Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 42.27
A Translation of the Seir Mutaqherin (Haji Mustafa) 42.27
- Language
- English
42.27.1
After this little digression upon prosecuting printers, (and the penalty I had subjected them to was only a sum of 400, which I am told now, is a mere trifle to a printer); after such an excursion, I come back to my subject. To what purpose is it to correct a proof-sheet now sent me for the second time by a printer ? In the first, which I had returned, I had corrected six omissions, four Solecismes, and sixteen faults more of all sorts. It is brought back to me in the afternoon, and I find a dozen of faults corrected, seven or eight preserved, and a novel crop of half a dozen new ones. What to do ? correct again ; and an angry note is added at the bottom of the page. But by this time it is five o'clock. The printer must take his evening ride. He gives the proof to the apprentice, who, instead of attending to all the corrections, minds only the less troublesome ones, and then sends the table to the press, where a hundred sheets are printed off in half an hour; and this is the work corrected. I know, not one or ten, or a hundred, but some thousands of such instances. And what, if the printer, despising your quality of a foreigner, thinks that an Englishman whatever, has a right to know more of the language than you, and takes the liberty of correcting you, of sneering at your emendations, of substituting his own, and of throwing away without answer some angry notes in which you inform him, that he is paid for printing what is before him, and not for correcting it ?
42.27.2
For instance, to what purpose is it for me to have written in my manuscript, he was preposed to that business. A printer, (but this printer is neither Cooper nor Bruce, who are both scholars) a printer will dash preposed and print proposed ; and when you tell him that those two words are quite different, and that the latter etymologically signifies, brought forward, or mentioned, whereas the other signifies, put over or put in office, the man will resolutely answer you, that preposed may be English, but not English of Europe, only English of Bengal. Look at the page 414, line 27, and page 422, line 2, of the third volume. What for to have written in the original, obsolete ? The apprentice takes it to be absolute. You correct. He does not mind it, or mistakes it again ; and the next morning you receive 200 sheets, all saddled with an absolute. Page 355, line 8, Volume 3. What for to have originally written surrendered it immediately, page 185, line 11, Volume 3 ? and what for to have corrected it in the proof ? The 200 sheets bear it surrounded immediately. What for to have written very legibly alambicated, and to have corrected at two different times. The printer writes you that the word is not English, and that it ought to be amplificated. He promises to print as you direct, and yet leaves the proof to the apprentice, who carelessly makes it over to another, who, uninformed of the dispute, sends you 200 sheets all with an amplificated. Volume 3, page 270, line 43.
42.27.3
Write hit his fancy; correct over and over; to no purpose. It is Bengalee English. The Europe English is as follows: taken his fancy. Volume 3, page 278, line 10. Write disperate ten times over; all your sheets are saddled with a desperate. Volume 3, page 338, line 24. The manuscript has it, and that he has no Companion; the book has, and he has no Companion. Vol. 3, line 20, page 348. What for to have dashed in my manuscript the word, of her clan, for that of her desert? The apprentice prints over and over her desert clan. Vol. 3, page 361, line 30. The manuscript has shaken off inferiority and submission. The book 3 has p. 365, line 13, shaken of his inferiority and submission. MS. the officiant B. 3d. Page 10 Line 30 the efficient „ to hate the man „ „ 32 „ 26 to take the man „ bearing his name „ „ 46 „ 30 hearing his name „ setting up „ „ 47 „ 45 sitting up „ Crapule „ „ 76 „ 15 Crapulence „ into a despondency „ „ 96 „ 13 into despondence „ Dependance „ „ 128 „ 16 Dependence „ and who augured no good „ „ 131 „ 6 and who acquired no good „ Either their person or those jewels „ „ 134 „ 19 Either person or jewels „ B. M. de Bury Major of place at Pondicherry „ „ „ 152 „ 25 M. de Bury Major of a place at Pondicherry. You are tired, Sir, and so am I; but here I must end, as the French have it, by the bon morceau.
