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:
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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