripts  only  through  the  opening  lines  in  which 
they  agree  closely  with  B,  while  the  two  manuscripts  he  selected  for 
thorough  comparison  happened  to  be  a  B-text  and  a  C-text.*^    Although 


^^Saintsbury  remarks,  History  of  Prosody,  p.  221,  note:  "Some  of  Lydgate's 
Irecent  German  editors  and  champions  have  been  nearly  as  severe  on  Ritson  him- 
self. There  is  nothing  to  be  said  for  his  temper  or  his  manners ;  but  the  man  who 
knew  what  he  knew  a  hundred  years  ago  is  not  to  be  belittled  by  those  who 
have  profited  (or  not)  by  nearly  four  generations  of  his  and  others'  labors." 

''^It  was  first  edited  by  Robert  Crowley  in  1550,  and  again  by  Owen  Rogers  in 
i66r. 

*^Bibliographia  Poetica,  p.  29,  note. 

♦•'Ritson  mentions  nine  separate  manuscripts,  at  least  two  of  which  are  of 
A-vcrsion,  and  speaks  in  general  of  "others".  The  present  highly  unsatisfactory^ 
state  of  the  text  may  be  gathered  from  Knott's  account  of  his  preparation  of  a 
critical  text  of  the  A-version  from  the  fourteen  imperfect  MSS.  extant.  "An  Essay 
toward  the  Critical  text  of  the  A-version  of  'Piers  Plowman',"  Modem  Philology, 
Vol.  XII,  pp.  129-61. 


469]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  135 

it  was  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  the  A-text  was  discovered,*'' 
it  Avas  Ritson  who  laid  the  foundation  for  the  "Piers  Plowman"  prob- 
lem.*^ 

Ritsoii  entertained  no  delusion  concerning  the  exhaustiveness  of  his 
labors  in  compiling  Bibliographia  Poctica;  his  chief  ambition  was  to 
make  a  useful  catalogue  of  the  early  English  poets,  with  the  hope  that 
it  would  be  corrected  and  supplemented  by  other  students.  The  value 
of  the  work  has  been  generally  recognized^^  although  some  critics  have 
insisted  on  citing  only  its  inaccuracies  and,  by  ignoring  its  purpose, 
censuring  it  for  affording  only  "dry  and  uninteresting  reading."^" 
Almost  immediately  upon  its  publication  ' '  corrections ' '  and  ' '  additions ' ' 
began  to  appear,  and  Joseph  Haslewood  undertook  a  new  edition,  which 
was  never  put  to  press.-^^ 

At  the  same  time  with  the  preparation  of  Bibliographia  Poetica, 
Ritson  was  collecting  material  for  a  catalogue  of  Scottish  writers  upon 
a  similar  plan.  He  called  upon  Scott^-  and  other  friends  for  assistance 
in  this  project  and  succeeded  in  preparing  the  copy  for  the  printer  but 
did  not  live  to  publish  it.  The  manuscript,  entitled  "Bibliographia 
Scotica ;  Anecdotes,  Biographical  and  Literary,  of  Scottish  writers,  His- 
torians, and  Poets  from  the  earliest  accounts  to  the  nineteenth  century", 
was  a  desideratum  with  Scott,"'^  and  with  Chalmers,  who  intended  to 
publish  it.^*  It  was  bought  over  both  these  men  by  Longman  and  Rees 
and  since  1875  has  disappeared  from  sight.^^ 


•^Trice,  in  his  edition  of  Warton's  History,  1824,  discovered  the  A-text  and 
arranged  the  versions  in  their  proper  order. 

^^For  the  genesis  of  this  problem  see  Samuel  Moore's  "Studies  in  'Piers 
Plowman',"  Mod.  PhiloL,  Vol.  Xf,  pp.  177-93.  Moore  states  that  the  "tradition" 
to  which  Jusserand  appeals  in  attempting  to  shift  the  burden  of  proof  to  the  shoul- 
ders of  Manly  began  with  Price  ;  yet  it  had  its  partial  but  definite  origin  in  Rit- 
son's  discovery  of  the  C-text. 

*^See  Dibden's  Director,  I,  pp.  126-8;  Brydges,  Restituta,  II,  p.  10;  "The  English 
Chaucerians",  Cambridge  Hist,  of  Eitg.  Lit. 

soSee  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  art.  "Lydgate" ;  Brydges,  Censura  Literaria,  I,  p.  158. 

"'iThis  was  no  doubt  the  work  announced  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  for 
October,  1814,  "to  be  put  to  press  next  year".  Many  of  Haslewood's  corrections 
appeared  over  his  initials  in  Censura  Lit.,  V,  pp.  131-6;  VI,  pp.  29-34. 

•"'-See  Letters,  II,  p.  241. 

53Scott  to  Ellis,  Oct.  14,  1803,  Lockhart's  Scott,  II,  p.  136;  Park  to  Hill,  Dec.  8, 
1803,  Add.  MSS.,  20083,  f-  118. 

"'^Chalmers  to  Constable,  Oct.  27,  and  Dec.  27,  1803,  Constable  and  his  Lit. 
Corresp.,  I,  pp.  410-12,  502. 

^^Notes  and  Queries,  Ser.  5,  Vol.  X,  pp.  287,  412. 


136  JOSEPH   RITSON  [470 

The  work  for  which  the  printer  held  up  the  publication  of  Biblio- 
graphia  Poetica  that  they  might  both  appear  together'^*'  was  Ancient 
Engleish  Metrical  Eomancees,  in  three  volumes.  Throughout  the  work, 
and  especially  in  the  prefatory  "Dissertation  on  Romance  and  Min- 
strelsy", are  to  be  found  numerous  vicious  slurs  upon  the  accuracy  and 
integrity  of  Percy,  Pinkerton,  and  "Warton,  and  violent  attacks  upon 
Christianity,  all  of  which  must  be  traced  to  tlie  morbid  state  of  mind  in- 
duced by  Ritson  's  illness.  The  copy  first  submitted  for  the  ' '  Dissertation ' ' 
contained  a  number  of  derogatory  allusions  to  Christianity  which  were 
so  virulent  that  Nicol  refused  to  print  it  without  alteration.  Accord- 
ingly a  dozen  of  the  worst  passages  were  deleted  or  modified  before 
publication.^"  The  melancholy  sentence  with  which  the  Advertisement 
concludes  affords  abundant  evidence  of  Ritson 's  mental  condition. 

"Brought  to  an  end  with  much  industry  and  more  attention,  in  a  continued 
state  of  ill  health  and  low  spirits,  the  editor  abandons  it  to  general  censure,  with 
cold  indifference,  expecting  little  favor,  and  less  profit ;  but  certain,  at  any  rate, 
to  be  insulted  by  the  malignant  and  calumnious  personalities  of  a  base  and  pros- 
titute gang  of  lurking  assassins,  who  stab  in  the  dark,  and  whose  poisoned  daggers 
he  has  already  experienced." 

There  is  somewhat  more  than  a  tincture  of  irony  in  Ritson 's  pro- 
fessing to  take  from  Percy  the  suggestion  for  a  compilation  on  almost 
every  page  of  which  that  worthy  prelate  is  branded  as  a  literary  forger 
and  an  editorial  malefactor.  This  irony  is  obvious  in  his  appropriating 
Percy's  remarks  on  the  value  and  importance  of  a  judicious  collection 
of  ancient  metrical  histories  and  romances,  "accurately  published,  with 
proper  illustrations",  as  praise  of  his  own  collection.  To  the  eloquent 
commendation  of  this  learned  and  ingenious  writer,  he  says,  nothing 
need  be  added  in  favor  of  the  present  publication. 

Besides  the  historical  Dissertation,  in  many  ways  the  most  inter- 
esting and  in  some  respects  the  most  important  part  of  the  work.  Metri- 
cal Romances  consists  of  twelve  romances,  with  "Horn  Childe  and 
Maiden  Rimnild"  added  as  an  Appendix  to  the  second  volume.  The 
pieces  are  printed  from  the  most  ancient  sources  available,  a  few  from 
black  letter  copies,  more  from  manuscripts.  The  work  is  done  with 
Ritson 's  customary  accuracy;  variant  readings  and  editorial  emenda- 
tions are  noted  with  scholarly  care.  It  is  not,  however,  perfect.  There 
are  obvious  blunders  in  the  text;  there  are  errors  of  judgment  in  the 
critical  introductions ;  and  there  are  mistakes  and  gaps  in  the  glossary^®. 

^"Park  to  Hill,  May  26,  1802,  Add.  Mss.,  20083,  f.  54. 

s^These  cancelled  passages  were  subsequently  printed  on  separate  sheets  which 
may  be  found  bound  in  a  very  few  copies  of  the  first  edition.     See  Appendix  B. 

^^Skeat  pointed  out  fifteen  "peculiar  blunders"  but  praised  the  glossary  as  a 
noteworthy  example  of  pioneer  scholarship.     See  .V.  a)id  Q.,  Ser.  8,  Vol.  II.  p.  3. 


471]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  137 

But  the  whole  is  a  remarkably  accurate  production  for  its  day  and  re- 
flects credit  upon  the  erudition  and  scholarship  of  the  editor. 

Chestre's  beautiful  fairy  tale,  "Launfal",  had  just  previously  ap- 
peared among  Ellis's  notes  to  Way's  translation  of  Le  Grand's  Fah- 
liaux,^'-^  and  Ritsou  does  not  justify  his  reprinting  it  here.  There  are 
several  explanations  of  troublesome  passages  given  with  a  "not  as  mister 
Ellis  says"  which  would  indicate  that  the  romance  was  given  primarily 
with  the  peevish  purpose  of  correcting  Ellis.  A  similar  reason  seems  to 
account  for  the  insertion  of  "Lybeaus  Disconus",  which  Percy  had 
printed  in  the  Reliques  as  from  a  copy  in  his  folio  manuscript.  In  the 
general  revision  of  the  Reliques  for  the  fourth  edition,  this  romance  was 
made  to  conform  more  closely  to  its  original,  and  the  editor's  remarks 
concerning  it  were  altered  accordingly.  Ritson,  who  was  perhaps  more 
directly  responsible  than  any  one  else  for  this  general  overhauling  of 
the  Reliques,  declared  that  Percy's  treatment  of  "Lybeaus  Disconus" 
in  the  fourth  edition  was  such  as  to  destroy  confidence  in  what  he  had 
advanced  concerning  it  in  the  third.  Ritson  accordingly  printed  it  from 
the  Caligula  manuscript  for  the  double  purpose  of  discomfiting  Percy 
and  exhibiting  a  more  perfect  copy  of  the  romance. 

Purely  personal  considerations  play  no  part  in  the  work  with  the 
remaining  pieces,  which  were  included  on  their  merits  alone.  Ritson 's 
conjectures  on  the  sources  of  these  romances  were  not  always  as  definite 
as  might  be  wished,  but  his  general  theory  that  they  could  all  be  traced 
to  French  originals  was  not  far  wrong.  He  did  not  connect  ' '  The  Knight 
of  Curtesy  and  the  Fair  Lady  of  Faguell"  with  the  "Chatelain  de 
Coucy",  upon  which  it  is  founded.  He  could  find  no  single  original 
for  either  "Le  Bone  Florence"  or  "The  Squyre  of  Lowe  Degre",  though 
he  considered  it  more  than  probable  that  one  had  actually  existed  in 
the  former  case  and  was  opposed  to  the  theory  of  Percy  and  Warton  that 
"a  romance  of  'The  Squyr  of  Lowe  Degre'  is  alluded  to  in  the  Rime  of 
Sir  Topas".  In  contradiction  of  Percy,  who  judged  "The  Geste  of  Kyng 
Horn"  to  be  "of  genuine  English  growth",  Ritson  derives  it  from  a 
French  original.  In  this  estimate  he  had  the  support  of  Tyrwhitt  and 
Warton,  and  was  later  followed  by  Morris  and  others.*"'  This  theory 
was  long  questioned,  but  finally  overthrown  only  in  1876  by  Wissman.®^ 
In  the  matter  of  dates  Ritson  was  more  nearly  correct  than  previous 
editors,  but  many  of  his  conclusions  have  had  to  be  modified  as  inves- 

^^Le  Grand  D'Aussy,  Fabliaux  or  Talcs,  abridged  front  French  manuscripts  of 
the  tzvelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  Selected  and  translated  by  G.  L.  Way. 
London,  i8oo. 

^°See  O.  Hartenstein,  Studicu  zur  Hornsage,  Heidelberg,  1902. 

*5iWissman,  King  Horn,  Strassburg,  1876. 


138  JOSEPH  RITSON  [472 

ligations  in  the  field  brought  more  information  to  hand.  "Ywaine  and 
Gawain"  is  to  be  placed  in  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century 
rather  than  at  its  close,  as  Ritson  thought.'^-  His  vague  statement  that 
"The  King  of  Tars"  is  apparently  of  the  fourteenth  century  can  be 
made  definite  for  the  first  third  of  the  century .^^  "The  Geste  of  Kyng 
Horn"  he  rightly  considered  to  be  the  oldest  Middle  English  romance 
which  lias  been  preserved. 

If  Ritson  had  not  already  passed  beyond  the  stage  at  which  he 
cared  much  what  happened  to  his  books  when  they  were  published — 
and  his  Advertisement  indicates  that  he  had  passed  this  stage — the  cold 
reception  accorded  Metrical  Romances  by  the  public  must  have  been 
very  disappointing  to  him.*'*  And  his  chagrin  must  have  been  increased 
when  he  recalled  that  in  deference  to  him  George  Ellis  had  not  only 
generously  relinquished  his  own  projected  edition  of  ancient  romances 
but  had  successfully  exerted  himself  in  obtaining  Nicol  as  publisher  for 
Metrical  Romances.  This  was  no  easy  task,  when  publishers  were  re- 
ported to  "groan  in  spirit  over  the  peculiarities  of  Ritson 's  orthogra- 
phy".^^  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Ritson 's  wide  acquaintance  with 
medieval  literature,  especially  in  manuscript  sources,  his  unwearying 
facult.Y  for  research,  and  his  advanced  editorial  standards,  gave  him 
superior  claim  to  the  work  in  hand.  But  it  is  equall}"  indisputable  that 
he  lacked  the  taste  and  judgment  of  Ellis  and  was  certain  to  produce 
a  book  less  readily  appreciated.  Ellis  was  not,  however,  permanently 
denied  the  field.  Upon  Ritson 's  publication  falling  into  almost  imme- 
diate neglect,  and  on  the  solicitation  of  friends,  he  took  up  again  his 
original  plan.  Early  in  1804  Percy  asked  Thomas  Park  to  undertake 
a  revision  of  Ritson 's  work,  proffering  the  use  of  his  own  extensive  col- 
lection of  romances.    Park  declined  for  two  reasons. 

"One  is  that  I  think  Ritson's  plan  injudicious  and  his  execution  of  it  repulsive : 
whence  his  book  is  likely  to  prove  unsalable.  The  other  is  that  my  highly  esteemed 
and  respected  friend,  Mr.  George  Ellis,  is  preparing  for  publication  a  general 
analysis  of  English  metrical  romances,  intermingled  with  extracts  from  the  ancient 
copies,  which  are  curious  for  the  illustration  of  manners,  meter,  or  language,  and 
which  will  certainly,  prove,  like  his  Specimens  of  our  lyric  poesy,  a  very  popular 
book." 

"-W.  H.  Schofield,  English  Literature  from  the  Norman  Conquest  to  Chancer, 
New  York,  1906,  p.  230. 

83A.  Gough,  On  the  Middle  English  Metrical  Romance  of  Emare,  Kiel.  1900. 

6*.'\lmost  without  exception  the  reviewers  devoted  themselves  to  the  Disserta- 
tion and  found  little  or  nothing  there  to  commend.  See  British  Critic,  September 
1804  and  January  1805;  Critical  Rez'icw,  Vol.  XXXTX.  pp.  179-87;  Edinbnrrih  Re- 
Tiew,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  387-413. 

''■•Scott    to    Ellis,    Lockhart's    Scott,    II,    p.    87. 


473]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  .VFTER  1795  139 

Attention  was  first  called  to  the  general  subject  of  romances  by  Percy 
in  his  "Essay  on  the  Ancient  Metrical  Romances."*"^  Warton's  great 
taste  for  medieval  poetry  led  him  to  investigate  romances  somewhat  in 
detail,  but  the  first  comprehensive  work  upon  the  subject  was  that  by 
Ritson.  Yet  it  remained  for  Ellis's  Specimens  of  Early  English  Ro- 
mances in  Metre,  1805,  to  arouse  a  popular  interest  in  the  subject  which 
secured  for  Ritson 's  collection  the  attention  it  deserved. 

Ritson  intended  for  publication  in  the  year  1785  a  collection  of 
Scottish  poetry  entitled  The  Caledonian  Muse.  Like  a  great  many  of 
his  books,  it  was  printed  in  installments,  as  he  had  the  habit  of  begin- 
ning printing  before  he  had  all  the  copy  ready.  Although  this  volume 
was  not  ready  for  publication  in  1785,  it  was  nevertheless  announced  as 
an  issue  of  that  year.  Ritson  himself  referred  to  this  work  in  his  sub- 
sequent publications.  In  the  Advertisement  to  English  Anthology ,  1793, 
he  writes :  ' '  The  Caledonian  Muse,  a  collection  of  Scottish  poetry,  upon 
a  similar  plan,  printed  some  years  since,  though  not  yet  published  was, 
in  fact,  a  subsequent  compilation.  "  In  a  list  of  books  "published  by 
J.  Johnson"  in  Scotish  Songs,  1794,  appears  this  notice:  "The  Cale- 
donian Muse,  a  chronological  selection  of  Scottish  poetry,  from  the  ear- 
liest times  to  the  present:  with  notes  and  a  glossary;  and  elegant  vig- 
nettes, engraved  by  Heath,  from  the  designs  of  Stothard.  To  which  is 
added,  an  essay  on  the  author  of  Christ's  Kirk  on  the  Green."  The 
work  itself  had  not  yet  appeared,  and  on  March  5,  1794,  Ritson  wrote 
to  Paton : 

"The  impression  of  another  little  volume,  of  which  I  believe  I  shewed  you  a 
fragment,  entitled  'The  Caledonian  Muse',  which  had  engaged  my  attention  for  a 
great  many  years,  and  was  at  last  got  ready  for  publication,  has  been  lately 
destroyed  by  fire  in  the  printer's  house ;  so  that  I  neither  possess,  nor  can  procure, 
one  single  complete  copy.  'Sic  transit  Gloria  mundi.'  I  am  of  course  meditating 
a  trip  to  Scotland,  to  re-collect  materials  for  a  new  edition."^^ 

Ritson 's  belief  that  the  whole  impression  was  at  that  time  destroyed  has 
been  found  to  be  erroneous  although  it  was  sufficiently  strong  in  his 
own  mind  to  cause  him  to  abandon  hope  of  finishing  the  volume  on  the 
original  plan.  From  an  incomplete  manuscript  of  "Select  Scotish 
Poems"®*  and  some  fugitive  notes  by  David  Laing,*^''  into  whose  hands 

«6Nichols,  Lit.  Illiist.,  VIII,  p.  377. 

^''Letters,  II,  p.  45 ;  Nichols,  Lit.  Illust.,  Ill,  p.  778. 

^^Now  in  Mr.  Perry's  library.  This  MS.  was  put  into  the  hands  of  Constable 
for  publication  but  at  the  time  of  Ritson's  death  only  two  sheets  were  in  print  and 
it  was  never  completed.  See  Constable  and  his  Literary  Correspondence,  I,  pp. 
497-500. 

®^Picked  up  in  a  copy  of  the  Caledonian  Muse  in  an  Edinburgh  book  shop. 


I4(j  JOSEPH  RITSON  [474 

the  information  concerning  it  came,  it  appears  that  Ritson  had  actu- 
ally made  some  progress  in  republishing  his  material  under  the  new 
title.  He  seems  to  have  recompared  the  text  of  the  different  pieces  with 
the  oldest  manuscripts  or  the  earliest  or  best  editions,  to  have  struck 
out  passages  or  resolved  to  omit  altogether  some  of  the  longer  poems 
which  the  Caledonian  Muse  contained,  and  to  have  added  some  ancient 
pieces  with  which  at  first  he  may  have  been  unacquainted.  He  pro- 
ceeded in  this  work  until  death  put  an  end  to  his  labors,  and  he  never 
knew  that  upwards  of  four  hundred  copies  of  such  pages  of  the  Caledo- 
nian Muse  as  had  been  printed  and  probably  removed  to  the  publish- 
er's warehouse  escaped  the  fire.  In  reality  only  the  introductory  por- 
tion of  the  work  was  destroyed.  The  copies  that  were  saved  remained 
untouched  in  Johnson's  shop  vintil  his  death  in  December,  1809,  after 
which  they  were  purchased  by  Robert  Triphook.'^"  The  only  authentic 
account  of  the  later  history  of  the  volume  is  given  in  the  following 
letter  of  Triphook,  which  unfortunately  bears  neither  address  nor  date  •J'^ 

Dear  Sir 

Till  this  moment  I  have  had  no  leisure  to  attend  particularly  to  the  Ritson's 
Caledonian  Muse.  I  send  you  with  this  a  copy  complete  so  far  as  I  have  it.  Sheet 
2.  was  printed  by  me  in  continuation.  &  the  copy  for  the  remainder  of  the  vol. 
with  rather  a  long  Life  of  Ritson  to  be  prefixed,  was  sent  to  Mr.  Heber  for  his 
perusal  some  six  years  ago,  but  by  some  unfortunate  accident  it  was  either  lost 
or  mislaid,  and  it  has  remained  in  the  state  I  now  send  it  ever  since."-  It  appears 
that  Ritson  (by  your  letter)  had  printed  to  Sheet  2.  (these  additional  sheets  were 
probably  destroyed  as  Waste  by  Johnson  of  St.  Pauls  Churchyard,  before  I 
purchased — Of  his  select  Scotish  Poems.  Hunter  who  succeeded  Johnson,  knows 
nothing — nor  have  I  ever  seen  a  Copy. 

The  Number  of  the  Caledonian  Muse  is  about  420  a  few  more  or  less.  I  have 
also  a  Portrait  (Shade)  of  Ritson  engraved  by  me  for  the  purpose  of  placing  with 
the  volume,  of  which  no  impressions  have  yet  been  taken.  I  will  dispose  of  the 
whole  to  you  at  two  shillings  a  book  &  five  guineas  the  copper.  Mr.  Haslewood 
(who  collected  the  material  for  the  Life)  has  a  portion  of  MS.  ready  transcribed 
for  the  press  in  order  to  finish  the  work.'''^ 

''°In  a  note  in  his  edition  of  Ritson's  English  Songs,  p.  xciv,  Thomas  Park 
says :  "Mr.  Triphook,  jun.  bookseller  in  St.  James  St.  has  purchased  that  portion  of 
Caledonian  Muse  which  escaped  conflagration,  and  purposes  to  complete  and  pub- 
lish it,  according  to  the  original  plan." 

'^iThis  letter  is  in  David  Laing's  copy  of  The  Caledonian  Muse,  now  in  Mr. 
Perry's  library. 

''-Since  Triphook  did  not  acquire  the  Caledonian  Muse  before  1810,  this 
statement  would  place  the  composition  of  the  letter  in  1816  or  after. 

^^In  Brydges's  British  Bibliographer,  Vol.  IV,  p.  302,  appears  the  following 
notice  signed  with  the  initials  "J.  H.",  evidently  Joseph  Haslewood :  "It  is  my 
intention  to  attempt  a  conclusion  of  the  last  part  of  Ritson's  Caledonian  Muse,  and 


475]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  141 

Of  the  volume  on  Scotland  at  Brand's  Sale.  I  cannot  trace  to  whom  I  sold 
it.  The  Maunsell's  catalogue  was  sold  for  cash.  If  a  copy  of  Chaucer  1532  occurs 
I  will  secure  it  for  you 

I  have  purchased  of  Mr.  Chalmers  his  Edition  of  Churchyard  Chips  con- 
cerning Scotland — 150  copies,  which  I  will  sell  en  Masse  for  3o£.  I  think  it  would 
be  acceptable  in  Scotland 

May  I  beg  jou  to  forward  the  enclosed  small  Packets  as  directed 

I  remain 

Your  obd.  Serv. 

Robt.  Triphook 
Old  Bond  St. 
Oct.  12. 

Triphook  did  not  succeed  in  disposing  of  the  work  and  in  1821 
published  it  himself,  with  the  following  title  page :  The  Caledonian 
Muse:  a  chronological  collection  of  Scotish  poetry  from  the  earliest  times. 
Edited  by  the  late  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq.  With  vignettes  engraved  hy 
Heath,  after  the  designs  of  Stothard.  London:  Printed  1785:  and 
now  first  puMished,  hy  Robert  Triphook,  23  Old  Bond  Street,  1821. 
The  "Life"  and  the  proposed  additions  by  Haslewood^*  do  not  appear, 
and  the  publisher  states  that  the  only  additions  to  Ritson 's  material 
have  been  a  Title  and  a  Portrait. 

The  Caledonian  Muse  consists  of  a  chronological  arrangement  of 
Scottish  poetry  (songs  excluded)  in  three  divisions,  comprising  respect- 
ively :  Authentic  Poems,  Poems  by  uncertain  authors,  and  Extracts. 
There  are  but  a  few  notes  and  these  appear  in  the  first  pages  of  the 
book.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Ritson 's  "Essay  on  the  author  of  Christ's 
Kirk  on  the  Green"  was  destroyed.  He  contended  that  the  poem  was 
erroneously  ascribed  to  James  I."''  and  in  this  volume  attributes  it  to 
James  V.,  but  his  reasons  are  nowhere  to  be  found. 

By  the  middle  of  1803  Ritson  had  ready  for  publication  an  histor- 
ical volume  on  King  Arthur  which  he  submitted  to  Longman  and  Rees 
for  publication.  It  was  rejected  for  reasons  which  Ritson  himself  an- 
ticipated in  a  letter  to  Scott : 

"I  have  put  into  Mr.  Longman's  hand  at  his  own  request,  for  the  opinion 
of  some  critic  he  is  used  to  consult,  my  "Life  of  King  Arthur"  but  whether  the 
partners  to  whom  I  was  recommended  by  our  worthy  friend  Dr.  Leyden,  will 
submit  the  volume  within  a  very  short  period,  to  the  candor  of  the  sons  of 
Caledonia,  rather  than  suffer  any  relic  of  the  accurate  Ritson  to  be  lost."  If  the 
material  which  Haslewood  prepared  "within  a  very  short  period"'  is  that  to  which 
Triphook  refers,  i8i6  would  be  a  highly  probable  date  for  his  letter. 

'^^Haslewood  probably  used  the  biographical  materials  he  had  collected  for  this 
volume  in  his  own  Life  and  Publications  of  Ritson,  1824. 
''^Scotish  Songs,  I,  p.  xxxvi,  note. 


142  JOSEPH  RITSON  [476 

undertake  the  publication,  I  much  doubt,  as  Mr.  Longman  thinks  my  orthography 
unfavorable  to  its  sale  and  Mr.  Rees  was  apprehensive  I  should  treat  the  Welshmen 
with  too  much  familiarity,  an  apprehension,  I  confess,  which  will  turn  out  to  be 
well  founded."^^ 

Ritson  had  no  further  opportunity  to  seek  a  publisher,  and  the 
volume  did  not  appear  until  1825,  with  the  title,  The  Life  of  King 
Arthur:  from  ancient  historians  and  authentic  documents.  Joseph 
Frank,  Ritson's  nephew,  supervised  the  printing  but  did  no  editing  save 
to  eliminate  the  objectionable  orthography.  He  made  no  attempt  at 
criticism  and  offered  only  a  single  comment  on  the  work: 

"The  difficulty  of  the  subject  may  be  partly  estimated  from  doubt  having  been 
actually  entertained  by  the  author,  during  his  early  researches,  as  to  the  identity 
of  his  hero,  and  fears  lest  the  real  Arthur  might  not,  after  all,  be  found : 

'So  many  of  his  shadows  had  he  met, 
And  not  the  very  king.' " 

In  the  Preface  Ritson  concerned  himself  mainly  with  demonstrat- 
ing that  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  Historia  Britonum  is  "a  series  of  pal- 
pable and  monstrous  lies",  and  that  the  Britons  or  "Welsh,  by  professing 
to  believe  it  authentic  have  shown  themselves  to  have  ' '  more  vanity  and 
less  judgment  than  any  other  people  in  the  world."  He  ignored"  alto- 
gether the  literary  importance  of  Geoffrey's  work  and  seemed  to  feel 
that  because  the  Historia  was  a  forgery  its  author  deserved  nothing  but 
condemnation  and  abuse.  From  the  absence  of  any  mention  of  Arthur 
by  historians  prior  to  the  twelfth  century,  Ritson  concluded  that  Geof- 
frey had  invented  the  whole  of  his  pseudo-history.  He  admitted  that 
the  Bishop  may  have  had  the  Latin  Nennius  before  him  but  flatly  denied 
the  existence  of  the  Welsh  originals.  Beyond  Nennius  and  the  romance 
of  Charlemagne,  he  contended  that  Geoffrey  had  nothing  to  draw  upon 
but  his  own  fertile  imagination.  For  support  of  his  charge  of  infidelity 
Ritson  turned  to  Geoffrey's  contemporaries.  He  quotes  at  length  from 
the  Preface  to  William  of  Newburgh's  chonicle,'^  which  he  considers 
"not  only  a  criticism  of  extraordinary  merit,  for  the  time,  but  even  the 
only  thing  of  the  kind  to  be  found  in  ancient  English  literature."  The 
tone  of  this  Preface  is  as  intemperate  as  Ritson's  own: — "How  petu- 
lantly and  how  impudently  he  [Geoffrey]  lies."  The  testimony  of 
Giraldus  Cambrensis,^^  "himself  a  Welshman  and  a  bishop",  who  calls 
the  British  History  a  "lying  book",  is  considered  by  Ritson  sufficient 
to  clinch  his  argument  against  Geoffrey.    It  is  obvious  that  Ritson  took 

''^Letters,  II,  p.  238. 

''"'Historia  Rerum  Anglicariim,  c.  1200,  ed.  by  T.  Hearne,  Oxford,  1719. 

''^Descriptio  Caiiibriae,  ed.  Powell,  London,  1585. 


477]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  143 

keen  delight  in  his  arraignment  of  Geoffrey.  If  he  recognized  the  tre- 
mendous influence  of  Historui  Britonum  upon  subsequent  literature,  he 
studiously  avoided  any  mention  of  it  and  seemed  obsessed  with  the  idea 
that  fraud  or  deception  on  the  part  of  an  author  destroyed  the  value 
of  everything  he  wrote.  Such  an  obsession  is,  perhaps,  a  not  unnatural 
product  of  twenty  years'  activity  in  hunting  down  literary  impostors. 

In  the  "Life"  of  King  Arthur  proper,  Ritson  is  less  the  controver- 
sialist and  more  the  historical  compiler.  By  implication  he  is  all  along 
rectifying  the  erroneous  statements  of  Geoffrey,  but,  with  a  few  excep- 
tions, he  avoids  comparisons.  He  has  collected  a  mass  of  interesting 
quotations  from  what  he  considered  authentic  historians — Caesar,  Taci- 
tus, Leland,  Nennius,  carefully  distinguishing  the  scholia  of  Samuel, 
etc. — and  arranged  them  in  chronological  order.  It  was  his  purpose 
to  present  a  history  of  Britain,  particularly  through  the  reign  of  Ar- 
thur, and  carefully  to  sift  out  the  authentic  facts  from  the  mass  of  tra- 
dition and  legend  which  had  accumulated  about  his  hero.  In  the  labor 
of  gathering  from  remote  and  obscure  sources  material  on  a  definite 
subject,  Ritson  was  unequalled  by  any  one  in  his  day.'^  But  he  had 
not  the  ability  to  weave  his  extracts  into  an  interesting  and  continuous 
narrative,  and  he  seldom  ventured  to  deduce  inferences  or  draw  con- 
clusions. As  a  result  of  his  merits  he  has  left  in  this  volume  a  mass  of 
valuable  material ;  but  because  of  his  defects  it  remains  only  a  ' '  mass ' ' 
fit  for  reference  by  the  student  of  a  particular  subject  but  of  no  general 
interest. 

Ritson 's  interest  in  Scotland,  as  revealed  by  the  publication  of 
several  volumes  of  songs  and  poems,  has  already  been  noted.  When  his 
prefator^^  essays  in  Scotish  Songs  engaged  him  in  dispute  with  Pinker- 
ton,  he  began  a  careful  investigation  of  the  history  of  the  early  inhabi- 
tants of  the  British  Isles,  and  especially  of  Scotland.  On  August  22, 
1795  he  informed  Harrison  that  he  was  employing  himself  "very  busily 
in  researches  after  the  Celts,  the  Picts,  and  the  Scots",  adding  by  way 
of  explanation,  "I  am  quite  sick  of  the  modern  writers  of  ancient  his- 
tory, who  think  to  make  amends  by  their  fine  language  for  their  total 
want  of  industry,  truth,  and  candor. '  '^°  The  results  of  this  investigation 
were  ultimately  published  in  three  volumes  under  two  different  titles. 
The  Annals  of  the  Caledonians,  Picts,  and  Scots;  and  of  Strathclyde, 
Cumberland,  Galloway,  and  Murray,  in  two  volumes,  was  ready  for  the 
press  by  the  end  of  1801  at  which  time  he  wrote  to  Constable  concern- 
ing it: 

"My  annals  of  the  Picts,  Scots,  Strathclyde  Britons,  Cumbrians,  Galwegians, 

'9Cf.  his  Robin  Hood. 
^^Letters,   II,  p.  99. 


144  JOSEPH  RITSON  [478 

and  men  of  Murray,  in  Latin  and  English,  with  which  I  have  taken  great  pains, 
and  which  is  certainly  a  very  curious  book  for  that  sort  of  learning,  is  now  ready 
for  the  press.  If  you  think  it  would  answer  for  your  shop,  it  is  at  your  service: 
but  I  do  not  wish  you  to  venture  upon  it,  if  you  are  not  perfectly  satisfied,  though 
we  should  likewise  have  the  name  of  a  good  bookseller  in  London.  Think  on  this 
and  tell  me  your  mind."^^ 

Although  Constable  did  not  accept  the  work  at  this  time,  it  was  through 
his  interest  that  it  was  sent  to  Ballantyne,  by  whom  it  was  printed  a 
quarter  of  a  century  later.^-  The  other  volume,  Memoirs  of  the  Celts 
or  Gauls,  Ritson  made  no  effort  to  publish.  He  had  it  practically  ready 
for  the  press  but  in  the  last  of  his  extant  letters  referred  to  it  as  "laid 
by  for  the  present.  "^^  These  two  histories  were  edited  by  Frank  in 
1827  and  1828.  He  professes  to  have  altered  the  original  manuscripts 
no  whit,  save  to  reduce  Ritson 's  "peculiar  orthography  to  the  standard 
of  our  language"  and  to  "omit  a  few  hasty  epithets,  appearing  to  be 
harsher  than  the  occasion  could  require  or  justify,  (which  the  author, 
had  he  lived  to  publish  the  works  himself,  would,  probably,  have  al- 
tered) " — a  conjecture  which  the  violence  of  Ritson 's  latest  denuncia- 
tions seems  not  to  support. 

This  whole  historical  investigation  was  undertaken  with  the  pur- 
pose of  discrediting  Pinkerton's  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  Scots,  and 
so  these  volumes  will  be  looked  into  more  minutely  in  the  next  chapter. 
It  will  suffice  here  to  see  their  general  nature. 

In  Memoirs  of  the  Celts  Ritson  brought  together  all  the  allusions 
to  the  Celts  which  he  was  able  to  gather  from  poets  and  historians  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  These  extracts  he  arranged  in  twenty-one  chapters 
and  ten  appendices,  treating  of  almost  every  detail  of  the  customs, 
habits,  and  personal  characteristics  of  the  people,  as  well  as  of  their 
origin  and  their  language.  In  the  Annals  of  the  Caledonians  it  was  his 
object  to  present 

"a  chronological  account  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  known,  for  the  first  time, 
by  the  name  of  Caledonia,  and,  in  successive  ages,  by  those  of  Albany,  Pictland, 
Scotland,  and  North  Britain,  from  the  earliest  period  which  history  affords,  and 
from  the  most  ancient  and  authentic  documents  which  time  has  preserved,  and 
with  that  attention  to  truth  and  accuracy  which  integrity  and  utility  require." 


^^Constable  and  his  Literary  Correspondents,  I,  p.  498. 

s^Constable  wrote  Scott,  Sept.  20,  1825 :  "I  am  glad  to  say  I  have  had  it  in  my 
power  to  send  Ballantyne  two  or  three  jobs  within  the  last  week — one  of  them  the 
History  of  the  Picts,  by  our  old  friend  Ritson." 

»^ Letters,  II,  p.  248. 


479]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  145 

His  sources,  as  in  the  former  work,  were  ancient  historians  and  poets — 
especially  the  Latin  chroniclers.  His  method  is  to  follow  a  general 
historical  introduction  to  each  nation  or  people  by  all  the  passages 
concerning  it  which  he  was  able  to  garner.  It  is  distinctly  to  his  credit 
that,  though  he  held  a  brief  for  the  Celts,  and  though  he  was  concerned 
with  establishing  his  theory  in  opposition  to  that  supported  by  Pinker- 
ton,  yet  he  did  not  stoop  to  the  methods  of  the  professional  dialectician 
by  presenting  only  his  own  side  of  the  case  but  fearlessly  gave  every  ref- 
erence found,  irrespective  of  its  bearing  on  his  thesis.  Such  a  method 
manifestly  disarms  criticism  and  inspires  confidence. 

The  last  of  Ritson's  publications  appeared  in  1831  as  Fairy  Tales, 
now  first  collected:  to  which  are  prefixed  two  dissertations:  1.  On^ 
Pygmies;  2.  On  Fairies.  There  is  no  mention  of  this  work  anywhere 
in  his  extant  correspondence,  but  it  seems  probable  that  the  twenty- 
nine  fairy  tales,  in  both  prose  and  verse,  and  the  six  fairy  songs,  which 
compose  the  body  of  the  volume,  were  brought  together  in  the  1780 's 
when  he  was  concerned  with  collecting  and  publishing  the  poetic  Gar- 
lands. Yet  from  internal  evidence  it  appears  that  the  prefatory  Essays 
could  not  have  been  composed  earlier  than  1794.  He  probably  took  up 
this  volume  and  completed  its  preparation  for  the  press  sometime  during 
his  later  years  when  illness  made  continued  work  on  one  subject  a  burden. 

In  the  first  edition  of  the  Reliques  Percy  had  printed  with  an  old 
ballad  of  "Robin  Good  Fellow"  two  woodcuts  which  he  said  "seem  to 
represent  the  dresses  in  which  this  whimsical  character  was  formerly 
exhibited  upon  the  stage."  In  Scotish  Songs  Ritson  produced  evidence 
purporting  to  prove  that  these  cuts  were  originally  used  to  represent 
two  of  the  characters  in  Bulwer's  Artificial  Changeling  and  had  nothing 
to  do  with  Robin  Good  Fellow.  Because  Percy  altered  his  remarks  in 
the  fourth  edition  of  the  Reliques  but  did  not  pay  homage  to  Ritson 
for  his  correction,  the  critic  finds  occasion  in  the  present  Essay  to  ridi- 
cule the  "contemptible  tone  of  the  pertinacious  prelate."  However 
little  these  contemptuous  comments  may  illuminate  the  subject  of  Fai- 
ries, they  serve  to  reveal  the  nature  of  their  author,  and  to  suggest  very 
strongly  a  late  date  of  composition. 

Aside  from  this  blemish  and  another  produced  by  Ritson 's  ungracious 
reference  in  indecent  language  to  his  early  controversy  with  Steevens 
on  the  mortality  of  Fairies,  the  Essay  is  delightful  reading.  It  seems 
evident  that  Ritson  sought  to  adapt  his  material  to  youthful  readers, 
but  he  could  not  avoid  learned  and  obscure  quotations  with  their  accom- 
panying footnotes.  By  means  of  citations  from  writers  of  various  coun- 
tries and  different  ages,  he  demonstrated  the  universality  of  the  belief  in 
other-world  creatures.     He  then  turned  to  Oberon,  Puck,  Robin  Good 


146  JOSEPH  RITSON  [480 

Fellow,  and  Titania,  whose  dress,  appearance,  and  habits  are  illustrated 
by  happy  extracts  from  Chaucer,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  and  lesser  Eng- 
lish poets.  The  Essay  concludes  with  a  touch  of  personal  reminiscence 
which  is  extremely  rare  in  Ritson  's  writings : 

"The  compiler  of  the  present  sheets  remembers  when  very  young,  to  have 
heard  a  respectable  old  woman,  then  a  midwife,  at  Stockton,  relate  that,  when,  in 
her  youthful  days,  she  was  a  servant  at  Durham,  being  up  late  one  Saturday  night, 
cleaning  the  irons  in  the  kitchen,  she  heard  these  shrikes  (of  the  Barguest),  first 
at  a  great,  and  then  at  a  less  distance,  till,  at  length,  the  loudest,  and  most  horrible, 
that  can  be  conceived,  just  at  the  kitchen-window,  sent  her  upstairs,  she  did  not 
know  how,  where  she  fell  into  the  arms  of  a  fellow-servant,  who  could  scarcely 
prevent  her  from  fainting  away."®* 

In  concluding  the  chronology  of  Ritson 's  editorial  labors  it  will  be 
well  to  summarize  his  w^ork  and  estimate  its  importance.  In  a  period  of 
twenty  years — only  thirteen  of  which  were  actively  employed  in  pub- 
lishing— he  saw  through  the  press  thirty-six  volumes  and  prepared 
nearly  as  many  more  for  publication.  Of  these,  ten  were  printed  after 
his  death ;  the  others  either  were  destroyed  or  remain  unknown  in  man- 
uscript. The  printed  volumes  consist  of  collections  of  poems,  songs, 
ballads,  and  romances ;  legal  antiquities ;  critical  comments ;  and  histor- 
ical extracts.  The  material  of  but  few  of  these  volumes  is  original. 
Ritson  is  their  editor  not  their  author;  and  it  was  as  an  editor  that  he 
exerted  most  influence  upon  his  age.  His  editorial  creed  may  be  summed 
up  in  one  word — honesty.  To  be  more  explicit,  he  insisted  on  recourse 
to  the  most  ancient  sources,  on  fidelity  to  originals  in  transcribing,  on  a 
candid  notation  of  all  necessary  variations  and  additions,  on  a  free  ac- 
knowledgment of  obligations,  and  on  exact  references  to  all  quotations. 
These  principles  he  followed  in  his  own  publications,  and  he  insisted 
with  a  great  deal  of  vehemence  that  other  editors  should  adhere  to  them 
and  unsparingly  condemned  those  who  went  contrary  to  his  precepts. 
Tyrwhitt  had  anticipated  Ritsoii  by  nearl}^  a  decade  in  giving  to  Eng- 
land an  example  of  scholarly  editing;  but,  while  his  work  attracted  the 
favorable  comments  of  nearly  all  critics,  it  did  not  operate  as  a  reforma- 
tive force.  It  remained  for  Ritson,  with  his  eccentricities,  his  abusive 
manner,  his  violent  language,  and  his  reiterative  insistence  on  honesty, 
to  stimulate  the  attention  of  students  of  early  literature  to  such  a  degree 
that  editorial  laxity  was  generally  discountenanced.  It  was  because  of 
Ritson 's  activity  that  Percy  purged  the  fourth  edition  of  the  Reliques 
of  much  dross  and  that  Pinkerton  confessed  his  dishonesty  and  plead 
for  forgiveness.    Ireland  and  Scott  admittedly  stood  in  awe  of  his  critical 

^*Fairy  Tales,  p.  58. 


481]  EDITORIAL  LABORS  AFTER  1795  147 

eye,  and  Ellis  and  Weber  confessed  themselves  indebted  to  him  for  exam- 
ples of  faithful  editing.^-' 

In  the  field  of  popular  poetry  Ritson's  influence  was  likewise  con- 
siderable. The  mere  bulk  of  his  poetical  material  outweighs  that  of  any 
other  man  of  his  day.  Half  the  total  number  of  his  volumes  were  col- 
lections of  poems,  songs,  ballads,  and  romances,  both  English  and  Scot- 
tish. Although  he  confessed  his  failure  to  gather  ballads  from  oral 
tradition,  yet  he  rescued  from  possible  destruction  many  a  relique  of 
antiquity  by  making  accessible  unknown  or  forgotten  manuscripts  and 
black  letter  copies.  Not  only  did  he  increase  the  interest  in  popular 
poetry  first  aroused  by  Percy,  but  he  inspired  a  veneration  for  the 
' '  rude ' '  remains  of  the  past  which  was  absent  in  the  days  of  Percy  and 
came  to  be  thoroughly  acknowledged  only  in  those  of  Scott  and  Laing. 

^^This  was  a  preliminary,  though  a  necessary,  step  to  present-day  "critical" 
editing.  For  a  concise  statement  of  the  evolution  of  editing  from  the  exact  repro- 
duction of  a  single  MS.  through  the  "eclectic"  method  to  the  "critical",  see 
E.  P.  Hammond,  Chaucer:  A  Bibliographical  Manual,  New  York,  1908,  pp.  106-13. 


CHAPTER   VII 
Prefatory  Dissertations 

Classification  of  the  material — General  Characteristics  of  the  Essays — First 
division  :  Songs  and  musical  instruments — Historical  view — Among  the  English — 
In  Scotland — Second  division  :  Minstrels,  ballads,  and  romances — Percy's  minstrel 
theory — Ritson's  refutation — Definition  of  terms — Percy's  alterations  in  fourth 
edition  of  Reliques — Social  status  of  the  minstrels — Their  literary  status— Ballad 
origins — Oral  transmission — Comments  on  the  folio  manuscript — Exposure  of  Per- 
cy's editorial  methods — Third  division :  Scottish  poetry  and  history — Attack  upon 
Pinkerton's  integrity — Antipathy  toward  Scotchmen — Attack  upon  Scottish  national 
character — Pinkerton's  "Gothic  system" — Ritson's  defense  of  the  Celts— Summary. 

All  of  Ritson's  publications  have  now  been  passed  in  review,  and 
it  remains  to  consider  the  historical  essays  prefixed  to  four  of  the  col- 
lections. These  are  five  in  number:  1.  "A  Historical  Essay  on  the 
Origin  and  Progress  of  National  Song",  in  English  Songs,  1783;  2. 
"Observations  on  the  Ancient  English  Minstrels",  and  3.  "Dissertation 
on  the  Songs,  Music,  and  Vocal  and  Instrumental  Performances  of  the 
Ancient  English",  in  Ancieiit  Songs,  1790;  4.  "A  Historical  Essay  on 
Scotish  Song",  in  Scotish  Songs,  1794;  and  5.  "Dissertation  on  Ro- 
mance and  Minstrelsy",  in  Metrical  Romances,  1802.  To  these  will  be 
added,  for  reasons  presently  apparent,  two  historical  volumes :  Memoirs 
of  the  Celts,  1827,  and  Annals  of  the  Caledonians,  1828.  Ritson  made 
no  formal  classification  of  his  material  except  within  each  of  the  essays, 
yet  the  substance  of  all  of  them  falls  naturally  into  three  divisions: 
songs  and  the  musical  instruments  that  accompanied  singing;  minstrels, 
ballads,  and  romances ;  Scottish  poetry  and  history.  In  handling  the 
last  type  of  material  he  came  into  violent  opposition  to  Pinkerton  and 
his  assumptions,  and  much  of  his  investigation  was  undertaken  with  the 
avowed  purpose  of  controverting  his  Scottish  opponent.  A  situation 
almost  parallel  to  this  obtains  in  the  second  division.  What  he  had  to 
say  about  minstrels  and  romances  was  largely  inspired  by  the  desire  to 
expose  the  fallacy  of  Bishop  Percy's  hypotheses.  Onl,y  in  dealing  with 
the  history  of  song  and  musical  instruments  is  he  free  from  personal 
controversy  with  an  individual  and  his  theories. 

Although  the  titles  are  various,  these  essays  are  all  built  upon  one 
plan.  Just  as  in  forming  his  collections  of  poetrj^  and  song  Ritson  was 
the  editor  and  not  the  poet,  so  in  producing  the  essays  he  was  the  com- 


483]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  149 

piler  and  not  the  historian.  In  his  own  view,  however,  he  was  writing 
history,  for  he  considered  it  the  business  of  the  historian  simply  to  give 
liis  material  as  he  found  it  without  attempting  to  put  himself  into  it, 
much  less  to  construct  a  philosophy.  It  was  in  the  strength  of  this  belief 
that  he  refused  in  most  instances  to  draw  inferences  from  his  material 
and  failed  always  to  summarize  conclusions.  What  he  did  do  was  this. 
Given  a  subject,  say  English  or  Scottish  song,  he  gathered  from  remote 
poetical  and  historical  sources  an  astonishing  number  of  references  and 
allusions  to  it  and  then  strung  them  together  in  chronological  sequence 
with  a  minimum  of  editorial  comment.  It  was  his  declared  purpose 
"to  discover  fact,  not  to  indulge  conjecture",  and  it  was  matter  of  pride 
to  him  that  he  made  no  statement  without  citing  for  it  an  old  authority, 
either  printed  or  manuscript. 

Sucli  was  the  plan  adopted  in  all  the  essays.  It  was  worked  out 
more  exhaustively  for  songs  than  for  any  other  subject.  The  "Histori- 
cal Essay  on  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  National  Song"  gave  a  survey 
of  the  subject  from  the  very  earliest  times  to  Ritson's  day.  Ostensibly 
dealing  with  English  song,  it  follows  the  development  of  the  type  through 
Greek,  Roman,  Italian,  Spanish,  and  French.  This  employment  of  the 
comparative  method  was  a  little  surprising  in  Ritson  in  view  of  his 
slightly  earlier  condemnation  of  Warton  for  using  it  in  his  History. 
But  it  is  introduced  awkwardly  and  not  very  effectively.  What  Ritson 
really  does  is  to  give  the  development  of  national  song  in  each  country 
separately.  Except  in  the  treatment  of  France  he  makes  no  effort  to 
illustrate  the  progress  of  national  song  in  England  by  its  growth  among 
other  peoples.  The  essay  is  a  learned  compilation  and  was  the  product 
of  unwearied  research.  The  extensive  quotations  from  Greek  and  Latin 
sources  amply  demonstrate  Ritson's  familiarity  with  the  ancient  tongues, 
unless,  mayhap,  he  used  translations  and  had  the  help  of  friends  in 
this  part  of  the  work.  It  has  been  asserted  by  Haslewood^  and  denied 
by  Nicolas-  that  he  Avas  materially  assisted  in  the  classical  portion  by 
his  friend  John  Baynes.  There  seems  no  room  for  doubt  on  the  question 
as  he  himself  states^  that  he  is  indebted  to  Baynes  for  the  translation 
of  all  original  Greek  poetry  in  the  essay. 

Ritson  pursued  the  subject  of  English  song  still  further  and  seven 
years  later  published  the  "Dissertation  on  the  Songs,  Music,  and  Vocal 
and  Instrumental  Performances  of  the  Ancient  English."     That  part 

^Op.  Cit.,  p.  9,  note. 

-Op.  Cit.,  p.  xxxiv,  note. 

sRjtson's  MS.  note  to  Eng.  Songs,  p.  ix.  All  page  references  to  the  essays 
will  be  given  under  the  titles  of  the  books  in  which  they  appear,  not  under  the 
subject  of  the  essays. 


150  JOSEPH  RITSON  [484 

of  the  Dissertation  dealing  with  the  songs  is  an  excellent  supplement 
to  the  earlier  essay.  He  begins  the  subject  with  the  Norman  Conquest 
and  gives  it  detailed  treatment  such  as  the  length  of  his  former  essay 
and  the  attention  paid  to  foreign  tongues  made  impossible  there.  In 
treating  of  the  music  and  the  musical  instruments  he  makes  extensive 
use  of  the  histories  of  Burney*  and  Hawkins^  and  supplements  these 
with  numerous  illustrations  from  the  literature  of  the  period.  Together 
these  two  essays  present  a  great  mass  of  material  on  the  subject — undi- 
gested, but  valuable  merely  in  the  fact  of  its  being  brought  together. 

With  the  essays  on  English  Song  must  be  noted  briefly  the  "His- 
torical Essay  on  Scotish  Song",  which  does  in  the  same  way  for  the 
songs  and  music  of  the  northern  kingdom  what  the  two  previous  essays 
do  for  England.  It  falls  into  three  divisions  treating  respectively  of 
the  songs,  the  music,  and  the  musical  instruments.  In  this  it  exactly 
parallels  the  earlier  dissertations  and  affords  a  further  illustration  of 
the  duplication  of  Ritson's  English  interests  in  Scottish  affairs. 

With  the  exception  of  the  "Dissertation  on  the  Songs,  Music,  etc.", 
the  essays  thus  far  considered  play  a  minor  part  in  the  two  remaining 
divisions :  that  on  Scottish  Song  in  connection  with  Pinkerton  and  the 
whole  Scottish  question,  that  on  English  Song  with  the  discussion  of 
Percy  and  the  minstrels. 

The  earliest  formal  treatise  on  the  ancient  English  minstrels  Avas 
Percy's  "Essay",  published  in  the  original  edition  of  the  Reliques,  1765, 
and  reprinted  without  material  alteration  in  the  second  and  third  edi- 
tions, 1767  and  1775.  Percy  defined  the  minstrels  to  be  "an  order  of 
men  in  the  Middle  Ages,  who  united  the  arts  of  poetry  and  music,  and 
sung  verses  to  the  harp  of  their  own  composing."  By  means  of  a  wealth 
of  quotations  from  English  and  continental  sources  he  pictured  the 
minstrels  as  a  society  of  men  in  high  repute,  having  free  access  to  the 
homes  of  the  nobility  and  the  great  and  to  the  courts  of  kings.  He 
represented  them  as  musicians,  as  singers,  and  as  poets ;  often  as  all 
three  in  one.  The  Anglo-Saxon  minstrel  he  gave  an  exalted  character, 
almost  equal  to  that  of  the  Scandinavian  Skald ;  and  for  ages  after  the 
Conquest  the  English  minstrels  were,  he  declared,  persons  of  honor  and 
renown. 

Percy's  minstrel  theory  was  first  challenged  by  Ritson  in  his  "Essay 
on  National  Song",  wherein  he  flatly  contradicted  almost  every  claim 
to  honor  which  the  Bishop  had  made  for  the  minstrels.     Only  a  few 

^Charles  Burney,  A  General  History  of  Music,  from  the  earliest  ages  to  the 
present  period.     London,  1776. 

^Sir  John  Hawkins,  The  General  History  of  the  Science  and  Practise  of 
Music.     London,  1776. 


485]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  151 

historical  references  were  adduced  in  this  essay,  but  Ritson  again  took 
up  the  subject  and  treated  it  at  some  length  in  the  "Observations  on 
the  Ancient  English  Minstrels".  He  there  set  himself  to  answer  the 
question:  "Whether  at  any  time,  since  the  Norman  Conquest,  there  has 
existed  a  distinct  order  of  Englishmen,  who  united  the  arts  of  poetry 
and  music,  and  got  their  livelihood  by  singing  to  the  harp  verses  in 
their  native  tongue  of  their  own  composing."  He  ignored  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  period  because  he  considered  it  impossible  to  obtain  reliable  data 
concerning  it.  His  aversion  to  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,*'  whom  Percy 
had  frequently  cited  in  the  early  part  of  his  essay,  led  him  to  declare 
that  even  the  mere  existence  of  minstrels  in  England  prior  to  the  elev- 
enth century  was  wholly  conjectural.  Nevertheless,  the  allusions  which 
Percy  gathered  from  Tacitus,  Bede,  and  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  as  well 
as  from  Geoffrey,  create  a  strong  impression  in  favor  of  his  theory. 
Little  has  since  been  added  to  our  stock  of  information  concerning  the 
Anglo-Saxon  minstrel — perhaps  nothing  with  historical  authentication ; 
and  Percy's  theory  remains  as  a  highly  probable  conjecture.' 

In  taking  up  the  subject  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest,  Ritson 's  first 
step  was  the  very  essential  one  of  distinguishing  the  various  terms  which 
Percy  had  taken  over  from  the  French  and  indiscriminately  massed 
together  under  the  name  minstrel.  "Under  this  term",  says  the  critic, 
"we  are  to  include  the  trouvere  or  poet,  the  chanteur  or  vocal  performer, 
and  the  menetrier  or  musician:  not  to  mention  the  fahlier,  conteur, 
jongleur,  haladin,  etc.  all  of  which  were  sometimes  distinct  professions 
and  sometimes  united  in  one  and  the  same  man."®  Although  Guiraut 
de  Riquier,^  five  centuries  before  Ritson,  had  protested  against  the  con- 
fusion arising  from  the  indiscriminate  grouping  of  the  various  classes 
of  entertainers,  Percy  persistently  refused  to  differentiate  them.  He 
declared  that  "it  equally  throws  light  upon  the  general  history  of  the 
profession  to  show  what  favor  or  encouragement  was  given,  at  any  par- 
ticular period  of  time,  to  any  one  branch  of  it."^° 

Acting  on  the  distinction  which  he  had  made,  Ritson  first  of  all 
separated  the  English  from  the  French  and  Norman  minstrels.    It  was 

^Expressed  in  uncompromising  terms  in  the  Life  of  King  Arthur.  See  above, 
Chapter  VI. 

"The  best  treatment  of  the  English  Minstrels  is  that  given  by  Chambers  in 
the  first  four  chapters  of  The  Medieval  Stage,  Oxford,  1903.  Other  English  books 
on  the  subject  are  unsatisfactory.  An  excellent  bibliography  of  French  and  Ger- 
man works  is  given  by  Chambers. 

^Ancient  Songs  and  Ballads,  2nd  edition,  I,  p.  ii,  note.  See  also  Metrical  Ro- 
mances, 2nd  edition,  I,  p  79. 

''See  Chambers,  Op.  Cit.,  I,  p.  63. 

'^^Reliques,  4th  edition,  I,  p.  50. 


152  JOSEPH  RITSON  [486 

the  latter,  he  maintained,  Avhom  Percy  had  described  as  a  respectable 
society  with  free  entrance  to  the  homes  of  the  nobility.  The  English 
minstrels,  he  declared,  were  not  a  respectable  society,  if  a  society  at  all. 
They  were  only  rude  singers  to  the  vulgar  and  illiterate  and  had  no 
opportunity  to  appear  at  Court  or  in  the  houses  of  the  nobility,  because 
there  only  French  was  spoken  and  English  despised. 

From  the  absence  of  reference  by  historians  or  by  the  English  min- 
strels to  themselves  as  composers,  Ritson  concluded  that  they,  unlike 
the  French  minstrels  who  constantly  refer  to  themselves  in  their  songs, 
did  not  compose  but  only  sang  and  played.  ' '  They  could  sing  and  play ; 
but  it  was  none  of  their  business  to  read  and  write. "^^  Ritson 's  evi- 
dence is  probable,  not  conclusive.  In  rebuttal  Percy  maintained,  with 
much  plausibility,  that  "by  proving  that  minstrels  were  singers  of  the 
old  romantic  songs,  gests,  etc.,  we  have  in  effect  proved  them  to  have 
been  the  makers  of  at  least  some  of  them.'"^-  But  Ritson  carried  his 
restrictions  a  step  further  and  limited  the  function  of  the  minstrels  to 
playing  on  musical  instruments, — a  conjecture  that  is  open  to  grave 
doubt.  From  the  medieval  glossarists,  from  the  early  chroniclers,  from 
"Piers  Plowman",  and  from  the  Mysteries,  he  extracted  passages  in- 
which  "minstrel"  was  used  interchangeably  with  "fiddler".  But  the 
critic  himself  does  not  seem  to  be  wholly  assured  on  this  point,  for  he 
elsewhere  admits  that  the  minstrels  went  up  and  dqwn  the  country 
singing  ballads  and  rude  songs  to  the  accompaniment  of  their  musical 
instruments.  He  is,  however,  assured  of  the  utter  degradation  of  the 
English  minstrels  and  of  their  rapid  decline  in  the  eyes  of  the  law.  The 
extinction  of  minstrelsy,  if  not  of  the  minstrels,  came  in  the  age  of 
Elizabeth  as  a  result  of  religious  restrictions  and  of  legal  enactments 
made  necessary  by  the  large  number  of  men  who  continually  sought 
refuge  for  vagabondage  under  the  guise  of  minstrels.  At  a  fitting  post- 
lude  to  his  account  of  their  services,  Ritson  quotes  the  following  satire 
by  Dr.  Bull : 

"When  Jesus  went  to  Jairus'  house, 

Whose  daughter  was  about  to  dye, 

He  turn'd  the  minstrel  out  of  doors, 

Among  the  rascal  company : 

Beggars  they  are  with  one  consent, 

And  Rogues,  by  act  of  parliament."^' 

In  the  fourth  edition  of  the  Reliques  Percy  revised  his  essay  to  a 
considerable  extent  and  profited  by  Ritson 's  criticisms.     Although  he 

^'^English  Songs,  I,  p.  Ixviii. 

^-Rcliqtics,  I,  p  60. 

''■^Ancient  Songs,  I,  p.  xvi,  note. 


487]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  153 

nowhere  mentions  his  opponent  by  name,  he  expressly  states  that  "in 
consequence  of  objections  respecting  the  English  minstrels  after  the 
Conquest  [the  latter]  part  [of  the  essay]  hath  been  much  enlarged,  and 
additional  light  thrown  upon  the  subject :  which,  to  prevent  cavil,  hath 
been  extended  to  minstrelsy  in  all  its  branches,  as  it  was  established 
in  England,  whether  by  natives  or  foreigners."^*  Finding  it  impossible 
to  distinguish  between  English  and  French  minstrels  (as  Ritson  had 
demanded)  and  still  maintain  his  thesis  throughout,  Percy  altered  the 
title  of  the  essay  to  read:  "The  ancient  minstrels  in  England."^''  De- 
claring that  he  had  "readily  corrected  any  mistakes  which  have  been 
proved  to  be  in  this  Essay"  because  he  was  "wedded  to  no  hypothesis", 
he  also  changed  his  definition  of  minstrels  to  comply  with  Ritson 's  criti- 
cism. It  now  read :  "an  order  of  men  in  the  Middle  Ages,  who  sub- 
sisted by  the  arts  of  poetry  and  music,  and  sang  to  the  harp  verses 
composed  by  themselves,  or  others."  But,  while  the  Bishop  conceded  a 
good  deal  to  Ritson  by  admitting  that  the  English  minstrels  were,  per- 
haps, properly  speaking,  "subordinate  members  of  the  college",  and  by 
qualifying  many  of  his  remarks  on  their  exalted  station,  yet  he  persisted 
in  considering  them  poets  as  well  as  musicians  and  continued  the  un- 
critical method  of  employing  semi-synonymous  terms  without  discrimi- 
nating among  them.  Ritson  examined  Percy's  revised  essay  carefully 
and  made  reply  to  it  in  the  "Dissertation  on  Romance  and  Minstrelsy". 
There  he  exulted  with  unseemly  delight  over  the  alterations  which  the 
Bishop  had  made  as  a  result  of  his  criticisms^®  and  filled  his  pages  with 
additional  proofs  of  the  points  already  advanced. 

It  is  now  apparent  that  the  issue  between  Percy  and  Ritson  was  a 
dual  one :  what  was  the  social  status  of  the  English  minstrels — were  they 
honored  and  respected,  or  were  they  rogues  and  vagabonds?  What  was 
their  literary  status — were  they  merely  musicians  and  singers,  or  were 
they  composers  as  well?  Percy  answered  both  questions  by  giving  to 
the  minstrels  the  most  elevated  rank  in  both  literary  and  social  spheres ; 
Ritson,  by  giving  them  the  lowest.  The  crux  of  the  whole  disagreement 
[lay  in  the  refusal  of  both  men  to  recognize  the  coeval  existence  of  two 
grades  or  classes  of  minstrels.  The  distinction  once  clearly  made  be- 
tween the  English  and  Normal  minstrels,  Ritson  was  correct  in  consid- 

^^Rcliqucs,  4th  ed.,  p.  64. 

^"'This  is  significant  because  it  shows  that  Percy  conceded  to  Ritson  practically 
half  the  point  at  issue. 

lewheatley  ignores  this  last  Essay  and  labors  under  the  impression  that  the 
"Essay  on  the  ancient  English  minstrels",  1790,  was  Ritson's  reply  to  Percy's 
revisions  in  the  4th  edition  of  the  ReUques,  1794.  See  Rcliques,  ed.  H.  B.  Wheat- 
ley,  1876,  I,  p.  430. 


154  JOSEPH  RITSON  [488 

ering  the  former  as  an  inferior  society.  There  can  be  little,  if  any, 
doubt  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  types  were  submerged  by  the  Norman 
minstrels  and  in  the  centuries  immediately  following  the  Conquest  were 
in  disrepute  and  that  they  had  access  to  the  homes  of  the  nobility  or 
the  court  only  when  in  the  company  of  French  minstrels.^"  But  if  this 
distinction  is  not  made — if  the  subject  for  discussion  is  the  "Ancient 
minstrels  in  England"  and  not  the  "Ancient  English  minstrels"^® — it 
is  legitimate  to  consider  a  class  of  men  of  high  rank  and  renown.  The 
difficulty  lay  in  not  realizing  that  this  twofold  classification  runs  through 
the  whole  history  of  minstrelsy.  The  merging  of  the  mimus  and  scop 
of  Roman  and  Teutonic  tradition  was  never  quite  complete,  but  a  new 
distinction  based  largely  on  the  old  difference  came  to  be  well  established 
in  England  by  the  second  quarter  of  the  fourteenth  century.^^  Both 
Percy  and  Ritson  were  treating  of  the  same  period  of  time-°  but  of 
different  classes  of  men  in  it.  As  a  result,  each  of  the  disputants  had 
hold  of  only  a  bare  half  of  the  truth,  yet  each  succeeded  in  illustrating 
his  half  with  historical,  legal,  and  poetical  references  such  as  would  not, 
perhaps,  otherwise  have  been  brought  together  for  years.  It  was  not  a 
barren  logomachy  in  which  they  were  engaged.  Modern  writers  on  the 
subject  confess  that  there  is  little  fact  to  be  added  to  the  stock  accu- 
mulated by  these  pioneers,  but  that  it  only  remains  for  them  to  place 
the  two  halves  side  by  side  and  make  the  necessary  adjustments  in  order 
to  come  at  the  whole  truth. 

On  the  second  point — the  literary  status  of  the  minstrels — there 
was  scarcely  less  divergence  of  opinion.  Percy  considered  them  com- 
posers as  well  as  singers.  While  it  was  generally  recognized  that  the 
English  minstrels  translated  and  adapted  many  of  the  romances  brought 
over  by  the  French,  he  held  that  in  some  cases  the  tables  were  turned 
and  the  French  made  versions  of  native  English  minstrel  songs.    "Rich- 

^''A  roll  of  payments  made  on  the  occasion  of  a  Whitsuntide  feast  held  in 
London  in  1306  records  many  minstrels  by  name.  The  list  is  headed  by  five  min- 
strels with  the  title  "le  roy" ;  next  come  a  number  said  to  be  in  the  employ  of  this 
or  that  reverend  or  noble  guest  at  the  feast.  These  have  French  names.  Lastly 
comes  a  large  number  of  inferior  minstrels,  "les  autre  menestraus  de  la  commune", 
and  some  of  these  seem  to  have  been  of  English  birtli.    Chambers,  Op.  Cit.,  L  p.  47. 

i^'The  difference  in  the  title  of  his  Essay  made  by  Percy  in  the  first  and  fourth 
editions. 

li'Chambers,  Op.  Cit.,  vol.  I,  Bk.  i,  "Minstrelsy". 

^''DeQuincey,  "Homer  and  the  Homeridae",  in  Works,  ed.  Masson,  1896,  vol. 
VI,  p.  2T,,  says  of  the  point  at  issue  between  Percy  and  Ritson :  "The  contradiction 
lay  in  the  time:  Percy  and  Ritson  were  speaking  of  different  periods;  the  Bishop 
of  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth  centuries — the  attorney  of  the  si.xteenth 
and  seventeenth".     But  this  is  a  misconception  of  the  facts. 


