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The answers are the questions sir
The lady soothes the lion's paw
meek as a lamb he follows her
Wherever angels are
(Robin Williamson, 1967)
Chapter One
1. Introduction to HOWL, Allen Ginsberg. City Lights, San Francisco.
Return to Forked Tongue
2. Charles Swann. Noah Webster, The Language of Politics / The Politics
of Language. "Essays in Poetics", 1987 pp.l0-11
FT
3. Introduction to The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, pp.18-19.
FT
4. H Greenbough Smith, "Bierce's Devil's Dictionary", The Biblio, 4
(July 1924), reprinted in Critical Essays on Ambrose Bierce,
ed. Cathy Davdison, G K Hall a Co. 1982.
FT
5. Genesis, 2,20. Authorized King James Version. (OUP). Quotations
in the subsequent paragraph are from Genesis 3. On the
alternative etymology Simeon Potter has noted: "'Fowl', like Dutch
and German 'Vogel' denoted 'birds in general' as in Chaucer's
Parlement of Foules and biblical 'fowls of the air', and in
modern names of larger kinds of birds used with a qualifying
adjective, such as 'sea fowl', 'water fowl', and 'wild fowl'.
Otherwise, of course, 'fowl' normally means a domestic cock or
hen .. . " (Language in the Modern World, 1960, Penguin 1968,
p.108). If it is claimed there was a fowl up in Creation Satan
might therefore be justified in using stronger language!
FT
6. This pun is made at greater expense to truth than etymology, the
adder's bite seldom being fatal. In the example two meanings of
"adder' - a snake or an arithmetician - are conflated for humorous
effect, a harmless enough pastime and one adapted by English
cruciverbalists in the 1930s, to the bemusement of solvers ever since.
The only crossword clue the author has immediately been able to locate
for this acquisitive ophidian is 'its bite could well be cause for
dread! (5)', an anagram of the final word as compiled by
Elizabeth and Derek Jewell, (The Penguin Book of Sunday Times
Crosswords, #1, 1975, puzzle 3), but from the same book a clue
closer to Bierce's word-play here, is the double meaning, 'Lecturer
engaged in proof-correcting? (6)', - ie: 'reader' (puzzle 27).
The American crossword, precursor of the English began as an
ACROSTIC, ("A severe trial to the feelings. Commonly inflicted by a
fool") in which initial letters to solutions made another word.
Biographer Richard O'Connor records that "At night [Bierce] would
rarely venture from his apartment. Either he worked on magazine
pieces, with a pot of coffee nearby and his pet canary flitting
around the room or perched on his head, or he had a few people
in for games - usually anagrams at which, naturally, he excelled"
Ambrose Bierce, A Biography, Victor Gollancz, London 1968,
p 249). In The Devil's Dictionary, however, the anagram was
making slower progress, appearing only in ART (when 'One day a wag
... shifted a letter of the cipher RAT') - unless, that is, Bierce's
telegraphing system for this device was too subtle for detection.
How else might 'Dod Grile' get 'God riled'?
FT
7. Satan chose Eve, alone, to talk to by the tree, before Adam, also
disobeying Divine instruction, joined his mate in eating the apple.
This is not the place to go into the various arguments attendant
upon %he significance of this chain of events, but passing reference
may be of assistance to an examination of the treatment of women in
The Dictionary and for grappling with several fiendish
misconceptions concerning that 'animal usually living in the
vicinity of Man' (WOMAN). Milton's Adam was quick to apportion blame
for the fall: 'O Eve, in final hour thou dids't give ear / to that
false worm, of whomsoever taught / to counterfeit man's voice'
(Paradise Lost, IX.1067-70; Poetical Works, OUP Ed.
Douglas Bush, 1966). However, his confusion is already squirming, if
not with remorse, then with a morsel of the promised knowledge:
"I also erred in overmuch admiring' (IX,1178). The Dictionary
definition of UXORIOUSNESS would condone Adam's error, but only
because there were no other women in Eden to divert him from that
"perverted affection that has strayed to one's own wife".
