Ever since the death of Mr H.W.Fowler, which occurred on December 26, 1933, I have been on the look-out for[2] anything written about him.I found an article in The Times[3](London), which called Fowler "a lexicographer of genius" and said:"His name has long been an oracle, and every year his dictionaries instruct and delight thousands of new readers"; an item in The Periodical(published by the Oxford University Press)containing the sentence "Though Mr Fowler's work consisted largely of compilation, it exhibited not only great learning and sound judgement, but also a rare originality"; and a short poem in memory of [4] him in Punch[5](London), the first eight lines of which read:
Learned, yet master of a style that lit
His erudition with unfailing wit,
He strove, from fame and fortune self-exiled,
To keep the well of English undefiled
By jargon and base coinage, yet was loth
To set pedantic limits to its growth,
Holding it wiser(as John Dryden said)
To traffic with the living and the dead.[6]
All these things, however, deal with[7] the grammarian and lexicographer rather than with the man; but it was chiefly about the man that I began to feel curious after my correspondence with him.This curiosity was not satisfied till I received a copy of Dr G.G.Coulton's Memoir[8] of H.W.Fowler from his brother A.J.Fowler.This Memoir is published as Tract No ⅩLⅢ of the Society for Pure English; in the first paragraph the author says:"I must do my best to emphasize the personal side of this impersonal writer[9]".Having read the book carefully through, I fancy that the readers of this Weekly might be glad to read about some interesting facts relating to a man whose very name perhaps suggests to them nothing but words and words and words.[10] Hence the following few paragraphs, which I of course do not intend to form anything like a connected biographical sketch:
Besides being a grammarian, a lexicographer, and classical scholar[11], H.W.Fowler was a first-rate swimmer, skater, and climber[12], a marvellous first-line forward[13] at football, a good shot[14], a humorist, and a devoted lover.
Once, when he was a teacher at Sedburgh[15], he was bathing with some smaller boys in a shallow pool, when a man came galloping to warn them of a cloud-burst[16] that was bringing a heavy spate[17]; Fowler had only just time to get the boys up the steep bank before the flood came down like a wall.On another occasion, several years later, when there was a fog, he had been swimming at haphazard[18] far too long in the icy water before the boatman heard him and picked him up in a state of exhaustion.
Fowler married on his fiftieth birthday(1908), only ten days after he had proposed to his wife, who was then forty-six years old.He wrote the following postcard to Dr G.G.Coulton on the day preceding his wedding day:
I didn't write before lest[19] you should send me a present, and I write now lest you should learn it first from the papers[20], that tomorrow, on my 50th birthday, I marry Miss Jessie Marian Wills, aged 46.
(I am glad to find that this sentence reads very much like many sentences in my Letters to a Friend [21].)
Some years after his marriage, the Great War broke out,[22] and Fowler, now fifty-seven, enlisted with his brother F.G.Fowler.They went to France in December 1915, and did not get their discharge[23] till half a year later.When he was in France, he wrote to his wife almost every day.The whole of this correspondence is now deposited among the manuscripts in St John's College Library at Cambridge[24].Below are two interesting passages:
Jan.16.I have to inform you that there was nothing at all to justify your dream.I have never either fainted or felt like[25] fainting since we have been out here; so mind you[26] enter this in your memory as a proof that no importance should be attached to dreams and presentiments[27]...
(By the way, "since we have been out here" is not grammatically perfect, though quite idiomatic; I think Fowler would have written "since we came here" if he had had enough time to take care of his grammar.)
Mar.6.Have a look now and then at the stars between six and seven in the evening; they and the sun and moon are the only things we have a chance of looking at, at the same time… When I was talking to the sister in charge of Frank[28] [i.e.F.G.[29]], she explained that though he was better he was not yet fit to go back to camp.- "He has not got cheeks like yours[30]", quoth[31] she.Don't be jealous, dear; I will try to abide in the paths of virtue.[32]
(I like this harmless humour; this, again, reminds me of some humorous expressions in my Letters to a Friend.)
