Chapter Erragon to Errors of Authors of E by Brewer's Readers Handbook

The poet-laureate has deviated so often from the collection of tales edited by sir Thomas Malory, that it would occupy too much space to point out his deviations even in the briefest manner.

(51) Thackeray, in Vanity Fair, has taken from sir Walter Scott his allusion to Bedreddin, and not from the Arabian Nights. He has, therefore, fallen into the same error, and added three more. He says, “I ought to have remembered the pepper which the princess of Persia puts into the cream-tarts in India, sir” (ch. iii.). The charge was that Bedreddin made his cheese-cakes without putting pepper into them. But Thackeray has committed in this allusion other blunders. It was not a “princess” at all, but Bedreddin Hassan, who for the nonce had become a confectioner. He learned the art of making cheese-cakes from his mother (a widow). Again, it was not a “princess of Persia,” for Bedreddin’s mother was the widow of the vizier of Balsora, at that time quite independent of Persia. Nor did it happen in India.

In The Newcomes (ch. xlix.) he speaks of “pea-green Payne.” It was Hayne (who sued Miss Foote, in 1824, for breach of promise), not Payne, who was nicknamed “pea-green.”

He was dressed in pea-green, with a pin and a chain, And I think I heard somebody call him Squire Hayne. Ingoldsby Legends (“The Black Mousquetaire”).

In Esmond he calls a bar sinister “the mark of bastardy.” He meant a bend sinister.

(52) Turner (Sharon), in his History of England (p. 63) says that William the Conqueror, after the battle of Hastings, “When he encamped the following day his health became affected, and his friends were alarmed;” and on p. 91 he says, “When a dangerous illness attacked him, he solemnly appointed his son Robert his heir;” but on p. 99 he says, “Such was his health, that he had experienced no illness to the last.”

(53) Victor Hugo, in Les Travailleurs de la Mer, renders “the frith of Forth” by the phrase Premier des quartre, mistaking “frith” for first, and “Forth” for fourth or four. In his Marie Tudor he refers to the “History and Annals of Henry VII., par Franc Baronum,” meaning “Historia, etc., Henrici Septimi, per Franciscum Baconum.” He calls Barkyll Fedro a common British patronymic.

(54) Virgil has placed Æneas in a harbour which did not exist at the time, “Portusque require Velinos” (Æneid, vi. 366). It was Curius Dentatus who cut a gorge through the rocks to let the waters of the Velinus into the Nar. Before this was done, the Velinus was merely a number of stagnant lakes, and the blunder is about the same as if a modern poet were to make Columbus pass through the Suez Canal.

§ In Æneid, iii. 171, Virgil makes Æneas speak of “Ausonia;” but as Italy was so called from Auson, son of Ulysses and Calypso, of course Æneas could not have known his name.

§ Again, in Æneid, ix. 571, he represents Chorinæus as slain by Asylas; but in bk. xii. 298 he is alive again. Thus—

Chorinæum sternit Asylas.
   —Bk. ix. 571.

Then—

Obvius ambustum torrem Chorinæus ab ara
Corripit, et venienti Ebuso plagamque ferenti
Occupat os flaminis, etc.
   —Bk. xii. 298, etc.

§ Again, in bk. ix. Numa is slain by Nisus (ver. 554); but in bk. x. 562 Numa is alive, and Æneas kills him.

(55) Webster, Dictionary (an early edition).

Wicket-Keeper, the player in cricket who stands with a bat to protect the wicket from the ball.

Long-stop. (Cricket.) One who is set to stop balls sent a long distance.