“I wonder what your professor means when she speaks
of ‘symbolic references’ contained in the names of characters in Fifth Business. When a writer chooses
the names for a character in a book he is anxious to get them into the same
key—to use a musical expression…The names in Fifth Business, which
are given to the Canadian characters, and particularly to those in the village
of Deptford, are all quite familiar in Canadian ears and there are lots of
Papples and Hornicks to be found in any large Canadian telephone directory. It
is a wise rule never to assume the existence of a symbol where a meaning is
apparent without it. People who disregard this rule are sometimes called
‘Symbol Simons.’”—Canadian man of letters Robertson Davies (1913-1995), expressing annoyance in a letter
to Canadian undergraduate Theresa Riordan, December 6, 1978, regarding the first novel in his "Deptford Trilogy," in For Your Eye Alone: The Letters of Robertson Davies, edited by Judith
Shelton Grant (1999)
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