the_ Dramatis Personae.
_Be this as it may, it is a work divested of all acrimonious
feeling--is applicable to all classes of society, to whom harmless
enthusiasm cannot be offensive--and is based upon a foundation not
likely to be speedily undermined._

_T.F. DIBDIN._

_May_ 1, 1842.

[Footnote 1: _Mr. EDWARD WALMSLEY, who died in 1841, at an
advanced age, had been long known to me. He had latterly
extensive calico-printing works at Mitcham, and devoted much
of his time to the production of beautiful patterns in that
fabrication; his taste, in almost every thing which he
undertook, leant towards the fine arts. His body was in the
counting-house; but his spirit was abroad, in the studio of
the painter or engraver. Had his natural talents, which were
strong and elastic, been cultivated in early life, he would,
in all probability, have attained a considerable reputation.
How he loved to embellish--almost to satiety--a favourite
work, may be seen by consulting a subsequent page towards
the end of this volume. He planned and published the_
Physiognomical Portraits, _a performance not divested of
interest--but failing in general success, from the prints
being, in many instances, a repetition of their precursors.
The thought, however, was a good one; and many of the heads
are powerfully executed. He took also a lively interest in
Mr. Major's splendid edition of Walpole's_ Anecdotes of
Painting in England, _a work, which can never want a reader
while taste has an abiding-place in one British bosom._

_Mr. Walmsley possessed a brave and generous spirit; and I
scarcely knew a man more disposed to bury the remembrance of
men's errors in that of their attainments and good
qualities._]

THE BIBLIOMANIA;

OR

=Book-Madness;=

CONTAINING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE

HISTORY, SYMPTOMS, AND CURE OF THIS FATAL DISEASE.

IN AN EPISTLE ADDRESSED TO

RICHARD HEBER, ESQ.

BY THE

REV. THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, F.S.A.

Styll am I besy bokes assemblynge,
For to have plenty it is a pleasaunt thynge
In my conceyt, and to have them ay in honde:
But what they mene I do nat understonde.

=Pynson's Ship of Fools.= Edit. 1509.

LONDON

REPRINTED FROM THE FIRST EDITION, PUBLISHED IN 1809.

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