Part 1 (1/2)
Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins
by Robert Paltock
Vol I
PREFACE
In one of those bright racy essays at which hts to sneer, Hazlitt discussed the question whether the desire of posthuitimate aspiration; and the conclusion at which he arrived was that there is ”sootis in literature as in morality that ”he that seeketh his life shall lose it” The world cares most for those who have cared least for the world's applause A nas a ballad that shall stirat his epics, is excluded from Parnassus Some there are who have knocked at the door of the Temple of Fame, and have been admitted at once and for ever When Thucydides announced that he intended his history to be a ”possession for all ti the tone of authority But to be enthroned in state, to receive the ho multitude, and then to be rejected as a pretender,--that is indeed a sorry fate, and one thatliterary despots their titles The er are his readers to get a sight of hienuine student to pay if only he could discover one new fact about Shakespeare's history I will not atte er to acquire information about the author of ”Peter Wilkins” at such a sacrifice; but it would have been a sincere pleasure to ht some particulars about one whose personality htful _voyage iinaire_ here presented to the reader was first published in 1751
Some copies are said to be dated 1750 It appears on the list of new books announced in the ”Gentleazine”
for November 1750
An edition appeared immediately afterwards at Dublin; so the book must have had some sale The introduction and the dedication to the Countess of Northumberland (to whom it will be remembered Percy dedicated his ”Reliques” and Goldselina”) are signed with the initials ”R P;” and for many years the author's full name was unknown In 1835, Nicol, the printer, sold by auction a number of books and ed to Dodsley, the publisher; and when these were being catalogued, the original agreeht to light
It is now in the collection, shortly to be dispersed, of the late Mr Jaentle life not less for unfailing courtesy than for rare scholarshi+p Mr Crossley promised to search for the document and send me a transcript of it; but his kind intention was frustrated by his death Paltock's naround for identifying the author of ”Peter Wilkins” with the ”R P, Gent,” who published in 1751 ”Memoirs of the Life of Parnese, a Spanish Lady, Translated from the Spanish MS”
From this document it appeared that the author was Robert Paltock of Cleht 20L, twelve copies of the book, and ”the cuts of the first impression”(proof impressions of the illustrations) The writer's nain; but the authors of the admirable and exhaustive ”Bibliotheca Cornubiensis” could discover nothing about him beyond the fact that he was not a bencher of Clement's Inn That Paltock should have chosen Cle It still keeps so of its pristine repose The sun-dial is still supported by the negro; the grass has not lost its verdure, and on August evenings the plane-trees' leaves glint golden in the sun One ht as Falstaff and Justice Shallow heard them of old Here, where only a muffled murmur coht have dreamed away his life, lonely as Peter Wilkins on the island One can i his hos Perhaps it was the one labour of his life He inally with the aspiration offame and money; and then the spirit of cloistered cal his fine feelings and swelling the ranks of the plutocrats, he gave us a char romance for our fireside With the literary lehis conteure at the club-houses No chorus of reviewers chimed the praises of ”Peter Wilkins” So far as I can discover, the ”Monthly Revieas the only journal in which the book was noticed, and such criticis can hardly be tere perfor of no very natural conjunction, like 'Gulliver's Travels' and 'Robinson Crusoe;' but much inferior to the manner of these two performances as to entertainment or utility It has all that is impossible in the one or impossible in the other, without the wit and spirit of the first, or the just strokes of nature and useful lessons of s for mankind to fly with is sufficient aance of the author, we are willing to allow that his book has soeood author” But the book was not forgotten A new edition appeared in 1783, and again in the following year It was included in Weber's ”Popular Ro plates by Stothard, in 1816
Within the last fifty years it has been frequently issued, entire or mutilated, in a popular form A drama founded on the romance was acted at Covent Garden on April 16, 1827; and more than once of late years ”Peter Wilkins” has afforded material for pantomimes In 1763 a French translation (by Philippe Florent de Puisieux) appeared under the title of ”Les Hommes Volants, ou les Aventures de Pierre Wilkins,” which was included in vols xxii-xxiii of DePerthe's ”Voyages Iinaires” ( 1788-89) A Ger for title ”Die fliegenden Menschen, oder wunderbare Begebenheiten Peter Wilkins”
Whether the author lived to see the translations of this work cannot be ascertained A Robert Paltock was buried at Ryed seventy (Hutchin's ”Dorset,” iv 493-494, third edition), but it is very doubtful whether he was the author of the romance
Paltock's fame may be said to be firmly established An American writer, it is true, in a recent ”History of Fiction,” says not a word about ”Peter Wilkins;” but, we must remember, another A Rowlandson Coleridge admired the book, and is reported to have said: ”Peter Wilkins is, to my mind, a work of uncommon beauty I believe that 'Robinson Crusoe' and 'Peter Wilkins' could only have been written by islanders No continentalist could have conceived either tale It would require a very peculiar genius to add another tale _ejusdeeneris_ to 'Robinson Crusoe' and 'Peter Wilkins' I once projected such a thing, but the difficulty of the preoccupied ground stopped ; but I should fear that neither he nor any other German could entirely understand what
