Literary notes about Privy (AI summary)
In literature, “privy” is a multifaceted term that oscillates between denoting secret knowledge and identifying positions of authority or private spaces. In some works, it signifies having intimate or confidential insight into hidden plots or personal schemes, as when a character is “privy to the suppression of the Diamond” or made aware of a clandestine plot ([1],[2],[3]). Simultaneously, the term is frequently employed in institutional contexts, marking the close advisory roles within the government, such as being a privy councillor or engaging with the Privy Council or Privy Seal, thereby underscoring a person’s trusted position in state affairs ([4],[5],[6],[7]). Additionally, “privy” can denote literal privacy, referring to secluded parts or locations that are offstage to public view ([8],[9],[10]). Overall, its varied applications in literature highlight themes of secrecy, authority, and intimate access.
- I suspected her at once of being privy to the suppression of the Diamond.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - Know, worthy prince, Sir Valentine, my friend, This night intends to steal away your daughter; Myself am one made privy to the plot.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - In justice to you, I have made you privy to my whole design, and put it in your power to ruin or advance my fortune.
— from The Way of the World by William Congreve - If she had a different father, it would do, but everyone knows he is a famous professor, a privy councillor."
— from The Bet, and other stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - But there the court of appeal, the Privy Council, has been largely composed of common-law
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - Sir William Pen told me this day that Mr. Coventry is to be sworn a Privy Counsellor, at which my soul is glad.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - His father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was an eminent lawyer, and for twenty years Keeper of the Seals and Privy Counsellor to Queen Elizabeth.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon - Do you not understand, that whatsoever entereth into the mouth, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the privy?
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - It is used also in hot and virulent ulcers and sores in the privy parts of men and women, or on the legs, or elsewhere.
— from The Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper - Then said Pantagruel, How dost thou know that the privy parts of women are at such a cheap rate?
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
