Dryden

This morning, I have finally finished reading the Hollis book at reference 1, having previously commented on his extensive deployment of classical and literary allusions at reference 2.

After some ups and downs, the book ended rather well for me and on the penultimate page we had a quote from Dryden 'But we, like sentries, are obliged to stand / In starless nights, and wait the appointed hour'.

I thought I would look this one up, turning to Edge and Bing for the purpose. On which, unasked, Copilot came up with the offering snipped above. I did not pay him any attention at first, and not getting what I wanted from Bing, turned to Google, who got me to Project Gutenburg at reference 3. Volume 7 of 18 of the collected works published in 1808, with the assistance of one Walter Scott. I search the page for 'sentries', which occurs just once.

So the two lines in question look to be part of a short speech addressed by Sebastian to Almeyda, a captive Queen of Barbary, in the tragedy 'Don Sebastian'. When I point this out to Copilot I get the usual line, that is to say something along the lines:  'Oops. You're absolutely right. Thank you for correcting me'. My present belief is that he has just been programmed to do this when corrected. He does not do anything so tedious as to actually check for himself. But to be fair, I think his waffle about the wrong source was along the right lines.

Worrying that Copilot should be dispensing untruths in this casual way. How could one possibly trust him about anything important? Possibly helpful in pointing one in the right direction - although not in this particular case, as I already knew we were on Dryden - but only helpful in so far as one can check what he says.

How many of his readers - this one included - are going to be passing on his stuff, in one way or another, for the truth?

And returning to reference 2, looking the quote up did add value for me. So I wonder now how many of the readers of this book, back in the 1940s, would have known their Dryden well enough not to need to look it up? And if they did want to look it up, how many of them would have had access to the text and the patience to be able to put their hand on the right place? And who, outside of some very rarefied part of academia, reads Dryden at all these days?

PS: the Royal Collection Trust get in on all this at reference 4.

References

Reference 1: Fossett’s memory – Christopher Hollis – 1944.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/06/classical-and-literary-allusions.html.

Reference 3: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16402/16402-h/16402-h.htm#page_271.

Reference 4: https://www.rct.uk/collection/1059431/the-works-of-john-dryden-illustrated-with-notes-historical-critical-and.