The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-10-16
A Literary Fraud.
murder.

Simon PureS, literary NOuluiSS VI N
of the Brummagen idols OF the lnaian mar
ket. the crosses and sabre-hiltS OF Leipslc
and Waterloo, the Elizabethan stools Oh the
old curiosity shops of London, or, coming
nearer home, the apple-tree chips OF our own
Annomattox. The reviewer, less often at
fanlt than the professed student, contrlVes
to strip the veil from the things which are
not as they seem; the caustic acid, applied
alike to true and false, searches out the
spurious metal.
Among. the philosophers themselves,
strange to say, there is an occasional anxi-
ETY. for personal notoriety which predisposes
them to give credence to whatever is novel
and strange. Patient research has led to
so many important discoveries in the trod-
den paths of literature, that the reading
world is ever ready to accept the gospel OF
a new dispensation. A mildewed manu-
script, or tear-stained letter, yellow with
the dust of centuries, may change the whole
aspect of an historic era, and overturn in
moment the theories of the learned and the
unreasoning belief of the populace. Each
tlxn,inatuS is eager to add his mite to the
store of wisdom. The plains of knowledge
become Heaven-kissing hill, as every stu
dent casts his stone upon the growing pile.
The man of thought and speculation is de-
sirous to connect his name with new pro-
cess, new formula, new reading; and,
now and then, the scholiast is as thoroughly
befo0led as though he lived in the days when
George Stevens whom Clifford dubbed ''the
s.Puck of Commentators" his con-
temporaries with picked tombstone, on
which was carved the drinking horn OF Har-
dicanute, supposed to mark the burial
place and commemorate the last carouse OF
the bibulous royalDane.
So is it that in the ranks of the philoso-
pliers and book worms the literary forger
often finds willing dupe. OF this there is
q curious instance in the case Of the famous
letters whose discovery was announced
some months ago by NJ. Chasles, French
saran and a member Of the French Acad-
emy. The names of the writers of these,
letters was surely enough to put an intelli-
gent man on his guard. Galileo, Pascal,
Louis XIV, Columbus, Calvin, Luther, Seal
iger, Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, Shakespeare,
Cervantes, Ronsard, Tasso, Dante, BOcac-
clio, Petrarch Laura, is long roll, 10 say
nothing of 1000 letters of Rabelais and sew
eral hundreds of Montaigne. Besides long
list of royal names, there was "a goody
t'number bearing the names of Julius Caesar
.'and other Roman Emperors, also Of the
"Apostles and st. Jerome, Gregory OF Tours,
'St. Augustine, Charlemagne, and many OF
'the Merovingian Kings" The Apostles
are thrown in as make-weights between Ro-
man Emperors and Charlemagne.
A hot discussion arose as soon as the first
OF the letters was published, and the polem-
5e list D ts e paean NV Ghafe5 ma 81 Rs fs
documents profess to be original, and how
many are copies made by order OF Rabelais
in the Abbey Of Tours. All that NJ Chasles
vouchsafed to say was that he himself was
convinced Of the authenticity Of the letters,
and that to let everybody know from whom
they were received ''would have led to such
'ofTers being made 10 the possessor as he
'could not have resisted, and would have
compromised the fate of the documents.
This &c catheora statement did not satisfy
the critics, who are led by intrinsic evidence
to believe that all the letters are arrant for
geries; not simple deceptions like the inno-
cent inventions Of ChattertOn, or the auto
biography Of Mary Powell, the first wife of
Milton; but frauds for the direct purpose of
cheating and bamboozling the public.
Among the many who took the pains to
examine the wonderful manuscripts of NJ.
Chasles was Mr.. Clark a Trinity College
man, who made trip to Paris expressly for
the purpose. The result is most conclu-,
sive demonstration OF the utter falsity OF
these so-called letters of the illustrious men
and women OF fifteen or twenty centuries.
Some of Mr.. Clark's notes are amusing
enough. .a.... f-.:..a aaG
81 OF the Shakespeare letters two or three,
upon the dramatic literature Of France, bear
date when Shakespeare was twelve and four
teen years OF age. In one dated goth March,
1894, Shakespeare speaks of the death of
Montaigne as recent event, and Montaigne
died in September, 1892. In another Shakes
speare is made to refer to Mary Stuart as
having confided to his keeping two hundred
"embemeS d'amou,," written to her first
husband, because her second husband, Darn
ley, was jealous of the affection she bore his
predecessor; and as Shakespeare was not
quite three years Old when Darnley was muir
dered, he must have been prodigy, indeed,
to have been so honored by the Queen. Be-
sides the letters, NJ. de Chasles exhibited one
hundred slips OF paper, each containing
French proverb or saying relating to love,
with an English translation, and signed ''W
shakespeare" The translations are gems
in their way. "Amour rainqueur des Dienc"
is rendered Glove conquers the GoNs,' and
"Ce Dieu est tout puiSsant" is according to
Shakespeare, "JdM is it Goth can't do?'
And yet NJ. lie Chasles still clings to the
Ill 4la4 Il