"awfully" are really almost elbowing the legitimate significations out of countenance and out of use. To use "awful" in its proper sense is to lay oneself open, if not to misapprehension, at least to bad puns and foolish jests. What, for instance, would modern slangy talkers and degraders of words make of Keats's line in "Isabel: His heart beat awfully against his side, or Keble's: Towards the East our awful greetings Are wafted. bler ranks of society. The young lady in Dickens who "couldn't abear the men, they were such deceivers," Tennyson's northern farmer, who "couldn abear to see it," and the old lady who "can't abide these newfangled ways" might all be said to speak vulgarly, as fashion of speech now goes. But "abear" and "abide," although not now generally used by educated people, are words that have seen better days. It is only in comparatively recent years that they have been condemned as vulgar. "Abear," in the sense of to endure or to suffer, was good English in the days of King Alfred, and for centuries after. Like many other good old English has found a home in the dialects; and words, exiled by culture from London, it there are few provincial forms of English element. To "abide," in its now vulgar speech in which "abear" is not a familiar sense, is not quite so old as "abear," but is still of respectable antiquity. A character in "Faire Em," one of the plays of doubtful authorship sometimes attrib uted to Shakespeare, says, "I cannot abide physic." Drayton makes a curious "holocaust" of victims in cases where past tense of it: "He would not have the devouring element has had no share aboad it." The word can hardly yet be whatever in the catastrophe described. Isaid to have entirely dropped out of litIt is in the manufacture of new and unnecessary verbs, by the mangling or twist-erary use, for Sir Arthur Helps, in the first chapter of his book on "Animals and their Masters," remarks that “ can't abide pamphlets in these days." People There are some poor words that have become so familiar to newspaper readers in their depraved significations, that they are now hardly noticed. The verb "transpire" is the best known of these. "Ovation" is another word daily degraded from its proper place in the language; and although the verb "to ovate" is not yet naturalized among us, its introduction is only too probably, alas, a mere question of time. In sensational descriptions of great disasters we too often read of a ing of innocent substantives that some writers do most offend. A contributor to Bentley's Miscellany, nearly thirty years ago, wrote of some one whom, "as men said, the Nonconformists ambitioned to send into Parliament." This ugly verb, although it also occurs earlier in a letter of Horace Walpole's, has happily not yet become popularized. A journalist wishing to state that some important personage was waited on by a deputation, has been known to write that the said personage was "deputated " by his visitors. In the favorite newspaper of a certain religious body, local leaders of the organization are constantly said to be "farewelling," when they are transferred from one sphere of work to another. But the list need hardly be prolonged. This form of the depravation of words is too common to have escaped the notice of any reader who preserves some respect for his native tongue, "To ax," for ask, is undoubtedly nowabut it really represents the earliest form days degraded to the rank of a vulgarism, of the word, and was in regular literary use for centuries, until it was supplanted by "ask," which had formerly been simply a current form in the northern dialect. To "ax" still survives in the dialects of midland and southern England. So that when a lady of the Sairey Gamp school 'axes yer pardon for makin' so bold," she is using a verb that was literary English from the days of Chaucer and earlier to nearly the end of the sixteenth century. Coverdale's translation of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, published in 1535, has " Axe and it shal be given you." Wiclif, earlier, has the same spelling. By the recognized form, and "axe" does not Shakespeare's time "ask had become appear in any of the earlier editions of his plays. Another example of the survival in dialect of a word or phrase once in literary use is to be found in the expression to be "shut of," meaning to be rid of. This is still very commonly heard in the northern parts of England, but could hardly now be Here the words seem to have a slight flavor of the later restricted meaning. But the earlier and better signification is more plainly seen in Udall's use of the phrase. The reference was obviously to propor used in either prose or verse having any pretension to literary form. It is to be found in a variety of our older writers; in the pamphlets of Nashe and in the "Holy War" of Bunyan. An example may be given from Massinger's "Unnatural Com-tion and a sense of what was fitting and bat: "7 We are shut of him, He will be seen no more here. at a com appropriate, derived by analogy from the operations of a builder or designer. In the course of its downhill career a of form as well as of meaning. Occasionword often undergoes some slight change stance of this is the word "peach." This ally it casts a syllable. A curious inis an aphetized form of the verb " "apthe fifteenth till about the middle of the peach." The latter word was in use from seventeenth century; and side by side Yet another word that has undergone depravation is to "square "in the sense of to quarrel. In the newspaper reports of police-court cases one may read how some offender "squared up panion or at the police, but the phrase is pretty certain to be marked off as slangy by the use of inverted commas. But" to square " in a quarrelsome sense is very form " old and respectable English. An excellent example of its literary use is to be charge: with it there existed the now familiar peach." Both meant to accuse or found in the exquisite poetry of the "Mid-Now, by mine honor, by my life, by my troth, summer Night's Dream." In the second I will appeach the villain, act of that delightful play, Puck, describing the quarrel between Oberon and Titania, says: And now they never meet in grove or green, Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there. "On the square "is a phrase now seldom heard save amongst those who, in their own language, live or work "on the cross." They know and use the phrase, but take care not to put it into practice, for, as Freeman says in the old play of the 66 'Plain Dealer: "Telling truth is a quality as prejudicial to a man that would thrive in the world as square play to a cheat.' The cheat likes to have the square play on the side of his pigeons, for the process of plucking is greatly facilitated by conduct like that of Ingoldsby's "Black Mousquetaire," who When gambling his worst, always played on the square. 