San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-08-26
A CHAPTER ON NAMES.
Suggested by Some Thoughts on the No
menclature of Fiction.

Suggested by some InOuknB On inc W.
menclature of Fiction.
."What's in a namel" asks the love sick
Juliet, and adds, "a rose by any other
name would smell as sSYeet'-which is true
SO far as it goes, but then it does not go very
far; and though good enough reason Tor an
beauty, would not satisfy logi-
clan. How much there is in name let his
tory declare. Men have cut each others
threats and sent each other to the dungeon,
the rack and the scaffold for the sake OF
name, and all that a name may be made to
represent. "There is much, nay, almost all,
in Names" says Carlyle. "Could l unfold
the influence of names, which are the most
important of all clothings, were second
great Trismegistus." Hence the anxiety OF
poets and novelists to fit apt and expressive
names to the creations Of their imaginations
the heirs of their invention. They justly
understand the weight which attaches to
them-how a judicieus choice may favorably
dispose the reader at the outset, while mis-
take in nomenclature may as speedily disgust
him.
There is tradition that the poet Boiardo,
having vainly attempted one day, as he was
riding out, to discover a name for his hero
expressive of his lofty character, and at
length hitting upon the word Rodomante,
struck his spurs into his horse, galloped back
to his castle, and ordered all the bells of the
place to be set ringing in its honor. Twas
wisely done. A hero with low, common
place name is only half hero, shorn, like
the sun in an eclipse, of half his splendor.
Beiardo, by the way, had a pretty taste in
inventing names. To him we owe that divine
one-for pure and beautiful woman-An-
gelica, name which has enchanted poster
ity. In this, as in other respects, Ariosto
ran him close. To Angelica he added Me-
doro; and Angelica and Medoro you allow,
think, to be a happy combination. Others,
besides Don Quixote, have fallen in love with
the Dulcinea of Cervantes
Shakespeare, who eXcelled in everything,
excelled in inventing or selecting names. Ro-
meo and Juliet what can he better! Florizel
and Perdita-beautiful! lmogen, the lad
mired," Miranda. Desdemona, Hermione,
Cordelia-how sweetly these flow from the
tongue, how softly they fall on the earl Spen-
GERS exquisite tact is, of course, beyond dis
pute He has lowered literature with the
Incompatible Una, Belph9be, Britomart,
Gloriana Speranza Sir Trevisan and Alma
which Prior borrowed. Beaumont and
Fletcher have given us Amoret. The Cava-
lier poets, too, deserve our thanks. Herrick's
Julia, Habington's Castara, Lovelace's AL
thea-these be names to charm with! So are
the Undine of La Motto Fouque and the
Mignon of Goethe. A lovely woman ought,
in the fitness of things, to have a lovely
name; and a gallant, generous, noble spirited
gentleman should also have name worthy
of himself and one his lady will take pleas
ure in repeating. It's all very well for Field
ing to dub his coarse, feshy paragon Tom
Jones or Smollet his crapulous adventurer
Peregrne Pickle, but we feel that no such
vulgar application would beseem Richard
sons high bred paladin, Sir Charles Grandi-
SON
For myself, object to the practice which
some writers adopt of labelling their crea-
tions with names intending to indicate their
characteristics, as apothecarles label their
gallipots-" Extr Senne," " Pulv Rhei
and the like. We may except, perhaps, such
felicitous instances as Ben Johnson'S Sir Epi-
cure Mammon and Sheridan's Mrs. Malaprop;
but have no patience with names so obvious
in their intention as Fondlewife, Courtwell,
GRIPPE, Greedy, Backbite and Witwould. Our
modern dramatistS are great offenders in this
way. and so are some of our novelists.
Among recent writer's Dickens is often felici-
tous in his choice of names-on which, in
deed, he prided himself exceedingly; but he
too was given to caricatures. Thackeray makes
frequently successful choice; though Iresent
his g Dobbin" as degrading to g. noble char
acter Nowadays do not detect much nov
city in this branch of the authors craft; per-
haps there is little room for new discoveries.
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