PROFESSOR SKEAT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1341, 19 January 1912, Page 9

PROFESSOR SKEAT.

A GREAT PHILOLOGIST. iriS RECOLLECTIONS. The Rev. Waller W. Skeat, the famous philologist, celebrated on November 21 the seventy-sixth anniversary of his birth. It would be saf tf t„ say tJi:it his "Elymological Dictionary of the English Language," which appeared with his <ole name on the title-page bctwren the years 18711 and 18S2. is one of the finest contributions ever made to lexicography. J lis editions of Chancer, of Langland's "Piers the I'lowman," and of Harbour's "Bruce" are .standard works. Dr. Skeat, as is well known, is Klrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Cam bridge. Dr. Skeat. in an interesting conversation with the Cambridge correspondent of the "Horning Post" said:— "1 was foT four years curate at' East Dereham, in Norfolk, and afterwards acted for two years in tho same capacity nt Godalming. Then I broke down completely, and under medical advice I had to give up preaching. For a year or two I did nothing, and then,, not (wing suited to a life of idleness, and not knowing what olse to do, I came back to Cambridge without any prospects nt all, whereupon Christ's College kindly conferred on me the post of lecturer in Mathematics. Soon afterwards tho late Dr. I'urnivall started the Early English Text Society, and I soon began to edit books for him. My edition of Tiers the Plowman' occupied a considerable part of my time for thirty years. Work of this kind is not by any means remunerative, but, fortunately for me, I have never l>een under tho necessity of earning my bread and cheese. The Stale does little or nothing to subsidise the study of language. Mr. Balfour's Graceful Act. "One notable instance to the contrary, however, I should like to mention, as It reflects very great credit on that distinguished statesman of whom so much has been said of late—l mean Mr. Balfour. That wonderful man, Dr. Joseph who, although he was eighteen years of age before lie could read or writo even his own language, is now or of tho most eminent philologists living, proposed to bring out his 'English Dialect Dictionary,' which was afterwards published in six great volumes, His pkn . was to issue it by private subscription, but he had no capital, and it was extremely difficult for him to make a start. I wrote myself to Mr. Balfour, who was at that time Prime Minister, and asked whether the Government could net do something, in tho matter. Mr. Balfour most kindly and promptly obtained-a grant out of'public funds of ,C6OO. and with the help of that the publication was begun. - The .sequel to m'v story, I think, is most interesting. It is this, that the nation obtained a valuable work .and the Government lo=t riot a penny, for Mr. Wright electrified me one day by saying: 'I have paid back .to. the Treasury every penny of that JSGOO;' The book had become a standard work, and as a property had a substantial commercial value. But for-that timely help it might possibly never have seen the lipht. It was offered at first to the 'Clarendon Press,' but they were afraid to undertake the risk of publication. "Even the universities do verv little for philology. All that Cambridge does for the study of English is to give a grant of X'ofl a year. Most of tho professorships arc endowed by private individuals. East year a professorship of German was started in Cambridge under the title of the King Edward Professorship, but of this the cost has been entirely undertaken by Mr. Schroeder. We badly want a professorship of French here. The ,IKO a year given for the -study of En.<r!i-li has been augmented by a further sum of ,£GO. collected by me,- but even then ,£llO a year is very little to give to the occupant of so important n pest. Oxford does rather more than Cambridge, being a much richer university. It is much to the credit of Oxford that it Ims found •£150,000 for the great EiHislt Dictinnarv edited by Dr. Murray. Whether it will over get back the money is extremely doubtful, but Hio considerations that come in here, of course, arc other than commercial." A Happy Life. "My life, I must confess, has been uneventful, hut it has been a most happy one. I always say that I have never had to work. My work to me is play. Mv interest in philology dates a long way back. As a youth 1 was attracted by a particular sentence in Mrs. Markham's wellknown 'History of England.' At the end of the chapter on Richard 11. she introduces a few lines from Chaucer and u few lines from 'Piers the Plowman's Creed,' not to be confounded with 'Piers the Plowman's Vision.' From that time I determined to study our old literature. Before I h,ad ceased to be n Cambridge undergraduate. I had read all Chaucer, all 'The Faerie Qnoene,' and all Shakespeare." Dr. Skeat went on to chat of his favourite subject of philology, pointing out what immense advances it has made in this country within living memory, thanks to men like Furnivall, Sweet, Ellis, Morris, and Murray, although he frankly admits that the Germans were before us. "Jacob Grimm's' grammatical law of all the Teutonic languages," he says, "marked a very great advance in the study of tho subi'eet. It has altered our entire conception of the relation of tho modern European languages to Greek and Latin. Formerly most words were supposed to be derived from one of those languages, but we know now that many go back to prehistoric times. It is as though tho smi had become obscured more, or less 1 cloud, and darted forth rays in different directions. Tho.-e rays would represent different languages, Sanscrit, Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Lithuanian, Germanic. These arc all in reality sister languages.. Tho law of phonetic change shows unmistakably whether a word in English is borrowed from a similar word in Latin or Greek, ov whether it has a common origin. In a number of instances n word nsav survive in English in an older form than that which it assumes in Greek. _ A good example is the word 'work.' which in Greek is 'ergon.' although in Homer it figures as 'worgon'." On the subject of the future of out language Dr. 'Skeat is something of a pessimist. A Londoner by birth, he deplores the fact that a certain typo of London .accent is predestined io be that adopted by our descendants, who will one dav all be' saving "lydy" for "lady." "II is 'East Anglian English," he declares. "which sets the fashion throughout the country. Hut it is a law of nature that language must change, and after all 'lydy' is not more offensive to a cultivated ear in the present day than the word 'dame.' as educated people now pronounce it, would have been in that of Chaucer."