Verse of the Week
We (our President, David Richards, and other scholars among my contacts) have been struggling with the source of a classical quote from Kipling’s correspondence:
“𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑢𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑
𝐼𝑠 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑎 𝑙𝑎𝑤𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠
𝑇𝑜 𝑅𝑜𝑚𝑒’𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒-ℎ𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒,
𝐼𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑢𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠”.
In passing, I trawled up this gem of Kipling’s own, in Charles Carrington’s collection of Kipling’s Horace (1978):
𝑮𝒐𝒅𝒔! 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒏
𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔.
𝑷𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒅𝒂𝒎𝒏 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆
𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓? 𝑴𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒘𝒏
𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔!
𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆.
𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒇𝒇 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕.
𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏
𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒐𝒓 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕.
Please do follow our post, and help with that classical quote.
Consult John’s library of previous posts here…
