Local

  In both of its occurrences the adjective 'local' collocates with  'name' and 'heaven'. . The word first occurs in Theseus' famous speech on the imagination:

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to aery nothing
A local habitation and a name.  (MND 5.1.12-17)

The second time it is spoken by Achilles when he views Hektor "limb by limb" and imagines where he will kill him:

Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his body
Shall I destroy him -- whether there, or there, there? --
That I may give the local wound a name,
And make distinct the very breach whereout
Hector's great spirit flew.  Answer me, heavens!  
                                               (Tro. 4.5.242-246)

In a speculative turn one might ask whether the collocation points to a deeper connection between the hero's sword and the poet's pen as the instruments that transform local words and deeds into fame that reaches the heavens. (Matthew Sullivan)

27 July 1999
martinmueller@nwu.edu