(erroneously supposed to be in Butler's "Hudibras,") and a number of other phrases of a like character, is given, and the exact place of them in the different authors' works is recorded.
The errors constantly made in quoting are remarkable. The author of an interesting volume, comprising many well-known passages, names "Hudibras" as containing the lines
"They that in quarrels interpose,
Will often wipe a bloody nose."
In an essay on "Misquotations," which recently appeared in a very ably conducted newspaper, the object of the writer being to correct the blunders constantly made, he falls into the usual mistake of quoting Nat. Lee as writing
"When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war,"
and a learned and eminent divine, a certain Dr. B., some years ago, in the presence of a large party, obstinately insisted that
"A man convinced against his will"
was a correct passage from "Hudibras," and was only satisfied as to his blunder by the production of Butler's immortal work. Even so accomplished a scholar as Mr. Gladstone—quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus—errs; in a recently published number of the Nineteenth Century, quoting Byron's words,
"The bubbling cry
Of some strong swimmer in his agony,"
he names them as occurring in "Childe Harold," instead of in "Don Juan."