ポーが書評した本 (18) ホワイトヘッドの『英国海賊、追剥、盗賊伝』 (1834; 1835) Books Reviewed by Poe (18): _Lives of the English Pirates, Highwaymen and Robbers_ by Whitehead (1834; 1835) [ポーの書評 Poe's Book Reviews]
続いて、ポーの最初期の批評（と想定されている文章）の中から、順番でいうと、雑誌紹介2篇に続く『サミュエル・ドル―伝』のつぎの『ナポレオン伝』のつぎの『万国著名裁判』のつぎの『ノー・フィクション――最近の興味深い事実に基づいた物語』 のつぎの『万国著名女性回顧録』のつぎの『感化力――道徳物語』のつぎの記事（『サザン・リテラリー・メッセンジャー』誌1835年4月号 "Critical Notices" 459ページ）。
[Charles] Whitehead, Lives and Exploits of English Highwaymen, Pirates, and Robbers. Philadelphia: E. L. Carey and A. Hart, 1835.
[チャールズ・]ホワイトヘッド著 『英国の追剥、海賊、盗賊の伝記と手柄』 フィラデルフィア: E・L・ケアリー・アンド・A・ハート、1835年
ホワイトヘッドは、チャールズ・ホワイトヘッド Charles Whitehead, 1804-62 らしい。Wikipedia "Charles Whitehead" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitehead> は本文数行の短いものだけれど、ウィキペディアの記事の典拠となった"Whitehead, Charles," Dictionary of National Biography (London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900) は詳しく、本書も言及されている（下線強調付加）。――
WHITEHEAD, CHARLES (1804–1862), poet, novelist, and dramatist, the son of a wine merchant, was born in London in 1804. He began life as a clerk in a mercantile house, but soon adopted literature as his profession. In 1831 he published ‘The Solitary,’ a poem in the Spenserian stanza, showing genuine imagination. The poem won the approval of Professor Wilson in the ‘Noctes Ambrosianæ,’ and of other critics of eminence. In 1834 appeared Whitehead's ‘Lives and Exploits of English Highwaymen’ (probably written some years earlier, the least worthy of his productions), and ‘The Autobiography of Jack Ketch,’ a burlesque biography of the hangman, which contained a remarkable episodical story of serious intent, ‘The Confession of James Wilson.’ Whitehead's vivid blank-verse drama, ‘The Cavalier,’ the plot of which is laid in Restoration times, was produced at the Haymarket Theatre on 15 Sept. 1836, with Ellen Tree and Vandenhoff in the principal parts, and has been revived more than once, notably at the Lyceum Theatre in 1856.
Owing to the success of Whitehead's ‘Jack Ketch,’ Messrs. Chapman & Hall invited him to write the letterpress to a monthly issue of a humorous kind, to which Robert Seymour [q. v.] was to furnish the illustrations. Pleading inability to produce the copy with sufficient regularity, Whitehead recommended his friend Charles Dickens for the work. The publishers acted on the recommendation, and the result was the ‘Pickwick Papers.’ A further point of contact between Whitehead and Dickens consisted in Whitehead's revising in 1846 ‘The Memoirs of Grimaldi,’ which had been edited by Dickens in 1838 under the pseudonym of ‘Boz.’ Whitehead's masterpiece, ‘Richard Savage’ (1842), illustrated by Leech, a romance, partly founded on Dr. Johnson's life of Savage, was much admired by Dickens. It was dramatised, and the play ran for nearly thirty nights at the Surrey Theatre. A new edition of the novel, with an introduction by Harvey Orrinsmith, was published in 1896. Included in ‘The Solitary and other Poems’ (1849), a collected edition of Whitehead's poetical work, is his most remarkable sonnet beginning ‘As yonder lamp in my vacated room,’ which Dante Rossetti described as ‘very fine.’
Whitehead belonged to the Mulberry Club, of which Douglas Jerrold and other wits were members, and was acquainted with all the famous men of letters of his day. When ‘Richard Savage’ appeared he had every prospect of success in literature, but intemperance wrecked his career. He went to Australia in 1857, with the hope of recovering his position. He contributed to the ‘Melbourne Punch,’ and he printed in the ‘Victorian Monthly Magazine’ the ‘Spanish Marriage,’ a fragment of poetic drama possessing considerable merit. Whitehead's personal qualities, despite his infirmities of disposition, endeared him to those who knew him well, and an admirer of his literary talent gave him an asylum at his house in Melbourne, but he furtively made his escape from the restrictions of respectability. He sank into abject want, and died miserably in a Melbourne hospital on 5 July 1862. He was buried in a pauper's grave, and the authorities refused the request made by friends, when they heard for the first time of his sad end, to remove his remains to a fitting tomb. His publisher and warm well-wisher, George Bentley, described him as a ‘refined scholarly man … with thoughtful, almost penetrating eyes.’
Whitehead was a frequent contributor to magazines, particularly to ‘Bentley's Miscellany,’ He also published ‘Victoria Victrix,’ a poem (1838), ‘The Earl of Essex’ (1843), ‘Smiles and Tears,’ a series of collected stories (1847), and ‘A Life of Sir Walter Ralegh’ (1854).
