CHAPTER XXXI 1893 THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES 1893 AMONG the Trapanesi who took an interest in Butler's Aet. 57 Odyssey theories was Signor Pietro Sugameli. His interest was, however, unfortunately, so enthusiastic as to lead to situations of a kind disclosed by the next letter in which Butler is gently endeavouring to choke him off. Butler to Pietro Sugameli. Jan. 16, 1893. MY DEAR SIR-I have this morning received the magnificent map of Trapani which you have been so kind as to send me, and which will be of great value and interest to me. I am extremely obliged to you for it and hardly know how sufficiently to thank you. I perfectly understand your map and am long since convinced So much for external evidence. Now for internal-I mean as for what we can get out of the Odyssey. I am confident you will never get our best Homeric students, nor those of Germany, to see that the Odyssey lends support to your contention. I, as I dare say you know, am not very fond of those gentlemen, but XXXI SUGAMELI 149 I understand them and know pretty well what they will accept 1893 and what they will reject in matters of this sort. Moreover, I Aet. 57 recognise them as my masters-they are the people whom I am trying to convince, and before whose decision I shall bow as soon as I see that they have really considered the matter at all. At present I pay very little attention to what they say, because they have paid very little attention to it themselves; but when they do, and I perceive that they understand the argument and have taken the pains to form an opinion about it, I shall yield to their opinion whatever it is. Now keeping one eye always fixed on Oxford and Cambridge I feel sure I am right in saying that you will never persuade our scholars that from the words amávevoe and eyyubev you can draw any conclusion at all as to the fact that Scheria was an island. They would tell you, and I think justly, that you are trying to put more meaning on these words than they will legitimately bear; I have said in the Lambruschini the little I have to say about ἀπάνευθε ; as for ἐγγύθεν it means "da vicino" as you very justly say it does, but I cannot admit that this gives you any ground for thinking that there was water between the inhabitants of the chief town of Scheria and their nearest neighbour, and I am convinced that you will not get any of our best Greek scholars to agree with you on this point. You may be quite sure that if I did I should at once come round to your opinion, for all I care about is to be on the winning side, and I should at once go over to the one that I thought the strongest. When Nausicaa returns from washing the clothes, as described in the Odyssey, I can find nothing to indicate that she crossed any water. She seems to have driven straight into the town, much as she would do now, only there was probably more marshy ground on either side of the road. When Ulysses follows her into the town on foot, he crosses no water. As for the ferry of xx. 187, I considered this passage with the utmost attention I could bestow upon it to see whether Eumaeus and Melanthius, who certainly came down from Mt. Eryx, crossed the ferry too as well as Philoetius, and the conclusion I came to was that I could not fairly make the passage say this. It seemed to me then, as it does now, that Philoetius was the only one who crossed a ferry, and that the others did not. I believe, therefore, that the ferry was simply across the southern harbour, and that there was no ferry between Mt. Eryx and the town. And now, my. dear Sir, I must close this or lose the post. I have written with great plainness believing that it is always best to do so. I am very much gratified at the support you have given me, and am assured that by its means we shall now get the subject fully discussed which without it would have been very 150 AVOIDING COLDS XXXI 1893 doubtful. I cannot, however, pretend that I can go further than Aet. 57 admit that the part between Eryx and the town was often an island. As for the Western part that you have marked bluethat may perfectly well have been water. The Odyssey says nothing about it one way or the other, and my argument is not affected one way or the other. I have therefore no opposition to make to this, and am, with kind regards and many thanks, Yours very truly, S. BUTLER. Butler gave the lecture, "The Whitewashing of Penelope," referred to in Mrs. Grosvenor's reminiscences, in March 1893. This is the letter he wrote after it : Butler to Mrs. Bovill. 7 March 1893-The obligation was entirely on my side; you cannot tell what a help it was to me; and really I thought they did seem to like it, which I assure you I had done my level best to make them do. Mrs. Fuller Maitland has kindly sent me a card for the 15th. Of course I shall go. I will come to tea to-morrow with great pleasure, and will tell Jones, but do not know whether he has not to go to Mlle Vaillant's for a lesson. By the way-do you think you sit too near your large window when you have a cold? It occurred to me yesterday that a small fine draught might get in, and nothing turns a slight cold into a bad one more quickly. Also, I find I have not had one single cold since last August-a thing for me unprecedented. I attribute this to wearing soft flannel night-shirts instead of calico, and to keeping well away from my windows during the winter when reading or writing. As for your proposal I am sure it will be a great pleasure to fall in with it when I know what it is, which I shall no doubt do to-morrow afternoon. This Easter we went to Brussels and Dinant for Butler to continue his researches about Tabachetti, and this Easter I left Barnard's Inn because the place was sold and partly pulled down. I found new rooms at 1 Staple Inn, and began to live there. The night-watchman at Staple Inn was named Hatt, and was quite as much of an old fossil as Tom at Barnard's Inn; but he did not call the hours during the night. Cousens, who lived in the Inn, was XXXI ROSES 151 talking to him about the garden, and Hatt said, speaking 1893 very deliberately: "Most of these flowers, Sir, I planted them myself. Not all of them. Most of them." "I suppose you are interested in gardening," said Cousens; "have you a garden at home? "Not exactly at home, Sir; but I have a bit of a 'Well, Sir, it's a kind of a redooced loam, it is." "You see, Sir, it's like this; when the railway come along, it took off the surface and that redooced it. "Oh, I see. there ?" And what kind of flowers do you grow "Roses. Roses. There's the glory di John. He do very well. And William Allen. He's all right. And the Duchess of Connaught. She's got the worm." We told Butler, and he said he could see possibilities in old Hatt; he might have come out of Dickens. Aet. 57 Butler to Mrs. Bovill. April 8th, 1893. DEAR MRS. BOVILL-I did not get back till 5.30 yesterday afternoon and could not have got to St. Andrew's Place in time -you will, I am sure, see that this is bona fide. I am extremely sorry to hear that you have been anxious about Merric; I will call to-morrow afternoon and enquire. I hope I shall find him all right again, and I hope also you will be better yourself, but what with cold, nursing, and rehearsing I hardly expect that you will be up and about, and shall be very glad to find myself mistaken. I go to Shrewsbury on Monday afternoon and shall return on Thursday or Friday. Any day after then will suit me perfectly well, and I assure you Alfred and I will do our best to turn out some nice negatives [photographs of her room]. I got some snapshots during this Easter that ought to turn out well. I took a mean advantage of a little boy and a little girl who, I suppose, had not very long had their breakfast. They were by the road-side and I hope the negative will be successful, but I can only show it by leaving it about to be seen any emphasised calling of attention to it will be out of the question. 1893 152 JOWETT XXXI I hope I shall hear that you are pretty well to-morrow, or Aet. 57 else I shall begin to feel that I am like the man who said, "I had a friend once, but, damn her, she was always catching cold." With kind regards, Believe me always yours very truly, S. BUTLER. In June, Butler's uncle, Philip Worsley, the father of Reginald Worsley, died, and Butler went to the funeral which gave him another opportunity of wearing his silk hat. In July he went to Shrewsbury for the School Speech-day. JOWETT AT SHREWSBURY Jowett came down to the Shrewsbury School speeches last week, and I was asked to meet him at dinner at Moss's house. I heard the speech he made-it was a sermon not a speech-on the duties of a master and on those of a schoolboy. He read it, badly, and it bored everyone. Seeing, therefore, how old, feeble, and dull he was, I determined to keep out of his way and not to try and draw him about the Odyssey. I was put to sit pretty near him at dinner, but we did not speak we hardly could. Nor did we speak after dinner. In the drawing-room I kept near the door, right at the other end of the room, while he seemed well occupied with those who were round him. Presently, however, he rose, toddled across the room and came up to me. "I think I have had the pleasure of meeting you here before, Mr. Butler." "Yes, Sir, but I did not think you would remember me." “Oh, I remember you very well; you know how heartily we all laughed over your Erewhon-and moreover, there was a great deal of truth in that book." "It was like everything else, Sir, true, and not true." "Well, yes, I suppose that is it.' "And then, Erewhon was published more than twenty years ago, and I have never succeeded in making you all laugh again." "But have you ever tried?" "Oh yes, I have written a good many books since Erewhon." "How is it, then, that I have never heard of any of them?" "I suppose, Sir," I said, laughing, "because they failed to attract attention; but a year ago I did myself the honour of sending you a pamphlet on the Humour of Homer, and another this spring on the Sicilian provenance of the Odyssey.' "Ah, to be sure, I remember there was something of the |