The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-07-06
Amusing Errors
OF Noted Writers.
Some of the Slips of Famous Pens That
Impress One as Exceedingly Funny.

there IL enough ignorance still left to
occasion some very laughable blunders.
1t Is Coleridge. who, In the Ancient
Mariner" makes new moon to rise
In the east. He says
Clomb above the eastern bar
The horned moon. with one bright star
within the neither tip.
With an ordinary poet the demands Of
rhyme and meter might have been
pleaded In extenuation of so marvellous
a blunder as that of causing new
moon to climb the eastern sky. but
Coleridge was no ordinary poet: he was
never at a loss, either for rhyme or
meter. and such a bull as this must be
placed to the account of sheer forget
fulness. But Dickens was no better,
for he tells of the new moon in the east
at twilight. and Walter Besant Is worse,
for In the children of Gibeon," he
makes a new moon rise in the east at
l or 2 o'clock In the morning. Yet each
one Of these writer's, had he but given
the subject moments thought. would
have seen how absurd and nonsensical
his idea was and how laughable 1t must
appear to people who have even a
cursory knowledge Of the habits of the
moon.
Sir Walter Scott.
Scott wrote in such hurry. rarely
pausing even TO verify the most i'm
portant statement or citation. that no
wonder can be felt at his falling into
dozens Of mistakes. and SO he does. He
makes Wilfred Of Ivanhoe ride five
courses on hot sultry day with one
horse, a thing that no steed outside
novel could possibly have done, and yet
Scott himself was horseman and
knew, as well as anybody, how much a
horse could endure. His zeal Of COM
position overleaps the bounds both OF
time and space, for he makes one OF the
knights OF the days of Richard l. con-
verse with William the ConQuerOr, who
lived more than a century before, and
in another place causes mass to be
celebrated In the afternoon, when only
In the morning Is such service held.
Scott has = worthy imitator in the elder
Dumas, who apparently wrote for effect
and did not care a straw for all the
probabilities in the world. His Monte
Cristo" is a magnificent piece Of color
painting. but full, from beginning to
end, Of blunders. Inconsistencies and
downright absurdities. Not the least
apparent Is the marvellous blunder he
makes about Monte Cristo's fortune.
Endowing him in the first place with
81, OOO, 900, Dumas makes his hero scatter
right and left with the prodigality Of
lunatic, and after this process has been
% aNyalv
he has only $1O,OOO.OO0 left. A glance
over the proof sheets would have saved
the author, but this was too much
trouble SO he blunders along. from
sheer laziness and inattention, into mis-
takes that tyro should avoid.
Geographical Errors.
Many novelist, as we'll as historian.
has come to grief by not taking the
pains to consult geography or atlas
when dealing with some particular In
his story that demanded more than
q general knowledge. Charles Lever,
in Charles OMalley." speaks Of An
dalusia as a province Of Portugal and
puts Valencia on the wrong side OF
Spain while Dean Swift. in writing of
PENNSYLVANIA, declares that the cold
winds from Hudson's Bay blow directly
down upon 1t and render 1t one Of the
most inhospitable regions on the globe.
This, however Is but a trifie In ignor-
ance compared to that shown by Anne
liza B. Edwards, author OF Hand and
Glove" who compares one of her char
acters to ''an overseer on a Massachu-
sets cotton plantation" 1t should not
he forgotten, however, that the densest
ignorance in regard to American geo.
rraphy, politics and matters In general
Ia very English, even Thackeray, who
really liked America and Americans,
making some exceedingly comical blum
ders when dealing with American top
les, placing close together cities that
are separated by distance of hun
dreds Of miles. But when the descent
Is made from the great writers to the
small fry Of literature. the density OF
ignorance becomes appalling. One has
his hero take q run on the railroad train
from New York tn Chicago In one after
noon, as though the two were as close
together as London and Margate, while
another evidently believes New Or
leans to be a suburb of Washington.
and still another makes the Mississippi
flow past the national capital into the
Atlantic Ocean. These are the well-in-
formed; those who do not pretend to
knowledge Of American topics dilate
on the danger Of the unwary being
scalped by the Indians II, too venture
some, they go out Of sight Of the stock
ades Of Boston, and make their heroes
hunt tigers in the jungles Of Delaware.
Shakcspearc's Mistakes.
The worst blunderer along every line
was the great dramatist whose name Is
at the head Of every list of creative and
ina agtnative writer's, and one Of the
chief arguments against the theory OF
the Baconian original Of the immortal
plays ought to bs that It was impossible
for q scholar like Bacon to make as
many blunders as are found In the
writings credited to Shakespeare.
Among otherthings, he alludes to can
non in the reign Of King John. whereas
these deadly implements did not come
into use until $50 years after John had
succumbed to the distress caused by
the loss Of his money and baggage dur
ing the war with the barOns; he puts
printing as early as the reign Of Henry
II, and speaks Of a striking clock in the
days of julius Caesar. His Hector is
familiar with the writings Of Aristotle.
and his Coriolanus refers to Cato and
incidentally also to Alexander He fits
up Cleopatra's palace with q billiard ta-
bic, makes Bohemia country with a
seacoast and marine commerce; he re-
cards Delpios a. an island, and places
Naples and Tunis 60 far apart that
none but madman would attempt the
voyage from one to the other. It is true
that some freedom should be allowed q
dramaAist, and Shakespeare should not
therefore, be held 70 the same rigid ac-
countabilNy al novelist Of equal rank,
n there were such q one, but when q