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Life and Death of Mr. Badman By: John Bunyan (1628-1688) |
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NOTE The Life and Death of Mr Badman was published by John Bunyan in
1680, two years after the First Edition of the First Part of The
Pilgrim's Progress. In the opening sentence of his preface he
tells us it was intended by him as the counterpart or companion
picture to the Allegory. But whatever his own intentions may have
been, the Public of his own time seem to have declined to accept
the book in this capacity. Indeed, another writer, who signs
himself T. S., undertook to complete Bunyan's Allegory for him, in
a book in size and type closely resembling it, and entitled The
Second Part of the Pilgrim's Progress . . . exactly Described under
the Similitude of a Dream. It was printed for Jho. Malthus at the
Sun in the Poultry, and published in 1683. So far as is known,
only one copy of this book is now in existence, the copy which was
formerly in the library of the poet Southey and now in that of the
Baptist Union. Upon this Bunyan seems to have changed his purpose,
so far as The Life and Death of Mr Badman was concerned, and on the
first of January, 1685, published the story of Christiana and her
Children as his own Second Part of The Pilgrim's Progress. The work before us, therefore, now stands apart by itself. In its
composition Bunyan seems to have been greatly influenced, so far as
form is concerned, by a book which his wife brought with her on her
marriage, and which, as he tells us in his Grace Abounding, they
read together. It was entitled The Plaine Man's Pathway to Heaven:
By Arthur Dent, Preacher of the Word of God at South Shoobury in
Essex. The eleventh impression, the earliest now known, is dated
1609. Both books are in dialogue form, and in each case the
dialogue is supposed to be carried on through one long day.
Bunyan's Mr Wiseman, like Dent's Theologus, holds forth instructive
discourse, while the Mr Attentive of the former, like the
Philagathus of the latter, listens and draws on his teacher by
friendly questionings. There is not in Bunyan's conference, as
there is in Dent's, an Asunetus, who plays the part of an ignorant
man to come out enlightened and convinced at last, or an Antilegon,
who carps and cavils all the way; and there is not in Dent's book
what there is in Bunyan's, a biographical narrative connecting the
various parts of the dialogue; but the groundwork of each is the
same a searching manifestation and exposure of the nature and
evils of various forms of immorality. Bunyan's book came out in 1680, and was published by Nathaniel
Ponder, who was also the publisher of The Pilgrim's Progress. A
third edition appeared in 1696, but as no copy of the second
edition is known to exist, no date can be assigned to it. In 1684
Johannes Boekholt, a publisher in Amsterdam, obtained leave of the
State to issue a Dutch translation, with the title Het Leven en
Sterben van Mr Quaat. This edition was illustrated by five copper
plate engravings, executed by Jan Luiken, the eminent Dutch
engraver, who also illustrated The Pilgrim's Progress the following
year. In 1782 a Welsh version, translated by T. Lewys, was
published at Liverpool with the title: Bywyd a Marwolaeth yr
annuwiol dan enw Mr Drygddyn. A Gaelic version also was published
at Inverness in 1824, entitled Beath agus Bas Mhr Droch duine. The present edition {1a} has been reprinted from a copy of the
first issue, lent by the Trustees of the Bunyan Church at Bedford,
and the proofs read with a second copy of the same issue, in the
library of the British Museum. For convenience of reading, as in
other issues of this series of CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH CLASSICS, the old
type forms of j, s, u, etc. have been made uniform with those in
general modern use; but neither the spelling (including the use of
capitals and italics) nor the punctuation has been altered, save as
specified. Effect has been given to the errata noted by Bunyan
himself, and printed on page 15 of this issue. The text of this edition of Bunyan's Holy War {1b} is a careful
reproduction of the First Edition of 1682... Continue reading book >>
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