Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/189

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‘Ode to Independence, with Notes and Observations,’ Glasgow, 1773, 4to; London, 1773, 4to; Glasgow [1800], 12mo.

In addition to his version of ‘Don Quixote,’ Smollett executed the standard translation of Le Sage's ‘Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane … from the best French edition,’ 4 vols. London, 1749, 12mo (4th edit. 1773, and very numerous subsequent editions); in conjunction with Thomas Francklin [q. v.] he also superintended the translation of ‘The Works of M. de Voltaire … with Notes Historical and Critical,’ in 38 vols. London, 1761–74, 12mo (2nd edit. 1778); and five years after his death there was issued in his name a translation of Fénelon's ‘Adventures of Telemachus,’ 2 vols. London, 1776, 12mo (Dublin, 1793, 12mo).

Collective editions of Smollett's works were issued in 6 vols. Edinburgh, 1790, 8vo, with a short account of the author (reprinted in 5 vols. 1809, 8vo); in 6 vols. London, 1796, 8vo, with ‘Memoirs of Smollett's Life and Writings, by R. Anderson’ (seven editions); ‘Works, with Memoirs of Life, to which is prefixed a View of the Commencement and Progress of Romance by J. Moore,’ 8 vols. London, 1797, 8vo (a reissue edited by J. P. Browne, in 8 vols. London, 1872, 8vo, constitutes a good library edition); ‘Miscellaneous Works,’ complete in one volume, with ‘Memoir’ by Thomas Roscoe, London, 1841, 8vo; ‘Works,’ illustrated by George Cruikshank, London, 1845, 8vo; ‘Works … with Historical Notes and a Life by David Herbert,’ Edinburgh, 1870 [1869], 8vo; ‘Works,’ with introduction by W. E. Henley, London, 1899–1901, 12 vols. The novels were issued separately, with a Memoir by Sir Walter Scott (‘Novelist's Library,’ ii. iii.), London, 1821, 8vo, and edited by G. Saintsbury and illustrated by Frank Richards, 12 vols. London, 1895. Selections were issued in 1772, 1775, and 1832, and in 1834 as ‘The Beauties of Smollett,’ edited by A. Howard, London, 8vo. The ‘Plays and Poems’ appeared with a memoir in 1777, 8vo, while the ‘Poetical Works’ are included in the collections of Anderson (x.), Park (xli.), Chalmers (xv.), ‘British Poets’ (xxxiii.), with Life by S. W. Singer, 1822; in conjunction with the poems of Johnson, Parnell, and Gray, edited by Gilfillan, 1855; another edition edited by C. C. Clarke, 1878, and with the poems of Goldsmith, Johnson, and Shenstone, 1881.

[Lives of Smollett are numerous. A memoir was prefixed to an edition of his works in 1797 by Dr. John Moore (Zeluco), and this is to some extent the basis of all subsequent biographies. Another life by Dr. Robert Anderson was prefixed to the edition of 1796, but, though earlier in date, this is mainly a secondhand dissertation upon the novelist's character; to the fifth edition (1806) there is an interesting Appendix of Letters to Smollett from Robertson, Hume, Boswell, Armstrong, and others. A shrewd and sympathetic biography was prefixed by Scott to his edition of the Poems in 1821, and a more detailed memoir by Thomas Roscoe to the Works in one volume issued in 1841. Far more valuable than any of its predecessors in point of research is ‘Smollett: his Life and a Selection from his Writings,’ published by Robert Chambers in 1867. This was followed by a careful memoir by David Herbert for the Selected Works, Edinburgh, 1870. A Life by Mr. David Hannay (valuable especially for the naval bearings of Smollett's career) is included in the Great Writers Series, 1887 (with useful bibliography by Mr. J. P. Anderson). Prefixed to the 1895 edition of the novels is a life by Professor Saintsbury (with an interesting development of Scott's parallel between Fielding and Smollett), and a life by Mr. Oliphant Smeaton appeared in the Famous Scots Series, 1897. There are good notices in the Encyclopædia Britannica (by Professor Minto) and English Cyclopædia; but of more value perhaps than any of these is the admirable summary of facts and opinions in the Quarterly Review (vol. ciii.), though this must be corrected as regards some genealogical details by Joseph Irving's Book of Dumbartonshire, 1879, i. 290, ii. 175 seq. The writer is indebted to the Rev. R. L. Douglas for some interesting notes upon the place and circumstances of the novelist's death. See also Macleod's Hist. of Dumbarton, p. 157; Dr. A. Carlyle's Autobiogr. passim; Anderson's Scottish Nation, iii. 483; Nichols's Literary Anecd. i. 302, iii. 346, 398, 759, vi. 459, viii. 229, 412, 497, ix. 261, 480; Literary Illustrations, v. 776, vii. 228, 268; Gent. Mag. 1771 p. 349, 1799 ii. 817, 899, 1810 i. 597, 1846 ii. 347; Fasti Aberdonenses, p. 374; Duncan's Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. 1896, p. 120; Wilkes's Correspondence, i. 50 (on Smollett's alleged duplicity towards Wilkes); Churchill's Works, 1892, i. 61, 65, 68, 74, 106, ii. 5, 10, 51; Grenville Papers, i. 415; Walpole's Correspondence, ed. Cunningham, ii. 242, 285, 341, v. 231; Walpole's Hist. of the Reign of George III, ed. Barker; Warburton's Horace Walpole and his Contemporaries, i. 393; Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu's Letters, 1837, iii. 106, 199; Mrs. Delany's Life and Correspondence, ii. 6, 7, iii. 34, 162, 216, 223; Davies's Garrick. 1780; Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. Birkbeck Hill, passim; Andrew Henderson's Second Letter to Dr. Johnson, 1775 (containing a coarse lampoon on Smollett); Memoirs of Lord Kames, i. 226, 447; Mathias's Pursuits of Literature, i. 26; Mahon's Hist. of England, vii. 325; Pope's Works, ed. Elwin, iii. 268, 468; Morrison's Autographs, vi. 146 (facsimile letter to Dr. George Macaulay requesting a loan); Brougham's Men of Letters under George III, 1855, p. 260 n.;

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