FAMILIAR PHRASES

Cromwell Argus, Volume L, Issue 2646, 27 October 1919, Page 2

FAMILIAR PHRASES

Amongst the many familiar phrases for which the world is indebted to Hubert l.urns (1759-1796). writes “M.,” in the Melbourne ‘ Age,’ low are quoted more frequently than “The rank is but the ,gii! l tea’s stamp, the man’s the gowd for a’ [hat. William Wycherley (1640-1715) and written “ 1 weigh the man. not his title ; tis not the King’s stamp can make the incial better. Mankind has also been enriched by tile works of William Wordsworth (1770-1850). One of his great admirers. S. 9'. Coleridge (1772-1834) once said to him; “Since Milton. I know of no poet-with so many felicities and unforgettable lines and stanzas as you.” One ot Wordsworth's phrases is “The child is father to the man." In ‘ Paradise Regained ’ Milton wrote: “The childhood shows the man as morning shows flip day.” Wordsworth used the'phrase “ Unconquerable pang- of despised love.” Shakespeare made Hamlet speak of “the pangs of despised love ” in his famous soliloquy. Like angel visits, few and far between.” was written by Thomas Campbell (1777-1844). _ John Norris (1657-1711) had written “ Like angels’ visits, short and bright.” and Hubert Blair (1699-1747) “ In visits like those of angels, short and far between.” Lord Byron (1788-1824) wrote many line lines about the sea. “ Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow ” seems to have suggested the words of .Robert Montgomery (1807-1855), And thou vast ocean, on whose awful face

Time’s iron feet can print no ruin trace. Another of Byron’s lines is : “ In solitude where we arc least alone.” but “ never less alone than when alone ” occurs in the. poems of S. Rogers (1763-1855). “A wise man is never less alone than when lie is alone ” in the works of J* Swift (16671745), while the words “ nor that he was ever less alone than when alone ” were quoted as a saying of Scipio Africanua by Cicero- (106-43 u.c.). Thomas Hood (17981845) is being commonly credited with the lines—

' Rattle his hones over the stones. He’s only a pauper whom nobody owns. But the author was Thomas Nod (1799 1861).

