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Yale Studies in English (continued)

Translations

Andreas, the Legend of St. Andrew (Old English), R. K. ROOT. Pp. 58. 2s. 6d. net.
Earliest Lives of Dante (Boccaccio and Aretino), J. R. SMITH. Pp. 103. 4s. net.
The Complaint of Nature (Alain de Lille), D. M. MOFFAT. Pp. 95. 3s. 6d. net.
Essays on Poetry (Plutarch & Basil the Great), F. M. PADELFORD. Pp. 136.
The Translations of Beowulf, a critical bibliography by C. B. TINKER. Pp. 149. 4s. net.
King Alfred's Version of Augustine's Soliloquies, H. L. HARGROVE. Pp. 48. 4s. net.

Harvard University Press

Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature

4s. net.

Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe, by GEORGE SANTAYANA. 1910. (Vol. I.) 8vo (81 × 53), pp. viii +216. 10s. 6d. net.

Mythical Bards and the Life of William Wallace, by W. H. SCHOFIELD. 1920. (Vol. V.) 8vo (82×51) pp. xiv +382. 12s. 6d. net.

Angevin Britain and Scandinavia, by HENRY GODDARD LEACH. 1921. 8vo (81 × 51), pp. xii + 432. (Vol. VI.) 21s. net.

Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature published under the Direction of the Modern Language Departments of Harvard University. 8vo (9 x 6). 10s. 6d. net each.

I. The Authorship of the English Romaunt of the Rose, by G. L. KITTREDGE; The Origin of the English Names of the Letters of the Alphabet, by E. S. SHELDON; LokSounday, by J. M. MANLY. 1892. Pp. 128.

II. Language of Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, by J. M. MANLY; German National Feeling in Literature, by W. H. CARRUTH; Further Notes on the Names of the Letters, by E. S. SHELDON. 1893. Pp. 220.

IV. Studies on the Libeaus Desconus, by W. H. SCHOFIELD. 1895. Pp. iv + 246.
V. Child Memorial Volume. 1896. Pp. 232.

VI. The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love, by W. A. NEILSON. 1899. Pp. vi +284.
VII. The Old Spanish Sibilants, by J. D. M. FORD; The Round Table before Wace, by
A. C. L. BROWN. 1900. Pp. iv + 206.

VIII. Iwain, by A. C. L. BROWN; Arthur and Gorlagon, by G. L. KITTREDGE. 1903. Pp. vi+276.

IX. Scandinavian Influences in the English Romantic Movement, by F. E. FARLEY. 1903. Pp. viii + 250.

X. The Arthurian Material in the Chronicles, by R. H. FLETCHER. 1906. Pp. x +314. XI. Ballad and Epic, by W. M. HART. 1907. Pp. viii+ 316. Harvard University Press. Harvard Studies in English, 8vo (8 x 51). 10s. 6d. net each

1. Courtly Love in Chaucer and Gower, by W. G. DODD. 1913. Pp. viii+258. 2. English Moralities Allegory, by W. ROY MACKENZIE. 1914. Pp. xvi + 278.

3. The Drama of Sensibility, 1696-1780, by ERNEST BERNBAUM. 1915. Pp. x + 288. 4. The First Duchess of Newcastle and her Husband as Figures in Literary History, by H. TEN EYCK PERRY. 1918. Pp. x + 336.

Chaucer and his Poetry, by GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE. 1914. 8vo (81 × 51), pp. 236. 6s. 6d. net.

The Mary Carleton Narratives, 1663–73. A Missing Chapter in the History of the English Novel, by ERNEST BERNBAUM. 1920. 8vo (9 × 6), pp. v + 106. 5s. 6d. net. Chivalry in English Literature, by W. H. SCHOFIELD. Crown 8vo, pp. x, 294. 10s. 6d. net. The Supernatural in Tragedy, by C. E. WHITMORE. 1916. 8vo (8 × 51⁄2), pp. 378. 10s. net.

Princeton University Press

Charlemagne (The Distracted Emperor), Drame Élizabethan anonyme. Édition critique, avec Introduction et Notes par FRANCK L. SCHOELL. 1920. 8vo (10 × 71) pp. 158. 13s. 6d. Old English Poetry, Translations into Alliterative Verse, by J. D. SPAETH. 1922. Crown 8vo (7×5), pp. xii+268. 9s. net.

