Author:
Susan
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Date Posted: 23:57:15 11/29/06 Wed
I've added the quote to the "Great Lines" page, thanks to Sue and contributor Spev ... along with a bit more of the scene, which I thought was cute. (In fact, it's one of my favorite episodes ... It's the one where RN makes that great facial expression--twice!--after realizing he's just invited Purity to live aboard the Faithful!)
Unfortunately, party-pooper that I am, I found two things technically wrong with that little exchange of dialogue, one literary, one historical: The one that really bothered me is that, not only is Long John suddenly cuddly and lovable with no trace of his scheming, self-serving, murdering side (OK, so he turned over a new leaf; that I can't complain about), but now he's suddenly lost a number of IQ points as well? According to Stevenson, LJS was well educated: "'He's no common man, Barbecue,' said the coxswain to me. 'He had good schooling in his young days and can speak like a book when so minded; and brave--a lion's nothing alongside of Long John! ...'" (His education is re-emphasized in Bjorn Larsson's totally ingenious "Long John Silver" pseudo-autobiography, which I can't recommend highly enough--for mature readers, that is.) The other thing is, was proper spelling really part of one's education at that time? Until Samuel Johnson published the first English dictionary in 1755, there was no standardized spelling. And that's probably right around the time Treasure Island takes place. (The actual "Golden Age of Piracy" in the Caribbean ended about 1724.) Would dictionaries have already been widely distributed and in popular use, especially all the way to (fictional) Caribbean islands, by that time? (Not to mention the fact that the word "excellent" was certainly in common use as far back as 1382! Then again, whether it was used in ships' logs to describe the weather, the OED doesn't say.)
One thing *was* historically accurate though: Like a real-life democratic pirate captain, Long John puts the spelling issue to a vote among the crew! :-
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