489]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  155 

ard  Cour  de  Lion"  and  "Eger  and  Grime",  from  the  use  of  native 
names  he  considered  of  genuine  English  growth,  and  this  view  is  held 
by  the  editors  of  the  folio  manuscript."^  Ritson,  on  the  contrary,  did 
not  believe  the  minstrels  sufficient  to  account  for  minstrelsy.  Granting 
to  them  neither  education  nor  culture,  it  was  absurd  to  think  of  the 
minstrels  as  the  authors  of  fabulous  narratives  several  thousand  lines 
in  length.  Though  they  could  neither  read  nor  write,  yet  they  could 
sing  what  men  of  genius  had  composed  or  translated  for  them.  Ritson 
does  not  state  who  he  thinks  these  "men  of  genius"  were,  but  he  says 
there  is  nothing  about  the  romances  themselves  to  preclude  the  view 
that  they  were  written  by  "a  monk  in  his  cell"  or  "a  priest  in  his 
closet".--  While  denying  Percy's  thesis  that  the  English  minstrels 
composed  romances,  he  did  not  contend  that  there  were  none  of  native 
English  growth.  "  'Eglamour'^^,  'Trimour'-*,  'The  squyre  of  lowe 
degre',  and  it  may  be  one  or  two  more,  of  which  no  French  originals  are 
known,  may  be  fairly  concluded  to  be  of  Englisli  invention ;  but, ' '  he 
says,  "it  is  absolutely  impossible  that  this  can  be  the  case  with  'Guy', 
'Bevis',  or  the  rest,  of  which  these  originals  are  extant.  "^^  With  scant 
justice  Ritson  doubted  the  probability  that  these  famous  romances,  the 
French  manuscripts  of  which  are  superior  to  the  English  and  antedate 
them  by  one,  two,  or  even  three  centuries,  had  been  originally  com- 
posed on  English  soil  though  in  the  French  language.  Indeed,  he  carried 
his  iconoclasm  so  far  as  to  deny  the  theories  of  the  Arabian,  Scandina- 
vian, and  Provengal  origin  of  romance,  without  substituting  any  defi- 
nite system  in  their  stead.  All  of  these  he  rejected  because  they  were 
largely  conjectural,  there  being  not  sufficient  fact  to  support  a  theory. 
But  his  own  proposal  was  equally  conjectural.  "After  all",  he  said, 
"it  seems  highly  probable  that  the  origin  of  romance  in  every  age  or 
country  is  to  be  sought  in  the  different  systems  of  superstition  which 
have  from  time  to  time  prevailed,  whether  pagan  or  Christian."^*'  While 
this  theory  contains  a  large  element  of  truth,  Ritson  pushed  it  too  far 
in  denying  historical  basis  to  the  romances.  Their  heroes  are  not  his- 
torical characters,  he  declared :  ' '  they  are  mere  creatures  of  the  imagi- 

21J.  W.  Hales  and  F.  J.  Furnivall,  BisJiop  Percy's  Folio  Manuscript,  London, 
1867-8,  Vol.  I,  p.  341  ff- 

^-Metrical  Romances,  I,  p.  57. 

23"There  is  a  secret  history  attached  to  the  source  of  this  romance  yet  to  be 
unravelled" — Halliwell,  ed.  "Sir  Eglamour  of  Artois",  for  Camden  Society,  1844. 

24Nothing  of  the  source  of  this  romance  is  given  by  Hales  and  Furnivall,  nor 
by  Halliwell  who  edited  it  for  the  Percy  Society,  1846. 

-^Metrical  Romances,  I,  p.  51. 

^Hhid..  I,  p.  19. 


156  JOSEPH  RITSON  [490 

nation  and  only  obtain  an  establishment  in  history  because  it  was 
usually  written  upon  the  authority  of  romance."-' 

Kitson  's  disrespect  for  the  English  minstrels  was  thoroughgoing.  Not 
only  did  he  rate  them  as  rogues  and  vagabonds,  deny  them  the  ability 
to  read  and  write,  and  limit  their  activities  to  "twanging  on  the  harp", 
but  he  characterized  their  songs  as  rude  and  barbarous.  Sidney's  "blind 
crowder  with  no  rougher  voice  than  rude  style",-*  was  the  typical  min- 
strel for  Ritson,  and  his  music  was  happily  described  by  Puttenham: 
"your  ordinary  rimers  use  very  much  their  measures  in  the  odd,  as 
nine  and  eleven,  and  the  sharp  accent  upon  the  last  syllable,  which 
therefore  makes  him  go  ill-favoredly  and  like  a  minstrel's  music. "^^ 
With  the  coming  into  favor  of  the  ballad  singer  in  the  age  of  Elizabeth, 
Ritson  noticed  a  corresponding  decrease  in  the  entertainment  furnished 
by  the  minstrels.  These  were  undoubtedly  contemporaneous  events,  but 
a  causal  connection  would  be  more  difficult  to  establish  than  Eitson 
seems  to  think.  It  is  his  opinion  that  the  ballad  singers  with  their 
simple  melodies  soon  drew  all  attention  from  the  wild  and  licentious 
meter  of  the  minstrels  and  caused  them  in  sheer  self-defense  to  adopt 
ballad  tunes.  But  he  does  not,  as  Gummere  states,  "think  the  feeble 
ballads  of  Deloney  better  than  Chevy  Chase.  "^°  What  he  does  say  is 
that  the  old  Chevy  Chase  is  inferior  in  simplicity,  nature,  pathos,  and 
melody  to  such  ballads  as  "Fair  Rosamond",  "John  Dory",  "Little 
Musgrave  and  Lady  Barnard",  "Children  in  the  Wood",  etc.^^  But 
he  did  not  fall  into  the  error  of  considering  these  ballads  as  ancient  as 
the  minstrel  songs:  "Those  pieces  w^hich  Ave  now  call  old  ballads,  are 
comparatively  modern,  that  is,  of  the  latter  end  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury." And  he  adds:  "Our  most  ancient  popular  ballads,  if  we  may 
judge  from  the  few  specimens  preserved,  were  singularly  rude.''^-  Both 
Ritson 's  taste  and  judgment  were  in  advance  of  his  age ;  and  in  the 
matter  of  ballads  his  taste  seldom  lagged  behind  his  judgment. 

Ritson  was  a  genuine  admirer  of  the  old  popular  ballad.  He  it  was 
who  first  clearly  differentiated  song  and  ballad  and  gave  the  prevailing 
definition  of  ballad  as  a  lyrical  narrative.^^    With  the  true  instinct  of  the 

^'Ibid.,  I,  p.  50. 

^^Defense  of  Poetry,  ed.  Cook,  1890,  p.  29. 

-^Thc  Art  of  English  Poetry,  Ed.  Arber,  1869,  p.  85. 

^°Old  English  Ballads,  1894,  P-  xxvi. 

^''■Ancient  Songs,  pp.  xxxiii-iv. 

^-Ibid.,  p.  c. 

^^English  Songs,  I,  p.  i.  Motherwell,  in  Minstrelsy,  ancient  and  modern,  1827, 
Preface,  p.  i ;  and  Gummere,  in  Old  English  Ballads,  p.  xxxvi,  give  Ritson  credit 
for  the  first  clear-cut  definition  of  ballad. 


491]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  157 

ballad  lover,  he  declared  that  the  genuine  pieces  of  this  species  were  not 
to  be  sought  "in  the  works  of  Hamilton,  Thomson,  Smollet,  or  even 
Ramsay ;  but  in  the  productions  of  obscure  and  anonymous  authors,  of 
shepherds  and  milk  maids,  who  actually  felt  the  sensations  they  describe ; 
of  those,  in  short,  who  were  destitute  of  all  the  advantages  of  science 
and  education,  and  perhaps  incapable  of  committing  the  pure  inspiration 
of  nature  to  writing."-^*  On  the  subject  of  ballad  authorship  he  says 
nothing  further ;  but  from  this  statement  and  his  remarks  on  the  origin 
of  minstrelsy  we  can  judge  pretty  closely  what  his  attitude  would  have 
been.  He  would  have  espoused  the  theory  of  individual  authorship,  and 
scouted  that  of  communal  origin.  The  "composing  folk"  would  have 
vanished  into  nothingness  under  his  uncompromising  demand  for  his- 
torical authentication. 

On  the  preservation  of  ballads  by  oral  tradition  Ritson  spoke  more 
definitely.  It  was  his  belief  that  there  yet  remained  in  his  own  day  many 
pieces  of  the  true  type  current  in  the  oral  tradition  of  Scotland.  He 
had  made  several  unsuccessful  attempts  to  take  them  down  from  recita- 
tion ;  but  his  own  failure  did  not  cause  him  to  deny  that  other  persons, 
perhaps  possessing  greater  tact,  had  been  more  fortunate.  But  he  pro- 
fessed himself  to  be  an  incompetent  judge  of  the  antiquity  and  genu- 
ineness of  many  of  the  pieces  published  as  "from  tradition".  Where 
he  had  not  an  ancient  manuscript  as  a  guide,  he  was  almost  lost.  In 
such  a  case  he  confessed  that  his  judgment  was  necessarily  based  on  one 
or  both  of  the  following  tests :  the  irregular  style,  and  the  pathetic  sim- 
plicity of  the  genuine  ballad.  If  judiciously  applied,  these  tests  would 
not  often  lead  one  astray.  Of  one  principle,  however,  Ritson  was  very 
certain,  viz.,  that  oral  transmission  alters  and  tends  always  to  degrade 
the  material.  "Obsolete  phrases",  he  says,  "will  be  perpetually  chang- 
ing for  those  better  understood,  and  what  the  memory  loses  the  inven- 
tion must  supply.  So  that  a  performance  of  genius  and  merit,  as  the 
purest  stream  becomes  polluted  by  the  foulness  of  its  channel,  may  in 
time  be  degraded  to  the  vilest  jargon.  Tradition,  in  short,  is  a  species 
of  alchemy  which  converts  gold  into  lead."^^  With  keen  critical  insight 
he  remarked  that  the  effect  of  tradition  was  "degrading"  only  to  the 
form,  to  the  words,  but  not  to  the  substance  of  the  ballad — that  remained 
unaltered.^''    While  the  "description  and  sentiment"  remained  the  same, 

^*Scotish  Songs,  I,  p.  Ixxix. 

^^Ibid.,  p.  Ixxxi. 

26This  conclusion,  unassailable  as  it  is,  was  in  the  present  instance  based  on 
a  false  premise.  To  illustrate  the  transforming  power  of  tradition,  Ritson  com- 
pared a  popular  version  of  "The  Wee  Wee  Man"  with  a  fourteenth  century  manu- 
script which  he  erroneously  considered  to  be  its  original.     Child  prints  the  manu- 


158  JOSEPH  RITSON  [492 

the  "expressions  and  allusions"  fluctuated  with  the  times  and  eoniuni- 
ties  through  which  they  passed,  so  that  no  single  piece  was  preserved  in 
oral  tradition  exactly  as  it  had  been  originally  composed.  The  advocates 
of  oral  tradition  in  Percy's  day,  and  especiall}^  the  Ossianic  enthusiasts, 
insisted  that  every  piece  current  in  the  mouth  of  the  folk  was  sung 
exactly  as  it  had  been  composed.  On  this  point  Kitson  remarked  in 
conclusion : 

"Had  the  'Canterbury  Tales'  of  Chaucer  been  preserved  to  the  present  time 
in  the  same  manner,  there  would  not  have  remained  one  single  word  which  had 
fallen  from  the  pen  of  that  venerable  bard :  they  would  have  been  as  completely, 
though  not  quite  so  elegantly  modernized,  as  they  are  by  Dryden  and  Pope :  and 
yet  it  is  pretended  that  the  poems  of  Ossian  have  been  preserved  immaculate  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years."^' 

Ritson  displayed  a  sincere  love  for  the  reliques  of  antiquity  and  an 
ardor  in  collecting  and  preserving  the  rude  remains  of  the  past.  He 
repeatedly  urged  the  publication  of  ballads  and  minstrel  songs  and 
declared  that  one  of  his  highest  ambitions  in  making  his  own  collections 
was  to  inspire  others  of  a  like  nature. ^^  He  insisted,  however,  that  these 
collections  should  be  made  scientifically  and  with  absolute  fidelity  to 
originals,  whether  oral  or  written.  But  students  of  popular  poetry  in 
Ritson 's  day  were  not  accustomed  to  apply  a  stern  critical  faculty  or  a 
cold  judgment  to  ballads  and  romances.  To  these  they  preferred  to  apply 
the  test  of  feeling  or  taste.  Percy  gave  the  first  note-worthy  example 
of  this  method  in  the  Reliques;  and  here  again  Ritson  joined  issue  with 
him.  The  critic's  disgust  with  Percy's  manner  of  handling  his  pro- 
fessedly ancient  material  led  him  quite  early  to  question  the  very 
existence  of  the  folio  manuscript.  On  Ritson 's  conduct  in  this  matter 
there  has  been  much  half-informed  writing,^^  and  it  will  not  be  imper- 
tinent to  review  his  comments. 

script  in  an  appendix.  He  remarks  that  this  poem  stands  in  somewhat  the  same 
relation  to  the  ballad  of  the  "Wee  Wee  Man"  as  the  poem  of  Thomas  of  Ercal- 
doune  does  to  the  ballad  of  Thomas  Rymer,  "but  with  the  important  difference 
that  there  is  no  reason  for  deriving  the  ballad  from  the  poem  in  this  instance." 
Op.  Cit,  I,  p.  329. 

^''Scotish  Songs,  I,  p.  Ixxxii.  Ritson  was  always  outspoken  against  the  Ossian 
imposture.     See  especially  Ibid.,  I,  p.  xxii  and  English  Songs,  I,  p.  xxxvi. 

^^See  Prefaces  to  all  the  collections,  especially  Ancient  Songs,  I,  p.  ciii  and 
Scotish  Songs,  I,  p.  cxix. 

29See  Surtees,  History  of  Durham,  III,  p.  193  fif. ;  Dihdin's  Decameron,  111,  p. 
338  ff. ;  and  Park's  notes  to  English  Songs.  Pickford  writes :  "Ritson  denied  the 
existence  of  the  manuscript :  it  is  said  in  order  to  refute  this  charge,  the  fine 
portrait  of  Percy,  painted  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  had,  in  compliance  with  his  own 
request,  the  disputed  manuscript  Folio  placed  in  his  hand,  in  order  to  show  that 


493]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  159 

The  first  published  evidence  of  Eitson's  doubt  as  to  the  existence 
of  the  famous  manuscript  occurs  in  the  Observations  on  Warton,  1782 
(p.  11)  :  "You  say  you  think  you  have  somewhere  seen  a  romance  in  verse, 
entitled,  'The  Turks  and  Gawaine'.  The  Bishop  of  Dromore  says  he 
has  it  in  his  folio  MS.  Did  you  ever  see  THAT?"  This  ironical 
challenge,  in  itself,  simply  implies  doubt  of  Warton 's  having  seen  the 
manuscript,  not  of  its  realit3^  The  next  statement  expresses  doubt,  but 
not  yet  denial  of  its  authenticity.  He  is  commenting,  in  the  Remarks 
on  Shakespeare,  1783  (p.  167),  on  the  "unreasonable  practise"  of  com- 
mentators in  referring  their  readers  to  rare  books  which  it  is  virtually- 
impossible  for  them  ever  to  see.  Percy  has  here  made  reference  to  the 
poem  of  "John  the  Reeve",  and  Ritson  remarks: 

"never  was  this  absurdity  carried  to  such  an  extent  of  mockery  as  it  is  in  the 
present  instance ;  where  the  learned  prelate  very  cooly  orders  us  to  inspect  a  poem, 
only  extant,  as  he  is  well  assured,  and  has  elsewhere  told  us,  in  a  certain  Folio 
MS.  in  his  ozun  possession,  which,  perhaps,  no  one  ever  saiv,  and  which  (if  it 
really  exist)  he  will,  for  his  own  sake,  take  effectual  care  that  no  one  else  shall 
see." 

In  a  second  publication  of  the  year  1783,  Ritson  remarked  with  great 
justice  that  "the  genuineness  of  the  pieces  in  the  Reliques  cannot  be 
properly  investigated  or  determined  without  an  inspection  of  the  original 
manuscript  from  which  they  are  said  to  be  extracted.*"  This  was  one  of 
the  earliest,  if  not  the  very  first,  of  the  demands  upon  Percy  to  publish 
his  manuscript.  But  requests  and  threats  and  demands  were  to  be 
equally  unavailing  for  nearly  a  century. 

Some  time  after  these  attacks  Percy  began  to  exercise  himself  to 
convince  Ritson  of  his  error.  He  asked  J.  C.  Walker,  a  mutual  friend, 
to  undertake  the  task  of  persuading  the  critic  of  the  existence  of  the 
manuscript.  Walker  wrote  to  Ritson  and  told  Percy  that  in  doing  so, 
"I  had  little  more  to  do  than  to  transcribe  your  Lordship's  letter 
changing  as  I  proceeded,  the  second  to  the  first  person."*^  Walker 
was  not  far  wrong  in  his  conjecture  that  he  had  "opened  Ritson 's 
eyes".    The  critic  replied  immediately: 

"As  a  publication  of  uncommon  elegance  and  poetical  merit  I  have  always 
been,  and  still  am,  a  warm  admirer  of  Bishop   Percy's  Reliques,  and  although  I 

it  had  an  actual  existence."  Life  of  Percy  in  Hales  and  Furnivall  edition  of  the 
Folio  manuscript,  I,  p.  xlvii.  The  portrait  here  referred  to  was  painted  in  May, 
1773  (see  the  general  Introduction  of  Hales  and  Furnivall,  p.  liii),  and  Ritson's 
earliest  comment  on  the  manuscript  appeared  late  in  1782. 

■^^English  Songs,  I,  p.  Ixxvi. 

*iSept.  22,  1789,  Nichols,  Lit.  Illust.,  VH,  p.  710.  Percy  took  little  public  notice 
of  Ritson,  but  he  made  numerous  private  efforts  to  turn  aside  the  critic's  shafts. 


160  JOSEPH  RITSON  [494 

have  been  persuaded  that  he  has  not  on  every  occasion  been  so  scrupulously  at- 
tentive to  his  originals  as  I  think  the  work  required,  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  find 
the  idea  unfounded,  and  readily  confess  that  what  you  have  been  so  obliging  as 
to  tell  me  about  the  Folio  MS.  has  in  a  great  measure  removed  my  prejudice  on 
that  head.  The  limits  of  a  letter  will  not  permit  me  to  enter  fully  into  the  dis- 
cussion of  a  question  upon  which  I  believe  a  good  deal  may  be  said.  In  the  course 
of  some  prefatory  matter  to  a  book  which  ought  to  have  come  out  two  or  three 
years  ago,  but  which  I  hope  to  receive  and  have  the  pleasure  of  transmitting  to 
you  in  a  short  time,  you  will  perceive  the  grounds  upon  which  I  have  ventured 
to  doubt  the  authenticity  or  at  least  the  fidelity  of  this  celebrated  publication."*- 

"Walker  at  once  comnmnicated  the  substance  of  this  letter  to  Percy  with 
the  comment:  "Thus  have  I,  without  a  breach  of  confidence,  opened 
Mr.  Ritson's  mind  to  your  Lordship."*^ 

The  publication  to  which  Ritson  referred  in  the  letter  just  quoted 
was  Ancient  Songs  and  Ballads,  1790.  In  the  Preface  he  acknowledged 
his  error:  "The  existence  of  this  MS.,  if  ever  questioned,  is  now  placed 
beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt.  But",  he  significantly  adds,  "it 
appears  to  have  suffered  much  by  ill  usage."  He  cites  a  dozen  poems 
in  which  "the  learned  collector  has  preferred  his  ingenuity  to  his 
fidelity,  without  the  least  intimation  to  the  reader."  From  the  great 
number  of  such  instances  in  the  Reliques  he  concludes  that  "no  con- 
fidence can  be  placed  in  any  of  the  *  old  minstrel  ballads '  inserted  in  that 
collection,  and  not  to  be  found  elsewhere."**  With  perfect  candor  he 
admitted  that  he  had  no  objection  to  Percy's  filling  out  the  defective 
pieces  with  verses  of  his  own ;  but  with  advanced  ideals  of  editing  he 
insisted  that  the  new  should  have  been  clearly  distinguished  from  the 
old.  Percy  defended  many  of  his  errors  by  his  distant  removal  from  the 
press  at  the  time  of  printing,  and  Ritson,  with  his  usual  keenness,  sug- 
gested that  he  "would  perceive  the  justice  of  confining  this  excuse  to 
the  first  edition".*^ 

Percy's  friends  now  became  interested  in  his  defense.  Pinkerton 
outlined  a  statement  of  the  authenticity  of  the  manuscript,  which  was  to 

42Nov.  4,  1789,  Letters,  I,  p.  152. 

43Nov.  7,  1789,  Nichols,  Lit.  Illtist.,  VII,  p.  711.  Later  Percy  accused  Walker 
of  lukewarmness  and  said  his  conduct  reflected  on  his  moral  character.  This  was 
because  Walker  remained  in  the  good  graces  of  Ritson  and  was  mentioned  with 
praise  in  the  Preface  to  Scotish  Songs.  Walker  answered  Percy  that  he  had  con- 
vinced Ritson  of  the  existence  of  the  manuscript  but  was  unable  to  persuade  him 
further  until  he  could,  by  an  inspection  of  the  document,  verify  his  own  conviction 
that  the  Bishop  had  'dropped  no  unacknowledged  flowers'  in  the  Reliques.  Spring, 
1794,  Ibid.,  VII,  p.  725. 

*^*Ancient  Songs,  L  p.  xxix  ff. 

*5Ritson  to  Walker,  January  i,  1790,  Nichols,  Lit.  Illust.,  VII,  p.  725. 


495]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  161 

be  signed  by  a  number  of  prominent  literary  men,  and  he  suggested  that 
the  manuscript  itself  be  deposited  in  a  public  place  for  inspection. 
To  this  Percy  would  not  consent,  exclaiming : 

"This  was  the  very  end  to  which  Mr.  Ritson  had  been  driving.  .  .  .  But 
he  shall  be  disappointed :  the  manuscript  shall  never  be  exposed  to  his  sight  in 
my  lifetime;  and,  as  I  have  no  other  resourse,  I  hope  yet  to  procure  some  re- 
spectable family  name,  that  may  be  generously  interposed  as  a  shield,  before  one 
whom  the  assailant  knows  to  be  incapable,  from  the  peculiarities  of  his  situation, 
of  self-defense."^^ 

The  manuscript  was  accordingly  deposited  for  nearly  a  year  at  the 
house  of  Nicol,  the  printer,  while  the  fourth  edition  of  the  Reliques  was 
passing  through  the  press.  It  was  inspected  by  Barrington,  Cracherode, 
Farmer,  Steevens,  Malone,  and  Reed,  whose  names  are  appealed  to  in  the 
Advertisement  to  that  edition  in  support  of  the  description  of  the  manu- 
script there  given.*^  Of  these  men,  at  least  Steevens,  and  perhaps  others, 
while  convinced  of  the  existence  of  the  manuscript  and  of  its  corre- 
spondence with  the  printed  copy  in  one  or  two  particular  ballads  which 
he  had  examined  carefully,  could  not  be  brought  to  subscribe  to  the 
veracity  of  the  Reliques  as  a  whole.^^  Ritson  himself  had  long  since  given 
over  the  idea  of  denying  the  existence  of  the  manuscript ;  but  Percy  and 
his  friends  continued  to  remark  on  this  point  with  the  apparent  object 
of  drawing  attention  from  the  critic's  more  pertinent  and  less  easily 
answered  objections  to  the  way  in  which  it  had  been  handled. 

In  the  "Dissertation  on  Romance  and  Minstrelsy"  occurs  Ritson 's 
final  judgment  on  the  Reliques.  It  may  be  repeated  that  he  noM'here 
disputes  the  existence  of  the  manuscript  "in  its  present  mutilated  and 
miserable  condition ' ' ;  but  he  still  insists  that  Percy  has  ' '  fairly  and 
honestly  printed  scarcely  one  single  poem,  song,  or  ballad"  from  it.  In 
justification  of  this  judgment,  antithetical  as  it  was  to  the  prevailing 


*^July  28,  1792.  See  the  Literary  Correspondence  of  John  Pinkerton,  2  vols., 
London,  1830.  Contrast  with  the  sentiment  of  the  above  letter  the  assertion  that 
prior  to  Ritson's  attack  Percy  had  intended  to  bequeath  his  Folio  Manuscript  to 
him,  "thinking  as  he  himself  owned,  it  could  not  be  in  better  hands."  Gentle- 
man's Magazine,  Vol.  XCV,  i,  p.  486-8.  The  authenticity  of  this  statement  is  highly 
conjectural. 

^'^Park  is  in  error  in  stating,  English  Songs,  I,  p.  Ixxvi,  note,  that  Ritson  had 
it  in  his  power  to  inspect  the  manuscript  at  this  time.  See  Percy's  declaration  of 
hostility,  above. 

48See  Nares  to  Percy,  Dec.  28,  1804,  Nichols,  Lit.  Illus.,  VII,  pp.  606-7;  and 
British  Critic,  Jan.,  1805. 


162  JOSEPH  RITSON  [496 

opinion,  he  summarized,  in  equally  revolutionary  terms,  his  conception 
of  an  editor's  function. 

"To  correct  the  obvious  errors  of  an  illiterate  transcriber,  to  supply  irreme- 
diable defects,  and  to  make  sense  of  nonsense,  are  certainly  essential  duties  of  an 
editor  of  ancient  poetry,  provided  he  act  with  integrity  and  publicity ;  but  secretly 
to  suppress  the  original  text,  and  insert  his  own  fabrications  for  the  sake  of  pro- 
viding more  refined  entertainment  for  readers  of  taste  and  genius,  is  no  proof 
of  either  judgment,  candor,  or  integrity."*^ 

Then  he  printed  "The  Marriage  of  Sir  Gawaine  ",  placing  the  "amended" 
copy  from  the  first  edition  of  the  Reliques  by  the  side  of  the  "original" 
as  given  in  the  fourth,  designating  by  different  type  Percy's  additions. 
The  contrast  brought  out  by  this  method  was  only  intensified,  and 
Ritson's  generalization  as  to  the  faulty  character  of  the  whole  work  was 
verified,  by  the  Hales  and  Furnivall  edition  of  the  Folio  manuscript 
sixty -five  years  later.  ' '  The  purchasers  and  perusers  of  such  a  collection 
are  deceived  and  imposed  upon",  Ritson  declared;  "the  pleasure  they 
receive  is  derived  from  the  idea  of  antiquity,  which,  in  fact,  is  perfect 
illusion. ' ' 

Percy's  defense  of  his  method  was  that  "the  rudeness  of  the  more 
obsolete  poems",  and  "the  tediousness  of  the  longer  narratives",  must 
be  atoned  for  by  "little  elegant  pieces  of  the  lyric  kind",  in  order  for 
them  to  appeal  to  "a  polished  age  like  the  present. "^°  And  modem 
critics  and  historians  of  literature,  following  his  lead,  declare  with  one 
accord  that  the  plan  pursued  was  the  only  one  which  would  have  insured 
a  kindly  reception  to  these  rude  remains  of  antiquity.  But  Ritson  coun- 
selled thus: 

"If  the  ingenious  editor  had  published  all  his  imperfect  poems  by  correcting 
the  blunders  of  puerility  or  inattention,  and  supplying  the  defects  of  barbarian 
ignorance,  with  proper  distinction  of  type,  it  would  not  only  have  gratified  the 
austerest  antiquary,  but  also  provided  refined  entertainment  for  every  reader  of 
taste  and  genius."^^ 

This  simple  device  seems  not  to  have  suggested  itself  to  any  one  of  the 
critics  of  the  last  century.  They  are  accustomed  to  consider  the  revival 
of  interest  in  popular  poetry,  along  with  other  romantic  manifestations, 
as  largel}^  an  emotional  growth  which  would  have  been  killed,  or  indefi- 
nitely retarded,  by  the  introduction  of  the  purely  intellectual  and  critical. 
But  it  is  at  least  an  open  question  whether  the  mere  distinction  of  type 
suggested  by  Ritson  would  not  have  left  the  immediate  effects  of  the 

^^Metrical  Romances,  I,  p.  70. 
'•"Preface  to  Reliques. 
^"^Metrical  Roiiiatices,  I,  p.  70. 


497  ]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  163 

Beliques  substantially  the  same ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  a 
genuine  ancient  piece  would  have  been  preserved  and  that  the  famous 
and  valuable  Folio  manuscript  would  have  been  given  to  the  world  of 
scholarship  in  its  primitive  state  a  century  earlier  than  it  was." 

The  third  group  of  topics  in  the  prefatory  dissertations  is  Scottish 
poetry  and  history.  Ritson's  point  of  departure  here  was  quite  similar 
to  that  in  the  second  division,  with  the  emphasis  now  upon  Pinkerton 
and  Scotland  rather  than  upon  Percy  and  England.  Again  it  was  the 
detection  of  forgery  and  literary  deception  which  led  him  into  a  thorough 
investigation  of  a  relatively  unexplored  field.  On  the  publication  of 
Pinkerton 's  Select  Scottish  Ballads,  1783,"^  which  professed  to  be  "now 
first  published  from  tradition  in  their  original  perfection ' ',  Ritson  demon- 
strated in  a  letter  to  the  Gentleman's  Magazine/'*  that  "The  laird  of 
Woodhouslie ",  "Lord  Livingston",  "Binnorie",  "The  death  of  Men 
teith",  "I  wish  I  were  where  Helen  lies",  the  second  part  of  "Hardy- 
knute",  and  two  pretended  fragments,  were  "artful  and  impudent 
forgeries".  Although  Pinkerton  was  allowed,  through  the  singular  con- 
duct of  the  editor  of  the  Gentleman's,  to  print  a  denial  of  Ritson 's  charges 
before  the  letter  was  published,  and  although  he  took  counsel  of  friends"'^ 
as  to  how  he  should  dispose  of  his  calumniator,  yet  in  Ancient  Scottish 
Poems,  1786,  he  confessed  the  deception  and  pleaded  for  forgiveness, 
urging  in  extenuation  of  his  guilt,  youth  and  a  laudable  desire  to  please 
the   public.^^     But  with   this  expression   of   penitence   did  not   go  an 

''^It  may  be  asserted  that  a  comparison  of  the  popular  reception  of  the  Reliques 
and  any  one  of  Ritson's  collections  would  be  a  sufficient  test  of  this  argument.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  Percy's  interpolations  and  additions  contributed  greatly  to 
the  popularity  of  his  work.  The  question  is,  would  it  have  been  less  popular  with 
the  new  distinguished  from  the  old  in  some  simple  and  unobtrusive  manner? 
Ritson's  collections  could  never  have  been  such  general  favorites  as  the  Reliques 
because  he  lacked  the  Bishop's  poetic  gift.  Had  either  of  them  possessed  the 
excellencies  of  both,  the  scholar  and  the  general  reader  would  have  been  equally 
served. 

^^Originally,  Scotish  Tragic  Ballads,  London,  1781. 

^*Letter  signed  "Anti-Scot".  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  LIV,  ii,  pp.  312-14. 

"'^Walpole  advised  Pinkerton  to  make  a  firm  denial  of  the  charges  but  by  no 
means  to  display  anger.    Pinkerton's  Correspondence,  I,  p.  87. 

•'''^Ritson  afterward  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  "had  this  letter  never  appeared 
these  contemptible  forgeries  would  have  continued  to  disgrace  the  annals  of  Scotish 
poetry,  till,  at  least,  the  pretence  of  antiquity  had  proved  too  slight  a  buoy  to  sup- 
port the  weight  of  their  intrinsic  dullness."  Scotish  Songs,  I,  p.  Ixxvi,  note.  This 
was  not  the  only  error  of  which  Pinkerton  was  convinced  by  Ritson.  Sept.  4, 
1794,  he  wrote  to  Percy:  "I  must  confess  myself  thoroughly  convinced  that  Min- 
strel only  implied  musician,  and  was  never  used  for  a  bard,  maker,  or  poet;  were 
I  reprinting  any  former  production  in  this  way  I  would  retract  all  my  opinions  to 


164  JOSEPH   RITSON  [498 

altered  conduct  which  should  accompany  a  true  change  of  heart.  He 
continued  to  insert  his  own  productions  in  "ancient"  collections,  mean- 
while making  a  display  of  honesty  by  censuring,  with  poor  grace  indeed, 
other  men  who  had  practised  deception.^^ 

Pinkerton  again  became  involved  with  Ritson  in  1792,  when,  in  his 
Scottish  Poems,  he  printed  an  imperfect  version  of  "Sir  Gavan  and  Sir 
Galeron  of  Galloway".  This  was  from  a  manuscript  of  John  Baynes, 
which  fell  to  Ritson  in  1787.  Pinkerton  requested  permission  to  publish 
it,  but  Ritson  refused  on  the  ground  that  he  intended  to  edit  it  himself. 
In  spite  of  his  promise  that  it  should  not  be  used,  Pinkerton  printed  the 
romance  and  was  scathingly  rebuked  for  his  perfidy  in  a  communication 
to  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  written  hy  Ritson.'^*  Pinkerton  achieved 
his  revenge  for  this  letter  in  a  violently  denunciatory  review  of  Ritson 's 
Scotish  Songs,  in  1795.^^  This  brought  no  public  response  from  Ritson, 
though  he  remarked  to  friends  on  its  "falsehood,  impudence,  and  scur- 
rility."®°  He  said  of  Pinkerton,  as  Dr.  Johnson  of  Goldsmith,  "he  only 
stumbles  on  truth  by  accident";  and  he  considered  it  "a  thousand  pities 
that  John  Pinkerton  had  not  flourished  in  the  age,  and  enjoyed  the 
friendship  of  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  that  he  might  have  certified,  with 
his  sacred  signature,  the  integrity  and  truth  of  the  original  manuscript 
of  that  veracious  historian,  as  he  did  the  no  less  genuine  'Shakspeariana', 
of  William  Ireland."" 

Ritson  "s  attack  was  undoubtedly  intensified  by  Pinkerton  "s  nation- 
ality. To  Scotchmen  he  entertained  an  aversion  as  pronounced  as  that 
of  Dr.  Johnson.  He  lost  no  opportunity  to  satirize  the  Scotch,  although 
he  spent  much  labor  and  money  in  illustrating  the  antiquities  of  the 

the  contrary,  though  often  repeated."  After  suggesting  a  rearrangement  of  Percy's 
Essay  to  distinguish  the  Minstrel  proper  from  the  poets  and  reciters,  he  adds : 
"Even  granting  all  the  passages  cited  in  your  favor,  you  must  contend  against 
hundreds  on  the  opposite  side.  For  a  part,  Ritson's  book  may  be  referred  to." 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  CII,  ii,  p.  125. 

•''"See  his  inconsistent  censure  of  Ramsay  in  Preface  to  Select  Scottish  Bal- 
lads; and  his  abuse  of  those  who  believed  in  the  authenticity  of  "Ossian",  in  his 
Inquiry  into  the  History  of  Scotland  preceding  the  reign  of  Malcolm  ///  or  the 
year  1036,  2  vols.,  London,  1790. 

'**See  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  LXIII,  p.  33.  Ritson  complained  to  Harri- 
son, February  14,  1793,  that  "the  scoundrel  of  an  editor  had  the  impertinence  to 
omit  the  best  part  of  my  letter."  Letters,  II,  p.  10.  A  note  in  Douce's  hand  on 
the  original  manuscript,  now  Douce  324,  Bodleian,  supports  Ritson's  contention 
that  Pinkerton  printed  the  romance  "in  direct  violation  of  his  promise." 

^^Critical  Reviexi.',  January,  1795.  Reprinted  in  The  Letters  of  Joseph  Ritson 
Esq.  to  Mr.  George  Paton,  Edinburgh,  1829. 

^^Letters,  II,  pp.  67,  75. 

^''■The  Life  of  King  Arthur,  p.  xviii,  note. 


499]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  165 

North.  His  letters  abound  in  sarcastic  flings  at  the  Scottish  people,  and 
he  passed  no  occasion  to  sneer  at  thera.''^  His  most  vigorous  pronounce- 
ment on  the  weakness  of  the  Scottish  character  appeared  in  the  "Essay 
on  Scotish  Song".  There  he  sarcastically  proposes  as  a  subject  of  inves- 
tigation for  the  new  Royal  Society,  "Why  the  Scotch  literati  should 
be  more  particularly  addicted  to  literary  imposition  than  those  of  any 
other  country."  That  they  are,  Ritson  does  not  doubt.  He  agrees  with 
Johnson  that  "a  Scotchman  must  be  a  very  sturdy  moralist  who  does 
not  love  Scotland  more  than  truth."  Of  the  love  of  falsehood  rather 
than  of  truth,  he  considers  the  many  literary  impostures  perpetrated  by 
Scotchmen  an  incontrovertible  evidence. 

"The  forgeries  of  Hector  Boethius,  David  Chalmers,  George  Buchanan, 
Thomas  Dempster,  Sir  John  Bruce,  William  Lauder,  Archibald  Bower,  James  Mac- 
pherson,  and  John  Pinkerton,  stamp  a  disgrace  upon  the  national  character,  which 
ages  of  exceptionless  integrity  will  be  required  to  remove:  an  era,  however,  which, 
if  one  may  judge  from  the  detestation  in  which  the  most  infamous  and  despicable 
of  these  imposters  is  universally  held,  has  already  commenced.''^^ 

This  characterization  of  Scotland  as  the  breeding  place  of  literary 
forgeries  and  of  himself  as  the  most  notorious  of  the  malefactors.  Pinker- 
ton  undertook  to  refute  in  the  review  already  noted  of  Scotish  Songs. 
His  argument  is  beside  the  point,  for  his  sole  defense  is  that  other  nations 
have  been  equally  guilty.  That  the  impostures  listed  by  Ritson  were  a 
national  disgrace,  he  could  not  gainsay. 

In  calling  attention  to  the  prevalence  of  literary  deception  in  Scot- 
land, and  in  condemning  Pinkerton  for  his  falsehoods,  Ritson  was  only 
pushing  forward  his  campaign  for  truth  and  candor  in  all  editorial 
dealings.  And  because  it  was  done  with  his  customary  violence  and  lack 
of  restraint,  his  manner  has  attracted  attention  while  his  beneficial  ser- 
vice has  been  ignored.  But  he  was  something  more  than  a  mere  caviller. 
His  strictures  on  faulty  editorial  methods  were  not  without  their  effect 
and  were  of  value  in  proportion  as  they  cleared  the  way  for  critical  and 
scholarly  methods.  A  more  immediately  recognized  service,  because  a 
more  definitely  constructive  work,  was  rendered  in  his  opposition  to 
Pinkerton 's  "Gothic  System"  of  Scottish  history. 

®-Cf.  'T  dread  a  Scotchman  bringing  ancient  verses";  "shoals  of  Scotchmen 
are  arriving  in  London  every  day ;  the  difficulty  I  should  imagine  would  be  to  find 
one  going  back" ;  "either  accuracy  or  integrity  is  pretty  extraordinary  in  a  Scotch- 
man" ;  etc.,  etc.    Letters,  passim. 

^^Scotish  Songs,  I,  p.  Ixiii.  Ritson's  personal  contempt  for  Pinkerton  may- 
have  misled  his  judgment  in  this  last  clause.  Chalmers  wrote  to  Constable,  Oct. 
27,  1803 :  "there  seems  to  be  a  Pinkerton  mania  in  Scotland."  Constable  and  his 
Literary  Corre^ondents,  I,  p.  411. 


166  JOSEPH  RITSON  [500 

Although  the  Scottish  people  had  long  considered  themselves  a  very- 
ancient  nation,  a  true  investigation  of  the  original  sources  of  their  history 
was  slow  in  making  its  appearance.  In  1526  Hector  Boethius,  the  Geof- 
frey of  Scottish  history,  by  embellishing  the  Chronicles  of  Fordun**  and 
Andrew  of  Wyutoun"^  and  adding  a  list  of  fabulous  kings,  manufactured 
an  historical  development  highly  gratifying  to  the  Scots  of  his  and  suc- 
ceeding generations.  Boethius  was  followed  by  Bishop  Lesley,^^  and 
George  Buchanan,"'  both  of  whom  continued  the  list  of  imaginary  kings. 
The  antiquity  of  the  Scots,  and  especially  the  veracity  of  this  kingly 
chronology,  was  attacked  by  Roderic  0 'Flaherty*'^  in  1685,  but  the  first 
considerable  attempt  to  sift  fact  from  tradition  was  that  undertaken 
in  1729  by  the  antiquary.  Father  Thomas  Innes."^  The  service  which 
he  rendered  was  largely  negative.  He  destroyed  about  half  of  the  Scot- 
tish kings  and  winnowed  out  from  the  accepted  history  much  of  the 
trash  of  tradition.  A  further  step  in  this  direction  was  taken  half  a 
century  later  by  Sir  David  Dalrymple,'^"  but  the  works  of  both  these 
men  were  concerned  only  with  the  middle  ages  of  Scottish  history.  This 
left  the  very  ancient  times,  the  real  source  of  all  the  misunderstanding 
of  later  ages,  untouched  so  far  as  critical  treatment  was  concerned. 

The  first  to  undertake  an  elucidation  of  this  ancient  period  was 
Pinkerton.  His  Dissertation  on  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  Scythians 
or  Goths,  being  an  Introduction  to  the  ancient  and  modern  history  of 
Europe,  1787,  presents  in  somewhat  general  form  the  theory  of  the 
origin  of  the  Scottish  people  which  was  developed  more  fully  in  his 
Inquiry  into  the  history  of  Scotland  preceding  the  reign  of  Malcolm 
III.,  or  1056,  including  the  authentic  history  of  that  period,  1790.  Pink- 
erton brought  to  his  task  a  wide  but  not  a  thorough  knowledge  of  me- 
dieval history  and  an  undisguised  contempt  of  other  laborers  in  the 
field.  He  recognized  the  necessity  of  grounding  his  history  on  authentic 
records,  although  not  many  of  them  were  ace  '.sible  to  him  and  he  did 
not  always  use  honestly  those  available.  "With  characteristic  egotism 
he  declared  of  his  Inquiry,  some  time  before  its  publication :     "  It  is  a 

8*John  of  Fordun,  Chronica  Gcntis  Scotoruui,  1384. 

*^''Original  cronykil  of  Scotland,  1406. 

'^^'Hisioria  Scotoruui,  1582. 

^''History  of  the  Picts,  1578. 

^^Ogygia  seu  reruiu  Hibcrnicarum  chroiiologia,  London,  1685. 

*9As  an  appendix  to  his  Critical  Essay  on  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Scotland, 
2  vols.,  London,  1729,  he  pubhshed  some  ancient  chronicles  and  fragments  of  Scot- 
tish history. 

'''^Annals  of  Scotland,  from  the  acccssfion  of  Malcolm  III,  surnamcd  Canmore, 
to  the  accession  of  Robert  I.;  and  Annals  of  Scotland  from  the  accession  of  Robert 
I.,  surnamcd  the  Bruce,  to  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Stuart,  Edinburgh,  1776. 


501  ]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  167 

work  which  will  fix  the  ancient  history  of  my  country  upon  the  firm 
basis  of  ancient  authorities,  that  nothing  can  shake.  Men  of  science 
and  all  lovers  of  truth  I  shall  convince :  as  for  the  rest,  '  si  vulgus  vult 
decipi,  decipiatur'.'''^  His  work  is  ingenious,  but  its  value  was  greatly 
impaired  by  an  unreasoning  aversion  to  the  Celts  and  everything  Celtic, 
and  by  the  adoption  of  an  erroneous  theory  concerning  the  "Fix",  as 
he  persistently  calls  them. 

Pinkerton  classified  the  ancient  peoples  of  Scottish  history  under 
four  divisions:  the  Celts,  Britons,  Picts,  and  Scots.  According  to  his 
theory  the  Goths,  originally  Scythians,  in  the  centuries  before  the  Chris- 
tian era  came  westward  from  the  wilds  of  their  native  country  and 
over-ran  all  northern  Europe,  subduing  the  original  inhabitants  and 
colonizing  the  territory.  About  the  Christian  era  the  Peuki  tribe  of  the 
all-conquering  Goths  went  from  Scandinavia  to  northern  England,  where 
they  conquered  and  all  but  annihilated  the  inferior  Celts.  The  Celts 
were  to  the  other  inhabitants  of  Europe  what  the  savages  of  America 
were  to  the  European  settlers  there;  and  they  remain  to  this  day  "a 
dishonored,  timid,  filthy,  ignorant,  and  degraded  race."  The  Goths 
settled  in  the  Lowlands  of  Scotland  and  were  known  to  the  Romans  as 
Picts.  They  were  subjugated  by  Agricola  but  later  established  a  king- 
dom which  spread  over  all  Scotland.  They  were  never  conquered  but 
were  united  with  the  Scots,  a  Celtic  tribe  from  Ireland,  when  Kenneth 
by  marriage  succeeded  to  the  Pictish  throne  in  503.  After  that  time 
the  Scots  became  insignificant,  only  giving  their  name  to  the  kingdom. 
From  503  to  the  present  day  the  Picts  have  continued  supreme  in  the 
Lowlands.  The  Scottish  vernacular  of  that  section  had  its  origin  in  the 
Teutonic  dialect  spoken  by  the  Picts,  or  early  invading  Goths. 

Pinkerton 's  theory  did  not  go  long  unchallenged.  Ritson  attacked 
the  earlier  statement  of  it  in  a  cursory  fashion  in  the  "Essay  on  Scotish 
Songs".  There  he  only, denied  the  general  hypothesis  without  going 
into  detail  and  charitabl}  -rascribed  to  insanity  Pinkerton 's  treatment  of 
the  Celts  as  a  "medial  race  between  beasts  and  men".  But  he  did  not 
wish  to  let  the  matter  rest  in  this  incomplete  state.  Upon  the  publica- 
tion of  Pinkerton 's  Inquiry  he  was  still  more  strongly  convinced  that 
"a  history  of  the  Celts  by  a  person  of  learning  and  industry  is  much 
wanted."  Knowing  that  John  Lanne  Buchanan  had  undertaken  a  reply 
to  Pinkerton,  Ritson  awaited  the  appearance  of  the  Defense  of  the 
Scots  Highlanders  in  general  and  some  learned  characters  in  particular, 
1794.  But  when  this  work  proved  to  be  what  he  had  anticipated,"  un- 
scholarly  and  inadequate,  he  took  up  the  subject  of  Scottish  history 

'iPinkerton  to  Percy,  Nov.  19,  1785,  in  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  CII,  ii, 
pp.  121-2. 

'-In  anticipation  of  the  publication  of  this  book  Ritson  wrote  to  Paton,  March 


168  JOSEPH  RITSOX  [502 

himself.  From  1795  until  his  death  he  spent  much  time  in  this  field, 
but  the  results  of  his  labor  -were  not  published  during  his  lifetime.  In 
Caledonia,  1807,  George  Chalmers'^  summarized  the  various  systems  of 
Scottish  history  up  to  his  own  day.  He  expressed  his  opposition  to 
Pinkerton's  theory  but  did  not  enter  into  a  scientific  examination  of  the 
evidence.  It  remained  for  Ritson  to  vindicate  the  Celts  and  to  expose 
the  fallacy  of  the  Pictish  origin  of  the  modern  Scottish  dialect,  in  his 
Memoirs  of  the  Celts  and  An7ials  of  the  Caledonians.  He  had  access  to 
a  wider  range  of  ancient  material  than  Pinkerton ;  his  treatment  of  it 
was  scientific;  and  his  results  Avere  corresponding!}^  more  accurate. 
Although  he  could  not  have  anticipated  the  rapid  advance  which  has 
since  been  made  in  ethnological  and  linguistic  science,  yet  he  presented 
a  large  body  of  the  authentic  material  upon  which  modern  theories  are 
based.  The  advance  which  he  made  over  Pinkerton  and  the  degree  of 
his  approach  to  present-day  theories  will  be  revealed  by  a  brief  exami- 
nation of  the  Memoirs  and  Annals. 

Speaking  very  strictly,  it  is  inaccurate  to  say  that  Ritson  had  no 
definite  historical  policy  in  these  volumes.  He  followed  his  usual  method 
of  amassing  and  arranging  in  chronological  order  all  the  historical  refer- 
ences and  poetical  allusions  which  he  could  gather.  But  he  avowedly 
held  a  brief  for  the  Celts,  and  even  though  his  candor  led  him  to  insert 
every  pertinent  reference  to  the  subject  whether  it  favored  the  Celts 
or  not,  3"et  his  footnotes  and  casual  comments  leave  no  doubt  as  to  his 
own  beliefs.  With  an  astonishing  array  of  evidence  from  scores  of  early 
writers  he  traces  the  movements  of  the  Celts  on  the  continent.  Instead 
of  being  an  inferior  and  degraded  race  they  were  for  several  centuries 
before  Christ  the  most  powerful  and  numerous  people  in  Europe.  Event- 
ually conquered  by  the  Romans,  they  became  disintegrated  and  were 
gradually  absorbed  by  the  other  nations.  "People  of  a  Celtic  race  are 
yet  to  be  found  in  Wales,  Ireland,  the  north  of  Scotland,  the  HebrTdes, 

5,  1794:  "Pinkerton's  treatment  of  the  'Celtic  savages'  is  to  be  speedily  resented 
in  print  by  the  Rev.  John  Lane  Buchanan  .  .  .  who  seems  in  fact,  to  be  as 
very  a  Celt  as  his  antagonist  could  possibly  wish  for.  I  am  sorry  to  find  so  good 
a  cause  in  the  hands  of  such  an  incompetent  advocate."    Letters,  II,  p.  46. 

"^Chalmers  was  by  some  thought  to  be  the  author  of  a  review  of  Pinkerton's 
Inquiry  which  appeared  in  the  first  number  of  the  Edinburgh  Review.  Apropos  of 
this  he  wrote  to  Constable,  Oct.  2j,  1803 :  "I  was  surprised  to  learn  from  you 
that  I  should  have  been  considered  by  anj'body  at  Edinburgh  to  be  the  author  of 
the  Vindication  of  the  Celts,  which  is  so  unlike  anything  that  I  ever  wrote.  If  I 
had  written  on  that  subject,  I  would  have  beaten  Pinkerton's  brains  out  in  one 
half  the  space.  Pinkerton's  Goths  is  a  tissue  of  interpolation  and  falsehood,  fiction, 
and  impertinence ;  but  I  have  never  published  anything  upon  the  matter."  Consta- 
ble and  his  Literary  Correspondents,  I,  p.  411. 


503]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  169 

the  Isle  of  Man,  Armorica,  and  in  a  district  of  the  Alps,  called  the  Pais 
de  Vaud."'*  The  primitive  language  of  the  Celts,  dialects  of  which 
were  still  spoken  by  the  people  in  these  districts,  Ritson  said  was  not 
Teutonic,  although  it  bore  evidences  of  relationship  with  Germanic. 
This  was  about  all  that  could  be  said  on  the  subject  before  the  intro- 
duction of  comparative  philology.  Modern  ethnology  has  confirmed 
Ritson 's  thesis  on  the  predominance  of  the  early  Celts  and  has  even 
denominated  the  time  from  the  fifth  to  the  third  century  before  Christ, 
the  "Celtic  period"." 

The  Annals  of  the  Caledonians,  Picts,  and  Scots;  and  of  Strath- 
clyde,  Cumberland,  Galloway,  and  Murray  is  an  attempt  to  give  a  chro- 
nological account  of  the  early  inhabitants  of  Caledonia  from  the  most 
ancient  and  authentic  documents.  The  main  object  of  Ritson 's  labors 
here  was  to  disprove  Pinkerton's  theory  concerning  the  Teutonic  origin 
of  the  Picts  and  the  consequent  influence  of  the  Pictish  tongue  on  the 
modern  lowland  Scottish,  and  at  the  same  time  he  had  opportunity  to 
present  further  evidence  of  the  importance  of  the  Celts.  From  the 
testimony  of  Herodotus,  Caesar,  Tacitus,  Bede,  and  others  it  appears 
that  the  most  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  British  Isles  were  the  Celts,'^® 
who  had  no  doubt  settled  there  in  the  great  Celtic  period.  The  first 
mention  of  the  Picts  is  about  300,  when  they  are  referred  to  by  Caesar, 
Tacitus,  and  others,  as  enemies  to  the  Britons."  Coming  as  they  did 
from  the  continent  to  Ireland  and  thence  to  Caledonia,  Ritson  concluded 
that  they  were  originally  Celts  but  by  long  separation  from  that  branch 
of  the  race  which  had  settled  in  Britain  had  become  a  distinct  nation 
and  made  war  on  their  own  kinsmen.'^  In  449  the  South  Britons  called 
in  the  Saxons  to  aid  them  against  the  Picts  and  Scots,  who  were  driven 
into  the  north.  The  Scots,  originally  Irish,  and  admitted  by  Pinkerton 
to  be  Celts,  contended  Math  the  Picts  against  the  South  Britons.  When 
these  two  nations  were  forced  back  by  the  combined  efforts  of  the  Saxons 
and  Britons  they  fell  to  warring  among  themselves,  with  the  result  that 
the  Picts  were  overcome  and  all  but  annihilated.  This  in  itself  was 
fatal  to  Pinkerton's  Celto-Gothic  system.  By  a  wilful  perversion  of 
history  he  declared  that  it  was  the  Scots  who  were  exterminated.  But 
the  Scots  gave  their  name  to  the  country  and  to  the  language  and  from 
503  are  mentioned  by  historians  with  increasing  frequency,  while  the 

'^Mcmoiri  of  the  Celts,  Preface,  p.  x. 

"•'See  Deniker,  The  Races  of  Man,  2nd  edition,  London,  igoo,  p.  317  fif.  for  a 
statement  of  modern  views  concerning  the  peoples  of  Europe,  especially  the  Celts. 

''^Annals  of  the  Caledonians,  I,  p.  13. 

-■'Ibid.,  I,  p.  71  ff- 

"^Similar  instances  are  not  infrequent  in  the  history  of  the  races  of  men.  See 
Deniker,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  323  ff. 


170  JOSEPH  RITSON  [504 

Picts  are  all  but  forgotten  and  tlieir  dialect  and  racial  characteristics 
are  preserved  only  in  the  northern  islands  and  the  remote  highlands. 
How  the  Scots,  admittedly  an  inferior  race,  should  be  able  permanently 
to  impose  upon  a  people  superior  in  every  way,  their  language,  customs, 
and  institution  must  ever  remain  a  mystery  to  those  who  support  Pink- 
erton's  theory  of  the  Gothic  origin  of  the  Picts. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  phase  of  this  whole  discussion  was 
that  concerning  the  Pictish  influence  on  the  modern  Scottish  dialect  of 
the  Lowlands.  Pinkerton  argued  that  the  Picts  were  Goths  and  hence 
spoke  a  Teutonic  dialect.  He  supported  his  theory  bj-  evidence  from 
history.  Tacitus  said  the  Caledonians  had  a  Germanic  origin.  The 
ancient  Caledonians  were  Picts ;  therefore  the  Picts  spoke  a  Germanic 
dialect.  The  Picts  were  known  to  have  inhabited  the  Lowlands,  and 
there  a  Teutonic  dialect  is  now  spoken  while  there  is  no  evidence  of  any 
other  having  been  prevalent.  Therefore,  he  argued,  the  modern  Scottish 
dialect  of  the  Lowlands  had  its  origin  in  the  language  spoken  by  the 
Picts. 

Pinkerton 's  theory  was  questioned  from  the  beginning,  but  it 
gained  rather  wide  popular  credence  and  did  not  want  the  support  of 
students  of  poetry  and  language.  The  wide-spread  interest  in  the 
Ossianic  and  other  Erse  poetry,  and  in  all  northern  antiquities,  was 
undoubtedly  fostered  by  the  misconception  that  the  Gaelic  people  were 
Teutons  and  their  language  a  dialect  of  Germanic.'^^  James  Sibbald, 
who  published  a  Chronicle  of  Scottish  poetry  from  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury to  the  Union  of  the  Crowns,  1802,  lent  his  support  to  the  general 
theory  outlined  by  Pinkerton.  John  Jamieson,  after  an  extended  review 
of  the  evidence,  in  the  introductory  dissertation  to  his  Etymological 
Dictionary  of  the  Scottish  Language,  1808,  declared  himself  convinced 
that  the  dialect  of  the  Lowland  Scots  was  not  a  daugliter  to  English 
Saxon  but  was  a  sister  language  derived  from  the  Teutonic  speech  of 
the  Picts.  Such  a  theory  as  this  was  possible  only  before  the  science  of 
comparative  philologj^  had  differentiated  the  various  branches  of  the 
Indo-European  family  and  shown  something  of  their  inter-relations. 
It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  Ritson  anticipated  the  conclusions  of 
modern  science  in  his  treatment  of  the  Picts.     These  people,  he  said, 

■^^The  great  vogue  of  the  Ossianic  poems  in  Germany  must  have  been  due  in 
part  at  least  to  this  feeling  of  racial  kinship.  See  Joseph  Texte,  Jcan-Jacqucs 
Rousseau  et  les  origines  du  cosmopolitism e  literaire,  Paris,  1895,  p.  388  ff.  Some 
hint  of  the  importance  of  the  national  spirit  in  the  Romantic  movement  is  given 
by  Farley,  Scandinavian  Influences  in  the  English  Romantic  movement,  1903.  The 
part  plaj-ed  by  ethnological  and  linguistic  theories  in  the  literary  movements  of  the 
late  eighteenth  century  is  an  interesting  problem,  but  it  has  never  been  adequately 
considered. 


505]  PREFATORY  DISSERTATIONS  171 

were  not  Teutons  but  Celts.  Their  language  was  therefore  a  Gaelic 
dialect  and  could  have  had  little  if  any  influence  on  modern  Scottish. 
The  Gaelic,  or  Erse,  was  not  wholly  unintelligible  to  English  speaking 
persons  of  his  day  because  it  was  ultimately  derived  from  the  same 
root  as  the  Saxon  and  would  have  many  characteristics  in  common  with 
it.  Yet  it  was  a  mistake,  he  maintained,  to  attempt  to  apply  this  par- 
allel to  Scottish  and  Saxon.  The  dialect  of  the  Lowlands  was  identical 
with  the  Saxon  spoken  north  of  the  Humber  and  it  was  folly  to  separate 
them.®°  To  Ritson's  astonishing  array  of  historical  evidence  little  of 
incontrovertible  authenticity  has  since  been  added.  The  study  of  phi- 
lology has  resulted  in  the  common  acceptance  of  certain  general  princi- 
ples governing  inter-relations  of  languages.  By  these  Ritson's  theory 
concerning  the  Scottish  and  Pictish  dialects  is  supported.*^ 

Ritson's  whole  treatment  of  the  Scottish  question  was  controversial 
in  nature.  It  was  sometliing  more,  to  be  sure,  but  it  had  its  inception 
in  controversy.  With  all  its  learning  and  wide  reading,  the  "Essay 
on  Scotish  Song"  was  an  unblushing  attempt  to  contradict  Pinkerton. 
Ritson's  various  manuscript  collections  of  Scottish  songs  and  ballads 
were  made  with  the  object  of  teaching  Pinkerton  how  his  work  should 
be  done.  And  the  two  historical  compilations  were  undertaken  with  no 
other  purpose  than  to  correct  the  theories  of  Pinkerton.  A  similar 
thread  of  personal  controversy  runs  through  all  the  discussions  of 
romances  and  minstrelsy.  It  is  unfortunate  for  Ritson's  fame  and  for 
the  permanent  value  of  his  work  that  he  was  so  persistently  the  antago- 
nist. To  his  contemporaries  the  constant  ill-nature  of  his  comments 
overshadowed  everything  else,  and  since  his  death  he  has  been  uniformly 
criticised  for  this  weakness  and  only  sporadically  commended  for  his 
services  to  scholarship.  He  did  much,  however,  that  deserves  praise. 
Disregarding  his  reprehensible  manner,  the  ends  he  attained  were  worth 
striving  for.  He  caused  both  Percy  and  Pinkerton  to  alter  their  methods 
and  undoubtedly  inspired  many  other  editors  to  a  more  faithful  and 
more  scholarly  treatment  of  their  originals.  Besides  this  impulse  to 
correctness,  he  furnished  students  of  old  poetry,  of  ballads  and  ro- 
mances, and  of  Scottish  history  with  a  fund  of  material  from  first 
sources  such  as  had  not  previously  been  assembled. 

8°See  Annals,  especially  I,  p.  25  ff ;  p.  135  ff;  and  II,  p.  25  fif. 

s^W.  F.  Skene  applies  to  Pinkerton's  hypothesis  the  reasoning  of  Ritson,  judged 
in  the  light  of  later  scientific  developments,  but  makes  no  mention  of  the  critic. 
Celtic  Scotland,  2nd  edition,  3  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1886,  I,  p.  196  fif.  James  Ferguson 
has  produced  topographical  and  linguistic  evidence  to  prove  that  the  Celtic  element  in 
the  native  population  of  the  modern  Scotch  Lowlands  is  much  larger  than  is  gen- 
erally believed.  See  "The  Celtic  Element  in  Lowland  Scotland",  Celtic  Review,. 
Vol.  I,  pp.  246-60;  321-32. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

Revolutionary  Traits    Death 

Visit  to  Paris — Interest  in  libraries — Enthusiastic  over  Revolution — Announces 
strong  republican  sympathy — Adopts  republican  forms  in  letters — Professes  to  be 
disciple  of  Paine  and  Rousseau — Fears  for  personal  safety  during  prosecution 
of  Revolutionary  leaders — Becomes  disgusted  with  them — Holcroft  and  Godwin — 
Finally  gives  up  hope  of  English  republic — Religious  views — Discounts  historical 
importance  of  Christianity — Has  no  respect  for  church  or  churchmen — Sneers  at 
religious  sects — An  atheist — No  belief  in  future  existence — Follows  high  ethical 
standard — Spelling  vagaries — Waning  interest  stimulated  by  visit  to  Paris — Nature 
of  suggested  improvements — His  weakness — An  orthographic  mutineer — ^Vegeta- 
rianism— Converts  nephew  and  sister — Abstinence  from  Animal  Food  as'  a  Moral 
Duty — Contents — Contemporary  comments — Illness  increased  by  diet — Pecuniary 
distress — Endeavors  to  insure  life — Apoplectic  strokes — Violent  insanity — Death — 
Burial — Disposition  of  library. 

To  the  casual  observer  the  outstanding  eccentricities  of  Ritson's 
conduct  and  belief  seem  to  have  taken  their  rise  chiefly  in  the  revolu- 
tionary ardor  which  resulted  from  his  visit  to  Paris  in  1791.  But  they 
were  fairly  constant  factors  in  his  life,  and  he  was  only  emboldened  to 
espouse  them  more  vigorously  after  his  foreign  journey.  In  the  early 
days  of  1788  Ritson  was  considering  a  trip  to  Paris  or  Madrid,  "being 
ashamed",  as  he  said,  "to  have  lived  so  long  in  the  world  and  seen  so 
little  of  it."^  Events  in  France,  culminating  in  the  States-General 
and  the  storming  of  the  Bastile,  combined  with  his  own  busy-ness  to 
deter  him  for  more  than  three  years  from  translating  his  thoughts  into 
action.  The  temporary  lull  which  succeeded  the  first  violent  outbursts 
of  popular  feeling  in  France  seemed,  to  the  most  optimistic,  to  indicate 
that  the  Revolution  was  ended.  On  June  9,  1791,  Ritson  wrote  to 
Harrison : 

"My  desire  to  reside  for  a  few  weeks  at  or  near  Paris  has  been  increasing 
ever  since  the  Revolution,  and  is  in  reality  verj^  strong;  which  you  will  readily 
conceive  when  I  give  it  as  a  decided  opinion  that  no  people  ancient  or  -nodern  was 
ever  so  deserving  of  admiration."^ 

^Letters,  1,  p.  132. 
-Ibid.,  I,  p.  193. 

172 


507]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS  DEATH  173 

Shortl}^  after  August  20  of  that  year^  he  set  off  for  Paris  in  company 
with  his  friend  William  Shield.  From  Paris  Shield  proceeded,  with  a 
number  of  agreeable  foreigners,*  by  easy  stages  to  Rome  and  did  not 
return  to  England  till  1792.  Ritson  remained  in  Paris  for  a  couple  of 
months.^  From  his  great  interest  in  literary  and  historical  antiquities 
one  would  expect  him  to  avail  himself  of  this  opportunity  to  visit  the 
splendid  libraries  and  museums  of  Paris.  He  did  improve  this  oppor- 
tunity in  a  way,  for  immediately  upon  his  return  to  London  he  wrote 
to  Harrison : 

"Paris  abounds  with  antiquities,  and  public  monuments,  which  you  would  be 
delighted  to  see.  There  are  three  magnificent  libraries ;  two  of  which  at  least, 
are  infinitely  beyond  either  Bodley's  or  the  Museum,  both  for  printed  books  and 
manuscripts.  When  united  as  they  probably  will  be  in  a  little  time,  they  will 
form  the  first  collection  in  the  world.  All  three  are  open  to  everyone  who  chooses 
to  go,  without  previous  applications  or  any  exceptions.  The  French  read  a  great 
deal,  and  even  the  common  people  (such,  i  mean,  as  cannot  be  expected  from 
their  poverty,  to  have  had  a  favorable  education,  for  there  is  now  no  other  distinc- 
tion of  rank,)  are  better  acquainted  with  their  ancient  history  than  the  English 
nobility  are  with  ours.  They  talk  familiarly  of  Charlechauve,  and  at  St.  Dennis 
i  observed  that  all  the  company,  mostly  peasants  or  mechanics,  recognized  with 
pleasure  the  portrait  of  La  Piicelle."^ 

It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  he  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  laboring 
in  these  institutions,  for  in  his  subsequent  publications  he  made  but 
one  specific  reference  to  the  material  which  came  in  his  way  there.'^ 
This  was  evidently  not  a  business  trip.  He  seems  to  have  made  the 
visit  for  amusement  only,  and  that  he  found  in  an  absorbing  interest 
in  political  events. 

Ritson  arrived  in  Paris  at  a  peculiarly  happy  moment.  The  ill- 
advised  flight  of  the  King  had  been  abruptly  terminated  by  his  enforced 
return  to  Paris  in  July.  After  the  mutterings  of  discontent  with  the 
monarch's  conduct  had  died  away,  attention  centered  mainly  on  the 
new  Constitution.     In  early  September  this  document  was  completed, 

3R.  H.  Legge,  who  wrote  the  life  of  Shield  in  tlie  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  follows  the 
erroneous  statement  in  G.  G.  Cunningham's  History  of  England  in  the  lives  of 
Englishmen,  London,  1853,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  361,  that  this  journey  was  taken  in 
August,  1792. 

*See  Shield's  letters  to  Holcroft,  Holcroft's  Memoirs,  p.  308  ff. 

"'Cunningham  and  Legge  state  that  Ritson  continued  to  Italy,  but  this  is  clearly 
an  error.  Ritson  makes  no  mention  of  any  other  city  than  Paris,  and  Shield  does 
not  refer  to  him  as  a  member  of  the  party  in  the  later  stages  of  the  extended 
journej'.    Ritson  had  certainly  returned  to  London  by  November  26. 

^Letters,  I,  pp.  203-4. 

''In  the  Scots'  College  he  saw  the  testament  and  letters  of  Mary,  Queen  of 
Scots,  "blotted  with  her  tears".    Scotish  Songs,  I,  p.  xlix. 


174  JOSEPH   RITSON  [508 

revised,  and  accepted  by  Louis.  Upon  this  signal  success  of  their  de- 
signs the  populace  became  jubilant,  and  there  were  gala-nights  in  Paris. 
The  sole  topic  of  conversation  seemed  to  be  the  Constitution,  and  the 
people  were  happy,  forgiving,  and  hopeful.^  The  effect  of  this  exuber- 
ance and  enthusiasm  upon  Ritson  is  shown  in  his  correspondence. 
He  says  nothing  of  struggle,  of  lawlessness,  of  bloodshed;  but  he  extols 
the  principles  for  which  the  people  were  fighting  and  praises  in  un- 
measured language  the  new  constitution.  To  Harrison  he  writes,  in  the 
first  letter  after  his  return : 

"Well,  and  so  I  got  to  Paris  at  last;  and  was  highly  gratified  with  the  whole 
of  my  excursion.  I  admire  the  French  more  than  ever.  They  deserve  to  be  free, 
and  they  really  are  so.  You  have  read  their  new  constitution :  can  anything  be 
more  admirable?  We,  who  pretend  to  be  free,  you  know,  have  no  constitution  at 
all.  ...  As  to  modern  politics,  and  the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  one 
would  think  that  half  the  people  in  Paris  had  no  other  employment  than  to  study 
and  talk  about  them.  I  have  seen  a  fishwoman  reading  the  journal  of  the  National 
assembly  to  her  neighbor  who  appeared  to  listen  with  all  the  avidity  of  Shak- 
speare's  blacksmith.  You  may  now  consider  this  government  as  completely  settled, 
and  a  counter-revolution  as  utterly  impossible :  They  are  more  than  a  match  for 
all  the  slaves  in  Europe."^ 

To  another  correspondent  he  writes  in  the  same  strain : 

"My  sentiments  are  and  ever  have  been  so  entirely  correspondent  to  the 
ruling  measures  that  I  had  only  to  rejoice  at  seeing  a  theory  I  had  so  long  admired 
reduced  to  practise.  I  know  that  you  and  I  do  not  exactly  agree  in  our  political 
principles.  Your  creed  if  I  mistake  not,  is  that  a  few  men,  whether  born  with 
boots  and  spurs  or  at  least  who  have  got  them  on,  have  a  right  to  bridle,  saddle 
and  harness  the  rest,  and  ride  or  drive  them  with  as  much  gentleness  or  violence 
as  they  see  occasion ;  and  that  it  is  much  more  advisable  for  the  latter  to  jog  on 
peaceably  and  quietly  than  by  kicking  or  flinging  to  provoke  a  larger  portion  of 
hard  blows  and  hunger.  This  I  believe  is  a  pretty  fair  representation.  .  .  . 
They  order  these  matters  very  differently  in  the  country  I  was  speaking  of,  which, 
owing  to  the  dissemination  and  establishment  of  those  sacred  and  fundamental 
principles  of  liberty  and  equality,  enjoys  a  degree  of  happiness  and  prosperity  to 
which  it  had  hitherto  been  a  stranger  :  but  which  is  merely  typical  of  that  to  which 
it  will  shortly  arrive."^° 

Coming  from  Ritson  this  extravagant  praise  of  democratic  govern- 
ment is  quite  surprising.  When  it  is  recalled  that  he  who  now  states  that 
his  ''sentiments  are  and  ever  have  been  entirely  correspondent  to  the 
ruling  measures"  of  the  French  revolution,  is  the  same,  who,  eleven 
years  before  had  compiled,  and  only  eight  years  earlier  had  revised 

^Carlyle,  History  of  the  French  Revolution,  London,  1898,  Vol.  I,  p.  iQSff- 
^Letters,  I,  p.  203-4. 
^^Ibid.,  I,  pp.  208-9. 


