Word: goodykin
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...dearest little Goody," "Best little Goodykin," "Dearest of all Jeannies," "Lovely Princess," "Lovekin." This is no moonstruck sophomore toasting epistolary marshmallows for his sweetie, but one of the finer minds of the 19th century, Thomas Carlyle, addressing his wife, Jane Welsh Carlyle. During some 40 years of turbulent married life, Carlyle gradually diluted these honeyed words with wormwood. As Editor Trudy Bliss's generous sampling of Carlyle's domestic correspondence makes plain, he used confectionery phrases to sugarcoat endless pills packed with personal neuroses...
Avid for news himself, he was quick to chide when replies were tardy. ("No letter, Goodykin, none today yet?") He came so close to treating his talented wife like an aimless birdbrain that Jane once chided him for writing "as if I were some nice child, writing ... to its Godpapa." But occasionally, Carlyle came close to sharing an idea with his "wee wifiekin," as when he was moved by the human and physical blight of the Industrial Revolution on a South Wales town: "The town might be ... one of the prettiest places in the world...
...week after her death, Carlyle paid his last tribute to Goodykin and the hard life he led her: "She . . . fought and toiled for me valiantly at all moments up to that last, how loyally, lovingly and bravely, and through what sore paths and difficulties is now known only to God and one living mortal...
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