Prithee the addressee, as in "if it please you," "prithee" accompanies a request which addresses itself to the threat of being answered in the negative, as though the request were against the addressee's wishes. Stated otherwise, the word "please" suggests that the person being addressed is willing to comply with the request, whereas the word "prithee" suggests that he or she is not willing. This switch from stating the speaker's contrary desire to stating the speaker's wish not to impose signaled a cultural shift in the English-speaking world in which politeness became stated negatively rather than positively. Wider repercussions are observable
The Emperor of the Ancient Word and Other Fantastic Stories were originally published from 2000-2011 in various speculative fiction magazines and anthologies. Schweitzer characterizes them in his introductory note as "some of my best stories from the past ten years or so." The Emperor of the Ancient Word and Other Fantastic Stories The Emperor of the Ancient Word and Other Fantastic Stories is a collection of fantasy short stories by American writer Darrell Schweitzer. It was first published as a trade paperback by Wildside Press in May 2013, with an ebook edition following in October of the same year. The collection consists of seventeen stories of the author, together with