"Jeykll" does not rhyme with "freckle."
The correct (and little-known) Scottish pronunciation of Jekyll is ‘Jee-kul’... I originally discovered this uncommon fact whilst studying at Kent. It was told to me by a favourite lecturer who said that Stevenson had intended ‘Jee-kul to rhyme with treacle, not Jeck-ul to rhyme with heckle’.
I'll interrupt to note that many Americans would mispronounce "treacle" to rhyme with "heckle." I would suggest instead "Jekyll should rhyme with fecal." Now to continue...
My quest launched me into the world of Hollywood (fount of all cultural wisdom), where in 1941 a film was made based on the text starring Hollywood heavyweights Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, and Lana Turner. The film was a remake of a 1931 production starring Fredric March.The interesting thing is that March pronounced Jekyll ‘Jee-kul’, whilst Tracy pronounced it ‘Jeck-ul’. Despite being made only ten years later, Tracy’s portrayal of Jekyll and Hyde marked a watershed moment for the shift in pronunciation in mainstream society.So why did March’s pronunciation not take hold instead, given that it had a ten-year head start? [answer at the link]There seems little doubt that Stevenson meant for Jekyll to be pronounced the Scottish way. Jekyll is an actual Scottish surname and Stevenson borrowed it from a family he befriended (that of famous horticulturalist Gertrude Jekyll)...There is also a lovely anecdote that suggests Stevenson may have chosen the name as a joke, intending ‘Jee-kul’ to rhyme with ‘seek all’, in opposition to Mr Hyde (or Mr Hide) and in reference to the children’s game ‘Hide and Seek’.
Or maybe he wanted Jekyll to rhyme with cecal...
You learn something every day.
In America, 'treacle' is pronounced as 'TREE-cull'.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous at 11:34 AM. I never heard it pronounced otherwise (though I wouldn't have shown the second syllable as "cull" - more of a schwa "kəl"), living in NH all my life.
ReplyDeleteWait until you hear about the Scottish names Dalziel and Menzies.
ReplyDeleteGertrude Jekyll was a famous english horticulturalist (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Jekyll). I've never heard her name pronounced "Jeckle" - always "Jeekul".
ReplyDeleteMy wife is an English major and currently a librarian in the 20th ranked (by circulation) public library system in the country. I showed her this post and she said, "Nothing is trivial when discussing proper pronunciation of an author's work."
ReplyDeleteFWIW, she is also not a fan of rewriting books (Agatha Christie, Mark Twain...) for modern audiences.
:-)
Deletehttps://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2010/01/jury-of-english-majors.html
This makes me think of the moment in college when the professor explained that Lord Byron's Don Juan is pronounced "Jew-One." I think it was my professor's southern dialect that made it closer to "Jew-Uhn" or "Jew-Ahn," but it was nuts because I'd studied the poem in high school and my teacher didn't get that memo.
ReplyDeleteTime for another stroll down memory lane, Jeremy -
Deletehttps://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2020/08/selected-octets-and-couplets-from-lord.html
:-)
Your memory is ironclad.
ReplyDelete