![]() ![]() In “Hamlet,” Shakespeare has the title character address the ghost of his father, who speaks to him from under the ground (or under the stage): “Well said, old mole! Canst work i’ the earth so fast?” Going back to Middle English, “mole” has referred to a small burrowing animal.By the early 17th century, “mole” could be applied metaphorically to people who were seen as sharing qualities with the animal, particularly relating to how they dig holes underground. In that same interview, le Carré was asked about one term that became particularly prominent after he used it in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” in 1974: “mole,” for a double agent who penetrates an organization and spies on it from the inside. As he revealed to a BBC interviewer in 1976, “I’ve used some authentic words, but I prefer my own really.” Those le Carré-isms include “scalphunter,” “honey-trap,” “lamplighter” and “pavement artist.” ![]() But in fact, le Carré would often make up his own terms. That verisimilitude extended to the jargon of spying in his novels, which had the ring of truth. ![]()
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