FT
8. C. Ricks, Milton's Grand Style, OUP, 1963 (1972 reprint), ch.2,
VI, 'Word-play'.
FT
9. Paradise Lost, XII, 383.
FT
10. James Joyce - p.s. to letter to Stephen Joyce, August 1936, Selected
Letters of James Joyce, Ed. Richard Ellmann, Faber 1975.
FT
11. Authorship of the Te Deum, has, incidentally, been attributed to
one Saint Ambrose (Paul Harvey, Oxford Companion to English
Literaturee, though modern scholars apparently dispute the claim.
Further examples of the homophone, another device also employed
by cruciverbalists, may be found in The Dictionary under
AURICLE (appropriately enough), CHIMPANZEE, EFFECT, EXILE, FOREIGNER,
PORTUGUESE and PRINCIPAL/PRINCIPLE.
FT
12. "Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the Devil, for
which reason I have long since as good as renounced it". (Thomas
Carlyle, Sartor Resartus)
FT
13. Bierce proposed "an improvement in punctuation - the snigger point, or
note of cachinnation: it is written thus \___/! and presents, as near
as may be, a smiling mouth. It is to be appended, with the full stop,
[or exclamation mark as Bierce's later example used] to every jocular
or ironical sentence". (Bierce, 'For Brevity and Clarity' in the
Collected Works, (N.Y. and Washington, 1909-1912) XII (ante
penultimata, 1912), 387. Quoted here by James Milton Highsmith,
The Forms of Burlesque in The Devil's Dictionary, reprinted
from "Satire Newsletter" Oneonta, N.Y. 7, no 2, 1970, in Critical
Essays, Davidson, op.cit.) This author has taken the liberty
to use this sparingly. FT
14. Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language, 1755.
FT
15. General references to the species include "Newspaper reporters and
certain miscreant lexicographers'(INAUSPICIOUSLY), 'The discreet
lexicographer' (MAGIC) and 'your lexicographer' (LEXICOGRAPHER).
FT
16. There are of course humorous elements behind the avoidance of
definitions. Other examples, each with their own blend of
uselessness are: ABORIGINES (1), ABRACADABRA, ARREARS, ART, DADO,
DAMN, ENOUGH, EVERLASTING, GENTLEMAN, KISS, MAGNET/ISM, MARVELLOUS,
MOTION, POKER, PROPER and RICHES.
FT
17. Bierce also disclaims responsibility for the earlier misappellation
of 'The Cynic's Word Book', a not surprising disclaimer since the
imposed categorization, if that were in itself not bad enough for
one who supposedly "despises human sincerity" (O.E.D.), has assumed
from its philosophical beginnings, a pejorative tone which would
deflect the work from its actual path. One might as well try and
tell a saint, or SAINT, that he rr she is one! By Bierce's own
definition, the cynic would be happy with the recognition that he
"sees things as they are, not as they ought to be".
FT
I8. An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828).
FT
19. This attribution to an otherwise accurate etymology has not been
substantiated by any dictionary this author has referred to.
FT
20. Introduction to The Letters of Ambrose Bierce, Bertha C Pope,
(p.XXIX), Gordian Press, N.Y. 1967.
FT
21. Paradise Lost, III,98-9.
FT
22. The introduction by E J Hopkins to his enlargement details the rather
sporadic and complicated publishing history of the definitions and
various dictionaries. He notes, "It was early in 1881 that Bierce
introduced the title 'The Devil's Dictionary' after a preliminary
period beginning with the letter 'P' and headed 'Webster's Improved
Dictionary'".
