Literary notes about Proviso (AI summary)
Across literary works, the term "proviso" is frequently employed as a succinct marker for a condition, limitation, or exception that modifies or qualifies a statement, agreement, or assertion. In Dickens’s work, for example, it functions as an implicit condition supporting a character's belief [1], while Congreve uses it humorously to stipulate a personal condition attached to an overseas venture [2, 3]. Likewise, Verne’s repeated invocation of “one proviso” underscores a singular, albeit significant, exception within broader narratives [4, 5]. Austen presents it as a practical caveat concerning natural events [6], and Carlyle and Mill invoke it to frame critical socio-political and philosophical arguments regarding justice and liberty [7, 8]. Even in historical and satirical contexts, such as in Jefferson’s and Eliot’s works, “proviso” is adapted to mark conditions that either temper expectations or introduce irony [9, 10]. Meanwhile, Suetonius and Nietzsche extend its use to denote conditions in personal promises and logical reasoning, respectively [11, 12]. This breadth of application illustrates that, across a spectrum of genres and eras, "proviso" consistently serves to articulate conditions that subtly alter the meaning or impact of the main discourse.
- Is that so?' Always with the proviso that Podsnap will rally round him, Veneering thinks it is so.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - He has been overseas once already; and with proviso that I marry my cousin, will cross ’em once again, only to bear me company.
— from The Way of the World by William Congreve - I will endeavour what I can to forget, but on proviso that you resign the contract with my niece immediately.
— from The Way of the World by William Congreve - "But one proviso," I said, "just one.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - "But your proviso applies to any escape attempt, whether it happens in two years or two days.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - This was readily agreed to, with only a proviso of Miss Tilney's, that it did not rain, which Catherine was sure it would not.
— from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - A decisive Law; and most just on one proviso: that all Patrollotism be of God, and all mob-assembling be of the Devil;—otherwise not so just.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - This last proviso is of course indispensable.
— from On Liberty by John Stuart Mill - “Proviso tamen ut si vir cl.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - " This proviso might have sounded rather satirically in Will's ear if he had been in a mood to care about such satire.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - And for some days afterwards, he never promised a favour to any person, without this proviso, “if Pontus Aquila will give me leave.” LXXIX.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius - Logic is bound up with the proviso: granted that identical cases exist .
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche
