Word: cockneys
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...honors of the play, however, are mainly to be heaped before the door of Miss Lynn Fontanne. This singularly fine English actress (known in America principally for her delightful " Dulcy ") quite carries the play away. Despite her unconquerable English accent, almost Cockney, she gives an amazingly effective portrait of the nitwit heroine. Her sense of humor, her touch for character values are remarkable...
...comedy with a certain and delightful ease and acumen, and turning from his comic scenes to those of pathos with skills. His final confession of the sacrifice he had made and of his own love for Sally was simple and effective. The very title of the play suggests that Cockney accents will be heard. And so they were, but not always clearly spoken or artfully enunciated on the first night at any rate. Miss Ediss was an offender on the score and so were Mrs. Belmore and Mrs. Day, particularly in the first scene. But on the whole the company...
...print a glossary of "Americanisms" in the back; and recently a book on "The American Language" was published by Henry Louis Mencken, giving a host of slang terms that have come into use in this country. But it is to the advantage of everyone from American cabdriver to British cockney, that the two countries should speak the same language, differing in dialect as little as possible; and with this end in view a committee of scholars from the two nations has been brought together...
...England My England", the first story in the book and the longest and the best, might just as well have been "China My China" as far as the author is concerned. When Lawrence is Cockney his Britticisms stand out; when he tells a straight story he has obviously his "special case" in mind. His people are tall physically; they have what for want of a better word we must call "aura". They vibrate. He says they do. Whenever Winifred looks at Egbert, even when animal love is all that remains, she reminds herself that he is a sort of electric...
...cockney is not alone in tracing its antecedents to ancient royalty. If England is going to resort to etymology to prove even her slang good English, common Americans are equally justified in defending themselves. Clerk is supposed to rhyme with lark in the best English, yet no less a writer than Chaucer coupled it with world. Plebian "ain't" appears in Thackery, apparently quite good form. While if the beaux and macarouss of Pope's day were to appear today and tald as they did in the drawing rooms of London, and ordinary American might well imagine they were telling...