Literary Blunders: A Chapter in the "History of Human Error"Delight in other people's errors never dates, and this little book, first published in 1893, is a fount of human folly and a joy to read. Its compiler, Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917), was a distinguished librarian, bibliographer and scholar, and a prolific author on London history and the history of books. This publication displays his great sense of humour, and his effortless command of far-flung sources in the search for a good joke. Citing examples from historians to misguided schoolboys, as well as from everyday conversation, Wheatley looks at comic misprints, misunderstandings, and garbled English in foreign parts. However, the book also has a more serious contribution to make: the chapter on printed errata makes use of the earliest evidence of proof correction by authors, and the analysis of misprints in early printing shows how many variant readings in the works of Shakespeare came about. |
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absurd amusing blunder answer appeared Barcelona Bible bibliographer Bishop born bulls called catalogue cause chapter Church compiler compositor confusion contains copy correct curious D'Israeli described Dictionary Edinburgh Review edition editor England English entitled errors escaped etymology examination excuse Exhibition fact fault French friends German ghost words give given heat Henry History ignorant instance Isaac Disraeli John Payne Collier John Ray joke Julius Cæsar king king's knise large number late Latin letter lines list of errata literary blunder London Lord ment misprint misread mistake never Notes and Queries notice occurred Oliver Cromwell original paper passage printed printer proofs published question quoted reader remarkable saints sometimes spelling strange Strappado style supposed Tellurium thee THOMAS HEYWOOD thou tion translation turned Vedast verse William writing written wrote
Popular passages
Page 141 - Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded Wife, to live together after God's ordinance, in the holy estate 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 live ? The Man shall answer,
Page 114 - 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 region of thick-ribbed ice; To be imprison'd 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 thought Imagine howling: — 'tis too horrible! The weariest and most loathed worldly life That age,...
Page 43 - Queen, that under her we may be godly and quietly governed : and grant unto her 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.
Page 106 - What beast was't, then, That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And, to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
Page 8 - 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 do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.
Page 134 - 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; their shores obey The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay Has dried up realms to deserts: not so thou; Unchangeable save to thy wild waves
Page 135 - Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
Page 146 - Mais elle était du monde où les plus belles choses Ont le pire destin ; Et rose elle a vécu ce que vivent les roses, L'espace d'un matin.
Page 39 - It is a pleasure which belongs wholly to the understanding, and in which the feelings have no part whatever. Nay, even Spenser himself, though assuredly one of the greatest poets that ever lived, could not succeed in the attempt to make allegory interesting. It was in vain that he lavished the riches of his mind on the House of Pride and the House of Temperance. One unpardonable fault, the fault of tediousness, pervades the whole of the Fairy Queen.
Page 58 - 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!