On leaving left
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Today I had both lunch and dinner at the Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford. And on both occasions, I was puzzled by a couplet printed on the menu:
Famous for the
scribes who wrote
on leaving left
a kindly note
(At least according to the scrawl on the scrap of paper in my pocket, that's exactly how it reads, with no additional punctuation or other clues to construal.)
I suppose that this is a reference to the Inklings, a group including C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, who met in the back room of the Eagle and Child every Friday before lunch. My problem is that I can't parse the sentence(s) involved.
To my surprise, a web search turns up no discussion, and in fact the web seems to lack any reference at all to these two lines of tetrameter.
The best that I can do is to interpolate an implicit "and" and some parentheses, so that the scribes "wrote [and] (on leaving) left a kindly note". On this analysis, "a kindly note" is the object of both "wrote" and "left", and everything from "who" onwards is part of a relative clause. But leaving out the [and] seems impossible. You can't say "famous for the scribes who wrote left a note" — it ain't English.
Is there something obvious that I'm not seeing?
Nathan Myers said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:34 pm
Looks to me akin to a double negative, or a hasty miscorrection. "who wrote on leaving a kindly note" and "who on leaving left a kindly note" both work.
Micah said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:43 pm
[The Eagle and Child pub is] famous for the scribes who wrote [and] on leaving [they] left a kindly note.
Sky Onosson said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:43 pm
Famous for the scribes who wrote; on leaving, left a kindly note.
Does that work for you? Works for me…
Micah said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:44 pm
lazy, maybe, but acceptable for bar poetry.
William Ockham said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:44 pm
You could interpret "on leaving left a kindly note" as what the scribes wrote. Or, perhaps left is a direction, as on the stage.
Famous for the
scribes who wrote,
on leaving left,
a kindly note
Neither seems likely
Micah said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
The awkwardness comes from leaving the subjects out of both clauses.
Mark Liberman said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
@Micah, @Sky Onosson:
Your suggestions are semantically plausible, and are among those that I discussed over dinner with Greg Kochanski. But the elisions that they require are not normally possible in English, it seems to me.
Micah said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:47 pm
interesting, if you interpreted left as a stage direction (doesn't seem likely), you would have three incomplete clauses.
Micah said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:49 pm
I agree, sounds like high-schooler poetry, but I think not more elided than would be common in much impromptu rhyme
Malcolm said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:50 pm
I read it as:
Famous for the scribes who wrote;
on leaving, [they] left a kindly note
Micah said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:50 pm
It might be interesting to look for similar structures in "freestyle" hip-hop
Sky Onosson said,
October 13, 2008 @ 4:56 pm
@ Mark
Yes, but it's poetry (with no comment as to its merit AS poetry)! I don't normally expect poetry to follow grammatical rules.
Simon Cauchi said,
October 13, 2008 @ 5:04 pm
I can't parse it either. I wonder how old it is. I don't remember it from the time I worked behind the bar in the Eagle and Child (or the Bird and Baby, as it was commonly known).
Prasenjeet Dutta said,
October 13, 2008 @ 5:10 pm
> The best that I can do is to interpolate an implicit "and" and some parentheses
Perhaps they meant to print the O of 'on' in capitals? That would make this a two-line poem laid out in 4 lines, and somewhat easier to decipher:
Famous for the scribes who wrote / On leaving left a kindly note
Faith said,
October 13, 2008 @ 5:12 pm
It seems to me that in doggerel ambiguity is a virtue.
Eric Fischer said,
October 13, 2008 @ 5:21 pm
Could it be a missing comma or three?
[this pub is] famous, for the scribes who wrote, on leaving, left a kindly note
Jason Eisner said,
October 13, 2008 @ 5:38 pm
Ah, Eric is suggesting that "for" means "because" (rather than inttroducing a PP complement of "famous"). That parses.
Ben Blumson said,
October 13, 2008 @ 5:44 pm
Substituting 'for' for 'because' seems to make sense:
Famous because the scribes who wrote, on leaving left a kindly note.
Unfortunately, this makes 'who wrote' redundant, because all scribes are scribes who wrote.
