Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/435

 ii s. xii. NOV. 27, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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TITE SPLIT INFINITIVE (US. xii. 198, 251, 310, 350, 385). No one would wish to oppose SIB HERBERT MAXWELL, from whose works we have all derived so much pleasure and instruction, but in reply to his statement that I " recognize no distinction between compound verbs and simple ones " I would urge that the so-called '' split infinitives " are themselves in most cases merely com- pound verbs. Thus " to carefully con- sider," " to thoroughly master," " to gently smile," and " to kindly allow " are in truth and reality compound verbs just the same as are " to case-harden " or " to re-consider." In the indicative mood we say " I carefully consider," " thou carefully considerest," " he carefully considers "; and in the imperative we say, " Carefully consider! " and in the infinitive, " to carefully consider.'

^Nor can the infinitive mood of such compound verbs be strictly regarded as either contrary to " good usage " or "in- elegant," for Herrick's line

To gently blush and smile

would certainly not be more elegant if it were written

To blush gently and smile,

while the poetry and rhythm would have disappeared.

Moreover, Matthew Arnold's words,

The will to neither strive nor cry, have a grace and grandeur of diction which would be entirely lost if altered to " neither to strive nor to cry." But that, of course, is not a case of a compound verb.

OXFORD GRADUATE.

Apropos of this discussion, the following, among other, writers of the present day use the split infinitive :

1. A. E. W. Mason, 'Courtship of Morrice Buck- ler,' " to therefore deprecate." P. 3.

2. Violet Jacob. The Interloper,' " to con- sistently entertain." P. 50.

3. Sir A. Conan Doyle, 'Round the Fire,' "to carefully keep it." P. 312.

4. W. Pett Ridge, in Thanks to Saunderson.'

5. Arnold Bennett, * The Price of Love,' " she had never been able to quite lose it." P. 88.

^6. W. H. Fitchett, in 'How England saved Europe.'

7. H. E. Childers, ' The Riddle of the Sands,' " to "blithely accept," " to fastidiously reject a clue." Pp. 217, 243

8. G. A. Birmingham, 'The Seething Pot,' "to seriously threaten." P. 146.

9. E. V. Lucas, in ' The Slow Coach.'

The last sentence in SIR HERBERT MAX- \VELL'S reply, ante, p. 385, contains what

seems to me a> correct statement of the case against the split infinitive.

PENRY LEWIS.

I am delighted to find there is another man who knows something of English literature to defend the split infinitive, which I have long known to ha\e existed, as he says, for the last four hundred years. There is really no more reason for not splitting the terms of the infinitive than for not splitting the tenses of any other mood, active or passive, as I have just done in the phrase " have long known," and am now doing in the phrases " have just done " and " am now doing." R. C. TEMPLE.

GEORGE III.'s INTEREST IN FARMING (11 S. xii. 381). The following is taken from R. Huish's ' Life of George III.,' 4to, London, 1821, p. 565 :

" [Hte Majesty] took particular pleasure in examining the manner in which the Wiltshire and Dorsetshire shepherds manage their flocks, and he was So well pleased with it, that he ordered Mr. Kent to apply to Mr. Davis of Worningsham, to procure a shepherd for his merino flock. The shepherd was a man from Brixton Deverill, of the name of William Daphne."

The shepherd's tenure of office was, however, of short duration, as when some sheep were missing from the royal flock he was accused of carelessness, if not of com- plicity, and dismissed. The king refused to prosecute, and the poor shepherd ex- claimed : " I will never cease to serve such a master. I can no longer do it with my crook, but I can with a musket," and forth- with joined the army.

I con Id give a few more details if CURIO- Box desires it, as William Daphne was my mother's grandfather. WM. H. PEET.

377). The parallel mentioned by your correspondent was pointed out long ago by Sir E. B. Tylor in ' Primitive Culture' (vol. ii. p. 86). This Aramaic nursery rime is of very great interest, and any one who cares to pursue the subject should consult Kohut's article, * Le JE/ad Gadya et les Chansons Similaires,' in the Revue des Etudes Juives, vol. xxxi. pp. 240-6. But this Jewish tale is not (as Sir E. B. Tylor thought) the source of * This is the House that Jack Built ' or of ' The Old Woman and her Pig.' There are parallel tales in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Hungarian, Serb, Romaic, Persian, Sanskrit, and in several African languages. See Chambers' s
 * THE BOUSE THAT JACK BUILT '(US. xii.