The English Ode to 1660. An Essay in Literary History, by ROBERT SHAFER. 1918. 8vo (9 x 6), pp. vi+168. 3s. 6d. net.

Biblical Libraries; a Sketch of Library History from 3400 B. c. to A.D. 150. By E. C. RICHARDSON. 1914. Crown 8vo (7×4), pp. 268. 7s. net.

The Text of Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, by ERNEST F. AMY. 1918. Med. 8vo (9 × 6), pp. x+110. Paper cover, 4s. 6d. net.

Chaucer and the Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius, by BERNARD L. JEFFERSON. 1917. Med. 8vo (9 × 6), pp.. vi + 168. Paper cover, 4s. 6d. net.

The Oxford Dictionary

A Brief Account

Origin and Progress of the Dictionary

The Proposed 'Supplement' of 1859

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The collection of the materials which are used in the preparation of the Oxford Dictionary began in 1857 with the appointment by the Philological Society in London of a committee for the collection of words unregistered in existing dictionaries. Dr. Trench, then Dean of Westminster, read before the Society two papers in which, while speaking with much appreciation of the labours of Dr. Johnson and his successors, he declared that these labours yet fell far short of giving us the ideal English Dictionary. Especially, he pointed out that for the history of words and families of words, and for the changes of form and sense which words had historically passed through, they gave hardly any help whatever. No one could find out from all the dictionaries extant how long any particular word had been in the language, which of the many senses in which many words were used was the original, or how or when these many senses had been developed; nor, in the case of words described as obsolete, were we told when they became obsolete or by whom they were last used. He pointed out also that the obsolete and the rarer words of the language had never been completely collected; that thousands of words current in the literature of the past three centuries had escaped the diligence of Johnson and all his supplementers; that, indeed, the collection of the requisite material for a complete dictionary could not be compassed by any one man, however long-lived and however diligent, but must be the work of many collaborators who would undertake systematically to read and to extract English literature. He called upon the Philological Society, therefore, as the only body in England then interesting itself in the language, to undertake the collection of materials to complete the work already done by Bailey, Johnson, Todd, Webster, Richardson, and others, and to prepare a supplement to all the dictionaries, which should register all omitted words and senses, and supply all the historical information in which these works were lacking, and above all, should give quotations illustrating the first and last appearance, and every notable point in the life-history of every word.'—(Murray, Romanes Lecture, 1900.)

The Preparations for a New Dictionary, 1859-79

The collection of materials for the supplement was at once begun by the Committee and seventy-six volunteers, but it soon became apparent that the projected supplement would be greater than all the existing dictionaries. Accordingly plans were discussed for a New English Dictionary, and Mr. Herbert Coleridge was appointed editor. Under his direction rules were issued for the guidance of volunteer readers, some hundreds of books were read or undertaken to be read, and the editor himself published his Glossarial Index to the printed literature of the thirteenth century. He had prepared lists of words from A to D, and had put into type specimen pages containing articles upon some early words shortly before his lamented death in 1861. He had calculated that, when he had one hundred thousand illustrative quotations in his pigeon-holes, it would be time to begin making the Dictionary.

6

Dr. Furnivall, who was next appointed editor, realized much more fully the immensity of the work'. He pressed on the collection of quotations, divided the letters of the alphabet among volunteer sub-editors, each of whom, it was hoped, would arrange the quotations supplied of words beginning with the letter entrusted to him, classify the different senses of each word, and so leave to the editor only the final redaction of the articles. And, becoming conscious of the great bulk of our early literature which had not been printed, or had been very imperfectly printed, Furnivall founded in 1864 the Early English Text Society, which from that time until now has been engaged in the accurate reproduction of those early writings without which no historical knowledge of English language and literature is possible.

The work thus begun was continued for many years, but could not be brought to completion. The materials accumulated as more books were read, but experience showed that it was impossible for volunteer workers to bring them into a single plan: in the absence of an editor and a staff giving their whole time to the work gaps in the material could not be discovered or filled, and an attempt made by Furnivall to construct a Concise Dictionary, which should show what had been done and what remained to do, broke down after many years of effort. The first enthusiasm of the workers waned when it was found that printing was so far distant; the London and American publishers who were consulted were unable to undertake a work of the magnitude which it was clear would be necessary, and the whole undertaking languished.

