文档介绍：BOOKS AND BOOKMEN
BOOKS AND
BOOKMEN
Andrew Lang
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BOOKS AND BOOKMEN
TO THE VISCOUNTESS
WOLSELEY
Madame, it is no modish thing, The bookman's tribute that I bring; A
talk of antiquaries grey, Dust unto dust this many a day, Gossip of texts
and bindings old, Of faded type, and tarnish'd gold!
Can ladies care for this to-do With Payne, Derome, and Padeloup? Can
they resign the rout, the ball, For lonely joys of shelf and stall?
The critic thus, serenely wise; But you can read with other eyes,
Whose books and bindings treasured are 'Midst mingled spoils of peace
and war; Shields from the fights the Mahdi lost, And trinkets from the
Golden Coast, And many things divinely done By Chippendale and
Sheraton, And trophies of Egyptian deeds, And fans, and plates, and
Aggrey beads, Pomander boxes, assegais, And sword-hilts worn in
Marlbro's days.
In this pell-mell of old and new, Of war and peace, my essays, too, For
long in serials tempest-tost, Are landed now, and are not lost: Nay, on your
shelf secure they lie, As in the amber sleeps the fly. 'Tis true, they are not
"rich nor rare;" Enough, for me, that they are--there!
A. L
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BOOKS AND BOOKMEN
PREFACE
The essays in this volume have, for the most part, already appeared in
an American edition (Combes, New York, 1886). The Essays on 'Old
French Title-Pages' and 'Lady Book-Lovers' take the place of 'Book
Binding' and 'Bookmen at Rome;' 'Elzevirs' and 'Some Japanese Bogie-
Books' are reprinted, with permission of Messrs. Cassell, from the
Magazine of Art; 'Curiosities of Parish Registers' from the Guardian;
'Literary Forgeries' from the Contemporary Review; 'Lady Book-Lovers'
from the Fortnightly Review; 'A Bookman's Purgatory' and two of the
pieces of verse from Longman's Magazine--with the courteous permission
of the various editors. All the chapters have been revised, and I have to
thank Mr. H. Tedder for his kind care in reading the proof sheets, and Mr.
Charles Elton, .