Belles Lettres Research Articles

Reading Pride and Prejudice

Reading Pride and PrejudicePatricia Howell Michaelson In his "Biographical Notice" of Jane Austen, her brother Henry wrote, "She read aloud with very great taste and effect. Her own works, probably , were never heard to so much advantage as from her own mouth; for she partook largely in all the best gifts of the comic muse."1 Henry was not the only witness to praise Austen's skill as à reader, and her pleasure in reading aloud is hinted at by die numerous descriptions of readings in her novels and letters. When die first copy of Pride and Prejudice arrived from die printer, tiiough they had a guest, die Austens "set fairly at it, and read half die first vol. to her." Perhaps Jane was reading diat night, for she was certainly happy with the performance. A week later, though, she wrote, "Our second evening's reading to Miss Benn had not pleased me so well, but I believe something must be attributed to my mother's too rapid way of getting on: though she perfectly understands the characters herself, she cannot speak as they ought."2 A fine reader herself, a frequent one, and one widi decided notions of what constitutes excellence, Austen almost certainly wrote her novels anticipating that they would be read aloud. This paper will examine the ways 1 The Novels ofJane Austen, ed. R.W. Chapman, 3rd edition, 5 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933), V, 7. References are to this edition. 2 Jane Austen's Letters to her Sister Cassandra and Others, ed. R.W. Chapman (London: Oxford University Press, 1932), pp. 297, 299. This was not the first family reading of Pride and Prejudice: Jane had read the first draft of the novel, secretly, to Cassandra. See William AustenLeigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, 2nd ed. (New York: Russell and Russell, 1965), p. 73. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, Volume 3, Number 1, October 1990 66 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION in which the performance practice of reading informs important aspects of Pride and Prejudice? Austen's criticism of her mother's reading reflects concerns that were common in the many contemporary treatises on reading aloud. Since 1748, die publication date of John Mason's Essay on Elocution, or Pronunciation , reading aloud had been widely discussed. The early elocutionists directed dieir remarks at speakers in the senate, the pulpit, and the bar; they argued against the use of artificial "reading tones"—fixed patterns of intonation taught in the schools—and in favour of a more natural reading style that would better express the sense of a text. Other elocutionists devoted attention to the expression not only of sense, but of emotion. An essay by James Burgh, with specific instructions on how to express emotions such as mirth, anger, or denial, was reprinted in many schoolbooks, as were pieces by Mason, James Walker, and Hugh Blair. In fact, most school anthologies were prefaced by instructions for reading aloud.4 By the end of die eighteenth century, the elocution movement had widened its audience to include virtually any reader. Austen may have learned about elocution at home. Her fatiier, also considered an excellent reader, was a clergyman, a member of the elocutionists ' original target audience; to supplement his income he took in students, and may well have used one of the popular andiologies. Austen herself undoubtedly knew of die elocutionists, for she refers to die elocution movement in Mansfield Park (p. 339), in the context of reading in the pulpit. In Northanger Abbey (p. 108), she mentions Hugh Blair, in a passage Chapman believes refers to Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1783). One of these lectures, "On Pronunciation, or Delivery ," was reprinted as an introduction to Elegant Extracts, the anthology 3 I borrow the term "performance practice" from musicology, where it "encompass[es] everything about performance that is not unambiguously specified in notation," that is, "the gap between what was notated and what was thought necessary for a performance." See Don Michael Randel, ed., 77ie New Harvard Dictionary ofMusic (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986), p. 624. 4 William Enfield included his own "Essay on Elocution" as die introduction to his widely used anthology...

Women in Literature

This study analyzes the Library of Congress (LC) class numbers and the LC subject headings which LC has assigned to 164 works of history and criticism of literature (belles lettres) related to women's studies. These books were classed in more than one hundred different class numbers and spans of numbers. Less than half of these books were assigned to class numbers in PA-PT whose captions contain either the word "women" or another word which points to women's studies, but slightly more than half were assigned "literature" subject headings which contain the words "women," "feminism," "feminist," or "sex role." The subject heading "Women in literature" was assigned to forty of these books, while the words "women authors" appear in a series of different subject headings assigned to forty-five of these books.

