COLLATION OF THE DIFFERENT EDITIONS

OF

BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS

AND OF OTHER BUNYANIANA.

NOTE ON THE EARLY EDITIONS OF THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.

IN his life of John Bunyan, dated Keswick, March 13, 1830, and prefixed to John Murray's edition of The Pilgrim's Progress, London, 1839, 8vo, Southey remarks: "It is not known in what year the Pilgrim's Progress was first published, no copy of the first edition having as yet been discovered; the second is in the British Museum; it is with additions,' and its date is 1678; but as the book is known to have been written during Bunyan's imprisonment, which terminated in 1672, it was probably published before his release, or at latest immediately after it. The earliest with which Mr. Major has been able to supply me, either by means of his own diligent inquiries, or the kindness of his friends, is that 'eighth e-di-ti-on,' so humorously introduced by Gay," etc. P. lxxvi.

In his Introduction to the Pilgrim's Progress, edited for the Hanserd Knollys Society, London, 1847, royal 8vo, Mr. Offor remarks: "The first edition of the Pilgrim's Progress was published in a foolscap 8vo, in 1678. This volume is of extraordinary interest; only one copy being known to exist, and that in the most beautiful preservation, in the original binding, clean and perfect. It was discovered in a nobleman's library, and judging from its appearance had never been read. It is now in the cabinet of H. S. Holford, Esq., of Weston Birt House, Tetbury, Gloucestershire. . . . As the edition now presented to the subscribers is an accurate reprint, not merely verbal, but literal," etc., p. cxix.

How that can properly be called "an accurate reprint" which incorporates new matter with the original, we are at a loss to perceive. Not that there is any attempt to deceive on the part of publishers or the editor; on the contrary, the additions and interpolations are heralded with a candour which is amusing when considered as expository of "an accurate reprint."

The editor informs us (p. cxix) that the first edition "has no portrait or cuts;" but opposite the title-page we have the familiar picture of the "ingenious dreamer," with the following explanatory note: "The first and second editions have no Portrait of the Author: the third has an engraved Portrait by White. This cut is copied from the seventh edition." Then follow

fifteen cuts, not one of which is, or professes to be, from the first edition. Under each is indicated the edition from which it is taken. One is from the 7th edition, 1681, one from the 8th edition, 1682, one from the 9th edition, 1683, eleven from the 13th edition, 1692, and one from the 3d edition of Part II. The dates of the first appearance of these cuts are not indicated. Without entering into the chronology of the wood-cuts and copper-cuts (struck off separately-first about 1682) it will be interesting to the collector to know that we find the pictures of Mr. Offor's edition, London, 1847, roy. 8vo, in (not always a part of) the following early editions before us: Offor, page 3, 5th edit., 1682, pp. 4 and 5; page 18, 5th edit., 1682, pp. 22 and 23; page 23, 5th edit., 1682, pp. 30, 31; page 38, 6th edit., 1681 ? pp. 44 and 45; page 45, 5th edit., 1682, pp. 50 and 51; page 50, 5th edit., 1682, pp. 56 and 57 ; page 63, 5th edit., pp. 70 and 71; page 68, 12th edit., 1689, p. 73; page 73, 5th edit., 1682, pp. 104 and 105; page 109, 5th edit., 1682, pp. 122 and 123; page 115, 5th edit., 1680, p. 128; page 135, 12th edit., 1689, p. 144; page 143, 5th edit., 1682, pp. 158 and 159; page 190, 5th edit., 1682, pp. 218 and

219.

These are the 14 cuts of Part First of Mr. Offor's edition; the 15th cut, that on p. 103, he takes, as we have seen, from the 3d edition of Part Second. In the first edition of Part Second, 1684, there are three cuts-Christiana, Mercie, and the children setting out, with the " ingenious dreamer," in his protracted slumber, below; Great Heart, with one of the largest swords and most benevolent of expressions, leading his little company; and the very safe, but perhaps rather ungenerous festivities beneath the detached head of "Gyant dispair." These three Mr. Offor reproduces in his reprint. A critical history of the copper-cuts and wood-cuts of the early editions would form an interesting section of the BIBLIOGRAPHY of the PILGRIM'S PROGRESS of the future.

How "accurate a reprint" the text is, may be judged from some of the editor's foot-notes, e.g. : "Not inserted in the 1st or 2nd edit., but found in the 7th and subt. ones;" "First inserted in 8th and subt. edits. ;""This paragraph, as marked with inverted commas, was first inserted in the second edition, and continued in all subsequent ones." "This paragraph," commencing "In this plight," and concluding with What shall I do to be saved? occupies pp. 2, 3-59 lines-of the second edition, and 43 lines of Mr. Offor's reprint. "All this interview with Worldly-Wiseman, and its consequences, as marked with inverted commas, first appeared in the 2nd edit." Then we have this interpolation of ten pages.

After this follow other foot-notes stating that this and that word or sentence is not to be found in the original first edition.

Of the "fac-simile" reprint of the Second Part in Mr. Offor's volume it is sufficient to say that the editor's foot-notes-" Added in an edition dated 1687" etc.-prove it to be no "fac-simile."

In 1875 Mr. Elliot Stock, of 62 Paternoster Row, London, published (post 8vo, and large paper 4to) "The Pilgrim's Progress as Originally Published by John Bunyan, Being a Fac-Simile Reproduction of the First Edition."