After his discharge, Fowler returned at once to his literary work.He was always on the best terms with[33] his wife.Their afternoon walks were often in the park; and the lodge-keeper once said to a friend:"There go the lovers!" That he loved her whole-heartedly may be seen from the following lines from a poem he wrote for the Westminster Gazette[34]:
She says the world to her's one man,
To me it is one woman.[35]
Also from his Epilogue[36](written after his wife's death in October 1930)to a little volume of verse entitled Rhymes of Darby to Joan[37]:
And Joan is dead! - and buried, near
The bells she loved and does not hear.[38]
Four years have recordless remained
Of fears that waxed and hopes that waned[39]...
She played her brave game to the last:[40]
No parting word between them passed.[41]
He's lonely left at board and bed,[42]
No Darby now - for Joan is dead.[43]
(I do not think Fowler can be called a true poet, but his verse is perfect.)
Fowler used to do household work himself instead of keeping a servant.In 1926, the secretary of the Clarendon Press[44] wrote to offer him a servant's wages in order to give him greater leisure for his literary work.Fowler replied as follows:
My half-hour from 7:00 to 7:30 this morning was spent in(1)a two-mile run along the road,(2)a swim in my next-door neighbour's pond - exactly as some 48 years ago I used to run round the Parks and cool myself in(is there such a place now?)Parson's Pleasure[45].That I am still in condition for such freaks I attribute to having had for nearly 30 years no servants to reduce me to a sedentary and all-literary existence.[46] And now you seem to say:Let us give you a servant, and the means of slow suicide and quick lexicography.[47] Not if I know it; I must go my slow way.[48]
(Again, so far as style is concerned,[49] the last two sentences read as if they were mine.)
Fowler is said never to have left unanswered any letter from any of his readers.In a letter to a friend dated July 22, 1926, he said:
I am one of those fools who are too much flattered by questions from strangers to treat them summarily,[50] and must always give them more answer than they are expecting, instead of saying "Thanks very much, I will think about it".
And I am sure that when Fowler wrote the following, he had a smile on his face:
A convict in a Californian[51] prison wrote asking me for a copy of Modern English Usage to complete him for a literary career when he should have served his time.[52]
Lest some of my readers should think I am crazy about Fowler and his books, I have to conclude this article by telling about a crazy man who wrote to Fowler now and then.[53] That man is a Mr Jones[54]; he has collected all the various doings ascribed to "Jones" in the illustrative examples in The Pocket Oxford Dictionary and bases upon them a claim to be descended from William the Conqueror.[55] Well, even if my surname were Jones instead of Kê, I could not possibly be so crazy as to make any effort to hunt for expressions containing the word "Jones" in any Fowler book,[56] still less[57] to base on them any claim to be descended from William the Conqueror.No, I am not crazy enough, after all.
注释
[1]The Late:已故的
[2]on the look-out for:注意以求
[3]The Times:《泰晤士报》伦敦日报名，于1785年创刊，原名The Daily Universal Register，1788年改为今名
[4]in memory of:纪念
[5]Punch:伦敦幽默周刊名，于1841年创刊
