Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall

Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall

Hawkers prose sketches appeared originally as contributions to various periodicals, and in 1870 they were published for him in book form by Mr. John Russell Smith, as Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall. In 1893, eighteen years after his death, a new edition was issued by Messrs. Blackwood, entitled The Prose Works of Rev. R. S. Hawker, containing two essays previously unpublished, Humphrey Vivian and Old Trevarten. The late Mr. J. G. Godwin, who was Hawkers friend and adviser in literary matters, edited the volume, and added the bibliographical footnotes to the several papers. In the present edition it has been thought appropriate to revert to Hawkers own more picturesque title, and this is to be done also in the case of his poetical works, which will shortly be re-issued as Cornish Ballads and other Poems. The two books will thus form companion volumes. It is interesting to read them concurrently, and to compare his treatment of the same themes in prose and verse. An[vi] attempt has been made in the notes to assist such a comparison by indicating some of the more obvious parallels. In the prose, as in the poems, there is the same deep and peculiar love of symbol and miracle and superstition, but the prose further reveals, what might not be suspected from the poems alone, that Hawker was a humourist as much as a mystic. Hawker won his literary reputation as a ballad-writer, but his prose also deserves a share in his fame. He has the gift of style. Like his handwriting, which makes a manuscript of his a thing of beauty in itself, it is bold and clear, free from prettiness or affectation, but with the massive grace of his native rocks, and made distinctive by a characteristic touch of archaism. The rugged scenery of his abode had its influence upon his work. He was a hewer of words, as Daniel Gumb was a hewer of stone, and his language has the strength of rough masonry wrought in a broad and homely manner out of solid granite. The sea, and the great spaces of lonely moorland that surrounded him, gave to his work a sense of breadth and freedom. He is always at his best in describing his own dearly loved Cornwall, and in particular the wild coast by which all his years were spent. Perhaps the finest passage of this kind is that which concludes the legend of Daniel Gumb, and which forms[vii] a prose counterpart to that grand ending of The Quest of the Sangraal: There is an element of fiction in Hawkers biographical studies. He never let facts, or the absence of them, stand in the way of his imagination, and he had a Chattertonian habit of passing off compositions of his own as ancient manuscripts. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 45316
Author: Hawker, Robert Stephen
Release Date: Apr 4, 2014
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Byles, C. E. (Charles Edward), 1873-1944
Illustrator: Pethybridge, J. Ley