Are adages, phrases, fables, etc. part of this exo-genetic development, a way of passing along useful traits without waiting for them to become imprinted in our genome? I suspect so. Let's look at the sampling of phrases that Napier offers up as a recollection from her own childhood. These phrases are from a hundred years ago; four generations. How many of them are still in common circulation or are accessible? Here is a run down.
She cites 42 phrases of one sort or another that have stuck with her.
28 common parental injunctions such as "Say your prayers". Interestingly, Hart & Risley studies which examined the volume of words children hear pre-school as well as the structure of the language, indicated that children with strong early reading skills heard a ratio of 6.4 positive injunctions to negative injunctions versus children with less developed reading capabilities who heard only 0.5 positive injunctions to every negative. Priscilla Napier's sample comes in at 4.6 positive injunctions to each negative; close to Hart & Risley's findings.
5 lines from rare or uncommon poems.
3 common adages
3 familiar lines from the Bible, hymns, or prayers.
2 lines from common poems or nursery rhymes.
1 quote from a familiar and enduring children's classic book.
The net is that of the 42 randomly recollected phrases, virtually all have been around for several centuries or more, and 37 of the 42 are likely to still be heard in households today. Here are the details.
Wipe your mouth - Common parental admonition still in circulation. Probably been around for a few hundred years.
Say your grace - Common parental admonition still in circulation. Probably been around for a few hundred years.
Tell the truth - Common parental admonition still in circulation. Variants of this in circulation by language or religion for some thousands of years, three or four at least.
Keep your elbows off the table - Common parental admonition still in circulation. Very much a function of extant norms of behavior but probably been around for a couple of hundred years.
Don't care was made to care, Don't care was hanged - I wasn't familiar with this one. Apparently it is a traditional London children's rhyme; offered by parents to children when they declare, "I don't care.'
Don't care didn't care,
Don't care was wild:
Don't care stole plum and pear
Like any beggar's child.
Don't care was made to care,
Don't care was hung,
Don't care was put in a pot
And boiled till he was done.
Certainly something for a child to mull on. I don't know either how old the rhyme is nor how far it has spread outside of London/England. It is quoted by the Opie's in an anthology they published in 1959. I'd grant that this one might be of limited circulation.
Take off your hat, William, to Mr and Mrs Dallin - A parental admonition but really pertinent only to the norms of behavior. While this injunction might still be hypothetically true, the general absence of hat wearing today makes it unlikely to have much current circulation.
Spare your breath to cool your porridge - Goes back to Plutarch, (circa 600 BC), relating that Periander said "Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his porridge." General meaning is that you might as well save your breath, no one is interested or is listening. Versions have been in circulation in Spanish, French and English at least since the fifteen hundreds. Not sure that it is used all that much anywhere today though I understand it might be in current usage in Ireland.
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat - From the Bible, Luke 15.16. Basically, so hungry he would eat anything. So, at least a couple of thousand years old and possibly older. Recognizable in most Christian circles.
This little pig went to market, this little pig stayed at home - Common children's nursery rhyme first appearing in its traditional form in the mid-seventeen hundreds. Still in widespread use today, often as part of finger play between parents and infants.
Blow bugles, blow, set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying - The refrain from a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Beautiful, but not a common children's poem and I doubt would have much recognition outside of a convention of English majors. Certainly the cadence of the words are probably catching to a child's ear and given that Napier's family was thoroughly steeped in the military, it perhaps had greater currency within her family than might have been common.
Blow, Bugle, blow
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
The splendour falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story:
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
O love, they die in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill or field or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow for ever and for ever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.
Say please - Common parental admonition still in circulation.
Say yes - Common parental admonition still in circulation.
Say thank you - Common parental admonition still in circulation.
Say sorry - Common parental admonition still in circulation.
Say how do you do - Common parental admonition still in circulation though more in the current colloquial of Say hello!
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory - The Lord's prayer and therefore both a couple of thousand years old and in broad circulation.
