[Ads-l] Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba

[Laurence Horn]

Or, avoiding the ampersand, retaining Taylor's archaic spelling, and taking advantage of the work by Crick & Watson with which he was unfamiliar,

LEWD DID I LIVE AND DNA-EVIL I DID DWEL

Still arguably not as elegant as
 
Doc, note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.

—unless we’re insisting that the words themselves as well as the letters satisfy palindromicity, which of course would also rule out "A man, a plan, a canal—Panama!”, not to mention the ur-palindrome “Madam, I’m Adam”.  

LH
 
> On Apr 6, 2021, at 4:23 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Classical Journal, 1819, p365 [HathiTrust] gives an earlier version, without the &, without the extra L, without the attribution to Taylor (who, or a contemporary, arguably, could have used the short spelling dwel):
> 
> Lewd I did live, evil did I dwel.
> 
> Stephen Goranson
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of James Eric Lawson <jel at NVENTURE.COM>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 6, 2021 2:38 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba
> 
> The "'water poet' Taylor" was John Taylor, died 1654 according to this
> account:
> 
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027615551&view=1up&seq=484&q1=water*20poet__;JQ!!OToaGQ!-u9b9w-iqKxA-E-I76T76YMi6C4LDR_SuQCRAb2P1HtF5ymeoM-rDosrPnaWyElN$
> 
> J.T.R. is a tougher nut to crack. My efforts bore no immediate fruit.
> 
> On 4/5/21 10:47 PM, Pete Morris wrote:
>> It's arguably the most famous palindrome in English. It is
>> certainly the first one I  ever heard. When my father introduced
>> me to the concept at a young age, this is the example he used.
>> 
>> According to wikiquote:  (Section on Napoleon)
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France*Misattributed__;Iw!!OToaGQ!-u9b9w-iqKxA-E-I76T76YMi6C4LDR_SuQCRAb2P1HtF5ymeoM-rDosrPiRu-yI_$
>> 
>> <<<         The earliest publication yet located of this famous  palindrome
>> is in the "Witty and Whimsical" section of The Saturday Reader, Vol. II,
>> No. 30 (31 March 1866), p. 64:
>> 
>>        It is said that Napoleon, when asked by Dr. O'Meara if he really
>> thought he could have invaded England at the time he  threatened to
>> do so, replied in the following ingenious anagram [sic]: — "Able was I
>> ere I saw Elba." The reader will Observe that it reads the same backward
>> or forward.
>>>>> 
>> 
>> Here's an earlier citation from July 8 1848, which credits the person
>> who may have created it, and another  ingenious example.
>> 
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tinyurl.com/fvu29s2d__;!!OToaGQ!-u9b9w-iqKxA-E-I76T76YMi6C4LDR_SuQCRAb2P1HtF5ymeoM-rDosrPr9AjgUD$
>> 
>> Their friend J.T.R. of Baltimore draws their attention to the following
>> created by the "Water poet Taylor",which had drawn considerable attention.
>> 
>> "Lewd did I live & evil I did dwell"    [shame about the extra l ]
>> 
>> J.T.R. responded with two of his own:
>> 
>> "Snug & raw was I ere I saw war & guns"
>> "Able was I ere I saw Elba"
>> 
>> The editors are slightly critical of his use of & instead of 'and', but
>> find his second effort to be near perfection.
>> 
>> Perhaps some further study of back issues might reveal the full names
>> of Taylor and J.T.R.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> --
> James Eric Lawson
> 
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> 
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