"Hoist with own petard" - and Shakespeare's spelling
Lyra
(quote, excerpts)
#5 -- January 19, 2008 @ 01:08AM -- Clavos
"For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petar."
Hamlet
Act III, Sc. iv
1600-1601
The speaker is Hamlet. A "petar" was a type of mine.
There is some disagreement among scholars as to the spelling of petar.
Some spell it with a "d," but both my copy of Bartlett's and my Norton
Unabridged Shakespeare spell it as above.
#6 -- January 19, 2008 @ 01:22AM -- STM
Thanks Clav, oh font of knowledge regarding all all things
Shakespearean.
For a native Spanish speaker, you know a fair bit about the lingo :)
#7 -- January 19, 2008 @ 01:23AM -- STM
Mexico rocks!!
#8 -- January 19, 2008 @ 01:29AM -- STM
Yes, BTW, you are right .. a petard was a type of military mine used
in Shakespeare's time to blow doors off or walls down.
It is speculated the Bard spelled it wrong. The word original derives
from a French word meaning to "break wind", or fart.
That must be the small explosion.
So you can't be hoisted on it. You can only be shot up in the air -
"hoist".
#9 -- January 19, 2008 @ 11:18AM -- Clavos
Thanks, mate for the further elucidation. You are quite right; the
Bard DID misspell petard.
In fact, there are many misspellings in his works. At one time, some
of them were used as "proof" that he didn't write the particular piece
in question. As you know, a controversy still rages among the lit
wonks as to whether or not ol' Will actually wrote all that is
attributed to him.
But to me, the really interesting aspect of the misspellings is that
some of them, because of the power, beauty and majesty of his writing,
have become by virtue of being his, the correct spelling of that word.
Many of his misspellings, it is believed, (and in some cases, is
obvious) were deliberate - for effect, or for a better sound to the
spoken word.
Ironically, one of the most misspelled words (by others) in the
English language is his name.
#10 -- January 19, 2008 @ 11:44AM -- Jet in Columbus
Dear God! the maniacle atheists have struck again??? Holy spelling bee
Batman!
#12 -- January 31, 2008 @ 13:59PM -- Dr Dreadful
Clav #9: Shakespeare mis-spelled nothing. There was no standardized
English spelling in his day, or indeed until about the mid-17th
century when the first dictionaries were published. There are even
numerous different spellings of Shakespeare's name in contemporary
documents, including his own signature.
You are correct, though, in asserting that the way Shakey spelled some
words has become their standard spelling. The man even coined hundreds
of words of his own that we still use today.
On the 'who was Shakespeare?' controversy, I tend to take the view
that it matters not one jot whether it was Shakespeare, Marlowe,
Edward de Vere or Edmund Blackadder. Whatever the actual identity of
the man who put quill to paper was, we still have a canon of wonderful
literature.
#13 -- January 31, 2008 @ 18:28PM -- bliffle
Say it isn't so!
All these years I thought "Petard"was a flag staff with a pointed tip.
So that being 'hoist' like a flag upon ones own 'petard' was rather
like getting a coat-rack shoved up ones....
#14 -- January 31, 2008 @ 21:29PM -- Clavos
"Clav #9: Shakespeare mis-spelled nothing."
That's not quite true, Doc.
Though there was much more variation in English spelling, word usage,
and even grammar than there is today, the stage in the evolution of
English as a language during which Shakespeare was ascendant is termed
Early Modern English.
It dated from about the middle of the fifteenth century to 1650, a
little more than 30 years after the Bard's death in 1616.
Scholars agree that the Early Modern stage of English was
distinguished by the beginning of standardization of the language,
especially during the reign of James VI.
Wikipedia notes that:
"The standardization of English spelling falls within the Early Modern
English period, and is influenced by conventions predating the Great
Vowel Shift, explaining much of the non-phonetic spelling of
contemporary Modern English."
So actually, by the standards of the day, Shakespeare did occasionally
misspell, on the one hand.
On the other hand, by virtue of the genius of his art, he also
established not only the spelling of many words, but also their usage,
and even coined many new words which live on today.
#15 -- January 31, 2008 @ 22:16PM -- STM
And he didn't write a bad play either, just quietly.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/01/18/004629.php#comment-692027