# Barbara Streisand gobbles up fake "Shakespeare war quote" in her speech **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 3, 2002, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679 "2002-10-03T14:45:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/1 "2002-10-03T14:45:52Z")
The SDMB [discussed this issue](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=134934&highlight=shakespeare)awhile ago and now as this little fake quote wanders the world looking for a home it finds the thrilling embrace of Barbra Streisand’s speech addressing the crowd at a National Democratic fundraiser. From [Barbara Steisand’s website](http://www.barbrastreisand.com/news_truth.html) > [@](#): > > Introducing her performance of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” at the Democratic National Gala, Barbra Streisand read material which she identified as having been written by William Shakespeare. It had been passed to her by a friend, but she learned the following day that it is, rather, a passage which is widely circulated on the internet as an excerpt from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” but which is, in fact, an anonymous composition, not Shakespeare at all. > > She wanted this brought to your attention, with the following note from her: > > “The authorship of this is important. But it doesn’t detract from the fact that the words themselves are powerful and true and beautifully written. Whoever wrote this is damn talented and should be writing their own play.” From [the Drudge Report](http://www.drudgereport.com/strei4.htm) From the [Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29583-2002Oct1.html) > [@](#): > > At Sunday’s Kodak Theatre concert, Streisand told the crowd: "You know, really good artists have a way of being relevant in their time – but great artists are relevant at any time. So, in the words of William Shakespeare, ‘Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. . . . The citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.’ " > > Drudge wrote that “no record of this quote has been found prior to its appearance on the Internet (in e-mails) last year.” And Streisand said through her publicist: “It was just called to my attention, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that it is powerful and true and beautifully written. Whoever wrote it is damn talented. I hope he’s writing his own play.” > > Unfortunately, Georgetown University English professor Lindsay Kaplan, a Shakespeare scholar, can’t begin to understand how the diva was fooled. “First of all, words like ‘patriotism’ and ‘citizenry’ were not even in use when Shakespeare was alive,” she told us. “Beyond that, it’s just a very clumsy piece of writing.” Will the real author of this quote please stand up please stand up please stand up ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/2 "2002-10-03T15:02:26Z")
Good luck. Even [snopes](http://www.snopes.com/quotes/caesar.htm) doesn’t know to whom to attribute the quote. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/3 "2002-10-03T23:07:42Z")
It really isn’t all that great a quote to start with… ---
**Author:** ![Treviathan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@Treviathan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treviathan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/4 "2002-10-04T01:05:52Z")
It’s a terrible quotation. To wit: [ul] [li]“bangs the drums of war”[/li][li]“whip [something] into a fervor”[/li][li]“double-edged sword”[/li][li]“narrows the mind”[/li][/ul] The only slightly impressive thing about it is that it squeezes four tired, overdone clichés into less than fifty words. And FWIW, in terms of patriotic, soul-stirring speeches, I’ve always much preferred Shakespeare’s powerful “twirling, twirling towards freedom” soliloquy. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/5 "2002-10-04T01:11:20Z")
I don’t know how she can say that it’s “beautifully written”. The main giveaway that it’s not Shakespeare is how _poorly_ it’s written. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/6 "2002-10-04T02:01:18Z")
Agreed. Of course I heard that it was fake before I read it, but still, how could anyone think this was from Shakespeare? Apparently you throw an “unto” into something and suddenly it’s Elizabethan prose. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/7 "2002-10-04T07:00:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Treviathan \* > \*\*It’s a terrible quotation. To wit: > > [ul] > [li]“bangs the drums of war”[/li][li]“whip [something] into a fervor”[/li][li]“double-edged sword”[/li][li]“narrows the mind”[/li][/ul] > > The only slightly impressive thing about it is that it squeezes four tired, overdone clichés into less than fifty words. > \*\* Heh - you forgot the reference to blood boiling and “fever pitch”. So that’s six cliches. And “Fever pitch” sounds anachronistic to me - I can’t prove it, but I don’t think I heard that expression before about 30 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/8 "2002-10-04T08:00:57Z")
OK, 'fess up: How many of us in this thread majored (or are majoring) in English Lit? I will start the confessing by admitting that I have a B.A. and an M.A. in same. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/9 "2002-10-04T09:31:00Z")
At least she didn’t quote Nostradumbass raving about the “Two Towers”! ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/10 "2002-10-04T11:29:15Z")
Well I’m glad snopes finally has something on this up. I imagine we’ll have to post that link in GQ soon enough. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/11 "2002-10-04T18:38:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jackelope \* > \*\*OK, 'fess up: How many of us in this thread majored (or are majoring) in English Lit? > > I will start the confessing by admitting that I have a B.A. and an M.A. in same. \*\* Not me. Computer Science _and I didn’t even graduate:D_ ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/12 "2002-10-04T20:34:29Z")
It reminds me of that bogus quotation from Adolf Hitler (the one that was really authored by a left-wing professor at UC-Berkeley)…you know, the one that talks about" youth rebelling, Russia threatening us with her might"… This “quote” made it into several political speeches, and was published as a dorm-room poster, and made it into that stupid Tom Loughlin movie (“BILLY JACK”). Even today, the brain-addled left wing really believes that Hitler made this statement. ---
**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/13 "2002-10-04T21:46:41Z")
Ralph124c–let’s not forget the other famous Hitler nonquote, this one adored by the **right** , about how Germany will soon be a great country because they’re about to enact massive gun control. I find that narrowminded people on the political/religious extremes tend to accept evidence for their position far less critically than us open-minded geniuses at the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2002, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/14 "2002-10-05T07:23:39Z")
That Hitler quote was a fake? Ha! I saw it only once, back in about '94, before I was on the Internet. Actually I’d forgotten all about it until you mentioned it. I was working at Kinko’s in Athens, GA, and some guy from one of those gun-nut groups\* came in and had us make a bunch of copies of it, I guess to pass out at one of their meetings. I couldn’t figure out if it was supposed to support their gun-nut case\* or not. * * * [sub]\*Please don’t take offense at the phrase “gun-nut.” I don’t mean people who believe in the right to bear arms (as I do). I mean people who start clubs and buy signed photos of Charlton Heston and photocopy “quotations” from Adolf-freaking-Hitler to support their position on gun ownership.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2002, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/15 "2002-10-05T11:52:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Manduck \* > **I don’t know how she can say that it’s “beautifully written”.** Because, regardless of what her handlers, trainers, and the extremely bizarre “cult of The Barbara” says, she’s an inane screaming idiot. ---
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2002, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/16 "2002-10-05T11:52:29Z")
She thinks it’s a great piece of writing because it bolsters her own point of view. In that regard, she’s no better a judge of opinion pieces than anyone else, really. Her major error was blatting her ignorance in public. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2002, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-streisand-gobbles-up-fake-shakespeare-war-quote-in-her-speech/130679/17 "2002-10-05T20:14:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DAVEW0071 \* > \*\*She thinks it’s a great piece of writing because it bolsters her own point of view. > > In that regard, she’s no better a judge of opinion pieces than anyone else, really. Her major error was blatting her ignorance in public. \*\* Well put.