Book-bot.com - Literary Blunders by Wheatley, Henry Benjamin, 1838-1917

Literary Blunders by Henry Benjamin Wheatley
page 52 of 211 (24%)

translator calls them the fables of the damned
Calilve. This is on a par with De
Quincey's specimen of a French Abb's
Greek. Having to paraphrase the Greek
words ``'' (Herodotus
even while Ionicizing), the Frenchman
rendered them ``Herodote et aussi Jazon,''
thus creating a new author, one Jazon.
In the _Present State of Peru_, a compilation
from the _Mercurio Peruano_, P. Geronymo
Roman de la Higuera is transformed into
``Father Geronymo, a Romance of La
Higuera.''

In Robertson's _History of Scotland_ the
following passage is quoted from Melville's
_Account of John Knox_: ``He was so active
and vigorous a preacher that he was like

to ding the pulpit into blads and fly out
of it.'' M. Campenon, the translator of
Robertson into French, turns this into the
startling statement that he broke his pulpit
and leaped into the midst of his auditors.
A good companion to this curious ``fact''
may be found in the extraordinary trope
used by a translator of Busbequius, who
says ``his misfortunes had reduced him to
the top of all miseries.''

We all know how Victor Hugo transformed