42.27.4
Here is the text, (the Printer has the manuscript; let it be produced): "Arrived at the Capital (Shudjah-ed-dowla) he expected a benefit from the very change of air; but his wound becoming worse and worse, and by this time affecting his health considerably, it was discovered now that it had degenerated into a Cancer, &c., &c. Whether these four lines be English in Idiom, you, as an Englishman, have a right to determine, although the opinion of even a semi-Englishman, who reads and scribbles these thirty years past, ought not altogether to go for nothing. I say you, as an Englishman, may possibly object that they are not English in idiom. Be it so; but I need no man's assistance to maintain that they are English in grammar, and syntax. Nevertheless, the printer thought them English of Bengal; and here is his English of Europe: — "Arrived at that Capital, he expected a benefit from the change of air; but his wound becoming worse and worse, and by this time had considerably affected his health, it was discovered that it had degenerated into a cancer." Shocked at such an enormous liberty, I wrote a note of complaint, backed it by a very angry one, called on the printer myself, spoke angrily, corrected again. It was five o'clock; this hour is not to be passed by.
42.27.5
He made the proof over to his apprentice, who all this while had given evident signs of approbation to his master by his smiles, cast of features, and shrugging up of the shoulders — and the next morning my excellency was saluted with full two hundred, and by this time had considerably affected his health. Ex uno disce omnes. What to think of the single Latin verse? Quod tibi vis, jubeas aliis, haec Summula legis. Finding it very ill printed, I wrote it in square letters, so that no mistake could be committed; and yet you shall find B. 3, P. 415, line 3, hac summula legis, everywhere. From these few specimens, Sir, you may easily form to yourself an idea of the enormous difficulties and endless disgusts I had to surmount, in order to go through so very voluminous a work. Had I known then how to manage with printers, that is, how to excite their cupidity, by concerning them in the undertaking, and above all, how to make the concern their own, the work would have been printed less ill at least, and full six months sooner. Remains, Sir, the third article of your proposal: your proposing to fill up a new subscription, and your animadverting to the sum of eleven thousand Rupees, which M. Gladwin's Vocabulary has produced, and to the scanty reception which my own work has met with from the public. The comparison is very far from being fair; and I hope, you shall agree in opinion with me, as soon as you shall have attended to a few considerations.
42.27.6
A Vocabulary, no more than a Dictionary, is not a book of a nature to be sought for by readers in general. Both are to be recurred to occasionally, sometimes, once in six months ; but neither of them can be read throughout, and of course both are utterly incapable of captivating the attention, id est of producing encomiums, and of opening purses. From Mr. Gladwin's Vocabulary in particular (and I have it) you must exclude four-fifths of the common herd of readers ; you must exclude women, and all those that read for amusement ; you must exclude all those that have neither inclination to, nor an insight in, oriental learning. To learned men, indeed, it will prove of much assistance, but only occasionally. If then so very small a work has produced so large a sum, it was because the Author's reputation, as an author, and a man of letters, is formed, known, and established ; whereas no one knows any thing of me. Secondly because he is an Englishman, a man high in station, and of course has many friends ; whereas I am next to nobody, and my station is immediately after nothing. Lastly because a tender regard was paid to his circumstances. Else, Sir, I maintain that in this country, any Vocabulary whatever, has no chance at all for so much as the thousandth part of the sum of eleven thousand Rupees. We may consider, Sir W. J—s, his ingenious Grammar for the Persian language, as a kind of Vocabulary ; and yet who ever thought of it ?
42.27.7
There it lies these many years in the shops, filling up whole shelves at eight annas the volume, although the very binding must have cost two or three Rupees. And as to Mr. Gilchrist, although he could muster no less than a hundred and fifty subscribers, I am firmly of opinion, that had not Government assisted him both by taking two hundred of his books, and by freeing the rest of postage, his case would have been full as bad as my own.