Monthly Archives: September 2013

Curculio 4: A Sly Joke in The Alchemist?

Kastril or Kestrel, the ‘angry boy’ of Ben Jonson’s Alchemist, calls his sister his ‘suster’ and says ‘kuss’ for ‘kiss’.1 It is not clear whether this is meant to represent a particular regional dialect, a generalized country accent, or his … Continue reading

Posted in Blackfriars, Curculio: English, English Literature | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

La Rochefoucauld at 400

Yesterday, in honor of La Rochefoucauld’s 400th birthday, I uploaded a page in his honor. Here is the blurb displayed in the left-hand margin, if you’re not sure yet whether you want to click on the link: “This site displays … Continue reading

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Best Match of Editor’s Name and Subject?

I’m torn between the Kiss Catullus – the online Catullus edited by Daniel Kiss (link) – and the Hankey Othello (link). Can anyone think of a third? Possibly the worst match between performer and subject (onomastically, I mean – he … Continue reading

Posted in English Literature, German, Jokes, Latin Literature | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

“There’s Gonna Be Some Changes Made”

I will be announcing some major additions to this site over the next few days. At the same time, I will be drastically reducing the number of categories, using them only for the broadest classifications, and using Tags for more … Continue reading

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Curculio 3: “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice . . .”

. . . and there are definitely worse possibilities. When one language adopts words from another, it sometimes happens that standard spelling changes create a new pair of homonyms, making two words that were quite different in the source language … Continue reading

Posted in Curculio: Misc, Etymology, Spanish | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment