Louisa Lane Drew as Mrs. Malaprop
IMPERFECT poet Diane Kendig wrote a clerihew for the blog about a character whose name became synonymous with a certain type of mistake.
Richard Sheridan
created this harridan
in Rivals, his play
where she mis-speaks all day.
A bit of info:
The word "malapropism"...comes from a character named "Mrs. Malaprop" in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals. Mrs. Malaprop frequently misspeaks (to comic effect) by using words which don't have the meaning that she intends but which sound similar to words that do.
Sheridan presumably chose her name in humorous reference to the word malapropos, an adjective or adverb meaning "inappropriate" or "inappropriately", derived from the French phrase mal à propos (literally "poorly placed"). [Wikipedia]
DIANE KENDIG'S five poetry chapbooks include the most recent Prison Terms, and she has also co-edited the anthology In the Company of Russell Atkins. A recipient of Ohio Arts Council Fellowships in Poetry and other awards, she has published poetry and prose in journals such as J Journal, Under the Sun, and Ekphrasis. She blogs at “Home Again” (http://dianekendig.blogspot.com/), and her website is dianekendig.com
This is very interesting. I have not heard of this particular form before. Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI am losing words with more and more frequency, but I hope I'm never known as Mrs. Malaprop!
ReplyDelete