Albert Gifford, 15, last week exacted an apology from supermarket giant, Tesco, for its alleged “misuse” of English grammar when it claimed that’s its orange juice contained oranges squeezed at their “most tastiest”.
William Shakespeare, it seems, disagreed.
He used “double comparisons” freely, writing not only: “this was the most unkindest cut of all”, in Julius Caesar;
“she comes more nearer earth than she was wont” in Othello, and even, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “what worser place can I beg in your love…?”
“Many of the purported rules of English that sticklers cite today were the invention of a small group of 18th Century grammarians”, says the author.
Source: Oliver Kamm, The Pedant, The Times, 15 March 2014.