SOME MISQUOTATIONS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 15

SOME MISQUOTATIONS

Popular Departures From Original Phrases HALL-MARK OF FAME The hallmark of literary fame, is, perhaps, to be frequently misquoted. It is seldom that widely read people quote correctly, the reason, of course, being that extensive reading permits the retention of the thought, but seldom of the structure, of a phrase. But the fact that the world has proved to be in stich urgent need of a writer’s thoughts that it will change their form rather than lose them is a high compliment to be paid to any author. A misquotation may take several forms. The original phrase may merely be changed from the past to the present, or from the singular to the plural, to suit verbal circumstances. Then again some authors have endeavoured to improve on phrases from earlier writers, and instances even occur when they have in a later work improved upon one of their own phrases. Some sayings have been verbally transformed for daily use, but are still retained in their original form, an example of this being the many variations of “all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do you even so unto them.” “Boys Will Be Boys.” How many people who used the quotation “boys will be boys” realise that Isaac Bickerstaffe once wrote it as “Young fellows will be young fellows” : do they realise, when they say “he who hesitates is lost,” that Addison originated the expression by writing “the woman that deliberates is lost”; or even, when they have occasion to say, “Lead on, Macduff!” that Shakespeare wrote “Lay on, Macduff”? As Hesketh Pearson points out, misquotations are thq suily quotations that are ever quot-

cd. But her book, "Common Misquotations,” in which she has collected 216 phrases which, in differing from what are assumed to be their originals, are called misquotations, was not compiled with the <j>ject of teaching people to quote accurately. Miss Pearson’s collection might be called with more accuracy a study in the origin of phrases. A person cannot reasonably be held to be quoting unless he possesses knowledge of the origin of the quotation: most of Miss Pearson’s “misquotations” are taken from common speech and literature, where a little variety of phraseology I could reasonably be regarded not so I much as the result of a desire to quote but as to repeat. i However, if we can exonerate ourselves from committing what sounds suspiciously like tlie greatest of literary crimes, the collection of the original phrases, their authors, and ac- • copied modern versions are extremely interesting, and will repay a little study with an unusual literary entertainment. One or two further instances of the type of phrase to lie met with are “when Greek, meets Greek.” originally “when Greeks joined Greeks.” then was the tug of war, from Nathaniel Lee’s “Alexander the Great.” A catch that is half for, gotten Is “the world’s as ugly, ay, as sin, and almost as delightful,” nqw simpl.v rendered “as ugly as sin.” In giving an original sentence from the Psalms as “I said in my haste, All men are liars,” the author submits that David was not so sure of his ground as we are. Shakespeare - Leads. Over a hundred authors are represented in quotations, and in many cases the words they have written have lived longer than their names. Shakespeare, of course, has more phrases quoted than any other author. Others prominent in this book are John Heywood (14971580), Robert Burton (1577-1640), Milton (1608-1674), Pope (16881744), and the Bible. Kipling is the only living writer represented, with his “Ob, East is East and West is West,” but Thomas Hardy and Sir W. S. Gilbert, of light opera, fame, are J :

two other fairly modern writers whose words remain witli us in our daily speech. It is not surprising that the list of moderns is not larger. It is seldom that a writer’s works, and consequently his phrases, obtain the recognition of posterity in his own lifetime. Heywood, who made the first collection of English proverbs, and was thus tlie first to realise their importance in literature, Is the father of quotations, and hence of misquotations. His proverbs, which he found in the street and whicli he improved in form, might be called his own misquotations. Three plays from Shakespeare from which large numbers of quotations are derived are “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” and what is described as the most English thing in English literature, “Henry IV.” “Hamlet” alone furnishes us with twice as many as the New Testament. “Common Misquotations,” by Hesketh Pearson (London; Hamish Hamilton).