e _Bibl. Reed_, no. 2225, _cum
pretiis_!) I cannot take upon me to determine.]

LIS. Yes, verily: and I warrant some half-starved scrivener of the
Elizabethan period drew his envenomed dart to endeavour to perforate
the cuticle of some worthy bibliomaniacal wight.

LYSAND. You may indulge what conjectures you please; but I know of no
anti-bibliomaniacal satirist of this period. STUBBES did what he
could, in his "_Anatomy of Abuses_,"[337] to disturb every social and
harmless amusement of the age. He was the forerunner of that snarling
satirist, Prynne; but I ought not thus to cuff him, for fear of
bringing upon me the united indignation of a host of black-letter
critics and philologists. A _large and clean_ copy of his sorrily
printed work is among the choicest treasures of a Shakspearian
virtuoso.

[Footnote 337: "THE ANATOMIE OF ABUSES: _contayning a
discoverie, or briefe summarie of such notable vices and
imperfections as now raigne in many Christian Countreyes of
the Worlde: but (especiallie) in a very famous Ilande called
Ailgna_:" &c. Printed by Richard Jones, 1583, small 8vo.
Vide Herbert's _Typographical Antiquities_, vol. iii., p.
1044, for the whole title. Sir John Hawkins, in his _History
of Music_, vol iii., 419, calls this "a curious and very
scarce book;" and so does my friend, Mr. Utterson; who
revels in his morocco-coated copy of it--"_Exemplar olim
Farmerianum!_" But let us be candid; and not sacrifice our
better judgments to our book-passions. After all, Stubbes's
work is a caricatured drawing. It has strong passages, and a
few original thoughts; and, is moreover, one of the very few
works printed in days of yore which have running titles to
the subjects discussed in them. These may be recommendations
with the bibliomaniac; but he should be informed that this
volume contains a great deal of puritanical cant, and
licentious language; that vices are magnified in it in order
to be lashed, and virtues diminished that they might not be
noticed. Stubbes equals Prynne in his anathemas against
"Plays and Interludes:" and in his chapters upon "Dress" and
"Dancing" he rakes together every coarse and pungent phrase
in order to describe "these horrible sins" with due
severity. He is sometimes so indecent that, for the credit
of the age, and of a virgin reign, we must hope that