Butterfly music
Sir: When I sat College Entrance in 1940, I committed myself to the statement that the Fool was the obverse of Lear. At the viva, the late Gavin Bone (who was subsequently my tutor) gently elicited from me, coram populo, that I thought 'obverse' meant 'reverse,' and equally gently impressed upon me that this was a solecism of the first order.
The definition you quote from the Shorter 0ED is from some Johnny-Come-Lately in 1875. Let me counsel you to stick with Mr Weidberg (Letters, 23 May), Mr. Bone and the original 1658 definition, 'the opposite of reverse.' Philip Larkin 32 Pearson Park, Hull
Alas, Mr Larkin has committed yet another solecism, if not of the first order. The usage we quoted was first recorded in- 1862, when some Johnny-Come-Over-A-Century Ago wrote 'Here you have the two sides—the science of medi- cine, and its obverse, the practice of witchcraft.' However, we look forward to publishing in the SPECTATOR Mr Larkin's first poem written en- tirely in seventeenth century English.—Editor,
SPECTATOR.
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