Quote: [Remark on death of Calvin Coolidge] How can they tell? (antedating Dorothy Parker 1936)

[Victor Steinbok]

  This must have been the same Bekker line that I came across, but
failed to investigate closely (hence the missed earlier date).

There are other interesting bits I've come across--there is a distinct
inflation of the number of languages. The references to Von Moltke
included 5, 7, 8, 9 and 11 (or just "many") languages, as did others.
The winner, however, may have 40.

http://bit.ly/dtyAPt
Self-help: with illustrations of character and conduct. By Samuel
Smiles. London: 1859
http://bit.ly/aqntw5
Self-help: with illustrations of character and conduct. By Samuel
Smiles. NY: 1860
Chapter IV. Help and Opportunities--Scientific Pursuits. pp. 97-98
> Like another learned and wise man, of whom it was said that he could
> be silent in ten languages, Elihu Burritt could do the same in forty.

But even this number doesn't hold a candle to another claimant:

http://bit.ly/ch7009
The Nation. Volume 65:1686. October 21, 1897
The Principal Librarian of the British Museum. p. 316/1
> These gentlemen are all scholars of exceptional attainments. The
> linguistic acquirements of some of them are, to the ordinary student,
> simply amazing. Mr. Bain, for example, Is said to be master of about
> thirty languages, mostly Slavic. But even he does not come up to a
> former member of the staff, Mr. Martineau, who is said to have been
> silent in almost all the languages of the civilized world.

The Von Moltke reference and that to Queen's Messenger Service collide:

http://bit.ly/dxKkTf
Littell's Living Age . 5th Series, Volume 79 (194). Boston: July 1892
The Queen's Messenger [From the Quarterly Review]. p. 30
> The confidential relations, which must necessarily exist between the
> queen's messenger and the members of the diplomatic service abroad,
> render it unavoidable that the former should often become more or less
> informed on matters of State policy, in regard to which discretion and
> Von Mohke's gift of being silent in five languages are of the highest
> value.

Another /attribution/ is to Talleyrand:

http://bit.ly/9GJS46
The American monthly magazine. Volume 7:2. August 1895
Our Officers. Mrs. Mary Orr Earle. Corresponding Secretary General. p. 163
> Her ability to converse fluently in five languages renders very
> applicable to her the encomium bestowed by Talleyrand on one of the
> brilliant women of the French salon of that period, when, in an
> outburst of admiration, he exclaimed: "What a wonderful woman ! /She
> knows how to be silent in Five languages !/" (Quelle merveilleuse
> femme ! Elle sait se taire en cinq langues.")

Note, however, that what is a compliment in most early versions, was
distinctly not so in reference to Coolidge (or in an alleged comment by
Disraeli about Von Moltke). Perhaps the French or German references can
give better dating.

     VS-)


On 7/18/2010 10:39 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> 1892 William S. Walsh _Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities_ (Phila.:
> Lippincott) 1010: It was a popular saying about the taciturn Moltke, applied
> in no uncomplimentary spirit, that he could be "silent in seven languages."
> These words were first used by Schleiermacher with reference to the very
> eminent and very modest philologist Emanuel Bekker (see letter of
> Zelter to Goethe,
> March 15, 1830).
>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: victor steinbok<aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Date: Saturday, July 17, 2010 7:26 pm
>> Subject: Re: Quote: [Remark on death of Calvin Coolidge] How can they tell?
>> (antedating Dorothy Parker 1936)
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>> ...
>>> Von Moltke (1892--attributed to Disraeli and others), Bekker (1902)
>>> and Baron Sidney Sonnino (1920), as well the Queen's Foreign Messenger Service a.k.a. the King's/Queen's Messenger Corps (1898, ...

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org