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@@ -0,0 +1,7106 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Literary Blunders, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Literary Blunders + +Author: Henry Benjamin Wheatley + +Posting Date: March 22, 2012 [EBook #371] +Release Date: December, 1995 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITERARY BLUNDERS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller + + + + + + + + + +<ae>, <_!>, <oe>, <_'>, <_'m>, <_u>, <_?>, <_:>, <AE>, <Dag>, and <Pd> +"Larsen EB-11" encodes are used. Comments in {brackets} need stripped. +<?_> is a special encode for unknown/non ASCII characters. +Greek characters are in the Adobe symbol font delimited by <gr > +italics <ae> and <oe> may be transposed ?? (they look alike to me.) +Footnotes are moved from end of page to end of paragraph position. +They are renumbered sequentially as well. (No. [14] is obtrusive) +Uncertain characters are marked ?? No "emphasis" _italics_ marked. + +A bit of latin, greek, french, and olde englishe need spellchecked. +this whole etext NEEDS spellchecked too!! Index needs checked! +There is a <Table> on "pages" 110-111 that have LOTS of non-ascii +characters. Many have the correct encode, but layout needs work!!! + + + + + + + +Scanned by Charles Keller with +OmniPage Professional OCR software +donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. +Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> + + + +LITERARY BLUNDERS + +A CHAPTER IN THE + +``_HISTORY OF HUMAN ERROR_'' + +BY +HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A. + + + + +PREFACE. +---- + +_EVERY reader of_ The Caxtons +_will remember the description, +in that charming novel, +of the gradual growth of Augustine +Caxton's great work ``The History +of Human Error,'' and how, in fact, +the existence of that work forms the +pivot round which the incidents turn. +It was modestly expected to extend to +five quarto volumes, but only the first +seven sheets were printed by Uncle +Jack's Anti-Publishers' Society, ``with +sundry unfinished plates depicting the +various developments of the human +skull (that temple of Human Error),''<p _> +and the remainder has not been heard +of since. + +In introducing to the reader a small +branch of this inexhaustible subject, I +have ventured to make use of Augustine +Caxton's title; but I trust that +no one will allow himself to imagine +that I intend, in the future, to produce +the thousand or so volumes which will +be required to complete the work. + +A satirical friend who has seen the +proofs of this little volume says it +should be entitled ``Jokes Old and New''; +but I find that he seldom acknowledges +that a joke is new, and I hope, therefore, +my readers will transpose the +adjectives, and accept the old jokes for +the sake of the new ones. I may claim, +at least, that the series of answers to +examination questions, which Prof. +Oliver Lodge has so kindly supplied +me with, comes within the later class.<p _> + +I trust that if some parts of the +book are thought to be frivolous, the +chapters on lists of errata and misprints +may be found to contain some +useful literary information. + +I have availed myself of the published +communications of my friends +Professors Hales and Skeat and Dr. +Murray on Literary Blunders, and +my best thanks are also due to several +friends who have helped me with some +curious instances, and I would specially +mention Sir George Birdwood, +K.C.I.E., C.SI.., Mr. Edward Clodd, +Mr. R. B. Prosser, and Sir Henry +Trueman Wood_.<p _> + + + +CONTENTS. +---- +CHAPTER + +BLUNDERS IN GENERAL. + + PAGE + +Distinction between a blunder and a mistake-- +Long life of a literary blunder +--Professor Skeat's ``ghost words''-- +Dr. Murray's ``ghost words''--Marriage +Service--Absurd etymology-- +Imaginary persons--Family pride-- +Fortunate blunders--Misquotations-- +Bulls from Ireland and elsewhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 + +CHAPTER II. + +BLUNDERS OF AUTHORS. + +Goldsmith--French memoir writers-- +Historians--Napier's bones--Mr. Gladstone-- +Lord Macaulay--Newspaper +writers--Critics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 + + +<p _> +CHAPTER III. + +BLUNDERS OF TRANSLATORS. + PAGE + +``Translators are traitors''--Amusing +translations--Translations of names-- +Cinderella--``Oh that mine adversary had +written a book''--Perversions of the +true meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 + +CHAPTER IV. + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL BLUNDERS. + +Watt's _Bibliotheca Britannica_--Imaginary +authors--Faulty classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 + +CHAPTER V. + +LISTS OF ERRATA. + +Early use of errata--Intentional blunders-- +Authors correct their books--Ineffectual +attempts to be immaculate--Misprints +never corrected. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 + +CHAPTER VI. + +MISPRINTS. + +Misprints not always amusing--A +Dictionary of Misprints--Blades's +_Shakspere and Typography_--Upper and +lower cases--Stops--Byron--Wicked +Bible--Malherbe--_Coquilles_--Hood's +lines--Chaucer--Misplacement of type . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 + + +<p _> + PAGE +CHAPTER VII. + +SCHOOLBOYS' BLUNDERS. + +Cleverness of these blunders-- +Etymological guesses--_English as she is +Taught_--Scriptural confusions-- +Musical blunders--History and geography-- +How to question--Professor +Oliver Lodge's specimens of answers to +examination papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FOREIGNERS ENGLISH. + +Exhibition English--French Work on the +Societies of the World--Hotel keepers' +English--Barcelona Exhibition--Paris +Exhibition of 1889--How to learn English-- +Foreign Guides in so called English +--Addition to God save the King-- +Shenstone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .188 + +INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215 + + + +LITERARY BLUNDERS. + +CHAPTER I. + +BLUNDERS IN GENERAL. + +THE words ``blunder'' and ``mistake'' +are often treated as +synonyms; thus we usually +call our own blunders mistakes, and +our friends style our mistakes blunders. +In truth the class of blunders is a sub- +division of the _genus_ mistakes. Many +mistakes are very serious in their +consequences, but there is almost always some +sense of fun connected with a blunder, +which is a mistake usually caused by some +mental confusion. Lexicographers state +that it is an error due to stupidity and +carelessness, but blunders are often caused<p 1> +<p 2>by a too great sharpness and quickness. +Sometimes a blunder is no mistake at all, +as when a man blunders on the right +explanation; thus he arrives at the right goal, +but by an unorthodox road. Sir Roger +L'Estrange says that ``it is one thing to +forget a matter of fact, and another to +_blunder_ upon the reason of it.'' + +Some years ago there was an article in +the _Saturday Review_ on ``the knowledge +necessary to make a blunder,'' and this +title gives the clue to what a blunder really +is. It is caused by a confusion of two +or more things, and unless something is +known of these things a blunder cannot +be made. A perfectly ignorant man has +not sufficient knowledge to make a blunder. + +An ordinary blunder may die, and do +no great harm, but a literary blunder often +has an extraordinary life. Of literary +blunders probably the philological are the +most persistent and the most difficult to +kill. In this class may be mentioned (1) +Ghost words, as they are called by Professor +Skeat--words, that is, which have been +registered, but which never really existed; +(2) Real words that exist through a mis<p 3>take; +and (3) Absurd etymologies, a large +division crammed with delicious blunders. + +1. Professor Skeat, in his presidential +address to the members of the Philological +Society in 1886, gave a most interesting +account of some hundred ghost words, or +words which have no real existence. Those +who wish to follow out this subject must +refer to the _Philological Transactions_, but +four specially curious instances may be +mentioned here. These four words are +``abacot,'' ``knise,'' ``morse,'' and ``polien.'' +_Abacot_ is defined by Webster as ``the cap +of state formerly used by English kings, +wrought into the figure of two crowns''; +but Dr. Murray, when he was preparing +the _New English Dictionary_, discovered +that this was an interloper, and unworthy +of a place in the language. It was found +to be a mistake for _by-cocket_, which is the +correct word. In spite of this exposure +of the impostor, the word was allowed +to stand, with a woodcut of an abacot, +in an important dictionary published +subsequently, although Dr. Murray's +remarks were quoted. This shows how +difficult it is to kill a word which has +<p 4>once found shelter in our dictionaries. +_Knise_ is a charming word which first +appeared in a number of the _Edinburgh +Review_ in 1808. Fortunately for the fun +of the thing, the word occurred in an +article on Indian Missions, by Sydney +Smith. We read, ``The Hindoos have +some very strange customs, which it would +be desirable to abolish. Some swing on +hooks, some run _knises_ through their +hands, and widows burn themselves to +death.'' The reviewer was attacked for +his statement by Mr. John Styles, and he +replied in an article on Methodism printed +in the _Edinburgh_ in the following year. +Sydney Smith wrote: ``Mr. Styles is +peculiarly severe upon us for not being more +shocked at their piercing their limbs with +_knises_ . . . it is for us to explain the plan +and nature of this terrible and unknown +piece of mechanism. A _knise_, then, is +neither more nor less than a false print in +the _Edinburgh Review_ for a knife; and +from this blunder of the printer has Mr. +Styles manufactured this D<ae>dalean instrument +of torture called a _knise_.'' A similar +instance occurs in a misprint of a passage +<p 5>of one of Scott's novels, but here there is +the further amusing circumstance that the +etymology of the false word was settled to +the satisfaction of some of the readers. In +the majority of editions of _The Monastery_, +chapter x., we read: ``Hardened wretch +(said Father Eustace), art thou but this +instant delivered from death, and dost thou +so soon morse thoughts of slaughter?'' +This word is nothing but a misprint of +_nurse_; but in _Notes and Queries_ two +independent correspondents accounted for the +word _morse_ etymologically. One explained +it as ``to prime,'' as when one primes a +musket, from O. Fr. _amorce_, powder for the +touchhole (Cotgrave), and the other by ``to +bite'' (Lat. _mordere_), hence ``to indulge +in biting, stinging or gnawing thoughts of +slaughter.'' The latter writes: ``That the +word as a misprint should have been +printed and read by millions for fifty +years without being challenged and altered +exceeds the bounds of probability.'' Yet +when the original MS. of Sir Walter Scott +was consulted, it was found that the word +was there plainly written _nurse_. + +The Saxon letter for _th_ (<?p>) has long +<p 6>been a sore puzzle to the uninitiated, and +it came to be represented by the letter y. +Most of those who think they are writing +in a specially archaic manner when they +spell ``ye'' for ``the'' are ignorant of this, +and pronounce the article as if it were the +pronoun. Dr. Skeat quotes a curious instance +of the misreading of the thorn (<?p>) +as _p_, by which a strange ghost word is +evolved. Whitaker, in his edition of Piers +Plowman, reads that Christ ``_polede_ for +man,'' which should be _tholede_, from +_tholien_, to suffer, as there is no such +verb as _polien_. + +Dr. J. A. H. Murray, the learned editor +of the Philological Society's _New English +Dictionary_, quotes two amusing instances +of ghost words in a communication to +_Notes and Queries_ (7th S., vii. 305). He +says: ``Possessors of Jamieson's Scottish +Dictionary will do well to strike out the +fictitious entry _cietezour_, cited from Bellenden's +_Chronicle_ in the plural _cietezouris_, +which is merely a misreading of cietezanis +(_i.e_. with Scottish z = <?z> = y), _cieteyanis_ or +citeyanis, Bellenden's regular word for +_citizens_. One regrets to see this absurd +<p 7>mistake copied from Jamieson (unfortunately +without acknowledgment) by the +compilers of Cassell's _Encyclop<ae>dic Dictionary_.'' + +``Some editions of Drayton's _Barons +Wars_, Bk. VI., st. xxxvii., read-- + + `` `And ciffy Cynthus with a thousand birds,' + +which nonsense is solemnly reproduced in +Campbell's _Specimens of the British Poets_, +iii. 16. It may save some readers a needless +reference to the dictionary to remember +that it is a misprint for cliffy, a favourite +word of Drayton's.'' + +2. In contrast to supposed words that +never did exist, are real words that exist +through a mistake, such as _apron_ and _adder_, +where the _n_, which really belongs to the +word itself, has been supposed, mistakenly, +to belong to the article; thus apron should +be napron (Fr. _naperon_), and adder should +be nadder (A.-S. _n<ae>ddre_). An amusing +confusion has arisen in respect to the +Ridings of Yorkshire, of which there are +three. The word should be _triding_, but +the _t_ has got lost in the adjective, as West +Triding became West Riding. The origin of +<p 8>the word has thus been quite lost sight of, +and at the first organisation of the Province +of Upper Canada, in 1798, the county of +Lincoln was divided into _four_ ridings and +the county of York into _two_. York was +afterwards supplied with _four_. + +Sir Henry Bennet, in the reign of +Charles II., took his title of Earl of +Arlington owing to a blunder. The proper +name of the village in Middlesex is +Harlington. + +A curious misunderstanding in the +Marriage Service has given us two words +instead of one. We now vow to remain +united till death us _do part_, but the +original declaration, as given in the first +Prayer Book of Edward VI., was: ``I, N., +take thee N., to my wedded wife, to have +and to hold from this day forward, for +better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in +sickness and in health, to love and to +cherish, till death us depart [or separate].'' + +It is not worth while here to register the +many words which have taken their present +spelling through a mistaken view of their +etymology. They are too numerous, and +the consideration of them would open up a +<p 9>question quite distinct from the one now +under consideration. + +3. Absurd etymology was once the rule, +because guessing without any knowledge +of the historical forms of words was +general; and still, in spite of the modern +school of philology, which has shown us +the right way, much wild guessing continues +to be prevalent. It is not, however, +often that we can point to such a brilliant +instance of blundering etymology as that +to be found in Barlow's English Dictionary +(1772). The word _porcelain_ is there +said to be ``derived from _pour cent annes_, +French for a hundred years, it having been +imagined that the materials were matured +underground for that term of years.'' + +Richardson, the novelist, suggests an +etymology almost equal to this. He +writes, ``What does correspondence mean? +It is a word of Latin origin: a compound +word; and the two elements here brought +together are _respondeo_, I answer, and _cor_, +the heart: _i.e_., I answer feelingly, I reply +not so much to the head as to the heart.'' + +Dr. Ash's English Dictionary, published +in 1775, is an exceedingly useful work, as +<p 10>containing many words and forms of words +nowhere else registered, but it contains +some curious mistakes. The chief and +best-known one is the explanation of the +word _curmudgeon_--``from the French +c<oe>ur, unknown, and _mechant_, a correspondent.'' +The only explanation of this +absurdly confused etymology is that an +ignorant man was employed to copy from +Johnson's Dictionary, where the authority +was given as ``an unknown correspondent,'' +and he, supposing these words to be a +translation of the French, set them down +as such. The two words _esoteric_ and +_exoteric_ were not so frequently used in the +last century as they are now; so perhaps +there may be some excuse for the following +entry: ``Esoteric (adj. an incorrect +spelling) exoteric.'' Dr. Ash could not +have been well read in Arthurian literature, +or he would not have turned the noble +knight Sir Gawaine into a woman, ``the +sister of King Arthur.'' There is a story +of a blunder in Littleton's Latin Dictionary, +which further research has proved to be +no mistake at all. It is said that when +the Doctor was compiling his work, and +<p 11>announced the word _concurro_ to his +amanuensis, the scribe, imagining from the +sound that the six first letters would give +the translation of the verb, said ``Concur, +sir, I suppose?'' to which the Doctor +peevishly replied, ``Concur--condog!'' +and in the edition of 1678 ``condog'' is +printed as one interpretation of _concurro_. +Now, an answer to this story is that, however +odd a word ``condog'' may appear, +it will be found in Henry Cockeram's +_English Dictionarie_, first published in +1623. The entry is as follows: ``to agree, +concurre, cohere, condog, condiscend.'' + +Mistakes are frequently made in respect +of foreign words which retain their original +form, especially those which retain their +Latin plurals, the feminine singular being +often confused with the neuter plural. For +instance, there is the word _animalcule_ +(plural _animalcules_), also written _animalculum +_(plural _animalcula_). Now, the +plural _animalcula_ is often supposed to be +the feminine singular, and a new plural is +at once made--_animalcul<ae>_. This blunder +is one constantly being made, while it is +only occasionally we see a supposed plural +<p 12>_strat<ae>_ in geology from a supposed singular +strata, and the supposed singular _formulum_ +from a supposed plural _formula_ will probably +turn up some day. + +In connection with popular etymology, +it seems proper to make a passing mention +of the sailors' perversion of the Bellerophon +into the Billy Ruffian, the Hirondelle +into the Iron Devil, and La Bonne +Corvette into the Bonny Cravat. Some +of the supposed changes in public-house +signs, such as Bull and Mouth from +``Boulogne mouth,'' and Goat and Compasses +from ``God encompasseth us,'' are +more than doubtful; but the Bacchanals +has certainly changed into the Bag o' nails, +and the George Canning into the George +and Cannon. The words in the language +that have been formed from a false analogy +are so numerous and have so often been +noted that we must not allow them to +detain us here longer. + +Imaginary persons have been brought +into being owing to blundering misreading. +For instance, there are many saints +in the Roman calendar whose individuality +it would not be easy to prove. All +<p 13>know how St. Veronica came into being, +and equally well known is the origin of +St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins. +In this case, through the misreading of +her name, the unfortunate virgin martyr +Undecimilla has dropped out of the +calendar. + +Less known is the origin of Saint Xynoris, +the martyr of Antioch, who is noticed in +the _Martyrologie Romaine_ of Baronius. +Her name was obtained by a misreading +of Chrysostom, who, referring to two +martyrs, uses the word <gr xunwr<i!>s> (couple or +pair). + +In the City of London there is a church +dedicated to St. Vedast, which is situated +in Foster Lane, and is often described as +St. Vedast, _alias_ Foster. This has puzzled +many, and James Paterson, in his _Pietas +Londinensis_ (1714), hazarded the opinion +that the church was dedicated to ``two +conjunct saints.'' He writes: ``At the +first it was called St. Foster's in memory +of some founder or ancient benefactor, +but afterwards it was dedicated to St. +Vedast, Bishop of Arras.'' Newcourt +makes a similar mistake in his +_Reper<p 14>torium_, but Thomas Fuller knew the +truth, and in his _Church History_ refers to +``St. Vedastus, _anglice_ St. Fosters.'' This +is the fact, and the name St. Fauster or +Foster is nothing more than a corruption +of St. Vedast, all the steps of which we +now know. My friend Mr. Danby P. Fry +worked this out some years ago, but his +difficulty rested with the second syllable +of the name Foster; but the links in the +chain of evidence have been completed +by reference to Mr. H. C. Maxwell Lyte's +valuable Report on the Manuscripts of the +Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. The +first stage in the corruption took place in +France, and the name must have been +introduced into this country as Vast. +This loss of the middle consonant is in +accordance with the constant practice in +early French of dropping out the consonant +preceding an accented vowel, as +_reine_ from _regina_. The change of +_Augustine_ to _Austin_ is an analogous +instance. _Vast_ would here be pronounced +_Vaust_, in the same way as the word _vase_ +is still sometimes pronounced _vause_. The +interchange of _v_ and _f_, as in the cases of +<p 15>_Vane_ and _Fane_ and _fox_ and _vixen_, is too +common to need more than a passing +notice. We have now arrived at the form +St. Faust, and the evidence of the old +deeds of St. Paul's explains the rest, +showing us that the second syllable has grown +out of the possessive case. In one of +8 Edward III. we read of the ``King's +highway, called Seint Fastes lane.'' Of +course this was pronounced St. _Faust<e'>s_, +and we at once have the two syllables. +The next form is in a deed of May 1360, +where it stands as ``Seyn Fastreslane.'' +We have here, not a final _r_ as in the latest +form, but merely an intrusive trill. This +follows the rule by which thesaurus became +_treasure, Hebudas, Hebrides_, and _culpatus, +culprit_. After the great Fire of London, +the church was re-named St. Vedast (_alias_ +Foster)--a form of the name which it +had never borne before, except in Latin +deeds as Vedastus.[1] More might be said +<p 16>of the corruptions of names in the cases +of other saints, but these corruptions are +more the cause of blunders in others than +blunders in themselves. It is not often +that a new saint is evolved with such an +English name as Foster. + + + [1] See an article by the Author in _The Athen<ae>um_, +January 3rd, 1885, p. 15; and a paper by the +Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson in the _Jourral of +the British Arch<ae>ological Association_ (vol. xliii., +p. 56). + + + +The existence of the famous St. Vitus +has been doubted, and his dance (_Chorea +Sancti Vit<ae>_) is supposed to have been +originally _chorea invita_. But the strangest +of saints was S. Viar, who is thus accounted +for by D'Israeli in his _Curiosities of +Literature_:-- + +``Mabillon has preserved a curious +literary blunder of some pious Spaniards +who applied to the Pope for consecrating a +day in honour of Saint Viar. His Holiness +in the voluminous catalogue of his saints +was ignorant of this one. The only proof +brought forward for his existence was this +inscription:-- + + S. VIAR. + +An antiquary, however, hindered one more +festival in the Catholic calendar by +convincing them that these letters were only +the remains of an inscription erected for +<p 17>an ancient surveyor of the roads; and he +read their saintship thus:-- + + [PREFECTV]S VIAR[VM].'' + + +Foreign travellers in England have +usually made sad havoc of the names of +places. Hentzner spelt Gray's Inn and +Lincoln's Inn phonetically as Grezin and +Linconsin, and so puzzled his editor that he +supposed these to be the names of two +giants. A similar mistake to this was that +of the man who boasted that ``not all the +British House of Commons, not the whole +bench of Bishops, not even Leviticus himself, +should prevent him from marrying his +deceased wife's sister.'' One of the jokes +in Mark Twain's _Huckleberry Finn_ +(ch. xxiii.) turns on the use of this same +expression ``Leviticus himself.'' + +The picturesque writer who draws a +well-filled-in picture from insufficient data +is peculiarly liable to fall into blunders, +and when he does fall it is not surprising +that less imaginative writers should +chuckle over his fall. A few years ago +an American editor is said to have received +the telegram ``Oxford Music Hall +<p 18>burned to the ground.'' There was not +much information here, and he was ignorant +of the fact that this building was in +London and in Oxford Street, but he was +equal to the occasion. He elaborated a +remarkable account of the destruction +by fire of the principal music hall of +academic Oxford. He told how it was +situated in the midst of historic colleges +which had miraculously escaped destruction +by the flames. These flames, fanned +into a fury by a favourable wind, lit up +the academic spires and groves as they +ran along the rich cornices, lapped the +gorgeous pillars, shrivelled up the roof +and grasped the mighty walls of the +ancient building in their destructive +embraces. + +In 1882 an announcement was made +in a weekly paper that some prehistoric +remains had been found near the Church +of San Francisco, Florence. The note +was reproduced in an evening paper and +in an antiquarian monthly with words in +both cases implying that the locality of +the find was San Francisco, California. +It is a common mistake of those who +<p 19>have heard of Grolier bindings to suppose +that the eminent book collector was a +binder; but this is nothing to that of the +workman who told the writer of this that +he had found out the secret of making +the famous Henri II. or Oiron ware. ``In +fact,'' he added, ``I could make it as well +as Henry Deux himself.'' The idea of the +king of France working in the potteries +is exceedingly fine. + +Family pride is sometimes the cause +of exceedingly foolish blunders. The +following amusing passage in Anderson's +_Genealogical History of the House of Yvery_ +(1742) illustrates a form of pride ridiculed +by Lord Chesterfield when he set up on +his walls the portraits of Adam de Stanhope +and Eve de Stanhope. The having a +stutterer in the family will appear to most +readers to be a strange cause of pride. +The author writes: ``It was usual in ancient +times with the greatest families, and is by +all genealogists allowed to be a mighty +evidence of dignity, to use certain nicknames +which the French call sobriquets . . . +such as `the Lame' or `the Black.'. . . +The house of Yvery, not deficient in any +<p 20>mark or proof of greatness and antiquity, +abounds at different periods in instances +of this nature. Roger, a younger son of +William Youel de Perceval, was surnamed +Balbus or the Stutterer.'' + +Sometimes a blunder has turned out +fortunate in its consequences; and a +striking instance of this is recorded in the +history of Prussia. Frederic I. charged +his ambassador Bartholdi with the mission +of procuring from the Emperor of Germany +an acknowledgment of the regal +dignity which he had just assumed. It +is said that instructions written in cypher +were sent to him, with particular directions +that he should not apply on this subject +to Father Wolff, the Emperor's confessor. +The person who copied these instructions, +however, happened to omit the word _not_ +in the copy in cypher. Bartholdi was +surprised at the order, but obeyed it and +made the matter known to Wolff; who, +in the greatest astonishment, declared that +although he had always been hostile to +the measure, he could not resist this +proof of the Elector's confidence, which +had made a deep impression upon him. +<p 21>It was thought that the mediation of the +confessor had much to do with the +accomplishment of the Elector's wishes. + +Misquotations form a branch of literary +blunders which may be mentioned here. + +The text ``He may run that readeth +it'' (Hab. ii. 2) is almost invariably +quoted as ``He who runs may read''; +and the Divine condemnation ``In the +sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread' +(Gen. iii. 19) is usually quoted as ``sweat +of thy brow.'' + +The manner in which Dr. Johnson +selected the quotations for his Dictionary +is well known, and as a general rule +these are tolerably accurate; but under +the thirteenth heading of the verb to +sit will be found a curious perversion +of a text of Scripture. There we read, +``Asses are ye that sit in judgement-- +_Judges_,'' but of course there is no such +passage in the Bible. The correct reading +of the tenth verse of the fifth chapter is: +``Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye +that sit in judgment, and walk by the +way.'' + +From misquotations it is an easy step +<p 22>to pass to mispronunciations. These are +mostly too common to be amusing, but +sometimes the blunderers manage to hit +upon something which is rather comic. +Thus an ignorant reader coming upon a +reference to an angle of forty-five degrees +was puzzled, and astonished his hearers +by giving it out as _angel_ of forty-five +degrees. This blunderer, however, was +outdone by the speaker who described a +distinguished personage ``as a very +indefat<e'm>gable young man,'' adding, ``but even +he must succ<uu>mb'' (suck 'um) at last. + +As has already been said, blunders are +often made by those who are what we +usually call ``too clever by half.'' Surely +it was a blunder to change the time- +honoured name of King's Bench to +Queen's Bench. A queen is a female +king, and she reigns as a king; the +absurdity of the change of sex in the +description is more clearly seen when +we find in a Prayer-book published soon +after the Queen's accession Her Majesty +described as ``our Queen and _Governess_.'' + +Editors of classical authors are often +laughed at for their emendations, but +<p 23>sometimes unjustly. When we consider +the crop of blunders that have gathered +about the texts of celebrated books, we +shall be grateful for the labours of brilliant +scholars who have cleared these away +and made obscure passages intelligible. + +One of the most remarkable emendations +ever made by an editor is that of +Theobald in Mrs. Quickly's description of +Falstaff's deathbed (_King Henry V_., act ii., +sc. 4). The original is unintelligible: +``his nose was as sharp as a pen and a +table of greene fields.'' A friend suggested +that it should read `` 'a talked,'' and +Theobald then suggested `` 'a babbled,'' a reading +which has found its way into all texts, +and is never likely to be ousted from its +place. Collier's MS. corrector turned the +sentence into ``as a pen on a table of +green frieze.'' Very few who quote this +passage from Shakespeare have any notion +of how much they owe to Theobald. + +Sometimes blunders are intentionally +made--malapropisms which are understood +by the speaker's intimates, but often +astonish strangers--such as the expressions +``the sinecure of every eye,'' ``as white +<p 24>as the drivelling snow.''