Chapter IV: Part 4

His college life was wretched because of his poverty, and the historical incident of the youth's scornful rejection of a new pair of shoes, left outside his chamber door, is probably true. Certain it is that he could not have fitted into the elegant life of most of the undergraduates of Pembroke College, although today his name stands among the most distinguished of its scholars. In 1731 he left Oxford without a degree, and, after an unhappy experience as a school usher, he married a widow old enough to be his mother and established a school to prepare young men for college. Among his pupils was David Garrick, who became the famous actor. In 1737 Johnson, in company with Garrick, tramped to London. In the great city which he came to love he had a very hard time for years. He served as a publisher's hack and he knew from personal experience the woes of Grub-street writers.

His first literary hit was made with a poem, _London_, and this was followed by the _Life of Richard Savage_, in which he told of the miseries of the writer without regular employment. Next followed his finest poem, _The Vanity of Human Wishes_. Then Johnson started a weekly paper, _The Rambler_, in imitation of _The Spectator_, and ran it regularly for about two years. For some time Johnson had been considering the publication of a dictionary of the English language. He issued his prospectus in 1747 and inscribed the work to Lord Chesterfield. He did not secure any help from the noble lord, and when Chesterfield showed some interest in the work seven years after, Johnson wrote an open letter to the nobleman, which is one of the masterpieces of English satire. In 1762 Johnson accepted a Government pension of L300 a year, and after that he lived in comparative comfort. The best literary work of his later years was his _Lives of the Poets_, which extended to ten volumes.

Johnson was not an accurate scholar, nor was he a graceful writer, like Goldsmith; but he had a force of mind and a vigor of language that made him the greatest talker of his day. He was one of the founders of a literary club in 1764 which numbered among its members Gibbon, Burke, Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds and other famous men of genius. Though he was unpolished in manners, ill dressed and uncouth, Johnson was easily the leader in the debates of this club, and he remained its dominating force until the day of his death.

THE LIFE OF
SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

COMPREHENDING

AN ACCOUNT OF HIS STUDIES
AND NUMEROUS WORKS,
IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER;

A SERIES OF HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE
AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY EMINENT PERSONS,

AND

VARIOUS ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION,

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.

THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A VIEW OF LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN
IN GREAT-BRITAIN, FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY,
DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
BY JAMES BOSWELL, Esq.

----Quo fit ut OMNIS
Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella
VITA SENIS.---- HORAT.

VOLUME THE FIRST.

_LONDON:_
PRINTED BY HENRY BALDWIN,
FOR CHARLES DILLY, IN THE POULTRY.
M DCC XCI

FACSIMILE OF THE
TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF BOSWELL'S
"LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON"--THIS HAS
PROVED TO BE THE MOST POPULAR
BIOGRAPHY IN THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE]

The best idea of Dr. Johnson's verse may be gained from _London_ and _The Vanity of Human Wishes_. These are not great poetry. The verse is of the style which Pope produced, but which the modern taste rejects because of its artificial form. Yet there are many good lines in these two poems and they reflect the author's wide reading as well as his knowledge of human life. _The Lives of the Poets_ are far better written than Johnson's early work, and they contain many interesting incidents and much keen criticism. These, with some of Johnson's prayers and his letter to Lord Chesterfield, include about all that the modern reader will care to go through.

The Chesterfield letter is a little masterpiece of satire. Johnson, it must be borne in mind, had dedicated the prospectus of his Dictionary to Chesterfield, but he had been virtually turned away from this patron's door with the beggarly gift of L10. For seven years he wrought at his desk, often hungry, ragged and exposed to the weather, without any assistance; but when the end was in sight and the great work was passing through the press, the noble lord deigned to write two review articles, praising the work. And here is a bit of Dr. Johnson's incisive sarcasm in the famous letter to the selfish nobleman:

"Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it."

Of Boswell's _Life of Dr. Johnson_ only a few words can be said. To treat it properly one should have an entire article like this, for it is one of the great books of the world. A good preparation for taking it up is the reading of the reviews of it by Macaulay and Carlyle. These two essays, among the most brilliant of their authors' work, give striking pictures of Boswell and of the man who was the dictator of English literature for thirty years. Then take up Boswell himself in such a handy edition as that in Everyman's Library, in two volumes. Read the book in spare half hours, when you are not hurried, and you will get from it much pleasure as well as profit. It is packed with amusement and information, and it is very modern in spirit, in spite of its old-fashioned style.

PAINTING BY EYRE CROWE
OF DR. JOHNSON, BOSWELL AND
GOLDSMITH AT THE MITRE
TAVERN, FLEET STREET
THE SCENE OF MANY WORD
COMBATS BETWEEN THE DOUGHTY
DOCTOR AND HIS
ASSOCIATES]

Through its pages you get a very strong impression of old Dr. Johnson. You laugh at the man's gross superstitions, at his vanity, his greediness at table, his absurd judgments of many of his contemporaries, his abuse of pensioners and his own quick acceptance of a pension. At all these foibles and weaknesses you smile, yet underneath them was a genuine man, like Milton, full of simplicity, honesty, reverence and humility--a man greater than any literary work that he produced or spoken word that he left behind him. You laugh at his groanings, his gluttony, his capacity for unlimited cups of hot tea; but you recall with tears in your eyes his pathetic prayers, his kindness to the old and crippled pensioners whom he fed and clothed, and his pilgrimage to Uttoxeter to stand bare-headed in the street, as penance for harsh words spoken to his father in a fit of boyish petulance years before.

ROBINSON CRUSOE AND GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

MASTERPIECES OF DEFOE AND SWIFT WIDELY READ--TWO WRITERS
OF GENIUS WHOSE STORIES HAVE DELIGHTED READERS FOR
HUNDREDS OF YEARS.

