Smollett's Manipulation of Language in the Tabitha Bramble and Winifred Jenkins Letters in Humphry Clinker

SMOLLETT'S MANIPULATION OF LANGUAGE IN THE TABITHA BRAMBLE AND WINIFRED JENKINS LETTERS IN HUMPHRY CLINKER by Jane Flick B.A., University of British Columbia, 1971 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard The University of British Columbia October, 1975 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my writ ten pe rm i ss i on . Department of English The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Date in OrtnhPr 1Q75 ABSTRACT In this work I intend to explain and illustrate the simple and systematic language processes used by Smollett (in both simple and complex examples) and discuss the results he achieves. I intend to show that Smollett was extremely observant of normal variations in the language used around him and of linguistic variation governed by such parameters as region, social status, educational level, sex, or age and, that he used this variety for the purpose of satire and straight• forward humour, often producing puns, many of which have sexual and scatalogical double-entendres. Further, it is my contention that Smollett, far from confusing the reader with original and arbitrary processes, exploits normal systematic processes-of- natural language to the fullest extent. I do not mean this to be taken as implying that he lacked originality or creativity but rather that he had the ability to perceive that normal human language has almost unlimited potential for his particular purposes, hitherto almost unexploited in this manner. Also, he had the ability to carry out the extremely difficult task of opening this variety of language to the printed page in such a way that the reader could share his appreciation. An understanding of Smollett's manipulation of language will enable the reader to peruse the passages under discussion with more ease 11 and satisfaction, and also with more accuracy than will be obtained from reading some of the published explanations, ingenious though they may be. It is my intention to provide the reader with the means to decipher words in the text which might seem puzzling so that he may enjoy the word play and the social allusions made through the language, just as an attentive reader might have done in the late eighteenth century. This study is confined to an investigation of language processes applied to lexical items; no attention is given to syntax or grammar although even the casual reader will be aware of departures from standard grammatical practices, especially in Win's letters. Win's substandard grammar, like her misspellings, contributes heavily to Smollett's characterization of her. The words dealt with in this study are those which deviate markedly from the standards of eighteenth century spelling and which, in the milieu of spelling reform, would strike the reader as substandard or vulgar, much in the same way that a cultivated reader of the twentieth century, schooled in prescriptive grammar, would instantly notice the use of double negatives such as "he didn't never." An examination of Win's and Tabitha's misspellings reveals which are merely orthographic departures from the conventional representation of spoken English and which are indicators of phonological or pronunciation variants. Purely orthographic errors suggest the writer's inferior education and, often closely allied, an inferior social position. When Lady Wentworth writes "All my fyer syde is in good health" or refers to "the Duke of Molberry," we can understand from her phonetic spellings of fireside and Marlborough that she speaks a standard dialect but does not spell according to standard. But, when we encounter "Mr. Coshgrave, the fashioner in Shuffolk-street, tuck me out, and made me his own shecretary" (p. 211), we are to understand a distinctly different pronunciation of Cosgrave, Suffolk, took, and secretary. The indication of a variant pronunciation might lead the reader to search out the regional and social dialects in which such variants occur to discover what possible implications the writer wishes to make by recording these pronunciations. Pronunciation may also be indicated not by reported speech but by a seemingly naive form of phonetic transcription -- a rather artful means of characterization This study, then, will focus on misspellings merely as misspellings and on misspellings as indicators of pronunciation. CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Orthography 19 Background to eighteenth century spelling 19 u/o_ spelling variations 30 Aspiration: h/h-less spellings 36 Alternate spellings for unstressed syllables 40 Word approximations 41 Foreign words, loan words, folk etymology, proper names Homonym spellings 56 Eye Dialect 62 Misdivision of articles 73 III. Pronunciation 77 Background to eighteenth century phonology 77 Clipping 84 Metathesis 86 Dissimilation: r/1 