eggs4ears wrote: ↑November 2nd, 2023, 5:47 pm
Thanks! I wasn't sure what was intended there. Does it mean that his whole line should be:
'Go on...same again.... go on....same again', or, 'go on...same again.... same again' ?
Yes, if they had a cellar, it would be delivered directly through the 'coal hole' somewhere in front of the house. We had no cellar, but we had a 'coal bunker' attached to the back of the house. The coalmen carried hundredweight sacks around the back of the house and emptied them into the bunker. I was just shocked at the idea of ordering half a ton of anything!
The business bit first:
As I read it, Smythe says:
Go on ... Same again ... Ditto repeato.
That is:
Go on [italicised stage directions] Same again [italicised stage directions] Ditto repeato [italicised stage directions]
I take 'Ditto repeato' to be the kind of thing he would say because he thinks it's flash or funny. He's saying his slangy versions of 'yes please', just varying his phrasing, each time in response to being offered more sugar, as I read it.
A coal bunker! That's amazing! At the risk of us turning into Monty Python's four Yorkshiremen, I don't recall coal ever being burned in the fire, just wood, with its corresponding wood shed. Although you've also raised a very good point about how half a ton would be delivered (I mean, horses and carts), not just men offloading sacks. Was the measurement different and a ton didn't mean a ton as we think of it? Or was it really half a ton, given that they'd presumably need it to run the entire household, not just heating?