1840. * RICHARD CLEASBY. Ixxix

Dictionary, for that of Björn Haldorsen was little help. On the loth of January, 1840,
comes this entry:—' Talked with Rafn about editing an Icelandic Dictionary/ And
on the 12th of February we find him writing to his friend Kemble, the well-known
Anglo-Saxon scholar:

' I am up to my chin in Islandicis, and doing what I can to promote the preparation of a
good sound old Northern Lexicon, and so get this, for so late in the I9th century, unaccountable
and most scandalous blank filled up in this grand branch of Teutonic development; but there are
many difficulties.'

And to Arfwedson, the librarian at Stockholm, on the 20th of February in Danish,
which he wrote fluently, if not always correctly:

' Jeg har tilbragt vinteren her totus in Islandicis og havde næsten i sinn at tage op til dem
igjen i sommer.'

On the 18th of April stands, ' Bought four reams of paper, 5 dalers per ream.' And on the
5th, ' Sent three reams of paper to Konrad Giselsen in preparation for the Dictionary of the
Icelandic Language I intend to edit.' And on the 22nd, ' Paid Konrad Giselsen this day 8 daler
for instruction this month, and 50 daler for work to be undertaken by him, exclusively for me,
relative to an Icelandic Dictionary I intend to publish. The 50 daler are regarded as a payment
at the rate of 50 daler per month, from this day till the 1st of June, and he gave me an acknow-
ledgment in writing.'

And accordingly we find among Cleasby's papers the following :

'Jeg har faaet i dag Kjöbenhavn den 22 April 1840 af Herr Richard Cleasby Halvtresindstyve
Rigsbank Daler Dansk, som belönning indtil den förste dag of næstkommende Juni, for et Arbed
jeg har paataget mig at udrætte udelukkende for hans Brug, angaaende en Ord-bog han agter at
give ud paa Islandsk og et eller flere andre sprog.—KONRAD GlSLASON.'

After which entry follow similar acknowledgments from Mr. Gislason and Cleasby's
other Icelandic amanuenses, down to that sad entry of the 6th of September, 1847,
when he paid Mr. Fridriksson 20 dollars.

Having started his amanuensis, Cleasby left for home on the same day for a
month, again passing through Hanover and Holland, and taking the- steamer from
Antwerp to London, where he arrived on the 4th of May, and found all well at
home. On his way he had met his father, and assisted him on some business matters
which had rendered his presence in Antwerp necessary. After visiting friends, and
especially Kemble, then settled at Acldlestone, under the Hog's Back, Cleasby left for
Copenhagen on the 24th of May, loaded as usual with letters from his literary friends in
England to scholars abroad. He again took the route by Rotterdam and Lower
Germany, and reached Hamburgh on the 29th, whence he wrote the following letter
to his old friend Schmeller, on the subject of his Icelandic undertaking:

' Bei meiner Riickkehr (nach Copenhagen) wand ich mich mit vielem Fleiss dem Isländischen
zu, und fand bald den grossen Mangel der ohne Zweifel die Hauptursache ist des versäumten
Studiums dieser herrlichen Sprache, namlich der Mangel an Hiilfsmitteln, und besonders an einem
brauchbaren Lexicon; denn Björn Haldorson's ist so gut wie keiner. Da ich nun mich tiber die
Aussicht fur die Zukunft erkundigte, fand ich, dass zwei Manner in Iceland hatten seit 20 Jahren,
der eine an ein poetisches, der andere an ein prosaisches Wörterbuch gearbeitet; und begierig unge-
fähr den Zustand ihrer Arbeit zu kennen, liess ich nach Iceland schreiben, und erfuhr, dass das
poetische Werk so vorwärts geschritten war, dass die let zte Revision und das Fertigmachen zum

SI 2