Bartleby, however, does not appear before the lawyer but, in a crucial change of prepositions, to him. We might read the word appeared as the diction of a man who has practiced law for many years, a profession in which the presence of individuals is often referred to as an "appearance." Yet in legal phraseology the verb to appear is typically followed by the preposition before: one always appears before the bench, the judge, or the jury. Ere introducing the scrivener, as he first appeared to me," writes the lawyer in Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener" (1853), "it is fit I make some mention of myself, my employés, my business, my chambers, and general surroundings." 1 Intriguingly, the lawyer does not say he met Bartleby instead, Bartleby "appeared" to him.
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