Two famous books that seem to follow naturally after _Pilgrim's Progress_ are Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_ and Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_. Not to be familiar with these two English masterpieces is to miss allusions which occur in everyday reading even of newspapers and magazines. Probably not one American boy in one thousand is ignorant of _Robinson Crusoe_. It is the greatest book of adventure for boys that has ever been written, because it relates the novel and exciting experiences of a castaway sailor on a solitary island in a style so simple that a child of six is able to understand it. Yet the mature reader who takes up _Robinson Crusoe_ will find it full of charm, because he can see the art of the novelist, revealed in that passion for minute detail to which we have come to give the name of realism, and that spiritual quality which makes the reader a sharer in the fears, the loneliness and the simple faith of the sailor who lived alone for so many years on Juan Fernandez Island.

PORTRAIT OF DANIEL DEFOE
FROM AN OLD STEEL ENGRAVING--DEFOE'S
GENIUS FOR SECRECY EFFECTUALLY DESTROYED
MOST MATERIAL FOR HIS BIOGRAPHY
AND EVEN THIS PORTRAIT IS
NOT AUTHENTIC]

In all English literature there is nothing finer than the descriptions of Robinson Crusoe's solitary life, his delight in his pets, and his care and training of Friday. Swift's work, on the other hand, is not for children, although young readers may enjoy the ludicrous features of Gulliver's adventures. Back of these is the bitter satire on all human traits which no one can appreciate who has not had hard experience in the ways of the world. These two books are the masterpieces of their authors, but if any one has time to read others of their works he will be repaid, for both made noteworthy contributions to the literature that endures.

Daniel Defoe, the son of a butcher, was born in 1661 and died in 1731. Much of his career is still a puzzle to literary students because of his extraordinary passion for secrecy. He gained no literary fame until after fifty years of age, although he had written many pamphlets and had conducted a review which gave to Addison the idea of _The Spectator_. Defoe engaged in mercantile business and failed. He also wrote much for the Government, his pungent and persuasive style fitting him for the career of a pamphleteer. But his independence and his lack of tact caused him to lose credit at court and he fell back upon literature. He may be called the first of the newspaper reporters, before the day of the daily newspaper, and he first saw the advantage of the interview. No one has ever surpassed him in the power of making an imaginary narrative seem real and genuine by minute detail artfully introduced.

The English-reading public was captured by _Robinson Crusoe_. Four editions were called for in four months, and Defoe met the demand for more stories from his pen by issuing in the following year _Duncan Campbell_, _Captain Singleton_ and _Memoirs of a Cavalier_. It is evident that Defoe had written these works in previous years and had not been encouraged to print them. Readers of today seldom look into these books, but the _Memoirs_ are noteworthy for splendid descriptions of fights between Roundheads and Cavaliers, and _Captain Singleton_ contains a memorable narrative of an expedition across Africa, then an unknown land, which anticipated many of the discoveries of Mungo Park, Bruce, Speke, and Stanley.

ILLUSTRATION OF "ROBINSON CRUSOE"
BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK WHICH SERVES AS A
FRONTISPIECE TO MAJOR'S EDITION OF
DEFOE'S ROMANCE, 1831]

Defoe's other works are _Moll Flanders_, _Colonel Jack_, _Roxana_, and _Journal of the Plague Year_. Years ago I read all the novels of Defoe, taking them up at night after work hours. They are not to be commended as books that will induce sleep, because they are far too entertaining. Defoe's story of the great plague in London is far more striking than the records of those who actually lived through the terrible months when a great city was converted into a huge charnel-house by the pestilence that walketh by noonday. Pepys in his _Diary_ has many passages on the plague, but these do not appeal to one as Defoe's story does, probably because Pepys did not have the literary faculty.

The three other stories all deal with life in the underworld of London. Defoe in Moll Flanders and Roxana depicts two types of the courtesan and, despite several coarse scenes, the narratives of the lives of these women are singularly entertaining. The only dull spots are those in which he indulges in his habit of drawing pious morals from the vices of his characters. From these stories one may get a better idea of the London of the early part of the eighteenth century than from books which were specially written to describe the customs and manners of the time, because Defoe regarded nothing as too trivial to set down in his descriptions.

Defoe wrote his masterpiece from materials furnished by a sailor, Alexander Selkirk, who returned to London after spending many years of solitude on the Island of Juan Fernandez. The records of the time give a brief outline of his adventures, and there is no question that Defoe interviewed this man and received from his lips the suggestion of his immortal story. But everything that has made the book a classic for three hundred years was furnished by Defoe himself.

The life of the story lies in the artfully written details of the daily life of the sailor from the time when he was cast ashore on the desolate island. Even the mature reader takes a keen interest in the salvage by Crusoe of the many articles which are to prove of the greatest value to him, while to any healthy child this is one of the most absorbing stories of adventure ever written. The child cannot appreciate Crusoe's mental and moral attitude, but the mature reader sees between the lines of the solitary sailor's reflexions the lessons which Defoe learned in those hard years when everything he touched ended in failure.

FRONTISPIECE TO THE
FIRST EDITION OF "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS"
A PORTRAIT ENGRAVED IN COPPER OF
CAPTAIN LEMUEL GULLIVER
OF REDRIFF]

Jonathan Swift may be bracketed with Defoe, because he was born in 1667 and died in 1745, only fourteen years after death claimed the author of _Robinson Crusoe_. As Defoe is known mainly by his story of the island castaway, so Swift is known by his bitter satire, _Gulliver's Travels_, although he was a prolific writer of political pamphlets. Swift is usually regarded as an Irishman, but he was of English stock, although by chance he happened to be born in Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and he had the great advantage of several years' residence at the country seat of Sir William Temple, one of the most accomplished men of his time.

There he was associated with Esther Johnson, a poor relation of Temple's who later became the Stella who inspired his journal. Swift, through the influence of Temple, hoped to get political preferment, but though he wrote many pamphlets and a strong satire in verse, _The Tale of a Tub_, his hopes of office were disappointed. Finally he obtained a living at Laracor, in Meath, and there he preached several years, making frequent visits to London and Dublin.

