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Edward Gibbon and Georges Deyverdun, Collaborators in the Memoires Litteraires De La Grande Bretagne

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Vernon P. Helming
Vernon P. Helming*
Affiliation:
Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois
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Extract

There is much independent and debonair criticism of contemporary English literature in the Mémoires littéraires de la Grande Bretagne, written for the information of continental Europeans by the Swiss Georges Deyverdun and his very close friend Edward Gibbon. Unfortunately volumes for 1767 and 1768 only were published, although, as Gibbon remarks in his personal Memoirs, “the materials of the third volume were almost completed, when I recommended Deyverdun as governor to Sir Richard Worsley. … They set forwards on their travels; nor did they return to England till some time after my father's death.” The number printed was so small that copies of the first volume are very infrequently to be met with, and of the second very rarely indeed. For Gibbon, the Mémoires littéraires were to some extent the fruit of his studies during a sojourn at Lausanne between 1753 and 1758; for Deyverdun they were a means of livelihood, hit upon only after Gibbon had sought suitable employment for him far and wide in England. Inasmuch as they confirm what became a life-long connection, an account of how they came to be written may very well include a few remarks upon the early friendship of the collaborators.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , December 1932 , pp. 1028 - 1049
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1932

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References

1 Memoirs of the life of Edward Gibbon by himself. Edited by G. Birkbeck Hill (London, 1900), p. 176.

2 I have appended to my paper a bibliographical note on the Mémoires littéraires (pp. 1048–49).

3 Hill, op. cit., pp. 43, 67–71.

4 Hill, op. cit., pp. 82–83.—Gibbon arrived at Lausanne 30 June 1753.

5 Hill, op. cit., p. 90.

6 Hill, op. cit., pp. 87 et seq. and p. 108.

7 Gen. J. Meredith Read, Historic Studies in Vaud, Berne, and Savoy (London, 1897), ii, 303.

8 Hill, op. cit., p. 86.

9 Read, op. cit., i, 125–126 and II, 432.

10 In La France littéraire, ou dictionnaire bibliographique of J.-M. Quérard, i, p. 549, the date of Deyverdun's birth is given as 1730. The Dictionnaire historique et biographique de la Suisse prefers 1734; and La Nouvelle Biographie générale (xiv, cols. 8–9) will have it 1735.

11 Read, op. cit., ii, 432.

12 Read, op. cit., ii, 292–293.

13 Read, op. cit., ii, 229.

14 G. Birkbeck Hill, Memoirs of the life of Edward Gibbon by himself (London, 1900), pp. 168–169.

15 Hill, op. cit., pp. 171–173.—In the Royal Kalendar; or, correct annual register, etc. for the year 1767, “De Verdun” is listed among the clerks in the northern department of the Secretary of State's office on p. 113, col. 2; in the Court and city register for the year 1769, “Geo. Dryverdun” is included among the clerks in the southern department of the Secretary of State's office listed on p. 109, col. 1.

16 Hill. op. cit., pp. 174–175. Vide infra, p. 20.

17 Read, op. cit., ii, pp. 398–399.

18 Vide V. Rossel, Histoire littéraire de la Suisse romande dès origines à nos jours, ii, 243.

19 Read, op. cit., ii, 404–405, 414, 418, and 433.

20 Read, op. cit., ii, 385 et seq. and the note on p. 389.—He failed, however, to finish even the first volume.

21 This was a succès d'estime, and Deyverdun was spoken of as the translator of Werther (Cf. V. Rossel, Histoire de la Suisse romande, ii, 243; Nouvelle Biographie générale, tome xiv, cols. 8–9; Pierre Kohler, Madame de Staël et la Suisse, p. 70; and Read, op. cit., ii, 417–418.)

22 Doyen Bridel's Poésies helvétiennes (Cf. Read, op. cit., ii, 430) and Etrennes helvétiennes et patriotiques (Cf. La Nouvelle Biographie générale, tome xiv, col. 9).