509]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS  DEATH  175 

for  a  second  edition,  the  Tables  of  the  Descent  of  the  Crown,  and  who, 
in  publications  ranging  through  a  decade  had  lost  no  opportunity  to 
condemn  in  violent  language  those  who  under  whatsoever  pretext  had 
sought  to  set  aside  the  "legitimate  and  inviolable  lineal  descent"  to  the 
English  throne,^  ^  there  appears  to  be  a  glaring  inconsistency.  When  it 
is  remembered,  too,  that  he  who  now  declares  with  so  much  confidence 
that  "we  have  no  constitution  at  all",  is  the  same  who,  on  several  occa- 
sions heartily  condemned  the  Revolution  Parliament  with  having  done 
more  to  destroy  the  English  constitution  than  all  other  parliaments 
had  done  to  preserve  it,^-  it  is  still  more  apparent  that  a  radical  change 
of  belief  has  taken  place.  It  is  not  difficult  to  substantiate  Ritson's 
statement  that  he  had  always  admired  the  French  people,  but  his  earlier 
remarks  concerning  them  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  revolutionary 
temper  which  they  later  exhibited.  For  instance,  he  strenuously  denied 
the  validity  of  the  claim  of  Henry  V.  to  the  throne  of  France  and  took 
occasion  to  commend  Joan  of  Arc  and  to  praise  the  ill-starred  Dauphin.'^ 
He  likewise  lauded  the  poetic  ability  and  the  keen  intellectual  quali- 
ties of  the  French.^*  But  none  of  these  comments  can,  without  violence, 
be  adduced  in  support  of  his  praise  of  the  principles  for  which  the 
French  people  struggled  in  the  Revolution. 

It  is  clear  that  Ritson's  political  faith  had  suffered  a  definite  re- 
versal. The  erstwhile  Jacobite  is  now  an  avowed  Jacobin;  the  sometime 
Tory  is  now  a  Whig  of  the  most  liberal  complexion.  He  declared  that 
he  ' '  detested  every  species  of  aristocracy ' ' ;  yet  he  seems  to  waver 
slightly  in  the  advice  he  gives  his  nephew  concerning  the  authority 
of  historians. 

"Always  prefer  Tory  or  Jacobite  writers",  he  says,  "the  Whigs  are  the 
greatest  liars  in  the  world.  You  consult  history  for  facts,  not  principles.  The 
Whigs,  I  allow,  have  the  advantage  in  the  latter,  and  this  advantage  they  are 
constantly  laboring  to  support  by  a  misrepresentation  of  the  former."i^ 

But  this  is  only  his  historical  judgment  asserting  itself  in  the  midst 
of  enthusiasm.  The  critical  temper  which  served  admirably  in  all  his 
literary  labors  did  not  entirely  desert  him  in  his  political  zeal.  By  its 
aid  he  discovered  the  unworthy  motives  of  many  of  the  republican 
leaders  in  his  own  country.  But  this  was  after  he  had  joined  their 
ranks  and  had  been  for  some  time  associated  with  them. 

i^See  Remarks,  pp.  84,  137,  188,  etc. 
^-Ibid.,  p.  124;  English  Songs,  I,  p.  Ixxxii. 
^^'Reinarks,  p.  104;  Preface  to  Ancient  Songs. 
^■*See  Prefaces  to  English  Songs  and  Ancient  Songs. 
^''Letters,  II,  p.  121. 


176  JOSEPH  RITSON  [510 

The  spirit  of  the  revolutionists  had  a  firm  grip  upon  Ritson.  Al- 
most immediately  upon  his  return  to  England  he  began  addressing  his 
intimate  friends  as  "Citizen"  and  used  the  complimentary  close  of  the 
republicans  in  most  of  his  letters.  Early  in  1793  he  adopted  the  new 
republican  calendar  and  struggled  for  some  months  to  become  perfect 
in  its  use.  At  the  same  time  he  declared  himself  a  disciple  of  the  lead- 
ing philosophers  of  the  Revolution  and  adorned  the  walls  of  his  chamber 
with  portraits  of  Paine,  Rousseau,  and  Voltaire.  He  realized  that  this 
was  not  a  step  in  the  direction  of  popularity,  for  on  sending  hiegalite 
des  hommes  to  his  nephew,  he  remarked: 

"The  excellent  author  looks  down  upon  me ;  on  the  other  side  of  the  fireplace 
hangs  the  sarcastic  Voltaire ;  while  the  enlightened  and  enlightening  Thomas  fronts 
the  door :  which  is  probably  the  reason,  by  the  way,  that  scarce  anybody  has  entered 
it  since  he  made  his  appearance."^'' 

During  this  period  he  renewed  his  friendship  with  Holcroft^"  and  sought 
the  acquaintance  of  Godwin,  Thelwall,  and  other  Revolutionary  leaders 
in  England.  He  visited  freely  with  these  men  and  followed  their  po- 
litical fortunes  very  closely.^*  He  advised  his  nephew  to  become  familiar 
with  their  writings,  which  contained  "much  deep  and  just  reflection  as 
well  as  excellent  writing."  And  he  himself  commented  frequently  on 
their  publications  as  well  as  on  their  political  ups  and  downs.^'' 

The  first  few  years  after  Ritson's  return  from  Paris  were,  to  use 
his  own  words,  ticklish  times  for  the  advocates  of  Liberty  and  Equality 
in  England.  Thomas  Hardy  founded  "The  London  Corresponding 
Society"  in  January,  1792.  In  September  the  Society  sent  a  congratu- 
latory address  to  the  National  Convention  of  France  and  before 
the  end  of  the  year  was  in  correspondence  "with  every  Society  in  Great 
Britain  which  had  been  instituted  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  by  legal 
and  constitutional  means  a  reform  in  the  Commons'  house  of  Parlia- 
ment."^*^ The  rapid  increase  of  the  corresponding  societies  and  their 
unconcealed  intercourse  with  the  republican  leaders  in  France  caused 
the  Government  to  adopt  stringent  measures  to  suppress  or  exterminate 
them.  The  cooperation  of  Home  Tooke's  "Society  for  Constitutional 
Information ",21  and  John  Thelwall 's  "Society  of  the  Friends  of  the 

^^Ibid.,  II,  p.  39- 

^''Sidney  Lee,  in  the  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  implies  that  Ritson  first  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Holcroft  at  this  time,  but  he  knew  him  at  Stockton. 

''■^Letters,  II,  p.  34;  Holcroft's  Memoirs;  C.  K.  Paul's  Williain  Godwin,  his 
friends  and  contemporaries,  2  vols.,  London,  1876,  Vol.  I,  p.  78. 

^^Letters,  II,  p.  49,  86,  112. 

^^Memoir  of  Thomas  Hardy,  London,  1832,  p.  24. 

2iSee  Alexander  Stephens,  The  Life  of  John  Home  Tooke,  London,  1813. 


511]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS  DEATH  177 

People"--  with  Hardy's  organization  resulted  in  the  arrest  of  all  the 
leaders  in  the  summer  of  1794.  On  October  5  true  bills  were  returned 
against  them  and  eight  others.  On  October  28  Hardy's  trial  was  begun 
amid  great  excitement.  His  acquittal,  on  November  5,  was  followed 
within  a  month  by  those  of  Home  Tooke  and  Thelwall.  The  Govern- 
ment 's  case  was  so  weak  that  the  rest  of  the  defendants  were  discharged 
without  trial,  to  the  great  delight  of  the  people  and  the  extreme  relief 
of  many  members  of  the  Societies  who  felt  themselves  to  be  under  the 
surveillance  of  spies.-^ 

Ritson  followed  these  trials  with  a  great  deal  of  interest,  for  his 
own  strong  sympathy  with  the  defendants  was  known  among  his 
friends,  and  he  well  knew  that  one  might  be  arrested  on  suspicion  engen- 
dered by  such  sympathy.  It  seemed  to  be  the  custom  of  the  government, 
he  said,  to  suspect  a  man  of  Jacobinism  and  hang  him  for  felony  in  order 
to  be  rid  of  him.-*  He  was  careful  to  write  nothing  that  would  incrimi- 
nate him-^  and  declared  that  he  talked  politics  as  little  as  possible,  '4n 
order  to  avoid  Newgate, '  '-^  yet  he  seems  not  to  have  felt  perfectly  secure 
until  after  the  Government  had  failed  in  two  attempts  at  conviction.  At 
the  acquittal  of  Home  Tooke  he  breathed  a  sigh  of  relief  and  remarked 
that  the  storm  had  now  blown  over,  and  he  considered  himself  safe.-^ 
The  success  of  the  Revolutionists  in  their  first  encounter  with  the  Gov- 
ernment gave  them  a  great  deal  of  confidence  in  the  justice  of  their 
cause  and,  as  is  not  unusual  in  such  cases,  they  almost  immediately  de- 
stroyed the  confidence  of  unprejudiced  persons  by  extravagances  and 
inconsistency.  "Their  constant  cant"  says  Ritson,  "is  the  force  and 
energy  of  mind  to  which  all  opposition  is  to  be  ineffectual."-^  They  de- 
clared that  no  member  of  their  Society  under  suspicion  should  have 
hired  defense  at  his  trial  but  should  depend  upon  his  own  eloquence  and 
the  undoubted  justice  of  his  case.  While  the  leaders  were  perfectly 
willing  to  endorse  this  rule  as  an  abstract  principle,  yet  when  their  own 
safety  was  in  jeopardy  they  exerted  every  effort  to  secure  the  best  legal 

22See  The  Life  of  John  Thelwall,  London,  1837. 

23See  J.  Smith,  The  Story  of  the  English  Jacobins,  London,  1881,  and  Howell's 
State  Trials,  London,  1816-28,  Vols.  XXIII-XXIV. 

-^Letters,  II,  p.  103. 

250n  March  5,  1794,  he  addressed  Laing  as  "My  friend"  and  explained  the 
salutation  thus :  "I  do  not  call  you  Citizen,  lest,  when  I  revisit  your  metropolis,  your 
scoundrel  judges  should  send  me  for  fourteen  years  to  Botany  Bay;  only  I  am  in 
good  hopes,  before  that  event  takes  place,  they  will  all  be  sent  to  the  devil".  Ibid., 
II,  p.  47- 

-^Ibid.,  II,  p.  7- 

^-'Ibid.,  II,  p.  57- 

-»Ibid.,  II,  p.  69. 


178  JOSEPH  RITSON  [512 

talent  in  their  behalf.  Although  it  was  Ritson  's  own  theory  that  the  inno- 
cent need  no  hired  defense  at  the  criminal  bar,  yet  he  was  extremely 
disgusted  at  the  inconsistency  of  some  of  the  Revolutionists  and  con- 
demned their  selfishness.  "Mister  Yorke,  (for  a  culprit  in  a  black  silk 
coat  does  not  appear  to  deserve  the  title  of  citizen)  "-^  was  one  of  the 
worst  offenders.  Upon  his  arrest  in  1795  he  sent  out  a  popular  appeal 
for  funds  to  aid  in  his  defense,  preferring  to  keep  his  own  fortune  intact. 
This  form  of  mendicancy  Ritson  especially  abominated,  and  he  was  de- 
lighted that  Yorke  was  sentenced  to  a  fine  and  imprisonment  in  spite  of 
all  his  trouble.^" 

The  dissatisfaction  with  the  republican  leaders  registered  in  these 
comments  of  Ritson  soon  ripened  into  thorough  disgust.  He  considered 
them  not  only  inconsistent  but  insincere.  "To  confess  the  truth",  he 
said,  "the  more  I  see  of  these  modern  patriots  and  philosophers  the  less 
I  like  them."  Holcroft  and  Godwin  fell  under  his  particular  censure: 
the  former  for  his  over- weening  egotism ;  the  latter  for  the  want  of 
courage  to  face  the  full  consequences  of  the  practical  application  of  his 
philosophy.  Holcroft  regretted  keenly  that  he  had  not  been  allowed  to 
display  his  oratorical  talents  at  his  trial  and  declared  that  he  would 
gladly  have  given  one  of  his  hands  for  the  opportunity  of  making  his  own 
defense;  "which",  Ritson  remarked,  "would  certainly  have  hanged  him, 
however  favorable  his  judges  might  have  been  beforehand.  "^^  Godwin 
was  ridiculed  for  recognizing  the  authority  of  an  institution  which  he 
professed  to  hold  in  contempt  by  having  his  marriage  with  Mary  Woll- 
stonecraft  sanctioned  by  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  England.'^- 
Ritson  's  quarrel  with  Godwin  over  the  loan  of  books  and  money  no  doubt 
intensified  his  bitterness.  On  January  16,  1801,  he  wrote  to  the  phil- 
osopher: "I  wish  you  would  make  it  convenient  to  return  me  the  thirty 
pounds  I  lent  you."  Godwin  was  unable  to  repay  the  money,  but  he 
sent  a  copy  of  his  tragedy,  which  he  hoped  would  please  Ritson.  The 
critic  replied  in  surly  tones : 

"Though  you  have  not  ability  to  repay  the  money  I  lent,  you  might  have 
integrity  enough  to  return  the  books  you  borrowed.  ...  I  never  received  a 
copy  of  your  unfortunate  tragedy:  nor,  from  the  fate  it  experienced,  and  the 
character  I  have  read  and  heard  of  it,  can  I  profess  myself  very  anxious  for  its 
perusal." 

But  the  unctuous  Godwin  was  not  in  the  least  disturbed  by  the  conse- 
quences of  Ritson 's  "transient  misapprehension",  and  by  repaying  a 

~^Ibid.,  IL  p.  96. 

•'oHowell,  Op.  Cit,  Vol.  XXV,  p.  1154. 

^^Letters,  II,  p.  63. 

^-Ibid.,  II,  p.  154. 


513]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS  DEATH  179 

few  pounds  of  the  loan,  and  by  the  discreet  employment  of  flattery 
succeeded  in  drawing  from  hira  a  half-hearted  apology."*^ 

But  even  though  Ritson  became  disgusted  with  the  methods  em- 
ployed by  the  Revolutionary  leaders  in  England,  he  continued  until  near 
his  death  to  hope  for  a  transplanting  of  the  French  spirit  to  his  own 
country.  Upon  his  return  from  France  he  was  anxious  that  the  English 
people  should  enjoy  a  degree  of  freedom  equal  to  that  of  the  French. 
This  end  could  be  gained  only  by  a  revolution,  and  he  thought  the  up- 
heaval would  be  sudden  and  violent.  The  work  of  the  Corresponding 
Societies  and  of  the  republican  orators  had  its  effect,  but  he  looked  to 
dissatisfaction  with  economic  conditions  for  the  real  source  of  a  popular 
uprising.    In  1793  he  wrote : 

"With  respect  to  a  revolution,  though  I  think  it  at  no  great  distance,  it 
seems  to  defy  all  calculations  for  the  present.  If  the  increase  of  taxes,  the  decline 
of  manufacture,  the  high  price  of  provisions,  and  the  like,  have  no  effect  upon 
the  apathy  of  the  sans  culottes  here,  one  can  expect  little  from  the  reasoning  of 
philosophers  or  politicians.  When  the  pot  boils  violently,  however,  it  is  not  always 
in  the  Cook's  power  to  prevent  some  of  the  fat  from  falling  into  the  fire.""'* 

He  continued  for  some  time  to  hope  that  the  English  people  would  work 
out  their  own  salvation,  but  with  the  progress  of  hostilities  between 
the  French  republic  and  Holland,  and  between  England  and  Spain,  he 
looked  forward  to  a  French  invasion  which  would  establish  the  ideal 
government  on  the  island.  Everything,  he  said,  was  to  be  hoped  from 
the  success  of  the  French  in  Holland,  nothing  without  it.  After  nearly 
a  decade  of  waiting,  in  "momentary  expectation  of  the  French  fleet", 
he  abandoned  hope  of  any  great  assistance  from  the  continent.  The 
republicans  were  already  proving  themselves  unworthy  of  the  high  con- 
fidence he  had  placed  in  them,  and  with  the  change  of  the  English 
ministry  in  1801  he  prayed  for  a  "settled  and  permanent  peace ".'"^ 

It  has  been  stated  in  Chambers's  Book  of  Days^^  and  in  the  Diction- 
ary of  National  Biography  that  Ritson's  admiration  for  the  heroes  of  the 
French  Revolution  led  him  to  adopt  their  atheistic  religious  views.  But 
it  is  apparent  from  a  survey  of  his  letters  and  publications  that,  while  his 
visit  to  France  and  his  subsequent  interest  in  the  leaders  of  the  Revolu- 
tion undoubtedly  intensified  his  animosity  to  orthodox  religion,  they 
were  not  the  source  of  it.  From  the  time  of  his  earliest  book,  which 
appeared  nine  years  before  his  foreign  visit,  he  was  outspoken  in  con- 
demnation of  the  Bible,  the  church,  and  all  religious  sects.    There  is  no 

33C.  K.  Paul,  Op.  Cit,  II,  p.  6i  ff. 
'•'■^Letters,  II,  pp.  2^,  42. 
^'^Ihid.,  II.  pp.  63,  128,  182,  205. 

36V0l.    II,   p.   406. 


180  JOSEPH   RITSON  [514: 

evidence  of  religious  training  in  his  early  life,  and  he  seems  to  have 
brought  to  his  work  a  deep-seated  aversion  to  all  organized  faiths.  In 
his  prefatory  dissertations  he  made  frequent  and  always  disparaging 
allusions  to  the  historical  importance  of  Christianity.  It  was  his  declared 
opinion  that  the  christianizing  of  the  Saxons  was  their  undoing,  and  he 
dated  the  "perversion  of  true  history"  from  the  time  when  it  began  to 
be  written  by  monks,  and  the  ''disgrace  of  English  literature"  from  the 
age  in  which  the  legends  of  the  Christian  saints  were  believed  and 
promulgated. 

"While  the  Saxons  continued  pagans",  he  writes,  "they  were  unquestionably 
a  brave  and  warlike  nation;  but  upon  their  conversion  to  Christianity  their  kings 
became  monks,  the  people  cowards  and  slaves,  unable  to  defend  themselves,  and  a 
prey  to  every  invader/'^^ 

Elsewhere  he  asked  what  advantages  the  Saxons  had  gained,  how  much 
their  understanding  had  been  enlightened,  or  how  much  their  morals 
had  been  improved,  to  counterbalance  the  destruction  of  their  national 
genius  and  spirit  as  a  result  of  their  accepting  the  Christian  faith. ^^ 
According  to  his  theory  the  origin  of  romance  was  to  be  sought 

"in  the  different  systems  of  superstition  which  have  from  time  to  time  pre- 
vailed, whether  pagan  or  Christian.  The  gods  of  the  ancient  heathens  and  the 
saints  of  the  more  modern  Christians,  are  the  same  sort  of  imaginary  beings  who 
alternately  give  existence  to  romances,  and  receive  it  from  them.  The  legends 
of  the  one  and  the  fables  of  the  other,  have  been  constantly  fabricated  for  the 
same  purpose,  and  with  the  same  view — the  promotion  of  fanaticism,  which,  being 
mere  illusion,  can  only  be  excited  or  supported  by  romance.  .  .  .  There  is  this 
distinction  indeed,  between  the  heathen  deities  and  the  Christian  saints,  that  the 
fables  of  the  former  were  indebted  for  their  existence  to  the  flowery  imagination 
of  the  sublime  poet,  and  the  legends  of  the  latter  to  the  gloomy  fanaticism  of  a  lazy 
monk  or  stinking  priest."^^ 

Closely  enwrapped  in  this  scorn  for  the  historical  prestige  of  the 
church  was  a  contemptuous  disrespect  for  its  ministers,  both  medieval 
and  modern.  "A  piper",  he  exclaimed,  "is  preferable  to  a  parson".*" 
He  thought  it  because  of  the  "malicious  endeavors  of  pitiful  monks,  by 
whom  history  was  consecrated  to  the  crimes  and  follies  of  titled  ruffians 
and  sainted  idiots",  that  the  "patriotic  exertions  and  virtuous  acts"  of 

^'Metrical  Romances,  I,  p.  ;i3. 

^^Englisli  Songs,  I,  pp.  xlvii,  Iviii,  etc.  In  one  of  tlie  cancelled  passages  in 
Metrical  Romances,  he  declared  the  Saxons  would  have  been  better  off  if  they  had 
never  had  a  Bible  to  read.     See  Appendix  B. 

^^Met.  Rams.,  I,  p.  19. 

*'^lbid.,  I,  p.  109. 


515]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS  DEATH  181 

Robin  Hood  had  not  been  recorded  for  the  edification  of  posterity.*^  But 
the  crimes  of  the  early  churchmen  were  not  merely  negative.  In  the 
distorted  vision  of  this  hypochondriac  critic  they  had  fathered  upon 
Eiiglisli  history  and  literature  an  incubus  from  which  they  had  struggled 
in  vain  to  free  themselves.    He  writes : 

"The  forgery  and  fabrication  of  lying  legends,  of  James  the  son  of  Zebedee, 
Simon  Zealot^  Simon  Peter  and  Saint  Paul  .  .  .  and  many  more  such  nonenti- 
ties, all  forgery  and  falsehood,  have  been  greedily  swallowed  up  .  .  .  to  the 
pollution  of  true  history  and  the  everlasting  disgrace  of  English  literature. "*2 

With  the  churchmen  of  his  own  day  he  was  no  less  unreasonable.  If 
his  indefensible  violence  towards  Percy  and  Warton  was  not  intensified 
by  their  connection  with  the  church,  at  least  his  sneering  allusions  to 
their  ecclesiastical  position  would  make  such  a  deduction  almost  inevit- 
able.^^ He  took  no  pains  to  save  their  moral  feelings  but  seemed  rather 
to  embrace  every  opportunity  to  expose  what  he  considered  an  incon- 
sistency between  their  religious  profession  and  their  literary  practice,^* 

For  the  church  as  an  historical  institution  Ritson  professed  no 
respect,  and  he  had  only  jeers  for  the  various  religious  sects.  He  spoke 
with  fluency  of  "Calvanistic  bigotry"/^  of  the  "fanatical  puritans", 
and  of  "those  modern  puritans,  the  methodists".*"  Concerning  his 
nephew's  early  training  he  wrote  to  Wadeson: 

"I  know  not  whence  you  collect  any  intention  in  me  of  making  him  a  papist, 
unless  you  suppose  that  papacy  and  fiddling  necessarily  go  together.  I  shall  rely 
on  your  care  in  preventing  his  mother's  making  a  methodist  of  him :  but  must 
insist  that  you  do  not  attempt  to  make  him  a  presbyterian,  which,  if  there  be  any 
difference  in  such  sectarists,  is  the  worst  among  them."*^ 

He  thought  his  sister's  long  illness  was  only  a  religious  melancholy  and 
severely  reprimanded  his  nephew  for  joining  the  "gang  of  methodists" 
who  intensified  her  complaint  by  singing  and  praying.*^  It  was  his 
earnest  wish  that  there  should  be  no  singing  of  hymns  at  his  sister's 
funeral  and  no  clergyman  pjresent  at  his  own  burial. 

'^''■Robiii  Hood,  I,  pp.  xv,  viv. 

*-King  Arthur,  p.    126. 

*'^This  was  the  point  of  view  taken  by  his  contemporaries  and  emphasized  in  all 
the  Rcvicivs.  Percy  laid  much  stress  on  this  point  in  correspondence  concerning 
Ritson. 

■^^His  satirization  of  the  religious  comments  of  Johnson  and  Steevens  will  be 
recalled  in  this  connection. 

*''Ancient  Songs,  I,  p.  xxvii. 

*^'Ibid.,  I,  p.  Ixxviii ;  Scotish  Songs,  I,  p.  cii;  Letters,  I,  p.  100. 

^'Letters,  I,  p.  24. 

*^Ibid.,  I,  p.  loi. 


182  JOSEPH   RITSON  [516 

After  such  an  array  of  testimony  concerning  Ritson's  position  with 
regard  to  the  church  and  churchmen,  there  can  be  little  question  as  to 
his  personal  beliefs.  Although  there  appears  nowhere  in  his  published 
works  or  in  the  extant  correspondence  an  explicit  statement  on  the  point, 
he  owned  no  belief  in  a  supreme  being  and  was  undoubtedly  an  atheist. 
Robert  Smith,  who  was  perhaps  as  intimate  with  Ritson  as  any  member 
of  the  Inn,  declared  that  he  did  not  think  him  an  atheist.  But  his  reas- 
oning is  by  no  means  convincing.  If  he  were  an  atheist,  he  said,  "why 
should  he  send  up  ejaculations  to  God,  or  talk  of  the  Devil  tormenting 
people  whom  he  believed  had  used  him  very  ill?"*^  Ritson,  himself,  would 
have  called  these  expressions  simply  foolish  and  unmeaning  oaths  which 
were  neither  wicked  nor  criminal.^"  On  the  other  hand,  Mrs.  Kirby,  who 
had  known  Ritson  from  his  youth  up,  said  he  certainly  was  an  atheist, 
for  he  had  often  declared  himself  such  to  her. 

"He  did  not  believe  there  was  any  such  being  as  Almighty  God,  or  that  there 
was  any  future  state  of  rewards  or  punishment,  and  the  greatest  devil  he  knew 
was  a  nasty,  crabl)ed,  ill-natured  old  woman."^^ 

This  statement,  in  itself,  is  not,  of  course,  conclusive  evidence  of  Ritson's 
atheism,  but  it  fits  in  perfectly  with  the  general  character  of  his  remarks 
on  religion  and  with  the  opinion  held  by  him  by  his  contemporaries.^- 

On  the  question  of  belief  in  a  future  state  Ritson  was  more  specific. 
In  the  first  year  of  the  nineteenth  century  he  wrote  to  his  ' '  worthy,  ven- 
erable, and  very  dear  friend,"  Harrison,  congratulating  him  on  his  long 
life,  and  in  that  letter  remarked : 

"You  know  my  sentiments  with  regard  to  other  worlds,  which  I  believe,  are 
not  likely  to  change.  My  health  is  much  impaired,  my  frame  disordered,  and  my 
spirits  depressed;  so  that  I  have  no  hopes  for  myself  of  an  eternal  existence:  and 
am  rather,  in  fact,  disposed  to  wonder  that  I  have  lived  so  long;  having  had  the 
mortification  to  see  many  whom  I  loved  and  esteemed  drop  from  time  to  time 
around  me  at  a  much  more  immature  age."^^ 

Although  he  could  at  times  write  in  this  calm  and  dispassionate  manner, 

49Appendix  A. 

^•^See  Appendix  B. 

^'lAppendix  A.  Mrs.  Kirby  likewise  maintained  that  Ritson  played  the  hypocrite 
in  taking  the  oaths  of  allegiance,  supremacy,  and  abjuration  on  his  admission  to  the 
bar.  If  he  thought  of  the  significance  of  these  oaths  at  all,  Ritson  probably  consid- 
ered them  as  a  mere  form  to  be  gone  through  with  in  order  to  reach  his  goal. 

s^See  the  reviews  of  any  of  the  publications  which  contain  essays.  Haslewood, 
Op.  Cit.,  p.  3,  note,  states  that  a  letter  was  written  to  a  person  then  living  (1824) 
declaring  his  poignant  regret,  even  to  tearfulness,  that  it  had  been  his  misfortune 
to  live  an  unbeliever. 

^^Letters,  II,  p.  205. 


517]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS  DEATH  183 

there  were  occasions  when  he  viewed  life,  and  perhaps  death,  less 
steadily.  His  illness  resulted,  at  the  end  of  his  life,  in  frequent  mental 
aberrations.  In  these  last  days  he  devoted  his  energy  to  an  attempt  to 
prove  Christ  an  impostor.  This  pamphlet  was  never  finished.  It  was 
laid  aside  a  short  time  before  he  was  permanently  bereft  of  reason,  and  the 
sheets  already  written  were  destroyed  in  the  flames.  The  religiously 
inclined  of  his  own  day  believed  that  remorse  had  seized  him  and  that 
by  the  hand  of  Providence  he  was  arrested  in  this  final  sacreligious 
undertaking.^* 

A  consideration  of  Ritson's  destructive  comments  affords  an  accurate 
but  not  an  adequate  view  of  his  principles :  accurate  because  it  reveals 
his  attitude  toward  religious  affairs ;  inadequate  because  it  does  not 
include  his  ethical  creed.  He  was  a  man  of  uncompromising  moral 
integrity.  His  insistence  on  fidelity  and  honesty  in  editorial  labors 
is  well  known.  To  deceive,  to  simulate,  to  shirk  one 's  duty,  was  to  incur 
his  wrath.  And  this  had  to  do  not  only  with  literary  matters ;  he  held 
the  same  standards  for  every  activity  of  life.  In  his  letters  of  counsel 
to  his  nephew  he  emphasized  right  and  honest  action.  On  one  occasion 
he  wrote  to  Frank,  then  a  mere  boy : 

"Never  hesitate  between  a  beggar  and  a  half-penny  worth  of  nuts.  I  know 
not  whether  by  adopting  this  maxim  j'ou  may  (as  the  Scripture  says)  'lay  up 
treasures  in  heaven',  but  this  I  am  sure  of,  that  the  relish  of  a  good  action  will 
continue  longer  and  be  a  thousand  times  more  grateful  than  that  of  an  apple. "■''•'' 

From  the  very  first  his  philosophy  was  grounded  on  humanitarian  prin- 
ciples. After  enumerating  various  inhuman  practises,  he  admonishes 
his  youthful  nephew  thus : 

"All  these  you  ought  to  detest  and  abhor ;  and,  by  following  the  contrary 
and  opposite  paths  of  Reason  and  Virture,  you  will  obtain,  or  what  is  the  same 
thing,  deserve  the  love  and  esteem  of  everyone  who  knows  you ;  and  if  they  do 
not  make  you  a  great  man,  they  will  at  least  make  you  a  good  one  which  is  a 
much  superior,  and  far  more  excellent  character."^^ 

Reason  and  virtue  are  not  clearly  defined,  but  Ritson's  test  of  the 
reasonableness  of  an  act,  and  so  of  its  rightness  or  wrongness,  w^as  its 
utility.  "What  is  right  or  wrong  but  that  which  is  useful  or  per- 
nicious?" he  askes  late  in  life;  "is  there  any  other  criterion ? "^^     His 


"^^See  Selby's  letters,  Appendix  A. 
^''Letters,  I.  p.  64. 
■'^Ibid.,  I,  p.  21. 
^'•Ibid.,  II,  p.  90. 


184  JOSEPH   RITSON  [518 

acceptance  of  Reason^^  as  the  guide  of  conduct  allied  him  with  the  Revo- 
lutionary leaders  and  cut  him  off  effectually  from  the  disciples  of  revealed 
religion.  With  undoubted  sincerity  he  lived  the  present  life  according  to 
what  he  considered  the  most  exalted  standards,  and  if,  with  this,  he  had 
not  the  consolation  of  a  future  existence,  he  deserves  rather  the  commiser- 
ation than  the  condemnation  and  ridicule  of  those  who  consider  themselves 
more  fortunate. 

The  new  enthusiasm  engendered  by  Ritson's  visit  to  Paris  operated 
to  revive  his  waning  interest  in  orthographical  reform.  In  his  early 
publications,  especially  the  Versees,  English  So)igs,  and  the  Shakespeare 
pamphlets,  he  had  undertaken  to  reform  the  English  language  by  sys- 
tematizing its  spelling.  The  full  extent  of  his  system  is  not  known.  As 
far  as  he  developed  it,  it  consisted  in  discarding  the  capital  I  when 
not  at  the  beginning  of  a  sentence  and  in  giving  all  words  ending  in  e 
their  full  form  when  suffixes  were  added.  These  attempts  at  so-called 
reform  met  with  so  little  encouragement  and  so  much  ridicule  that  Ritson 
was  discouraged  from  pushing  the  matter  further.  In  the  last  Shake- 
speare pamphlet  (1790)  he  said  that  although  his  system  of  spelling 
required  further  elucidation  he  had  no  inclination  to  continue  it.  At 
the  end  of  the  year  he  gave  Walker  a  further  reason  for  abandoning 
his  efforts  in  this  direction : 

"I  was  much  pleased  to  find  you  had  had  the  resolution  to  discard  the  capital 
I  from  the  middle  of  a  sentence.  Nothing  can  be  urged  in  its  favor  but  the 
ordinary  argument  of  prejudice  against  improvement,  that  it  is  an  innovation. 
I  have  sometimes  attempted  little  reforms  of  this  nature,  but  I  find  a  spirit  of 
ignorance  and  bigotry  so  universally  prevalent,  that  I  have  been  compelled  as  it 
were  to  abandon  everj^  idea  of  the  sort,  though  I  shall  alvi'ays  applaud  the  man 
who  has  courage  enough  to  pluck  the  Blatant  Beast  by  the  beard."^^ 

In  the  fall  of  the  next  year  he  visited  France  and  returned  to  Eng- 
land with  sufficient  courage  to  beard  the  lion  in  his  own  den,  which  he 
did  by  flaunting  innovations  of  spelling  in  all  his  subsequent  publications. 
The  first  letter  written  after  his  return  to  London,  the  exuberant  repub- 
licanism of  which  has  already  been  noted,  was  crowded  full  of  strange 
spellings.  After  the  second  sentence  he  remarked  parentheticallj' :  * '  You 
observe,  by  the  way,  i  am  teaching  you  how  to  spell".  And  at  the  end 
of  the  letter  he  invited  criticism  with  the  confidence  of  one  whose  position 
is  unassailable:  "if  you  know  any  cause  or  just  impediment  why  words 
should  not  be  spelled  in  my  way  you  are  to  declare  it".     Yet  with  all 

^^There  is  no  external  evidence  of  Ritson's  indebtedness  to  either  Bentham  or 
Hume.  He  might  have  got  his  philosophy  from  them  or  from  any  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary leaders ;  the  doctrine  was  sufficiently  current. 

