Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVI., December, 1880.Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVI., December, 1880.
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Let us first, however, notice another question concerning the _apa?
?e?? mue?a_--namely, that which respects their _origin_. Where did they
come from? how far did Shakespeare make them? and how far were they
ready to his hand? No approach to answering this inquiry can be made for
some years. Yet as to this matter let us rejoice that the unique
dictionary of the British Philological Society is now near publication.
This work, slowly elaborated by thousands of co-workers in many devious
walks of study on both sides of the Atlantic, aims to exhibit the first
appearance in a book of every English word. In regard to the great bulk
of Shakespeare's diction it will enable us ten years hence to determine
how much of it was known to literature before him, and how much of it he
himself gathered or gleaned in highways and byways, or caused to ramify
and effloresce from Saxon or classical roots and trunks, thus "endowing
his purposes with words to make them known." Meantime, we are left to
conjectures. As of his own coinage I should set down such vocables as
_motley-minded, mirth-moving, mockable, marbled, martyred, merriness,
marrowless, mightful, multipotent, masterdom, monarchize_, etc. etc.
But, however much of his linguistic treasury Shakespeare shall be proved
to have inherited ready-made--whatever scraps he may have stolen at the
feast of languages--it is clear that he was an imperial creator of
language, and lived while his mother-tongue was still plastic. Having a
mint of phrases in his own brain, well might he speak with the contempt
he does of those "fools who for a tricksy word defy the matter;" that
is, slight or disregard it. He never needed to do that. Words were
"correspondent to his command, and, Ariel-like, did his spiriting
gently."
In a thousand cases, however, Shakespeare cannot have rejected words
through fear lest he should repeat them. It has taken three centuries
for the world to ferret out his _apa? ?e?? mue?a_: can we believe that he
knew them all himself? Unless he were the Providence which numbers all
hairs of the head, he had not got the start of the majestic world so far
as that, however myriad-minded we may consider him. An instinct which
would have rendered him aware of each and every individual of five
thousand that he had employed once only would be as inconceivable as
that of Falstaff, which made him discern the heir-apparent in Prince Hal
when disguised as a highwayman. In short, Shakespeare could not be
conscious of all the words he had once used, more than Brigham Young
could recognize all the wives he had once wedded.
In the absence of other theories concerning the reasons for
Shakespeare's _apa? ?e?? mue?a_ being so abundant, I throw out a
suggestion of my own till a better one shall supplant it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account