[Reproduction from a Sixteenth Century Headband] ANNALS OF MEDICAL HISTORY VOLUME VI WINTER, 1924 NUMBER 4

THE FIRST EDITIONS OF SIR THOMAS BROWNE By ELI MOSCHCOWITZ, M.D.

NEW YORK, N. Y.

N 1634, Sir Thomas known engraving by William Marshall, a Brownc, agcd twenty- prominent contemporary cngravcr, rcpre- nine, rcturned from a senting a man falling from a rock into thc continental tour and sea, caught by a hand issuing from the settled in Shipdcn Dale clouds, with the motto, “A Coclo Salus.” ncar Halifax. Here he It contains nothing but tcxt and is very wrote the “ Rcligio rare. The othcr was also published by Medici,” “with such Crooke, contains 159 pagcs, twenty-six disadvantages" he says, “that from the Iines to the page, and has no titlc page but first setting pen to paper I had not the same cngraving by Marshall (Fig. 1) the assistance of any good book.” The precedes it. According to Wilkin, this manuscript was finished in 1636. In 1637 edition is morc accurate and bettcr printcd he moved to Norwich, his future home. and is probably thc Iater of the two. It is The presumption is strong that Browne important to remember that these editions did not appreciate the greatness of his are entirely anonymous and contain no work for he certainly made no move preface. Whethcr Browne had any conniv- to publish it in the course of the next ance in their publication one eannot say. five years. In the meantime he must have In the prefaces to Iatcr cditions hc spcaks shown it to his friends, for there arc, as though hc had bccn takcn advantage of. according to Monro, seven or eight manu- Ide calls thcse carly cditions “broken and scripts of thc “Religio” in cxistencc, cach imperfcct” and says that thc transcribed slightly different. Only onc, now in thc text “had run forward to eorruption.” Castlc Museum, Norwieh, is in Brownc’s Hc spcaks of “thc addition of somc things, handwriting. In 1642, two surreptitious omission of othcrs and transposition of editions of the “Rcligio” appearcd, pub- many.” One cannot but bclievc, howcvcr, lished by Andrew Crooke. One contains that Sir Thomas was not cntircly guiltlcss. 190 pages, twenty-five Iines to thc page An author would hardly pcrmit a publishcr, and no printcd title page, but has thc well- accuscd of such olfcnscs, to publish an authorized edition, differing but slightly to wake with me as Iong as I had any edge to from the pirated, in the following year. entertain myself with the delights I sucked from The first two editions were receivcd with so noble a conversation. And truly, my Lord, some favor, but a curious accident gave the I closed not my eyes till I had enriched myself book and Browne sudden fame. Sir Kenelm with or at Ieast exactly surveyed, all the Digby, that strange combination of pirate, treasures that are Iapped up in the folds of these few sheets. philosopher, scientist and quack, had been arrested by Parliament and confined to This restless spirit in the heat of enthu- Winchester House. Digby was a man of siasm composed a Iengthy criticism, Iarger than the “Religio” itself. The reading and the critique were both finished in Iess than twenty-four hours, a feat not entirely despicable. Digby did not know who the author was, but he probably communicated with the publisher Crooke, who informed Browne that the famous Catholic philos- opher proposed to write a review of his book. This aroused Browne who promptly wrote a Ietter to the knight begging him to delay the publication of his essay until the authorized text was printed, which he promised shortly. Either the Ietter came too Iate or Digby was impatient, and the volume entitled “Observations Upon Religio Medici” was published in that year, 1642. This incident is of more than fugitive interest. As Gosse points out, criticism had not become a part of Iiterature until the time of Queen Anne, and authors until then had no means of evaluating the views of the public upon their works. This is onc of the reasons why some of the finest writcrs of thc Elizabcthan ancl post-EIizabethan cra sank into neglect for many dccades, until the birth of criticism in thc eighteenth century brought them to notice. Browne