[2] Of intentional +mistakes, the best known are those which +have been called cross readings, in which +the reader is supposed to read across the +page instead of down the column of a +newspaper, with such results as the following:-- + + + [2] See _Spectator_, December 24th, 1887, for +specimens of family lingo. + + + +``A new Bank was lately opened at +Northampton--<?pointer> no money returned.'' + +``The Speaker's public dinners will +commence next week--admittance, 3/- to +see the animals fed.'' + +As blunders are a class of mistakes, so +``bulls'' are a sub-class of blunders. No +satisfactory explanation of the word has +been given, although it appears to be +intimately connected with the word +blunder. Equally the thing itself has not +been very accurately defined. + +The author of _A New Booke of Mistakes_, +1637, which treats of ``Quips, +Taunts, Retorts, Flowts, Frumps, Mockes, +Gibes, Jestes, etc.,'' says in his address to +the Reader, ``There are moreover other +simple mistakes in speech which pass +<p 25>under the name of Bulls, but if any man +shall demand of mee why they be so +called, I must put them off with this +woman's reason, they are so because they +bee so.'' All the author can affirm is +that they have no connection with the +inns and playhouses of his time styled +the Black Bulls and the Red Bulls. +Coleridge's definition is the best: ``A +bull consists in a mental juxtaposition of +incongruous ideas with the sensation but +without the sense of connection.''[3] + + + [3] Southey's _Omniana_, vol. i., p. 220. + + + +Bulls are usually associated with the +Irish, but most other nations are quite +capable of making them, and Swift is said +to have intended to write an essay on +English bulls and blunders. Sir Thomas +Trevor, a Baron of the Exchequer 1625-49, +when presiding at the Bury Assizes, had a +cause about wintering of cattle before him. +He thought the charge immoderate, and +said, ``Why, friend, this is most unreasonable; +I wonder thou art not ashamed, for +I myself have known a beast wintered one +whole summer for a noble.'' The man at +<p 26>once, with ready wit, cried, ``That was a +_bull_, my lord.'' Whereat the company +was highly amused.[4] + + + [4] Thoms, _Anecdotes and Traditions_, 1839, p +79 + + + + +One of the best-known bulls is that +inscribed on the obelisk near Fort William +in the Highlands of Scotland. In this +inscription a very clumsy attempt is made +to distinguish between natural tracks and +made roads:-- + + ``Had you seen these roads before they were made, + You would lift up your hands and bless General Wade.'' + + +The bulletins of Pope Clement XIV.'s +last illness, which were announced at the +Vatican, culminated in a very fair bull. +The notices commenced with ``His Holiness +is very ill,'' and ended with ``His +Infallibility is delirious.'' + +Negro bulls have frequently been +reported, but the health once proposed by +a worthy black is perhaps as good an +instance as could be cited. He pledged +``De Gobernor ob our State! He come +<p 27>in wid much opposition; he go out wid +none at all.'' + +Still, in spite of the fact that all nations +fall into these blunders, and that, as it +has been said of some, _Hibernicis ipsis +Hibernior_, it is to Ireland that we look +for the finest examples of bulls, and we +do not usually look in vain. + +It is in a Belfast paper that may be +read the account of a murder, the result +of which is described thus: ``They fired +two shots at him; the first shot killed +him, but the second was not fatal.'' +Connoisseurs in bulls will probably say that +this is only a blunder. Perhaps the +following will please them better: ``A man +was run down by a passenger train and +killed; he was injured in a similar way a +year ago.'' + +Here are three good bulls, which fulfil +all the conditions we expect in this branch +of wit. We know what the writer means, +although he does not exactly say it. This +passage is from the report of an Irish +Benevolent Society: ``Notwithstanding +the large amount paid for medicine and +medical attendance, very few deaths +<p 28>occurred during the year.'' A country +editor's correspondent wrote: ``Will you +please to insert this obituary notice? I +make bold to ask it, because I know the +deceased had a great many friends who +would be glad to hear of his death.'' The +third is quoted in the _Greville Memoirs_: +``He abjured the errors of the Romish +Church, and embraced those of the +Protestant.'' + +It is said that the Irish Statute Book +opens characteristically with, ``An Act +that the King's officers may travel _by sea_ +from one place to another within the _land_ +of Ireland''; but one of the main objects +of the _Essay on Irish Bulls_, by Maria +Edgeworth and her father, Richard Lovell +Edgeworth, was to show that the title of +their work was incorrect. They find the +original of Paddy Blake's echo in Bacon's +works: ``I remember well that when I +went to the echo at Port Charenton, there +was an old Parisian that took it to be the +work of spirits, and of good spirits; `for,' +said he, `call Satan, and the echo will not +deliver back the devil's name, but will +say, ``Va-t'en.'' ' '' Mr. Hill Burton found +<p 29>the original of Sir Boyle Roche's bull of +the bird which was in two places at once +in a letter of a Scotsman--Robertson of +Rowan. Steele said that all was the effect +of climate, and that, if an Englishman were +born in Ireland, he would make as many +bulls. Mistakes of an equally absurd +character may be found in English Acts +of Parliament, such as this: ``The new +gaol to be built from the materials of +the old one, and the prisoners to remain +in the latter till the former is ready''; or +the disposition of the prisoner's punishment +of transportation for seven years-- +``half to go to the king, and the other half +to the informer.'' Peter Harrison, an +annotator on the Pentateuch, observed of +Moses' two _tables of stone_ that they were +made of _shittim wood_. This is not unlike +the title said to have been used for a useful +little work--``Every man his own Washer- +woman.'' Horace Walpole said that the +best of all bulls was that of the man who, +complaining of his nurse, said, ``I hate +that woman, for she changed me at +nurse.'' But surely this one quoted by +Mr. Hill Burton is far superior to Horace +<p 30>Walpole's; in fact, one of the best ever +conceived. Result of a duel--``The one +party received a slight wound in the +breast; the other fired in the air--and +so the matter terminated.'' + +After this the description of the wrongs +of Ireland has a somewhat artificial look: +``Her cup of misery has been overflowing, +and is not yet full.'' + + + +CHAPTER II. + +BLUNDERS OF AUTHORS. + +MACAULAY, in his life of +Goldsmith in the _Encyclop<ae>dia +Britannica_, relates that that +author, in the _History of England_, tells +us that Naseby is in Yorkshire, and that +the mistake was not corrected when the +book was reprinted. He further affirms +that Goldsmith was nearly hoaxed into +putting into the _History of Greece_ an +account of a battle between Alexander the +Great and Montezuma. This, however, +is scarcely a fair charge, for the backs of +most of us need to be broad enough to +bear the actual blunders we have made +throughout life without having to bear +those which we almost made. + +Goldsmith was a very remarkable +instance of a man who undertook to write +books on subjects of which he knew +<p 32>nothing. Thus, Johnson said that if he +could tell a horse from a cow that was +the extent of his knowledge of zoology; +and yet the _History of Animated Nature_ +can still be read with pleasure from the +charm of the author's style. + +Some authors are so careless in the +construction of their works as to contradict in +one part what they have already stated in +another. In the year 1828 an amusing +work was published on the clubs of +London, which contained a chapter on +Fighting Fitzgerald, of whom the author +writes: ``That Mr. Fitzgerald (unlike his +countrymen generally) was totally devoid +of generosity, no one who ever knew him +will doubt.'' In another chapter on the +same person the author flatly contradicts +his own judgment: ``In summing up the +catalogue of his vices, however, we ought +not to shut our eyes upon his virtues; of +the latter, he certainly possessed that one +for which his countrymen have always +been so famous, generosity.'' The scissors- +and-paste compilers are peculiarly liable +to such errors as these; and a writer in +the _Quarterly Review_ proved the _M<e'>moires +<p 33>de Louis XVIII_. (published in 1832) to +be a mendacious compilation from the +_M<e'>moires de Bachaumont_ by giving examples +of the compiler's blundering. One +of these muddles is well worth quoting, +and it occurs in the following passage: +``Seven bishops--of _Puy_, Gallard de +Terraube; of _Langres_, La Luzerne; of +_Rhodez_, Seignelay-Colbert; of _Gast_, Le +Tria; of _Blois_, Laussiere Themines; of +_Nancy_, Fontanges; of _Alais_, Beausset; +of _Nevers_, Seguiran.'' Had the compiler +taken the trouble to count his own list, +he would have seen that he had given +eight names instead of seven, and so have +suspected that something was wrong; but +he was not paid to think. The fact is +that there is no such place as Gast, and +there was no such person as Le Tria. The +Bishop of Rhodez was Seignelay-Colbert +de Castle Hill, a descendant of the Scotch +family of Cuthbert of Castle Hill, in +Inverness-shire; and Bachaumont misled +his successor by writing Gast Le Hill for +Castle Hill. The introduction of a stop +and a little more misspelling resulted in +the blunder as we now find it. +<p 34> + +Authors and editors are very apt to take +things for granted, and they thus fall into +errors which might have been escaped if +they had made inquiries. Pope, in a note +on _Measure for Measure_, informs us that the +story was taken from Cinthio's novel _Dec_. 8 +_Nov_. 5, thus contracting the words decade +and novel. Warburton, in his edition of +Shakespeare, was misled by these contractions, +and fills them up as December 8 +and November 5. Many blunders are +merely clerical errors of the authors, who +are led into them by a curious association +of ideas; thus, in the _Lives of the +Londonderrys_, Sir Archibald Alison, when +describing the funeral of the Duke of +Wellington in St. Paul's, speaks of one of +the pall-bearers as Sir Peregrine Pickle, +instead of Sir Peregrine Maitland. Dickens, +in _Bleak House_, calls Harold Skimpole +Leonard throughout an entire number, +but returns to the old name in a subsequent one. + +Few authors require to be more on their +guard against mistakes than historians, +especially as they are peculiarly liable to +fall into them. What shall we think of +<p 35>the authority of a school book when we +find the statement that Louis Napoleon +was Consul in 1853 before he became +Emperor of the French? + +We must now pass from a book of small +value to an important work on the history +of England; but it will be necessary first to +make a few explanatory remarks. Our +readers know that English kings for several +centuries claimed the power of curing +scrofula, or king's evil; but they may not be +so well acquainted with the fact that the +French sovereigns were believed to enjoy +the same miraculous power. Such, however, +was the case; and tradition reported +that a phial filled with holy oil was sent +down from heaven to be used for the +anointing of the kings at their coronation. +We can illustrate this by an anecdote of +Napoleon. Lafayette and the first Consul +had a conversation one day on the government +of the United States. Bonaparte +did not agree with Lafayette's views, and +the latter told him that ``he was desirous +of having the little phial broke over his +head.'' This _sainte ampulle_, or holy +vessel, was an important object in the +<p 36>ceremony, and the virtue of the oil was to +confer the power of cure upon the anointed +king. This the historian could not have +known, or he would not have written: +``The French were confident in themselves, +in their fortunes; in the special +gifts by which they held the stars.'' If +this were all the information that was +given us, we should be left in a perfect +state of bewilderment while trying to +understand how the French could hold +the stars, or, if they were able to hold +them, what good it would do them; but +the historian adds a note which, although +it contains some new blunders, gives the +clue to an explanation of an otherwise +inexplicable passage. It is as follows: +``The Cardinal of Lorraine showed Sir +William Pickering the precious ointment +of St. Ampull, wherewith the King of +France was sacred, which he said was sent +from heaven above a thousand years ago, +and since by miracle preserved, through +whose virtue also the king held _les +estroilles_.'' From this we might imagine +that the holy Ampulla was a person; but +the clue to the whole confusion is to be +<p 37>found in the last word of the sentence. +As the French language does not contain +any such word as _estroilles_, there can be +no doubt that it stands for old French +_escroilles_, or the king's evil. The change +of a few letters has here made the mighty +difference between the power of curing +scrofula and the gift of holding the stars. + +In some copies of John Britton's +_Descriptive Sketches of Tunbridge Wells_ +(1832) the following extraordinary passage +will be found: ``Judge Jefferies, a man +who has rendered his name infamous in +the annals of history by the cruelty and +injustice he manifested in presiding at the +trial of King Charles I.'' The book was +no sooner issued than the author became +aware of his astonishing chronological +blunder, and he did all in his power to set +the matter right; but a mistake in print +can never be entirely obliterated. However +much trouble may be taken to suppress +a book, some copies will be sure to +escape, and, becoming valuable by the +attempted suppression, attract all the more +attention. + +Scott makes David Ramsay, in the +<p 38>_Fortunes of Nigel_ (chapter ii.), swear ``by +the bones of the immortal Napier.'' It +would perhaps be rank heresy to suppose +that Sir Walter did not know that +``Napier's bones'' were an apparatus for +purposes of calculation, but he certainly +puts the expression in such an ambiguous +form that many of his readers are likely +to suppose that the actual bones of +Napier's body were intended. + +Some of the most curious of blunders +are those made by learned men who without +thought set down something which at +another time they would recognise as a +mistake. The following passage from +Mr. Gladstone's _Gleanings of Past Years_ +(vol. i., p. 26), in which the author confuses +Daniel with Shadrach, Meshech, and +Abednego, has been pointed out: ``The +fierce light that beats upon a throne is +sometimes like the heat of that furnace in +which only Daniel could walk unscathed, +too fierce for those whose place it is to +stand in its vicinity.'' Who would expect +to find Macaulay blundering on a subject +he knew so well as the story of the +_Faerie Queene_! and yet this is what he +<p 39>wrote in a review of Southey's edition +of the _Pilgrim's Progress_: ``Nay, even +Spenser himself, though assuredly one of +the greatest poets that ever lived, could +not succeed in the attempt to make allegory +interesting. . . . One unpardonable +fault, the fault of tediousness, pervades +the whole of the _Fairy Queen_. We become +sick of Cardinal Virtues and Deadly +Sins, and long for the society of plain men +and women. Of the persons who read +the first Canto, not one in ten reaches the +end of the first book, and not one in a +hundred perseveres to the end of the +poem. Very few and very weary are +those who are in at the death of the +Blatant Beast.''[5] Macaulay knew well +enough that the Blatant Beast did not +die in the poem as Spenser left it. + + + [5] _Edinburgh Review_, vol. liv. (1831), p. 452. + + + +The newspaper writers are great sinners, +and what with the frequent ignorance and +haste of the authors and the carelessness +of the printers a complete farrago of +nonsense is sometimes concocted between +them. A proper name is seldom given +correctly in a daily paper, and it is a +<p 40>frequently heard remark that no notice of +an event is published in which an error in +the names or qualifications of the actors +in it ``is not detected by those acquainted +with the circumstances.'' The contributor +of the following bit of information to the +_Week's News_ (Nov. 18th, 1871) must +have had a very vague notion of what a +monosyllable is, or he would not have +written, ``The author of _Dorothy, De +Cressy_, etc., has another novel nearly +ready for the press, which, with the writer's +partiality for monosyllabic titles, is named +_Thomasina_.'' He is perhaps the same +person who remarked on the late Mr. +Robertson's fondness for monosyllables +as titles for his plays, and after instancing +_Caste, Ours_, and _School_, ended his list with +_Society_. We can, however, fly at higher +game than this, for some twenty years ago +a writer in the _Times_ fell into the mistake +of describing the entrance of one of the +German states into the Zollverein in terms +that proved him to be labouring under +the misconception that the great Customs- +Union was a new organisation. Another +source of error in the papers is the hurry +<p 41>with which bits of news are printed +before they have been authenticated. Each +editor wishes to get the start of his +neighbour, and the consequence is that they +are frequently deceived. In a number of +the _Literary Gazette_ for 1837 there is a +paragraph headed ``Sir Michael Faraday,'' +in which the great philosopher is +congratulated upon the title which had been +conferred upon him. Another source of +blundering is the attempt to answer an +opponent before his argument is thoroughly +understood. A few years ago a +gentleman made a note in the _Notes and +Queries_ to the effect that a certain custom +was at least 1400 years old, and was probably +introduced into England in the fifth +century. Soon afterwards another gentleman +wrote to the same journal, ``Assuredly +this custom was general before A.D. 1400''; +but how he obtained that date out of the +previous communication no one can tell. + +The _Times_ made a strange blunder in +describing a gallery of pictures: ``Mr. +Robertson's group of `Susannah and the +Elders,' with the name of Pordenone, +contains some passages of glowing colour +<p 42>which must be set off against a good deal +of clumsy drawing in the central figure of +the chaste _maiden_.'' As bad as this was +the confusion in the mind of the critic of +the New Gallery, who spoke of Mr Hall<e'>'s +_Paolo and Francesca_ as that masterly +study and production of the old Adam +phase of human nature which Milton +hit off so sublimely in the _Inferno_. + +A writer in the _Notes and Queries_ +confused Beersheba with Bathsheba, and +conferred on the woman the name of the +place. + +It has often been remarked that a +thorough knowledge of the English Bible +is an education of itself, and a +correspondence in the _Times_ in August 1888 +shows the value of a knowledge of the +Liturgy of the Church of England. In a +leading article occurred the passage, ``We +have no doubt whatever that Scotch +judges and juries will administer indifferent +justice.'' A correspondent in Glasgow, +who supposed _indifferent_ to mean _inferior_, +wrote to complain at the insinuation +that a Scotch jury would not do its +duty. The editor of the _Times_ had little +<p 43>difficulty in answering this by referring to +the prayer for the Church militant, where +are the words, ``Grant unto her [the +Queen's] whole Council and to all that +are put in authority under her, that they +may truly and indifferently minister justice, +to the punishment of wickedness and vice, +and to the maintenance of Thy true +religion, and virtue.'' + +The compiler of an Anthology made +the following remarks in his preface: ``In +making a selection of this kind one sails +between Scylla and Charybdis--the hackneyed +and the strange. I have done my +best to steer clear of both these rocks.'' +A leader-writer in a morning paper a +few months ago made the same blunder +when he wrote: ``As a matter of fact, Mr. +Gladstone was bound to bump against +either Scylla or Charybdis.'' It has +generally been supposed that Scylla only was +a rock. + +A most extraordinary blunder was made +in _Scientific American_ eight or ten years +ago. An engraving of a handsome Chelsea +china vase was presented with the +following description: ``In England no +<p 44>regular hard porcelain is made, but a +soft porcelain of great beauty is produced +from kaolin, phosphate of lime, +and calcined silica. The principal works +are situated at Chelsea. The export of +these English porcelains is considerable, +and it is a curious fact that they are +largely imported into China, where they +are highly esteemed. Our engraving +shows a richly ornamented vase in soft +porcelain from the works at Chelsea.'' +It could scarcely have been premised +that any one would be so ignorant as +to suppose that Chelsea china was still +manufactured, and this paragraph is a +good illustration of the evils of journalists +writing on subjects about which they know +nothing. + +Critics who are supposed to be immaculate +often blunder when sitting in judgment +on the sins of authors. They are +frequently puzzled by reprints, and led into +error by the disinclination of publishers +to give particulars in the preface as +to a book which was written many +years before its republication. A few +years ago was issued a reprint of the +<p 45>translation of the _Arabian Nights_, by +Jonathan Scott, LL.D., which was first +published in 1811. A reviewer having +the book before him overlooked this +important fact, and straightway proceeded +to ``slate'' Dr. Scott for his supposed +work of supererogation in making a new +translation when Lane's held the field, the +fact really being that Scott's translation +preceded Lane's by nearly thirty years. + +Another critic, having to review a +reprint of Galt's _Lives of Players_, complained +that Mr. Galt had not brought his book +down to the date of publication, being +ignorant of the fact that John Galt died +as long ago as 1839. The reviewer of +Lamb's _Tales from Shakespeare_ committed +the worst blunder of all when he wrote +that those persons who did not know +their Shakespeare might read Mr. +Lamb's paraphrase if they liked, but for +his part he did not see the use of such +works. The man who had never heard +of Charles Lamb and his _Tales_ must have +very much mistaken his vocation when he +set up as a literary critic. + +These are all genuine cases, but the +<p 46>story of Lord Campbell and his criticism +of _Romeo and Juliet_ is almost too good to +be true. It is said that when the future +Lord Chancellor first came to London +he went to the editor of the _Morning +Chronicle_ for some work. The editor +sent him to the theatre. ``Plain John'' +Campbell had no idea he was witnessing +a play of Shakespeare, and he therefore +set to work to sketch the plot of _Romeo +and Juliet_, and to give the author a little +wholesome advice. He recommended a +curtailment in parts so as to render it +more suitable to the taste of a cultivated +audience. We can quite understand that +if a story like this was once set into +circulation it was not likely to be allowed to +die by the many who were glad to have a +laugh at the rising barrister. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +BLUNDERS OF TRANSLATORS. + +THE blunders of translators are so +common that they have been +made to point a moral in popular +proverbs. According to an Italian saying +_translators are traitors_ (``I traduttori sono +traditori''); and books are said to be _done_ +into English, _traduced_ in French, and _overset_ +in Dutch. Colton, the author of _Lacon_, +mentions a half-starved German at Cambridge +named Render, who had been long +enough in England to forget German, but +not long enough to learn English. This +worthy, in spite of his deficiencies, was a +voluminous translator of his native +literature, and it became a proverbial saying +among his intimates respecting a bad +translation that it was _Rendered_ into +English. + +The Comte de Tressan translated the +<p 48>words ``capo basso'' (low headland) in a +passage from Ariosto by ``Cap de Capo +Basso,'' on account of which translation +the wits insisted upon calling him ``Comte +de Capo Basso.'' + +Robert Hall mentions a comical stumble +made by one of the translators of Plato, +who construed through the Latin and not +direct from the Greek. In the Latin +version _hirundo_ stood as _hir<u?>do_, and the +translator, overlooking the mark of +contraction, declared to the astonished world +on the authority of Plato that the _horse- +leech_ instead of the swallow was the harbinger +of spring. Hoole, the translator of +Tasso and Ariosto, was as confused in his +natural history when he rendered ``I +colubri Viscontei'' or _Viscontian snakes_, +the crest of the Visconti family, as ``the +Calabrian Viscounts.'' + +As strange as this is the Frenchman's +notion of the presence of guns in the +canons' seats: ``L'Archev<e^>que de Cantorbery +avait fait placer des _canons_ dans +les stalles de la cath<e'>drale.'' He quite +overlooked the word _chanoines_, which he +should have used. This use of a word +<p 49>similarly spelt is a constant source of +trouble to the translator: for instance, +a French translator of Scott's _Bride of +Lammermuir_ left the first word of the +title untranslated, with the result that he +made it the Bridle of Lammermuir, ``La +Bride de Lammermuir.'' + +Thevenot in his travels refers to the +fables of _Damn<e'> et Calilve_, meaning the +_Hitopodesa_, or Pilpay's Fables. His +translator calls them the fables of the damned +Calilve. This is on a par with De +Quincey's specimen of a French Abb<e'>'s +Greek. Having to paraphrase the Greek +words ``<gr 'Hrodotos kai iaxwn>'' (Herodotus +even while Ionicizing), the Frenchman +rendered them ``Herodote et aussi Jazon,'' +thus creating a new author, one Jazon. +In the _Present State of Peru_, a compilation +from the _Mercurio Peruano_, P. Geronymo +Roman de la Higuera is transformed into +``Father Geronymo, a Romance of La +Higuera.'' + +In Robertson's _History of Scotland_ the +following passage is quoted from Melville's +_Account of John Knox_: ``He was so active +and vigorous a preacher that he was like +<p 50>to ding the pulpit into blads and fly out +of it.'' M. Campenon, the translator of +Robertson into French, turns this into the +startling statement that he broke his pulpit +and leaped into the midst of his auditors. +A good companion to this curious ``fact'' +may be found in the extraordinary trope +used by a translator of Busbequius, who +says ``his misfortunes had reduced him to +the top of all miseries.'' + +We all know how Victor Hugo transformed +the Firth of Forth into the First of +the Fourth, and then insisted that he was +right; but this great novelist was in the +habit of soaring far above the realm of +fact, and in a work he brought out as an +offering to the memory of Shakespeare he +showed that his imagination carried him +far away from historical facts. The author +complains in this book that the muse of +history cares more for the rulers than for +the ruled, and, telling only what is pleasant, +ignores the truth when it is unpalatable +to kings. After an outburst of bombast +he says that no history of England tells us +that Charles II. murdered his brother the +Duke of Gloucester. We should be sur<p 51>prised +if any did do so, as that young man +died of small-pox. Hugo, being totally +ignorant of English history, seems to have +confused the son of Charles I. with an +earlier Duke of Gloucester (Richard III.), +and turned the assassin into the victim. +After these blunders Dr. Baly's mention +of the cannibals of _Nova Scotia_ instead +of _New Caledonia_ in his translation of +M<u:>ller's _Elements of Physiology_ seems +tame. + +One snare that translators are constantly +falling into is the use of English words +which are like the foreign ones, but +nevertheless are not equivalent terms, and +translations that have taken their place +in literature often suffer from this cause; +thus Cicero's _Offices_ should have been +translated _Duties_, and Marmontel never +intended to write what we understand by +_Moral Tales_, but rather tales of manners +or of fashionable life. The translators of +Calmet's _Dictionary of the Bible_ render the +French ancien, ancient, and write of ``Mr. +Huet, the ancient Bishop of Avranch.'' +Theodore Parker, in translating a work by +De Wette, makes the blunder of con<p 52>verting +the German word _W<a:>lsch_, a +foreigner (in the book an equivalent for +Italian), into _Welsh_. + +Some men translate works in order to +learn a language during the process, and +they necessarily make blunders. It must +have been one of these ignoramuses who +translated _tellurische magnetismus_ +(terrestrial magnetism) as the magnetical qualities +of Tellurium, and by his blunder caused +an eminent chemist to test tellurium in +order to find these magnetical qualities. +There was more excuse for the French +translator of one of Sir Walter Scott's +novels who rendered a welsh rabbit (or +rarebit, as it is sometimes spelt) into _un +lapin du pays de Galles_. Walpole states +that the Duchess of Bolton used to divert +George I. by affecting to make blunders, +and once when she had been to see Cibber's +play of _Love's Last Shift_ she called it _La +derni<e!