Like Defoe, Swift wrote English that was modern in its simplicity and directness. He never indulged in florid metaphor or concealed his thought under verbiage. Everything was clear, direct, incisive. While Defoe accepted failure frankly and remained untinged with bitterness, Swift seemed to store up venom after every defeat and every humiliation, and this poison he injected into his writings.

Although a priest of the church, he divided his attentions for years between Stella, the woman he first met at Sir William Temple's, and Vanessa, a young woman of Dublin. He was reported to have secretly married Stella in 1716, but there is no record of the marriage. Seven years later he broke off all relations with Vanessa because she wrote to Stella asking her if she were married to Swift, and this rupture brought on the woman's death. Stella's death followed soon after, and the closing years of Swift were clouded with remorse and fear of insanity.

[Illistration (with text):

TRAVELS
INTO SEVERAL
Remote Nations
OF THE
WORLD.

In FOUR PARTS.

By _LEMUEL GULLIVER_,
First a SURGEON, and then a CAPTAIN
of several SHIPS.

VOL. I.

_LONDON:_
_Printed for_ BENJ. MOTTE, _at the
Middle_ Temple-Gate _in_ Fleet-Street.
MDCCXXVI.

FACSIMILE OF THE TITLE PAGE
OF THE FIRST EDITION OF "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS"
ISSUED IN 1726, WHICH SCORED AS GREAT
A POPULAR SUCCESS AS DEFOE'S
"ROBINSON CRUSOE"]

In _Gulliver's Travels_ Swift wrote several stories of the adventures of an Englishman who was cast away on the shores of Lilliput, a country whose people were only six inches tall; then upon Brobdingnag, a land inhabited by giants sixty feet high; then upon Laputa, a flying island, and finally upon the land of the Houyhnhnms, where the horse rules and man is represented by a degenerate creature known as a Yahoo, who serves the horse as a slave. In the first two stories Gulliver's satire is amusing, but the picture of the old people in Laputa who cannot die and of the Yahoos, who have every detestable vice, are so bitter that they repel any except morbid readers. Yet the style never lacks clearness, simplicity and force, and one feels in reading these tales that he is listening to the voice of a master of the English tongue.

_Bibliography_

_Notes on the Historical and Best Reading Editions of Great Authors._

_In this bibliography no attempt has been made to give complete guides to the various books. In fact, to give the Bible alone its due would require all the space that is allotted here to the thirteen great books discussed in this volume. All that has been attempted is to furnish the reader lists of the historical editions that are noteworthy, with others which are best adapted for use, as well as any commentaries that are especially helpful to the reader who has small leisure._

_In securing cheap editions of good books the reader of today has a decided advantage over the reader of five years ago, for in these years have appeared two well-edited libraries of general literature that not only furnish accurate texts, well printed and substantially bound, but furnish these at merely nominal prices. The first is Everyman's Library, issued in this country by E. P. Dutton & Company of New York. It comprises the best works from all departments of literature selected by a committee of English scholars, headed by Ernest Rhys, the editor of the Library. Associated with him were Lord Avebury, George Saintsbury, Sir Oliver Lodge, Andrew Lang, Stopford Brooke, Hilaire Belloc, Gilbert K. Chesterton, A. C. Swinburne and Dr. Richard Garnett. The result is a collection of good literature, each volume prefaced with a short but scholarly introduction. The price is 35 cents in cloth and 70 cents in leather._

_The other series is known as the People's Library, and is issued by the Cassell Company of London and New York. This Library is sold at the remarkably low price of 25 cents a volume, well printed and fairly bound in cloth._

THE BIBLE

The Bible is the one "best seller" throughout the world. Last
year Bible societies printed and circulated 11,378,854
Bibles. The Bible is now printed in four hundred languages.
Last year the British and Foreign Bible Society printed
6,620,024 copies, or an increase of 685,000 copies over the
previous year. Even China last year bought 428,000 Bibles.

The first English translation of the Bible which had a great
vogue was what is known as the Authorized Version issued in
the reign of King James I. For centuries after the Christian
Era the Bible appeared only in the Latin Version, called the
Vulgate. As early as the seventh century English churchmen
made translations of the Psalter, and the Venerable Bede made
an Anglo-Saxon version of St. John's gospel. Toward the close
of the fourteenth century appeared Wyclif's Bible, which
gained such general circulation that there are still extant
no less than one hundred and fifty manuscript copies of this
version.

Then came Tyndale, whose ambition was to make a translation
that any one could understand. He said: "If God spare me
life, ere many years I will cause the boy that driveth the
plough to know more of the Scriptures than you priests do."
His version of a few books of the Bible was published first
at Cologne, but its acceptance in England was greatly
hindered by the translator's polemical notes. Tyndale was
burned at the stake in Belgium for the crime of having
translated the Bible into the speech of the common people. He
will always be remembered as the pioneer who prepared the way
for the Authorized Version.

After Tyndale came Rogers, who carried on his work as far as
Isaiah. He was followed by Coverdale who wrote fine sonorous
English prose, but was weak in scholarship. His translation
was superseded by the Geneva Version, made in 1568 by English
refugees in the Swiss city. The Geneva translation is
noteworthy as the first to appear in Roman type, all the
others being in black letter.

The King James Bible was first proposed at the Hampden
Conference in 1604. The Bishops opposed the scheme, but the
King was greatly taken with it, and in his usual arbitrary
way he appointed himself director of the work and issued
instructions to the fifty-four scholars chosen. One-third of
these were from Oxford, one-third from Cambridge and the
remainder from Westminster. They worked three years at the
task and produced what is known as the Authorized Version.
There seems to be a strong prejudice against King James
because of his eccentricities, and most writers on the Bible
declare that this version was never authorized by King, Privy
Council, Convocation or Parliament. This is wrong, for King
James authorized the book, and it owed its existence directly
to him. Anglicans and Puritans in this famous Conference were
bitterly hostile to each other, and if they had had their way
we should never have had this fine version of the Bible. The
King was president of the Conference, but the two factions
were ready to fly at each other's throats over such questions
as the baptism of infants, the authority of the Bishop of
Rome and others. The King, however, brushed all these
questions aside. He said that the Geneva Bible taught
sedition and disobedience, and by royal mandate he ordered
Bishop Reynolds and his associates to make the best version
in their power. So the credit which the King received by
having his name joined to the Bible was well deserved.