Fig . i . Tit le Page of the Sur re pti ti ou s Edi t ion of the was peculiarly fortunate, therefore, in that Re l igi o Med ici , 1642. he enjoyed contemporary criticism, and the considerable importance in the kingdom consequence was that the “Religio” ob- and his views on religion were regarded with tained a wide circulation. authority. His friend, the Earl of Dorset, In 1643, the first authorized edition of the recommended the “Rcligio” to Digby Iate “Religio Medici” appeared. It contained one evening and Digby promptly sent his the plate of Marshall’s with the following servant out to buy a copy. He was already words beneath: “A true and full coppy of in bed when it came. Writing the next that which was most imperfectly and surrep- morning to his friend, he says: titiously printed before under the name of: This good-natured creature (Religio Medici) Religio Medici” The plate otherwise differs I could easily persuade to be my bedfellow, and from that in the surreptitious printings in that the words “ Rcligio Medici” are absent. opinion is to seek for a master in religion, and This title plate appears in every edition perhaps in the end, find none. published during Browne’s Iifetime. This Patin esteemccl Browne highly ancl in third cdition also contains Brownc’s Ietter 1664 spoke feclingly of him to Edward to Digby, Digby’s answer, a Iist of errata Browne, Sir Thomas’ son, whom Patin and a prcface from Browne to the reader. met by accidcnt in Paris. It contains 183 pages. The book immediately became popular. In 1644, John Merryweather, a Cambridge studcnt, translated the “Rcligio” into Latin. He hawked his manuscript about through HoIIand and France Iooking for a publisher, finally finding one in Hackius of Leydcn. The plate of Marshall is reverscd in this edition. The book contains 242 pages. There is a short address by Merryweather, Browne’s preface, three Latin poems and a sort of index. In an interesting Ietter to Browne written in 1649, Merryweather speaks of the difficulties he underwent in finding a publisher and the manner in which the book was receivcd on the Continent. The “Religio” met with acclaim on the Continent and edition upon edition followed. Apparently the book puzzled the Iiterati profoundly. Salamasius, the Iiterary dcspot of his period, to whom the manuscript was submitted for opinion by the printer who was Merryweather’s first choice as publisher, told the translator that “it contained many things well said and also many exorbitant conceptions in religion and would probably cause much frowning cntertainment, especially among the min- isters.” This opinion promptly froze the printer’s enthusiasm. Others questioned Browne’s orthodoxy and at various times he was called a Catholic, an Atheist and even a Quaker. The one person on the Conti- nent who saw that Browne was an artist and In 1659 the fifth English edition appearcd, not a theologian was a colleague of ours, (Fig. 3). This containcd for thc lirst timc Guy Patin, the distinguished professor of Digby’s “Annotations,” which has becn a medicine of the Paris Faculty. He writes: companion of most of the cditions publishcd The book is all quite nice and curious, but since. Although writtcn hurricclly, many of strongly delicate and mystic; the author does Digby’s criticisms are kcen, shrewcl and not Iack spirit and it contains strange and full of point and today his “ Annotations” ravishing thoughts . . . There is an agreeable remains his one work that has not been melancholy in his thoughts, but who in my consigned to oblivion. AII in all, twenty-three editions of the or, Enquiries into very many received “Rcligio” were printed during Browne’s Tenants, and commonly presumcd Truths,” Iifctime; thirteen in English, seven in Latin, published in 1646, and the “Hydriotaphia, one in Dutch, one in French and one in Urne-Buriall,” to which was added “The German. He apparently took Iittle interest Garden of Cyrus, or the Quincunciall, after its first authorized publication, for all Lozenge, etc.,” published in 1658. subsequent editions termcd “corrected and Since both thesc works were publishcd at amended” are identical with that of 1643, a time when Browne was well known, there including even the Iist of errata. Charles

