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most generic of all interjections becomes enlarged, and that according to the tone in which oh is uttered, it may be understood to mean almost any one of the emotions of which humanity is capable.

This interjection owes its great predominance to the influence of the Latin language, in which it was very frequently used. And there is one particular use of it which more especially bears a Latin stamp. That is the O of the vocative case, as when in prayers we say, O Lord; O Thou to whom all creatures bow.

We should distinguish between the sign of the vocative and the emotional interjection, writing O for the former, and oh for the latter, as—

Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed
Within thy beams, O Sun!-Blanco White.

But she is in her grave, and oh

The difference to me!-Wordsworth.

This distinction of spelling should by all means be kept up, as it is well founded. There is a difference between 'O sir!''O king!' and 'Oh! sir,' 'Oh! Lord,' both in sense and pronunciation.

As to the sense, the O prefixed merely imparts to the title a vocative effect; while the Oh conveys some particular sentiment, as of appeal, entreaty, expostulation, or some other.

And as to sound, the O is enclitic; that is to say, it has no accent of its own, but is pronounced with the word to which it is attached, as if it were its unaccented first syllable. The term Enclitic signifies 'reclining on,' and so the interjection O in 'O Lord' reclines on the support afforded to it by the accentual elevation of the word 'Lord.' So that 'O Lord' moves like such a disyllable as alight, alike, away; in which words the metrical stroke could never fall on the first syllable. Oh! on the contrary, is one of the fullest of

monosyllables, and it would be hard to place it in a verse except with the stress upon it. The example from Wordsworth illustrates this.

Precedence has been given to this interjection because it is the commonest of the simple or natural interjections,—not that it is one of the longest standing in the language.

Our oldest interjections are la and wa, and each of these merits a separate notice.

197. La is that interjection which in modern English is spelt lo. It was used in Saxon times, both as an emotional cry, and also as a sign of the respectful vocative. The most reverential style in addressing a superior was La leof, an expression not easy to render in modern English, but which is something like O my liege, or O my lord, or O sir.

In modern times it has taken the form of lo in literature, and it has been supposed to have something to do with the verb to look. In this sense it has been used in the New Testament to render the Greek idoù that is, Behold! But the interjection la was quite independent of another Saxon exclamation, viz. loc, which may with more probability be associated with locian, to look.

The fact seems to be that the modern lo represents both the Saxon interjections la and loc, and that this is one among many instances where two Saxon words have been merged into a single English one.

Lo, how they feignen chalk for cheese.

Gower, Confessio Amantis, vol. i. p. 17, ed. Pauli.

198. The la of Saxon times has none of the indicatory or pointing force which lo now has, and which fits it to go so naturally with an adverb of locality, as 'Lo here,' or 'Lo there'; or

Lo! where the stripling, wrapt in wonder, roves.
Beattie, Minstrel, Bk. i.

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While lo became the literary form of the word, la has still continued to exist more obscurely, at least down to a recent date, even if it be not still in use. La may be regarded as a sort of feminine to lo. In novels of the close of last century and the beginning of this, we see la occurring for the most part as a trivial exclamation by the female characters.

In Miss Edgeworth's tale of The Good French Governess, a silly affected boarding-school miss says la repeatedly:

'La!' said Miss Fanshaw, we had no such book as this at Suxberry House.'

Miss Fanshaw, to shew how well she could walk, crossed the room, and took up one of the books.

Alison upon Taste-that's a pretty book, I daresay; but la! what's this, Miss Isabella? A Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments-dear me! that must be a curious performance—by a smith! a common smith!'

In The Election: a Comedy, by Joanna Baillie (1798), Act ii. Sc. 1, Charlotte thus soliloquises :

Charlotte. La, how I should like to be a queen, and stand in my robes, and have all the people introduced to me!

And when Charles compares her cheeks to the 'pretty delicate damask rose,' she exclaims, 'La, now you are flattering me.'

199. That this trivial little interjection descends from early times, and that it is in all probability one with the old Saxon la, we may cite the authority of Shakspeare in the mid interval, who, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, puts this exclamation into the mouths of Master Slender first, and of Mistress Quickly afterwards.

Slen. Mistris Anne: your selfe shall goe first.

Anne. Not I sir, pray you keepe on.

Slen. Truely, I will not goe first: truely la; I will not doe you that wrong.

Anne. I pray you Sir.

Slen. Ile rather be vnmannerly, then troublesome; you doe your selfe ^ng indeede-la. (Act i. Sc. 1.)

Here the interjection seems to retain somewhat of its old ceremonial significance: but when, in the ensuing scene, Mistress Quickly says, 'This is all indeede-la: but ile nere put my finger in the fire, and neede not,' there is nothing in it but the merest expletive.

200. Wa has a history much like that of la. It has changed its form in modern English to wo. 'Wo,' in the New Testament, as Rev. viii. 13, stands for the Greek interjection oval and the Latin vae. In the same way it is used in many passages in which the interjectional character is distinct. This word must be distinguished from woe, which is a substantive. For instance, in the phrase 'weal and woe.' And in such scriptures as Prov. xxiii. 29: 'Who hath woe? who hath sorrow?'

The fact is, that there were two distinct old words, namely, the interjection wa and the substantive woh, genitive woges, which meant depravity, wickedness, misery. Often as these have been blended, it would be convenient to observe the distinction, which is still practically valid, by a several orthography, writing the interjection wo, and the substantive woe.

This interjection was compounded with the previous one into the forms wala and walawa-a frequent exclamation in Chaucer, and one which, before it disappeared, was modified into the feebler form of wellaway. A still more degenerate variety of this form was well-a-day. Pathetic cries have a certain disposition to implicate the present time, as in woe worth the day!

The Norman cry Harow coupled with the Saxon walawa is often met with in our early literature, as 'Harrow and well away!' Faery Queene, ii. 8. 46.

201. There was yet another compound interjection made with la by prefixing the interjection ea. This was the Saxon eala;-Eala þu wif mycel ys pin geleafa,' Oh woman,

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great is thy faith, Matthew xv. 28; Eala fæder Abraham, gemiltsa me,' Oh father Abraham, pity me, Luke xvi. 24.

This eala may have made it easier to adopt the French hélas, in the form alas, which appears in English of the thirteenth century, as in Robert of Gloucester, 4198, 'Alas! alas! pou wrecche mon, wuch mysaventure hap pe ybrogt in to þys stede,' Alas! alas! thou wretched man, what misadventure hath brought thee into this place? And in

Chaucer it is a frequent interjection.

Allas the wo, allas the peynes stronge,
That I for yow haue suffred, and so longe;
Allas the deeth, allas myn Emelye,
Allas departynge of our compaignye,

Allas myn hertes queene, allas my wyf,
Myn hertes lady, endere of my lyf.

Knight's Tale.

Alack seems to be the more genuine representation of eala, which, escaping the influence of hélas, drew after it (or preserved rather?) the final guttural so congenial to the interjection. Thus the modern alack suggests an old form ealah. This interjection has rather a trivial use in the south of England, and we do not find it used with a dignity equal to that of alas, until by Sir Walter Scott the language of Scotland was brought into one literature with our own. Jeanie Deans cries out before the tribunal at the most painful crisis of the trial: Alack a-day! she never told me.' Still, the word is on the whole associated mainly with trivial occasions, and in this connection of ideas it has engendered the adjective lackadaysical, to characterise a person who flies into ecstasies too readily.

202. Pooh seems connected with the French exclamation of physical disgust: Pouah, quelle infection! But our pooh expresses an analogous moral sentiment: 'Pooh! pooh it's all stuff and nonsense.'

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