The King James Bible or the Authorized Version has had
greater influence on the style of English authors than any
other work, and it remains today a model of the simplest and
best English, with few obsolete words. Out of the small
number of 6,000 words used in the Bible, as against 25,000 in
Shakespeare, not more than 250 words are now out of every-day
use.

The best short essay on the Authorized Version is by Albert
S. Cook, Professor of the English Language and Literature in
Yale University (N. Y., G. P. Putnam's, 1910). This was
originally contributed to the Cambridge History of English
Literature, but in book form it contains some matter not
printed in the History. Professor Cook shows that the King
James Bible today contains fewer obsolete or archaic words
than Shakespeare, and that this version put into the speech
of the common people a score of phrases that now are scarcely
thought of as purely Biblical, so completely have they passed
into every-day speech. Among these are "highways and hedges,"
"clear as crystal," "hip and thigh," "arose as one man,"
"lick the dust," "a thorn in the flesh," "a broken reed,"
"root of all evil," "sweat of his brow," "heap coals of
fire," "a law unto themselves," "the fat of the land," "a
soft answer," "a word in season," "weighed in the balance and
found wanting," and so forth.

Between the Authorized Version and the New Revised Version a
number of individual translations appeared. The Long
Parliament made an order in 1653 for a new translation of the
Bible, and three years later a committee was appointed, but
as Parliament was dissolved shortly after, the project fell
through. The individual versions for a hundred years are not
noteworthy, but in 1851 the American Bible Society issued a
"Standard" Bible which it circulated for five years. It was
simply the King James Bible free from errors and
discrepancies. Another important revision was made by the
American Bible Union in 1860 and a second revision followed
in 1866. Its salient feature was the adoption of the
paragraph form.

In 1870 a new revised version of the Bible, which should
receive the benefit of the labors of modern scholars, was
decided on. The Upper House of Convocation of Canterbury
appointed a committee to report on revision. A joint
committee from both houses a few months later was elected and
was empowered to begin the work. Two committees were
established, one for the Old and one for the New Testament.
Work was begun June 22, 1870, but in July it was decided to
ask the cooperation of American divines. An American
Committee of thirty members was organized, and began work
October 4, 1872. The English Committees sent their revision
to the American Committee, which returned it with suggestions
and emendations. Five revisions were made in this way before
the work was completed. Special care was taken in the
translation of the Greek text of the New Testament.

In 1881 the Revised New Testament appeared. Orders for three
million copies came from all parts of the English-speaking
world. The Revised Old Testament appeared in 1885. The
preferences of the American Committee were placed in a
special appendix in both books. In 1901 the American
Committee issued the American Standard Revised Version, which
is in general circulation in this country.

The tercentenary of the King James Version was celebrated in
March, 1911, and it brought out many interesting facts in
regard to the book that has been one of the chief educational
forces in England and in all English-speaking countries since
it was issued.

Among the famous Bibles are the Gutenberg Bible, which was
the first to be printed from movable types; the "Vinegar"
Bible, because of the printer's misprint of vinegar for
vineyard; the "Treacle" Bible, which owed its name to the
phrase "treacle in Gilead" for "balm in Gilead"; the "Wicked"
Bible, so called because the printers omitted the "not" in
the Seventh Commandment.

Of famous manuscript Bibles may be named the Codex
Alexandrinus, presented by the Sultan of Turkey to Charles
II of England, and the Codex Sinaiticus, discovered in a
monastery on Mount Sinai by the great Hebrew scholar,
Tischendorf.

Dr. Grenfell, who has made an international reputation by his
work among the fishermen of Labrador and by his books on the
Bible, suggests that the Scriptures should not be brought out
with any distinctive binding. He believes the Bible would
gain many more readers if it were bound like an ordinary
secular book, so that one could read it on trains or boats
without exciting comment. His suggestion is a good one and it
is to be hoped it will be acted on by Bible publishers.
Anything that will help to make people read the Bible
regularly deserves encouragement.

One of the best Bibles for ordinary use is _The Modern
Reader's Bible_, edited with introduction and notes by
Richard G. Moulton, Professor of Literary Theory and
Interpretation in the University of Chicago. The editor has
abolished the paragraph form and he has printed all the
poetry in verse form, which is a great convenience to the
reader. It makes a volume of 1733 pages, printed on thin but
opaque paper. (New York: The Macmillan Company. Price, $2.00
net.)

_The Soul of the Bible_ (Boston: American Unitarian
Association) is the very best condensation of the Scriptures.
It is arranged by Ulysses G. B. Pierce and consists of
selections from the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha.
The editor has brought together parts of the Bible which
explain and supplement each other. The result is that in five
hundred and twenty pages one gets the very soul of the Bible.
Nothing could be better than this book as an introduction to
the careful reading and systematic study of the Bible, which
is the best means of culture of spirit and mind that the
world affords.

SHAKESPEARE

The first folio edition of Shakespeare was published by J.
Heminge and H. Condell in 1623. A copy of the first folio is
now very valuable. A reprint of the first folio was issued in
1807 in folio. The first photolithographic reproduction was
brought out in 1866. The first folio text is now being
brought out, with a volume to each play, by the T. Y. Crowell
Company of New York.

Four folio editions were brought out in all, the last in
1685.

