‘Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth’ by JMW Turner (1775-1851). Half-seas-over means ‘merry on alcohol’. Ernest Weekley in his Etymological Dictionary Of Modern English (1921) traced it to a Sixteenth century idiom for ‘halfway across the sea’. A popular Victorian song made it equivalent to the French terms ‘juste milieu’ and ‘entre deux vins’, and recommended it as the ideal state for courtship.
Introduction
George Fordyce (1736-1802), an eminent Scottish physician on the staff at St Thomas’s Hospital in London, did not often make house calls — not, at any rate, twice at the same address. But Samuel Rogers, a friend of Byron, recalled one occasion when luck was very much on his side.
DOCTOR Fordyce sometimes drank a good deal at dinner.* He was summoned one evening to see a lady patient, when he was more than half-seas-over,* and conscious that he was so. Feeling her pulse, and finding himself unable to count its beats, he muttered, “Drunk, by God!”
Next morning, recollecting the circumstance, he was greatly vexed: and just as he was thinking what explanation of his behaviour he should offer to the lady, a letter from her was put into his hand. “She too well knew,” said the letter, “that he had discovered the unfortunate condition in which she was when he last visited her; and she entreated him to keep the matter secret in consideration of the enclosed (a hundred-pound bank-note).”*
From ‘Table Talk of Samuel Rogers’ by Samuel Rogers (1763-1855).
George Fordyce was a very eminent medical man, a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians who was elected in 1770 as a physician to St Thomas’s Hospital, and who lectured in medicine for thirty years. But as one writer put it in The Georgian Era’ (ed. William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie), “Notwithstanding the acknowledged talent of Dr Fordyce, he had but little private practice as a physician; neither his manners being so refined, nor his dress so becoming, as to make a patient desire a repetition of his visits.” He had too often stayed up all night drinking, and gone to work in yesterday’s clothes.
A now dated euphemism for being merry on alcohol, but no more. For a Victorian song all about it, see ‘Songs and Verses, Social and Scientific’ (1869). One verse is excerpted at ‘17 of the Finest Words for Drinking’ (Merriam-Webster).
A very considerable sum of money. In the mid 1790s, a farm labourer in Lancashire (where wages were relatively good) might get about 10s a week, or £26 a year. See Men, Women and Property in England (2009) by R. J. Morris, p. 41. The anecdote throws an unflattering light on the different and unequal standards expected of men and women in Georgian society.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Précis
Samuel Rogers recalled how eminent Dr Fordyce had been called out to a lady patient, and during the examination had muttered ‘Drunk’ to himself reprovingly. Next day he decided he must apologise, but at that moment he received a note from his patient, saying she had heard him diagnose her real condition, and offering a hundred pounds for his silence. (60 / 60 words)
Samuel Rogers recalled how eminent Dr Fordyce had been called out to a lady patient, and during the examination had muttered ‘Drunk’ to himself reprovingly. Next day he decided he must apologise, but at that moment he received a note from his patient, saying she had heard him diagnose her real condition, and offering a hundred pounds for his silence.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, if, may, not, otherwise, whether, who.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Enclose. Into. Put.
2 Good. Hand. Hundred.
3 Half. Himself. See.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Verb and Noun Find in Think and Speak
Many words can serve as noun or verb depending on context: see if you can prove this with the examples below. Nouns go well with words such as the/a, or his/her; verbs go well after I/you/he etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Keep. 2 Offer. 3 Doctor. 4 Deal. 5 Count. 6 Drink. 7 Beat. 8 Pound. 9 Note.
Variations: 1.if possible, use your noun in the plural, e.g. cat → cats. 2.use your verb in a past form, e.g. go → went. 3.use your noun in a sentence with one of these words: any, enough, fewer, less, no, some.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
sprng (6)
aspiring. sparing. spearing. sprang. spring. sprung.
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