John Lawler said,
October 13, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
Just a guess — so much depends on context, of which I'm ignorant — but could this be a translation of Latin doggerel?
If you're thinking of the Inklings, or any Oxonian writers previous to them, it's almost certain that they would have known Latin well enough to compose Goliardic verses ad libitum, and indeed to take Latin syntactic rules as appropriate for the English translations.
Mark Liberman said,
October 13, 2008 @ 6:04 pm
@Eric and @Jason Eisner:
So yes, I did miss something obvious — "for" might be introducing a clause, not introducing a noun phrase.
Construed that way, at least it parses.
Nathan Myers said,
October 13, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
I'm persuaded by the interpretation of "for" as "because", but I'm resisting "scribes who wrote". (As opposed to, say, "scribes who only sharpened their pencils", or "scribes who erased"?) We still need an explanation for "scribes who wrote".
I wonder if "leaving" has an ambiguous meaning, making a pun.
Daddy G. said,
October 13, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
I did some quick Googling and of course I didn't find anything of notable relevance, certainly not of an explanatory nature. (As I assumed would be the case if you and others couldn't find anything as yet.)
I did find this blog entry of a Sarah Laurence about the best pubs in Oxford and she includes a photo of what I'm guessing must be the "kindly note." I can't really decipher most of the scrawl, but I highly doubt it will shed any light on the mystery by itself.
I don't mean to be rude or to insinuate any dereliction of academic duty, but I can't help wondering… Did you actually ask anyone at the pub, either management or employee? (I want to assume that you did ask and that no one was able to shed any light on the matter, but you don't actually say that you asked.)
russell said,
October 13, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
Though "for" as "because" scans, it makes no sense. Why would the pub be famous because the scribe (who wrote!) left a note? Unless the note was of particular import, in which case wouldn't it be framed…
D. Wilson said,
October 13, 2008 @ 6:49 pm
One might consider the possibility of a transcription error: maybe "leaving" is really "having", for example.
Estel said,
October 13, 2008 @ 7:08 pm
How's this for a variation on the "for = because" theme:
Famous, for [the scribes who wrote on leaving] left a kindly note.
Taking "the scribes who wrote on leaving" cuts down on the redundancy of "scribes who wrote".
William Young said,
October 13, 2008 @ 7:09 pm
If one were to edit it for better structure (yet preserving the meter), I'm thinking it would be:
We are famed for
scribes who wrote;
Their leaving left
a kindly note.
Estel said,
October 13, 2008 @ 7:11 pm
Oops, posted without sufficient proofreading; that last sentence was supposed to say:
Taking "the scribes who wrote on leaving" as the subject of the subordinate clause cuts down on the redundancy of "scribes who wrote".
rip said,
October 13, 2008 @ 7:32 pm
If you imagine two brackets – or dashes – around "on leaving left" it reminds one of the kind of syntax one encounters in the poems of e. e. cummings:
Famous for the
scribes who wrote
(on leaving left)
a kindly note
At least, that's how it sounds to me.
Mark P said,
October 13, 2008 @ 8:19 pm
Is the "kindly note" identified?
Mark Young said,
October 13, 2008 @ 8:35 pm
Not that it makes any more sense to me, but it could be talking about scribes who wrote on the topic of leaving —
famous,
for the scribes who wrote on leaving
left a kindly note
Karen said,
October 13, 2008 @ 8:46 pm
I imagine "scribes who wrote" means "authors" rather than just scholars.
Trent said,
October 13, 2008 @ 8:58 pm
This doesn't help scanning, but perhaps "note" as in banknote? They left a tip?
Karen said,
October 13, 2008 @ 9:27 pm
This Telegraph story probably refers to the same note:
I join them in spirit with my morning pint of Brakspear and read a framed hand-written letter tacked to the wall signed by all the Inklings in 1948. (It is the year Lewis finished the first draft of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which he read aloud to Tolkien, who hated it.) The letter reads, "We, the undersigned, having just partaken of your ham, have drunk your health."
Michael W. said,
October 13, 2008 @ 9:59 pm
It seems the insertion of "on leaving" and turning it to poetry makes this too awkward. Otherwise it could be barely acceptable brevity in a journalistic style. Something like this would be okay, wouldn't it?
