[Ads-l] [C18-L] Rochester, children, and theories

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Apr 10 01:06:24 UTC 2015


> On Apr 9, 2015, at 8:07 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
> 
> If anyone is interested in following this up, reply directly to C18-L at LISTS.PSU.EDU
> Joel
>    ----- Forwarded Message -----
>  From: Russ Hunt <hunt at STU.CA>
> To: C18-L at LISTS.PSU.EDU 
> Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2015 6:42 PM
> Subject: [C18-L] Rochester, children, and theories
> 
> I should be able to find the answer to this, but it occurs to me 
> that someone on this wonderful list may already know it, more 
> quickly than I can find it. 
> 
> I just receive a posting in which Rochester is quoted as saying:
> 
> "Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up 
> children; now I have six children and no theories."
> 
> I did a quick Google search, and found many attributions of this 
> to Rochester, but none I trust. This sounds just flat wrong: my 
> ear says nobody in the Restoration would speak, or write, this 
> way. "Got married"? "six theories"? "Bringing up" children? 
> 
> And, well, Lord Rochester as a humbled domestic pater familias?

Yes, it's really much too clean for him.  And not quite right for Jane Eyre's Rochester either.  Well, there's always Jack Benny's...

LH
> 
> Does anyone know immediately whether this is actually a quote -- 
> or, better, when or how it came to be attributed to Rochester?
> 
> -- Russ
> 
> -- 
> Russ Hunt
> Professor Emeritus
> Saint Thomas University
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.stu.ca_-7Ehunt&d=AwICaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=wjJb-hkV80RYEy2wMybN3ufG28Z7GcH5uLbtL98SeeE&s=h_GHoKVBiXYNlrif-cMUTPrgNfIVbLaHAL4shFzJuV0&e= 
> 
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