Can't decide if this is serious or not. Since it's been bugging me, it probably is.
Spot the misquotes. (I make it 14 - one for, though not necessarily in, each line.)
Lead on, Macduff, we quote MacBeth; alas, poor Yorick we knew well.
And wherefore art thou, Romeo? a rose by other name would smell.
Elementary, my dear Watson, Sherlock with a spyglass says;
but search the tales from start to end, and you won’t find the quoted phrase.
Bogart too, in Casablanca, Play it again Sam! his demand;
beautiful friendship may recall quotations that are not as planned.
Mythically, Captain Pugwash mans his ship with Seaman Staines;
Children’s television could not broadcast doubl’entendre’d names.
Beam me up, Scotty! Captain Kirk has never said that fabled line,
Although a bold defendant’s use for court contempt incurred a fine.
The winter of our discontent; thus Richard cursing on the stage;
a mercifully reigning king was libelled by a Tudor age.
So when an Opiate of the masses tells us we remember truth,
the rest is science; you may find it sharper than the serpent’s tooth.
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Written by Lizzy (790 comments posted) 17th March 2007 |
Lots there to think about and will need a good few more readings. It does seem to have a serious note to it.
Interesting |
Written by Kathy (220 comments posted) 17th March 2007 |
Very true and very clever again Sue. We need to view fiction with fact, if that makes sense? Television has helped both to spread knowledge but also, to lower our standards. Like Lizzy, I shall have to come back again for another read!
Kathy |
Written by Fledermaus (3246 comments posted) 17th March 2007 |
Wonderful! What a clever use of all the quotes.
I which I could comment using some quote, but I'm afraid most of my quotes come from Starwars, and all I could think of was "Impressive..." by Darth Vader  |
Written by ellipinnock (1753 comments posted) 17th March 2007 |
Mmm...clever...but I'm not sure it works for me. Bit awkward in places? might need to come back to this.
Elli |
Slight technical detail...
Written by gerardconnolly (1186 comments posted) 17th March 2007 |
Very entertaining read Sue. But please. It is ' Lay on McDuff [ and damned be him that first cries 'Hold enough! '.
Don't worry. Its the most misquoted line in English literature as far as I can ascertain.
Well done1
Slan! |
thank you Gerard
Written by fellpony (1603 comments posted) 17th March 2007 |
 The whole point of the poem is - they are almost ALL misquotations / inventions and / or misrepresentations.
Correct quotations:
Lay on, Macduff (MacBeth)
alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio,
A fellow of most infinite jest and fancy (Hamlet)
Romeo - Romeo,
wherefore art thou Romeo? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet (Romeo and Juliet)
* Elementary, my dear Watson, Sherlock - is not in the original stories of Sherlock Holmes.
"You played it for her, you can play it for me! Play it!" (Casablanca)
Casablanca tag line: "this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship" (often misquoted as "the start" of a beautiful friendship)
* Captain Pugwash /Seaman Staines; those smutty character names didn't exist in the kids' story; the mate was "Mr Mate", and the cabin boy "Tom", not Roger.
* Beam me up, Scotty! often quoted, but as far as I can find out, never in a script of the original Star Trek series
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York. (Richard III act 1)
"King Richard, late mercifully reigning over us was piteously slain and murdered to the great heaviness of this city". - York City Records, 1485 -- probably the only accurate quotation in the whole poem - written immediately following the battle of Bosworth in which Richard III was killed
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. (from the introduction of his 1843 work "Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right"; Karl Marx)
the rest is silence (Hamlet);
how sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
to have a thankless child (King Lear)
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Written by Witzl (1585 comments posted) 17th March 2007 |
I really enjoyed this! Do you know that I have watched Casablanca several times now and always wondered where that damn line was? I'm not even that big fan of Casablanca (the husband is), but I always wondered. . .
'All that glisters is not gold,' and yet people always use 'glitters.' And there are probably even more. Wouldn't it be lovely to be famous enough to be misquoted some day though? Just a little misquoted, of course. . . |
Fun.
Written by gerardconnolly (1186 comments posted) 17th March 2007 |
My apologies Sue, I thought the idea was to spot the most persisent gaffe. Mind I would still go for the same one. I did not realise that they were all alleged misquotes; although I recognise some well worn favourites. Incidentally you may be interested to know that in an interview shortly before his recent death James Doohan, who played Scotty, insisted he actually had used that phrase. Sadly for the life of me I cannot remember where.
Good fun. Reminds me of Mark Twain ' Everyone makes mistakes. I almost did it myself once'.
Slan! |
cheers GC
Written by fellpony (1603 comments posted) 17th March 2007 |
yes, I wouldn't be surprised if Mr Doohan had really said it somewhere in the saga. I read a comment from him where he said he didn't mind that he'd had the phrase yelled at him by strangers for over 31 years - on occasion even at 70 mph across 4 lanes of freeway - and he wasn't bored by it but thought it rather fun.
It was Pugwash that set me off here but Richard III that's bugged me the most over the years. The repeal of the Act of Titulus Regius by Henry VII was probably the trigger for the deaths of the Princes in the Tower; by the time of the act, Richard III had been dead 3 months. It wasn't till I started reading round a bit that I realised too that the pretenders to the throne Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck had popped up during Henry VII's reign: which suggests he probably wasn't all that secure on the throne. Because of dear old WS who wrote during the rule of the Tudor descendants of Henry VII, Richard III is still known as a monster. Yet his death is still sometimes remembered and regretted in the obit columns of northern newspapers on the anniversary of Bosworth!
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oops
Written by fellpony (1603 comments posted) 17th March 2007 |
Beam me up Scotty would have been said by William Shatner, since he played Kirk and Doohan played Mr Scott.
we all dooem, mistakes I mean.
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Enjoyed
Written by Talisker (1326 comments posted) 19th March 2007 |
Fine piece of work Sue. More an exercise in collating misquotes, stitched together in a poetic way, rather than a poem per se.
By the way, the bloke who played Scotty was born only a few miles from where I sit. They recently erected a statue to him - it would be ironic is someone "beamed it up" one dark night.
Is it an apocryphal that a chap used the famous line when asked by a Judge if he had anything to say before sentence was passed?
Oli  |
apocryphal Beam Me Up?
Written by fellpony (1603 comments posted) 19th March 2007 |
probably. Snopes.com offers four or five "original" versions.
that would make the tally 15
Of course some argue that Richard III was guilty, but since Henry VII was snaky enough to date his accession to the throne from the day before the battle in which he killed Richard, and then accused all who fought for Richard as traitors, I think he's the one who deserves to be known as a snake.
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