[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR., SIR,—In six out of
the nine instances given by Mr. Murray the novelists or poets he condemns are supported by authority. The " Century Dictionary" gives " hoarse," " husk," " shrill," " tiptoe," " glimpse," " parrot," as verbs, with references to Shakespeare, Spenser, Richardson, &c. Mr. Murray must get used to bad calligraphy. I am convinced that his Guppy must have written, not "yells," but " wells of joy artesianed up his throat " ; and if Guppy bath not "enriched our tongue," this effort is distinctly " good." Your modernism of Dryden is admirable. " To get an extra shade of meaning by using a noun as a verb may be allowable if the result is appropriate and euphonious." A fine instance of this has escaped the lexicographers. The first three lines of Iter Boreale, by Dr. Robert Wilde (1660), run-
" The day is broke! Melpomene, begone ; Hag of my fancy, let me now alone :
Nightmare my soul no more."
Previous page
