Re: Archiving old magazines on website

["John Burns" <joobs@grizo.free-onlineNOJUNK.co.uk>]

On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 14:58:20 -0000, "Tony A." wrote:

> "Exegete" <millers@noneofyourbusiness.com> wrote in message
> news:404dcfdf$1_5@corp.newsgroups.com... [...]
> > > As for who is the dumbass let's see the proof for your statement. No
> proof and
> > > you'll have been hung by your own petard.
> > >
> >
> > Now, now, now. Don't use words he doesn't know.
> >
> > Roy
> >
> I hate to nitpick, but one cannot be hung by ones own petard. The petard was
> a small gunpowder bomb in use in shakespearean times, and "to be hoist by
> one's own petard" means "to be blown up by ones own bomb". It has nothing to
> do with hanging, that is a common but incorrect inference of the meaning of
> the phrase.

I accept and know what Shakespeare actually said (Hamlet act 3, sc 4

(speaking of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - his chlidhood friends)

[R and G will] marshal me to knavery; let it work
for 'tis the sport to have the engine(e)r
Hoist with (by) his own petar(d); and 't (it) shall go hard
But I will delve (dig) one yard below their mines 
and blow them to the moon

(??) = modern wording / spelling

In other words Hamlet is (metaphorically) saying that he will use their own bomb
(he suspects they are out to betray him) to cause their demise by planting his
own below it. (He succeeds BTW: The "bomb" is actually two sealed letters
(carried by R and G) from King Claudius ordering Hamlet's death. His own "bomb"
is that he opens said and simply changes his name to those of R and G
respectively - nice friends huh?).

In the context in which I used the phrase (metaphorically also) I meant that his
argument would be hung (as in "hung out to dry" (exposed)) by the very device 
which he attempts to use to blow up my argument. His reply that I should do my
own research only shows how weak his argument was. I cannot prove a negative,
but then neither can he (hence his feeble reply); it is for him to show proof.

Of course I accept that my use of the phrase was open to mis-interpretation
since most see it as a physical (hung (hanging) and petard (some sort of crane))
statement than as metaphor, mea Culpa. But then when it leads to a discussion on
Shakespeare can it be so bad  ;)