University of Virginia Library

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.

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• 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

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  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