FT
23. Paradise Lost,I,3.
FT
24. Highsmith, op.cit., p 124.
FT
25. In his investigation of Bierce's burlesque, Highsmith
(ibid.) chooses the mock-heroic, along with parody, Hudibrastic
('Judibrastric' from one of The Devil's noms de plume:
"Judibras") and travesty as means by which established forms are
parodied. He correctly points to the opening quatrain defining DEAD,
(surely a parody of Samson Agonistes, line 597) as
"unimpressive". My earlier contention that Bierce uses the word as
"subject for rather than object of vilification" does not contradict
Highsmith's claim that "Bierce's definitions suggest that he was
interested in exploring the nature of the forms themselves and
making them more functional in terms of the material at hand'.
It ignores it.
FT
26. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles
Ed. August 1972.
FT
Chapter Two
1. William Shakespeare, Othello, Act 2, Scene I, 202.
FT
2. Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden, 1964, OUP 1974, p.36.
FT
3. O'Connor op.cit. Ch.3. and Ambrose Bierce,
The Devil's Lexicographer. Paul Fatout, Univ of
Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1951. Ch.5.
FT
4. Ibid., O'Connor, p.32.
FT
5. Ibid., p.235.
FT
6. Paradise Lost, 1.263.
FT
7. Bierce to John Guiness, Jr., August 8, 1880,
The Collected Works, 51-2; quoted by Paul Fatout, Ambrose
Bierce and the Black Hills, Univ Of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1956.
p.8O.
FT
8. The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Seventh Edition, 1984.
FT
9. O'Connor, op.cit., pp.108-9.
FT
10. Other examples of the logical or algebraic equation are found under: A,
BANDIT, COMMERCE, CONFIDANT/E, GRAVITATION, INCORPORATION,
INSURANCE, LABOR, LAND, PLUNDER, POSSESSION, PROPERTY and SUFFRAGE.
FT
11. Of a number of incidences of violence to oriental immigrants which are
recorded in the biographies, perhaps the most graphic was noted by
Bierce himself in the 'Town Crier' column of his News Letter: "On
last Sunday afternoon a Chinaman passing guilelessly along Dupont
Street was assailed with a tempest of bricks and stones from the
steps of the First Congregational Church. At the completion of this
devotional exercise the Sunday-scholars retired within the hallowed
portals of the sanctuary, to hear about Christ Jesus, and Him
crucified". Quoted by O'Connor, op. cit., p.71.
FT
12. Examiner, May 9,1897, quoted, and supported, by Fatout,
op.cit., The Devil's Lexicographer, p.36.
FT
13. Op. cit., p.45. quote from Bierce, Examiner, August 17,
1890.
FT
14. "A Little of Chickamauga", Collected Works, Vol 1.
FT
15. O'Connor, op.cit., pp.108-116.
FT
16. Ibid., pp.41-2.
FT
17. This paragraph was written before the author had read O' Connor's not
dissimilar conclusion: "His obsession with death might also have been
reinforced by his asthmatic condition, his almost constant struggle
for the breath of life. A man who must have awakened late in the night,
with the breath barely wheezing through clogged bronchial tubes would
feel the constant presence of death". Ibid., p.213. C'est
Vrai.
FT
18. Samson Agonistes,LL.597/8.
FT
19. Chickamauga, "Tales of Soldiers", In The Midst of Life, Signet
Classics, 1961, p.33.
FT
20. Grattan, Bitter Bierce, A Mystery of American Letters,
(1929), Cooper Square, N.Y. 1966, p.42.
FT
2I. See, or hear: BASSOON, CLARIONET, CREMONA, FIDDLE, FLUTE,
JEW'S HARP, PIANO, OPERA, CHORUS, CONCERT, FROG, INTERLOCUTOR and NOISE.
FT
22. "He who aspires to be a hero ... must drink brandy" Boswell's
Life of Johnson, 7 April. 1779. O'Connor notes that despite
this definition, Bierce's "fellows at the Bohemian Club testified he
was handy at drinking his share of it". Op.cit., pp.ll4-5
FT
23. Ibid., (O'Connor) p.106.
FT
24. Hofstadter, The Age of Reform, (1955), Vintage, p.149.
FT
25. Grattan, op.cit., p.227.
FT
26. O'Connor, op.cit., p.100.
FT
27. The Portrait of A Lady, (1881), Penguin, 1974. Ch.18. p.182.
FT
28. The author has been unable to locate any reference to this personage.
FT
29. O'Connor, op.cit., p.111.
FT
30. Ibid. p.137.
FT
31. Wasp, May 29, l886. quoted by Fatout, op.cit., (The Devil's
Lexicographer) p.146.
