370.5. Edmund Henry Barker to EBB
Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 2.
Thetford,
April 29, 1830.
My dear Madam,
You would have heard from me some time ago, but I became suddenly overwhelmed with communications of business, which required dispatch. Unfortunately too I began to collect & illustrate the various meanings of the word κανὶον for insertion in a forthcoming edn of S Chrevelius’s Lexicon, and they are so extensive & involve such immense research, that they have occupied me 4 whole days, & will occupy me 2 more; but the result will be the satisfaction of having unravelled intricacy, & given confidence to doubt, & shed light on darkness. The Dictionary will be published in September next, & I am constructing it in conjunction with Geo. Dunbar Esqr., the Greek Professor at Edinburgh. You will there find a vast number of words discussed in such a methodical & philosophical manner as should appear in all Dictionaries. The best existing Dictionary of the smaller kind is Sturz’s Lexicon Xenophonteum, & it may be used as a general Dictionary, 4 vols 8vo; but I believe that I have already drawn your attention to this work. Payne Bright in his Essay on Taste wittily & felicitously pronounces a Dicty to be “the remembrances of a scholar, & the oracle of a dunce.”
You have probably seen in some of the periodicals my Prospectus for reprinting by Subscription Dr Webster’s English Dictionary, which was recently published in America. It will be republished in 12 Parts, two of which have already appeared, pr. 7s per No to each subscriber, 9s to non-subscribers, one No to appear every two months. The third No will appear on June 1., the fourth, when the subscription will close, Aug. 1. The book is not merely a Dictionary, but an Encyclopaedia, as it explains at much length technical & scientific terms. It abounds with linguistical lore, Oriental & European, & is most philosophically correct in the definitions. He has wandered far & wide to illustrate etymologies & affinities. It is not an improved Johnson, but an original work, the labour of 30 years. I would invite your attention to this book, not because I am concerned in it, (that would be selfish,) but because it is a compendious storehouse of information, a rich repository of lingual knowledge. We have many Ladies in our List of Subscriptions, which at present exceeds 600, & is daily increasing. If you or your father think proper to subscribe, you will send your name either to me, or to the publisher, Mr Black (2 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden,) through your London-bookseller, & state whether you would wish the Nos to be left at any friend’s house in London, or how otherwise forwarded: the usual plan is to have them left at any London-bookseller’s, whom the subscriber employs. As a specimen of typography, you will be well pleased with the book. In the No of the Mechanics’ Magazine, published on Saturday last, April 24, I wrote a long Letter on the subject, & faith! I will excite your curiosity about this Letter by quoting Mr Welsh’s Letter to me recd the other day:—“With this you will receive a copy of the Mechanics’ Magazine, containing your admirable Letter, which is the completest thing of the kind I ever saw. The merits of Dr Webster’s book are at once stated forcibly, convincingly, & briefly. The Editor’s handsome Note also will do great service.” You will smile when I tell to you that this most useful (at least to men of science) periodical is only 3 pence!
Well, I am glad to hear that you have ordered the Demosthenes, & have had a foretaste of it from Mr Boyd’s copy; but I am yet more glad to hear that you have been pleased with the matter. Perhaps you sucked in with avidity the notes on πζοπίνω & σπεζμολόγος. Look at <my> exa<mination-que>stion on the latter word, at the end. It is <a curi>ous fact that the word was peculiar to the Athenians in its metaphorical sense, & the application of it to St. Paul in the Acts by his Athenian audience is an internal evidence of the truth of the narrative. Observe too that Demosth. applies it to Aeschines’s speech against himself, & that the Athenians applied it to St. Paul’s address to themselves. Hence we may safely conclude, (contrary to what I have asserted in the Note,) that it has the same sense in both places, & that that sense is babblex, the word used in our English translation of the Bible, you will remark. The epithet in both cases must have characterised the thing spoken of, viz. the addresses, not the speakers. At your leisure I shall be glad to hear from you more particularly about the Notes on Demosth.: sharpen your tomahawk, & tear off your enemy’s scalp, & subject him to prolonged torment, grinning a ghastly smile.
I have examined my list of the books lent to you with those returned, & I find all right except as to Olympia Fulosa: now I have a sort of persuasion that I saw that book, when I first opened the parcel. The books had remained on a stool in my room ever since their arrival, but as other books are in the immediate neighbourhood, perhaps Olympia had just stepped aside to visit a brother intellectual! However, have the goodness to see if she liked your habitation better than mine, & crawled out of the parcel after you had done it up, & now skulks at Hope-End unknown to you. But if after a careful inquiry you pronounce her to have absconded from your house, I will call in a Bowstreet officer, & have my premises thoroughly searched till I have found out her hiding-place: I have just completed a pretty good search for the vagrant, & she is too cunning to be caught.