‘ The New Zealander of Macaulay ’ (1800-1859) will be re me in be ml by readers of Macaulay’s Essays. The image is also employed by Volney in his ‘Ruins of Ancient Empires’ (1791). a traveller, instead of a New Zealander, being represented as viewing the ruins on the banks of the Seine, the Thames, or the Zuyder Zee. Horace Walpole, in 1774. wrote of a curious traveller from Lima, visiting England some day. and giving a. description of the ruins of St. Raul’s. Shelley employs a similar image in. his dedication to Peter Bell, written in 1819. The phrase “every schoolboy knows” has often been credited to Macau Icy, who used it in that and other forms. Bub it also appears in the works of earlier writers. Burton and Jeremy Taylor, and Swift wrote— Oh. how our neighbor lifts bis nose. To tell what every schoolboy knows. The phrase “Castles in the air” occurs in the works of J. Ballantino (1808-1877). Bnlwer Lytton (1805-1875), and in Burton’s ‘Anatomy of Melancholy.’ “Out of sight, out of mind “ was written by A. H. Clough (1819-1851), but Thomas a'Kcmpis (1379-1471). in ‘The Imitation of Clvust.’ wrote : “ But when he (man) shall have been taken from sight, ho quickly goes also out of mind.” The saying “ With how little wisdom the world is governed ’’ is ascribed to a wise Rope, also to Count Axel Oxciisticrna of Sweden (1583-1654). Charles 11., ■when attending Parliament during a discussion on Lord Ross's Divorce Bill, is credited with the saying, “As good as a play.” Macnuley. in his review of the writings of William Temple, referring to the same practice of Charles 11.. said the King used to say the debates were “ better than a comedy.” The words “ better than a play ” arc credited to Pietro Aretino (1492-1557). V\ e have quoted certain well-known phrases uttered by (Gladstone and Disraeli. The latter’s could be added to by reference to Ins novels. Politicians who lived before the, time of Gladstone and Disraeli have left sayings on record which have become “ current coin ” of conversation. It was Robert Walpole who said : "All men have their price.” The Earl of Chatham, in a speech on the case of Wilkes, said; “Where law ends, tyranny begins.” Edmund Burke spoke of “ bidders at the auction of popularity,” "wise and salutary neglect,” “cold neutrality,” and remarked": “ What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue. ’ The phrase “ Conspicuous by its absence ” was used by Lord John Russell in 1859. It was derived from a passage by Tacitus (65-120). Lord Palmerston (1784-1865) spoke of “a fortuitous concourse of atoms,” but the phrase was borrowed from Cicero. J‘or some well-known quotations we are indebted to the French. It was Froissart who said “the English take their pleasures sadly,” and Voltaire (1694-1778), who criticised the English nation in the words : broth at the top., dregs at the bottom, but the middle excellent.” Voltaire is also credited with the phrase ; “ Speech uas given to man to conceal his thoughts,” though an obscure man named Harel used t.re same phrase, with the word “ disguise ” in place of “conceal.” The English poet Voung (1684-1765) said “men talk only to conceal the mind.” Jeremy iaylor (1613-1667) gave expression to the same thought. It was Madame Cornnel who declared that “no man is a hero to his valet.” Montaigne puts it: “Few men are admired by their servants.” the phrase “all is lost save honor” is also trench, being credited to Francis I. Another king, Louis VL, when an Englishnitiii laid hands on him, saying : ii r Pho king is taken,” replied ; “ Do /on know. Knave, that a king can never be taken even at chess?” Louis XIV. used the }' )G Stllie Ls myself,” and Louis XV alter mo the deluge,” but “after us Uie deluge is given as a saying of Madame dc Pompadour. Other French phrases are “policy of pinpricks,” “a leap m the dark,” “robbing Peter to pay laui and ‘ The devil was sick the devil a monk would be; the devil was well the devil a monk was he,” all of which, except the first, were coined bv Rabelais (1495-1553). Mas there ever a time when people did not quote r If we go back to ancient t nies wc find that the orators recognised i.ie use of poetical quotations as essential. If Israel i the eider, in his ‘ Curiosities of ptoratiirc, states that “Cicero, oven in his philosophical works, is as little spar ingot quotations as Plutarch. Old Mon Luigno is so stuffed with them that he they were taken out of him, Jitil-e ol lumseli would remain ; and v<*i this never injured that original turn which the old Gascon has given to his thoughts I suspect that Addison hardly ever composed a ‘ Spectator ’ which was not founded on some quotation.” J n another place Disraeli states that the proverb uttered by Paul, “ Evil communications corrupt good manners,” was either taken by him from Menander, the Greek comic poet, or repeated by him as some popular adage.

It is a fad/ which will nut be disputed that some original writers who eschewed quotations have passed into oblivion, while their fellows who mado free use of the writings and. thoughts of others have maintained their place in literature. “Ho that borrows the .aid of an equal understanding, said .Burke, “doubles his own; he that uses that of a superior clc-

vales his own to the stature of that ho contemplates. Jn Goldsmith's ‘Vicar of Wakefield ’ Mr Birchell is represented as quoting the words: “An honest man’s tiie noblest work of God,” which he described as “ the hackneyed maxim of Pope’s.” This indicates that familiar (.notations were in the 18th century “ current coin ” of conversation.

It would be interesting to know when books of quotations first came into use. Many were published last century, and were a great boon to literary men. And yet no book of quotations ever published has done justice to those whose best thoughts it has endeavored to collect. One can readily test this by taking any wellknown poem, such as ‘ln Momoriam,’ ‘ Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,’ or ‘ Macbeth,’ and mark the striking passages. He will not hud one-fourth of them in any standard hook of quotations. A certain amount of skill is necessary in the use of quotations. They can be used in very grotesque fashion. Ihe writer remembers the presentation of a purse of sovereigns to a rejected member of Parliament. The speaker who was entrusted with the task of making the presentation had tinned for aid to a book of quotations, and in the course of his brilliant peroration declared that “ rich S'/ts wax poo>- when givers prove unkind. An even more serious error was that of the relatives who put on the tombstone of Ihe dear departed : “Bo mortuis nil nisi bonum.”