...On this one work alone.

When the third edition of Jane Eyre by "Currer Bell" appeared in 1848, its author, Charlotte Bronte, added a note stating, "my claim to the title of novelist rests on this one work alone." Why she felt compelled to state the obvious has to do with her publisher's confusion over the identity of Currer, Acton, and Ellis Bell, that would be Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Bronte.

For a brief period in the late 1840s, T. C. Newby believed he was dealing with one writer acting under three pen names. In fact, he was so sure, he used Jane Eyre to market Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Directly opposite the title page is an excerpt from a positive review of Jane Eyre under the heading "On Mr. Bell's First Novel," rather strongly suggesting that Currer and Acton were one in the same.

Come sort out the confusion yourself with the first edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Rare PR4162.T4), and the third edition of Jane Eyre (Val 826 B78S114).  And while you are looking, it would be a shame to miss the first edition of Jane Eyre (Val 826 B78S112).

The Waddling Frog

Actually, the full title is The Gaping, Wide-mouthed, Waddling Frog: A New and Entertaining Game of Questions and Commands: With Proper Directions for Playing the Game, and Crying Forfeits: Embellished with Sixteen Colored Engravings (London: Printed for A.K. Newman and Co. Leadenhall-street, [between 1814 and 1822]; London: Dean and Munday, printers, Threadneedle-street).

A long-winded title for what is a fairly simple counting and recitation game for children.  The rules state that the Treasurer (appointed by the group) begins the game.  "He holds a penknife, pocket-book, thimble, or some other trifling article in his hand, and addressing the person who sets next to him, gives the command - Take this; - the person spoken to asks the question - What's this? - the Treasurer answers, A gaping, wide-mouthed, waddling Frog."  This question and answer continues round the circle until it reaches the Treasurer who adds a second verse to the recital.

The game "manual" reveals fourteen of these verses, each with an appropriate illustration.  Shown here is the illustration for the verse "Six beetles against the wall, Close to an old woman's apple-stall."

Once the game is finished the Treasurer appoints a Dictator "whose office it is to to direct what is to be done by each person in order to redeem their forfeits."  Forfeits are incurred when any player fails to remember a verse or recites it incorrectly.  Suggestions for possible penalties include submitting to be tickled by all players and to "Heat a cinder."  The latter is apparently cause for great hilarity since "this sounding like eat, causes some mirth before it is discovered it only means to throw it into the fire."

Ask for Rare Book GV 150 .W8 G36 to read all fourteen verses and discover additional ideas for forfeit penalties.

Interval... Intervale...

As Robert Frost was completing his third book, Mountain Interval, his friend George H. Browne dared question his spelling of interval. In an August 1916 letter Frost commented, "Browne rageth," then went on to rage himself. He was furious over Browne's insistence that the correct spelling should be intervale. Frost thought the criticism absurd, pointing out that Browne lived near two areas known as the Upper Interval and Lower Interval near Plymouth and that he was ignoring Emerson as precedent.

The letter was to another friend and early admirer of Frost's poetry, Cornelius Weygandt. Weygandt appears anonymously in Frost's long poem New Hampshire as a man "Who comes from Philadelphia every year / With a great flock of chickens of rare breeds."

This letter, acquired with funds donated in memory of Corrine Davidson, and another to Weygandt are the latest additions to our Frost manuscript collections.

Bathing Bans and Birds' Eggs

This broadside was posted about 100 years ago by the town of Hanover to prohibit skinny dipping near the Ledyard Bridge. Different public safety issues exist currently, with the College prohibiting swimming, clad or otherwise, in the Connecticut River this summer.

A broadside is a single sheet, usually printed only on one side, and used to convey information, publish poetry, or make public announcements, protests and proclamations. While some broadsides contain a graphic element, the text usually predominates. Rauner's broadside collection is typical in the wide range of topics it documents: railroad schedules, the offerings of a dealer in birds' eggs, an announcement of a public appearance by Siamese twins, a warning to fugitive slaves... pretty much anything from the advantages of Dr. Richardson's pectoral balsam to a protest against the outrageous spending of the New Hampshire legislature on "a palace for prostitutes and criminals."

Unfortunately, not all items in the collection are cited in the online catalog, so please feel free to come in and ask if you need to know more about indelible golden friction for coating matches.

Vasari on Vasari

Giorgio Vasari is famous for creating the first substantial work of art history, his Vite delle pui eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori (Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects), but he also wrote a shorter book describing one of his own works. Ragionamenti Sopra le inuentioni da lui dipinte in Firenze nel Palazzo di loro Altezze Serenissime (Florance: F. Giunta, 1588) is a written description of Vasari's three great cycles at the Palazzo Vecchio commissioned by Cosimo I de Medici. The narrative of the books carries the reader through the cycles, room by room, as Vasari lays open the references and meanings of the images in conversational dialogue with Francesco de Medici.

The book was written to give a wide audience to the cycles (which were in Cosimo's private residence) and share the Medici's glory more broadly. Oddly, there are is only one image in the book, a full-page woodcut of Vasari, but words substitute for images in the description of the art. There is an irony there--the art elevates and spreads the power of the Medici family, but the image is reserved to lift the artist. The book shows how the Renaissance was a time of patronage, but also a period where the individual artist gained prominence.

To see the book, and tour with the Medicis, ask for Rare ND2757.F5 V3 1588.

Shakespeare's what?

Here we have what appears to be the first quarto edition of The First Part of the True & Honorable History, of the Life of Sir John Old-castle, the Good Lord Cobham written by William Shakespeare (London: Printed for T.P., 1600). While the title page's claim that the history is "True & Honorable," the publisher was being neither with this publication.

The play has now been attributed to Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, Robert Wilson, and Richard Hathway rather than Shakespeare, and it is likely that Thomas Pavier (T.P.) knew that the play was not a work by Shakespeare when this edition was printed. Even more blatantly dishonest was the 1600 date on the title page. In fact, evidence shows that this was printed in 1619 and falsely dated to make it appear to be overstock of the first edition. All of this was an attempt to increase the profit margin, but it points to the status of authors and plays at the time. Douglas Brooks states in "Sir John Oldcastle and the Construction of Shakespeare's Authorship," in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 (Vol. 38, No.2):

...one thing seems clear: the proprietary status of printed drama in the period was so inconsequential that Pavier must have felt free to manipulate the identity of a given play's author(s) as the particular publishing circumstance required (page 335).

Ask for Hickmott 57 to see for yourself.

It's Cool Inside!

Okay, it really is nice and cool in Rauner--one of the benefits of working with rare materials is you usually are in an area with great climate control--but, it is also very "cool" in Rauner. Where else can you walk up to a desk, ask to see a 500-year-old manuscript or the first edition of your favorite 19th-century novel, and, moments later, be sitting at a table with it?

We also have a penguin (naturally, doesn't everyone?), but he did not come to us as part of our world renowned polar exploration collection. This Adelie penguin in its juvenile plumage was given to Sherman Adams (Class of 1920), Eisenhower's White House Chief of Staff, by Admiral Richard Byrd.  Adams passed "Byrd's bird" on to Dartmouth in 1964, where it took up residence in Special Collections. It is most at home in the Rauner Rooke[ry] Reading Room.

So, get out of the heat and enjoy the cool comfort of Rauner this summer.