MISQUOTATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 129, 4 June 1927, Page 17

MISQUOTATIONS

NOTABLE INSTANCES

AN ENGLISH HABIT

SOME: STRANGE TRANS-

FORMATIONS

: Tiie English are inveterate quoters. We quote shamelessly from books we have never read—from authors whoße very names we do not know; often without realising that we are quoting at all. And yet we have tfie effrontery to turn up our noses at anyone who consciously applies to the affairs of this modern age some jewel of speech from the great writers of the past, and to snigger "cliche," "tag," "vieux jeu." It would be interesting to discover which is the most misquoted phrase in English literature, writes D.H. in the "Spectator." I am inclined to believe that it must be the'last line of Milton's "Lyeidas," which so many'people who should know much better persist' in quoting as ■ . , ....... . "To : morrdw to fresh fields and pastures new," ''' ''■ ' '■''■■- making miserable tautology of a fine' liiie. A short, time ago .1 read an interesting character, sketch of Shakespeare's "Lady Macbeth," in which occurred the well-known ; phrase "sticking point." The writer' knew perfectly well, I have no doubt, that Shakespeare wrote ■••,■•■'••■ .■■ ■ . ■•• "Screw your courage to the sticking place, '' .-■■■•..' but nine readers out of ten would have supposed "place" to be a mere misprint for "point." ;■' ; I Another author who has paid the.penalty of greatness is Pope:—■ • , '-'•'•' "A little.learning-is a dangerous thing" ■ is almost always quoted, nowadays, as "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." • -.:• ... ' ' Science is substituted for the classics. It must be' admitted that the popular version' is less priggish than the original, but it plays, havoc with the second line of the.couplet. ' '.-, Butler's "Hudibras" is more often mentioned than read in these days, but it is a mine, of good things, dm: of' the best known is .' . ■■ ■ "He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion still." v This usually undergoes a strange transformation into "A man..convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still," which is sheer ■ nonsense, although the underlying idea is plain enough. A sentiment which' appealed perhaps more to our grandfathers than'; to ourselves is' v. '■ :•' -:'- ■ ' ..-■„-. • ■'■ ■.■. • •'• "Pity is'akiji to love."; •.-. Most of us would "confidently assert that this .comes from "Alexander's Feast," but it does not. Dryden wrote .'"Pity melts the mind to love:" Thomas Southerne (1660 to 1746). has "Pity's akin to love," ■ but we carinot? shelter ourselves behind him.. We misquote.-Dryden; we dp.not quote Southerne.; ... -.',.■- ■'''■'■ It must be grimly., exasperating to an author to reflect.that posterity will, in all probability, refuse to read his masterpieceSj but will itiere'ly seize on his best things—:and misuse them! '<"■■■ "Steal! To bo sure they may, jud, egad, servo your best thoughts as gipsies do stolen children—disfiguro them to make 'cm. pass for their own." v ....... . .....-; ... Sir Fretful Plagiary, in his righteous wrath, cannot refrain from pilfering and misquoting Churchill's lines:— '' Like Gipsies, lest the stolen brat, bo ■known;. -. .; ".'.'.:' Defacing first,-then claiming for his own," !■. ■ . ••'.. But pur 'consciences' are clear on this point. Our weakness is. rather that of the poor, relations or humbla friends of the.great. Wje do not. profess to be the originators of our purple patches. Nay, we make haste to avow that they are borrowed, in the, hope of inducing our audienco to believo that our acquaintance withi the aristocracy of literature is far more intimate than it really is. We may even achieve a reputation for having read' their works by the judicious use of a few trite quotations of half a dozen words $acli! More of 6"ur familiar and everyday quotations come, as . everyone knows, from the. Bible than from any other source. But, curiously enough, many pious aphorisms have become household words on the strength of an origin in Holy Writ which they cannot establish.- •. -' . ■ ; "God tempera the wind to tho shorn lamb" (which, in fact, comes frwn. such a very unbiblical source as Sterne's "Sentimental Journey"), "A merciful man is merciful to his beast," "Not lost, but. gone before," "Fish in troubled waters," would bo attributed to tho Bible by, most of us, whilo "I am escaped with theskin of my teeth," which actually, occurs in the Book of Job,, would, probably bo fathered on Shakespeare. . . The student of the natural history of quotations is continually meeting-fresh surprises. For instance, who would have thought that such an expression as "Old women of both sexes," which might, perhaps, have come out of one of Disraeli's novels, but belongs, one would say, mbro properly to ,tho ?ninctics of the . last century, was written by an author who died over 150 years ago? And yet it occurs in "Tristram Shandy.'». And ■' Alliteration's Artful Aid, V which ought, according to all the laws of probability, to be found in Pope's "Essay on Criticism," comes from an otherwise forgotten poem of Churchill.

"He that borrows the aid of an equal understanding doubles his'own; and he that uses that,of a superior elevates his own to the stature of that he contemplates." .Our fault is that we do not "borrow the aid of the understanding" of those whose words we appropriate. We are too content to use them 1 as: mere' stock phrases, which' save us the trouble of thihking for ourselves, until they, become:—

"Staled by frequence, ' shrunk by usage into commonest commoiiplace.'' There is a certain element of meanness and ingratitude in our behaviour. Ordinary decency, ,one would think, should impel us to-consider and appreciate the gems which wo borrow from our forefathers. It is true that tho very greatest passages in our literature have escaped such ignoble use. Such phrases as:—

"Oh, thpu art fairer than the even-

ing air Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars,"

or those marvellous lines in the middle of the fourth Act of "The Tempest," to choose at random, do not lend themselves easily to quotation. But this does not exonerate us. We would profane them if we could! The meanness lies in the mariner of our borrowing, not in the act itself, for, as Emerson s«ys: There are great ways of borrowing."