Literary Blunders: A Chapter in the "History of Human Error"
()
About this ebook
Read more from Henry B. Wheatley
Art Work In Gold In Silver Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrices of Books (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dedication of Books to Patron and Friend (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): A Chapter in Literary History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiterary Blunders (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Literary Blunders: A Chapter in the "History of Human Error" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrices of Books: An Inquiry into the Changes in the Price of Books which have occurred in England at different Periods Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Catalogue a Library Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSamuel Pepys and the World He Lived In Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Form a Library, 2nd ed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Literary Blunders
Related ebooks
Old Mortality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Valet's Tragedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRunnymede and Lincoln Fair: A Story of the Great Charter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLe Morte d’Arthur : King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crotchet Castle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Valet's tragedy, and other studies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCressy and Poictiers: The Story of the Black Prince's Page Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Terror - A Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Snarleyyow, or, the Dog Fiend Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGuy Mannering; Or, The Astrologer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSybil (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Complete (Volumes 1 and 2) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Three Musketeers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cressy and Poictiers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCatherine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJames VI and the Gowrie Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Terror by Arthur Machen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOld Mortality, Volume 1. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCatherine: “Money has only a different value in the eyes of each.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnne of Geierstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hispaniola Plate (1683-1893) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOld Mortality, Complete Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Three Musketeers Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEothen; with an Introduction and Notes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Terror Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCatherine: A Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little Women (Seasons Edition -- Winter) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master and Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Count of Monte Cristo (abridged) (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grapes of Wrath Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Jungle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the Affair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Literary Blunders
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Literary Blunders - Henry B. Wheatley
Henry B. Wheatley
Literary Blunders
A Chapter in the History of Human Error
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066158552
Table of Contents
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VIL
CHAPTER VIII.
INDEX.
MACAULAY, in his life of Goldsmith in the Encyclop
Goldsmith was a very remarkable instance of a man who undertook to write books on subjects of which he knew
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 de Louis XVIII
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
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
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 befound 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
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
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