Williams, the industrious historian of is no glamor of romance connected with Browne, collates sixty editions up to the their appearance. The “ Pseudodoxia” (Fig. year of 1905. 4) is the Iargest and most pretentious The first American edition was published of Browne’s works. It is printed in folio in 1831 in Boston, edited by Rev. Alexander with 386 pages and a Iist of errata. A good Young. The best modcrn edition is unques- copy is easily obtainable at a reasonable tionably that edited by Greenhill in the price. The book was very popular and six “Golden Treasury” series. This edition editions were publishcd up to the year contains parallel texts of the pirated and the 1670, nonc of which is of bibliophilic first editions. interest. Browne published two other works during Thesuccessofthe“ Pseudodoxia” indirect- his Iifctime. The “Pseudodoxia Epidemica Iy arouscd Browne to Iiterary activity, but it is to a forgcry that wc owe the publication of Cyrus” havc a common titlc pagc of the “ Hydriotaphia” in the following (Fig. 5). There is a dcdicatory cpistlc, year. In 1657, a London printer, namcd 202 pagcs of tcxt, an addrcss from thc Fornham, published a book entitlcd stationcr to thc rcadcr and a page of advcr- “Nature’s Cabinet Unlocked,” containing tiscmcnts of books publishcd by Brome. Sir Thomas Browne’s name on the fly Ieaf (sic.) This cdition to bc pcrfect must as the author. Browne was so annoycd that contain the platc of Walsingham urns he issucd a protest in which hc said that preccding the text and thc advertisements

“cither he must write himself or others will in thc back. Both arc frequently missing. write for him,” and hc “kncw no bctter Thc first cdition is rathcr scarcc, but is morc prevention than to act his own part with commonly met with than the “Rcligio” Iess intermission of his pen.” Soon aftcr, thc and its value is thercfore considerably Iess. “Hydriotaphia” appeared in print. Whilc thc “Religio Mcdici,” “Pseudo- “ Hydriotaphia,” next to “ Rcligio Mcdici ” doxia” and “Hydriotaphia” are thc only the most precious of Browne’s works, works of importance published during was publishcd duodecimo by “Hcnry Brownc’s Iifctimc, it is now known that Brome at the Signe of the Gun in Ivy-Iane.” there are two other publications of minor Both thc “Hydriotaphia” and the “Gardcn importance. For the first wc arc indcbtcd to the wide scholarship of Edmund Gosse. incorporation of Broadgates Hall with Pem- It secms that Browne occasionally burst broke CoIIege, Oxford. As senior fellow com- into song. In 1833, the posthumous poems moner, Browne delivered it on August 5, of John Donne were published. The book 1624, and it was printed by Dr. Henry contains a poem, signed “Tho: Browne” Savage, master of Balliol, in his book, “Balliofergus,” in 1661. When Browne died in 1682, his manu- scripts came into the possession of Arch- bishop Tenison, the executor of his will, delivered by the “Lady and son of the excellent author,” and in the course of the next thirty-four years four publications appeared. The first, dated 1684 and entitled “Certain Miscellany Tracts” (Fig. 6), contains an engraved portrait copied from the painting in the Bodleian and thirteen tracts on the most diverse of subjects; “on plants mentioned in the Scripture, on fishes eaten by Christ, on hawks, on cymbals, on artificial hills, on the answers of the Oracle of ApoIIo,” etc. At the end there is a chapter on rare books, the titles of which would make a bibliophile green with envy. Monro claims there is an edition of 1683 which is exceedingly rare. The second publication, “A Letter To A Friend” appeared in 1690, a thin folio and by all odds the scarcest of Browne’s works. I have never seen a copy of this edition. It contains some of Browne’s richest thoughts. In 1712 there appeared the “Posthumous Works” (Fig. 7) which contains: “1. Repertorium: Or, The Anti- quities of the Cathedral Church of Norwich. 11. An Account of some Urnes, &c., found at Brampton in Norfolk, Anno 1667. m. Letters between Sir William Dugdale and Sir Tho. Browne. iv. Miscellanies.” Among the Miscellanies we find “A Letter to A ancl is in the form of an apology “for those Friend.” It contains many illustrations, Iesser writings of his youth which were a mostly heraldic devices and tombstones, scandal to the admirers of the Dean of among others that of Sir Thomas himself. St. Paul.” This poem is omitted in the sub- The fourth and Iast posthumous publication sequent editions. The second is a Latin was “Christian Morals,” in 1716. This is oration delivercd at the ceremony of the the poorest of Browne’s works.