Quoting Ralph Ronnquist via Dng (dng@???):

> I think Lewis Carroll had a stab at this issue as well in "Through The
> Looking Glass" where the name of the Black Knight was called
> something... or how it was.

The White Knight, but yes, exactly -- Carroll playing with what we now
call the "use-mention distinction".


‘You are sad,’ the Knight said in an anxious tone: ‘let me sing you a
song to comfort you.’

‘Is it very long?’ Alice asked, for she had heard a good deal of poetry
that day.

‘It’s long,’ said the Knight, ‘but very, VERY beautiful. Everybody that
hears me sing it--either it brings the TEARS into their eyes, or else--’

‘Or else what?’ said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.

‘Or else it doesn’t, you know. The name of the song is called “HADDOCKS’
EYES.”’

‘Oh, that’s the name of the song, is it?’ Alice said, trying to feel
interested.

‘No, you don’t understand,’ the Knight said, looking a little vexed.
‘That’s what the name is CALLED. The name really IS “THE AGED AGED
MAN.”’

‘Then I ought to have said “That’s what the SONG is called”?’ Alice
corrected herself.

‘No, you oughtn’t: that’s quite another thing! The SONG is called “WAYS
AND MEANS”: but that’s only what it’s CALLED, you know!’

‘Well, what IS the song, then?’ said Alice, who was by this time
completely bewildered.

‘I was coming to that,’ the Knight said. ‘The song really IS “A-SITTING
ON A GATE”: and the tune’s my own invention.’


The plot of the White Knight song (which he goes on to sing to Alice)
parodies Wordsworth's lyric poem "Resolution and Independence".