Chapter & Verse

A correspondence corner for not-so-famous lost words

José Rigau would appreciate help in identifying the person (possibly French historian Charles Seignobos) who defined enlightened despotism as "All for the people, but without the people."

 

Dinsmore Murphy seeks author, work, and date for "...led onward without will of their own by their former striving."

 

Eugene Pattison asks if anyone knows a prior source for Louisa May Alcott's "saying," from Jo's Boys, "Clay represents life; plaster, death; marble, immortality."

 

"plains of hesitation" (May-June 2003). William Waterhouse found George W. Cecil's text, for a 1928 advertisement for International Correspondence Schools, in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations Requested from the Congressional Research Service (GPO, 1989): "On the Plains of Hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the Door of victory, sat down to wait, and waiting—died!"

 

"Fougère" (May-June 2003). Laurence Senelick identified Eugénie Fougère, a French singer and dancer noted for eye-catching outfits, frisky movements, suggestive demeanor, and her ragtime cakewalk "Hello, Ma Baby." She performs, wrote Gerelyn Hollingsworth, at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/varstg:@field(NUMBER(1094)).

 

"desire..." (May-June 2003). John Croke located Yeats's source in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Table Talk: "The man's desire is for the woman; but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man" (July 23, 1827).

 

Send inquiries and answers to "Chapter and Verse," Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138.        

You might also like

Historic Humor

University Archives to preserve Harvard Lampoon materials

Academia’s Absence from Homelessness

“The lack of dedicated research funding in this area is a major, major problem.”

The Enterprise Research Campus, Part Two

Tishman Speyer signals readiness to pursue approval for second phase of commercial development.  

Most popular

Claudine Gay in First Post-Presidency Appearance

At Morning Prayers, speaks of resilience and the unknown

Poise, in Spite of Everything

Nina Skov Jensen ’25, portraitist for collectors and the princess of Denmark. 

Spellbound on Stage

Actor and young adult novelist Aislinn Brophy

More to explore

Exploring Political Tribalism and American Politics

Mina Cikara explores how political tribalism feeds the American bipartisan divide.

Private Equity in Medicine and the Quality of Care

Hundreds of U.S. hospitals are owned by private equity firms—does monetizing medicine affect the quality of care?

Construction on Commercial Enterprise Research Campus in Allston

Construction on Harvard’s commercial enterprise research campus and new theater in Allston