Mind your language
THEY ARE at it again, I'm afraid. What kind of change does the Conser- vative Government need? Why, a sea- change, of course.
Quite what this means is to me unclear. The Oxford English Dictionary gives only one citation, which it dates at 1610, from The Tempest. It comes from Ariel's song:
Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made: Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.
This is meant to be mysterious. It is accompanied by the chorus 'ding-dong', as the preceding verses were punctuated by 'bow, wow' and 'cock-a-diddle-dow'. This isle is indeed full of noises.
No such subtleties of meaning seem to be intended by MPs and others who have picked up the sea-change disease.
Coming soon: salt of the earth and all things to all men.
Dot Wordsworth
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