The Oxford Dictionary

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The collections which had been made were too valuable to be abandoned, and in 1878 it was suggested that the Philological Society should invite the co-operation of the Clarendon Press. Negotiations between the Society, the Press, and Dr. Murray, who was by common consent designated as the editor, were entered into, and agreements were finally settled early in 1879. Even then the immensity of the work was not realized. The Dictionary, it was thought, would occupy not less than 6,000 and not more than 7,000 pages', and it could be completed, it was assumed, in ten years by a single editor, with a small staff. But when Dr. Murray, in 1879, began his work, careful examination of the quotations, then for the first time arranged in a continuous alphabetical series, showed that much work still remained to be done to render the material adequate. Accordingly a new appeal was made to volunteers to collect additional quotations. More than eight hundred readers responded to this appeal, and in the course of three years a million additional quotations were furnished, raising the total to three and a half millions, selected by about thirteen hundred readers, from the works of more than five thousand authors. About thirty sub-editors offered their gratuitous services in arranging quotations, preparing definitions, and otherwise contributing to the progress of the work. Without the aid of these generous contributors so great a task could never have been undertaken.'-(Murray, Preface, Vol. I.)

These immense collections, which even before the printing of the work had begun were already thirty-five times larger than had been contemplated in 1860, would have been sufficient in themselves to ensure the supereminence of the Dictionary. No other book has had, and very few ever will have, foundations laid in an inductive investigation of so wide a character. A simple classification of the available material for the various words, an intelligent selection from it, and a careful verification of the references, would have resulted in producing a work of the greatest value and usefulness. The adoption of such a course, however, was rendered virtually impossible by the very wealth of the material. This continually raised problems and presented difficulties which had not confronted any previous lexicographer, and the solution of these constantly involved prolonged researches in many different fields of study. A single quotation, containing a rare word or some unusual sense of a word, frequently became the starting-point of an investigation, historical or etymological, which might lead to some interesting discovery and explain something previously unknown or misunderstood. At an early stage of the work it became apparent that such researches, if they were to be adequately carried out, would demand ample limits of time and space, and that satisfactory results could only be achieved by the organization of a large and highly skilled editorial staff, which could have easy access to one or other of the great libraries, and profit by the assistance of many scholars and men of science. To attain this end, Dr. Murray with his staff removed to Oxford in 1885. He was fortunate in the widespread interest which his work excited in this and other countries. Without the generous help which this interest drew from many quarters it would have been almost impossible to collect adequate materials. The list of voluntary helpers within the British Islands is so extensive that it must be sought in the prefaces to the various volumes; but something may be said here of the assistance which has come from over the seas. In early stages much help was given by American scholars, whose work was organized and superintended by Professor F. A. March. The preface to Vol. I (p. xv) records large contributions of materials from several Americans, while here, or in other volumes, the names of Fitzedward Hall, W. C. Minor, A. Matthews, C. W. Ernst, &c., are mentioned among those to whom special recognition is due. In another direction, across the North Sea, Mr. Caland, of Wageningen, was for many years a devoted contributor and critical proof-reader.

Even with all the assistance thus freely given, it became evident within a few years from the start that the magnitude of the task undertaken by Sir James Murray had not been fully realized. To hasten the completion of the work additional editors were appointed.

Dr. Bradley, who had previously worked in London, first giving help with the letter B, undertook the editing of E, and removed to Oxford in 1896. Dr. Craigie, who joined the staff at Oxford in 1897, first assisted in the preparation of G, I, and K, and began independent editing with Q. Mr. Onions, after completing ten years of service with Sir James Murray and Dr. Bradley, was engaged in specially preparing portions of M, N, R, and S, and at the beginning of 1914 undertook the independent editing of Su-Sz.

Thus the editorial list stood on December 31, 1923:

The late Sir JAMES MURRAY, editor of A B C D, H I J K, O P, T.
The late HENRY BRADLEY, editor of E F G, L M, S-SH, ST, and WA-WE.
WILLIAM A. CRAIGIE, editor of N, Q, R, SI-SQ, U and V.