La Vision prophétique du moine Dionysios ou La femme de Zante. Essai d' anastylose de l'oeuvre (review)

174 Reviews Dionysios Solomos, La Vüion prophétique du moine Dionysios ou La femme de Zante. Essai d' anastylose de l'oeuvre. Introduction, translation and commentary by Octave Merlier. Paris: Société d'Edition Les Belles Lettres. 1987. Athens: Center of Asia Minor Studies, Archives Melpo and Octave Merlier, I. Pp. 284. H γυναίκα της Ζάκυνθος is a milestone in demotic Greek literature . The second prose work of the poet Dionysios Solomos (1798— 1857), following the Diálogos (1823-1825), its first draft was completed in Zákynthos in 1826. It was subsequently reworked from the start in Corfu in 1828-1829, but then abandoned—perhaps because the author had spiritually outgrown it (see Emmanuel Kriarás, Σολωμός. O βίος—To épyo. Athens: Estia, 1970:66. 2nd Edition). Untitled, the work is included in Zákynthos holograph notebook no. 13. In addition, a transcription prepared by Iákovos Polylás (1826-1896) is extant in the National Library of Greece. The pages of the holograph, in large 4° format, are divided into two columns. The left-hand column contains the Greek text, clearly written and easily legible, with only a few cancellations and corrections. Later additions and corrections to the original draft, as well as the poet's notations in Italian, are recorded in the right-hand column. The notations are extremely improvisatory ; presumably they were meant to be consulted during a subsequent reworking of the text—something that never took place. Polylás' edition of Solomos' Τα ευϕισκόμενα (1859) did not include the entire text of The Woman of Zákynthos but only its third chapter, inserted among his prolegomena. The entire work was published for the first time by K. Kairofylas in 1927 (Σολωμοϕ ΑνÎ-κδοτα Î-ϕγα. Αθήνα: Στοχαστή) and was reissued in 1944 by Linos Politis in a self-contained edition based on Polylás' transcription. In 1955 Politis reissued the text as Volume 2 of Solomos' Απαντα (Athens: Ikaros), this time employing as well the Zákynthos holograph. Starting in 1927, scholars concerned with Solomos' work began to consider the textual problems arising from The Woman of Zákynthos' mode of publication, as well as problems of interpretation. Preeminent among these works is that of the late French neohellenist Octave Merlier (1897—1976), who devoted approximately twenty years to the preparation of a new edition of The Woman of Zákynthos. We may now enjoy the results of this labor thanks to the affectionate efforts of the Center of Asia Minor Studies, and in particular to philologists Eléni Papanikoláou and Odysséas Dimitrakópoulos. In his Introduction (pp. 11-13), Merlier discusses Polylás' suppression of parts of the work and investigates the identity of the person concealed behind the woman of Zákynthos. Regarding the latter, he Reviews 175 concludes that this mysterious person is not "equal" merely to one of Solomos' relatives; rather, she coalesces traits of other women whom Solomos detested. Nor does she symbolize English rule. Merlier concludes , furthermore, that it was the poet's brother, Dimitrios Solomos, who forbade the work's publication after recognizing in it several ladies from his circle. In the "Introductory Note" that follows (pp. 15-21), Merlier discusses the work's subject matter (as we noted above, the work is untitled; the current title was invented by the first publisher because the woman answers frequently throughout the work). The subject matter includes the prophecies of the holy monk Dionysios, his adventures, description of the woman of Zákynthos, prophecies regarding the siege of Missolónghi, the woman's behavior vis-à -vis the female refugees from Missolónghi, the scene with the mirror, and death. Afterwards, Merlier refers to the Italian notes by Solomos that enrich the Greek text. Readers of Greek are confronted by two versions —the Greek of the principal text and the Italian of the notessomething that inhibits them from registering the unity of Solomos' thought. It is precisely this unity that Merlier seeks. Extracting from the notes whatever can be incorporated in the principal text, he senses that he has "reassembled" a new text that, compared to the text in its exclusively Greek form, displays a greater integrity and a more logical construction that is easier to interpret—even though it, too, remains incomplete...