23 Read, op. cit., ii, 380 et seq.

24 Cf. The Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, edited by Lord Sheffield (London, 1814), ii (correspondence), 279 et seq.; and Hill, op. cit., p. 216.

25 Read, op. cit., ii, 439–440.

26 The diary has not, so far as I can learn, been published. Read quotes from it (op. cit., ii, 302).

27 P. 93.

28 Cf. Henry Trollope, translation of Le Salon de Mme. Necker by Gabriel Paul de Cleron, Comte d'Haussonville (London, 1882), i, 31 et seq.; and Kohler, op. cit., p. 14.

29 Hill, op. cit., p. 110.

30 Gibbon's estate near Petersfield in Hampshire (Hill, op. cit., p. 116).

31 Hill, op. cit., p. 169.

32 Read, op. cit., ii, 380–382, and 384–385; Sheffield, op. cit., ii, 123.

33 Quoted entire by Read (op. cit., ii, 400).

34 Hill, op. cit., p. 170.

35 Read, op. cit., ii, 442.

36 Kohler, op. cit., p. 71.

37 Kohler, ibid.; and Read, op. cit., ii, 349–350.

38 Hill, op. cit., p. 235; and Read, op. cit., ii, 439–440.

39 In a letter to George Lewis Scott (cf. infra, p. 1037) Gibbon says of Deyverdun that his clerkship in the Secretary of State's office was “a situation very inadequate to his birth and merit”; so that “as the dull mechanic labour of his post still leaves him many leisure hours, he has formed a design of filling them by a work of which he is very capable, and which will perhaps do him some honour.” Gibbon refers to the Mémoires littéraires de la Grande Bretagne (Sheffield, op. cit., ii, 68).

40 Hill, op. cit., p. 130.

41 The title-page of the copy in the Yale library reads: Essai / sur l'étude / de la / littérature. / A Londres: / Chez T. Becket & P. A. DeHondt, / dans le Strand. mdcclxi. The Essai is printed in Volume iv of Sheffield, Miscellaneous Works, pp. 1–92.

42 Hill, op. cit., pp. 122–123.

43 Hill, op. cit., pp. 131–134.

44 Gibbon's Essai sur l'étude de la littérature, pp. xxviii-xxix.

45 Hill, op. cit., pp. 127–128.

46 Hill, op. cit., p. 134.

47 Vide his letter to Gibbon upon the subject (Sheffield, op. cit., ii, 42–43).

48 Cf. Sheffield, op. cit., ii, 183.

49 Virgile Rossel, Histoire de la littérature française hors de France (Lausanne, 1895), p. 491. Cf., however, St. Beuve's criticism: “Le français est de quelqu'un qui a beaucoup lu Montesquieu et qui l'imite; c'est du français correct, mais artificiel.” Causeries du Lundi (Paris, 1855), viii, 358.

50 Hill, op. cit., p. 172.

51 P. 1.

52 Rossel, Histoire de la littérature française hors de France, pp. 491–492.

53 Vide Lettres de Mme. du Deffand à Horace Walpole, Mrs. Paget Toynbee (Londres, 1912), iii, p. 203; and Sheffield, op. cit., ii, 183. Suard was, among other things, editor of the Journal étranger (Vide infra, p. 1034).

54 Hill, op. cit., p. 173.

55 Hill, op. cit., p. 124.

56 Journal britannique par M. Maty. Tome premier. A la Haye, chez H. Scheurleer, Junior. Marchand Libraire dans le Hout-Straat. mdccl. p. ii. The Journal was published monthly in 12mo.

57 Hill, op. cit., p. 124.

58 He describes his trials and labors at length in a preface to the first volume of the Mémoires litéraires.

59 Maty, op. cit., Tome premier, p. 56.

60 Mémoires littéraires de la Grande Bretagne, Avis au Lecteur, pp. iv-v.

61 Under this heading appears, among other things, an interesting account of Beau Nash.

62 The notices are identical, and read as follows: “Next week will be published, MEMOIRES LITTERAIRES de la Grand (sic) Bretagne, pour l'An 1767. Printed for T. Becket and P. A. DeHondt, in the Strand.” In each case, the advertisement appears in p. 4, col. 4.