FT
32. Extending the metaphor, this internet system might generously
be described as performing somewhere between a Przewalski's hippocampus
and an albatross.
FT
33. Found twixt INK and INNATE, ie: "innards".
FT
34. For further details see: Morison and Commager, The Growth
of the American Republic, O.U.P. 1969, vol.2. pp.32-4}
FT
35. O'Connor, op.cit., p.l05.
FT
36. Boone May, "fastest gun in The Dakotas", was hired by Bierce as
"messenger" though written onto the payroll as "Boone May,
Murderer". He was more suited to the latter role although "his
corpses were invariably those of undesirable citizens ('road agents'),
never of the law-abiding". Fatout, op.cit., Ambrose Bierce
and the Black Hills), p.77.
FT
37. Ibid., p.135.
FT
38. St Luke, IV:9.
FT
Chapter Three
1. To Flaxman.
FT
2. Highsmith, op.cit., pp.123-4.
FT
3. Grattan, op.cit., P.226.
FT
4. O'Connor, op.cit., Ch.9 'A Hearstling is born'.
FT
5. Ibid., p.160.
FT
6. It is true that the twelve volumes of Collected Works
have been criticised for a lack of selectivity but for one who had
written between three and four million words in his life
(see E J Hopkins' introduction), such a process would surely have
been time-consuming and therefore counter-productive.
FT
7. An Introduction to American Government, (1968), Collier
Macmillan 1971, p.3.
FT
8. Ibid., p.1.
FT
9. Paradise Lost. 1.262.
FT
10. Morison and Commager, op.cit., vol 1, ch.XXXII,
The Irrepresible Conflict.
FT
11. O'Connor, op.cit., Ch.2.
FT
12. op.cit., p.49.
FT
13. Morison and Commager, op.cit., vol 2, p.846.
FT
14. Ibid. p.252.
FT
15. The Mind of the South, (1941), Penguin, 1971, p.178.
FT
16. O'Connor, op.cit., p.220.
FT
17. Ibid., ch.l3.
FT
18. Ibid., p.222.
FT
19. Ibid., p.107.
FT
20. Act II, Scene 2, 264
FT
21. op.cit., 141-2.
FT
22. Morison and Commager, op.cit., vol 2, p.165.
FT
23. O'Connor, op.cit., p.156.
FT
24. Ibid., pp.117-8.
FT
25. Ibid., p.171. Day Bierce and a rival in passion fatally wounded
each other simultaneously.
FT
26. Ibid., pp.167-9.
FT
27. Bierce lived for some time in Oakland. Though he did not remarry the
supposed misogynist did entertain the occasional female in his
hideaway and Danziger estimates that he shook his apples for some
forty women throughout his life, an estimate which, if true, that
biographer regarded as showing remarkable restraint under the
circumstances.
FT
Chapter Four
1. Quoted by Wilson Follet in Ambrose, Son of Marcus Aurelius,
I937, (1965) The Atlantic Monthly Company, Boston. Reprinted from
"Atlantic Monthly", 160 (July 1937) in Critical Essays, ed. Davidson,
op.cit., p.81.
FT
2. Bierce, "the Man and the Snake," Tales of Civilians,
In the Midst of Life, op.cit., p.122.
FT
3. Marcus Cunliffe, The Literature of the United States (1954),
Penguin, 1971, ch.9.
FT
4. op.cit., Henry James, ch.23, p.249.
FT
5. "Ambrose Bierce and Realism", reprinted from "Southern Quarterly"
(Univ. of Southern Mississippi) 1. 1963, in Critical Essays,
op.cit., p.159.
