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    Wilfred Owen began drafting his famous war poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" about a mustard gas attack on exhausted soldiers. In an early handwritten version, he described the soldiers as bent double like beggars, coughing and cursing through the mud as they turned away from haunting flares and began their trudge toward distant rest. Many had lost their boots but continued limping, blood-shod and blind, drunk with fatigue and deaf even to the dropping of gas shells behind them.

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    British Library Sources

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    Wilfred Owen began drafting his famous war poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" about a mustard gas attack on exhausted soldiers. In an early handwritten version, he described the soldiers as bent double like beggars, coughing and cursing through the mud as they turned away from haunting flares and began their trudge toward distant rest. Many had lost their boots but continued limping, blood-shod and blind, drunk with fatigue and deaf even to the dropping of gas shells behind them.

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    Wilfred Owen began drafting his famous war poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" about a mustard gas attack on exhausted soldiers. In an early handwritten version, he described the soldiers as bent double like beggars, coughing and cursing through the mud as they turned away from haunting flares and began their trudge toward distant rest. Many had lost their boots but continued limping, blood-shod and blind, drunk with fatigue and deaf even to the dropping of gas shells behind them.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    56 views7 pages

    British Library Sources

    Uploaded by

    Veronica Fernandez
    Wilfred Owen began drafting his famous war poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" about a mustard gas attack on exhausted soldiers. In an early handwritten version, he described the soldiers as bent double like beggars, coughing and cursing through the mud as they turned away from haunting flares and began their trudge toward distant rest. Many had lost their boots but continued limping, blood-shod and blind, drunk with fatigue and deaf even to the dropping of gas shells behind them.

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    Source Caxtons first edition of Chaucers Canterbury Tales, 1476 About this source Caxton introduced the printing

    press to England in 1476. He printed all kinds of texts: mythic tales, popular stories, poems, phrasebooks, devotional pieces and grammars. Thanks to the invention of printing, books became quicker to produce and cheaper to purchase - although they were still a luxury. An ever-increasing number of writers were able to publish their works, literacy rates rose, language became more uniform, and an early form of modern English began to emerge.
    Transcript A Cook they hadde with hem for the nonys To boylle the chekens and the mary bonys And powder marchaunt tart and galingale Wel knew he a draughte of London ale He coude roste seethe boyle and frye Make mortrewys and wel bake a pye But gret harm was it as it thoughte me for on his chynne a Marmoyl hadde he And blank Manger made he with the best Translation They had a cook with them for the occasion To boil the chickens and the marrowbones And sharp flavoured spice and aromatic root He was a good judge of draught of London ale He could roast seethe boil and fry Make thick soup and well bake a pie But a great shame it seemed to me For on his chin he had a sore And he made blancmange with the best

    www.bl.uk/learning

    British Library

    Source William Tyndales Bible, 1525

    About this source Tyndales Bible was the very first English translation of the Bible to be printed. During the 1500s the very idea of an English language Bible was shocking and subversive. Throughout the medieval period the English church was governed from Rome by the Pope. Church services were conducted in Latin throughout the Christian world, and it was strictly forbidden to translate the Bible into local languages. Tyndale, however, believed that ordinary people should be given the opportunity to read the Bible for themselves, and for this reason he translated the Bible into English. His Bible was highly illegal: the book was banned, and Tyndale was eventually executed. Transcript The newe Testament duly gently corrected and compared with the Greke by Willyam Tindale: and fynesshed in the yere of oure Lorde God A M D & xxxiiii. in the moneth of November.

