Notes and Queries, Number 06, December 8, 1849 by Various
page 15 of 63 (23%)
page 15 of 63 (23%)
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expect that any one individual could thoroughly accomplish such an
undertaking; and, by means of your excellent periodical, it will be easy for literary men, who possess scarce or unique books, mentioned in the Registers and in my quotations from them, to furnish such brief descriptions as will be highly curious and very useful. A tract of this description has just fallen in my way, and it relates to the subsequent entry on p. 97. of vol. ii. of my _Extracts_: the date is 22nd September, 1579. "H. Denham. Lycensed unto him, &c. A Paradox, provinge by reason and example that baldnes is much better than bushie heare. vj'd" When I wrote the comment on this registration I was only acquainted with the clever MS. ballad in _Defence of a Bald Head_, which I quoted; but I hardly supposed it to be the production intended. It turns out that it was not, for I have that production now before me. My belief is that it is entirely unique; and the only reason for a contrary opinion, that I am acquainted with, is that there is an incorrect mention of it in Warton, _H.E.P._ iv. 229.; but there is not a hint of its existence in Ritson, although it ought to have found a place in his _Bibliographia Poetica_; neither do I find it noticed in later authorities; if it be, they have escaped my researches. You will not blame me, then, for indulging my usual wish to quote the title-page at length, which exactly agrees with the terms of the entry in the books of the Stationers' Company. It runs _literatim_ thus:-- "A Paradoxe, proving by reason and example, that baldnesse is much better than bushie haire, &c. Written by that excellent philosopher Synesius, Bishop of Thebes, or (as some say) Cyren. |
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