On 8 Jul 2010, at 19:25, Matt Seattle wrote: > that it is in fact La Grande Chaine and that Le Grand Chien is the > mondegreen
I'd often wondered whether it was actually 'La Grande Chienne' (The Big Bitch) but decided not to pursue this. Perhaps the best gift in this thread so far is the word 'mondegreen' so thanks, Matt, for that! It seems there is a distinct Northumbrian connection here since the word first appears in a mishearing of Percy's Reliques, dedicated to the Duchess of Northumberland. This account is from the American writer Sylvia Wright who created the word: "When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy's Reliques, and one of my favorite poems began, as I remember: Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands, Oh, where hae ye been? They hae slain the Earl O' Moray, And Lady Mondegreen." All is revealed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen Francis To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
