For this week's post I would like to explore a process, more than an individual word. And an important process it is. The basic investigation to determine context when studying a text is fundamental. A useful adage in this regard is that any text taken out of context becomes a mere pretext -- a groundless assertion. Worthy historical research cannot be accomplished without finding, then submitting to the boundaries of context. This brief article will be an exercise of just such an excursion.
Let us begin with Johnson's entry: "dier." The
lexicographer designates this as a noun meaning "One who follows the trade
of dying; one who dies cloaths." Johnson offers two quotes using the word.
The last is attributed to "Arbuthnot
on Coins" and it is here that our work begins. The quotation is this:
"There were some of very low rank and professions, who acquired great
estates: coblers, diers, and shoemakers gave publick shows to the people"
(original spelling and punctuation retained).
It is easy to assume Arbuthnot is writing of times
contemporary to Johnson's dictionary (1755). Is Arbuthnot talking about
Johnson's time or his own or neither? Certainly there were "coblers, diers
and shoemakers" in Johnson's day. This fact makes it very easy to fall
into the trap of our earlier assumption. How can we avoid this trap? How can we
act rationally? To find the answers we must dig deeper.
The first step of the quest is to find an original text of
Arbuthnot's work on coins. Since one's local public library is not likely to
hold many volumes from 1755 or earlier, another depository will need to be
consulted. The place I like to turn is Internet Archive. Here I found John
Arbuthnot's book: Tables of Ancient
Coins, Weights and Measures, Explain'd and Exemplify'd In Several Dissertations;
published 1727. To find the passage quoted by Johnson, I used the text search
function of the website. I chose a word from the quote that seemed unique. My
first search with "cobler" was unsuccessful. I moved on to
"diers" and "shoemakers." These all failed. I finally tried
"rank" which worked. On page 118, I found my quote. A little reading
revealed that Arbuthnot was speaking of the tradesmen of ancient Rome. He
elucidates the sort of tradesman he has in mind, "Vatinius a shoemaker's
apprentice gave to Nero himself a famous spectacle of gladiators at Beneventum,
of whom Tacitus, saith . . ." "Nero," "gladiators" and
"Tacitus" are context pointers that clearly set the time and place as
Rome in the reign of Nero (54 to 68 AD).
The "coblers, diers and shoemakers" were not of
London or of some other town in England, but hundreds of miles away and many
centuries removed from Arbuthnot's day. The quote taken out of the context
built by the author could easily have been misconstrued to say the text was
describing England in the eighteenth century.
One may ask what difference there is between a dier of the
first century and one of the eighteenth. Time makes the biggest difference.
Place matters and material differences matter. The differences are as abrupt
and significant as the differences between first century Rome and eighteenth
century England. The sharp contrasts between ancient Rome and Johnson's England
highlight how wrong one could be by exploring Johnson's quote without first
determining its original context.
Understanding context helps us grasp Johnson's intent, the
deeper meaning of his use of the quote and how that relates to the word; its
history and use. The long span of centuries contemplated by the dictionary
entry shows that the practice of dyeing cloth is an old one, indeed. The life
of the word’s concept is long and rich. But more importantly, Johnson is making
a connection between the dier of Rome and the dier of England. If there were no
basic correlations amidst their many differences, using the quote would have
been useless to Johnson's audience. The context reveals a connection, albeit a basic
and foundational one, between the English of Johnson's day the Roman citizen of
old. Revealing and explaining such connections are the very essence of teaching
and studying history. That is history's greatest power. It is by the pathway of
connections made manifest that history teaches us its lessons and makes us
wiser today.
Until next time.
John
I put a link to Arbuthnot's book in the list to the right.
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