Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The analyses of a text #5
The narrator recalls his adolescence.
He is an apprentice for the lawyer Mr. Spenlow.
He is crazy for Mr. Spenlow's only daughter Dora.
He was invited to Dora's birthday party by Mr. Spenlow.
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I think I committed every possible absurdity in the way of preparation for this blessed event. I turn hot when I remember the cravat I bought. My boots might be placed in any collection of instruments of torture. I provided, and sent down by the Norwood coach the night before, a delicate little hamper, amounting in itself, I thought, almost to a declaration. There were crackers in it with the tenderest mottoes that could be got for money. At six in the morning, I was in Covent Garden Market, buying a bouquet for Dora. At ten I was on horseback (I hired a gallant grey, for the occasion), with the bouquet in my hat, to keep it fresh, trotting down to Norwood.
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know what "declaration" means here.
2. And I'd like to know what "mottoes that could be got for money" means.
Thank you in advance for your help.
He is an apprentice for the lawyer Mr. Spenlow.
He is crazy for Mr. Spenlow's only daughter Dora.
He was invited to Dora's birthday party by Mr. Spenlow.
.................................
I think I committed every possible absurdity in the way of preparation for this blessed event. I turn hot when I remember the cravat I bought. My boots might be placed in any collection of instruments of torture. I provided, and sent down by the Norwood coach the night before, a delicate little hamper, amounting in itself, I thought, almost to a declaration. There were crackers in it with the tenderest mottoes that could be got for money. At six in the morning, I was in Covent Garden Market, buying a bouquet for Dora. At ten I was on horseback (I hired a gallant grey, for the occasion), with the bouquet in my hat, to keep it fresh, trotting down to Norwood.
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know what "declaration" means here.
2. And I'd like to know what "mottoes that could be got for money" means.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Top answer
1. I would guess it means a declaration of his affections for her. 2.
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1. I would guess it means a declaration of his affections for her.
2. The tenderest mottoes that one could buy.
2. The tenderest mottoes that one could buy.
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Thank you, GPY, for your so very helpful answer. 
2. I was wondering how mottoes can be purchased.
2. I was wondering how mottoes can be purchased.
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He is referring to slips of paper with 'mottoes' written on them, a bit like fortune cookies but apparently with rather more poetic messages on them. It's not clear whether the crackers referred to are biscuits like fortune cookies, or something like a Christmas cracker.
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My feeling, though I am happy to be proved wrong, is that fortune cookies probably did not exist in Dickens-era England.
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Some wisdom from Mr Google: "The original crackers were love tokens; neither more nor less. They were simply bits of twisted and fringed colored tissue paper, with a sweet and a little verse inside; and they were called "Kisses." So that explains it.
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GPYa declaration of his affections for her."declaration" in that context would not mean a proposal of marriage?
Not knowing 19th century British English I imagined it might.
CJ
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More of a declaration that he found her attractive and wished to get to know her better.
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