C. T. ONIONS, editor of Su-Sz, WH-WI, and X Y Z.

The present staff consists of the following: Dr. W. A. Craigie, assisted by Mr. G. M. Watson, Mrs. Powell, and Miss R. N. Murray; Mr. C. T. Onions, assisted by Mr. A. T. Maling, Mr. F. J. Sweatman, and Mr. J. W. Birt; the late Dr. Henry Bradley's assistants, Mr. W. Worrall, Mr. W. J. Lewis, Mr. H. J. Bayliss, and Miss E. S. Bradley. The total number of those engaged in the preparation of the Dictionary is thus twelve.

On 4 March, 1924, a luncheon was held to celebrate the removal of the London offices of the Press from Amen Corner to more commodious premises at Amen House, Warwick Square. The speakers on that occasion - the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Asquith, Lords Curzon and Balfour-dwelt on the services rendered by the Press to the advance of knowledge, particularly in the publication of the Dictionary. Attention was directed to the burden which the University has borne, almost unaided; it was remarked that the tenth and concluding volume alone will, when finished, have cost £50,000. Lord Curzon pointed out that the value of this service is still, after forty years, very imperfectly appreciated by the public. I wish the public would realize a little more what the Dictionary contains. Week by week, notably in the columns of the Sunday press, I see interesting letters on literary and philological subjects. All those questions are answered in the great Oxford Dictionary, if you take the trouble to look into it.'

Sir James Murray died on the 26th July, 1915. His great wish that he should live to finish the Dictionary on his eightieth birthday, in 1917, had not been fulfilled; the unceasing labour of three and thirty years ended when less than a tenth part of the work remained to be done. Almost within a week of his death he was still spending long hours at his desk. At the beginning he laid the lines and drew the plan; in the prosecution of the work, when it became clear that it must be shared, his amazing capacity for unremitting labour enabled him to take more than an equal part, and the volumes produced by himself show characteristic excellences which cannot be exactly matched, though they may be rivalled by merits of another kind. 'He will not write the last pages, but more than that of any other man his name will be associated with the long and efficient working of the great engine of research by which the Dictionary has been produced.'

Dr. Henry Bradley died on the 23rd of May, 1923. His connexion with the Dictionary, which took its rise from a notable review of the first part when it was published in 1884, began formally with the independent editing of E. At first his work was carried on under difficulties; but after his removal to Oxford in 1896 his production was virtually continuous, and lasted for twenty-seven years. Most of the sections of the work which fell to his share gave full scope for the display of a scholarship which was varied and accurate in a very exceptional degree, and contain innumerable articles which owe their excellence to his rare combination of knowledge, memory, analytic power, and soberness of judgement. Although deprived of the satisfaction of seeing the completion of the Dictionary, he had covered no small part of the last important letter, and was fortunate in being able to continue his work to the very end with unimpaired faculties and unabated interest.

The Present State of the Dictionary

Including the work of all the editors, the state of the Oxford Dictionary in 1923 is as follows. Nine of the ten volumes are complete and, with the portions of the tenth volume already published, carry the vocabulary without a break from A to UNFORESEEABLE. The remainder of U is practically ready for the printer. V, W-WAVY, WH-WHISKING, and X Y Z have been published, and the remainder of W is in active preparation. On October 31, 1923, the Dictionary extended to 14,709 pages and dealt with 394,634 words, illustrated by 1,720,136 quotations.

The completion of the third half million of quotations contrasts with the original calculations of Mr. Coleridge, that-it would be time to begin the making of the Dictionary when one hundred thousand quotations were available.

A Comparison with other Dictionaries

The seventh volume containing the words beginning with the letters O and P contains more words than any of the volumes published so far. The total is 48,870 words-30,300 main words, 6,393 subordinate words, 4,974 special combinations, and 7,203 obvious combinations. Of the main words, 23,120 are described as current, 5,335 as obsolete, and 1,845 as alien. As against the Oxford total of 48,870, no other English dictionary contains more than 27,097. No fewer than 38,365 words in the Oxford volume are illustrated by quotations--no other English dictionary has more than 8,368 words, roughly 30,000 fewer, illustrated by quotations, and the illustrative quotations themselves number 175,130 in the Oxford book or 154,790 more than in any other comparable volume. Johnson's dictionary contained 4,485 words beginning with O and P, of which 3,661 were illustrated by quotations, the quotations numbering 12,111.

