Wednesday, May 17, 2023
The Tar-Pot of English Literature
Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, "Brief Mention," American Journal of Philology 38.3 (1917) 333-342 (at 334):
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There is an old story which in old days I loved to embroider for my intimates, that in a circle of devout Emersonians the hierophant read aloud a sentence in which the seer declared Chaucer to be the 'tar-pot' of English literature. The mystic word was variously interpreted by various members until one skeptical soul demanded to see the text wherein was written not 'tar-pot' but 'tap-root'. The same process goes on everywhere in exegesis.
