March 10th Jago's Glossary of the Cornish Language

On this day in 1882, Dr. Frederick William Pearce Jago (1838 – 1892), a Bodmin physician, publishedThe Ancient Language and the Dialect of Cornwall’.

In his magisterial volume,  Jago described the history and causes of the decline of the Cornish language, included a Cornish – English dictionary and described dialectical variations of the Cornish language, compared medieval Cornish words with the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and identified common English words which were included in the dialects of the Cornish language.

He also wrote extensively about Dolly Pentreath (December 26th), claimed to have been the last native speaker of the Cornish language, and records the events in 1860 when Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew, Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, and the then Vicar of Paul, Rev. John Garret, unveiled a memorial stone in Paul Churchyard.  

Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813 – 1891) was born in England but he was educated in Italy. 

He did not actually visit France until 1848 and, after the Franco-Prussian War, lived in London until his death. 

He is the first of two members of the Bonaparte family to be closely associated with Cornwall, the second being Elisina Palamidessi de Castelvecchio, a great great niece of Napoleon Bonaparte who was the first wife of Grant Richards (October 21st) and who spent some years living on the Lizard Peninsula.

 

 

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