In my law-related work, I just came across a letter from a law firm, with this phrase as the closing immediately above the signature. Apparently it is a quote from Hamlet, and essentially means “Yours truly.”
Anyone ever encounter this closing in a letter? Any thoughts as to what someone might be trying to convey other than “I am a pompous ass who cares nothing about communicating clearly”?
I’ve been a lawyer for 30 years, and never saw this one before. (And, yes, this was the most interesting aspect of the lawyer’s communication!) :rolleyes:
Nope, but you inspired me to go look it up, and it is indeed in Hamlet (link is to browser-searchable text at Project Gutenberg), as the closing of a letter.
Is it possible that the letter you found it in was written by or to a Shakespeare fan, and used the phrase as sort of an inside joke?
Uh - no. It was addressed to me, in a purely professional matter, from someone I’ve never encountered before. Full context - I’m a judge, and this lawyer is representing someone in a matter before me tomorrow.
And while he’s being all lawyery, thinking he’s persuading me, I’m gonna be sitting up there thinking, “Who the HELL closes a letter like THAT?”
Of course, maybe he’ll show up in tights and a doublet! I can only hope…
I once received a summons to serve on a grand jury. It told me what building to go to, and what time to be there. And then it concluded, “Have you there and then this writ.”
Which I finally figured out meant, “Bring this letter with you.”
“He that thou knowest thine” seems to fit right in with the sort of things lawyers normally write, is what I’m saying.
I’d never heard it before, but I sent my gf an email a bit ago using it. She replied to my email, then asked about the closing. I told her it was from Hamlet, and acted weirded out she hadn’t heard it before.
Letters to the editor of British magazine Motorsport were always closed with I am, yours, etc. I don’t know if they still are; I haven’t picked up a copy since about 1990, and presumably things are less formal in the Internet age. Nobody seems to know what the fuck it means except that Yours &c is the close of a letter in Pride & Prejudice.
Considering that in Shakespeare’s time, thou was still an intimate form of address, reserved for family, friends, and lovers, I’d say that the quote a bit…affectionate. Maybe the lawyer thinks you look really hot in a robe?
Considering that thou pronouns were also used to one’s social inferiors, I’d say it’s also a presumptuous thing to say to a judge.
The older formal closings are all various ways of assuring the person that you consider yourself born to serve them. Why this should be I have no idea. I have put the log form additions in parentheses below to show you:
He that thou knowest (to be) thine (humble servant)
I am, (sir or madam) your (humble servant)
I have the honor to remain, Madam, your most obedient. (and humble servant) - This one is from Emily Post, 1922, and is how a lady should close a letter to a Queen.
Sincerely, Sincerely yours, etc. - (Your most sincere and humble servant)
And so forth. It’s a mystery to me, but that’s where it comes from.
In modern language I’d parse it as “the one whom you know to be yours.”
“I am yours” is, um, very affectionate language! It’s kind of grandfathered in, unobtrusively in familiar phrases like “I am, Yours Truly”, but when the phrase is an unfamiliar one like this, the sentiment becomes noteworthy all over again…
That’s a lot more intimate than I’d want to be in a professional context or I’d want someone else to be, either. “Thou” and “thine” are familiar and informal. They don’t belong anywhere near the closing of a letter from one attorney to another about legal matters.
In theory, but not so much in practice. They’re so old and outdated that they come across as formal and stodgy. (Consider, for example, their use in any movie besides period pieces, as in the “What is thy bidding, my master,” from one of the Star Wars.)
You’re a judge? For some reason the name Dinsdale now seems to me remarkably “judgy”, though I can’t say it has occurred to me before now. Has there a famous jurist of that name, either IRL or in fiction?