Of the famous editions may be mentioned Rowe's, the first
octavo, in 1709; Alexander Pope's in 1723; Theobald's in
1733; Warburton's in 1747; Dr. Johnson's in 1765; Malone's,
the first variorum, in ten volumes, in 1790. The first
American edition was issued at Philadelphia in 1795. Among
modern editions may be mentioned Boydell's illustrated
edition in 1802; Charles Knight's popular pictorial edition
in eight volumes in 1838; Halliwell's edition in sixteen
volumes from 1853 to 1865; Dyce's edition in 1857; Richard
Grant White's edition in twelve volumes, published in Boston
(1857-1860).

The most noteworthy edition issued in this country is Dr. H.
H. Furness' variorum edition, begun in Philadelphia in 1873
and still continued by Dr. Furness' son. A volume is devoted
to each play and the various texts as well as the notes and
critical summaries make this the ideal edition for the
scholar. The Cambridge Edition, edited by W. Aldis Wright in
nine octavo volumes, is the standard modern text. This text
is also given in the Temple Edition, so popular with
present-day readers, issued in forty handy sized volumes with
prefaces and glossaries by Israel Gollancz. The expurgated
text edited by W. J. Rolfe has been used generally in
schools, as also the Hudson Shakespeare, edited by Rev. H. N.
Hudson.

The best concordance for many years was that of Mary Cowden
Clarke, first issued in 1844. The concordance by John
Bartlett was published more recently.

The best biography of Shakespeare is by Sydney Lee, in a
single volume, _A Life of Shakespeare_. (New York: The
Macmillan Company.)

Other interesting books that deal with the playwright and his
plays are _Shakespeare's London_, by H. T. Stephenson; _The
Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist_, by George Pierce
Baker; _Shakespeare_, by E. Dowden; _Shakespeare Manual_, by
F. L. Fleay; _The Text of Shakespeare_, by Thomas R.
Lounsbury; _Shakespearean Tragedy_, by A. C. Bradley, and _An
Introduction to Shakespeare_, by H. N. McCracken, F. E.
Pierce and W. H. Durham, of the Department of English
Literature in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale
University. This is the most valuable book for a beginner in
the study of Shakespeare.

A valuable book for the reader who cannot grasp readily the
story of a Shakespeare play is _Stories of Shakespeare's
Comedies_, by H. A. Guerber. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company,
1910.) The best book for the plots is Charles and Mary Lamb's
_Tales from Shakespeare_.

If you are interested in the subject look up these books in
any good library and then decide on the volumes you wish to
buy. Never buy a book without looking it over, unless you
wish to court disappointment.

The Shakespeare-Bacon controversy was first touched upon by
J. C. Hart in _The Romance of Yachting_, issued in New York
in 1848. Seven years later W. H. Smith came out with a work,
_Was Bacon the Author of Shakespeare's Plays?_ In 1857 Delia
Bacon wrote the _Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare
Unfolded_. She created a great furore for a time in England
but interest soon declined. In recent years the principal
defender of the theory that Bacon wrote the plays of
Shakespeare was Ignatius Donnelly of Minneapolis, who wrote
two huge books in which he developed at tedious length what
he claimed was a cipher or cryptogram that he had found in
Shakespeare's plays, but he died before he cleared up the
mystery or gave any adequate proofs.

GREEK AND ROMAN CLASSICS

The versions of Homer's _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ are numerous
but most readers who do not know Greek prefer the prose
rendering of the _Iliad_ by Lang, Leaf and Myers and the
prose version of the _Odyssey_ by Butcher and Lang. In
language that is almost Biblical in its force and simplicity
these scholars give far more of the spirit of the original
Greek than any of the translators in verse. Chapman's Homer
is known today only through the noble sonnet by Keats. It has
fine passages but it is unreadable. Cowper's Homer in blank
verse is also intolerably dull. The best blank verse
translations are by Lord Derby, William Cullen Bryant and
Christopher P. Cranch.

For supplementary reading on Homer these works will be found
valuable: Jebb, _Introduction to Homer_ (Glasgow, 1887);
Matthew Arnold, _Lectures on Translating Homer_; Andrew Lang,
_Homer and the Epic_ (London, 1893); Seymour, _Introduction
to the Language and Verse of Homer_ (Boston, 1889); Professor
J. P. Mahaffy's books on ancient Greece and Greek life will
be found helpful.

Virgil's _AEneid_ has been translated by many hands. Dryden
produced a fair version and William Morris, Cranch, Conington
and others have written excellent translations. Conington
furnished a good translation in prose.

Jowett's translation is the standard English version of
Plato, while good sidelights on the author of the _Republic_
and _Phaedo_ may be gained from Emerson's essay on Plato in
_Representative Men_ and from Walter Pater's _Plato and
Platonism_.

Professor A. J. Church's _The Story of the Iliad_ and _The
Story of the AEneid_ while intended for the young will appeal
to many mature readers.

No translation of Horace has ever been perfectly
satisfactory. The quality of the poet seems to elude
translation. Some of the most successful versions are
Conington, _Odes and Epodes_ (London, 1865); Lord Lytton,
_Odes and Epodes_ (London, 1869), and Sargent, _Odes_
(Boston, 1893); supplementary matter may be found in Sellar's
_Horace and the Elegiac Poets_ (Oxford, 1892).

Short sketches and critical estimates of all the great Greek
and Latin writers may be found in _The New International
Encyclopedia_ (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1904.). These
are written mainly by Harry Thurston Peck, for many years
Professor of Latin in Columbia University and conceded to be
one of the best Latin scholars in this country. They give all
the facts that the general reader cares to know with an
excellent bibliography of each writer.

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

The exact title is _The Book of the Thousand and One Nights_.
It contains two hundred and sixty-two tales, although the
original edition omits one of the most famous, the story of
_Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp_. Antoine Galland was the
first translator into a European language. His French version
was issued in 1717, in twelve volumes. Sir Richard Burton,
who translated an unexpurgated edition of _The Arabian
Nights_, with many notes and an essay on the sources of the
tales, ascribed the fairy tales to Persian sources. Burton's
edition gives all the obscene allusions but he treated the
erotic element in the tales from the scholarly standpoint,
holding that this feature showed the Oriental view of such
matters, which was and is radically different from the
Occidental attitude.

