Chapter VI.)

It is not often that an English indexer has to index a French book, but should he do so he would often need to be careful. The Frenchman does not care to leave that which he does not understand unexplained. The translation of _Love's Last Shift_ as _La Dernière Chemise de l'Amour_, attributed by Horace Walpole to the Dowager Duchess of Bolton in George I.'s reign, is probably an invention, but some translations quite as amusing are genuine. G. Brunet of Bordeaux, having occasion in his _La France Littéraire au XV^e siècle_ to mention "White Knights," at one time the seat of the Duke of Marlborough, translates it into _Le Chevalier Blanc_. When Dr. Buckland, the geologist, died, a certain French paper published a biography of him in which it was explained that the deceased had been a very versatile writer, for besides his work on geology he had produced one _Sur les Ponts et Chaussées_. This was a puzzling statement, but it turned out to be a translation of _Bridgewater Treatises_, in which series his _Geology and Mineralogy_ was published in 1837.

Sometimes contractions give trouble to the indexer, and he must be careful not to fill them out unless he is sure of what they mean. Many blunders have been made in this way. In the _Historie of Edward IV._ (1471), edited by that careful and trustworthy antiquary John Bruce for the Camden Society in 1838, there is the following remarkable statement: "Wherefore the Kynge may say, as Julius Cæsar sayde, he that is not agaynst me is with me."

This chapter might be made a very long one by instancing a series of badly indexed books, but this would be a tedious recital devoid of any utility, for the blunders and carelessness of the bad indexer are singularly alike in their futility. It is nevertheless worth while to mention the index to Peter Cunningham's complete edition of Walpole's _Letters_, because that work deserves a good index. We may hope that when Mrs. Toynbee publishes her new and complete edition of the _Letters_, she will add a really satisfactory index. The present index is very bad and most irritating to the person who uses it. Examples of most of the careless and foolish blunders in indexing are to be found here; for instance, there are long lists of references without indication of the reason for any of them. The same person is entered in two places if he is spoken of under slightly different names. The same nobleman is referred to as Lord ---- and as the Earl of ----, while sometimes a heading devoted to Lord ---- contains references to two distinct men. Van Eyck has one reference under Van and another under Eyck. Mrs. Godfrey is entered under both Godfrey and _La_ Godfrey. Many other absurdities are to be found in the index, but the extract of one heading will be sufficient to show how ill the arrangement is:

"Gower, edition of, ---- Baptist Leveson, ---- Countess of, ---- Dowager Lady, ---- Duke of, ---- Earl of, ---- John, Earl, ---- Lady, ---- Lady Elizabeth, ---- Lady Mary Leveson, ---- Lord, ---- Richard Leveson."

There is no authority at all for a Duke of Gower, and if we look up the reference (iv. 39) we find that it refers to "the late Lord G----," possibly the Earl Gower.

The confusion by which two persons are made into one has sometimes an evil consequence worse than putting the consulter of an index on the wrong scent, for the character of an innocent person may be taken away by this means. (Constance) Lady Russell of Swallowfield points out in _Notes and Queries_, that in the index to _Familiar Letters of Sir Walter Scott_ (1894) there are three references under Lady Charlotte Campbell, one of which is to a Lady C----, really intended for the notorious Lady Conyngham, mistress to George IV. In another index Mary Bellenden is described thus: "Bellenden, Miss, Mistress of George II." This is really too bad; for the charming maid of honour called by Gay "Smiling Mary, soft and fair as down," turned a deaf ear to the importunities of the king, as we know on the authority of Horace Walpole.

The index to Lord Braybrooke's edition of Pepys's _Diary_ has many faults, mostly due to bad arrangement; but it must be allowed that there is a great difficulty in indexing a private diary such as this. The diarist knew to whom he was referring when he mentioned Mr. or Mrs.----; but where there are two or more persons of the same name, it is hard to distinguish between them correctly. This has been a stumbling-block in the compilation of the index to the new edition, in which a better system was attempted.

It has been said that a bad index is better than no index at all, but this statement is open to question. Still, all must agree that an indexless book is a great evil. Mr. J. H. Markland is the authority for the declaration that "the omission of an index when essential should be an indictable offence." Carlyle denounces the publishers of books unprovided with this necessary appendage; and Baynes, the author of the _Archæological Epistle to Dean Mills_ (usually attributed to Mason), concocted a terrible curse against such evil-doers. The reporter was the learned Francis Douce, who said to Mr. Thoms: "Sir, my friend John Baynes used to say that the man who published a book without an index ought to be damned ten miles beyond Hell, where the Devil could not get for stinging-nettles."[10] Lord Campbell proposed that any author who published a book without an index should be deprived of the benefits of the Copyright Act; and the Hon. Horace Binney, LL.D., a distinguished American lawyer, held the same views, and would have condemned the culprit to the same punishment. Those, however, who hold the soundest views sometimes fail in practice; thus Lord Campbell had to acknowledge that he had himself sinned before the year 1857.

[10] _Notes and Queries_, 5th Series, VIII. 87.

These are the words written by Lord Campbell in the preface to the first volume of his _Lives of the Chief Justices_ (1857): "I have only further to express my satisfaction in thinking that a heavy weight is now to be removed from my conscience. So essential did I consider an index to be to every book, that I proposed to bring a Bill into Parliament to deprive an author who publishes a book without an Index of the privilege of copyright; and moreover to subject him for his offence to a pecuniary penalty. Yet from difficulties started by my printers, my own books have hitherto been without an Index. But I am happy to announce that a learned friend at the Bar, on whose accuracy I can place entire reliance, has kindly prepared a copious index, which will be appended to this work, and another for a new stereotyped edition of the Lives of the Chancellors."

Mr. John Morley, in an article in the _Fortnightly Review_ on Mr. Russell's edition of Matthew Arnold's _Letters_, lifts up his voice against an indexless book. He says: "One damning sin of omission Mr. Russell has indeed perpetrated: the two volumes have no index, nor even a table of contents."[11] _George Selwyn and his Contemporaries_, a most interesting but badly arranged book, by John Heneage Jesse, was published without an index, and a new edition was issued (1882) also without this necessary addition. The student of the manners of the eighteenth century must constantly refer to this book, and yet it is almost impossible to find in it what you want without great waste of labour. I have found it necessary to make a manuscript index for my own use.

[11] Quoted _Notes and Queries_, 8th Series, IX. 425.