Puritan euphemisms

[Jonathan Lighter]

The first play written by an American was apparently William Darby's "Ye
Bare and ye Cubb" (1665).  There were a few others later.  Thomas Godfrey's
"The Prince of Parthia" (1767) was the first to be professionally produced.


The best known early American play is Royall Tyler's comedy "The Contrast"
(1787). It contains some dialect, but - as linguistic history decrees - its
snappy colloquialisms (if any) now seem boring, stilted, and amateurishly
employed.

Romantic writers like Hawthorne rarely tried to replicate actual speech
except for its presumed comic effect. (Cooper's Tom Coffin in "The Pilot"
(1823) is a good example: in a real way, language alone "speaks" such
characters.) The neo-Classicists of the 18th C. tried to sound sober and
precise, while`the Romantics strove for emotion linked to form.  Why write
like people talk? That would just be silly, and probably injurious to the
language of tomorrow.

JL

On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 12:49 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Puritan euphemisms
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I wasn't thinking of American literature as distinct from British
> literature in earlier times--though, of course, American speech had already
> begun to differentiate itself.  But any verbal behavior specifically
> identifiable as "puritan" would perhaps have been similar on both sides of
> the pond.
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Baker, John [JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 12:29 PM
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> But when did Americans start writing plays?  If before about 1830, I don't
> think it was vastly before.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Charles C Doyle
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 10:49 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Puritan euphemisms
>
> Though printed versions of plays often do preserve somebody's (artistic)
> impression of colloquial speech.
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 10:41 AM
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > I haven't studied colloquial, secular writing, but I suspect there wasn't
> much before -- when? the 3rd quarter of the 18th century?
>
> My impression is that colloquial writing was very rare in America before ca
> 1830. It was given a boost by an outbreak of relatively informal, often
> humorous writing in papers like  The Spirit of the Times__.
>
> What this seems to mean is that everyday conversation in the 18th C. must
> have sounded far more "modern" in certain ways [note weaseling] than the
> written record might suggest
>
> (Of course that's always the case.)
>
> JL
>
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