66 99 cries York in the last act of "Richard II." peach A curious example of the word in its transition state is to be found in "Hudibras," a great repertory of seventeenthcentury vulgarisms. In the lines : Make Mercury confesse and peach Those thieves which he himself did teach, although its primary signification is evidently to accuse, yet the word seems to have half a reference to its modern colloquial sense. In another fifty years 66 peach "had almost descended to its present level, and was used much as it is to-day. Arbuthnot, in the appendix to his satire of "John Bull," 1712, a work which contains a great many colloquialisms, says that a certain euphoniously named Ptschirnsooker "came off, as rogues usually do upon such occasions, by peaching his partner; and being extremely forward to bring him to the gallows, Jack was accused as the contriver of all the roguery." AnThis modern limitation of the phrase is other remarkable feature in the history of simply a depravation of an older and this word is that with "appeach " and wider meaning which was long current "peach a third form was simultaneously in literature. Udall's sixteenth-century in use. Caxton, in his translations, introtranslation of the Apophthegms of duced the word "empeche," a much betErasmus has "out of square." The sense ter representative than "appeach" of the of a certain passage, says the translator, old French original empechier, although will not be out of square if one particular Caxton took his word not from this but signification of a Greek vocable be pre- from the contemporary French verb emferred to another. In Chapman's version pescher. In the altered form of "im. of the Odyssey are the lines: peach" the word is still retained in use. It is a case of the survival of the fittest. Of the three rival forms, one died out altogether, another underwent depravation 66 I see, the gods to all men give not all and is now a familiar item in the slang of the criminal classes, while the third still flourishes and retains its original meaning. Many other instances of the decline and fall of words might be given. Such expressions as to "make bones of," to "fadge," to "knock off," to "cut," in the sense of "to run off," and "along of," meaning on account of," were all for merly in constant literary use. The proc ess is a natural one, and depravation of this kind will always be going on. It is not possible to prevent it, but it is possible, unfortunately, to hasten it; and this is constantly being done by the slangy tone, the loose habit of colloquially twisting and misapplying words, that pervade so much of modern speech. It is a case of "giving a dog a bad name." If once a slang meaning or application be tacked on to an innocent word, the tendency is for the looser and more depraved meaning to oust the original and correct signifi cation out of colloquial use, and finally out of both spoken and written language. It is, of course, possible to go too far in the opposite direction, and by too great a conservatism to impede the natural progress of the language, to restrict its growth and stunt its development. This was the tendency during the greater part of the eighteenth century. But there is little fear nowadays, and indeed but little possibility, of thus hindering the free play of the language. The danger lies, as has been pointed out, in the opposite direc tion. Englishmen are justly proud of their noble literature, a literature second to none that the world has seen, and it is surely not unreasonable to protest against wanton and unnecessary depravation of the vehicle by which that literary heritage has been handed down to us, and through which many and glorious additions are being and will be made thereto, for the instruction and delight of future ages. GEORGE L. APPERSON. In time - they (Black "Seidaran THE BLACK WATCH. Not many of those | knew no mode of life but that of war. the Duke of Montrose and others pressed upon Leisure Hour. For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co. Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents. prayers; Grant me the only favor that I crave Six feet by three of earth to hide my dust: I ask no tombstone or memorial bust; I ask for death; what is beyond I'll brave. Little of good or evil have I wrought; No happiness or pleasure have I known But it hath been with sorrow intersown; All hath slipt from my grasp that I most sought. My life, though short in years, is long in grief; Night follows day, but brings me no relief, And passing years have only sorrow brought. There is one goal to which our courses tend; The way lies over mountains, torrents, plains, Through velvet pastures and quiet country lanes: To some the pleasant scenes enjoyment lend, IN A LATE SCHOLAR'S LIBRARY. How oft your loved society he sought, And by thy lips, melodious lips, be taught, And of thy playful irony he caught; Thy fancy, Scott, here clouded moments lit; Here thou, A Kempis, treasures beyond aught Earth holds wouldst open, and their beauty smit His reverent spirit, and away he brought Some pearls of price, that gleamed through what he writ, Or more and more enriched the work be wrought. Spectator. HITHER and thither flying, Flickering to and fro, Swallows their wings are trying All in the sunset glow. Purposeless now, and nestless They are eager for flight. They are restless, ah! restless; They will start to-night. Summer came with the swallows, Bringing beautiful days; Hawthorn foam in the hollows; Gorse in a golden blaze. L. Fields that were flushed with flowers; Skies that were blue above; And certain sunshiny hours Summer will go with the swallows; The desolate end of the year FRANCES WYNNE. |