From the Grey Papers

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 773, 14 May 1954, Page 12

From the Grey Papers

JELS KLIM, an incomplete translation from the Danish of Ludvig Holberg, by Thomas De Quincey, edited from the MS by S. Musgrove; CHARLES ADERS, a biographical note with some unpublished letters addressed to him by S. T. Coleridge and others, by M. K. Joseph; UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF THOMAS DE QUINCEY AND ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, edited by S.. Musgrove. Auckland University College, Bulletins Nos. 42, 43, 44, English series Nos. 5, 6, 7 ‘

(Reviewed by

James

Bertram

HESE three modest -> but clearly printed and well-pro-duced-bulletins should be of interest on several counts. Literary connections between. the ‘oid world and the "och iy Zealand colony in the 19th Ty Were at one time supposed to | and end with Alfred Domett and Sagigel Butler, with Anthony Trollope as‘a#eurious bird of passage. When the me of Charles Armitage Brown was added to the list, it was realised that migrants to New Zealand who were friends or relatives of English writers of importance might have been Fesponsible for bringing to this co nti r-smaterial which would escape notice by English literary historians Some such materi may ti Sernein in private hands; thanks, to the generosity of a few enoe

lightened early collectors-among whom Sir George Grey and Alexander Turnbull were outstanding-some of it is now to be found in New Zealand ' libraries. From the rich and varied Grey Papers in the Auckland Public Library, two

senior members of the English Department of Auckland University College have assembled the unpublished material contained in these bulletins, and edited it with scholarly care and thoroughness. Though the provenance of most of Grey’s bequest remains in doubt, Professor Musgrove considers it "inherently probable" that the De Quincey papers came into the hands of Sir George through Colonel Paul Frederick De Quincey, son of the essayist, who came to New Zealand with his regiment in 1861 and later settled here. The letters of Elizabeth Barrett were written to her friend Mrs. Martin, who was Sir George Grey’s aunt. Niels Klim is the first part of a free adaptation of a mild Danish satire in the manner of Swift’s Gulliver, which De Quincey seems to have begun, possibly for the Foreign Quarterly Review, some time in the 1820's. This version is very readable, and some of the variants, with Professor Musgrove’s notes, undoubtedly throw light on De Quincey’s methods of translation and composition. The letters to Charles Aders (from Coleridge, Wordsworth, Lamb and_ the painter Francis Danby) are all of some literary or topical interest; and Mr. Joseph has put together-largely from the invaluable diaries of Crabb Robinson-a _ very interesting running record of this German merchant and his lively wife Eliza, who were equally notable patrons of art and of literature, and whose hospitable establishments in Euston Square and on

the’ Rhine formed a_ useful bridge between German and English romanticism. The De Quincey letters, five of which were written from Grasmere in 1811, help to fill a gap in his life, and are remarkable for the keen interest they show in military developments in the Spanish war. Finally, Mrs. Browning’s letters-the most interesting of which is from Rome-are highly characteristic: they quote a family opinion of Aurora Leigh as being "worse than Don Juan," and further testify to the writer’s admiration of Louis Napoleon. Nothing in these bulletins will cause any literary sensation: but scholars throughout the English-speaking world will be grateful for the details they supply, and Auckland University College is to be congratulated on the continuation of a valuable series of research monographs, and on the notably high standard of editorial competence shown in this English Series,