Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/295

Rh marks they can; their readers may be gratified by seeing how well read the author is, or may think quotation marks decorative. The following examples start with the least justifiable uses, and stop at the point where quotation marks become more or less necessary.

John Smith, Esq., 'Chatsworth', Melton Road, Leamington.

The implication seems to be: living in the house that sensible people call 164 Melton Road, but one fool likes to call Chatsworth.

How is it that during the year in which that scheme has been, so to speak, 'in the pillory', no alternative has, at any rate, been made public?–Times.

Every metaphor ought to be treated as a quotation, if in the pillory is to be. Here, moreover, quotation marks are a practical tautology, after so to speak.

Robert Brown and William Marshall, convicted of robbery with violence, were sentenced respectively to five years' penal servitude and eighteen strokes with the 'cat', and seven years' penal servitude.–Times.

There is by this time no danger whatever of confusion with the cat of one tail.

...not forgetful of how soon 'things Japanese' would be things of the past for her.–.

This may be called the propitiatory use, analogous in print to the tentative air with which, in conversation, the Englishman not sure of his pronunciation offers a French word. So trifling a phrase is not worth using at the cost of quotation marks. If it could pass without, well and good.