Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-08-25
"AMERICANIsMs- IN SHAKESPEARE.


british Critics Seem tn KNOW Little
About Their Own Language.
Prom the Springfield Republican.
Not only has the old world an unpleasant
habit Of shipping its ofrscourings of bu-
manity to cur shores and then jeering at
them as Americans" but that part of the
OLD world from which we get our language
Is altogether t6o prone to lay all disagree
able forms. OF speecA. to our charge under
the name OF "Americanisms. quite regard
less of their origfn.<4ssat -aesa,e and racy
critic. Richard Grant White, spent a good
share of his lifetime in hunting down such
alleged Ameffcanfsms, but II would seem
that he. left plenty of work for his sue.
osssors. II one may judge by the super.
cilious criticism OF The London Athenaeum
on Mr. Hewelrs Traveller from Altruria:"
The style is fairly pure as whole but
there are too many 'Anrertcanfsms OF the
kind Which, while common enough In the
average American novel. must be protested
against'-iR "a novelist I'D popular in Eng
land"
There is nothing very terrible to the or
binary perception IN the idea OF using
Americanisms in q novel of American life.
Even IL a writer caIls a gaol jail and q
biscuit craker, and a cream jug a pitcher
there is nothing in This which should make
II necessary to shut the English custom
houses TO his DOCKS Ii one is to write f~,r
Americans tae -pataral thing is to use the
same sort OF language that Americans use
and II the English think such language
beastly or bloomin'. IL is their privilege not
TO read II, but II is rather psIcalIed-for inn
pe Pl, me tor them TO protest against it,
but Wat are these Shocking American
isms which so onepI the fastidious ear OF
Inc Athenaeunl IN Mr.. Howels who has
p peee aI HS ri q sm!9ent critic to write The
fe1 10 fS
pressing a vast contemporaneity. with
Doup as Of leisure removed 10 the end OF
tirie." Ii is to be presumed, in absence OF
evidence 70 the contrary, that 'contem-
roraneity" is the word here branded as an
Americsnisrl. but Me- Howsls at least sins
In such good company the historian
Rawlnson. who doubtless picked up his
American slang at oxford. There is also
alleged TO be some American faint larking
In the Phrase the dip OF fountains like the
choiring OF still-eyed cherubim." IL is hard
TO tell ~ hetRey reference IS to "choiring,"
which n used. we are panied to say, by
many less .fastidious Engiishmen, among
them Canon Farrar, or 20 "cherubim." In
the fa<ser.~Ness- the-,eid~ English psalter is
says<-"ADd ee sashksscended) over cheru-
bim," Perhaps. who can tell, the old Eng
lish peasser-.pas the saventor OF American
isms. Or, not, Shakespeare may have
been tuiRy psrssNin1this case. with ~.
bins'.SNht+e.' tcsssssure he .r.a' e,-;era-
s saet w9ras SifIsEsntly ~ gave another them
= ol eye 20 ms shakespeare
TO T,.sS~raught in the Americanism
- elf" which also troubles this
,-~rern Ss-ssinpiou<uS>ssssp{lsh Undecided. The
poet may have learned IT from his friend,
Walter Raiersh.-w may have picked IL up
in Virginia with his other nasty American
habit TheH 'ths4s other American poet,
Lord Byroa, makss use OF the phrase in the
noble passage:
Thou glorious mirrur where the Almighty's
form
Glasses itseff IN 'tempssA
''Minify.% which. ) Tbs Athenaeum" takes
Southey, whas tosbe sSzTe. had sad demo-
cratic leanings. and came near founding
a colony WIN ColOsdge in the wilds q
America, on a Utopian plan worthy of "A
Travelfef~SSoru Aitfuria." As for 'gracile
ease" do We not have Rossettfs:
Where in groves the gracIle spring
Trembles with mute orisOn.
Confidently strengthening.
On the whole, this is a pretty bad outlook
for the purity of English speech. Not only
do the most emif,ent Englishmen use
Anericanisms at every other breath. but
apparently they had been using them for
some hundreds of ears when America was
discovered But when the wolf wanted the
lamb ir Rvailed naUght for the latter to
plead that IL was below and so could not
deiiEe the stream. and. any phrase that an
Englishman does not like will continue TO
be an Amer1canissn.s even though It be
Ruthwell cross.