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New Light on Sir William Jones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

A. J. Arberry
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Extract

In a footnote to page 1083 of K. C. Balderston's Thraliana (Oxford, 1942) we read Mrs. Thrale's opinion of our only full-length biography of Sir William Jones (1746–1794), that written by his friend Sir John Shore (later Lord Teign-mouth) and prefixed to the definitive edition of the great scholar's published works: “This Fashion of publishing Lives & Remains is a very amusing Fashion—& Sir William JOne's is the least entertaining among them all.” This judgement on Teignmouth's Memoirs is 'pretty generally shared by all who have read them with an eye to truth and proportion; the book is marred by the author's too patent anxiety to make of his hero a prophet of Clapham evangelicalism, and to mitigate the harshness of his uncompromising politics. For the bare facts of Jone's life and career Teignmouth may, nevertheless, be consulted with due caution: the purpose of this paper is to attempt to put into a proper perspective certain aspects of Jones's activities and character which have not been hitherto sufficiently delineated. Almost all the material used in this essay consists of unpublished letters from Jones to his one-time pupil and life-long friend; Lord Althorp, the 2nd Earl Spencer: I here record my gratitude to the present Earl Spencer, who most kindly lent me copies of a considerable range of this interesting correspondence.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , February 1946 , pp. 673 - 685
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1946

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References

page 673 note 1 Mrs. Thrale, friend of Dr. Johnson, was an ardent admirer of Jones; she transcribed his juvenile poem, Saul and David, into her journal (Thraliana, pp. 237–240); and on hearing of his death she wrote, on 11th January, 1795, “We (i.e., herself and Mr. John Lloyd) lamented together the Death of Sir William Jones the Orientalist, Selim Jones as they called him—an irreparable loss to the literary world”. (ib., pp. 907–8).

page 673 note 2 For recent literature of JOnes, see Hewitt, R. M., “Harmonious JOnes” (Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, xxviii (1942)Google Scholar); Arberry, A. J., “Persian Jones” (The Asiatic Review, xl (April, 1944))Google Scholar.

page 674 note 1 Memoirs, vol. ii, pp. 288–290.Google Scholar

page 674 note 2 Memoirs, pp. 221–2.

page 674 note 3 Footnote to pp. 444–5.

page 674 note 4 See Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 200.Google Scholar

page 674 note 5 See Teignmouth's, Memoirs, vol. i, pp. 333–5Google Scholar, where some passages from this discourse are quoted.

page 674 note 6 By O'Lanfrac, J., writing in the Gentleman's Magzine for 1817 (lxxxvii, pt. 2, pp. 133–4, ef. pp. 295–6, 582–3)Google Scholar.

page 675 note 1 Collected works, X, pp. 389–390Google Scholar. The following letter of Jones to Lord Althorp explains the circumstances attending the composition of this spirited poem, which enjoyed a wide notoriety at the time, and did Jones litter good:— Llandovery, 1st April, [1781].

I send you, my dear lord, a few verses, which contain my system of government, and of morality too. I composed them in my chaise between Abergavenny and Brecon and wrote them down in the mountains of Trecastle. Farewell! [Endorsed] Mr. JOnes, 1st April, 1781.

Incidentally, the first line of the ode, criticized for its cacophony by R. M. Hewitt, op. cit., p. 55, reads in Jone's original version still more quaintly:— Althorp, what forms a state?

page 675 note 2 Collected Works, viii, pp. 525–537.Google Scholar

page 675 note 3 “Did I tell you”, wrote Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, 9th May, 1780, “that Scot and Jones both offer themselves to represent the University in the place of Sir Roger Newdigate. They are struggling hard for what others think neither of them will obtain.” In a later letter to the same: “I suppose you know that Jones and Scot oppose each other for what neither will have.” (Letters of Johnson (ed. Hill, G. B., Oxford, 1892), ii, pp. 155, 164Google Scholar). Jones solicited the support, among many others, of Horace Walpole, who expressed his reactions thus in a letter to Rev. Wm. Mason. “Mr. Jones, the orientalist, is candidate for Oxford. On Tuesday was se'ennight Mrs. Vesey presented him to me. The next day he sent me an a absurd and pedantic letter, desiring I would make interest for him. I answered it directly, and told him I had no more connection with Oxford than with the Antipodes, nor desired to have … However, before I sent, I inquired a little more about Mr. Jones, and on finding it was circular letter sent to several, I did not think it necessary to answer it at all; and now I am glad I did not, for the man it seems is a staunch whing, but very wrongheaded”. (Letters, vol. xi, p. 170.)