>re chemise de l'amour_. A like +translation of Congreve's _Mourning Bride_ is +given in good faith in the first edition of +Peignot's _Manuel du Bibliophile_, 1800, +where it is described as _L'<E'>pouse de +Matin_; and the translation which Walpole +<p 53>attributes to the Duchess of Bolton the +French say was made by a Frenchman +named La Place. + +The title of the old farce _Hit or Miss_ +was turned into _Frapp<e'> ou Mademoiselle_, +and the _Independent Whig_ into _La +Perruque Ind<e'>pendante_. + +In a late number of the _Literary +World_ the editor, after alluding to the +French translator of Sir Walter Scott +who turned ``a sticket minister'' into +``le ministre assassin<e'>,'' gives from the +_Biblioth<e!>que Universelle_ the extraordinary +translation of the title of Mr. Barrie's +comedy, _Walker, London_, as _Londres qui +se prom<e!>ne_. + +Old translators have played such tricks +with proper names as to make them often +unintelligible; thus we find La Rochefoucauld +figuring as Ruchfucove; and in an +old treatise on the mystery of Freemasonry +by John Leland, Pythagoras is described +as Peter Gower the Grecian. This of +course is an Anglicisation of the French +Pythagore (pronounced like Peter Gore). +Our versions of Eastern names are so +different from the originals that when the +<p 54>two are placed together there appears +to be no likeness between them, and the +different positions which they take up in +the alphabet cause the bibliographer an +infinity of trouble. Thus the original of +Xerxes is Khshayarsha (the revered king), +and Averrhoes is Ibn Roshd (son of +Roshd). The latter's full name is Abul +Walid Mohammed ben Ahmed ben Mohammed. +Artaxerxes is in old Persian +Artakhshatra, or the Fire Protector, and +Darius means the Possessor. Although +all these names--Xerxes, Artaxerxes, and +Darius--have a royal significance, they +were personal names, and not titles like +Pharaoh. + +It is often difficult to believe that +translators can have taken the trouble to read +their own work, or they surely would not +let pass some of the blunders we meet +with. In a translation of Lamartine's +_Girondins_ some courtly people are +described as figuring ``under the vaults'' of +the Tuileries instead of beneath the arched +galleries (_sous ses voutes_). This, however, +is nothing to a blunder to be found +in the _Secret Memoirs of the Court of +<p 55>Louis XIV. and of the Regency_ (1824). +The following passage from the original +work, ``Deux en sont morts et on dit +publiquement qu'ils ont <e'>t<e'> empoisonn<e'>s,'' is +rendered in the English translation to the +confusion of common sense as ``Two of +them died with her, and said publicly that +they had been poisoned.'' + +This is not unlike the bull of the young +soldier who, writing home in praise of the +Indian climate, said, ``But a lot of young +fellows come out here, and they drink +and they eat, and they eat and they drink, +and they die; and then they write home +to their friends saying it was the climate +that did it.'' + +Some authors have found that there is +peril in too free a translation, thus Dotet +was condemned on Feb. 14th, 1543, for +translating a passage in Plato's Dialogues +as ``After death you will be nothing _at +all_.'' Surely he who translated _Dieu d<e'>fend +l'adult<e!>re_ as _God defends adultery_ more +justly deserved punishment! Guthrie, +the geographical writer, who translated +a French book of travels, unfortunately +mistook _neuvi<e!>me_ (ninth) for _neuvelle_ or +<p 56>_neuve_, and therefore made an allusion to +the twenty-sixth day of the new moon. + +Moore quotes in his _Diary_ (Dec. +30th, 1818) a most amusing blunder of +a translator who knew nothing of the +technical name for a breakwater. He +translated the line in Goldsmith's _Deserted +Village_, + + ``As ocean sweeps the labour'd mole away, + +into + + ``Comme la mer d<e'>truit les travaux de la taupe.'' + + +D'Israeli records two comical translations +from English into French. ``Ainsi +douleur, va-t'en ``for _woe begone_ is almost +too good; and the man who mistook the +expression ``the officer was broke'' as +meaning broke on a wheel and translated +it by _rou<e'>_ made a very serious matter of +what was possibly but a small fault. + +In the translation of _The Conscript_ by +Erckmann-Chatrian, the old botcher is +turned into the old butcher. + +Sometimes in attempting to correct a +supposed blunder of another we fall into +<p 57>a very real one of our own. Thus a few +years ago, before we knew so much about +folk-lore as we do now, we should very +probably have pointed out that Cinderella's +glass slipper owed its existence to a +misprint. Fur was formerly so rare and so +highly prized that its use was restricted +by sumptuary laws to kings, princes, and +persons holding honourable offices. In +these laws sable is called vair, and it has +been asserted that Perrault marked the +dignity conferred upon Cinderella by the +fairy's gift of a slipper of vair, a privilege +confined to the highest rank of princesses. +It is further stated that by an error of the +printer _vair_ was changed into _verre_. Now, +however, we find in the various versions +which have been collected of this favourite +tale that, however much the incidents may +differ, the slipper is almost invariably made +of some rigid material, and in the earliest +forms the unkind sisters cut their feet to +make them fit the slipper. This unpleasant +incident was omitted by Perrault, but he +kept the rigid material and made the glass +slipper famous. + +The Revisers of the Old Testament +<p 58>translation have shown us that the famous +verse in Job, ``Oh that mine adversary +had written a book,'' is wrong; but it +will never drop out of our language +and literature. The Revised Version is +certainly much more in accordance with +our ideas of the time when the book was +written, a period when authors could not +have been very common:-- + + ``Oh that I had one to hear me! + (Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me;) + And that I had the indictment which mine adversary hath written! + Surely I would carry it upon my shoulder; + I would bind it unto me as a crown.'' + + +Silk Buckingham drew attention to the +fact that some translations of the Bible +had been undertaken by persons ignorant +of the idioms of the language into which +they were translating, and he gave an +instance from an Arabic translation where +the text ``Judge not, that ye be not +judged'' was rendered ``Be not just to +others, lest others should be just to +you.'' + +The French have tried ingeniously to +<p 59>explain the difficulty contained in _St. +Matthew_ xix. 24, ``It is easier for a camel +to go through the eye of a needle than +for a rich man to enter into the kingdom +of God,'' by affirming that the translators +mistook the supposed word <gr k<a'>milos>, a rope, +for <gr k<a'>mhlos>, a camel. + +The humours of translation are numerous, +but perhaps the most eccentric +example is to be found in Stanyhurst's +rendering of _Virgil_, published in 1583. +It is full of cant words, and reads like +the work of a madman. This is a fair +specimen of the work:-- + + ``Theese thre were upbotching, not shapte, but partlye wel onward, + A clapping fierbolt (such as oft, with rownce robel-hobble, + Jove to the ground clattreth) but yeet not finished holye.'' + + +M. Guyot, translating some Latin epigrams +under the title of _Fleurs, Morales, et +<E'>pigrammatiques_, uses the singular forms +Monsieur Zo<i:>le and Mademoiselle Lycoris. +The same author, when translating the +letters of Cicero (1666), turns Pomponius +into M. de Pomponne. +<p 60> + +Pitt's friend, Pepper Arden, Master of +the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice of the +Common Pleas and Lord Alvanley, was +rather hot-tempered, and his name was +considered somewhat appropriate, but to +make it still more so his friends translated +it into ``Mons. Poivre Ardent.'' + +This reminds one of the Frenchman who +toasted Dr. Johnson, not as Mr. Rambler, +but as Mr. Vagabond. + +Tom Moore notices some amusing mis- +translations in his _Diary_. Major +Cartwright, who was called the Father of +Reform (although a wit suggested that +Mother of Reform would have been a +more appropriate title), supposed that +the _Brevia Parliamentaria_ of Prynne +stood for ``short parliaments.'' Lord +Lansdowne told Moore that he was with +Lord Holland when the letter containing +this precious bit of erudition arrived. +Another story of Lord Lansdowne's is +equally good. His French servant +announced Dr. Mansell, the Master of +Trinity, when he called, as ``Ma<i^>tre des +C<e'>r<e'>monies de la Trinit<e'>.'' + +Moore also relates that an account +<p 61>having appeared in the London papers +of a row at the Stock Exchange, where +some strangers were hustled, it appeared +in the Paris papers in this form: ``Mons. +Stock Exchange <e'>tait <e'>chauff<e'>,'' etc. + +There is something to be said in favour +of the humorous translation of _Magna est +veritas et prevalabit_--``Great is truth, +it will prevail a bit,'' for it is probably +truer than the original. He who construed +C<ae>sar's mode of passing into Gaul +_summa diligentia_, ``on the top of the +diligence,'' must have been of an imaginative +turn of mind. Probably the time will +soon come when this will need explanation, +for a public will arise which knows +not the dilatory ``diligence.'' + +The translator of _Inter Calicem +supremaque labra_ as Betwixt Dover and +Calais gave as his reason that Dover was +_Angli<ae> suprema labra_. + +Although not a blunder nor apparently +a joke, we may conclude this chapter with +a reference to Shakespeare's remarkable +translation of _Finis Coronat opus_. Helena +remarks in _All's well that Ends well_ (act +iv., sc. 4):-- +<p 62> +``All's well that ends well: still _the fine's the crown_.'' + + +In the _Second Part of King Henry VI_. +(act v., sc. 2) old Lord Clifford, just before +he dies, is made to use the French translation +of the proverb:-- + + ``La fin couronne les <oe>uvres.'' + +In the first Folio we read:-- + + ``La fin corrone les eumenes.'' + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +BIBLIOGRAPEIICAL BLUNDERS. + +THERE is no class that requires +to be dealt with more leniently +than do bibliographers, for pitfalls +are before and behind them. It is +impossible for any one man to see all the +books he describes in a general bibliography; +and, in consequence of the necessity +of trusting to second-hand information, +he is often led imperceptibly into gross +error. Watt's _Bibliotheca Britannica_ is a +most useful and valuable work, but, as +may be expected from so comprehensive +a compilation, many mistakes have crept +into it: for instance, under the head of +Philip Beroaldus, we find the following +title of a work: ``A short view of the +Persian Monarchy, published at the end +of Daniel's Works.'' The mystery of the +last part of the title is cleared up when we +<p 64>find that it should properly be read, ``_and +of Daniel's Weekes_,'' it being a work on +prophecy. The librarian of the old +Marylebone Institution, knowing as little of +Latin as the monk did of Hebrew when +he described a book as having the beginning +where the end should be, catalogued +an edition of <AE>sop's Fables as ``<AE>sopiarum's +Ph<oe>dri Fabulorum.'' + +Two blunders that a bibliographer is +very apt to fall into are the rolling of +different authors of the same name into +one, and the creation of an author who +never existed. The first kind we may +illustrate by mentioning the dismay of the +worthy Bishop Jebb, when he found himself +identified in Watt's _Bibliotheca_ with +his uncle, the Unitarian writer. Of the +second kind we might point out the +names of men whose lives have been +written and yet who never existed. In +the _Zoological Biography_ of Agassiz, +published by the Ray Society, there is an +imaginary author, by name J. K. Broch, +whose work, _Entomologische Briefe_, was +published in 1823. This pamphlet is +really anonymous, and was written by +<p 65>one who signed himself J. K. Broch, is +merely an explanation in the catalogue +from which the entry was taken that it +was a _brochure_. Moreri created an author, +whom he styled Dorus Basilicus, out of +the title of James I.'s <gr D<w^>ron basilik<o'>n>, +and Bishop Walton supposed the title of +the great Arabic Dictionary, the _Kamoos_ +or Ocean, to be the name of an author +whom he quotes as ``Camus.'' In the +article on Stenography in Rees's Cyclop<ae>dia +there are two most amusing blunders. +John Nicolai published a _Treatise on the +Signs of the Ancients_ at the beginning of +the last century, and the writer of the +article, having seen it stated that a certain +fact was to be found in Nicolai, jumped +to the conclusion that it was the name of +a place, and wrote, ``It was at Nicolai +that this method of writing was first +introduced to the Greeks by Xenophon +himself.'' Tn another part of the same +article the oldest method of shorthand +extant, entitled ``Ars Scribendi Characteris,'' +is said to have been printed about +the year 1412--that is, long before printing +was invented. In the _Biographie Univer<p 66>selle_ +there is a life of one Nicholas Donis, +by Baron Walckenaer, which is a blundering +alteration of the real name of a +Benedictine monk called Dominus Nicholas. +This, however, is not the only time that +a title has been taken for a name. An +eminent bookseller is said to have +received a letter signed George Winton, +proposing a life of Pitt; but, as he did not +know the name, he paid no attention to +the letter, and was much astonished when +he was afterwards told that his +correspondent was no less a person than +George Pretyman Tomline, Bishop of +Winchester. This is akin to the mistake +of the Scotch doctor attending on the +Princess Charlotte during her illness, who +said that ``ane Jean Saroom'' had been +continually calling, but, not knowing the +fellow, he had taken no notice of him. +Thus the Bishop of Salisbury was sent +away by one totally ignorant of his +dignity. A similar blunder was made by a +bibliographer, for in Hotten's _Handbook +to the Topography and Family History of +England and Wales_ will be found an entry +of an ``Assize Sermon by Bishop Wigorn, +<p 67>in the Cathedral at Worcester, 1690.'' +This was really Bishop Stillingfleet. There +is a reverse case of a catalogue made by +a worthy bookseller of the name of William +London, which was long supposed to be +the work of Dr. William Juxon, the Bishop +of London at the time of publication. +The entry in the _Biographie Moderne_ of +``Brigham _le jeune_ ou Brigham Young'' +furnishes a fine instance of a writer +succumbing to the ever-present temptation +to be too clever by half. A somewhat +similar blunder is that of the late Mr. +Dircks. The first reprint of the Marquis +of Worcester's _Century of Inventions_ was +issued by Thomas Payne, the highly +respected bookseller of the Mews Gate, in +1746; but in _Worcesteriana_ (1866) Mr. +Dircks positively asserts that the notorious +Tom Paine was the publisher of it, thus +ignoring the different spelling of the two +names. + +In a French book on the invention of +printing, the sentence ``Le berceau de +l'imprimerie'' was misread by a German, +who turned Le Berceau into a man{.??} +D'Israeli tells us that _Mantissa_, the title +<p 68>of the Appendix to Johnstone's _History +of Plants_, was taken for the name of an +author by D'Aquin, the French king's +physician. The author of the _Curiosities +of Literature_ also relates that an Italian +misread the description _Enrichi de deux +listes_ on the title-page of a French book +of travels, and, taking it for the author's +name, alluded to the opinions of +Mons. Enrichi De Deux Listes; but +really this seems almost too good to be +true. + +If we searched bibliographical literature +we should find a fair crop of authors who +never existed; for when once a blunder +of this kind is set going, it seems to bear +a charmed life. Mr. Daydon Jackson +mentions some amusing instances of +imaginary authors made out of title-pages +in his _Guide to the Literature of Botany_. +An anonymous work of A. Massalongo, +entitled _Graduale Passagio delle Crittogame +alle Fanerogame_ (1876), has been entered +in a German bibliography as written by +G. Passagio. In an English list Kelaart's +_Flora Calpensis: Reminiscences of Gibraltar_ +(1846) appears as the work of a lady-- +<p 69>Christian name, Flora; _surname_, Calpensis. +In 1837 a _Botanical-Lexicon_ was published +by an author who described himself as +``The Rev. Patrick Keith, Clerk, F.L.S.'' +This somewhat pedantic form deceived a +foreign cataloguer, who took Clerk for the +surname, and contracted ``Patrick Keith'' +into the initials P.K. More inexcusable +was the blunder of an American who, in +describing J. E. H. Gordon's work on +_Electricity_, changed the author's degree +into the initials of a collaborator, one +Cantab. The joint authors were stated +to be J. E. H. Gordon and B. A. Cantab. + +A very amusing, but a quite excusable +error, was made by Allibone in his +_Dictionary of English Literature_, under +the heading of Isaac D'Israeli. He +notices new editions of that author's +works revised by the Right Hon. the +Chancellor of the Exchequer, of course +Isaac's son Benjamin, afterwards Prime +Minister and Earl of Beaconsfield; but +unfortunately there were two Chancellors +in 1858, and Allibone chooses the wrong +one, printing, as useful information to the +reader, that the reviser was Sir George +<p 70>Cornewall Lewis. An instance of the +danger of inconsiderate explanation will +be found in a little book by a German +lady, Fanny Lewald, entitled _England +and Schottland_. The authoress, when in +London, visited the theatre in order to +see a play founded on Cooper's novel +_The Wept of Wish-ton Wish_; and being +unable to understand the title, she calls +it the ``Will of the Whiston Wisp,'' which +she tells us means an _ignis fatuus_. + +A writer in a German paper was led +into an amusing blunder by an English +review a few years ago. The reviewer, +having occasion to draw a distinction +between George and Robert Cruikshank, +spoke of the former as the real Simon +Pure. The German, not understanding +the allusion, gravely told his readers that +George Cruikshank was a pseudonym, +the author's real name being Simon Pure. +This seems almost too good to be equalled, +but a countryman of our own has blundered +nearly as grossly. William Taylor, +in his _Historic Survey of German Poetry_ +(1830), prints the following absurd +statement: ``Godfred of Berlichingen is one +<p 71>of the earliest imitations of the Shakspeare +tragedy which the German school has +produced. It was admirably translated into +English in 1799 at Edinburg by _William_ +Scott, advocate, no doubt the same person +who, under the poetical but assumed name +of _Walter_, has since become the most +extensively popular of the British writers.'' +The cause of this mistake we cannot explain, +but the reason for it is to be found +in the fact which has lately been announced +that a few copies of the translation, with +the misprint of William for Walter in the +title, were issued before the error was +discovered. + +Jacob Boehm, the theosophist, wrote +some Reflections on a theological treatise +by one Isaiah Stiefel,[6] the title of which +puzzled one of his modern French +biographers. The word Stiefel in German +means a boot, and the Frenchman therefore +gave the title of Boehm's tract as +``Reflexions sur les Bottes d'Isaie.'' + + + +[6] ``Bedencken <u:>ber Esai<ae> Stiefels Buchlein: +von dreyerley Zustandt des Menschen unnd dessen +newen Geburt.'' 1639. + + + +It is scarcely fair to make capital out +<p 72>of the blunders of booksellers' catalogues, +which are often printed in a great hurry, +and cannot possibly possess the advantage +of correction which a book does. But +one or two examples may be given without +any censure being intended on the +booksellers. + +In a French catalogue the works of +the famous philosopher Robert Boyle +appeared under the following singular +French form: BOY (le), Chymista scepticus +vel dubia et paradoxa chymico-physica, &c. + +``Mr. Tul. Cicero's Epistles'' looks +strange, but the mistake is but small. +The very natural blunder respecting the +title of Shelley's _Prometheus Unbound_ +actually did occur; and, what is more, it +was expected by Theodore Hook. This is +an accurate copy of the description in the +catalogue of a year or two back:-- + +``Shelley's Prometheus _Unbound_. + +---- another copy, _in whole calf_.'' +and these are Hook's lines:-- + + ``Shelley styles his new poem `Prometheus Unbound,' + And 'tis like to remain so while time circles round; + <p 73>For surely an age would be spent in the finding + A reader so weak as _to pay for the binding_.'' + + +When books are classified in a catalogue +the compiler must be peculiarly on his +guard if he has the titles only and not +the books before him. Sometimes instances +of incorrect classification show +gross ignorance, as in the instance quoted +in the _Athen<ae>um_ lately. Here we have +a crop of blunders: ``_Title_, Commentarii +De Bello Gallico in usum Scholarum +Liber Tirbius. _Author_, Mr. C. J. +Caesoris. _Subject_, Religion.'' Still better +is the auctioneer's entry of P. V. Maroni's +_The Opera_. Authors, however, are usually +so fond of fanciful ear-catching titles, that +every excuse must be made for the cataloguer, +who mistakes their meaning, and +takes them in their literal signification. +Who can reprove too severely the classifier +who placed Swinburne's _Under the +Microscope_ in his class of _Optical +Instruments_, or treated Ruskin's _Notes on the +Construction of Sheetfolds_ as a work on +agricultural appliances? A late instance +of an amusing misclassification is reported +from Germany. In the _Orientalische +<p 74>Bibliographie_, Mr. Rider Haggard's +wonderful story _King Solomon's Mines_ is +entered as a contribution to +``Alttestamentliche Litteratur.'' + +The elaborate work by Careme, _Le +Patissier Pittoresque_ (1842), which +contains designs for confectioners, deceived +the bookseller from its plates of pavilions, +temples, etc., into supposing it to be a +book on architecture, and he accordingly +placed it under that heading in his +catalogue. + +Mr. Daydon Jackson gives several +instances of false classification in his _Guide +to the Literature of Botany_, and remarks +that some authors contrive titles seemingly +of set purpose to entrap the unwary. He +instances a fine example in the case of +Bishop Alexander Ewing's _Feamainn +Earraghaidhiell: Argyllshire Seaweeds_ +(Glasgow, 1872. 8vo). To enhance the +delusion, the coloured wrapper is +ornamented with some of the common marine +alg<ae>, but the inside of the volume +consists solely of pastoral addresses. Another +example will be found in _Flowers from +the South, from the Hortus Siccus of an +<p 75>Old Collector_. By W. H. Hyett, F.R.S. +Instead of a popular work on the +Mediterranean flora by a scientific man, as +might reasonably be expected, this is a +volume of translations from the Italian +and Latin poets. It is scarcely fair to +blame the compiler of the _Bibliotheca +Historio-Naturalis_ for having ranked +both these works among scientific treatises. +The English cataloguer who treated as a +botanical book Dr. Garnett's selection +from Coventry Patmore's poems, entitled +_Florilegium Amantis_, could claim less +excuse for his blunder than the German +had. These misleading titles are no new +invention, and the great bibliographer +Haller was deceived into including the +title of James Howell's _Dendrologia, or +Dodona's Grove_ (1640), in his _Bibliotheca +Botanica_. Professor Otis H. Robinson +contributed a very interesting paper on the +``Titles of Books'' to the _Special Report +on Public Libraries in the United States of +America_ (1876), in which he deals very +fully with this difficulty of misleading titles, +and some of his preliminary remarks are +very much to the point. He writes:-- +<p 76> + +``No act of a man's life requires +more practical common sense than the +naming of his book. If he would make +a grocer's sign or an invoice of a cellar +of goods or a city directory, he uses no +metaphors; his pen does not hesitate for +the plainest word. He must make himself +understood by common men. But +if he makes a book the case is different. +It must have the charm of a pleasing +title. If there is nothing new within, the +back at least must be novel and taking. +He tortures his imagination for something +which will predispose the reader in its +favour. Mr. Parker writes a series of +biographical sketches, and calls it _Morning +Stars of the New World_. Somebody prepares +seven religious essays, binds them +up in a book, and calls it _Seven Stormy +Sundays_. Mr. H. T. Tuckerman makes +a book of essays on various subjects, and +calls it _The Optimist_; and then devotes +several pages of preface to an argument, +lexicon in hand, proving that the +applicability of the term optimist is `obvious.' +An editor, at intervals of leisure, indulges +his true poetic taste for the pleasure of his +<p 77>friends, or the entertainment of an +occasional audience. Then his book appears, +entitled not _Miscellaneous Poems_, but +_Asleep in the Sanctum_, by A. A. Hopkins. +Sometimes, not satisfied with one enigma, +another is added. Here we have _The +Great Iron Wheel; or, Republicanism +Backwards and Christianity Reversed_, by J. R. +Graves. These titles are neither new nor +scarce, nor limited to any particular class +of books. Every case, almost every shelf, +in every library contain such. They are as +old as the art of book-making. David's +lamentation over Saul and Jonathan was +called _The Bow_. A single word in the +poem probably suggested the name. Three +of the orations of <AE>schines were styled _The +Graces_, and his letters _The Muses_.'' + +The list of bibliographical blunders +might be indefinitely extended, but the +subject is somewhat technical, and the +above few instances will give a sufficient +indication of the pitfalls which lie in the +way of the bibliographer--a worker who +needs universal knowledge if he is to +wend his way safely through the snares +in his path. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +LISTS OF ERRATA. + +THE errata of the early printed +books are not numerous, and +this fact is easily accounted for +when we recollect that these books were +superintended in their passage through +the press by scholars such as the Alduses, +Andreas, Bishop of Aleria, Campanus +Perottus, the Stephenses, and others. +It is said that the first book with a printed +errata is the edition of _Juvenal_, with notes +of Merula, printed by Gabriel Pierre, at +Venice, in 1478; previously the mistakes +had been corrected by the pen. One of +the longest lists of errata on record, which +occupies fifteen folio pages, is in the +edition of the works of Picus of Mirandula, +printed by Knoblauch, at Strasburg, +in 1507. A worse case of blundering will +be found in a little book of only one +<p 79>hundred and seventy-two pages, entitled +_Miss<ae> ac Missalis Anatomia_, 1561, +which contains fifteen pages of errata. +The author, feeling that such a gross case +of blundering required some excuse or +explanation, accounted for the misprints +by asserting that the devil drenched +the manuscript in the kennel, making it +almost illegible, and then obliged the +printer to misread it. We may be allowed +to believe that the fiend who did all the +mischief was the printer's ``devil.'' + +Cardinal Bellarmin tried hard to get +his works printed correctly, but without +success, and in 1608 he was forced to +publish at Ingolstadt a volume entitled +_Recognitio librorum omnium Roberti +Belarmini_, in which he printed eighty-eight +pages of errata of his Controversies. + +Edward Leigh, in his thin folio volume +entitled _On Religion and Learning_, 1656, +was forced to add two closely printed +leaves of errata. + +Sometimes apparent blunders have been +intentionally made; thus, to escape the +decree of the Inquisition that the words +fatum and fata should not be used in +<p 80>any work, a certain author printed _facta_ +in his book, and added in the errata ``_for_ +facta _read_ fata.'' + +In dealing with our own older literature +we find a considerable difference in degree +of typographical correctness; thus the old +plays of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries are often marvels of inaccuracy, +and while books of the same date are +usually supplied with tables of errata, +plays were issued without any such helps +to correction. This to some extent is to +be accounted for by the fact that many of +these plays were surreptitious publications, +or, at all events, printed in a hurry, without +care. The late Mr. Halliwell Phillipps, in +his curious privately printed volume (_A +Dictionary of Misprints_, 1887), writes: +``Such tests were really a thousandfold +more necessary in editions of plays, but +they are practically non-existent in the +latter, the brief one which is prefixed +to Dekker's _Satiro-Mastix_, 1602, being +nearly the only example that is to be +found in any that appeared during the +literary career of the great dramatist.'' + +In other branches of literature it is +<p 81>evident that some care was taken to escape +misprints, either by the correction of the +printer's reader or of the author. Some +of the excuses made for misprints in our +old books are very amusing. In a little +English book of twenty-six leaves printed +at Douay in 1582, and entitled _A true +reporte of the death and martyrdome of +M. Campion Jesuite and Preiste, and M. +Sherwin and M. Bryan Preistes, at Tiborne +the first of December_ 1581, is this notice +at the end:-- + +``Good reader, pardon all faultes escaped +in the printing and beare with the +woorkmanship of a strainger.'' + +Many of Nicholas Breton's tracts were +issued surreptitiously, and he protested +that many pieces which he had never +written were falsely ascribed to him. _The +Bower of Delights_ was published without +the author's sanction, and the printer +(or publisher) Richard Jones made the +following address ``to the Gentlemen +Readers'' on the blunders which had +been made in the book:-- + +``Pardon mee (good Gentlemen) of my +presumption, & protect me, I pray you,<p 82> +against those Cavellers and findfaults, that +never like of any thing that they see +printed, though it be never so well +compiled. And where you happen to find +fault, impute it to bee committed by the +Printers negligence, then (otherwise) by +any ignorance in the author: and +especially in A 3, about the middest of +the page, for LIME OR LEAD I pray you +read LINE OR LEAD. So shall your poore +Printer haue just cause hereafter to be +more carefull, and acknowledge himselfe +most bounden (at all times) to do your +service to the utmost of his power. + ``Yours R. J., PRINTER.'' + + +A little scientific book, entitled _The +Making and use of the Geometricall Instrument +called a Sector . . . by Thomas Hood_, +1598, has a list of errata headed _Faultes +escaped_, with this note of the author +or printer:-- + +``Gentle reader, I pray you excuse +these faults, because I finde by experience, +that it is an harder matter to +print these mathematicall books trew, +then bookes of other discourse.'' +<p 83> + +Arthur Hopton's _Baculum Geod<ae>ticum +sive Viaticum or the Geodeticall Staffe_ +(1610), contains the following quaint lines +at the head of the list of errata:-- + + ``The Printer to the Reader. + ``For errours past or faults that scaped be, + Let this collection give content to thee: + A worke of art, the grounds to us unknowne, + May cause us erre, thoughe all our skill be showne. + When points and letters, doe containe the sence, + The wise may halt, yet doe no great offence. + Then pardon here, such faults that do befall, + The next edition makes amends for all.'' + + +Thomas Heywood, the voluminous dramatist, +added to his _Apology for Actors_ +(1612) an interesting address to the +printer of his tract, which, besides drawing +attention to the printer's dislike of his +errors being called attention to in a table +of errata, is singularly valuable for its +reference to Shakespeare's annoyance at +Jaggard's treatment of him by attributing +to his pen Heywood's poems from _Great +Britain's Troy_. + + ``To my approved good Friend, + ``MR. NICHOLAS OKES. + ``The infinite faults escaped in my<p 84> +booke of _Britaines Troy_ by the negligence +of the printer, as the misquotations, +mistaking the sillables, misplacing halfe lines, +coining of strange and never heard of +words, these being without number, when +I would have taken a particular account +of the _errata_, the printer answered me, hee +would not publish his owne disworkemanship, +but rather let his owne fault lye +upon the necke of the author. And being +fearefull that others of his quality had +beene of the same nature and condition, +and finding you, on the contrary, so +carefull and industrious, so serious and +laborious to doe the author all the rights +of the presse, I could not choose but +gratulate your honest indeavours with +this short remembrance. Here, likewise, +I must necessarily insert a manifest injury +done me in that worke, by taking the +two epistles of Paris to Helen, and Helen +to Paris, and printing them in a lesse +volume under the name of another, which +may put the world in opinion I might +steale them from him, and hee, to doe +himselfe right, hath since published them +in his owne name; but as I must +ac<p 85>knowledge my lines not worthy his +patronage under whom he hath publisht +them, so the author, I know, much offended +with M. Jaggard (that altogether unknowne +to him) presumed to make so bold with +his name. These and the like dishonesties +I knowe you to bee cleere of; and I could +wish but to bee the happy author of so +worthy a worke as I could willingly commit +to your care and workmanship. + ``Yours ever, THOMAS HEYWOOD.'' + + +In the eighteenth century printers and +authors had become hardened in their +sins, and seldom made excuses for the +errors of the press, but in the seventeenth +century explanations were frequent. + +Silvanus Morgan, in his _Horologiographia +Optica. Dialling Universall and +Particular, Speculative and Practicall, +London_ 1652, comes before his readers +with these remarks on the errata:-- + + +``Reader I having writ this some years +since, while I was a childe in Art, and by +this appear to be little more, for want of +a review hath these faults, which I desire +thee to mend with thy pen, and if there +<p 86>be any errour in art, as in chap. 17 +which is only true at the time of the +Equinoctiall, take that for an oversight, +and where thou findest equilibra read +equilibrio, and in the dedication (in some +copies) read Robert Bateman for Thomas, +and side for signe and know that _Optima +prima cadunt, pessimus <ae>ve manent_.'' + +The list of errata in Joseph Glanvill's +_Essays on several important subjects in +Philosophy and Religion_ (1676) is prefixed +by this note:-- + +``The Reader is desired to take notice +of the following Errours of the Press, some +of which are so near in sound, to the +words of the author, that they may easily +be mistaken for his.'' + +The next two books to be mentioned +were published in the same year--1679. +The noble author referred to in the first is +that Roger Palmer who had the dishonour +of being the husband of Charles II.'s +notorious mistress, the Countess of +Castlemaine. Fortunately for the Earl she no +longer bore his name, as she was created +Duchess of Cleveland in 1670. Professor +De Morgan was inclined to doubt Lord +<p 87>Castlemaine's authorship, but the following +remarks by Joseph Moxon seem to prove +that the peer did produce a rough draft of +some kind:-- + +``Postscript concerning the Erratas and +the Geographical part of this Globe,'' +prefixed to _The English Globe_ . . . by +the Earl of Castlemaine:-- + +``The Erratas of the Press being many, +I shall not set them down in a distinct +Catalogue as usually, least the sight of them +should more displease, than the particulars +advantage, especially since they are not so +material or intricate, but that any man may +(I hope) easily mend them in the reading. +I confess I have bin in a manner the occasion +of them, by taking from the noble +author a very foul copy, when he desir'd +me to stay till a fair one were written over, +so that truly 'tis no wonder, if workmen +should in these cases not only sometimes +leave out, but adde also, by taking one line +for another, or not observing with exactness +what words have bin wholly obliterated +or dasht out.'' + +John Playford, the music publisher +and author, makes some remarks on the +<p 88>subject of misprints in the preface to +his _Vade Mecum, or the Necessary Companion_ +(1679), which are worth quotation +here:-- + +``My profession obliging me to be +conversant with mathematical Books (the +printing whereof and musick, has been +my chiefest employment), I have observ'd +two things many times the cause why +Books of this nature appear abroad not +so correct as they should be; either 1 +Because they are too much hastened from +the Press, and not time enough allowed +for the strict and deliberate examination +of them; which in all books ought to be +done, especially in these, for as much as +one false figure in a Mathematical book, +may prove a greater fault than a whole +word mistake in books of another kind. +Or, 2 Because Persons take Tables upon +trust without trying them, and with them +transcribe their errors, if not increase +them. Both these I have carefully avoided, +so that I have reason to believe (and think +I may say it without vanity) there never +was Tables more exactly printed than in +this Book, especially those for money and +<p 89>annuities, for not trusting to my first +calculation of them, I new calculated every +Table when it was in print, by the first +printed sheet, and when I had so done +I strictly compared it with my first calculation.'' + +De Morgan registers the nineteenth +edition of this book, dated 1756, in his +_Arithmetical Books_, and he did not apparently +know that it was originally published +so early as 1679. + +In Morton's _Natural History of +Northamptonshire_ (1712), is a list headed ``Some +Errata of the press to be corrected''; and +at the end of the list is the following +amusing note: ``There is no cut of the +Hen of the lesser Py'd Brambling in Tab. +13 tho' 'tis referred to in p. 423 which +omission was owing to an accident and is +really not very material, the hen of that +bird differing but little from the cock +which is represented in that Table under +fig. 3.'' + +There is a very prevalent notion that +authors did not correct the proofs of their +books in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, but there is sufficient evidence +<p 90>that this is altogether a mistake. Professor +De Morgan, with his usual sagacity, alludes +to this point in his _Arithmetical Books_ +(1847): ``A great many circumstances induce +me to think that the general fashion +of correcting the press by the author came +in with the seventeenth century or +thereabouts.'' And he instances this note on +the title-page of Richard Witt's _Arithmetical +Questions_ (1613): ``Examined also +and corrected at the Presse by the author +himselfe.'' + +The late Dr. Brinsley Nicholson raised +this question in _Notes and Queries_ in 1889, +and by his research it is possible to +antedate the practice by nearly forty years. +For several of the following quotations I +am indebted to that invaluable periodical. +In Scot's _Hop-Garden_ (1574) we find the +following excuse:-- + +``Forasmuch as M. Scot could not +be present at the printing of this his +booke, whereby I might have used his +advice in the correction of the same, and +especiallie of the Figures and Portratures +conteyned therein, whereof he +delivered unto me such notes as I +<p 91>being unskilfull in the matter could +not so thoroughly conceyve, nor so +perfectly expresse as . . . the authour +or you.'' + +In _The Droomme of Doomes Day_. By +George Gascoigne (1576) is:-- + + +``An Aduertisement of the Prynter to the Reader. + + +``Understand (gentle Reader) that whiles +this worke was in the presse it pleased +God to visit the translatour thereof with +sicknesse. So that being unable himselfe +to attend the dayly proofes, he apoynted +a seruaunt of his to ouersee the same. +Who being not so well acquainted with +the matter as his maister was, there haue +passed some faultes much contrary unto +both our meanings and desires. The which +I have therefore collected into this Table. +Desiring every Reader that wyll vouchsafe +to peruse this booke, that he will firste +correct those faultes and then judge accordingly.'' + +A particularly interesting note on this +point precedes the list of errata in Stanyhurst's +Translation of Virgil's _<AE>neid_ (1582), +<p 92>which was printed at Leyden. Mr. F. C. +Birkbeck Terry, who pointed this out in +_Notes and Queries_, quoted from Arber's +reprint, p. 157:-- + +``John Pates Printer to thee Corteous +Reader, I am too craue thy pacience and +paynes (good reader) in bearing wyth such +faultes as haue escapte in printing: and +in correcting as wel such as are layd downe +heere too thy view, as all oother whereat +thou shalt hap too stumble in perusing +this treatise. Thee nooueltye of imprinting +English in theese partes and thee absence +of the author from perusing soome proofes +could not choose but breede errours.'' + +Certainly Scot, Gascoigne, and Stanyhurst +did not correct the proofs, but it +would not have been necessary to make +an excuse if the practice was not a pretty +general one among authors. + +Bishop Babington's _Exposition of the +Lord's Prayer_ (1588) contains an excuse +for the author's inability to correct the +press:-- + +``If thou findest any other faultes either +in words or distinctions troubling a perfect +sence (Gentle Reader) helpe them by thine +<p 93>owne judgement and excuse the presse by +the Authors absence, who best was acquainted +to reade his owne hande.'' + +In the Bobleian Library is preserved +the printer's copy of Book V. of Hooker's +_Ecclesiastical Polity_ (1597), with Whitgift's +signature and corrections in Hooker's +handwriting. On one of the pages is the +following note by the printer:-- + +``Good Mr. Hooker, I pray you be so +good as to send us the next leaf that +followeth this, for I know not by what +mischance this of ours is lost, which +standeth uppon the finishing of the +book.''[7] + + + [7] _Notes and Queries_, 7th Series, viii. 73. + + + +Another proof of the general practice +will be found in N. Breton's _The Wit of +Wit_ (1599):-- + +``What faultes are escaped in the printing, +finde by discretion, and excuse the +Author by other worke that let him from +attendance to the Presse; non h<a!> che non +s<a!>. N. B. Gent.'' + +At the end of Nash's dedication ``To +his Readers,'' _Lenten Stuffe_ (1599), is this +<p 94>interesting statement: ``Apply it for me +for I am called away to correct the faults +of the press, that escaped in my absence +from the printing house.'' + +Richard Brathwaite, when publishing +his _Strappado for the Divell_ (1615), made +an excuse for not having seen all the +proofs. The whole note is well worthy +of reproduction:-- + + ``Upon the Errata. + + +``Gentlemen (_humanum est errare_), to +confirme which position, this my booke +(as many other are) hath his share of +errors; so as I run _ad pr<ae>lum tanquam +ad pr<ae>lium, in typos quasi in scippos_; but +my comfort is if I be strappadoed by the +multiplicite of my errors, it is but +answerable to my title: so as I may seem to +diuine by my style, what I was to indure +by the presse. Yet know judicious disposed +gentlemen, that the intricacie of the +copie, and the absence of the author from +many important proofes were occasion of +these errors, which defects (if they bee +supplied by your generous convenience +and curtuous disposition) I doe vowe to +<p 95>satisfie your affectionate care with a +more serious surueigh in my next +impression. . . . For other errors as the +misplacing of commaes, colons, and +periods (which as they are in euerie +page obvious, so many times they invert +the sence), I referre to your discretion +(judicious gentle-men) whose lenity may +sooner supply them, then all my industry +can portray them.'' + +In _The Mastive, or Young Whelpe of +the Olde Dogge, Epigrams and Satyres +_(1615), an anonymous work of Henry +Peacham, we read:-- + +``The faultes escaped in the Printing +(or any other omission) are to be excused +by reason of the authors absence from the +Presse, who thereto should have given +more due instructions.'' + +Dr. Brinsley Nicholson brought forward +two very interesting passages on the +correcting of proofs from old plays. The +first, which looks very like an allusion to +the custom, is from the 1601 edition of +Ben Jonson's _Every Man in his Humour_ +(act. ii., sc. 3), where Lorenzo, junior, +says, ``My father had the proving of your +<p 96>copy, some houre before I saw it.'' The +second is from Fletcher's _The Nice Valour_ +(1624 or 1625), act. iv., sc. 1. Lapet +says to his servant (the clown Goloshio), +``So bring me the last proof, this is +corrected''; and Goloshio having gone +and returned, the following ensues:-- + + _Lap_. What says my Printer now? + _Clown_. Here's your last Proof, Sir. + You shall have perfect Books now in a twinkling.[8] + + + [8]2 _Notes and Queries_, 7th Series, viii. 253. + + + +The following address, which contains +a curious excuse of Dr. Daniel Featley for +not having corrected the proofs of his +book _The Romish Fisher Caught in his own +Net_ (1624), is very much to the point:-- + +``I entreat the courteous reader to +understand that the greater part of the +book was printed in the time of the great +frost; when by reason that the Thames +was shut up, I could not conveniently +procure the proofs to be brought unto +mee, before they were wrought off; whereupon +it fell out that many very grosse +escapes passed the press, and (which was +<p 97>the worst fault of all) the third part is left +unpaged.'' + +As a later example we may cite from +Sir Peter Leycester's _Historical Antiquities_ +(1673), where we find this note: ``Reader, +By reason of the author's absence, several +faults have escaped the press: those which +are the most material thou art desir'd to +amend, and to pardon them all.'' + +Printed mistakes are usually considered +by the sufferers matters of somewhat +serious importance; and we picture to +ourselves an author stalking up and down +his room and tearing his hair when +he first discovers them; but Benserade, +the French poet, was able to make a joke +of the subject. This is the _rondeau_ which +he placed at the end of his version of _Les +Metamorphoses d'Ovide_:-- + + ``Pour moi, parmi des fautes innombrables, + Je n'en connais que deux consid<e'>rables, + Et dont je fais ma d<e'>claration, + C'est l'entreprise et l'ex<e'>cution; + A mon avis fautes irr<e'>parables + Dans ce volume.'' + + +According to the _Scaligerana_, Cardan's +treatise _De Subtilitate_, printed by Vascosan +<p 98>in 1557, does not contain a single +misprint; but, on the whole, it may be very +seriously doubted whether an immaculate +edition of any work ever issued from the +press. The story is well known of the +serious attempt made by the celebrated +Glasgow printers Foulis to free their edition +of _Horace_ from any chance of error. They +caused the proof-sheets after revision to +be hung up at the gate of the University, +with the offer of a reward to any one who +discovered a misprint. In spite of all this +care there are, according to Dibdin, six +uncorrected errors in this edition. + +According to Isaac Disraeli, the goal +of freedom from blunders was nearly +reached by Dom Joze Souza, with the +assistance of Didot in 1817, when he +published his magnificent edition of _As +Lusiadas_ of Camoens. However, an +uncorrected error was discovered in some +copies, occasioned by the misplacing of +one of the letters in the word _Lusitano_. +A like case occurred a few years ago at an +eminent London printer's. A certain book +was about to be printed, and instructions +were issued that special care was to be +<p 99>taken with the printing. It was read over +by the chief reader, and all seemed to +have gone well, when a mistake was discovered +upon the title-page. + +It may be mentioned here, with respect +to tables of errata, that they are frequently +neglected in subsequent books. There are +many books in which the same blunders +have been repeated in various editions, +although they had been pointed out in an +early issue. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MISPRINTS. + +OF all literary blunders misprints +are the most numerous, and no +one who is conversant with the +inside of a printing-office will be surprised +at this; in fact, he is more likely to be +struck with the freedom from error of the +innumerable productions issued from the +press than to be surprised at the blunders +which he may come across. The possibilities +of error are endless, and a frequent +cause is to be found in the final correction, +when a line may easily get transposed. +On this account many authors will prefer +to leave a trivial error, such as a wrong +stop, in a final revise rather than risk the +possibilities of blundering caused by the +unlocking of the type. Of course a large +number of misprints are far from amusing, +while a sense of fun will sometimes be +<p 101>obtained by a trifling transposition of +letters. Authors must be on the alert for +misprints, although ordinary misspellings +should not be left for them by the printer's +reader; but they are usually too intent on +the structure of their own sentences to +notice these misprints. The curious point +is that a misprint which has passed through +proof and revise unnoticed by reader and +author will often be detected immediately +the perfected book is placed in the author's +hands. The blunder which has hitherto +remained hidden appears to start out from +the page, to the author's great disgust. +One reason why misprints are overlooked +is that every word is a sort of pictorial +object to the eye. We do not spell the +word, but we guess what it is by the first +and last letters and its length, so that a +wrong letter in the body of the word is +easily overlooked. + +It is an important help to the editor of +a corrupt text to know what misprints are +the most probable, and for this purpose +the late Mr. Halliwell Phillipps printed +for private circulation _A Dictionary of +Misprints, found in printed books of the +<p 102>sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, compiled +for the use of verbal critics and especially +for those who are engaged in editing the +works of Shakespeare and our other early +Dramatists_ (1887). In the note at the +end of this book Mr. Phillipps writes: +``The readiest access to those evidences +will be found in the old errata, and it will +be seen, on an examination of the latter, +that misprints are abundant in final and +initial letters, in omissions, in numerals, +and in verbal transpositions; but +unquestionably the most frequent in pronouns, +articles, conjunctions, and prepositions. +When we come to words outside the +four latter, there is a large proportion of +examples that are either of rare occurrence +or unique. Some of the blunders that are +recorded are sufficiently grotesque: _e.g., +Ile starte thence poore for Ile starve their +poore,--he formaketh what for the fire +maketh hot_. It must, indeed, be confessed +that the conjectural emendator, if he +dispenses with the quasi-authority of +contemporary precedents, has an all but +unlimited range for the exercise of his +ingenuity, the unsettled spellings of our +<p 103>ancestors rendering almost any +emendation, however extravagant, a typographical +possibility. A large number of their +misprints could only have been perpetrated +in the midst of the old orthographies. +Under no other conditions could _ice_ have +been converted into _ye_, _air_ into _time_, _home_ +into _honey_, _attain_ into _at any_, _sun_ into +_sinner_, _stone_ into _story_, _deem_ into _deny_, +_dire_ into _dry_, the old spellings of the +italicised words being respectively, yce, +yee, ayre, tyme, home, honie, attaine, att +anie, sunne, sinner, stone, storie, deeme, +denie, dire, drie. The form of the long _s_ +should also be sometimes taken into +consideration, for it could only have been +owing to its use that such a word as _some_ +could have been misprinted _four, niece_ for +_wife, prefer_ for _preserve, find_ for _fifth_, the +variant old spellings being foure, neese, +preferre.'' + +Among the instances of misprints given +in this Dictionary may be noticed the +following: actions _for_ axioms, agreement +_for_ argument, all-eyes _for_ allies, aloud _for_ +allowed, banish'd _for_ ravish'd, cancel _for_ +cantel, candle _for_ caudle, culsedness +<p 104>_for_ ourselves, eye-sores _for_ oysters, felicity +_for_ facility, Hector _for_ nectar, intending +_for_ indenting, John _for_ Jehu, Judges _for_ +Indies, scene _for_ seene, sixteen _for_ sexton, +and _for_ sixty-one, tops _for_ toy, Venus +_for_ Venice. + +In connection with this work may be +mentioned the late Mr. W. Blades's +_Shakspere and Typography, being an +attempt to show Shakspere's personal +connection with, and technical knowledge of +the Art of Printing, also Remarks upon +some common typographical errors with +especial reference to the text of Shakspere_ +(1872), a small work of very great interest +and value. Mr. Blades writes: ``Now +these typographical blunders will, in the +majority of cases, be found to fall into +one of three classes, viz.:-- + +``Errors of the ear; + +``Errors of the eye; and + +``Errors from what, in printers' language, +is called `a foul case.' + +``I. _Errors of the Ear_.--Every compositor +when at work reads over a few +words of his copy, and retains them in +his mind until his fingers have picked +<p 105>up the various types belonging to them. +While the memory is thus repeating to +itself a phrase, it is by no means +unnatural, nor in practice is it uncommon, +for some word or words to become +unwittingly supplanted in the mind by others +which are similar in sound. It was simply +a mental transposition of syllables that +made the actor exclaim,-- + + +`My Lord, stand back and let the parson cough ' + +instead of + + +`My Lord, stand back and let the coffin pass' + _Richard III_., i. 2. + +And, by a slight confusion of sound, the +word _mistake_ might appear in type as +must take:-- + + +`So you mistake your husbands.' + _Hamlet_, iii. 2. + +Again, _idle votarist_ would easily become +_idol votarist_-- + + +`I am no idle votarist.'--_Timon_, iv. 3; + +and _long delays_ become transformed to +_longer days_-- + + +`This done, see that you take no long delays. + _Titus_, iv. 2. + +<p 106>From the time of Gutenberg until now +this similarity of sound has been a fruitful +source of error among printers. + +``II. _Errors of the Eye_.--The eye often +misleads the hand of the compositor, +especially if he be at work upon a crabbed +manuscript or worn-out reprint. Take +out a dot, and _This time goes manly_ +becomes + + +`This tune goes manly.' _Macbeth_, iv. 3. + +So a clogged letter turns _What beast was't +then_? into _What boast was't then_?-- + + `Lady M. What beast was't then, + That made you break this enterprise to me?' + _Macbeth_, i. 7. + +Examples might be indefinitely multiplied +from many an old book, so I will quote +but one more instance. The word _preserve_ +spelt with a long _s_ might without +much carelessness be misread _preferre_ +(I _Henry VI_., iii. 2), and thus entirely +alter the sense. + +``III. _Errors from a `foul case_.'--This +class of errors is of an entirely different +<p 107>kind from the two former. They came +from within the man, and were from the +brain; this is from without, mechanical in +its origin as well as in its commission. As +many readers may never have seen the +inside of a printing office, the following +short explanation may be found useful: +A `case' is a shallow wooden drawer, +divided into numerous square receptacles +called `boxes,' and into each box is put +one sort of letter only, say all _a_'s, or _b_'s, +or _c_'s. The compositor works with two of +these cases slanting up in front of him, +and when, from a shake, a slip, or any +other accident, the letters become +misplaced the result is technically known as +`a foul case.' A further result is, that the +fingers of the workman, although going to +the proper box, will often pick up a wrong +letter, he being entirely unconscious the +while of the fact. + +``Now, if we can discover any law which +governs this abnormal position of the types +--if, for instance, we can predicate that the +letter _o_, when away from its own, will be +more frequently found in the box appropriated +to letter _a_ than any other; that _b_ +<p 108>has a general tendency to visit the _l_ box, +and _l_ the _v_ box; and that _d_, if away +from home, will be almost certainly found +among the _n_'s; if we can show this, we +shall then lay a good foundation for the +re-examination of many corrupt or disputed +readings in the text of Shakspere, +some of which may receive fresh life from +such a treatment. + +``To start with, let us obtain a definite +idea of the arrangement of the types in +both `upper' and `lower' case in the +time of Shakspere--a time when long _s_'s, +with the logotypes _ct_, _ff_, _fi_, _ffi_, _ffl_, _sb_, _sh_, +_si_, _sl_, _ss_, _ssi_, _ssl_, and others, were in daily +use.'' + +Mr. Blades then refers to Moxon's +_Mechanical Exercises_, 1683, which contains +a representation of the compositors' +cases in the seventeenth century, which +may be presumed to be the same in form +as those used in Shakespeare's day. +Various alterations have been made in +the arrangement of the cases, with the +object of placing the letters more +conveniently. The present form is shown +on pp. 110, 111. +<p 109> + +Mr. Blades proceeds: ``The chief cause +of a `foul' case was the same in Shakspere's +time as now; and no one interested +in the subject should omit visiting +a printing office, where he could personally +inspect the operation. Suppose a +compositor at work `distributing'; the upper +and lower cases, one above the other, +slant at a considerable angle towards him, +and as the types fall quickly from his +fingers they form conical heaps in their +respective boxes, spreading out in a +manner very similar to the sand in the +lower half of an hour-glass. Now, if the +compositor allows his case to become too +full, the topmost letters in each box will +certainly slide down into the box below, +and occasionally, though rarely, into one +of the side boxes. When such letters +escape notice, they necessarily cause +erroneous spelling, and sometimes entirely +change the whole meaning of a sentence. +But now comes the important question: +Are errors of this kind ever discovered, +and especially do they occur in Shakspere? +Doubtless they do, but to what extent a +long and careful examination alone can + +<Table> + UPPER CASE. + <a'> <e'> <i'> <o'> <u'> <SE> <DDag> A B C D E F G + <a!