Burton's work was issued by subscription in 1885-1886 in ten
volumes and is a monument to his Oriental scholarship. Burton
left at his death the manuscript of another celebrated
Oriental work, _The Scented Garden_, but Lady Burton, who was
made his executrix, although offered L25,000 for the
copyright, destroyed the manuscript. She declared that she
did this to protect her husband's name, as the world would
look upon his notes as betraying undue fondness for the
erotic, whereas she knew and his close friends knew that this
interest was purely scholarly. Scholars all over the world
mourned over this destruction of Burton's work.

Another noteworthy unexpurgated translation was by John
Payne, prepared for the Villon Society, and issued in
1882-1884.

The best English translation is by E. W. Lane, an English
Orientalist, whose notes are valuable. The editions of _The
Arabian Nights_ are endless, and many famous artists have
given the world their conception of the principal characters
in these Arabian wonder stories.

THE NIBELUNGENLIED

_The Nibelungenlied_ is the German Iliad and dates from the
thirteenth to the sixteenth century. No less than
twenty-eight manuscripts of this great epic have come down
through the ages. From the time of the Reformation down to
the middle of the eighteenth century it seemed to be
forgotten. Then a Swiss writer, Bodmer, issued parts of it in
connection with a version of the _Klage_, a poem describing
the mourning at King Etzel's Court over the famous heroes who
fell to satisfy the vengeance of Kriemhild.

The real discoverer, who restored the epic to the world, was
Dr. J. H. Oberiet, who found a later version of the poem in
the Castle of Hohenems in the Tyrol, June 29, 1755.

C. H. Myller in 1782 published the first complete edition,
using part of Bodmer's version. It was not until the opening
of the nineteenth century and during the Romantic movement in
Germany that _The Nibelungenlied_ was seriously studied.
Partsch, a German critic, developed the theory that _The
Nibelungenlied_ was written about 1140 and that rhyme was
introduced by a later poet to take the place of the stronger
assonances in the original version.

The legend of Siegfried's death, resulting from the quarrel
of the two queens, and all the woes that followed, was the
common property of all the German and Scandinavian people.
From the banks of the Rhine to the northernmost parts of
Norway and Sweden and the Shetland Isles and Iceland this
legend of chivalry and revenge was sung around the
camp-fires. William Morris' _Sigurd the Volsung_ is derived
from a prose paraphrase of the Edda songs.

Many English versions of _The Nibelungenlied_ have been made
but most of them are harsh. Carlyle's summary of the epic in
his _Miscellanies_ is the most satisfactory for the general
reader. A good prose version of _The Nibelungenlied_ is by
Daniel Bussier Shumway, Professor of German Philology in the
University of Pennsylvania. It contains an admirable essay on
the history of the epic. (Boston, 1909.)

William Morris has made fine renderings in verse of portions
of _The Nibelungenlied_ but he has drawn much of his material
from the kindred Norse legends. Two translations into English
verse are those of W. N. Lettson, _The Fall of the
Nibelungen_ (London, 1874), and of Alice Harnton, _The Lay of
the Nibelungs_ (London, 1898).

A complete bibliography of works in English dealing with _The
Nibelungenlied_ may be found in F. E. Sandbach's _The
Nibelungenlied and Gudrun in England and America_ (London,
1904).

Other books dealing with _The Nibelungenlied_ are F. H.
Hedge, _Hours With the German Classics_ (Boston, 1886); G. T.
Dippold, _The Great Epics of Mediaeval Germany_ (Boston,
1882); G. H. Genung, _The Nibelungenlied_ in Warner's
_Library of the World's Best Literature_, Volume xviii (New
York, 1897).

THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE

The first translation of the _Confessions_ to gain general
circulation was in Dr. Pusey's _Library of the Fathers_
(Oxford, 1839-1855). Pusey admits his edition is merely a
version of W. Watts' version, originally printed in London
in 1650, but Pusey added many notes as well as a long
preface. An American edition was issued by Dr. W. G. T. Shedd
of Andover, Mass., in 1860; it consisted of this same
translation by Watts with a comparison by Shedd between
_Augustine's Confessions_ and those of Rousseau.

An elaborate article on St. Augustine, dealing with his life,
his theological work and his influence on the Church, may be
found in the second volume of _The Catholic Encyclopedia_
(Robert Appleton Company, New York, 1907). It is written by
Eugene Portalie, S. J., Professor of Theology at the Catholic
Institute of Toulouse, France.

CERVANTES' "DON QUIXOTE"

_Don Quixote_ first appeared in Madrid in 1605 and the second
part in 1615. Other noteworthy Spanish editions were by
Pellicier (Madrid, 1797-1798) and by Diego Clemencia (Madrid,
1833-1839). The first English version of the great Spanish
classic appeared in London in 1612. The translator was T.
Skelton. Other later English editions were J. Philips, 1687;
P. Motteux, 1700-1712; C. Jarvis, 1742; Tobias Smollett,
1755; A. J. Duffield, 1881; H. E. Watts, 1888, 1894. Watts'
edition contains a full biography.

A noteworthy edition of Cervantes is the English version by
Daniel Vierge in four volumes, with many fine illustrations,
which give the reader a series of sketches of Spanish life as
it is depicted in the pages of _Don Quixote_. Vierge's
edition is the most satisfactory that has ever been issued.
It is brought out in beautiful style by Charles Scribner's
Sons, New York.

A standard _Life of Cervantes_ is that by T. Roscoe, London,
1839. H. E. Watts has written a fine monograph in Great
Writers' Series, 1891. Other lives are by J. F. Kelly, 1892,
and A. F. Calvert, 1905. Lockhart's introduction is printed
in the Everyman edition of _Don Quixote_, the translation by
Motteux. This introduction makes thirty pages and gives
enough facts for the general reader, with a good estimate of
_Don Quixote_ and Cervantes' other works.

