Some Unaccomplished Projects of
Matthew
Arnold
by
Roger L. Brooks
The importance of calling attention to the unaccomplished projects of
Matthew Arnold has been established by William E. Buckler. In the second
section of his article "Studies in Three Arnold Problems"
(PMLA, LXXIII, 260-269), Buckler emphasized the
significance
of Arnold's unfinished "Guide to Greek Poetry," calling attention to its
incomplete state as evidence of an inner struggle that eventually led to
Arnold's questioning of the Hellenic ideal which he had earlier maintained.
The scope of Buckler's study is limited to the "Guide to Greek Poetry," but
the implications of his work are that the unaccomplished projects are as
important as the accomplished ones when one is attempting to identify and
understand the stages of Arnold's intellectual development, and like the
reading lists and the excerpts from his reading collected in the
Note-Books (London, 1952), when considered
chronologically,
they reveal something of the journey of the writer's mind.
Between 1846 and 1888 Arnold planned many projects that appear
never to have been completed.[1]
Some were merely noted in lists of proposed works; others were left in
various stages of completion. Heretofore, no attempt has been made to
collect or enumerate these projects. The list which follows begins with
Arnold's unfinished "Lucretius" in 1846, three years before the publication
of The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems in 1849, his first
collection of poetry, and concludes with a proposed article in 1888 on the
old age of George Sand, a total of forty-three years and twenty-one
projects, encompassing the poetic as well as the prose career. During this
period a variety of subject matter is treated in Arnold's most representative
genres of writing. Consequently, with the unaccomplished projects the
student of Arnold's intellectual development has additional evidence for his
consideration.
In addition, the list makes prominent several little known facts. A
broader interest in the Celtic revival, especially Eisteddfods, is evident than
is generally acknowledged. Having already reviewed Edward Dowden's
Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley for the
Nineteenth
Century in 1888, Arnold planned an intense study of Shelley's
poetry, a purely literary essay. And in 1888 Arnold's interest in the
personal life of George Sand—it had waned somewhat after his tour
of
the Continent in 1859—was revived with the reading of her
correspondence. More significant, however, is the comment that the list
makes concerning Arnold's prose career. Heretofore, it has been thought
that Arnold's turning to prose was formally announced with the publication
in 1859 of "England and the Italian Question." However, items 3 and 4 of
the list—the proposed essays on
Hypatia and Oxford
life—
suggest a conscious interest on Arnold's part of writing prose as early as
1855.
[2]
The following list of twenty-one projects was compiled from
information in Arnold's correspondence, notebooks, and works, works on
Arnold, and, in two cases, the diaries of Lewis Carroll. The date in
parentheses following the project is the earliest one on which the project is
known to have been mentioned. Following the date is a description of the
project in Arnold's own words, when they were available; otherwise, when
there was evidence for doing so, an attempt has been made to suggest
briefly what the nature of the work might have been. If there were an
indication of the periodical or the publisher for which a work was intended,
the name follows the description. Finally, all known references to the
project are listed. One is not to presume that this list is definitive.[3]
- 1. Lucretius (1846). "A tragedy of the time of the end of the
Roman Republic" at which Arnold worked piecemeal for most of his life.
(Letters of Matthew Arnold 1848-1888, ed. George W. E.
Russell [1904], I, 65). The project is discussed and unpublished fragments
are presented in C. B. Tinker and H. F. Lowry's The Poetry of
Matthew Arnold. A Commentary (1950), pp. 340-347.[4]
- 2. A first book to "Balder Dead" (December 12, 1855). An
addition to his poem of "an account of the circumstances of the death of
Balder himself" (Letters I, 63).
- 3. An essay on Hypatia (March 10, 1856). At the
request of Lewis Carroll, Arnold agreed to contribute to The
Train an essay on Hypatia— presumably a
discussion
of Charles Kingsley's novel, which he had read and discussed with his wife
(Letters I, 49). A second edition of Kingsley's novel appeared
in 1856. The Diaries of Lewis Carroll, ed. R. L. Green
(1953),
I, 80, 88.
- 4. An essay descriptive of Oxford life (June 20, 1856). Arnold
proposed trying an essay on Oxford life for The Train at the
request of its editor, Edmund Yates. The Diaries of Lewis
Carroll, I, 88.
- 5. St. Martin (1863). Arnold's interest in Saint-Martin, the
spiritualist philosopher, was probably a result of his study of Senancour. A.
Jacques Matter's Saint-Martin le Philosophe inconnu, sa vie et ses
ecrits appeared in Paris in 1862. Note-Books of Matthew
Arnold ed. H.F. Lowry, Karl Young, and Waldo Hilary Dunn
(1952), p. 569.
- 6. An article on Alexander Vinet (October 12, 1864). A discussion
of the works of Alexander Vinet "in the manner of those on the Guerins
["Maurice de Guérin" Fraser's Magazine, January,
1863;
"Eugénie de Guérin" Cornhill Magazine,
June, 1863] for
the National Review. Arnold's letter to George Smith,
"Cobham. Saturday" in F.G. Townsend's "Literature and Dogma: Matthew
Arnold's Letters to George Smith" (PQ, XXXV, 198);
Matthew Arnold's Books: Towards a Publishing Diary, ed.
