New-York tribune., 1902-03-24
SOME LITERARY HOAXE,S.
THE CLEVER INVITATIONS OF CROssLET,
STEVENS AND SURTEES.

FROM Inc LOnuOn DdIlS -NeNN'
Our attention has just been called to one OF
the cleverest literary hoaXes on record. 1t IS
known only to very few students, and we thlnk
that our readers will be glad TO hear about it
writer in a provincial paper lately quoted sir
Thomas Brownies Fragment on MuumleS'
from Emersons fine essay on Poetry and mag
nation" 1t is such a perfect bit OF stateIy
sombre. and gorgeous prose" that the modern
reader who is less familiar with his Emerson
than was usually the case in the last generation
will not be sorry it quoted. Browne Is
supposed to be speaking Of the ancient Egyp-
tians: "Of their living habitations they made
little account. COnCeiVing OF them but as nos
pitia or inns while they adorned the sepulChTes
of the dead and, planting thereon lasting bases,
defed the Crumbling touches Of time and the
misty vaporousness of oblivion. Yet all were
but Babel vanities. Time sadly OVerCOmeth all
things. and is now dominant, and stteth upon
a Sphinx and looketh unto Memphis and OLD
Thebes, while his sister Oblivion reclineth semi
somnous a pyramid, gloriOusly triumphing
making puzzles Of Titanian erectlOns. and turn
ing old glories into dreams. History sinketh be-
meath her cloud. The traveller as he paCeth
through those deserts asketh of her. Who build
ed them?' and she mumbIeth something. but
what it is he heareth not" There is likely 70
be no reader who will not allow. with Emerson,
that 1t is hard 10 refuse the claim OF poetry
to this splendid passage which was first print
ed IN Simon wilkins edition of Brownies works
in 1885. pronounced by Southey TO be the best
reprint in the English language"
The passage in question, however, is not to
he found in the cheaper edition of wilkins
Browne which included in Bohns Standard
Library. There is good reason. 1t seems, for
that omission, though it must have puzzled and
annoyed many readers. a correspondent Of the
paper in question Mr. Charles w Sutton, as
serts-with good warrant-that the passage in
question is not Brownies at all. but merely
clever imitation of his style. He tells us that
the version of the Fragment Mummies'' in
Wilkin is given from transcript in the hand
writing Of James CrOSsley, Of Manchester
Crossey, who was well known as a close stu
cent or browne, and had taken the trouble to
reprint some of his scarce tracts along with the
Urn Burial" supplied Wilkin with this frag-
ment. The editor added. Il have given this
fragment the authority Of Mr. CrOssley. of
Manchester. but have not been BILE find the
volume in the British Museum which contained
It; nor could he inform me- having transcribed
it himself in the museum but omitted to note
the volume in which he met with it," Mr.. SUIT
ton observes: 1t is no wonder that ii could
be found, for Crossley was hoaxing the learned
editor of Sir Thomas Browne, the fragment be
ing jeu d'esprit from townsman's own
pen To hoax an editor as Sir George Treveyn
observes, has time out Of mind, been the Spe-
cial ambition Of undergraduate wit" but il is
ture life.
The two English writers who stand at the
head Of the class Of literary hoaxers-we shall
not attempt to say whether their fame is worth
having or not-are probably George Stevens
otherwise known as The Asp"-and Robert
Surtees, of Mainsforth. The recreatons of
stevens were not calculated to endear him to
his contemporaries speCially to such of them
as EDITED Shakespeare or INDUCED in anti
speare-one of the chief foundations of the
famous 'varorum edition" of 1921. which still
commands a high price at the booksellers and
is dear TO the student under the name Of 'BOs-
wells MalOne'-COntainS of his most cruel
jokes of the kind. With a maIignitv that was
not without humor." says Mr.. Sidney Lee in the
Dictionary of National Biography. he supplied
many obscene notes to coarse expressions in the
text, and he pretended that he owed his in
oecencles 10 one or other OF two highly respect
able clergymen, Richard Amner and John Col
Inns. whose surnames were in each instance ap-
pended. He had known and quarrelled with
both. Such proofs of his confirmed perversty
justified the title which Clifford applied him
Of the Puck of Commentators Much sym
pathy felt for Amner and Collins who were
a good deal annoyed by this jest More akin to
Crossleys hoax vas the production Of a pre-
tended letter from George Peele describing a
cOnVivial meeting at the Globe in which Shake
speare and other dramatists took part. This
was copied from the newspaper in which Steev-
ems published it into BrkenhOuts "Biographia
Literaria' and still turns up here and there as
a genuine document Of the period. Most people
nave heard Of the practical joke which Stevens
played on Cough the director OF the Society Of
Antiquaries, who had refused bargain which
Stevens offered him. Stevens proceeded to
engrave marble fragment with some Anglo
Saxon letters which purported to state, Here
Hardecanute drank a wine horn dry stared
about him and died This he managed 10 mass
off on the credulous Cough the tombstone OF
the Danish King, and a terrific controversy fol-
lowed, in which Stevens tried to impress on
poor Cough the 'impossibility OF wrggIing off
the hook on which he is so arch8ologically sus-
pended" Steevens's most successful hoax was
the description OF the death dealing upas tree
of Java, which was a sheer invention of his
own. and which not only imposed Erasmus
Darwin, but has passed into a by word of our
language.
Surtees Of Malnsforth, though he never hit on
any invention quite successful a that of the
upaS tree, left his mark literature 1t is
indeed, by no means certain that we know the
whole extent Of his pleasant fabrications. The
provenance Of old ballads is so doubtful and
difficult to trace. at the best that a man who
! condescends to pass off his own lyrics as folk
songs is very hard to detect he muddies the
water at the fountain head II is well known
that Surtees wrote "Barthrams Dirge" and
/ The Staying Of Anthony Featherstonhaugh."
which he passed off on Sir Walter Scott and
fOSteQ into the Border MiDStrelSV' genuine
old ballads 1t seems that Scott, to the day of
his death. never knew that Surtees had de-
ceved him. The received story is that Surtees
sent his fictitious ballads to Scott, whom he did
not then know, in the hope Of making his ac-
quaintance intending TO confess later on that
! they were his own composition; but that Scott
thoroughly convinced of his good faith,
and very likely to take such a joke in bad
part, that Surtees never had the courage to con-
ballads which were found among his papers set
the question beyond dispute. 1t is true that we
might also assume that Surteesl while incapable
Of forging these ballads, wished to be thought
their author. and deliberately left the drafts
behind him to produce that belief Fortunately
there is other Corrobora tive evidence but It is
easy to see what trouble a forger Of ballads
may be preparing for the future student; TO
this day there is grave doubt whether Aud
Maitland not really the composition of
Surtees. ITO literary imposition" says Surtees
himself "as tending TO obscure the path of in
quiry Ritson gave no quarter" Ritson was
quite right, but il was somewhat braZen of Sur
( tees TO quote such utteranCe. Only the recoI-
lection that we owe TO his supercheries two of
the best things in "Marmion' could lead us to
regard his memory with sympathy.
(