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E. Nesbit, in The Book of Dragons, toward the end of the chapter titled 'The Island of the Nine Whirlpools', wrote:

The nine rubies were used afterwards in agriculture. You had only to throw them out into a field if you wanted it plowed. Then the whole surface of the land turned itself over in its anxiety to get rid of something so wicked, and in the morning the field was found to be plowed as thoroughly as any young man at Oxford. So the wicked King did some good after all.

This is a children's book, so I'm guessing "plowed as thoroughly as any young man at Oxford" doesn't mean what it implies to me. Edith Nesbit was English and she wrote this book in a fun / silly / dry witty style. What does she mean by this line?

Peter Shor
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Winky
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  • Incidentally, the LibriVox audiobook version, read by Laurie Anne Walden, is excellent. She has the perfect intonation and voice for E. Nesbit's humor. I played it on a road trip to keep the kids entertained, and listened to it again on my commute ,for myself. – Winky Nov 14 '23 at 01:44
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    Is this an American English edition of the book? I'd've expected a Brit like Nesbit to write "ploughed" (but maybe in her day "plowed" was more used in British English, dunno). – Rand al'Thor Nov 14 '23 at 07:45
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    @Randal'Thor - No - in fact, in the Sherlock Holmes story The Three Garridebs, a text purportedly written by an Englishman is shown to be a fake by the use of the American spelling plow. Maybe the OP's copy is an American edition. – Kate Bunting Nov 14 '23 at 10:28
  • The OED shows usages of the plow form from 1595. Plough first appears on 1707 from which time both are shown. The last plow variant (apart from one in 1992) is 1880. – TripeHound Nov 14 '23 at 11:24
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    In quick read, I understood it as "the field was found to be plowed as thoroughly as any young man at Oxford would plow it". As in, the quality of the plowing matches the quality of the plowing done by "any young man at Oxford" – justhalf Nov 14 '23 at 13:23
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    @justhalf - But Oxford undergraduates don't normally plough fields, and saying a student had been 'ploughed' (as in Peter Shor's answer) was a recognised slang usage at that time (1899). – Kate Bunting Nov 14 '23 at 17:07
  • Ah, I didn't know the context was Oxford University undergraduate. I had assumed it was just referring to the place name. – justhalf Nov 15 '23 at 03:07
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    @justhalf - Well, town-dwellers don't plough fields either! – Kate Bunting Nov 15 '23 at 11:10
  • I guess that's the missing context! haha. I felt this children's book is talking about some very old time where Oxford were a farmland. I suppose I was an ignorant on how far ago Oxford has history. – justhalf Nov 15 '23 at 14:25
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    I understood 'plow/plough' in the quote as something the examiners do to the student. Rather more than just missing a pass mark by a percent or two - failing spectacularly, probably because the student spent their year drinking and partying.

    From The Time Machine by H. G. Wells:

    ‘One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato,’ the Very Young Man thought.

    ‘In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.’

    (Little-go was an early exam to check your Greek and Latin was up to scratch)

     – Richard Kirk Nov 15 '23 at 19:01
  • @Randal'Thor Almost irrelevantly, my experience has been that when there's a clash, better dictionaries tend to show what we now think of as US American English to have been at least equally and sometimes more common than what we now see as British English. The time-scale matters and here, that's broadly what you consider as the colonial period…

    By 'better dictionaries' I first suggest Webster's, and other favourites are available.

     – Robbie Goodwin Nov 17 '23 at 00:37

2 Answers2

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This is a punning comparison, like

He lies like a rug,
He'll fold faster than a lawn chair.

We still use them in English, but they were considerably more common in previous centuries.

There's actually another punning comparison in this story:

his [the dragon's] claws were as long as lessons and as sharp as bayonets.

Note that lessons aren't long in the same way that claws are long.

Looking in the OED yields this definition of "plough":

transitive. colloquial (originally University slang). To reject (a candidate) as not reaching the required standard, esp. the pass standard, in an examination; to fail to reach the required standard in (an examination, etc.). Cf. pluck v. 8a. Now somewhat archaic. 1854--

This is the definition in the OED that seems to fit best, and in my opinion, it fits quite well.

