"ROTTEN."

Northern Advocate, 27 August 1913, Page 6

"ROTTEN."

OUR CLIPPED VOCABULARY. Sir George Alexander, the wellknown actor, visited the City of London School recently, and distributed the Beaufoy and Mortimer prizes for the encouragement of the study of the works of Shakespeare and for proficiency in the English language. He said that, although he was not a City of London schoolboy, he was a City of London boy. His thoughts went hack to the days when he came from a Scottish high school, with half-a-crown in his pocket and a strong Scottish accent. He entered the house of Leafe, silk merchants, and for three years lived within a stone's throw of the then site of the City of London School. On one occasion, one of the heads of department objected to him rehearsing " Romeo and Juliet " among the I merinoes.

Sir George spoke of the value of recitation, and the study of Shakespeare, and said that, quite apart from the intellectual benefit one received, such study would do much to cure what was a real reproach to modern England. Nothing was more appalling to one who studied the glories of our language than the increasingly slipshod way in which it was used by the majority of people nowadays. A splendid vocabulary was narrowed down almost to the number of words used ,by savage tribes, the beautiful music of the words was too often marred by slovenly clipping and slurring. Some stupid piece of slang was used to express a dozen meanings. He was no enemy of slang, expressive, virile slang- used in the right way, but when slang was merely the lazy substitute for choosing the appropriate words, it was rotten — (laughter)—using " rotten " in the appropriate sense.