[Mackenzie Bell's Charles Whitehead, a monograph, with extracts from his works.]<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Whitehead,_Charles_%28DNB00%29>
「ホワイトヘッドの著作中、最も価値のないもの」とされているｗ。
書評されたアメリカ版は第1巻のみInternet Archive には入っていました。――
C.[harles] Whitehead, Esq., Lives and Exploits of English Highwaymen, Pirates, and Robbers. Drawn from the Earliest and Most Authentic Sources, and Brought Down to the Present Time. In two volumes. Philadelphia: E. L. Carey and A. Hart, 1835. Vol. 1 207pp. E-text@ Internet Archive [University of Wisconsin; Google] <http://www.archive.org/stream/livesandexploit00unkngoog#page/n8/mode/2up>
1883年に出版された版だと、タイトルの副題のところが違っていて、 "By Capt. Charles Johnson" という人名も賦与されています。ホワイトヘッドは "With Additons by C. Whitehead, Esq." と、追補的な部分のみの執筆に関わるような趣です。――
Lives and Exploits of English Highwaymen, Pirates, and Robbers; Drawn from the Most Authentic Sources, by Capt. Charles Johnson, with Additions by C. Whitehead. Embellished with Twelve Spiritted Engravings. London: Printed for the Booksellers, 1883. [Printed by Walter Scott, "The Kenilworth Press]. 422pp. E-text@ Internet Archive [University of Wisconsin; Google] <http://www.archive.org/stream/livesandexploit00unkngoog#page/n8/mode/2up>
Lives of the English Pirates, Highwaymen and Robbers, by Whitehead. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart. These lines [sic → lives] will be read in spite of all that a too fastidious taste may say to the contrary. We see no very good reason why they should not be. [Southern Literary Messenger, April 1835: 459]
"lines" は "lives" の誤植、というのはポーリンの注です。詩行じゃないからlives ですかね、やはり。
1883年版1巻本で取り上げられる人物伝は、以下のようです――
[ENGLISH HIGHWAYMEN:] Robin Hood; Thomas Dun; Sir Gosselin Denville; Sawney Beane; Thomas Wynne; Thomas Witherington; James Batson; John Cottington, called "The Bonnie Boy"; Captin Philip Staffford; Claude du Vall; Captain Dudley; Jonathan Simpson; William Davis, called "The Golden Farmer"; William Nevison; William Cady; Patrick O'Brien; Thomas Rumbold; Thomas Simpson, called "Old Mob"; John Bird; Thomas Cox; Colonel Jack; Captain Howard; Nathaniel Hawes; Tom Roaland and Frank Osborn; James Whitney; The Waltham Blacks; Timothy Buckeley; Thomas Jones; Arthur Chambers; John Ovet; Captain Evans; THomas Dorbel; Dick Adams; William Gettings, called "the Hereford Boys"; Edward Bonnet; Richard Keele; Will Ogden and Tom Reynolds; John Price; Joseph Blake; Jack Shepherd; Jonathan Wild; Richard Turpin; Henry Cook; Henry Simms, called "Young Gentleman Harry"; James Maclaine; Eugne Aram; George Barrington.
[ENGLISH PIRATES:] Sir Henry Morgan; Captain Avery; Captain Martel; Captain Teach, called "Blackbeard"; Captain Charles Vale; Captain John Rackham; Captain Edward England; Captain Davis; Captain Roberts; Captain Kennedy; Captain WOrley; Captain Lowther; Captain Spriggs; Captain Roche; Captain Gow; Captain Upton; Captain Edward Low; Paul Jones.
しかし、書評の対象となった1835年アメリカ版初版の第1巻はつぎの並びです。―― Robin Hood; Sir Gosselin Denville; Sawney Beane; Thomas Wynne; Thomas WItherington; James Batson; Mulled Sack, alias John Cottington; Captain James Hind; Moll Cutpurse; Captain Philip Stafford; The German Princeses; Claude Du Vall; Captain Dudley; William Nevison; Jonathan Simpson; William Cady; Patrick O'Brien; Thomas Rumbold; The Golden Farmer; Nan Herford; Jack Bird; Old Mob; Tom Cox; Whitney; Tim Buckeley; Tom Jones; Arthur Chambers; Tom Sharp; Harvey Hutchins; Ann Harris; Dick Morris; Stephen Bunce; Jack Ovet; Captain Evans; Tom Dorbel.
本文の最初はどちらもRobin Hood ですけれど、なんか文章が違うみたい。他の人を見ても、ぜんぜん違うみたい。でも無署名の序文 (Preface) は同じ筆者であるかのように、冒頭の1，2の段落を除いて、文章が重なっています。
ついでに見つかった別の海賊・盗賊本もついでに。――
Lives and Exploits of the Most Noted Highwaymen, Robbers and Murderers, of All Nations, Drawn from the Most Authentic Sources and Brought Down to the Present Time. With Numerous Engravings. Hartford: Silas Andrus and Son, 1854. 287pp. e-text @Internet Archive [New York Public Library; Google] <http://www.archive.org/stream/livesandexploit00goog#page/n10/mode/2up>
コネティカット州ハートフォードで1854年に出版。海賊が抜け、追剥と盗賊に加わったのが殺人者 Murderers です。おーこわ。
Claude Du Vall;Sawney Beane; Thomas Wynne; Thomas Witherington; James Batson; Mulled Sack, alias John Cottington; Capt. James Hind; The German Princess; Capt. Dudley; William Nevison; The Golden Farmer; Jonathan Simpson; William Cady; Patrick O'Brien; Thomas Rumbold; Whitney; Tim Buckeley; Tom Jones; Arthur Chambers; Stephen Bunce; Jack Ovet; Tom Dorbel; Dick Adams; William Gettings; Ned Bonnet; Will Ogden and Tom Reynolds; John Price; Jack Shepherd; Richard Turpin; Henry Simms; James Maclaine; Eugene Aram; George Barrington; James Porter.
評者が予言したように、この手の人物伝は読まれつづける、ということかしら。
・・・・・・・・・・・
"Claude Du Val" を見たら、1835年の本の "Claude Du Val" と同じでした。もはや編者・著者名よりも中身とタイトルで勝負、みたいな。 いや、むしろ海賊版ということですかね。（1883年の本の "Claude du Val" は違っているようです。）
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
コメント 0