Centuries of female days: Englishwomen's private diaries

Offers illuminating examples of her subjects 'in the process of being in a particular world' . . . a tantalizing clamor of voices.--New York Times Book Review Offers an overview of Englishwomen's private diaries written between 1599 and 1939 . . . represent[s] a rich resource for women's thoughts and feelings on such issues as women's rights, marriage, motherhood, female psychology, and daughterhood . . . impressive.--Belles Lettres Great fun, both for the diary passages themselves and Blodgett's interpretative discussions, which are intelligent and quietly witty.--Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature These diaries were produced by lively, thoughtful writers who did not feel they lived the lives of brainwashed slaves.--Times Literary Supplement Start reading it and you can't stop. It's like peeping at all the posh folk through the net curtains.--Daily Mail (UK) Richly researched, lucidly argued, written with wit and verve, Blodgett's ground-breaking analysis of Englishwomen's private diaries will be indispensable to feminist critics and other women's studies scholars.--Sandra M. Gilbert, Princeton University These secret journals are full of treasures, full of women's hearts and minds.--San Jose Mercury News Well-written . . . a useful contribution to the 'lost history of women.'--Choice

A Bookman's Catalogue: The Norman Colbeck Collection of Nineteenth-Century and Edwardian Poetry and Belles Lettres in the Special Collections of the University of British Columbia, ed.Norman Colbeck

A Bookman's Catalogue: The Norman Colbeck Collection of Nineteenth-Century and Edwardian Poetry and Belles Lettres in the Special Collections of the University of British Columbia, ed.Norman Colbeck

The formation of the Regius Chair of rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the university of Edinburgh

During the mid‐eighteenth century, a combination of circumstances—cultural, political, and educational—created a public environment in which the formation of the Regius Chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh was a logical development. Several figures at Edinburgh who preceded Blair included material related to rhetoric and belles lettres in their lectures, among them John Stevenson, William Cleghorn, Adam Smith, and Robert Watson. The curricular events leading up to Blair's appointment to the Chair demonstrate that The University of Edinburgh was reflecting and reacting to the social situation outside its walls rather than instituting a preconceived design for either the discipline of rhetoric or the new discipline of literature and literary criticism.

Not Either an Experimental Doll: The Separate Worlds of Three South African Women

... remarkable... --Foreign Affairs ... illuminates the workings of institutionalized racism through the correspondence of three South African women in the 1940s and '50s. --Feminist Bookstore News history of a place and time is made vivid by the combination of the rich personal record of the letters and the theoretically framed analytic discussion. The result is new insight into the history of black education in South Africa, and a revealing study of the dynamics of women's relations under colonialism across the lines of race, age and power. --Susan Greenstein, The Women's Review of Books A riveting and revealing book--one in which few of the characters wear hats that are spotlessly white. --Third World Resources This rich collection of letters deserves its own reading, as do Shula Marks's bracketing essays. They are invaluable for clarifying the myriad ramifications that the letters raise for African women. --International Journal of African Historical Studies ... powerful and perceptive....speak[s] eloquently to a Western audience that is poised to deal with the political and personal lives of South African women in an intimate holistic fashion. --Belles Lettres The roots of modern Apartheid are exposed through the painful and revealing correspondence of three very different South African women--two black and one liberal white--from 1949 to 1951. Although the letters speak for themselves, the editor has written an introduction and epilogue which tell of the tragic ending to this riveting story.

An Admirable and Ridiculous Hero: Some Notes on the Bedouin in Medieval Arabic Belles Lettres, on a Chapter of Adab by al-Raghib al-Isfahani, and on a Literary Model in Which Admiration and Mockery Coexist

An Admirable and Ridiculous Hero: Some Notes on the Bedouin in Medieval Arabic Belles Lettres, on a Chapter of Adab by al-Raghib al-Isfahani, and on a Literary Model in Which Admiration and Mockery Coexist

"Old Words" in "New Circumstances": Language and Leadership in Post-Revolutionary America