^^Letters,  I,  p.  177. 


519]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS  DEATH  185 

his  new  enthusiasm,  Ritson  professed  not  to  be  an  advocate  of  innova- 
tion merely  because  it  Avas  innovation.  Joseph  Frank  carried  his  uncle's 
general  scheme  of  reform  further  than  Ritson  was  willing  to  go.  He 
wished  to  abolish  the  capital  letter  at  the  beginning  of  a  line  of  poetry 
when  not  also  the  beginning  of  a  sentence*'"  and  to  substitute  ''thou" 
for  "you"  in  familiar  address.  Ritson  answered  that  there  was  no 
sufficient  reason  for  abolishing  fixed  and  universal  customs  in  language 
unless  it  could  be  proved  that  the  benefit  accruing  from  the  change 
would  considerably  overbalance  the  confusion  resulting  from  such  an 
innovation, — and  this,  he  said,  could  not  be  demonstrated  in  these  two 
cases.  "Until  convinced  to  the  contrary,  I  am  entitled  to  maintain  that 
the  practise  is  right,  merely  in  short,  because  it  is  a  practise.  Never 
wake  a  sleeping  lion."^^ 

But  Ritson  did  not  follow  his  own  excellent  advice.  Although  the 
use  of  "himself",  "themselves",  etc.,  had  become  established,  he  pre- 
pared a  dissertation  purporting  to  prove  that  "self  is  always  a  sub- 
stantive ;  as  in  '  myself ',  '  thyself ',  etc.,  and,  consequently  '  himself '  is 
anomalous  and  absurd."''-  The  process  of  dropping  the  k  from  words 
ending  in  -ck  had  become  quite  noticeable  by  this  tirae.''^  But  for  the 
sake  of  consistency  Ritson  Avished  to  restore  it.    His  reason  is  thus  stated : 

"It  appears  that  as  many  words  still  continue  to  end  in  -ck  as  have  been 
made  to  end  in  -c ;  and,  as  the  privation  cannot  possibly  be  applied  to  the  former 
list,  I  conclude  it  will  be  the  best  method  not  to  apply  it  to  the  latter.  There  may 
be  some  exceptions,  as  no  rule  is  without  them :  but  your  question  should  have 
been  not  why  the  k  is  to  be  preserved  in  such  and  such  words,  but  why  it  came 
to  be  rejected  from  them."^* 

To  revise  English  orthography  and  grammar  with  a  view  to  absolute 
consistency  would  be  a  gigantic  task,  impossible  for  any  single  man 
to  accomplish  and  equally  impossible  for  any  body  of  men  unless  clothed 
with  unlimited  authority.  Left  to  its  natural  course  language  develops 
irregularly  and  often  illogically,  and  this  too,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of 
reformers  and  systematizers. 

Ritson  worked  with  his  system  of  spelling  and  grammar  for  many 


^'^Ibid.,  II,  p.  39.  This  innovation  Capell  had  employed  in  his  Prolusions,  1760, 
only  to  meet  with  universal  ridicule  and  contempt. 

^^Ibid.,  II,  pp.  85,  89,  96. 

62/fciU,  II,  p.  144. 

63John  Walker's  Rhyming  Dictionary,  London,  1775,  gives  a  list  of  several 
hundred  works  in  -ck,  and  another  of  practically  equal  length  from  which  the  k  has 
been  dropped. 

^^Letters,  II,  p.  106. 


186  JOSEPH  RITSON  [520 

years,  yet  he  never  came  to  the  point  of  absolute  certainty  on  all  its 
phases.    In  1795  he  wrote : 

"I  have  scarcely  courage  enough  to  apply  my  principles  of  orthography  to  the 
verb  and  participle  in  -en:  not  knowing  well  what  to  do  with  the  words  given, 
driven,  riven,  etc.,  etc.  However,  I  take  ripeen,  hasteen,  spokeen,  etc.,  to  be  per- 
fectly accurate."*^-' 

But  uncertainty  on  particular  points  did  not  deter  him  from  em- 
ploying many  innovations  of  his  system  in  his  published  works.  Each 
volume  was  more  forbidding  in  appearance  than  its  predecessor,  and 
after  his  return  from  France  the  promiscuous  use  of  mutilated  forms 
rendered  much  of  his  text  obsolete  and  well  nigh  unintelligible.  It  was 
often  necessary  for  him  to  modify  his  spelling  as  well  as  his  religious 
sentiments  in  order  to  secure  a  publisher,  and  the  editors  of  all  his 
posthumous  publications  found  it  necessary  to  "reduce  his  orthography 
to  the  recognized  standard  of  our  language".  There  is  no  reason  to 
believe,  as  these  editors  have  stated,  that  Ritson  would  have  modernized 
the  spelling  himself  if  he  had  lived  to  see  the  books  through  the  press.**® 
Under  wholly  different  circumstances  this  might  have  been  possible.  But 
as  illness  with  its  consequent  insanity  settled  down  upon  him  he  became 
more  eccentric  in  every  way  and  more  violently  aggressive  in  exhibiting 
his  idiosyncrasies. 

From  his  own  day  to  ours  Ritson 's  orthography  has  been  made  the 
butt  of  numerous  critics.  A  factitious  letter  in  the  Monthly  Mirror  for 
August,  1803,  put  together  by  "Old  Nick",  ludicrously  exposed  some  of 
his  variations  from  the  common  rules  of  spelling.  Subsequent  writers 
declare  that  his  orthography  was  based  on  no  conception  of  the  rela- 
tions of  words  but  was  the  caprice  of  fancy  and  the  sport  of  a  crank.*'' 
That  it  was,  especially  in  his  later  years,  largely  the  result  of  fancy  and 
caprice  there  can  be  no  doubt.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  it  had  its 
Inception  and  its  early  nurture  in  what  he  himself  erroneously  believed 
to  be  the  accurate  rules  of  historical  grammar.  His  fault  was  in  not 
realizing  the  essentially  plastic  nature  of  language  and  its  consequent 
instability,  so  that  the  rules  of  Shakespeare's  time,  even  though  they 
could  be  mth  absolute  certainty  determined,  would  not  apply  to  our 
own.  Ritson  xjublished  nothing  to  compare  with  Elpliinston's  Propriety 
ascertained  in  her  "picture,  or  Inglish  Speech  and  Spelling  mutual  guides, 

''"'Ibid. 

^''See  Prefaces  to  the  various  posthumous  publications.  Joseph  Frank's  patent 
eflforts  to  exculpate  his  uncle  explain  many  of  these  assertions. 

s^See  especially,  Haslewood,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  29;  H.  A.  Beers,  English  Romanticism 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  p.  297;  De  Quincey's  Works,  Vol.  XI,  p.  441.  For  con- 
temporary remarks  see  the  reviews  of  any  of  his  books. 


521]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS  DEATH  187 

and  his  Inglish  Orthoggraphy  epittomized,  and  Propriety's  pocket- 
diccionary ;  but  the  three  treatises  which  he  did  prepare  no  doubt  em- 
bodied his  grammatical  and  orthographical  systems.  If  these  should  be 
recovered  to  supplement  the  scattered  remarks  already  known,  it  could 
be  determined  whether  Ritson  stood  on  solid  historical  ground.  Without 
them  he  is  only  to  be  classed  with  Capell,  Elphinston,  Pinkerton,  Landor, 
and  others  of  the  large  body  of  ' '  orthographic  mutineers ' '  whose  peculiar 
eccentricities  have  served  mainly  to  amuse  the  public. 

We  have  already  seen  the  origin  of  Ritson 's  vegetarianism  in  the 
reading,  at  nineteen  years  of  age,  of  Mandeville's  Fable  of  the  Bees. 
By  his  own  statement  he  was  induced,  only  after  serious  reflection,  to 
take  up  this  mode  of  life,  and  throughout  his  remaining  years  he  adhered 
to  it  in  the  face  of  scorn,  ridicule,  and  volent  abuse.  There  is  a  very 
reasonable  doubt  as  to  whether  this  habit  of  diet  was  a  mere  fad,  as  it 
has  been  continually  called.  Even  though  his  reasons  for  abjuring  ani- 
mal food  were  purely  personal,  yet  they  were  founded  on  what  he 
believed  to  be  the  unshakable  rock  of  Reason  and  Virtue.  He  was 
fundamentally  and  sincerely  humanitarian  in  nature,  feeling  deeply 
for  all  the  lower  forms  of  life  and  repeatedly  declaring  that  animals 
had  as  much  right  to  the  full  enjoyments  of  life  as  man  himself.  In 
limiting  his  diet  to  vegetable  food  he  felt  that  he  was  not  only  conserv- 
ing life  but  that  he  was  contributing  to  his  own  happiness  by  freeing 
his  conscience  from  the  accusation  of  murder.  He  was  anxious  that 
others  should  enjoy  the  mental  tranquility  which  he  maintained  always 
accompanied  abstinence  from  animal  food,  and  so  he  sought  to  make 
proselytes.  His  young  nephew  was  not  unnaturally  his  first  convert. 
In  the  letters  to  him,  along  with  an  exaggerated  idea  of  the  importance 
of  his  pet  hobby,  Ritson  propounded  much  sound  advice  and  good  com- 
mon sense. 

His  earliest  counsel  to  Frank  was  primarily  humanitarian.  In  1781 
he  wrote : 

"Cruelty  and  barbarity  or  wantonness  to  brute  animals,  birds,  insects,  or  any 
other  living  thing  which  you  might  have  power  over ;  not  forgetting  the  inhuman 
custom  of  taking  birds'  nests,  eggs,  etc.,  which  is  abominable :  all  this  you  ought 
to  detest  and  abhor."^* 

A  few  months  later  he  said :  ' '  humanity  and  good  nature  are  the  first 
and  highest  virtues  that  the  mind  of  man  is  capable  of  entertaining."^^ 
Within  a  year  from  this  time  he  had,  by  force  of  reason  and  the  offer 
of  a  small  monthly  stipend,  persuaded  Frank  of  the  virtue  of  eating 
no  meat.    He  praised  his  nephew  for  persisting  ' '  so  heroically  in  a  mode 

^^Letters,  I,  p.  21. 
^^Ibid.,  I,  p.  29. 


188  JOSEPH  RITSOX  [522 

of  living,  which  you  will  one  day  or  other  find  to  have  been  of  essential 
service  both  to  your  body  and  mind,  by  preserving  health  and  a  good 
conscience,  neither  of  which  you  could  possibly  have  if  you  addicted 
yourself  to  the  unnatural  and  diabolical  practise  of  devouring  your 
fellow  creatures,  as  pigs  and  geese  undoubtedly  are."^°  This  is  the 
strain  in  which  his  comments  always  run.  With  the  single-mindedness 
of  the  fanatic,  he  did  not  appreciate  the  absurdity  of  his  theories  when 
pushed  to  extremes.  It  was  apparently  easy  for  him  to  declare,  for  he 
said  it  more  than  once,  and  no  doubt  came  firmly  to  believe  it,  that  no 
one  who  ate  animal  food  could  have  a  sound  mind,  a  strong  body,  or  a 
clear  conscience.  The  result  in  his  own  case  gave  eloquent  testimony 
to  the  fallacy  of  his  reasoning. 

Frank  was  a  willing  and  enthusiastic  disciple  and  appealed  to  his 
uncle  in  doubtful  cases.  After  eggs  had  been  added  to  the  list  of  con- 
traband, he  asked  if  it  was  improper  to  eat  a  pudding  which  contained 
eggs.    Ritson  replied,  drawing  a  very  nice  distinction: 

"I  think  that  if  a  pudding  stand  before  you,  you  are  not  obliged  to  refuse 
it  on  account  of  the  eggs.  I  do  not  myself.  But  I  should  never  direct  a  pudding 
to  be  made  for  me  with  eggs  in  it"^^ 

With  boyish  enthusiasm  Frank  carried  into  practice  the  humanitarian 
principles  which  he  had  learned,  and  on  one  occasion,  at  least,  Ritson 
was  obliged  to  write  to  his  sister  a  mild  protest  on  the  unforeseen  results 
of  his  teaching : 

"I  rather  think  Joe  went  a  little  too  far  in  putting  Mrs.  Wiseman's  cat  to 
death  for  killing  a  mouse,  which,  perhaps  nature,  certainly  education  had  taught 
her  to  look  upon  as  a  duty."^2 

Ritson 's  sister  was  his  second  and  last  known  convert  to  vegeta- 
rianism. In  her  case,  as  in  his  own,  the  results  were  unfortunate  and 
all  but  fatal.  His  tender  solicitation  on  the  occasion  of  her  illness  re- 
veals the  affection  and  compassion  of  the  nature  which  lay  back  of  his 
eccentric  and  uninviting  manner.  Following  his  suggestion  she  had 
limited  herself  to  a  vegetable  diet,  but  the  sudden  change  of  a  life-long 
habit  so  impaired  her  strength  that  she  was  reduced  to  serious  illness, 
and  the  judicious  use  of  wines  and  meats  was  prescribed  as  the  only 
means  of  restoring  her  to  health.     In  deference  to  her  brother  she  re- 

""^Ibid.,  I,  p.  39- 

"^Hbid.,  I,  p.  41- 

''-Ibid.,  I,  p.  95.  There  is  no  support  for  Mrs.  Kirby's  assertion  that  Ritson 
drove  Frank  out  of  chambers  because  he  ate  animal  food.  The  correspondence  of 
uncle  and  nephew  is  continuous  and  gives  no  hint  of  a  misunderstanding  on 
this  point. 


523]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS   DEATH  189 

fused  to  comply  with  these  instnictions.  Learning  of  the  serious  con- 
sequences of  his  teaching,  Ritson  hastened  to  inform  her  that  he  had 
never  meant  his  words  to  be  taken  so  literally  nor  followed  to  such 
extremes. 

"I  hardly  wished  and  never  expected",  he  wrote  apologetically,  "that  my 
scruples  on  this  head  would  influence  you  so  far  as  to  make  you  give  up  the  mode 
of  living  to  which  you  have  always  been  accustomed.  Certainly  not  that  you 
would  resolve  to  deny  yourself  what  everybody  about  you,  nay,  even  almost  the 
whole  world,  eats  without  concern  or  reflection,  when  your  very  existence  might 
perhaps  depend  upon  it.  I  shall  not  weary  you  with  further  argument.  I  only 
hope  and  desire  that  as  you  relinquised  the  use  of  this  food  out  of  complaisance 
to  me  as  a  philosopher,  }^ou  will  now  revive  it  out  of  affection  for  me  as  a 
brother.""^ 

Ritson  made  no  secret  of  his  aversion  to  animal  food ;  it  was  one 
of  the  things  that  everybody  knew  about  him.  His  unpleasant  encoun- 
ter with  Leyden  at  Lasswade  cottage  grew  out  of  an  argument  on  the 
eating  of  meat.  He  frequently  dropped  into  letters  to  close  friends 
arguments  aimed  to  persuade  them  to  desist  from  animal  food.  Wade- 
son  played  a  practical  joke  on  him  by  pretending  to  be  almost  persuaded 
never  to  taste  another  morsel  of  meat,  when  in  reality  he  was  gorman- 
dizing all  the  while.  Wlien  Ritson  discovered  the  deception,  he  expos- 
tulated in  mock  seriousness,  concluding  thus : 

"But,  alas !  miracles  will  never  cease ! — and  god  knows  whether  I  myself, 
who  am  thus  preaching  to  you,  and  set  such  an  example  of  temperance  and  hu- 
manity to  all,  may  not  be  found  one  day  or  other  devouring  lambs  and  turkeys, 
geese  and  capons,  and  all  other  creatures  which  earth,  air,  or  sea,  can  furnish, 
and  the  luxury  of  the  most  voluptuous  epicures  have  for  these  thousand  years 
past  been  day  by  day  singling  out  for  the  beastly  satisfaction  of  their  unnatural 
appetites."^* 

This  is  excellent  sarcasm.  So  long  as  an  individual  can  treat  of 
his  own  personal  foibles  and  eccentricities  in  this  fashion  he  is  on  the 
safe  side  of  the  dividing  line  between  sanity  and  lunacy.  But  it  is 
comparatively  easy  for  peculiarities  of  thought  and  manner  to  be  so 
exaggerated  as  to  lead  almost  insensibly  into  insanity.  Unfortunately 
this  was  the  trend  of  Ritson 's  crotchets.  Their  final  summation  in 
An  Essay  on  Abstinence  from  Animal  Food  as  a  Moral  Duty,  1802, 
contains  many  evidences  of  insanity.  The  ear-marks  of  idiosyncrasy 
were  so  nvimerous  on  this  manuscript  that  Ritson  did  not  readily  find 
a  publisher  for  it.     It  was  at  length  accepted  at  the  Jacobinical  shop 

''^Ibid.,  I,  p.  49. 
''Hbid.,  I,  p.  32. 


190  JOSEPH  RITSON  [524 

of  Richard  Phillips,"  a  kindred  spirit  and  himself  a  Pythagorean. 
Ritson  expressed  his  gratitude  to  Phillips  by  a  complimentary  allusion 
to  the  abstemiousness  of  his  publisher.'^*^ 

In  this  Essay  Ritson  played  his  usual  role  of  compiler.  He  listed 
a  large  number  of  extracts  from  various  sources  and  then  arranged  them 
with  a  view  to  illustrate  the  propriety  of  abstinence  from  animal  food. 
Of  the  ten  chapters  in  the  book  the  first,  "Of  Man",  and  the  last, 
"Humanity",  stand  somewhat  in  the  relation  of  prologue  and  epilogue 
to  the  body  of  the  work.  In  the  prologue  Ritson  relates  the  various 
accounts  of  the  origin  of  man,  from  Homer  to  the  "sensible  and  eloquent 
Rousseau",  omitting  the  Biblical  account.  The  original  man  was  the 
same  as,  if  not  identical  with,  the  orang-outang."  Through  the  centuries 
of  so-called  civilization  he  had  retained  the  destructive  traits  of  his 
forbears  and  had  even  excelled  them  in  rapacity  and  cruelty.  The 
dog  is  the  natural  enemy  to  the  cat,  the  cat  to  the  rat,  the  fox  to  the 
goose,  the  ferret  to  the  rabbit,  the  spider  to  the  fly;  the  whole  animal 
creation  being  a  system  for  the  express  purpose  of  preying  upon  each 
other,  and  for  their  mutual  misery  and  destruction.  Man  stands  at 
the  head  of  this  great  system  of  cruelty  and  ferocity,  whereas,  by  the 
very  fact  that  he  is  man  he  ought  to  be  superior  to  these  purely  animal 
characteristics. 

"The  only  mode  in  which  man  can  be  useful  or  happy,  with  respect  either  to 
the  generality  or  to  the  individual,  is  to  be  just,  mild,  merciful,  benevolent,  humane, 
or,  at  least,  innocent  and  harmless,  whether  such  qualities  be  natural  or  not;  but  if 
the  present  system  of  bloodshed,  cruelty,  malignance,  and  mischief,  should  continue, 
it  would  be  better  that  such  diabolical  monsters  should  cease  to  exist.""® 

By  this  high-sounding  arraignment  of  the  sins  of  man  Ritson  means 
simply  to  condemn  his  habit  of  eating  animal  food — this  is  the  root  of 
all  evil.     It  is  the  cause  of  cruelty  and  ferocity,  of  human  sacrifices, 

^^Richard  Phillips  (i  767-1840)  was  a  radical  whose  shop  became  headquarters 
for  the  advanced  democratic  literature  of  the  revolutionary  epoch.  His  Golden 
Rules  of  Social  Philosophy,  1826,  contains  "The  Author's  reasons  for  not  eating 
animal  food". 

''^Abstinence  from  Animal  Food,  p.  201. 

'■'In  foreshadowing  the  later  theory  of  the  origin  of  man  and  his  ascent  or 
descent  from  the  lower  forms,  Ritson  has  been  anticipated  by  James  Burnett, 
Lord  Monboddo,  (1714-1799)  in  his  six  volume  work  On  the  Origin  and  Progress 
of  Language,  1773-92.  (See  also  Knighjt,  Lord  Monboddo  and  slome  of  his  con- 
temporaries, 1900).  It  seems  hardly  probable  that  Ritson  did  not  know  this 
publication,  although  he  makes  no  allusion  to  it.  He  quotes  frequently  from  The 
Philosophy  of  Natural  hiistory,  1780-9,  of  Burnett's  friend,  William  Smellie. 

''^Abstinence  from  Animal  Food,  p.  38  ff. 


525]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS  DEATH  191 

and  of  cannibalism,  to  eacli  of  which  he  devotes  a  chapter.  Besides, 
animal  food  is  not  natural  to  man.  There  are  flesh-eating  animals  to 
be  sure,  but  these,  Ritson  says,  are  the  extremely  vicious,  and  they 
possess  these  reprehensible  traits  as  a  result  of  their  carnivorous  appe- 
tites, not  as  the  cause  of  them.  Man,  being  naturally  a  more  gentle 
animal,  has  corrupted  and  vitiated  himself  by  indulgence  in  flesh  and 
has  consequently  taken  on  the  attributes  of  the  worst  animals.  But 
Ritson  feels  that  his  arguments  of  the  evil  consequences  of  animal  food 
will  not  be  sufficient  to  effect  a  reform,  because  people  have  come  to 
believe,  or  to  pretend  that  they  believe,  animal  food  necessary  to  the 
highest  bodily  and  intellectual  vigor.  And  so  he  devotes  a  chapter  to 
proving  ''animal  food  not  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  strength  and 
corpulency".  His  method  is  the  eclectic  one  of  citing  cases  of  vegeta- 
rians who  were  notably  strong  and  healthy.  But  this  is  only  one-half 
the  picture ;  animal  food  is  declared  to  be  positively  pernicious  and  to 
destroy  health,  spirits,  and  quickness  of  perception.  From  a  number 
of  cases  in  which  intractable  diseases  were  cured  by  a  vegetable  diet — 
and  these  examples  could  no  doubt  then,  and  certainly  could  now,  be 
multiplied  almost  indefinitely — Ritson  inferred  that  animal  food  was 
the  cause  of  the  ailment  and  that  a  vegetarian  diet  would  have  pre- 
vented it.  It  did  not  occur  to  him  that  it  was  not  the  use  of  animal 
food  but  the  improper  use  of  any  food  ( as  many  of  his  medical  authori- 
ties expressly  stated^^)  which  was  to  be  censured.  Nor  did  he  experience 
difficulty  in  generalizing  from  individuals  to  nations  subsisting  entirely 
on  vegetable  food.  Reduced  to  their  logical  absurdity,  his  arguments 
would  deny  health  and  peace  of  mind  to  those  individuals,  and  pros- 
perity and  advancement  to  those  nations,  that  indulged  in  animal  food. 
This  volume  is  the  final  outcome  of  his  early  advice  to  Frank  on  the 
morality  of  abstinence,  but  the  condition  of  his  mind  or  his  own  wil- 
fullness  had  prevented  his  seeing  the  absurdity  of  his  conclusions.  He 
constantly  harks  back  to  the  sacredness  of  every  form  of  animal  life, 
and  the  epilogue  to  this  erratic  volume  is  very  properly  "Humanity". 
"If  god  made  man",  he  concludes,  "or  there  be  any  intention  in  na- 
ture", the  lives  of  the  animals  over  which  he  considers  himself  master, 
"are  equally  sacred  and  inviolable  with  his  own". 

Ritson 's  vegetarian  diet  had  long  been  the  butt  of  numerous  quips 
and  much  sarcastic  comment.  A  verse  lampoon  in  the  St.  James's 
Chronicle  of  June  3,  1783,  reveals  the  extent  to  which  his  dietetical 
eccentricity  had  gained  publicity  at  that  time.  A  contrast  is  drawn 
between  his  great  compassion  for  the  lower  forms  of  animal  life  and 
his  utter  lack  of  sympathy  with  other  men,  especially  in  matters  liter- 

'^Ibid.,  p.  148  fif. 


192  JOSEPH  RITSON  [526 

^j.y  80  j^  jg  gj^j^j  j.]^g^^  Holcroft  probably  intended  the  simple  and  amus- 
ing character  of  Handford,  in  his  Alwyn,  or  the  Gentleman  Comedian, 
as  an  indirect  satire  upon  Kitson's  arguments  on  the  inhumanity  of 
eating  animal  food.^^  With  the  publication  of  Ritson's  Essay  comments 
came  as  thick  as  hail.  Cutlet,  an  emotional  butcher  in  Lamb's  The  Paivn- 
broker's  Daughter,  is  made  to  sentimentalize  in  a  highly  ludicrous 
fasliion  over  Animal  Food.^-  The  reviewers  greeted  the  volume  with 
shouts  of  laughter  and  hoots  of  derision,^^  and  numerous  comments 
appeared  in  the  letters  of  literary  men  of  the  day.^*  Ritson  had  clearly 
failed  in  his  object,  whether  it  was  simply  to  justify  his  own  habit  of 
life  or  to  do  this  and  to  gain  proselytes  to  it.  Marks  of  incipient  insan- 
ity are  on  every  hand,  and  they  can  be  explained  only  by  the  deranged 
mind  and  body  whose  strength,  perhaps,  had  been  in  large  measure  un- 
dermined by  the  very  habit  he  sought  to  defend. 

Ritson  was  never  physically  robust.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that 
his  ill  health  had  its  origin  in  a  constitutional  or  hereditary  malady, 
and  it  was  certainly  aggravated  by  his  diet.  If,  as  he  suspected,  he 
was  afflicted  by  "an  inveterate  scurvy",  nothing  could  have  been  more 
suicidal  than  limitation  to  a  restricted  diet  through  many  years.  By 
1790  he  began  to  suffer  constantly  from  nervousness,  insomnia,  and 
inanition.     His  malady  grew  constantly  more  distressing  until  his  liter- 


s'' The   Pythagorean   Critick. 

By  wise  Pythagoras  taught  young  R-ts-n's  meals 

With  bloody  viands  never  are  defil'd ; 
For  Quadruped,  for  Bird,  for  Fish  he  feels : 

His  board  ne'er  smokes  with  roast  meat,  nor  with  boil'd. 
In  this  one  instance,  pious,  mild,  and  tame, 

He's  surely  in  another  a  great  sinner ; 
For  Man,  cries  R-ts-n,  Man's  my  game ! 

On  him  I  make  a  most  delicious  dinner. 
To  venison  and  to  partridge  I've  no  Gout; 
To  W-rt-n  Tom  such  dainties  I  resign ; 
Give  me  plump  St-v-ns,  and  large  J-hns-n  too, 
And  take  your  turkey  and  your  savory  chine. 
s^See  Holcroft's  Memoirs,  pp.  112-3. 

^-The  Works  of  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  ed.  by  E.  V.  Lucas,  7  vols.,  London, 
1903,  Vol.  V,  p.  212  ff. 

83See  Critical  Reviciv,  Vol.  XXXVIII,  pp.  16-7;  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol. 
LXXIII,  ii,  p.  95;  Monthly  Review,  Vol.  CXXIII,  pp.  40-5;  Edinhurg  Review,  Vol. 
II,  pp.  128-36;  British  Chitic,  November,  1803. 

8*See  Nichols,  Lit.  Anec.,  VII,  p.  604;  VIII,  p.  50;  Constable  and  his  Lit.  Cor- 
resp.,  I,  p.  503;  Memoirs,  journal  and  correspondence  of  Thomas  Moore,  ed.  by 
J.  Russell,  8  vols.,  London,  1853-6,  Vol.  VII,  p.  13. 


527]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRAITS  DEATH  193 

ary  labors  all  but  ceased.  In  January,  1802,  he  suffered  a  stroke  of 
apoplexy  and  during  the  twenty-four  hours  in  which  he  was  deprived 
of  all  mental  and  physical  faculties,  was  thought  to  be  dying.  Apropos 
of  this  event  he  remarked  stoically:  "The  next  attack,  I  suppose  will 
carry  me  off".^^  In  the  spring  of  this  year  when  he  was  planning  a 
second  trip  to  Paris,  he  was  visited  by  another  attack,  and  when  par- 
tially recovered  from  it  he  went  to  Bath  for  a  month.  There  he  received 
only  slight  alleviation  because  he  was  too  impatient  to  remain  long 
enough  for  effective  relief.  He  promised  to  return  the  next  season, 
but  his  physician  warned  him  that  he  would  not  live  to  see  that  time.^*' 

To  bodily  illness  was  added  pecuniary  distress.  It  was  at  this 
time  that  his  ill-advised  speculation  in  the  Stock  Exchange  utterly 
ruined  him.  To  retrieve  in  a  measure  his  lost  fortune,  he  disposed  of 
his  remaining  property  in  the  North  and  with  great  reluctance  sold  a 
few  of  his  books.^^  The  following  summer  he  was  obliged  to  part  with 
two  other  sections  of  his  library.^®  Realizing  that  the  end  was  near, 
he  shrewdly  determined  upon  insuring  his  life  for  £1000,  as  his  friend 
Reed  had  done  only  a  short  time  before  death.  He  had  proceeded 
favorably  in  his  design  with  the  Equitable  Assurance  Company  when 
the  directors  learned  of  his  recent  illness  and  declined  the  business. 
Upon  receipt  of  this  news,  Ritson  says,  "I  turned  my  back  and  came 
away  as  cool  as  a  cucumber ",^^ 

Early  in  September  Ritson  became  violent,  barricaded  himself  in 
his  chambers,  and  drove  off  in  a  threatening  manner  all  who  approached 
him.  He  disturbed  the  members  of  the  Inn  by  loud  boasting  of  his 
accomplishments  in  confuting  literary  leaders,  and  by  setting  fire  to  a 
mass  of  papers  which  included  many  unfinished  manuscripts.  Only 
one  person  had  influence  with  him  in  these  paroxysms.  This  was  Robert 
Smith,  a  fellow  Inn-man,  who  cared  for  him  until  Joseph  Frank  arrived 
from  the  North. ^'^  Ritson  was  then  removed  to  the  country  house  of 
Sir  Jonathan  Miles  at  Hoxton,  where  he  was  attended  by  Dr.  Temple 
of  Bedford-Row.  There  he  died  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Septem- 
ber 23,  1803.  Four  days  later  he  was  buried  without  ceremony  of  any 
kind  and  with  the  attendance  of  but  a  few  personal  friends,  near  the 

^^Letters,  II,  p.  215. 

^^Ibid.,  II,  p.  229. 

s^This  was  in  a  miscellaneous  sale  at  King's,  and  the  exact  date  is  unknown. 

88May  4-10,  1803 :  an  anonymous  sale  by  Leigh  and  Sotheby,  described  as  "the 
property  of  a  well-known  collector,  consisting  of  English  history,  old  English 
poetry,  plays,  etc." ;  and  August  10,  a  further  part  at  King's  in  the  third  day  of  the 
sale  of  Dr.  Mitchell's  books. 

^^Letters,  II,  p.  245. 

9°See  his  account  of  Ritson's  last  days.    Appendix  A. 


194  JOSEPH  RITSON  [528 

grave  of  his  friend  John  Baynes,  in  Bunhill  Fields.  Frank  was  imme- 
diately appointed  administrator.  He  found  that  his  uncle's  debts  ran 
very  high  and  that  there  was  no  property  but  the  library.  He  accord- 
ingly arranged  for  the  sale  of  Ritson's  books.  The  law  books  were 
disposed  of  by  Leigh  and  Sotheby,  in  November.^^  The  remainder  of 
his  library,  including  many  rare  books  of  medieval  history  and  poetry, 
several  of  them  plentifully  supplied  with  his  own  notes,  and  what  manu- 
scripts had  escaped  the  conflagration,  was  disposed  of  in  the  early  days 
of  December.^-  In  addition  to  the  proceeds  from  these  sales  Frank 
found  it  necessary  to  supply  £500  from  his  own  funds  in  order  to  liqui- 
date his  uncle's  indebtedness. 

Ritson's  will,  which  had  been  executed  on  September  7,  was  not 
discovered  for  several  days  after  his  death.  His  nephew  knew  Ritson's 
wishes  so  well  that  all  the  directions  contained  in  the  will,  except  the 
last,  were  carried  out  before  it  was  known  they  had  been  made.  The 
last  clause  of  the  will  reads : 

"With  respect  to  my  funeral,  (if  I  happen  to  die,  that  is,  in  the  county  of  Mid- 
dlesex, or  the  city  of  London),  my  most  earnest  request  to  my  executor  is,  that  my 
body  may  be  interred  in  the  burying  ground  of  Burnhill  fields,  with  the  least  possible 
ceremony,  attendance,  or  expense,  without  the  presence  of  a  clergyman,  and  my 
coffin  being  previously,  carefully  and  effectually  filled  with  quick  lime."^^ 

One  of  Ritson's  contemporaries  remarked  that  he  slipped  away 
unnoticed,  and  his  grave  has  been  unnoticed  since.  No  stone  marks  his 
resting  place  in  Bunhill  fields.  There  is  a  tradition  that  he  desired  to 
be  forgotten  by  the  world  and  to  that  end  directed  that  his  grave  be 
immediately  levelled  and  left  to  the  care  of  nature,^*  but  its  only  authen- 
tic support  is  the  rather  meagre  evidence  afforded  by  the  following 
quotation  from  one  of  his  letters  to  Thomas  Hill,  in  whicli  he  declines 
an  invitation  to  have  his  picture  appear  in  the  Monthly  Mirror: 

"Here,  let  me  live,  unseen,  unknown, 
Here,  imlamented,  let  me  dye, 
Steal  from  the  world,  and  ne'er  a  stone 
Tel  where  i  lye."^^ 


81  With  the  books  of  John  Topham,  Treasurer  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries. 
^^These  sales  were  well   attended  by  publishers   and  antiquaries.     See  letters 
of  Park  and  Hill,  Add.  MSS.  20083,  ff-  98,  109,  122,  etc. 
^^Quoted  from  Nicolas,  Op.  Cit,  p.  Ixv. 
^■*See  E.  Field,  Love  affairs  of  a  Bibliomaniac,  p.  93. 
8"'jV.  and  O.,  Ser.  2,  Vol.  XH,  p.  222. 


