Subject
Re: CHW to various
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Date
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On 5/11/06 18:33, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
>
> CHW: "Brevity is the soul of wit. Nevertheless Oscar Williams' jeu d'esprit
> might be clarified by inserting an extra stanza between I. and II. As
> follows:Thy eye I eyed. [Thanks Will --- sonnet 104. Incidentally, does the
> idea that "Will" was an Eizabethan euphemism for penis, as asserted by someone
> a few postings ago, have any solid foundation? I haven't checked Partridge,
> but it sheds new light on Schopenhauer.]
> The information was S K-B's, but Schopenhauer was not another Will so... is
> the name Arthur also used euphemistically?
>
> JM/CHW: I picked up the Elizabethan Will¹ as penis directly from a lecture
> by A L Rowse some 40 years ago. He had just announced his identification¹ of
> the sonnets¹ Dark Lady. She was Emilia married to a musician in Shakespeare¹s
> theatre company. He was also a William (sorry I¹ve forgotten the surnames).
> Rowse found her in some recently uncovered diaries described as very browne
> in youth.¹ All very exciting and controversial! Emilia even published sonnets
> of her own, as I recall. Anyroad, Rowse cited the so-called Will sonnet¹
> where the bard writes that his lover (Emilia) ³ ... hath Will ... and Will in
> overplus² meaning she was, to use a Scouse idiom, as happy as a dog with two
> dicks.
> Jansy subsequently asked if Will as penis¹ could be connected with the slang
> Willie?¹ It¹s plausible but more likely just one of those coincidences that
> confound the etymologists. As I mentioned earlier, almost ANY noun can emerge
> euphemistically as the one-eyed snake!²
> Stan Kelly-Bootle
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>
> CHW: "Brevity is the soul of wit. Nevertheless Oscar Williams' jeu d'esprit
> might be clarified by inserting an extra stanza between I. and II. As
> follows:Thy eye I eyed. [Thanks Will --- sonnet 104. Incidentally, does the
> idea that "Will" was an Eizabethan euphemism for penis, as asserted by someone
> a few postings ago, have any solid foundation? I haven't checked Partridge,
> but it sheds new light on Schopenhauer.]
> The information was S K-B's, but Schopenhauer was not another Will so... is
> the name Arthur also used euphemistically?
>
> JM/CHW: I picked up the Elizabethan Will¹ as penis directly from a lecture
> by A L Rowse some 40 years ago. He had just announced his identification¹ of
> the sonnets¹ Dark Lady. She was Emilia married to a musician in Shakespeare¹s
> theatre company. He was also a William (sorry I¹ve forgotten the surnames).
> Rowse found her in some recently uncovered diaries described as very browne
> in youth.¹ All very exciting and controversial! Emilia even published sonnets
> of her own, as I recall. Anyroad, Rowse cited the so-called Will sonnet¹
> where the bard writes that his lover (Emilia) ³ ... hath Will ... and Will in
> overplus² meaning she was, to use a Scouse idiom, as happy as a dog with two
> dicks.
> Jansy subsequently asked if Will as penis¹ could be connected with the slang
> Willie?¹ It¹s plausible but more likely just one of those coincidences that
> confound the etymologists. As I mentioned earlier, almost ANY noun can emerge
> euphemistically as the one-eyed snake!²
> Stan Kelly-Bootle
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
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