On 9/11/06 05:02, "Steven" <mcquaryq@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
It seems I just read about this -- very enlightening, and for the life of me I can't remember where. Was it yourself? As I recall, the intent of her cry is more along the lines of: 'Why must you (of all people) be Romeo?'
On Nov 7, 2006, at 6:41 PM, NABOKV-L wrote:
We still find Julliet on stage looking & searching to the
line
"Wherefore art thou Romeo?" (I'll explain the error if you insist.)
Steven
Dear Steven: your reading is parfait. it’s been around some time, but I was reminded of it listening to my favourite linguist Prof McWhorter (The History of Human Language, brilliant audio set from the Teaching Company). Many other post-bardic semantic shifts are discussed, including: “Silly women” (meaning ‘blessed women’ at the time!); and “meat” for food in general; the use of “wit” (any one of the five aspects of ‘creativity’ or, pace VN, ‘common sense’ [see his depressing essay The Art of Literature & Commonsense]) -- echoes of which survive in terms such as ‘wits’ end’ and ‘half-wit.’ . The KJV Bible (now known as the RULER James Version) is also dripping with misundertood phrases.
SES: do I get to have the LAST word before the thread is sewn up?
Stan Kelly-Bootle (also known as ‘someone’ or M Machin?)