OR "I HAD RATHER STAY THAN TO GO WITH YOU” In Studies in English Syntax, written during my stay at the University of North Carolina, I had occasion to say of a certain idiom: "It has not, however, entirely fallen into disuse. It may be heard in 'I had rather stay than to go with you' and similar sentences." The point to be observed in this sentence is that "to" is, of course, omitted before "stay" but emerges before "go." In a review of Studies in English Syntax, published in Englische Studien, XXXVII, 217-220, Mr. C. T. Onions, author of An Advanced English Syntax and an active member of the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary, fell foul of my illustrative sentence and declared: "Such a sentence is possibly ordinary North-Carolinese, but it is not English." Mr. Onions, it will be observed, not only denies that "I had rather stay than to go with you" is good English but affirms with the utmost assurance that it is not English at all. As the idiom is Shakesperean and has not hitherto been listed in works on syntax, the following citations arranged alphabetically are submitted with the view not merely of vindicating what Mr. Onions is pleased to call "ordinary North-Carolinese" but of illustrating once more how unwise and how perilous it is even for a worker on the great Oxford English Dictionary to be unduly dogmatic or wantonly cocksure about a subject as difficult and as delicate as English syntax: Bible: “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness forever." (Psalms 84:10. No change is made in the Revised Version of 1884.) The Boy and the Mantle: "I had rather be in a wood, Under a greene tree, Then in King Arthur's court (This is ballad No. 29 in Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads and follows the Percy MS.) Bryan, Wm. J.: "I would rather have my name go down in history as a man who fought for clean politics than to have it registered on the roll of Presidents" (Washington Herald, April 10, 1911. "He added," continues the Herald, "that many parsons would rather keep silent on a certain subject than to run the risk of losing their pulpits"). Burke, Edmund: "I deceive myself indeed most grossly if I had not much rather pass the remainder of my life hidden in the recesses of the deepest obscurity .. than to be placed on the most splendid throne of the universe, tantalized with a denial of the practice of all which can make the greatest situation any other than the greatest curse" (Speech at the Guildhall, Bristol, Sept. 6, 1780). Cable, Geo. W.: "Seems to me as if some of these old Creoles would liever live in a crawfish hole than to have a neighbor" (Jeanah Poquelin). Caxton: "Rather he wold have deyed than to have falsed his feyth ayenst her" (Blanchardyn c. 1489, 122, 16). Collier, Price: "The sailors and the stokers would rather obey captain and officers, however they may have been chosen for them, than to be sunk at sea" (Germany and the Germans, 1913, p. 425). Cotton, Charles: "There is not a man amongst them who had not rather be killed and eaten than so much as to open his mouth" (Translation of Montaigne's Essays, 1700, p. 137). Dodd, Wm. E.: "Most thoughtful men would rather have written Rhodes' History of the American Civil War than to have been the president for life of the American steel trust" (South Atlantic Quarterly, April 1913, p. 119). Gismond of Salerne: "Rather I will consent unto my death than so to spend my dayes in pining woe" (1567, II, 2, 50). Goldsmith, Oliver: "Caesar was heard to say that he had rather die once by treason than to live continually in apprehension of it” (Roman History, 1769). Grady, Henry W.: "I had rather see my people render back this question rightly solved than to see them gather all the spoils over which faction has contended since Catiline conspired and Caesar fought" (The Race Problem in the South, delivered in Boston, Dec. 13, 1889). Hall, Bishop Joseph: "The Israelites had better have wanted their quailes than to have eaten them with such sauce" (Works, ed. 1648, p. 45). Harris, Joel Chandler: "Why, grandmother said she'd rather count the hairs on a tarrypin's back than to bother about the small things in a story" (Uncle Remus and the Little Boy, 1910, p. 53). |