16
Mason’s Poetical works.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 149, no. 14, as above.
MASON,
William.
Poems by William Mason, M. A. A New Edition.
York: Printed by
A. Ward, and sold by
Robert Horsfield, n
o.
xxii. in Ludgate-Street;
J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall;
C. Marsh, at Charing-Cross,
London; and
W. Tesseyman, in the Minster-Yard,
York.
m.dcc.lxxi
. [1771.]
Sm. 8vo. 150 leaves.
Lowndes III, 1507.
Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit. II, 371.
William Mason, 1724-1797, English clergyman and poet, was a native of Hull in Yorkshire. The first collected edition of his poems was printed
in London in 1764. This edition is the first of several printed in York, where Mason was a canon residentiary in the Cathedral.
[4537]
17
Shakespeare’s XX. plays. by Steevens.
4. v.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 150, no. 23, as above.
SHAKESPEARE,
William.
Twenty of the Plays of Shakespeare, being the whole Number printed in
Quarto During his Life-Time, or before the Restoration, Collated where there were different Copies, and Publish’d from the Originals,
by George Steevens, Esq; in
Four Volumes . . . Vol. I. [-IV.]
London: Printed for
J. and R. Tonson, in the Strand;
T. Payne, at the Mews-gate, Castle-street; and
W. Richardson, in Fleet-street.
m.dcc.lxvi
. [1766.]
PR2752 .S8 1766
4 vol. 8vo. 244, 288, 254 and 246 leaves;
A List of the Old Editions of Shakespeare’s Plays in Volume I; at the beginning of each volume a list of plays contained in the volume with the date of the original edition,
and each play preceded by the title-page as in the original edition.
Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit. I, 548.
Jaggard, page 501.
Jefferson did not make very frequent reference to Shakespeare in his correspondence. In his letter to Robert Skipwith concerning
a catalogue of books for his library, dated from Monticello, August 3, 1771, he wrote: “
. . . we never reflect whether the story we read be truth or fiction. if the painting be lively, and a tolerable picture of
nature, we are thrown into a reverie, from which if we awaken it is the fault of the writer. I appeal to every reader of feeling
and sentiment whether the fictitious murther of Duncan by Macbeth in Shakespeare does not excite in him as great horror of
villainy, as the real one of Henry IV by Ravaillac as related by Davila? and whether the fidelity of Nelson, and generosity
of Blanford in Marmontel do not dilate his breast and elevate his sentiments as much as any similar incident which real history
can furnish? . . .
”
In a letter to John Evelyn Denison, Speaker of the House of Commons, dated from Monticello November 9, 1825, Jefferson referred
to the language of Shakespeare: “
. . . It is much to be wished that the publication of the present county dialects of England should go on. it will restore
to us our language in all its shades of variation. it will incorporate into the present one all the riches of our antient
dialects; and what a store this will be, may be seen by running the eye over the county glossaries, and observing the words
we have lost by abandonment and disuse, which in sound and sense are inferior to nothing we have retained. when these local
vocabularies are published and digested together into a single one it is probable we shall find that there is not a word in
Shakespear which is not now in use in some of the counties of England, from whence we may obtain it’s true sense. and what
an exchange will their recovery be for the volumes of idle commentaries and conjectures
”
