The objective
pronoun _me_, is very sparingly employed indeed--I, in
general supplying its place as in the preceding sentence: to this
barbarism in the name of my native dialect, I must plead guilty!--
if barbarism our metropolitan critics shall be pleased to term it.
[Footnote: By the way I must just retort upon our polished
dialect, that it has gone over to the other extreme in avoidance
of the I, using me in many sentences where I ought most decidedly
to be employed. It was me [Footnote: I am aware that some of our
lexicographers have attempted a defence of this solecism by
deriving it from the French c'est moi; but, I think it is from
their affected dislike of direct egotism; and that, whenever they
can, they avoid the I in order that they might not be thought at
once vulgar and egotistic!] is constantly dinned in our ears for
it was I: as well as indeed one word more, although not a pronoun,
this is, the almost constant use in London of the verb to lay for
the verb to lie, and ketch for catch.
Pages:
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189