"WORDS, WORDS, WORDS."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 593, 23 August 1909, Page 9

"WORDS, WORDS, WORDS."

••— —-*•— —- THE ART OF QUOTATION. A SEANCE. OF GREAT SPIRITS. ' ...„ .''.''. '(By "X") : "Always verify your quotations," is reputed saying of the late Lord Salisburj to which excellent advice T would add tl warning, of- Isaac Disraeli, that the rigl iiso -of quotations is not at all a simp thing, but a very difficult art. . Nearly all of us who write, ' or mal speeches, have erred so often in this wo that, we must, recognise at once tho'.justk of these remarks, but all the good rosoh toons wo m«y make .are no guarantee th: we shall not erf again. Wo do so in' « alted, authoritative, and humorous companj A southern paper is waiting tremulously fc the return of Sir Joseph Ward, in the hop that he will be able to dispel the harrow mg, but only too well-founded, suspicion' tha ho said, "If England to herself remain bu true," whereas „Shakespeare,-is .alleged t haro written, "do rest but true." Scholarsrcanimisquote as,flagrantly as pol ticians'.' Professor Cowell, who'.was Fits gorald's friend and first introduced him t Omar, onco gave tho fdllowing as an es tract from Tennyson :— ,'./,'. ;'. Moonlit casements opening on the,foam • . Of perilous seas in faerie lands forlorn.'' ... Whereas, "every schoolboy knows" ,(Macau lay's formula)' that the lines are fror lieats's "Ode to a Nightingale," and tha he. wrote, not "moonlit," ..but "magic case meats." -Such . a mistake' by a Cainbridg' Professor of Sanskrit, translator and write of poetry, and friend of Tennyson, suggest! that we should all bo tolerant of each other' lapses. Perhaps Cowoll mingled the pas sage with a sub-conscious memory of Tenny son's "enchanted towers of Carbonek." '.Popular acceptance as a guide to correct ness in quotation is just as fallacious as th< example of tho learned. Many people stil think, that the saying, "God tempers tk< wind to the shorn lamb" is'in, tho Bible, Mr. Birrelihas noted that "so pious a railway director as ■ Sir Edward Watkin" once quoted.it as Scripture. _ Sterne is- its real author-ror at anyrate, its literary parent. There are passages whioh nearly everybody misquotes.' Gray wrote "the noiseless'tenor of their:way" (not,the "even tenor"); arid thero is no. mention of "fields" in the closing lino of "Lycidas"—"To-morrow to fresh woods.and pastures/new." _' ' ■■: ■'. Some quotations' arc", invariably misunderstood', and misapplied. ' The commonest of these is. perhaps, 'the Shakespearean phrase, "More honoured in the breach than tho observance." This is generally applied to rules that are riot, kept. Shakespeare's meaning was quite different; Hamlet is disgusted with the bibulous habits Of his uncle's court, and when allusion is mad© to \ the custom of firing cannon whenever the king drinks a health he remarks, " '.'_.'' "•;.-.'■ v . j ...!,'',•''{; : ."It is.n custom. ~ Mora honoured in tho breach : than the, ob,'..sorvonce,"■.'■...■■,';'.■' '■'...' '."';■:'■.■;. meaning a custom which it would bo more b'onourablo' 'to ignore than' to keep , up. Shakespeare' regularly '•■ use's' :■ "honoured" •vhcre: we should say "honourable." ■ If quotation; is an; art, it would obviously require a whole volume to expound its p'riiiiiples; but one'or 'two', aro suggested by eximples;.that oonlfe readily to mind. ... ■ ,_, '• Never "drag in" a quotation. Mark 'Twain somowhore quotes something that does > not seem particularly appropriate,, and'then renarks,- -"I meant: fc: got .that quotation in. !'ve been. trying, for pages and ; pages, and low I've doh'e'it." 'To comment,on this ex-, juisße.piece of .satire '\vould bo 'to "gild romed'gold." ' .";'-y.,'' : '.'.'• '•'!'■ .'. ;: '—■';,. '•}', •;.'•' Consider. what your'quotations 'suggest-as :arefully , as' what they 'actually, 'say.;. . Ob'ionsly, to anyone who knows the, source if a- quotation,, the firstv thing it suggests s usußlly-'the context.'. Everyono'-ought to lave read Wordsworth's poem, beginning, Three years she grow' in sun and shower/' ,t imagines Nature adopting a littlo girl, !nd making a natural lady of her by surounding herewith beautiful wild things. s ,:.to ,learn "majesty. from .the: clouds, ;race from the willow, and love from midlight stars. '..'