>>“Oh, you ca’n’t help that,” said the Cat: "we’re all made here<<
Cecil has found a new one. This is the first time I’ve seen a reference to la cosa nostra in Alice.
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The article being discussed is the latest Staff Report, «What caused the Mad Hatter to go mad? (20-Mar-2001)»
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Will be corrected, thanks.
The spelling of “ca’n’t” is taken from MORE ANNOTATED ALICE, but I am inclined to believe the more usual spelling is correct.
Are we talking about the archaic spelling of “can’t” or about a typo in the column, whereby it should read, “We’re all mad here”?
Not archaic. Ca’n’t is a deliberate eccentricity of Carroll’s. He explains it at some length in the preface to either Sylvie and Bruno or Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, arguing that in all other -n’t constructions, n’t stands for not, that it is therefore inconsistent to reduce not to a bare 't, and that it is consequently necessary to have two apostrophes in "ca’n’t, the usual one for the missing o in not, and the other for the missing n in can.
DDG got it right, the typo made for mad was the mistake.
But JWK’s addition was interesting.
I couldn’t understand the made/ la costra nostra connection, until I read my JE Lighter. The term made meaning appointed to a position, or initiated into, especially as in a secret society, goes back to the early 1800’s in print.
And now it’s fixed, so all the folks from Through the Looking Glass no longer have to be concerned about making their bones.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
They’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.
Link to the column:
I forgot to add that he makes an even stronger argument for “wo’n’t”.
George Bernard Shaw, on the other hand, insisted on “cant” and “wont”.