Chapter & Verse

A correspondence corner for not-so-famous lost words

Pat Donovan hopes that someone can provide her with the original source of the phrase “…and she wiped the ambassador’s nose”; the reference is to an infant envisioned by his doting mother as a distinguished diplomat one day.

 

Dorothy Richardson requests an identification of the poetic fragment with which William Dunlap closes his History of the American Theatre (1832): “Time rushes o’er us; thick as evening clouds/ Ages roll back; what calls them from their shrouds?/ What in full vision brings their good and great,—/ The men whose virtues make the nation’s fate;/The far, forgotten stars of human kind?/ The STAGE —the MIGHTY TELESCOPE OF MIND!”

 

Send inquiries and answers to “Chapter and Verse,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138, or via e-mail to chapterandverse@harvardmag.com.

You might also like

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.

The popular Harvard English professor published Under Water this spring.

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

Most popular

The University will compensate families of those whose remains were sold and establish a scholarship to honor anatomical donors.

The program will focus on the U.S. Congress and the separation of powers in its first year.

The 1884 Cannibalism-at-Sea Case That Still Has Harvard Talking

The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens changed the course of legal history. Here’s why it’s been fodder for countless classroom debates.

Explore More From Current Issue

Modern building with large glass windows, surrounded by greenery and pedestrians.

A roundup of University news from the summer of 2026

A flooded office scene with computers, a woman working, and a pink sunset backdrop.

A College student’s attempt to recapture the romanticism of the workplace.

University Hall with steps and the John Harvard statue, surrounded by trees and a grassy lawn.

Long-discussed reorganization includes layoffs and the end of the Dudley Community.