confusion 88 Assimilation 90 Consonant cluster simplification 92 Excrescent L~d] or Ct] 94 Loss of OH: vocalization 95 Loss of [w]: vocalization 96 Intrusive Cr3 97 Inserted r. to represent [cQ 97 Aspiration: addition and omission of Ch] 98 Interchange of Cv] for [w]; [w] for Cv] 102 Substitution of [vr] for [wr] 104 Voicing and Devoid'ng 105 Devoicing 105 Voicing 111 Substitution of [f] for [hw] 113 Substitution of [?] for Cs] 113 Substitution of [s] for [£] and [s] for [sH 115 Substitution of [s] for Cs] 115 Substitition of [k] for [t]; [f] for C©], 116 G£U and [t] for 10} - iv - Vowel Changes 117 Intrusive schwa 121 Substitution of [ar] for [ar] 123 Raising of [£] to [x] 126 Raising of a&] to [fe] 128 Lowering of [fi] to [«] 129 Lengthening of Co] indicated by ou spelling 130 Unrounding of [v] [O] 130 Miscellaneous vowel changes 131 IV. Conclusion 134 Footnotes 141 Bib!iography 164 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to acknowledge my great indebtedness to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Patricia M. Wolfe, who has been extraordinarily generous with her time and her advice. I am especially grateful for her suggestions for the organization of the thesis material. - vi - I INTRODUCTION When The Expedition of Humphry Clinker was published in June of 1771, only three months before Smollett's death, the novel must have surprised those readers who were expecting another Roderick Random (1748) or Peregrine Pickle (1751) from his pen. Smollett's earlier novels focus upon one character in each and take their titles from their heroes. Humphry Clinker can hardly be said to focus on one character and certainly not upon the titular hero, Humphry, a character picked up incidentally in the narrative. Humphry Clinker is a novel peopled with some well-developed characters but it is a novel without a hero, at least without a hero who might meet the expectations of the eighteenth century reader and very specifically a reader of Smollett's novels expecting a hero in the line of Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Ferdinand Count Fathom or Sir Launcelot Greaves. Smollett's earlier novels were very much a part of the picaresque tradition, a phenomenon which is not surprising in light of the great popularity which the genre enjoyed in the period. Smollett had translated and published Le Sages' Gil Bias in 1748 just prior to the publication of Roderick Random and had begun work on a translation of Cervantes' Don Quixote in the same year. That there was a demand for picaresque - 1 - 2 literature is attested to by the several editions of Don Quixote in print at the time (and the preparation of yet another by Smollett), by the popularity of Smollett's own novels and, of course, by the even greater popularity of Fielding's novels. Joseph Andrews (1742), which bore on its original title page "The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams, written in Imitation of the Manner of Cervantes' Don Quixote," leaves no doubt about this appeal, nor do Jonathan Wild (1743), and Tom Jones (1749), the definitive novel of this type in English. Smollett's readers, who might reasonably have anticipated a new picaresque romp, must have been startled to find instead an epistolary novel -- but an epistolary novel with some differences. The immense success of the epistolary novel had been established by Richardson's novels, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa (1747-8), and Sir Charles Grandison (1753-4). Pamela inspired no less than sixteen imitations and burlesques (including Fielding's Shamela) and Clarissa has secured for itself the pre-eminent place as the definitive epistolary English novel. Humphry Clinker is not a novel in the tradition of Richardson -- it lacks the complexity of psychological insight and the intensity generated by a correspondence which has essentially one subject for a focus. Humphry Clinker has for its formal structure the epistolary framework, but it is a novel of mixed genres. It is an adventure novel and a travel book in an epistolary package, calculated through its make-up to attract a wide audience. The travel book aspect of Humphry Clinker capitalizes on the vogue for travel literature -- a vogue which Smollett pays service to in the 3 prefatory letter of Henry Davis, Bookseller, in response to the Reverend Jonathan Dustwich's atteir.pt to sell the Humphry Clinker letters. Mr. Davis writes: The taste of the town is so changeable. Then there have been so many letters upon travels lately published -- What between Smollett's, Sharp's, Derrick's, Thickness's, Baltimore's and Barretti's, together with Shandy's Sentimental Travels, the public seems to be cloyed with that kind of entertainment -- Nevertheless, I will, if you please, run the risque of printing and publishing, and you shall have half the profits of the impression .

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