3.313 MIPS for English? "gild the lily"? (42)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Tue, 1 Aug 89 20:19:53 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 313. Tuesday, 1 Aug 1989.
(1) Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 19:13:42 PDT (10 lines)
From: Paul Delany <USERAARY@SFU.BITNET>
Subject: MIPS for humanities
(2) Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 23:55:00 EDT (15 lines)
From: NMILLER@TRINCC.BITNET
Subject: gilding the lily
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 19:13:42 PDT
From: Paul Delany <USERAARY@SFU.BITNET>
Subject: MIPS for humanities
We are setting up a small English department computing lab, and
have the opportunity of getting a Sun computer cheaply--350 or,
perhaps, a Sparcstation. The latter runs at 12.5 MIPS. My question
for Humanists is: can they suggest practical uses for all that
power with available software? Or should we stick to our existing
(Mac-based) plans?
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 23:55:00 EDT
From: NMILLER@TRINCC.BITNET
Can someone clear up for me the provenance of the expression "to gild
the lily"? I assume that it begins with Shakespeare (King John, Act IV,
Scene 2), in which case it should have been "to _paint_ the lily", since
what was being gilded was refined gold. Is it then a kind of conflation,
in which the precision of the original gets dulled, or is there yet another
source for the phrase?
Norman Miller