Once upon a time there were four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter - The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter was first published in 1902 so for Priscilla Napier, these were near contemporary stories (she was born in 1908). As much of an impact as they made on her, they have likewise continued to capture the imagination and love of children ever since. I would say a reasonable duration and common circulation among reading families.
Fold your vest - Common parental admonition still in circulation though more in the current colloquial of Fold your clothes!
Clean your teeth - Common parental admonition still in circulation.
Say your prayers - Common parental admonition still in circulation.
Nobly, nobly, Cape St. Vincent to the North West died away; sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay - The opening lines of Robert Browning's poem Home-thoughts. Not lines most people today would recognize but Browning has a surprisingly robust, enduring and committed base of partisans.
Home-thoughts, from the Sea
by Robert Browning
Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the North-west died away;
Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay;
Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;
In the dimmest North-east distance dawn'd Gibraltar grand and gray;
'Here and here did England help me: how can I help England?' - say,
Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray,
While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa.
Love me, kiss me, Hug me tight - Common children's requests to parents and vice versa. Still in circulation.
Never kiss a lady with your hat on, William! - Similar to above. A parental admonition for adherence to the norms of behavior but with the circumstances surrounding the behavior having changed. While this injunction might still be hypothetically true, the general absence of hat wearing today makes it unlikely to have much current circulation.
It's no use grumbling - Common parental admonition still in circulation though with no particular heritage or provenance of which I am aware.
It's no use fussing - Common parental admonition still in circulation though with no particular heritage or provenance of which I am aware.
It's no use crying over spilled milk - Common parental admonition still in circulation everywhere that English is spoken. The thought is expressed in more or less similar phrases in most world languages (German, French, Arabic, etc.); don't waste time and effort on something that is past and can't be undone. Goes back to at least the 1600's.
Humpty-Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall - Mother Goose nursery rhyme from at least 1800 with the most common version being:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again
That's no way to hold your spoon - Common parental admonition still in circulation (spoon, fork, knife).
Oxus forgetting the bright speed he had In his high mountain cradle of Pamere - Well this allusion is exceptionally idiosyncratic. It references the river Oxus in Central Asia in a couple of lines from a nearly 900 line poem Sohrab and Rustum by Matthew Arnold. The relevant section of this massive poem is:
But the majestic river floated on,
Out of the mist and hum of that low land,
Into the frosty starlight, and there mov'd,
Rejoicing, through the hush'd Chorasmian waste,
Under the solitary moon; - he flow'd
Right for the polar star, past Orgunje,
Brimming, and bright, and large; then sands begin
To hem his watery march, and dam his streams,
And split his currents; that for many a league
The shorn and parcell'd Oxus strains along
Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles -
Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had
In his high mountain-cradle in Pamere,
A foil'd circuitous wanderer - till at last
The long'd-for dash of waves is heard, and wide
His luminous home of waters open, bright
And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bath'd stars
Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea.
I am amazed it is a phrase that stuck with her. I think it would be fairly safe to say that this is one line of cultural code that has probably had virtually no circulation in recent decades, anywhere.
For what we have received the Lord make us truly thankful - Common blessing at a meal and still widely circulated both in numbers and geographically.
Say, no thank you - Common parental admonition still in circulation.
Say, Yes please - Common parental admonition still in circulation.
Don't cough over the table - Not necessarily frequently used but still usually used when circumstances dictate.
Say, I beg your pardon - Common parental admonition still in circulation though more in the current colloquial of Say I'm sorry!
It was no season then for her To wanton with the sun her lusty paramour - The last line of the first verse of a lengthy John Milton poem, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity composed in 1629. The poem in it's entirety is about 30 verses. Again, kind of hard to imagine the circumstances for this to have washed past those young Napier ears unless it is also a church hymn. I think it is safe to assume an extremely limited circulation today.
On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
by John Milton
It was the winter wild,
While the heaven-born Child
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in awe to Him
Had doffed her gaudy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no season then for her
To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.
Finish your mouthful before you speak - Common parental admonition still in wide and frequent circulation.
Mind the step - Common parental admonition still in circulation as circumstances dictate.
Shame the devil - An English phrase from at least the 1500's. Say the truth and shame the devil is it's full form and means to tell the truth no matter how difficult it might be to do so. Not sure that it has all that much circulation today.