> <e!> <i!> <o!> <u!> <||> <Dag> H I K L M N O + <a^> <e^> <i^> <o^> <u^> <?> <*> P Q R S T V W + X Y Z <AE> <OE> U J X Y Z <AE> <OE> U J + <a:> <e:> <i:> <o:> <u:> <c,> <Pd> A B C D E F G + 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 H I K L M N O + 8 9 0 <1/4> <1/2> <3/4> k P Q R S T V W + + LOWER CASE. + & [ ] <ae> <oe> j ' Thin and ( ) ? ! ; Leaders. fl + middling spaces. + -- e Leaders. ff + b c d i s f g + ffl Leaders. fi + ffi En Em + l m n h o y p , w quads. quads. + Hair + spaces. + z q : + v u t thick spaces a r Large quods. + x . <.> +<EndTable> + + +<p 112>show. As examples merely, and to show +the possible change in sense made by a +single wrong letter, I will quote one or +two instances:-- + + `Were they not _forc'd_ with those that should be ours, + We might have met them darefull, beard to beard.' + _Macbeth_, v. 5.[9] + + + [9] Collier's MS. corrector substituted _farc'd_ for _forc'd_. + + +The word _forced_ should be read _farced_, +the letter _o_ having evidently dropped +down into _a_ box. The enemy's ranks +were not _forced_ with Macbeth's followers, +but _farced_ or filled up. In Murrell's +_Cookery_, 1632, this identical word is used +several times; we there see that a +farced leg of mutton was when the meat +was all taken out of the skin, mixed with +herbs, etc., and then the skin filled up +again. + + `I come to thee for charitable license . . . + To booke our dead.' + _Henry V_., iv. 7. + +So all the copies, but `to book' is surely +a modern commercial phrase, and the +<p 113>Herald here asked leave simply to `look,' +or to examine, the dead for the purpose +of giving honourable burial to their men +of rank. In the same sense Sir W. Lucie, +in the First Part of _Henry VI_., says:-- + + `I come to know what prisoners thou hast tane, + And to survey the bodies of the dead.' + +We cannot imagine an officer with pen, +inkhorn, and paper, at a period when few +could write, `booking' the dead. We +may, I think, take it for granted that here +the letter _b_ had fallen over into the _l_ +box.'' + +Another point to bear in mind is the +existence of such logotypes as _fi_, _si_, etc., +so that, as Mr. Blades says, ``the change of +light into sight must not be considered as +a question of a single letter--of _s_ in the +_l_ box,'' because the box containing _si_ is +far away from the _l_ box, and their contents +could not well get mixed. + +To these instances given by Mr. Blades +may be added a very interesting correction +suggested to the author some years ago +by a Shakespearian student. When Isabella +visits her brother in prison, the +<p 114>cowardly Claudio breaks forth in +complaint, and paints a vivid picture of the +horrors of the damned:-- + + ``Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; + To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; + This sensible warm motion to become + A kneaded clod; and the _delighted spirit_ + To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside + In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; + To be imprisoned in the viewless winds, + And blown with restless violence round about + The pendent world; or to be worse than worst + Of those that lawless and incertain thoughts + Imagine howling!--'tis too horrible! + The weariest and most loathed worldly life + That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment + Can lay on nature, is a paradise + To what we fear of death.'' + _Measure for Measure_, act iii., sc. 1. + +We have here, in the expression ``delighted +spirit,'' a difficulty which none of +the commentators have as yet been able +to explain. Warburton said that the +adjective meant ``accustomed to ease +and delights,'' but this was not a very +successful guess, although Steevens +adopted it. Sir Thomas Hanmer altered +_delighted_ to _dilated_, and Dr. Johnson +<p 115>mentions two suggested emendations, +one being _benighted_ and the other +_delinquent_. None of these suggestions can +be corroborated by a reference to the +plans of the printers' cases, but it will be +seen that the one now proposed is much +strengthened by the position of the boxes +in those plans. The suggested word is +_deleted_, which accurately describes the +spirits as destroyed, or blotted out of +existence. The word is common in the +printing office, and it was often used in +literature. + +If we think only of the recognised +spelling of the word _delighted_ we shall +find that there are three letters to alter, +but if we take the older spelling, _delited_, +the change is very easily made, for it +will be noticed that the letters in the +_i_ box might easily tumble over into the +_e_ box. + +There is a very curious description of +hell in Bede's _Ecclesiastical History_, where +the author speaks of ``deformed spirits'' +who leap from excess of heat to cutting +cold, and it is not improbable that +Shakespeare may have had this passage in his +<p 116>mind when he put these words into the +mouth of Claudio.[10] + + + [10] An article on this point will be found in _The +Antiquary_, vol. viii. (1883), p. 200. + + + +It is taken for granted that the +compositor is not likely to put his hand into +the wrong box, so that if a wrong letter +is used, it must have fallen out of its +place. + +An important class of misprints owes +its origin to this misplacement; but, as +noticed by Mr. Blades, there are other +classes, such as misspellings caused by +the compositor's ignorance or +misunderstanding. We must remember that the +printer has to work fast, and if he does +not recognise a word he is very likely to +turn it into something he does understand. +Thus the title of a paper in the +_Philosophical Transactions_ was curiously +changed in an advertisement, and the +Calamites, a species of fossil plants of +the coal measures, with but slight change +appeared as ``The True Fructification of +Calamities.'' This is a blunder pretty sure +to be made, and within a few days of +writing this, the author has seen a +refer<p 117>ence to ``Notes on some Pennsylvanian +Calamities.'' As an instance of less +excusable ignorance, we shall often find the +word _gauge_ printed as _guage_. + +One of the slightest of misprints was +the cause of an odd query in the second +series of _Notes and Queries_, which, by the +way, has never yet been answered. In +John Hall's _Hor<ae> Vaciv<ae>_ (1646) there is +this passage, alluding to the table game +called _tick-tack_. The author wrote: +``Tick tack sets a man's intentions on +their guard. Errors in this and war can +be but once amended''; but the printer +joined the two words ``and war'' into one, +and this puzzled the correspondent of +the _Notes and Queries_ (v. 272). He +asked: ``Who can quote another passage +from any author containing this word? +I have hunted after it in many dictionaries +without avail. It means, I suppose, +antagonism or contest, and resembles in +form many Anglo-Saxon words which +never found their way into English proper.'' +The blunder was not discovered, and +another correspondent wrote: ``The word +andwar would surely modernise into +_hand-<p 118>war_. Is not andirons (handirons) a +parallel word of the same genus?' In +the General Index we find ``Andwar, an +old English word.'' So much for the long +life of a very small blunder. + +A very similar blunder to this of +``andwar'' occurs in _Select Remains of the +learned John Ray with his Life by the late +William Derham_, which was published +in 1760 with a dedication to the Earl of +Macclesfield, President of the Royal +Society, signed by George Scott. In +Derham's Life of Ray a list of books +read by Ray in 1667 is printed from +a letter to Dr. Lister, and one of these +is printed ``The Business about great +Rakes.'' Mr. Scott must have been +puzzled with this title; but he was +evidently a man not to be daunted by a +difficulty, for he added a note to this +effect: ``They are now come into general +use among the farmers, and are called +_drag rakes_.'' Who would suspect after +this that the title is merely a misprint, +and that the pamphlet refers to the +proceedings of Valentine Greatrakes, the +famous stroker, who claimed equal power +<p 119>with the kings and queens of England in +curing the king's evil? This blunder will +be found uncorrected in Dr. Lankester's +_Memorials of John Ray_, published by the +Ray Society in 1846, and does not seem +to have been suspected until the Rev. +Richard Hooper called attention to it a +short time ago in _Notes and Queries_.[11] + + + [11] Seventh Series, iv. 225. + + + +An amusing instance of the invention +of a new word was afforded when the +printer produced the words ``a noticeable +fact in thisms'' instead of ``this MS.'' + +The misplacement of a stop, or the +transposition of a letter, or the dropping +out of one, will make sad havoc of the +sense of a passage, as when we read of +the _immoral_ works of Milton. It was, +however, a very complimentary misprint +by which it was made to appear that a +certain town had a remarkably high rate +of _morality_. In the address to Dr. Watts +by J. Standen prefixed to that author's +_Hor<ae> Lyric<ae>_ (Leeds, 1788) this same +misprint occurs, to the serious confusion +of Mr. Standen's meaning,-- +<p 120> + ``With thought sublime + And high sonorous words, thou sweetly sing'st + To thy _immoral_ lyre.'' + +On another page of this same book +Watts' ``daring flight'' is transposed to +_darling flight_. + +In Miss Yonge's _Dynevor Terrace_ a +portion of one word was joined on to +another with the awkward result that a +young lady is described ``without stretched +arms.'' + +The odd results of the misplacement of +stops must be familiar to most readers; +but it is not often that they are so serious +as in the following instances. William +Sharp, the celebrated line engraver, +believed in the Divine mission of the madman +Richard Brothers, and engraved a portrait of +that worthy with the following inscription +beneath it: ``Fully believing this to be the +man appointed by God, I engrave his +likeness.--W. SHARP.'' The writing engraver +by mistake put the comma after the word +appointed, and omitted it at the latter part +of the sentence, thus giving a ludicrous +effect to the whole inscription. Many +impressions were struck off before the +<p 121>mistake was discovered and rectified. The +question of an apostrophe was the ground +of a civil action a few years ago in +Switzerland; and although the anecdote refers to +a manuscript, and not to a printed document, +it is inserted here because it illustrates +the subject. A gentleman left a will +which ended thus: ``Et pour t<e'>moigner +<a!> mes neveux Charles et Henri de M---- +toute mon affection je l<e!>gue <a!> chacun +_d'eux_ cent mille francs.'' The paper upon +which the will was written was folded up +before the ink was dry, and therefore many +of the letters were blotted. The legatees +asserted that the apostrophe was a blot, +and therefore claimed two instead of one +hundred thousand francs each. + +Several misprints are always recurring, +such as the mixture of the words +Topography and Typography, and Biography +with Bibliography. In the prospectus of +an edition of the _Waverley Novels_ we +read: ``The aim of the publishers has +been to make it pre-eminent, by beauty +of _topography_ and illustration, as an _<e'>dition +de luxe_.'' + +Andrew Marvell published a book which +<p 122>he entitled _The Rehearsal Transprosed_; but +it is seldom that a printer can be induced +to print the title otherwise than as _The +Rehearsal Transposed_. + +It must be conceded in favour of printers +that some authors do write an execrable +hand. One sometimes receives a letter +which requires about three readings before +it can be understood. At the first time of +reading the meaning is scarcely intelligible, +at the second time some faint glimpse of the +writer's object in writing is obtained, and +at the third time the main point of the +letter is deciphered. Such men may be +deemed to be the plague of printers. A +friend of Beloe ``the Sexagenarian'' was +remonstrated with by a printer for being +the cause of a large amount of swearing +in his office. ``Sir,'' exclaimed Mr. A., +``the moment `copy' from you is divided +among the compositors, volley succeeds +volley as rapidly and as loudly as in one +of Lord Nelson's victories.'' + +There is a popular notion among authors +that it is not wise to write a clear hand; and +M<e'>nage was one of the first to express it. +He wrote: ``If you desire that no mistakes +<p 123>shall appear in the works which you publish, +never send well-written copy to the +printer, for in that case the manuscript is +given to young apprentices, who make a +thousand errors; while, on the other hand, +that which is difficult to read is dealt with +by the master-printers.'' It is also related +that the late eminent Arabic scholar, Mr. +E. W. Lane, who wrote a particularly good +hand, asked his printer how it was that +there were always so many errors in his +proofs. He was answered that such clear +writing was always given to the boys, as +experienced compositors could not be +spared for it. The late Dean Hook held +to this opinion, for when he was asked to +allow a sermon to be copied out neatly for +the press, he answered that if it were to +be printed he would prefer to write it +out himself as badly as he could. This +practice, if it ever existed, we are told by +experienced printers does not exist now. + +It must, one would think, have been +the badness of the ``copy'' that induced +the compositors to turn ``the nature and +theory of the Greek verb'' into _the native +theology of the Greek verb_; ``the conser<p 124>vation +of energy'' into the _conversation of +energy_; and the ``Forest Conservancy +Branch'' into the _Forest Conservatory +Branch_. + +Some printers go out of their way to +make blunders when they are unable to +understand their ``copy.'' Thus, in the +_Times_, some years ago, among the contributors +to the Garibaldi Fund was a bookbinder +who gave five shillings. The next +down in the list was one ``A. Lega +Fletcher,'' a name which was printed as _A +Ledger stitcher_. + +Some very extraordinary blunders have +been made by the ignorant misreading +of an author's contractions. It is said +that in a certain paper which was sent +to be printed the words Indian Government +were contracted as Indian Govt. +This one compositor set up throughout +his turn as _Indian goat_. A writer in +one of the Reviews wrote the words ``J. C. +first invaded Britain,'' and a worthy +compositor, who made it his business to fill +up all the abbreviations, printed this as +_Jesus Christ_ instead of Julius C<ae>sar. + +Here it may be remarked that some of +<p 125>the most extraordinary misprints never +get farther than the printing office or the +study; but although they may have been +discovered by the reader or the author, +they were made nevertheless. + +Sometimes the fun of a misprint consists +in its elaborateness and completeness, +and sometimes in its simplicity +(perhaps only the change of a letter). +Of the first class the transformation of +Shirley's well-known lines is a good +example:-- + + ``Only the actions of the just + Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.'' + +is scarcely recognisable as + + ``All the low actions of the just + Swell out and blow Sam in the dust.'' + +The statement that ``men should work +and play Loo,'' obtained from ``men should +work and play too,'' illustrates the second +class. + +The version of Pope which was quoted +by a correspondent of the _Times_ about a +year ago is very charming:-- + + ``A little learning is a dangerous thing; + Drink deep, or taste not the aperient spring.' + +<p 126>The reporter or printer who mistook the +Oxford professor's allusion to the +Eumenides, and quoted him as speaking of +``those terrible old Greek goddesses--the +Humanities,'' was still more elaborate in +his joke. + +Horace Greeley is well known to have +been an exceedingly bad writer; but when +he quoted the well-known line (which is +said to be equal to a florin, because there +are four tizzies in it)-- + + `` 'Tis true, 'tis pity, pity 'tis 'tis true,'' + +one might have expected the compositor +to recognise the quotation, instead of +printing the astonishing calculation-- + + `` 'Tis two, 'tis fifty and fifty 'tis, 'tis five.'' + +This is as bad as the blunder of the +printer of the Hampshire paper who is +said to have announced that Sir Robert +Peel and a party of _fiends_ were engaged +shooting _peasants_ at Drayton Manor. + +It is perhaps scarcely fair to quote too +many blunders from newspapers, which +must often be hurriedly compiled, but +naturally they furnish the richest crop. +<p 127>The point of a leader in an American +paper was lost by a misprint, which reads +as follows: ``We do battle without shot or +charge for the cause of the right.'' This +would be a very ineffectual battle, and the +proper words were _without stint or change_. + +A writer on Holland in one of the +magazines quoted Samuel Butler's well- +known lines-- + + ``A country that draws fifty foot of water, + . . . . . . . + In which they do not live, but go aboard,'' + +which the printer transformed into + + ``In which they do not live, but _cows abound_.'' + + +It is of course easy to invent +misprints, and therefore one feels a little +doubtful sometimes with respect to those +which are quoted without chapter and +verse. + +One of the most remarkable blunders +ever made in a newspaper was connected +with the burial of the well-known literary +man, John Payne Collier. In the _Standard_ +of Sept. 21st, 1883, it was reported +that ``the remains of the late Mr. +John Payne Collier were interred yesterday +<p 128>in Bray Churchyard, near Maidenhead, +in the presence of a large number of +spectators.'' The paragraph maker of the +_Eastern Daily Press_ had never heard of +Payne Collier, so he thought the last name +should be printed with a small C, and +wanting a heading for his paragraph he +invented one straight off, and this is what +appeared in that paper:-- + +``_The Bray Colliery Disaster_. The +remains of the late John Payne, collier, +were interred yesterday afternoon in the +Bray Churchyard, in the presence of a +large number of friends and spectators.'' + +This was a brilliant stroke of +imagination, for who would expect to find a +colliery near Maidenhead? + +Mr. Sala, writing to _Notes and Queries_ +(Third Series, i. 365), says: ``Altogether I +have long since arrived at the conclusion +that there are more `devils' in a printing +office than are dreamt of in our philosophy-- +the blunder fiends to wit--ever +busy in peppering the `formes' with errors +which defy the minutest revisions of +reader, author, sub-editor, and editor.'' +Mr. Sala gives an instance which occurred +<p 129>to himself. He wrote that Dr. +Livingstone wore a cap with a tarnished gold +lace band; but the printer altered the +word tarnished into _famished_, to the serious +confusion of the passage. + +Some of the most amusing blunders +occur by the change of a single letter. +Thus, in an account of the danger to an +express train by a cow getting on the line +in front, the reporter was made to say that +as the safest course under the circumstances +the engine driver ``put on full +steam, dashed up against the cow, and +literally cut it into _calves_.'' A short time +ago an account was given in an address of +the early struggles of an eminent portrait +painter, and the statement appeared in +print that, working at the easel from eight +o'clock in the morning till eight o'clock +at night, the artist ``only lay down on the +hearthrug for rest and refreshment between +the visits of his _sisters_.'' This is +not so bad, however, as the report that +``a bride was accompanied to the altar by +_tight_ bridesmaids.'' A very odd blunder +occurred in the _World_ of Oct. 6th, 1886, +one which was so odd that the editor +<p 130>thought it worthy of notice by himself in +a subsequent number. The paragraph in +which the misprint occurred related to the +filling up of the vicarage of St. Mary's, +Islington, which it was thought had been +unduly delayed. The trustees in whose +gift the living is were informed that if they +had a difficulty in finding a clergyman of +the proper complexion of low churchism +there were still Venns in Kent. Here +the natural confusion of the letters _u_ and +_n_ came into play, and as the paragraph +was printed it appeared that a _Venus_ of +Kent was recommended for the vicarage +of St. Mary's. + +The compositor who set up the account +of a public welcome to a famous orator +must have been fresh from the study of +Porson's _Catechism of the Swinish Multitude_ +when he set up the damaging statement +that ``the crowd rent the air with +their _snouts_.'' + +Sometimes the blunder consists not in +the misprint of a letter, but in a mere +transposition, as when an eminent herald +and antiquary was dubbed _Rogue Croix_ +instead of _Rouge Croix_. Sometimes a +<p 131>new but appropriate word results by the +thrusting into a recognised word of a +redundant letter, as when a man died from +eating too much goose the verdict was +said to have been ``death from stuffocation.'' + +Many of these blunders, although +amusing to the public, cannot have been +altogether agreeable to the subjects of them. +Mr. Justice Wightman could not have +been pleased to see himself described +as _Mr. Justice Nightman_; and the right +reverend prelate who was stated ``to be +highly pleased with some ecclesiastical +_iniquities_ shown to him'' must have been +considerably scandalised. + +Professor Hales is very much of the +opinion of Mr. Sala respecting the labours +of the ``blunder fiend,'' and he sent an +amusing letter to the _Athen<ae>um_, in which +he pointed out a curious misprint in one +of his own books. As the contents of the +letter is very much to the point, readers +will perhaps not object to seeing it +transferred in its entirety to these pages:-- + +``The humour of compositors is apt to be +imperfectly appreciated by authors, because +<p 132>it rather interferes with what the author +wishes to say, although it may often say +something better. But there is no reason +why the general reader should not +thoroughly enjoy it. Certainly it ought to +be more generously recognised than it is. +So many persons at present think of it +as merely accidental and fortuitous, as if +there was no mind in it, as if all the +excellent things loosely described as _errata_, all +the _curios<ae> felicitates_ of the setter-up of +texts, were casual blunders. Such a view +reminds one of the way in which the last- +century critics used to speak of Shakspere +--the critics who give him no credit for +design or selection, but thought that somehow +or other he stumbled into greatness. +However, I propose now not to attempt +the defence, or, what might be worth the +effort, the analysis of this species of Wit, +but only to give what seemed an admirable +instance of it. + +``In a note to the word _limboes_ in the +Clarendon Press edition of Milton's +_Areopagitica_, I quoted from Nares's Glossary +a list of the various _limbi_ believed +in by the `old schoolmen,' and No. 2 +<p 133>was `a _limbus patrum_ where the fathers +of the Church, saints, and martyrs, awaited +the general resurrection.' Will any one +say it was not a stroke of genius in some +printing-office humourist to alter the last +word into `_in_surrection'? + +``Like all good wit, this change is so +suggestive. It raises up a cloud of new +ideas, and reduces the hearer to a delightful +confusion. How strangely it revises +all our popular notions! If even beyond +the grave the great problems that keep +men here restless and murmuring are not +solved! If even there the rebellious spirit +is not quieted! Nay, if those whom we +think of as having won peace for themselves +in this world, do in that join the +malcontents, and are each one biding their +time-- + + <gr <w!>s t<h!>n Di<o!>s turann<i'>d' <e'>kp<<e'>rswn b<i'>a>. + + +``May we not conceive this bold jester, +if haply he were a stonemason, chiselling +on some tombstone `_In_surgam'?'' + +Allusion has already been made to the +persistency of misprints and the difficulty +of curing them; but one of the most +<p 134>curious instances of this may be found in +a line of Byron's beautiful apostrophe to +the ocean in _Childe Harold_ (Canto iv.). +The one hundred and eighty-second +stanza is usually printed:-- + + ``Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee-- + Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? + Thy waters wasted them while they were free, + And many a tyrant since . . .'' + +Not many years ago a critic, asking +himself the question when the waters +wasted these countries, began to suspect +a misprint, and on consulting the +manuscript, it was found that he was right. +The blunder, which had escaped Byron's +own eyes, was corrected, and the third +line was printed as originally written:-- + + ``Thy waters wash'd them power while they were free. + + +The carelessness of printers seems to +hare culminated in their production of +the Scriptures. The old editions of the +Bible swarm with blunders, and some of +them were supposed to have been made +intentionally. It was said that the printer +<p 135>Field received <Pd>1500 from the +Independents as a bribe to corrupt a text which +might sanction their practice of lay- +ordination, and in Acts vi. 3 the word _ye_ is +substituted for _we_ in several of his editions +of the Bible. The verse reads: ``Wherefore, +brethren, look ye out among ye seven +men of honesr report, full of the Holy +Ghost and wisdom, whom _ye_ may appoint +over this business.'' To such forgeries +Butler refers in the lines:-- + + + ``Religion spawn'd a various rout + Of petulant capricious sects, + The maggots of corrupted texts.'' + _Hudibras_, Part III., Canto 2. + + +Dr. Grey, in his notes on this passage, +brings forward the charge against Field, +and quotes Wotton's Visitation Sermon +(1706) in support of it. He also quotes +from Cowley's _Puritan and Papist_ as to +the practice of corrupting texts:-- + + + ``They a bold pow'r o'er sacred Scriptures take, + Blot out some clauses and some new ones make.'' + + +Pope Sixtus the Fifth's Vulgate so +swarmed with errors that paper had to +<p 136>be pasted over some of the erroneous +passages, and the public naturally laughed +at the bull prefixed to the first volume +which excommunicated any printer who +altered the text. This was all the more +annoying to the Pope, as he had intended +the edition to be specially free from errors, +and to attain that end had seen all the +proofs himself. Some years ago a copy +of this book was sold in France for 1210 +francs. + +The King's Printers, Robert Barker and +Martin Lucas, in the reign of Charles I. +were not excommunicated, but, what perhaps +they liked less, were fined <Pd>300 +by the Court of High Commission for +leaving the _not_ out of the seventh +commandment in an edition of the Bible +printed in 1631. Although this story has +been frequently quoted it has been +disbelieved, and the great bibliographer of +Bibles, the late Mr. George Offer, asserted +that he and his father searched diligently +for it, and could not find it. Now, six +copies are known to exist. The late Mr. +Henry Stevens gives a most interesting +account of the first discovery of the book +<p 137>in his _Recollections of Mr. James Lennox_. +He writes:-- + +``Mr. Lennox was so strict an observer +of the Sabbath that I never knew of his +writing a business letter on Sunday but +once. In 1855, while he was staying at +Hotel Meurice in Paris, there occurred to +me the opportunity one Saturday afternoon, +June 16th, of identifying the long lost +octavo Bible of 1631 with the negative +omitted in the seventh commandment, +and purchasing it for fifty guineas. No +other copy was then known, and the +possessor required an immediate answer. +However, I raised some points of inquiry, +and obtained permission to hold the little +sinner and give the answer on Monday. +By that evening's post I wrote to Mr. +Lennox, and pressed for an immediate +reply, suggesting that this prodigal though +he returned on Sunday should be +bound. Monday brought a letter `to +buy it,' very short, but tender as a fatted +calf. On June 21st I exhibited it at a +full meeting of the Society of Antiquaries +of London, at the same time nicknaming +it _The Wicked Bible_, a name that stuck to +<p 138>it ever since, though six copies are now +known. . . . Lord Macaulay was present +at the meeting, but did not at first credit +the genuineness of the typographical +error. Lord Stanhope, however, on +borrowing the