Peter Shor
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  • While this is a fine find, I do think think that it fits the text at all if read in its full context. – Jack Aidley Nov 14 '23 at 16:58
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    @JackAidley: I think this is one of those punning comparisons that English authors used to be so fond of (and still use occasionally) like “he lies like a dog,” or “he’ll fold faster than a lawn chair.” – Peter Shor Nov 14 '23 at 17:01
  • Yes, it could be that. – Jack Aidley Nov 14 '23 at 17:03
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    wait, so all the young men at Oxford were regularly failing their exams and known for this? – Michael Nov 14 '23 at 18:47
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    @Michael Perhaps this was back when universities had standards ;-) Exams were tough, it wasn't free degrees for anyone who could get into the university. – Rand al'Thor Nov 14 '23 at 21:13
  • This makes sense to me... Earlier in the story, the young sailor needs to solve a math problem, to complete a trial and marry the princess (spoiler: he does). There is a long description of how difficult this is for him. I'm not sure if this is intended to tie back to that. But I'd like to think so! – Winky Nov 15 '23 at 01:08
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    @Michael All of them? No. But the quote says “any”, not “every”. The field is ploughed as thoroughly by these rubies as any young man could be by an Oxford exam. Some young men sitting exams at Oxford will be well and truly ploughed (not to mention thrashed, crushed, owned, chewed up and spit out, and any number of other idioms) by the exam. – Tim Pederick Nov 15 '23 at 13:45
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    @PeterShor I find it an interesting contrast that this comparison uses the figurative (or at least idiomatic) as an analogy for the literal. Folding like a lawn chair and its ilk use the literal as an analogy for the figurative. I think it’s a good part of the humour I find in this quoted passage, but that may just be me. – Tim Pederick Nov 15 '23 at 13:49
  • @TimPederick The phrase pattern "Xed as any Y" implies that X is the norm for Ys, but not necessarily all. E.g. you could say "As red as any sunset". As hard as Oxford may be, is it really normal for students to fail? – Barmar Nov 15 '23 at 15:24
  • @Barmar I disagree—I would describe such an X as a frequent feature of Y, and a prominent feature when present, but not necessarily the norm. “As cold as any stone” (Shakespeare) doesn’t mean that all (or even most) stones are cold, but when stones do get cold, they get really cold. “As X as any Y” = “Pick any Y you like. Pick the X-est one you ever came across. This is as X as that was, as X as any Y could be.” – Tim Pederick Nov 15 '23 at 16:09
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    @Barmar: This is a punning comparison in a humorous story. If Edith Nesbit has underestimated the scholarly abilities of Oxford students here, it just serves to make it funnier. – Peter Shor Nov 15 '23 at 16:36
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    The student 'is ploughed' by the examiners if he fails badly. I take this to be what a farmer does with a spoiled crop: give it up, plough it back into the earth, and hope next year something better comes up. This is not normal for Oxford or elsewhere, but there are always some that prefer drink and revels to study. – Richard Kirk Nov 15 '23 at 19:33
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Ploughed is British slang for drunk, documented as far back as Dickens, and still in local usage on both sides of the pond.

Drunken university students, especially young ones, are not uncommon and Oxford is known for its drinking culture.

I'm assuming an Americanized edition would explain the spelling change from "ploughed" to "plowed".

terdon
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Josh King
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    That's both amusing and makes sense in the context of the paragraph, but I'm not sure that the author would have meant it that way, given the intended audience. Sure, other dragons in this book liked to eat children, but that's standard fare for dragon associated fables. More so than drunken undergrads... – Winky Nov 14 '23 at 19:51
  • Ploughed/plowed might once have been slang for 'drunk' on either side of the pond but I suggest that today, neither spelling is used any more than any other active verb… and like Winky, I'm not sure the author would have meant any such thing. – Robbie Goodwin Nov 17 '23 at 00:47
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    @RobbieGoodwin for clarity the book in question was written in 1899, and Oxfords drinking culture started with wine clubs nearly as old as the school itself. – Josh King Nov 17 '23 at 02:14
  • @JoshKing The only reason I'm saying this, is that you addressed that Comment to me specifically. Since you did, thanks and I hope others find it helpful. – Robbie Goodwin Nov 17 '23 at 23:56