    www.bl.uk/learning

    British Library

    Source Act II Scene II, King Lear, by William Shakespeare, believed to have first been printed in 1608. About this source Shakespeare was writing at a time of great cultural and intellectual change, with wonderful discoveries and innovations taking place in the fields of arts and sciences. Scholars were taking a renewed interest in classical languages, and explorers and traders were making intrepid expeditions to the New World. As a result, the English lexicon was bulging with new vocabulary. Shakespeare is perhaps most admired for his experimental and inventive use of words. As this extract shows, he was certainly a master of insults. Transcript Steward: What dost thou know me for? Kent: A knave, a rascall, an eater of broken meates, a base proud shallow, beggerly, three shewted hundred pound, filthy worsted-stocken knave, a lilly lyverd action-taking knave, a whorson glassegazing superfinicall rogue, one truncke inheriting slave, one that wouldst bee a baud in way of good service and art nothing but the composition of a knave, begger, coward, pander, and the sonne and heire of a mungrell bitch, whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou denie the least sillable of the addition.

    www.bl.uk/learning

    British Library

    Source Preface to Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson, 1755

    About this source Samuel Johnsons Dictionary of the English Language is one of the most famous English dictionaries in history. A group of London book-sellers had commissioned the dictionary, hoping that a book of this kind would help stabilise the rules governing the English language. In the preface to the book Johnson writes of the energetic unruliness of the English tongue. In his view, the language was a mess that was in desperate need of some discipline. Transcript When I took the first survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious without order, and energetick without rules: wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated; choice was to be made out of boundless variety, without any established principle of selection; adulterations were to be detected, without a settled test of purity, and modes of expression to be rejected or received, without the suffrages of any writers of classical reputation or acknowledged authority.

    www.bl.uk/learning

    British Library

    Source Extract from a page of the handwritten draft of Nicholas Nickleby, a novel written by Dickens in 1838. About this source This extract begins in the middle of a letter written by Fanny Squeers, daughter of Dotheboys Halls violent headmaster. She is giving Nicholass uncle an exaggerated account of her fathers beating by his nevew. The letter is full of Dickenss attempts to represent authentic popular speech in writing, both in terms of pronunciation and non-standard grammar. In other words, Dickens has deliberately sprinkled parts of Fannys letter with dialect features alongside standard English. Transcript took up by some stage-coach. My pa begs that if he comes to you the ring may be returned and that you will let the thief and assassin go, as if we prosecuted him he would only be transported and if he is let go he is sure to be hung in time which will save us trouble and be much more satisfactory. Hoping to hear from you when convenient I remain Yours and cetrer Fanny Squeers P.S. I pity his ignorance and despise him.

    www.bl.uk/learning

    British Library

    Source Alices Adventures Underground, 1864 About this source This manuscript - one of the British Librarys best-loved treasures - is the original version of Alices Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, the pen-name of Charles Dodgson, an Oxford mathematician. The story was inspired by Dodgsons friendship with ten year old Alice Liddell. One summers day in 1862 he entertained Alice and her sisters on a boat trip with a story of Alices adventures in a magical world entered through a rabbit-hole. Alice was so entranced that she begged him to write it down for her. It took him some time to write out the tale - in a tiny, neat hand - and complete the 37 illustrations. Alice finally received the 90-page book, dedicated to a dear child, in memory of a summer day, in November 1864. Transcript The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts All on a summer day: The Knave of Hearts he stole those tarts, And took them quite away! Now for the evidence, said the King, and then the sentence. No! said the Queen, first the sentence, and then the evidence! Nonsense! cried Alice, so loudly that everybody jumped, the idea of having the sentence first! Hold your tongue! said the Queen. I wont! said Alice, youre nothing but a pack of cards! Who cares for you?

    www.bl.uk/learning

    British Library

    Source Handwritten opening of Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen, written 1917 About this source Wilfred Owen wrote this poem whilst serving as a soldier in the appalling conditions of the trenches in the First World War. In full, the Latin motto of the title reads: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, meaning it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. Owen was being deliberately ironic: the poem was intended to convey the disgusting horror of war to the British public. Dulce et Decorum Est describes a mustard gas attack on a group of war-weary soldiers. Owens painfully direct language combines vivid realism with an aching sense of compassion. Transcript Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began the trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; [Deaf even crossed out] Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of [tired, outstripped Five-Nines gas-shells crossed out] gas shells dropping softly that dropped behind.

    www.bl.uk/learning

    British Library

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