Abridgers are a kind of literary men to whom the indolence of modern
readers, and indeed the multiplicity of authors, give ample employment.
It would be difficult, observed the learned Benedictines, the authors of
the Literary History of France, to relate all the unhappy consequences
which ignorance introduced, and the causes which produced that
ignorance. But we must not forget to place in this number the mode of
reducing, by way of abridgment, what the ancients had written in bulky
volumes. Examples of this practice may be observed in preceding
centuries, but in the fifth century it began to be in general use. As
the number of students and readers diminished, authors neglected
literature, and were disgusted with composition; for to write is seldom
done, but when the writer entertains the hope of finding readers.
Instead of original authors, there suddenly arose numbers of Abridgers.
These men, amidst the prevailing disgust for literature, imagined they
should gratify the public by introducing a mode of reading works in a
few hours, which otherwise could not be done in many months; and,
observing that the bulky volumes of the ancients lay buried in dust,
without any one condescending to examine them, necessity inspired them
with an invention that might bring those works and themselves into
public notice, by the care they took of renovating them. This they
imagined to effect by forming abridgments of these ponderous tomes.
All these Abridgers, however, did not follow the same mode. Some
contented themselves with making a mere abridgment of their authors, by
employing their own expressions, or by inconsiderable alterations.
Others formed abridgments in drawing them from various authors, but from
whose works they only took what appeared to them most worthy of
observation, and embellished them in their own style. Others again,
having before them several authors who wrote on the same subject, took
passages from each, united them, and thus combined a new work; they
executed their design by digesting in commonplaces, and under various
titles, the most valuable parts they could collect, from the best
authors they read. To these last ingenious scholars we owe the rescue of
many valuable fragments of antiquity. They fortunately preserved the
best maxims, characters, descriptions, and curious matters which they
had found interesting in their studies.
Some learned men have censured these Abridgers as the cause of our
having lost so many excellent entire works of the ancients; for
posterity becoming less studious was satisfied with these extracts, and
neglected to preserve the originals, whose voluminous size was less
attractive. Others, on the contrary, say that these Abridgers have not
been so prejudicial to literature; and that had it not been for their
care, which snatched many a perishable fragment from that shipwreck of
letters which the barbarians occasioned, we should perhaps have had no
works of the ancients remaining. Many voluminous works have been greatly
improved by their Abridgers. The vast history of Trogus Pompeius was
soon forgotten and finally perished, after the excellent epitome of it
by Justin, who winnowed the abundant chaff from the grain.
Bayle gives very excellent advice to an Abridger, Xiphilin, in his
"Abridgment of Dion," takes no notice of a circumstance very material
for entering into the character of Domitian:--the recalling the empress
Domitia after having turned her away for her intrigues with a player. By
omitting this fact in the abridgment, and which is discovered through
Suetonius, Xiphilin has evinced, he says, a deficient judgment; for
Domitian's ill qualities are much better exposed, when it is known that
he was mean-spirited enough to restore to the dignity of Empress the
prostitute of a player.
Abridgers, Compilers, and Translators, are now slightly regarded; yet to
form their works with skill requires an exertion of judgment, and
frequently of taste, of which their contemners appear to have no due
conception. Such literary labours it is thought the learned will not be
found to want; and the unlearned cannot discern the value. But to such
Abridgers as Monsieur Le Grand, in his "Tales of the Minstrels," and Mr.
Ellis, in his "English Metrical Romances," we owe much; and such writers
must bring to their task a congeniality of genius, and even more taste
than their original possessed. I must compare such to fine etchers after
great masters:--very few give the feeling touches in the right place.
It is an uncommon circumstance to quote the Scriptures on subjects of
_modern literature_! but on the present topic the elegant writer of the
books of the Maccabees has delivered, in a kind of preface to that
history, very pleasing and useful instructions to an _Abridger_. I shall
transcribe the passages, being concise, from Book ii. Chap. ii. v. 23,
that the reader may have them at hand:--
"All these things, I say, being declared by Jason of Cyrene, in _five
books_, we will assay to _abridge_ in one volume. We will be careful
that they that will read may have _delight_, and that they that are
desirous to commit to memory might have _ease_, and that all into whose
hands it comes might have _profit_." How concise and Horatian! He then
describes his literary labours with no insensibility:--"To us that have
taken upon us this painful labour of _abridging_, it was not easy, but a
matter of _sweat_ and _watching_."--And the writer employs an elegant
illustration: "Even as it is no ease unto him that prepareth a banquet,
and seeketh the benefit of others; yet for the pleasuring of many, we
will undertake gladly this great pain; leaving to the author the exact
handling of every particular, and labouring to follow the _rules of an
abridgment_." He now embellishes his critical account with a sublime
metaphor to distinguish the original from the copier:--"For as the
master builder of a new house must care for the whole building; but he
that undertaketh to set it out, and paint it, must seek out fit things
for the adorning thereof; even so I think it is with us. To stand upon
_every point_, and _go over things at large_, and to be _curious_ in
_particulars_, belonging to the _first author_ of the story; but to use
_brevity_, and avoid _much labouring_ of the work, is to be granted to
him that will make an Abridgment."
Quintilian has not a passage more elegantly composed, nor more
judiciously conceived.