Shut the door behind you - Common parental admonition still in circulation and probably been around ever since doors were invented.
Never ask a man his income - Common parental admonition still in circulation particularly in certain classes.
Never ask a woman her age - Common parental admonition still in circulation particularly in certain classes.
I saw three ships come sailing by, sailing by, sailing by - A common Christmas carol in circulation in one form or another since the 1600s.
I Saw Three Ships
I saw three ships come sailing in,
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
I saw three ships come sailing in,
On Christmas day in the morning.
And what1 was in those ships all three?
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
And what was in those ships all three?
On Christmas day in the morning.
Our Saviour Christ and his lady
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
Our Saviour Christ and his lady,
On Christmas day in the morning.
Pray whither sailed those ships all three?
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
Pray whither sailed those ships all three?
On Christmas day in the morning.
Oh, they sailed into Bethlehem,
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
Oh, they sailed into Bethlehem,
On Christmas day in the morning.
And all the bells on earth shall ring,
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
And all the bells on earth shall ring,
On Christmas day in the morning.
And all the Angels in Heaven shall sing,
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
And all the Angels in Heaven shall sing,
On Christmas day in the morning.
And all the souls on earth shall sing,
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
And all the souls on earth shall sing,
On Christmas day in the morning.
Then let us all rejoice, amain,
On Christmas day, on Christmas day,
Then let us all rejoice, amain,
On Christmas day in the morning.
I saw eternity the other night Like a great ring of pure and endless night - The opening lines to a Henry Vaughan poem. Vaughan was a Welsh poet from the 1600s. The line seems to have captured the imagination of many others including Madeleine L'Engle who seems to have used it as the inspiration for the title of one of her books, A Ring of Endless Light.
The World
by Henry Vaughan
I saw Eternity the other night,
Like a great ring of pure and endless light,
All calm, as it was bright;
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,
Driv'n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow mov'd; in which the world
And all her train were hurl'd.
The doting lover in his quaintest strain
Did there complain;
Near him, his lute, his fancy, and his flights,
Wit's sour delights,
With gloves, and knots, the silly snares of pleasure,
Yet his dear treasure
All scatter'd lay, while he his eyes did pour
Upon a flow'r.
The darksome statesman hung with weights and woe,
Like a thick midnight-fog mov'd there so slow,
He did not stay, nor go;
Condemning thoughts (like sad eclipses) scowl
Upon his soul,
And clouds of crying witnesses without
Pursued him with one shout.
Yet digg'd the mole, and lest his ways be found,
Work'd under ground,
Where he did clutch his prey; but one did see
That policy;
Churches and altars fed him; perjuries
Were gnats and flies;
It rain'd about him blood and tears, but he
Drank them as free.
The fearful miser on a heap of rust
Sate pining all his life there, did scarce trust
His own hands with the dust,
Yet would not place one piece above, but lives
In fear of thieves;
Thousands there were as frantic as himself,
And hugg'd each one his pelf;
The downright epicure plac'd heav'n in sense,
And scorn'd pretence,
While others, slipp'd into a wide excess,
Said little less;
The weaker sort slight, trivial wares enslave,
Who think them brave;
And poor despised Truth sate counting by
Their victory.
Yet some, who all this while did weep and sing,
And sing, and weep, soar'd up into the ring;
But most would use no wing.
O fools (said I) thus to prefer dark night
Before true light,
To live in grots and caves, and hate the day
Because it shews the way,
The way, which from this dead and dark abode
Leads up to God,
A way where you might tread the sun, and be
More bright than he.
But as I did their madness so discuss
One whisper'd thus,
"This ring the Bridegroom did for none provide,
But for his bride."
Posts
And gravely glancing at Mr. Darcy, "There is a fine old saying, which everybody here is of course familiar with: 'Keep your breath to cool your porridge'; and I shall keep mine to swell my song."
ReplyDeleteThose of us that recognize that saying "Keep your breath to cool your porridge" probably have Lizzy Bennet (from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice) to thank.