"
Mrs. Piozzi's theory was that books should he written in the same
colloquial and idiomatic language which is employed by cultivated
persons in conversation, "Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;"
and vulgar she certainly was not, although she sometimes indulged her
fondness for familiarity too far. The period was unluckily chosen for
carrying such a theory into practice; for Johnson's authority had
discountenanced idiomatic writing, whilst many phrases and forms of
speech, which would not be endured now, were tolerated in polite
society.
The laws of spelling, too, were unfixed or vague, and those of
pronunciation, which more or less affect spelling, still more so.
"When," said Johnson, "I published the plan of my dictionary, Lord
Chesterfield told me that the word _great_ should be pronounced so as
to rhyme to _state_; and Sir William Yonge sent me word that it
should be pronounced so as to rhyme to _seat_, and that none but an
Irishman would pronounce it _grait_. Now here were two men of the
highest rank, one the best speaker in the House of Lords, the other
the best speaker in the House of Commons, differing entirely." Mrs.
Piozzi has written on the margin:--"Sir William was in the right."
Two well-known couplets of Pope imply similar changes:--
"Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged,
And so obliging that he ne'er obliged."
* * * * *
"Here thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea.
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