volume, convinced him +that it was the true wicked error.'' + +Curiously enough, when Mr. Stevens +took the Bible home on Saturday night +he overhauled his pile of octavo Bibles, +and found an imperfect duplicate of the +supposed unique ``wicked'' Bible. When +the owner came for his book on Monday +morning he was shown the duplicate, and +agreed, as his copy was not unique, to +take <Pd>25 for it. The imperfect copy +was sold to the British Museum for +eighteen guineas, and Mr. Winter Jones +was actually so fortunate as to obtain +subsequently the missing twenty-three +leaves. A third copy came into the +hands of Mr. Francis Fry, of Bristol, +who sold it to Dr. Bandinel for the +Bodleian Library. A fourth copy is in +the Euing Library, at Glasgow; a fifth +fell into the hands of Mr. Henry J. +Atkinson, of Gunnersbury,in 1883; and +<p 139>a sixth copy was picked up in Ireland +by a gentleman of Coventry In 1884. + +In a Bible of 1634 the first verse of +the 14th Psalm is printed as ``The fool +hath said in his heart there is God''; and +in another Bible of 1653 _worldly_ takes +the place of _godly_, and reads, ``In order +that all the world should esteem the +means of arriving at worldly riches.'' + +If Field was not a knave, as hinted +above, he was singularly unfortunate in +his blunders; for in another of his Bibles +he also omitted the negative in an important +passage, and printed I Corinthians +vi. 9 as, ``Know ye not that the unrighteous +shall inherit the kingdom of God?'' + +It is recorded that a printer's widow +in Germany once tampered with the +purity of the text of a Bible printed in +her house, for which crime she was burned +to death. She arose in the night, when +all the workmen were in bed, and going +to the ``forme'' entirely changed the +meaning of a text which particularly +offended her. The text was Gen. iii. 16 +(``Thy desire shall be to thy husband, +and he shall rule over thee''). +<p 140> + +This story does not rest on a very firm +foundation, and as the recorder does not +mention the date of the occurrence, it +must be taken by the reader for what it is +worth. The following incident, vouched +for by a well-known author, is, however, +very similar. James Silk Buckingham +relates the following curious anecdote in +his _Autobiography_:-- + +``While working at the Clarendon +Printing Office a story was current among +the men, and generally believed to be +authentic, to the following effect. Some +of the gay young students of the University, +who loved a practical joke, had made +themselves sufficiently familiar with the +manner in which the types are fixed in +certain formes and laid on the press, and +with the mode of opening such formes for +correction when required; and when the +sheet containing the Marriage Service was +about to be worked off, as finally +corrected, they unlocked the forme, took out +a single letter _v_, and substituted in its +place the letter _k_, thus converting the +word _live_ into _like_. The result was that, +when the sheets were printed, that part +<p 141>of the service which rendered the bond +irrevocable, was so changed as to make it +easily dissolved--as the altered passage +now read as follows:--The minister asking +the bridegroom, `Wilt thou have this +woman to be thy wedded wife, to live +together after God's ordinance in the holy +state of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, +comfort her, honour, and keep her in +sickness and in health; and forsaking all +other, keep thee only unto her, so long as +ye both shall _like_?' To which the man +shall answer, `I will.' The same change +was made in the question put to the +bride.'' + +If the culprits who left out a word +deserved to be heavily mulcted in damages, +it is difficult to calculate the liability of +those who left out whole verses. When +Archbishop Ussher was hastening to +preach at Paul's Cross, he went into a +shop to purchase a Bible, and on turning +over the pages for his text found it was +omitted. + +Andrew Anderson, a careless, faulty +printer in Edinburgh, obtained a monopoly +as king's printer, which was exercised on +<p 142>his death in 1679 by his widow. The +productions of her press became worse and +worse, and her Bibles were a standing +disgrace to the country. Robert +Chambers, in his _Domestic Annals of +Scotland_, quotes the following specimen +from an edition of 1705: ``Whyshouldit- +bethougtathingincredi ble w<tS> you, y<tS> +God should raise the dead?'' Even this +miserable blundering could not have been +much worse than the Pearl Bible with +six thousand errata mentioned by Isaac +Disraeli. + +The first edition of the English Scriptures +printed in Ireland was published at +Belfast in 1716, and is notorious for an +error in Isaiah. _Sin no more_ is printed +_Sin on more_. In the following year was +published at Oxford the well-known +Vinegar Bible, which takes its name from +a blunder in the running title of the +twentieth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, +where it reads ``The parable of the +vinegar,'' instead of ``The parable of the +vineyard.'' In a Cambridge Prayer Book +of 1778 the thirtieth verse of Psalm cv. is +travestied as follows: ``Their land brought +<p 143>forth frogs, yea seven in their king's +chambers.'' An Oxford Bible of 1792 +names St. Philip instead of St. Peter as +the disciple who should deny Christ +(Luke xxii. 34); and in an Oxford New +Testament of 1864 we read, ``Rejoice, +and be exceeding _clad_'' (Matt. v. 12). +To be impartial, however, it is necessary to +mention a Cambridge Bible of 1831, +where Psalm cxix. 93 appears as ``I will +never _forgive_ thy precepts.'' A Bible +printed at Edinburgh in 1823 contains +a curious misprint caused by a likeness in +pronunciation of two words, Esther being +printed for Easter, ``Intending after +Esther to bring him forth to the people'' +(Acts xii. 4). A misprint of the old +hundredth Psalm (_do well_ for _do dwell_) in +the Prayer Book might perhaps be +considered as an improvement,-- + + ``All people who on earth do well.'' + + +Errors are specially frequent in figures, +often caused by the way in which the +characters are cut. The aim of the +founder seems to be to make them as +much alike as possible, so that it +fre<p 144>quently requires a keen eye to discover +the difference between a 3 and a 5. In +one of Chernac's _Mathematical Tables_ +a line fell out before going to press, and +instead of being replaced at the bottom +of the page it was put in at the top, thus +causing twenty-six errors. Besides these, +however, only ten errors have been found +in the whole work of 1020 pages, all full +of figures. Vieta's _Canon Mathematicus_ +(1579) is of great rarity, from the author +being discontented with the misprints +that had escaped his notice, and on that +account withdrawing or repurchasing all +the copies he could meet with. Some +mathematicians, to ensure accuracy, have +made their calculations with the types in +their own hands. In the _Imperial +Dictionary of Universal Biography_ there is a +misprint in a date which confuses a whole +article. William Ayrton, musical critic, +is said to have been born in London +about 1781, but curiously enough his +father is reported to have been born three +years afterwards (1784); and still more +odd, that father was appointed gentleman +of the Chapel Royal in 1764, twenty +<p 145>years before he is stated to have been +born. + +In connection with figures may be +mentioned the terrible confusion which +is caused by the simple dropping out +of a decimal point. Thus a passage +in which 6.36 is referred to naturally +becomes utter nonsense when 636 is +printed instead. Such a misprint is as +bad as the blunder of the French compositor, +who, having to set up a passage +referring to Captain Cook, turned _de Cook_ +into _de 600 kilos_. An amusing blunder +was quoted a few years ago from a German +paper where the writer, referring to Prince +Bismarck's endeavours to keep on good +terms with all the Powers, was made +to say, ``Prince Bismarck is trying to +keep up honest and straightforward relations +_with all the girls_.'' This blunder was +caused by the substitution of the word +M<a:>dchen (girls) for M<a:>chten (powers). + +The French have always been interested +in misprints, and they have registered a +considerable number. One of the happiest +is that one which was caused by Malherbe's +bad writing, and induced him to +<p 146>adopt the misprint in his verse in place +of that which he had originally written. +The lines, written on a daughter of Du +Perrier named Rosette, now stand thus:-- + + + ``Mais elle <e'>tait du monde o<u!> les plus belles choses + Ont le pire destin, + Et rose, elle a v<e'>cu ce que vivent les roses + L'espace d'un matin.'' + +Malherbe had written,-- + + ``Et Rosette a v<e'>cu ce que vivent les roses;'' + + +but forgetting ``to cross his tees'' the +compositor made the fortunate blunder +of printing _rose elle_, which so pleased the +author that he let it stand, and modified +the following lines in accordance with the +printer's improvement. + +Rabelais nearly got into trouble by +a blunder of his printer, who in several +places set up _asne_ for _<a^>me_. A council +met at the Sorbonne to consider the +case against him, and the doctors formally +denounced Rabelais to Francis I., +and requested permission to prosecute +him for heresy; but the king after +consideration refused to give the permission. +<p 147>Rabelais then laughed at his accusers for +founding a charge of heresy against him +on a printer's blunder, but there were +strong suspicions that the misprints were +intentional. + +These misprints are styled by the +French _coquilles_, a word whose derivation +M. Boutney, author of _Dictionnaire +de l'Argot des Typographes_, is unable +to explain after twenty years' search. A +number of _Longman's Magazine_ contains +an article on these _coquilles_, in which +very many amusing blunders are quoted. +One of these gave rise to a pun which is +so excellent that it is impossible to resist +the temptation of transferring the anecdote +from those pages to these:-- + +``In the Rue Richelieu there is a statue +of Corneille holding a roll in his hand, +on which are inscribed the titles of his +principal works. The task of incising +these names it appears had been given +to an illiterate young apprentice, who +thought proper to spell _avare_ with two +r's. A wit, observing this, remarked +pleasantly, _Tiens, voil<a!> an avare qui a un +air misanthrope_ (un r mis en trop).'' +<p 148> + +In a newspaper account of Mr. Gladstone's +religious views the word _Anglican_ +is travestied as _Afghan_, with the following +curious result: ``There is no form of faith +in existence more effectually tenacious +than the _Afghan_ form, which asserts the +full catholicity of that branch church +whose charter is the English Church +Prayer Book.'' + +In the diary of John Hunter, of +Craigcrook, it is recorded that at one of the +meetings between the diarist, Leigh Hunt, +and Carlyle, ``Hunt gave us some capital +specimens of absurd errors of the press +committed by printers from his copy. +One very good one occurs in a paper, +where he had said, `he had a liking for +coffee because it always reminded him of +the _Arabian Nights_,' though not mentioned +there, adding, `as smoking does +for the same reason.' This was converted +into the following oracular words: `As +sucking does for the snow season'! He +could not find it in his heart to correct +this, and thus it stands as a theme for +the profound speculations of the commentators.'' +<p 149> + +A very slight misprint will make a +great difference; sometimes an unintelliglble +word is produced, but sometimes +the mere transposition of a letter will +make a word exactly opposite in its +meaning to the original, as _unite_ for +_untie_. In Jeremy Taylor's _XXV. Sermons +preached at Golden Grove: Being for the +Winter half-year_ (London, 1653), p. 247, +we read, ``It may help to unite the +charm,'' whereas the author wished to +say ``untie.'' + +The title of Cobbett's _Horse-hoeing +Husbandry_ was easily turned into _Horse-shoeing +Husbandry_, that of the _Holy Grail_ into +_Holy Gruel_, and Layamon's _Brut_ into +Layamon's _Brat_. + +A local paper, reporting the proceedings +at the Bath meeting of the British Asso{sic} +ciation, affirmed that an eminent chemist +had ``not been able to find any _fluidity_ +in the Bath waters.'' _Fluorine_ was meant. +It was also stated that a geologist asserted +that ``the bones found in the submerged +forests of Devonshire were closely +representative of the British _farmer_.'' The last +word should have been _fauna_. +<p 150> + +The strife of _tongs_ is suggestive of a +more serious battle than that of talk only; +and the compositor who set up Portia's +speech-- + + ``. . . young Alcides, when he did redeem + The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy'' + (_Merchant of Venice_, act iii., sc. 2), + +and turned the last words into _howling +Tory_, must have been a rabid politician. + +The transposition of ``He kissed her +under the silent stars'' into ``He kicked +her under the cellar stairs'' looks rather +too good to be true, and it cannot be +vouched for; but the title ``Microscopic +Character of the Virtuous Rocks of Montana'' +is a genuine misprint for _vitreous_, +as is also ``Buddha's perfect _uselessness_'' +for ``Buddha's perfect sinlessness.'' It is +rather startling to find a quotation from +the _Essay on Man_ introduced by the +words ``as the Pope says,'' or to find the +famous painter Old Crome styled an ``old +Crone.'' + +A most amusing instance of a +misreading may be mentioned here, although +it is not a literary blunder. A certain +<p 151>black cat was named Mephistopheles +a name which greatly puzzled the little +girl who played with the cat, so she +very sensibly set to work to reduce +the name to a form which she could +understand, and she arrived at ``Miss +Pack-of-fleas.'' + +Sometimes a ludicrous blunder may be +made by the mere closing up of two +words; thus the orator who spoke of our +``grand Mother Church'' had his remark +turned into a joke when it was printed +as ``grandmother Church.'' A still worse +blunder was made in an obituary notice +of a well-known congressman in an +American paper, where the reference to +his ``gentle, manly spirit'' was turned +into ``gentlemanly spirit.'' + +Misprints are very irritating to most +authors, but some can afford to make fun +of the trouble; thus Hood's amusing +lines are probably founded upon some +blunder that actually occurred:-- + + + ``But it is frightful to think + What nonsense sometimes + They make of one's sense, + And what's worse, of one's rhymes. + +<p 152> + ``It was only last week, + In my ode upon Spring, + Which I meant to have made + A most beautiful thing, + + ``When I talked of the dew-drops + From freshly-blown roses, + The nasty things made it + From freshly-blown noses. + + ``And again, when, to please + An old aunt, I had tried + To commemorate some saint + Of her clique who had died, + + ``I said he had taken up + In heaven his position, + And they put it--he'd taken + Up to heaven his _physician_.'' + + +Henry Stephens (Estienne), the learned +printer, made a joke over a misprint. The +word _febris_ was printed with the diphthong +<_oe_>, so Stephens excused himself by saying +in the errata that ``le chalcographe a fait +une fi<e!>vre longue (f<oe>brem) quoique une +fi<e!>vre courte (febrem) soit moins dangereux.'' + +Allusion has already been made in the +first chapter to Professor Skeat's ghost +<p 153>words. Most of these have arisen from +misreadings or misprints, and two +extraordinary instances may be noted here. +The purely modern phrase ``look sharp'' +was supposed to have been used in the time +of Chaucer, because ``loke schappe'' (see +that you form, etc.) of the manuscript was +printed ``loke scharpe.'' In the other +instance the scribe wrote _yn_ for _m_, and +thus he turned ``chek matyde'' into +``chek yn a tyde.''[12] + + + [12] _Philol. Soc. Trans_. 1885-7, pp. 368-9. + + + +In the _Academy_ for Feb. 25th, 1888, +Dr. Skeat explained another discovery +of his of the same kind, by which he is +able to correct a time-honoured blunder +in English literature:-- + + ``CAMBRIDGE: _Feb_. 14, 1888. + + +``When I explained, in the _Academy_ for +January 7 (p. 9), that the word `Herenus ' +is simply a mistake for `Herines,' _i.e_., the +furies (such being the Middle-English form +of Erinnyes), I did not expect that I should +so soon light upon another singular +perversion of the same word. +<p 154> + +``In Chaucer's Works, ed. 1561, fol. +322, back, there is a miserable poem, of +much later date than that of Chaucer's +death, entitled `The Remedie of Love.' +The twelfth stanza begins thus: + + `Come hither, thou Hermes, and ye furies all + Which fer been under us, nigh the nether pole, + Where Pluto reigneth,' etc. + +It is clear that `Hermes' is a scribal error +for `Herines,' and that the scribe has +added `thou' out of his own head, to +keep `Hermes' company. The context +bears this out; for the author utterly +rejects the inspiration of the Muses in the +preceding stanza, and proceeds to invoke +furies, harpies, and, to use his own +expression, `all this lothsome sort.' Many +of the lines almost defy scansion, so that +no help is to be got from observing the +run of the lines. Nevertheless, this fresh +instance of the occurrence of `Herines' +much assists my argument; all the more +so, as it appears in a disguised shape. + ``WALTER W. SKEAT.'' + +Sometimes a misprint is intentional, as +<p 155>in the following instance. At the +beginning of the century the _Courrier des Pays +Bas_ was bought by some young men, who +changed its politics, but kept on the editor. +The motto of the paper was from Horace: + + ``Est modus in rebus,'' + +and the editor, wishing to let his friends +at a distance know that things were not +going on quite well between him and his +proprietors, printed this motto as,-- + + ``Est nodus in rebus.'' + +This was continued for three weeks before +it was discovered and corrected by the +persons concerned. + +Another kind of misprint which we see +occasionally is the misplacement of some +lines of type. This may easily occur when +the formes are being locked, and the result +is naturally nonsense that much confuses +the reader. Probably the finest instance of +this misplacement occurred some years ago +in an edition of _Men of the Time_ (1856), +where the entry relating to Samuel +Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, got mixed up +with that of Robert Owen, the Socialist, +<p 156>with the result that the bishop was stated +to be ``a confirmed sceptic as regards +revealed religion, but a believer in +Spiritualism.'' It was this kind of blunder +which suggested the formation of cross- +readings, that were once very popular. + + + +CHAPTER VIL + +SCHOOLBOYS' BLUNDERS. + +THE blunders of the examined +form a fruitful source of +amusement for us all, and many +comical instances have been published. +The mistakes which are constantly +occurring must naturally be innumerable, but +only a few of them rise to the dignity of +a blunder. If it be difficult to define a +blunder, probably the best illustration of +what it is will be found in the answers of +the boys under examination. All classes +of blunders may be found among these. +There are those which show confusion of +knowledge, and those which exhibit an +insight into the heart of the matter while +blundering in the form. Two very good +examples occur to one's mind, but it is to +be feared that they owe their origin to +some keen spirit of mature years. ``What +<p 158>is Faith?--The quality by which we are +enabled to believe that which we know is +untrue.'' Surely this must have +emanated from a wit! Again, the whole +Homeric question is condensed into the +following answer: ``Some people say that +the Homeric poems were not written by +Homer, but by another man of the same +name.'' If this is a blunder, who would +not wish to blunder so? + +A large class of schoolboys' blunders +consist in a confusion of words somewhat +alike in sound, a confusion that is apt to +follow some of us through life. ``Matins'' +has been mixed up with ``pattens,'' and +described as something to wear on the +feet. Nonconformists are said to be +persons who cannot form anything, and +a tartan is assumed to be an inhabitant +of Tartary. The gods are believed by +one boy to live on nectarines, and by +another to imbibe ammonia. The same +desire to make an unintelligible word +express a meaning which has caused the +recognised but absurd spelling of _sovereign_ +(more wisely spelt _sovran_ by Milton) +shows itself in the form ``Tea-trarck'' +<p 159>explained as the title of Herod given to +him because he invented or was fond of +tea.[13] A still finer confusion of ideas is to +be found in an answer reported by Miss +Graham in the _University Correspondent_: +``Esau was a man who wrote fables, and +who sold the copyright to a publisher for +a bottle of potash.'' + + + [13] _Cornhill Magazine_, June 1888, pp. 619-28. + + + +The following etymological guesses are +not so good, but they are worthy of +registration. One boy described a blackguard +as ``one who has been a shoeblack,'' while +another thought he was ``a man dressed +in black.'' ``Polite'' is said to be derived +from ``Pole,'' owing to the affability of the +Polish race. ``Heathen'' means ``covered +with heath''; but this explanation is +commonplace when compared with the +brilliant guess--``Heathen, from Latin +`h<ae>thum,' faith, and `en,' not.'' + +The boy who explained the meaning of +the words _fort_ and _fortress_ must have had +rather vague ideas as to masculine and +feminine nouns. He wrote: ``A fort is +a place to put men in, and a fortress a +place to put women in.'' +<p 160> + +The little book entitled _English as she +is Taught_, which contains a considerable +number of genuine answers to examination +questions given in American schools, with +a Commentary by Mark Twain, is full of +amusing matter. A large proportion of +these answers are of a similar character +to those just enumerated, blunders which +have arisen from a confusion caused by +similarity of sound in the various words, +thus, ``In Austria the principal occupation +is gathering Austrich feathers.'' The +boy who propounded this evidently had +much of the stock in trade required +for the popular etymologist. ``Ireland is +called the Emigrant Isle because it is +so beautiful and green.'' ``Gorilla warfare +was where men rode on gorillas.'' ``The +Puritans found an insane asylum in the +wilds of America.'' + +Some of the answers are so funny that +it is almost impossible to guess at the +train of thought which elicited them, as, +``Climate lasts all the time, and weather +only a few days.'' ``Sanscrit is not used +so much as it used to be, as it went out +of use 1500 B.C.'' The boy who affirmed +<p 161>that ``The imports of a country are the +things that are paid for; the exports are +the things that are not,'' did not put the +Theory of Exchange in very clear form. + +The knowledge of physiology and of +medical subjects exhibited by some of the +examined is very amusing. One boy +discovered a new organ of the body called +a chrone: ``He had a chronic disease-- +something the matter with the chrone.'' +Another had a strange notion of how to +spell _craniology_, for he wrote ``Chonology +is the science of the brane.'' But best +of all is the knowledge of the origin of +Bright's disease, shown by the boy who +affirms that ``John Bright is noted for an +incurable disease.'' + +Much of the blundering of the +examined must be traced to the absurd +questions of the examiners--questions +which, as Mark Twain says, ``would +oversize nearly anybody's knowledge.'' +And the wish which every examinee +has to bring in some subject which he +supposes himself to know is perceptible +in many answers. The date 1492 seems +to be impressed upon every American +<p 162>child's memory, and he cannot rest until +he has associated it with some fact, so +we learn that George Washington was +born in 1492, that St. Bartholomew +was massacred in that year, that ``the +Brittains were the Saxons who entered +England in 1492 under Julius C<ae>sar,'' +and, to cap all, that the earth is 1492 +miles in circumference. + +Many of the best-known examination +jokes are associated with Scriptural +characters. One of the best of these, if also +one of the best known, is that of the man +who, paraphrasing the parable of the Good +Samaritan, and quoting his words to the +innkeeper, ``When I come again I will +repay you,'' added, ``This he said knowing +that he should see his face again no more.'' + +A School Board boy, competing for one +of the Peek prizes, carried this confusion +of widely different events even farther. +He had to write a short biography of +Jonah, and he produced the following: +``He was the father of Lot, and had two +wives. One was called Ishmale and the +other Hagher; he kept one at home, and +he turned the other into the dessert, when +<p 163>she became a pillow of salt in the daytime +and a pillow of fire at night.'' The sketch +of Moses is equally unhistoric: ``Mosses +was an Egyptian. He lived in an ark +made of bullrushes, and he kept a golden +calf and worshipped braizen snakes, and +et nothing but kwales and manna for forty +years. He was caught by the hair of his +head, while riding under the bough of a +tree, and he was killed by his son Absalom +as he was hanging from the bough.'' But +the ignorance of the schoolboy was quite +equalled by the undergraduate who was +asked ``Who was the first king of Israel?'' +and was so fortunate as to stumble on +the name of Saul. Finding by the face +of the examiner that he had hit upon +the right answer, he added confidentially, +``Saul, also called Paul.'' + +The American child, however, managed +to cover a larger space of time in his +confusion when he said, ``Elijah was a good +man, who went up to heaven without +dying, and threw his cloak down for +Queen Elizabeth to step over.'' + +A boy was asked in an examination, +``What did Moses do with the tabernacle?'' +<p 164>and he promptly answered, ``He chucked +it out of the camp.'' The scandalised +examiner asked the boy what he meant, +and was told that it was so stated in the +Bible. On being challenged for the verse, +the boy at once repeated ``And Moses +took the tabernacle and _pitched_ it without +the camp'' (Exod. xxxiii. 7). + +The book might be filled with +extraordinary instances of school translation, +but room must be found for one beautiful +specimen quoted by Moore in his +_Diary_. A boy having to translate +``they ascended by ladders'' into Latin, +turned out this, ``ascendebant per +adolescentiores'' (the comparative degree of +lad, _i.e_., ladder). + +The late Mr. Barrett, Musical Examiner +to the Society of Arts, gave some curious +instances of blundering in his report on +the Examinations of 1887, which is printed +in the _Programme of the Society's +Examinations for_ 1888:-- + +``There were occasional indications that +the terms were misunderstood. `Presto' +signifies `turn over,' `Lento' `with style.' +`Staccato' was said to mean `stick on +<p 165>the notes,' or `notes struck and at once +raised.' + +``The names of composers in order of +time were generally correctly done, but +the particulars concerning the musicians +were rather startling. Thus Purcell was +said to have written, among other things, +an opera called _Ebdon and Eneas_; one +stated that he was born 1543 and died +1595, probably confusing him with Tallis, +that he wrote masses and reformed the +church music; another that he was the +organist of King's College Chapel, and +wrote madrigals. One stated that he was +born 1568 and died 1695; another, not +knowing that he had so long passed the +allotted period of man's existence, gave +his dates 1693, 1685, thus giving him no +limit of existence at all. One said he +was a German, born somewhere in the +nineteenth century, which statement +another confirmed by giving his dates as +1817-1846; and, further, credited him +with the composition of _The Woman of +Samaria_, and as having transposed plain- +song from tenor to bass. Bach is said to +have been the founder of the `Thames +<p 166>School Lipsic,' the composer of the +_Seasons_, the celebrated writer of opera +comique, born 16--, and having gone +through an operation for one of his fingers, +turned his attention to composition, wrote +operas, and, lastly, that he was born in +1756, and died 1880, and that his fame +rests on his passions. + +``The facts about Handel are pretty +correct; but we find that Weber wrote +_Parsifal, The Flying Dutchman, Der Ring +der Nibulengon_. His dates are 1813-1883. +Mendelssohn was born 1770, died 1827 +(Beethoven's dates), studied under Hadyn +(_sic_), and that he composed many operas. +Gounod is said to be `a rather modern +musician'; he wrote _Othello, Three Holy +Children_, besides _Faust_ and other works. +Among the names given as the composer +of _Nozze di Figaro_ are Donizetti, William +Sterndale Bennett, Gunod, and Sir Mickall +Costa. The particulars concerning the +real composer are equally interesting. +(1) His name is spelt Mozzart, Mosarde, +etc. (2) He was a well-known Italian, wrote +_Medea_, and others. (3) His first opera +was _Idumea, or Idomeo_. (4) He composed +<p 167>_Lieder ohne worte, Don Pasquale, Don +Govianna_, the _Zauberfloat, Feuges_, and +his _Requiem_ is the crowning glory of his +`marvellious carere.' (5) He was a +German, `born 1756, at a very early age.' +If the dates given by another writer be +true (born 1795, died 1659), it is certain +that he must have died before he was +born.'' + +Mr. Barrett again reported in 1889 +some of the strange opinions of those +who came to him to be examined:-- + +``The answers to the question `Who was +Rossini? What influence did he exercise +over the art of music in his time?' brought +to light much curious and interesting +intelligence. His nationality was various. +He was `a German by birth, but was born +at Pesaro in Italy'; `he was born in +1670 and died 1826'; he was a `Frenchman,' +`a noted writer of the French,' +the place of nativity was `Pizzarro in +Genoa'; he was `an Italian, and made +people feel drunk with the sparke and +richness of his melody'; he composed +_Oberon, Don Giovanni; Der Fri<e:>schutz_, +and _Stabet Matar_. He was `an accom<p 168>plished +writer of violin music and produced +some of the prettiest melodies'; +it is `to him we owe the extension of +chords struck together in ar peggio'; he +was `the founder of some institution or +another'; `the great aim of his life was +to make the music he wrote an interpretation +of the words it was set to'; he +`broke many of the laws of music'; he +`considerable altered the stage'; he +`was noted for using many instruments +not invented before'; in his `composition +he used the chromatic scale very +much, and goes very deep in harmony'; +he `was the first taking up the style, and +therefore to make a great change in +music'; he was `the cause of much censure +and bickering through his writings'; +he `promoted a less strict mode of writing +and other beneficial things'; and, finally, +`Giachono Rossini was born at Pezarro +in 1792. In the year 1774 there was war +raging in Paris between the Gluckists and +Piccinists. Gluck wanted to do away with +the old restraint of the Italian aria, and +improve opera from a dramatic point of +view. Piccini remained true to the old +<p 169>Italian style, and Rossini helped him to +carry it on still further by his operas, +_Tancredi, William Tell_, and _Dorma del +Lago_.' '' + +The child who gave the following brilliant +answer to the question, ``What was +the character of Queen Mary?'' must +have suffered herself from the troubles +supposed to be connected with the +possession of a stepmother: ``She was wilful +as a girl and cruel as a woman, but'' (adds +the pupil) ``what can you expect from any +one who had had five stepmothers?'' + +The greatest confusion among the +examined is usually to be found in the +answers to historical and geographical +questions. All that one boy knew about +Nelson was that he ``was buried in +St. Paul's Cathedral amid the groans of +a dying nation.'' The student who mixed +up Oliver Cromwell with Thomas Cromwell's +master Wolsey produced this strange +answer: ``Oliver Cromwell is said to have +exclaimed, as he lay a-dying, If I had +served my God as I served my king, He +would not have left me to mine enemies.'' +Miss Graham relates in the _University +<p 170>Correspondent_ an answer which contains +the same confusion with a further one +added: ``Wolsey was a famous general +who fought in the Crimean War, and who, +after being decapitated several times, said +to Cromwell, Ah! if I had only served +you as you have served me, I would +not have been deserted in my old age.'' +``The Spanish Armada,'' wrote a young +man of seventeen, ``took place in the +reign of Queen Anne; she married Philip +of Spain, who was a very cruel man. +The Spanish and the English fought very +bravely against each other. The English +wanted to conquer Spain. Several battles +were fought, in which hundreds of the +English and Spanish were defeated. They +lost some very large ships, and were at a +great loss on both sides.'' + +The following description of the Nile +by a schoolboy is very fine: ``The Nile is +the only remarkable river in the world. +It was discovered by Dr. Livingstone, and +it rises in Mungo Park.'' Constantinople +is described thus: ``It is on the Golden +Horn; a strong fortress; has a University, +and is the residence of Peter the Great. +<p 171>Its chief building is the Sublime Port.'' +Amongst the additions to our geographical +knowledge may be mentioned that Gibraltar +is ``an island built on a rock,'' and +that Portugal can only be reached through +the St. Bernard's Pass ``by means of +sledges drawn by reindeer and dogs.'' +``Turin is the capital of China,'' and +``Cuba is a town in Africa very difficult +of access.'' + +One of the finest answers ever given in +an examination was that of the boy who +was asked to repeat all he knew of Sir +Walter Raleigh. This was it: ``He introduced +tobacco into England, and while +he was smoking he exclaimed, `Master +Ridley, we have this day lighted such a +fire in England as shall never be put +out.' '' Can that, with any sort of justice, +be styled a blunder? + +The rule that ``the King can do no +wrong'' was carried to an extreme length +when a schoolboy blunder of Louis XIV. +was allowed to change the gender of +a French noun. The King said ``un +carosse,'' and that is what it is now. +In Cotgrave's _Dictionary carosse_ appears +<p 172>as feminine, but M<e'>nage notes it as +having been changed from feminine to +masculine. + +It has already been pointed out that +some of the blunders of the examined +are due to the absurdity of the questions +of the examiner. The following excellent +anecdote from the late Archdeacon Sinclair's +_Sketches of Old Times and Distant +Places_ (1875) shows that even when the +question is sound a difficulty may arise +by the manner of presenting it:-- + +``I was one day conversing with Dr. +Williams about schools and school +examinations. He said: `Let me give you +a curious example of an examination at +which I was present in Aberdeen. An +English clergyman and a Lowland Scotsman +visited one of the best parish schools +in that city. They were strangers, but the +master received them civilly, and inquired: +``Would you prefer that I should _speer_ +these boys, or that you should _speer_ them +yourselves?'' The English clergyman +having ascertained that to _speer_ meant to +question, desired the master to proceed. +He did so with great success, and the +<p 173>boys answered numerous interrogatories +as to the Exodus from Egypt. The +clergyman then said he would be glad +in his turn to _speer_ the boys, and began: +``How did Pharaoh die?'' There was +a dead silence. In this dilemma the +Lowland gentleman interposed. ``I think, +sir, the boys are not accustomed to your +English accent,'' and inquired in broad +Scotch, ``Hoo did Phawraoh dee?'' Again +there was a dead silence, till the master +said: ``I think, gentlemen, you can't _speer_ +these boys; I'll show you how.'' And he +proceeded: ``Fat cam to Phawraoh at his +hinder end?'' _i.e_., in his latter days. The +boys with one voice answered, ``He was +drooned''; and a smart little fellow added, +``Ony lassie could hae told you that.'' +The master then explained that in the +Aberdeen dialect ``to dee'' means to die +a natural death, or to die in bed: hence +the perplexity of the boys, who knew that +Pharaoh's end was very different.' '' + +The author is able to add to this chapter +a thoroughly original series of answers to +certain questions relating to acoustics, +light and heat, which Professor Oliver +<p 174>Lodge, F.R.S., has been so kind as to +communicate for this work, and which +cannot fail to be appreciated by his readers. +It must be understood that all these answers +are genuine, although they are not +given _verbatim et literatim_, and in some +instances one answer is made to contain +several blunders. Professor Lodge +expresses the opinion that the questions +might in some instances have been worded +better, so as to exclude several of the +misapprehensions, and therefore that the +answers may be of some service to future +setters of questions. He adds that of late +the South Kensington papers have become +more drearily correct and monotonous, +because the style of instruction now +available affords less play to exuberant +fancy untrammelled by any information +regarding the subject in hand. + + +1880.--ACOUSTICS, LIGHT AND HEAT +PAPER. + + _Science and Art Department_. + + +The following are specimens of answers +given by candidates at recent examinations +in Acoustics, Light and Heat, held in +<p 175>connection with the Science and Art +Department, South Kensington. The +answers have not of course all been +selected from the same paper, neither +have they all been chosen for the same +reason. + +_Question_ I.--State the relations existing +between the pressure, temperature, and +density of a given gas. How is it proved +that when a gas expands its temperature +is diminished? + +_Answer_.--Now the answer to the first +part of this question is, that the square +root of the pressure increases, the square +root of the density decreases, and the +absolute temperature remains about the +same; but as to the last part of the +question about a gas expanding when its +temperature is diminished, I expect I am +intended to say I don't believe a word +of it, for a bladder in front of a fire +expands, but its temperature is not at all +diminished. + +_Question_ 2.--If you walk on a dry path +between two walls a few feet apart, you +hear a musical note or ``ring'' at each +footstep. Whence comes this? +<p 176> + +_Answer_.--This is similar to +phosphorescent paint. Once any sound gets +between two parallel reflectors or walls, +it bounds from one to the other and +never stops for a long time. Hence it is +persistent, and when you walk between +the walls you hear the sounds made by +those who walked there before you. By +following a muffin man down the passage +within a short time you can hear most +distinctly a musical note, or, as it is more +properly termed in the question, a ``ring'' +at every (other) step. + +_Question_ 3.--What is the reason that +the hammers which strike the strings of +a pianoforte are made not to strike the +middle of the strings? Why are the bass +strings loaded with coils of wire? + +_Answer_.--Because the tint of the clang +would be bad. Because to jockey them +heavily. + +_Question_ 4.--Explain how to determine +the time of vibration of a given tuning- +fork, and state what apparatus you would +require for the purpose. + +_Answer_.--For this determination I +should require an accurate watch beating +<p 177>seconds, and a sensitive ear. I mount the +fork on a suitable stand, and then, as +the second hand of my watch passes the +figure 60 on the dial, I draw the bow +neatly across one of its prongs. I wait. +I listen intently. The throbbing air +particles are receiving the pulsations; the +beating prongs are giving up their original +force; and slowly yet surely the sound +dies away. Still I can hear it, but faintly +and with close attention; and now only +by pressing the bones of my head against +its prongs. Finally the last trace +disappears. I look at the time and leave +the room, having determined the time of +vibration of the common ``pitch'' fork. +This process deteriorates the fork +considerably, hence a different operation must +be performed on a fork which is only _lent_. + +_Question_ 6.--What is the difference +between a ``real'' and a ``virtual'' image? +Give a drawing showing the formation of +one of each kind. + +_Answer_.--You see a real image every +morning when you shave. You do not +see virtual images at all. The only people +who see virtual images are those people +<p 178>who are not quite right, like Mrs. A. +Virtual images are things which don't +exist. I can't give you a reliable drawing +of a virtual image, because I never saw +one. + +_Question_ 8.--How would you disprove, +experimentally, the assertion that white +light passing through a piece of coloured +glass acquires colour from the glass? What +is it that really happens? + +_Answer_.--To disprove the assertion (so +repeatedly made) that ``white light passing +through a piece of coloured glass acquires +colour from the glass,'' I would ask the +gentleman to observe that the glass has +just as much colour after the light has +gone through it as it had before. That is +what would really happen. + +_Question_ 11.--Explain why, in order to +cook food by boiling, at the top of a high +mountain, you must employ a different +method from that used at the sea level. + +_Answer_.--It is easy to cook food at the +sea level by boiling it, but once you get +above the sea level the only plan is to fry +it in its own fat. It is, in fact, impossible +to boil water above the sea level by any +<p 179>amount of heat. A different method, +therefore, would have to be employed to +boil food at the top of a high mountain, +but what that method is has not yet been +discovered. The future may reveal it to +a daring experimentalist. + +_Question_ 12.--State what are the +conditions favourable for the formation of dew. +Describe an instrument for determining the +dew point, and the method of using it. + +_Answer_.--This is easily proved from +question 1. A body of gas as it ascends +expands, cools, and deposits moisture; so +if you walk up a hill the body of gas inside +you expands, gives its heat to you, and +deposits its moisture in the form of dew +or common sweat. Hence these are the +favourable conditions; and moreover it +explains why you get warm by ascending +a hill, in opposition to the well-known +law of the Conservation of Energy. + +_Question_ 13.--On freezing water in a +glass tube, the tube sometimes breaks. +Why is this? An iceberg floats with +1,000,000 tons of ice above the water +line. About how many tons are below +the water line? +<p 180> + +_Answer_.--The water breaks the tube +because of capallarity. The iceberg +floats on the top because it is lighter, +hence no tons are below the water line. +Another reason is that an iceberg cannot +exceed 1,000,000 tons in weight: hence +if this much is above water, none is +below. Ice is exceptional to all other +bodies except bismuth. All other bodies +have 1090 feet below the surface and +2 feet extra for every degree centigrade. +If it were not for this, all fish would die, +and the earth be held in an iron grip. + +P.S.--When I say 1090 feet, I mean +1090 feet per second. + +_Question_ 14.--If you were to pour a +pound of molten lead and a pound of +molten iron, each at the temperature of +its melting point, upon two blocks of ice, +which would melt the most ice, and why? + +_Answer_.--This question relates to +diathermancy. Iron is said to be a +diathermanous body (from _dia_, through, and +_thermo_, I heat), meaning that it gets heated +through and through, and accordingly +contains a large quantity of real heat. +Lead is said to be an athermanous body +<p 181>(from _a_, privative, and _thermo_, I heat), +meaning that it gets heated secretly or in +a latent manner. Hence the answer to +this question depends on which will get +the best of it, the real heat of the iron or +the latent heat of the lead. Probably the +iron will smite furthest into the ice, as +molten iron is white and glowing, while +melted lead is dull. + +_Question_ 21.--A hollow indiarubber ball +full of air is suspended on one arm of a +balance and weighed in air. The whole +is then covered by the receiver of an air +pump. Explain what will happen as the +air in the receiver is exhausted. + +_Answer_.--The ball would expand and +entirely fill the vessell, driving out all before +it. The balance being of greater density +than the rest would be the last to go, but +in the end its inertia would be overcome +and all would be expelled, and there would +be a perfect vacuum. The ball would +then burst, but you would not be aware of +the fact on account of the loudness of a +sound varying with the density of the place +in which it is generated, and not on that +in which it is heard. +<p 182> + +_Question_ 27.--Account for the delicate +shades of colour sometimes seen on the +inside of an oyster shell. State and +explain the appearance presented when a +beam of light falls upon a sheet of glass +on which very fine equi-distant parallel +lines have been scratched very close to +one another. + +_Answer_.--The delicate shades are due +to putrefaction; the colours always show +best when the oyster has been a bad one. +Hence they are considered a defect and +are called chromatic aberration. + +The scratches on the glass will arrange +themselves in rings round the light, as any +one may see at night in a tram car. + +_Question_ 29.--Show how the hypothenuse +face of a right-angled prism may be +used as a reflector. What connection is +there between the refractive index of a +medium and the angle at which an emergent +ray is totally reflected? + +_Answer_.--Any face of any prism may +be used as a reflector. The connexion +between the refractive index of +a medium and the angle at which an +emergent ray does not emerge but is +<p 183>totally reflected is remarkable and not +generally known. + +_Question_ 32.--Why do the inhabitants +of cold climates eat fat? How would you +find experimentally the relative quantities +of heat given off when equal weights of +sulphur, phosphorus, and carbon are +thoroughly burned? + +_Answer_.--An inhabitant of cold climates +(called Frigid Zoans) eats fat principally +because he can't get no lean, also because +he wants to rise is temperature. But if +equal weights of sulphur phosphorus and +carbon are burned in his neighbourhood +he will give off eating quite so much. The +relative quantities of eat given off will +depend upon how much sulphur etc. is +burnt and how near it is burned to him. +If I knew these facts it would be an easy +sum to find the answer. + + +1881. + + +_Question_ 1.--Sound is said to travel +about four times as fast in water as in air. +How has this been proved? State your +reasons for thinking whether sound travels +faster or slower in oil than in water. +<p 184> + +_Answer_(_a_).--Mr. Colladon, a gentleman +who happened to have a boat, wrote to a +friend called Mr. Sturm to borrow another +boat and row out on the other side of the +lake, first providing himself with a large +ear-trumpet. Mr. Colladon took a large +bell weighing some tons which he put +under water and hit furiously. Every time +he hit the bell he lit a fusee, and Mr. +Sturm looked at his watch. In this way +it was found out as in the question. + +It was also done by Mr. Byott who sang +at one end of the water pipes of Paris, +and a friend at the other end (on whom he +could rely) heard the song as if it were a +chorus, part coming through the water and +part through the air. + +(_b_) This is done by one person going into +a hall (? a well) and making a noise, and +another person stays outside and listens +where the sound comes from. When Miss +Beckwith saves life from drowning, her +brother makes a noise under water, and +she hearing the sound some time after can +calculate where he is and dives for him; +and what Miss Beckwith can do under +water, of course a mathematician can do +<p 185>on dry land. Hence this is how it is +done. + +If oil is poured on the water it checks +the sound-waves and puts you out. + +_Question_ 2.--What would happen if +two sound-waves exactly alike were to +meet one another in the open air, moving +in opposite directions? + +_Answer_.--If the sound-waves which +meet in the open air had not come from +the same source they would not recognise +each others existence, but if they had they +would embrace and mutually hold fast, in +other words, interfere with and destroy +each other. + +_Question_ 9.--Describe any way in +which the velocity of light has been +measured. + +_Answer_ (_a_).--A distinguished but +Heathen philosopher, Homer, was the first +to discover this. He was standing one day +at one side of the earth looking at Jupiter +when he conjectured that he would take +16 minutes to get to the other side. +This conjecture he then verified by careful +experiment. Now the whole way across +the earth is 3,072,000 miles, and dividing +<p 186>this by 16 we get the velocity 192,000 +miles a second. This is so great that it +would take an express train 40 years to +do it, and the bullet from a canon over +5000 years. + +P.S.--I think the gentlemans name was +Romer not Homer, but anyway he was +20% wrong and Mr. Fahrenheit and Mr. +Celsius afterwards made more careful +determinations. + +(_b_) An Atheistic Scientist (falsely so +called) tried experiments on the Satellites +of Jupiter. He found that he could +delay the eclipse 16 minutes by going to +the other side of the earths orbit; in fact +he found he could make the eclipse +happen when he liked by simply shifting +his position. Finding that credit was +given him for determining the velocity +of light by this means he repeated it +so often that the calendar began to +get seriously wrong and there were +riots, and Pope Gregory had to set things +right. + +_Question_ 10.--Explain why water pipes +burst in cold weather. + +_Answer_.--People who have not studied +<p 187>Acoustics think that Thor bursts the pipes, +but we know that it is nothing of the kind +for Professor Tyndall has burst the +mythologies and has taught us that it is the +natural behaviour of water (and bismuth) +without which all fish would die and the +earth be held in an iron grip, + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FOREIGNERS' ENGLISH. + +IT is not surprising that foreigners +should make mistakes when +writing in English, and Englishmen, +who know their own deficiencies in +this respect, are not likely to be +censorious when foreigners fall into these +blunders. But when information is printed +for the use of Englishmen, one would +think that the only wise plan was to have +the composition revised by one who is +thoroughly acquainted with the language. +That this natural precaution is not always +taken we have ample evidence. Thus, at +Havre, a polyglot announcement of certain +local regulations was posted in the harbour, +and the notice stood as follows in French: +``Un arrangement peut se faire avec le +pilote pour de promenades <a!> rames.'' The +following very strange translation into +<p 189>English appeared below the French: +``One arrangement can make himself +with the pilot for the walking with roars.'' + +The papers distributed at international +exhibitions are often very oddly worded. +Thus, an agent in the French court of +one of these, who described himself as +an ``Ancient Commercial Dealer,'' stated +on a handbill that ``being appointed by +Tenants of the Exhibition to sell Show +Cases, Frames, &c., which this Court +incloses, I have the honour to inform +Museum Collectors, Librarians, Builders, +Shopkeepers, and business persons in +general, that the fixed prices will hardly be +the real value of the Glasses which adorn +them.'' + +In 1864 was published in Paris a +pretentious work, consisting of notices of +the various literary and scientific societies +of the world, which positively swarms with +blunders in the portion devoted to England. +The new forms into which well-known +names are transmogrified must be seen to +be believed. Wadham College is printed +_Washam_, Warwick as _Worwick_; and one +of our metropolitan parks is said to be +<p 190>dedicated to a saint whose name does +not occur in any calendar, viz., _St. Jam's +Park_. There is the old confusion respecting +English titles which foreigners +find so difficult to understand; and +monsieur and esquire usually appear +respectively before and after the names of +the same persons. The Christian names +of knights and baronets are omitted, so +that we obtain such impossible forms as +``Sir Brown.'' + +The book is arranged geographically, +and in all cases the English word ``shire'' +is omitted, with the result that we come +upon such an extremely curious monster +as ``le Comt<e'> de Shrop.'' + +On the very first page is made the +extraordinary blunder of turning the Cambrian +Arch<ae>ological Association into a _Cambridge_ +Society; while the Parker Society, +whose publications were printed at the +University Press, is entered under +_Canterbury_. It is possible that the Latin name +_Cantabrigia_ has originated this mistake. +The Roxburgh Society, although its +foundation after the sale of the magnificent +library of the Duke of Roxburgh is cor<p 191>rectly +described, is here placed under the +county of Roxburgh. The most amusing +blunder, however, in the whole book is +contained in the following charmingly +na<i:>ve piece of etymology _<a!> propos_ of the +Geological and Polytechnic Society of the +West Riding of Yorkshire: ``On sait qu'en +Anglais le mot _Ride_ se traduit par +voyage <a!> cheval ou en voiture; on pourrait +peut-<e^>tre penser, d<e!>s le d<e'>but, qu'il s'agit +d'une Soci<e'>t<e'> hippique. II n'en est rien; +<a!> l'exemple de l'Association Britannique, +dont elle,'' etc. This pairs off well with +the translation of _Walker, London_, given +on a previous page. + +The Germans find the same difficulty +with English titles that the French do, +and confuse the Sir at the commencement +of our letters with Herr or Monsieur. +Thus, they frequently address Englishmen +as _Sir_, instead of mister or esquire. We +have an instance of this in a publication +of no less a learned body than the Royal +Academy of Sciences of Munich, who +issued in 1860 a ``Rede auf Sir Thomas +Babington Macaulay.'' + +An hotel-keeper at Bale translated +<p 192>``limonade gazeuse'' as ``gauze lemonads"; +and the following delightful entry +is from the Travellers' Book of the Drei +Mohren Hotel at Augsburg, under date +Jan. 28th, 1815: ``His Grace Arthur +Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, &c., &c., +&c. Great honour arrived at the beginning +of this year to the three Moors. This +illustrious warrior, whose glorious +atchievements which cradled in Asia have filled +Europe with his renown, descended in it.'' +It may be thought that, as this is not +printed, but only written, it is scarcely fair +to preserve it here; but it really is too +good to leave out. + +The keepers of hotels are great sinners +in respect to the manner in which they +murder the English language. The following +are a few samples of this form of +literature, and most readers will recall +others that they have come across in their +travels. + +The first is from Salzburg:-- + +``George Nelb<o:>ck begs leave to recommand +his hotel to the Three Allied, situated +_vis-<a!>-vis_ of the birth house of Mozart, which +offers all comforts to the meanest charges. +<p 193> + +The next notice comes from Rastadt:-- + + ``ADVICE OF AN HOTEL. + + +``The underwritten has the honour of +informing the publick that he has made +the acquisition of the hotel to the Savage, +well situated in the middle of this city. +He shall endeavour to do all duties which +gentlemen travellers can justly expect; +and invites them to please to convince +themselves of it by their kind lodgings at +his house. + + ``BASIL + ``JA. SINGESEM. + + ``Before the tenant of the Hotel to + the Stork in this city.'' + + +Whatever may be the ambition of mine +host at Pompeii, it can scarcely be the +fame of an English scholar:-- + + ``Restorative Hotel Fine Hok, + Kept by Frank Prosperi, + Facing the military quarter + at Pompei. + +That hotel open since a very few days is +renowned for the cheapness of the Apart<p 194>ments +and linen, for the exactness of the +service, and for the excellence of the true +French cookery. Being situated at proximity +of that regeneration, it will be propitious +to receive families, whatever, which +will desire to reside alternatively into that +town to visit the monuments now found +and to breathe thither the salubrity of the +air. That establishment will avoid to all +travellers, visitors of that sepult city and +to the artists (willing draw the antiquities) +a great disorder occasioned by tardy and +expensive contour of the iron whay people +will find equally thither a complete sortment +of stranger wines and of the kingdom, +hot and cold baths, stables, coach houses, +the whole at very moderated prices. Now +all the applications and endeavours of the +Hoste will tend always to correspond to +the tastes and desires of their customers +which will require without doubt to him +into that town the reputation whome, he +is ambitious.'' + +On the occasion of the Universal +Exhibition of Barcelona in 1888 the _Moniteur +de l'Exposition_ printed a description of +Barcelona in French, German, Spanish, +<p 195>and English. The latter is so good that +it is worthy of being printed in full:-- + +``Then there will be in the same Barcelona +the first universal Exposition of +Spain. It was not possible to choose a +more favorable place, for the capital- +town of Catalonia is a first-rate city open +to civilization. + +``It is quite out of possibility to deny it +to be the industrial and commercial capital +of the peninsula and a universal Exposition +could not possibly meet in any other +place a more lively splendour than in this +magnificent town. + +``Indeed what may want Barcelona to +deserve to be called great and handsome? +Are here not to be found archeological +and architectural riches, whose specimens +are inexhaustible? + +``What are then those churches whose +style it is impossible to find elsewhere, +containing altars embellished with truly +spanish magnificence, and so large and +imposing cloisters, that there feels any +man himself exceedingly small and little? +What those shaded promenades, where +the sun cannot almost get through with +<p 196>the golden tinge of its rays? what this +Rambla where every good citizen of +Barcelona must take his walk at least +once every day, in order to accomplish the +civic pilgrimage of a true Catalanian? + +``And that Paseo Colon, so picturesque +with its palmtrees and electric light, +which makes it like, in the evening, a +theatrical decoration, and whose ornament +has been very happily just finished? + +``And that statue of Christopher +Colomb, whose installation will be +accomplished in a very short time, whose price +may be 500,000 francs? + +``Are not there still a number of proud +buildings, richly ornamented, and splendid +theaters? one of them, perhaps the +most beautiful, surely the largest (it +contains 5000 places) the Liceo, is truly +a master-pi<e!