The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 19.0510  Wednesday, 27 August 2008

From:       Werner Broennimann <
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Date:       Monday, 25 Aug 2008 15:12:45 +0200
Subject: 19.0472 (An)imadversions
Comment:    Re: SHK 19.0472 (An)imadversions

"An" meaning "if" is not a "pseudo-Shakespearean word", as claimed by John 
Briggs; it occurs in the Quartos. It is true, though, that the Folio almost 
exclusively uses "and" (meaning "if"). Eighteenth-century editors invariably 
preferred "an", which permits easy pronunciation of the frequent collocation "an 
if." See details in Franz' Shakespeare Grammatik, ?564. Radical modernisation 
might arguably entail replacing both forms by "if." Sine animo.

Werner

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