I would try the marvellous line of 'Peter Wilkins' if I attempted it rather than the real fiction of 'Robinson Crusoe'” (”Table-Talk,” 1851, pp 331-332) Southey, in a note on a passage of the ”Curse of Kehaed people ”are the ination that ever were devised,” and added that Sir Walter Scott was a warm admirer of the book With Charles Lamb at Christ's Hospital the story was a favourite ”We had classics of our own,” he says, ”without being beholden to 'insolent Greece or haughty Ro us--'Peter Wilkins,' the 'Adventures of the Hon Captain Robert Boyle,' the 'Fortunate Blue-Coat Boy,' and the like” But nobody loved the old roh Hunt He was never tired of discoursing about its beauties, and he wrote with such thorough appreciation of his subject that he left little or nothing for another to add ”It is interesting,” he writes in one place, ”to fancy R P, or 'Mr Robert Paltock of Cleh, perhaps, as a barrister to lead a public or profitable life, but eking out a little eenial to hirims' on his shelves than to 'coke on Littleton' We picture him to ourselves with 'Robinson Crusoe' on one side of hio over his paper in one of those quiet rooms in Cles into the little garden with the dial in it held by the negro: one of the prettiest corners in London, and extreet any further There he sits, the unknown, ingenious, and ainary beauty for want of a better, and creating her for the delight of posterity, though his conte of her We shall never go through the place again without regarding hi interest Noeeter creature [than Youwarkee] is not to be found in books; and she does him iood taste and blessed companionshi+p
Her pleasure consists but in his; she prevents all his wishes; has neither prudery nor iood of his horace of his fancy It has been well observed that the author has not h And it raundee, or elastic drapery which opens and shuts at pleasure, however ingeniously and even beautifully contrived, would necessitate creatures whose h never so good after their kind, ht have startled the inventor had he beenvery different fro, and lovely Youwarkee
Muscles and nerves not hus; probably have necessitated talons and a beak! At best the woman would have been wilder, more elvish, capricious, and unaccountable She would have ruffled her whalebones when angry; been horribly intiles; and frightened Wilkins out of his ith dashi+ng betwixt rocks and pulling the noses of seals and gulls (”Book for a Corner,” 1868, i 68, &c) Could criticishtful? But in the ”London Journal,”
Noveenial essayist's fancy dallied even e displayed, full of 'rainbows and starry eyes,' is a fine object, but think of a lovely woman set in front of an ethereal shell and wafted about like a Venus We are to picture to ourselves a nymph in a vest of the finest texture and most delicate carnation On a sudden this drapery parts in two and flies back, stretched from head to foot like an oval fan or an u to sweep blushi+ng away from us and ' the buxo everreater perplexity It is weariso one another for the world's prizes, while e unlit by one ray of sunshi+ne frorave Sohts of philosophy, whence they look with indifference over the tossing world-wide sea of human et for a season the actual world and lose themselves in the reater relief to a fretted spirit than to turn to the ”Odyssey” or Mr Payne's exquisite translation of the ”Arabian Nights” Great should be our gratitude to Mr Morris for teaching us in golden verse that ”Love is Enough,” and for spreading wide the gates of his ”Earthly Paradise” Lucian's ”True History,” that carries us over unknown seas beyond the Atlantic bounds to enchanted islands in the west, is one of those books which we do not half appreciate And a the world's benefactors Robert Paltock deserves a place An idle hour could not be spent in a o a-field with his gun or haul up the beast-fish at the lonely creek What can be htful than the description hoakened froe voices overhead, he sees fallen at his door the lovely winged woman Youwarkee!
Prudish people may be scandalised at the unreserved frankness shown in the account of the consue with this fair creature; but the editor was unwilling to mutilate the book in the interests of such refined readers Ato shock his or her feelings in the description of Youwarkee's bridal night deserves the co is the picture of the children sitting round the fire on the long winter evenings listening wide-eyed to the ever-fresh story of their father's marvellous adventures The wholesome hout, give the narrative a charreater literary pretension When Peter Wilkins leaves his solitary hoed people, the interest of the story, it must be confessed, is soations to Swift in the latter part of the book are considerable; and of course in describing how Peter Wilkins ordered his life on the lonely island, he was largely indebted to Defoe But the creation of the winged beings is Paltock's own It has been suggested that he na other curious theories, had seriously discussed the question whetherIn the second part of his ”Mathes that seerow very facil after frequent trial and exercise: And therefore he that would effect any thing in this kind ht up to the constant practice of it fro on the ground, as an Estrich or ta the earth with his toes; and so by degrees learn to rise higher till he shall attain unto skill and confidence
I have heard it from credible testimony that one of our nation hath proceeded so far in this experis to skip constantly ten yards at a tiraundee, and in an instant was lost in the clouds Had the author given her the ht is too dreadful
Judicious reader, the long winter evenings have come round, and you have now abundance of leisure Let the poets stand idle on the shelves till the return of spring, unless perchance you would fain resume acquaintance with the ”Seasons,” which you have not read since a boy, or would divert yourself with Prior or be grave with Crabbe Now is the time to feel once more the charm of Lamb's peerless and unique essays; now is the ti daintily of h Hunt to the books they loved to praise Exult in the full-blooded, bracing life which pulses in the pages of Fielding; and if Smollett's mirth is occasionally too riotous and his taste too coarse, yet confess that all faults must be pardoned to the author of ”Hu you will spend pleasantly with Defoe; and then, perchance, after a fresh reading of the thrice and four times wonderful adventures of Robinson Crusoe, you will turn to the romance of ”Peter Wilkins” So may rheums and catarrhs be far from you, and may your hearth be croith content!