Chapter and verse quotation-citation correspondence site

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Jeffrey Tigay hopes someone can provide the source of an anecdote involving a Latin correspondence between Catherine the Great and Voltaire (or another Enlightenment figure) in which the two competed to see who could write more concisely. Eventually one sent a one-word letter, possibly rusticabo (I shall go to the country). The other won the day, though, by replying with a single letter, i (Go!—the imperative of ire).

Wayles Brown asks whether William S. Gilbert was thinking of a real example of a public figure changing nationality when he penned the H.M.S. Pinafore lines, “For in spite of all temptations / To belong to other nations / He remains an Englishman!” “Some of the motifs in Pinafore,” Brown writes, “are known to be based on current events of 1877-1878, such as the choice of W.H. Smith, the non-sea-going bookseller and stationer to be First Lord of the Admiralty.”

“When the action gets heavy, keep the rhetoric cool” (July-August). Jim Henle identified this advice from President Richard M. Nixon, in response to a question about then vice president Spiro Agnew during a press conference on May 8, 1970. According to the American Presidency Project™ transcript, Nixon said, “I would hope that all the members of this administration would have in mind the fact, a rule that I have always had, and it is a very simple one: When the action is hot, keep the rhetoric cool.”

“the boredom of living” (July-August). Dan Rosenberg was the first to identify this assertion by Samuel Beckett. It appears—in a passage about the dangers and mysteries of transitional periods during a person’s life—in the essay “Proust,” printed in various editions of the book Proust and Three Dialogues with Georges Duthuit. Such periods, Beckett writes, are “perilous zones…when for a moment the boredom of living is replaced by the suffering of being.”

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

Related topics

You might also like

Parks and Rec Comedy Writer Aisha Muharrar Gets Serious about Grief

With Loved One, the Harvard grad and Lampoon veteran makes her debut as a novelist.

Must-Read Harvard Books Winter 2025

From aphorisms to art heists to democracy’s necessary conditions 

The Artist Edward Gorey—and Pets—at Harvard

Winter exhibits at Houghton Library   

Most popular

Harvard Announces Four University Professors

Catherine Dulac, Noah Feldman, Claudia Goldin, and Cumrun Vafa receive the University’s highest faculty distinction.

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Harvard’s Class of 2029 Reflects Shifts in Racial Makeup After Affirmative Action Ends

International students continue to enroll amid political uncertainty; mandatory SATs lead to a drop in applications.

Explore More From Current Issue

Aerial view of a landscaped area with trees and seating, surrounded by buildings and parking.

Landscape Architect Julie Bargmann Transforming Forgotten Urban Sites

Julie Bargmann and her D.I.R.T. Studio give new life to abandoned mines, car plants, and more.

A man in a gray suit sits confidently in a vintage armchair, holding a glass.

The Life of a Harvard Spy

Richard Skeffington Welch’s illustrious—and clandestine—career in the CIA

People gather near the John Harvard Statue in front of University Hall surrounded by autumn trees.

A Changed Harvard Faces the Future

After a tense summer—and with no Trump settlement in sight—the University continues to adapt.