fortunes of war...golden chain

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jul 7 19:39:28 UTC 2006


Wasn't the lamb the insigne (at the time that I learned to read,
people still distinguished between the singular insigne [In sIg ni]
and the plural insignia) of the Golden Fleece?

-Wilson

On 7/7/06, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: fortunes of war...golden chain
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> As a guess: the golden chain would be worn about the neck as a sign of
> honor.  Didn't the Order of the Garter include a figure -- a lamb? --
> worn about the neck on a thick golden chain?  Don't know who paid for
> the chain, though.  A more satisfactory honor if the king picked up
> the tab.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
> Date: Tuesday, July 4, 2006 6:17 pm
> Subject: fortunes of war...golden chain
>
> > Can anyone tell me what the 'golden chain' is in:
> >
> > "The fortunes of war
> > I'll tell you plain
> > are a wooden leg
> > or a golden chain"
> >
> > ?
> >
> > Ta,
> > Lynne
> >
> >
> > Dr M Lynne Murphy
> > Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
> > Arts B133
> > University of Sussex
> > Brighton BN1 9QN
> >
> > phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
> > http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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