Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/253

 Gypsies: Webster once wrote the plural gypsies; (see his Essays'', p. 333;) and Johnson cites the following line:--

"I, near yon stile, three sallow gypsies met."--Gay.

OBS. 13.--Proper names in o are commonly made plural by s only. Yet there seems to be the same reason for inserting the e in these, as in other nouns of the same ending; namely, to prevent the o from acquiring a short sound. "I apprehend," says Churchill, "it has been from an erroneous notion of proper names being unchangeable, that some, feeling the necessity of obviating this mispronunciation, have put an apostrophe between the o and the s in the plural, in stead of an e; writing Cato's, Nero's; and on a similar principle, Ajax's, Venus's; thus using the possessive case singular for the nominative or objective plural. Harris says very properly, 'We have our Marks and our Antonies: Hermes, B. 2, Ch. 4; for which those would have given us Mark's and Antony's."--New Gram., p. 206. Whatever may have been the motive for it, such a use of the apostrophe is a gross impropriety. "In this quotation, ['From the Socrates's, the Plato's, and the Confucius's of the age,'] the proper names should have been pluralized like common nouns; thus, From the Socrateses, the Platoes, and the Confuciuses of the age."--Lennie's Gram., p. 126; Bullions's, 142.

OBS. 14.--The following are some examples of the plurals of proper names, which I submit to the judgement of the reader, in connexion with the foregoing observations: "The Romans had their plurals Marci and Antonii, as we in later days have our Marks and our Anthonies."--Harris's Hermes, p. 40. "There seems to be more reason for such plurals, as the Ptolemies, Scipios, Catos: or, to instance in more modern names, the Howards, Pelhams, and Montagues."--Ib., 40. "Near the family seat of the Montgomeries of Coil's-field."--Burns's Poems, Note, p. 7. "Tryphon, a surname of one of the Ptolemies."--Lempriere's Dict. "Sixteen of the Tuberos, with their wives and children, lived in a small house."--Ib. "What are the Jupiters and Junos of the heathens to such a God?"--Burgh's Dignity, i, 234. "Also when we speak of more than one person of the same name; as, the Henries, the Edwards."--Cobbetts E. Gram., ¶ 40. "She was descended from the Percies and the Stanleys."--Loves of the Poets, ii, 102. "Naples, or the Two Sicilies."--Balbi's Geog., p. 273. The word India, commonly makes the plural Indies, not Indias; and, for Ajaxes, the poets write Ajaces. But Richard Hiley says, "Proper nouns, when pluralized, follow the same rules as common nouns; as, Venus, the Venuses; Ajax, the Ajaxes; Cato, the Catoes; Henry, the Henries."--Hiley's E. Gram., p. 18.

"He ev'ry day from King to King can walk,   Of all our Harries, all our Edwards talk."--Pope's Satires, iv.

OBS. 15.--When a name and a title are to be used together in a plural sense, many persons are puzzled to determine whether the name, or the title, or both, should be in the plural form. For example--in speaking of two young ladies whose family name is Bell--whether to call them the ''Miss Bells, the Misses Bell, or the Misses Bells''. To an inquiry on this point, a learned editor, who prefers the last, lately gave his answer thus: "There are two young ladies; of course they are 'the Misses.' Their name is Bell; of course there are two 'Bells.' Ergo, the correct phrase, in speaking of them, is--'the Misses Bells.'"--''N. Y. Com. Adv''. This puts the words in apposition; and there is no question, that it is formally correct. But still it is less agreeable to the ear, less frequently heard, and less approved by grammarians, than the first phrase; which, if we may be allowed to assume that the two words may be taken together as a sort of compound, is correct also. Dr. Priestley says, "When a name has a title prefixed to it, as Doctor, Miss, Master, &c., the plural termination affects only the latter of the two words; as, 'The two Doctor Nettletons--'The two Miss Thomsons;' though a strict analogy would plead for the alteration of the former word, and lead us to say, 'The two Doctors Nettleton--'The two Misses Thomson.'"--Priestley's Gram., p. 59. The following quotations show the opinions of some other grammarians: "Two or more nouns in concordance, and forming one complex name, or a name and a title, have the plural termination annexed to the last only; as, 'The Miss Smiths--'The three Doctor Simpsons--'The two Master Wigginses.' With a few exceptions, and those not parallel to the examples just given, we almost uniformly, in complex names, confine the inflection to the last or the latter noun."--Dr. Crombie. The foregoing opinion from Crombie, is quoted and seconded by Maunder, who adds the following examples: "Thus, Dr. Watts: 'May there not be Sir Isaac Newtons in every science?'--'You must not suppose that the world is made up of Lady Aurora Granvilles.'"--Maunder's Gram., p. 2.

OBS. 16.--These writers do not seem to accord with W. L. Stone, the editor above quoted, nor would his reasoning apply well to several of their examples. Yet both opinions are right, if neither be carried too far. For when the words are in apposition, rather than in composition, the first name or title must be made plural, if it refers to more than one: as, "The Misses Bell and Brown,"--"Messrs. Lambert and Son,"--"The Lords Calthorpe and Erskine,"--"The Lords Bishops of Durham and St. David's,"--"The Knights Hospitalers,"--"The Knights Templars,"--"The Knights Baronets." But this does not prove the other construction, which varies the last word only, to be irregular; and, if it did, there is abundant authority for it. Nor is that which varies the first only, to be altogether condemned, though Dr. Priestley is unquestionably wrong respecting the "strict analogy" of which he speaks. The joining of a plural title to one singular noun, as, "Misses Roy,"--"The Misses Bell,"--"The two Misses Thomson," produces a phrase which is in itself the least analogous of the three; but, "The Misses Jane and Eliza Bell," is a phrase which nobody perhaps will undertake to amend. It appears, then, that each of these forms of expression