>ce, where the spectators are +lost in admiration of the riches, the +ornaments, the pictures and feel a true +regret to turn their eyes from them to +look at the stage. + +``You will see coffee houses, where have +been spent hundreds of thousands to +change their large rooms in enchanted +<p 197>halls with which it would be difficult to +contest even for the palaces of east. + +``And still in those little streets, now +very few, so narrow that the inhabitants +of their opposite houses can shake hands +together, do you not know that doors +may be found which open to yards and +staircases worthy of palaces? + +``Do you not know there are plenty of +sculptures, every one of them masterpieces, +and that, especially the town +and deputation house contain some halls +which would make meditate all our great +masters? + +``If we walk through the Catalonia- +square to reach the Ensanche, our +astonishment becomes still greater. + +``In this Ensanche, a newly-born, but +already a great town, there are no streets: +there are but promenades with trees on +both sides, which not only moderate the +rays of the sun through their follage, but +purify the surrounding atmosphere and +seem to say to those who are walking +beneath their shade: You are breathing +here the purest air! + +``There display the houses plenty of +<p 198>the rarest sorts of marble. Out and +indoors rules marble, the ceilings of the +halls, the staircases, the yards command +and force admiration to the spectator, +who thought to see only houses and finds +monumental buildings. + +``Join to that a Paseo de Gracia with +immense perspective; the promenade of +Cortes, 10 kil. long; some free squares +by day- and night-time, in which the rarest +plants and the sweetest flowers enchant +the passengers eyes and enbalm his +smell. + +``Join lastly the neighbourhoods, but a +short way from the town and put on all +sides in communication with it by means +of tramways-lines and steam-tramways +too; those places show a very charming +scenery for every one who likes natural +beauties mingled with those which are +created by the genius of man. + +``After that all there is Monjuich, whose +proud fortress seems to say: I protect +Barcelona: half-way the slope of the +mountain, there are Miramar, Vista +Alegre, which afford one of the grandest +panorama in the world: on the left side, +<p 199>the horizon skirting, some hills which +form a girdle, whose indented tops detach +them selves from an ever-blue sky; at +the foot of those mountains, the suburbs +we have already mentioned, created for +the rest and enjoyment of man after his +accomplished duty and finished work; +on the lowest skirt Barcelona in a flame +with its great buildings, steeples, towers, +houses ornamented with flat terraces, and +more than all that, its haven, which had +been, to say so, conquered over the +Mediterranean and harbors daily in itself +a large number of ships. + +``All this ideal Whole is concentrated +beneath an enchanting sky, almost as +beautiful as the sky of Italy. The climate +of Barcelona is very much like Nice, the +pretty. + +``Winter is here unknown; in its place +there rules a spring, which allows every +plant to bud, every most delicate flower +to blossom, orangetrees and roses, throughout +the whole year. + +``In one word, Barcelona is a magnificent +town, which is about to offer to the +world a splendid, universal Exposition, +<p 200>whose success is quite out of doubt +determined.'' + +At the Paris Exhibition of 1889 a +_Practical Guide_ was produced for the +benefit of the English visitor, which is +written throughout in the most astonishing +jargon, as may be seen from the +opening sentences of the ``Note of the +Editor,'' which run as follows: ``The +Universal Exhibition, for whom who comes +there for the first time, is a true chaos +in which it is impossible to direct and +recognize one's self without a guide. +What wants the stranger, the visitor who +comes to the Exhibition, it is a means +which permits him to see all without +losing uselessly his time in the most part +vain researches.'' + +This is the account of the first +conception of the Exhibition: ``Who was +giving the idea of the Exhibition? The +first idea of an Exhibition of the +Centenary belongs in reality not to anybody. +It was in the air since several years, when +divers newspapers, in 1883, bethought +them to consecrate several articles to it, +and so it became a serious matter. The +<p 201>period of incubation (brooding) lasted +since 1883 till the month of March 1884; +when they considered the question they +preoccupied them but about a National +Exhibition. Afterwards the ambition +increased. The ministery, then presided +by Mr. Jules Ferry, thought that if they +would give to this commercial and industrial +manifestation an international character +they would impose the peace not +only to France, but to the whole world.'' + +The Eiffel Tower gives occasion for +some particularly fine writing: ``In order +to attire the stranger, to create a great +attraction which assured the success of +the Exhibition, it wanted something +exceptional, unrivalled, extraordinary. An +engineer presented him, Mr. Eiffel, already +known by his considerable and keen +works. He proposed to M. Locroy to +erect a tower in iron which, reaching the +height of three hundred metres, would +represent, at the industrial sight, the +resultant of the modern progresses. M. +Locroy reflected and accepted. Hardly +twenty years ago, this project would have +appeared fantastic and impossible. The +<p 202>state of the science of the iron +constructions was not advanced enough, the +security given by the calculations was not +yet assured; to-day, they know where +they are going, they are able to count the +force of the wind. The resistance which +the iron opposes to it. Mr. Eiffel came +at the proper time, and nevertheless how +many people have prophetized that the +tower would never been constructed. +How many critics have fallen upon this +audacious project! It was erected, +however, and one perceives it from all Paris; +it astonishes and lets in extasy the +strangers who come to contemplate it.'' + +The figures attached to the fountain +under the tower are comically described +as follows:-- + +``Europe under the lines of a woman, +leaned upon a printing press to print and +a book, seems deeped in reflections. + +``America is young woman, energetic and +virginal however, characterising the youth +and the audacies of the American people. + +``Asia, the cradle of the human kind, +represents the volupty and the sensualism. +Her posture, the expression of her figure, +<p 203>render well the abandonment of the passion +with the oriental people. + +``Africa represented by a figure of a +woman in a timid attitude, is well the +symbol of the savage people enslaved by +the civilisation. + +``Australia finally is figured by a woman +buttressed on herself, like an animal not +yet tamed, ready to throw itself on its +prey, without waiting to be attacked. . . . + +``Above Asia and Africa, the Love and +the Sleep, in the shade of a floating +drapery. Finally, between Europe and +America, a young girl symbolises the +History.'' + +The author commences the account +of his first walk as follows: ``Thus we +begin, at present as we have let him see +these two wonderworks which fly at the +eyes, the Tower and the fountain, to return +on his steps to retake with order this walk +of recognition which will permit him, +thanks to our watchfulness, to see all in +a short time.'' + +``The History of the human dwelling'' +is introduced thus: ``It is the moment +or never to walk among the surprising +<p 204>restitution, of which M. Garnier the +eminent architect of the Opera has made +him the promoter. On our left going +along the flower-beds from the Tower till +here, the constructions of the History of +the human Dwelling is unfolded to our +eyes. The human Dwelling in all countries +and in all times, there is certainly +an excellent subject of study. Without +doubt the great works do not fail, where +conscientious plates enable us to know +exactly in which condition where living +our ancestors, how their dwellings where +disposed in the interior. But nothing +approaches the demonstration by the +materiality of the fact, and it is struck +with this truth that the organisators of +the Exhibition resolved to erect an +improvisated town, including houses of all +countries and all latitudes.'' + +The author finishes up his little work +in the same self-satisfied manner, which +shows how unconscious he was that he +was writing rubbish:-- + +``There is finished our common walk, +and in a happy way, after six days which +we dare believe it did not seem to you +<p 205>long, and tiresome, your curiosity finding +a constant aliment at every step which we +made you do, in this exhibition without +rivalry, where the beauties succeed to +the beauties, where one leaves not one +pleasure but for a new one. As for us, +our task of cicerone is too agreeable +to us, that we shall do our best to +retain you still near us, in efforcing us +to discover still other spectacles, and to +present you them after all those you +know already.'' + +If it be absurd to give information to +Englishmen in a queer jargon which it is +difficult for him to understand, what must +be said of those who attempt to teach a +language of which they are profoundly +ignorant? Most of us can call to mind +instances of exceedingly unidiomatic +sentences which have been presented to +our notice in foreign conversation books; +but certainly the most extraordinary of +this class of blunders are to be found in +the _New Guide of the Conversation in +Portuguese and English_, by J. de Fonseca +and P. Carolino, which created some +stir in the English press a few years +<p 206>ago.[14] The authors do not appear to +have had even the most distant acquaintance +with either the spoken or written +language, so that many of the sentences +are positively unintelligible, although +the origin of many of them may be +found in a literal translation of certain +French sentences. One chapter of this +wonderful book is devoted to _Idiotisms_, +which is a singularly appropriate title +for such odd English proverbs as the +following:-- + + + [14] A selection from this book was printed by +Messrs. Field & Tuer under the title of _English +as she is spoke_. + + + +``The necessity don't know the low.'' + +``To build castles in Espaguish.'' + +``So many go the jar to spring, than at +last rest there.'' + +(A little further on we find another +version of this well-known proverb: ``So +much go the jar to spring that at last it +break there.'') + +``The stone as roll not heap up not +foam.'' + +``He is beggar as a church rat.'' + +``To come back at their muttons.'' +<p 207> + +``Tell me whom thou frequent, I will +tell you which you are.'' + +The apparently incomprehensible sentence +``He sin in trouble water'' is explained +by the fact that the translator +confused the two French words _p<e'>cher_, +to sin, and _p<e^>cher_, to fish. + +The classification adopted by the +authors cannot be considered as very +scientific. The only colours catalogued +are _white, cray, gridelin, musk_ and _red_; +the only ``music's instruments''--_a +flagelet, a dreum_, and a _hurdy-gurdy_. +``Common stones'' appear to be _loadstones, +brick, white lead_, and _gumstone_. +But probably the list of ``Chastisements'' +is one of the funniest things in this Guide +to Conversation. The list contains _a fine, +honourable fine, to break upon, to tear off +the flesh, to draw to four horses_. + +The anecdotes chosen for the instruction +of the unfortunate Portuguese youth are +almost more unintelligible than the rest +of the book, and probably the following +two anecdotes could not be matched in +any other printed book:-- + +``The Commander Forbin of Janson, +<p 208>being at a repast with a celebrated +Boileau, had undertaken to pun upon +her name:--`What name, told him, carry +you thither? Boileau: I would wish +better to call me Drink wine.' The poet +was answered him in the same tune:-- +`And you, sir, what name have you choice? +Janson: I should prefer to be named +John-meal. The meal don't is valuable +better than the furfur.''' + +The next is as good:-- + +``Plato walking one's self a day to the +field with some of their friends. They +were to see him Diogenes who was in +water untill the chin. The superficies +of the water was snowed, for the rescue +of the hole that Diogenes was made. +Don't look it more told them Plato, and +he shall get out soon.'' + +A large volume entitled _Polugl<o^>ssos_ was +published in Belgium in 1841, which is +even more misleading and unintelligible +than the Portuguese School Book. The +English vocabulary contains some amazing +words, such as _agridulce, ales of troops, +ancientness sign, bivacq fire, breast's pellicule, +chimney black money, infatuated compass, +<p 209>iug_ (vocal), _window, umbrella_, etc. At +the end of this vocabulary are these +notes:-- + +``Look the abridged introduction +exeptless for the english editions, foregoing +the french postcript, next after the title +page. Just as the numbers, the names +of cities, states, seas, mountains and +rivers, the christian names of men and +woman, and several synonimous, who +enter into the composition of many +english words, suppressed in the former +vocabulary, are explained by the respective +categorys and appointed at the general +index, look also by these, what is not +found here above.'' + +``_Version alternative_. See for the shorter +introduction exeptless for the english +editions, foregoing the french postscript +next after the title page. Just as the +numbers &c. . . . their expletives are +be given by the respective categorys, and +appointed at the general index, to wich +is sent back!'' + +We are frequently told that foreigners +are much better educated than we are, +and that the trade of the world is slipping +<p 210>through our fingers because we are not +taught languages as the foreigners are. +This may be so, but one cannot help +believing that the dullest of English +clerks would be able to hold his own +in competition with the ingenious youths +who are taught foreign languages on the +system adopted by Senhors Fonseca +and Carolino, and by the compiler of +_Polugl<o^>ssos_. + +Guides to a foreign town or country +written in English by a foreigner are +often very misleading; in fact, sometimes +quite incomprehensible. A contributor +to the _Notes and Queries_ sent to that +periodical some amusing extracts from a +Guide to Amsterdam. The following few +lines from a description of the Assize +Court give a fair idea of the language:-- + +``The forefront has a noble and sublime +aspect, and is particularly characteristical +to what it ought to represent. It +is built in a division of three fronts in +the corinthic order, each of them consists +of four raising columns, resting upon a +general basement from the one end of +the forefront to the other, and supporting +<p 211>a cornish, equalling running all over the +face.''[15] + + + [15] _Notes and Queries_, First Series, iii 347. + + + +When it was known that Louis XVIII. +was to be restored to the throne of France, +a report was circulated that the Duke of +Clarence (afterwards William IV.) would +take the command of the vessel which was +to convey the king to Calais. The people +of that town were in a fever of expectation, +and having decided to sing _God save +the King_ in honour of their English visitor, +they thought that it would be an additional +compliment if they supplemented it with +an entirely new verse, which ran as +follows:-- + + ``God save noble Clar<e'>nce, + Who brings our King to France, + God save Clar<e'>nce; + He maintains the glor<y'> + Of the British nav<y'>, + Oh God, make him happ<y'>, + God save Clar<e'>nce.''[16] + + + [16] _Ibid_., iv. 131. + + +In continuation of the story, it may be +said that the Duke did not go to Calais, +<p 212>and that therefore the anthem was not +sung. + +The composer of this strange verse +succeeded in making pretty fair English, +even if his rhymes were somewhat deficient +in correctness. This was not the case +with a rather famous inscription made by +a Frenchman. Monsieur Girardin, who +inscribed a stone at Ermenonville in +memory of our once famous poet Shenstone, +was not stupid, but rather preternaturally +clever. This inscription is +above all praise for the remarkable manner +in which the rhymes appeal to the eye +instead of the ear; and moreover it shows +how world-famous was that charming +garden at Leasowes, near Halesowen, +which is now only remembered by the +few:-- + + + ``This plain stone + To William Shenstone. + In his writings he display's + A mind natural. + At Leasowes he laid + Arcadian greens rural.'' + + + +Dr. Moore, having on a certain occasion +excused himself to a Frenchman for using +<p 213>an expression which he feared was not +French, received the reply, ``Bon monsieur, +mais il m<e'>rite bien de l'<e^>tre.'' Of these +lines it is impossible to paraphrase this +polite answer, for we cannot say that they +deserve to be English. + + + + +INDEX. + +Adder _for_ nadder, 7. +Afghan _for_ Anglican, 148. +Agassiz, _Zoological Biography_, blunder in, 64. +Alison's (Sir Archibald) blunder, 34. +Ampulle (Sainte), 35 +Amsterdam, Guide to, 210. +Anderson (Andrew), his disgraceful printing of the Bible, 141. +Apostrophe, importance of an, 121. +Apron _for_ napron, 7. +_Arabian Nights_, translations of, 45. +Arden (Pepper), 60. +Arlington (Lord), his title taken from the village of Harlington, 8. +Artaxerxes, 54. +Ash's Dictionary, 9, 10. +Averrhoes, 54. + +Babington's (Bishop) _Exposition of the Lord's Prayer_, 92. +_Bachaumont, M<e'>moires de_, 33. +Baly's (Dr.) translation of M<u:>ller's _Physiology_, 51. + +<p 216> + +Barcelona Exhibition (1883), 194 +Barker (Robert) and Martin Lucas fined for + leaving _not_ out of the Seventh Commandment, 136. +Bellarmin, misprints in his works, 79. +Benserade's joke, 97. +Bible, blunders in the printing of the, 135. +----incorrect translations of passages in, 58. +----the ``Wicked'' Bible, 136. +_Bibliographical Blunders_ 63 - 77 +Bismarck's (Prince) endeavours to keep on good + terms with all the Powers, 145. +Blades's (W.) _Shakspere and Typography_, 104. +Blunder, knowledge necessary to make a, 2. +Blunders, amusing mistakes, 1. +_Blunders in General_, 1-30. +----_of Authors_, 31 -46. +----_of Translators_, 47-62. +----(_Bibliographical_), 63-77. +----(_Schoolboys_'), 157-187. +Boehm's tract on the Boots of Isaiah, 71. +Boyle (Robert) becomes Le Boy, 72. +Brandenburg (Elector of) and Father Wolff, 20. +Brathwaite's (R.) _Strappado for the Divell_, 94. +Breton's (Nicholas) tracts, 81. +----_Wit of Wit_, 93. +_Bride (La) de Lammermuir_, 49. +Brigham le jeune _for_ Brigham Young, 67. +Britton's _Tunbridge Wells_, 37. +Broch (J. K.), an imaginary author, 64. +Buckingham's (J. Silk) anecdote of a wilful + misprint, 140. +<p 217> +Bulls, a sub-class of blunders, 24. +----made by others than Irishmen, 25. +----(Negro), 26. +Burton (Hill) on bulls, 29. +Butler's (S.) allusion to corrupted texts, 135. +----misprints in his lines, 127. +Byron's _Childe Harold_, persistent misprint in, 134. + +C<ae>soris (Mr. C. J.), 73. +Calamities _for_ Calamites, 116 +Calpensis (Flora) not an authoress, 68. +Campbell's (Lord) supposed criticism of _Romeo and Juliet_, 46. +_Campion, Death and Martyrdom of_, 81. +Camus, an imaginary author, 65. +Canons _for_ chanoines, 48. +Capo Basso, 48. +Cardan's treatise _De Subtilitate_ without a misprint, 97 +Careme, _Le Patissier Pittoresque_, 74. +Cartwright (Major), 60. +Castlemaine's (Lord) _English Globe_, 87. +Chaucer's works, misprints in, 153. +Chelsea porcelain, 43. +Chernac's _Mathematical Tables_, 144. +Cicero's (Mr. Tul.) _Epistles_, 72. +----_Offices_, 51. +Cinderella and the glass slipper, 57. +Classification, blunders in, 73. +Clement XIV. (Pope), 26. +Clerk (P. K.) _for_ Rev. Patrick Keith, 69. +Cockeram's _English Dictionarie_, 11. + +<p 218> +Collier (John Payne), blunder made in a + newspaper account of his burial, 127. +Contractions, ignorant misreading of, 124. +Coquilles, specimens of, 147. +Correspondence, etymology of, 9. +Cow cut into _calves_, 129. +Cowley's allusion to corrupted texts, 135, +Cromwells, confusion of the two, 169. +Cross readings, 24. +Cruikshank's (George) real name supposed to be + Simon Pure, 70. +Curmudgeon, etymology of, 10. + +_Damn<e'> et Calive_, 49. +Darius, 54 +Dekker's _Satiro-Mastix_, errata to, 80. +Deleted _for_ delited in Shakespeare, 115. +De Morgan, on authors correcting their own + proofs, 89. +D'Israeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, 68, 69. +Do part _for_ depart, 8. +Donis (Nicholas), an imaginary author, 66. +Dorus Basilicus, an imaginary author, 65. +Dotet in trouble, 55. +Drayton, misreading of, 6. + +Edgeworth's _Essay on Irish Bulls_, 28. +Emendations of editors, 23. +_English as she is Spoke_, 206. +_English as she is Taught_, 160. +Enrichi de Deux Listes (Mons.), 68. +Erekmann-Chatrian's _Conscript_, 56. + +<p 219> +_Errata (lists of_), 78-99. +Estienne's (Henri) joke over a misprint, 152. +Etymologies (absurd), 9. +Ewing's (Bishop) _Argyllshire Seaweeds_, 74. +Examined, blunders of the, 157. + +Faith, definition of, 158 +Faraday (_Sir_ Michael), 41. +Featley's (Dr. Daniel) _Romish Fisher Caught in + his own Net_, 96. +Field the printer's blunders, 139. +_Finis Coronat opus_, 61. +Fitzgerald (Fighting), 32. +Fletcher's _The Nice Valour_, 96. +Fonseca and Carolino, _Guide of the Conversation_, 205. +_Foreigners' English_, 188-213. +Foulis's edition of Horace, 98. +French kings, anointing of the, 35. + +Galt's _Lives of the Players_, 45 +Garnett's _Florilegium Amantis_, 75. +Gascoigne's (George) _Droomme of Doomes Day_, 91. +Ghost words, 2. +Girardin's epitaph on Shenstone at Ermenonville, 212. +Gladstone's (Mr.) _Gleanings of Past Years_, 38. +Glanvill's (Joseph) _Essays_, 86. +``God save the King,'' new verse by a Frenchman, 211. +Goldsmith's blunders, 31, + +<p 220> +Goldsmith's _Deserted Village_, translation of a line in, 56. +Gordon (J. E. H.) and B. A. Cantab, 69. +Greatrakes (Valentine), blunder in his name, 118. +Greeley's (Horace) bad writing, 126. +Grolier not a binder, 19. + +Haggard 's (Rider) _King Solomon's Mines_, 74. +Hales's (Prof.) observations on misprints, 131. +Hall's (John) _Hor<ae> Vaciv<ae>_, 117. +Halliwell-Phillipps' _Dictionary of Misprints_, 80, 101. +Harrison's (Peter) bull, 29. +Henri II. not a potter, 19. +Herodote et aussi Jazon, 49. +Heywood's (Thomas) _Apology for Actors_, 83. +Hirudo _for_ hirundo, 48. +_Hit or Miss_, 53. +Holy Gruel _for_ Holy Grail, 149. +Homeric poems, author of the, 158. +Hood's lines on misprints, 151. +Hood (Thomas), _Geometricall Instrument called a Sector_, 82. +Hook's (Dean) bad writing, 123. +Hooker's _Ecclesiastical Polity_, corrections by the author, 93. +Hopton's (Arthur) _Baculum Geod<oe>ticum Viaticum_, 83. +Horse-shoeing husbandry _for_ horse hoeing, 149. +Hotel-keepers' English, 192. +Howell's (J.) _Deudrologia_, 75. +Huet, ``ancient'' Bishop of Avranch, 51. + + +<p 221> +Hugo's (Victor) translation, 50. +Hunt's (Leigh) specimens of misprints, 148. +Hyett s{sic} _Flowers from the South_, 74. + +Ibn Roshd = Averrhoes, 54 +Immoral _for_ immortal, 120. +_Independent Whig_, 53. +``Indifferent justice,'' 42. +Insurrection _for_ resurrection, 133. + +Jefferies (Judge) said to have presided at the trial + of Charles I., 37. +Job's wish that his adversary had written a book, 58. +Jonson's (Ben) _Every Man in his Humour_, 95. +Juvenal, edition of, with the first printed errata, 78. + +Lamartine's _Girondins_, translation of, 54. +Lamb's _Tales from Shakespeare_, 45. +Lane's (E. W.) good writing, 123. +La Rochefoucauld _as_ Ruchfucove, 53. +Layamon's Brat _for_ Brut, 149. +Le Berceau, an imaginary author, 67 +Leigh's (Edward) table of errata, 79. +Leviticus supposed to be a man, 17. +Leycester's (Sir Peter) _Historical Antiquities_, 97. +Littleton's Latin Dictionary, 10. +Lodge's (Prof. Oliver) series of examination papers 174 +Logotypes, 113. + +<p 222> +London (William) not a bishop, 67. +Louis XIV., blunder of, 171. +----_Secret Memoirs of the Court of_, blunder in 55 +_Louis XVIII., M<e'>moires de_, blundes in, 33. +_Love's Last Shift_, 52. + +Macaulay's blunder as to the _Faerie Queene_, 39. +----opinion of Goldsmith's blunders, 31. +Malherbe's epitaph on Rosette, 145. +Mantissa, an imaginary author, 67. +Marmontel's _Moral Tales_, 51. +Maroni's (P. V.) _The Opera_, 73. +Marriage Service, misprint in, 8. +Marvell's _Rehearsal Transprosed_, 122. +_Men of the Time_, misFrint in, 155. +M<e'>nage on bad writirlg, 122. +Mephistopheles, 151. +Milton said to have written the _Inferno_, 42 +_Misprints_, 100-156. +----(intentional), 155. +Mispronunciations, 22. +Misquotations, 21. +_Miss<ae> ac Misselis Anatomia_, 1561, book with + fifteen pages of errata, 79. +_Mistakes, A New Booke of_, 1637, 24. +Monosyllabic titles, 40. +Morgan's (Silvanus) _Horologiographia Optica_, 85. +Morton's _Natural History of Northamptonshire_, 89. +_Mourning Bride_, 52. +Murray's (Dr.) ghost words, 6. + +<p 223> +Murrell's _Cookery_, 1632, 112. +Musical Examinations, blunders in, 164 + +Napier's bones, 38. +Napoleon III. said to be Consul in 1853, 35 +Nash's _Lenten Stuffe_, 93. +Nicholson (Dr. Brinsley) on authors correcting + their own proofs, go, 95. +Nicolai a man not a place, 65. +Nova Scotia _for_ New Caledonia, 51. + +Oxford Music Hall supposed to be at Oxford, 17. + +Paine (Tom) confused with Thomas Payne, 67. +Paris Exhibition 1889, English guide to, 200. +Passagio (G.) not an author, 68. +Peacham's (Henry) _The Mastive_, 95. +Pickle (Sir Peregrine), 34. +Picus of Mirandula, edition of his works has the + longest list of errata on record, 78. +Playford's John) _Vade Mecum_, 87. +Poluglossos, 208. +Pope's lines, misprint in, 125. +Porcelain, etymology of, 9. +Porson's _Catechism of the Swinish Multitude_, 130. +Printers' upper and lower cases, 110, 111. +Proofs corrected by authors in the sixteenth and + seventeenth centuries, 89. + +Prynne's _Brevia Parliamentaria_, 60. +Pythagoras as Peter Gower, {no page #} + +Rabelais' blunder, 146. + +<p 224> +Raleigh (Sir Walter), 171. +Ray's (John) _Remains_, 118. +Render, a bad translator; 47. +Richardson's (S.) etymology of correspondence, 9 +Ridings of Yorkshire, 7, 191. +Robertson's _Scotland_, translation of, 49. +Robinson (Otis H.), on ``Titles of Books,'' 75. +Roche's (Sir Boyle) bull of the bird that was in + two places at once, 29. +Rogue Croix _for_ Rouge Croix, 130. +Ruskin's _Notes on Sheepfolds_, 73. + +Saints (Imaginary), 13. +Sala's (Mr.) opinion on misprints, 128. +San Francisco, Florence, mistaken _for_ San + Francisco, California, 18. +Saroom (Jean), 66. +_Schoolboys' Blunders_, 157-187, +Scot's _Hop-Garden_, 90. +Scott (Sir Walter), ghost word. 5. +----his real name said to be William, 71. +Scylla and Charybdis, 43. +Shakespeare's text improved by attention to the + technicalities of printing, 105, 113. +Sharp's (William) misprint, 120. +Shelley's _Prometheus Unbound_, a copy in whole calf, 72. +Shenstone, epitaph on, by a Frenchman, 212. +Shirley's lines, misprints in, 125. +Sinclair's (Archdeacon) anecdote of an examination, 172. + +<p 225> +Sixtus V. (Pope), misprints in his edition of the + Vulgate, 135. +Skeat's (Prof.) ghost words, 2. +----On misprints in Chaucer's works, 153. +Skimpole (Harold), 34. +Smith's (Sydney) ghost word, 4. +Souza's edition of Camoens, 98. +Stanyhurst's translation of Virgil (1582), 59, 91. +Stevens (Henry) on the ``Wicked'' Bible, 136. +Susannah called a maiden, 41. +Swinburne's _Under the Microscope_, 73. + +Tellurium, supposed magnetic qualities of, 52. +``Thisms'' _for_ this MS., 119. +Tongs, strife of, 150. +Topography _for_ typography, 121. +Translations, humorous, 61. +Translators said to be traitors, 47 +Tressan (Comte de), 47. +Trinity (Master of), 60. +Twain (Mark) on schoolboys' blunders, 160. + +Unite _for_ untie, 149. +Ussher (Archbishop), 141. + +Vagabond (Mr.) _for_ Mr. Rambler, 60. +Vedast (St.), _alias_ Foster, 13. +Venus _for_ Venns, 130. +Viar (S.), 16. +Vieta's _Canon Mathematicus_, 144. +Virtuous Rocks _for_ Vitreous Rocks, 150. +Viscontian snakes, 48. + +<p 226> +Vitus (Saint), 16. + +Wade's (Marshal) roads, 26. +_Walker, London_, 53. +Walpole's (Horace) specimen of a bull, 29. +W<a:>lsch _for_ Welsh, 51. +Warburton's (Bishop) blunder in quoting _Cinthio_ 34. +Watt's _Bibliotheca Britannica_, blunder in, 63. +Welsh rabbit, 52. +Wigorn (Bishop), 66. +William IV. when Duke of Clarence, 211. +Winton (George), 66. +Witt's (Richard) _Arithmetical Questions_, 90. +Words that never existed, 3. +Writing (bad) of authors, 122. + +Xerxes, 54. +Xinoris (Saint), 13. + +Ye _for_ the, 6. +Yonge's _Dynevor Terrace_, misprint in, 120. +_Yvery, History of the House of_, 19. + +Zoile (Mons.) et Mdlle. Lycoris, 59. +Zollverein, 40. + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Literary Blunders, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITERARY BLUNDERS *** + +***** This file should be named 371.txt or 371.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/371/ + +Produced by Charles Keller + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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