Wednesday, July 31, 2019

WARNING: DO NOT PRONOUNCE "PARTHENOPE" THE WAY JOHN BRYANT TELLS YOU TO!!!!!!

I am asking to post a version of this on a Melville site.


In his long review of the Northwestern-Newberry Edition THE WRITINGS OF HERMAN MELVILLE in the June 2019 LEVIATHAN on p. 110 John Bryant instructs us on basic pronunciation:



          "Parthenope (pronounced PAR-thin-OH-pee) is now the newly sanctioned title for what we have in the past referred to as Melville’s Burgundy Club Sketches.” [That is what Bryant says.]



Bryant wants us to say “PAR-thin-OH-pee.” Well, let him say it that way.



But what about the way Melville really might have said it? Or the way Wordsworth said it. Melville knew this poem on Sir Walter Scott’s sailing for Italy:



On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford, for Naples






A trouble, not of clouds, or weeping rain,



Nor of the setting sun's pathetic light



Engendered, hangs o'er Eildon's triple height:



Spirits of Power, assembled there, complain



For kindred Power departing from their sight;



While Tweed, best pleased in chanting a blithe strain,



Saddens his voice again, and yet again.



Lift up your hearts, ye Mourners! for the might



Of the whole world's good wishes with him goes;



Blessings and prayers in nobler retinue



Than sceptred king or laurelled conqueror knows,



Follow this wondrous Potentate. Be true,



Ye winds of ocean, and the midland sea,



Wafting your Charge to soft Parthenope!







My copy of Melville’s own edition is boxed up to go to the Berkshire Athenaeum so I use an Internet version.



“Wafting your Charge to soft PAR-thin-OH-pee!”

Oh what rhythm!



Why, you wonder, did John Bryant decide he had to instruct everyone how to say Parthenope, and to get it wrong?

Bryant says: "Parthenope (pronounced PAR-thin-OH-pee)."

Try HM:

“Neapolitans, ay, ’tis the soul of the shell

Intoning your  Naples, Parthenope’s  bell.

Is it possible to let all Melville lovers know not to follow the mispronunciation of JOHN BRYANT?




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