The Story of Robinson Crusoe in Latin

Adapted from Daniel Defoe’s famous book by

G. F. Goffeaux

Edited, amended, and rearranged by

P. A. Barnett, M.A.

Late scholar of Trinity College, Oxford

Lonmans, Green, and Co.

39 Paternoster Row, London

New York, Bombay, and Calcutta

1907

To

Rudyard Kipling

EPISTLE DEDICATORY AND EXPLANATORY

Dear Kipling,

The body, if not the soul, of this little book is due to the labours of an intelligent Frenchman who discovered sixty or seventy years ago that the degenerate practice of introducing young people to the Latin language by means of Cæsar, Cicero, and Vergil failed to engage their interest. The fact has since been rediscovered by persons so eminent, and has been proclaimed with such energy and unaffected ingenuousness, that I do not mind confessing that I have myself long had something more than a suspicion of it.

Goffeaux thought it worth while to write some of the adventures of Robinson Crusoe in Latin, in order that boys who already knew something of the original enchanting history might realise that it was possible to express in that language matters about which a reasonable being might reasonably be interested. His book had considerable vogue ; and after four or five editions had been printed in France, it was printed and reprinted in this country, with English notes.

When a copy of Goffeaux's book came into my way through the kind offices of a friend, I wondered whether it could have exhausted its usefulness in our grandfathers’ time ; whether our children might not get some profit out of it. My Frenchman has, in my hands, been cut down a good deal ; his Latin has been mended ; not less than half of his moral sentiments have been suppressed ; and the result is now offered to the boys and girls of England for what it is worth.

You are in the direct line of great story-tellers, of whom Defoe was greatest in his day ; and I have placed your name in front of my wares because I desire above all things to commend, and make easier to young people, the reading of Latin as literature. I do not call my Goffeaux by that sacred name ; but a healthy boy who is piqued into following Crusoe through a language which Cicero and Cæesar and Vergil (in spite of their imperfect education), would have understood, will the more readily believe that they themselves are better worth reading. And he will assuredly read them the more easily after reading Goffeaux.

I might have begged, I dare say in vain, for the patronage of the professed scholar. I should like to have it ; but I am more concerned to secure yours because whereas Latin literature will not live as an interest of youth — or of old age, for that matter — by reason of its philological or rhetorical or scientific interest, it will live because people love it.

It is unfortunate that Cæsar and Vergil and Cicero neglected to write Latin books for the use of English children. Yet, if we are to present such things in any form which young English people will willingly accept, we must temper the forbidding but necessary Grammar that hedges round the great masterpieces of those great writers with something not quite so austere, at all events superficially. Such fine scholars as Professor Sonnenschein and Mr. Godley have, indeed, led the way — I do not know how people ever got on without “ The New Orbilius ” and “ Ora Maritima ” — and I plead that, after them, Goffeaux may have his chance.

It is true that his style is not classical, nor could all the botching of an even learned editor make it so. It lacks periodic consecutiveness ; its constructions are mostly the simple ordinary constructions ; it does not affect the delicate shades that make native Latin so subtle an instrument of logic and narrative. But for these very reasons it is better fitted for the purpose proposed. And, at any rate, it contains a large vocabulary (a few words, to be sure, invented), which the intelligent boy and girl can pick up as they go along. They can avoid the “ more flagrant forms of guessing, ” against which an eminent friend of your own was solemnly warned, by an occasional use of the dictionary and a glance at the few appended notes.

I hope you will not think this an insufficient apology for my doubly presumptuous effort and dedication.

Very truly yours

P. A. Barnett

1st December, 1906

Caput Primum

Crusoëi ortus, indoles, educatio — Cupido peregrinandi — Discessus a parentibus — Profectio Londinium — Infausta initia — Tempestas — Navis obruta fluctibus — Advenit Londinium, unde solvit ad Guineam.

Caput Secundum

Crusoëus pergit iter — Mala omina — Navis incensa — Advehitur ad Canarias insulas — Inde profectus ad Americam naufragium facit.

Caput Tertium

Sera Crusoëi pœnitentia — Desperatio — Vitam misere sustentat — In spelunca habitat.

Caput Quartum

Reperit poma eximiæ magnitudinis — Sibi conficit varia instrumenta — Funiculos — Stratum — Umbellam — Peram — Calendarium.

Caput Quintum

Robinson insulam perlustrat — Magnus terror — In gaudium vertitur — Descriptio Lamæ — Unum occidit — Sed igne caret — Carnem more Tartarorum coquit.

Caput Sextum

Turbo ingens — Tempestas unde magnum Robinsoni beneficium — Taedium solitudinis — Aranea.

Caput Septimum

Præda ingens — Deest res maxime necessaria — Vota irrita — Ambulatio — Natatio — Res variæ.

Caput Octavum

Lama mansuefacta — Pulli — Res variæ.

Caput Nonum

Terræ motus — Mons ignivomus — Lamæ, vi aquarum abrepti — Spelunca Robinsonis diruta.

Caput Decimum

Crusoëus domicilium reficit — Parat sibi alimenta in hiemem — Imbribus continuis impeditus domi, fingit vasa — Nectit rete — Arcum et sagittas conficit.

Caput Undecimum

Summæ Robinsonis miseriæ — Ab insectis infestatur — Vestes ex pellibus sibi conficit — Incidit in gravem morbum.

Caput Duodecimum

Convalescit ex morbo — Maximi luctus — Parva gaudia — Psittacus.

Caput Tredecimum

Multus labor in excavanda scapha — Crusoëi constantia — Quomodo diem inter varias occupationes distribuit — In bellicis artibus se exercet.

Caput Decimum Quartum

Robinson insulam peragrat — Vestigia hominum reperit — Summus terror — Prospicit crania, ossa, manus, pedes — Quod territo et fugienti accidit.

Caput Decimum Quintum

Epulæ immanes — Prælium — Fortitudo Crusoëi — Friday servatus.

Caput Decimum Sextum

Crusoëus paratus ad obsidionem ferendam — Friday describitur — Quare sic appellatus — Regia potestas — Abundat Crusoëus opibus.

Caput Decimum Septimum

Suspicio in lætitiam et admirationem versa — Casus qui risum legenti movebit — Rebus secundis adversæ levantur.

Caput Decimum Octavum

Robinson domum fossa et palis munit — Docet socium Anglice loqui — Ambo scapham fabricare statuunt.

Caput Decimum Nonum

Pluviarum tempus — Socii nectunt stragulas — Retia — Cymba conficitur — Nostri mari se committunt.

Caput Vicesimum

Ambo e periculo se expediunt — Reversi in insulam, hortum colunt — Piscantur — Natant — Venantur — Novum iter suscipiunt — Tempestas — Magna navis derelicta — Ignota animalia — Ratis.

Caput Vicesimum Primum

Multæ opes repertæ — Cibi — Supellex — Instrumenta — Vestes — Sclopeta — Robinson repente dives.

Caput Vicesimum Secundum

Adsunt ! Adsunt ! — Arma inter socios dividuntur — Paratur bellum — Duo viri adversus quinquaginta — Victoris dementia.

Caput Vicesimum Tertium

Friday patrem suum invenit — Concio convocata — Legati missi — Institutæ leges — Spelunca — Monstrum.

Caput Vicesimum Quartum

Navis anglica appulsa ad insulam — Quo casu — Magna Crusoëi in præfectum merita — Spes liberationis.

Caput Vicesimum Quintum

Fundata colonia — Crusoëus relinquit insulam — Quod accidit in patriam redeunti — Quomodo vitam deinde honestam et beatam degit.