A Dictionary of Quotations from Authors Old & New I-II. [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION This book is based on Familiar Quotations, by John Bartlett, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, published in 1869—which in an enlarged edition is still a standard book of quotations. In the present work, a few of Bartlett's selections are omitted as being unfamiliar and immemorable; yet this is a far larger collection than his, and the English literature created since 1869 is not wholly responsible for the additional matter. For there is not, and can never be, a definitive Dictionary of Quotations—even as regards a particular period or a particular author. Household words vary from household to household: to such an extent that every well-established family has its own classical allusions, undiscoverable in any book; while, as to the printed word, Hamlet itself is capable of surprises, and will never be exhausted until some compiler shall boldly incorporate the whole play—and there are limits to practices like that. The larger quotation-books will give you a bigger selection from Dickens than you will find here; yet here there are some notable Dickensisms that they omit —not "elegant extracts" such as the oldest quotation-books foisted on the public before the public taught compilers to know better; but genuine quotabilities, ever fresh. There are two reasons for including quotations. A passage that has become world-famous has an indefeasible right to inclusion, be it never so silly—like "Mary had a little lamb." On the other hand, the competent compiler has a right to include sayings whose lack of popularity is in his opinion due to their having never been properly advertised, It is a perilous path, and apt to betray the compiler's idiosyncrasy. It would be instructive, if indiscreet, to gauge and fathom the souls of standard quotation-mongers (or ought it to be quotation-wrights or quotation-vendors ?) by a careful study of their selections. The late John Bartlett must have been something of a prude, as well as a teetotaller. It was he who put in No. 1505; while, in No. 3209, he substituted his own heaven for Shakespeare's God; and, in No. 4591, he deemed it necessary to bowdlerize one of Wordsworth's most famous vii