We know the word "will" had those connotations in Shakespeare's days from the Sonnets.
----- Original Message -----
From: Sean Gordon Henry <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 14:26:12 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: The shifting tides of Shakespearean scholarship
> "a slice of concealed Elizabethan history"
AND it's an anti-Stratfordian text! The unkindest cut indeed, surely. Rachel Hile was kind enough to send along a summary of the book, here: http://www.shaksper.net/archives/2005/1682.html
As for your question, Peter--heaven only knows what it says about all of us, but the same question was posed in a parallel conversation on the picture of this book I posted elsewhere. Rachel again rode to the rescue:
OED gives 1905 for first use, in a dialect dictionary:
1905 Eng. Dial. Dict. Suppl. 178/2 Willy, the male organ; a slang name for a child's penis. Cum., Wm. 1972 Listener 22 June 841/3 The gallant soldier-boys are afflicted with ‘syph, darling... Read More’ (‘their willies rot away’). 1975 Observer 7 Dec. 27/3 Joky gifts are speechlessly embarrassing; this season's dud is a woolly willy-warmer. 1977 J. WILSON Making Hate ix. 113 A younger male [baboon]..fingered its crimson penis... ‘It's playing with its willie!’ Nicky squealed. 1985 P. ANGADI Governess x. 93 We used to hold each other's willies... We didn't know about sex then.
Our elusive member of the UVic stacks was published in 1953, for the record.
Sean.
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> On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 12:05 PM, Sean Gordon Henry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Something quite beside the point with which to welcome autumn: I was wandering in the stacks of the library at the University of Victoria, B.C. yesterday, when I spotted the book shown in the attached picture, deep in the Shakespeare section; a *fine* example of how important it really is to choose a title for one's book that will stand the test of time.
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> Sean Henry.
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> PS I already sent this picture to a number of friends who may also be on this list; forgive me for the double-posting. It was too good not to share more widely!
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Sean Henry, PhD
Department of English
The University of Western Ontario
London, Ont., Canada
"I’ve half a mind to shake myself
Free just for once from London,
To set my work upon the shelf
And leave it done or undone."
("A Farm Walk," Christina Rossetti)
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