"Famous for scribes who wrote, ate ham."
Skullturf Q. Beavispants said,
October 13, 2008 @ 10:26 pm
Maybe I'm just anal, but I find myself wishing one word had been replaced and a pair of commas inserted:
Famous for the
scribes who wrote
who, leaving, left
a kindly note
That sounded all right to me when I said it to myself, but upon typing it, I find that it looks weird. I'm no longer sure whether it's grammatical for me to write something like "I met a man who writes for Newsweek who enjoys shrimp. But maybe that's too much of a digression.
How about:
Famous for the
scribes who wrote
and, leaving, left
a kindly note
Essentially, I tend to agree with Mark's initial assessment: not quite grammatical (although the type of ellipsis it features is often acceptable in verse or in headlines).
Skullturf Q. Beavispants said,
October 13, 2008 @ 10:27 pm
I left out a closing quote mark and can't edit my comment. Oops.
dr pepper said,
October 13, 2008 @ 10:38 pm
@Michael W
That sounds like a Jeopardy clue.
Roger Lustig said,
October 13, 2008 @ 11:22 pm
Burma Shave.
Lane said,
October 14, 2008 @ 12:01 am
Great place; a worthy one to take two meals in the same day.
I think it's as simple as this: whoever wrote it wanted meter and rhyme and didn't parse it himself (or, possibly, herself).
Maud Newton: Blog said,
October 14, 2008 @ 12:05 am
[…] lunch we went to The Eagle and Child (locally sometimes called "The Fowl and the Fetus," according to Max). That's the […]
Nathan Myers said,
October 14, 2008 @ 1:46 am
Trent: Good catch.
ellen said,
October 14, 2008 @ 3:23 am
This makes perfect sense to me… maybe I'm missing something?
Famous for the
scribes who wrote,
[who] on leaving left
a kindly note
outeast said,
October 14, 2008 @ 3:32 am
?
Famous for the
scribes who wrote
on leaving: left
a kindly note
equivalent to
Famous for the scribes who wrote when departing, leaving behind a kindly note.
…But I think there's more credibility to Trent's suggestion that it's a play on words – that the 'note' was not what they wrote, but an accompanying tip. In that case, the apparent redundancy would be the pointer that's meant to tip you off. Bit of a strained joke if that's the case though.
On the other other had, maybe it was just penned by a semiliterate.
Ray Girvan said,
October 14, 2008 @ 5:06 am
Sorry, but it's dying for pastiche:
Famous for the
silly arse
who wrote a rhyme
that doesn't parse
Nathan Myers said,
October 14, 2008 @ 5:10 am
Semiliteracy is always the best zeroeth-order hypothesis, but less fun than alternatives.
Ray Girvan said,
October 14, 2008 @ 5:16 am
Copyedit:
that doesn't parse
that fails to parse
Rachael said,
October 14, 2008 @ 5:43 am
Ray Girvan: Excellent! :)
misterfricative said,
October 14, 2008 @ 6:33 am
I think it just means that the Eagle and Child is famous because when Tolkien, Lewis et al left after one of their meetings, they left behind the celebrated note that Karen refers to above.
It's still tortuous doggerel though, and 'scribes who wrote' is an unnecessary redundancy that's only there to set up the rhyme.
Edith Mawell said,
October 14, 2008 @ 6:52 am
Is it at all possible that the kindly note was monetary, in the nature of a tip? I kept reading through all these comments and was surprised no one suggested it.
language hat said,
October 14, 2008 @ 9:02 am
I kept reading through all these comments and was surprised no one suggested it.
You didn't read very closely.
Adam Trotter said,
October 14, 2008 @ 10:19 am
I think the comments above got it. Here's another tortured, improbably silly parsing:
[We are] famous, for [because] the scribes who wrote on {and on and on], leaving [when they left], left [they left for good]: a kindly note [their leaving was a pleasant highlight of an otherwise dreary day] OR [it was kind of them to notice that it was high time they left] OR [this is just to say: please note that if you are also inclined to write on and on, we would prefer that you do so someplace else]. Oy.
