Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miege, Guy
MIEGE, GUY (1644–1718?), miscellaneous writer, born in 1644, was a native of Lausanne. He was educated at the school in that town, and became an ‘academist’ about 1658. After studying philosophy for over two years, he left Switzerland in January 1660–1, and arriving in London in the following March, was witness of the coronation of Charles II on 23 April. For two years he served the household of the Earl of Elgin. He then obtained the post of under-secretary (in June 1663) to Charles Howard, earl of Carlisle [q. v.], ambassador-extraordinary to Russia, Sweden, and Denmark. He was absent with the embassy from July 1663 till January 1664–5. From the following April till 1668 he travelled in France at his own expense, and while abroad prepared for the press, from notes taken at the time, ‘The Relation of the Three Embassies,’ published anonymously in London in 1669, with the consent of the Earl of Carlisle. This appeared also in French in Rouen, 1669; Amsterdam and Rouen, 1670; Amsterdam, 1672, 1700; and, with a preface by Prince Galitzen, Paris, 1857; a German edition was published at Frankfort and Leipzig in 1701. A condensed version of the English edition was printed in Harris's ‘Navigantium Bibliotheca,’ London, 1705, ii. 177–213, and the account of the earl's reception in Moscow (in an abridged form) in Dumont and Roussel's ‘Corps Universel Diplomatique,’ Suppl. v. 648–9 (Ceremonial Diplomatique, vol. ii.).
In 1678 Miege was living in Panton Street, Leicester Fields, teaching the French language and geography. He is best known by his attempt to rival Chamberlayne's yearbook, ‘Angliæ Notitia’ [see Chamberlayne, Edward], in the ‘New State of England.’ This he first published in London in 1691 (2nd edit. 1693; 3rd edit. 1699; 4th edit. 1701; 5th edit. 1703 and 1705; 6th edit. 1706). Miege supplied geographical descriptions of England, accounts of the inhabitants, government, religion, courts of justice, &c., with lists of the officers of church and state. The geographical portion was fuller than Chamberlayne's, but the arrangement of subjects inferior, and the lists of officers less accurate. A supplement to ‘The New State,’ containing an accurate description of North Britain with the Northern and Western Isles, was dated 1709. After the union of England and Scotland the work was enlarged, and the title altered to ‘The Present State of Great Britain,’ London, 1st edit. 1707; 2nd edit. 1711 (including a description of Ireland); 3rd edit. 1715; 4th edit. 1717; 5th edit. 1723; 6th edit. 1728; 7th edit. 1731; 8th edit. 1737; 9th edit. 1742; 10th edit. 1745; 11th edit. 1748. A French translation, ‘L'État present de la Grande Bretagne,’ was published at Amsterdam in 1708 (cf. Journal des Sçavans, 1709, p. 801), and a German one, by J. B. Heinzelmann, ‘Geistund weltlicher Staat von Gross-Britannien und Irrland,’ at Leipzig in 1718. John Chamberlayne [q. v.], who after his father's death in 1703 continued the publication of the ‘Angliæ Notitia,’ attacked Miege (preface to 21st edit. 1704) as the plagiarist of his father's work. Miege, who was a devoted adherent of the house of Hanover, and moreover resented Chamberlayne's slights on the dissenters, defended himself in a pamphlet, ‘Utrum Horum?’ in the following year. Here he assigns political motives for the appearance of his book, and points out subject matter in which he claims the priority of publication. The edition of 1718 was the last bearing Miege's name, and he probably died in that year; those of 1745 and 1748 were professedly continuations by S. Bolton.
His other published works include: 1. ‘A New Dictionary, French and English, with another, English and French,’ London, 1677. 2. ‘A New French Grammar, or a New Method for Learning of the French Tongue,’ London, 1678, 1698. 3. ‘A Dictionary of Barbarous French … taken out of Cotgrave's Dictionary, with some Additions,’ London, 1679. 4. ‘A New Cosmography, or Survey of the Whole World,’ London, 1682. 5. ‘L'État présent de l'Europe; suivant les Gazettes et autres Avis,’ London, 1682. 6. ‘The Present State of Denmark,’ London, 1683. 7. ‘A Short Dictionary, English and French … French and English,’ London, 1684; 3rd edit. 1690; the Hague, 1691; 5th edit. 1701, 1703; Rotterdam, 1728 (a different work from the dictionary of 1677). 8. ‘Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre l'Anglais,’ London, 1685; reissued in ‘Grammaire Anglaise-Française, par Miege et Boyer,’ Paris, 1767. 9. ‘Nouvelle Nomenclature Française et Anglaise,’ London, 1685 (also published with the preceding); and reissued in ‘The Great French Dictionary,’ pt. i., London, 1688. 10. ‘The Grounds of the French Tongue,’ London, 1687; reissued in ‘The Great French Dictionary,’ pt. ii., London, 1688. 11. ‘The Great French Dictionary,’ London, 1688, a considerable portion of which was afterwards incorporated into Boyer's dictionaries. 12. ‘The English Grammar,’ 2nd edit. London, 1691. 13. ‘A Complete History of the late Revolution’ (anon.), London, 1691. 14. ‘Miscellanea, or a Choice Collection of Wise and Ingenious Sayings,’ London, 1694, reissued under the title of ‘Delight and Pastime,’ London, 1697.
He also published ‘An Historical Map of the Monarchs of England, with their several Effigies,’ ‘which,’ he states, ‘has been imitated since,’ and contributed largely to the English edition of Moreri's ‘Great Historical, Geographical, and Poetical Dictionary,’ London, 1694.
He translated into French, Gumble's ‘La Vie du Général Monk,’ London, 1672, ‘Nouvelles Expériences … sur l'Eau de Mer dessalée, suivant le secret du Sieur Fitzgrald,’ 1684, and ‘Additions au Traité de l'Eau de Mer douce … avec la lettre de Mr. Boyle,’ from Nehemiah Grew [q. v.]; and from French into English, ‘The Ancient Sea Laws of Oleron, Wisby, and the Hanse Towns,’ which was published in Malynes's ‘Consuetudo vel Lex Mercatoria,’ London, 1686.
[Miege's Utrum Horum? passim; Bechmann's Litteratur der älteren Reisebeschreibungen, ii. 204–6; Stück's Land und Reisebeschreibungen, p. 62; Boucher de la Richarderie's Bibl. Univ. des Voyages, i. 408; Adelung's Reisenden in Russland, ii. 336; Meiners's Vergleicherung des ältern und neuern Russlands, i. 26; Marvell's Poems, ed. Grosart, xviii.; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. ii. 475, iii. 56–7, x. 11, 7th ser. i. 123–4, 203–4, 462–4, ii. 121–2; Galitzen's preface to Trois Ambassades; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iv. 71; Hazlitt's Collections and Notes, 1876, p. 290, and Bibl. Coll. and Notes, 3rd ser. Suppl. 1889, p. 68; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Durey de Noinville's Table Alphabetique; Post-Boy, 30 Aug. to 1 Sept. 1698; Bodl. Libr. Cat.; Cat. of Libr. of Trin. Coll. Dubl.; Cat. of Libr. of Incorp. Law Soc.; Kayser's Bücher Lexicon; information from Arthur Irwin Dasent, esq.]