Oh, one more pedantic nitpicky thing about Merry Wives. . .

[xiphias]

This is something of a pet peeve.

The word "doth" is pronounced "duth." It's the same word as "does", except that the "s" is pronounced as "th". You just pronounce it as if you were saying "does" but with a lisp.

This was beaten in to me, figuratively, when I was fourteen, by Ms. McCarthy of Arlington High School -- a holy terror of an English teacher, who didn't LITERALLY beat these facts into us, even though she was an ex-nun, because, as it was a public school, she wasn't allowed to whack us with rulers. Ms. McCarthy was one of the teachers I most hated in school, and respect most now -- I respected her then, too. She's the one that was claiming that "Merchant of Venice" wasn't anti-Semitic, and required us to write a term paper demonstrating that. I wrote a paper, with pages of endnotes and an appendix, showing that there was absolutely no way that Shakespeare COULDN'T have been anti-Semitic, and that OF COURSE the play was anti-Semitic.

This, of course, was a total defiance of what the teacher instructed us to do, and I was prepared to get an "F" on it.

Final page comment was "Excellent paper, well researched, well written, I disagree with everything you say, A-." The minus was for a couple typos and a subject-verb disagreement. Which were examples of TOTAL carelessness on my part, and she would have been well within her rights to knock it down to a B+ or even a B for that kind of sloppiness.

Anyway, in tribute to a hated English teacher whom I quite love, I pass along this pet peeve: it's pronounced "duth".

Comments

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

If you're still interested in The Merchant of Venice and anti-Semitism, _Shylock_ by Gross is a very cool book about them.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Final page comment was "Excellent paper, well researched, well written, I disagree with everything you say, A-."

That's the kind of instructor I hope to be someday. Really a whole lot hope to be.

Wonderful story!!!

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

It's odd, though. I've always pronounced "doth" that way. It may be because I grew up with two older sisters who were theatre nuts and who used to bring home LPs (yes it was that long ago) of Shakespeare and other plays from the library. We also used to go see various productions whenever possible. I never though of pronouncing the word any other way.

[marquisedea.livejournal.com]

oh cool, I didn't know that. thanks! now I more learned.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

I remember your English teacher, the struggles you had with her, and the respect I had for the way she handled the paper of which you write. You learned a lot from her. I'm sure that your love of the English language, reading, and Shakespeare were fired up in her class.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I love stories like that. She sounds like a great teacher.