JOHN OF ANTIOCH, AND HIS EDITORS. [TO THE EDITOR OF
THE " spEcuerort.-1
'Sia,—Professor Jebb, in the first chapter of his admirable -" Life of Bentley," in the " English Men of Letters " series, sketches the preliminary history of the edition of the"Chronicle of John of Antioch " (John Malelas), published at Oxford in 1691, and now chiefly remembered as the occasion of the great scholar's first appearance in print. He has, however, omitted -one stage in the story, which introduces another name of con-
siderable literary repute, and to which it may be worth while to -call attention. From the letters of Humphrey Prideaux to -John Ellis (Camden Society, 1875), we learn that the author of the " Connection " was at work upon Malelas so early as 1674. His first mention of it occurs under the date of August 30th in -that year, when he writes :— " We are continually pestered with letters from forrain parts to set it forth, out of a conceit that rare things ly bid therein, wereas more than halfe the hooka is stuffed with ridiculous and incredible lye ; and although there be something of good use contained therein, yet they are not of such number or value as to make any recompense for the rest of his booke, which is intolerable. It was writ about 400 years after Christ, by an Antiochean, in Greeke. The copy is very much moth-eaten, and extremely difficult to be made perfect. Some on must be forced to cast away his time in the unprofitable works of repaireing it."
From a letter dated a month later, we find that Dr. Fell had pressed Prideaux himself into the service for the completion of this "unprofitable work," which was to engage him simultane- -onsly with the " Marmora Oxoniensia." He seems to have dis- liked both his tasks pretty impartially :—
" I am now groaneing," he writes, on September 27th, "under the -oppression of two or three heavy burdens which Mr. Dean bath layed upon me. After what rate I shall rid my hands of them I know not. -John of Antioch, of which I formerly wrot unto you, is got into my hands, to be prepared for the presse. Whatever I wrot to you of him formerly, I now sufficiently know him to be a horrid, musty, foolish books, and many degrees below the worst of authors that 1 ever yet met with. I wish I were rid of him ; and if my opinion were to be -harkned to, instead of goeing to the presse, he should be con- -demned back again to the rubbish from whence he was taken, and -there ly till moths and rats have rid the world of such horrid and in- sufferable nonsense. However, I promise myselfe this happynesse from it, if you come hither this winter, to have your good company at a Sre, to be furnished from hence with subjects sufficient to make yon laugh heartyly, whensoever you are disposed thereto ; for I assure you he is a pleasant rogue, and tells his lye not after an ordinary manner."
Bentley contrived to get out of John of Antioch something more valuable than a few jokes for a winter fireside, and the contrast between the scholar and the dilettante contains an instructive warning, which is not wholly superfluous at the present day.—
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