Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Uvedale Price to Samuel Rogers, 8 December 1824
‘You will very much oblige me by giving me your opinion
and advice on what I am going to mention. In the sheets I am preparing for the
press there are a number of Greek and Latin quotations, with some new marks
over the syllables, and others employed in an unusual manner, it therefore is
of consequence to me that my printer should be accurate and intelligent.
Valpy had been often mentioned to me
as such; and Knight, whose “Carmina Homerica” he
printed, spoke highly of him, and from these accounts, without having any
acquaintance with him myself, I intended to make use of his press.
Valpy, by some means, had heard of my having written
remarks on parts of Knight’s
Homer, and he wrote to me requesting that
if I meant them for the public I would allow him to insert them in his
“Critical Journal.” I had written
such remarks and had sent them to Knight, with whom I had
a correspondence on the subject, but had no thoughts of making them public, as
1 The sentence is: ‘Who, did he but
reflect by what slow gradations, often by how many strange
concurrences, we are led astray, with how much reluctance, how much
agony, how many efforts to escape, how many self-accusations, how
many sighs, how many tears—who, did he but reflect for a
moment, would have a heart to cast a stone?’—Italy,
pt. 2, v. |
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| 394 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES | |
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I told Valpy; but told him at the
same time that I had a work on hand which, when finished, it was my intention
to send to his press; and not long afterwards, having sent a sort of epitome of
the work to Lord Aberdeen, I desired him to
send it to Valpy, which he did, and thus stands the case
between us. I have never heard his merits as a printer called in question, but
I have lately been told that he is en mauvaise
odeur with some of the most eminent
scholars—Bloomfield was
particularly mentioned—who are strongly in opposition to him and
ill-disposed to whatever comes from his press, and though I do not wish to
curry favour with these great men, I should be sorry to have them prepossessed
against my performance. What occasioned this enmity I never heard, but I have
heard that Valpy has a certain mixture of presumption and
affectation, which, if such be the case, may very naturally give offence and
disgust; and, I must own, I did not much like the manner and style of the
letters I received from him. The point upon which I particularly wish for your
opinion is, how far you think I am engaged to Valpy; and
whether, supposing the circumstances seemed strongly to require it, I might
make my excuses to him and employ another printer. Mawman, you know, was my last publisher; I should suppose he is
not particularly used to print books of a learned kind, and that he would not
much care who was the printer provided he had the publication. I have great
confidence in your advice and opinion; but am afraid I have very much
indisposed you from giving me any assistance on the subject in question, by
having harassed you upon it so unmercifully in my last letter. ![]()
| UVEDALE PRICE'S LETTERS | 395 |
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I hope you will forgive me,
and as it was my first fault of the kind, so I faithfully promise it shall be
the last. If it should have been the chief cause of your silence I have been
well punished.
‘Believe me, with all our best regards,
‘Ever most truly your
Samuel Thomas Bloomfield (1783-1869)
Greek scholar and rector of Bisbrook, Rutland; he published
The History
of Thucydides (1829).
George Hamilton- Gordon, fourth earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860)
Harrow-educated Scottish philhellene who founded the Athenian Society and was elected to
the Society of Dilettanti (1805); he was foreign secretary (1841-1846) and prime minister
(1852-55).
Homer (850 BC fl.)
Poet of the
Iliad and
Odyssey.
Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824)
MP and writer on taste; in 1786 he published
An Account of the Remains
of the Worship of Priapus for the Society of Dilettanti; he was author of
The Landscape: a Didactic Poem (1794),
An
Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste (1805) and other works.
Joseph Mawman (1760 c.-1827)
Bookseller of York (1788) and London, where he purchased the business of Charles Dilly in
1800; he was an acquaintance of Samuel Parr.
Sir Uvedale Price, first baronet (1747-1829)
Of Foxley in Herefordshire; he was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and
published
Essay on the Picturesque (1794).
Abraham John Valpy (1787-1854)
Son of the Reading schoolmaster Richard Valpy, he was a London printer who specialized in
classical texts. With the poet George Dyer he published 141 volumes of Delphin classics
(1819-30).
