a fake quotation misattributed

[Wilson Gray]

On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 9:52 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Paul Fussell's  _The Great War and Modern Memory_ explains that the once
> celebrated quotation, attributed to Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1914, that the
> British had a "contemptible little army" that should be exterminated
> immediately, was a forgery. Fussell confidently explains that  "It is now
> known that the phrase emanated...from the closets of British
> propagandists....The phrase was actually devised at the War Office by Sir
> Frederick Maurice and _fathered upon_ the Kaiser" ( 16).
>

"Fathered [the phrase] upon the Kaiser"?!

Well, okay. I guess that I can get that, if I give it a bit of thought.

>
> Fussell disdains to provide a source for this information, which is widely
> accepted.
>
> This is about one-third correct. The falsity of the quotation was
> publicized most influentially by Arthur Ponsonby in the well-known
> _Falsehood in War-Time_ (1928), pp. 84-87. Â As Ponsonby explains, however,
> he did not nail the forgery. After earlier investigations had turned up no
> copy of the supposed order in German Army archives, Ponsonby informs us
> that:
>
> "General Sir F. Maurice had the German newspaper files searched for the
> alleged speech or order of the Kaiser, but without success. In an article
> exposing the fabrication (_Daily News_, November 6, 1925), he remarks that
> G.H.Q. hit on the idea of using routine orders to issue statements which it
> was believed would encourage and _inspirit_ our men. Â 'Most of these took the
> form of casting ridicule on the German Army....These efforts were seen to be
> absurd by the men in the trenches, and were soon dropped.'"
>

"Inspirit"? That has a nice ring to it. Too bad that it didn't catch
on. I like it better than _inspire_." OTOH, if the latter were the
"new" (to me) term and _inspirit_ the old, worn-out one, I'd probably
feel the opposite.

--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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