Jefferson stressed his ongoing belief that in United States, the new circumstances under which we are placed, call for new words, new phrases, and for transfer of old words new objects.... [N]ecessity obliges us neologize.I Nine years later he would reiterate this sentiment in a letter one of founders of American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres (1820), William S. Cardell, a grammarian who hoped improve common language of America and England and, in particular, to form and maintain, as far as practicable, an English standard of writing and pronunciation, correct, fixed, and uniform, throughout our extensive territory.2 There are so many differences between us and England, Jefferson had written Cardell,

Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the Canadian Academy: An Historical Analysis

Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the Canadian Academy: An Historical Analysis

Reviews

CentaurusVolume 31, Issue 3 p. 312-337 Reviews First published: October 1988 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0498.1988.tb00742.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract Wilbur Knorr, The Ancient Tradition of Geometric Problems. Cambridge, Mass. (Birk-häuser Boston Inc.) R. Rashed, Sharaf al-Dln al-Túsí, oeuvres mathématiques. Algèbre et géométrie au XIP siècle. Paris (Sociétéédition ‘Les Belles Lettres’) Volume31, Issue3October 1988Pages 312-337 RelatedInformation

South Asian Writers and the Nobel Prize

By SYED AMANUDDIN Literary awards do not necessarily prove merit of writers or of national literatures. However, Nobel Prize is institution which provides a writer opportunity for worldwide acceptance and recognition. A concerned writer and critic suggested to me that Third World writers and critics should establish a prize exclusively for Third World authors. There may be some merit in this suggestion for encouraging and recognizing such writers. However, establishment of such award to be given in competition with Nobel Prize would only mean that we are adding to problem instead of suggesting solutions. Despite all objectivity involved in nomination and selection process of Nobel, one would think a jury of established international writers would further enhance significance of award. The Neustadt International Prize for Literature sponsored by World Literature Today has set certain standards worth emulating. As jurors change for each biennial award, it is possible to have a wider representation of writers of various national or regional literatures. The South Asian writers Kamala Markandaya, ShivK. Kumar, R. K. Narayan, and A. K. Ramanujan of India and Edwin Thumboo of Singapore have served as jurors for this prize; and Thumboo's candidate, Raja Rao of India, was named tenth Neustadt laureate in February of this year. Also, a nomination and selection process can be effective only when it is based on informed judgment, which is possible only when one has access to standard editions of works and authentic translations, critical studies, bibliographies, historical surveys, and biographies. In other words, Third World writers, translators, scholars, editors, and publishers need to involve themselves in activities which would sustain and promote Third World writing aggressively. This does not mean, however, that South Asian writing is totally inaccessible. It is a matter of serious concern that a number of outstanding writers from this region are not among Nobel Prize winners: Urdu poet-philosopher Mohammed Iqbal (18731938); epic writer and philosopher Aurobindo Ghose or Sri Aurobindo (1872-1940); political activist and social-moral thinker Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), who wrote in both Gujarati and English; Umashankar Joshi (b. 1911), another major Gujarati writer and poet; Hindi writers Suryakant Tripathi Nirala (1899P-1961) and Sachidananda Vatsyayan Ajneya (b. 1911); Pakistani Urdu Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-84); Punjabi and novelist Amrita Pritam (b. 1919); and R. K. Narayan (b. 1906) and Zulfikar Ghose (b. 1935), who write in English. So far, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), recipient of 1913 award, is only South Asian writer to have been honored with Nobel Prize in Literature. Harald Hjarne, then-chairman of Nobel Committee of Swedish Academy, called Tagore an Anglo-Indian poet whose work Gitanjali belongs to literature, for author himself, who by education and practice is a in his native Indian tongue, has bestowed upon poems a new dress, alike perfect in form and personally original in inspiration. This has made them accessible to all England, America, and entire Western world for whom noble literature is of interest and moment.1 The Nobel Committee recognized Tagore's profoundly sensitive, fresh, and beautiful verse and consummate skill with which he made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of literature of Tagore's contribution to Bengali, Indian, and world literature was erroneously (and patronizingly) viewed as a contribution to the literature of West. The Indian subcontinent was a part of British Empire then, and apparently a writer was considered significant only if he were a contributor to the literature of The end of World War II coincided with independence for subcontinent, and postindependence period has been remarkable for contributions writers have made to regional, national, and world literature. The subcontinent may be compared with continent of Europe for its variety of languages and literatures. Each significant language of region produced remarkable literary activity during period under review. Bengalis in India and Bangladesh have continued to express their artistic genius in post-Tagore era. Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, and Oriya writers have experimented with new forms and techniques and have made lasting contributions. Hindi language and literature has gained considerably from official support and patronage of Indian government. Urdu has enjoyed a similar status in Pakistan. South Indian literatures in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada have continued to assert their unique literary traditions along with experimentations in new forms and subject matter. One of most remarkable developments in literary scene of region is rapid growth of literatures in English. India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have produced writers who have made significant contributions to regional and Commonwealth literatures in English. Malaysia and Singapore in Southeast Asia have experienced parallel developments in their literatures. Writers such as aforementioned and critic Edwin Thumboo of Singapore have given a new direction to belles lettres of this region. Several significant Sri Lankan authors such as Lakdasa Wikkramasinha write in Sinhala and English, whereas others such as Yasmine Gooneratne write primarily in English. Sim-