[6]Learned, yet master of a style that lit his erudition with unfailing wit, he strove, from fame and fortune self-exiled（= self-exiled from fame and fortune）, to keep the well of English undefiled by jargon and base coinage, yet was loth to set pedantic limits to its growth, holding it wiser（as John Dryden said）to traffic with the living and the dead:其为人也博学，然其为文，又恒能以诙谐之笔，使其学得跃然纸上，自远于名利而惟保存英文之纯粹是求，然亦不如腐儒辈之力阻英文之自然滋长，乃守John Dryden之言而于生死两不偏废者。(“Learned”指H.W.Fowler之博学；“unfailing wit”指其文体之诙谐，盖Fowler之论著，恒多谐语；“keep the well of English undefiled by jargon and base coinage”谓保存英文之纯粹，使不为不正当之字句所沾污，“well”作“泉水”解，“well of English undefiled”原系英国诗人Edmund Spenser尊称英国诗祖Geoffrey Chaucer之语，此处系借用；“pedantic limits”指一般英国老学究之泥古不化而言；“traffic with the living and the dead”谓既求保存英文固有之纯粹，亦求任其自然发展也。）
[7]deal with:论述
[8]Memoir:传记
[9]impersonal writer:无个人气味之著作家（文法家与字典家当然无个人气味，他若诗人与小品文家即为有个人气味之著作家。）
[10]whose very name perhaps suggests to them nothing but words and words and words:读者一闻其名，恐想及者惟有文字而已（盖H.W.Fowler乃文法家兼字典家也）
[11]classical scholar:经典学者（按H.W.Fowler通希腊与拉丁文）
[12]climber:爬山者
[13]first-line forward:首线中锋
[14]shot:射手；枪手
[15]Sedburgh:英国Yorkshire郡中之市镇
[16]cloud-burst:大暴雨
[17]spate:河水之泛滥
[18]at haphazard:偶然
[19]lest:唯恐……；以免……
[20]learn it from the papers:从报纸得悉此事
[21]Letters to a Friend:《致友人书》
[22]the Great War break out:世界大战发生(“Great War”指1914年至1918年之欧战）
[23]discharge:退伍
[24]Cambridge:剑桥（英国地名）
[25]felt like:意欲
[26]mind you:君需注意
[27]no importance should be attached to dreams and presentiments:不应重视梦与征兆
[28]the sister in charge of Frank:看护Frank之看护妇长
[29]i.e.F.G.:即指F.G.（“i.e.”系拉丁文“id est”之缩写，作“即是”解；此语系余所加，故用方括弧。）
[30]He has not got cheeks like yours:彼之双颊，不及君之双颊之红润
[31]quoth:说
[32]don't be jealous, dear; I will try to abide in the paths of virtue:我爱乎，其弗妒；我必勉守道德也。（谐语，谓弗疑，我或钟情于看护妇长也。）
[33]on the best terms with:与……极和睦
[34]Westminster Gazette:伦敦报纸名
[35]She says the world to her's（= her is）one man, to me it is one woman:伊谓伊之世界乃一个男子，而我之世界乃一个女子，（谓我俩相爱至深也；此二行系H.W.Fowler所著“Harmonious Discord”一诗之末二行。）
[36]Epilogue:跋诗
[37]Rhymes of Darby to Joan:H.W.Fowler所著恋爱诗集，英国J.M.Dent&Sons Limited出版；以Darby与Joan二名指互爱之老夫妇由来已久
[38]near the bells she loved and does not hear:近伊素所爱好而今不复得闻之钟（按H.W.Fowler夫人葬于Hinton St George镇教堂之左近）
[39]Four years have recordless remained of fears that waxed and hopes that waned = Four years of fears that waxed and hopes that waned have remained recordless:四年间或则恐惧生长，或则希望消逝，今已杳无踪迹矣（写其夫人之病状也）
[40]played her brave game to the last:至死不屈
[41]No parting word between them passed（= passed between them）:二人间未曾有惜别之语
[42]He's lonely left at board and bed:彼今乃独食独寝矣
[43]No Darby now — for Joan is dead:Joan既死，即无所谓Darby矣
[44]Clarendon Press:即Oxford University Press
[45]Parson's Pleasure:地名
[46]That I am still in condition for such freaks I attribute to having had for nearly 30 years no servants to reduce me to a sedentary and all-literary existence:我之所以尚能为此奇事者（指远跑与游泳而言），我以为由于不需仆人几三十年，若有仆人则将使我过一种坐定而纯属著述之生活矣。
[47]And now you seem to say:Let us give you a servant, and the means of slow suicide and quick lexicography:今则君若曰：我为君雇一仆人，供君以迟缓之自杀与迅速之编著字典之方法（“the means of slow suicide and quick lexicography”谓若有仆人则一切操作由仆人代劳，于编著字典固可迅速，但不事操作而专事著述，将有害于身体，无异于渐渐自杀也）
[48]Not if I know it; I must go my slow way:我却不以为然；我必迟迟而行
[49]so far as style is concerned:就文体而论
[50]summarily:简捷
[51]Californian:加利福尼亚（California，美国之一州）的
[52]when he should have served his time:在其徒刑期满之后
[53]now and then:时时
[54]a Mr Jones:姓Jones之某君
[55]William the Conqueror:即William I，英国国王，约生于1027或1028年，卒于1087年，于1066年即王位；原系Normandy之君，于1066年战克英国，故名“the Conqueror”
[56]Fowler book:Fowler所著之书
[57]still less:更不