Ouen and Dorcas and ??

David Stockhoff · 06 Dec 2010, 12:31 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2010 07:31:41 -0500
Subject: (urth) Ouen and Dorcas and ??
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W18C411AEEDE980B5944FC6CF2B0 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W18C411AEEDE980B5944FC6CF2B0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4CFCD7AD.2090609 at verizon.net>

I have noticed this as well, but in a society in which quantification is 
not precise, and a mother can die several days after giving birth, this 
may be exactly correct as far as Ouen knows.

However, if this were a Gothic mystery, we would assume the father was 
at least hiding something to protect his son---such as, she killed 
herself some time during Ouen's first year. Most people raised on such 
half-truths would not question such a small discrepancy.

What else could this hide?

On 12/6/2010 6:00 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
>> >Ouen: I never knew her, sieur.  Cas they called her, but she died when I was young.
>> >in childbirth, my father said.
>
> Borski takes this to imply that Dorcas had a pregnancy and birth after Ouen. I agree
> that it is a strange (though not impossible) turn of phrase to refer to one's self at
> birth as "young". I would express it as "she died when I was born".

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