[Vwoolf] "What a lark! What a plunge!" (Could Woolf have had the bird in mind?)

Stuart N. Clarke stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com
Mon Jun 29 06:20:27 EDT 2020


But not always in Italy:

up with the cock (Guilia Celenza, 1965)

up with the dawn (Anna Luisa Zazo, 1994)

up with the lark (Luciana Bianciardi, 1995)


Personally, I agree with Sir Harcourt Courtly in Boucicault's "London 
Assurance":

MAX: You must leave your town habits in the smoke of London; here we rise 
with the lark.
SIR HARCOURT: Haven't the remotest conception when that period is.


Stuart
(Day 104)



-----Original Message----- 
From: Stephen Barkway via Vwoolf
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2020 10:51 AM
To: 'Jeremy Hawthorn' ; vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] "What a lark! What a plunge!" (Could Woolf have hadthe 
bird in mind?)

As opposed to the opening page of To the Lighthouse, where the ‘lark’ is 
definitely a bird!

-----Original Message-----
From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu> On Behalf Of Jeremy Hawthorn via 
Vwoolf
Sent: 29 June 2020 09:10
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] "What a lark! What a plunge!" (Could Woolf have had 
the bird in mind?)

I agree that the dominant meaning of "lark" here is "a bit of fun."
Etymologically this is unconnected to lark=bird; "laiking" is Yorkshire and 
Lancashire dialect for playing (as opposed to working), and "lark"
both as verb and noun is related to modern Norwegian "å leke": to play 
(Woolf would not have known this but Joyce might!). Partridge relates the 
word to ON leika and OE lācan. (Insert joke here about Lacan and the play of 
the signifier.)

But I have often wondered whether there might also be a hint at the bird, 
which is characterized by rapid ascending and descending vertical movements, 
hence plunging. Bird and cognates appear 20 times in the novel, and Scrope 
Purvis thinks that there is a touch of the bird about Clarissa - although he 
goes on to mention not a lark but a jay, a very different bird.

Jeremy H


On 29.06.2020 06:32, Regina Marler via Vwoolf wrote:
> Not the bird, I think. A lark, as in a bit of fun. A plunge, as in the
> moment one dares something: plunging into adventure.
>
> All best,
>
> Regina

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