A Cursory History of Swearing

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Julian Sharman. A Cursory History of Swearing

A Cursory History of Swearing

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I

AT THE SCUFFLERS’ CLUB

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

THE BRITISH SHIBBOLETH

CHAPTER IV

WHICH GIVES A DOG A BAD NAME

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

APPENDIX

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Julian Sharman

Published by Good Press, 2019

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When Hesiod fabled the god of oaths to be the son of Discord, the poet could hardly have foreseen the grim reality that would attach to his satiric allegory. It is now a very small thing—a matter of no consequence at all—that serious and well-meaning men once attested their assertions by making passing reference to Minerva or Helios. But yet is it none the less necessary to realise that they made such reference for the express purpose of being believed, and that when not pronouncing one or other of these forms of speech, they ran a strong chance of being absolutely disbelieved.

Hesiod has dimly chronicled the genealogy of oaths. But it was for other generations to chronicle their posterity, to hear them derided in the amphitheatre, and to see the divinities that inspired them shattered and broken down. But there is a singular survival and continuity of the ancient practice: men still swear by Jove.

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