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST

The early editions of Thomas a Kempis' great work were in
manuscript, many of them beautifully illuminated. A
noteworthy edition was brought out in 1600 at Antwerp by
Henry Sommalius, S. J. The works of Thomas a Kempis in three
volumes were issued by this same editor in 1615.

The first English version of the _Imitation_ was made by
Willyam Atkynson and was printed by Wykyns de Worde in 1502.
In 1567 Edward Hake issued a fine edition. Among the best
English editions are those of Canon Benham, Sir Francis
Cruise, Bishop Challoner and the Oxford edition of 1841. The
best edition for the beginner is that edited by Brother Leo,
F. S. C., Professor of English Literature in St. Mary's
College, Oakland, California. It is in the Macmillan's Pocket
Classics and has an admirable introduction of fifty-three
pages. The notes are brief but very helpful.

Some of the best articles on Thomas a Kempis are to be found
in _The Catholic Encyclopedia_ and _The Schaff-Herzog
Encyclopedia of Religious Thought_.

There has been much controversy over the authorship of _The
Imitation of Christ_, but the weight of evidence is
conclusive that Thomas a Kempis was the writer of this book,
which has preserved his name for five hundred years. The book
was issued anonymously and some manuscript copies of it bore
the name of St. Bernard and others that of John Gerson. As
Thomas a Kempis spent most of his life copying sacred books
it was assumed that he had merely copied the text of another
monk's work.

A Spanish student in 1604 found a sentence from the
_Imitation_ quoted in a sermon attributed to Bonaventura, who
died in 1273, two hundred years before the death of Thomas.
This caused a great literary sensation and it was some time
before it was established that the sermon was not by
Bonaventura but belonged to the fifteenth century. In casting
about for the real author of the _Imitation_ the Superior of
the Jesuit College at Arona, Father Rossignoli, found an
undated copy of the _Imitation_ in the college library with
the signature of Johannis Gerson. The college had been
formerly conducted by the Benedictines, so it was assumed
that Gerson was the real author. It was only after much
research that it was proved that this manuscript copy of the
_Imitation_ was brought to Arona from Genoa in 1579.
Constantine Cajetan, a fanatic in his devotion to the order
of St. Benedict, found in a copy of the _Imitation_ printed
in Venice in 1501 a note saying, "this book was not written
by John Gerson but by John, Abbot of Vercelli." A manuscript
copy was also found by him bearing the name of John of
Carabuco. Out of these facts Cajetan built up his theory that
John Gerson of Carabuco, Benedictine Abbot of Vercelli, was
the real author of the _Imitation_.

Thus began the most famous controversy in the annals of
literature, which raged for several hundred years. Among the
claimants to the honor of having written this book were
Bernard of Clairvaux, Giovanni Gerso, an Italian monk of the
twelfth century; Walter Hilton, an English monk; John
Gerson, Chancellor of Paris; John Gerson, Abbot of Vercelli,
and Thomas a Kempis.

What would seem to be conclusive evidence that Thomas a
Kempis was the author is the fact that the _Imitation_ was
written for chanting. Carl Hirsche compared the manuscript
copy of the _Imitation_ of 1441 which he found in the
Bourgogne Library in Brussels with other writings of Thomas a
Kempis, also marked for chanting, and found great similarity
between the _Imitation_ and the works admitted to have been
written by Thomas a Kempis.

The _Imitation_ has been a favorite book with many persons.
Mrs. Jane L. Stanford, who showed such remarkable faith in
the university which Leland Stanford founded and who made
many sacrifices to save it in critical periods, always
carried a fine copy of Thomas a Kempis with her. Miss Berger,
who was Mrs. Stanford's secretary and constant companion for
over fifteen years, told me that whenever Mrs. Stanford was
in doubt or trouble she took up the _Imitation_, opened it at
random and always found something which settled her doubts
and gave her comfort.

THE RUBA'IYAT

Edward FitzGerald's version of the _Ruba'iyat_ was the first
to appeal to the western world. It has been reproduced in
countless editions since it was first issued in London in
1859. Dole in the _Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam_ (Boston, 1896)
gives a fairly complete bibliography of manuscripts,
editions, translations and imitations of the Quatrains.

Five hundred quatrains from the original Persian, translated
metrically by E. H. Whinfield, were issued in London, 1883,
while Payne made a poetical translation, reproducing all the
metrical eccentricities of the original Persian, which he
called "_The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam_, now first completely
done into English Verse from the Persian, with a Biographical
and Critical Introduction" (London, 1898). Heron Allen has
added a valuable book in _The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam_: A
Facsimile of the Manuscript in the Bodleian Library,
Translated and Edited (Boston, 1898).

One of the best editions of the _Ruba'iyat_ is a reprint of
FitzGerald's various editions, showing the many changes, some
of which were not improvements, and the quatrains that were
dropped out of the final version, with a commentary by Batson
and an introduction by Ross (New York, 1900).

Another excellent edition of FitzGerald's final version,
issued by Paul Elder & Company, is edited by Arthur Guiterman
and contains _The Literal Omar_, that lovers of the
astronomer-poet may see, stanza for stanza, how the old
Persian originally phrased the verses that the Irish recluse
so musically echoed in English.

DANTE'S "DIVINE COMEDY"

The best known English translation of the _Divine Comedy_ is
that of Cary, first published in 1806. Other English versions
are by Dayman, Pollock and J. A. Carlyle. Longfellow made a
translation in verse which is musical and cast in the _terza
rima_ of the original.