• . .-.■'•: .•"■••• '- . .' . "And she-shall lean her ear ~ / l In'many a secret place. Where rivulets dance their wayward round < And beauty born of murmuring sound Shall pass into her face." '. ,' low, a certain very, superior literary person, diom I shall not name, : because I can only uote him from memory, once wrote a book bout -New'-Zealand.''' I should say (though do not knbwhim personally) that", however or intellectual' his appearanco iiiy.' bei' nobody- would think of calling his ounteance beautiful..'-.. Yet the prcfaco to is book' contained something like'.".. this: 'The writer of this volume knows this fair puntry from its far north to its farthest outh. He has scaled its dizziest, peaks, wandered in' its primeval 'forests; : .6tood be-. Ide its headlong cataracts, and leaned; ■ 'Where rivulet's dance their wayward round And beauty born of murmuring,sound' . as often delighted his ea'r.",'.' . v ,I'ha't is a particularly horrible, example oi ow.not to quote.' But. tho contest ( is' by o' means the only factor in the. suggestive alue of a quotation. The immense ; difßulty. of tho rule I am trying to illustrate (ill be seen when it is realised that every uotation calls up'a different train of asso'iations in the\mind of ©very reader who as.a previous acquaintance with it. Hence om'e disasters against which -no one can be orearmed. I'once read "Maud Muller" loud iu a mixed'company; A young lady igglcd.' : . When Tasked what there was so uhny about it, she said it reminded her of Irefc Harte's parody of tho piece. That, of jurse, was her fault.. People should learn 0 enjoy a parody without losing any pleaure they may have in tho thing parodied. was, similarly unfortunate when 1 placed lirec words from "As You Like It" at the ead r Of my last article. A correspondent ointed out that Hugh.Miller, onco wrote Jinethihg much better under the .same title, le seems to,have felt injured, but I really ad no intention of. reminding him, just ieii, of any other writer bait Shakespeare, 'ho' is, of course, beyond comparison—"outJpping knowledge." That brings mo, to another rule: Don't it' the quotation too brightly outshine the lerit'bf your'owri'm&ttcr. This also is a ifficult rule to keep. Some'will ask, "Who ould quote at all, if ho could put his bought as well in his own language?" But bat is not tho whole case. The proporlysed quotation may be niore expressive than ny : phrases, tho. qudtor could build, but he bows a more or less compensatory ■ merit 1 his presumed knowledgo of the source nd in his exercise of tho art of quotation, [nfortunatoly, ho is always liable to bo donated by the peculiarities 'of • the reader's lental furniture. -Oliver Wendell Holmes aid of a lady who, in.praising a poem to its utlior, said there was ono line which she dmired more than all the restr-"Tho-pro-or study of mankind is man." How could o tell her, after that, that ho had merely uoted it from: Pope?, .' Some regard quotation as a vicious l 'habit* hoy think, it is inconsistent with original,y. Yet the fame of Confucius would hardly ave lasted this amazing, number of centuri's if ho had nrit been an original man, and. e iiisisted (so Sir. Hwang''told us the other ight) that ho was only a transmitter of the isdow of tho ancients. Plato's reputation 3 a philosopher rests chiefly oh his cxcclint reports of the conversations'of Sdcra;s. Montaigne is reckoned among_ the most riginal of \vriters, yot one's first impression n oponing the • "Essays" is tho ' frequency f his.Quotations. The, art of quoting will ist as long as the habit of reading and the wulty of remembering. It may bo overone (as by' Lord Avcbury), but then it is ot art. liijlhtly used, it is a aummoninK of be « : ioo and pleasant of ipeech, bo thoy cad or distant, and heariag what they have i say upon the problems that vex us, or be fancies that amuse us, hero. and now. Mat need is there of "mediums," "conrOls," "apports," and tho rest of the oubtful machinery of spiritism, when, in a brary of sixpenny reprints, wo may have ' seanco of great spirits, and in ono short uwspapcr ■ column we may hear from .the ito Lord Salifihury, Isaac Disraeli, Shakcscarc, Macanlay.- Keats,. Tennyson, Stonie, ray, Milton, Mark Twain. Wordsworth, lolmes,' Popo, Confuoioua, Plftto ( and Moniigno?' "