[lit-ideas] Re: "Finding Neverland"
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 13:08:43 EST
In a message dated 2/7/2005 3:49:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
I recall a postcard someone sent me of Barrie's house in Kirriemuir. It had
a small shed opposite, the first "Wendy house." Am I remembering
correctly...did Barrie invent the name "Wendy"?
-- He possibly did not invent "Pan", either -- but I'm not sure if he made
explicit what his specific source for that was?
Quotes below from the OED from the entry 'Peter Pan'.
Who was the actress (the politically correct 'actor' sounds odd here) who
created 'Peter Pan'. I seem to remember that Noel Coward (his first recording
ever?) was involved in the 1904 production?
No quotes for "Peter Pan Syndrome" (title of a book?). Maybe someone should
_mailto:oed3@xxxxxxxxxx (mailto:oed3@xxxxxxxxx) about it.
It would be interesting also to do a search for "Barrie" author to check
what other of his usages are recognised in the OED2 or OED3.
I notice a sort of ambiguity in the subtitle of the play: "the boy who
wouldn't grow up". It seems like an archaic use of 'would' meaning 'had
volition'.
Not like he would not _eventually_ grow up, but one that did not _desire_ to
grow up? (cf. German _willen_. _wolte_). I wonder if the phrase "boys will
be boys" was already popular in 1904, so that Barrie is echoing that proverb,
too?
Cheers,
JL
----
"Peter Pan" [The name of the boy hero of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, the
boy who wouldn't grow up (1904).]
Used attrib. to designate various styles of clothing, esp. Peter Pan collar
(also with lower-case initials), a flat collar with rounded ends, often
white or light-coloured.
1908 S. FORD Side-Stepping with Shorty iv. 60
She was sportin' a Peter Pan peekaboo that would have made Comstock gasp.
1909 Westm. Gaz. 10 July 15/1 The collars and cuffs are what we call â??Peter
Panâ??.., edged with Valenciennes.
1923 Daily Mail 12 June 1 (Advt.), Can also be had with Robespierre or
Peter Pan collar.
1933 M. LUTYENS Forthcoming Marriages 204 She was wearing a white Peter Pan
collar over a little blue cape.
1948 â??J. TEYâ?? Franchise Affair xiv. 148 Miss Tuff had worn peter-pan
collars over her dark frock for twenty years. 1958 Vogue Sept. 133 Clothes for
children with puff sleeves, peter pan collars. 1960 Times 15 Jan. 14/3 A white
silk shirt with a frilled Peter Pan collar. 1975 Listener 10 July 46/1 The
maids, they used to wear what we call their print dresses in the mornings. In
the afternoon they changed into blue alpaca or black, with white Peter Pan
collar and little cuffs.
---- Used allusively for an immature adult (usu. a man); one who is
emotionally (occas. physically) retarded. Also attrib.
1914 G. B. SHAW What I really wrote about War (1930) ii. 109 It is
frightful to think of the powers which Europe..left in the hands of this Peter
Pan
[sc. the Kaiser].
1927 A. HUXLEY Proper Stud. 163 An electorate composed in a great part of
mental Peter Pans. 1931 J. S. HUXLEY What dare I Think? ii. 62 The Peter Pan
type of semi~dwarf who, though perfectly proportioned, never grows up fully.
1956 I. BROMIGE Enchanted Garden II. iii. 99 â??Fiona..has the wide-eyed
simplicity of eternal youth.â?? â??A Peter Pan.â?? 1958 Sunday Express 15 June
15/2
Bogarde has still got his hooks into the Peter Pan racket... He is still
prowling the screen, demanding mother love from his millions of female fans.
1971
Guardian 21 Oct. 6/4 Professor Desmond Pond... Professor of psychiatry at the
London Hospital,..told of highly-educated students who became â??Peter Pansâ??
and never managed to leave adolescence. 1976 J. WAINWRIGHT Bastard v. 76 He
is something of a museum-piece..Peter Pan, in person. The fink who never grew
up..never acknowledged the responsibilities of adulthood. 1978 Time 3 July
48/2 Warren's conquests of women are not totally successful... But the Peter
Pan quality in Warren is very attractive to some. He teaches them to fly, and
they have extraordinary experiences with him. Then they grow up and go on,
and he keeps flying. Like Peter Pan, he always comes back to another little
girl who's ready to fly off with him to never-never land.
Hence Peter Peter [joc. f. PANIC n.2], confused, childish behaviour; also
as adj. [-IC], characteristic of a Peter Pan; Peter Pan(n)ish a. [-ISH1] =
Peter Panic adj.; hence Peter Pan
(n)ishness; Peter Pannery, Peter-Pannery, immaturity; childish quality or
behaviour; Peter Panning (see quot. 1974).
1914 â??I. HAYâ?? Knight on Wheels (ed. 2) xiv. 143 Mr. Mablethorpe remained
as incorrigibly Peter Pannish as ever. Although his hair was whitening..he
declined to grow up. 1928 F. E. BAILY Golden Vanity xvi. 252 They were all in
the early twenties except Joe, and he had an eternal Peter Pan-ish-ness which
made the passage of time as marked by the calendar quite immaterial in his
case. 1934 R. CAMPBELL Broken Record 160 Though not predisposed to this
Peter
Panic, I had considerable time to see it at work at first hand. 1937 Times
Lit. Suppl. 10 July 502/3 If we are seeking to know what gives a thinness to
much of his fiction..it was not â??Peter Pannishnessâ?? in the sense of
shrinking from adult reality. 1958 Listener 12 June 987/3 The Peter-Panish
English is
not entirely the fault of the translator. 1960 Spectator 2 Sept. 345 An
occasional embarrassing lapse into peter-pannery. 1962 A. HUXLEY Island ix.
152
A year in jail won't cure a Peter Pan of his endocrine disbalance... For
Peter Panic delinquency, what you need is early diagnosis. 1962 John o'
London's 2 Aug. 115/3 General air of Peter Pannery. 1974 Daily Tel. 12 Mar.
3/2 So
many people have invented fictitious children to evade income tax that Inland
Revenue officials have introduced their own catch phrase for it â??Peter
Panningâ??. 1975 Listener 9 Oct. 464/3 To use one's children's slang is Peter
Pannish. 1978 Radio Times 28 Jan. 13/4 You could say that Lewis was a
latter-day
Lewis Carroll... There is a Peter Panishness to his heroes and echoes of Ratty
and Badger in his anthropomorphics.
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