FT
6. "Tales of Soldiers", In the Midst of Life, op.cit., p.9.
FT
7. For more on this, see O'Connor, op.cit., pp.275-6.
FT
8. Heroes and Hero-Worship, ch.1.
FT
9. Signs of the Times, 1829. In the same article Carlyle also wrote
that "the true Church of England, at this moment, lies in the Editors of
its newspapers", a statement Bierce might happily have assigned to the
American church and press.
FT
10. Poetry and Experience, (1960), Peregrine, 1965, p.47.
FT
11. Quoted by O'Connor, op.cit., p.278 (source not stated).
FT
12. Quoted by O'Connor, ibid., p.193.
FT
13. Ibid., p.272.
FT
14. Love and Death in the American Novel, (1967), Paladin, 1970. p.254.
FT
15. The Diary of Adam and Eve, part 1, (first Tuesday).
FT
16. Ibid. (A Wednesday some time later). Robert A Wiggins touches
on the influences on contemporary humorists: 'In form the entries in
The Devil's Dictionary reflect a common variety of humorous satire
employed in nineteenth-century journalism. From the same sources Mark
Twain later drew inspiration for "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar'".
Ambrose Bierce, Univ. of Minnesota pamphlets on American Writers, 1964,
no.37, p.l8.
FT
17. O'Connor, op.cit., p.134.
FT
18. Ibid, pp.269-70.
FT
19. Letters. op. cit., May 6, 1906, (p.119). Much material,
including definition entries, were destroyed or lost in the
earthquake. Any blame for this attempted tectonic mutilation of
the archives of Serpent must be laid on the plate of Saint Andrew
whose fault of course it was, is, and ever shall be.
FT
20. An interesting corollary to this might be the specialized lexicon.
A post-war California-based "religion" uses many neologisms coined
by its founder. One 'engram' has found its way into the Concise
Oxford English (op.cit.) as "memory-trace, supposed permanent
change in brain accounting for existence of memory". This definition
is diametrically opposed to the meaning of the word as understood by
the psychiatric offshoot of the religion (' ') whose dedication to
'clearing' the 'bank' of 'engrams' is the whole purpose. The 'engram'
is therefore not 'supposed permanent' and, providing the 'pre-clear'
is not cleared' of his or her other 'bank' first, the traumatic demon
of the 'reactive mind' is removable by exponentially expensive therapy.
In their infinite wisdom the group, which claimed a certain Charles
Manson as one of its successes, had produced its own 'neo-dictionary'
of such terms. There is an adequate and mercifully brief summary of
the technique and jargon of the 'Logos group??' to be found in
William Burroughs's The Ticket that Exploded (1962), Corgi, 1971,
p.24.
FT
21. The allusion remains obscure to this researcher whose speculation that
there was a Crippen-style arrest is just that.
FT
22. Isiah 5,20.
FT
23. Paradise Lost, IV, 110.
FT
24. Writing Alfred Knopf in May 1936, Mencken indicated his "plan to
make a book resembling the Oxford Concise Dictionary in format". The
work was to include epigrams, notably "full representation of such
men as Oscar Wilde and Ambrose Bierce", and quotations, "from such
men as Rousseau, Jefferson, Lincoln, Mussolini, Hitler and even William
Jennings Bryan". (The New Mencken Letters, ed. C. Bode, The
Dial Press, N.Y., 1977). I rest my case.
FT
Eric Partridge was to compile A Dictionary of The Underworld (Oxford, 1949) "Being the Vocabularies of Crooks, Criminals, Racketeers, Beggars and Tramps, Convicts, The Commercial Underworld, the Drug Traffic, the White Slave Traffic, Spivs," with a third edition "Much Enlarged" in 1968. Needless to say, with a publisher as reputable as Oxford, the Dictionary is more straight than satirical.
Andrew Graham, Keele University
Please contact the webmaster with any queries : page last updated March 14, 2006