PASSING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23801, 6 May 1939, Page 6

PASSING NOTES

In the welter of recent international cable news—surging from German autumn manceuvres in the Atlantic to Russian manceuvres in the Baltic, from German warships hovering about Ceuta to the threat of German sabotage in South-west Africa, from Italy seeking " appeasement " to the march of a million civil workers in Moscow—" confusion umpire sits." But here and there certain shapes emerge from the mist. Whether they be facts or mere speculations depends on the authenticity of the reports. Clear it is, first of all, that many things have been happening about which you and I know nothing. A lively game is roaring inside the enclosure, and we stand outside, content perforce to see the ball rise now and then in the air. In such a case the outsider sees nothing of the game But beyond all doubt the efficient in.elligence services of the democratic nations found some dirty work proceeding at the crossroads. Solid reasons must have inspired American military officials in Washington to declare on April 8 that a general world war would break out within a week Only adequate grounds would make Munich-minded Mr Chamberlain contract a defensive and offensive alliance with Poland, and extend British guarantees to Greece and Rumania. No mere shadowy possibility of trouble would have made President Roosevelt discharge his 30-odd airy barbs at aggressive barbarians. Or would have brought Soviet Russia back from Asia to join once more the European family, and to halt the totalitarians in their whooping progress.

A cloud no bigger than a woman's hand has arisen on the Government horizon in Christchurch. In other words, a light radiated last Monday from the Radiant Hall in that city. The cloud may portend a storm, and the radiant light may turn to fierce heat. No fewer than 400 city and country women met to protest against the Social Security imposts. Not only did they protest, but a motion was carried by a big majority that "we will not pay the tax" And, further: A woman: " Who will you put in the place of the Government? " Mrs : "We may put In a women's Government. This Is the beginning of the new Government. The sooner we get it the better. That is what we are going to work for. When the next session comes we will have a new Government and a new Premier."

Now, the common sayings about women are all man-made, and therefore wrong. It is said that women are the weaker sex. But unity would give each woman the strength of ten. According to O. Henry, women are the hydrogen derivatives. But hydrogen burns, and can start a fire. Byron in his " Don Juan " says, as, of course, he would:

There is a tide in the affairs of men Which taken at the flood leads—

God knows where Which can only mean that women in their aims are in contact with divinity. "Hudibras " Butler puts the situation more adequately:

Women, you know, do seldom fail, To make the stoutest man turn taU. Clever, therefore, was the synchronisation of this Radiant protest meeting with the departure of Mr Nash for Europe. World-wide is the proverb, "Where there's a will three's a way." But in a modern world it should read, " Man has his will, but woman has her way."

An up-to-date definition of a " gentleman " might be " the man who does not do on four wheels what he would scorn to do on two feet." Condemnatory of the whole provincp of Otago, therefore, were the comments of a recent visitor to this city who remarked on th«* bad manners of the Otago. motorists who do not dim their lights, and on the evident inferiority complex of those who resent being passed by an overtaking car. Familiar, of course, is the arrogance produced by an inferiority complex. If an inferiority complex be a characteristic of the motorist himself, it produces the arrogance of youth. If it be due to the car, it leads to the arrogance of old age. But no such inferiority complex can be assigned to the undimmed headlight. No inferiority complex had Diogenes, sitting in his tub, when he said so rudely to Alexander the Great, "Get out of my light." No reason but that of sheer insensibility to the claims of road courtesies can be attributed to these Diogenes of the highway who order us about like the -highwaymen of olden time. The light shineth, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. To remind such men of their duty, the victim motorist might make a couple of protesting toots with his horn. But the man so heedless of the comfort of his fellow motorists would not care two hoots for these two hoots. Even Herr Hitler, teetolalitarian though he is, would not brush us so rudely aside from the highway we pay to maintain.

/Vccording to one of those medical men who write intelligibly for laymen, there is no high blood-prus&ure among the Chinese. He writes:

Although high blood-pressure is extremely common in Europe and America, it is by contrast unknown in China. This striking discovery has interested the medical profession ve*-y much, and many theories have been proposed to explain it. Some have sought to explain it by the climate. But this explanation is not very plausible, since the United States has all the variatior in cli..iate en joyed by China, ;'et we have high blood-pressure from Boston to San Francisco, and from Duluth to New Orleans.

