The University of Southern California recentlymade headlineswhen officials unveil USC Village , a huge complex with space for eight residential college , a dining student residence , retail infinite , and more . However , a new campus statue depicting Hecuba , the mythical pansy of Troy , momently shadow the costly new buildings . As theLos Angeles Timesreports , poetry from Shakespeare’sHamletare inscribe at the statue ’s base , but with one flyspeck problem : The engraver seems to have misspelled the Bard ’s name .
The excerpt reads:“And all for nothing — For Hecuba!What ’s Hecuba to him , or he to Hecuba , That he should weep for her?”Shakespear ’s Hamlet ”
The mistake drew ridicule from the University of California , Los Angeles , which has a renowned longstanding contention with USC .
Instead of thieve to the error ( or simply stuff an special “ eastward ” into the inscription ) , USC fight back the spelling : " To E , or not to E , that is the head , ” USC said in a statement . “ Over the centuries his family name has been spelled 20 different means . USC chose an older spelling because of the ancient tactile property of the statue , even though it is not the most vulgar pattern . "
USC is n’t entirely off - base , allot toThe Guardian . The newspaper spoke with Martin Butler , a prof of English Renaissance Drama at the University of Leeds , who explain that there is a “ lot of variation in the manner the name is spelled when it come along in modern-day sound documents and the early print texts of Shakespeare ’s works . ” In addition to Shakespeare , he says , there ’s “ Shakspeare , Shakspere , Shakespear , Shaksper , Shackspeare , even Shagspere . ”
The Bard ’s early printed works touch to him using today ’s pop spelling , or by a hyphen variant , " handshake - speare . ” However , “ Shakespear ” became popular in the 18th century , and was used by important editor program like Alexander Pope and Nicholas Rowe .
“ Since Victorian sentence , most variation have used the spelling ‘ Shakespeare ’ and it is universally predominant in donnish writing today , ” Butler concluded . “ Leaving the ‘ atomic number 99 ’ off is probably an attempt to make Shakespeare seem to belong to to a more distant past ; it feel more antique , but it does n’t really have any particular title to be the preferable spelling . ”
In short , neither USC nor UCLA is technically wrong . But as long as the Trojans and Bruins continue to duke it out on the football game battleground , the two schools will likely still haggle off - field over the statue ’s missing — or not missing—“e . ”
[ h / tLos Angeles Times ]
