Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon for free download

Google Books now have available the Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon for full text PDF download, or, of course, for full view and search online:

A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament
By George Abbott-Smith
Published by Scribner, 1922
Original from Harvard University
Digitized Feb 4, 2008
512 pages

Liddell and Scott Poetry and Rhymes

Over on Laudator Temporis Acti today, Michael Gilleland has a post on Liddell and Scott, a poem by Thomas Hardy "Liddell and Scott On the Completion of their Lexicon". The post gave birth to a nice thread on b-greek in which James Spinti offered an unattributed:

Scott knew Liddell,
And Liddell knew less

I noodled around for a source, found none, but did find this:

Two men wrote a lexicon, Liddell and Scott;
Some parts were clever, but some parts were not.
Hear, all ye learned, and read me this riddle,
How the wrong parts wrote Scott and the right parts wrote Liddell

The latter is cited in Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr., "How the Wrong Parts Wrote Scott and the Right Parts Wrote Liddell", The Classical Journal 84/1 (Oct. - Nov., 1988): 47-52 (51-2). In a follow up to Kitchell's article, William Calder III notes that Kitchell's ultimate source is Henry L. Thompson, Henry George Liddell, D.D. Dean of Christ Church Oxford (New York, 1899), and he goes on to explain that there is an alternative version preserved by Liddell's distant cousin, Augustus J. C. Hare, as follows:

Two men wrote a lexicon,
Liddell and Scott;
One half was clever,
And one half was not.
Give me the answer, boys,
Quick to this riddle,
Which was by Scott
And which was by Liddell?

This is from Augustus J. C. Hare, The Story of My Life II (London, 1896), 10, cited in William M. Calder III, "In Response to Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr., "'How the Wrong Parts Wrote Scott and the Right Parts Wrote Liddell,'" The Westminster Epigram on Dean Liddell (in Responses)", The Classical Journal 84/3 (Feb.-Mar., 1989): 265-266). Calder gives reasons for preferring Hare's version (the second one above). Kitchell then responds to Calder in the same journal, giving reasons for preferring the first version, Thompson's, Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr., "In Response to Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr., "'How the Wrong Parts Wrote Scott and the Right Parts Wrote Liddell,'" The "Liddell Riddle": Some Further Thoughts (in Responses)", The Classical Journal, 84/3 (Feb.-Mar., 1989): 266-268.

This is still not the end of the story, though. Back on b-greek, Stephen Goranson notes the following source which gives the boy author's name:

Recollections of a Town Boy at Westminster, 1849-1855 by Francis Markham (London, 1903) p.57: the poem "was recited before Liddell by Edward Waterfield, a town boy (the man who fought with Old Slade)." After hearing it "Liddell took it well, gave his usual scornful sniff, and presented Waterfield with his silver penny...."

It's a fascinating little bit of trivia, all the more so as it relates, it seems, to differing oral traditions circulating about the same rhyme, and its circumstances, for over fifty years. Markham's text is particularly interesting since it comes from almost the same period as the Hare and Thompson versions above, and it provides a slightly different version again:

Two men wrote a lexicon--Liddell and Scott;
Some parts were right, some parts were not.
Now come, all ye wise men, and solve me this riddle:
Why the wrong parts wrote Scott, and the right parts wrote Liddell?

Markham also gives a little context that makes good sense of the rhyme,

The joke was, that often when at work with the Sixth, Liddell would object to the translation of, or use of, some word. The boy would reply, "Please, sir, I found it used that way in your lexicon," when Liddell would reply, "Scott wrote that part." (ibid.).

Liddell-Scott Lexicon Downloads

For those attempting to cope without Perseus, one can at least download Liddell Scott at the Internet Archive. Details:

A Greek-English lexicon (1883)

Author: Liddell, Henry George, 1811-1898
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN
Usage Rights: See Terms
Book Contributor: University of California Libraries
Language: English
Keywords: Greek language -- English

The specific downloads:

PDF
Flip Book
FTP

Thanks to Anh Michael on b-greek for the link.

New content on Textkit

The remarkable resource that is Textkit has added several major new full-text, on-line books. As with everything on Textkit (I think?), these new resources are PDFs that can be downloaded for free. Resources are usually out-of-copyright old-fashioned stuff, but often really useful. These new resources have just been announced on the Greek part of the site. Descriptions below taken from the Textkit site:

Sidgwick's Greek Prose Composition Key, Arthur Sidgwick
Learn Greek with this classic Greek Prose Composition key by Arthur Sidwick. The key, in Classical Greek, can be used to check your work against the lessons presented in Sidgwick's Greek Prose Composition.

A First Greek Course, Sir William Smith
Download this free first year Greek book. Sir William Smith's A First Greek Course was popular throughout the United Kingdom from about 1867 through 1960

Pocket Lexicon of Greek New Testament, Alexander Souter
Download this free and very handy New Testament Greek Lexicon. At 297, the Greek to English lexicon presents key New Testament Greek words with English meanings.

The Gospel of St. Luke in Greek, H.R. Heatley
Download this free New Testament Greek reader of the Gospel of St. Luke. This reader provides the St. Luke's Gospel in Greek along with line notes and a helpul vocabulary to assist the Biblical Greek learner.

BDAG page

Rodney Decker has a fine page on the Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, Danker Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (now since the 3rd edition BDAG rather than BAGD, Danker getting promoted in the order!). There's a nice powerpoint presentation on the history of this lexicon with pictures; there are links to reviews of the new edition and more:

Review: Bauer/Danker 3rd ed. Greek-English Lexicion (BDAG)

Update: link added to the Greek NT Gateway: lexica page