yangfiretiger121 wrote:
Was Raphe his name or short for Raphael?
It was in a context where I'd have expected a full name, or at least as full as he ever goes by. It's possible it was short for Raphael, but given that Ralph is much more common than Raphael, and I've not encountered Raphael being abbreviate to Raphe, it seems unlikely.
I was about to say that there was a good display of the transition in actors: Ralph Fiennes (b. 1962) to Rafe Spall (b. 1983). But actually, Rafe isn't an example of the modern Raphe's - he's named after a character in a Beaumont play from the early 17th century, so his Rafe predates the Ralphs (and shows that as late as 1983, guys like Tim Spall (working class, from inner-city London, and at that point not yet rich or famous) could encounter "Rafe" as "a cool name in an old play I'm going to steal because I've never seen it anywhere else!" rather than as just a normal variant of 'Ralph').
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!