[Ads-l] Oscar's at it again

[George Thompson]

So I have been unjust to poor Oscar -- he wasn't a snapper-up of
unconsidered trifles here.

My apologies.

GAT

On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 1:19 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> wrote:

> GAT: The epigram was in Oscar Wilde's "A Woman of No Importance" which
> was first performed in 1893. An instance was published in "Munsey's
> Magazine" by J. Angus Hamilton in May 1894, but it was probably lifted
> from Wilde's play.
>
> Year: 1905
> Title: The Plays of Oscar Wilde
> Volume 1
> Author: Oscar Wilde
> Publisher: John W. Luce & Company, Boston and London
> Play: A Woman of No Importance, Act III
> Quote Page 59
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=03YWAAAAYAAJ&q=sinner#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Lord Illingworth: The only difference between the saint and the sinner
> is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Mon, Sep 7, 2015 at 12:15 PM, George Thompson
> <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> > Subject:      Oscar's at it again
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > We may remember the story that once when James McNeil Whistler made a
> > clever remark to Oscar Wilde, Wilde said "I wish I had said that", and
> > Whistler responded, "You will, Oscar, you will".  Poor Oscar's dead and
> > gone, but his ghost still stalks about, snapping up unclaimed bits of wit
> > or profundity -- unless, of course, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain or
> > Abraham Lincoln beat him to it.
> >
> > Wilde's latest coup is noted in the NY Times:
> >
> > T. Eugene Thompson=E2=80=99s paid obituary on Tuesday nebulously
> described =
> > him as
> > =E2=80=9Ca multifaceted person=E2=80=9D and concluded with a quotation
> from=
> >  Oscar Wilde:
> > =E2=80=9CEvery saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.=E2=80=9D
> >
> > The death notice, placed by Mr. Thompson=E2=80=99s family in the
> Minneapoli=
> > s and
> > St. Paul newspapers, ended with one word, =E2=80=9CAmen.=E2=80=9D
> >
> > ***
> >
> > NY Times, September 6, 2015, Section A, p. 28, col. 1
> >
> > T. Eugene Thompson was basically a nice guy, even though multifaceted,
> > unless you criticize him for arranging the murder of his wife.  (The
> Times,
> > always willing to give credit where credit is due, notes that his second
> > wife died of natural causes.)
> >
> > I've looked for this quotation in Fred's YBQ, in the 3rd edition of the
> > Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, and the 16th (I think) edition of
> > Bartlett's, and haven't found it.
> > It doesn't sound very Wildean to me.
> >
> > GAT
> >
> > --=20
> > George A. Thompson
> > The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> > Univ. Pr., 1998..
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998..

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