CHAPTER    IX 
Conclusion 

Joseph  Ritson  was  a  man  of  little  formal  education  but  of  much 
learning.  If  the  terminology  of  the  modern  business  world  may  be 
transferred  to  the  intellectual  sphere,  he  would  be  called  a  self-made 
man.  His  schooling  was  brief,  being  limited  to  the  grammar  forms. 
The  child  of  poverty,  he  was  put  to  a  profession  when  young.  But  he 
was  a  foster-child  of  the  muses,  and  instead  of  confining  his  attention 
to  the  book  of  common  law  and  the  statutes,  he  read  widely  and  vora- 
ciously in  history  and  medieval  poetry.  He  read  carefully  and  with  in- 
sight and  made  notes  in  many  of  his  books.^  As  the  need  for  extending  his 
and  made  notes  in  many  of  his  books. ^  As  the  need  for  extending  his 
knowledge  of  his  own  and  foreign  languages  became  apparent,  he  took 
up  their  study  in  a  systematic  and  thorough-going  fashion.  He  became 
proficient  in  Middle  English  and  gained  a  familiarity  with  Anglo-Saxon 
at  a  time  when  the  study  of  these  dialects  was  just  beginning.  The 
thoroughness  and  accuracy  of  the  extensive  glossaries  supplied  with  his 
collections  of  medieval  poetry  are  sufficient  testimony  to  his  skill  in  this 
field.  He  acquired  a  working  knowledge  of  Latin  and  French  and 
strewed  his  essays  with  apt  quotations  from  writers  in  these  tongues. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  he  attained  sufficient  familiarity  with  Italian 
and  Spanish  to  enable  him  to  lay  under  contribution  historical  works 
in  these  languages,  for  he  frequently  alludes  to  and  occasionally  quotes 
from  such  sources.  Greek  he  did  not  know  beyond  the  letters  of  the 
alphabet.  Nor  was  he  proficient  in  German,  although  the  growing  inter- 
est in  German  literature  attracted  his  attention  and  through  the  pur- 
chases which  he  made  for  his  friend  Harrison  he  learned  something  of 
the  new  publications  in  that  language.  Although  not  a  man  of  remark- 
ably extensive  linguistic  knowledge,  he  was  thorough  and  accurate  as 
far  as  his  information  allowed.  Above  all  he  recognized  the  value  of 
comparative  study  and  applied  his  knowledge  of  foreign  languages  to 
elucidate  the  early  English  and  Scottish  dialects. 

Ritson  was  a  prodigious  worker.  In  spite  of  a  constitutional  disease 
which  troubled  him  almost  continually  and  frequently  made  writing 

iprom  a  calculation  based  on  the  Ritson  sale  catalogue,  it  appears  that  approxi- 
mately half  the  volumes  in  his  library  were  supplied  with  "MS.  notes  by  Mr.  Ritson, 
on  separate  sheets". 

195 


196  JOSEPH  EITSON  [530 

an  impossibility,  he  prepared  upwards  of  seventy  volumes  for  the  press 
and  published  half  of  them.  These  were  nearly  all  collections  of  ancient 
poetry,  songs,  and  ballads,  and  the  collecting,  verifying,  annotating, 
and  glossing  was  the  painstaking  labor  of  a  life-time.  He  was  able  to 
work  with  great  concentration  and  was  aided  by  a  wonderfully  retentive 
memory  which  seldom  failed  him  until  illness  had  completely  under- 
mined his  bodily  strength  and  mental  vigor. 

In  addition  to  his  labor  in  collecting  and  publishing,  Ritson  was 
under  the  necessity  of  earning  a  livelihood.  Only  a  few,  and  those  the 
least  expensive,  of  his  publications  paid  for  themselves.  The  profession 
of  conveyancing  to  which  he  was  bred  was  never  of  primary  concern 
to  him.  He  used  it  as  a  bread-and-butter  profession  only.  But  even 
so,  his  thoroughgoing  habits  and  conscientious  scruples  caused  him  to 
master  the  subject  in  every  detail  and  enabled  him  to  publish  some 
valuable  antiquarian  tracts  on  his  office  and  the  profession  in  general 
and  gave  him  a  respectable  rank  among  the  practitioners  of  his  day. 

Ritson's  native  field  of  labor  was  the  Middle  Ages.  Half  of  his 
publications  were  collections  of  ballads,  romances,  and  old  songs.  When 
his  first  collection  appeared  in  1783,  the  general  interest  in  old  poetry 
aroused  by  the  Reliqiies  had  gained  considerable  headway.  Volumes 
of  ballads  and  ancient  poems  were  appearing  with  a  fair  degree  of 
regularity.  Ritson  joined  the  ranks  of  the  literary  gleaners  and  devoted 
a  large  part  of  the  remaining  years  of  his  life  to  gathering  up  the  scat- 
tered remnants  of  song  and  story  which  were  dispersed  in  unknown  or 
forgotten  manuscripts  or  which  held  an  uncertain  tenure  of  life  in  the 
oral  tradition  of  a  people  rapidly  acquiring  communication  by  the  writ- 
ten word.  In  his  efforts  to  rescue  from  oblivion  and  possible  destruction 
these  reliques  of  antiquity,  he  materially  aided  the  romantic  movement. 
If  he  was  not  a  solitary  forerunner  of  his  age  in  recognizing  the  neces- 
sity for  collecting  popular  poetry,  his  companions  were  very  few.  In 
the  mere  volume  of  the  material  which  he  amassed  he  exceeded  any 
other  man  of  his  day.  But  it  is  not  alone  the  matter  which  he  collected, 
but  the  manner  in  which  he  handled  it,  that  makes  him  the  most  impor-> 
tant  figure  in  ballad  collecting  between  Percy  and  Scott. 

It  is  always  hazardous  to  attempt  to  designate  any  one  man  as  the 
originator  of  a  movement  in  literature.  But  in  the  sense  of  his  being 
one  of  the  first  to  practise  editorial  accuracy  and  the  very  first  to 
insist  upon  it  with  such  vehemence  that  others  rectified  their  errors 
and  confessedly  stood  in  awe  of  his  wrath,  Ritson  may  be  called  the 
founder  of  the  modern  method  of  liandling  early  English  texts.  He  did 
not  go  the  whole  way  to  the  present  critical  text,  but  he  took  tlie  first  and 
very  essential  step  of  insisting  upon  accuracy  and  fidelity  to  a  single  text. 


531]  CONCLUSION  197 

He  taught  his  generation  to  respect  the  literary  remains  of  departed  au- 
thors— instead  of  considering  them  as  a  legitimate  plunder  to  be  exploited, 
altered,  and  "improved"  at  will.  In  short,  he  taught  men  to  speak  the 
truth  as  they  found  it,  even  though  the  truth  might  be  deemed  offensive 
in  the  ear  of  a  "cultivated  age".  Detesting  fraud  and  deception  in  the 
literary  as  in  the  business  world,  he  would  visit  upon  the  one  as  condign 
a  punishment  as  upon  the  other.  In  his  admiration  for  truth  he  went 
to  ridiculous  extremes  in  carping  and  fault-finding,  but  no  one  can  now 
doubt  the  value  in  his  time  of  the  line  from  Boileau  which  he  took  for 
the  motto  of  his  first  publication, — a  motto  which  represents  his  standard 
throughout  all  his  editorial  labors : 

Kien  n  'est  beau  que  LE  VRAI ;  le  vrai  seul  est  amiable. 
Without  fidelity  to  sources  and  accuracy  in  transcribing  in  the  early 
years  of  ballad  collecting,  many  a  "critical"  text  of  today  would  have 
been  an  impossibility.  Pinkerton  and  Percy  might  have  gone  on  indefi- 
nitely publishing  "ancient"  poetry;  meanwhile  the  truly  ancient  poetry 
would  have  become  more  and  more  remote  and  much  of  it  must  eventu- 
ally have  been  irretrievably  lost. 

The  antiquarian  interest  in  old  poetry  was  comparatively  a  recent 
development,  and  with  it  came  a  renewed  curiosity  in  racial  and  na- 
tional history.  The  English  people  began  to  inquire  into  the  sources  of 
their  history  and  language  and  to  attempt  to  establish  their  kinship 
with  other  nations.  To  the  confused  theories  and  faulty  generalizations 
of  the  early  investigators  in  this  field  Ritson  applied  his  test  of  histor- 
ical accuracy.  He  reduced  the  vagaries  of  Pinkerton  to  definite  fact 
and  assembled  the  historical  materials  from  which  accurate  deductions 
could  be  made.  In  the  revival  of  interest  in  local  antiquities  Ritson 
also  had  a  share.  He  collected  the  songs  of  various  northern  localities, 
contributed  to  antiquarian  histories,  and  made  collections  for  his  own 
history  of  Durham.  But  his  service  to  antiquarianism  in  these  various 
lines  was  not  acknowledged.  His  unfortunate  vein  of  acerbity,  which 
manifested  itself  in  nearly  everything  he  wrote,  aroused  personal  jeal- 
ousies which  barred  him  from  membership  in  the  Society  of  Antiquaries, 

Ritson  w^as  for  traveling  the  unbeaten  paths.  At  a  time  when  it 
had  not  yet  become  fashionable  to  be  "different",  and  in  a  day  when 
the  number  of  those  who  ran  counter  to  the  prevailing  customs  and  ideas 
w^as  relatively  small,  he  was  marked  as  a  romanticist  because  of  his 
Jacobinism  and  atheism,  and  because  he  advocated  an  eccentric  system 
of  spelling  and  adhered  to  a  vegetarian  diet.  The  desire  to  differentiate 
himself  from  the  generality  of  mankind  was  due  in  large  measure  to 
personal  whim  but  in  part  also  to  a  deep-seated  dissatisfaction  with  his 
time.  His  own  day  he  looked  upon  as  degenerate  in  politics,  in  morals, 
and  in  literature.     For  an  antidote  he  looked  to  the  remote  past  and 


198  JOSEPH  RITSON  [532 

took  pleasure  iu  retrieving  and  illustrating  the  reliques  of  departed 
genius. 

Joseph  Ritson  had  his  faults,  and  they  were  grievous.  An  unusual 
acidity  of  temper  was  exhibited  in  all  his  criticisms.  He  indulged  a 
violence  of  language  and  a  crude  directness  of  speech  which  almost 
invariably  gave  offense.  He  was  at  odds  with  Warton  and  Shakespeare 's 
editors,  with  Percy  and  Pinkerton,  and  he  warred  continually  with  the 
reviewers.  He  seemed  in  his  own  person  to  feel  severely  any  attack, 
and  from  the  pain  thus  acutely  experienced  he  might  have  learned 
mercy  but  did  not.  He  was  despised  as  a  critic  though  admired  as  a 
scholar.  In  all  his  writings  he  appeared  cold,  cynical,  and  unfeeling. 
Because  he  exhibited  little  poetic  temper,  because  he  usually  judged 
verses  by  their  antiquity  and  not  by  their  intrinsic  merits,  he  was  stig- 
matized as  pedantic.  The  unfavorable  opinion  of  contemporaries  was 
confirmed  by  Ritson 's  habits  of  life.  His  circle  of  acquaintances  was 
not  large,  and  he  made  no  efforts  to  increase  it.  He  knew  Farmer,  Reed, 
Steevens,  Scott,  and  many  less  prominent  persons,  but  his  attacks  upon 
Warton,  Percy,  Johnson,  and  others  effectually  cut  him  off  from  inter- 
course with  them  and  with  most  of  their  friends.  He  lived  the  life  of 
a  recluse.  He  was  never  seen  in  court  and  was  seldom  encountered 
outside  his  chambers.  He  had  little  communication  with  those  who  lived 
about  him  and  hardly  knew  the  members  of  his  own  Inn.  Every  day 
his  neat  spare  figure  might  have  been  seen  moving  rapidly  from  Gray's 
Inn  to  the  British  Museum  and  later  back  again.  If  one  accosted  him, 
lie  spoke  briefly — even  snappishly — while  he  moved  about  nervously  and 
cast  furtive  glances  in  all  directions  as  if  seeking  some  means  of  escape. 
This  daily  walk  was  the  extent  of  his  exercise.  At  vacation  time  he 
slii)ped  quietly  away  from  London  and  spent  a  few  weeks  with  friends 
and  relatives  in  the  north.  These  journeys  were  usually  taken  on  foot, 
probably  for  the  double  purpose  of  reducing  expenses  and  of  securing 
the  seclusion  which  he  so  much  prized. 

But  there  is  another  side  to  Ritson 's  character.  Unattractive  as 
he  was  to  the  stranger  and  repellant  as  he  might  be  to  the  chance  ac- 
quaintance, to  his  family  and  few  intimate  friends  he  was  singularly 
kind,  generous,  and  warm-hearted.  His  devotion  to  his  father  and 
motlier,  and  after  their  death  to  his  sister  and  her  son,  was  sincere  and 
disinterested.  Those  who  knew  him  intimately  sa^^  tliat  when  once 
within  the  seclusion  of  his  chambers  with  a  few  tried  friends,  he  became 
a  lively  and  unreserved  conversationalist.  Although  he  was  given  to 
disputation  and  was  tenacious  of  his  own  opinions,  yet  he  was  always 
open  to  conviction,  and  when  once  persuaded  of  his  error  he  was  quick 
to  make  frank  reparation. 


533]  CONCLUSION  199 

It  is  not  known  that  Ritson  ever  sat  for  a  portrait.  He  declined 
a  request  for  an  "original  portrait''  to  be  inserted  in  the  Monthly 
Mirror,  remarking  facetiously  that  the  only  painting  he  had  was  an 
original  of  Ben  Jonson,  which  he  feared  would  not  be  accepted  as  a 
substitute.  There  is  a  silliouette  in  profile  by  Mrs.  Park,  which  gives 
only  a  vague  suggestion  of  his  appearance.  It  is  prefixed  to  the  Cale- 
donuin  Muse  and  to  Haslewood's  Life  of  Ritson.  A  half-length  sketch 
by  Gillray  has  been  twice  copied  with  the  subject  in  slightly  different 
positions.  In  the  one  which  appears  in  The  Book  of  Days  he  is  repre- 
sented as  standing,  quill  in  hand,  before  a  table  on  which  lies  a  book 
of  poems;  in  the  other  he  is  before  his  book  shelves,  on  which  may  be 
seen  a  few  volumes  suggestive  of  the  outstanding  characteristics  of  his 
life  and  work:  Warton's  History,  the  Bible,  Shakespeare,  Metrical  Ro- 
mances, and  Abstinence  from  Animal  Food.  He  is  dressed  in  a  long 
black  coat  closely  buttoned  about  his  thin  form,  and  wears  a  high  hat 
well  down  on  his  head.  The  forehead  is  bold,  indicative  of  large  intel- 
lectuality; the  thin,  pale  face  suggests  inadequate  nourishment.  The 
nose  is  large,  and  the  lower  lip  protrudes  from  a  set  and  determinate 
jaw.  The  head  is  inclined  slightly  forward,  and  the  shoulders  are 
stooped  from  continual  poring  over  books  and  manuscripts.  But  this  is 
more  of  a  caricature  than  a  true  portrait,  say  those  who  knew  him  per- 
sonally. Gillray 's  sketch  gives  an  inadequate  conception  of  the  "little 
neat  old  man,  in  his  suit  of  customary  black,  with  his  gray  hair  and 
pale  delicate  complexion,  tinged  with  "Time's  first  rose'.  He  should 
have  been  taken  in  his  evening  chair,  cheerfully  chirruping  some  old 
saw  or  bardish  rhyme  ".- 

-Surtees,  History  of  Durham,  III,  p.  195,  note  y. 


APPENDIX  A 

Robert  Smith's  Narrative  of  Ritson's  Last  Days  and  Death,  and 
Two  Letters  of  H.  C.  Selby  to  Bishop  Percy.^ 

Narrative  of  Robt.  Smith  Esq.  Benclier  of  Gray's  Inn. 

The  late  Mr.  Ritson  lived  in  the  same  Staircase  with  me  in  Gray's 
Inn  for  many  years,  and  the  common  civilities  of  the  Day  passed  between 
us,  but  nothing  more.  We  never  visited.  I  understood  he  possessed  a 
great  Singularity  of  Character,  but  he  was  ever  polite  and  civil  to  me. 
Early  in  September,  1803,  I  frequently  heard  a  great  Swearing  and 
Noise  in  his  Chambers,  and  on  meeting  his  Laundress  on  the  Stairs,  I 
asked  her  ye  cause  of  the  Disturbance  I  had  heard.  She  answered,  that 
she  believed  her  Master  was  out  of  his  mind,  for  his  conduct  in  every 
respect  proved  him  so,  and  that  she  was  greatly  afraid  that  in  his 
Delirium  he  would  do  himself  or  her  an  injury.  She  said  she  had  taken 
him  his  Dinner  the  Day  before,  but  that  he  had  not  touch 'd  it  and  that 
he  never  ate  animal  Food.  She  was  then  going  to  him,  but  expressed  a 
fear  that  he  would  burst  into  a  Rage  and  abuse  her  as  I  had  heard  him 
before.  The  last  time  she  was  in  the  Chambers  he  had  shut  himself 
up ;  however  she  left  his  Dinner  on  the  Table,  and  w^as  then  going  to 
see  if  he  had  ate  it.  I  said  as  she  had  expressed  herself  fearful  I  would 
go  with  her  to  her  Master,  which  I  accordingly  did.  I  saw  his  Dinner 
on  the  Table,  but  he  was  still  shut  up  in  his  Room.  I  ask'd  the  Laundress 
whether  he  had  any  relations  in  Town,  she  said  he  had  not,  but  that  he 
had  a  Nephew  somewhere  in  the  North  who  had  lived  with  him  for  many 
Years,  but  that  Mr.  Ritson  had  turned  him  out  of  his  House  for  eating 
animal  Food.    I  desired  her  to  endeavour  to  find  out  some  of  his  Rela- 

^This  material  is  given  from  the  original  manuscript  in  the  library  of  Charles 
Davis,  Esquire,  of  Kew  Gardens.  It  has  been  previously  referred  to  in  two  letters 
of  Bishop  Percy  to  Anderson,  Literary  Ilhistratioiis,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  139,  153;  and 
Sir  Sidney  Lee  mentions  it  in  his  life  of  Ritson  in  the  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography.  Neither  makes  direct  quotations  from  it.  It  is  of  interest  in  connection 
with  the  life  of  Ritson  for  two  reasons.  It  gives  the  most  exhaustive  and  the  only 
intimate  account  of  the  morbid  close  of  Ritson's  life  and  effectively  dissipates  the 
haze  of  conjecture  which  has  hitherto  clouded  comment  on  his  end.  Furthermore, 
it  reveals  the  means  taken  by  Percy  to  gain  authentic  information  about  the  man 
who  had  for  twenty  years  vigorously  defamed  his  literary  and  personal  character. 
The  fact  that  Percy  never  published  the  material  which  he  might  then  have  used 
with  telling  effect  is  ample  evidence  of  the  generosity  of  his  nature. 

200 


I 


535]  APPENDIX   A  201 

tioiis  or  Friends,  and  to  apprize  them  of  his  unhappy  Situation — and 
in  the  meantime  to  be  very  careful  of  him. 

On  the  10th  of  September  about  nine  o'clock  in  tlie  Evening?,  on 
my  Eeturn  to  Chambers,  my  Servant  told  me  that  Mr.  Ritson  had  been 
making  a  great  Noise,  and  that  there  was  a  great  Light  in  his  Room, 
winch  had  alarmed  the  people  in  the  Steward's  office.  I  went  immed- 
iately to  the  Steward's  Office,  and  looking  from  his  window  I  saw  Mr. 
Ritson 's  Room  strewed  with  Books  and  loose  papers,  some  of  which  he 
was  gathering  up  and  throwing  on  the  Fire,  which  occasioned  the  great 
Blaze,  they  had  seen.  He  had  a  lighted  chandle  in  his  Hand  which  he 
carried  about  in  a  very  dangerous  manner.  The  Steward  not  being  at 
home  I  sent  for  him  to  represent  to  him  Mr.  Ritson 's  extraordinary  Con- 
duct. However,  being  much  alarmed,  I  went  to  Mr.  Ritson 's  Chambers, 
and  knocked  at  the  Door  several  times,  but  could  get  no  admission.  At 
last  a  key  was  obtained  from  the  Laundress,  and  Mr.  Quin  the  Steward 
and  myself  with  two  Porters  entered  his  Chambers.  He  appeared 
much  confused  on  seeing  us,  and  asked  how  we  came  in?  We  told 
him  by  means  of  the  Laundress's  Key.  He  then  asked  what  we  wanted? 
Mr.  Quin  told  him  we  came  in  consequence  of  the  great  Blaze  that 
appeared  in  his  Chambers,  believing  them  to  be  on  Fire !  He  answered 
that  his  Fire  had  gone  out,  and  that  he  was  lighting  it  to  make  some 
Horse-reddish  Tea. 

Mr.  Quin  then  represented  to  him  the  great  Danger  of  making  his 
Fire  with  loose  papers,  particularly  as  there  was  so  many  scattered  about 
the  Floor,  some  of  which  had  actually  taken  Fire !  Mr.  Quinn  therefore 
begged  he  would  permit  the  Porters  to  collect  them  together  and  put 
them  away,  and  to  do  anything  he  wanted.  Upon  which  he  said  No ! 
No!  and  in  the  most  peremptory  manner  ordered  them  to  leave  his 
Chambers,  saying  they  were  only  Servants  to  the  Society  and  had  no 
Business  in  his  Chambers.  Mr.  Quin  observed  that  consistent  with  his 
Duty  as  Steward  of  the  Inn  he  could  not  leave  his  Chambers  in  that 
Dangerous  Situation.  Mr.  Ritson,  then,  appearing  much  enraged,  swore 
he  would  make  him,  for  that  they  came  to  rob  him,  and  immediately 
went  to  his  Bed-Room  and  returned  with  a  drawn  dagger  in  his  Hand, 
at  Sight  of  which  Mr.  Quin  and  the  Porters  immediately  left  the  Cham- 
bers, Mr.  Ritson  pursuing  them  along  the  Passage,  and  they  in  their 
Hurry,  shut  the  outer  Door,  leaving  me  in  the  Room.  On  his  return  I 
disarmed  him,  and  begged  him  to  sit  down  while  I  explained  everything. 
He  was  then  very  complaisant,  and  said  he  did  not  mean  to  offend  me, 
but  swore  Venganee  against  those  who  had  left  the  Room.  He  insisted 
on  my  going  into  his  best  Apartment,  which  I  did  and  found  his  Books 
and  papers  scattered  on  the  Floor  as  they  were  in  the  other  Chambe>, 
he  asked  me  to  drink  with  him  but  I  refused.    He  paid  me  some  Compli- 


202  JOSEPH  RITSON  [536 

ments  as  a  Neighbour,  and  said  lie  would  give  me  a  History  of  his  Life. 
He  told  me  he  had  a  great  Passion  for  Books  of  which  he  possessed  the 
finest  Collection  in  England;  That  he  had  written  upon  many  Subjects 
and  had  confuted  many  who  had  written  on  Law  and  Theology.  He 
said  he  was  then  writing  a  pamphlet  proving  Jesus  Christ  an  impostor 
but  that  something  had  lately  discomposed  him  and  he  was  therefore 
resolved  to  destroy  many  of  his  Manuscripts  for  which  purpose  he  was 
then  sorting  his  Papers ! ! !  I  heard  him  patiently  for  an  hour  and  a 
half  when  I  advised  him  to  go  to  bed  which  he  said  he  would  do,  and  I 
left  Mm  seemingly  composed.  About  an  Hour  after  he  became  very 
violent  and  outrageous,  throwing  his  Furniture  about  his  Chambers, 
and  breaking  his  Windows.  I  then  went  to  him  again  and  endeavored 
to  pacify  him  but  without  Effect.  He  had  a  Dagger  in  one  Hand  and 
a  Knife  in  the  other,  tho'  I  had  taken  the  other  Dagger  from  him  and 
carried  it  to  my  own  Chambers.  He  raved  for  a  considerable  time,  'till 
being  quite  exhausted  he  went  to  sleep.  A  person  was  then  sent  for 
from  Megsdon  to  take  care  of  him  who  remained  with  him  five  days,  and 
said  that  his  Derangement  was  incurable.  I  visited  him  every  day 
when  he  appeared  very  glad  to  see  me  and  said  "here  comes  my  Friend 
who  will  set  me  at  Liberty"  but  violently  abused  his  Keeper,  and  said 
the  Devil  would  torment  him  for  his  Cruelty  in  keeping  him  so  confined. 
It  was  thought  proper  by  his  Friends  to  remove  him  to  a  Madhouse 
where  I  understand  he  died  in  a  few  days.  I  have  since  learned  that  his 
Malady  was  a  Family  Disorder  and  that  his  Sister  died  mad. 
sist  March  1804.  .  Robt.  Smith. 


Gray's  Lm,  6th  April  1804. 
My  Dear  Lord, 

In  consequence  of  your  Lordship's  letter  of  the  20th  ult.  which  I 
was  very  happy  to  receive,  as  it  gave  me  good  Accounts  of  your  Lord- 
ship 's  health,  &  that  of  your  family,  to  all  of  whom  I  most  sincerely  wish 
well,  I  made  application  to  my  very  worthy  neighbor  Mr.  Smith,  who 
I  knew  to  be  an  intelligent  man,  who  lived  in  the  same  Staircase  with 
Ritson,  &  was  well  acquainted  with  all  his  whims  and  eccentricities,  to 
give  me  the  best  and  most  particular  relation  he  could  to  satisfy  your 
Enquiries,  for  which  purpose  I  read  to  him  that  part  of  your  Lordship 's 
last  letter  to  me  respecting  it.  Just  as  I  was  preparing  to  go  into  Essex, 
to  pass  a  few  days  in  the  Easter  holydays  ^^^th  my  friends  there,  I 
received  the  foregoing  report,  which  I  hope  may  prove  satisfactory  to 
your  Lordship.  But  as  Mr.  Smith  in  our  conversation  on  the  subject 
of  Ritson 's  passions,  prejudices,  and  sentiments  in  general,  dropt  some 


537]  APPENDIX  A  203 

expressions  which  I  found  he  had  omitted  in  the  foregoing  Recital,  I  gave 
him  a  call  j'esterdaj',  and  mentioned  the  Circumstances  to  him,  which 
he  perfectly  recollected,  and  recapitulated  them  to  me  as  he  had  done 
before.  He  says  that  Ritson  frequently  made  such  a  noise  and  thump- 
ing in  his  Chambers  as  to  disturb  and  alarm  all  his  neighbors  frequently, 
and  that  on  these  occasions  he  used  to  go  down  to  Ritson 's  Chambers, 
which  were  on  the  first  Floor  or  Story,  &  Smith's  was  on  the  2d.  and 
being  a  strong  powerful  j\Ian,  &  Ritson  a  mere  spider  in  comparison  to 
him — he  used  to  prevail  on  R.  either  by  force,  or  by  kind  persuasions 
to  give  over  making  such  a  disturbance — at  these  times  Ritson  would 
appear  sometimes  very  furious,  enraged  and  violent  to  a  degree  and  after 
he  had  fatigued  himself  by  the  Exertion  of  those  horrid  Passions  he  fre- 
quently, it  seems,  used  to  sit  down,  lay  his  hand  in  a  pathetic  and  in  a 
sort  of  ejaculating  manner  on  his  forehead  &  exclaim  "Oh  My  God, 
what  a  miserable  wretch  am  I ! "  "  My  poor  distracted  Head ! "  "  When 
will  there  be  an  end  of  my  distresses ! ' '  He  would  then  start  up  again 
and  act  as  wildly  as  before,  until  Mr.  Smith  who  had  obtained  compleat 
command  over  him,  insisted  on  his  going  again  to  bed,  which  he  always 
did  at  Mr,  Smith's  request. 

I  ask'd  Smith  if  He  believed  Ritson  to  be  an  Atheist, — his  Answer 
was,  that  He  did  not  think  so: — else  whj^  should  he  send  up  ejaculations 
to  God,  or  talk  of  the  Devil  tormenting  people  whom  he  believed  had 
used  him  very  ill.  Smith  said  that  he  possessed  the  most  consumate 
Pride,  and  had  the  highest  opinion  of  his  own  Abilities  in  all  Sciences; 
He  say'd  that  He  had  had  literary  controversies  with  a  great  Number 
of  Men  of  the  First  Talents  in  the  Country,  on  subjects  of  their  respective 
&  several  Studies;  and  that  he  had  compleatly  confuted  them  all!!  As 
to  the  Benchers  &  Gentlemen  of  this  Inn,  they  were  all  a  parcel  of  Fools 
to  him,  &  not  worthy  his  Notice!  He  say'd  he  had  for  some  time  been 
engaged  in  writing  the  Work  mentioned  in  ]\Ir,  Smith's  Recital  as  before 
related  by  him — "vdz.  "To  prove  That  Oiir  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  was  an 
Impostor" — but  something  had  happened  to  prevent  his  finishing  the 
w^ork,  &  which  therefore  he  had  not  then  concluded;  Whether  He  had 
been  struck  by  conviction  or  by  remorse,  or  from  any  and  what  other 
cause,  it  may  be  perhaps  for  ever  impossible  to  say,  but  I  understand  that 
he  consumed  the  Sheets,  which  contained  what  He  had  written  on  that 
extraordinary  Subject,  in  the  flames.  I  do  believe  that  His  Madness 
originated  in  his  Pride,  in  thinking  himself  the  most  learned,  and  Extra- 
ordinary Genius  of  the  Age  in  which  he  lived, — and  that  there  were  few 
if  any  that  were  fit  for  him  to  associate  with  in  this  world;  what  He 
thought,  if  he  thought  at  all,  of  that  which  is  to  come,  it  is  not  in  my 


204  JOSEPH  RiTSOx  [538 

power  to  say  not  having  had  any  sort  of  intercourse,  or  acquaintance  with 
him. 

I  beg  my  most  friendly  respects  to  Mrs.  Percy  &  such  of  your  Family 
as  are  with  you,  and  that  your  Lordship  will  believe  me  with  the  truest 
Esteem  and  regard, 

Ever  Your's  most  faithfully, 
H.  C.  Selby. 

Grays  Inn,  London. 
14th  June  1804. 
My  Lord ! 

I  hope  the  Complaint  in  your  Eyes  has  been  compleatly  removed, 
which  by  your  Lordship's  last  letter  I  observed  had  been  very  trouble- 
some &  inconvenient  to  you.  I  have  lately  seen  Mr.  Smith  on  the  sub- 
ject of  your  Lordship's  letter  to  me,  who  has  no  sort  of  objection  that 
a  just  &  true  Account  should  be  given  to  the  World,  of  the  late  Mr, 
Joseph  Ritson's  Character,  Conduct  &  Principles,  &  which  I  conceive 
is  very  proper  to  be  done;  Wlien  I  was  with  him  (Mr.  Smith)  He 
sent  for  a  woman  of  the  Name  of  Elizabeth  Kirby,  who  was  a  native  of 
the  same  Town,  viz.  Stockton-upon-Tees,  where  Ritson  drew  his  first 
breath,  was  about  his  own  age,  and  perfectly  well  acquainted  with  him 
and  all  his  family.  This  Mrs.  Kirby  informed  us,  that  Ritson 's  father 
was  a  Menial  Servant  to  a  Tobacconist  at  Stockton — afterwards  he  served 
a  Mr.  Robinson  a  Merchant  there,  at  which  time  his  mother  was  also  a 
servant  in  the  same  family  and  was  with  child  to  the  Father  before  he 
married  her,  &  which  proved  to  be  a  Daughter  who  some  time  ago  died 
of  Madness !  Ritson  went  to  a  Latin  School  at  Stockton,  and  was  clever 
at  his  books,  &  an  apt  scholar;  On  his  quitting  the  Latin  School  he  was 
put  to  a  Conveyancer,  a  Mr.  Bradley  of  the  same  town,  who  I  under- 
stand knew  his  business  extremely  well.  After  having  remained  with 
him  for  some  year  or  two,  he  came  up  to  Town ;  He  used  to  take  his 
Journeys  on  foot,  wuth  a  couple  of  shirts  in  his  pocket,  &  if  he  found  his 
bundle  too  heavy,  he  would,  without  hesitation,  throw  one  of  his  shirts 
away !  He  was  entered  a  Student  of  the  Society  of  Grays  Inn,  &  after 
keeping  his  Terms,  &  being  of  the  proper  Standing  in  the  Inn,  he  was 
called  to  the  Bar !  in  this  transaction  He  could  not  but  have  taken  the 
usual  Oaths  of  Allegiance,  Supremacy,  &e.  &c.  as  no  person  can  be 
admitted  to  a  Barrister  without  taking  those  Oaths.  However  I  find 
by  Mrs.  Kirby 's  declaration  and  solemn  affirmation,  that  in  taking  those 
Oaths  He  must  have  played  the  Hypocrite :  For  she  says,  that  he  most 
undoubtedly  was  an  Atheist,  &  that  He  very  often  declared  himself 
such  to  her : — He  did  not  believe  there  was  any  such  Being,  as  Almighty 
God ! !  or  that  there  was  any  future  State  of  Rewards  or  Punishments, 


1 


539]  APPENDIX  A  205 

&  the  greatest  devil  he  knew,  was  a  nasty,  crabbed,  ill  natured  old 
Woman ! !  When  he  was  young  &  at  School,  he  never  associated  with 
other  boj's,  but  always  with  the  girls,  and  they  never  liked  his  company, 
but  got  rid  of  him  as  well  as  they  could ;  and  at  last  he  was  forsook  by 
everj'body.  This  Mrs.  Kirb}^  is  a  very  stout,  hearty  woman  about  54 
years  of  age,  &  she  tells  me  that  she  had  complete  Mastery  over  him,  and 
could  make  him  do  anything  she  pleased, — he  was  so  much  afraid  of  her. 
Of  the  rest  of  his  History,  Your  Lordship  is  in  possession,  and  at  liberty 
to  make  what  use  of  it  you  may  think  proper  and  right. 