63 P. 4. col. 3.

64 P. 3, col. 4.

65 P. 383, col. 3.

66 P. 399, col. 3.

67 Hill, op. cit., p. 175.

68 Vide D. M. Low's edition of Gibbon's Journal to January 28, 1763, pp. 7, 9, 24–25, 27.

69 Low, op. cit., passim.

70 Hill, op. cit., pp. 173–174.

71 Hill, op. cit., p. 176.

72 He had probably been visiting Holyroyd (who later became Lord Sheffield). Cf. Read, Historic Studies in Vaud, Berne, and Savoy (London, 1897), ii, 384.

73 Notes and queries, 2d series, No. 71 (May 9, 1857), p. 365.

74 Sheffield, op. cit., ii, 68–71.

75 E.g., in the London Chronicle (29 Spt.-1 Oct.), p. 315, col. 1; (1–3 Oct.), p. 323, col. 3; (3–6 Oct.), p. 331, col. 3; (6–8 Oct.), p. 343, col. 2; (10–13 Oct.), p. 355, col. 1; (13–15 Oct.), p. 365, col. 3.

76 Vide supra, p. 1036.

77 The History of the Life of King Henry the Second, And of the Age in which he lived, etc., by George Lord Lyttelton (London, 1767), ii, 240.

78 The New Bath Guide: or, Memoirs of the B-r-d Family. In a series of poetical epistles [by Christopher Anstey]. The fourth edition. London, 1767. P. 20.—The editors of the Critical Review remarked in 1766 that “it may gratify the curiosity of some inquisitive readers to know, that the family which is celebrated in these Memoirs is that of the Blunderheads.” (Series i, xxii, 156).

79 An Essay on the History of Civil Society. By Adam Ferguson. Edinburgh. 1767.—Notice of publication appeared in the Public Advertiser (10 Feb. 1768), p. 1, col. 1. Vide the Critical Review, Series i, xxiii (1767), 180–186, for another review of this book.

80 P. 62.—Gibbon referred to the Essai in another early publication, but where I can neither remember nor find.

81 P. 62. Gibbon was, of course, a great admirer of Hume.

82 P. 64. Gibbon wrote his Critical Observations on the sixth book of the Aeneid at about this time. (Cf. Hill, op. cit., pp. 177–180.)

83 P. 72.

84 P. 74.

85 Pp. 156 et seq. Cf. supra p. 1034–35.

86 This may refer merely to Mallet's Life (London, 1740).

87 P. 160.

88 Vide infra, p. 1046–47.

89 Ninety-two books in all are reviewed or mentioned in Volume i.

90 Cf. Hill, op. cit., pp. 177–179.

91 Vide the bibliographical note on p. 1048–49.

92 Elmsley refused to concern himself with the Decline and Fall; but in spite of these crosses, he and Gibbon remained very good friends (Vide Read, op. cit., ii, 385 and 430).

93 I have not been able to find these advertisements in any of the contemporary periodicals at my disposal: The Public Advertiser; St. James's Chronicle; or, British Evening-Post; The London Chronicle; The Critical Review; or, Annals of Literature; The Gentleman's Magazine; The Monthly Review; The London Magazine; Lloyd's Evening Post and British Chronicle; The London Daily Post and General Advertiser.

94 Co-editor of the Journal étranger, student and translator of contemporary English literature, and a professed admirer of Gibbon. Vide supra p. 1034; and the Biographie universelle (Paris, 1826), xliv, 126–134.

95 Read, op. cit., ii, 381.—The letter is dated 22 September, 1769.

96 Vide p. 1029, N. 15.

97 Mémoires littéraires de la Grande Bretagne pour l'an 1768, pp. i-ii.

98 Vide p. 1030–31, N. 33.

99 Hill, op. cit., pp. 175–176.

100 Historic Doubts on the life and reign of King Richard the Third, by Mr. Horace Walpole, London, 1768.—Vide The London Chronicle for 22–24 December (p. 607, col. 3) and 24–26 December (p. 611, col. 2), 1767, and The Public Advertiser for 1 February, 1768 (p. 1, col. 4) for notices of publication.

