Part 6 (1/2)

A suggestion

But wait a inal_ editions of _Robinson Crusoe_ (and ive the date of Crusoe's departure froht suggests that this is a ree with the stateth of Crusoe's stay on the island, _if we assume the date of the wreck to be correct_ But, (as Mr Aitken points out) the mistake must be the author's, not the printer's, because in the next paragraph we are told that Crusoe reached England in June, 1687, not 1688 I agree with Mr Aitken; and I suggest _that the date of Crusoe's arrival at the island, not the date of his departure, is the date misprinted_ assume for a moment that the date of departure (Deceht years, two months, and nineteen days of Crusoe's stay on the island, and we get September 30th, 1658, as the date of the wreck and his arrival at the island Now add the twenty-seven years which separate Crusoe's experiences from Defoe's, and we coland at the close of Septeh his bloody assize

”Like ht on p 21, ”Defoe sympathised with Mon” His coht's words, ”probably had to lie low” There is no doubt that the Monest that certain passages in the story of Crusoe's voyage (_eg_ the ”secret proposal” of the three nificance if read in this connection I also think it possible therein the several waves, so carefully described, through which Crusoe made his way to dry land; and in the sihtful edition); and in the several visits to the wreck

I aestion forith the ut, I feel it has ht's Defoe undoubtedly took part in the Mon, and was a survivor of that wreck ”on the south side of the island”: and undoubtedly it for-point of his career If we could discover how he escaped Kirke and Jeffreys, I am inclined to believe we should have a key to the whole story of the shi+pwreck I should not be sorry to find this hypothesis upset; for the story of Robinson Crusoe is quite good enough for me as it stands, and without any sub-intention But whatever be the true explanation of the parable, if time shall discover it, I confess I expect it will be a trifle less recondite than Mr Wright's, and a trifle lish novel[C]

FOOTNOTES:

[A] ”The Life of Daniel Defoe” By Thoht, Principal of Cowper School, Olney London: Cassell & Co

[B] _Roe A

Aitken Vols i, ii, and iii Containing the Life and Adventures, Farther Adventures, and Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe With a General Introduction by the Editor London: JM Dent & Co

[C] Upon this suggestion Mr Aitken, in a postscript to his seventh volume of the _Romances and Narratives_, has since remarked as follows:--

”In a discussion in _The Speaker_ upon Defoe's supposed period of 'silence,' published since the appearance of the first volu, for the reasons I have given (vol i p lvii), that there is no mistake in the date of Robinson Crusoe's departure froested that perhaps the error in the chronology lies, not in the length of time Crusoe is said to have lived on the island, but in the date given for his landing (Septeht appears froe which has hitherto escaped notice Crusoe was born in 1632, and Defoe makes him say (vol i p 147), 'The same day of the year I was born on, viz the 30th of September, that same day I had my life so miraculously saved twenty-six years after, when I was cast ashore on this island' Crusoe must, therefore, have reached his island on September 30, 1658, not 1659, as twice stated by Defoe; and by adding twenty-eight years to 1658 we get 1686, the date given for Crusoe's departure

”It is, however, questionable whether this rectification helps us to interpret the allegory in _Robinson Crusoe_ It is true that if, in accordance with the 'key' suggested by Mr Wright, we add twenty-seven years to the date of the shi+pwreck (1658) in order to find the corresponding event in Defoe's life, we arrive at SepteBut we have no evidence that Defoe suffered seriously in consequence of the part he took in this rebellion; and the addition of twenty-seven years to the date of Crusoe's departure fro us to any corresponding event in Defoe's own story

Those who are curious will find the question discussed at greater length in _The Speaker_ for April 13 and 20, and May 4, 1895”

LAWRENCE STERNE

Dec 10, 1891 Sterne and Thackeray

It is told by those rite scraps of Thackeray's biography that a youth once ventured to speak disrespectfully of Scott in his presence

”You and I, sir,” said the greathireat name”

An admirable rebuke!--if only Thackeray had remembered it when he sat down to write those falish Humorists, or at least before he stood up in Willis's Rooreat predecessors Concerning their work? No

Concerning their genius? No Concerning the debt owed to the their _lives_, ladies and gentlemen; and whether their lives were pure and respectable and free froht to have led whose works you would like your sons and daughters to handle Mr Frank T Marzials, Thackeray's latest biographer, finds the matter of these Lectures ”excellent”:--

”One feels in the reading that Thackeray is a peer a his peers--a sort of elder brother,[A] kindly, appreciative and tolerant--as he discourses of Addison, Steele, Swift, Pope, Sterne, Fielding, Goldsreater contrast in criticise of the French critic--than Thackeray's treatment of Pope and that of M

Taine What allowance the Englishallant little cripple'; hat a gentle hand he touches the painful places in that poor twisted body! M

Taine, irritated apparently that Pope will not fit into his conception of English literature, exhibits the saely”

I am sorry that I cannot read this kindliness, this appreciation, this tolerance, into the Lectures--into those, for instance, of Sterne and Fielding: that the siestions for Mr Marzials and for estive of a peer a his peers than of a tall ”bobby”--a volunteer constable--determined to warn his polite hearers what sort of ly

And even so--even though the lives and actions of men who lived too early to know Victorian decency must be held up to shock a crowd in Willis's Rooenerosity to tell the whole truth Then the story of Fielding's _Voyage to Lisbon_ ht have touched the heart to sympathy even for the purely fictitious low comedian whoht have infused so much pity into the polite audience that they, like his own Recording Angel, ht have blotted out his faults with a tear