Anything, evidently, might be met with inside the covers of William Boyton’s ‘Work’.
BOYTON ANIMATES THE LEARNER.
The best of it, of course, was its extraordinary politeness. Every other question was prefixed with “Verschoon my”, and went on something like this: “Zoudt gij zoo goed willen zijn mij toe te staan...”. Then there were some plain and unornamental phrases such as “Men weet nooit hoe een koe eenen haas vangt”.—This was labelled ‘proverbial expression’, and was translated, happily enough, by “The unexpected often occurs.”
“Ik heb er het land aan je” was rendered mysteriously: “I have an objection”, “I cannot agree”.
That was puzzling enough, and delightfully vague! But for all that found the phrase doubly underlined by O’Neill and marked by him as ‘useful for general conversation’.—
CHAPTER II.
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COMPENDIOUS
GUIDE TO THE DUTCH LANGUAGE.
There was something good on every page, as might be expected from the very preface. And, withal, there was a steady process of boasting about its own merits that was most refreshing in the barren realm of grammar.
With mock modesty it dubbed itself on the title page, “The Compendious Guide,” and followed this up with another title “Korte Wegwijzer tot de nederduitsche taal.” The whole compilation was evidently the work of several generations of literary gentlemen, who aimed at the ‘Polish of the Civilized Lady’ in quite different ways, but whose united efforts certainly made ‘The Work’ remarkably incoherent.