To be perfectly honest, not only didn’t I recognize Chesterfield’s name to the degree of associating him with any quotes (or anything else, for that matter), I didn’t know that Lord Acton was responsible for “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”. I knew the quote, but not who said it. Nor do I know a single thing about Lord Acton.
For the longest time I didn’t know who said “Those who cannot remember history…”, but I learned a few years ago that it was George Santayana. And, like you, I don’t know anything else about him, except that his name is pronounced almost exactly like that of Giorgio de Santillana, co-author of Hamlet’s Mill. And every now and then I find myself wondering why a writer about archaeoastronomy should expound on historical memory.
I’ve heard the name, but know nothing about him. Some of the quotes are familiar, but I wouldn’t have associated them with him. I regard myself as pretty widely read and aware of many historical and literary individuals who would not be recognized by the average reader. So your author is off base if he considers Chesterfield and his quotes to be a matter of common knowledge.
The name did not ring a bell, nor the quotes, but I do vaguely remember hearing about the Lord somebody or other who wrote all these letters of advice to his son that were published and are supposed to be good.
Having read the first spoiler box and no further – Brit famous for a series of letters he wrote to his son with advice on how to behave in polite society. Time frame I’m a little wonky on – I think Regency period, roughly, but I could be off 50 years in either direction.
ETA: Seriously off on the time frame – shoulda gone with my first impulse, which was to say “18th century.”
The problem with famous quotes is they’re attributed willy nilly to anyone famous for being witty. Ever heard this old joke:
Woman–If I was your wife, I’d give you poison.
Man–If I was your husband, I’d take it.
I’ve seen this in at least two books–once attributed to Winston Churchill, once to Dizzy Dean!
What kind of work is your friend writing? Unless he’s writing a scholarly work, attributing a Latin quotation to an obscure writer is going to make the narrator or character seem he’s trying too hard to impress his audience. For a non-scholarly audience he might try to attribute it (in English) to a more well known figure. Even if it’s wrong, how much of the audience will know for sure?
Good grief - am I the only Doper who knows about him? I’ve come to expect that if anyone knows trivia, it’s this gang.
I looked into the first spoiler box, said to myself, “oh yes, Chesterfield.”
Things that came to mind without googling:
There’s the letters to his son, of course, who was illegitimate.
There was also his offer of patronage to Johnson, which didn’t work out so well.
And, there’s Johnson’s riposte about the letters to his son: “They teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.”
Another thing I knew was that Chesterfield was responsible for introducing the Calendar Act, which adopted the Gregorian Calendar in Britain and its Empire.
Looking into the second spoiler box, I only recognized the longer paragraph, about not laughing. Didn’t recognize the three epigrams.
On further review of the comments - at least APB knows of him, not surprisingly.
My apologies, but after 6 years of Latin, I can’t let this go.
It should be were. “If I were your wife…” “If I were your husband…” is the proper form, as they are using the subjunctive, indicating that they are referring to a hypothetical situation and not actual reality as the indicative would expose.
Also, I heard that attributed to Churchill too. Who was it really?
I had an English major tell me I was wrong about that, that “was” had actually supplanted were for use in the subjunctive, at least, in American English.
But I’m okay with “were.” The one I don’t like is the present subjunctive, which sounds overly formal to my ears. I don’t know of anyone that uses it, and I have only read it in formal contexts.
I’m actually pretty familiar with him because a passage from one of his letters was on the AP exam in 2007 or so. I liked it enough that I skimmed a bunch of his letters and found a different one to use with my students.
That said, while I hope some of my students remember the passage, I doubt any of them could remember his name, and that’s fine.
The name rings a bell, but I know nothing of substance about him, unfamiliar with those quotes or any of his writings.
eta: What was the context of the writing you were critiquing? If it was academic writing of a specific area and you expect your audience to also be academics of that specific area, I don’t think it’s so terrible to assume they know who an otherwise obscure person might be.