101 Sheffield, op. cit., iii, 331–349.

102 Sheffield, op. cit., iii, 341; Mémoires littéraires, ii, 25–26.

103 The Life of Lord Herbert of Chirbury, written by himself; edited by Horace Walpole. Strawberry Hill, 1764.—Deyverdun's review of the book begins on p. 58 of Volume ii. He also reviewed Herbert's Dialogue between a tutor and his pupil (London, 1768),—notice of its publication appears in The Public Advertiser (28 April, 1768), p. 3, col. 3; De Veritate (Paris, 1621; London, 1645); De Religione gentilium, errorumque a pud eos causis (Amstelaedami, 1663); Expeditio [of the Duke of Buckingham] in Ream insulam, etc. (Londini 1656); The Life and reigne of King Henry the eighth (London, 1649); and Occasional Verses, etc. (London, 1665).

104 Vide, p. 1028, Note 1.

105 Presumably the Reverend Anthony Bugnion. Vide supra, p. 1037–41.

106 From Walpole's diary prefixed to The Letters of Horace Walpole, edited by Mrs. Paget Toynbee (1904), i, p. 1.

107 Vide, e.g., a review of the Historic Doubts in the Critical Review, Series i, xxv (1768), 116 et seq.

108 A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. By Mr. Yorick (London, 1768).—A notice of publication appears in The Public Advertiser (9 February 1768), p. 1, col. 4.

109 The Life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. By the author of the first eight volumes. Volume the ninth. London, 1767.—A notice of publication appears in the London Chronicle (13–15 January), p. 51, col. 3, (29–31 January), and a review in the number for 3–5 February, p. 127.

110 The Sermons of Mr. Yorick, 4 volumes, 12 mo. (London, 1766).—The Sermons appeared in seven volumes between 1760 and 1769. Volumes 3–4 were published by Becket and DeHondt in 1766.

111 An Account of Corsica, the journal of a tour to that island; and memoirs of Pascal Paoli. By James Boswell, Esq. Glasgow, 1768.

112 P. 323, col. 3. Boswell took the pains to compose it himself (Vide F. A. Pottle's The Literary Career of James Boswell, Esq., p. 61).

113 The first of the notices beginning “This day is Published” in The Public Advertiser is of this date (p. 3, col. 4).

114 Cf. F. A. Pottle, op. cit., pp. 60 et seq.

115 The Critical Review, Series i, xxv (1767), p. 181.

116 A presumption that Deyverdun is the reviewer based upon the subject of the review and the style of treatment is enforced by the reviewer's stout insistence, against Boswell's opinion, that the Swiss did stand alone for liberty (p. 137).

117 Boswell, op. cit., p. 11.

118 Cf. Note 115.

119 Boswell, op. cit., p. 55.

120 Boswell, op. cit., p. 144.

121 Boswell, op. cit., p. 259.

122 Vide supra, p. 1044.

123 Critical Review, Series i, xxvi (1768), p. 232.

124 False Delicacy: A comedy; as it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's servants. By Hugh Kelley. London, 1768.—The play was first performed late in January, 1768. Cf. The Public Advertiser (23 January), p. 1, col. 1.

125 The Good Natur'd Man: a comedy. As performed at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden. By Mr. Goldsmith. London, 1768.—The play was, like its rival, False Delicacy, first performed late in January, 1768. Cf. The Public Advertiser (29 January, 1768), p. 1, col. 1.

126 Goldsmith, op. cit., p. v.

127 P. 196—Cf. i, 158–159.

128 Pp. 56 et seq.

129 Pp. 168 et seq.

130 Pp. 218–219.

131 Pp. 220–248.

132 P. 252.

133 Pp. 253–255.

134 Pp. 259–260.

135 Pp. 263–264.

136 Pp. 285–286.