Your  Lordship  has  been  rightly  informed  as  to  Mr.  Stirling's 
Residence,  which  for  some  time  has  been  at  No.  44  in  Parliament 
Street,  Westminster.  Neither  the  size  of  my  paper,  nor  the  Shortness 
of  my  time  at  present,  will  permit  me  to  give  your  Lordship  the  detail 
of  my  Reconciliation  but  I  hope  we  shall  be  permitted  to  meet  again 
in  this  world,  when  I  will  with  pleasure  give  it  you  'Vive  Voce'.  I  dined 
at  Northumberland  House  about  three  Weeks  ago,  with  a  small  Party 
of  Northumbrians,  and  was  very  cheerfully  &  agreeably  entertained. 
The  young  ladies  are  very  mild,  easy,  &  good  humoured — but  seem  more 
diffident  than  Ladies  of  their  Rank  generally  do. 

I  beg  to  be  most  respectfully  remembered  to  Mrs.  Percy  &  all  your 
Lordship's  Family,  and  that  your  Lordship  will  believe  always  with 
great  Veneration  &  Esteem,  your  Lordship's  affectionate  Friend,  and 
most  faithful  Humble  Servant. 

H.  C.  Selby 
The  Right  Revd 

The  Lord  Bishop  of  Dromore 
Dromore-House 
Ireland. 


APPENDIX  B 

Passages  Cancelled  in  Ritson^s  Ancient  Engleish 
Metrical  Romancees 

The  passages  cancelled  in  Metrical  Romances  because  of  their 
extreme  personal  bias  and  afterwards  printed  and  bound  with  a  few 
copies  of  the  published  work  are  here  given  together  with  the  modified 
passages  by  which  they  were  replaced.  The  cancelled  material  is  italic- 
ized; the  substitution  which  appeared  in  the  regularly  printed  edition 
follows  in  square  brackets. 

Vol.  I. 

Page  ix,  line  7 :  Achilles,  likewise,  the  celebrated  champion  of  the 
Greeks,  was  the  son  of  Thetis,  a  sea-gooddess ;  as  Aeneas,  the  pretended 
founder  of  the  Roman  empire,  was  of  Venus,  the  goddess  of  love ;  and 
all  these  fancies  of  a  poetical  imagination  are  to  be  as  firmly  Relieved  as 
the  Jewish  or  Christian  religion,  the  hool'S  of  Moses,  or  the  new  testa- 
ment,    [firmly  believed,  though  nothing  more  than  mere  romance.] 

Page  xlvi,  line  22 :  This  Turpin  is  pretended  to  be  the  Archbishop 
of  Rheims,  whose  true  name,  however,  was  Tilpiu,  and  who  died  before 
Charlemagne,  though  Robert  Gaguin,  in  his  licentious  translation  of  this 
work,  1527,  makes  him,  like  Moses,  the  Jew  prophet,  relate  his  own 
death,     [like  some  one  else,  relate  his  own  death.] 

Page  Ix,  line  6 :  The  same  effects  had  not  long  before  been  already 
produced  upon  the  Romans,  as  they  have  in  modern  times  upon  the 
Mohawks,  who,  in  consequence  of  hecoming  Christians,  have  lost  all  that 
was  valuable  in  their  national  character,  and  are  become  the  most  despic- 
able tribe  that  is  left  unexterminated.     [a  certain  change.] 

Page  Ixv,  note :  The  loss  sustained  by  the  vulgar  of  their  Saxon 
version  would  have  been  effectually  remedied  by  their  French  one,  and 
peradventure,  it  ivoidd  have  heen  just  as  well  for  the  Saxons  if  they 
had  never  had  a  bible  to  read,  [the  Latin  Vulgate,  which  the  priest^ 
continued  to  explain  to  them  in  their  vernacular  idiom  (for,  in  fact, 
there  was  no  French  translation  of  the  Bible)  ;  and  the  reading  of  it 
might  have  contributed  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Latin  tongue.] 

Page  cxlviii,  line  1 :  So  that,  it  seems,  the  fabulous  history  of  Geof- 
frey of  Monmouth  was  to  have  been  the  platform  of  his  sublime  poetical 
structure;  but  he,  whether  wisely  or  not,  abandoned  one  series  of  lies 
for  another,     [but  this  project,  whether  wisely  or  not,  he  abandoned.] 

206 


541]  APPENDIX  B  207 


Vol.  Ill 

Page  238,  line  20 :  Oaths  and  curses,  in  fact,  are,  at  this  day,  com- 
mon to  most  nations  in  the  world,  as  they  were  formerly,  to  the  Greeks 
and  Romans.  They  are  foolish,  no  doubt,  and  unmeaning,  hut  it  is  the 
extreme  of  higotry  and  idiotism  to  consider  them  as  wicked  or  punish 
them  as  criminal. 

Page  247,  line  1 :  Merlin,  a  powerful  magician,  and  a  more  clear- 
sighted and  veracious  prophet  than  the  Jew  Isaiah,  was  begotten  by  a 
devil,  or  incubus,  upon  a  young  damsel  of  great  beauty,  and  daughter, 
as  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  asserts,  to  the  king  of  Demetia. 

Page  247,  lines  7,  11 :  He  removed  by  a  wonderful  machine  of  his 
own  invention,  the  giants-dance,  now  Stone-henge,  from  Ireland,  to  Salis- 
bury plain,  where  part  of  it  hy  the  favour  of  Almighty  providence  is 
still  standing;  and  in  order  to  enable  Uther  Pendragon,  king  of  Britain 
to  enjoy  Igerna,  the  wife  of  Gorlois,  Duke  of  Cornwall,  transformed  him, 
by  magical  art,  into  the  likeness  of  her  husband ;  which  amorous  con- 
nection, (Igerna  being  like  the  Bathsheha  of  the  old  testament  rendered 
an  honest  woman  by  the  murder  of  her  spouse,  and  timely  inter- 
marriage with  king  Uther,)  enlightened  the  world,  like  another  Alcmena, 
with  a  second  Hercules,  videlicet,  the  illustrious  Arthur. 

Page  248,  line  15 :  His  prophecies,  which  were  first  published  in 
The  British  History,  are  fulfilling  every  day,  like  those  of  the  old 
clothesmen  of  Judaea,  or  the  still  more  Merlinical  rhapsodist  of  The 
Revelation  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  [have  since  gone  through  repeated 
editions,  in  Latin,  French,  and  English.] 

Page  321,  line  28 :  That  the  Christians  of  former  ages,  a  most  ignor- 
ant, bigoted  and  superstitious  sect,  appear  to  have  entertained  an  invet- 
erate antipathy  to  the  Mahometans  (who,  certainly,  would  not  have  been 
much  less  intolerant)  is  apparent  from  the  ancient  romances  of  chivalry, 
French  or  English,  in  which  this  equally  polite  and  religious  appella- 
tion, frequently  occurs. 

Page  349,  line  5 :  This  was  Jesus  Christ,  who,  in  the  interval  between 
his  crucifixion  and  his  ascension,  made  an  inroad  into  the  infernal  regions 
and  plundered  them  of  all  the  damned  souls  he  thought  worth  carrying 
off.  This  miraculous  event,  though  unnoticed  by  the  four  evangelists, 
is  nevertheless  circumstantially  related  in  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus;  and 
in  honest  Tom  Hearne's  appendix  to  his  edition  of  John  Fordun,  the 
Scotchman's  lying  chronicle,  is  the  engraving  of  an  ancient  picturesque 
representation  thereof,  in  which  Christ  (not  Saint  Patrick,  as  is  falsely 
pretended  by  Doctor  Johnson)  in  so  desperate  an  adventure,  armed  with 
his  invincible  cross,  is  opposed  at  the  very  mouth  of  hell  fire,  by  a  devil 


208  JOSEPH  RITSON  [542 

blowing  a  horn  and  exclaiming  in  a  manner  truly  diabolical,  "Out  out 
ARONGST."  (Refer  to  page  1402-3;  and,  for  what  Johnson  has  said,  td^ 
Stevens's  Shakspeare  1793,  vii,  342.)  It  seems  alluded  to  in  the  first 
epistle  of  Peter  m,  18,  19:  "For  Christ  also  hath  once  suffered  for  sins, 
being  put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  but  quickened  by  the  spirit;  by  which  also 
he  went  and  preached  unto  the  spirits  in  prison,"  and  in  the  apostles' 
creed,  it  is  expressly  said  "He  descended  into  hell."  [This  means  Jesus 
Christ,  who,  in  the  interval  between  his  crucifixion  and  ascension,  is 
said,  in  the  apostles'  creed,  to  have  "descended  into  hell".  This  visita- 
tion is  related,  most  at  large,  in  Nichodemus's  Gospel.  In  Hearne's 
Appendix  to  Fordun's  Scotichronicon  (p.  1482-3),  is  a  singular  engrav- 
ing from  an  old  illumination,  in  which  "Ihesus  Christus  (resurgens  a 
mortuis  spoliat  infernum,"  not  Saint  Patrick,  as  Dr.  Johnson  mistakes) 
"is  represented",  as  he  says,  "visiting  hell,  and  putting  the  devils  into 
great  confusion  ...  of  whom  one  .  .  .  [with  a  prong  and  a 
horn]  has  a  label  issuing  out  of  his  mouth,  with  these  words,  "Out  out 
ARONGST !"    (Note  in  Shakspeare,  1793,  VII,  342.)  ] 


APPENDIX  C. 

I.    A  Bibliography  op  the  Published  Works  of  Joseph  Ritson. 

1.  Versees  addressed  to   the  Ladies  of  Stockton.     In  the  Newcastle 

Miscellamj,  1772. 

Reprinted  at  Newcastle,  n.  d. 

Again,  as  an  Appendix  to  Joseph  Haslewood's  Some  Account  of  the 
Life  and  Publications  of  the  Late  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq.  London, 
1824. 

2.  Tables,  shewing  the  descent  of  the  Crown  of  England.    1778. 

Second  impression,  1783. 

3.  The  St*ckt*n  Juhilee:  or,  Shakspeare  in  all  his  glory.    Newcastle, 

1781. 

4.  Observations  on  the  three  first  volumes  of  the  History  of  English 

Poetry.    In  a  Familiar  Letter  to  the  Author.    London,  1782. 

5.  Fahularum  Romanensium  Bihliotkeca :  a  general  catalogue  of  old 

Romances,  French,  Italian,  Spanish  and  English.  2  vols.  Lon- 
don.    [Only  two  sheets  printed.] 

6.  Remarks,  Critical  and  Illustrative,  on  the  Text  and  Notes  of  the  Last 

Edition  of  Shakspeare.    London,  1783. 

7.  A  Select  Collection  of  English  Songs,  with  their  Original  Airs; 

and  a  Historical  Essay  on  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  National 
Smig.    3  vols.    London,  1783. 

Second  edition,  with  additional  songs  and  occasional  notes  by  Thomas 
Park.     3  vols.     London,  1813. 

8.  The  Bishoprick  Garland,  or  Durham  Minstrel.    Being  a  choice  col- 

lection of  Excellent  Songs  relating  to  the  above  county.  Stock- 
ton, 1784. 

New  edition,  corrected,  Newcastle,   1792. 

Again,  See  No.  ZZ- 

9.  Gammer  Gurton's  Garland:  or  the  Nursery  Parnassus;  a  choice  col- 

lection of  Pretty  Songs  and  Verses,  for  the  amusement  of  all 
little  good  children  who  can  neither  read  nor  run.  Stockton, 
1784. 

Reprinted,  zvith  additions,  London,  1809. 

Again,  London,  1810. 

Again,  Glosgow,  1866. 
10.     The  Spartan  Manual,  or  Tablet  of  Morality:  being  a  genuine  Collec- 
tion of  the  Apophthegms,  Maxims,  and  Precepts,  of  the  Philos- 
ophers, Heroes,  and  other  great  and  celebrated  Characters  of 

209 


210  JOSEPH  RITSON  [544 

Antiquity;  under  proper  heads.  For  the  Improvement  of 
Youth,  and  the  promotion  of  Wisdom  and  Virtue.  London, 
1785. 

Reprinted   privately,   Glasgow,    1873. 

11.  The  Comedy  of  Errors,  with  notes.     London,  1787.      [Only  two 

sheets  printed.] 

12.  The  Quip  Modest;  a  feiv  words  iy  way  of  Supplement  to  Remarks, 

Critical  and  Illustrative,  on  the  Text  and  Notes  of  the  Last 
edition  of  Shakspeare;  occasioned  hy  a  RepuMication  of  that 
Edition,  revised  and  augmented  hy  the  Editor  of  Dodsleys  Old 
Plays.    London,  1788. 

13.  The  Yorkshire  Garland :  heing  a  curious  collection  of  old  and  new 

songs  concerning  that  famous  county.     Part  I.     York,  1788. 
[It  was  never  continued.] 
Again,  See  No.  33. 

14.  A  Digest  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Court  Leet  of  the  Manor  and 

Liberty  of  Savoy,  parcel  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  in  the 
County  of  Middlesex ;  from  the  year  1682  to  the  present  time. 
London,   1789. 

Again,  See  No.  25. 

15.  Ancient  Songs,  from  the  time  of  King  Henry  the  Third  to  the 

Revolution.    London,  1790. 

Second  edition,  Ancient  Songs  and  Ballads  from  the  reign  of  King 

Henry  the  Second  to  the  Revolution.     Collected  by  Joseph  Rit- 

son,  Esq.    2  vols.    London,  1829. 
Third  edition,  revised  by  W.  C.  Hazlitt.    London,  1877. 

16.  Pieces  of  Ancient  Popular  Poetry:  from  Authentic  Manuscripts  and 

Old  Printed  Copies.    Adorned  with  cuts.    London,  1791. 
Second  edition,  London,  1833. 
Again,  revised  by  E.  Goldsmid.     2  vols.     London,  1884. 

17.  The  Jurisdiction  of  the  Court  Leet:  Exemplified  in  the  Articles 

ivhich  the  Jury  or  Inquest  for  the  King,  in  that  Court,  is 
charged  and  Sworn,  and  hy  law  enjoined,  to  Inquire  of  and 
Present.     Together  with  Approved  Precedents.    London,  1791. 

Again,  See  No.  25. 

Second  edition,  with  great  additions.     London,   1809. 

Third  edition,  corrected.    London,  1816. 

18.  The  Office  of  Constahle:  heing  an  entirely  new  compendium  of  the 

Law  concerning  that  Ancient  Minister  for  the  Conservation  of 
the  Peace.  Carefully  compiled  from  the  best  authorities.  With 
a  Preface;  and  an  Introduction,  containing  some  account  of  the 
origin  and  antiquity  of  the  office.    London,  1791. 

Again,  See  No.  25. 

Second  edition,  enlarged.    London,  1815. 


545]  APPENDIX  c  211 

19.  Cursorij  Criticisms  on  the  Edition  of  Shakspeare  published  by  Ed- 

mond  Malone.    London,  1792, 

20.  The  North-Countrij  Chorister;  an  unparallaled  variety  of  Excellent 

Songs  collected  and  published  together,  for  general  amusement, 
by  a  Bishoprick  Ballad  Singer.    Durham,  1792. 

Second   edition,   London,    1802. 

Again,  See  No.  2>2- 

21.  Dido:  A  Tragedy;  as  it  was  performed  at  the  Theatre  Royal  in 

Drury-Lane,  with  universal  applause.  By  Joseph  Reed,  Author 
of  The  Register  Office,  Tom  Jones,  &c.  London,  printed  1792, 
published  1808. 

22.  The  Northumberland  Garland;  or  Newcastle  Nightingale;  a  match- 

less collection  of  Famous  Songs.    Newcastle,  1793. 
Again,  See  No.  s^. 

23.  The  English  Anthology.    3  vols.    London,  1793-4. 

24.  Scotish  Songs.    2  vols.    London,  1794. 

Again,  in  one  volume  omitting  the  Historical  Essay  and  the  musical 
notation,  Scottish  Songs  and  Ballads,  collected  by  Joseph  Ritson. 
New  and  revised  edition  with  glossary  and  index.    London,  1866. 

Second  edition,  edited  by  J.  Alexander.    2  vols.     Glasgow,  1869. 

25.  Law  Tracts,  by  Joseph  Ritson,  of  Gray's  Inn,  Barrister.    London, 

1794.     [Comprising  Nos.  14,  17,  18.] 

26.  Poems  on  interesting  events  in  the  reign  of  King  Edward  III: 

written  a7ino  MCCCLII,  by  Laurence  Minot.  With  a  preface, 
dissertations,  notes,  and  glossary.    London,  1795. 

Second  edition,  Poems'written  anno  MCCCLII,  by  Laurence  Minot. 
With  Introductory  Dissertations  On  the  Scotish  Wars  of  Ed- 
ward III,  On  his  claim  to  the  Throne  of  France;  and  Note» 
and  Glossary.    By  Joseph  Ritson.    London,  1825. 

27.  Robin  Hood:  a  collection  of  all  the  ancient  Poems,  Songs,  and  Bal- 

lads, now  extant  relative  to  that  celebrated  English  Outlaw. 
To  which  are  prefixed  historical  anecdotes  of  his  life.  2  vols. 
London,  1795. 

Second  edition,  London,  1832. 

Other  editions,  London,  1840,  1845,  1853,  1862,  1884,  1885;  Glasgow, 
1858. 

28.  Bibliographia  Poetica :  A  Catalogue  of  English  Poets,  of  the  Twelfth, 

Thirteenth,  Fourteenth,  Fifteenth,  and  Sixteenth,  Centurys, 
with  a  short  account  of  their  works.    London,  1802. 

29.  An  Essay  on  Abstinence  from  Animal  Food,  as  a  Moral  Duty.    By 

Joseph  Ritson.    London,  1802. 


212  JOSEPH  RITSON  [546 

30.  Ancient  Engleish  Metrical  Bomancees.    3  vols.    London,  1802. 

Second  edition,  Ancient  English  Metrical  Romances.  Selected  and 
published  by  Joseph  Ritson,  and  revised  by  Edmund  Goldsmid. 
3  vols.    Edinburgh,  1884-5. 

From  this  collection  were  separately  published:  (i)  A  Dissertation 
on  Romance  and  Minstrelsy.  To  which  is  appended  the  Ancient 
Metrical  Romance  of  Ywaine  and  Gawin.  Edinburgh,  1891. 
(2)    Thomas  Chestre:  Launfal.    Edinburgh,  1891. 

31.  Practical  Points,   or,  Maxims  in  Conveyancing,  drawn  from  the 

daily  experience  of  a  very  extensive  practice.  By  a  late  Eminent 
Conveyancer.  To  which  are  added,  Critical  Observations  on  the 
various  and  essential  parts  of  A  Deed.  By  the  late  J.  Ritson, 
Esq.    London,  1804. 

Again,  London,  1826. 

32.  Original  Memoirs  written  during  the  great  War;  being  the  Life  of 

Sir  H.  Sling  shy,  and  Memoirs  of  Captain  Hodgson.  With  notes 
hy  Sir  W.  Scott,  Bart.  Edinburgh,  1806.  [The  Advertisement 
to  Hodgson's  Memoirs  was  written  by  Ritson.] 

33.  Northern  Garlands.    Edited  by  the  late  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq.    Lon- 

don, 1810.     [Comprising  Nos.  8,  13,  20,  22,  each  with  a  separate 
title  page  dated  London,  1809.    Edited  by  Joseph  Haslewood.] 
Reprinted,  Edinburgh,  1887  and  1888. 

34.  The  Office  of  Bailiff  of  a  Liberty.    By  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq.,  Barrister 

at  Law,  Late  High  Bailiff  of  the  Savoy.  London,  1811.  [Edited 
by  Joseph  Frank.] 

35.  The  Caledonian  Muse:  A  chronological  Selection  of  Scotish  Poetry 

from  the  earliest  times.    Edited  by  the  late  Joseph  Ritson.,  Esq. 
With  vignettes  engraved  hy  Heath,  after  the  dengns  of  Stot 
rard.    London,  printed  1785;  and  now  first  published,  1821. 

36.  The  Life  of  King  Arthur:  from  Ancient  Historians  and  Authoitic 

Documents.  By  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq.  London,  1825.  [Edited 
by  Joseph  Frank.] 

37.  Memoirs  of  the  Celts  or  Gauls.    By  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq.    London, 

1827.     [Edited  by  Joseph  Frank.] 

38.  Annals  of  the  Caledonians,  Picts,  and  Scots;  and  of  Strathclyde, 

Cumberland,  Galloway,  and  Murray.  By  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq. 
2  vols.    Edinburgh,  1828.     [Edited  by  Joseph  F'rank.] 

39.  Letters  from  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq.,  to  Mr.  George  Baton.    To  which 

is  added,  A  Critique  by  John  Pinkerton,  Esq.,  upon  Ritson's 
Scotish  Songs.  Edinburgh,  1829.  [Edited  by  James  Maidment. 
Only  100  copies  printed.] 


547]  APPENDIX  c  213 

40.  Fairy  Talcs,  Now  first  collected:  To  which  are  prefixed  Two  Disser- 

tations: 1.  On  Pygmies.  2.  On  Fairies.  By  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq. 
London,  1831. 

Another  edition,  Fairy    Tales,  Legends,  and  Romances  illustrating 
Shakespeare  and  other  early  English    Writers.     To  which  are 
prefixed    two    dissertations:      i.    On   Pigmies.     2.    On   Fairies. 
With  Preface  by   W.  C.  Hazlitt.     London,  1875. 

41.  The  Letters  of  Joseph  Ritson,  Esq.    Edited  chiefly  from  originals  in 

the  possession  of  his  nephew.  To  which  is  prefixed  a  Memoir 
of  the  Author  hy  Sir  Harris  Nicolas.    2  vols.    London,  1833. 

II.     The  Unpublished  Manuscripts  of  Joseph  Ritson. 

1.  Precedents  in  Conveyancing. 

2.  Treatise  on  Conveyancing, 

3.  Precedents  by  Mr.  Bradley. 

4.  Wills  drawn  by  the  late  Ralph  Bradley,  Esq.,  of  Stockton  in  the 

Connty  of  Durham.    2  vols. 

5.  The  Privileges  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  by  Charter,  Statute, 

and  Judicial  Determination. 

6.  Antient  and  Modern  Deeds,  Charters,  Grants,  Surveys,  and  other 

Instruments,  Writings,  Extracts,  &c.,  relating  to  the  Manor, 
Borough,  Township,  Chapelry,  and  Parish  of  Stockton,  in 
County  Durham.     [MS.  Gough,  Durham  1,  Bodleian.] 

7.  The  Institution,  Authority,  Acts  and  Proceedings  of  Burgesses  of 

the  Savoy — Repertory  of  Evidences  in  the  Duchey  Office  relat- 
ing to  Manor  and  Liberty  of  the  Savoy — and  other  papers  rela- 
tive to  the  Hospital,  with  the  Views  and  Plans,  framed  and 
glazed,  of  the  Savoy. 

8.  Topographical  Rines  [sic]. 

9.  Description  of  the  North-East  Part  of  Cleveland,  with  notes. 

10.  Villare  Dunelmesne,  the  names  of  all  the  towns,  villages,  hamlets, 

castles,  sea-houses,  halls,  granges,  and  other  houses  and  build- 
ings, having  any  appellation  within  the  Bishopricks  or  county 
palatine  of  Durham. 

11.  A  Glossary  of  obsolete  or  difficult  Words  occurring  in  the  Charters 

granted  to  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster. 

12.  A  List  of  River  Names  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  with  a  few 

etymological  notes  on  them.     [MS.  Douce  340,  Bodleian.] 

13.  An  Enquiry  into  the  Connection  between  the  Families  of  Bailiol 

and  Comyn  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

14.  An  English  Dictionary,  intended  for  publication. 

15.  Gleanings  of  English  Grammar,  chiefly  with  a  view  to  illustrate 


214  JOSEPH  RITSON  [548 

and  establish  a  just  system  of  Orthography,  upon  etymological 
principles. 

16.  Dissertation  on  the  use  of  Self. 

17.  Notes  for  a  life  of  Philip,  Duke  of  Wharton. 

18.  The  Poetical  Works  of  Mr.  George  Knight,  formerly  of  Stockton, 

Shoemaker  of  facecious  memory.  1 

19.  Extracts  of  Entries  (chiefly  of  songs  and  ballads)  in  the  Stationers' 

books,  from  a  transcript  by  the  late  W.  Herbert. 

20.  Select  Scotish  Poems.     [MS.  in  Mr.  Perry's  collection.] 

21.  Scotish  Ballads.     [MS.  in  Mr.  Perry's  collection.] 

22.  Bibliographia   Scotica;   Anecdotes   Biographical   and   Literary   of 

Scotish  Writers,  Historians,  and  Poets,  from  the  earliest  ac- 
counts to  the  nineteenth  Century.  In  two  parts,  intended  for 
publication. 

23.  Notes  on  Shakspeare,  and  Various  Readings.     [MS.  in  Mr.  Perry's 

collection.] 

24.  Notes  and  corrections  on  Shakspeare,  prepared  for  the  press.  3  vols. 


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INDEX 


Aiken,  John    92-3 

Allan,  George     17  2^  46-7  49 

Ancient  Popular  Poetry,  Pieces  of   103-5 

Ancient  Songs    63  100-3  148 

Andrew  of  Wyntoun     166 

Animal  Food,  Abstinence  from     17  122 

189-92 
See  also   Vegetarianism 
Antiquarianism     17  46-51  98-9  197-8 
Arne,  Thomas  A.     97 
Bailiff,  Office  of    34 
Ballads    103-4  106  114  119  125^  129  146-7 

156-8  196-7 
Baynes,  John     60  74  106  149  194 
Beers,  H.  A.     i86n 
Bentham,  Jeremy     i84;i 
Bewick,  John     I03;t 
Bewick,  Thomas     103M 
Bibliographia  Poctica    63  64  130-5 
Bishoprick  Garland,  The    98 
Boethius,  Hector     166 
Boileau-Despreaux,  Nicholas     197 
Booth,  Barton    95 
Bowie,  John     60 
Bradley,  Ralph     16  34 
Brewster,  John     14H  23  124 
Brown,   Dr.   John    77n 
Buchanan,   George     166 
Buchanan,  John  L.     167 
Burnett,  James,  Lord  Monboddo     igcm 
Caldecott,  Thomas    61 
Caledonian  Muse,  The     gSn  139-41   IQQ 
Caledonians,  Annals  of    143-4  148  168-71 
Campbell.   Alexander     III 
Carlyle,  Thomas     53n  lion  174 
Capell,  Edward     i85n 
Celts.  Memoirs  of     144-S  148  168-71 
Chalmers,  George     122  130  135  i65n  168 
Chambers,  E.  K.     I5in 
Chaucer,  Geoffrey     117  133  158 
Chevy  Chase    106-7 
Christianity    See  Religion 
Christ's  Kirk  on  the  Green    141 
Collins,  John     69  86 
Comedy  of  Errors    87 
Constable,  Office  of    33 
Conveyancing,  Practical  Points  in    34 
Court  Leet,  Jurisdiction  of    32 

■  Proceedings  of    32 

Croft,  Herbert    123 

Cunningham,  John     16  21-2 

Cursory  Criticisms    7"-9  81-3 

Dalrymple,  David     166 

Davis,  Charles    200 

Deed,  Critical  Observations  on  a    34 

DeQuincey,  Thomas     I4«  154"  i86w 


Descent  of  the  Crown   of  England     29 

50  175 
Deserted  Village,  The     18 
Dictionary     123 

Douce,  Francis     128  131-2  164^ 
D'Urfey,   Thomas     92 
Editorial  Standards    79-80  96-8  129  146- 

7  158-63  165  196-7 
Ellis,  George    62  loi   107  137-8  147 
Elphinston,  James     186 
English  Anthology,  The     107-9  I39 
English   Songs     22n  23  63n  65  90-8  lOO 

loi  148  175 
Erceldoune,  Thomas  of     126-9   I57» 
Evans,  Thomas     119 
Fabularum  Romanensium  Bibliotheca  54 
Fairy  Tales    82;;  145-6 
Farmer,  Richard    48  67  73  78  86  161  198 
Frank.    Joseph     11    36-8   53   99    104    144 

185  187-9  .193 
Franklin,  Benjamin    93n 
Revolution,  The  French     172-4 
Fuseli,   Henry    91 
Gammer  Gurton's  Garland    98 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth     142-3  151   164 
Gillrav,  James     199 
Godwin,  William     176  178-9 
Goldsmith,   Oliver     22 
Gough,  Richard     17  48-50 
Gray's  Inn     26  28 
Gummere,  F.  B.     156 
Hamlet    84-6 
Hardy,  Thomas     176-8 
Haslewood,  Joseph     i8n  20  62  103;!  135 

140  149  199 
Herd,  David     loi  iii 
Hill,  Thomas     194 
Hodgson,  John     109 
Holcroft,  Thomas     i6n  23  176  178  192 
Hymn  to  Venus    I4»  99K 
Hume,  David     184)1 
Hutchinson.  William     47 
Innes,  Thomas     166 
Ireland,  William  Henry    78M  146  164 
Jackson,  William    97 
Tamieson.  John     170 
Jennens,  Charles    69 
John  of  Fordun     166 
Johnson.  Samuel     67  73  82  83  85  86  123 

164  198  207  208 
Jonson.  Ben     199 
King  Arthur,  Life  of    1-11-3 
Kirby,  Mrs.     ii»   I4n  i6^i  182  204 
Laing,   David     139-40 
Laing,  William     11 1-3  124  147  177M 
Lamb,  Charles     192 


557] 


INDEX 


223 


Landor,  W.  S.     187 
Law,  The    28  32-4  44  106 
Lesley,  Bishop     t66 
Leyden,  John     125  i8q 
Lockhart,  John  G.     125 
Lydgate,  John     133-4 
iVIacpIierson,   David     124 
iMalone,  Edmond    6y  70  76-9  81  86  161 
Mandeville,  Bernard  de     17   187 
]\rant,  Richard     61 
i\L'irlowe,    Christopher     95 
]\Iason,   WilHam     108 
jMasterman  and  Lloyd     25-6  46 
McNeill,  G.  P.     126 
Minot's  Poems    63  115-7 
IMinstrel     150-7 

Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border     125 
Musical  instruments     150 
Notation     95 

See  also  Shield,   JJ'illiaiii 
Nicolas,  Sir  Harris    62  83^  149 
Xorth-Country   Chorister,   The     106 
Xorthumbcrland  Garland,  The     106 
Ohserz'ations  on  the  History  of  English 

Poetry    55-65 
O'Flaherty,  Robert     166 
Orthography     19  8r   122-3   184-7 
Ossian     158  170 
Paine,  Thomas     129  176 
Paris     172-5 
Park,  Thomas     62  64-5  91  95;;  ioim  10211 

130-2  138 
Percy,   Thomas     \\n  58^  61  96  lor   104 
136-8  145-7  iSO-63  181  196-7  200 

Folio  MS.     155  158-63 
Perry.  Marsden  J.     88u  I02»  I25n 
Philosophy     183-4   ipo 
Phillips,  Richard     190 
Piers  Plozvnian     13.!.  152 
Pinkerton.   John     58/?    114-5   143-4    146-7 

148  150  160  163-71  187  197 
Politics     29-30  174-9 
Price,  Richard     65 
Ouit>  Modest,  The     72-6  81-3 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter     95 
Ramsay,  Allan    92  11411 
Reed,  Isaac     19  67  71-8  80  ^6  161  198 
Reed,  Joseph    105 
Religion     13  136  179-83  203-8 
Remarks  on  Shakespeare    637;  68-70  81-3 

.^6  159  175 
Reviewers     71   ~7  109 
Rinaker,  Clarissa     59;;  62 
Ritson,  Isaac    ggn 

Ritson,  Joseph     See  also  titles  of  sepa- 
rate works 

Birth     II 

Business  Career     35-43 

Controversies     See    Johnson,   Malone, 


Percy,    Pinkerton,    Reed,    Steevens, 
Wart  on 

Critical  Canons    58  79-80  96-8  129  146- 
7  149  158-63  165  171  195-7 

Death     193  202 

Education     14  195 

Friends    See  Allan,  Baynes,  Brezvster, 
Chalmers,  Scott,  Shield,  Walker,  etc. 

Health     121 

Portrait     199 

Shakespeare  criticisms     66-89 

See    also    Editorial   Standards,   Lazv, 
Orthography,  Paris,  Philosophy,  Re- 
ligion, Vegetarianism 
Ritson  Family     11-13 
Robin  Hood     118-9 
Robinson     12  16  25 
Romances     i2yn  136-9 
Romances,  Metrical    63  136-9  148  206-8 
Rousseau,  J.  J.     176 
Rountree,  John    40-2 
Russell,  Thomas    60 
Scotish  Songs    23  110-5  148 
Scotland 

History     166-71 

Language     170-1 

Literary   Forgeries     165 

People     164-5 
Scott,  Sir  Walter     45  102  no  119  124-9 

135  141   146  147  196  198 
Selby,  H.  C.     iin  200 
Shakespeare,  William     34  66-89  95   186 

'198  207-8 
Shield,  William    22  9^  in  173 
Sibbald,  James     170 
Sir  Gazvain,  Marriage  of     162 
Sir  Tristrem     126-9 
Smellie,  William     igon 
Smith,  Robert     193  200 
Songs     148-50 
Southey,  Robert     loi 
Spartan  Manual,  The    98-9 
Steevens,  George    58;;  62  67-71  80  84  86 

145  161  198 
Stockton  Jubilee,  The    53  66 
Stothard,  Thomas     91 
Surtees.  Robert     4-t  124 
Thelwall,  John     176-7 
Theobald,   Lev/is     80  86 
Thompson,  John     14 
Triphook,  Robert     uo-i 
Tyrwhitt,  Thomas    68  81  86  103  115 
Vegetarianism     i"  28  122  187-92 

See  also  Animal  Food 
Versees    ii;r  18  6on 
Voltaire     t"6 
Walker,  John     185/1 
Walker,    Joseph   Cooper     6t,  87   100  in 
159 


224 


JOSEPH  RITSON 


[558 


Walpole,  Horace     16311 
Warton,  Thomas    54-65 

159  181  198 
Watson,  Richard     129 
Weber,  Henry     147 
Wharton,  Philip,  Duke  of 


102  108  116  149 


124U 


Wheatley.  H.  B.     153;/ 
Williams,  Sir  Charles  Hanl)ury 
Yonge,  William    95 
Yorke,  Henry  R.     178 
Yorkshire  Garland,  The    99 


51-3 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  STUDIES 

IN 

LANGUAGE  AND  LITERATURE 

Vol.  II  November,   1916  No.  4 


Board  of  Editors 

George  T.  Flom  William  A.  Oldfather 

Stuart  P.  Sherman 


Published  by  the  University  of  Illinois 

Under  the  Auspices  of  the  Graduate  Schooi, 

Uebana,  Illinois