The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-08-04
MISTAKES OF
i'm the Works of Many
Famous Writers.
New York Press.

= ia a ltS1.
4 small volume might be compiled of the
anachronisms and other slips made by
great authors. Shakespeare had q peculiar
facility for making the impossible happen
IL MS plays and he scattered an~achrOniSmS
with a prOdigal hand. One OF his most re-
markable feats Is making Desdemona,
after she has been smOtnered properly by
the Moor, regain her breath and enter into
q rational conversation, even inVenting q
generous falsehoOd to shield her jealous
husband before she finally decides . die.
Inc lmpossibility Of a person who has been
smothereo ,regaining consciousness and
sPo ech. and then dying after having done
so scarcely needs pointing out.
The immortal bard calmly introduces a
printing press long before the days of
Gutenberg; makes a clock strike in an
Gent Rome a thousand years before clocks
King John and his barOns and transports
Bohemia to tie seaside. He also in Henry
v, speaks OF a turkey cock. a bird I'M
known In Europe in HenryS time.
Thacheray had a most confusing manner
of mixing up the names OF his characters,
and in the Newcomes, after killing off old
Lady CienliV2t and Diminishing her from the
story, he brings her 70 lie again TO help
out the plot. Greasy, in his Fifteen De-
cisive Battles of the World" makes Theo-
oCric commander of the LETT wing of the
allies at the battle of Chalons, although
that battle took place four years before
Theodore was born. Anthony TrOllOpe
pictures one OF his characters, Andy Scott,
IS coming whistling up the street with d
cigar in his mouth which shows that
Andy was a versatile genius. Dickens in
Hard Times" speaks OF the Great Bear
and Charles's Vain as if they were differ
ent consultations, and lola, in his
"Lourdes, states that the deaf and dumb
received their sight and hearing. Wilkie
Collins. on one occasion. makes the moon
rise in the west, and Elder Hagsard, in
King SOlomOn's Mines contrives an
eclipse of the new moon for the benefit OF
his readers and the facilitation of the work
ings OF his plot.
In The Battle of Naseby" Macaulay
makes a Puritan soldier say of the Royal
lists, Their coward heads pTedestined 10
rot on Temple Bar" Traitors heads were
not so exposed until thirty-fve years after
Naseby, and no Royaiist head was ever so
displayed. Campbell says, . Fries
banks. where tigers steal along. and Ram
Sey, in his "Reminiscences, declares that
the Wild birds Of America are onSless
A most glaring historical error occurs In
keatS's . First Looking Into ChapIlan's
Homer. RE says:
Then felt 1 like some watcher OF the skies
When a new planet Swims into his ken:
Or, like stout COTteZ, when with eagle eyes
IoO6 Il at each other with Il wild sUrnise-
Silent upon a peak In Darien.
Every cschoolboy knows that It was Bal
boa and not CCrtez who stood silent upon
a peak in D4rien."
IN Burke Peerage are many marvellous
things written. Not least among them are
references to St. Louis, Massachusetts,. and
the statement that one of the t'airfaXes
was CLERK Of the Supreme Court of Cali
fOrnia and speaker OF the House of Repre-
Sentatives of the State of Alcaldi.