The Project Gutenberg EBook of Literary Blunders, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley

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Title: Literary Blunders

Author: Henry Benjamin Wheatley

Posting Date: March 22, 2012 [EBook #371] Release Date: December, 1995

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITERARY BLUNDERS ***

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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