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The Collation

Shorthand and snark: An unexpected journey through Virgil

I joined the Folger just over two months ago, and one of the most delightful things about my new job as the Reference and Outreach Specialist (aside from the fact that I get to work at the Folger!) is that I have time and resources to start digging into my own research again.

I am particularly interested in how classical texts have come forward to us through time. I was inspired by Sarah’s recent post on the Stanhope marginalia, in conjunction with the availability of early printed books in Latin in the Folger’s holdings, to start taking a closer look at the annotations made on such works. I somewhat arbitrarily picked the works of Virgil to investigate first and have been slowly making my way through the various editions in our collection.

When the 1701 Publii Virgilii Maronis Bucolica, Georgica, et Æneis, ad optimorum exemplarium fidem recensita (216– 984f) came up on my list, I didn’t make particular note of it. It was the largest book I’d looked at and the most recent, but I was casting my net as wide as possible, so I didn’t remark on it. 

  1. Richard Sharp, ‘Trapp, Joseph (1679–1747)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/27666]
  2. Timothy Underhill, ‘Weston, James (1688?–1748?)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40523]
  3. Small Sample Size
  4. Roger J. Robinson, ‘Beattie, James (1735–1803)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1831]
  5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters#Outcomes_of_the_experiments

Comments

Zachary Gray (or Grey) did not write notes on His Libras but on Samuel Butler’s Hudibras (1744).
There is a brief Wikipedia article on him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zacharey_Grey which refers to an ODNB article by Scott Mandelbrote (also spelling Grey) which I have not yet been able to see. I wonder if it mentions shorthand.

David Shaw — October 16, 2014

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The ODNB article on Zachary Grey doesn’t mention shorthand.
It’s possible that some of his papers might have examples e.g. the commonplace books at Cambridge.

ODNB lists the following archives :
BL, collection of MS tracts, transcripts of state papers, etc., Stowe MSS 1057–1058 · BL, corresp. and papers, Add. MSS 5831–5834, 5860, 5957, 6396, 6401 · CUL, British naval history · CUL, commonplace books, papers, notes and extracts relating to Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, etc. · St John Cam., collections for life of Thomas Baker; undergraduate notebook · Yale U., Farmington, Lewis Walpole Library, papers relating to biography of Thomas Baker · Yale U., Beinecke L., autograph sermons

Folger has a picture of him: http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/detail/FOLGERCM1~6~6~273511~119139:The-Revd–Zachary-Grey,-L–L–D-,-f

There is also a letter from him: http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=217170

David Shaw — October 16, 2014

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I enjoyed this. However, there’s an error in the transcription of Beattie’s snarky comment: it’s not “notes on His Libras” but “notes on Hudibras.”

Kevin Donovan — October 16, 2014

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Zachary Gray who wrote notes on Hudibras–not his libras!

R Denton — October 16, 2014

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What a great snarky comment! I wish such comments would pop up more often..
Small mistranscription in the snark: it’s “notes on Hudibras” – and google sayth that the writer is the clergyman and editor Zachary Grey. ..but I suspect you found him already.

Sam Kaislaniemi — October 17, 2014

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A most interesting item. I sympathize with the “vile pot-hooks” sentiment at the bottom of the page. In your transcription of this note, “His Libras” is surely “Hudibras”, Samuel Butler’s mock-heroic poem.

William Ingram — October 17, 2014

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Whoops! Thanks, everyone, for catching my transcription error! That’ll teach me do try to do English paleography… Amazing how one word can explain so much. Of course this leaves me with even more questions, such as what Grey’s connection with the Weston shorthand is. Ah, research!

Abbie Weinberg — October 17, 2014

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It is definitely James Weston’s shorthand.

Trapp’s translation starts:
Beneath the Covert of the spreading Beech
Thou, Tityrus, repos’d, art warbling o’er,
Upon a slender Reed, the Silvan Lays:
We leave our Country, and sweet native Fields;
We fly our Country: Careless in the Shade,
….

Lines 4 and 5 are easily found in the shorthand:
they both look like “1 w ε C”.
In Weston’s shorthand, this reads “We […] our country”.
Capital C is used as a mnemonic for “country”.
See for example James Weston, Stenography compleated, or The art of short-hand, 1738,
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433034360127,
plate VII (country), plate XIV (we), plate XVIII (our).

David Shaw — October 23, 2014

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