83j. Whylome , when IRELAND fl orished in fame (1590– 96 Spenser, Fairie
queene VII.vi.38.1)
‘Once upon a time, when Ireland fl ourished in fame’
k. Whilome there wonned a wicked Wolfe/ That with many a Lamb had glutted
his gulfe (1579 Spenser, Shepheardes calender Sept. 184)
‘Once upon a time there was a wicked wolf that indulged his rapacious appe-
tite with many a lamb’
l. Within the Principality of Viennois , whilome there lived and ruled; as
Daulphin , a most renowned Prince, (1632 M. M., Vienna [EEBO])
m. Whilome there Liv’d an aged Beggar old, / That in his Life full fourscore
years had told; (1676 Anon., The Beggar’s wedding, or the jovial crew
[EEBO])
Here, whilom serves as a pragmatic marker denoting the initiation of a story,
episode, or exemplum. A number of features in the context point to this intro-
ductory function:
(a) episode- introducing metacomments such as hit ilamp (7a) or it befell (7b),
both meaning ‘it happened’ (see Brinton 1996 : Ch. 5);
(b) introductory existential constructions with ther(e) {was , dwelled , lived ,
wonned , etc.};
(c) scene- setting temporal adverbials such as be olde daies fer (7c and 7d);
(d) narrator comments referring to the telling of a tale: “a tale I rede” (7c), “as
ancient stories tell us” (7i), “as olde stories tellen us” (7e), or “wherof a
proper tale I read” (7b).
In The Canterbury tales , whilom occurs at the very beginning of at least nine
of the tales (“The Knight’s Tale” [7e], “The Miller’s tale,” “The Cook’s tale,”
“The Man of Law’s tale,” “The Friar’s tale,” “The Merchant’s tale” [7f], “The
Pardoner’s tale,” “The Shipman’s tale,” and “The Nun’s Priest’s tale”) as well
as the story of Cresus in “The Monk’s tale” and other internal exempla and
anecdotes; in Confessio amantis , it begins many of the tales (such as the Tale
of Narcissus [7c]).
In discussing the rise of pragmatic markers from adverbs, Traugott ( 1982 ,
1995a ), proposes two paths of development, as discussed in Section 1.4.1.1 :
adverb > conjunction > pragmatic marker
clause- internal adverb > sentential adverb > pragmatic markerWhat we see in the case of whilom bears similarities to both patterns, but
does not follow either unilineal path. As a temporal adverb meaning ‘at times,
sometimes’ it typically modifi es the iterative or habitual event expressed in the
predicate of the sentence; it occurs internal to the clause, though its position is
variable, as is common for temporal adverbials. In its correlated use, meaning
‘sometimes ... other times,’ it moves to initial position in a phrase or clause,
3.3 Evolution of Whilom