A Commentary on the Passing Scene by
Robert Paul Wolff
rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
Sunday, March 6, 2022
I STAND CORRECTED
A reader who tactfully chose to contact me by email rather than making me look foolish in the comments section notes that I have confused "nonage" with "dotage," clear evidence that I am in fact in my dotage.
You were using the word “nonage,” which means immaturity or youth, in a metaphorical sense, following Shakespeare’s seven ages of man. You were referring to the sixth of the seven ages:
The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion; Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
I take RPW’s “I Stand Corrected” post to be a written, signed confession that he had indeed confused the terms nonage and dotage in his earlier post. He’s telling us what his intent was. I take him at his word, so to speak. I have to say, though, that I had thought his original use of the word nonage was ironic (or metaphorical, pace AA). I didn’t think this because of any allusions to Shakespeare, but because the word nonage appears in some English translations of Kant’s “What is Enlightenment?” essay. It translates Kant’s Unmuendigkeit, which is sometimes rendered as minority or even tutelage instead, in other translations. Etc. Anyway, nonage is a peculiar word that doesn’t get out of the dictionary much, and I think of Kant’s essay when I see it. By the way, Columbia University has an online translation of “What is Enlightenment?” in which nonage appears 10 times—no I didn’t count the instances, the “find” function did that.
Well, no, Prof. Wolff, you were not mistaken.
ReplyDeleteYou were using the word “nonage,” which means immaturity or youth, in a metaphorical sense, following Shakespeare’s seven ages of man. You were referring to the sixth of the seven ages:
The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
I'm reminded of a certain exchange between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump - the one that sent everyone to Google to look up "dotard."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41357315
I take RPW’s “I Stand Corrected” post to be a written, signed confession that he had indeed confused the terms nonage and dotage in his earlier post. He’s telling us what his intent was. I take him at his word, so to speak. I have to say, though, that I had thought his original use of the word nonage was ironic (or metaphorical, pace AA). I didn’t think this because of any allusions to Shakespeare, but because the word nonage appears in some English translations of Kant’s “What is Enlightenment?” essay. It translates Kant’s Unmuendigkeit, which is sometimes rendered as minority or even tutelage instead, in other translations. Etc. Anyway, nonage is a peculiar word that doesn’t get out of the dictionary much, and I think of Kant’s essay when I see it. By the way, Columbia University has an online translation of “What is Enlightenment?” in which nonage appears 10 times—no I didn’t count the instances, the “find” function did that.
ReplyDeleteParapraxis is a particularly apt word to describe the situation.
ReplyDelete