page 675 note 4 “Ad Libertatem Carmen” (Collected Works, x, pp. 394–400)Google Scholar, first published under the anagrammatic pseudonym of Julius Melesigonus, which Teignmouth whitewashes: “It may be proper, though, unnecessary, to inform the classical reader, that some stanzas of this Alcaick are little more than a liberal translation from Collins's Ode to Liberty”.

page 676 note 1 This passage with others is omitted in Teignmouth, vol. i, pp. 323–6, where the letter is reproduced.

page 677 note 1 The rather penitent note sounded in this letter is explained by the fact that it was written immediately upon Jones becoming engaged to be married.

page 678 note 1 It is relevant to trace the later career of Lord Althorp. Entering the House of Commons in 1780 for Northampton, and being returned in 1782 for the Country of Surrey, on his father's death in 1783 he succeeded to the earldom and took his seat in the House of Lords. But he took little part in public politics until 11th June, 1794, when, being a follower of William Pitt, he was appointed Keeper of Privy Seal, and sent to Vienna as Ambassador Extraordinary. He returned to take up the office of First Lord of the Admiralty on 17th December of the same year, and there continued for more than six years. It was he who singled out Nelson for the independent commond which took him to the Mediterranean and the Victory of the Nile. When Pitt resigned in 1801, Spencer followed him into the wilderness; but returned to be Fox's Home Secretary in 1806. This was his last public office: he thereafter gave himself to the administration of country affairs in Northampton, and in his retirement devoted his leisure to rehabilitating the Althorp Library, founded by the third Earl of Sunderland, said to be the finest private library in Europe: this library afterwards formed the backbone of the John Rylands Library at Manchester. It is perhaps not too fanciful to see in this patron's distinguished career of public service and devotion to learning some model of what Jones himself would have wished to achieve, and might perhaps have achieved, had be been born in other days.

page 679 note 1 See Annual Biography, vol. i, Preface, p. ix.Google Scholar

page 679 note 2 Thus, in his letter of 6th April, 1782, he refers to “my Ciceronian plan of dispatching letters, continually, however short, on all occurrence likely to interest or amuse you”.

page 679 note 3 Jones was an intimate friend of Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St Asaph, whose daughter, Anna Maria, he married. He appearts to have acted as a confidential courier between the extreme Whings and Benjamin Franklin when the latter was at Passy.

page 680 note 1 Memoirs, vol. i, p. 353.Google Scholar

page 680 note 2 Sc. regarding the proposed appointment of Jones to the vacant judgeship in Bengal.

page 680 note 3 Sc. the Shipleys.

page 681 note 1 Sc. the Bishop of St Asaph's.

page 683 note 1 The following poem, found among the Althorp letters, appears to be meant; though it has obvious affinities with Jones's “Damsels of Cardigan”.

page 684 note 1 Only the shorter, revised version of these lines has otherwise been preserved, as given by Jones in his Tenth Anniversary Discourse to the Asiatic Society of Bengal (delivered 28th Februrary, 1793), and quoted agin by Teignmouth, Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 304. The original is by Sa'dī (quoting from Firdausī), Būstān, ch. ii, (p. 82 of the Teheran, 1316, edition).

page 685 note 1 Teīgnmouth, Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 262, rejects a story current about the last moments of Sir William Jones, that “immediately before his dissolution, he retired to his closet, and expired in the act of adoration to his Creator”, adding that he does not know what was the authority for this anecdote. At page 274 of Lady E. Butler's Dirary (preserved among the Hamwood Papers) is found a letter from Miss Shipley, sister of Lady Jones, dated 26th January, 1795, which surley provides the solution of of this problem. “and quite convinced that all medical aid was vain. He had. however, all that Calcutta afforded. He suffered extreme pain without a murmur. The morning of his death he was taken up and carried into his dressing room. There some of his most intimate acquaintances visted him, but after a short time he begged to be left quite alone, saying—“I must not now be disturbed, a few minutes will probably convey me into the presence of the Almighty”. They left him, but remained watching in the next room for near half an hour, when, upon hearing a noise, they ventured in and found him quite dead on the floor. This account we have from a gentleman who was present”.