A mass of commentary on Dante has been issued of which only a
few noteworthy books can be mentioned here. Among these are
Botta, _Introduction to the Study of Dante_ (London, 1887);
Maria Francesca Rossetti, _A Shadow of Dante_ (London,
1884); Butler, _Dante: His Times and His Work_ (London,
1895); Symonds, _Introduction to the Study of Dante_
(Edinburgh, 1890); Lowell, _Among My Books_, one of the
finest essays on the great poet and his work (Boston, 1880);
Macaulay, _Essays_, Vol. I; Carlyle in _Heroes and Hero
Worship_.

One of the largest Dante libraries in the world was collected
by the late Professor Willard Fiske of Cornell University. At
his death this splendid library was given to the university
which Professor Fiske served for over twenty years as head of
the department of Northern European languages. Professor
Melville B. Anderson, recently retired from the chair of
English Literature at Stanford University, is now completing
a translation of Dante, which has been a labor of love for
many years.

MILTON'S "PARADISE LOST," AND OTHER POEMS

The first edition of Milton's _Paradise Lost_, in ten books,
bears date of August 10, 1667. Seven years later, with many
changes and enlarged by two books, it appeared in a second
edition. All that Milton received for this poem was L10.
_Paradise Regained_ was first printed with _Samson Agonistes_
in 1671.

The standard biography of Milton is by Masson in six volumes
(London, 1859-1894). The best short sketch is Mark Pattison's
in John Morley's _English Men of Letters Series_ (New York,
1880). Another good short sketch is in Richard Garnett's
volume in _Great Writers' Series_ (London, 1890).

One of the best editions of Milton's _Prose Works_ is in the
Bohn Library, five volumes, edited by St. John.

_The Poetical Works_, edited by Masson, appeared in 1890 in
three volumes. Buching of Oxford issued in 1900 reprints of
the first editions under the title, _Poetical Works After the
Original Texts_.

Among famous essays on Milton may be named those by Dr.
Johnson, Macaulay, Lowell and Trent. Dr. Hiram Corson's
_Introduction to Milton's Works_ will be found valuable, as
will also Osgood's _The Classical Mythology of Milton's
English Poems_. In Hale's _Longer English Poems_ there are
chapters on Milton which are full of good suggestions.

BUNYAN'S "PILGRIM'S PROGRESS"

The _Pilgrim's Progress_, which has been translated into
seventy-one languages and has passed through more editions
than any other book except the Bible, originally appeared in
1678, a second edition came out in the same year and a third
edition in 1679. Bunyan made numerous additions to the second
and third editions. The second part of _Pilgrim's Progress_
appeared in 1684.

Bunyan's literary activity was phenomenal when it is
remembered that he had little early education. In all he
produced sixty books and pamphlets, all devoted to spreading
the faith to which he devoted his life. Among the best known
of his works besides _Pilgrim's Progress_ is _The Holy War_,
_The Holy City_, _Grace Abounding in the Chief of Sinners_,
_The Life and Death of Mr. Badman_.

The best short life of Bunyan is that by James Anthony Froude
in _English Men of Letters Series_ (New York, 1880).
Macaulay's essay on Bunyan ranks with his noble essay on
Milton. Other lives are those by Southey, Dr. J. Brown and
Canon Venables.

BOSWELL'S JOHNSON

The first edition of _Boswell's Johnson_ appeared in 1791 and
made a great hit. There was a call for a second edition in
1794 and Boswell was preparing a third edition in 1795 when
he died. This uncompleted third edition was issued by Edward
Malone in 1799, who also superintended the issue of the
fourth, fifth and sixth editions. Malone furnished many notes
and he also received the assistance of Dr. Charles Burney,
father of the author of _Evelina_, and others who knew both
Boswell and Johnson. An edition in 1822 was issued by the
Chalmers, who contributed much information of value. All
these materials with much new matter went into the edition of
John Wilson Croker in 1831. Croker was cordially hated by
Macaulay and the result was the bitter criticism of Croker's
edition of Boswell's great work that is now included among
the famous essays of Macaulay. Bohn brought out Croker's
edition in ten volumes in 1859, and it has been reproduced in
this country by the John W. Lovell Company in four volumes.
Carlyle's _Essay on Boswell's Johnson_ is one of the best pen
pictures of the old Doctor and his biographer that has ever
been written.

Percy Fitzgerald's _Life of Boswell_ (London, 1891) is good
and Rogers' _Boswelliana_ gives many anecdotes of the writer
of the best biography in the language. _Dr. Johnson and Mrs.
Thrale_, by A. M. Broadley, furnishes much curious
information about the relations of the old Doctor with the
woman who studied his comfort for so many years. It is rich
in illustrations from rare portraits and old prints and in
reproductions of letters (New York: John Lane Company,
1909).

ROBINSON CRUSOE

The first edition of _Robinson Crusoe_ appeared in 1719. It
made an immediate hit and was quickly translated into many
languages. A second part was added but this was never so
popular as the first. The first publication was in serial
form in a periodical, _The Original London Post_ or
_Heathcote's Intelligencer_. So great was its success that
four editions were called for in the same year, three in two
volumes and one, a condensed version, in a single volume.

In 1720 Defoe brought out _Serious Reflections During the
Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, with His Vision of
the Angelic World_. This was poorly received, although it has
since been included in many of the editions of this story.

Of the making of editions of _Robinson Crusoe_ there is no
end. Nearly every year sees a new edition, with original
illustrations. A noteworthy edition is that of Tyson's,
published in London, with many fine engravings from designs
by Granville, and another in 1820 in two volumes, with
engravings by Charles Heath.

A fine edition of _Robinson Crusoe_ in two volumes was issued
by Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston in 1908, with
illustrations from designs by Thomas Stothard.

The standard life of Defoe is that by Wm. Hazlitt, published
in London (1840-1843) in three volumes. Sir Walter Scott
edited a good edition of Defoe's complete works in 1840, in
twenty volumes. About fifteen years ago J. M. Dent of London
issued a fine edition of Defoe's works, with an excellent
introduction to each book. A good selection of some of
Defoe's best work is _Masterpieces of Defoe_, issued by the
Macmillan Company in a series of prose masterpieces of great
authors.