108
Modern English Only and If Only
l. Volumnia: I have lived/ To see inherited my very wishes,/ And the buildings
of my fancy. Only / There’s one thing wanting ... (1607– 08 Shakespeare,
Coriolanus II.i.195– 98)
m. Antony: I am dying, Egypt, dying. Only / I here importune death awhile
until/ Of many thousand kisses the poor last/ I lay upon thy lips (1606– 07
Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra IV.xvi.19– 21)
These dates are consistent with Meurman- Solin’s (2012) fi ndings for a corpus
of private letters, where conjunctive only fi rst begins to appear in signifi cant
numbers after 1600.
Already in Early Modern English, conjunctive only is used in an “internal”
sense, relating to the communicative situation, most often in respect to the
progress of the argument:
(16) a. the best of which is yet disputable with the best Hus- wiues; only this opinion
is generally receiued, that the woodden vessell which is round and shallow is
best in colde vaults ... (1615 Markham, Countrey contentments 109 [HC])
b. For neyther doth it becom man to comprehend all shapes of his woorkes, or
by tongue or with expresse. Only this may suffi se, that we perceaue God ...
(1593 Elizabeth I, Boethius 96 [HC])
c. King Duncan: That the proportion both of thanks and payment/ Might have
been mine. Only I have left to say,/ ‘More is they due than more than all can
pay’ (1605– 06 Shakespeare, Macbeth I.iv.19– 21)^8
d. Lennox: My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,/ Which can
interpret farther. Only I say/ Things have been strangely borne. (1605– 06
Shakespeare, Macbeth III.vi.1– 3)
e. Lancelot: That is done too, sir; only ‘cover’ is the word. (1596– 97
Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice III.v.48)
f. Northumberland: Your grace mistakes. Only to be brief/ Left I his title out.
(1595– 96 Shakespeare, Richard II III.iii.10– 11)
g. I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your
lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop
to support so weak a burden. Only , if your honour seem but pleased ...”
(1592 Shakespeare, Dedication to Venus and Adonis [Schmidt 1874– 75,
s.v. only ])^9
The number of ‘adversative’ conjunctive only s is not large, but it is sig-
nifi cant. There are 35 examples of initial only^10 out of a total of 220 only s
in the King James Bible , of which nearly half (46%, or 16) are instances of
8 Nevalainen (p.c.) notes that only in examples (16c, d) focuses on the quoted words which
follow. She suggests that these may represent an intermediate stage between focusing and
conjunctive only.
9 Schmidt (1874– 75: s.v. only ) cites this as a “peculiar” passage in which only means ‘only this
I know’.
10 That is, only following a period, semicolon, colon, or comma.