It is uncertain when Jonson started the work on his
English Grammar(1641). But he refers to its presumably complete manuscript among the works lost when a fire broke out in his lodgings in November 1623. In “An execration upon Vulcan” (included in
The Underwood) Jonson laments the destruction of the
Grammar’s manuscript:
Was there made English, with a Grammar too, To teach some that their nurses could not do, The purity of language. (171)
Was there made English, with a Grammar too, To teach some that their nurses could not do, The purity of language. (171)
Jonson rewrote the volume sometime after 1623, though the exact timeframe remains uncertain. C. H. Herford and Percy Simpson believed that he returned to the project only in the 1630s and, according to David Riggs, The English
921 words
Citation: Vyroubalova, Ema. "The English Grammar". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 June 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=974, accessed 03 December 2024.]
