dave:
> 'millions of strange shadows' is the Shakespearean phrase, not the word
> 'millions' by itself, dear Mr Pedant.
I sorta kinda got +that+ point, you illiterate Brummie dumb-bunny.
{AND it's "Doctor" to you, matey -- not even just your average bog-standard
Phid but a York Difl.
:-p }
I simply ran fast-and-dirty through the OED on my hard-drive -- frankly, the
question didn't seem worth more ...
... but actually, if you ignore "millions" and focus on "shadows", there's a
really weird Platonic link to George Chapman's Ovid's Enemies of Promise.
{Ask Elemnope.}
<sigh>
... as if anyone wants to know.
> Thanks though for your investigations,
No problemo.
> I certainly had wondered about a usage somewhere about the time of
Langland,
Bless the Ever-Living, dunno how I picked up on how it came from the A-text
of PP.
Frankly, pedant though I might be, I usually default to the B-text of Piers
(ed. Schmidt).
... so how on this ever-loving earth I tracked this back to the friggin *A*
text of PP ...
Makes you wonder, and if i had written notes, i might even franchise it to a
hungry NordAmericano grad student.
Back to the teapot, me.
Fantomas
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