Writing about writing, (instead of actually writing.)
When a person is writing about the past, especially fiction, especially dialog, there is a temptation to go one of two ways. Either you find yourself sliding into 'ye olde timey pirate talk, arrg," or you render everything modern and strip the past away. It is hard to get the balance. (At least for me, maybe those of you who have done it more or
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having sung rugger songs with the 'nice young men' from a leading Public School (capitals because they are hyper private in the UK) when I was at school with them (oh the joys of being a pioneer girl in one of those establishments!) I've never done anything but call a spade a spade (except to refer to a 'person of color' ;) )
It seems to me that in the recent half century a kind of prurient prissiness has taken over the correct use of the English language; words that are inoffensive are deemed 'obscene' by the vocabulary-challenged (no-one here I hasten to add) and so the phrase 'this man is holding a teeny weeny pussy cat' was deemed by the 'mother of a christian household' - her words - on one website as to contain 2 obscenities!
A penis is a penis - that is the anatomical label - why have difficulty with it. By extension (oops!) the word 'chest' could give real problems (especially if you are writing about the C18 when suitcases didn't exist!)if you use it to convey the breasts.
My message is - read the genuine speech of the time (and there are plenty of boooks as you have discovered) not the ones bowlderized in C19 or the prissy euphemistic language that the dictats of the self-appointed guardians of our morality have inflicted on our language.
and be reassured 'eveiya'....it isn't just Scotland - it is the remnants of the British population that has a vocabulary of more than 250 words (texting-abbreviated) that uses the language as it was is and always should be!
PS - I'll remember the our reaction to the possible essay title one of our history teachers set (he read the list) "England's success was due to the strength of Elizabethan seamen" (you have to read it aloud to appreciate it!) Even he collapsed in giggles when he realized what he had said.
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re: chest - no suitcases, as such, but surely there were sea-chests, and blanket chests? Though I am still sorting out the difference, in historical context, between a "chest" and a "press".
Books of the time - I certainly have read them. Part of my difficulty is that, at the turn of the 19th century, the shift to more delicate language was already taking place. I'd have a much easier time making a modern reader believe in a character of Chaucer's or Shakespeare's day saying "cunt" than one of Jane Austen's era.
And, oh dear, the way people giggle over "seamen." It's easy enough to make a historical character say it. A modern one? "Sailors" is MUCH easier without provoking giggles.
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And maybe I am borrowing trouble. Marlowe is still in jail. He is not inclined to talk about anything!
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