A Cluster of (Old) Portuguese Derivational Suffixes:-ece, -ice, -ez(a),Viewed in Relation to their Spanish Counterparts

A Cluster of (Old) Portuguese Derivational Suffixes:<i>-ece, -ice, -ez(a),</i>Viewed in Relation to their Spanish Counterparts

César-Pierre Richelet (1626-1698). Biographie et oeuvre lexicographique (review)

REVIEWS 220Reviews César-Pierre Richelet (1626-1698). Biographie et oeuvre lexicographique ( = Lexicographica Series Maior, 1 5). Laurent Bray. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1986. Laurent Bray's study of Richelet's lexicographical work, both the major works (the Dictionnaire françois and the Dictionnaire portatif de la langue françoise) and the minor works (Dictionnaire des rimes, Les plus belles lettres, etc.), provide a solid example of both the strengths and the weaknesses of modern historiography of lexicography. The strengths are descriptive, the weaknesses analytical. We find in Bray's study outstanding bibliographical work and a solid biographical portrait, both of which introduce much new material. But the biggest weaknesses come in the analysis of Richelet's major didionary, where we gain little understanding of the work itself, and where the tracing of sources and influences is done in a mechanical and superficial way. The book is divided into four parts: (1) an analysis of sources and influences (1-44); (2) the formal lay-out and organization of the Dictionnaire françois (45-62); (3) an analytical bibliography of all of Richelet's works (63-187); (4) a biographical sketch (188-259). Appendices add a number of letters and other documents written by or about Richelet. One can see by the distribution alone of the sections of this study the overwhelming weight given to descriptive material, at the expense of real analysis. However, lest this seem too negative an appreciation of Bray's work, I should emphasize the very high quality of the analytical bibliography. Each edition of each work is clearly described, with full title, notation of the specific copy consulted (complete with the library call number), pagination, commentary (generally on questions of dating, filiation, or faulty printing), a list of the location of known copies, and finally, where applicable, a list of modern reprints. The care with which Mr. Bray has conduded this research will make the work a valuable resource for the history of lexicography. If only he had stopped at that, an analytical bibliography with biography, this reviewer would have nothing but praise for this work. The problems reside entirely in the level of analysis presented in the first section of the book, and perhaps Reviews22 1 I would not feel compelled to stress these problems were they not so prevalent in the history of lexicography. All too often what passes for analysis of old dictionaries is a comparison of a very limited range of one dictionary's articles with those of another. Bray's book is filled with such comparisons: headwords beginning with "gi-" in Miège (1677) and Richelet (1680), beginning with "ge-" in Pomey (1671) and Richelet (1680). Such comparisons must represent a very preliminary (if necessary) phase in historical analysis. Of more interest are (1)an overall appreciation of the vocabulary included—areas of expansion and, if applicable, areas of retrenchment; (2)changes in the nature of the definition, in the lexicographic metalanguage of definitions; (3) changes in the techniques of collection of raw lexicographic data. All three of these have the promise of revealing links between lexicographic works and the broader concerns of the soriety, not in the superficial way that some have traced the appearance (and disappearance) of four-letter words, but rather in a meaningful attempt to understand the relationship between theories of natural and social sciences and our own lexicographic enterprise. Obviously such analysis requires much more time than the surface comparisons we find so frequently today, but with the advent of the computer age we have the means at our disposal to make a more global appreciation of individual didionaries, particularly of dictionaries composed before the nineteenth century, which, though not small by any means, are still more manageable than recent works. In Bray's book, this type of analysis is limited to four pages, "Le Dictionnaire françois: ouvrage de première main" (36-39), in which he mentions such issues as the relationship between the concept of "honnête homme" and the elaboration of Richelet's dictionary. This topic merits a full discussion, but receives only a few paragraphs. In conclusion, whatever the analytical faults of this study may be, the bibliographical and biographical information it...

Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

A reassessment of Adam Smith's lectures on Rhetoric and Belles lettres

The manuscript known as Adam Smith's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres has been interpreted incorrectly as a theory of rhetoric which broadens the scope of rhetoric to include literary, historical, didactic, and persuasive discourse. Rather, Purcell argues, the Lectures define rhetoric narrowly in the classical sense and therefore do not represent a new and innovative theory of rhetoric.

Further Letters of Blanco White to Robert Southey

Further Letters of Blanco White to Robert Southey

The Double Meaning of Jewish Elements in Dimitri Shostakovich's Music

The concern of musicology is musical style. Insofar as musical style can be understood and interpreted only in the context of the particular culture or cultures where this style emerges, acts, and is perceived, and insofar as it is living matter (William Empson), music, like belles lettres, demands a sense, not so much of what is really there, as of what is necessary to carry a particular situation off.2 Assuming these postulates, the following questions may be asked: What is the meaning of Shostakovich's so-called Jewish works? When, where, why, and how are the Jewish subjects and idiom involved? How did this style function in Soviet music in general, and in Shostakovich's work in particular? But first we must define what is meant by Jewish elements or Jewish style in Shostakovich's music. Jewish elements may be considered as: (a) subjects defined as Jewish by the composer, or the author of the text used by the composer (e.g., Op. 133, or Op. 91; see Table I); (b) Jewish folk poetry (e.g., Op. 79); (c) a melos based on the transformation of wellknown Jewish secular or liturgical melodies (e.g., Op. 79 and Op. 87): and (d) a musical idiom which shows modal, metro-rhythmical, and structural affiliation to East European Jewish folk music and is commonly accepted

(Apollonius) Rhodius. Argonautiques. Tome iii. Chant 4. Ed. F. Vian. Trans. E. Delage and F. Vian. (Association G. Budé.) Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 1981. Pp. xi + 273, 4 folding col. maps at rear. Price for cloth bound ed. not stated; price for paper boards ed. Fr. 131.

(Apollonius) Rhodius. Argonautiques. Tome iii. Chant 4. Ed. F. Vian. Trans. E. Delage and F. Vian. (Association G. Budé.) Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 1981. Pp. xi + 273, 4 folding col. maps at rear. Price for cloth bound ed. not stated; price for paper boards ed. Fr. 131. - Volume 103

John Rowe Parker and A Musical Biography

In early nineteenth-century America the art of music had few champions as ardent and vociferous as John Rowe Parker (1777-1844).' Though an admitted musical amateur, Parker's important role in disseminating music and musical knowledge throughout the country can hardly be overestimated. As proprietor of the wellstocked Franklin Music Warehouse in Boston from 1817 to 1823, he furnished New Englanders with the latest musical paraphernalia from Europe. Of more farreaching significance, however, was his literary contribution. Parker's career as a music journalist apparently began in December 1817 with the commencement of a bimonthly column entitled in the weekly Boston Intelligencer.2 Consisting largely of reviews of local musical events, the column continued until February 1820. Two months later, with the experience thus accrued, Parker assumed editorship of a weekly publication of his own called The Euterpeiad, Or Musical Intelligencer.3 Devoted to the general diffusion of Musical Information and Belles Lettres, The Euterpeiad was designed to: