[898] An excellent life of Henry Stephens, as well as others of the rest of his family, was written by Maittaire, but which does not supersede those formerly published by Almeloveen. These together are among the best illustrations of the philological history of the 16th century that we possess. They have been abridged, with some new matter, by Mr. Greswell, in his Early History of the Parisian Greek Press. Almeloveen, Vitæ Stephanorum, p. 60. Maittaire, p. 200.
[899] Almeloveen, p. 70. His father made him learn Greek before he had acquired Latin. Maittaire, p. 198.
[900] The life of Stephens in the 36th volume of Niceron is long and useful. That in the Biographie Universelle is not bad, but enumerates few editions published by this most laborious scholar, and thus reduces the number of his works to twenty-six. Huet says (whom I quote from Blount), that Stephens may be called “The Translator par excellence;” such is his diligence and accuracy, so happy his skill in giving the character of his author, so great his perspicuity and elegance.
[901] Omnes quotquot edidit, editve libros, etiam meos, suo arbitrio jam corrupit et deinceps corrumpet. Scalig. Prima, p. 96. Against this sharp, and perhaps rash, judgment, we may set that of Maittaire, a competent scholar, though not like Scaliger, and without his arrogance and scorn of the world. Henrici editiones ideo miror, quod eas, quam posset accuratissime aut ipse aut per alios, quos complures noverat, viros eruditos, ad omnium tum manuscriptorum tum impressorum codicum fidem, non sine maximo delectu et suo (quo maximè in Græcis præsertim pollebat) aliorumque judicio elaboravit. Vitæ Stephanorum, t. ii. p. 284. No man perhaps ever published so many editions as Stephens; nor was any other printer of so much use to letters; for he knew much more than the Aldi or the Juntas. Yet he had planned many more publications, as Maittaire has collected from what he has dropped in various places, p. 469.
Lexicon of Constantin. 14. The year 1572 is an epoch in Greek literature, by the publication of Stephens’s Thesaurus. A lexicon had been published at Basle in 1562, by Robert Constantin, who, though he made use of that famous press, lived at Caen, of which he was a native. Scaliger speaks in a disparaging tone both of Constantin and his lexicon. But its general reputation has been much higher. A modern critic observes, that “a very great proportion of the explanations and authorities in Stephens’s Thesaurus are borrowed from it.”[902] We must presume that this applies to the first edition; for the second, enlarged by Æmilius Portus, which is more common, did not appear till 1591.[903] “The principal defects of Constantin,” it is added, “are first the confused and ill-digested arrangement of the interpretation of words, and secondly, the absence of all distinction between primitives and derivatives.” It appears by a Greek letter of Constantin, prefixed to the first edition, that he had been assisted in his labours by Gesner, Henry Stephens, Turnebus, Camerarius, and other learned contemporaries. He gives his authorities, if not so much as we should desire, very far more than the editors of the former Basle lexicon. This lexicon, as was mentioned in the first volume, is extremely defective and full of errors, though a letter of Grynæus, prefixed to the edition of 1539, is nothing but a strain of unqualified eulogy, little warranted by the suffrage of later scholars. I found, however, on a loose calculation, the number of words in this edition to be not much less than 50,000.[904]
[902] Quarterly Review, vol. xxvii.
[903] The first edition of this Lexicon sometimes bears the name of Crespin, the printer at Basle; and both Baillet and Bayle have fallen into the mistake of believing that there were two different works. See Niceron, vol. xxvii.
[904] Henry Stephens in an epistle, De suæ Typographiæ statu ad quosdam amicos, gives an account of his own labours on the Thesaurus. The following passage on the earlier lexicons may be worth reading. Iis quæ circumferuntur lexicis Græco-Latinis primam imposuit manum monachus quidam, frater Johannes Crastonus, Placentinus, Carmelitanus; sed cum is jejunis expositionibus, in quibus vernaculo etiam sermone interdum, id est Italico, utitur, contentus fuisset, perfunctoriè item constructiones verborum indicasset, nullos autorum locos proferens ex quibus illæ pariter et significationes cognosci possent; multi postea certatim multa hinc inde sine ullo delectu ac judicio excerpta inseruerunt. Donec tandem indoctis typographis de augenda lexicorum mole inter se certantibus, et præmia iis qui id præstarent proponentibus, quæ jejunæ, et, si ita loqui licet, macilentæ antea erant expositiones, adeo pingues et crassæ redditæ sunt, ut in illis passim nihil aliud quam Bœoticam suem agnoscamus. Nam pauca ex Budæo, aliisque idoneis autoribus, et ea quidem parum fideliter descripta, utpote parum intellecta, multa contra ex Lapo Florentino, Leonardo Aretino, aliisque ejusdem farinæ interpretibus, ut similes habent labra lactucas, in opus illud transtulerunt. Ex iis quidem certe locis in quorum interpretatione felix fuit Laurentius Valla, paucissimos protulerunt; sed pro perverso suo judicio, perversissimas quasque ejus interpretationes, quales prope innumeras a me annotatas in Latinis Herodoti et Thucydidis editionibus videbis, delegerunt egregii illi lexicorum seu consarcinatores seu interpolatores, quibus, tanquam gemmis, illa insignirent. Quod si non quam multa, sed duntaxat quam multorum generum errata ibi sint, commemorare velim, merito certe exclamabo, τί ηρῶτον, τί δ' επειτα, τί δ'ὑστάτιον καταλέξω; vix enim ullum vitii genus posse a nobis cogitari aut fingi existimo, cujus ibi aliquod exemplum non extat, p. 156. He produces afterwards some gross instances of error.
Thesaurus of Stephens. 15. Henry Stephens had devoted twelve years of his laborious life to this immense work, large materials for which had been collected by his father. In comprehensive and copious interpretation of words it not only left far behind every earlier dictionary, but is still the single Greek lexicon; one which some have ventured to abridge or enlarge, but none have presumed to supersede. Its arrangement, as is perhaps scarce necessary to say, is not according to an alphabetical, but radical order; that is, the supposed roots following each other alphabetically, every derivative or compound, of whatever initial letter, is placed after the primary word. This method is certainly not very convenient to the uninformed reader; and perhaps, even with a view to the scientific knowledge of the language, it should have been deferred for a more advanced stage of etymological learning. The Thesaurus embodies the critical writings of Budæus and Camerarius, with whatever else had been contributed by the Greek exiles of the preceding age, and by their learned disciples. Much, no doubt, has since been added to what we find in the Thesaurus of Stephens, as to the nicety of idiom and syntax, or to the principles of formation of words, but not, perhaps, in copiousness of explanation, which is the proper object of a dictionary. “The leading defects conspicuous in Stephens,” it is said by the critic already quoted, “are inaccurate or falsified quotations, the deficiency of several thousand words, and a wrong classification both of primitives and derivatives. At the same time, we ought rather to be surprised that, under existing disadvantages, he accomplished so much even in this last department, than that he left so much undone.”
Abridged by Scapula. 16. It has been questioned among bibliographers, whether there are two editions of the Thesaurus; the first in 1572, the second without a date, and probably after 1580. The affirmative seems to be sufficiently proved.[905] The sale, however, of so voluminous and expensive a work did not indemnify its author; and it has often been complained of, that Scapula, who had been employed under Stephens, injured his superior by the publication of his well-known abridgment in 1579. The fact, however, that Scapula had possessed this advantage, rests on little evidence, and his preface, if it were true, would be the highest degree of effrontery: it was natural that some one should abridge so voluminous a lexicon. Literature, at least, owes an obligation to Scapula.[906] The temper of Henry Stephens, restless and uncertain, was not likely to retain riches; he passed several years in wandering over Europe, and having wasted a considerable fortune amassed by his father, died in a public hospital at Lyons in 1598,[907] “opibus,” says his biographer, “atque etiam ingenio destitutus in nosocomio.”