PEA TEE-BOOK EDITED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12269, 13 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

PEA TEE-BOOK EDITED.

WHIMSICAL PUNCTUATION OF THE

CHURCH RUBRIC. The Book'of Common Prayer, in the form approved in 1662, and which Pope Pius IV. offered to sanction if his supremacy were recognised in England, stood without material amendment for nearjy three and ahalf centuries.

Recently, as Church history counts time, it was decided to effect certain alterations with a view to uniformity in the printing of the Prayer-book, and now, nine years later, Parliament has asked for and obtained information as to why and by whom the re-editing was carried out. The stqry of the revision is told in a Parliamentary paper just issued. The round table conference was attended by Dr. Bartholomew Price and the Venerable Archdeacon Palmer, representing the Oxford University Press; Dr. Kirkpatrick, Professor J. Armitage Robinson, and Mr. W. Aldis Wright, on behalf of the Syndics of the Cambridge University, and by the Queen's printers. ' The delegates have shown considerable aversion to commas. These are deleted right and left. The effect in one instance is curious. For ages congregations nave sung or monotoned the third verse of Psalm 145 in this manner, "Great is the Lord, and marvellous, worthy to be praised." The excision of the comma after "marvellous" destroys the adjectival form of the word, and makes it a hopelessly obsolete adverb.

In the Litany the capital "P" is retained in "Father of Heaven," but in addressing the^ Deity as "Giver of life" a small initial "g' is substituted for the original capital The terminal "k" still adheres to public, "swore" remains "sware," and "choir" "quire." To " peny" the missing letter is supplied, but (j apprentice" is abbreviated to " prentice," which was a good word in Chaucer's day, but spelled with an "s." The ancient "N or M" is no more included in the marriage service. "N" stands without alternative. Thus "I, N take thee, N, to my wedded wife."