As stated, the number of pages published to October 31, 1923, is 14,709. Each page contains three columns 10 inches long (112 lines on the average), and each column is 23 inches wide-in all 44,127 columns, which if placed end to end would cover over seven miles; the 4,942,224 lines of type therein (185 miles) containing over two hundred million letters and figures, not counting punctuation marks.

The Progress of Foreign Dictionaries-A Contrast

The number of years which have been required to bring the Oxford Dictionary to this point will not seem excessive when it is compared with three foreign dictionaries which in respect of plan and extent may fairly be said to rival it. These are the Deutsches Wörterbuch, begun by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Woordenboek der nederlandsche Taal, begun by De Vries and Te Winkel, and the Ordbok öfver svenska språket of the Swedish Academy. A summary of the past progress and present state of these works affords interesting evidence of the time which is normally spent in the production of dictionaries of this kind.

German

The preparatory work for the Deutsches Wörterbuch was begun by the brothers Grimm in 1838, but the printing did not commence till the very end of 1851; the first volume, containing A-BIERMOLKE, was completed in 1854. Wilhelm Grimm, who died in 1859, did only the letter D, which forms part of the second volume; Jacob completed the third volume in 1862, and had advanced some way into the fourth at the time of his death in 1863. Since that date the work has been carried on by various scholars, some twenty in all, eight of whom are specially mentioned in some forms of the general title-page as it appears on the covers of the separate parts. During these fifty-eight years the dictionary has progressed from F to an advanced point in S, though part of G still remains to be done. The rest of the alphabet is represented chiefly by continuous portions of T, V, and W, with smaller unconnected sections of S, U, V, W, and Z; most of these minor sections have been produced within recent years, as, the result of a special effort to complete the work. With the exception of Vol. IV (which is immensely out of proportion to the others), the first nine volumes and the first part of Vol. X are finished. The second part of Vol. X is also well advanced, and carries the work as far as SroSZBANK. Progress more or less considerable has been made with each of the six remaining volumes. The total result of seventy-three years of printing and publishing amounts to 22,380 pages (equivalent to about 11,200 pages of the Oxford Dictionary), and covers about five-sixths of the whole German vocabulary.

Dutch

The beginnings of the Dutch dictionary date from 1850-51, and by 1852 the two original editors, De Vries and Te Winkel, had started the systematic collection of materials for the work. It was not, however, till 1864 that the first part made its appearance. After the death of Te Winkel in 1868 De Vries continued the work with various colleagues until his own death in 1892; since that date the dictionary has been carried on by some of these colleagues and by other editors subsequently appointed. After sixty years of publication the present state of the Woordenboek is as follows: Vols. I-VI, containing A to I, are complete, and Vols. IX, X, and XI, containing M, N, and O, have also been finished. Of the remainder, Vol. VIII has made considerable progress, while Vols. VII, XII, XIII, and XIV are less advanced; the latter, ending at present with SCHOMMELKOK, is the furthest point the dictionary has reached. The portion of the work now published amounts to 16,628 pages (equivalent to about 6,300 pages of the Oxford Dictionary), and contains about two-thirds of the Dutch vocabulary.

Swedish

The dictionary of the Swedish Academy is much less advanced than either of the above. The first part appeared in 1893, and up to the present time four complete volumes have been published, with portions of another two. These, however, contain only the letters A, B (incomplete), C, D (incomplete), and E, and 240 pp. of F; nearly five-sixths of the Swedish vocabulary still remain to be dealt with.

The Low Price of the Dictionary

In order to make the Oxford Dictionary accessible to scholars and students it is published at a price which is at least as low as that for any printed matter in book form. The entire work so far as it has gone-the first nine volumes bound in half-morocco, and the sections of Vol. X in paper boards or wrappers-can be purchased for £40 10s. net. Particulars are

given on the two pages next following.

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