comma before and after 'but' [conjunction]: might be, but as yet

[wholegrain]

Herman Melville - The Confidence Man

http://www.online-literature.com/melville/confidence-man/7/

"Lucre those bills might be, but as yet having been kept unspotted from the world, not of the filthy sort."



Shouldn't there be a comma between "but" and "as"?

And why?

 

[Full Tilt Boogie]

No.

If you reduce what you're reading thus:

From "...but as yet having been kept unspotted from the world..."

To "...but as yet unseen by the world..." it should become clearer.

 

[Fedman3]

No comma is needed. In English style, commas are preferably avoided, unless the sentence is unclear or if there is a chance of being misunderstood.

 

[Full Tilt Boogie]

In English style, commas are preferably avoided, unless the sentence is unclear or if there is a chance of being misunderstood.

In English, a comma is used to introduce a natural break [or pause] to the flow of a sentence, where not to do so would allow the sentence to be overly long [rambling] and/or become unclear. It also affords the reader an idea of where the author has intended to place slight emphasis.

Whilst I take your point about an over-preponderance of punctuation use can render the reading of a sentence a somewhat staccato affair, conversely, a diluted use or lack of it can reduce the sentences in prose to a guessing game: Joyce's Finnegans Wake is a splendid example of the latter case in point; and a piece of work from which he even dismisses the apostraphe from the title.

 

[Jacobtm]

"Lucre those bills might be, but as yet having been kept unspotted from the world, not of the filthy sort."



Shouldn't there be a comma between "but" and "as"?

And why?

The previous poster is correct that no comma is needed. However, in this case, the use of a comma where you indicated is just a stylistic choice; one could put a comma there without it being incorrect.