William E. Buckler (Genéve, 1958), pp. 68, 170 fn. 4; Arnold's
letter
to Bunting, July 23rd [1887], in Robert Liddell Lowe's "Matthew Arnold
and Percy William Bunting: Some New Letters 1884-1887" (Studies
in Bibliography, VII, 207); Note-Books, pp. 577,
589,
591.
- 7. An article on Eisteddfods (November 7, 1864). The article was
to be "in part personal observation" and "a mixture of description and
reflexion" . . . "not above 12 pages" for the Cornhill Magazine.
Matthew Arnold's Books, pp. 92, 172 fn. 12.
- 8. An article on Propertius (1865). A discussion of the works of
the Roman poet Sextus Propertius "in the manner of those on the
Guérins" for the Cornhill Magazine. PQ, XXXV,
198;
Note-Books, pp. 577, 589.
- 9. On chivalrous sentiment (1865). This work was to have been
written for the Cornhill Magazine. Note-Books, p.
577.
- 10. A review of Joseph Milsand's L'Esthétique
anglaise,
étude sur M. John Ruskin (February 17, 1865). This work
was
to have been one of two reviews that Arnold intended for the Pall
Mall Gazette in 1865. Arnold's letter to Robert Browning, "Feby
17th, 1865," in John Drinkwater's A Book for Bookman
(1927),
p. 222; Note-Books, p. 577.
- 11. A letter to the Times (April 27, 1867?). This
letter
was to consist of "one or two points in which the educational figures and
assertions of their [the Times'] correspondents are
misleading."
Matthew Arnold's Books, p. 83.
- 12. A Guide to Greek Poetry (April 29, 1867). The work was to
have been "a sort of sketch of the development of Greek poetry, illustrated
by extracts in a plain translation into harmonious prose" for Macmillan
(Letters II, 177). Arnold worked sporadically at this work
until
1872 when he dismissed it as something to be reserved for old age. The
work is discussed in William E. Buckler's "Studies in Three Arnold
Problems" (PMLA, LXXIII, 260-269).
- 13. Aeschylus (1869). Arnold mentioned Aeschylus in his Oxford
lecture "On the Modern Elements of Literature" in 1857. Evidently he
intended to make a study of the poet's works. Note-Books,
p.
585.
- 14. Récit d'une Soeur (May 29, 1869). The work was to
have
been "another such paper [as Eugénie de Guérin] for the
Cornhill Magazine. Matthew Arnold's Books, pp. 155, 178
fn.
5; Note-Books, pp. 594, 626.
- 15. A Catholic family (1874). Note-Books, pp. 589,
591, 592.
- 16. Frederick Robertson (1874). Arnold proposed this article after
having read Stopford Brooke's Life and Letters of Frederick W.
Robertson. In 1865, at the appearance of the work, Arnold wrote
to
his mother of the religious nature of the biography and Dr. Arnold's
influence upon Robertson. In 1869 Arnold wrote to his mother hoping
"some day, in an article on Frederick Robertson to say something as to the
character of the impulse which papa [Dr. Arnold] gave to the life and
thought of the generation which felt his influence. . ."
(Letters
II, 200). In 1873 the fifth edition of Brooke's biography appeared. Arnold
owned Robertson's Sermons, Preached at Trinity Chapel
(1856).
Letters II, 65-66, 200; Note-Books, p.
589.
- 17. Broad Church in the Seventeenth Century (January 9, 1877?).
Arnold proposed "a volume out of the best of [John] Hales and [Benjamin]
Whichcote, and [Ralph] Cudworth's two sermons" with "twenty pages of
introduction" for Macmillan. Letters III, 21; Matthew
Arnold's Books, pp. 158-159; Note-Books, p. 594.[5]
- 18. An edition of Emerson's works (May 21, 1882). Arnold
proposed "a crown 8vo. edition of Emerson" with "an
introduction" for
Macmillan. Evidently the work was to have been similar to John Morley's
The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson published by Macmillan
in 1883. Matthew Arnold's Books, p. 160.
- 19. Vauvenargues (1887). Arnold had mentioned Vauvenargues in
"A French Worthy" in 1882; he had read and excerpted extensively from
the French writer's works during the period 1882-1888. Arnold owned
Vauvenargues' Oeuvres (Paris, 1857).
Note-Books,
pp. 623, 626.
- 20. Shelley's poetry (1888). Before his death Arnold had proposed
to Macmillan a purely literary essay on the poetry of Shelley.
Matthew Arnold's Books, pp. 76, 79;
Note-Books,
p. 626; Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism. Second Series
(1888), vi.
- 21. George Sand (February 12, 1888). After having read "the
latter volumes of G. Sand's correspondence," Arnold planned "an article on
the old age of George Sand." Volumes V and VI of the
Correspondance had appeared in Paris in 1884.
Letters III, 334.
Notes