Chud said,
October 14, 2008 @ 10:56 am
While I don't think this is it, it could be that the lines were taken from a larger piece:
Famous for the scribes who wrote,
On leaving left a kindly note,
And wrote that note about a boat,
That boat was called the "Sweet Lenore."
But the boat part didn't really make sense in the pub.
Ray Girvan said,
October 14, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
While I don't think this is it, it could be that the lines were taken from a larger piece:
Famous for the scribes who wrote
On leaving left a kindly note
And for the artist types who paint
On leaving right a strong complaint.
Bloix said,
October 14, 2008 @ 12:40 pm
"Scribes who wrote"? What other kind of scribe is there?
Rubrick said,
October 14, 2008 @ 2:01 pm
It reads fine if you simply delete the word "wrote" (and even better if you then add some punctuation): "Famous for the scribes who, on leaving, left a kindly note." I can barely imagine someone proposing the above, and someone else misguidedly deciding to turn it into verse by inserting "wrote".
Sky Onosson said,
October 14, 2008 @ 5:03 pm
All I can say is, thank god that linguists don't edit poetry…
david said,
October 14, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
another, impossible, fun interpretation:
it was originally:
Famous for the
scribes who right
on leaving left
a kindly note
someone thought they were being clever by changing the word 'right' to 'wrote' to make it rhyme.
let's not forget, of course, that this was undoubtedly written by a barman and not by a professor of oxford.
Ray Girvan said,
October 14, 2008 @ 7:00 pm
let's not forget, of course, that this was undoubtedly written by a barman and not by a professor of oxford.
Famous for the
scribes who drank
and then wrote
pseudo-mythic wank
Martin said,
October 15, 2008 @ 6:46 am
What if the word "left" answers the question: "To whom did they leave this note?" Then it becomes a slightly political message about the famous authors leaning to the left…
Sky Onosson said,
October 15, 2008 @ 12:49 pm
OK, I'll take one more stab at this:
Famous for the scribes who wrote, on leaving left, a kindly note.
Where left refers to the direction of the leaving. Replace "on leaving left" with "on their way out the door", and I don't see any grammatical problems.
W. Kiernan said,
October 15, 2008 @ 8:43 pm
Famous for the
scribes who wrote
on leaving right
a kindly note
works OK out loud, but written down you lose the note/wrote/write/(exit) right thing.
Daniel Barkalow said,
October 16, 2008 @ 12:37 am
If you're behind the bar in the Bird and Baby facing the patrons, the front door is, in fact, to your left. The note (of the non-monetary sort, handwritten and signed) is, in fact, posted on the wall.
G.L. Dryfoos said,
October 16, 2008 @ 7:34 pm
Has no one considered that this was a *pub* — with, y'know, alcohol likely involved in the composition and later transcription of the verse?
drjon said,
October 16, 2008 @ 11:47 pm
As the comments are TLTR, I'm offering the following as example of the meaning:
Famous for the
scribes who wrote
(on leaving) "left
a kindly note"
and advise you do the same!
Kevin said,
October 18, 2008 @ 4:12 am
Why not just construe 'leaving' as a participle and swap 'on' for 'and' (which isn't, after all, such an inconceivable transcription error). That's how a true classicist would have written it; none of this silly 'on' + gerund business.
Famous for the
Scribes who wrote
and, leaving, left
a kindly note.
The note is the direct object of both 'wrote' and 'left', i.e.: "[This pub is] famous for the scribes who wrote a kindly note and, when they departed, left it [here]."
Nota propter scriptores qui
scripserunt et decedentes
reliquerunt litterulas gratas.
a pint of bitter? said,
October 20, 2008 @ 9:36 am
i used to run this pub, and believe me, the company that own it do have a habit of mangling the english language and other fine traditions. I didn't read all this board so forgive me if i repeat but the 'note' refers to the letter signed by various assembled Inkling thanking the landlord for his hospitality now displayed in the pub. Except that its not- the note was actually sent to an american who used to send hams and other goodies to c.s.lewis during post war rationing.
maybe the couplet on the menu should be : pub company in a jam/ used a note about a ham….