No medical theory so far advanced can account for the phenomenon. Diet does not explain i*, says our medical friend. Millions of halfstarving Chinese have no high bloodpressure, while Chinamen who eat abundantly and thereby " achieve ample proportions." do not have it either. Again, Chinamen live mostly on a vegetarian diet. But the blubber-eating Eskimo maintains a normal blood-pressure on nothing but meat Since the medical men are thus gravelled, a layman is free to try his hand—by the logical method of " differences." For the much sought-after cause of nigh blood-pressure lies somewhere concealed in the difference between the Chinaman and the European Is it European overwork? Tell me of a European who works half as hard as a Chinaman. Is it religious belief? The Chinaman worships his " ancestors," but the European worships his " ancestry." We have thus no explanation why Sir Marmaduke's blood-pressure is high, and Ah Sing's isn't. "The Heathen Chinese is peculiar." Yet everyone of us knows some highlyblooded European to whom both adjectives apply. The European has his income tax, to be sure. But as for ages the Chinaman has had his brigands and bandits, an even balance is shown here also. The secret after all must be in temperament. Be a Chinaman, and keep your blood-pressure right.

A London weekly is publishing a series of articles by Mr Porohovshikov, formerly a High Court judge in Russia, and now Professor of History in Oglethorpe University, Oregon, reporting new researches on an old theme. He is convinced that the author of Shakespeare's plays was Roger Manners, Earl of Rutland. Half a dozen years ago was published a work, called by London reviewers "a good detective story," to prove that William Shakespeare was Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford. Nothing new was there in this. An American, Mr J. T. Looney, had already tried to persuade us that Shakespeare was the pseudonym of "the Lord High Chamberlain of Queen Elizabeth, the brilliant but frivolous Edward de Vere, Viscount Bulbeck, Lord of the Scales, seventeenth Earl of Oxford." This "Oxford Movement" is now gone the way of the Baconian. Or if it be not dead, at any rate it is sleeping. Asleep also has been the Rutland theory, which has for long been favoured by German and Belgian and other Continental writers. The more we have of these various Shakespeares the better, for they will share the fate of the Kilkenny cats. The old Baconians are now hanging on by the skin of their teeth, and the American Raleighites have aimed many a blow at them. A Frenchman supports the candidature of William Stanley, sixth Earl of Derby. In fact, the whole of Elizabeth's Court is now in the squabble. The latest Rudlandite, Professor Porohovshikov makes a new distinction between Shakespeare and Shakspeare:

We have many contemporary references to William Shakespere. sometimes called Shakespeare, and to William Shake-speare, sometimes also called Shakespeare. But in two instances.only is the actor Shakspere identified with the ooet Shakespeare. . . .

An argument based on the various spellings of Shakespeare's name will surely leak like a sieve. No writer with a knowledge of English philology would place a moment's trust in it. As late as the latter half of the 17th century, the learned Dr Crown, with several books to his credit, inscribes his name variously on the title pages as Cron, Croon, Croun. Crone. Croone. Croune. Rural parish registers all over England show surnames spelt in a multitude of ways. Dugdale the Antiquary is said to have found more than 130 variants of the single name of Mainwarlng among the parchments of that family. Bardsley quotes, under the name Blenkinsop:

On April 23. 1470, Elisabeth Blynkkynesoppye, of Blynkkynsoppe. widow of Thomas Blynkyensope, of Blynkkensope. received a general pardon.

In a list of foreign protestants and aliens in England (1618) we have "Adrian Medlor. and Ellin Medler his wife. Johan Cosen and Abrahain Cozen, brethren." The death of Sarah Inward, daughter of Hichard Inwood, stands in a register of 1685. Other arguments in favour of the Rutland authorship of Shakespeare will need to be stronger than one based on the spelling of Shakespeare's name.

Pronunciation is, of course, more interesting than spelling, as a flower on a stem is more interesting than the stem itself. And since the world is passing into an age of the spoken word, we mav attach to pronunciation a more and more important olace in the structure of the language. Some pronunciations have emerged from the hurly-burly of the week. The first is "Braemar. Growing up in Dunedin in the barbarous pronunciation of the name with the accent on the first syllable Since "brae" is a common noun meaning "slope" or " hillside," the essential part of the name is "Mar. We say Mount Cook, Port Chalmers, Port Molyneux, always with the accent on the second part of the compound. So "Braemar" let it be—with the. accent on " Mar." The second word is " hegemony "—that state which Mussolini and Hitler charge Britain with usurping, and to which they themselves are aspiring. Professor Daniel Jones, with his usual catholicity gives in order of prevalence and preference "hegemony" ("g" as in get, accent on second syllable), "hegemony" (" g as in " rage," accent on first syllable). The Oxford Dictionary pronounces the " e " in either way, and accents either the first syllable or the second. The Concise Oxford is equally quadrilateral. Lastly, "Roosevelt" is pronounced by the President himself and by his intimate associates Rosevelt (in three syllables), and that's the end on't. Civis.