In respect to Sir U. P.’s correspondence, what you say, is all said with good & right feeling. Independently of my own Letters from him, I did not mean to make use of any papers, which I might collect from other quarters, without a due consideration of what you state. But, unless I am in possn of such other papers, it is unnecessary for me to ask permission of the family for their publication: that is, you know my case at present. I can legitimately use what was addressed to myself about literary subjects by Sir U. P.; but there is a delicacy in respect to what was not addressed to myself: that delicacy I am prepared to observe. But in respect to the collection of papers, policy requires that they should be collected, as far as it is possible, without asking the permission to collect, because asking for such permission, often leads to the destruction of valuable papers from the over-scrupulous delicacy of persons. Collect them first & when you have collected, ask permission to use; & if the permission be refused, the papers at least are safe, & though you cannot use the papers entire, still you can give extracts from, or the substance of them. Moreover, there is a wide difference between Letters of a personal nature, referring to parties living, or to domestic circumstances, and Letters, which relate only to subjects of literature. The publication of the former may hurt the feelings of living persons; but the publication of the latter does honour to the deceased & benefit the cause of literature. If I mistake not, I have already satisfied you that you might have placed in my hands your collection of Letters from Sir U. P. without any impropriety on the understanding that what was merely personal or private, should not be used; only what was of a literary & popular sort, suitable for the community. When I wrote to Sir Robt Price on the subject of Sir U. P.’s death, I |intimated| to him my desire to see his Letters collected, preserved, & published. I shall write to him again on the subject at a suitable time; but in the interim you will say nothing to him of course, should you chance to see him. I was much amused with the verses by Gally Knight, Sir U. P. and Dr Butler. I shall be thankful for such recollections of Sir U. P. as may occur to you from time to time; ‘Awake but one, and Lo! what myriads rise!’ Can you give a description of his person, manners, habits etc., or of his paradise at Foxley? No, I never heard any reasons why he thought a particular passage in the 7th bk. of the Iliad interpolated. Have the goodness to explain: all such matter is not only interesting, but useful. His opinions on questions of taste always deserve attention. He was no philologist or critic in the ordinary senses of those words; but he could at times play the critic excellently well.
In respect to the Parriana, I will not worry you with anything more about Paetus & Arria: I am satisfied with what you have said, & I will take an opportunity, sooner or later, of discussing the whole subject at full length; for I think it worth discussing. I am aware that there is in the 2d vol. of the Parriana tier over tier of closely printed notes; but I could not spare the time or space to put the matter in another shape less objectionable & more convenient. Moreover, I was glad of opportunities of discussing many topics in the Notes incidentally. I should be glad to hear your remarks on several parts of the book, turn over the leaves again, put in slips of paper, where you have an observation to make, pro or con. How did you like those copies of Latin verses, for instance, and—the story about Montesquieu, the matter about Ossian etc.? You have abundant materials for criticism, & do not spare it. Do you now understand Parr’s character & attainments better? By the way, if you will read his works, and comment on them, I will lend them to you, 8 vols 8vo. I want to have your free remarks on these works, even if you fill a ream of paper; assuredly <you> will <find> much to interest you. I want your impartial <views> of Parr & the works, as you did not know him personally, and have no prejudices.
Remind me to send to you a few lines about Sir U. Price by the Rev. Charles Hoyle of Overton near Marlborough.
You offer to me a sight of your Poem in MS., the aforesaid Elegy on Sir U. P.: by all means let me see it. I will promise to behave civilly about it.
I think that I have pointed out the source of Pope’s lines; I have not Gregory’s words, & Mr Boyd does not quote them: can you give them?
If you will remind me, I will tell to you what Doctors Davy, Drake, & Turton, also what Charles Butler Esqr. said about the Parriana vol. 2.
When you have read the Toyshop, you will see better what sort of book I meant for children.
I do not know from which of the Fathers the extracts, which I sent to you, came from Mr Boyd. I trust you will be able to tell to me.
Most truly yours,
E. H. Barker
Is this letter sufficiently hieroglyphical.
May 6. I have renewed my search, & I am satisfied that the book was not returned, as I had really supposed: I had 2 copies; the one which I sent to you, contd Fulvia only; the one, which I have at hand, containing several other articles. You will, I dare say, recollect that what was sent to you did not contain anything else. Do not distress yourself about the book, as I have another copy, I shall not die for want of it, & I positively & civilly absolve you from the sin even of losing it. If you find it put aside for a future parcel, & it need not make one on its own account.
Address, on integral page: Miss Barrett / Hope-End / Ledbury.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
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